This week’s Ecosophian offering is the monthly open post to field questions and encourage discussion among my readers. All the standard rules apply (no profanity, no sales pitches, no trolling, no rudeness, no paid propagandizing, no long screeds proclaiming the infallible truth of fill in the blank, no endless rehashes of questions I’ve already answered) but since there’s no topic, nothing is off topic — with two exceptions.
First, there’s a dedicated (more or less) open post on my Dreamwidth journal on the ongoing virus panic and related issues, so anything Covid-themed should go there instead.
Second, I’ve had various people try to launch discussions about AIs — that is to say, large language models (LLMs) and the utilities they power — on this and my other forums. The initial statements and their follow-up comments always end up reading as though they were written by LLMs — that is, long strings of words superficially resembling meaningful sentences but not actually communicating anything. That’s neither useful nor entertaining. Thus I’ve decided to ban further discussion of this latest wet dream of the lumpen-internetariat here.
With that said, have at it!
Hi everyone,
Thanks to JMG for the warm invite to share this update! I’m excited to announce that my book, The Great Canadian Reset, is now available for pre-order on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Great-Canadian-Reset-Co-Ops-Canadas/dp/1998841197. Set to release on October 16, 2025, it dives into how cooperatives and economic democracy can help communities thrive in a contracting economy—ideas sparked by the lively discussions here.
For those curious about co-op businesses or wanting to join the conversation, check out my Substack at https://thegreatcanadianreset.substack.com/. Non-Canadians might enjoy my occasional satirical takes, like The Kombucha Konundrum. I’d love to hear your thoughts, including from folks outside Canada interested in adapting these ideas locally.
Thanks for the inspiration, and I look forward to your feedback!
Best,
Ludovic
I must admit that I voted for Trump in 2024, because the alternative was even worse. That said, given the events of the past weekend and Trump’s gloating afterward, I have to ask is he really that delusional? And, if so, what is to be done? Delusional thinking is nothing new for him of course. One example; some months back he claimed that he supported lots of legal immigration, because with AI we would need lots of new workers. Huh? By what logic? Beyond that, I can only become sarcastic….
At this link is the full list of all of the requests for prayer that have recently appeared at ecosophia.net and ecosophia.dreamwidth.org, as well as in the comments of the prayer list posts. Please feel free to add any or all of the requests to your own prayers.
If I missed anybody, or if you would like to add a prayer request for yourself or anyone who has given you consent (or for whom a relevant person holds power of consent) to the list, please feel free to leave a comment below and/or in the comments at the current prayer list post.
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The following is the abridged “special attention” list..
May Kevin’s sister Cynthia be cured of the hallucinations and delusions that have afflicted her, and freed from emotional distress. May she be safely healed of the physical condition that has provoked her emotions; and may she be healed of the spiritual condition that brings her to be so unsettled by it. May she come to feel calm and secure in her physical body, regardless of its level of health.
May Pierre and Julie conceive a healthy baby together. May the conception, pregnancy, birth, and recovery all be healthy and smooth for baby and for Julie.
May Viktoria have a safe and healthy pregnancy, and may the baby be born safe, healthy and blessed.
May SLClaire’s honorary daughter Beth, who is undergoing dialysis for kidney disease, be blessed, and may her kidneys be restored to full functioning.
May 1Wanderer’s partner Cathy, who has bravely fought against cancer to the stage of remission, now be relieved of the unpleasant and painful side-effects from the follow-up hormonal treatment, together with the stress that this imposes on both parties; may she quickly be able to resume a normal life, and the cancer not return.
May Kallianeira’s partner Patrick, who passed away on May 7th, be blessed and aided in his soul’s onward journey. And may Kallianeira be soothed and strengthened to successfully cope in the face of this sudden loss.
May Viktoria have a safe and healthy pregnancy, and may the baby be born safe, healthy and blessed. May Marko have the strength, wisdom and balance to face the challenges set before him. (picture)
May Linda from the Quest Bookshop of the Theosophical (Society, who has developed a turbo cancer, be blessed and have a speedy and full recovery from cancer.
May Corey Benton, whose throat tumor has grown around an artery and won’t be treated surgically, and who is now able to be at home from the hospital, be healed of throat cancer.
(Healing work is also welcome. Note: Healing Hands should be fine, but if offering energy work which could potentially conflict with another, please first leave a note in comments or write to randomactsofkarmasc to double check that it’s safe)
May David Spangler (the esoteric teacher), who has been responding well to chemotherapy for his bladder cancer, be blessed, healed, and filled with positive energy such that he makes a full recovery.
May Giulia (Julia) in the Eastern suburbs of Cleveland Ohio be quickly healed of recurring seizures and paralysis of her left side and other neurological problems associated with a cyst on the right side of her brain and with surgery and drugs to treat it, if providence would have it, and if not, may her soul move on from this world and find peace with a minimum of further suffering for her and her family and friends.
May Liz and her baby be blessed and healthy during pregnancy, and may her husband Jay (sdi) have the grace and good humor to support his family even through times of stress and ill health.
May Debra Roberts, who has just been diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer, be blessed and healed to the extent that providence allows. Healing work is also welcome.
May Jack H’s father John, whose aortic dissection is considered inoperable and likely fatal by his current doctors, be healed, and make a physical recovery to the full extent that providence allows, and be able to enjoy more time together with his loved ones.
May Frank R. Hartman, who lost his house in the Altadena fire, and all who have been affected by the larger conflagration be blessed and healed.
May Open Space’s friend’s mother
Judith be blessed and healed for a complete recovery from cancer.
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Guidelines for how long prayer requests stay on the list, how to word requests, how to be added to the weekly email list, how to improve the chances of your prayer being answered, and several other common questions and issues, are to be found at the Ecosophia Prayer List FAQ.
If there are any among you who might wish to join me in a bit of astrological timing, I pray each week for the health of all those with health problems on the list on the astrological hour of the Sun on Sundays, bearing in mind the Sun’s rulerships of heart, brain, and vital energies. If this appeals to you, I invite you to join me.
JMG, my question is on the AODA. Coming to you on the level brother, is it worth it? I did my candidate year but gained nothing, because Ive been living this lifestyle for years , I keep up to date with the local flora, fauna, and ecosystem. If There is more to teach Ill continue on but I don’t want to waste anyones time. I hope we part on the Square
Turns out that large language models and large reasoning models don’t actually learn or reason:
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/06/new-apple-study-challenges-whether-ai-models-truly-reason-through-problems/
Just an FYI to let people know I am lending out books by mail for free from my personal library of sustainability and occult titles. Here is a list of the books that I lend to people within the continental US: https://kimberlysteele.dreamwidth.org/96400.html
I thought now would be a good time to re-post my old question if that is alright:
Pardon me, Mr. Greer. While we are on the subject of anthropogenic global warming, I was wondering what you think of the argument that it is fundamentally different (and more concerning) than natural climate change in millions of years past because of the dramatically higher rate of change. After all, when rapid climate change happened in the past, there were usually mass extinction events (and of course “rapid” for the biosphere is not nearly as rapid as the rate of change now).
I have an interesting story to relate, and it tangentially relates to the discussion of R. Crumb from last months open post. Here though, the spirit of Harvey Pekar is shining brightly.
My wife and I went up to Cleveland last week for a few days get away on the lake. There were a few things I wanted to do while we were up there. Visiting Zubal Books and Lakeview Cemetery were high up on the list. I knew about Zubal’s from some research I had been doing on Harvey Pekar and Cleveland from a few months ago. I found a YouTube clip of Pekar on Anthony Bourdain’s show No Reservations, where they go to visit the massive used and rare bookstore that in part sits inside an old Hostess Twinkie factory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfHVK4x4JF0&ab_channel=SLAPJazzTrio
I wouldn’t have known to go to Zubal’s unless I had seen that clip. While I was there I found some really interesting titles including one by Paul Feyerband called “Against Method” which proposes, in its anarchistic interpretation of scientific discovery, that it is counterproductive to have a single methodology with regards to scientific practices. It’s closer to the top of my list now because it seems to me we are witnessing the endgame of the one true science. I also found some sacred geometry books to add to the shelves and Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel Blue Flower about Novalis, which I knew nothing about before. It seems to me the Romantic expressions of science via Goethe and Novalis are worth investigating as another thread of science that could have been followed…
After some other stops we finally wound up at Lakeview Cemetery. Lakeview Cemetery was designed by landscape architect Adolph Strauch who designed Spring Grove cemetery in Cincinnati, a few blocks from where I live. Strauch had been inspired by the book Kosmos by Germany polymath Alexander von Humboldt who had written in it about Chinese garden cemeteries. Kosmos can be considered part of the German Romanticist tradition in the science vein…
After stopping at President Garfield’s memorial, there was one more thing I wanted to see in the cemetery, the Haserot Angel. ( https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-haserot-angel-cleveland-ohio )
We drove up to it and after I got out of the car and a guy noticed my plates were from Hamilton County and he struck up a conversation saying he’d gone to the University of Cincinnati. He was very friendly and we had a nice conversation. He mentioned that he’d been the partner of Harvey Pekar’s widow, comic writer Joyce Brabner, for fourteen years before she had died last August. He told me his name and the like, and that he’d just been visiting their gravesite (Brabner is buried next to Pekar but doesn’t have a headstone yet). His name was Lee Batdorf and he was a journalist at times. In meeting him it felt like I’d gotten a handshake from the city. If the timing of our day had been just a little off, and if I hadn’t gone to that one last spot I might not have met him.
When we got back home last week I put the graphic novel history “Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland” on hold and Lee was a character in this final work of Pekar’s. Zubal’s books was also featured in the book… I hadn’t read it before, though I’d read some of his other works.
https://www.cleveland13news.com/story/harvey-pekar-s-partner-and-comic-writer-joyce-brabner-dies-after-battle-with-cancer
That was some of our Cleveland adventure. I recommend the city for anyone looking for a modest Midwest getaway. Make sure you take the time to go visit Pekar and pay your respects to one of its legends if you go:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Pekar#/media/File:Harvey_Pekar_grave_stone.jpg
Two offers for everybody today:
1. I published a report about the recent Ecosophia Convention in Glastonbury. It is available here:
https://thehiddenthings.com/glastonbury-convention-2025
2. Each Wednesday, I perform a formal blessing in which I bless the people who signed up. I appreciate signups as they help me to practice! More here:
https://thehiddenthings.com/categories/weekly-blessings
I hope you all had a great solstice and are enjoying summer (or whatever it currently is in your place). JMG, thanks a lot for hosting the Open Post again! I’m very much looking forward to whatever this month’s topics will turn out to be – there are always some interesting surprises in the mix. 🙂
Milkyway
Following on from the discussion of karma last week, I’d like to mention what I think is a misunderstanding of karma – made by people who accept it rather than those who don’t.
It’s the belief that *everything* bad that happens to a person is a result of past karma acting out. Rather than events having *many* possible causes, karma being only one of them.
It’s like saying “all horses are animals, therefore all animals are horses” (to pick a very random example).
Other causes could by physical (eg. caught in an earthquake zone), biological (eg. a genetic condition), or the ill-intent of another (eg. attacked in the street by a stranger – who will suffer their own karmic consequences). The person these things happen to could be blameless – and simply unlucky.
This is not even an original thought of mine – I read this explanation of the multiple levels of causality in a book called “The Buddhist Vision” by Alex Kennedy – one of the leaders of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order. And yet I had great difficulty discussing this with a practicing (UK) Buddhist I met once, who couldn’t get his head around this concept, and for whom everything was the result of karma.
I also heard of a Thai Buddhist monk using karma to explain the 2004 tsunami – “Why did so many innocent people die? So many children?” Answer: “Actions in their past lives”.
If every misfortune is seen as past karma playing out then a kind of coldness to others sets in. It’s victim-blaming. That in helping alleviate someone’s suffering, you’re hindering that karma playing out, so perhaps you’d better not. Or that you should help someone only to improve *your own* karmic balance-sheet (a selfish attitude and probably self-defeating).
To quote CS Lewis in The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe:
– “Logic!” said the Professor half to himself. “Why don’t they teach logic at these schools?”
Perhaps I’ve got this wrong but this is how I see it.
I was also wanting to ask you something that I am curious about.
Since becoming a blogger under the old Archdruid Report almost 20 years ago now, your main theme has been the unsustainability of the Industrial Age. Is there any period of human history or even Earth’s history as as a whole that you think would be ideal to live in or at least visit?
As an archdruid, I have a guess that the British Isles before the coming of the Romans, the Christians, or at least the Anglo-Saxons may be a good candidate.
Karma is balanced out by will and destiny.
Ludovic, glad to see this in print! I’m sure it’ll be useful to those on my side of the 49th parallel as well.
Phutatorius, welcome to the current American hyperreality. I’d point out that every other US president in my lifetime has had just as complex a relationship to the facts on the ground…
Quin, thanks for this as always.
Anonymous, yep. Speaking of weird detachment from facts on the ground…
David, that’s a common misconception. The global climate change that happened 65 million years ago, for example, took place in about a week following the Chicxulub impact. The burst of global warming that ended the Younger Dryas period around 9600 BC saw the planet’s average temperature jolt up between 13° and 15°F in less than a decade. Our current round of climate change is in the middle range, slower than some, faster than others.
Justin, hmm! Thanks for this.
Milkyway, you’re welcome and thank you.
Sydaway, this is an important point! Neither suffering, nor joy, nor anything else has only one cause; in a very real sense, the last time you stubbed your toe, the entire history of the universe up to that time was necessary for that act to take place.
David, nope. Humans gonna human, whenever it happens.
JMG,
Opposite to popilar wisdom, the average American spent almost twice as much of their income on food as they do at present, inflation and all. The average American spends 10.6 % of their income on food in 2024 while in 1950 the spend about 20%. That percentage only began to decrease in the 70’s and did not reach its current levels until the late 90’s.
The Normal economics of empire would say that costs such as food in the center of empire would increase over time. My theory is that this was done on purpose via various government policies to clear away a larger portion of the Americans budget to go to things like rent, mortgages and debt. If your plan is to financialize the economy, how do you free up a larger portion of Americans income to go to the Bankers and landlords? You decrease by half what was one of the largest items in the American budget.
The first of these policies came during the Nixon Administration where actual farm prices were driven down by agricultural policies. The other was the introduction of cheap migrant labor in the late 1970’s. These acted to drive out small farmers, and make things more profitable for large scale agribusiness even with reduced real prices.
If this is the case it will be very painful for Americans ( and the financialized economy) when things inevitably revert to a less contrived price level.
I’ll repeat my (then off-topic) question from last week: “I’m interested in your opinion on Mr. Trump’s recent behavior. His “big beautiful bill” doesn’t look all that different from the previous administration’s budgets (with some token differences such as the border wall). And he seems to have turned on a dime from “we need to get out of foreign wars” to “we stand with Israel and may even get into the Iran war on Israel’s side.” In the latter case he’s going as far as ignoring the evaluation of his own Director of National Intelligence. Has he been “taken behind the woodshed” and told in no uncertain terms that if he values his position and his life he’d better toe the line? (FWIW, I suspect Mr. Obama originally believed in “hope and change” until he had a similar encounter.)”
>Turns out that large language models and large reasoning models don’t actually learn or reason
At the heart of the typical LLM is some sort of neural network. Here’s my question. Is it on the order of complexity of a bug, a mouse or a cat? If it’s on the order of what an insect sports, you’re essentially talking to a very loquacious cricket. Chirp chirp.
And if all you need is a bugbrain in order to get a college degree, what value would you assign to it? The college degree, not the bugbrain.
@mathiesen
You mentioned just how risky a PhD was back in the early 90s. I remember some joke ad for a “PhD resume removal” service back then where you could get that pesky PhD off your resume with carefully constructed alibis and references. What I gathered a PhD enables you to get certain jobs but it absolutely makes it near impossible to get most others. The typical response is OVERQUALIFIED, followed by someone kicking you like a football out the door to score an HR field goal.
Did you know that it might have only been due to the cooling of the Earth that led to the “Ice Age” of the Pleistocene that human beings became “intelligent” in the first place?
Around 3 million years ago, North America and South America were linked together for the first time thanks to volcanic eruptions forming the Isthmus of Panama. Subsequently, more fresh water was deposited around the Arctic by the re-routed Gulf Stream forming the frozen giaciers there. This led to the Earth becoming colder and dryer.
https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/how-the-isthmus-of-panama-put-ice-in-the-arctic/
In Central and Eastern Africa, where our primate ancestors were living, there were fewer forests in which to live, gather food, and hide from predators. Subsequently, they gradually became bipeds. As a consequence, the pelvis de-formed making it difficult for females to have babies unless the skull was shaped a certain way. The natural selection for a certain shape of skull enabled humans to have bigger brains. Meanwhile, the transition to bipedalism caused by the shrinking of the forests compelled humans to eventually learn how to use tools with their hands.
In the alternate reality I showed you before where the French and their Indian allies won at the Battle of Plassey, the American Revolution is subsequently less successful by the way. This is in part because the British have a greater focus on keeping their holdings in North America due to the loss of India. However, it is mainly because a weaker Britain in the later half of the 18th Century is less feared and resented by the other European powers. Subsequently, they aren’t nearly as enthusiastic about helping fund the American revolutionaries like in our timeline.
https://www.clockworksky.net/cliveless_world/ah_cliveless_top.html
Also, due to a less successful Seven Years War (here called the Six Years War), the British never distance themselves with Prussia like what happened in our timeline. As a result, there are a lot of well-disciplined Prussian soldiers to help London out in North America against the rebels.
I was wondering what you think of this idea.
Sydaway—beings (and their karma) do not exist in a vacuum. Lila is a related concept that explains why the events of our lives are not only cause and effect. I am not an expert on this, not remotely, but I understand Lila as the “play of the universe” that is the interactions, the bumping-intos, random collision of beings. All of us with our karmic chaos attached rub off on one another (on all of our sides and on multiple beings at once!) with unexpected effects. Some to our benefit, some to our dismay. The only control we have in the matter is our response, that is our “responsibility” in the matter.
Just in time for the latest Area 51 disclosures, you’ll be happy to know that I went to grab a bin of books to catalog and one of the shiny new objects inside was your The UFO Book from Union Square. Looks very nice! Fully illustrated and photographed. I’m always happy to see something about Barney and Betty Hill.
All this leads me to my song of the week “Explanation…” by Jack Dangers from the album Space Music
https://meatbeatmanifesto.bandcamp.com/track/explanation
Also, I always thought the Foo Fighters was the name of a bad band formed from the remnants of Nirvana without the talent of Kurt Cobain… but your book sets me straight. (I still don’t like the band.)
Congrats!
I forgot to ask this on the Dreamwidth Magic Monday but hope someone can let me know how smudging my tarot deck with sage or any similar smudge is done. This is from John Gilbert’s The Doors of Tarot and the different elemental ways of clearing a deck (smudging is with Air).
I believe one gets the special herb to smoke and then pass the deck through it.
A similar question when he mentions passing a deck through a candle flame. I’d say that is the full deck, all together and not spread out in a fan?
Correction: The Jack Dangers track is from the album Music for Planetarium.
About thirty years ago, Slavoj Zizek came up with the idea the the ideal cog the machine requires was someone who kept a minimum of (perhaps ironic) distance to the system; that ensured his complete assimilation and its smooth functioning.
One can easily imagine the opposite, the fanatic who’s always doing exactly what he’s being told, and by his sheer inflexible, un-ironic fanaticism eventually leads to the machine seizing up.
Isn’t that what in the end always leads to gouverning elites like ours?
Once the postmodern phase (second to last, where things still (ironically) hold together) ends, the 100percenters take the reigns and completely unironically get to work, sacrificing all before them to please their God Of Positive Feedback till it all goes tats up (millenial-ist pun, sorry).
I have a friend who is a Bitcoin enthusiast, and last night I attended a social he organized around that theme. As someone who is planning on a Long Descent vision of the future, I allow myself to enjoy chatting with these bright, optimistic young developers and investors, but I don’t believe blockchain currencies have much of a future in a world of limited mineral and energy resources.
That said, I have entertained the thought that things like Bitcoin and other cybercurrencies may have just enough of a future to matter in the lifetime that remains to me (around 40 or 50 years). The key factor no one in the Bitcoin scene seems to reflect upon seriously (aside from resource scarcity) is how governments might respond to the broader uptake of currencies that are explicitly designed to circumvent government control. (Given that most major powers are surely in the process of developing quantum-level hack-anything computers, and that they already have, you know, guns and stuff).
Anyone care to speculate?
Does anyone have any non digital evidence Roy Jay existed? I’ve suspected for a while now we would end up seeing someone try to add to history by editing the internet, and the Roy Jay phenomena looks like what I’d expect to see if this possibility was being tested.
On a different note, the topic of the very strange cultural shifts of the late 70s and early 80s has come up before, and I have aa new theory I’d like to share. There’s a medical condition known as Cushing’s Syndrome which has as symptoms most of the chronic physical illnesses that have exploded in frequency over the last half century; and neurological symptoms including insomnia, depression, paranoia, impaired attention, impaired memory, increased mental rigidity, and a disruption to the capacity to plan ahead. This sounds a lot like a description of the cultural changes of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Cushing’s Syndrome is caused by excess cortisol, which has a lot of causes. One being low blood sugar, which for complex physiological reasons can be induced by consumption of artificial sweeteners. The timing fits as well: at about the same time society suddenly shifted in a darker direction, the medical establishment was pushing very hard for artificial sweeteners, as a way to keep sugar consumption down, and at least in theory, avoid the health problems that came from excess sugar.
The theory I have is that artificial sweeteners have induced a kind of low grade Cushing’s Syndrome in a huge fraction of the population, and that this has played a major role in the explosion of chronic illness, and the impaired neurological functioning of a huge percentage of the population resulted in massive societal changes.
Hi John,
Firstly, I’ve just read a very interesting intelligence analysis from someone very high-up in the US agencies who thinks that the whole Iran-US thing has an element of theatre to it. He speculates that the real story is the Iranians have their uranium and potentially capacity to build a bomb outsourced in North Korea so the US bombings won’t make a huge amount of difference long-term.
In regard to my question, a few years ago you speculated that at some point this century, the Arab/north African Muslims would organise and invade Europe. More recently, you have spoken more about internal demographics and how a rising Muslim population – heavily influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood – will, over time, take over the big cities, and the countries of western Europe.
I’m wondering why your thinking has shifted from an external invasion to an internal takeover view on the future of western Europe. Or have I got your views wrong.
@JMG: A president who lies; that, we are used to. But a president who appears outright, barking delusional?
@Justin Patrick Moore: I used to go regularly to Cleveland, but I’d never heard of Zubal’s books. As to German romanticism, you might be interested in what is on my CD changer; slots 1 & 2 Brahms’ “German Requiem” and Brahm’s “Song of Destiny;” slot 3 Brahms’ 1st Symphony; slot 4 Brahms’ Sonatas for violin and Piano, Op. 78, 100, and 108; slot 5 a different recording of Brahms’ German Requiem. Slot 6 is vacant but Brahms’ two cello sonatas would be a nice choice.
My current reading includes a third pass through “Mercurius” by Patrick Harpur.
I’ve read that the US warned Iran before dropping bombs on their nuclear sites, thus giving Iran time to move their enriched uranium elsewhere, and Iran alerted the US to when and where they were going to retaliate against a US military base in Qatar.
If true, the entire event was carefully choreographed like theater.
In that case, what was the main reason (or reasons) for this event, beyond theatrical entertainment?
Good Morning and welcome back.
I recently had the oportunity to spend a day in Providence and I can see why you would like the place. While I was in town I took the opportunity to do the HP Lovecraft walking tour, visit the Atheneum, and of course stopped by the HP Lovecraft bookstore in the Arcade. I noticed that none of your books were stocked either the Weird of Hali or otherwise. Considering you are a local author in that scene I figured you would be given a place there.
Other Dave
@Dylan: There were other alternative currencies, such as local currency systems, that used to get a lot of hype before Bitcoin & the crypto bros took over the stage. I know several people who told me they would be millionaires by now because of crypto. They are all still working their day jobs somehow. I think the idea of a nested system of alternate currencies is worth exploring, but basing it on digital makes it very easy to disrupt. Bitcoin also seems even more abstract and disconnected from reality than current money (something I mention in my recent article: Is Techno-Optimism a Form of Mental Illness? https://www.sothismedias.com/home/is-techno-optimism-a-mental-illness ) All it would take to bring some of these things down is blowing up some server farms, though I’m not advocating that.
@15 Roldy
I agree, and additionally we can be nearly certain that MOSSAD has blackmail material on Trump and many other figures in the federal government, including but not limited to visits to Epstein’s estate.
I came across this compilation of ‘cases of forced reincarnation’ and must say that I’m both disturbed by the possibility, and a bit perplexed (and skeptical of) his proposed solution… From those testimonies, it seems clear that the majority of people aren’t eager to come back here for another round of misery, but I’m not sure if that automatically means the beings that push/force/persuade them to come back here anyway are evil. And he advocates refusing their lead, while acknowledging that we don’t know our way around on the other side, which makes me wonder where he intends to go on his own, once he’s there? I’d love to know your (and the commentariat’s) take on all of this:
https://spiritualinquiries.wordpress.com/2024/11/17/30-cases-suggestive-of-forced-reincarnation/
JMG
I’ve heard you and many others talk about the population numbers going down. The reason for this many seem to say is dwindling resources, this doesn’t add up for me. I live in Sweden where the population plateaued in the early 90s. If it weren’t for the mass importation of immigrants by our dear managerial betters, we would have been fewer now than in 1990. So Sweden is following the general trend but with the possible exception of Switzerland and Norway, I’ve never seen a country with such widespread affluence. Basically everyone is doing from alright to splendid, you’d have to try hard to be destitute in Sweden. Still the population is going down. Clearly access to resources has nothing to do with population growth, at this point at least. Sweden would be at least double its population if it did.
Maybe the best way to make sense of this is to look at it as a spiritual phenomenon? Maybe the vast majority who came here this time around weren’t even meant to have children? Maybe they came here to grow spiritually and invest time in themselves rather than raising a family? This could also explain why many decided to invest everything in number one, granted in a very hedonistic self centered way. You see a big difference with the Swedes and the immigrants coming from Africa, the Africans go all in on the bling bling and latest everything while the Swedes are quite blase about the gimmicks and consumer goods. Since it is the affluent industrialized world that’s going down most in population, maybe the lesson to learn was that materialism and affluence isn’t all its cracked up to be? But, once more, mostly failing to learn the lesson.
The African continent is still growing in population so maybe they need to go through their own phase of acquiring material goods and wealth before they too get disillusioned with it? As a society wide spiritual lesson basically. And maybe when the Western economy cracks and collapses the African diaspora goes back to where there’s at least some semblance of economic growth, and then the cycle has its course there too? What do you think?
@Ambrose regarding from the previous comment thread, “I see that Rice University offers a program in “Gnostic, Esoteric, and Mystical” Studies (GEM). Nice, although I wish they could have worked in “Hermetic” and/or “Occult” in there somehow.”
How about OMEGA: Occult, Mystical, Esoteric, Gnostic, and Arcane?
If that sounds too apocalyptic, drop the O and you could have MAGE (though for obscure personal reasons I’d prefer GAME). Add Divinatory (or Druidic) and Art (or Alchemical) and you could do a lot of DAMAGE.
JMG and Sydaway #10,
Hmmm… Doesn’t karma encompass being “caught in an earthquake zone”, “attacked in the street by a stranger “, or having “a genetic condition”? JMG, didn’t you mention that you couldn’t exclude that Hitler incarnated many times following WW2, but never made past the age of 5, being beaten to death, or experiencing other forms of violence? I’m sure the people around him viewed the child as innocent, which he/she was, yet it was the consequence of his actions in a previous incarnation. By no means does it lead to coldness or victim-blaming. You tell your 3-year-old not to jump, he does anyway and hurts himself; you still hug him, console him, and apply a band-aid. You give a bum on the street money for a drink. You help a girl who got herself pregnant at the age of 15.
What am I missing?
JMG,
I understand that the fog of war is think and confusing, but wondering if you’d be willing to share any of your current takes on what’s happening now between/among Iran, Israel, and the United States?
Thanks,
Edward
@JMG What are your thoughts on Wim Hof breathwork as a method to change your own consciousness in accordance with your will?
Re: rapid climate change,
Besides the Younger Dryas there is also this one,
“In Greenland, the event started at 8175 BP, and the cooling was 3.3 °C below the decadal average in less than 20 years. The coldest period lasted for about 60 years, and its total duration was about 150 years.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.2-kiloyear_event
Sea level also did a big jump.
“The sea-level data from the Rhine–Meuse Delta indicate a 2–4 m (6 ft 7 in – 13 ft 1 in) of near-instantaneous rise at 8.54 to 8.2 ka, in addition to ‘normal’ post-glacial sea-level rise”
Interesting planet we live on.
I’m about halfway through your book The Secret of the Temple. Who knew the quiet thrills of architecture could make for such a page turner?
Do you have any updates for us on the attempt to build a working model?
@Roldy: The Orange One is a con man. The other presidents also were con men, except they had to dignity to pretend otherwise (see also “kayfabe”). Some percetage of voters apparently believe that, because the Orange One admitted outright that it was all a con, he was somehow more truthful, and therefore could be trusted. A liar who tells the truth once in awhile remains a liar, however, and…well, here we are.
As John Lydon once asked: Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?
Axé
Incidently, the ancestors of humans nearly went extinct at one point in the Pleistocene:
https://www.ndtv.com/feature/ancient-humans-nearly-went-extinct-with-only-1280-people-left-study-claims-8745974/amp/1
OMG, I just started reading the Glastonbury Report on my break at work, then noted that my random Bing screensaver of the day is theTor!
So much for learning to code:
“The job of the future might already be past its prime,” writes The Atlantic’s Rose Horowitch in The Computer-Science Bubble Is Bursting. “For years, young people seeking a lucrative career were urged to go all in on computer science. From 2005 to 2023, the number of comp-sci majors in the United States quadrupled. All of which makes the latest batch of numbers so startling. This year, enrollment grew by only 0.2 percent nationally, and at many programs, it appears to already be in decline, according to interviews with professors and department chairs.”
And more layoffs at Intel:
“Intel is shutting down its small automotive division and laying off most of its staff in that group as part of broader cost -cutting efforts to refocus on core businesses like client computing and data centers.”
Probably due to this;
“Intel’s revenue loss in 2024 has increased to 18,8B$, compared to their 8B$ revenue loss in 2023.”
That’s what happens when you cut R&D to focus on stock buybacks.
Sometimes hobbies lead unexpected places: taking up miniature painting and wargaming has resulted in me now fixing and restoring my church’s plaster statuettes for easter and christmas. Wargaming and miniatures was supposed to be just fun, and now I’ve got transferable skills which may not bring money in but do make my community happy with me. LOL.
If anyone remembers Cedric, the seedling Eastern Cedar tree I rescued from a precarious situation in the back of my old commercial space in 2020, I just posted a current photo of him on my most recent Open Post. He’s gotten tall! I’m doing an Open Post that will stay open this week and the next, and the week of July 4 I’ll do another excerpt of my upcoming book from Aeon, Sacred Homemaking. I will return to my weekly Dreamwidth and Substack essays and free Ogham readings on Saturday, July 12 beginning with Ogham Readings on Saturdays. Thanks!
To LeGrand Cinq-Mars
Check your email!
We pressed [PUBLISH] finally on “International Agatha Christie, She Watched” and I want to mail you a thank you copy for all your help with “Checkmate.”
We finally pressed [PUBLISH] on “International Agatha Christie, She Watched!”
Only 10 months later than the promised date but it’s a much better, more comprehensive book because of the delays.
In addition to over 100 international reviews (Thank you LeGrand Cinq-Mars for helping me with China!) and documentaries, we’ve got the most comprehensive lists anywhere of films by country, year, and which story they’re adapted from; radio presentations, actors and actresses, podcasts and websites, and the most comprehensive bibliography of books about Agatha Christie you can find. And more. And more.
The book is a trade paperback, hardback, and an eBook but with less art.
Since we suffer from the perennial problem of indie authors everywhere (Bill and I do everything ourselves), our website hasn’t been updated to reflect “International” and how you can get a copy.
But we HAVE got Amazon if you’re willing to deal with the evil empire: https://www.amazon.com/International-Agatha-Christie-She-Watched/dp/1950347427
We WILL upload “International” to Ingram so bookshops can order copies or you can order yourself via bookshop.org. This will take some time because Ingram’s requirements for formatting and covers are different from the ‘Zon’s.
Our next movie project, to begin in spring of 2026 (we’ve got tons of book-related housekeeping to catch up on, another peril of being a two-person publishing firm) will be:
Jane Austen, She Watched.
Yep, all the films about Jane, Jane’s novels, Jane documentaries, and Jane ancillary films. Like Agatha, no one has done this so we will.