Bellingham Group

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Comment by Bonnie McKinnon on December 18, 2008 at 1:56pm

Haven't been here in a while, alright.
Ruth Berkowitz? who the hell is that?
Did you mean Naomi Wolff?

Comment by Ellen on November 22, 2008 at 3:24am

Wow, what a lot has happened since October 7!

We have a new president and an old governor.

I checked "The Great Turning" out from the library and it is interesting, although very easy to fall. asleep on. Now I am about 2/3 done & the library wants it back, so I bought a copy from Amazon.com.

One of these days I am going to go looking for that woman Ruth (Berkowitz was it?) to see if she is still forseeing doom for the US. Last time through I did not see anything positive in her message.

Take care, & leave a message. Sleep up!

Comment by Bonnie McKinnon on October 7, 2008 at 11:38pm

I love that picture of you Ellen!
They just added Fridays to my work schedule.
Fuck!
The job's supposed to be over January 20th.
I'll also have Dec. 19th thru Jan. 5th off, which is kind of cool, but till then, I'll be working like a dog again.
Keeping to the bright side of the equation, I'll have plenty of money for Christmas and that course I wanted to take!

I tried to re-read the post below yours and it's pretty difficult. I edited out e-mail addresses and whatnot, and ended up making it harder to follow.

Shit, it's already 9:30.......an hour past my bedtime.
This job's got to go.
I'm officially changing my intention of doubling my income.... to making more from my business than I currently make from my pipefitting job.
Goodnight.

Comment by Ellen on October 7, 2008 at 11:33am

It occurrs to me that although part of the "modern" cultural reality includes some superficial things, it is not exclusively vapid.

I am wondering about what is being considered as "modern" and "post modern", I think I will look into the book by David Korten called "The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community"

Also, a goal to be thin and healthy can be focused on having a longer and more active life rather than looking like a -what? Pre-teen? Drug user? Fashion model?

I am coming to realize that my twenties and thirties are history & I am focusing on what my goals mean to me today. On to the Future!

Comment by Bonnie McKinnon on October 6, 2008 at 9:55pm

Ellen, here's the other thread Pam and I had going. You kind of need to read from the bottom up to ge it in chronological order.
Pam wrote:

A couple of thoughts on that:

" Whereas, if I'm reading magazines that show me what I'm suposed to look because I'm unhappy with myself, how is that idealized image going to really help me be the healthier person with better habits--usually it just makes a person anxious, which probably makes them eat, drink, and get depressed about what they are not."

Yeah, I know what you mean and that might be the best route for you, if you feel that way about it. However, when you're making your own image board, using pictures of skinny girls and coming from the perspective that you are creating your own reality and this is a reminder to you to think of yourself as thin, knowing full well that you're not yet, but also knowing that you are creating the situation by what you think about yourself, the image board becomes a reminder of what you have shouted to the universe that you want.
It's no longer just an image of what you don't have.
There is a leap of faith here that your thoughts/emotions are going to manifest what you want in your life, but if you're not feeling that, then that particular practice isn't gonna cut it for you.
I'm finding Lilou's meditations particularly helpful with keeping positive expectations at a high level.

As to:
I'm not so evolved that I don't find losing a few pounds an attractive idea, wether it's culturally spurred or not.

Losing weight is also one of my proiorities and I didn't mean to imply that the desire to lose weight wasn't a worthy goal or an unevolved goal. What I was getting at was that a vision board that looks like a typical young women's magazine reveals how much our culture influences our thoughts and self images. I believe that if we could get to our real values and our true selves, instead of responding to cultural conditioning, we probably wouldn't be so fat. For instance, if I were happy with my relationships and how I spend my time, I probably wouldn't eat and drink as much--for a simplified version. Whereas, if I'm reading magazines that show me what I'm suposed to look because I'm unhappy with myself, how is that idealized image going to really help me be the healthier person with better habits--usually it just makes a person anxious, which probably makes them eat, drink, and get depressed about what they are n ot.

So, I think we should skip the external image and go right for the internal process. If I spend a few moments each day reflecting on what I want in my life, how I want my relationships to be, deciding to treat my body in healthy ways.....if I develop ways of putting those things most important to me into the foreground, they are going to manifest. Because in the moment to moment occurances throughout the day, the decisions that I make are going to be affected by what I have recently given energy to. This in contrast to reacting habitually with an attitude that we have grown unconsciously used to.

So all of these tools of the hundred day challenge are really pragmatmatic rather than magical. It is just astounding that we don't normally use these tools. It's not even that they are new. (Meditation has been around for a long time, for instance.) But the potential of many, many people suddenly realizing how much power they have to affect their own lives is huge. It is of quantum leap potential. So much of so many of our lives are contolled by negative powers that are not the products of consciousness, but fear of change.

I think this is a very worthwhile exercise. I don't think I will be videotaping, but even this writing is some form of engagement. (Though you don't have to think of it as required reading nor is a response required. And I don't mind if you forward these ramblings.)

One of the things I am doing to orient myself more positively is to retrieve my practice of Tai Chi. I have not practiced for over 15 years. One of the things that held me up was that I could't find someone in Bellingham who taught "correctly". Finally, I have gotten so far away from the practice and the benefits that just doing anything is going to be helpful. After a few classes, I am still critical of the teacher's contradictions (both words and movements) but I am also learning new aspects to the practice that my teacher didn't emphasize. So seeking the positive and de-emphasizing the negative gets me moving and from there I can create something new. If I stay with it, I could even pass on the things I learned from my teacher that are not being shared in this area. Well. One step at a time.

One thing that the current teacher emphasized in class today pertains to what we are attenpting to do with this experiment, I think. When we apply our mind to what we are doing, that is, our full attention/intention, we are adding a dimention beyond mere understanding or intellectualizing. And when we are also aware of and using our body, yet another level of awareness is possible. So there are things that we can only really know by doing them. Thinking that we understand by only thinking about them and not having to do is just fooling ourselves.

Well, enough for now. Pam

--------------------------------------------------------
Now that you mention the similarities with buddhism, I see what you mean.
Originally it struck me as info I got in my 20's from the 'Seth' material.

Cohen difinitely struck me as 'hoity toity'. How can you take such a simple idea and convolute it to the point to where someone has to read it 3 times to decipher what the hell it was you were trying to say. Total mental masturbation. I felt like he left some of his jism on me after reading it. Yuck!!

Your attitude is much healthier. Any inroads should be appreciated.

"Perhaps, and what you might be suggesting, is that if a person wanted to and was able to manifest slimness, through the process of finding their own power, they might naturally move on to creating something more meaningful, less culturally suggested."
Yes, that's what I meant. 'naturally' because often people will find that the cultural trappings don't make them happy...being connected and making a difference does.

I'll try and find time for the book, The Great Turning.

Tell Bob he's 2 years late on the Clint Curtis news.

After numerous messages from the Universe about how I need to become the change I'd like to see......I think it's time I started to focus on things that are a damned site more positive than how the elections were stolen.

--- On Tue, 9/30/08, > wrote:

From:
Subject: Re: FW: Andrew Cohen Quote of the Week - Making Conditioning Conscious
To:
Date: Tuesday, September 30, 2008, 8:41 PM




Love the dialogue.

I think that both approaches--the secret and Andy Cohen's--aim toward the same deconstruction. The idea being that we are self-limited by our low expectations. So if we make a conscious effort to envision what we want to create, we will be less subject to what we "buy into" as a result of our cultural background noise.

Thinking about an example of a vision board (that was somewhere in the web site) most of the images appeared to be about getting slim in order to fit into the fashions represented. I think that those are very culturally influenced desires. Perhaps, and what you might be suggesting, is that if a person wanted to and was able to manifest slimness, through the process of finding their own power, they might naturally move on to creating something more meaningful, less culturally suggested.

I would agree with that. I think that once a process of reflection and visualization and focus is consciousy practiced, the individual becomes less a pawn of ubiquitous, externally formed desires and more the master of her own intentions. And I think that their intentions would probably become more "enlightened".

A couple of things that come forward for me are that this is basically Buddhism with the new physics applied (as detailed in The Secret) and that it is reaching an exponentially expanding audience. The thing that launches the philosophy as meaningful is the practice. So whatever gets people to meditate, question their assumptions, experience the power of their own mind is wonderful.

Cohen's following consists largely of hoity toity, wealthy and educated intellectuals from what I can tell. I am glad to see a number of inroads. Another of my favorite "social networks" that seeks to enlighten and deconstruct the cultural control is the author Paulo Coelho's web site, blog, etc.

And one thing I'm really excited about is a tv series called Mad Men. Set in Madison Avenue, Manhatten, 1960, it is written by the Sopranos people. It brilliantly reveals (and reminds some of us) what the values and assumptions were in that time. Because advertising is huge in what Chomski called "the manufacture of consent", the setting is quite a revelation. The gender roles recall the horrors of interpersonal life, and the show brilliantly gets at how some of those values have not (as much as we'd like) evolved toward more equality, but rather toward slicker means of selling and of disguising power relationships. (Another excellent reference is a book by David Korten called The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. I think it should be manditory reading. It's in the public library. Worthy of another conversation.)

So, the combination of personal transformation through taking control of our own desires, reflecting on what we truely value, and the media of extending creative process are all sources of hope for positive change, growth evolution. Ain't it grand!

Well, this became rather more than I had planned to write, but I find it all very important and inspiring. Tomorrow is the first, isn't it. I don't know how focused I'll be, but I may do the experiment at some level. I certainly endorse it.

Pam
-------------- Original message --------------
From: Bonnie





Hi Pam,
It's not at all clear to me that " our unconscious attachment to many postmodern values, without our even knowing it, will inhibit our higher development."
Andy seems to think you need to dump the values, or at least be aware of them before trying to construct a different reality or to 'evolve'.
I would suggest that they may very naturally come to light as a byproduct of the attempt of consciously creating something. After all, once you bump up against something, you have a tendency to be more aware of it.
Peace and Love,
Bonnie


--- On Tue, 9/30/08,bosch wrote:

From:
Subject: FW: Andrew Cohen Quote of the Week - Making Conditioning Conscious
To:
Date: Tuesday, September 30, 2008, 10:05 AM





-------------- Forwarded Message: --------------
From: ".org>
To: .net>
Subject: Andrew Cohen Quote of the Week - Making Conditioning Conscious
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:37:43 +0000


Quote of the Week
Making Conditioning Conscious

The ego is a self-structure that is a product of culture. It's not just the positive ego, which is the self-organizing principle in the psyche, and it's not just the negative ego, which is our neurosis and our narcissism. It's also our systems of shared values, and we can't overestimate what a big deal this is. Our ego, or self structure, is laden with shared cultural values—pictures of reality, of what life is supposed to look like. And most of us are emotionally—consciously and unconsciously—identified with the values that have come from our culture. The reason it's important to think about this is because most of us simply aren't aware of how deeply we are conditioned in this way. In our postmodern context, we tend to think about ourselves in isolation from culturally absorbed values, but we are all deeply conditioned by them. That doesn't mean we don't think for ourselves and make our own choices. But it's very important to realize that the
postmodern self-sense is just as d eeply conditioned as the self-sense of an individual from a more traditional background. So, if we're interested in the evolution of consciousness and culture, we have to begin to shine light on and deconstruct, through reflection and contemplation, our shared values, beliefs, and pictures about reality. Otherwise our unconscious attachment to many postmodern values, without our even knowing it, will inhibit our higher development. Conditioning itself is not a problem—if you know you are conditioned. Then you can choose which values make sense to you and which do not based upon how far you've come in your own development. But if you don't even know about a lot of them, how can you freely choose to evolve?






Andrew Cohen







The Next Women's Liberation
Two online seminars with Elizabeth Debold (Oct. 4) and Andrew Cohen (Oct. 5)

This Saturday, October 4, and Sunday, October 5, women from all over the world will come together in cyberspace with the bold aim of evolving new potentials in consciousness that can radically transform the very ground of our relationships and culture. You're invited to be one of them.
» More...
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Comment by Bonnie McKinnon on October 6, 2008 at 9:33pm

I think Tai Chi counts for 2 practices....exercise and meditation.
I' m posting this to the group called Bellingham on the cocreatingreality.com site, Pam. I've also got some things to say about your last e-mail, but don't have much time now. I'll be writing on the B'ham group.

One of my intentions was to double my income. That happened immediately...I went back to work...damnit...now I don't have any time to do anything else.

They say there's no wrong way to do this.
Hope they're right.

> Date: Saturday, October 4, 2008, 7:35 PM
> I guess this has become one of my processes--journalling.
> Again, you are not required to read my stuff; it just kind
> of helps with the process to imagine an audience.
>
> The other night I had a dream that I was trying to buy
> cigarettes in a machine. I haven't smoked for more than
> 15 years and I don't crave cigarettes, but I sometimes
> dream about getting them. The vending machine (how long
> since we've seen those?) took any combination of coins
> or small versions of my car door opener, or little square
> batteries. I was trying to come up with the right
> combination, but i didn't really know what the values of
> each were, or if I had enough. I wanted too, to keep at
> least one car opener so that I would be able to open my car
> door.
>
> That's all I really remember of the dream. My friend
> Jess pointed out that the symbolism was probably of energy.
> My dream mind is wondering if I am going to have the right
> combination of energy to do what I want. Am I going to be
> able to open the doors? But why would I be looking to send
> my energy up in smoke? Well dreams aren't logical.
> Maybe my other concern is simply that I am wasting energy.
>
> I have not done the required or recommended assignments
> that are advised for this hundred day challenge. And I have
> changed the rule somewhat. I'm including Tai Chi as one
> of my methods. From that experience I do have something to
> share with anyone who may happen to read this and be
> attempting the challenge. In class my teacher tells the
> students to stop worrying if you are doing the posture
> correctly. Because if you start worrying, you're not
> paying attention--your mind had gone to your old habits. So
> the advise is to just do the posture the best you can and
> drop all the self criticism.
> Any time you can spend engaging in positive intention is
> beneficial.

Comment by Ellen on October 5, 2008 at 3:14pm

Hi, this is Ellen, I am "affiliated" with Bellingham through friendship for the last ... Thirty Two Years! Bonnie said that she would include a thread with Pam and I don't see it here, so I am still looking... I will visualize this community getting going with mutual support and respect!

Comment by Bonnie McKinnon on October 4, 2008 at 11:55pm

I'll copy a conversation Pam and I've been having later....need sleep now.
Bonnie