I read an
article about how a whole bunch of scientists have got together to sign a
Cambridge Declaration on the Consciousness of Animals. How after all this time of living with
them, eating them, torturing them, testing on them, and using them as laboratory
experiments, they’ve finally noticed from their often cruel focus, that the other
animals seem to be more conscious than we’ve collectively allowed for them to
be. They have strong family bonds,
and friendship bonds, and they use tools to perform tasks, and they’re aware of
the world around them (how the hell could they not notice us?), and have
communities, and co-operate with each other, and are aware of themselves in
relation to the world around them.
Apparently, we’ve been so caught up in trying to find similarities
between animal brains and ours, that we’ve neglected to notice that the brain
type doesn’t really matter or make a difference to the behaviours that are
displayed, and that are surprisingly similar to human behaviour in many ways.
A bit like how
they only discovered in the year 2000 what a clitoris actually was, and how big
it was, even though surgeons had been cutting through it for years. Do you know how big a clitoris is? Did you know that the organ inside is
attached to our little nubs of desire just like a giant iceberg is under the
tip? And that it’s actual size
inside us is about as big as a cow’s liver? With nerve endings
that reach from our belly buttons to our anus, and down our thighs
almost to our knees?? And do you
know why they only found out in the year 2000? Because in the dawn of medicine, when they were practicing
on cadavers, women were hard to find and work on, due to the general distaste
for women at the time. And they
were only interested in womens genitalia to see if it was true that women had
an inny, while men had an outy.
When they discovered this wasn’t the case, they didn’t really bother to
explore much more.
What’s that got
to do with animals having consciousness??
It’s just another example of how modern science can often not see the
wood for the trees. Can get so
caught up in experimenting on ‘the rest of the world’, that it misses some
really big points. Like the
clitoris. And the fact that
animals are conscious and always have been, along with the entire plant kingdom
(have you ever seen ‘The Secret Life of Plants’ with the soundtrack by Stevie
Wonder full of all those amazing experiments that showed the consciousness of
plants??), and I’d argue for the mineral kingdom too. In fact…….I’d very strongly argue that EVERYTHING in our
entire universe has consciousness………
EXCEPT US!!
The sheer
human-centric arrogance of us declaring who has consciousness or not just blows
me away. But let me explain myself
a bit more. I don’t think us
humans have always been unconscious – I believe the indigenous folk of every
land are and have been as conscious as the rest of the cosmos, and a lot of
Eastern philosophies draw close to consciousness too, but us white people, with
our monotheistic religions of Gods sending us to domesticate and use the planet
as we like……..are about as far from consciousness as you could possibly
get.
When I think of
consciousness, I think of all the miraculous interdependent relationships that
are manifest in the natural world.
The plants that make flowers that look like female insects, to encourage
pollination. The deals made
between trees and ants to provide protection and food for each other. The cicadas that spend 17 years
underground, and come up to provide a feast for all the animals that eat
insects, procreate, and then die, to give the forest itself a huge growth
boon. The tribe of elephants that are
consciously evolving into being tuskless after poachers decimated 95% of their
population. The fungus that has
developed in the Amazon that eats plastic. The planets that cycle in exactly the right places to give
pull to our earth and the sun to keep it all revolving and make it possible to
have such incredibly diverse life on our planet. The awareness of all the other conscious beings (apart from
us) of their place within the ecosystems, of what they eat, how they eat, and
all the ways that plant and animal waste and bodies get cleaned up and
transformed into life. And most
fundamentally, their awareness of their place in the wheel of creation, to
ensure the survival of themselves and everything else. Their unquestioned acceptance of
who and what they are as being completely perfect in the great scheme of
things. You just have to watch a
David Attenborough documentary to witness the great interdependence and
consciousness of every living thing.
Apart from us.
Whereas we with
our opposable thumbs and off planet gods, the greatest despoilers and
destroyers the planet has ever known, building structures all over the earth
that create extinctions, who have poised even our own species on the brink of
destruction, consider ourselves conscious??? We grow and eat toxic food and flush it down toilets with
drinking water, to be cleaned by chemicals and benefit nothing. We take from our bountiful earth mother
without a thought of exchange. We
treat our fellow animals with total disregard for their inherent natures. And when we die we lock our bodies away
in trees that we’ve killed, selfishly hoarding our decaying bodies so even in
death we don’t give anything back.
Yet we have set ourselves up as judge and ruler of the planet, and
consider ourselves qualified to prescribe who and what has consciousness??
We’ve removed
ourselves so far from the natural matrix that we send our young off from early ages, and encourage them to attach to other emotionally underdeveloped young,
rather than attach to their families and communities, which was the strategy
employed by conscious evolution, to ensure our survival and pleasure in life. From the moment they are conceived, our
babies are taught everything……..but how to love and accept themselves, exactly
as they are. In fact, if you were
to attribute a sense of being exactly what you were as being perfect in the
scheme of things to consciousness, it would be easy to argue that just about
everything we do as a ‘civilised’ and supposedly conscious society, is actually
leading us as far from consciousness as you could get. We constantly get the message that we
have to pass tests and achieve benchmarks and do less of this and more of that
from our schools, religions, spiritualities, therapies, and everything else in
our worlds. In fact. I would say that we’re collectively as
unconscious as the human race has ever been.
Which
interestingly reflects our position in our galaxy, and here’s where the good
news begins. If you’re going
through similar experiences to those that I and the people I talk to have
walked, you may have felt very disconnected and alone in recent months. On a roller coaster of complete highs
and lows. Like all the solid
elements in your life, the things you KNOW to be true, are all of a sudden not
so solid. Very mortal and ageing,
while also experiencing moments of pure clarity and connection. Like the rug has been pulled out from
under your feet, and even though the unimaginable has happened……..you’re still
breathing and alive. Stingingly
aware of the great atrocities being perpetuated on the planet, yet full of a
floating sense of optimism. Like
every structure in your life has been completely broken down to all its
constituent parts, and then reformed.
Being forced to look death in the eye, whether it’s happened in your
family, or to a loved friend, or your car, or your beloved pet, or a group or
belief system you held close.
Maybe feeling for the first time in your life that you actually know
nothing. Feeling all the
experiences and hurts that you’ve hidden deep down come surging to the surface
against your will. Forcing you to
look at them, deal with them, and make some kind of peace. A re-examination of patterns and mind
sets to work out if they still represent you and serve you.
And if you
subscribe like me, to the belief that everything is connected and
interdependent and ultimately all one, it might warm you to know that we’re
reflecting a great cosmic dance and procession of ages, and are literally
reflecting our place in our galaxy and our distance from the centre and
ourselves. There’s an amazing article written by a dear friend who explains this whole concept in great and
interesting depth, but suffice to say, according to her and the numerous
sources she cites and my own personal research for years……….our human
civilization has been progressing through the ages in alignment with the
progression of our planet through our galaxy, and has gone through great ages
or equinoxes, that also add up to a great cycle like a year. And we’re coming to the end and
beginning of a 26,000 year reflection of a year, which through it’s journey has
taken us to the very farthest point from the centre of the galaxy, and also
ourselves. We’re as unconscious,
and separate, and alone, and disconnected as we’ve ever been.
This is as bad
as it’s going to get.
And we’re
turning the corner, at the far reaches of our galaxy, and starting the journey
back in.
We as a species
have removed ourselves from our lifeblood and source to the point that we have
to unlearn the guff that’s made us feel separate, and teach ourselves how to
relearn what every other element of creation knows instinctively from
birth. How to be conscious, and
part of the great wheels and cycles from which we are born. Simply by being exactly who and what we
are.
The journey back
to our centres, and our connection and our interdependence has begun.
And
interestingly, I read an article that I’ve never been able to find again, about
how they found another tablet mentioning 2012 from the Mayan times. There was only one mention of the year
before, and it was all fairly nebulous, which left a lot of room for doomsayers
and apocalists to speculate about what the date might mean. And the tablet they found this year was
written by a king at the time of the last end and beginning of an age, which
lasts approximately 5,125 years, and the king was basically saying “I was the
king when this great age ended and a new one began, and all the political and
personal turmoil wasn’t because I was a crap leader, but because of the turning
over of ages, and the next one will be on December 21, 2012, so whoever is king
WATCH OUT!”
Now the writing
of this has all taken far longer than I anticipated at the beginning, which
also correlated with the beginning of our trip back to SA to register Flo the
Coaster, and seems to be ending just as we’ve got back and resettled into our
home. And over this whole journey
I’ve been contemplating consciousness, and talking with dear and loved friends
back at our old home about it, and adding bits to it, and trying out aspects
and theories on some well used heads.
And I do believe
that everything that is happening, is perfect, and a perfect reflection shining
out of countless mirrors of potentials, and we’re all evolving nicely towards
where we’re all meant to be going.
And that evolution has led our human race a merry dance through total
interconnection to total seperation, and is now leading us right back to where
we began…….but with more wisdom.
And the way to true consciousness is nowhere near as complex and complicated
as many would like you to believe, so they can make money from you as they sell
you their dvds and workshops and books and all the other products that are
created through our search for connection, fulfillment, love, peace and freedom.
It’s simply and
most complicatedly just being yourself.
You. Who you were born to
be. Pursuing the thing that makes
you burn with passion. Following
your whims and desires and inner fashion guru. Making all those mistakes that you really can’t avoid making
if you’re to really do what you want to do. Blowing big kisses to all the cautionary tales and skeptical
relatives as you leap off the bluff of all the shit you’ve been told you have
to do all your life, into a free forming and spontaneous future where anything
is possible in love.
Along with a
host of others, I did watch ‘The Secret’ all those years ago, and I did really
dive into it and live it and breathe it for as long as I could, yet there were
some things that never really worked for me. Like. “How does
that bad shit still happen when I’m being so positive?” And over the years I’ve come to notice
that it’s not only the good things that I can take credit for, but the bad
things too. Or rather what I do
with those things, and how I deal with them. They actually then become really good things too. And I wouldn’t choose for a lot of them
to happen, but I’m glad to learn from them when they do. And those bad things aren’t a sign that
my positive shield was too weak, or I was being afraid of success or all the
other bolshy things we tell ourselves when life doesn’t go the way we
want. They happened for many
reasons, not all of which are to do with me (surprise, surprise), and bring as
many gifts as they bring tears.
And are usually taking me on paths that I might never suspect I’d
take. And you know what? I’ve found when I get really caught up
with trying to ‘craft’ and manifest my future, for a start I can be limiting
myself because I don’t have any experience of how great and wonderful some
things I haven’t met yet may be, and I can also take the whole journey far too
seriously. Like taking things
personally when they go ‘wrong’.
And it’s not all to do with me.
Sometimes it’s about how I can be in the right place to help someone
else, cause that’s the story of the moment. And sometimes it’s about recognizing the Law of Repulsion –
the shadow of the Law of Attraction, and getting the hell out. And sometimes it’s just destiny. And takes you completely by
surprise.
On our drive
across the country, to get our Coaster Flo registered, and meet again with
family, and old friends, and old patterns, and the energetic guff we left
behind us and were met with when we got back again……..I kinda just gave up all
hope for or need to try and craft what was going to happen, and what we were
going to do, and put into practice a skill learnt from birthing and young
babies that helps a lot…..
Surrender.
And I reckon
that’s about as close to consciousness as I can get. Being who I am.
Wearing the clothes that I feel comfortable in. Eating the foods I feel comfortable
eating. Talking about the themes
that inspire me. Trying at all
times to be me no matter where I am or who I’m with. Trusting that I’m here to weave a particular thread into the
great tapestry of life, and that I’ll know exactly what to do if I just follow
that thread.
And I’ve had
experiences, big deep experiences, for prolonged periods of my life, where I’ve
been a part of consciousness, or complete chaos or anarchy that forms into
beautiful harmony, through the simple art of letting everyone and everything be
what they are, and loving all while loving unique selves. Being part of a hierarchy free market
for 5 years, and all my babies and birthing experiences, and being part of the
conscious community of Nimbin and it’s surrounds……I KNOW that if we just all
dropped all the extraneous bullshit and followed and pursued what we all
collectively loved, that we’d all instantly reach enlightenment or
consciousness, and we’d all sink back into the miraculous order that the
natural world displays for us ceaselessly.
There ARE people
who will want to clean up the rubbish (I’ve met them!), and there ARE people
who want to do all the onerous tasks that you don’t want to, and there ARE
people who will fill all the holes and gaps in the things we need and feed on,
and we can all just get about being conscious with the rest of creation.
And I felt like
this trip was one of my first fully conscious trips ever. Cause I just relaxed, and knew that it
was gonna work out, regardless of whether I worried or not, and surrendered to
the whole thing. And it was like
we’d had a travel consultant who booked every minute of our days and nights,
and where we could stay to get our needs met, and who could help us to do
what. On the way down, we
punctured a wheel, and the breaker bar was back at our home after being played
with by the boys, and Currawong had a bit of a tant, and while he was over the
road ringing road services, Lilly was saying “I don’t know what he’s worried
about, things ALWAYS work out for us, and we’ll look back on it and say how if
it didn’t happen we wouldn’t have met someone or something…..” just as a truck
parked behind us and Dimitri stepped into our lives. And changed our wheel.
Whilst being utterly charming.
And the whole trip was kinda like that. Didn’t take any pictures, cause we were too busy living
it. Every time we felt stymied,
someone would visit, or someone would ring, and the most elaborate ways were
found around every obstacle, and it all happened easy in the end.
All we need to
do towards consciousness is be who we really are.
I look forward
to witnessing and being part of the return by the human species into the
consciousness that we’ve removed ourselves from, and a return to ourselves and
each other. I eagerly anticipate
the beauty, art, alive foods, creativity, and smart and sustainable technology
that will flourish.
And all the
other animals, and plants, and minerals and conscious energies will be
surprised to realize that us humans have the capacity for consciousness
afterall. I bet they’ll get a real
kick out of that……
