Translate

Friday 28 February 2014

The Radio Show you do NOT want to miss!

Yesterday I posted an article about the ExpandingU Radio- Mission I'M Possible show:


MISSION I”M POSSIBLE 3: MEETS HOPE GIRL LIVE ON AIR 


I'm posting this now because I am sooooooo excited!!!!   I just finished having a call with Dave and India from ExpandingU Radio, Hope Girl and Ralph and Marsha Ring, and I'm electrified!


THE   ENERGY   IS   JUST   PUMPING !!!!

 

 Tonight on Mission I'm Possible Radio, Dave and India and several other amazing people will be talking to Hope Girl AND Ralph & Marsha Ring, and I can tell you..... this is NOT a show you want to miss!!!  


As I said yesterday, this IS the Moment of CHANGE!!!  Incredible people with incredible knowledge and consciousness are all coming forward to push the wave and ride it right across our planet and to the stars and beyond. 

The KEY to everything is........  Consciousness.

Please listen in tonight at 8pm Eastern, or tomorrow to the archived show, as there will be a lot of amazing information brought forward!


.... heck, I might just make another pot of coffee and stay up all night to listen in myself.  I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight anyway!!


http://www.blogtalkradio.com/expandinguradio

ExpandingU Radio

ExpandingU RADIO 
An Exploration into Unity Consciousness and New Paradigm Living as One. One Hand. One Heart. One Voice. One Love.

 

 

MISSION I”M POSSIBLE 3
QUANTUM ENERGY GENERATOR: QEG:
Public Advisory :
3D Printing Energy Global Networks and members of our MISSION I’M POSSIBLE team welcome Hope Girl and The QEG team to discussion on Expanding U Radio on the 28th February Friday evening.
EST 8:00pm 5:00Pm PST and over in Sidney 12 noon Saturday 1st March.
Here is the link to the show .
7Rbs8l1388767311
QEG in a nutshell is a 10-15KVA Generator that needs no fuel  and the designs and plans are going viral in
an open source manner.
Hope Girl is the instigator of the release of those plans and we at Mission I’M Possible are delighted to get this opportunity to discuss this live on air with our team.
QEG ( Quantum Energy Generator) Click on Pic link below to learn more:
 1014061_494595790657730_1020744838_n

 

Thursday 27 February 2014

Three Degrees out of Phase: BE the WAVE

I don't know if it is because I read so many articles these days that perhaps I've become a bit numb, but there is a rarity to those moments when I read something that really hits me and brings a verbal "WOW!" out of my mouth....

WOW!!

All things have their own measurable frequency, including ourselves.  We automatically gravitate to the frequencies that we are most comfortable with, guided by our internal oscilloscope which tells us, consciously or unconsciously,what resonates with our frequency.

If you've ever been around a drunken kazoo player or attended your nephews grade one class's violin concert, then you understand the physical attributes of dissonance.  As you sit there, with a smile plastered on your face you realize that your skin is trying to jump off your skeleton in prickly sections, your hair is making an effort to crawl off your cranium and your teeth begin to itch.

THAT is the effect of dissonance.  The effect of a frequency that is not in tune with your frequency. 

As Julian Wash, the author of the article below discusses, the "normal" people (by the descriptive statues of current society) are the carrier wave that flows in mass, all following the same path, the same rules, the same paradigm as outlined by the descriptive state of  "Normal". They flow with a frequency that is static and contained, controlled and complacent.

We are now in a MOMENT of CHANGE, where the individual perception is suddenly awakened  with perfect and absolute pitch, that hears/feels/sees the cacophony of dissonant frequencies surrounding them.  As that individual becomes aware of the shrieking frequencies enveloping them in a discordant disharmony, they see them for the false pitch that they are.

This is the moment when the individual drop of consciousness that is you steps outside the matrix and can SEE the flow of it all around you.  You can sense the frequencies of truth and follow those frequencies that resonate within. You can choose when and where to move- to sink in sync with the matrix flow of "Normal" consciousness, or to fling yourself forward, riding the wave of the frequencies that you resonate with, like a stone skipping across the smooth surface of the pond.

It is when those individual perceptions sling shot forward, skipping across the still surface of the  undisturbed masses, that they leave their mark, sending ripples radiating outward.  The individual drop of consciousness in the pond may not hear the changes nor see the ripples, but that does not mean that they are not effected by those quivering undulations. We are all drops of water in the pond of consciousness.  Our energy is intertwined, touching and effecting all the other drops, regardless of how far away the perceived distance is between us.  When a ripple rolls across the surface of the pond it's effect is on ALL the drops even through the drops themselves may not even perceive it. 

Not all those ripples are positive and uplifting.  There is an equal balance of high and low in the duality of the waves as they ripple across the pond, yet each wave effects the whole to change the frequency of the surface. Whether that perceived wave is caused by a gentle meditating guru's mantra, or by the stone thrown through the window of a government building by an angry protestor, the ripples of both break the surface tension of the water and make it easier for the next drop to effect it even further.  Each splash creates change to the whole and the more waves there are, the more the drops in the stillest part of the pond will feel the changes in the frequencies surrounding them.

Your energy, your frequency of consciousness, directly effects all other energy fields around you- whether consciously or unconsciously. Your effect on the Whole is changing the frequency of the  pond.  As you slingshot skipping over the top layer of the pond, leaving a swath of spiraling waves in your wake, you are weakening the surface tension that will allow greater change as the next ripple rolls through

You BE the WAVE of CHANGE.



http://www.rattlereport.com/rattleberry/2014/2014-02-25



Image description
Life at Three Degrees Out of Phase

By Julian WashRattleberry Pie |
Tuesday, February 25, 2014 |

Image description
Image description

Dear Humans,

Today I wish to return to your awareness an aspect of the Human condition that resonates at the core level.  It’s a doorway to a place colloquially referred to as “everyday life” where an array of vibrations loosely define the boundaries of right and wrong.  It’s an illusory canvas of both shadow and light, a masterpiece commissioned by the will of the collective.   And within this dynamic, rhythmic, mutable creation we find one dominating color.  For now we’ll call this the color of “normal.”  To my eyes it’s rather blue.

When tuned to normal some can navigate through this construct without drawing much attention.  They can essentially live an entire life and make barely a ripple.  It’s not that they are void of vibration –but choose to not distinguish themselves in this manner.  They choose to synchronize with the greater masses within the socially-acceptable waveform of normalcy.

While in this cocoon there are no high-highs or low-lows.  They find solace in seeking others for advice and solutions.  They benefit from the narrow margins they must work under and the supervised nature of their roles.  They do not have to make very many weighty decisions- so they are less apt to suffer any major consequences.  Solidly placed within this vibration is the desire to please, cooperate and conform.  Life is experienced under a veil of relative invisibility -save for the need of occasional approval and validation.  Does this vibration look a bit blue to you as well?

This doorway leads not to innovation, prodigal genius or invention, but rather to one of obedience and servitude.   There is nothing innately wrong with this vibration.  To be clear, it serves as a “carrier wave,” allowing other frequencies and even wonton energies to hop on board and be shuttled along for the ride.  People of this resonance can be controlled parasitically by the institutions they submit to.

You, my dear reader, are not simply a carrier-wave vibration.  A carrier-wave vibration would not be visiting this website nor exploring content of this nature.  You are at the leading edge of this waveform of consciousness –or more specifically, you’re about three degrees out of phase with it.  In the following paragraphs I intend to demonstrate just how “abnormal” you are.  And in the process I sense you will see just how vital your role is to all Humankind.  
     
All the World’s a Vibration

“Everything vibrates.  Life is vibration.  So is mind.  So is matter.”  – Edgar Cayce

It’s been famously stated “all the world’s a stage.”  But the “stage,” like everything else, is a vibrational condensate offering merely an illusion of solidity within this three-dimensional construct.   All the world’s a vibration- including that stage.  And vibrations are waves of varying frequencies.  They can be characterized as any number of wave forms, including the perfect symmetry of a sine wave.   A sine wave forms a circle when folded over.  The circle symbolizes eternity, unity and connectedness. 

The circle’s cousin, the sine wave, symbolizes yin and yang and the duality of existence.  It has positive and negative peaks and is separated by an equatorial “0” point.  Like a circle, its degrees add up to 360.  But the sine wave embodies the message of dualism, the up and down, the plus and minus, the rise and fall.  These expressions are both literal and metaphorical.  They are living and non-living.  Whereas the circle offers a perfect neutral (as in zero “O”), the sine wave creates perfect opposition and polarity, a rhythmic cycle and an energetic presence.

In the organic expression, the heart beats in what it beats out- the lungs breathe in what they breathe out.  There is a rhythm of (in-rest-out) that emulates the shape of a sine wave.  In the case of lungs- the inhaled breath is oxygenated (or on the plus side of the wave) and the exhaled breathe has less oxygen (or the minus side of the wave).    There is equity and balance with what comes in and what goes out and each side of the wave is a complimentary opposite of the other.   The “resting point” is that silent place of perfect harmony between both energies.   It is the twilight of the evening or the dawn of the morning- it’s the quintessential beginning and end.  Here one will find the node of serenity and enlightenment.

Vibration of Truth


“Everything in Life is Vibration” – Albert Einstein

So we go through life day to day in a vibration of normalcy.  People look to another for reassurance and recalibration of this waveform.  If one deviates too greatly from the center of this spectrum they are quickly dismissed and ejected from the gathering.   They are no longer considered to be part of the unified energy and collective consciousness.  There is some value to this.  Native Americans would ostracize evil doers from the tribe.  For the guilty, this was a fate worse than imprisonment.  So the template of normalcy plays a vital role.  But it requires gentle care and discernment.

The enlightened offer a different ray of light to this vibration.  They are able to “snap in and out” of this collective energy.  By doing so they are able to see the waveform from the outside looking in, as well as experience it from the inside.  People who are trapped by the waveform never get an opportunity to see the very construct that entrains them.   By stepping outside the “normal” vibration, the enlightened can appeal to the collective –unconscious with concepts and ideas that transcend ordinary thinking.  But the mindset of normalcy is a stubborn one indeed.  This aspect, however, if allowed to remain static can ultimately lead to the demise of the species.  During the cold war- such a fate almost came to fruition.  Inflexible thinking and ego-driven bias almost lead to a disaster of incomprehensible scale.

There is entropy in all things and the waveforms of daily experience offer no exception.  Without the excitation of an external influence, the ordinary waveform would soon degrade and collapse within a remarkably short amount of time.  It is the continual spark of genius, the alternative views, the irreverent humor that helps provide the three-degree push the waveform of normalcy so desperately needs.   A highly energetic platform will compress this wave even farther resulting in higher awareness and comprehension.  These frequencies awaken deeper understandings and solicit powerful abilities.  Humanity is now beginning to resonate at these energies.

The vibration of truth has a distinctive tone.  People are rapidly becoming attuned with this energy.  As a result, it is getting harder to soft-soap ideas that serve a nefarious purpose.  People are less likely to be bamboozled and mislead by the disingenuous and charlatans.  Those who operate three degrees out of phase have been vigilant in their efforts in helping others to see.  In the words of Schoepenhouer, "All truth goes through three stages.  First it is ridiculed.  Then it is violently opposed.  Finally it is accepted as self-evident."  The state of normalcy has to recalibrate constantly to keep up with the rapid enlightenment that is now sweeping the world.

Guardians of the Waveform

There’s a special group of people I regard as the “guardians of the waveform.”  It’s a mostly unorganized group of independent thinkers who can read the writing on the wall.  They are neither passive nor overtly aggressive.  They are more like master chess players who can see how the board is laid out.  They are expert at anticipating the next move.  Most importantly, they are benevolent and genuinely care about the fate of the Human race.  So they communicate their ideas in various ways- through music, documentaries, websites and even through casual conversation.  Because their intentions are heart-felt and noble, their message resonates.

For those who operate in front of the waveform, who can look back and see its shape and flow, your efforts are not in vain.  You are instrumental in reshaping the so-called “normalcy bias”- working against energies that try to define normal in ways that are anything but.  Through the eyes of a visitor from another world, normal might appear as an avid TV watcher.  Normal would appear to always acquiesce to authority and never challenge the status-quo.  Normal is to drink Diet Coke, eat fast-food hamburgers daily and take strong pharmaceuticals to treat the depression that was brought on by trying so hard to be normal.  Normal is cheering aggressively for a football team that never cheers you back.  Normal is to drink the fluoridated water and not ask salient questions about it efficacy.  --But isn’t interesting that this no longer sounds even remotely normal to you, dear reader?   That’s because you’re slightly out of phase.

The malleable, placid form of “normal” is what the controllers strive for.  They will compromise information and morality and weaken the spirit in any way possible to maintain a lower (subclass) vibration.  They know that the population is capable of resonating at a much higher frequency.   So the brakes are applied chemically, psychologically, and scholastically and in any other modality that serves the controllers.  And then finally, when down for the count- the ones who’ve compromised their better judgment in the name of servitude will simply be abandoned and quickly forgotten.

The guardians of the waveform work in earnest to raise awareness.   They walk a fine line of imparting information in small, digestible bits.  If they offer too much at once, they will be dismissed as a fool or worse.  If they don’t impart enough workable data then people will not take notice.  The guardians of the waveform observe how the controllers manipulate mass consciousness and they work hard to rectify the damage.  They must battle trolls and a myriad of other orchestrated maneuvers that attempt to damage the credibility of those who wish to raise the vibration.    They must also deal with hi-jacked look-alikes that ultimately present a shadowy agenda while wearing a robe of benevolence.  This is why it is vitally important to attune to the vibration of truth.  Once accomplished, one cannot be fooled or tricked.  I guess you can see why the powers that (want to) be are not too keen on this idea called enlightenment.
     
Final Thought

A properly calibrated phase shift can create amplitude in a waveform and sustain it at a higher frequency.  Universe brings into creation those who can positively contribute to this energy.  Such people have been somewhat rare in the past –but now that’s rapidly changing.  An age of enlightenment has dawned and the powers that (want to) be are scrambling to keep control.  But the shift is in place and is now accelerating faster than has ever been witnessed before.

Continue Reading HERE


MISSION I”M POSSIBLE 3: MEETS HOPE GIRL LIVE ON AIR

This is the MOMENT of CHANGE!

We all have parts to play in bringing forward.  So many pieces of the puzzle are being put into place by many groups and many people.  This is the TIME for working together and bringing people and groups together to find the pieces that create a whole new NOW.

I will be doing a recorded call with Hope ... as soon as I get decent enough internet to manage it, lol.  Nick will be with me on the call to discuss the technical aspects of the QEG.  Hopefully we will be able to arrange it very soon.

Please listen in to the I'M Possible radio show on Friday night when Dave has HopeGirl on to discuss several important aspects of the QEG.



qeg

MISSION I”M POSSIBLE 3: MEETS HOPE GIRL LIVE ON AIR : FRIDAY 28TH FEB 8:00pm EST: HOW QEG IS TO BE ….OPEN SOURCED

MISSION I”M POSSIBLE 3
QUANTUM ENERGY GENERATOR: QEG:
Public Advisory :
3D Printing Energy Global Networks and members of our MISSION I’M POSSIBLE team welcome Hope Girl and The QEG team to discussion on Expanding U Radio on the 28th February Friday evening.
EST 8:00pm 5:00Pm PST and over in Sidney 12 noon Saturday 1st March.
Here is the link to the show .
7Rbs8l1388767311
QEG in a nutshell is a 10-15KVA Generator that needs no fuel  and the designs and plans are going viral in
an open source manner.
Hope Girl is the instigator of the release of those plans and we at Mission I’M Possible are delighted to get this opportunity to discuss this live on air with our team.
QEG ( Quantum Energy Generator) Click on Pic link below to learn more:
 1014061_494595790657730_1020744838_n
Here is the latest Hope Girl transcript of events as they unfold:
Managing Expectations for QEG Distribution: Important Information
February 22, 2014
More updates from Hope and FTW. We are in the process of making arrangements for the community we are setting up here in Morocco to be the main distribution hub for QEG’s in Africa. This is NOT about making $$. It’s about getting the devices into the hands of the people who need them most. After a few incredible Skype conversations over the last few weeks with Hope I’m convinced she is the perfect person to spearhead this project. Her sheer brilliance, heart of gold and pure intentions will ensure her success. As she says below, it has never been done like this before. It is the open sourced aspect of this development combined with her plans for distribution which will ensure everything falls right into place, as planned. It’s time to change the world. ~BK
If you would like to support Hope, here is the link to her Gofundme campaign:http://www.gofundme.com/hopegirlfixtheworldqeg -
Quantum Energy Generators – From Hope Girl…
We have CICU’s getting ready to start up their own QEG production and distribution in the following locations… Ladies and Gentlemen… we are now global!!!
Spain
Austria
Western Australia
New Zealand
Turkey
Netherlands
Morocco
South Africa
Canada
United States
Taiwan
Indonesia
Malaysia
Japan
Mexico
From myself and my family, we would like to thank you for your support around the development and distribution of the QEG. Over the course of the last few weeks we have received many inquiries and wanted to take this opportunity to answer some questions and manage expectations.
First we would like to highlight that the method in which we have developed and plan to distribute the QEG has NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE. For this reason it is important to clarify some of the key differences between the QEG and any other product on the market.

A Consumers First Glimpse Behind the Scenes
The average consumer is not exposed to the research and development stages of a new product and only knows about the product when it is on the shelf and ready for purchase. The competitive business environment we have lived in for decades fosters secrecy and requires that those involved with product development sign non-disclosure contracts where they are forbidden to talk about the product until it is marketed for sale.
One of the core values of the Fix the World Organization is to foster co-operation instead of competition and we have exemplified this through the development of the QEG. From its inception, the QEG has been publically reported on to the people through all of the ups and downs of its development. Research and Development has always gone on behind locked closed doors in any major company, FTW flew open the floodgates from day one. This has had both positive and negative effects:
Positive: It allowed anyone to take part in the co-creation of this amazing breakthrough for humanity. Hundreds of people have donated, thousands have been following the development and receiving information that many other developers would never tell them. Knowledge is power for the people, and in turn, FTW has received the love, hope and support of the people to help us bring something like this through. We never could have done this alone, rather we chose to co-create it with all of you. We focus our efforts and energies on those in our global community that come to us with a spirit of bestowal and co-operation.
Negative: It made us a target and allowed open access to every being who is still operating in a stance of aggressive competition (meaning cutting someone down to “win” at all costs). We filter through hundreds of correspondences and comments on a daily basis. Approximately 95% of them are positive and supportive and 5% of them are negative. We are well aware of the network of “paid trolls” and the tactics used in an attempt to stop something that would threaten the oil industries. We view these negative comments as aggressive competition. In order to maintain the integrity and energy levels of the good work that we do, we do not support these attempts at aggressive competition and we do not engage in them in any way.

Reality Check: Time Frame Comparison
Here is some real data from a major electric motors manufacturing company gleaned from 27 years of employment by the QEG Engineering Artist:

Under these circumstances:
-An annual operation budget with multiple millions of dollars at their disposal.
-A team of 20 full time paid experts to work on development.
-A pre-established supply chain that was developed over 50 years to supply all order needs.
A major corporation can take a new product from inception to market in NINE MONTHS.
And this is just for something as standard as a vacuum cleaner. For something more significant, such as in the automotive industry, the same process can take 7 YEARS with triple the resources. Non-disclosure contracts are enforced by all involved and the consumer has no knowledge of the product until it is available for purchase.

The QEG circumstances:
-A Crowdfunded budget of a total of $30,000
-A team of three people: one developer and two assistants
-No established supply chain, but a few good leads and connections
It has been 5 MONTHS since QEG inception. Most of the entire research and development process is complete, the only thing we have left to do is the careful write up of the plans for opensourcing. We estimate that we are approximately 1 MONTH away from bringing this to market for a total of SIX MONTHS from inception to market. And this isn’t a vacuum cleaner! Information about the QEG has been made public since its inception; the public has had knowledge of this product and an opportunity to support it.

Our Release Strategy in Sequential Order:
First: Open Source QEG Plans
Second and Third Simultaneously: Take a limited amount of pre-orders to fund the creation of a training program, then assist other communities in training for their own local QEG production.
Fourth: Proof of Principle demonstrated by the people.

IMPORTANT GUIDELINES PRIOR TO OPENSOURCING EXPLAINED:
We’ve received a lot of various inquiries in the last few weeks and wanted to outline some of the precautions we are taking during this sensitive time prior to the open sourcing of the QEG:

Technical Questions:
We’ve received lots of requests to speak to the inventor for a “quick question” regarding technical aspects of the QEG. It is important that a FULL and COMPLETE body of information is released intact before any such questions are answered. Incomplete information gleaned from a 5 minute conversation can open the door to problems and may damage integrity. For this reason, the inventor would like to wait until after the open source documents are complete to answer any technical questions.
Proof of Principle Public Announcements: FTW will not make a public announcement such as: “it works”. Such public announcements draw unwelcomed attention and could complicate our main goal during this delicate time. Our goal is to get this to the people, help them build them and distribute the QEG freely to the world. Then, THE PEOPLE will make the public announcement of the QEG through their own personal testimonies. In the initial stages, FTW plans to use our network of trusted and respected professionals who participate in collectives such as the Breakthrough Energy Movement to provide testimony of the QEG’s successful operation.

Open Sourcing
Our first priority is to Open Source the plans for the QEG. We are currently working on the careful completion of a document package that will include drawings, a parts list, user manual, troubleshooting tips and a waiver. This package will be as simple as we can make it, but will be written for an audience that is assumed to have engineering expertise (hence the waiver); it is crucial to have an advanced level of training and/or understanding of the forces at work in the QEG.
Open Sourcing is a necessary first step before all others as it will provide the protection the QEG needs from suppression. Fix the World is freely giving the QEG away to the world. We are not aware of this being done before and we are working diligently to ensure that it’s done right. It is important that the document package is as thorough and complete as it can be because once it’s open sourced it is public and therefore unchangeable.

Liability

We are entering into a new world, a new paradigm and a new way of doing business. With this freedom comes great responsibility and many are about to experience what true sovereignty feels like. The QEG is a gift freely given to the world. The instructions will be complete and correct. For the experienced engineer who should choose to follow them carefully they will produce a safe working product. In this new paradigm, everyone needs to be responsible for their own actions, which is why we have a waiver and have been working with some new paradigm Law professionals who have been advising us on these matters. Fix the World is not responsible for the actions of others. For those that wish to build a QEG, we ask that you use careful thinking, patience, and consideration for the greater good. We don’t want anyone to build it wrong, waste their money, or get hurt.

Consulting, Training and Pre-Orders

We want to help teach others how to build their own QEG’s and create their own system of local distribution. To do this we are developing a training program that will involve travelling to communities (if needed) all around the world to help them start up their own production that we are calling Cottage Industry Community Units (CICU’s).
FTW does not intend, nor do we wish to become a manufacturing center for QEG’s, rather we want to invest most of our energy into training others to build them. We also would like to focus on new product development and other planet changing projects in the future. However, to raise the funds needed to launch such a training program, we will be manufacturing a limited number of QEG’s for sale and also for donations to help others.
We already have a tentative customer base established for the limited pre-orders, and another list is growing daily for those interested in our training program to establish their own CICU’s.
Immediately following the necessary Open Sourcing of the QEG plans, the manufacturing of QEG pre-orders will commence with an expected production time of 3-4 months for delivery. Also at this time, we will commence in the creation of our training program and will begin taking bookings for CICU start up travel.

Pricing
This is where things will get very interesting and humanity will have a chance to co-operate instead of compete. Prototypes always cost a lot more than replications. The first few always cost a lot more than those that follow, basic product production understanding tells us this. But what will happen when the QEG is released to the world without the limitations of competitive industry, price fixing, and non-disclosure agreements? The QEG might cost a lot more to make in the US than it does in other countries, but humanity can find co-operative ways to help even this out. There are other innovations like 3D printers that can play a huge role in creating the parts for the QEG at a fraction of the price. CICU’s can come up with creative ways to produce them for less and trade ideas with other CICU’s through social networking.
In this new paradigm, Adam Smiths “invisible hand” becomes the millions of invisible hands of the people who now have the power to moderate price through their own unhindered creativity. While humanity finds a way to even out pricing, millions of people across the planet will acquire QEG’s.


http://xi4.com/2014/02/25/3d-printing-hope-girl/






Tuesday 25 February 2014

The Solar Cabaret Show: High kicking Fun for all!

The Cabaret Show began last night at 00:43am UST (interesting timing I might add ;>)  )  when our old friend, sunspot 1944/67 now renumbered 1990, blasted off an X Class 4.9 Solar Flare just as it began to rotate over the eastern limb into Earth Facing view- Kinda like the class clown lobbing a mega flash bang into the science lab on the first day back at school, just to say "HI!  Remember me?!?"

The XClass 4.9 flare shook up lots of stuff, but so far it would seem that most of the energy will only hit Earth a slightly glancing blow.  Having said that, there was definite radio black out interference- supposedly on the "sunlit side of earth" at the time, yet the One People radio show last night had significant interference last night for the first hour of the show.  Go figure.

I would also like to note here that it is incredibly rare for a sun spot to exist as long as spot 1944/67/90 has- 3 rotations into Earth view is almost unheard of.  Many smaller spots can "die" within hours of forming, but average sized spots usually last no more than 2-3 weeks.

Well my friends, I think that once again we'll be getting treated to a bright and energetic stage show... the only question left is:  Will 1990 continue it's famous play dead act once it is geoeffectively Earth facing, or will three times be the charm?




From SolarHam:


Major X4.9 Solar Flare
A major solar flare measuring X4.9 was just observed around returning sunspot 1967 (newly numbered 1990) at 00:49 UTC. Despite appearing to be in an advanced state of decay, the active region remains magnetically potent. This just proves that you cannot judge a book by its cover. A 10cm radio bust measuring 3700 sfu and lasting 85 minutes was associated with the event. The sunspot is not yet in a good geoeffective position for Earth directed eruptions. The flare is the 3rd largest X-Ray event of the current solar cycle....


CME Update: Attached image below by LASCO C2 captures a halo coronal mass ejection (CME) leaving the sun at a quick rate of speed following the X4.9 flare event Monday night. Click HERE for a movie. Because the source sunspot (1990, ex 1967) is still located near the east limb, the plasma cloud is directed mostly away from Earth. Despite this, there does appear to be an Earth directed component which could deliver a glancing blow to our geomagnetic field by mid week.

http://www.solarham.net/
_____________________________________________________________

Strong R3 Radio Blackout level was measured. R3 level can cause wide area blackout of HF radio communication, loss of radio contact for about an hour on sunlit side of Earth and low-frequency navigation signals degraded for about an hour.
Coronal Mass Ejection was generated but this region is not in geoeffective position at the time and the plasma cloud is directed mostly to the east.
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2014/02/25/powerful-x-4-9-solar-flare-erupted-from-sunspot-1990/


Side notes:  we also have a nice size coronal hole now directly facing Earth.


...
















Giant Meteor hit the Moon..... 6 months ago?

Sooooooooo....... apparently the "biggest meteor EVER" hit the moon....... last September.

September 11th, 2013 to be precise.  So they say.

Below is the "News" story on BBC about the meteor strike that happened 6 MONTHS ago.  Please note the large amount of  babble of nothing being said.  But also note that within the babble there are two pointed pieces of information:

"They say the collision would have generated a flash of light so bright that it would have been visible from Earth."


and

""Usually lunar impacts have a very short duration - just a fraction of a second. But the impact we detected lasted over eight seconds. It was almost as bright as the Pole Star, which makes it the brightest impact event that we have recorded from Earth," said Prof Madiedo. "

Yet even though it "would have" been seen by the naked eye on Earth, not a single report ANYWHERE from people seeing a light as bright as the Pole Star on the Moon.


Could it be that people were distracted by the fireballs in the sky?

I find it very interesting that 6 MONTHS after a very peculiar incident- one that makes absolutely no sense at all in terms of a simple meteor strike- regardless of it size- on the moon, all of a sudden NOW.... they are releasing this information.

really?   Really?   REALLY?!?


I'm keeping my eye peeled on this one as my inner itchy bump is definitely itchy!!


Below are a few links and notes on interesting happenings right around this time.


Baseball-Size Meteor Sparks Brilliant Fireball Over Southeast US (Video)


http://www.space.com/22749-meteor-baseball-bright-fireball-video.html

____________________________________________________________

11 September 2013

MBIQ Detects Australia Meteor 11SEP2013

MBIQ Detects Australia Meteor 11SEP2013
http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com/2013/09/mbiq-detects-australia-meteor-11sep2013.html

___________________________________________________________

 Interestingly enough, this is what the Sun supposedly looked like the week before and after Sept 11/13

Sunspots and active regions: 11.09.2013


According to SOHO and NOAA, the sun did.... nothing that week- not even the slightest flare from anywhere.







The following image was released by NASA on November 7th.... again, pictures taken on Sept 10 2013.

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/november/nasas-hubble-sees-asteroid-spouting-six-comet-like-tails/#.UwxvG03xvIU




By the end of Sept. 2013  NASA was shut down along with other government agencies in the US government shut down.

http://www.space.com/23014-nasa-government-shutdown-effects-obama-statement.html


It was also at this time that the ISON hype was being ramped up:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/24sep_ison2/

And two days before that, comet Lovejoy was discovered:

http://www.universetoday.com/104662/new-comet-discovered-lovejoy-will-add-to-comet-lineup-in-winter-skies/





This is the less than astounding video posted on RT HERE




http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26325934


'Biggest observed meteorite impact' hits Moon

 
Moon

The impact appeared as a bright white flash on 11 September 2013
Scientists say they have observed a record-breaking impact on the Moon.
Spanish astronomers spotted a meteorite with a mass of about half a tonne crashing into the lunar surface last September.
They say the collision would have generated a flash of light so bright that it would have been visible from Earth.
The event is reported in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
"This is the largest, brightest impact we have ever observed on the Moon," said Prof Jose Madiedo, of the University of Huelva in south-western Spain.

“Start Quote

The impact we detected lasted over eight seconds”
Prof Jose Madiedo University of Huelva
The explosive strike was spotted by the Moon Impacts Detection and Analysis System (Midas) of telescopes in southern Spain on 11 September at 20:07 GMT.
"Usually lunar impacts have a very short duration - just a fraction of a second. But the impact we detected lasted over eight seconds. It was almost as bright as the Pole Star, which makes it the brightest impact event that we have recorded from Earth," said Prof Madiedo.
The researchers say a lump of rock weighing about 400kg (900lb) and travelling at 61,000km/h (38,000mph) slammed into the surface of the Moon.
They believe the dense mass, which had a width of 0.6-1.4m (2-4.6ft), hit with energy equivalent to about 15 tonnes of TNT.
This is about three times more explosive than another lunar impact spotted by Nasa last March. That space rock weighed about 40kg and was about 0.3-0.4m wide.
Scarred Moon
The team believes the impact has left behind a 40m-wide crater.
"That's the estimation we have made according to current impact models. We expect that soon Nasa could observe the crater and confirm our prediction," said Prof Madiedo.
It would be one of many scars on the lunar surface.
Unlike Earth, the Moon has no atmosphere to shield it from meteorite collisions, and its surface shows a record of every strike.
The researchers believe that impacts from rocks of about 1m in diameter could be far more common than was previously thought - both on the Moon and on Earth.
However, most rocks of this size would burn up as they entered the Earth's atmosphere, appearing as a fireball in the sky.
For meteorites to make more of an impact here, they need to be larger.
For example, the asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk in Russia on 15 February 2013 was estimated to be about 19m wide.
It hit the atmosphere with energy estimated to be equivalent to 500,000 tonnes of TNT, sending a shockwave twice around the globe. It caused widespread damage and injured more than 1,000 people.

Monday 24 February 2014

The Will and The Word of I AM by Heather Ann Tucci-Jarraf

Edited Note:  02/25/2014 from Heather:

UPDATED 2/25 Comments from Heather:
<<< small problem- the docs on scribd are set to private!!! you need to reeset them to public so that people can download the last two!
[9:06:29 AM] HeatherAnnTucciJarraf .: The last two, Declarations of Receipt by I AM and Conversion by I AM....only done once....those are done. The conversion was done by I AM and it is only required to be done once....like ordering from a catalog (chuckle)
[9:17:35 AM] Heather Ann Tucci-Jarraf: (y)
[9:17:45 AM] Heather Ann Tucci-Jarraf: thanks Brian! Great work to every ONE!!!!!!!!
[9:18:20 AM] Heather Ann Tucci-Jarraf: :*(heart)
[9:22:16 AM] Heather Ann Tucci-Jarraf: this IS the response of I AM to matters of tools of transparency, like SwissIndo, and purported: global collateral accounts, St. Germaine Trusts, Prosperity Funds, RV (Reavaluation), Reset, hard backed assets, and debts:

...no more "accounts" business....no more "return to the people" because the Value of I AM IS all ways always within each inbodyment of I AM ....all the former representations (i.e. "funds", "currencies", "hard back assets") is already all converted back to pure energy, original currency of I AM...

NOW IMAGINE AND DO!!!!!! NOW I AM DO I AM!!!!!!





HUGE
  thank you to Brian for sending me all the embedding codes for the documents so that we can all go live at once!
Along with the Documents, introducing Heather's new website: 

love D





(Beautiful graphics compliments of Jorge)

The Will and The Word of I AM by Heather Ann Tucci-Jarraf
February 24, 2014

Sitting here in the café with Heather and a few others now and just finished reading the revision of The Will and The Word. Explaining the document, the energy behind it and what it means is way above my pay grade, so will leave that to Heather. There is a chance she may come onto The One People show tonight to go over it. What I can share is the feeling I got when reading it. It was the bold sections highlighted below that jumped off the page with the most intensity. The sense I get is that THIS IS IT. All the hierarchy...DONE. All the systems designed for harvesting, control, fear, greed, oppression, suppression and manipulation...DONE. All that was bound, is now unbound. All that existed in the shadows is now being brought into the light. All perceptions of limitation are now  reconciled. All that is left is I AM. THIS is the moment. NOW is the time. IT IS DONE.

"This DECLARATION OF I AM is the only valid, lawful verification, certification, and projection of this particular inbodyment of I AM, eternal essence, in body, also perceived as Heather Ann Tucci-Jarraf, an original depository and deposit of I AM, source of the Value of I AM consciously deposited, domicil, and operating therein by I AM, and any and all other representations, jurisdictions, records, et. al. that were claimed to have existed with affect and effect are null, void and duly canceled, for cause, by I AM as a matter of Eternal, Universal and International Records, inclusive of No. 2013032035 and 2012127914, in perpetuity, Record No. 2000043135, all restated, without prejudice, nunc pro tunc, praeterea preterea."

"I AM, eternal essence, completely factualized in body, also perceived as Heather Ann Tucci-Jarraf, an original depository and deposit of I AM, source of the Value of I AM, without prejudice, nunc pro tunc, praeterea preterea: Due declaration and implementation of I AM, inclusive of this original depository and deposit of I AM, is not to be compelled to perform under any contract and agreement, inclusive of commercial agreement or bankruptcy, inclusive of any and all jurisdictions, and any and all unlawful claims to I AM and the Value of I AM, therefrom, therewith, thereof, and thereto, that I AM did not enter knowingly, voluntarily and intentionally; Furthermore, I AM does not and will not accept the liability or responsibility of the compelled benefit of any and all unrevealed contract and agreement, inclusive of any and all commercial agreement or bankruptcy; Nunc pro tunc, praeterea preterea."
My suggestion is to print each of these documents and read them out loud. The Will and The Word as well as The Declaration of Original Depository and Deposit of I AM will be shared in doc format for those who wish to print them out and use them. Much more information will go out from Heather in the days to come. The most exciting element of this for me is what I've seen in Heather in the days leading up to this release. I've known her for over a year now and I've never seen her this excited. She's got this glow about her that is undeniable. Her energy is through the room. She keeps using words like "impenetrable" and "bulletproof."  Whatever these documents mean, my mind is most certainly having trouble grasping, but my heart tells me it's HUGE. The likes of which is unprecedented and all encompassing. The nay-sayers will be coming out in droves, I'm sure. At the end of the day it doesn't matter, what's done is done. One day soon ALL will KNOW themSelves as Eternal Essence and will BE Free to create from this space. Free of all limitation. Free of all doubt. Free from fear. Free to BE. Free to DO. Mark your calendar's folks, I'm certain this day will go down in history. Time to celebrate.... ~BK
I AM Universal Pass (to replace the existing Passport) Coming Soon...




Mysterious polio-like illness...Polio in a New Dress


This headline on CNN this morning literally made my jaw drop so hard I thought I'd dislocated it.


Mysterious polio-like illness found in 5 California children

By Ralph Ellis, CNN
February 24, 2014 -- Updated 0945 GMT

The lies that have been hammered into the public about the Polio vaccine for almost 70 years have been pushed so thoroughly that they've created a world wide population of people who are incapable of even Considering the idea that the Polio Vaccine didn't save the world.

With the exception of the current mass drugging of North Americans with anti depressants and anti psychotics, there has never ever been a more successful campaign to brainwash the public with medical mythology than the Polio Vaccine.

Now, there are those of you reading these harsh words above who are about to close this article down and refused to read any further. To those who are still reading and seething inside about this crazy "conspiracy theorist" who's spreading lies about the glorious Polio Vaccine, I would ask your patience- Before you slam your lap top shut, please take a moment to consider all of the information below.

We have been conditioned by our own conditioned parents, family, friends, society in general and through one of the most successful media campaigns in the history of the world, that to even Question the validity of the Polio Vaccine victory in "eradicating Polio from the face of the earth" is almost on the same level as treason.    We have a medical society so steeped in misdirection and lies that most of their own doctors have bought the polio story hook, line and sinker.  To be truthful, it isn't all their fault.  When Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to "fund" medical schools and write medical journal articles based on their own products, you cannot possibly expect unbiased opinions.  This would be like allowing a tobacco lobbyist to write research papers on lung cancer.

I am going to show you where Polio has disappeared to and I am going to start by giving you information about some very well known diseases.  Please read them carefully.


______________________________________________________________________

Multimedia

Although polio can cause paralysis and death, the vast majority of people who are infected with the poliovirus don't become sick and are never aware they've been infected with polio.

Nonparalytic polio

Some people who develop symptoms from the poliovirus contract nonparalytic polio — a type of polio that doesn't lead to paralysis (abortive polio). This usually causes the same mild, flu-like signs and symptoms typical of other viral illnesses.
Signs and symptoms, which generally last one to 10 days, include:
  • Fever
  • Sore throat
  • Headache
  • Vomiting
  • Fatigue
  • Back pain or stiffness
  • Neck pain or stiffness
  • Pain or stiffness in the arms or legs
  • Muscle spasms or tenderness
  • Meningitis

Paralytic polio

In rare cases, poliovirus infection leads to paralytic polio, the most serious form of the disease. Paralytic polio has several types, based on the part of your body that's affected — your spinal cord (spinal polio), your brainstem (bulbar polio) or both (bulbospinal polio).
Initial signs and symptoms of paralytic polio, such as fever and headache, often mimic those of nonparalytic polio. Within a week, however, signs and symptoms specific to paralytic polio appear, including:
  • Loss of reflexes
  • Severe muscle aches or spasms
  • Loose and floppy limbs (flaccid paralysis), often worse on one side of the body
The onset of paralysis may be sudden.

Post-polio syndrome

Post-polio syndrome is a cluster of disabling signs and symptoms that affect some people for decades — an average of 25 to 35 years — after they had polio. Common signs and symptoms include:
  • Progressive muscle or joint weakness and pain
  • General fatigue and exhaustion after minimal activity
  • Muscle atrophy
  • Breathing or swallowing problems
  • Sleep-related breathing disorders, such as sleep apnea
  • Decreased tolerance of cold temperatures 
_____________________________________________________

http://www.brainandspinalcord.org/spinal-cord-injury-types/flaccid-paralysis/index.html

Also known as Accute Flaccid Paralysis


Flaccid Paralysis

Flaccid paralysis is a condition characterized by extreme weakness of muscles and loss of muscle tone.

Symptoms

Acute paralysis in limbs that are flaccid (floppy or limp) are associated with this condition.  Signs and symptoms depends on what is causing the AFP:
  • Progression of paralysis
  • Fever onset
  • Diminished muslce tone
  • Sensory loss, cramps, or tingling of palms and soles of the feet
  • Bladder dysfunction
  • Respiratory insufficiency
_______________________________________________________________________

http://www.brainandspinalcord.org/causes-spinal-cord-injury/inflammation-spinal-cord-injury/index.html

Transverse Myelitis Inflammation

Inflammation of the spinal cord can cause a neurological disorder called transverse myelitis (TM).  “Transverse�? describes where the inflammation occurs—across the width of one segment of the spinal cord—while “myelitis�? refers to the inflammation of the spinal cord itself.
When the spinal cord becomes inflamed, myelin, and insulating material that covers nerve cell fibers, is destroyed. This causes scars, which disrupt communication between the nerves in the spinal cord and the rest of the body.

Symptoms of TM

The main symptom of TM is loss of spinal cord function over a period of several hours to several weeks. TM may begin with relatively minor back pain, progress to muscle weakness and odd feelings in the toes and feet, and can rapidly become more severe, eventually resulting in paralysis.

Causes of TM

While no one is sure what causes TM, there are many hypotheses. Possible causes include:
  • Viral infections, often due to the viruses that cause Chicken Pox and Shingles
  • Viral infections due to herpes simplex, Epstein-Barr, influenza, HIV, hepatits A, or rubella
  • Bacterial skin infections
  • Middle ear infections
  • Bacterial pneumonia
  • Abnormal immune reactions
  • Poor blood flow through the blood vessels in the spinal cord
  • A complication from syphilis, measles, Lyme disease, and some vaccinations
_____________________________________________________________________

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/meningitis/basics/symptoms/con-20019713

meningitis

It's easy to mistake the early signs and symptoms of meningitis for the flu (influenza). Meningitis signs and symptoms may develop over several hours or over one or two days.
The signs and symptoms that may occur in anyone older than age of 2 include:
  • Sudden high fever
  • Severe headache that isn't easily confused with other types of headache
  • Stiff neck
  • Vomiting or nausea with headache
  • Confusion or difficulty concentrating
  • Seizures
  • Sleepiness or difficulty waking up
  • Sensitivity to light
  • Lack of interest in drinking and eating
  • Skin rash in some cases, such as in meningococcal meningitis
________________________________________________________________

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/guillain-barre-syndrome/basics/symptoms/con-20025832

Guillain-Barre syndrome

Guillain-Barre syndrome often begins with tingling and weakness starting in your feet and legs and spreading to your upper body and arms. These symptoms may begin — often not causing much notice — in your fingers and toes. In some people, symptoms begin in the arms or even the face. As the disorder progresses, muscle weakness can evolve into paralysis.
Signs and symptoms of Guillain-Barre syndrome may include:
  • Prickling, "pins and needles" sensations in your fingers, toes or both
  • Weakness or tingling sensations in your legs that spread to your upper body
  • Unsteady walking or inability to walk
  • Difficulty with eye movement, facial movement, speaking, chewing or swallowing
  • Severe pain in your lower back
  • Difficulty with bladder control or intestinal functions
  • Rapid heart rate
  • Low or high blood pressure
  • Difficulty breathing
___________________________________________________________________

 http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/chronic-fatigue-syndrome/basics/symptoms/con-20022009

 Chronic fatigue syndrome

Chronic fatigue syndrome has eight official symptoms, plus the central symptom that gives the condition its name:
  • Fatigue
  • Loss of memory or concentration
  • Sore throat
  • Enlarged lymph nodes in your neck or armpits
  • Unexplained muscle pain
  • Pain that moves from one joint to another without swelling or redness
  • Headache of a new type, pattern or severity
  • Unrefreshing sleep
  • Extreme exhaustion lasting more than 24 hours after physical or mental exercise
 __________________________________________________________________

 http://www.mayoclinic.org/coxsackievirus/expert-answers/FAQ-20058531

Coxsackie virus


Most coxsackievirus infections aren't serious. They typically cause only mild signs and symptoms, such as:
  • Fever
  • Rash
  • Sore throat
  • Joint pain
  • Headache
 _______________________________________________________________________




Every single one of these diseases listed above is Polio.   As the charts (below) clearly show, the incidences of Polio had already radically dropped BEFORE the vaccine was introduced.  Then, in an effort to support the spending of $45 million dollars on Polio vaccine research, The medical associations responsible for looking after the health of you and your children, re-defined the symptoms  of Polio  and created "new" diseases or changed the official symptoms of known diseases to account for the polio symptoms that were still showing up in a population that had already been vaccinated for polio.


"Polio has not been eradicated by vaccination, it is lurking behind a redefinition and new diagnostic names like viral or aseptic meningitis.......According to one of the 1997 issues of the MMWR, there are some 30,000 to 50,000 cases of viral meningitis per year in the United States alone.  That's where all those 30,000 - 50,000 cases of polio disappeared after the introduction of mass vaccination"---Viera Scheibner 


POLIO DEFINITION FRAUD:
Statistics on polio were manipulated. One such way was to redefine the disease, renaming it "viral or aseptic meningitis" or "cocksackie virus". In one US county, for example, in July 1955 there were 273 cases of polio reported for 50 cases of asceptic meningitis, compared to 5 cases of polio in 1966 and 256 cases of aseptic meningitis. These new diagnostic guideline's were issued by the CDC. If you object to polio vaccination, and you get polio--it is usually called "polio." If you have been vaccinated and you get "polio", it is called meningitis(2).

Coxsackievirus and echoviruses can cause paralytic syndromes that are clinically indistinguishable from paralytic poliomyelitis. (John H. Menkes, Textbook Of Child Neurology, 5th ed., page 420) http://www3.bcity.com/harpub/  

"Dr. Thomas Francis did not mention in his key evaluation of the 1954 Salk field trials that those who contracted polio after their first innoculation and before their second inoculation were placed in the "not-inoculated" list.' (Maurice B. Bayly, The Story Of The Salk Anti-poliomyelitis Vaccine, 1956). 

..."Official data shows that large scale vaccination has failed to obtain any significant improvement of the diseases against which they were supposed to provide protection"---Dr Sabin, developer of Polio vaccine.

Health officials convinced the Chinese to rename the bulk of their polio to Guillaine Barre Syndrome (GBS). A study found that the new disorder (Chinese Paralytic syndrome) and the GBS was really polio (41). After mass vaccination in 1971, reports of polio went down but GBS increased about 10 fold.

"In the WHO polio vaccine eradication in the Americas, there were 930 cases of paralytic disease—all called polio. Five years later, at the end of the campaign, roughly 2000 cases of paralytic disease occurred—but only 6 of them were called polio (41). The rate of paralytic disease doubled, but the disease definition changed so drastically that hardly any of it was called polio any more."—Greg Beattie

"They started vaccinating in 1985 (in the Americas). Within 4 months they had 350 cases…They caused a substantial, huge outbreak of polio but they started ‘discarding’ most of the cases (put as flaccid paralysis)."—Viera Scheibner (42).
 http://www.whale.to/vaccines/polio.html#POLIO%20DEFINITION%20FRAUD:




 http://www.whale.to/v/polio_and_lemmings.html
hiding polio, wonderful quotes:
http://www.whale.to/vaccine/polio1.html
Hiding Polio: After vaccination 'polio' became 'meningitis'
YearPolioMeningitisTotal
July 195527350323
July 196165161226
July 196331151182
Sep. 19665256261
The above often quoted figures are credited to the Los Angeles County [USA] Health Index: Morbidity and Mortality, Reportable Diseases









CNN and the main stream media are now  breaking the news story that  there are 5 children in California with "Polio-like" symptoms.

I would ask you to keep your eyes open:  A "New" Disease is about to be "discovered", though in reality it is Polio with a snazzy new dress. Guaranteed.


Please click HERE to read the original article and the links for much more information on Polio and the Polio Vaccine





The War Against the Imagination

This article is so brilliant that it needs no further comments from me.



http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2014/02/22/the-war-against-the-imagination/

The War Against the Imagination

The War Against the Imagination: How to Teach in a System Designed to Fail
by Robert Guffey

(Note from Jon Rappoport: I had to print this article about education by Robert Guffey, who teaches at Long Beach State University, and is the author of a brilliant, challenging book, Cryptoscatology: Conspiracy Theory as Art Form. I had to print this article because it’s so important to the future of what we call education, and because it’s so important to the future of freedom and human consciousness.  That’s all I’ll say.  I’ll leave the rest to Robert.)

Part I: The War Against Education
There has been much talk lately about the worthless quagmire into which the American educational system has hopelessly sunk.  I’ve been teaching English composition at CSU Long Beach for over ten years, and have never seen more hostility directed towards the field of education than now.  A recent documentary, The War on Kids directed by Cevin Soling, takes the American educational system to task for all its numerous failings and compares public schools to prisons.  This attitude reflects the feelings of many students, and not just high school students.  I see a great deal of resistance to learning even at the college level.  If students truly believe they’re stuck in a prison, then such resistance is understandable—indeed, maybe even inevitable.
One of the major problems any teacher has to face is resistance from his students.  Resistance is a natural response from someone who’s been forced to sit through hours and hours of useless factoids in high school with little reward except smiley faces and various letters of the alphabet.  Though it can be frustrating to the teacher, resistance is actually a healthy attitude that indicates students aren’t quite as somnambulant as many people seem to think they are.  A beginning teacher would be advised to nurture that resistance (rather than stamp it out), and then channel it into more positive areas, areas that encompass such shopworn concepts as….
Wonder.
Enthusiasm.
The imagination.
Why are these words used so rarely in classrooms these days?  It’s as if most teachers have forgotten what inspired their own love of reading.  Whether in an English 100 college classroom or a freshman English class on a high school campus, students will inevitably resist studying topics they’re convinced are transient and/or ephemeral.  Does this mean they’ve all been brainwashed by far too many zeros and ones, their medullae warped and atrophied due to overdosing on ungrammatical rap music?  No, I don’t think so.  I think it’s a natural reaction to curricula that have come to represent a world with which they have no connection, a world populated by instructors whose major concerns are encapsulated within a solipsistic quantum bubble of their own devising, a world in which the only legitimate reading material consists of staid essays about events that seem to have no relevance to their daily lives.  William Burroughs once said, “Language is a virus,” and he was right.  The Word is infectious, an insidious virus that goes by many names.
Wonder.  Enthusiasm.  The imagination.
Are these considered dirty words these days?  If so, the universities are no doubt to blame.  Of course, academia is an easy whipping boy, a target for politicos on both the left and the right.   Right-wingers are constantly accusing the universities of being controlled by a secret cabal of Marxists intent on brainwashing our precious young chil’un into becoming dope-smoking lesbian slaves for (gasp) the Democratic Party—or worse yet, Ralph Nader.  On the other hand, left-wingers live in constant fear of right-wingers somehow subverting the true purpose of the university through corporate underwriting and undue political influence.  Both are missing the point.  The true purpose of the university system is to bland out the culture to such a degree that there will no longer be any extremes on either side,—left or right—just the perpetual drone of academic discourse in which nothing important ever gets said because the entire content is taken up by preparations to say something important.
The perpetrators of this discourse of meaninglessness are the very people in charge of teaching our children today; their essays are the literary equivalent of feather-bedding in the work world.  Imagine an incompetent baker desperately attempting to dress up a silver platter full of Twinkies to look like fine French pastry.  This is what “academic discourse” has become in America.  Students resist taking part in it for the same reason they don’t want to read Jacques Derrida. (Personally, I try to avoid Derrida, as I’m lactose intolerant.) If you’re going to waste your time, you might as well have fun while you’re doing it.  So they go to Palm Springs and drink beer and take E and have sex instead.  Who can blame them?
The disaffected student has merely fallen for the lie of the Hegelian dialectic process, a systematic method of control in which the status quo is granted perpetual renewal via a delicate balancing act, a global shadow play in which binary opposites are carefully maintained to create a false dichotomy in world consciousness, a dichotomy consisting of left and right, black and white, good and evil, cop and criminal, Communist and Capitalist, Republican and Democrat, Crip and Blood, Staff and Faculty, student and teacher.  These divisions, mere illusions, manifest themselves on both the macrocosmic and microcosmic scale.  Including the classroom.
The reason most students reject the values of the university is because they don’t believe there’s any alternative to the newspeak of academic discourse.   Most of them have bought Hegel’s lie (without even knowing who he is or what his theories are).  One must, they believe, either learn to speak meaningless gibberish, or reject the university system outright.  Many erudite scholars consciously decide to opt out of the system for this very reason.
For the vast majority of students, this decision will be an unconscious (and unnecessary) one.  Their resistance is a false dichotomy.  If we encourage our students to think “out of the box” (or, better yet, “out of the tetrahedron”), to go beyond the false dichotomies that have been shoved down their throat since they were in kindergarten, then they just might embrace the learning experience a high school or university can offer them; they might very well appropriate the notion of academic discourse and warp it to fit their own aesthetics.  Plenty of other “outsiders” have done so in the past, composition instructors like Victor Villanueva being a prime example.  It can be done.  Sometimes it happens almost by accident, by stumbling upon a sudden epiphany:   that the status quo is not inviolate; it can, and will, bend if you push hard enough.
Listen to these words by Victor Villanueva:
For all the wonders I had found in literature—and still find—literature seemed to me self-enveloping.  What I would do is read and enjoy.  And, when it was time to write, what I would write about would be an explanation of what I had enjoyed […] essentially saying “this is what I saw” or “this is how what I read took on a special meaning for me” (sometimes being told that what I had seen or experienced was nonsense).  I could imagine teaching literature—and often I do, within the context of composition—but I knew that at best I’d be imparting or imposing one view:  the what I saw or the meaning for me.  […]  But it did not seem to me that I could somehow make someone enjoy.  Enjoyment would be a personal matter:  from the self, for the self.
How do we encourage the potential iconoclasts now entering our classrooms to take the lance in hand and start out on their quixotic quest to battle every windmill the system throws at them, to allow their writing to flow from the self, for the self?  The first step is a simple one, often overlooked, the successful completion of which requires the use of three basic tools.  Perhaps you’ve heard of them.
Wonder.  Enthusiasm.  The imagination.
In his 1989 book Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury writes:
[…] if you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer.  It means you are so busy keeping one eye on the commercial market, or one ear peeled for the avant-garde coterie, that you are not being yourself.  You don’t even know yourself.  For the first thing a writer should be is—excited.  He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms.  Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows it’d be better for his health.
How long has it been since you wrote […] your real love or your real hatred […] onto the paper?  When was the last time you dared release a cherished prejudice so it slammed the page like a lightning bolt?  What are the best things and the worst things in your life, and when are you going to get around to whispering or shouting them?
Unfortunately, students aren’t encouraged to either shout or whisper anything.  No, that would be considered “extreme” and might unbalance the Hegelian status quo.  They’re asked to fill out Scan-Tron sheets instead—imprisoning their individual personalities within those tiny lead-filled bubbles.  The Scam-Tron is one of the most basic examples of behavioral programming one can find in the school system.  Its intent is to instill in the student the idea that there exists only a limited number of answers for any given question—a closed universe of possibilities.
Zest?  Gusto?  Bradbury has sound advice for would-be writers in his essays, all of it ignored by the majority of high school and college English instructors.  Imagine a high school teacher encouraging his students to write about their most deeply-held prejudices in an open and honest manner.  Either some kid’s left-wing parent would complain about fostering racism in a state-funded institution, or some right-wing parent would complain about indoctrinating their Precious One with kooky liberal values about “tolerance.”  And instead of protecting the instructor’s right to teach composition in any damn way he pleases, the Principal or the Department Chair or the Dean would no doubt burn the Constitution and sweep the ashy fragments underneath the fax machine for fear of incurring a lawsuit that might attract media attention to the school—not just “unfavorable” media attention, mind you, but any media attention at all.
As any bureaucrat will tell you (if you catch them in an honest and/or inebriated mood), the very last thing they want is to see their name in the newspaper.  As proof of this, please note the fact that the only time you ever notice a politician’s name in the newspaper is if they’ve screwed up.  All bureaucrats, whether they be Senators or school administrators, live in fear of the day their existence is discovered by the outside world.  They’re rather like Bigfoot, truth to tell, constantly hiding behind rocks when civilization encroaches too near their isolated abode.  University Deans fear lawsuits as much as Bigfoot fears stoned hikers and forest fires.  Which is why so many high school and college teachers are left out to dry when legal action is a possibility; it doesn’t even have to be a real threat, just a possibility.  The result?  The students learn nothing, and the First Amendment is driven one step further toward extinction (yes, kind of like Bigfoot).
If not for Political Correctness and the nightmare that has grown into state-funded, compulsory education, universities wouldn’t need to foot the bill for so many of these basic composition courses that fruitlessly attempt to make up for twelve years worth of apathy and neglect in a single semester.  At the college level, English teachers are just playing catch-up.  The best they can do is sew up the bodies and send them back into the battlefield to get shot up some more.  This metaphor, of wartime Emergency Rooms and patchwork surgery, is more appropriate than you might imagine, for many instructors perceive their work with remedial students from a rigid, medico-militaristic perspective:  as babysitting doomed patients trapped on a terminal ward. Listen to these words from Mike Rose’s article entitled “The Language of Exclusion“:
Such talk reveals an atomistic, mechanistic-medical model of language that few contemporary students of the use of language, from educators to literary theorists, would support.  Furthermore, the notion of remediation, carrying with it as it does the etymological wisps and traces of disease, serves to exclude from the academic community those who are so labeled.  They sit in scholastic quarantine until their disease can be diagnosed and remedied.
The long-term solution to this problem is to fire everybody in the first and second grades and replace them with teachers who know the meaning of the words zest and gusto, who possess the innate ability to impart wonder and enthusiasm—and above all a love of the imagination—in even the dullest of their students.
But what about the present?  What about the barely literate teenagers who are filling up our high schools now, who will soon be sitting in entry level English classes in colleges all across this nation, fully expecting to be passed on to the next level even if they don’t do any work at all—a reasonable expectation given their past experience with social promotion (another insidious phenomenon inspired by the unreasonable fear of lawsuits)?  What, you may ask, do we do about these “lost kids” who have fallen between the cracks?
We do the only thing we can do.  We assault them with our enthusiasm.  We attack them with wonder.  We pelt them with a fusillade of bullets packed with enough imaginative power to knock their brains out of their skulls and leave them bleeding and dying on the Pepsi-stained tiled floors of our classrooms.  Of course, their death will be a metaphorical one.  (Any student of the Tarot knows that death is merely another word for “transformation.”)
In order to accomplish this transformation, the first thing that has to go is Political Correctness.  Next, the fear of lawsuits.  And finally the Hegelian notion of dialectics.
(Note: Some might argue that this article merely employs Hegelian dialectics in reverse.  After all, I identify a thesis (i.e., schools maintain the status quo), then work through various antitheses that lead to some level of synthesis.  This argument, however, would be inaccurate. The problem with Hegelian dialectics is its basic assumption that one can never know the whole truth.  Within a self-limiting system such as this, it’s impossible to solve any problem, no matter how large or small.  Why bother identifying the source of a problem if the paradigm itself prevents it from being dealt with once and for all?  The process of Hegelian dialectics merely synthesizes the problem into a strange new form—a mutant hybrid, so to speak.  In this article I’m not trying to create a new synthesis; instead, I’m trying to say I know the nature of the game.  The reason we haven’t solved the problems facing the world today (including the disintegrating educational system, the tensions in the Middle East, the paucity of fossil fuels, and world hunger) is because everybody is hypnotized by the notion that we can only know so much.  That kind of thinking got us into this mess in the first place.  As Albert Einstein once said, “Any problem cannot be solved at the same level at which it was created.”  I’m not advocating a synthesis of any kind; I’m advocating knocking all the pieces off the game board and starting anew. )
Human thought cannot be divided into thesis and anti-thesis.  No significant question has only three or four possible answers.  Though the universe might very well be contained within a grain of sand, it cannot be contained within a Scan-Tron bubble.  Similarly, the notion of “Good” or “Bad”—“Appropriate” or “Inappropriate”—writing should be tossed out the window along with good ol’ Hegel.  Students should be allowed to read whatever interests them.  If the student doesn’t know what interests him, the teacher has to take the time to find that out and match him with a book that might appeal to him, that might stoke the fires of his imagination.
I’ve had great success sparking a love of reading in culturally impoverished students since 2002.  Year after year students give my English classes glowing reviews, mainly (I suspect) because I’m able to impart to them my passion for the written word.  In the past I’ve accomplished this by assigning great works of literature:  poems, short stories, novels, even some graphic novels.  And yet, despite this consistent success, on April 20, 2012, the English Department at CSULB banned all literature from its composition courses.  I’ve been told, for reasons that seem purposely opaque, that I’m threatening the security of the entire English Department if I assign Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (a novel I’ve used with undeniable success in the past).  A colleague of mine has been ordered to stop teaching George Orwell’s 1984.  Perhaps most disturbing of all, I have another colleague who used to assign Ray Bradbury’s classic anti-censorship novel, Fahrenheit 451, but will now be prevented from doing so as of the Fall 2012 semester.  Many of my colleagues, in these difficult economic times, plan to acquiesce to these demands for fear of losing their jobs; meanwhile, classic works of literature are ripped out of the hands of students who desperately need to understand how joyful reading and writing can be.
It appears that the main reason the department heads are enforcing this ban on literature is (simply) that they’re frightened.  It’s been reported in several newspapers that the CSU system has announced the development of a 24th campus called “CSU Online” that will be entirely virtual.  Because of this, there are very real concerns that the CSU system will convert the English Department at CSULB to an online program, thus causing the loss of numerous teaching positions.  What’s the easiest and least imaginative way of proving to The Powers That Be that one can make substantial and sweeping changes in a university English Department?  Why, get rid of all that “unnecessary stuff” like poetry and novels and short stories.
But the fact is this:  The only asset a human teacher has over an online, virtual experience is the ability to transmit genuine passion to his or her students.  What better way to share passion than through great literature?  Alas, it’s this essential element, this passion, that’s being eliminated through de facto censorship.  Without such passion, all need for a non-virtual teaching experience vanishes.  Therefore, the changes being implemented to save the department are changes that will most likely lead to the total destruction of the department.  I needn’t tell you, of course, that this is called irony… a literary concept I myself learned about in an English class while studying literature.
In the 8-6-08 edition of The Long Beach Press-Telegram, Ray Bradbury wrote a biting op-ed piece entitled “Is Long Beach At War With Books?” in which he protested the forced closure of local bookstores and the cutting of public library funds in Long Beach.  When seen in context, it’s clear that this ban on literature at CSULB is merely part of a larger trend that’s been occurring in American cities for some time now.  The poet Diane Di Prima once wrote, “The only war that matters is the war against the imagination.”  Though I wish it weren’t so, that war appears to be in full swing in the English Department at CSULB and all across the nation, perhaps best represented by the forced adoption of what is called the “Common Core State Standards Initiative” among American public schools from sea to shining sea.
An editorial published in the 12-27-12 edition of the Los Angeles Times warns:
[T]here’s no getting around it:  The curriculum plan […] looks almost certain to diminish exposure to works of literature, from Seuss to Salinger.  That goes too far.
The ruckus is over the new common core standards—public school math and English curricula adopted by more than 45 states, including California—that are supposed to raise the level of what students are being taught.  In addition, the core standards are intended to make it easier and less expensive for states to devise better lesson plans, develop more meaningful standardized tests and compare notes on how much students are learning.
Scheduled to take effect in the 2014-15 school year, the standards emphasize, as they should, plenty of diverse reading material.  But they have become controversial over the requirement that the reading assigned to younger students should be half fiction and half nonfiction, and that by high school the ratio should be 30% fiction and 70% nonfiction.  This has led to allegations that T.S. Eliot will make way for Environmental Protection Agency reports and that “Great Expectations” will be dumped in favor of, well, lower expectations.  (“What Students Read”)
Now listen to these wise words by educator Susan Ohanian, extracted from her 6-19-12 article entitled “Business Week Revealed Why Common Core Disdains Fiction in 2000”:
[e.e. cummings] is the kind of writing primary graders savor.  I speak from first-hand, on-the-spot observation here.  Of course, teacher experience, knowledge, and intuition count for nothing.  NCTE [National Council of Teachers of English], my professional organization for decades, is deaf to my expertise […].
An oft-repeated assertion of self-proclaimed Common Core architect David Coleman is that nonfiction is where students get information about the world and that’s why schools must stop teaching so much fiction.  In this assertion, Coleman is echoing the corporate world which he is hired to serve […].
Downgrading the importance of fiction in our schools, saying that children gain information about the world only through nonfiction, is the Common Core’s role in “educating students” to fill […] in-demand jobs […].
In Empire of Illusion:  The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle Chris Hedges points out that universities have already accepted their corporate role, and “As universities become glorified vocational schools for corporations they adopt values and operating techniques of the corporations they serve” […].
Local newspapers are filled with stories of teachers “getting ready for the Common Core.”  What they mean is teachers are using the summer break to prepare for visitation from bloated, opportunistic blood-sucking Common Core vampire squad inspectors… making sure there’s no fiction glut depriving youngsters of their job skill opportunities […].
[…] NCTE, IRA [International Reading Association], and NCTM [National Council of Teachers of Mathematics] are too busy churning out […] books and teacher training videos on how to use the Common Core.  Yes, the complicity of our professional organizations plus the complicity of the unions has made Common Core a done deal.  But if you believe in heaven and hell, you know where the Standardistos who rob children of imagination and dreams will end up.
When a population becomes bullied or intimidated out of exercising rights offered on paper, those rights effectively cease to exist.  This includes teachers.  There are no excuses left.  Either you join the revolt against corporate power or you lose your profession.
Part II:  The War Against the Imagination
And after your profession, your imagination?  Your independence?  Your life?
According to the ancient teachings of Zen Buddhism, love and fear are the two primary emotions that motivate the daily actions of human beings.  My personal teaching style is motivated by an intense love of the imagination and the freedom of both speech and thought.  The emotion that motivates the “Standardistos” is fear and fear alone:  the fear of taking a stand, the fear of losing their precarious positions in a crumbling system, the fear of teachers losing control of their students’ souls, the fear of students becoming independent and self-sufficient at long last.
I myself first learned independent thought from Lewis Carroll and Alice, from Kenneth Graham and Mr. Toad, from L. Frank Baum and Dorothy Gale, from Edgar Rice Burroughs and John Carter, from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, from Edgar Allan Poe and C. Auguste Dupin.  So many children first learn to interact with the world around them—in a questioning way—at the inception of an imagination in their developing brains, an imagination most often introduced to them through the endless worlds of fiction and poetry and song.
I recently heard a radio interview with the actor/musician Ice T (whose best album, appropriately enough, is called Freedom of Speech—Just Watch What You Say) in which he talked about his love of reading fiction as a boy.  Though he grew up in a poverty-stricken environment in which reading was not encouraged (not by his school teachers, not by his parents, and certainly not by his friends), he somehow managed to stumble across a series of urban novels by a black writer named Iceberg Slim.  The first novel he discovered was called Pimp.  Slim is a well-known writer in some circles.  His novels are violent, racist, and unapologetically realistic.  He writes about what he knows and he does it well.  This gritty mimeticism struck a chord in the young Ice T.  He proceeded to read all of Slim’s novel at a fast clip, and went on from there to discover an even broader world of literature.  But he wouldn’t have been able to do so if he hadn’t been inspired by the in-your-face realistic novels of Iceberg Slim.
Are Iceberg Slim’s novels “literature”?  Are they “appropriate” reading material for high school kids?  Who cares?  Many of these same high school kids are shooting each other with automatic rifles.  Is that appropriate?  Why aren’t Iceberg Slim’s novels made available to high school students?  Why not allow them to read literature they can identify with instead of the mawkish sentimentalism of staid essays extracted from the Reader’s Digest?  If the purpose of school was really to teach, this (or something like it) would already have happened.  The fact that it hasn’t happened can mean only one thing:   The purpose of school is not to teach; the purpose of school is to maintain the status quo.
Listen to the words of Antony Sutton, a former economics professor at California State University, Los Angeles:
A tragic failure of American education in this century has been a failure to teach children how to read and write and how to express themselves in a literary form.  For the educational system this may not be too distressing.  As we shall see later, their prime purpose is not to teach subject matter but to condition children to live as socially integrated citizen units in an organic society—a real life enactment of the Hegelian absolute State.  In this State the individual finds freedom only in obedience to the State, consequently the function of education is to prepare the individual citizen unit for smooth entry into the organic whole.
However, it is puzzling that the educational system allowed reading to deteriorate so markedly.  It could be that [they want] the citizen components of the organic State to be little more than automated order takers; after all a citizen who cannot read and write is not going to challenge The Order […].  This author spent five years teaching at a State University in the early 1960s and was appalled by the general inability to write coherent English, yet gratified that some students had not only evaded the system, acquired vocabulary and writing skills, but these exceptions had the most skepticism about The Establishment.
This is no coincidence.  Any child or adult whose consciousness has been forged by media imagery, who has no experience with literacy whatsoever, will inevitably begin to mimic the cliches of popular entertainment.  Their vision of the world and the people in it will be filtered through the Seurat-like pointillist dots of a television screen.  Their goals will be based on a corporate-owned nightmare manufactured in a Hollywood studio or an office on Madison Avenue or a think tank in Washington, D.C.
In light of the increasing amount of darkly surreal political scandals emerging from the White House these days (i.e., “Benghazi-gate,” “AP-gate,” “IRS-gate”), one can’t help but wonder if the real reason Those In Power wish to eradicate fiction from American education is to make the next generation of voters unfamiliar with the very concept of fiction itself, thus rendering the citizenry incapable of recognizing pure fiction when it appears on the nightly news or—more specifically—when it comes pouring out of the mouth of a duplicitous President on a regular basis.  Distinguishing between lies and truth requires the skill to think independently, a skill best reinforced by the imagination itself, the ability to consider possibilities.
One day many years ago, back when I was in middle school, my Civics teacher became ill all of a sudden.  A substitute teacher came to take his place.  I think he was in his early to mid-twenties.  He was a handsome blond gentleman, fairly athletic looking.  He didn’t seem like your normal kind of teacher at all.  He ignored the instructions our regular teacher had left for him and instead launched into a monologue that went something like this:  “Everything you know is a lie.  Everything you’ve been taught is a lie.  History?  It’s just a pack of fairy tales.  Hey, you, kid!”  He pointed at a popular boy sitting in the front row.  “Who’s George Washington?”
The boy laughed nervously, sensing a trick question in the air.  “Uh… well, uh, the first President of America?”
“Wrong.  The first President of the United States was a man named John Hanson.  So what’s George Washington most famous for?  What’d he do?”
“Uh… he… well, he chopped down a cherry tree, right?”
“Yeah?  And then what he’d do?”
The kid couldn’t answer, so somebody else jumped in:  “He told his mom about it, ‘cause he couldn’t tell a lie!”
The substitute replied, “Bullshit, man!  Just more bullshit, never happened!  None of this ever fucking happened!”
An uncomfortable silence fell upon the room.  The most disruptive class clowns weren’t even making funny noises with their armpits.  Nobody knew what to do.  Abruptly, everybody had been teleported to an alternate dimension where everything seemed a lot more uncertain—and a lot more serious—than ever before.
He suggested to us that if we wanted to understand “true” history, we should read a novel entitled Illuminatus!, a three-volume work of psychedelic fabulism by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.  Needless to say, we never saw that particular teacher again.  I shouldn’t have been surprised.
Nor should I have been surprised when I discovered, ten years later, while doing research among the stacks of the CSU Long Beach library, that John Hanson was “elected President of the United States in Congress Assembled on November 5, 1781, the first of seven such one-year termed presidents,” whereas George Washington wasn’t elected President until 1789.  My source for that little-known factoid is an obscure 1978 book entitled The Illuminoids.  Is it possible that that weird substitute had read the same book?  Maybe he’d even read the same exact copy!  I wish I could ask him.  I often wonder if he’s still in the teaching biz.  Somehow I doubt it.
By the way, I’ve since read almost every single book (fiction and nonfiction) written by Robert Anton Wilson.
The reason students resist us is because they know, at some subconscious level, that they’re not getting the whole story.  They know they’re being lied to.  When they begin to hear even a small dollop of the truth or at least some facsimile thereof—as I did that day in middle school twenty-seven years ago—they’ll sit up and take notice.  And they’ll never forget the experience.  They’ll hunger for more.
Why not combine creativity with honesty in our writing assignments?  Why not begin to teach critical thinking skills?  This needn’t be done in a boring, perfunctory manner.  It can be fun.  Indeed, how can it not be fun?  I suggest photocopying choice articles from the most recent Fortean Times (purveyor of such classic headlines as “POPOBAWA!:  In Search of Zanzibar’s Bat-winged Terror” or, a personal favorite, “HELL HOUND OF THE TRENCHES:  THE DEVIL DOG WITH A MADMAN’S BRAIN!”) and distributing them to the class with the following directions:  “Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I want you to take this home, glance through it, read the articles that interest you, then pick a particular article and write a four-page essay explaining why you think it’s either true or not true.  Now let me warn you, this isn’t a straw man argument.  Just because it’s in Fortean Times doesn’t mean it’s not true.  That’s the beauty of it all.  There’s a clever mixture of truth and untruth in here.  It’s your job to separate the wheat from the chaff.  Think you can do it?”
I guarantee you every single one of those students would find that assignment a hell of a lot more intriguing than writing about the use of the semi-colon in Das Kapital.  Not only will I be strengthening my students’ skills in philosophy, logic, and composition, but I’ll also be doing my basic civic duty; after all, the skills they’ll be honing from this assignment will be the same ones they’ll need to exercise during the next Presidential election.  And no doubt the one after that.
One of the most informative and entertaining writing assignments I ever worked on in college was given to me not in an English class, oddly enough, but in a logic class.  We were asked to learn all the various categories of fallacies, then—over the course of a month—comb through books, magazines, newspapers, and TV shows to find examples of each.  I found ad hominem arguments in The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, examples of reductio ad absurdum in Awake (the newspaper published by the Jehovah’s Witness), and a panoply of red herrings in no less a scholarly source than Alice in Wonderland.  I’ve never forgotten that assignment, and the knowledge I drew from it has come in quite handy in my everyday life.  Composition students could benefit from writing projects such as this, assignments that blur the distinctions between curricula.  I’m convinced such distinctions will become less and less tenable in the holistic world we now find ourselves entering.
Just as the CIA never pulls off a covert operation unless it has a good chance of scratching a number of itches at once, I would never think of assigning an essay topic that wasn’t holistic to some degree.  As our post-quantum milieu grows more and more complex, people will be forced to adopt a holistic perspective toward life out of pure necessity, just to get through the day.  It’s no longer sufficient to become an expert in a single task, chained to an assembly line going nowhere.  As technology grows more and more baroque and bizarre, as boundaries dissolve and paradigms shift, as old religions fade and new ones rise to take their place, people must learn to become what Marshall McLuhan called “Menippeans”:  media ecologists who can slip in and out of various artificial environments at will, as if said environments were nothing more than cheap clothing.
The confusing advent of virtual reality and nanotechnology machines will demand that people either learn to exercise skills of perception and logic and discernment or be left out in the cold.   If you can change your bedroom into an African veldt and your gender twice before lunch, you damn well better embrace a holistic approach to life.  The first years of the twenty-first century will be nothing like what’s gone before, and by the time we reach 2050 we will have arrived in a world wholly unrecognizable from the last decade of the 20th century.  As with most change, people will resist it kicking and screaming.  There will be political coups, religious autos-da-fe, and violence galore.  Nonetheless, the old paradigm will inevitably wilt away.  It always does.  If we as English teachers can use our influence to help soften the transition by subtly encouraging a multidisciplinary approach toward life via the essays (or “thought experiments”) we assign, then so be it.  If we’re going to have their porous little brains in the palms of our hands anyway, why waste the opportunity?
In his 1985 article “Inventing the University,” David Bartholomae presents a rather unelastic and rigid view of teaching language, rhetoric, and art.   He writes, “Teaching students to revise for readers, then, will better prepare them to write initially with a reader in mind.  The success of this pedagogy depends on the degree to which a writer can imagine and conform [emphasis mine] to a reader’s goals”.  Bartholomae has everything ass-backwards.  In order to make the system succeed, the writer needn’t conform to the audience; the audience must conform to the writer.  Similarly, in the educational system, the student needn’t conform to the teacher; the teacher needs to conform to the student.  Why teach if you’re not willing to adapt yourself to the needs of the student?
Allow me to make myself clear:  Finding out what the student needs doesn’t necessarily mean giving the student what he wants.  Indeed, the answer will often be quite the opposite.  When Marshall McLuhan began teaching composition at the University of Wisconsin, he soon realized that his students couldn’t care less about writers long dead.  He began assigning them such odd tasks as writing about commercials, TV shows, popular rock bands, and movie stars, but had them do so in the same serious, scholarly manner that would be expected of them if they were writing about Percy Shelley.  By the end of the semester, they were so sick of pop culture they went back to writing about Shakespeare and/or Francis Bacon with glee.  This is an example of reverse psychology par excellence (and another good example of what happens when a teacher embraces resistance rather than attempting to stamp it out).
McLuhan recognized that his students needed to be shocked out of their media-controlled mindset, so he adapted his skills to their situation.  But he had to be totally free, emphasizing a holistic approach, in order to even begin accomplishing the difficult goal of bridging the vast divide between teacher and student.  One way this can be done is by embracing their resistance through the language of Art.
In a 1981 book entitled The Making of Meaning, Ann E. Berthoff published a fascinating article entitled “The Intelligent Eye and the Thinking Hand.”  Berthoff’s views on Art and Language are far more compelling than Bartholomae’s.  Berthoff is a champion of the imagination over the mechanistic.  She writes, “I believe that for teachers of composition, such a philosophy of mind is best thought of as a theory of imagination.  If we reclaim imagination as the forming power of mind, we will have the theoretical wherewithal for teaching composition as a mode of thinking and a way of learning”.
In his 1980 essay “Concepts of Art and the Teaching of Writing,” Richard E. Young advocates a more systematic approach.  At one point in the essay he quotes John Genung as saying, “It is as mechanism that [rhetoric] must be taught; the rest must be left to the student himself”.  But if we approach the teaching of grammar or rhetoric or art or literature as a mere mechanistic process, if we don’t emphasize creativity and inspiration and imagination and the sheer aesthetic WOW that comes from reading an excellent piece of literature or seeing a brilliant film or experiencing a well-acted play, then what is teaching for?  Do we really instill the love of reading in students by analyzing nonfiction articles about possible racism in Internal Revenue Service hiring statistics, or do we demonstrate the sheer LOVE of great art by allowing them to take part in the process themselves, by letting them know that artists aren’t exotic silver-haired creatures living atop mist-enshrouded mountains in some far away land, writing on ancient parchments with fingers made of glass?  Artists started out (and still are, in most cases) the same exact grubby people as the students.  There’s no difference, except that one has learned to translate experience into an aesthetic product for the enjoyment of everyone.  Anyone can do the same, even the dullest of us, if the love of reading is instilled at the earliest age possible.
Marshall McLuhan once said, “I don’t explain, I explore”.  If they want to connect with their students, teachers must encourage exploration over explanation.  Robert Smithson, the brilliant sculptor who created the breathtaking “Spiral Getty” in Utah, once wrote, “Establish enigmas, not explanations.”  If teachers can somehow learn how to instill a love of enigmas over explanations in their students—even if they succeed with only one student in a class of twenty or forty—then progress will have been made.  The language of Art is one of discovery.  The teacher is merely the guide, taking the student by the hand—without the student ever noticing, ideally, since he or she should be too busy enjoying the ride—through a maze that isn’t so intimidating at all once the student begins to love the journey more than the destination.
The Reluctant Hero is a common trope in literature and mythology.  Joseph Campbell writes extensively about this pattern in his numerous books on the power of myth.  Whether in a fairy tale, a religious parable, an epic poem, a literary masterpiece, a blockbuster summer movie, or a mere comic book, the Hero very rarely embraces the call to adventure.  He resists it to the bitter end.  Only a pre-programmed machine could be expected to do as it’s instructed—to do “what’s best for it” without questioning the wisdom of the programmer.  Any reaction other than resistance would be somewhat less than human.  What well-read teacher, versed in the strange idiosyncrasies of human behavior and history, could be surprised by such resistance?
As former high school teacher John Taylor Gatto wrote in his September 2003 Harper’s Magazine article entitled “Against School”:
First […] we must wake up to what our schools really are:  laboratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands.  Mandatory education serves children only incidentally; its real purpose is to turn them into servants.  Don’t let your own have their childhoods extended, not even for a day.  If David Farragut could take command of a captured British warship as a preteen, if Thomas Edison could publish a broadsheet at the age of twelve, if Ben Franklin could apprentice himself to a printer at the same age (then put himself through a course of study that would choke a Yale senior today), there’s no telling what your own kids could do.  After a long life, and thirty years in the public school trenches, I’ve concluded that genius is as common as dirt.  We suppress our genius only because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women.  The solution, I think, is simple and glorious.  Let them manage themselves.
Alas, I suspect many years will pass before the American educational system endorses such a simple and glorious solution.  As Buckminster Fuller once said, “Human beings will always do the intelligent thing, after they’ve exhausted all the stupid alternatives.”  I believe an intelligent course correction is inevitable; however, in the meantime teachers needn’t sit around waiting for an official endorsement from the State.  All they have to do is exploit the most valuable asset in their classroom, one that requires no funding from the government.
All they have to do is exercise the imaginations of their students, as well as their own, by offering a panoply of choices and then getting the hell out of the way.

Click HERE to go to Source article