I settled down last night, two nights prior to TweetCamp, to settle into some blogging, and post some updates, and just generally keep people abreast of the happenings, and of what’s going to happen at TweetCamp this Saturday, and as I briefly glanced at my Twitter, I caught the series of tweets, in rapid succession, from many of the people that I was following, talking about the tragic passing of Farah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson.

After reading some of the tweets, I eventually ventured across to CNN and BBC, to see what was being reported in the live media, and eventually I settled on watching BBC News, seeing as CNN was just showing a mute video showing people live, outside the hospital where he passed away.

I don’t know quite what to write right now, but at the same time, really feel like I need to put something in words.  All evening, I’d been feeling a little odd, and something felt a bit funny, and out of place..  only seeing this news made me acutely aware of just what could have been causing so much commotion, and disturbance in my psyche, and the psyche of others in the world, who might have picked up on something not quite right.

Michael Jackson is a man who will be remembered for many years to come.  As he says farewell to us in this world, he shall be sorely missed.  Not necessarily for the man that he was, but more for the inspiration he was for so many.  His album Thriller grossed something like 51 million sales, the biggest ever selling album in the world, a record that has yet to be broken.

He was the first ever ‘black’ artist to feature on MTV, and become popular with mainstream pop, being appreciated for his work, and talent, more than the colour of his skin.  Whilst he spent his own life entertaining and amusing others, he himself led a life of sadness, and solitude, feeling lonely, all alone at the top.  Some say he was the last of a dying breed of true ‘Pop’ Stars, accomplishing such an inspiring level of success, and reward, but paying for it, with the price of his childhood, and spending the rest of his life trying to recapture his youth.

Listening to the BBC paying tribute to Michael Jackson for a few hours, when hearing from people that were close to him, or that could see him in his personal life, or just on his own, away from the media, he was most definitely a lonely man, who in spite of his successes, didn’t seem to have any ‘happiness’ in his life.

Uri Geller, a close personal friend of his, shared with the BBC, live last night, over the phone, how whilst he was helping Michael Jackson, and had him under hypnosis, he had asked Michael if he had ever touched any children inappropriately, and the answer he gave was a resounding no.  When asked why he had given the money, and settled, it was because he just couldn’t take the stress and pressure of it anymore.  Whilst it may have been unethical of Uri Geller to ask Michael these questions, whilst he was under hypnosis for something else, it just goes to show that ultimately, Michael Jackson was a decent and honourable man.  In spite of his quirks and eccentricities, he also endured a lot of pressure and stress, always being in the limelight, and being torn to shreds by the media.

It really feels like the end of an era, when you think of just how the 80’s was defined so heavily by Michael Jackson, and his music.  The fact that the video for Thriller, was the first of it’s kind – a pop video, something rarely seen before that.  And the success of that album, which really helped cement his future as an altogether different league of Musician, and Artist, he will be sorely missed and fondly remembered for his music, regardless of what people thought of him as a person.  Testimony to his appeal as a performer was the way in which tickets for his live performances at the O2 got snapped up.  In no time at all they were all sold out, a phenomenal accomplishment, given the number of days he would be on tour for, and how large the venue is.  Unfortunately, for all those fans, they shall never get to see him perform live.

Michael Jackson leaves, behind him his Ex Wife, Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of the great Elvis Presley himself, his second ex-wife Deborah Jeanne Rowe, a woman who was his nurse, as well as mother to two of his children, a boy and a girl, and a third child, who according to Wikipedia was born after artificial insemination of Jackson’s sperm with an undisclosed surrogate mother.

The man Michael Jackson shall be remembered for a long time to come, and his passing is truly going to be a loss for this world.  Not just for his originality and creativity, but also for his talent, and musical genius, his flair on the dance floor, and his unique contribution to bringing african americans into mainstream, breaking down for the first time the racial biases that may have existed before his time.

It feels like humanity has shifted in one night, and that the world will never be the same again.  With the current way in which music is increasingly more digital, and virtual, and more individiuals are able to create music, and be appreciated, the time of the ‘mega’ popstars appears to have finally drawn to a close.  Just as Elvis was the “King of Rock”, so Michael will be remembered as the “King of Pop”.  A man who’s musical genius, skill, talent, and undying passion for his art truly defined him as one of the greatest musicians that has ever lived.

Goodbye Michael, may you finally rest in peace.

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I’ve recently been invited to a few “no-twitter through your status update” groups on Facebook by a dear friend, who’s been getting increasingly frustrated by my use of the twitter app integrating on Facebook.

The complaint is that my updates on Facebook are drowning out the updates from his other friends on Facebook.

Given that I have very different circles of friends, and acquaintances, as well as tweeple(twitter friends) I know online, and that I engage with random conversations with any one of potentially 1k+  different people, it’s entirely possible to anyone listening in on my twitter stream to find it all a bit overwhelming, compared to the the average status updates of a user on Facebook.

I guess if I were using just Facebook, and were being so pro-active, and engaging with people through Facebook, I would just as quickly fill up other people’s status updates with my activity.  The problem, whilst seemingly connected to my twitter profile and facebook status updates being linked and connected, goes significantly deeper.  It is what lies at the source of my quest for the “ultimate tool”.  For a way of broadcasting information and talking with others that I know, in an ever increasing “intimate” and “direct” manner, through all the electronic mediums that are popping up all over the place, providing increasingly more valuable content to engage and interact with.  Of course, it’s only a matter of time, before my attention gets completely saturated by it all, and then I have to start making a choice to wean myself off of all the potentially wonderful sources of electronic goodness, or die being sucked in by it all.

The problem is that right now I have to pay attention to the medium through which I communicate, as well as to whom I’m communicating to.  It’s a double effort..  When really, what I want to do is focus on the people I want to talk with, and get the message across to just those who are interested.  I don’t want to have to figure out who’s on which tool, and who I have to include or avoid where, for each topic of conversation.

For me, the solution lies within understanding the Social Graph, that lies at the heart of our virtual and physical lives.  Finding tools to piece together the fragmented pieces of our lives, as we start to create a semblance of wholeness and completeness, through being able to express ourselves freely, find like minded souls, and share adventures, and ideas, with friends the world over.

The internet is not simply for “connecting” people, it’s creating an infrastructure of sorts.. A communication gateway, that will eventually allow, or give access to anyone who wants to speak with anyone.  For now, cost, access to people’s details, and the choice to remain public or private play a large part in how available people are to each other.  But slowly, as more and more people start using tools and technologies like Twitter, and Facebook, and LinkedIn, and other tools that “connect” people together, and show each other in different lights, the more increasingly challenging it’s going to get to stay disconnected from everyone else.

Even in the most remote regions of the world, cell phone penetration means that you can reach pretty much anyone, anywhere, as long as you know that access code, and phone number, and have the means to fund the connection..

Soon that will change..  Soon everyone will be able to connect to anyone.. Unless they choose to not communicate with certain people.

For now, the gatekeepers are clearly helped, with the failings of integration of these communication mediums, and our fragmented social graphs, but as we start to put the pieces together, we’ll start to get ever more access to the people we meet, or the folks that they meet…

It’s entirely possible, that we, as a generation have become the most enabled citizens of the world, with voices, and messages that can be amplified to any part of the world.

“We will leave a digital legacy behind us that will be larger than any previous generation” according to Benjamin Ellis

[source http://redcatco.com/blog/communication/we-are-amplified/ as at 28 Nov 2008]

I have a feeling he could be right.  It may not happen straight away, it might take us some time for us to learn to sing like a choir, in harmony with one another, but give it enough time, and once we figure out how to sing in tune with each other, we most definitely will be able to amplify each others voices..

For me, the biggest challenge facing us, is the disparate nature of technology and the web as it stands.  I believe the solution is going to emerge when we stop putting technology first, and start looking at, and then solving the human needs that exist.  Only then, can we truly be able to pull together the “solutions” that will make a difference.  For I still remember, in the late 80’s and early 90’s how as part of our studies, we had to cite examples of how people were “afraid” that computers and technology would take away their jobs, and make them redundant, and unnecessary.

That may be the case in more mechanical processes, but unfortunately, most people, especially those working with information, and services, will probably agree that now we’re spending more time with these tools than ever before.  Instead of being liberated, and having more spare time for ourselves, we end up wanting to consume ever more, and ever more, until perhaps it’s consumed us, or we have nothing left..

The only way to change that is to start with our daily habits, and look at ways of getting more focussed, more disciplined, and starting to cut out the things that are irrelevant and invaluable.. How? I don’t know.  But I know that it’s something that will require us as a society to start relying upon each other and supporting each other in new and different ways.  Because fundamentally, I believe there to be real power in synergy, and real untapped potential in the space that exists when two or more people come together.

Perhaps that’s why it’s generally taken teams of two’s and three’s to create the great powerhouses of technology that exist in our world today.  I look forward to seeing, these systems, software, and machines of old start to crumble, and be recycled into a world that finds ever more efficient, synergistic and meaningful ways of getting things done, with a clear desire to bring the basic essentials of life to everyone, and then be able to choose one’s life path, not be thrust into it through necessity of our most basic human needs, of food, clothing, shelter, family, and community.

Now it feels like we have to pick up the fragmented pieces of our 20th century society, and start to figure out how, together, we can map out a new, uncharted social graph, that ultimately will connect all the dots, and create a new picture for all that choose to be in it.

amplified08 amp08 facebook twitter social graph

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Today (Monday 17th November 2008) marked the inauguration of Chain Reaction 08, a two day conference in London which “will bring together social leaders, community activists, policy makers, business leaders, young people and people like you from around the globe to share learning and to generate new ideas for social change, locally, nationally and globally.”

Today also marches the launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week “the first worldwide celebration of enterprise, which aims to unleash young people’s enterprising ideas and address some of society’s biggest issues, from poverty reduction through to climate change.”

As the day ends in London, and all the delegates wind down, and finish up for the day, later, half way across the other side of the world, in San Francisco, there is another conversation about to begin, at The Global Summit where the question will be asked – “What will it take to build a sustainable future?”.  The Global Summit(TM) a world-wide partnership for a sustainable future, is laying the foundation for annual Summits across the globe. The Global Summit(TM) begins with a two-day symposium and culturally rich welcome reception. Outcomes include guiding principals for a sustainable world across six key social and economic sectors, a blue print for the world’s first global citizen voter platform and an online collaboration system that maximizes our collective impact. Learn more about this event by either reading this press release, or by visiting the website of the Empowerment works – the organisation responsible for putting on the event.

It seems like this week could truly mark the beginning of a significant changing tide in the world we live in today.. I’ll be personally attending Chain Reaction 08, where I’ll be socially reporting on the event, via twitter, and blogging, as best I can.  At the same time two dear friends, fellow facilitators of the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium, and former colleagues from The Pachamama Alliance where I volunteered for 9 months will be attending The Global Summit in San Francisco.  We’re planning to organise a conference call, after both events, to find out about each others experiences of what was shared, and to find out threads between the two events, that we might be able to start weaving together, between the two gatherings, half a world away from each other..

I don’t know about how much virtual engagement will occur at The Global Summit, but we’ll have plenty of resources to engage people online, coming out of the conference, so please do connect into the conversations in whatever way you feel would work best!!

Whilst clarifiying a few details for The Global Summit, I’ve discovered a few more relevant happenings this week..

This week the following related events are also happening, or did already happen:

Governor’s Global Climate Summit, Nov 18th and 19th, 2008, in Beverly Hills, California,
convened by Governor Schwarzenegger

The G-20 Global Economic Summit, on Nov 15th and 16th, 2008, in DC, organised by President Bush.
You can also read the Full G-20 Declaration.

The first pan-European Town Meeting on Climate Change, 15th Nov, 2008, simultaneously in Florence, (Italy), Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona, Spain) and Poitiers (France), in the context of the IDEAL-EU project, one of the ongoing Preparatory Actions on eParticipation funded by the European Commission.

So it’ll be interesting to see with all this flurry of activity, what long term sustainable social change could come out of these programs? and what actually ends up coming out of all these meetings…

If you’d like to engage with Chain Reaction 08 – we’re deliberately including an online social element to the community interactions, and so would like to extend the invitation to everyone to join in, participate, and collaborate.

You can start by tagging everything you generate with the official tag of chainreaction08 – so everytime you blog, tweet, post a photo on flickr, or just generally include anything that you would like to include in the conversation, be sure to include that tag (except if you’re replying to something that’s been said in twitter, in which case the fact you’re replying will mean that the earlier part of the conversation, as well as your response will appear in the results :)  This applies to all people who are at the event, and watching from their homes too :)

On twitter, to search for a keyword, you can use http://search.twitter.com and put in the keyword terms for Chain Reaction 08.

A comprehensive query, that includes all related variations can be found by visiting http://tinyurl.com/5pu375 – this will provide you with a complete list of all posts on twitter relating to the London Chain Reaction 08 event. (The RSS Feed for this query can be found here).

For photos, everyone’s been asked to post them on flickr, and to use the keyword tag of chainreaction08 to make sure that they are visible to everyone who is looking for images from the event.  If you’d like to see the latest photos that have been uploaded, just visit here.  If you happen to attend the Chain Reaction 08 event, and have pictures that you’d like to share with the other participants, then I’d like to invite you to create your very own free flickr account, and post the photos you’ve taken during the course of the two days onto flickr, making sure that you tag all your photos with “chainreaction08” (without the quotes, of course!)

You can also find relevant blog posts, that will help weave a connection between the participants of Chain Reaction 08.  Again, if you want to have your blog appear to other people, make sure that when you post your blog, you include the tag chainreaction08, so that other people can find it, when they are looking for related content..

Fortunately, Google has integrated it’s video search into a single interface, that comes from multiple sources, so you can also find all videos from the event, that are shared on youtube and google video using the chainreaction08 tag.

There is also content being video’d and streamed directly online, throughout the event courtesy of David Wilcox, and Qik…

Then, most importantly, we also have an active online community at http://chain-reaction.crowdvine.com/ so if you don’t happen to have been able to join the event, live, or want to join in from a distance, the online community will undoubtedly be a rich resource, that connects people together long after chain reaction 08 is over, and perhaps by chain reaction 09, there’ll be an international dimension occurring simultaneously at the same time.

If I happen to have missed any resources, please add them into the comments section below, and I’ll be sure to update this page, to properly reflect all the resources, and references relating to ChainReaction08, so that everyone can benefit from knowing where to find everything related and relevant to a matter dear to our hearts.

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I’m an avid reader of Steve Pavlina’s Blog, and an entry I was reading today, got me thinking.. I just had to post a response.

Steve Pavlina, for those of you who’ve never heard of him, is a Personal Development Innovater, who through his blog, and website is sharing his experiences with the world, with regards to his own personal growth and development.  He often experiments publicly, and shares the results in a very live, and timely manner.  At times, it’s almost as if you’re going through the trials with him, and living through the daily experiences that he shares.  His thoughts and insights are certainly truly eye opening, and I’m reminded whenever I read his blog, of just some of the wonderful qualities, that I pray one day I might posess.

He recently shared an interesting take on health.  Admittedly, it’s not the first time that I’ve heard the analogy.  In fact, my own personal inspiration towards living a healthy and active lifestyle is Jason “The Juicemaster” Vale, author of Slim 4 Life, and a man to who I owe a deep debt of gratitude, for introducing me to the juicing way of life.. Cheers Jason!

So as I was reading this blog entry, that talks about the cells detoxing, and about how diet can affect our thinking and our ability to experience peak mental and emotional states, and I wonder how consciously do I choose the food that I eat?? Do I sometimes choose to deliberately supress elevated states of heightened awareness, and deeper emotions??  I know at times I’m drawn to eating meat, partly because it makes me feel heavier, and denser, and less aware, and less conscious.  It has a numbing effect, perhaps a bit like alcohol might, for people who drink alcohol to drown their sorrows.

At other times, I’ll be drawn to carbohydrates, like breads, and rice, to give me a “heavy” filled feeling inside.  It’s almost as if it’s not enough to eat and be fed, I need to feel “full”.  But that “fullness” is sometimes something that isn’t necessarily a very empowering state.  I know that at times I’ll experience a craving, ravenous hunger, which will make me just want to continue eating, and then eventually, once I’m satisfied, I’ll have to just stop for a while and let my body digest.  Jason, talks about it as your body going comatose, whilst it deals with this influx of food, which if the body doesn’t shut down every other system, and deal with, you would end up dying.. An example being the typical Christmas post-lunch snooze, which is more a coma induced recovery period, where the body is frantically trying to process all this freshly eaten food, before it shuts the body down completely.

It might seem an intense, or extreme view to take, but having self-induced these over indulgent meals, where the body just doesn’t seem to be able to cope with the sheer quantity of food that I’m consuming, it naturally puts me in a spot, where I end up just slowing down, resting for a while, to let my body digest, and get back into being alive again a short while later.

Paradoxically, I’ve found that I can always get a comfortable “full” feeling, and not feel like I’m about to shut down completely, whenever I make sure I have lots of wholesome, fresh, raw fruits or veggies as a part of my meal (either as juice, or typically as salads).  Whenever I eat like this, then I end a meal feeling filled, but not on the verge of having to shut down, and I continue with my life.  Interestingly, my emotional and mental states seem to almost feed on these cravings, and the mood swings seem to play a key part in the emotional attachment to eating.

What I have found particularly interesting, is that when I’m working on something meaningless, and empty, the feeling inside is the same, and the desire to eat more occurs.  I used that partly to my advantage with my previous employer, where I would stock up on snacks of fruit, knowing that I would want to snack away whilst working, because of how unengaging the work was.  Equally I knew that by snacking on fruit, at least I would be positively contributing to my health, instead of allowing it to continue to deteriorate.

Conversely, whenever I complete something that’s really meaningfull, or feels like it’s a real accomplishment, I feel that same fullness inside, that I would sometimes experience with food.  The biggest difference being that when I eat something and feel full, I know I’ve been fed, on a very physical level.  When I write something, or complete some piece of work, and it’s “done”, I’m apparently still fed, since the sense of accomplishment, in writing or completing something mirrors that sense of being filled.  The difference is, that when I’m engaged with something that consumes me, all thoughts of food, and hunger become secondary, and I no longer engage with food on the same terms.  It’s almost like food becomes a distraction to my work, and I genuinely am not interested in eating anything, until I finish what I’m in the middle of doing.

Interestingly, I completed fasting for a whole month, during the Muslim month of Ramadan recently, and during Ramadan, as an observant Muslim, you don’t eat between sunrise and sunset.  What I found was that in the first few days, whilst I might notice the fasting and the hunger closer to the end of the day, by the end of the month, my body was completely adjusted to the new eating patterns, and didn’t even twinge a little, when seeing others eating food, or when the typical lunch time came around.

Now, a few months on, I’m starting to wonder.. is it because I know that I’m not going to eat, that perhaps I kept myself engaged in activities, that were sufficiently engaging, that I didn’t feel hungry??

Is hunger really a physical hunger anymore?? With the amount of processed foods we eat these days, and with a real availability of food whenever, and wherever we want it, do we really know when our bodies are truly hungry anymore??  Is part of our conditioned “hunger” response to do with some of the suggested artificial sugar highs, some of the false hungers caused by eating too much refined sugar, or white refined carbs??  What would we naturally feel hungry for, if we didn’t have chemicals, and mental conditioning to influence our natural hunger patterns?

I’m sure in time I might get to the bottom of these questions myself.  For now, I’m just going to observe Steve Pavlina’s experiment living on nothing but raw juice for 92 days, and pay more attention to the food I’m eating, and the emotional highs and low’s I’m going through.

Though it really does make me wonder.. are we as a planet, plagued by diseases like obesity, because we’re so caught up in the physical world, and have so conditioned our bodies to respond to food, as a satiating source of hunger, that we mask up and hide the true hungers of our minds need to be expressive? Of our emotions needs to be felt? and of our individual, personal need to contribute in a valuable and meaningful way??  Share your thoughts and insights in the comments below..

Now that I’ve fed my soul, time to go nourish my body, with some food ;)

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In the UK there’s a thriving group of non-profit techies, (also known as Circuit Riders) who stay connected through a mailing list, that regularly keeps everyone engaged with helping each other, and supporting each other, through those trying times when you need someone to call upon, as well as those not so trying times, when you just want to let people know what’s happening, or sound out ideas.  That’s great for the virtual contact, but I’d always felt that there was something lacking in the face to face meetings and events that could also occur, and that I’d experienced during my time as a Non Profit Volunteer Techie in San Francisco during 2006 and 2007.

Working with a model that seems to work well, of meeting on the first tuesday of each month, Amy began the first of London’s Net Tuesdays this week, and by all accounts it was a roaring success!!  You can read a nice detailed account of the event at Amy’s Blog. I don’t think it would be fair to even begin to try and give a better summary than Amy’s already done.  Clearly a seasoned blogger, with a great writing style, she’s done an excellent job of reporting the output from our Bloggers Discussion Panel, which involved Type Pad, Moveable Type, Wordpress and Community Server being represented. One of the members of the Panel, Miko who wore the slightly more technical hat for TypePad, as well as representing Community Server, has written up an excellent summary of the key blogging platforms, and a great summary of some of the differences between them.  I thoroughly recommend if you’re starting out to read her summary, and use those to help inform your decisions about which blogging platform to use.

We then ended the panel, having answered some great questions about the features and functionality of the tools, and then started to come up with a list of considerations to take into account, before getting started.  The blogging “strategies and approaches” part of the conversation was designed to verse people a little in the thinking that goes into making a successful blog, and after brainstorming from the room, we crowdsourced the following 5 key points, of :

1. Setting Goals
2. Write with Passion and Knowledge
3. Practice writing blog posts for a few months
4. Use your community to come and comment
5. Integrate your blog with everything you do

The premise behind this conversation was that in order to be successful with your blogging, there’s some key pre-requisites that are needed.  Especially if you want your blog to be engaging and participative.  With that in mind, Miko shared her own take on starting blogging, and what you should do, to prepare to succeed.

Some Of My Own Thoughts on Blogging

I’m certainly in agreement that blogging doesn’t just happen, on it’s own, in isolation from the world.  I think often people look at a blog, and think “I can do that”. They might even assume that just by installing or getting a blog set up, that they too can start to reap the engagement and conversation that occurs in the blogosphere.  Unfortunately, it really isn’t all as simple as that.

Speaking, from my own experiences, and I wrote my first blog post in 2004, I can say with all certainty, that blogging for me has been something that evolves over time. I’ve undoubtedly been learning a lot about the medium of blogging along the way too, and that journey educates and inspires me to continue to always try out new things, and then some.I first started my blog, as an experiment, using Blogger.com, and started out thinking of it as a place to capture my thoughts and interesting things that I would come across on the internet.  You can even see at Blogger.com my original blogs, as they were until I left them, and integrated them all into my current Blog, which is now a self-hosted installation of WordPress, and where you might be reading this from.

Back when I first started blogging, I decided on some key areas of interest for me in my life, and thought I would use a blog to collect interesting websites that I found and bits of information that I thought were useful.  I considered my blog to be a place to store my thoughts, and as a record of my travels through the internet. I even started a few different blogs, because I thought that other people might be interested if I started collecting enough interesting websites, relating to a specific theme, or idea, or topic, and that in time, people would start finding my blog and commenting on it, and leaving their thoughts and ideas, if I were to capture the “best of” along the way.

You must remember that this is back in those days when del.icio.us and other social bookmarking websites hadn’t yet come out, and I was itching for a way to start collecting my bookmarks online, so I wouldn’t always have to use the same computer, but would always have access to the cool links that I found along my travels.  I also wanted to be able to share with friends, and family some of the cool stuff I would find online, and thought that naturally in time, a blog would be the perfect solution.

And to an extent, it did work, for a few months, and it certainly warmed me to the idea of blogging, but it didn’t really take off, in a big way. I still didn’t quite understand, back then of what I might be able to use the blogging for, and I definitely didn’t maintain the discipline of keeping my blog updated with all the interesting and wonderful things I discovered along the way.

I think back then, part of the challenge for me was that everytime I wanted to post something I would have to log into the blogging platform, and then create the entry, and couldn’t just use a plugin, or bookmarklet script or external blogging client to write to my blog.  Now after experimenting with a number of great tools, I’ve decided that I’m in love with ScribeFire, a plugin for Firefox, and since using it I’ve also started blogging a whole lot more too.  But I digress..So after a considerably non-productive use of blogging, with little real interest in keeping it alive for the sake of keeping it alive, and with this terrible feeling that no-one in the world was interested in what I was writing about, or posting about, I laid my blogging to rest.  Not consciously, but I just didn’t feel the need, or a desire to write about stuff as much.  I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired, or excited, and I guess I was going through my own challenges in life, understanding what I wanted to do, and how I wanted to engage with the world.

Then in the summer of 2005, I ended up travelling to Peru, in South America, and all of a sudden, I had something that I wanted to share with all my friends and family back home.  After a few attempts at writing out long emails, with details of what was happening, in response to people’s emails, I realised that most of the time I was writing pretty much the same set of details in response to people, and spending quite a bit of time repeating the same stories over and over to people, on a one to one basis.  Spurred on with the knowledge and experience of using Blogger.com, quite successfully in the past, I decided I would use that wonderful medium of “blogging”, to write about my travels.  Suffice it to say, it didn’t take long before I took great pleasure in sitting in internet cafes, writing up my notes of the day.  I even became really diligent in writing in my pocket diary, a summary of the days events, so that my time in the internet cafe would be spent just writing up what I’d already thought about and reflected upon, at the end of each day.  I thought that sharing my travels, and experience in that intimate manner would be a great way to keep everyone updated on what I was upto, and how my travels were going, and it meant that I wouldn’t have to write the same email to everyone that kept asking me how things are going, and what I had been upto.

It also started to fuel my desire to write, since I knew I had a captive audience.  I’d received so much support and encouragement from people as I’d left London, that I figured most of those people would probably enjoy reading about my travels, and my adventures.  I later discovered that my cousin had also been sharing my blog out to his fellow co-workers at work, and even though I never received much email, or saw any visibility of how many people visited my blog, and hardly anyone ever commented on it, I felt like it was being read, and I kept it updated, just so if nothing else, at least my family and friends would know how I was doing, and that I was ok.

Of course, once I left Peru, and returned to London, the blogging on that trip to Peru didn’t seem like a natural thing to continue, since I was back home, and things in London just didn’t seem as noteworthy, or as interesting and different as they did out there.  My only regret with my blogging back then, was that I didn’t take a digital camera with me, and take photos… Some of my travels were just so scenic and beautiful, and some of the people I met such loving souls, that I wish I had captured them all on camera.. But instead I got the joys of having fond memories that I shall keep with me instead :)

Again, the blogging had seemed like a great idea, it had become really useful, and productive for me, when I needed it to communicate, and now that I was done with that trip, it didn’t seem like I had anything left to write, and so I just let it fizzle away.  Back then, I didn’t really have any comments on my posts, and I didn’t really understand, if I had emailed all these people that knew me, why didn’t anyone comment on anything I wrote??  And so, by not having much engagement from the audience, I ended up leaving it as a record of my travels, and nothing more.

Uncovering Your Voice

I guess all along, the biggest challenge I had, when writing for my blog, was to get clear in my mind who I was writing for, and what it was that I wanted to communicate.  I would have moments of sharp clarity, and specific things that I thought were noteworthy, and then the enthusiasm would wear off, reality would set in, and I would come to the conclusion that actually I didn’t have anything significant or noteworthy to share with the world. (At least nothing that seemed to get the whole world clamouring at my doorstep, and wanting to comment on).

I’d finally understood, that blogging is a very personal choice, and that if I chose to publicly share myself, I would always be able to do it on my terms, and didn’t have anyone to answer to but myself.  I think partly because back then I didn’t have a clear audience in mind, I used the blogging as a way of tracking my own thoughts, and adventures out into the world of the internet, but never leaving that comfort zone of writing into an empty vaccum where no-one seemed to be listening.

Now, almost four years on, a lot has changed.  My understanding of the internet, and it’s role in my life for one.  My ability to engage and connect with people for another.  And also how I’m using the internet, and what I’m seeing myself using it for are all changing too.  I think part of the online social networking phenomenon of seeing your network online, in platforms like facebook and linked in means that you slowly start to see your “community”.  Wheras in the past, the most visibility you would get is the emails you got and sent, and the IM chats.  The online social networks that have come into existence now, are slowly starting to make us all acutely aware of the fact that we now have “captive audiences”.  Be it we might use those captive audiences to chase, as werewolves, or to write on each others walls, but innately , we have people we are engaging with, and who are engaging back with us.

This is where blogging comes into play, and starts to become useful.

Whilst you can certainly send an email out to everyone you know, using bulk emailing platforms, once that email is sent, it’s gone.  There’s no permanency to that message or conversation.  It disappears into the ether, and you can only track the results, and await the response from people to know what people felt or experienced.  Whilst it makes it possible to communicate intimately, and personally, it detracts from the public presence that could be enriched by sharing the contents of those emails in public.  Especially if it’s non-sensitive information that goes towards establishing your brand, your credibility, your cause, your needs, or your experiences with others.  What people can’t see about you, people can’t know about you, and whilst email newsletters are great in principle, in practice, there needs to be something being added or updated to the blog, or the news section of your own website too, so that those people who don’t currently subscribe to the newsletter could also have the choice, based on the content.

Nowadays, I’ve come to understand a little more clearly my audiences, and my different voices when blogging.  I can’t say I understand or know them all clearly, but I do know that I have a number of different threads or streams of ideas flowing through this one blog.  I have very distinct and different communities of people that I’m communicating with through this blog.  (Albeit, those communities may only exist in my mind for now, but they are very real nonetheless).

I can see, as I re-read my own blog, and see the train of thought, and threads of conversation that I’m weaving together, that I have some very distinct and seperate groups of people that I’m talking to, or in conversation with.  And I think more importantly, I’m starting to understand how powerfully, I can start to engage in the conversation on the internet, through the blogosphere.

It never truly dawned on me, until the Net Tuesday event we had in London, but commenting on other people’s blogs has really started to make me realise and appreciate how important it is to give before you receive.  If I want people to comment on my blog posts, I have to go out there and comment on other people’s blog posts first.

If I want my blog to become successful, I have to make it more focussed, and targetted.  This is something I’ll write about properly another time, but for now, suffice it to say, that the internet is a big place, and the more targetted and focussed your writing is, the easier it will be for you to become an authority in a particular niche.  What that translates to, is that everytime someone googles something vaguely related to your topic or area of expertise, you’ll come up at the very top.  As long as you know what it is you’re passionate about, and what you genuinely know about, then chances are that you’ll eventually be able to become an established authority in that niche.  Until you get that focussed, your own thinking and writing will suffer, as well as the community engagement, and participation to your blog, your website, and your cause, or field of expertise.

Conversely, the more focussed, and targetted you are in everything that you do, the more you start to add real value for others.  You become capable of voicing the unvoiced, on clarifying assmumptions, on becoming an authoritative voice, and opinion.  You also become capable of synthesising and expanding upon the ideas and thoughts of other people, and actually further the conversation in the blogosphere.

But first, you must know who it is that you will be writing for?

Then what is it that you’re going to write that this audience is going to want to know about?

Once you can answer the above two questions, clearly, and you have people regularly asking you for, or your regularly telling people the same bits of information, then, and only then, will you be able to uncover your blogging voice, and start to contribute in a meaningful manner through your blog.  Until then, you’ll be finding your feet, through the possibilities of what you might be able to voice, and who you might be able to express your thoughts to.  That’s not a bad thing either, because until you start trying, you’ll never figure out your space, and most definitely not find the flow of your blogging voice.

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Well, there’s not long to go, and as the debates and campaigns are coming to a close, with people already pre-voting in parts of the US, and voting queues taking hours at a time, you can tell that this clearly is an election like no other.. With the webosphere, blogosphere, and twittersphere alive with people actively watching and reporting on this election, the chances of there being a “fix” like there was in Bush vs. Clinton, is getting slimmer and slimmer.. let’s hope these elections represent people’s voting properly, and accurately.  Not that I believe in the democratic process leading to much, but heck, it’s got my interest, and so I’m going to blog about it, and share some of the “emergent” results, I’ve seen from the web 2.0 world of the internet so far.. It’ll be interesting to see how these metrics weigh up once the actual results come out.

Most of the inspiration to uncover these stats below came from reading The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, a book that talks about how diverse groups, which represent some key criterion, of individual self interest and diversity, amongst other things, are capable of accurately predicting outcomes.

So with that in mind, lets see what the Web and the Internet have to say about the current US elections, and let’s see after the elections how the figures and ratios match up..

This all started when for some strange reason, I googled Obama, noticed the total number of entries listed, and thought, I wonder how many pages on the internet exist for McCain?

Well the results were interesting to say the least [just to contextualise, these facts were collected on the 1st of November, 2008, from 16:40 GMT]

Entries on Google.com (I initially used Google.co.uk, but found the US numbers to be a little higher, so possibly more accurate?):

Obama = about 202,000,000 results
McCain = about 144,000,000 results

From Google News:

Obama = 472,359 results
McCain = 425,271 results

From Google Blogs:

Obama = 13,610,226 results
McCain = 7,984,667 results

From Yahoo.com:

Obama = about 1,430,000,000
McCain = about 1,130,000,000

From Live.com:

Obama = 528,000 results
Barack = 894,000 results
McCain = 3,750,000 results
Mc Cain = 6,690,000 results

From Alexa.com, when comparing the traffic Ranking of barackobama.com and johnmccain.com (the official websites of each candidate), note that the smaller the number, the better:

barackobama.com = 753
johnmccain.com = 2,580

Then on TwitVote, a mock opinion poll for Election2008.

Obama = 4247 votes
McCain = 908 votes

(note, that since twitvote is available to the entire twitter community, this may not represent the views of the american people as accurately, this is also being updated in real time, by people in twitter, so the figures will have no doubt have changed dramatically by the time this is published).

Also, on 7-election.com, where voters can vote, based on their choice of cup, when ordering coffee, in 7-eleven’s across the US, we can see:

Obama = 60%
McCain = 40%

From the CNN Election Tracker Poll of Polls:

Obama = 50%
McCain = 43%

and also the CNN Electoral Map Calculator, where the crowd gets to predict the results:

Obama = 291
McCain = 160

Finally, Technorati.com, a blog aggregator predicts:

Obama = 675,621 results
McCain = 494,815 results

If you can find any other examples of crowdsourcing the election results before they happen, do add them to the comments below, and I’ll edit and update the page accordingly.  For now, it looks like Obama is clearly in the lead, across all the media, except, oddly enough, Live.com.. Perhaps that’s a reflection of either the information Live.com relies upon as being inaccurate, or the users there, being of a different demographic.  I’d hate to think there was any intentional fixing going on..

Please do share your thoughts, and insights, in the comments below.. Thanks!

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Not least, because of how self-reflective the book is, and how it forces you to examine your life, from so many different angles, and so many different perspectives, and so many different lenses.  But also, just because it truly is heavy reading.  Perhaps, it’s just me, but whilst certain chapters just flowed, and I was able to read, easily and effortlessly, other chapters just totally bogged me down, and sometimes, it would take me a few days to repeatedly go over the same words, until I could move on.  Ironically, as soon as I put the book down, or got past that part, I would be just fine.. which makes me wonder.. is it the book or was it me, that was putting up the resistance??

Being outside of the US, I only got an electronic version of the book, but straight away, I could feel this book had a very significant “conscious” element to it.  I didn’t calibrate it, to the levels of consciousness, using Kinesiology, like David Hawkins does, in Power vs. Force, but intuitively, I’ve often noticed, that certain books, websites, and other written materials often carry a certain energy, especially if there are purposeful intentions behind what’s been created.  I’ll write more about my experiences, and understandings of energy and intention around written works another time, but for now, suffice it to say, that this book felt a little “lighter”, and had an energy around it, that was perceptible.

As I started to make my way through the book, having already read the table of contents online, I was acutely aware of the correlation between the 3 Core values of Truth, Love and Power, and the overlap, between these and the core guiding principles that I’d encountered in the work of The Pachamama Alliance, and the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium.

The work of the Awakening the Dreamer symposium, is to bring forth an “environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just human presence on this planet”.

Within the symposium, Environmental Sustainability captures the essence of living in balance with the physical world, being honest about what’s really happening, and in light of that honesty, taking new actions, as a consequence.  Something which having read Pavlina’s book, I believe is signifantly connected with being Truthful, in terms of what’s happening, and having an open and honest evaluation, with the forthrightness to acknowledge what’s really at play, regardless of whether it’s good or bad.

The component of the symposium that deals with Spiritual Fulfillment, deals with our own inner connection, or lack therof with others, in our day to day lives.  The component of Love, that Pavlina talks about relates to the notion of connectedness, and how, once we are in our loving space, we automatically feel the connection between ourselves, and others.  It is that connectedness, or absence of it, that is talked about in the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium, when addressing the component of Spiritual Fulfillment, which gets discussed as the lack, and emptiness… Being devoid of meaning and connection.. Living empty and meaning less lives, which is often attributed to not “doing what you love”.

As for the Socially Just human presence, I believe that to be directly connected the the element of Power, that Pavlina discusses.  A socially just world, is one in which people claim their power, and the capacity for injustice to occur is non-existent, since everyone is equally empowered.  Power is not the same as force, which comes into play, when a situation becomes unjust or is unfair.  And it is this very absence of Power, that is touched upon during the Symposium.  Admittedly the handling of social justice, during the symposium, leans more heavily towards looking at the inequalities in the world, between people, between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have nots, the differences that exists because of race, and culture.  To me, that is but the flip side of Power, for when power is absent, true power, then such inequalities are indeed possible.

Whilst the symposium may present each of these issues in a more global reaching light, looking at the plight of what is, and current status quo, the symposium, having been birthed a few years ago, started a conversation in the world, which I believe is being refined, and rephrased by Pavlina, in his book.  Whilst I doubt there’s any strong connection between him and the work of the Pachamama Alliance, consciously, I know the two strands are directly connected.  Why do I say this? Because both were born out of the same call from the earth, from Pachamama.  One originated, in the Amazonian rainforest, the other in the consciusness of an individual seeking growth.  Both mirror the fact that we are in a changing time.  As people connect with their own innate wisdom, their own innate consciousness, they start to be able to access the consciousness of the planet too.. That is not something which is different from country to country, or by race, language, or religion.  The world over, we as a humanity are sharing the planet we live in, and as we start to bridge the chasm, between the world we are in, of individual, seperate, disconnected beings, to realising that actually, we are all part of a blueprint woven through the ether of life, that collectively sustains life on this planet, we will have to look out our place in this world anew.

It seems that increasingly more and more people are waking up, in a crisis.  Their lives, amounting to nothing, having acquired all the material trappings of wealth, status, and success, yet feeling hollow, and empty inside. This isn’t just co-incidence that this is happening all over the world, in this unprecedented manner.  More and more people are choosing to say no.  Are stepping away from what was once thought to be the “only” way, and asking anew, how can we do this differently??

From the emergence of online portals such as Kiva.org that allows you to lend money to people in developing countries directly, to Zopa.com, which allows you to lend money to each other, challenging the traditional lending cycle of the banks, people are increasingly engaging with the world on new terms, and technology is allowing them to do so in a way that breaks down the old structures, that were fixed, and impermanent.  Life no longer has to follow the same patterns of previous generations, and with that comes a recognition of the fact that what has happened in the past, is not going to be sustainable going forward.  With increasing global populations, and reducing available resources, it’s time to re-think the equation of life, and Pavlina’s book does a great job of thoroughly dissecting everything in your life, and helping you reconstitute it in a new direction, based on some core, and fundamental principles.

Is it the only book out there that does this? I don’t know.  But it is one of the few that I’ve read that really brings Personal Development into the realm of Science, not art… Taking things step by step, in a methodical, and meticulous manner, Pavlina ruthlessly dives into each of the core values, and then builds upon them, until you’ve been cut open, and forced to bare yourself, so that you can see what’s really under your skin.  Then, in the second half of the book, he slowly starts to re-build the very thing he’s dissected, providing suggestions, experiments, and his own experiences of what’s worked for him, to help find a new road out of the chaos, and confusion that might ensue, when you see your flaws for what they are, and find yourself to be openly honest about living a life that is far from ideal, in every sense of the word.

I can’t say that I’m “taken” by his style, and approach.. It’s perhaps a little too linear, and logical for my liking.. At times, it seems to lack heart.  But then it’s perhaps also at the same time, providing me with an accurate mirror of myself, and my own reality, which makes it all the more unbearable, and untolerable.  It’s definitely not another one of those wishy washy, self help books, or flowery, spiritual books, that’s for sure.  And I’m pretty convinced, having experienced Steve Pavlina’s wisdom for a few years now, that following even just a small part of the book, will lead to tremendous growth, and success, in any area of your life.  The real challenge is going to be sustaining that change, and transformation, in a world that increasingly is crumbling apart, and reading this book, could very well shake you, from your very core, destroying any sense of  success and accomplishment you thought you had, whilst forcing you to openly and honestly, set a new course in life.

For me, there’s definitely many many great parts to the book, and whilst I found certain chapters unbearably tough to read, with moments when I was just falling asleep, whilst attempting to read the words on the page, I think there’s enough value in the book, that even if you only read the bits that interest you, you’ll get enough value out of it, to have made the book a worthwhile investment.  I for one, will always suggest, when in doubt, listen to your heart.. Feel your way through something.. If it feels right, pursue it.  If it doesn’t don’t.  Simple as that.. And in time, you may be able to intuit your way through life in a more enriching and meaningful manner.  For now, I don’t have a perfect answer.  My life is no where near perfect.  I don’t have all the outer trappings, or inner richness of perfection by any stretch of the imagination.

But I have a spirit that’s willing.  Willing to live, and try, and experience.  Experience life in all of it’s colours.  And with that, and that alone, with my heart guiding me as my compass, I can honestly say, I’ve only ever been off course, when I’ve stopped listening to this guidance.  And in time, I learn to listen to my heart again, and start to push off in a guided direction, and as if by magic, life starts to flow again.  It’s not magic, it’s not co-incidence, and it’s certainly not crazy nonsense.  But then my world view allows me to understand my heart as being more than just a physical organ that pumps blood around my body.  I’ll definitely share a more deeper and richer understanding of my heart, and what it is for me, in a future article, but for now, let me recommend you go out and buy yourself a copy of Pavlina’s new book, if you’re at all interested in personal growth, and personal development. And if you just have something in you’re life that you want changing, or you’ve found yourself facing challenges that you just can’t overcome, then perhaps it’s time to order this book too, and who knows, six months from now, you’ll be as grateful as I am now, for Steve having taken the time to synthesise and channel his thoughts, perceptions, and experiences into this wonderful book. Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth, I recommend you order your copy today!

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I was browsing Steve Pavlina’s blog, and happened across an interesting article, that talks about  how we can imagine things in the future, before they have even happened.  And how that worry, and regret, for something that hasn’t occurred takes us out of the present moment, and takes away our opportunity to be able to live our lives free of fear, and emotional torture.  I’ve re-posted the key part of his blog here:

“Do you ever regret the future before it has even happened?

When you regret, fear, or worry about the future, you project your consciousness beyond the present moment.  Essentially you become unconscious because you lose awareness of the present moment, and consequently, you lose awareness of the real you, which exists only in the present.  The future is something of an illusion because you never actually exist there.  Past and future are merely memories and projections.  Your real experiences occur only in the present.

When you live in the future, you experience suffering because to suffer is to be unconscious.  When you can keep your full awareness in the present moment, there is no suffering, regardless of circumstances.  Every moment feels perfect because you simply accept it.  When you push your consciousness into the future, you resist the present moment, fighting what is and wishing it to be something else.  The result is emotional pain.”

StevePavlina.com [http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/03/regretting-tomorrow/ March 31st 2006]

I can’t agree with him more..

My own personal experience of life, when living a tortured, and emotionally traumatic existence, tends to be entirely stuck in the past, or focussed on the future.  It’s not something you consciously realise when you’re stuck in it.  But the feelings and emotions you experience make it abundantly clear to you, just how deeply, and powerfully it’s affecting you.  It’s kinda hard to disengage from the feelings, especially when you’re in such a place.

By contrast some of us live our everyday lives just a little disconnected from the present moment.  Living a numb everyday existence, passing each day, with little or no true pleasure or joy.  The easiest, and most wonderful way of living in each moment is to just BE.

Be here, in this present moment.

Look at where you are, right now, and what you have in your hands right now. Don’t look to what might be two or three hours from now, let alone two or three days from now.  Each moment, when lived from the here and now is truly special, and magical.

It’s hard to remember exactly what happens in those moments; those moments when you lose track of time, when you get swept up in a task that is engaging, fulfilling, and rewarding once you complete the task.  By contrast, those moments when we are so stuck, and trapped, that we just can’t wait to get out, and liberate ourselves from that present moment, always looking for a better future, or a better experience right now, those moments are when we get disconnected from reality, and get lost in our minds.

It’s when we don’t know what’s really happening, and we allow our thoughts to rule our present moment.  Those demons, our thoughts, can play havoc on our minds.  Especially when we identify ourselves with our thoughts.

Have you ever wondered, if you are your thoughts?

Try thinking something, and then paying attention to the something which had the thought.  The two are very separate and distinct.  It is not our thoughts that make and shape us, but rather us that can shape, and guide our thoughts.

Think enough, of the same thing, over and over again, and it becomes what you believe to be true.  Nothing has changed, but your thinking.  It is a hard and tough road, especially when we are trapped within our thoughts, and we can’t make sense of what’s really happening to us, but just feel dragged down, dis-empowered, and down-trodden.  But rest assured, thinking of something different, or thinking in a different way, changes all that.

If you were to see a future, that wasn’t what you wanted to have in your life, and you were to ask the question, how might it become what I want it to be, then all of a sudden you’ve allowed your mind to start being open to possibilities that previously had been completely closed off, and instead of being caught up in the problems of the here and now, or being trapped in the reasons why something won’t work, you start to be open to imagining what might be possible.

You might have to stretch your imagination, and your beliefs about what’s possible, and what’s not.. But at the end of the day, it’s only when you start to think in a new direction, do you start to feel things differently, and you start to experience the joy, and wonders of living in a different way…

All of a sudden those emotions, of overwhelm, those trapping thoughts, and those daily monsters, that plague your mind start to recede, and you start to focus on ways of making it possible.  Ways of being in life that are just a little different from the moment you were living in a moment ago.  And all of a sudden, that critical question -

“How could this possibly become the way I want it to be??”

starts to shift your mind, and your focus, and your attention away from the thoughts of doom, and gloom, and as you start to entertain a new possibility, you start to create a new vision of the future.

Neither of these, is as real as the other, but the difference in what you feel, how you live, and what you respond to, changes dramatically.  Try it. Take something in your life, that feels stuck, trapped, or unable, or incapable of changing, and see how things start shifting, once you start asking the question, how might it be possible for this to become what I want it to be??

Let me know what happens, if you try it.. Feel free to comment on the blog below..

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The group that had just performed their dance on Boogie Woogie, was made up of people who all earned between INR1,000 and INR2,000 indian rupees per month (which translates to about GBP£13-GBP£26 per month or about USD$25.43-USD$50.85). Most of these dancers worked either in a biscuit factory, or as labourers. These people were at times the sole provider, or one of two people working in their homes, and to think that everything they spent and earnt was less than some people make in an hour. Shocking.

In order to appear on the TV show, Boogie Woogie, which was filmed in Mumbai, the group had to travel from their home town, and the only way they could afford to do that, was after collecting donations from people in their colony, so they could pay for food and transport to get all the way there. These people were happy to have just appeared on the TV show, and have had a chance to perform on the Boogie Woogie stage. You have to remember that this TV show is a bit of a sensation, having been on TV for 10 years in India.

One of the hosts, Javed Jaffrey, made a point of asking each of the members of the group, what they each earnt, individually. Then started asking them how young they were when they had started working. Some of these children had started working as young as 11 or 12. When he asked them what they thought of the people that want to abolish child labor, they said that they were wrong. Simply because, the had to start working at such a young age to support their families and make sure they had enough food to eat. When people tend to go on about how wrong it is for children to work, most people don’t realise that it’s not out of choice, but usually out of necessity. And when it comes to survival, going to school just isn’t an option, if there isn’t enough food to eat at home. Upon further discussion, the host clarified that there were times when child labor was wrong. That was when the children are exploited, by being made to work 12, 14 or even 16 hours a day, and being paid unfairly. When the working conditions are hazardous to their health, when they’re exposed to toxic fumes, or their life is literally put at risk. But when the children are paid fairly for their work, are able to work in an environment that is safe for them physically, and they work decent hours, then there’s nothing wrong with it. Especially if the alternative is to see their family go hungry, and for them to not have enough food to eat.

I know from my family’s own personal experience that at the end of the day it has absolutely no bearing on what’s possible in the world, whether as a child you have to work or not. My father lost his father at a young age, and so in order for his family to get by he started working from the age of 14. To this day, I’ve never really understood the impact of him working so young could have had on him, but today I realise just how important it must have been for him to work, so that there was some food on the table. There are days when my dad would, as a child have some onion with a chapatti as a meal, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that… But it’s just an eye opener to think how simple and basic the meals would have to have been, so that they could survive. At the end of the day, that they were able to get by, with what they could, if the children in the family hadn’t been working (in addition to my grandmother, who was also working), then there’s nothing wrong with child labor at all. I wouldn’t have my dad here now today, if he had been forced to go to school on an empty stomach, and learn, but not have enough to eat, to be able to continue living.

I say that there’s nothing wrong with it – there’s actually a lot wrong with it. Children should all have the opportunities to play, and learn, and not have to grow up faster than they already have to. But if we’re not going to feed their families and support their homes, than the very least we should do, is make sure that they can work in humane conditions, in a supportive environment, until the rest of the planet that has all the money, and wealth gets their act together, and starts to re-distribute the wealth.

But if we are going to stand up and cry out against child labor, then we have to be willing to pay not just for their education, but to feed their families as well.. Granted that may not be much by most westerners standards. Especially if you’re reading this now, you could probably afford to give some of your wealth to the less fortunate. But at the end of the day, like one wise philosopher shared recently, nature has a way of finding a balance.

Whilst we continue to live rich, decadent, affluent lives, living carelessly, without regard for the other, then there’s always got to be the opposite, to keep things in check.. Whilst we may be a minority, with access to wealth, and technology, the percentage of the worlds wealth that we control is reflected in the larger majority of people who have nothing.

Social Justice is not, nor should it ever be about wealth re-distribution; some people are just better at manifesting abundance powerfully into their lives. What we do want to do however, is as custodians of that wealth and abundance make sure that everyone is fed and clothed, without having to work for those basic necessities. What that looks like in the world, I cannot tell you… But I’ll tell you now, the day we stop having to buy or sell food, is the day that all of the children in this world will be able to consider the option of an education instead of a working life. But seeing as most children in modern education systems don’t tend to learn much anyway, I don’t know what good going to a regular school is really ever going to do?? But that’s going to have to be food for thought, for another day…

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Of course, I didn’t get quite what I was expecting upon my arrival!! DeMartini started out at the level of the individual cell, explaining how just the cell is still an individual mystery to science… They know what happens, they just don’t understand why, or how processes get triggered…

At the level of the cell, it was almost as if there was a balancing act occurring, and whilst there was a balanced environment the cell remained healthy. DeMartini also brought into the equation an intelligence that was present, as being the behind the scenes capacity for the cells to be able to perform everything that they do, and he mapped out how there was a level of conscious intelligence at ever level of the human body. From the level of the cell, that was conscious, to the level of the tissue, and then organs, and different bodily systems, to the level of the body as a whole, until it reached the level of us. He described how these levels of consciousness layered and interfaced with each other, and if there was an unresolved issue with any of them, then they would get stuck, and the physical level below it would manifest the imbalance. Clearly they’re all interconnected, and with his understanding, one way of working through any physical ailment, is to identify the underlying stuck emotion, or state, and work it through the conscious mind, until through catharsis it’s released, and leaves the system, restoring balance and harmony…

Jumping forward a little, DeMartini goes onto describe how from his perspective, he started to observe a phenomena of balance, how nature always finds a way of balancing things, and health is the product of a balanced environment. His research team went back through time to find moments when major events happened in the world and he discovered that for every major event that happened in history, somewhere in another part of the world, there was something happening, to balance it out.

This holistic worldview was something which he then shared from his own experiences of balancing, and seeing the balance restored. During his time working as a doctor, there are days he would have a great day at work. He would get a bunch of extra clients, and have a really good day, and he would be really proud of how good he was, and how much better than all the other doctors he was, and on those days, when he got home, his wife would bring him down. On other days, he would have a really bad day, the practice would be a little slow, and things just wouldn’t be going right, and on those days, when he got home his wife would bring him up.

Now, he had an office on the 52nd floor of a tall building, and what he started to do, was at the end of the day, before going home to his wife, on the good days, he would bring himself off his high horse by thinking of all the people he didn’t serve today, all the patients he didn’t see, all the doctors he didn’t compliment, and just finding faults, to make sure he got a balanced perspective, and got to neutral. And on the bad days, he would start to go through all the things he did accomplish, all the good stuff that he had done, all the people that he had helped, all the small things he had done that day for people, bringing himself upto neutral.

And what he found was that when he did this, and brought himself back to neutral then when he got home, his wife would also be at neutral, ready and receptive for him. This neutral state was described as being a balancing between the mind and the heart, a state of gratitude and appreciation, that was balanced and aligned. And it’s almost as if by putting himself into that the state, his wife, all the way back home, was also finding her way into that state simultaneously, as if through some form of quantum entanglement. In my mind, that’s just the next level of consciousness manifesting itself – the consciousness that exists between two people. When it’s in harmony, it’s balanced, and when it’s out of harmony you get the whole good guy bad guy scenario playing out.

All in all, I think there’s something to be said for balance, and grace being something that we as a society can strive towards.. and perhaps were media providing a more balanced perspective on life, the world would come into balance (but you can always argue it the other way too huh??) I guess it can only begin with ourselves, striving to be in balance in our daily lives, and slowly finding our sweet centre spot, aligned, balanced, so that we can then be able to live in balance with others, creating a world of peace, and harmony.

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