Faith versus Cynicism

Faith versus Cynicism

                                                       by Frank Stronghorse

 

          The bad and the good news is that things are bad now, but they are going to get worse. This is good news because, historically speaking, mankind has operated at their best in crisis mode. The bad news is that a lot of people are in for some really hard lessons…including a lot of death.  Throughout this period of adjustment on this planet, mankind had better pull itself out of cynicism and reacquaint itself with Faith.  I believe, as well as know, that this is a survival prerequisite.

My personal training to discuss “Faith versus Cynicism” has come through three decades of education and follow-through hands-on training on a shamanic path with deep historical roots. Originally organized in South and Central Mexico, the Twisted Hairs were a group of magicians and spiritualist who dove deeply into “plant consciousness”. The term “dove deeply” refers to an immersion into a living consciousness of the natural world that today’s indigenous peoples generally refer to as “The Sacred”. Modern man would have to classify this as an alternate reality because it is an existing, present, and potent body of intelligent organic consciousness that has been both ignored and abused by a majority of mankind for centuries. This abuse, primarily at the direction of the churches through their arrogance and ignorance, such as evidenced by the Doctrine of Discovery, has projected us onto the precipice of self-destruction. Those who dove deeply into plant consciousness, these “magicians” of the early indigenous peoples, sought this organic intelligence / consciousness as a means of exploring an unlimited horizon of awareness that produced a particular brand of “Knowing”. Today’s religious scholars, if they understood any part of what I am attempting to describe herein, would have to label this as “Faith”. To the indigenous peoples, this “Knowing” was a constant and consistent state of being human.

Through respect and honoring, they co-created with it in all aspects of their lives. Many of the resulting manifestations of this state of spiritual co-creation would also be labeled as “miracles” by those who sit outside of this Organic Intelligence. To the practicers of this natural way of existence, it was considered “medicine”. Medicine was a unique way of approaching life that maintained and sustained balance with this living consciousness. Because of the cause and effect implications of co-creation, balance was vitally important.

I would guess that the original motivation to explore plant consciousness came from the desire to heal the children. When there is no CVS or Walgreens down the block to easily pick up some medical treatments, which by-the-way are mostly formulated from plant consciousness, you would have to learn to work with what is around you. The first step in learning to work with what is around you is to figure out a way to engage with it and communicate with it. Does it have a voice? Can I feel it? What am I feeling and where is it coming from? Am I hearing things, making up voices, or is this communication actually “real”?

I’m quite sure that these early explorers of “Faith” had many of the same questions that we would offer up today if we actually explored “Faith” in the fashion that the ancient practicers did.  However, most “explorers of Faith” today have their “CVS and Walgreens” at their finger tips with the computer age and its volumes of information, past and present. But to be clear, this voluminous body of information is not “Knowing”; it is “Knowledge”. The quality and benefits of this “Knowledge” is a long and arduous debate. But, “Knowledge” has nothing to do with Faith. Faith cannot be learned out of a book or by mimicking the actions of others. Faith is only found through an active participation in the “Knowing” of the presence of God and His Creation through Co-creation. Co-creation is a deep dive into alternative worlds of spirit, via a welcoming and open-hearted pursuit through all of the obstacles that will be thrown into your journey, into a deep and undisturbed “Knowing” of a vast and massive body of Intelligence and Consciousness that surrounds you and beckons you to return to its embrace. Like a spurned lover who once held, nourished, and responded to all of your desires, this “lady in waiting” simply ask to be respected, honored, and received.

You would probably have to look long and hard to find anyone more cynical than me before I found my path with heart, or more accurately, it found me. I had very little use for anything spiritual. I was totally committed to my world of mammon and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Looking back, it is plain to see, for me, that this phase of my life was all about “me”. “Me this” and “me that” was the simple motivation for waking up every day and going to bed at night. In 1986, that world would be suddenly shaken and broken up by a short and intense embrace of plant consciousness that is often termed “the knock of the spirit”. A voice came out of nowhere and said “you have found what you have been seeking”. This voice came to me as I was driving down the Interstate in route back to Dallas, Texas from a Twisted Hair workshop in Waxahachie, Texas.  Although, in my rational mind, I wasn’t looking for anything, in my spirit body, which I had no conscious awareness of at that time, the words rang true…perhaps more true than any I had ever heard before. Something innate and asleep in me had been awakened and it both startled and embraced me in a way that I had never before experienced. Although I was not an emotional person, I balled like a baby for the next hour as I tried to negotiate the Dallas traffic back to my apartment. My girlfriend at the time had never seen me cry and was both shocked and stunned by my appearance. “What happened? What is wrong”, she shockingly demanded of me. “Nothing,” I replied. “Everything is perfect.”

For the next thirty or so years, I would pursue that incredible first high and seek to recreate that moment of perfection. The trials and tribulations would mount up and seek to discourage me. Being just as tenacious as I was cynical, I continued to push through. I spent over 240 days over twenty years out in the hot desert of Arizona in the summer, praying and dancing at an annual Sun Dance. I have sat in the temples of Pelenque and Tula, Mexico performing ancient ceremonies and reaching out to the ancestors and ancient memories held in the Sacred that exist there through my prayers and offerings. I have invested trust and innocence into fellow humans who turned on me consciously and/or unconsciously to validate their own sense of self at my expense. I have felt victory and defeat, but I have never wavered in my Faith.

The level of and degree of quality of one’s Faith is measured directly and indirectly by one’s “Knowing”. The process of separating this state of awareness of “Knowing” as a focus of intention to Source versus an illusion of one’s manufactured sense of self-righteousness from the ego is perhaps the biggest and most arduous battle on Earth. It doesn’t have to be this way, but we have fashioned a world based on the absolute and unending effort to find and support one’s own identity outside of our personal direct connection to Source and through Knowledge. Therefore, the energies that one must master and overcome to return to Source are massive and complex.

One of the most revealing and potent ways to establish a sense of personal Faith is through the active practice of Compassion and Gratitude. Most people think of Compassion and Gratitude as acts of kindness that are meant to be beneficial to another. In actuality, the true benefactor of Compassion and Gratitude is the one practicing it. Compassion and Gratitude soothes the animalistic nature of mankind and thus taps down the invasive and threatening nature of a weaponized psychological state of being. When mankind is ruled by fear, threats, violence, and “survival of the fittest”, his and her psychological nature becomes weaponized. On any level you want to consider this, you are, in this state of being, a threat to everything around you. If you are a threat to everything around you, then every conscious, sentient being around you is in a state of agitated anxiety. This cycle of energy exchange creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of false self-righteousness. In this ongoing matrix of animalistic behavior, which infects a majority of mankind, Compassion and Gratitude isn’t even considered much less practiced. Consequently, everyone and everything affected by this weaponized state of being lives in a constant state of an illusionary expectation of danger and loss. The solution to this dilemma is both simple and very available.

There are a lot of examples that I can quote to illustrate the challenges to my Faith that I encountered through my journey, but the one that comes to mind and the one that is probably best suited for this essay is when I got lost in the jungles of Mexico.

I had hiked alone into the mountains above Mismaloya, Mexico, just outside of Puerto Vallarta. After spending a few days in ceremony in this pristine natural valley next to a mountain stream, I packed up and headed back to my base in Mismaloya. After a few hours of hiking, I came to a cliff overlooking a deep river gorge. I was on a pea gravel goat trail high in the Sierras and immediately knew that I had made a mistake in following my actual trail. I doubled back and resumed my trek. I ended up at the same overlook. What am I missing here? I sat down and took inventory of my situation. I was running out of water and apparently completely lost. I renewed myself with the last of my water and took up the trek again. I ended up at the same overlook. Okay, this is getting serious. I moved back up the trail and sat on a large boulder. Panic was starting to flood my body. I breathed deeply and took a mental inventory of my situation. I realized that I knew that there were ancient ancestor spirits from long ago tribes that inhabit this valley. I had been given old shards of pottery and ancient clay icons of these early settlers by the local people. They had told me stories, pass down through generations by their great grandparents. They spoke of when the “little people”, who inhibited the forest before “civilization” encroached on the area, and how they would come into early villages and the people would give them food. These “little people” were the nature spirits of the valley. The early settlers of this valley honored and gave offerings to them to co-create a habitable environment for their tribe.

Because I had spent years working on developing my “Knowing”, I instantly realized why I was having these thoughts. I opened my backpack and pulled out some tobacco. With a compassionate heart and a resolute mind, I held a pinch high above my head and offered a prayer to these ancient ancestors and these “little people”. I introduced myself and thanked them for letting me be in their valley to perform my ceremonies and offer up my prayers. I told them that I was lost and had run out of water. I asked them to help me find water and my way out of the jungle and down the mountain. There was no wavering in my voice and no panic or thoughtlessness in my intentions. I was not begging or pleading. They intuitively knew that I wasn’t a threat and that I had a high regard for the spirits of the mountains and Mother Earth. I was completely confident in my Faith that they would help me. I knew they were there and I knew that if they judged my heart to be open that they would assist me. The important part for me to demonstrate was that I respected them and their space and was deserving of their help.

I loaded my backpack up and began to walk back up the mountain trail. Suddenly, I had a thought. Maybe I missed my turnoff further up the trail. I continued further up the mountain, which was, rationally speaking, directly contradictory to my attempting to get down off the mountain. Within a few minutes I came upon a fresh spring flowing out of a fern grotto in a rock outcropping. Wow!  I dropped my backpack and pulled out my tobacco. I held it high and thanked these ancestors for showing me the way to water. I filled my canteen and drank my fill. Again, I loaded up my backpack and continued climbing up the mountain. After some time walking, in an altered state of mind, I came upon a trail that turned off the one I was following up the mountain. It dropped directly into the jungle. “I think this is it,” I thought to myself. I followed the trail as it continued to drop down into the valley below. It indeed turned out to be the way home. Additionally, one of the purposes of my journey into the mountains and the days of ceremony was to find a stick shaped like a snake that I could decorate into a conjuring stick to add to my medicine bundle. I hadn’t had any luck finding any sticks that looked like a snake and gave up looking. On my way down the mountain, I suddenly tripped and almost fell head over heels down the trail. I got back up and looked at what had tripped me. It was a tree root in the perfect shape of a snake.

Here’s the point: You can quote the evolutionary theorist Lyn Margulis, wife of Carl Sagan; you can summon the philosophies of Arnold Toynbee; you can praise the uttering of Mohammad and Ibn al Arabi; you can quote the eloquence of Rumi, Hafiz and Omar Khayyam; you can rely on the words of Yeshua Ben Joseph; you can follow the fundamental beliefs of Jesus; you can pattern your lifestyle after the egotistical billionaire race to space of Elon Musk and Bezos; you can elevate the personas of Swiftdeer and Chief Seattle; you can buy into the political and religious ravings of the possessed on the internet, but at the end of the day, if you don’t have “Knowing”, you aren’t going to get off the mountain or find your way out of the jungle to your home.

If you do not comprehend that metaphorical analogy or find inspiration in these definitive characterizations of the human condition, I fully understand. We are addicted to Knowledge and have invested all our “apples” in one basket to lead us into the future of a world filled with justice, kindness, consideration, as well as love and happiness. So far, not so good. The “apples” must be rotten.

Knowledge is necessary for survival of the physical. Knowing is necessary for the survival of the spirit. Knowledge without Knowing is an aberration. It produces an artificial environment within which the spirit of the human cannot find itself nor function as a viable part of the human construct. This environment of artificial stimulation creates deep seeded cynicism. Artificial environments produce conflict because all Knowledge, without Knowing, must compete through posturing for justification. This competition among humans produces a cynical attitude and approach because the superficial nature of the Knowledge forces mankind to fabricate a reality to justify belief systems based solely on Knowledge. As cynicism grows unabated, the humans become anxious, frustrated, angry, and then violent because this type of Knowledge offers no redemption for the spirit and soul of the human. Because the spirit and the soul of the human have come to this planet to know itself through Knowing, the cynicism overcomes one’s authentic sense of self and forces alignment with false prophets and addictive, illicit artificial, unhealthy behavioral habits.

The growth of Artificial Intelligence, out of this artificial environment created by these man-made beliefs, has taken these Knowledge based belief systems and expanded them into systems of massive control and subjugation of the human species in favor of those who accept their artificial, addictive behavioral patterns as valid and true. They either dismiss the existence of God, or a Higher Intelligence, and/or fabricate a personality for God and then set out to prove that this personality is completely in alignment with their belief systems. They are so objectively separate from the natural process of Creation that their belief systems have grown to take on a life of their own.  Any challenge to these artificially grown belief systems are met with cynicism because that is the only defense that they have for their misbegotten posturing and survival adaptability. Any connection to actual Faith takes a back seat to these artificial belief systems and produces an argumentative posturing of self-righteousness rooted in an artificial Faith. The true nature of Faith, the actual Knowing connection to a Higher Intelligence and a conscious awareness of its presence through respect, compassion, gratitude, and co-creation, is lost on these cynical warriors as they continue to fortify their positions and strike out at those who refuse to accept their inane cynical posturing and raging uncontrollable anger.

By attaching their self worth identity crises to any artificial stimuli, including political, religious, social, and urban tribal associations, these lost souls fight for recognition and affirmation for their beliefs. Faith takes on a cynical structure and promotes a mocking attitude and approach to self, life, and others through automatic response mechanisms and artificial imprinting from their artificial environment. Their dreams are not sourced from Source and Creation, they are sourced from television, movies, media, and various artificial technological entertainment venues. These artificial venues of profit-driven weaponized drivel continue to plague the children. The true essence of Faith is lost on the technical, rational minded.

The Solution: Every soul has a Personal, Sacred, Collective and Universal dream programed into their DNA. Unless these cellular memories are accessed and triggered through Knowing, they remain dormant in the human body. Without the Knowing of one’s Personal, Sacred, Collective and Universal dreams, the choreography of their lives takes on an artificial flavor and their cynicism cancels out any avenues of approach and connection to these vital aspects of their soul’s Knowing of itself. The level of internal anxiety, frustration, hopelessness, and self-punishment is almost incalculable. Like packs of hungry wolves, they seek out artificial stimulation to deaden and harden their instincts and natural behaviors that are vital to their spirit and soul’s survival. Looking for someone or something to blame for their raging anxieties and loss of divine self-identity, they continue to fortify their mammon-induced psychosis and scream their vanities at their losses.

This dilemma was well known by the early indigenous people of the South and Central America. They built their cities and temples to acknowledge, honor, respect, and co-create with Source. A lot of well-intended academia types have spent a lot of time measuring and chronicling these ancient cities from Chaco Canyon in New Mexico to Machu Picchu in Peru. The chronicling of these carefully crafted alignments with the Sun, Stars, and Moon have help promote the careers of these investigators of the ancient ways, but none to my knowledge have ever offered up plausible explanations of why this was done. They have attempted to classify their work inside of the Knowledge of their peers and have turned their backs on the Knowing required to actually understand what they are investigating. Some have offered up guesses that perhaps these alinements were necessary to tell them when to plant their seeds. Some have mentioned the honoring of their gods. But no one, again to my knowledge, has proposed that these carefully crafted cosmic and geometric alignments of their cities were specifically designed to fortify and increase one’s co-creation with Source, as it was carefully crafted in the Heavens. This type of analogy would require stepping outside of Knowledge and stepping into Knowing.

If your whole survival depended on a daily co-creative awareness of one’s Personal, Sacred, Collective, and Universal awareness of the presence of a Higher Intelligence, why wouldn’t you go to the efforts necessary to build the temples and cities to fortify and nurture this relationship? How important would living in this energetic matrix be to the fulfillment of and the dependency on Faith be for these peoples? Where do you suppose any form of cynicism would even be considered in this environment? Whatever it was, it certainly had to be something important for them to engage in the physical efforts necessary for the construction of these pyramids that we observe with our Knowledge-based minds. It had to be something other than authority and/or threats, often offered up by our weaponized-minded pundits, that motivated these people. It had to be a quality of life that is, to be brutally honest, beyond the grasp of modern man and his / her weaponized psychological structure of Knowledge and mammon-induced psychosis. .

Re-establishing this ancient connection to Faith through Knowing by delivering mankind out of the current energetic matrix of Cynicism through Knowledge, is going to be a very tall order. Even as most readers will immediately find resistance in their academic minds to this revelation, the arguments cannot be fully appreciated until some form of Faith through Knowing is actually experience personally and collectively.  One can begin to actively practice Compassion and Gratitude in a ruthless manner and / or one could help establish an educational program to acquaint humans with Knowing. However one choses to become a part of the solution instead of a part of the problem, until we once again find our way to our Personal, Sacred, Collective, and Universal dreams, we are going to suffer. With these dreams active in one’s awake and sleep times, the human engages with their fate or destiny and finds that they are living for something larger than themselves. They are in service to their spirit and soul. This state of awareness increases their active participation with Faith, provides them with multiple instances of spiritual validation of their dreams, and shows them the way off the mountain and out of the jungle. As a close friend of mine, and college President, once remarked about my books: “It gave my Christian beliefs legs.”

This struggle between Knowing and Faith versus Knowledge and Cynicism is going to define our world in the coming years. The shift is already in play. There is no easy fix for those who are caught up in Knowing and Cynicism. I’m pretty sure that the good ole boys at Hank’s Bar and Grill in Gadsden, Alabama are probably not eating this up. I am also pretty sure that the folks in Berkley, California have other ideas about Faith and Cynicism. The whole world has been sold down the river and convinced that they have no choices for survival other than the systems put in place by the Knowledge affirming scientist, the Knowledge biased religious scholars, the Knowledge focused academic technicians, and the Knowledge tainted political military-industrial complex captives. Fear can only triumph when beliefs are rooted in uncertain foundations.

In a world devoid of co-creation, Faith is only to be invested in the top of the pecking order and the lower beings have no allies from which to pull, cherish, and apply their Knowing. This is a lie and the world is suffering incredible pain from this lie. The ship will have to be righted or it will surely crash on the rocks of Knowledge and false prophets. The cynical nature of the upcoming generations, which is apparently the only stay of stability that they can find in their artificial environment, will slowly suffocate and choke the life out of them. Their corporate overlords will continue to subjugate their will with more and more demands and threats to their survival. The artificial consumer driven carrot of the “Kardashian world” will continue to be hung in front of the devoted. The “personal freedom” Knowing deprived, under the pretext of resisting mind control, will continue to support the plagues and violence of their false prophets. The mammon freaks will continue to frame everything in the money changer’s ideology. Religion will continue to rely on historical Knowledge based belief systems and the various interpretations of it, primarily patriarchal in nature, as a basis of Faith while love remains on the sidelines. The military will continue to fortify their positions with fear and domination. The religious fundamentalist will continue to try and force their artificial beliefs on the masses. Without significant change and recognition of the existent of the spirit and Knowing, mankind will steadfastly remain on the mountaintop and lost in the jungle while offering old and pathetic arguments of entitlements. Meanwhile the future of their children will slowly fade into the darkness.

Faith is not blind allegiance, except in the world of Artificial Intelligence. Faith is not a belief; it is a Knowing. As the determiners in this world of dreams, humans cannot operate efficiently, both as physical beings and as spirit beings, separated from the presence of a Higher Intelligence by artificial barriers of their own making. The Higher Intelligence, however you choose to formulate that presence, is designed to function efficiently within the context of the natural order of Organic Intelligence that already exist on this planet and in the Universal systems surrounding this planet.  Man’s attempt to mimic this awesome power, through the mistaken assumption that they own this power,  has taken this planet down a very dark tunnel, and now, apparently into the flames. We do not own this power just as one does not own one’s significant partner. We either learn to respect, honor, and co-create with one another or face almost certain destruction on a wholesale level. This is true in our relationship management with one another, just as it is true in our relationship with this planet. Faith through Knowing, although a lost art currently, must be restored and redeveloped for us to survive.

You cannot be cynical with your life partner and expect any long lasting relationship to survive. When you take the leap of faith with one another and turn cynical attitudes and approaches into a solid investment in Knowing one another, the relationship takes on a whole new healthy flavor. Cynicism is the escape hatch for the lost souls. They can only mock and turn their noses up at that which they don’t understand because they haven’t been trained in anything other than Artificial Intelligence. Their lack of awareness and experience with Knowing severely limits their choices. The difference between stupid people and smart people is that smart people know what they don’t know and stupid people think they know everything about everything. Of course, stupid is a relative term, but blind faith and cynicism are the markers of those who sit on the mountain top, lost in the jungle, and proclaiming to everyone around that they know exactly where they are. So, when an authoritarian shows up and panders to their baseline fears, they quickly adapt to the message of understanding of that which others cannot see because only they have blind faith and cynicism as their guides. This is why a con artist from the country club can speak at a rally of rural people and actually have an audience, not only from the lost souls, but from the media propagandist who promote and are supported by Artificial Intelligence and artificial entertainment. Everyone feels all warm in fuzzy huddled together on the mountain top and lost in the jungle. Knowledge has reaped its reward and Knowing has lost relevance.

Original sin is a manufactured lie. Karma is an excuse for bad behavior and a lack of personal responsibility. Knowledge has shaded the Knowing held within both of these concepts. It has created layers upon layers of doubts and confusion. It has misappropriated expressions of sacred energy and thrust hopelessness into the trust and innocence of the angelic beings coming to this planet with their intentions to awaken their Personal, Sacred, Collective, and Universal dreams already programed into their DNA. The Original Sin of the modern Christian world has shaded the message of love that Jesus brought into the world. This misapplied authority of the false prophets and their royal robes takes good intentions of angelic beings and robs the masses of their true connection to their authentic self and palpable feelings of Faith. Knowing is subjugated to Knowledge and the world continues to fail under the weight of a lack of understanding of the importance of co-creating with Source.

Let me ask all of you some simple questions:  Have any of you, or anyone you know, ever considered what a sad, woeful, pathetic human being Donald Trump is? Have any of you shown any empathy or compassion for the situation within which this angelic being has found himself? Or, is Trump just more fodder for your cynicism and/or an excuse for your anger? Who among you, fellow mammon-induced psychotics, wants to throw the first stone? Has your moral compass and/or your religious faith simply cowered to your angry, cynical nature? As a country and as a species, are we all actually lost on the mountain and unable to find our way out of the jungle? How many of you have heard yourself and/or others say, “I just don’t know what to belief anymore”? You are lost on the mountain and you can’t find your way home. It sucks, don’t it?

When you display a compassionate nature and show gratitude for all that you have, the world settles down with you. You find that moving through life is graceful and lacking in anxiety and stress. This is the reward for “holding the space” instead of being sucked into the morass of those lost in the jungle and unable to muster the discipline necessary to find their way out of the chaotic matrix that they have created for themselves.

Unfortunately, most of mankind is simply playing the fool and allowing their war with their environment to color their perceptions. They are weaponized and manufactured to adhere to this chaotic mess via their negative internal state and stance. They justify this internal pain and try to manage it by enacting one level of self-righteousness followed by another level of self-righteousness. Perhaps when the last glowing ember in the last campfire from the last surviving tree slowly fades away into the cold desolation of the final reality check, the last words spoken by the last remaining humans will be, “See, I told you so.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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