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Publisher & Senior Editor - Joseph Roberts Comptroller - Rajesh Chawla Production Manager - Kris Kozak Contributors: Robert Alstead, Austin Boyd, Shawn Buckley, Alan Cassels, Gary Diers, Adrien Dilon, Ryan Durand, Catherine Austin Fitts, Elaine Golds, Carolyn Herriot, Vesanto Melina, Faisal Moola, Maria Nemeth, Geoff Olson, Gwen Randall-Young, Joseph Roberts, David Suzuki, Eckhart Tolle, Phil Watson, Sonya Weir Sales - Head office 604-733-2215 toll-free 1-800-365-8897 Contact Common Ground: Phone: 604-733-2215 Fax: 604-733-4415 Advertising: admin@commonground.ca Editorial: editor@commonground.ca Common Ground Publishing Corp.

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My life has been filled with terrible misfortune, most of which never happened. – Michel de Montaigne

W

e all act on evidence that we’re sure in the moment is accurate. But things don’t always turn out the way we thought they would. Or, even worse, sometimes situations turn out the same worn-out, predictable and boring way over and over again. The point is that our conclusions about what’s happening around us affect how we act, so we want to operate from conclusions that allow our actions to be effective – maybe even luminous.

The following incident brought this home for me. Alone one late summer afternoon, on the way back from a short hike in the California hills, I saw something brown and slithery in the distance. It was coiled in the middle of the path. A snake! I could see poison oak on either side of the trail, so there was no going around the snake. The sun was beginning to set. My heart beat fast. I saw images of myself up there all night, freezing and hungry. No one would know where I was.

I came closer, with caution. At about 30 feet, I saw the snake wasn’t moving. At the same time, my perception about the shape began to change. Was it a snake or some other animal I’d never seen before? Finally, when I was about 20 feet away, it hit me. This wasn’t a snake at all. It was a huge cow pie, dead centre in the middle of the road! I laughed, suddenly glad no one was there to see how foolish I had been. My heart rate slowed as I hiked down the hill.

My reaction had been appropriate to what I had “seen.” The perceived threat brought on a raised heartbeat and images of night on the trail alone. I could not have reacted otherwise. To pretend that I didn’t see a snake when I thought I did would have been impossible. It got me thinking: How much of my life is spent reacting to what I think is really out there, but may not be?

In Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell makes the compelling case that we are constantly reacting to conclusions we’ve drawn whether we are aware of them or not. They dictate our choices and shape our behaviour more than we know. Particularly striking is the fact that many conclusions are like reflexes; we don’t control them. They have the automatic quality of a knee-jerk response.

But all is not lost. Through choosing how to direct the focus of your attention, you do have the power to ultimately

determine your experience of life and how satisfying that experience will be. If you want to change how you experience your life, it is not, I repeat not, necessary to change your thoughts. All you need to do is shift your focus to those that interest you more. This is no trivial distinction. First, is your brain busy? Try to make a tick mark for every thought you have in a two-minute period and you’ll be astounded at how many of them pass in front of you. It’s an endless parade.

If you really tried to change your thoughts, it could drive you crazy. How could you stop each thought marching in the parade long enough to change it?

addition, you become rigid and hemmed in by your thoughts, which seem to get louder as they repeat themselves over and over again. That’s because whatever you focus on repeats itself. So trying to change your thoughts keeps your focus on those thoughts, causing them to recycle.

Ultimately more elegant, easy and powerful than trying to change your thoughts is learning to shift the way you think them.

To create results that will excite you as well as warm that heart of yours will be easier than you think because you won’t have to change your thoughts.

What you will learn instead is how to shift the focus of your attention from the

have helped us survive since prehistoric times. Since we’re not as physically rugged as many animals, we have learned to size up situations and people quickly.

This gives us an edge; once again, this is the amygdala in action.

The human brain is, in fact, wired for conclusions, even from a perceptual point of view. When you can’t draw conclusions, it is disorienting. To show you what I mean, imagine the following: You’re in a room. Wherever you look – on the floor, ceiling and walls – all you see is the kind of visual “snow” or static you’d get from a television with no reception. You hear no noise. The lights

Think of the energy expenditure! You’d soon be exhausted and frustrated and I can see the fog rolling in just thinking about this futile process.

You might say that, instead of changing your thoughts, you simply won’t think them. Good luck. This is equally difficult because your brain basically doesn’t understand the word “don’t.”

For the next 10 seconds, try not to think about a hot fudge sundae with nuts and whipped cream. Go ahead, don’t think about it. What happens? You guessed it. Rows of hot fudge sundaes parade through your head.

This aspect of brain function – focusing upon the subject, even when it’s preceded by a “don’t” or “not” – is well understood by therapists who use hypnosis. For example, look at the following two phrases and pick the one that would most clearly produce the intended result: • Don’t forget to take your car keys when you leave.

• Remember to take your car keys when you leave.

It’s obvious, isn’t it? The first suggestion puts “forget to take your keys” into your mind. The second, “remember to take your keys,” is easier for the brain to follow and therefore more apt to influence your behaviour in the desired manner.

It is difficult both to try to change a thought or conclusion and to ignore one you already have. Each strategy takes a lot of energy and gives few results. In

conclusions that no longer interest you to the ones that do. And, as we shall see, shifting your attention has nothing whatsoever to do with changing those conclusions. As the energy of your attention is withdrawn, those old conclusions simply recede into the background. Let’s take a look at the process we all use to create life experiences. The four-box model illustrates the process. We start with box one, which is labelled “conclusion.”

Normally, we think that a conclusion is an opinion we form after we’ve considered relevant facts or evidence. But here we put it first. In effect, we’re saying, “In the beginning was the conclusion.”

The mind is a conclusion-manufacturing machine. For example, it’s common knowledge that people form conclusions about each other within one or two minutes. Gladwell writes that these conclusions are often created in a matter of seconds. He calls it “thin slicing.” As I’ve worked with people over the years, I’ve noticed the following sequence: 1. A conclusion is like a reflex. It takes very little to set one off.

2. Once it’s triggered, the brain only looks for evidence that will validate that conclusion.

3. Therefore, our evidence is automatically and predominantly determined by the triggered conclusion, not the other way around.

This power to generate quick conclusions about our environment may

aren’t glaring. Just that static, wherever you direct your gaze.

How long could you last in that room?

You’re facing no obvious threat, but your inability to draw perceptual conclusions, or gestalts as they’re called in perceptual psychology, could make you very agitated. So it becomes clear that we all gather evidence to support the conclusions that interest us. What’s more, not everyone sees a situation in the same way, even when presented with the same “objective” facts. One place this becomes obvious is when listening to different members talk about the same family.

Take Jim, for example. We were talking about the four-box paradigm in a seminar, and he came up with the following: “Sometimes I think my brothers and I were born in different families. I mean that we don’t see things the same way when we talk about our parents. continued on p.50

JR: Einstein said that we cannot solve a problem with the same level of consciousness we created it with. The ego has created most major cities and the culture of North America that was founded upon the bloodshed of the Natives and the slave trade, not too long ago.

ET: Yes. That was the form unconsciousness took at the time. In some ways, we’ve gone beyond that, but there are always new thoughts about consciousness that arise. It has taken on new forms and different ways over the centuries. In the 20th century, it manifested in massive ways. Although slavery had been abolished and it seemed we were making process, the 20th century was the worst in terms of people killed, violence inflicted on other humans and havoc created by humans. It was the worst century ever.

So my interest and focus is always going to the root of where all that madness that we inflict on ourselves and

acceptance, enjoyment, enthusiasm and write: “If you’re not in the state of acceptance, enjoyment and enthusiasm, look closely. You will find that you’re creating suffering for yourself and others.”

ET: Yes, at any one moment you have to be in one of those three states and if you’re not, you are out of alignment.

Acceptance would be when something happens that would usually bring about a negative reaction, when something goes wrong: a flat tire or you lose something or suddenly become drenched in the rain or break your leg or you come home and your house has collapsed.

But the moment is always as it is; it’s the “isness” of what is. Once you argue with that you’re lost. Once you go against that you’re out of alignment.

So acceptance is to be in alignment with what is even if it looks unpleasant. You say, “Well, that’s it. I’m just getting wet in the rain and the body’s cold. That’s

the planet originated, rather than trying to tackle individual manifestations of that madness. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, and for quite a few people that is part of their outer purpose. They may become engaged in certain kinds of work to alleviate the effects of human unconsciousness in one field or another – through social work or ecological work, or whatever. That’s outer purpose and it’s beautiful and it’s a good way of bringing inner and outer into alignment.

But if you only focus on the outer without realizing that what primarily matters is the transformation of consciousness, you get very frustrated. Ultimately, there is no solution unless there’s a transformation of consciousness.

It always starts with you. If you’re waiting for humanity to become transformed, you could wait for a long time, but if it starts with you then it becomes accelerated. So my focal point is where the madness originates, which is in the egoic state of consciousness, which is why I describe it in detail in the book.

JR: I love the way you phrase the three ways that consciousness flows into what you do and through you into the world.

You can align your life with the creative power of the universe. You mention

what is.” Of course there’s still the unpleasantness on the physical level, but there doesn’t need to be suffering on the mental or emotional level. It doesn’t mean you don’t take steps towards changing a situation; it is what is and now we go from there.

JR: That’s the realm of acceptance.

ET: It’s shown very beautifully in the film Groundhog Day. The character lives his life in almost continuous nonacceptance. He hates everything – where he is, what he’s doing. And suddenly he finds himself stuck in the same day in a place that he dislikes. Every morning he wakes up in the same day and he tries everything to get out. He tries suicide; he jumps off a cliff and suddenly he wakes up in the same bed. He begins to enjoy what he can’t get out of and he becomes a very helpful power. Everybody loves him suddenly because he’s open to the present moment and whatever happens, he’s helpful. Suddenly one day he wakes up and he’s out of it. He doesn’t need to get out any more; he’s out. So towards the end of the film, he says, “Let’s stay here; it’s so nice here.” Nothing has changed externally. Everything has changed internally.

So this is acceptance and sometimes, in a very subtle way, acceptance can sud-

denly shift into enjoyment, even with something you had disliked before. So then joy flows into what you do. This could be a simple thing like going from here to there, going for a walk, making a cup of tea. The simplest thing can be joyful. Joyful energy flows into what you do and you’re strongly aligned to the present moment. If you cannot enjoy it, you can at least accept it. Enjoyment can be an added energy that comes when what you do becomes empowered by the deeper consciousness. It could be some creation and suddenly enthusiasm is added, which is a very intense enjoyment. It flows into and empowers what you do.

Some people who create great things, even some performers, have additional energy flowing in when they perform; there’s enormous enthusiasm which everybody can feel and they almost want to soak it up. Enthusiasm cannot last indefinitely. It comes in waves. As

I say in the book, nobody can spend his whole life living in enthusiasm. Usually, it’s a creative wave that comes in. Something new is being created, whoosh, with enthusiasm.

It also means that helpful factors are attracted. Your intention is very strong and enthusiasm has an element of future to it, but you never lose yourself because you know where you want to go. There’s some structural tension between future and the present but the present remains the focal point. I explain that in more detail in the book, but those are the three stages. So whether you’re drinking a cup of tea or working, the moment you detect a negative state in yourself, even irritation or impatience with someone – now you don’t condemn yourself for not being more spiritual; that doesn’t work – all you need to do is recognize the negative state.

Even subtle ones because if there are many subtle negative states and they’re

not detected they can easily accumulate into a larger negative state. For example, if little irritations are building up and you’re not aware of them during the day, suddenly in the evening you blow up or become depressed over something insignificant because all these irritations have not been recognized.

So alertness is required. Always be more interested in what’s going on inside you than what’s going on outside of you.

That’s the key because most people are lost in what’s going on outside. What kinds of thoughts and emotions are being produced? That’s interesting, look at that.

Not in any judgemental way, not even wanting to get rid of anything – because you will be fighting what is – to simply notice, ah, there’s anger rising, there’s an irritation. When you say “Ah,” it brings a space around it. That’s the formless consciousness. Irritation is form. When you say “Ah, there it is,” there’s a space around the irritation. That is more who you are than the irritation. That is essentially who you are, the formless dimension of who you are. Irritation is a temporary form that a person has taken.

People mistake the now for what happens in the now, but in essence when we talk about now, that means the space in which everything happens. So to be

internally. We become one with the form of this moment, which is temporary anyway. Then something arises within that is greater than the form and that is spaciousness around the form.

Another pointer that helps to understand this is allowing. Allowing this moment to be as it is, just this moment, no more. Just this moment. Suddenly there’s an inner space around it which frees you from the limitation of the form. The greatest image of that is the crucifixion, which you may not be fond of; some people don’t like it because it’s very negative, but I believe it’s a deep symbol of a truth that perhaps at that time could not be expressed in any other way. It’s expressed in mythical form and the cross is the greatest limitation you can imagine, a torture instrument.

There’s this man nailed to the cross – a great limitation – but the cross is also the symbol of the divine and there’s deep wisdom in that. How is it that a torture instrument is also a symbol of the divine?

It’s about surrendering to the limitation of form, and the cross is an extreme example of that. The crucifixion means not my but thy will be done, which refers to the totality of what is. If you surrender to what is, the extreme limitation becomes an opening into space.

in touch with the now is to be in touch with the space in which things happen.

Not resisting the form of what happens I transcend the limitations of the form that happens now, because whatever happens in your life will be one or another limitation.

Any thought you think excludes many other thoughts you could be thinking at that moment. The situation you’re in excludes many other situations. If you’re in Vancouver you’re not in Hawaii. If you’re in the snow, you’re not on a tropical beach. Or if you’re with some woman who is sexy but you’re not with that woman who is spiritual… but the form is always limited and in some people form is extremely limited. For example, a physical disability limits one’s life. Or someone might be in prison.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to go beyond limitation on the level of form, but we can’t totally go beyond it, ever, so at some point you realize that.

Some people think if they become rich and famous their lives will become limitless, but the fame will be a new limitation because then you might need a bodyguard when you go out or you may not even go out at all because you get pestered continuously.

So we don’t resist the form any more,

That’s the deepest rule really that there is for human beings to realize that.

Even the worst thing that happens to you can become the doorway then… will become the doorway into transcendence.

Limitation becomes space.

That’s where human suffering comes in. There’s a grace hiding behind every form of suffering. There’s always the possibility of transcendence, which comes from not resisting the present moment. Some people need extreme suffering to be driven to that point and then suddenly something shifts.

The one thing humans need to learn so they can live a different way, so that there’s an inner freedom, is the complete transcendence of the conditioning of the past.

JR: What does love have to do with all of this?

ET: Well, love as conventionally understood is really an egoic addiction to another person. That’s the conventional view. When we say we “fall in love,” there’s some wisdom in that expression because when you fall in love you become more unconscious. You’re using another person to cover the state of insufficiency and unease that is always part of the egoic state of consciousness. continued next page

Just now cont. from p.7 In other words, you think another person is going to fulfill you and make you complete. So you’re using that as a substitute for true transformation.

Sometimes, in lonely hearts you even see, “Looking for man or woman to make me happy.” Of course that’s not going to happen. You might meet somebody, fall in love, start living together and then realize, “Oh, that didn’t work.” No person can make you happy. Temporarily, you can be in a state of euphoria until the honeymoon is over and then you realize the person has a pain body and an ego and they suddenly stop playing the role you’ve assigned to him or her.

Everyone who’s had some experience of relationships knows that happens sooner or later. So, that’s the conventional meaning of love: an egoic need that cannot really be met and always leads to frustration, the end of the honeymoon.

Now, true love requires you to have found within yourself that which is unconditioned. Even glimpses are good enough. The state of consciousness that

is unconditioned, no matter what you call it – I sometimes call it stillness, presence, inner space. You’re no longer totally identified with the form of the person that temporarily you appear to be. When you’ve found that within, you’re no longer totally identified with the “me” form. So on that level, you’ve touched the dimension. If you’ve touched it, you can sense it or glimpse it in another human being too. That means you’re no longer totally identified with the form of me; you can sense in the other person also the dimension that is beyond either the physical or mental form of the me, the conditioned person.

So you sense that which you’ve already sensed in yourself also in the other. That aliveness, that vitally alive stillness – you sense the being you are in the other, shining through the form.

When you sense that in another, which is really reflecting yourself because the being is the same, even glimpsing that is the beginning of true love, in which there’s no need whatsoever. Any need means love has become contaminated with the ego notion of love. In true love you need nothing; there’s simply a joyful coming together, a joyful recognizing of the other, not just on the intellectual level, but on a deep sensing level, recognizing

the aliveness in the other. You could call it a deep empathy with the “beingness” of the other. The other could be a human being, an animal or a tree, any life form.

That’s also compassion. You can no longer inflict suffering on the other.

But when you’re not in that state, and you’re so identified with the form of “me” only, you’ve never sensed anything in yourself beyond that, what you see in the other is also the form. This means you cannot feel the aliveness any more so you have reduced them conceptually to objects. And the more labels you attach to the other person, the more you deaden yourself to their aliveness.

You call them this or that or that.

When you’ve completely deadened yourself to their aliveness, you can inflict pain and suffering on them without knowing what you’re doing because to you they are not alive, they are just mental concepts. You cannot sense the life that you share because you can’t sense it in yourself either. So any human who inflicts suffering on another is out of touch with who they are and impose what they’ve already done to themselves on you. They have deadened themselves to who they are, made themselves into concepts.

Sometimes whole nations do it. We have a collective image of us and them,

the truth of that? Everything we’ve been talking about today is that waking up means finding the truth of who you are, of what the deeper meaning is when you say, “I am.” There are two levels to “I am” – one the level of form, when you add something to “I am.” I am Canadian, a professional whatever, a man or a woman, a liberal or conservative, a sufferer of this or that illness, nationality, religion, heterosexual or gay or whatever. This is all to do with form identity.

It’s one level of “I am.” You can add anything and on the level of form it has its place. For many people, that’s all they know. It’s the relative truth of who I am.

Then there’s a deeper level which is when you add nothing to “I am.” You no longer say I am this or that. After you’ve said, “I am,” there’s a space and there’s no form in that space because it’s space.

That is the truth of who you are. Finding that is the one thing that matters. You are concerned about many things and worried about many things, but there’s only one thing that really matters and that’s finding the truth of who I am.

This is the timeless, internal dimension of who you are beyond the temporary form of this or that. That is inseparable from the now, because the now itself is space, the unconditioned con-

who, of course, are the others, the aliens.

Once you’ve labelled them that way, you can do anything to them. They’re not human any more.

So that’s the opposite of love, but we need to see the opposite to really understand love also. That’s why one could even say love is an essential part of the new rising state of consciousness. It’s so natural I rarely talk about it. I rarely talk about God either because those terms have been misused so much that too many misunderstandings arise.

JR: Thank you for that. I find you write in such an inclusive way that it doesn’t matter which faith or tradition someone follows.

ET: Yes, I often get correspondence from people from all kinds of backgrounds or religion – from Buddhism to Christianity to Islam to Judaism. They recognize suddenly the deeper truth that is in their own tradition which is beyond form too. The deeper truth is always beyond form. But others who are so identified with the form of their traditions only see the external.

JR: The word “truth” is over-used.

ET: We’re not speaking here of relative truth, like any relative statement, but absolute truth which is to do with the truth of who I am. Truth. What is

sciousness before forms arise. And that’s who I am. For some people, it’s enough to have that as a pointer. If you’re ready, that will be the most powerful pointer.

Many people are ready now to hear this truth. They only need a few pointers and then it’s, “Oh yes!” There’s a sudden awakening. If people are not ready, that’s fine but the words we’ve been speaking here will be meaningless to them. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it means they need to suffer a bit more until they are ready.

If you are ready, that period in human evolution where you need suffering to evolve has come to an end. If something within you responds and says, “Yes, I know what this means, beyond intellect.

I can feel what this means. I may not be able to formulate it in words, but I can feel the truth of it,” that means you are ready. If you cannot feel the truth of it, the words are meaningless. For example, sometimes the reviewers get it and sometimes they don’t. In Time magazine a reviewer said the whole of The Power of Now is mumbo jumbo. Didn’t get it.

Totally beyond him or her.

JR: Funny it is called Time.

ET: That may not be a coincidence. It would perhaps be too much to expect a magazine called Time to get it.

JR: Art mimics life. What’s going on on the outside is mimicking what’s going on on the inside.

ET: Yes. Reflection. The external reflects the inner. The fact that we are polluting the planet on the outer level; that it is full of poison substances which we have produced, must be a reflection of something we have done within. A state of very heavy negativity collectively in human beings. That’s the inner pollution. An ego dominated mind creates political, social, economic structures that reflect the egoic state.

JR: I was thinking of friends of mine who smoke cigarettes and I see the butts littered on the ground, so they are littered inside, littering outside. I’ve noticed concentric rings of butts outside the doors of hospitals from nurses and doctors and it seems like there’s some wrong thinking going on there. With your book Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, with one of the intentions being to bring peace to the planet in our time, how is this awakening going? How are we doing from your perspective?

ET: It’s happening and at the same time the egoic consciousness is still very active, even more so than before.

There’s acceleration on two levels: one of the madness and one of the awakening. It’s an amazing thing, two movements simultaneously happening. The world is becoming more mad and at the same time there’s a stream, to some extent underground in the sense that with the main source of information being our media we could believe all that’s happening is an acceleration of the madness.

Not a lot is reported in the media about awakening, but it is happening. I can feel it very strongly; I get so much feedback from people who are awakening. The only question that arises is if it is happening fast enough to dispel the stream of accelerating madness. If it’s not, and I don’t know, all it means is the accelerating madness will bring about a great deal of destruction on the outer level, a kind of collapse of all the egoic structures.

JR: And provide more suffering.

ET: Yes. The more quickly and the greater the rate of humans awakening, the less destruction is required because there would be a non-violent shift. But I cannot tell you; I do not know. Some destruction, I think, is inevitable on the outer level. It’s simply what the ego does. The ego is always ultimately selfdestruction, which is actually the good news. Perhaps the visionary like the one who wrote the Book of Revelation may have seen something because they can see what the ego is going to lead to.

They already saw how the human ego operates so they can easily see what’s going to happen. They realize it must end in self-destruction.

This is undoubtedly true and I believe that many planetary upheavals will also be part of the process of renewal because destruction is also renewal. So not only

the structures of the ego will end in selfdestruction, probably the planet will also go through certain upheavals because we are part of the planet. It is a being and it knows. It has its own intelligence. It’s very slow to react because it has a different time scale, but it will react if it feels it’s being threatened, just as the body will react against certain viruses and bacteria.

So the planet will do something, whether it’s tidal waves, hurricanes or earthquakes and it will also reflect the enormous shift that’s happening on an inner level in the consciousness of humans. So when an enormous shift is happening on an inner level, it will also be reflected on the outer. All this is ultimately a good thing. There’s nothing to be afraid of. What really matters is the awakening, which is your own awakening. The shift of consciousness of humanity must start with the individual.

If it happens in you, it’s happening externally. Don’t wait. The shift is not something that’s going to free us. Freedom can come only now at this moment, not as a future event. Awakening cannot come as a future event; it can only come now.

We’re not waiting for some kind of Utopia. We’re not waiting for anything.

Now is primary. If you get this moment right, everything falls into place.

Eckhart Tolle live in Vancouver on Nov. 30, presented by Common Ground www.ticketstonight.ca (see page 11)

Unitarian congregations of BC You’re always welcome at First Unitarian Church in Victoria First Unitarian Church of Victoria welcomes you, whoever you are, whatever tradition, gender, race, sexual orientation or age you represent. We are located at 5575 West Saanich Road. Join us on October 10 at 6:00pm for a Halloween Costume Spaghetti Night. For further information, please visit out website at www.victoriaunitarian.ca

Welcoming Free-thinking Joyful Liberal Religious Communities.

Come as you are!

Beacon Unitarian Church www.beaconunitarian.org North Shore Unitarian www.nsuc.ca South Fraser Unitarian Congregation www.sfuc.bc.ca Unitarian Church of Vancouver www.vancouver.unitarian.ca Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Kamloops www.uukam.bc.ca Unitarian Fellowship of Kelowna www.unitariancongregation.org/kelowna/ Salt Spring Island Fellowship unitariancongregation.org/saltspring First Unitarian Church of Victoria www.victoriaunitarian.ca Capital Unitarian Universalist Congregation www.unitariancongregation.org/victoria/ First Unitarian Fellowship of Nanaimo www.ufon.ca Comox Valley Unitarian Society www.unitariancongregation.org/comox/

In celebration of our 25th Anniversary, Common Ground is honoured to present a rare opportunity to experience a profound awakening with Eckhart Tolle, world-renowned author and spiritual teacher.

Experience the power and inspiration of his teachings as he guides you to explore your state of true being. Eckhart’s highly acclaimed books The Power of Now (translated into 32 languages) and A New Earth have inspired millions throughout the world.

Eckhart has not spoken in Vancouver for more than five years. This is a rare opportunity to see him live. Eckhart’s 2007 US and European tours have both sold out months in advance. Advance purchase of tickets is highly recommended for this unique Vancouver event.

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For more titles and to order, go to

25 including: Titles!

ust as no sound can exist without silence, nothing can exist without no-thing, without the empty space that enables it to be. Every physical object or body has come out of nothing, is surrounded by nothing and will eventually return to nothing. Not only that, but inside every physical body there is far more “nothing” than “something.”

Physicists tell us that the solidity of matter is an illusion. Even seemingly solid matter, including your physical body, is nearly 100 percent empty space – so vast are the distances between the atoms compared to their size. Even inside every atom there is mostly empty space. What is left is more like a vibrational frequency than particles of solid matter, more like a musical note. Bud-

So what is the essence of the room?

Space, of course, empty space. There would be no “room” without it. So become aware of the space that is all around you. Don’t think about it. Feel it, as it were. Pay attention to “nothing.”

As you do that, a shift in consciousness takes place inside you. Here is why.

The inner equivalent to objects in space, such as furniture, walls and so on, is your mind objects: thoughts, emotions and the objects of the senses. And the inner equivalent of space is the consciousness that enables your mind objects to be, just as space allows all things to be. So if you withdraw attention from things – objects in space – you automatically withdraw attention from your mind objects as well.

By becoming aware of the empty space

dhists have known that for over 2,500 years. “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form,” states the Heart Sutra, one of the best known, ancient Buddhist texts. The essence of all things is emptiness.

The Unmanifested is not only present in this world as silence; it also pervades the entire physical universe as space, from within and without. This is just as easy to miss as silence. Everybody pays attention to the things in space, but who pays attention to space itself?

It cannot become an object of knowledge. You can’t do a PhD on “nothing.”

When scientists study space, they usually make it into something and thereby miss its essence entirely. Not surprisingly, the latest theory is that space isn’t empty at all, that it is filled with some substance.

Once you have a theory, it’s not too hard to find evidence to substantiate it, at least until some other theory comes along.

“Nothing” can only become a portal into the Unmanifested for you if you don’t try to grasp or understand it.

Space has no existence. To exist literally means to stand out. You cannot understand space because it doesn’t stand out. Although, in itself, it has no existence, it enables everything else to exist. What is the essence of this room?

The furniture, pictures and so on are in the room, but they are not the room.

The floor, walls and ceiling define the boundary of the room, but they are not the room either.

around you, you simultaneously become aware of the space of no-mind, of pure consciousness: the Unmanifested. This is how the contemplation of space can become a portal for you.

Space and silence are two aspects of the same thing, the same no-thing. They are an externalization of inner space and inner silence, which is stillness: the infinitely creative womb of all existence.

Most humans are completely unconscious of this dimension. There is no inner space, no stillness. They are out of balance. In other words, they know the world, or think they do, but they don’t know God. They identify exclusively with their own physical and psychological form, unconscious of essence. And because every form is highly unstable, they live in fear. This fear causes a deep misperception of themselves and of other humans, a distortion in their vision of the world.

If some cosmic convulsion brought about the end of our world, the Unmanifested would remain totally unaffected by this. A Course in Miracles expresses this truth poignantly: “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.

Herein lies the peace of God.” Adapted from The Power of Now, copyright 1999 by Eckhart Tolle.

Reprinted with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA, 800-972-6657 (ext.

52). Visit www.eckharttolle.com

You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live. Now. – Joan Baez

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othing pushes ego’s buttons quite like mortality. We get attached to being in the world and having our friends and loved ones here with us. We know intellectually that none of us will live forever, but we often keep ourselves in a state of denial about what that might mean in our own lives.

When my daughter was little, she would assemble all of her little toy “people” and set up a town on her bedroom floor. Each person had a car, a house and a job. She might ask you to play with her, but you were not allowed to move

one thing, and if you had your “person” say something, she would often say, “No, she doesn’t say that.” It was all perfect in her mind, just the way she wanted it to be. She had created her world and she was in control.

This is a little how ego thinks. As we reach adulthood, we create our own place in the world. We have our home, work, family and friends. Our lives are like a series of ongoing stories – one for each significant person in our life. Unlike my daughter, we hopefully do not feel the need to control all of the plots and characters. What is troubling for ego is that we have no control over when any of the stories might end. Ego does not like to think about that and doesn’t worry about it until something happens.

There are two problems with this. The first is that when something does happen, like a death or life-threatening illness, ego is shocked. This was not supposed to happen. It was not in ego’s script.

The second problem is that an important aspect of awareness is blocked.

Admittedly, it can be difficult to see our lives and those of others as only temporary. Like getting into a cold swimming pool, at first it is a big shock to the system, but then you get used to it. It does, however, require a shift in perspective. Ego can barely accept the temporal nature of human existence, let

alone embrace that fact and allow it to consciously enrich our lives.

For this, we need the soul’s perspective. For soul, the human physical form is only the costume that soul wears for the run of this particular play (life). Soul simply turns in the costume when the play is over, or when it is offered another role that it cannot refuse. We are actors who meet again and again, each time playing a different role – relationship, gender – in relation to one another.

Ego, of course, does not realize this.

It thinks the play is all there is and its role its identity. Others are identified only through their roles as well. This

is very limiting and if a major player departs, the play falls apart. So ego keeps its blinders on as long as possible, for it has no back-up plan.

When we identify with our souls instead of ego, and see the souls of others, everything changes.

Years ago, as a beginning teacher, I was helping a young student when, for just a moment, he looked right into my eyes. In that moment I saw his soul; it was as if he was reminding me that there was more to him than the seven-year-old student in front of me. I have never forgotten that. In that moment, he played the role of a child, but he may well have been a soul much older and wiser than me. I learned then to always honour the soul in every person.

We are all just passing through.

Knowing this, we cherish every day. We treasure every moment with loved ones.

All that is given is for us to share some of the journey with others until we, or they, move on. That is blessing enough.

Gwen Randall-Young is a psychotherapist in private practice and the author of Growing Into Soul: The Next Step in Human Evolution. For articles and information about her books and “Deep Powerful Change” personal growth/ hypnosis CDs, visit www.gwen.ca See display ad this issue.

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mong greens that are outstanding sources of calcium, kale has been hitting the headlines as a superstar. Not only is it an excellent source of calcium – the mineral is readily available to the body – it is an excellent source of carotenoids, which are converted to vitamins A, C and K. It also provides a source of iron.

The calcium in many greens (kale, collards, broccoli, okra and Oriental greens, such as bok choy, turnip and mustard greens) has a relatively high bioavailability. As shown in the table, the percentage of calcium absorbed from calcium-set tofu and cow’s milk is similar (between 31 to 32 percent).

In contrast, the calcium in greens such as broccoli and kale is absorbed almost twice as efficiently.

Many common beans, almonds and sesame seeds have lower bioavailability (around 20 percent) and sweet potatoes, which contain moderate amounts of oxalates, are in the same range. Although spinach, beet greens, Swiss chard and rhubarb contain calcium, they are also high in oxalates, allowing little of the calcium that is present to be absorbed.

Thus they cannot be counted on as calcium sources.

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• 8 cups kale (about 8 ounces when purchased) • 3 cloves garlic, minced • 1 tbsp olive oil • 1 tsp cumin • 2 tsp paprika • ½ cup fresh parsley or cilantro, chopped (optional) • 1 lemon or 1 tbsp lemon juice • Salt and ground pepper, to taste.

Wash greens well. Fold kale leaves in half; with a knife, remove the tough centre ribs and discard. Chop remaining greens. Heat the oil in a large saucepan or frying pan with a lid. Add garlic, cumin, paprika and parsley (if using) and cook for about one minute stirring well to make an aromatic seasoning mix. Add greens and mix well. Lower heat and simmer for five minutes or until tender.

If using lemon slices, serve the kale hot with fresh lemon slices. If using lemon juice, squeeze lemon juice liberally over the greens. Makes 11/2 cups (2-3 servings).

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Bok choy, ½ cup - 53.8% Broccoli, ½ cup - 61.3% Chinese cabbage flower leaves, ½ cup - 39.6% Chinese mustard greens, ½ cup - 40.2% Kale, ½ cup - 49.3% Fruit punch with calcium citrate malate, ¾ cup - 52.0% White beans, 1 cup - 21.8% Pinto beans, 1 cup - 26.7% Tofu with calcium, ½ cup - 31.0% Sweet potatoes, ½ cup - 22.2% Spinach, ½ cup - 5.1% Rhubarb, ½ cup - 8.54% Cow’s milk, ½ cup - 32.1%

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For more on healthful sources of calcium and other nutrients, see Becoming Vegetarian (check out the excellent kale recipes) and Becoming Vegan.

Vesanto is based in Langley, BC, and regularly consults for people who wish to improve their health and those in dietary transition. www.nutrispeak.com, vesanto@nutrispeak.com, 604-882-6782.

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Now that we know that kale is so good for us, what do we do with those big green leaves? If you are adding them to a salad, prepare them by removing the centre rib and chopping them matchstick thin. You might also choose to steam kale and explore the seasoning possibilities. Around the world, people have developed delicious ways to season greens, at the same time supporting their lifelong bone health.

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lan Cassels, co-author of the international bestseller Selling Sickness: How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies are Turning Us All Into Patients, returns with outrageous humour and more outrageous facts. In the irrepressible spirit of Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies, Cassels offers up a great romp of disorders that go bump in the night and the industry-sponsored drugs that are marketed to make everything better again. While Cassels’ seditious and deliciously illustrated fable is not for the faint of heart, it is meticulously footnoted for use by health policy wonks of all shapes, sizes and chemical compositions. Take one (or two) of these for good humour. Trust us, your health care policy will feel better in the morning. To shed light on his reasons for writing his second book and his choice of format, Cassels employs the mock interview format below.

AC: Well, let’s take the flu, for example. Seeing as this is an ABC book, I use the letter F to describe the situation with “Ferdinand, who fears the flu… ” There is a huge amount of flu-mongering and it’s not only the vaccine manufacturers who want everyone to get their annual flu shot; the public health agencies are using fear of the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918 to get everyone to roll up their sleeves for the annual flu shot. It’s

lowering drug every day. In my estimation, cholesterol-mongering has elevated high cholesterol to the status of a disease in and of itself. Cholesterol-lowering drugs are being sold by the gazillions at the same time that the studies behind the drugs show that they are next to useless for most people.

Q: Who is behind this, beside the drug manufacturers?

AC: The campaign to medicate all of

Question: Didn’t your last book Selling Sickness cover this ground, about the pharmaceutical industry’s push to redefine illnesses and turn more of us into paying customers? Why a new book about disease mongering?

Alan Cassels: The absurdities of disease mongering keep getting more absurd. When Selling Sickness was printed in 2005, I could’ve written 20 more chapters on the phenomenon of

really not a very great idea.

Q: I shouldn’t get a flu shot?

AC: You shouldn’t get any medical treatment unless you know what your risk is to start with and what the benefits and harms might be related to the treatment. You also need to know what would happen if you did nothing.

Q: But if I did nothing and didn’t get the shot, I’d get the flu, wouldn’t I? AC: Probably not. In fact, your likelihood of getting the flu if you are otherwise healthy is low. The likelihood that the flu shot would prevent you from catching the flu this winter is also low.

Most people don’t know, and the public health agencies don’t go out of their way to explain, that there is no evidence to prove that mass flu campaigns prevent people from being hospitalized for the flu or missing work. I’d get the flu shot if they could show that people who got it missed work less often, but they can’t so I won’t.

Q: So why are public health agencies and doctors pushing expensive and unnecessary treatments on people?

AC: That’s really the nub of the book – who stands to gain from mongering diseases. Let’s take another example even more bizarre than the flu. With the letter C, we find Carol who is alarmed at her cholesterol. For a number of years, there has been a very strong, well-funded and near ubiquitous campaign to get ordinary people to: a) Feel enough fear to get a cholesterol test; b) Worry that their cholesterol is “high” and they need to lower it to avoid a heart attack and; c) Become convinced to take a cholesterol-

us for high cholesterol is certainly bankrolled by the manufacturers, but it doesn’t stop there. Others, including groups of physicians and cardiologists who define guidelines on when to treat high cholesterol, with the support of the foundations, are doing the really serious cholesterolmongering. The absurdities abound, especially when you hear that 80-yearold people and even children are being captured by the cholesterol mongers and told they need a pill to reduce their high cholesterol. The medical profession, inebriated on the largesse of Big Pharma, is not the whole problem. It’s also that so few doctors and even fewer patients are taking the time to question the Pharma propaganda they are exposed to.

Q: Is that what your book will do, show doctors some examples of the disease mongering propaganda they and their patients are being exposed to?

AC: I think so. It’d be nice if physicians read this book, but, really, it is intended for patients, sorry, oops, I mean people, to get them thinking about the disease mongering that surrounds us every day.

Q: Why did you choose to go with a format like an illustrated children’s book?

I mean, The ABCs of Disease Mongering is a serious topic that you seem to be treating with a bit of whimsy. Why? AC: I have a friend down at the Ministry of Health who has worked there for 23 years. When I told him that I was working on a book about disease mongering, he asked me with a straight face, “What’s that?” I reeled. Whoa, I realized I had to make the concept really simple,

drug marketers pumping and promoting our fears about death and disease in order to sell more drugs. Disease mongering is creating a perpetual state of health anxiety, which, in itself, is an increasing health threat. Everywhere we turn the media, advertising and even our doctors are telling us that we are pre-diseased and potentially sick and we need to do something about it.

Q: Like what, for example?

even childlike, so I completely rethought my approach. I mean, if the health bureaucrats in our midst have never even heard of the concept of disease mongering, what better way to start than by trying to plant that seed in peoples’ heads?

Q: So a child’s book is the way to go?

AC: People like pictures. I do too. It’s a way to engage with the concept on a number of levels. See the picture, read the blurb associated with the letter, then check out the footnote for more information. This could be the first time anyone has seen a child’s book with references.

And 26 examples – one for each letter of the alphabet – may be enough to drive the point home.

Q: But it’s not a child’s book, is it?

Isn’t it deadly serious?

AC: It’s serious, but snarky. With atti-

tude. Kind of like me. For some things you really need to be light. You can’t beat people on the head because they won’t get it. You have to lead them in and for some people humour is going to be the way they get it. On one level, it’s hilarious that marketers are using our own absurd fears to sell us products. It’s certainly ripe for parody and ridicule, and laughing at those who are disease mongering us is a healthy way to respond.

Q: Speaking of which, some of your examples are just plain silly. I mean do they really have drugs for premature ejaculation (letter W), for facial wrinkles (letter V) or yellow toenails (letter Y)?

AC: By all means they do and instead of playing on our fear of death, Big Pharma uses our fear of looking bad or being embarrassed to push those products out the door. I think the weirdest example recently has to be the condition I refer to in W: “Wilber has a problem with his Wee Willy…” I mean, here’s a case, and there have been lots recently, where we know the side effect of a drug causes certain symptoms. In this case, the side effect of commonly prescribed antidepressants causes men to delay ejaculation. How one turns this into a market is not rocket science. There are many men who may “suffer” from premature ejaculation so bingo, put two and two together and there you go, a market. OK, it’s not that easy, but you get the point. It’s like having drugs in search of new diseases, instead of the other way around, which is what we usually think.

Q: Has this happened before, the known side effect of one drug being used to treat a new condition?

AC: Certainly this has happened before, the most familiar case being drugs for erectile dysfunction. The chemical for sildenafil, commonly known as Viagra, was tested in the early days as a drug for angina. Sildenafil, as a vasodialator, relaxed smooth muscle allowing increased blood flow. The researchers found that it didn’t work very well with the class of enzymes dealing with the heart, but had more effect on those enzymes found in the erectile tissue of males. You can just imagine some clever guy in marketing, having his eureka moment when he found out what they could do with the pesky side effects from the drugs that men in the trial were experiencing. It’s a serendipity that launched a billion dollar industry.

Q: You wouldn’t say we are being disease mongered around impotence, would you?

AC: I have and I would say that. I’m glad you used the word “impotence” because that’s what we called it before it had its makeover by the focus groups and the market researchers. You see, in the early days of the market research for Viagra, the manufacturer learned very quickly that the name of the condition needed to be changed so that men would seek help for it. Impotence was common, frustrating for couples and very embarrassing. No one went to the doctor for that condition. Along comes “erectile dysfunction,” which is as antiseptic and clinical as a name could be, and it was a name that was ripe for marketing. The company spent millions enticing men to “Ask your doctor about ED…” because there was finally a treatment for their problem.

Q: The creation of the erectile dysfunction market was quite brilliant and successful as you say, so what is the problem?

AC: The problem is that erectile difficulties are not all due to a plumbing problem. And men who don’t do what they might need to do, in order to maintain their relationship, thinking they can solve their problems with a pill, might be very misled.

Q: Is it true that there are drugs for female sexual difficulties too?

AC: That’s the Brave New World.

New conditions such as “hypoactive sexual desire disorder” – what we used to call the “Not tonight dear, I have a headache… ” condition – are being used to sell testosterone drugs for women, so that their lack of libido becomes an automatic target for drug treatment.

Q: Is there a problem with that?

AC: Only if you’re a woman who doesn’t want to be as weak when it comes to sexual urges as men often are. I mean, really, what does being in control of yourself and your sexuality mean? A pill for arousal? What’s next, a pill to change your sexual preference? I say that only slightly in jest, of course, because we know clever people in labs are working on those very things.

Wellness Equipment

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hen you add it all together, things have not been going well for the pharmaceutical industry lately. There has been a spate of high profile drug disasters, such as the withdrawal of painkiller Vioxx and daily reports of malfeasance of all sorts by drug companies, including lobbying governments for coverage for vaccines, employing patient groups to do their dirty work and otherwise putting undue influence on the prescribing of medicine. In addition, several recently published, high-profile books by pharmacy insiders have unmasked the tricks used everyday to sway our physicians into prescribing certain drugs.

But what has attracted the indignation and is beginning to arouse the distrust of the general public is the in-yourface marketing of direct-to-consumer drug ads that has risen 500 percent over the last five years. You can’t turn on a TV without being assaulted by ads urging you to “Ask your doctor...” for just about everything.

Big Bucks, Big Pharma, a new DVD produced by the Media Education Foundation, attacks these concerns head-on in a 46-minute documentary. And it does a fabulous job for both those who know a lot about this stuff and others coming to it for the first time. The documen-

tary’s main strength is that it talks to those working at the heart of the medical establishment – physicians, pharmacists and pharma salespeople – who have observed, close hand, the excesses of the pharmaceutical industry. Progressive American journalist and radio broadcaster Amy Goodman interviews, among others, Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Bob Goodman, founder of No Free Lunch and Gene Carbona, a former Merck salesman.

The single driving question behind this documentary is this: “How is the influence of the most profitable companies in the world affecting our thinking about our health and well being?” It’s a good question and the answers will turn even the most pharma-friendly people into pharma skeptics. Selling drugs is about creating a brand identity, a feelgood emotion that is emotive, rather than informative, involving all the power of public relations and advertising to create that feeling. While the industry brags that its ads educate consumers, no one is buying that guff, especially Marcia Angell, who says, “They are no more in the business of educating the public than a beer company is in the business of educating people about alcoholism.”

But all that advertising is having an

effect and the industry spends upwards of $3 billion per year in the US trying to convince us to buy their drugs. Bob Goodman (www.nofreelunch.org) says that the marketing on TV is so effective that “Patients come in and ask for stuff they don’t even know what it’s for.”

Now that’s effective.

One of the strongest messages in the documentary is that we must get rid of our preferences for “New and Improved” when it comes to prescription drugs.

What propels the market for drugs is the hope for the miraculous cure, the wonder drug, and many people assume if some-

was better. With a rare peek at the inner workings of the drug marketing juggernaut, he notes, “In the final two years [as the patent on Prilosec was expiring], we were trained to cannibalize our markets, that is, shift the doctors from the older drug to the newer drug.”

That’s what it’s all about.

The documentary hits its stride when it talks about disease mongering and the role of the pharmaceutical industry in creating and shaping diseases: how peoples’ blood pressure went from “normal” to “high” overnight and where yesterday you didn’t have a cholesterol problem,

thing is new, it must be better. The problem, as Marcia Angell explains, is that newer drugs do not have to prove themselves to be any better than older ones, and frankly, most of the new drugs are not that new. An analysis of new drugs in the US from 1998 to 2004 found that only 14 percent of the newly approved drugs were classified as being a medical advance.

For me, someone steeped in this stuff, the most interesting part of the documentary was listening to Gene Carbona, a former salesman for drug giant Merck.

Carbona is now working to sell The Medical Letter (www.medicalletter.org), one of the top sources of independent (read: not funded by drug companies) information for doctors in the world. As an insider with street cred, he’s someone you’re likely to believe when he tells you that, despite all that pharma says about being in the business of saving lives, etc, “Marketing is the real name of the game.”

He tells a story about being a sales rep for Prilosec (what we call Losec in Canada) – an acid suppression or heartburn drug – and describes how the drug was going to lose its patent and the company licensed a drug that was almost an exact replica (Nexium). He and his colleagues had the task of basically convincing doctors that the newer drug

but you have one today. Advertising drugs is one thing, but advertising health conditions is selling the sickness in order to capitalize on the cure.

Bob Goodman says that, of all the things that industry does, the one thing that you could say is evil is its medicalizing something that is part of everyday life. “A person who is not yet a patient sits down to watch the evening news and after a few commercials says, ‘I’m not as healthy as I thought…’”

It doesn’t have to be this way. As this documentary so clearly and simply shows, we need to become “healthy skeptics” and be better prepared to face a world where disease is being sold and drug companies are bankrolling the “education” of the general public through advertising both drugs and diseases.

Alan Cassels is a drug policy researcher at the University of Victoria and coauthor of Selling Sickness: How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients. His new book, The ABC’s of Disease Mongering: A Guide to Drugs and Disorders, is available in stores this month. (See feature article in this issue.)

Big Bucks Big Pharma DVD is available at www.bigbucksbigpharma.org

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I

n last month’s Common Ground I wrote an article explaining how, in my opinion, the new Natural Health Product (NHP) Regulations were illegal. I had also voiced my concern that these new Regulations were driving NHPs from the market and that if consumers did not wake up they would find that the NHPs they rely on for their health have disappeared.

Recently, in preparation for a court matter, I conducted legal research into the instances when the state can force people to take psychiatric drugs against their will. I was horrified to learn that, in certain situations, the state can force someone to take psychiatric drugs which,

aside from putting them in a mental fog, carry a list of side effects that most of us would not be willing to risk. Particularly troubling for me was a finding by the Ontario Court of Appeal in the case of Fleming v. Reid, which stated that the “… most potentially serious side effect of anti-psychotic drugs is a condition known as tardive dyskinesia. This is a generally irreversible neurological disorder characterized by involuntary, rhythmic and grotesque movement of the face, mouth, tongue and jaw.”

After doing this research, it occurred to me that the state’s ability to force us to take psychiatric drugs and the attack

by Health Canada on the NHP industry

are related. Both flow from a belief that the mainstream pharmaceutical medical model should be imposed on us because it is good for us – the same rationale used by the courts when they order that the state can force us to take psychiatric drugs.

When NHPs are driven from the market because they do not or cannot comply with pharmaceutical drug-style regulations, it is obvious that the natural health model does not have the same privileges as the pharmaceutical drug model.

Let me give you two examples: In 2002, Health Canada ordered the stopsale of all products containing kava, a plant native to the South Pacific. Kava has been widely recognized as a natural

treatment for things like anxiety and the root is traditionally used to make tea. I say traditionally used, as kava is widely consumed in the South Pacific and Canadian tourists in Hawaii can drink it legally at kava tea shops.

Health Canada’s pretext for taking kava off the market is that it caused liver toxicity. I have not researched the reports, but I spoke to Ralph Pike, the head of a health action group in England, who has. According to Mr. Pike, an elderly man who was on several pharmaceutical drugs for various health problems died during the night. The next day the public health nurse noticed a pot of kava tea on the counter and an adverse

reaction report was filed. The result: no kava allowed in Canada. No pharmaceutical drugs were banned, however.

Let’s leave aside that kava is being safely consumed in South Pacific countries and the US. The real problem with Health Canada’s knee-jerk reaction is that it ignores the risk caused by removing a natural treatment for anxiety from the market. Canadians who were safely using kava for conditions such as anxiety were forced to use pharmaceutical drugs instead and they now have to deal with the drugs’ side effects.

Similarly, in 2003, Health Canada targeted another NHP, EMPowerplus, a vitamin and mineral treatment for bi-polar disorder. Health Canada took many steps to remove this product from the market. It issued public warnings.

It raided the manufacturer TrueHope Nutritional Support. It seized and turned shipments away at the border. It charged TrueHope for selling a drug without a Drug Identification Number.

Arguably the world expert in treating bi-polar disorder with pharmaceutical drugs, Dr. Charles Popper was subpoenaed to testify at the trial. Popper teaches doctors to become psychiatrists at Harvard University and he has pioneered pharmaceutical drug treatments for mental illness conditions in children.

He is the only psychiatrist that Harvard permits to have a clinical practice in its hospitals. He gets bi-polar patients that other psychiatrists cannot handle. continued on p. 31

O

nly a few kilometres northeast of Greater Vancouver lies a spectacular valley with magnificent waterfalls and hot springs, splendid scenery and wild salmon in abundance. Accessible only by boat, the Upper Pitt River Valley, at the north end of Pitt Lake, has been protected from all

ing population of wild coho left in the lower Fraser River system. Clearly, this is a river system worth protecting.

In the late 1990s, a proposed gravel mine on a small tributary of the Upper Pitt galvanized hundreds of people to write letters to the provincial government. Due to the potential impacts of

the usual development pressures. Even today, this valley, which falls within the traditional territory of Katzie First Nation, hosts but a handful of full-time residents. The lower valley is cradled in the protective embrace of three provincial parks: Pinecone-Burke, Garibaldi and Golden Ears on the west, north and east, respectively.

While this remarkable place, set so close to Vancouver, supports several wilderness species such as grizzly bear, wolverine and mountain goats, it is best known for its wild salmon. All species of Pacific salmon thrive in the waters of the Upper Pitt River and its tributaries. It hosts an unusual sockeye population that can live for up to six years and it is the best place in the Lower Mainland to find ocean-migrating cutthroat trout. One of the river’s tributaries, Boise Creek, supports a unique hybrid of Dolly Varden and bull trout. Today, the Upper Pitt provides habitat for the largest remain-

this gravel mine on valuable wild salmon habitat, the Upper Pitt River earned the dubious honour of being listed as the most endangered river in BC in 2000.

Thankfully, the NDP government of the day listened to the concerns of BC residents and stopped the gravel mine.

Today, the Upper Pitt River Valley faces a far greater threat from a large cluster of proposed run-of-river developments. Such power projects are misleadingly named because, in fact, they divert 80 to 95 percent of a river’s mean annual discharge into a pipe. Little is left for the wild aquatic species that depend on natural stream flows. The proponents of the hydro project, Run of River Power, Inc., plan to divert water from every major tributary of the Upper Pitt River, including Boise Creek where rare hybrid trout reside. Five of the eight tributaries to be diverted will suffer a direct loss of habitat used by ocean-migrating salmon. Within a short 12-kilometre

stretch of the river, eight pipelines delivering water to seven powerhouses will generate a total capacity of 161 MW of electricity. These projects are sometimes incorrectly called “micro-hydro,” but there is nothing micro about them.

It’s not only salmon that will have their habitat impacted by this proposed project. Grizzly bear and other species depend on wild creek corridors. Logging and dynamiting will be required to build roads, construct transmission lines, pipelines and powerhouses. Roads on steep mountain slopes in areas with high rainfall can cause erosion, landslides and harmful siltation in creeks. This project is likely to be a time bomb for disaster in the Upper Pitt.

And that’s not all that’s wrong with this proposal. The proponents want to get the electricity out of the valley by grabbing a portion of Pinecone-Burke Provincial Park to construct a transmission/transportation corridor to the Squamish area. Their proposed corridor along Steve Creek goes right through a sensitive wetland and grizzly bear habitat. To date, there is simply no precedent for removing a remote wilderness section of a provincial park to allow industrial development. If this happens with Pinecone-Burke, we can expect to see similar proposals to cut up provincial parks all across BC. If there was ever a valley that should be considered off-limits for “run-ofriver” development, the Upper Pitt is it. Yet the proposal is already moving forward through the laughable provincial Environmental Assessment process which has never rejected any industrial project – ever. Draft terms of reference are expected to be released for public

comment over the next few weeks. (For current status and more information, see www.eao.gov.bc.ca under Upper Pitt).

Strong public opposition directed to the premier and Cabinet will be required to stop this project.

Hundreds of valleys across BC are now threatened with proposals for similar river diversions from independent power producers. Despite this, it’s not clear we really need this energy. The energy produced from these projects is intermittent and available only in certain seasons. In BC, when we have our greatest energy requirements in the winter, when it’s cold and dark, most of these river diversion projects will be frozen over and unable to generate electricity. Yet we seem to be poised to jeopardize both the environment and public values in dozens of valleys and place our rivers under the secretive control of private industry.

All of this is happening with little government oversight and in the absence of an integrated management plan to determine both how much electricity we really need and the most environmentally appropriate methods of producing it. The wild rivers of BC now face a new threat and few people are even aware of it.

Elaine Golds is a Port Moody environmentalist and conservation chair/ past president/ of the Burke Mountain Naturalists. She has previously been active in campaigns to stop logging in Greater Vancouver watersheds and to protect areas such as Pinecone Burke Provincial Park and Colony Farm Regional Park. In 1997, she won a provincial environment award and in 2005 she received a BC community achievement award.

F

or 14 years, the people in the region and of the small town of Christina Lake fought a proposed private hydroelectric dam on the Kettle River. In August of 2006, over the objections of the people and their local governments, the BC Environmental Assessment Office approved the

and promoting the natural environment was more important than an industrial venture that would provide a whopping total of three or less full time jobs.

In addition to the very real social and economic implications of developing an industrial project in a tourist hot spot, residents consistently raised a variety

project. Currently, the project cannot be built because the environmental review board has been convened to allow for a last-minute appeal. Given that the dam is supposed to be built above a proposed provincial park, it effectively threatens to destroy the Cascade Canyon.

Throughout the process, there was near unanimous opposition to the project. Hundreds of letters were sent to the government and thousands of volunteer hours were spent attending public meetings, project meetings and studying the endless volumes of scientific information. Local government, businesses and chambers of commence consistently voiced their opposition. The community as a whole declared its desire for the river and canyon to remain as they were: free running and a major tourist attraction and local favourite recreational area. As a tourism-dependant community, the majority of residents consistently stated that maintaining

of environmental concerns. The Kettle River is inhabited by numerous threatened and rare species of fish, with the rocky forests along its banks home to rare ecosystems, birds and reptiles.

The proposal calls for diverting much of the water from the canyon to power a turbine, which will result in reduced flows in the river bed, or as many residents have described, a mere trickle through an empty canyon. With countless studies performed over the years, in the end the proponent will likely be “compensating� for damaged and lost habitat.

However, habitat compensation for species such as the speckled dace, whose only habitat in Canada is the Kettle River watershed, has never been undertaken and has no assurance of succeeding.

For a measly 25 megawatts of energy for three or four months, and only five megawatts during lower water flows, and for a facility that would sit idle for the dry summer months, we continue to

ask how it can be worth it? How can it possibly be worth the essential destruction of a natural wonder for the profit of a US company? Is it worth it to create such a disturbance in a river that may not even have sufficient water flow, due to climate change, in the future to generate profit at the dam?

For one local resident the fight is not over. Gordon Planedin is the owner of a campground at the base of the canyon.

Cascade Cove, as the campground is called, offers countless visitors an idyllic natural setting that includes a spectacular swimming hole in a lazy back-eddy at the canyon outlet. The cove is directly across from the proposed location of the powerhouse and dam infrastructure.

Gordon has launched an appeal of the project approval and has one last chance to make his case. During the first week of October, Gordon will be in Victoria facing the proponents’ lawyers and government representatives. Although the project has been approved by the BC.

Environmental Assessment Office, he is battling against all odds to preserve his way of life and the business that he has spent years developing and the free flowing public waterfall which supplies the community its incredible tourist attraction, along with numerous jobs.

We are hoping that concerned members of the public can some forth once again, one last time, to voice their opposition to this project in hopes of saving Cascade Falls. This proposal is just one of hundreds of similar small hydro projects in the works in BC. Some communities are facing dozens on a single river, yet the BC government refuses to create a province-wide plan or a cumulative effects assessment of the multitude of impacts to our precious rivers. We encourage all BC residents to get involved. Please visit www.saveourrivers.ca Ryan Durand is a biologist and a member of the Kettle River Review Committee, Cascade Falls, Christina Lake, BC

D

eep in the wilds of the West Kootenay flow the Glacier and Howser creeks. They are tributaries of the Duncan River, which no longer flows freely. In spite of regional opposition, it was dammed in 1968; Kootenay people lost homes and farms, First Nation sites were obliterated, valley bottom rainforest died as the waters rose and prime wildlife habitat was inundated.

As the first victim of the Columbia River Treaty, the Duncan Reservoir continues to provide water storage for electricity generation in the US. BC receives one half of the generated electricity as a result of this water storage, which is then sold to the US for profit. The Columbia River is the most dammed river in the

R

ecent legislation effectively prevents the public from having certain information; voters’ rights have been removed and local governments have had their power stripped to ease the way for a move to take water from the people. Join the fight to save our rivers and public energy systems.

BC’s greatest asset – its water – is protected, first and foremost, by Native rights, as evidenced by Donald McInnes, president of Plutonic Power Corp., when he spoke to a government committee in 2004. “Another area that’s very scary for the IPP [private power] community and business generally in British Columbia is the First Nations situation. Currently, I know of at least six independent power producers that out of frustration, I would suggest, have signed agreements with local first nation groups, giving them a one percent gross revenue royalty in order to proceed to build their projects,” McInnes stated. Jack Walsh, retired CEO of GE Capital, calls the modern world a corporate dream where the race for shareholder value from resources is just beginning. The massive GE Capital has recently joined the stock market start-up, Plutonic, in gathering the free

world and supplies 50 percent of the electricity in BC. While the province’s economy has greatly benefited from these projects, the resulting devastation is still felt in the Kootenays today.

Apparently, the environment and people in the Kootenays have not suffered and given enough. Dozens of private power licenses have been issued by the government for more hydroelectric projects. This time, the focus is on what remains: the creeks.

At 125 MW capacity, the proposed private Glacier/Howser hydroelectric project is the largest new hydro project in the region. The creek water would be diverted into tunnels bored through mountains directly to the Duncan Reservoir. The water would never return to the creeks.

A transmission line is proposed to be built through old-growth forest reserves and over a pristine mountain pass in the northern Purcell Mountain Wilderness, which would industrially bisect these mountains for the first time.

Bordering on the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy, this area is part of the most extensive, unprotected wilderness left in the West Kootenay. In fact, it is so ecologically and socially important that three park proposals are currently outstanding:

the Wilderness Committee’s Bugaboo National Park, the Valhalla Wilderness Society’s Central Selkirk Mountain Caribou Park and the locally conceived Jumbo Regional Recreation Area. The regional park proposal includes the following goal: “No new commercial or industrial development or expansions would be allowed.” This local effort is hindered with the passing of Bill 30, which disallows regional governments from zoning out provincial energy projects.

Rather than creating parks to protect our remaining priceless wilderness, current government policy seems determined to industrially develop and privatize every single natural resource.

While plans for the controversial Jumbo Glacier Resort are pushed forward, the adjacent Glacier/Howser hydroelectric proposal raises questions about the cumulative impacts that would heavily impact the region’s ecology.

People of the Kootenays greatly appreciate and enjoy their backyard wilderness. Teeming with threatened bull trout, these wild drainages also provide habitat for wolverine, wolf, mountain lion, grizzly bear, mountain goat and elk, while also providing important connectivity for the recovery of the endangered

mountain caribou. Popular hiking trails wind through the old-growth habitat leading to alpine meadows while kayakers paddle the rushing streams.

With the Glacier/Howser hydroelectric project, the public risks losing control over a public resource. It is not only public control that is at stake; the resource itself is endangered. Wilderness, old-growth forests, fish and wildlife, along with recreational opportunities, are all at risk. Given the history of extensive hydroelectric development and its impacts in the Kootenays, it is hard to imagine why the local citizens would accept this project. They don’t.

Citizens from all walks of life are writing letters to editors and making submissions to the Environmental Assessment Office to oppose the project. Local kayakers are staging protest paddles and backcountry hikers plan similar events on the trails. The media take great interest in the issue and environmental groups are rallying. Residents of Glacier Creek, along with their neighbours and friends, are blockading the Glacier Creek road in protest. People in the Kootenays are continuing to stand up for their water and wild places along with their democratic rights.

power assets of the people, as offered to them by the government of BC. There is no greater asset in the world than water and the renewable energy potential of BC is inestimable. Water is replacing oil as the most valuable energy source in the world and the people of BC are heirs to fortunes that will make the oil money of the last century pale in comparison. It is our responsibility to speak.

Today’s British Columbians will pass to their heirs and successors unparalleled renewable energy wealth unless the cheating is not stopped. The evidence of wrongdoing began to mount from the days of the Ashlu River rezoning process and was first exposed to the public in Common Ground’s October 2006 edition. Since 2002, the government of BC has used the BC (Bush-Cheney) Energy Plan to mislead the public into believing there was a problem with our public electric energy supply system that was going to be solved by a few private power projects. The map and list inside show otherwise.

Alcan had been given the Nechako River in 1950 to make all the aluminum it could; if it had any extra power, it could sell it locally to assist in the

industrial development of the far North.

Alcan made a submission to the Energy Task Force of BC in 2002 that became the blueprint for the re-regulation of the public water assets of the people of BC. A key feature of the plan exposes the public utility BC Hydro to the rules of NAFTA, which threatens the loss of public control of the last vertically-integrated public electricity system in North America.

Our democracy cannot survive being bullied by big government and big business. Communities throughout BC have been fighting to protect their free-flowing rivers for many years. In June of 2006, the Ashlu Law (Bill 30) removed the public’s right to vote and local governments’ capacity to veto a private power project on a river. We are being bullied. Authority is not truth. Truth is our authority. You will recognize the truth in the remarkable work of Craig Williams of North Vancouver, BC, who has created a Google Earth file (see centrefold) which plots the rivers being put into private water-power licenses. It also plots publically-guaranteed energy purchase agreements, now totally $30 billion, a figure expected to rise dramatically over the next few months as the government

speeds the process. Without Craig’s work, we would not know, as is the plan in general, that vast tracts of public land are being included as land tenure, fee simple land ownership with the newlycreated, private water-power licences.

The yellow dots on the centrefold map indicate where the private companies have either been given or paid a few dollars for the exclusive right to the natural power of the rivers. Every watershed in BC is impacted by this private scheme. Our historical right to the exclusive benefit offered by our water is now in jeopardy and we must take action to assert our rights.

This special anniversary edition of Stolen Rivers is dedicated to those who are committed to ensuring that the waters of BC are held in sacred trust to be passed on freely to future generations.

Congratulations for that wonderful August 2007 cover and tribute to a true Canadian hero and world champion, Colleen McCrory. With all the media out there, this was inspiring and really down-to-earth. Look at that determination on her face. We feel her walking in courage, truth and belief and I have not seen that for quite some time. A true memorial. Thank you Colleen.

Myna Lee Johnstone, Salt Spring Island

I read every issue of Common Ground.

Great magazine! Thanks so much for all the thoughtful and thought-provoking material you contribute. This is an urgently important magazine toward healing ourselves and our planet. I want to give special mention to the features

by Alan Cassels and his area of questioning: the pharmaceutical-driven medical system. His disclosures and exposés are terrifying and it is exciting to see these so-far unspeakable observations becoming the written word. Thank you Alan Cassels and thank you Common Ground.

Pat Newson, Comox, BC

Loved Geoff Olson’s article Art or Propaganda in the June 2007 issue. It is such a pleasure to read an article on art that aims for clarity rather than bafflement. It was a very well-written, insightful article and pulled together a lot of fascinating references. Bravo!

Carole Orr

I wish to express appreciation to Common Ground for the articles 9/11 the Plane Truth (September 2007) and Why 9/11 Is Relevant to Canadians (June 2007) as well as the coverage of the Vancouver 9/11 Truth Conference – espe-

Health Canada cont. from p. 22 While Dr. Popper was initially reluctant to allow any of his patients to try EMPowerplus, he testified that once he did authorize EMPowerplus for his patients, his practice changed dramatically.

When his patients were taking pharmaceutical drugs, he counselled them weekly to ensure against their committing suicide. However, after many of his patients began taking EMPowerplus, they resumed work or school and he only had to meet with them every several months. Dr. Popper testified that he underestimated the “fog” that anti-psychotic drugs put his patients in. He came to this conclusion after every single

cially given the sorry and supercilious coverage provided by the Vancouver Courier in their June 27th issue. You are to be congratulated for the focus given this troubling matter.

No one can say exactly what happened on or before 9/11 and the possible variations are endless, but credible evidence now exists such that reasonable people are convinced that things as officially presented do not connect with the truth. Very much is in doubt and we must doubt.

The body of leading engineers, air traffic controllers, technical investigators, pilots, authors and scientists clamouring for a full and open official investigation into 9/11 has grown. Canadians need to know. Sadly, mainstream media are standing in a corner with their fingers in their ears. Has anyone noticed there is blood on our hands? Thanks, Common Ground, for approaching this most urgent and authentic question of our time with fairness and respect and for assuming your readers are intelligent enough to handle disturbing truths.

Allan Willson, Vancouver

Imagine (actually, you don’t have to imagine because it’s a fact) that you personally own more than a million dollars worth of the most desirable resource on the planet: water power. It is still a public property so you own it. It’s worth trillions of dollars so your personal share amounts to over a million. But now this property is being quietly taken away from you and given to someone else.

In the official legal language it is called “privatization.” In everyday language, it is called theft. At this very moment, that is what is happening to BC rivers. They are being stolen from us. Is it because we are so generous or is it becuase we are simply ignorant?

Fred Williams, Vancouver

[Common Ground first published this letter in September of 2002. As George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”]

As the NHPD rushes to complete its national travelling consultations and review of the feedback from industry stakeholders, perhaps it would be wise to pause and review the agency’s charter and mission.

The offspring of the Office of Natural Health Products, which was a creation of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health’s famous (or infamous) 53 recommendations, the NHPD seems adrift in a sea of the minutia of pharmaceutical guidelines and undue concerns about the safety of products, most which have been in common usage for thousands of years.

Concerns over manufacturing practices, raw material quality, labelling and the nature of the evidence required to make therapeutic claims, seem to have thrown out the baby with the bathwater.

It is significant to note that among the Standing Committee on Health’s recommendations there was a commitment to ensure the continued availability of the Natural Health Products (NHPs) which Canadians were (and are) turning to in increasing numbers, and to ensure that no undue regulatory burdens were placed on the manufacturers of NHPs. There was recognition that NHPs were not drugs, and in fact had wide margins of safety. The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published statistics that an estimated 108,000 Americans die annually because of properly administered prescription medicines (that’s not counting mistakes or abuse).

In fact, it makes the top four leading causes of death, right up there with cancer and heart disease.

patient on EMPowerplus explained how much clearer their thinking was.

Dr. Popper also testified that if Empower plus was withdrawn from the market, there would be deaths, hospitalizations and assaults. He also testified that he would not be able to handle his practice and would have to refer many of his patients to other psychiatrists as he would have to resort to regular counselling and management, a necessity with psychiatric drugs.

Before attempting to take EMPowerplus off of the market, Health Canada did not consult with Dr. Popper or any other doctors or psychiatrists familiar with the NHP. In the end, the head of the Alberta branch of the Canadian Mental Health

Association went public to blame Health Canada for suicides when two CMHA members ran out of EMPowerplus and committed suicide. Eventually, the minister of health relented and agreed that EMPowerplus could be imported into Canada. TrueHope was found not-guilty at trial because the Court found that it was morally obligated to continue selling EMPowerplus.

In the course of trying to remove EMPowerplus from the market, Health Canada received so many calls from angry Canadians that it ultimately set up a 1-800 crisis line, which advised callers to see their doctors and get back on approved psychiatric drugs. The attack on EMPowerplus, as the attack on kava,

Wouldn’t the time, effort and scarce healthcare resources expended by the NHPD be better invested in policing and regulating the pharmaceutical industry’s well-intentioned, but nonetheless lethal, ministrations to the Canadian public? In this era of health cutbacks, wouldn’t it make sense to examine alternative theories of wellness, which served man well for thousands of years and nurture them, rather than regulate them to death?

The Taliban of medical orthodoxy have ruled for too long and claimed too many victims in the name of science and profit. Rather than copying the European Unions’ NHP model, crafted by the pharmacartels, or the international HARMonization protocols, who share the same father, Health Canada should recognize the unique value of NHPs and reconsider the path they are on. If they won’t, or don’t, the natural health products industry, as we know it today, is done like dinner.

As the premier advocates for a strong and safe natural health industry, the CHFA has worked closely with the NHPD to get us where we are today.

For decades, they have worked hard to champion the cause of the health food industry and now, in the hour of what could be their greatest triumph, they are faced with banning of kava kava when their own experts assured them there was no way that would ever happen.

They have re-examined their organizational hierarchy and discovered that, in spite of what the NHPD has told them, they are not an independent third category, but a stepchild of the Therapeutic Products Directorate. Poor relations to the pharmacy industry. A noncost recovered bureaucracy in a time of sharp knives. For certain, there are many excellent people in the NHPD and in the CHFA. It’s time for them to stand up and be counted before it is too late.

Peter Helgason, Kamloops, B.C.

is a classic case of Health Canada privileging the pharmaceutical medical model over the natural health model.

It is not enough for Canadians to wake up and start pressuring their MPs to ensure that NHPs remain on the market. We need to realize that the natural health paradigm must co-exist with the medical drug model. There is a real health risk in assuming that the mainstream pharmaceutical medical model is good for us.

Shawn Buckley is a constitutional lawyer who specializes in the Food and Drug Act and regulations. He acts primarily on behalf of manufacturers of natural health products.

I’

m in a Zodiac bouncing along the waves off the north coast of Kauai. The fog begins to lift, revealing a coastline that looks almost kitsch in its technicolour beauty. The guide points to a valley between the peaks. It’s long been a favoured, illegal haunt of Vietnam vets and others “trying to escape from reality,” he says.

From reality, or into it? I wonder. From where I sit, it doesn’t get any more nonvirtual than this. There isn’t a billboard, microwave tower or set of golden arches anywhere in sight.

The boat slows so we can get a better look at spinner porpoises as they leap and twirl, trying to fling off remoras attached to their bodies. Our guide points to two shadows gliding by the boat. Two manta rays are mating, the edges of their fins breaking the surface.

Hawaii has beckoned as a paradise since ancient mariners roamed the Pacific. Literally, in many cases. In their respective legends, Tahitians, Samoans and the Maori have all pegged it as their ancestral homeland. The Hawaiian language word Hawaii derives from Polynesian sawaiki, with the reconstructed meaning “homeland.” At various times over the centuries, they set forth in relatively primitive boats to discover this long-lost paradise. Against all odds, they came upon a volcanic island chain in the middle of the Pacific, the most remote place on Earth. Today, Hawaii is occupied by the descendents of these travellers, who somehow found a place perfectly consistent with the description in their myths. No one is sure how they managed this feat of navigation.

But as glorious and bountiful as Hawaii was, there was still conflict between newer and later arrivals and wars between islanders. Paradise makes for pretty desirable real estate. Today, the islands are beset with problems the tourist bureau would prefer to go unmentioned, from military weapons testing to agribusiness to homelessness, not to mention a home foreclosure rate three times that of the continental US. The myth of a lost paradise, or Golden Age, is universal around the world, with the term deriving from Greek mythology. It referred to the greatest age in the Greek spectrum of Iron, Bronze, Silver and Golden ages. It was a time when humanity was pure and immortal and evil had no sway. Remarkably, this is echoed in the Hindu or Vedic culture,

with its model of cycling Yugas, or great epochs. The Satya Yuga (Golden Age), Kali Yuga (Iron Age), Dwapara Yuga (Bronze Age) and Treta Yuga (Silver Age) correspond to the four Greek ages.

In this mythological framework, we now live in the fourth and most chaotic age, the Kali Yuga, at the end of which Brahma will awake from his dream and the whole cycle will begin again.

In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the Golden Age is connected with The Garden of Eden, in the days prior to Eve’s covert deal with a serpentine fruit vendor.

One advantage of locating good times in the remote past, rather than seeking them in a collective future, is that reality testing can’t get in the way. Prophecies have a best before date; they usually go bad. But the past worlds of Eden, Lemuria, Mu and Atlantis are not subject to any such limits. Pushed back far enough into the past, a Golden Age sits outside

tion of Kennedy, describing it as a coup in broad daylight by the shadow government. Others say the pivotal moment came with Nixon’s abandonment of the gold standard back in 1968, which ushered in unfettered global capital and growing income gaps. Some believe the republic was truly lost back in 1913 when the private banks created the Federal Reserve, in effect turning “We the People” into “We the Wage Slaves.”

There’s never been a shortage of negative historical touchstones; pivotal moments when the people lost the plot.

In Canada, we have a wealth of options, from either the right or left: the recent ratification of the Security and Prosperity Partnership; the election of Harper’s minority government; our entry into the war in Afghanistan; Chrétien and pepper spray; Mulroney and Free Trade; Trudeau and Meech; Diefenbaker and the Avro Arrow. In comparison, indig-

the realm of historical proof. It becomes a loose benchmark against which we can measure all later decline.

Perhaps the archetype of the Golden Age is drawn from the time in the womb and the great peace that precedes entry into a loud, blindingly bright world. Did the mythmakers draw upon deeply buried, intrauterine memories of floating undisturbed in the amniotic fluid, like tiny sea divers?

Whatever the source of its seductiveness, the idea of a Golden Age isn’t limited to religious believers. Just as the elderly like to speak of “the good old days” – forgetting the homophobia, racism and patriotic overkill of the past – most of us have a personal timeframe for when things went sideways. For some Americans, it was 9/11, when the neocons cynically exploited the citizens’ patriotism and the planet’s goodwill.

Others go further back, to the assassina-

enous people have one simple touchstone: the arrival of whites.

We tend to think we had it better in the “good old days,” even if that was, in astounding retrospect, the recent time of Clinton, the Starr Commission and skyhigh tech stocks. Go back far enough the thinking goes and somebody somewhere must have had it great. But the more you study the past, the more a hypothetical Golden Age recedes like a ship in the fog. Where was it? The Renaissance with its Borgia Popes and warring nation-states? The Feudal era with its plagues? The Maya and Aztec empires, with their human sacrifices?

Imagine you are Alexander the Great, the most powerful person in the known world of the Mediterranean, with access to all the best life has to offer, and you have to get a tooth pulled. If there ever was a Golden Age for dentistry, it wasn’t before the discovery of novocaine.

Some argue that the whole sorry history of Mideast warfare is the legacy of patriarchal societies, which subdued the matriarchal societies of the Neolithic era. Prior to this, people worshipped goddess figures and lived in peace. Yet as activist and author Derrick Jensen argues quite convincingly, this is not a gender issue; civilization itself was the poison pill. A pattern of environmental exploitation and shrinking resources followed its inception in short order, with nation-states rising and falling with depressing regularity.

As for war, there’s abundant archaeological evidence it shades back into the mists of prehistory, long before civilization. In his book War, military analyst Gwynne Dyer argues that war has been a constant companion to the human race, back to the hunter-gatherer tribes of prehistory. Human beings have been dying at roughly the same rate from war for centuries, and there is evidence suggestive that the same rate held in the distant past, when there were frequent skirmishes and raids, though with relatively low loss of life each time. Today, armed conflicts are less frequent, though when they occur, as in aerial bombardments, the number of deaths can be much more significant.

It seems that when the known world was not actively being destroyed, it was on the edge of falling apart. A visit to Jerusalem, or any other ancient city, can be a sobering lesson in how eternal claims on temporary property always ends in rubble. Hence the consoling idea of a Golden Age. With things this bad – choose your calendrical era – it could only have been that much better in the past.

By the ninth century BC, violence, political disruption and religious intolerance set thinkers in a new direction.

Though they were separated by great distances, in both miles and languages, the thinkers of the Axial Age turned their spiritual emphasis from outward worship to inward contemplation. Buddha, Confucius, and Lao Tzu weren’t as interested in an historical Golden Age or Promised Land as much as the transformative possibilities of the moment.

This emphasis can also be found in the Gnostic Gospels, which were standard Christian fare until the fourth century AD, when the Council of Nicea decided to leave them out of the canonical books of the Bible. Christ was concerned with others’ immediate inner experience of peace, love and understanding, not mechanical

rituals before the Judaic God. There are three ways to read myths.

The first is as fairy tales for adults – lies, essentially. The second is as literal truths.

Most of us choose one of these two. The third way to read them is as metaphors for existential truths. By this reading, the Golden Age never was. It eternally is. This tricky idea was summed up in an exchange between the journalist Bill Moyers and mythologist Joseph Campbell in the 1987 PBS series The Power of Myth.

Throughout Moyers’ final dialogue with Campbell, the interviewer tries to salvage some doctrinal semblance of his Baptist faith, seeking confirmation that the resurrection of Christ actually prefigures our own. Campbell cautions against a literal reading of the Bible, or any other religious text. If you think that the metaphor is itself the reference, the mythologist says, you’re lost. “It would be like going to a restaurant, asking for the menu, seeing beefsteak written there and starting to eat the menu.”

In the Christian doctrine, Moyers says, the material world is to be despised and life is to be redeemed in the hereafter, in heaven, where our rewards come.

He challenges Campbell in saying, “But you say that if you affirm that which you deplore, you are affirming the very world which is our eternity at the moment.”

Campbell responds that that is exactly what he means, and that the eternity he’s

talking about isn’t some later time, that time has nothing to do with it. “If you don’t get it here,” he tells Moyers, “you won’t get it anywhere.”

Campbell: The experience of eternity, right here and now, in all things, whether thought of as good or as evil, is the function of life.

Moyers: Eden was not; Eden will be.

Campbell: Eden is. “The kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it.”

Moyers: Eden is? In this world of pain and suffering and death and violence?

Campbell: That is the way it feels, but this is it, this is Eden. When you see the kingdom spread upon the earth, the old way of living in the world is annihilated. That is the end of the world. The end of the world is not an event to come; it is an event of psychological transformation, of visionary transformation. You see not the world of solid things, but a world of radiance.

It might be argued that this was an easy claim for Campbell to make; a man born into privilege, he led a charmed life as champion runner for Columbia, and later as a world-travelling scholar.

He spent his final years living comfortably in one of my favourite places in the world, Hawaii. Perhaps he could appreciate this “radiance” much easier than someone who is unhealthy, unhappy or under hardship.

And how to reconcile the idea of a perfect present with present imperfection? As Moyers questioned, how can anyone think of the Golden Age being in and around us, with the world in the shape it’s in?

Yet Campbell didn’t pull his notion of a psychological Heaven/Eden out of thin air; it was based on a lifelong study of the mystical tradition of both the East and the West. He was talking about something quite distinct from politics and nationstates, intellectual categories or organized religion, for that matter. He meant immediate experience, even in moments that are magnificently mundane.

The present is a timeless state; we just don’t spend much time there. But the consumer market promises to get us in. All our videogames, movies, sports, advertising and pornography are predicated on the hunger to forget ourselves and our troubles, and get lost in the moment. Yet these inventive distractions and addictions invariably fail to satisfy and the self is left hungering for more.

This hunger is a problem that goes right back to the people of the Axial Age. For Buddha, a central part of awakening and inner peace was cultivating stillness and silence. Another big factor was compassion – literally, “to suffer with” others. For the Taoist Lao Tzu, it was a kind of equanimity with the natural world, an understanding that it is insane to oppose what we’re a part of. As for Christ, he set the bar pretty high for his followers – “Love thy enemy” – but imagine what the world might be like if they ever really took His advice seriously.

The notion that the Golden Age is already here is not all that welcome to pundits, politicians, advertisers and religious leaders, or anyone wanting some control over other human beings. But the idea persists, even though it’s easy to get wrong. You can mistake being born into the white, wealthy, Western world with karmic entitlement. You can confuse apolitical navel-gazing with the end of responsibility, when the temporal world, like the self, is always a work in progress. But if we’re talking about something that has been endorsed by mystics from traditions across the world, over many centuries, there’s probably something to it.

Beat writer William Burroughs was one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. He was also a lifelong misanthrope, a man who had more attraction to drugs and firearms than the self-serving pieties of organized religion.

But even this clever cynic felt something stirring within himself toward the end.

In his final diary entry from 1997, the dying author wrote: “Nothing is. There is no final enough of wisdom, experience – any fucking thing. No Holy Grail, No final satori, no final solution. Just conflict. Only thing can resolve conflict is love, like I felt for Fletch and Ruski, Spooner and Calico.

Pure love. What I feel for my cats present and past. Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller what there is. LOVE.” If the Golden Age is within us, it’s safe to say it’s dying to get out, in one way or another. There are places in the world that feel like paradise. For me, Kauai fits the bill. But in the end, “paradise,” the “promised land” and the “Golden Age” are just words. When something within resonates with something without, we’re talking about metaphors for inner transformation. The tragedy is when, as Campbell says, people go to war for metaphors, thinking they are defending eternal truths. The estate that’s most real isn’t real estate. It isn’t here or there, in the past or in the future, presided over by a deity in a Century 21 jacket.

Through overuse, Campbell’s line about following your bliss has almost hardened into a new age cliché, but it’s worthwhile to recall the words that prefaced it: “You are more than you think you are,” the mythologist insisted.

“There are dimensions of your being and a potential for realization and consciousness that are not included in your concept of yourself. Your life is much deeper and broader than you conceive it to be here. What you are living is but a fractional inkling of what is really within you, what gives you life, breadth, and depth.

But you can live in terms of that depth.” mwiseguise@yahoo.com

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n 1998, I took a first-year Bible class. My teacher was a woman of fearless intelligence who, after spending her workday in a high-powered law firm, had no problem inspiring an evening class of several hundred inquisitive adults. After she learned that my background involved investments, she asked me for help.

My teacher had an employer retirement plan. The plan savings represented precious family resources. She had to choose between investment options she could not understand. She had tried speaking with the plan customer representative, but had found it an intimidating process. Would I help educate her?

A few days later, I found myself on the phone with the firm representative listening to a description of a fund that invested in US-government-guaranteed mortgage securities. After a series of brusque answers, I said in frustration, “I am a former partner and member of the board of a major securities firm and the former US Assistant Secretary of Housing. If I cannot understand how this fund works, it is because things are not clear, rather than because I am stupid.” The representative then confessed that she did not understand the fund either so she could not help us through the legal hieroglyphics that filled the fund prospectus.

What can hopelessly complexifying a financing system, burying it in legal gobbledygook and wrapping it all up with government guarantees achieve?

As a result, financial institutions can engage in predatory lending in residential communities, then pool the mortgages into securities and sell those securities into the retirement plans of the very people whose neighbourhoods are being destroyed. Fool the people closest to home and you can then fool investors around the globe. This is how frauds like the sub-prime mortgage mess happen.

This is not a pretty picture, but it is a common one for many of us. Increasingly, we find ourselves financing activities that are harming our air, water, food and communities.

Last year, my aunt, a Quaker concerned with peace and environmental sustainability listened to my audio seminar, Beyond Socially Responsible Investing. Agitated, she called me saying, “You said that this SRI fund is investing in Halliburton. I am an investor in that fund. How can this be possible?” On my next trip to her home, I went through her brokerage accounts. It turned out she was financing Halliburton through not just one, but three funds.

These situations happen constantly.

For example, I visit with university students organizing a political effort. When I point out that the university endowment that supports their scholarships is investing in the activities they oppose, I get blank stares.

I learn that 9/11 truth activists are raising money to place an ad in the papers that have censored the truth of 9/11. The media reward the censors with profitable ads while investing not a penny in media that has provided a successful platform for the unanswered questions of 9/11.

I ask a group of people heading off to a march where they bank. While they are marching up and down, their bank deposits will be safely tucked away in the lead banks financing the activities

and where it is going is a critical step to gathering our power to create the world we wish for our children and future generations. As we align our money with our mission and our values, we also create the foundation to take the most powerful next step: holding the institutions and enterprises around us responsible to align their financial affairs and investments with their stated missions and values.

The opportunity for mission investing How do we achieve a sound investment performance by aligning our money with our mission and values?

When we answer this question, we find the financially sustainable pathway between our current state and a world where financial intimacy is both pos-

they are protesting. They may not realize where their true “vote” lies but the politicians watching the march do.

The absence of financial intimacy is most heartbreaking in communities. As I walk by small retail businesses, I watch a day-to-day flow of choices regarding media attention, bank deposits, purchases, donations and investments – choices which finance the very corporations and organizations that are draining jobs and income from the community. What do you say to a small business owner who is investing her savings in the stocks, bonds and CDs of the banks and corporations financing the franchises which are putting her out of business?

Seeing the events emerging in our world as part of a tapestry interwoven with our personal finances and the money in institutions that we support and influence can seem overwhelming.

Who wants to bring a sense of intimacy to our money when it is deeply involved in activities not in alignment with our mission and values? It is much easier to grumble about our national and international leaders.

However, taking the time to understand where our money is coming from

sible and practicable.

Combining investment performance with financial intimacy has been challenging as a global bubble of fiat currencies, government debt and subsidies and manipulated markets have inspired unproductive personal and enterprise behaviour. Now that the instability of the global financial system is widely understood, the benefits of our returning to a back to the basics way of doing things, essential services and infrastructure and activities that improve fundamental productivity are apparent. The opportunities are significant for those of us who are prepared to collaborate in investing for a new and different world.

Sound currency: My vote for the most significant cause of environmental damage on planet Earth is centralized currency systems that allow a few people to invisibly control and tax the many.

The benefits of successfully prototyping and implementing local and regional currencies, decentralizing the ownership and control of precious metals inventories (thus thwarting a move to one world digital currency) and finding transaction alternatives that reduce the skim of credit cards on communities are extraordinary.

The financial benefits are most profound when combined with capital gains on place-based equity (see below).

A new compact between generations: We are moving into a wholly new environment, driven by globalization – an explosion in new technology and shrinking natural resources, or what some have referred to as “peak everything.” In this environment, one of the keys to successful investment will be investing in a new generation of leaders whose skills and ambitions are appropriate to this environment. In part, this means shifting investment to emerging markets. It also means finding ways to help the young rise successfully to leadership positions within aging populations, supported by (as opposed to squelched by) the networking and risk management skills of the middle-aged generation and the capital and long view of the eldest generation.

Free farmers, fresh food: Why go to a horror movie when we can read about the corporate manipulation and control of the seed and food supply? The time has come to organize consumers to ensure a healthy food system by supporting private brands in financing networks of indigenous and independent farming communities that have the traditions and knowledge to protect their land and seed supplies. The diverse constituencies gathering to protect a vital, fresh food and water supply, backed by missiondriven investment and political action to prevent legislative and regulatory sabotage, present one of the most attractive opportunities for successful investment in decentralizing change.

Global media: Markets can work when products, services and assets are understood quickly and allowed to be priced accurately. That means truth matters; hence the opportunity for internet-savvy media that have the capital to attract the best and the brightest and which are not financially dependent on central powers or overly dependent on military and corporate satellites.

Place-based equity: For several decades, we have experienced a shift of assets out of governments and communities into the hands of large private banks and corporations. We have the opportunity to create investment vehicles to manage such privatization in a decentralizing manner. Step one is to shift the current investment flowing out of communities and into large banks and corporations into more grounded investment. This includes developing pooled investment vehicles, which can create

liquidity for equity investment in small businesses and farms within a place.

Imagine venture funds and mutual funds for your local area (and those of your family and friends and networks) that you could buy through your retirement plan or that would be attractive for pension funds. Such vehicles can finance the integration of new technology critical to lowering energy, transportation and waste costs, revitalizing infrastructure and protecting personal financial privacy. Such investment vehicles can offer equity incentives to young people to seek career opportunities building up communities. Investment performance of such capital pools could benefit tremendously from bringing greater transparency to and reengineering government investment and regulations locally.

One attractive feature of this kind of investment is that it creates financial incentives for local and global investors to prosper together from the success of “place,” including the environmental and human health and well-being arenas.

If adopted on scale, this is a profound change in our global incentive systems.

Imagine stocks that rise as the environment heals, and fall as environmental damage occurs.

Globally, we are frequently seeing local communities and large corporations facing-off in win-lose confrontations over resources. There is a need for equity investment to create and prototype corporate and trust vehicles designed for strategic public-private purpose: the governing of local assets, such as water and mineral resources, and attracting and rewarding leaders with excellent spiritual, community, scientific, engineering and management skills. Pools of capitals amassed by mission-driven investors have the potential to prototype and introduce win-win ownership and governance models that can balance global resource availability and needs and know-how with local traditions, wisdom and ownership.

But, but, but…

Like all historic opportunities, the one before us involves risks: Playing to win at economic warfare: Throughout history, a few groups have subsidized themselves by draining other groups along with the environment, whether it is through organized crime, slavery, warfare or pollution. Before we can evolve our central banking-warfare model, we have to understand who is leading it and why they stick with it.

This requires a deep understanding of the cash and credit flows around us.

This understanding will bring us to a second question: “Is sustainability possible?” One reason to extract subsidy is because it is not possible to be self-sufficient. Another is that self-sufficiency requires advanced technology to be widely available. A third is that human culture is too primitive to manage it safely. For mission investing to succeed,

we need to understand if and how sustainability is possible at our current population levels. Shifting the chairs around will do no good when the core issue is that we need more chairs or less people.

This brings us to the most critical implementation question. How do we enforce the rule of law in a world defined by economic warfare? If I can listen to your board meetings with Echelon technology, hack your bank account with PROMIS software, trigger an earthquake in your town with electromagnetic weapons, zap your spouse from my surveillance satellite and arrange sex slave benefits for your attorney – if he secretly sabotages you – all without having to assume criminal and civil liability as a practical matter, then investment is easily swayed from its mission or lost.

How can the rule of law be enforced given the current state of advanced, invisible weaponry and surveillance technology? Indeed, there are ways, but they are not obvious until we start dealing with the practical aspects of economic and military warfare by sophisticated players pushing their weight around in local communities.

Philanthropy – achieving authentic returns: Recent reports on mission investing by foundations indicate that a

significant amount of such investing is being made in the form of loans to charitable organizations. I recently met with a social venture capitalist who explained that their best proposals were coming from not-for-profits. This trend is disturbing. The central banking-warfare model generates significant profits for bad behaviour and then glorifies those who lead it with the photo opportunities of philanthropic “good works.” If those who don’t want to rise in large corporations and banks, opting instead for activities that do not allow for the attraction and accumulation of financial equity, the system will continue to consolidate financial capital and power in those who promote bad behaviour.

A generation of the best and the brightest will work diligently at good works and ultimately find themselves without personal resources, financially dependent on centralized powers. Meanwhile, the private family wealth of those who are opposed to centralization will not have the talent and leadership behind it to create opportunities to build their wealth so their capital can be expected to erode over time. This is a formula for adapting to feudalism, rather than for preserving freedom for future generations.

It is critical that mission investing

attract the best and the brightest of a new generation to activities which successfully shift inter-generational pools of capital towards decentralization of political and economic power in a wealthcreating manner. Indeed, the freedom of future generations depends on it.

The myth of insignificance: It is common to hear, “I am only one person.

I don’t have a lot of money. I am too insignificant.” Such comments indicate a lack of understanding of how highly-leveraged financial markets work. Imagine a human body where most of the blood is going to the toes and no blood is going to the heart and the brain. Now imagine what happens as incremental increases of blood start moving toward the heart and brain. When I come clean in my own money, my one action can inspire the many around me to do the same. This is why when change achieves a tipping point, it can spread in exponential ways.

It is critical to also think of missioning our money as a philosophy designed to move us to solid ground in practical ways. Are we better off financing our own well, or investing in large corporations in the hope that we will make enough money to buy water when we need it? We each need to think in terms of what we and our neighbours require in order to reduce expenses and debt, increase income, protect assets and improve our health, education and skills. Our opportunity lies in aligning the interests of each individual with the interests of the wider system.

Financial intimacy As more people and institutions discover the opportunity to improve our situation by withdrawing our money from harmful organizations and activities, and aligning investment with our mission and values, we will begin to experience a new kind of spiritual and financial liquidity that creates cultural hopefulness. Missioning our money opens a life-giving pathway to shift our current situation and preserve our commitment to our children and future generations.

Catherine Austin Fitts presents Transforming Our Money, Transforming Our Community, Oct. 10, Canadian Memorial United Church (Burrard & W. 15th), 7:30-9:30pm. Tickets $25 at www.solari. com or at door. Call 604-294-9895 for more info.

I

have this great idea for a blockbuster Hollywood movie, but since I don’t know any movie directors, I thought I would let it loose here. Here’s how it goes: There is the growing discontent and anger among ordinary people in the US about Iraq, Bush, health care, the corruption of Congress, and – the real lurker – the truth behind 9/11.

Why did Building 7 go down? Was it a controlled demolition? Was Flight 93 shot down shortly before it crashed in rural Pennsylvania? Was its real target Building 7? So, let’s imagine…

The Democrat-controlled Senate establishes a 9/11 Truth Commission to resolve the outstanding questions. When an amnesty is offered to anyone willing to speak his or her truth, the evidence that emerges about the involvement of some of America’s top leaders and officials shocks people to the core.

Across the US, people sit glued to CNN as the testimonies air live. A feeling of deep betrayal sweeps the country as Conservatives struggle with their realization that the War on Terror has been manipulated and progressives explode

with anger against a government they have deplored and the elite who have been manipulating American democracy for so long, and who appear to have been involved in the 9/11 manipulations.

As the evidence that Flight 93 was shot down becomes clear, a prominent witness dies in a car crash and a US air force pilot on duty that day is found dead from a suspicious suicide. When a third witness fights off what appears to be a random mugging, her attacker is found to have a list of the Truth Commission’s witnesses on his computer. In shades of Kennedy’s assassination in 1962, he is shot down before he can testify in court, and internet chat rooms, YouTube and Facebook all explode with furious conjecture.

Amid the turmoil, a grassroots movement called Free Democracy Now emerges calling for American democracy to be dug up and overhauled from the roots. The movement’s Charter calls for a ban on all political campaign funding by corporations and unions; a $1,000 ceiling on individual campaign donations; an end to the corrupt pork barrel financing of pet projects; proportional voting

in all elections; and the single transferable vote for the presidential race. It also calls for a unified voting system for the country governed by an independent electoral commission; town-hall meetings to choose local candidates; and lowering the voting age to 16 so that young people can taste their first experience of democracy while still at school.

Liberals and Conservatives put aside their historical rancor to support the new movement and choose local candidates for the forthcoming elections under the slogan “Free Democracy Now!” Is this the second American Revolution that will overthrow the power of the military-industrial corporatocracy that President Eisenhower warned about in

weeks to go, bombs explode at the Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles airports, causing panic and the complete shutdown of US airspace. The president goes on TV to call for calm, asking for God’s protection against “… the infidels who hate us.” Three hours later, he announces the postponement of the election for three months and places the country under martial law.

Instead of rallying to their leader, however, the American public takes to the streets. The governors of California and Minnesota join their people and, by morning, 40 of America’s state governors have joined their citizens on the streets calling for the election to be re-instated, the 9/11 Truth Commission to be restored

1961 and which will usher in the rebirth of democracy or is it the beginning of a new Dark Age in American politics, when corporate control will be reinforced?

Meanwhile, in an atmosphere of unprecedented tension and unrest, Homeland Security warns of an imminent terrorist attack on La Guardia Airport and all flights to and from New York are suspended. On the Iran/Iraq border, an Iranian arrested by US troops is found to be carrying plans for simultaneous attacks on Israel and the New York subway system. The president announces a State of Emergency, suspends the Truth Commission and calls for an allout national effort to defend US borders against would-be terrorists. When three men are arrested crossing the unguarded border close to Vancouver airport carrying maps of New York’s airports, the president accuses Canada of encouraging terrorism and closes the entire border.

Public cynicism has gone far too far, however, and there is widespread belief that the incidents are being staged to sustain an atmosphere of fear as the elites that are behind this scramble to retain control over the cash machine they have been running for years, known as democracy. Free Democracy Now flags sprout from houses everywhere.

As the election approaches, the Free Democracy candidates look set to sweep out most of the incumbents. With two

and the State of Emergency to be lifted.

For the next four days there are dramatic stand-offs across America as troops from the National Guard face down citizens in towns and cities from Alaska to Florida. The members of Free Democracy Now are determined to remain calm and non-violent, however, while growing in numbers all the time.

They are joined by school children and college students, by workers calling for a national strike, by local mayors, and, most strikingly of all, by Christian fundamentalist religious leaders. By sunset of the fifth day, the president relents, agreeing to all their demands.

Two weeks later, a Democrat wins the presidency and both the Senate and Congress pass into the control of Free Democracy Now. Over the next 100 days, the Charter is converted into successful legislation and most of Washington’s lobbyists pack their bags to leave the city forever. The second American Revolution has succeeded.

Twenty years later, schoolchildren are taught how these events were a natural consequence of Americans’ love of liberty, and how, in the long history of humanity, the pursuit of justice and democracy will always prevail.

Guy Dauncey is an independent author and organizer who lives in Victoria. www.earthfuture.com

F

ilm adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels have reaped Oscar glory and the 1995 BBC production Pride and Prejudice, with Colin Firth’s memorable turn as aloof, aristo-in-love Darcy, remains one of the most popular television mini-series ever made.

Unfortunately, while there is a continuing appetite for Austen’s stories of English manners, there is limited material to draw on; she wrote only six books before her death at the age of 41. As a result, filmmakers have turned their attention to Austenesque stories, first with a fictionalized adaptation of the author’s life in Becoming Jane and now in a romantic drama set around a book club where people read Austen’s novels.

Modern Sacramento, California, the setting for the The Jane Austen Book Club is a long way from provincial England of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but similar romantic themes and complexities experienced by Austen characters continue to be played out here.

The film, based on Karen Joy Fowler’s novel of the same name, and adapted by debut American director Robin Swicord, is full of neat parallels and symmetry with Austen’s work; there are six char-

acters in the book club who meet over six months to read the six books.

Each character’s story is associated with one of the books. Serial divorcee Bernadette (Kathy Baker) sets up the club for dog-loving friend Jocelyn (Maria Bello), with unhappily married Prudie (Emily Blunt), Sylvia (Amy Brenneman), who is being divorced by her cheating husband Daniel (Jimmy Smits) and Sylvia’s semi-closeted lesbian daughter Allegra (Maggie Grace).

There is one lone male to complete the group; Grigg (Hugh Dancy) has joined out of his interest in Jocelyn, rather than in the literature of Austen, being more of a sci-fi man, although Jocelyn is more interested in setting him up with Sylvia.

The film has received warm praise for the way it brings together the various plot strands and while you don’t have to be a Janeite to enjoy the movie, you’ll appreciate the allusions to Austen’s work (opens October 5).

If you are reading this early in the month, there’s still plenty of film fare to be found at the Vancouver International Film Festival (www.viff.org). Among the offerings is Seachd: the Inaccessible Pinnacle, which is a remarkable

achievement. To understand why, it helps to know a bit of the background story. Gaelic, the native language spoken by highland Scots, was heavily suppressed following the Jacobite uprising of 1745 and the subsequent rout of Bonnie Price Charlie’s highland army by English forces. As a response to Scottish rebelliousness, the English government passed laws forbidding the wearing of tartan (hence the popularity of the kilt) and children were forbidden to speak Gaelic at school.

Centuries later, the Gaelic language in Scotland looked doomed to slip away.

However, in recent years, government money has started flowing into cultural initiatives aimed at revitalizing and spreading the language and it’s a sign of Gaeldom’s growing confidence that a feature film of this calibre is being made.

The “inaccessible pinnacle” is a sharp, rocky summit in Skye, which stands as a metaphor for a young boy’s challenge to come to terms with the death of his parents and reconcile himself with his dying grandfather who raised him and gave him his Gaelic roots. The film revels in contemporary highland culture and, in particular, the rare art of story-

telling, comprising a series of recreations of romantic folklore narrated by the grandfather to his grandchildren.

The skill of the filmmakers matches their ambition, resulting in a visually arresting and poetic work. The film was made with a limited budget, meaning that many of the young cast were non-professional. This is barely noticeable thanks largely to Aonghas Padraig Caimbeul, whose central, engaging performance as the grandfather carries the viewer through to the warm-hearted conclusion. (Seachd screens October 9, 6:20pm, Empire Granville 7 and October 10, 1pm, Visa screening room.)

Finally, one other film that looks intriguing is Gavin Hood’s Rendition (due out October 12). When a US terrorism suspect has “disappeared,” his American wife (Reese Witherspoon) and a CIA analyst (Jake Gyllenhaal) become caught in the struggle to secure his release from a secret detention facility.

Robert Alstead is an independent filmamaker based in Vancouver. His feature documentary You Never Bike Alone is available for purchase at www. youneverbikealone.com.

Let’s jump off the train and build a boat… a lifeboat, an ark, a galleon of adventure and imagination destined for unknown lands. Build it now. The ice is melting. The waters are rising. We’re going to have to let go of the shore.

– Tim Bennett, director of What A Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire

A

s an expectant grandfather, I worry about what kind of world my grandson is about to be born into… peak oil, the population explosion, global warming and the mass extinction of species. The effects of these looming crises are with us 24/7 in the news. And it’s now dawning on us that things are coming to a head sooner than we imagined.

Temperatures and water levels are both rising. Polar bears will soon be paddling farther and farther through newly opened shipping lanes, dotted by drilling rigs and floating hotels for oil prospectors. Not good news.

It would certainly be freeing and empowering to at last be treated like an adult for once and not be spoon-fed like a two-year old by the corporate media.

What’s unique about the new film What a Way to Go (WAWTG) is its scope. It unabashedly takes on the increasing interaction and severity of all these trends without disingenuously reporting them as unrelated events – the truth not greenwashed with the illusion that some techno-fix around the corner will save this whole unsustainable edifice.

This compelling movie gives the perspective of a Midwestern white guy – a lot like me – awakening to these realities through a lifetime of observing changes on the planet and coming to grips with them. Director Tim Bennett and producer Sally Erickson portray industrial civilization as a powerful, speeding train. If anybody is in the locomotive up front, nobody is paying attention to the coming consequences of a whole system collapse at the end of the line.

The narrator discovers that acknowledging one’s own denial about the lethal trajectory of the path we are all on is the crucial first step. Next he questions, “How did we get here? Why do we keep destroying life on this planet? What do we truly want? How can we find a vision that will empower us to do what is necessary to survive, and even thrive, in the coming decades?”

WAWTG (aka Life at the End of Empire) features interviews of big picture luminaries like Daniel Quinn (Ishmael), Derrick Jensen (Endgame), Jerry Mander (In the Absence of the Sacred), Chellis Glendinning (Off the Map), Richard Heinberg (The Oil Depletion Protocol) and Father Thomas Berry (The

Dream of Earth) among many others.

Unlike most other documentaries, this film does not provide the “happy chapter” at the end, serving up a dish of “what you can do” to save the planet.

It’s going to take more than switching light bulbs. Tim Bennett says, “I don’t like happy chapters. They’ve lulled me back to sleep. They suggest that somebody, somewhere, somehow, is handling it. I can just go on with my life.”

It’s you and I who will now have to write that final chapter, in our communities and in our relationships with each other and with the Earth. See this movie; it offers the most comprehensive overview of what is really going on.

Former Common Ground staff member Phil Watson is keenly interested in environmental and men’s issues.

WAWTG screens in Victoria October 15; in Ladner October 16, and in Vancouver October 17. Screenings at 6:45pm followed by a community talking circle, facilitated by the filmmakers. For details see Datebook listings in this issue.

Call 604-940-0580 or visit online www.whatawaytogomovie.com : Activist Derrick Jensen, one of the many visionaries spotlighted in the film, speaks in Vancouver on October 19. See Datebook for details. Jensen is interviewed in both WAWTG and in the May 2007 issue of Common Ground.

Despite its uncompromising challenges to viewers, I predict it will quickly acquire “cult status” because of its power to change lives and to motivate people to change events, and that we’ll be hearing a lot about it over the coming years.

– Keith Thomas, Nature and Society Forum Nothing less than a 123-minute cat scan of the planet and its twentyfirst century human and non-human condition.

– Carolyn Baker, CarolynBaker.org

E

arlier this year, when I crossed our great country to talk to Canadians about environmental issues, some media pundits took issue with our vehicle of choice – a diesel bus. Even when I explained that diesel actually has a lower carbon footprint than gasoline, some of them immediately shot back with, “Then why isn’t it biodiesel?”

In truth, we had actually wanted to showcase an alternative fuel like biodiesel; we just couldn’t find a leasing agent who could get us an appropriate vehicle.

But, from the very beginning, we were also nervous about highlighting something that might be more of a problem than a solution.

Turns out, we were probably right.

According to a recent analysis published in the journal Science, attempting to save the planet by wholesale switching to

biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel may unintentionally have the opposite effect.

Proponents of biofuels, which are often made from plants such as corn or sugar cane, often point to their many advantages over fossil fuels like gasoline. Biofuels are less toxic or non-toxic in comparison to fossil fuels. They are a renewable resource, whereas once fossil fuels are gone, they’re gone. And biofuels can be grown just about anywhere you can grow crops, reducing the need for giant pipelines or oil tankers and potentially helping reduce conflict in areas like the Middle East.

So far so good. But things start to get complicated when you look more closely. Much has already been debated about the energy requirements to produce some biofuels, especially corn-based ethanol.

Ethanol made from corn only contains marginally more energy than what is needed to produce it. In fact, we use about a litre’s worth of fossil fuels to grow, harvest, process and transport a litre of cornbased ethanol. Many people argue that making corn-based ethanol is more of an agricultural subsidy for farmers than it is a sound environmental policy.

Things get even dodgier for biofuels when you look at the land area needed

to grow fuel crops. We use a lot of fossil fuels. Switching to biofuels would not reduce the demand for fuel; it would just change the way we get it. And that would require a lot of land. In fact, substituting just 10 percent of fossil fuels to biofuels for all our vehicles would require about 40 percent of the entire cropland in Europe and North America.

That is simply not sustainable.

Of course, reducing the amount of fuel we use, no matter what the type, is very important. But the authors of the recent article in Science say that if our primary motive in switching to biofuels is to reduce global warming, then we have to look at all our options for the land that would be needed to grow fuel crops.

The authors conclude: “If the prime

object of policy on biofuels is mitigation of carbon dioxide-driven global warming, policy-makers may be better advised in the short term (30 years or so) to focus on increasing the efficiency of fossil fuel use, to conserve the existing forests and savannahs and to restore natural forest and grassland habitats on cropland that is not needed for food.”

In other words, biofuels alone are not the quick-fix answer to global warming. In fact, strong legislated policies to improve the efficiency of our cars, homes and industries are much more effective strategies. In the longer term, biofuels may certainly play an important role. Some technologies, like cellulosic ethanol, which is made from woody debris, are very promising and they must be supported by government and industry now in order to be available on a larger scale in the coming years.

Biofuels have many advantages, but we have to look at all our options and make sure we make the best choices to ensure a more sustainable future.

Take the Nature Challenge and learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org Faisal Moola is the science director at the David Suzuki Foundation.

Dru is a fresh energising positive appproach to health and wellbeing

Dru Events Vancouver Fall 2007

P

icture this as a perfect recipe for fall colour, as well as a spectacular photo: glistening, bright purple beauty berries of Callicarpa bodinieri (Profusion) backlit in the afternoon sun against the red, orange and gold foliage of Viburnum opulus snowball tree.

Many shrubs and trees glow in the fall, just when perennials and annuals are starting to fade into distant summer memories. Nandina domestica (Heavenly Bamboo) provides year-round interest, but is particularly spectacular in fall, covered in clusters of tiny, orange-red berries. Take stock of colour in your garden now and if “dull” is what you come up with, plant some fall colour.

I steer clear of prickly plants in my garden, but make an exception for Berberis thunbergii, Atropurpurea, (Japanese barberry). This barberry bush covered in dark bronze-red leaves and tiny red berries looks spectacular on a sunny day underneath Cotinus coggygria, Grace, the red-leaved Smoke bush. But if it’s red you’re after, nothing beats cork-winged Euonymus alatus (Burning bush) for its vermilion-red leaves.

Each year around this time, I have a heyday planting for fall colour. “It’s all about the foliage,” I remind myself, while digging a hole for Ginkgo biloba (Maidenhair Tree), whose fan-shaped, golden leaves will light up the garden. In the case of Acer palmatum, Sango Kaku, it’s not just about exquisite foliage from spring onwards, but also striking coralred bark that glows all winter.

I just had to have Cornus, Eddie’s White Wonder, with leaves that change slowly from green to orange to deep red as the weather cools down. Eddie has the added attraction of masses of white dogwood blooms in mid- spring and a habit of sublime elegance.

I’ve made one more exception to my “prickly” rule by planting an evergreen variegated English holly, Ilex aquifolium, in the lawn as a specimen tree. I prune it to shape just before the holiday season so I can bring sprigs of glossy, variegated foliage with red berries inside for decoration.

Dogwood shrubs are showy in full leaf: Cornus alba, Elegantissima, with its green and white-edged leaves, and Cornus alba, Aurea, with its dazzling chartreuse leaves. As winter approaches, colourful bark on eye-catching stems becomes the main feature. TIP: Prune these shrubs just above the ground in March to encourage clusters of colourful new stems to grow.

Virginia creeper lives up to its name, quickly spreading up anything it can cling to. The most colourful of all the Virginia creepers is Parthenocissus henryana, the Silvervein creeper, with leaves that start purple, turn dark bronze-green with silver veins and then turn rich red in the fall.

The choices of great fall foliage plants are many, but one that gets a lot of attention is Hydrangea quercifolia, Oakleaf hydrangea. This most handsome of shrubs has eye-catching, deeply lobed leaves that turn spectacular crimson-bronze in fall. It also makes a distinguished container plant.

Go on, don’t be shy. Light up your garden by adding more drama, texture, contrast, interest and colour.

From A Year on the Garden Path: A 52-Week Organic Gardening Guide by Carolyn Herriot. Second edition $24.95.

Available from your favourite bookstore or order online at www.earthfuture.com/ gardenpath

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We are the leaders we’ve been looking for. ~ the Hopi elders ~

I have a copy of Amnesty International’s report here, which includes a section on the United States. The organization has concluded that the United States is now the principle violator of human rights and freedoms worldwide. ~ Vladimir Putin ~

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As all of this starts to shift and change and disintegrate and collapse there’s the opportunity, in fact, to come back to ourselves. To grow up, fundamentally, as people and as a culture. ~ Richard Heinberg ~

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We have met the enemy and he is us. ~ Pogo ~

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If we don’t change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed. ~ Chinese proverb ~

What you give is yours and what is not is lost. ~ Shota Rustaveli, 12th century Georgian philosopher ~

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They must find it difficult ... those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than the truth as the authority. ~ Gerald Massey ~

Hundreds of my readers have told me that my novel Ishmael should be read in every high school classroom in the world.

Naturally I’d be delighted to see this happen, but I really think it would be more to the point to have What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire seen in every high school classroom in the world! The two hours of this documentary are two hours that bring hope for the future of humanity by awakening and informing in the most profound yet lucid way imaginable. ~ Daniel Quinn ~

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Jumping cont. from p.5 My brother Pete is convinced that Dad would argue at the dinner table and discourage anyone from answering back.

Me? My memory is that he was trying to teach us how to debate issues. In fact, that’s why I think I did so well on the debate team in college.”

In box two of the four-box model, we look at the kind of evidence our conclusions lead us to. For example, if you were to interview Jim and Pete separately, each could give you compelling facts that would substantiate his position. In fact, the brighter we are, the more detailed and deliciously descriptive our data becomes. Imagine that you and I are working at the same office.

We’re friends. One day I come to you and say, “My boss is a jerk.” You say, “Are you sure? Maybe he’s just having a rough week. You know the IT system has been down.”

The next thing I’m likely to do is give you evidence to support my “jerk” conclusion about my boss. It’s natural because once I’m focused upon a conclusion, any conclusion, my brain is wired to automatically provide evidence for why that conclusion is correct. It’s a matter of survival (so the mind thinks) to be correct about what it has deduced.

This means that I’m not going to be interested in evidence that might contradict my assertion.

If you hear me out but still counter with something like, “I hear you, Maria.

But as your friend, I still have to ask you if you’re sure that he’s not just having a rough few days,” you’d be very brave.

You would be challenging my conclusion and I might relent, but probably not without a struggle. It goes against the grain to reassess a conclusion. I am in the groove of my own evidence-gathering process.

Box three is about how you show up based on the evidence you’re dealing with in the moment. You cannot help but act in ways that reflect the evidence you’re focused upon. Getting back to the boss scenario, how am I most likely to act if I’m sure my boss is a jerk? How do I look to you as I give you my supporting evidence? Is there much generosity of spirit? Compassion? Spaciousness? What might my facial expressions convey? Am I especially empowering or inspiring to be with at that moment? Or am I showing up as judgmental and small-minded?

We are hardwired to react to what we perceive, be it real or not. Neurophysiological research shows that the brain often fails to distinguish between what is happening outside, in physical reality, and what’s going on inside the brain itself. That’s the principle behind guided visualizations. If you can create calming and pleasant scenes in your mind, your heart rate and other physiological measures will follow suit.

Box four is about how others show up around us. Let’s take the scenario with my boss one step further. As I’m talking with you about him, he happens to enter the room. He looks at me. Predictably, I’m not thrilled to see him. He picks that up and walks out, or maybe he frowns before asking me to do something.

This causes me to give you an “I told you so” look. My original box one conclusion is validated. Case closed.

Let me be clear about the fact that I’m not discounting or excusing other people’s behaviour. The boss may well be doing what I say he’s doing. His behaviour could cause some people to label him as a jerk. But could there be another way to see it? We’ve all heard about, or experienced, situations in which we were sure about our assessment of another person, only to find out that his or her behaviour could be seen in another light.

This four-box sequence is inevitable.

You can’t change the sequence, but you do have control over what you fill those boxes with. That is the key to luminosity.

Adapted from the book Mastering Life’s Energies, copyright © 2007 by Maria Nemeth. Reprinted with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com or 800/9726657 ext. 52.

ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 19) In order to keep the status quo, you may be resolved to avoid situations that would cause you to ruffle any feathers. It would be best if you at least stand your ground and clear your life of possible confusion. Enjoy the peace of speaking your mind and leave an agitated mental state in the dust.

TAURUS (Apr 20 – May 21) The traditional October full moon, known as the Hunter’s Moon, will support endeavours that involve hunting and tracking; the modern-day individual will certainly have the wherewithal to carry out investigative projects. Enjoy this time of discovery, building toward the Taurus full moon and earthly success.

GEMINI (May 22 – Jun 20) As you ride on the coattails of a swift moving and changeable planet, the coming events will bring out your mental agility to make healthy decisions. Family and friends will also assist you, creating a party-like atmosphere to help you deal with any challenges.

LIBRA (Sep 23 – Oct 22) At this inspiring New Moon, the balance of power within your relationships comes into question.

You may feel like stepping out of your comfort zone a little more, with the hope of refreshing and invigorating yourself.

You want to realign many things in your life and being the tactful diplomat, you will glide through it easily.

SCORPIO (Oct 23 – Nov 21) Your curiosity could be piqued to learn about geomancy in all its forms. Reading about ancient sites in and upon the earth, you could become so fascinated with precision and placement, you could likely travel to far off places.

If not, be the pilot in your mind with the best seat in the house.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22 - Dec 21) As you have invoked an upbeat and positive outlook lately, more social activities are about to break.

You might be all fired up with a new sense of freedom, with new pleasures flowing like honey. Radiant, you are beaming in a crowd and inspiring others to give off their own light.

CANCER (Jun 21 – Jul 22) If you are a scientist, teamwork is important and a longshoreman knows that timing is everything when working with his crew. When your lifeline is dependant upon the eyes and ears of others, it’s crucial to stay vigilant in an unbroken chain of contact. Working with a common goal is key now so stay in the jet stream of unity.

CAPRICORN (Dec 22 - Jan 19) Some might ask why you choose to holiday in October.

It just so happens that the universe lines things up enough for you to appreciate a more relaxed mood. You could discover how to have more of what really matters to you. You deserve to drop the reins and let the wild Mustang ride free.

LEO (Jul 23 – Aug 22) Mercury is kicking back and resting, perhaps having a cosmic cigar while it muses over past events.

Try not to be too impatient because those foundations that you try to lay may not hold together. It’s not that your plans aren’t strong, but that you need to get inspired. Simply put, jubilate often and dance away your concerns.

AQUARIUS (Jan 20 – Feb 19) Mysterious Neptune glides like a butterfly through your daily affairs. Without concrete answers or solutions at this time, there is no need to shake your fists at the stars. It’s OK not to solve every problem and admit that you don’t know how sometimes. Change a stiff upper lip to a relaxed jaw and remain dignified in times of uncertainty.

VIRGO (Aug 23 – Sep 22) Your companion, Sun sign ruler and guide, is taking a detour from its usual course in the galactic order of things. For most people, this causes delays and frustration but creativity will also be high. Journaling and poetic creations will flow from your fingers like water in a stream.

PISCES (Feb 20 – Mar 20) You may be reflecting and summoning memories from the past. You feel sentiments of boundless love, ensuring the connection stays strong, especially with those who are no longer with you. A time of refinement and grace as you lionize your ancestry.

Adrien Dilon is a clairvoyant consultant and author with 32 years of experience in astrology, multi-media art and healing, adrien.dilon@gmail.com, www.Adrien-Dilon.com

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