There is no short-cut to a heightened existence and awareness, like taking the elevator out of hell. To escape from hell, we have to go all the way to the end of it, scaling heights that will suck the breath from our lungs. Reality may be the result of our cravings and expectations as it responds to my approach and reaction. Yet I still have to make up my mind on the values I intend to live by. Do I want an easy life in comfort and safety, or do I want to grow and expand, developing the full range of my skills and capabilities? The choice is ours …

Democracy is the rule of the majority, and the majority is the dark matter of unenlightened crowd mind, the glut of group think, mass consciousness determined by their lowest common denominator and governed by the smooth operators of media and entertainment. Howl, howl, roar, roar — the cattle and sheep stampede across the commons: “We are the nation! We are humanity! Who is not with us, is against us! Kill, kill! Delete, delete! Erase and annihilate!”

As the stoked energies of suppressed mass consciousness take over reality, the dark masses are blinded by the unexpected glory of unprecendeted power. Unaware that power, like everything else in life and nature, is but temporary, the masses head for the wall of their own ignorance, crashing into the mirage of their own deluded self-perception. We do not really have a choice. We are asked to wake up and take into account the forces and vectors that are at play. Ignorance allows for assumptions to coagulate into what appears to be solid matter-of-fact reality. To achieve transcendence we have to pay our way out of hell. The pain and suffering will chisel away assumptions and believes taken on blind faith until we are reduced to our naked, trembling selves. Then we may prove ourselves for what we are made of ...

Life is the battle with the chimera of assumptions ad delusions. Each of us his or her own version of Don Quixote. By accepting reality as a fractured, multidimensional hologram of shifting vectors and patterns, we may evolve toward grace and kindness that will enable us to relent and, instead of fighting and enforcing our own view, listen. Open our eyes, ears and hearts. The more we cling to aspects and assumptions, the more resistance we will meet, the harsher the answer will be. By listening and looking at what we take for granted, reality will reveal itself as a mirage of assumptions, effects and reflections …

Life is the result of how you and I approach one another. We can do it graceful and with politesse, or we can do it the alpha animal way. Do we follow Darwin’s rule of fighting for supremacy, or do we sit down and listen to the stories others may have to tell. Some of us may have the talent and graces to lure us out on the dance floor, enticing us to move beyond mind and reason, beyond trying to make sense of what we are doing. Children once again, curios and uninhibited by fears of what might go wrong ...

For Pravda and the dreamer the miracle was in discovering that they were not the only one who had been raped and abused. To find their own misery reflected and broken in a similar experience by someone who did not try to impose his or her version on the other one was the biggest surprise since losing their innocence and trust. For the first time ever someone took notice of them, looked at them and waited for what they might have to say or offer. Gazing at one another in wonder, stupefied, and the time it took them to adjust to the situation warped into a space-time matrix they had not known, never mind traveled before. Intoxicated with the wonder and magic of adventure, the pain which had been buried in their frozen hearts was transformed into bubbles of laughter that gently rose to the surface and carried them along …