The concept of an imminent cataclysmic earth destruction and apocalypse have always and continue to grip the imagination of our culture. Movies and television spread the image of destruction by polar shift, alien attack, flood, flame, comet or nuclear wipe-out.

For some the literal return of Christ is eagerly anticipated. Millions of fundamentalists across America and the White House consider themselves rapture ready, living out the script of the book of Revelation. Best selling novels predict the return of a Rambo-like Messiah who is going to put the hurt on all non-believers. Why reduce carbon emissions or preserve resources when the "end of days" is just around the corner. Why not, instead, accelerate the process. While these fundamentalists might seem to contradict their sacred texts, they believe that no harm can come to those already saved, even though in that same text of Revelation the angel promises to, "destroy them which destroy the earth".

The world denying and transcendent emphasis of our patriarchal (this point is worth noting) major religions is reaching a fever pitch. God is thought to cast his blessings on imperialist wars, territorial violence and acts of terrorism; to condone free market capitalism and its exploitation of the resources, to uphold the integrity of the nuclear family, while opposing abortion and same sex unions.

Those on the other side of the fence, secular believers in science and technology and the progress of the two, still expect that the future will continue the pattern of the last century; sleeker machines, virtual worlds, longer life spans and further ecological deterioration. They accept the projections of 4% growth ad infinitum and reject or ignore other figures indicating depletion and devastation. Faced with terrorists threats, most are willing to forfeit a degree of freedom for the feeling of security. They avoid or ignore the underlying aspects of our situation that contradict their hopes and plans for the future.

I propose a kind of extravagant thought experiment, an "all in" poker type gamble played in the realm of ideas. To accept this wager no belief is required and none desired. What is required is what the philosopher Nietzche called "uninhibited fingers for the unfathomable." He noted that much of what we take for knowledge even science is actually a projection of our psychology onto the world, our thinking tends to circle around established conventions whose basis is forgotten or obscure. Nietzche proposes the attainment of knowledge requires "a granite foundation of ignorance...the will to knowledge on the foundation of far more powerful will; the will to ignorance, to the uncertain, to the untrue! Not as its opposite..but its refinement."

The myth and traditional view even the development of individual capacities and the evolution of our self awareness derive from the capacities contained in the potential of the natural world. We are capable of sensible, intelligent thought because nature is sensible and intelligent. The aboriginal mentality recognizes no ultimate distinction between matter and spirit...no dualistic split between mind and world. A view of the world shared by the cutting edge of physics. By this logic, an evolutionary process on the level of human consciousness should be comprehensible to us, if we can stretch our minds toward it.

If we have reached the time of prophecy, then the process should have a logic behind it...even an empirical basis. It should conform to natural laws. Of course, this logic and these laws could be radically different from the ones upheld by the narrowly defined materialistic paradigm. What might help is a perspective that is open to radical possibilities, yet at the same time is logical, sensible and calm.

It is my thesis in this poker hand, that the rapid development of technology and the destruction of the biosphere are by-products of a psycho-spiritual process taking place on a planetary scale. We have created this crisis to force our own accelerated transformation...on an unconscious level we have willed it into being. Human consciousness, the sentient element is in the process of self-organizing to a more intensified state of being and knowing...what some call a higher octave, the Hopi talk of a Fifth World, the Aztecs anticipated a Sixth Sun, St. John foresees the descent of heaven to New Jerusalem, they are describing the same thing; a shift in the nature of consciousness.

When I was young, I looked forward to a life as a Navy aviator, scientist and educator in an essentially stable culture that, despite change, would endure long past my life. Science, literature and art seemed, in themselves, of enduring value - a refuge for subtle perceptions and subversive ideas that could influence the broader culture over time. Like most people, I accepted the concrete solidity of modern civilization and believed its institutions would remain in place. I no longer have that perspective. Mulling over the facts, and considering our situation over time, I concluded, sadly, that our current civilization is not a machine built to last..

The cultural critic and mystic: William Irwin Thompson thinks we are approaching an iminent "catastrophic bifurication" of the species, " the hominid movement is not a state that can be perfected, it is a process, and to arrest that process is probably not possible. Once we were prokaryotic bacteria then we were dinosaurs and now we are human about to become through a catastrophic bifurication, subhuman or posthuman,... From the greenhouse effect to the ozone hole, or from sex, drugs and rock and roll to fundamentalist purifications, or from genetic engineering to artificial intelligence, everything we like to call human and, even the planet as we know it, are being taken away from us by our own actions whether conscious or unconscious".

A former humanities professor at MIT and practicing yogi, Thompson is one of a small number of originial thinkers who not only understand our present impasse but realizes that it is not the whole story. That something else is taking place as well - a movement of consciousness returning us to a level of awareness denied and repressed by the materialistic thrust of our current civilization. Essential to that process is a change in our understanding of myth.

The physcists Heisenberg wrote, " natural science does not simply describe and explain nature; it is part of the interplay between us and nature". It is an interesting paradox that science has studied the world, attaining deeper levels of understanding, the technology produced by our scientific knowledge has simultaneously torn it apart. The bio-spheric crisis we have unleashed is entirely man made.

Myth based civilizations and traditional cultures believe that human beings are inseparable from natural laws and cosmic cycles. The pattern of the growth of human societies might be viewed as an aspect or expression of nature. Even the development of our individual capacities and the evolution of self awareness unfold from the capacities contained within the potential of the natural world.

Often I have felt less like a person than the convenient intersection for ideas to meet and mesh, a magnet or strange attractor, compelled or fated - perhaps tragically misguided. None the less, my friends and life partner have bugged me for some time to write something down, rather than just poo pooing them. So this is the start of a crude attempt on my part to do that. I hope to lift the veils in order that you might see what I see. That what is coming is not "the end of the world" but rather the end of a world and the begginning of the next

more to follow

I am and always have been a paradox, to be honest, a real pain in the ass. To anyone who is or has been close to me that would be the generally accepted opinion, but no one can point at me and talk about my faults without acknowledging the fact that as with everyone, my greatest weaknesses are paradoxically my strengths. Both are just a wee bit more obvious than with most people.

An example might be the first two books I bought, not read but purchased as the start of my personal collection. At the age of nine I purchased two books, "Principia" by Newton and "Dicta Bolecke" by Bolecke. The first is Newtons great work, the second a bit more obscure, is the first attempt to establish the tactics of acm or what he first called a dogfight.

In the same year I announced to my parents that I was renouncing their religion, and the one I was being raised in, as "not supported by the facts" and instead was adopting the Code of Bushido. My butt stung for a period but after a year they quit trying to get me off the floor and into the bed for the night.

These are just a couple of examples of what I call personal dragons but certainly affected those around me, and my reputation and effect have only increased. My journey and the effect on those around me has exceeded even my capacity to justify my presence among others.

For four years my journey has played out in a manner in which caused great sacrifice and great pain on the one that would my last choice to suffer thus. "Have you ever had the feeling that you wanted to go and the feeling that you wanted to stay?"

This little play on words points out a paradox that I face everyday. I am not really complaining about that reality of my life, I'm comfortable with paradox. It is the lady journeying with me that has the right to complain.

The hardest thing for her is to have been a witness to what has happened to me, how it has changed me so that the question of leaving or staying would even be part of the thinking. The changes she has endured have been considerable and not without grief and sacrifice.

I love and admire her greatly. I am greatly impressed with her sacrifices even though she is plagued with the question, WHY? and the paradox that drives her crazy is that I don't, ask WHY?

I'm more concerned with the seeming inevitable, not that I'm going to die soon but rather a disgust with myself that it is not going to be with my "boots on".

lo, there do I see my father

lo, there do I see my mother, my sisters and my brothers

there do I see the line of my people extending to the beginning

they do call to me from the halls of Valhalla

where the brave shall live forever

I'm like this and she loves me anyway, go figure.

The only thing I like about this time of the year and the holiday of Christmas is that in my perverse outlook is that it points out in a glaring statement the hypocritical nature of Christianity. Forget the obvious date discrepancies. Here is a holiday that is promoted as a time for giving, in honor of the birth of a child that gives the world the greatest gift of all.

Even among my Christian friends the disconnect between this meaning and what it has become is something to be lamented. Yet, they can not bring themselves to make the break that would disassociate this holiday from their religion.

I must say that I see that as one of many ways that the memory of this revolutionary thinker has been perverted. I say revolutionary with the utmost respect. If you take the teachings of Christ and place them in context of the historical times, you don't get the basis of a religion but a revolution. It wasn't viewed by his followers as soon enough or direct enough and they deserted and betrayed him. The religion did not follow until many years later.

I'll cite only one scenario, among many, that might illustrate the disdain that this man might exhibit in regards to our celebration of his birth. The story is told, that upon entering the temple and seeing the vendors selling their wares, Christ pulled out what can only be described as a "can of whup ass". How do you think he might react today upon entering a mall?

I have a proposal, a revolutionary way to celebrate Christmas and "the Christ spirit". I believe that if a major department store came forward and stated that in lieu of decorations and advertising was going to donate that money to charity. That all discounts were going to handled the same, that the PR and the spirit spread among its customers would exceed any Christmas before, even on the bottom line.

So I offer this idea free of charge in the Christmas spirit to anyone in retail who has the courage to be a revolutionary.

Many people speak of life as a series of choices. I can't really dispute that, but would like to offer some insight as to the nature of choices.

In my personal paradigm I make this distinction between choices; small c and large C. Small c choices are those we make every minute of everyday, what shall I have eggs or cereal. at the intersection do I go left or right, or Coke or Pepsi. You get the idea. Big C Choices come as matters of honor or integrity.

Now most people look at the choices they make constantly as usually trivial. I differ every choice one makes no matter how trivial at the time is viewed as ultimately life and death. You turn left instead of right and a dump truck runs over you, you choose Pepsi today and someone has poisoned Pepsi,
and so on.

Now I realize most people don't carry their small c choices to that extent. Warriors do, "you pay your nickel and you take your chances".

Now big C Choices are the ones everyone seems to concern themselves with. These Choices of integrity and honor seem to me as easier to make.

I find that these Choices usually come down not as spontaneous but instead you make these Choices on a series of choices you have made throughout your life. As a adult, when the shit hits the fan, those that and face the fire and those who run and hide was decided along time ago.

Yet, paradoxically someone who can go against his Choices of the past and truly chooses a path of honor and integrity can truly be called courageous. So I actually hold out hope that everyone
can make the "right Choice" and watch out for those "choices".