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Freeing the Planet from the Curse of Control Freakery.

What is the single greatest benefit any human being on this earth can experience? There are a variety of ways to answer this question, including ideas of security, prosperity, free expression, and mobility. But in my opinion there is one supreme blessing to which we humans can aspire, especially since it is the only way a human being can reach the Divine. I am talking about agency, the basic human right to take action or make decisions without constraint. With agency you can grow and develop as you please, create the kind of existence which is best suited for your talents, generate new form without any impediments, and reinvent yourself whenever you like. Mind you, agency doesn't mean that you have a right to turn into a serial killer or any other kind of sociopath--if your agency interferes with the free movement of another sentient being, you are setting yourself up for some very nasty payback. But as long as you are careful to make the right ethical choices, you should be allowed your freedom to do whatever you please.

So if agency is the greatest blessing we can experience, its opposite, the inability to make free choices, has got to be our greatest misfortune. Unfortunately here in our 21st century world, vast numbers of human beings are constantly being blocked from this most basic right. It doesn't matter whether you're living in a dictatorial regime or what is known as a liberal democracy, your freedom to make your own choices about your life is diminishing with each passing day. The ever-increasing number of governmental rules, regulations, controls, legislation, decrees, prohibitions, and sanctions make sure of that. Besides, there is nothing that our fearless leaders enjoy more than putting their collective feet down on the necks of those fellow citizens whom they regard as lesser. Which adds up to most of us.

The land of the free is not exempt from any of this. It never has been: if you know anything about American history you realize that control freakery of one kind or another has been the rule and not the exception since the earliest colonial days. Our American saga is filled with stories of endless conflict between those do-gooders who are out to reform their wicked brethren, and the latter group, who just want to breathe free. At the moment the do-gooders reign supreme, especially since lighting out for the territory is no longer a career option. So we are all stuck in a world where millions model their behavior upon that nightmare of darkness known as Nurse Ratched, the main baddie in Ken Keysey's 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Yes, I am talking about that Nurse Rached, she who stomps on all and sundry with the ice water in her veins, her determination to win at all costs, and her eternal self-righteousness. Fifty years ago when Kesey's novel was published, Ratched wasn't exactly a role model to be emulated, but here in the 21st century, countless eager wannabes are doing their best to copy her every thought and move--even though they would deny that this is what they are up to. We are now living on a planet where the Ratched vision has triumphed everywhere.

Unfortunately we have the digital revolution to thank for much of this. For all the blessings that computers have given us, there has been one horror: the exponential rise of rules and regulations which now smother us all. If you go to the business procedures site of any kind of large organization, whether corporate or governmental, you will find millions upon millions of pages filled with rules, regulations, directives, warnings, legal remedies, etc. And if you are an underpaid peon working for the large organization, you will be expected to remember them all. So the heck with doing your job: you must spend most of your working life looking up or trying to remember what the damn procedures are. Somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright, but in those torture chambers called offices everybody is striking out.

Oh, but that simply cannot be true! The bureaucratic problems we've got at the moment are only temporary--right? Yes, everybody knows that the quaint little notion called reform will someday make our government or our corporation functional again. And how will these reforms manifest? Why, with countless better rules, regulations, laws, and directives, of course! Never mind that all the zillions of rules and regulations which have been enacted in recent years have only made everything worse. The new ones will fix everything! Especially in the government! One of these days we are finally going to get the federal government to actually do what it supposed to do: provide security and prosperity to the populace. Since it just has to. We all learned that in school.

Well, here's a dose of reality: you cannot reform something which has been constructed upon fallacious premises. That is the only way to describe a government or any other large organization which is based on top-down manipulation. Once upon a time such a system was erected in Soviet Russia, but it didn't exactly work, to put it mildly. Are you old enough to remember all those Soviet Five Year Plans? And how they kept failing, year after year? Well, that was only because of bad weather--or so Moscow kept announcing. But since we don't have that kind of bad weather here in the US, our very own American Soviet is going to start working perfectly one of these days. Since there is just no other way to do society. We must constantly have systems, organization, economies, societies, and individual human beings under constant control, or else everything will go splat.

Well, one of the major lessons I've learned from divination is that success only manifests when energies are flowing naturally. This is, after all, what all effective systems do: time flows, music flows, rivers flow, life itself does nothing but flow. Any human being or societal manifestation which is not aligned to the natural flow of energy will inevitably generate nothing but that disaster known as unintended consequences. Smart people the world over have always understood this. You swim with the stream instead of fighting the current. You saw wood along the grain instead of the bias. You don't try to force a square block into a round hole. If you go through your life like this, you will meet with success in everything you do.

But oh, no--that cannot be right! Natural energies don't count! Not now in our post-modern world! Without our wonderful governmental control, we'll head straight back to the bad old days of robber barons and Jim Crow, right? Well, let us remember that the only reason why the robber barons of yore got away with it was because they were living in a world of secrets, where actions, thoughts, and beliefs could be hidden. That is no longer going to be possible in the transparent and oracular world which is now coming into being.

So here I am again, back to the one single thing which I am convinced will bring in a new and better world: universal psychic ability and the Divine guidance it can give us. Divine energy, remember, is the only energy with a 100% success rate in the history of the world. The more people who start to utilize their psychic skills and receive guidance from the Divine, the quicker we will be able to bring in a much more efficient, prosperous, and harmonious human culture. In this kind of world the problems currently plaguing the human race will start evaporating faster than snow in July. This is going to be nothing less than a new birth of freedom, not just for Americans but the human race as a whole. As a side benefit, I guarantee that we will also start experiencing the greatest burst of human creativity since the Renaissance.

I expect that all I'm saying here is still falling on deaf ears. One of the most basic of human instincts is that of control freakery. If you have a problem, what you're supposed to do is manipulate yourself out of it. And then, when at first you don't succeed, try and try the manipulation again--ad infinitum. Yeah, right, so let's just continue on the Ratched road to nowhere and do our best to mechanically adjust everyone and everything to . . . well, what? Never mind the fact that an occasional lobotomy is necessary. There is no other way to do it.

Oh, there isn't, is there? Here are my suggestions about how you can help create a going-with-the-flow world:

The necessary first step. If you want to change the world, you need to change yourself first. And if you want to change yourself, the most important thing you need to do is learn how to work with Divine energy. This is simple enough: just follow my guide on How to Work with Divine Energy.

Recognize that all manipulation urges are ego-based. The most enthusiastic Ratcheds among us have one thing in common: an ingrained sense of superiority which makes them feel far superior to every other sentient being whom they encounter. Well, since the two most basic energies in our cosmos are universal interconnection and universal equality, nothing wreaks more havoc in our universe than this kind of narcissism. Any attempt to elevate yourself above the lowly herd and then coerce them into obedience is nothing but toxic ego-gratification. If you have been going through your life with this tendency, you now need to switch your focus from your own little self to what is good for the whole interconnected universe.

Don't try to manipulate yourself. It is not only externals which the control freaks of this world want to manipulate--most of them also attempt to coerce their very own little selves into obedience. To do this, they apply that charming fantasy called will power to make themselves better. Where people got the idea that will power can improve their lives is beyond my comprehension--the spectacular failure rates of diets, New Year's resolutions, and rehab should be evidence of that. There are better ways to break free of bad habits or addictions than attempting to apply a Five Year Plan to your very own self: see Chapter 14-19 of The Compleat Psychic.

If you can help it, don't collude with any kind of manipulation paradigm. Just because we are living at a time when coercive governments befoul the planet every which way but loose doesn't meant that you have to collude with them or take advantage of their so-called benefits. Do you really want to support a system which turns your fellow human beings into Bartleby scriveners? Yes, I know--you've never thought of government workers like that. And why should you? The demagogic politicians who keep dreaming up ever more grandiose schemes also don't give a shit about the lives of the lowly bureaucrats who must implement their visions. After all, the cubicle slaves of this world get paid! They get benefits! They get vacations! They've got their flat screens in the evening to show them how other people are living more interesting lives than they are! Of course the only way their lives are tolerable is by a constant intake of addictive substances, but that's okay. What else are substances for? Well, if you ask me, taking advantage of a bureaucrat's services is just as bad as purchasing sugar or cotton harvested by antebellum blacks. You just don't do it.

Stop listening to those insipid nuisances who are called experts. As in educators, lawyers, therapists, economists, sociologists, politicians, religious honchos, scientists, physicians, celebrities, or anybody with a sheepskin. If you ask me, all these legacy ignoramuses are so lost in illusion that they couldn't fight their way out of it for all the customized Apple watches on the planet. Your own self-reliance, plus the guidance you receive from the Divine, are all that you need to lead a successful and happy life.

Just let things happen. In other words, forget the manipulation and let problems solve themselves. Yes, I know that this suggestion is probably one of the most incomprehensible I'm making, but my own experience tells me that it resolves issues time and again. Once you start working with an oracle, you are bound to discover that the idea of doing nothing, also known as letting a problem solve itself, is often your wisest choice. Naturally flowing energies always return to equilibrium, and when you let this happen, even the most vexing of issues can evaporate.

Study Daoism. My oracle tells me that of all spiritual systems invented by humanity over the centuries, two are of prime value. The first is Daoism, the great Chinese philosophy which developed over two millennia ago and which to this day can provide humanity with its most useful insights about the natural flow of energies. Daoism includes ideas about moderation, not forcing, the constant interaction of opposites, spontaneity, and following the path of least resistance. All these notions are beautiful guidelines about living a life filled with harmony and balance. My favorite translation of the Daodejing is online here, and a list of other wonderful online sites about Daoism is here.

Study Stoicism. The second spiritual system which my oracle recommends is Stoicism. The ancient Stoics were similar to the Daoists in that they also aimed at living according to the natural flow of energy, which they identified as the logos or the underlying principle of order and reason in the universe. They believed that a life of moderation, virtue, simplicity, and a practical focus on things which were within our control constituted the good life. The Stoics were also one of the first schools of Western philosophy to proclaim the idea of universal brotherhood, which as far as I'm concerned, puts them squarely in harmony with the quantum field. A good site for Stoic beginners is here.

Follow your bliss. The idea of following your bliss is something of a New Age cliché, but in the Aquarian world to come I am convinced that it will become the norm instead of the exception. Following your bliss means that you can earn your living by doing what you enjoy instead of slaving away for the man. This would be the kind of world where each one of us can have the opportunity to develop our talents as fully as Ludwig von Beethoven, Leonardo da Vinci, or Emily Dickinson. Granted not everyone will be able to reach their remarkable heights, but each one of us should have the right to try. Fortunately within the next few decades there are going to be plenty of new opportunities for people to earn a worthwhile living in astounding new ways. But--oh, dear! What's going to happen to business if there's nobody left to process the invoices? What will happen to the federal government if there's nobody around to fill out everything in triple triple triplicate? Paradise on earth, that's what.

Participate in voluntary associations. Instead of ever-increasing governmental bureaucracies, what this planet needs is a return to the idea of local associations to help people who need it. When Alexis de Tocqueville toured America in the 19th century, what he found most astonishing were the volunteer groups he encountered, from musical societies, to debating clubs, charitable organizations, and lyceums. People would come together to help improve things in their localities, and it worked. It will work in the future as well, and nobody will have to push paper to make it happen. All this adds up to what I think will become another sacred world in the Aquarian era to come: decentralize.

Start moving freely through the universe. There is nothing like being mobile to kick those manipulation urges clean out of your head. The untethering to come in the Aquarian era will mean not only a more flexible way of employment, but a much more malleable sense of self, where the personality you have today won't necessarily be there five years from now. After all, in a world where you can shift jobs or locations any time you feel like it, you will have the opportunity to lead several different lives. At the moment, even if you can't always hit the road when you feel like it, you can still be mentally mobile, as in learning new techniques, keeping your options open, and reinventing yourself as you please.

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Well, there you have it: some preliminary suggestions about how you can rid the planet of that inevitable failure known as control freakery. Once you learn how to go with the natural flow, rely upon Divine guidance for everything, and just let things happen, not only your own life change for the better, but your own energies will positively impact the rest of the universe. Mind you, there will be times when trusting the flow isn't going to help anyone or anything, but as long as you never take action without oracular approval first, you will be fine. Nothing could be simpler, and nothing could be more effective.

April, 2016