Denial: I have to wonder what this is really all about.

Over the decades, as psychology has gone more mainstream, it has infiltrated every aspect of our lives culturally and socially. It’s in our health coverage plans, employee benefits, in the movies, sitcoms, and even more in the advertisements. I’d say they’re having an influence upon our self and group consciousness.

Earlier, I caught myself asking a question to seek the opinion of someone else about my skill, rather than just toot my horn which was what I was inspired to do in the first place. I had just finished work on a project that made me feel pretty good, and true to joy, a little cocky swaggering was called for. Instead, I censored myself and tried soliciting accolades rather than be boastful. I puzzled over this turn-about and what influenced this censoring.

As I have studied and observed the human condition over the years, it has been noted that a steady surge has broken down communion among people by placing more emphasis upon personal satisfaction and fulfillment. With so much individuality pushed in the marketplace, advertising relationships, etc., the subliminal influences shift our value-base unconsciously. With there being so much negative media created to ’sell’ to consumers, the personal identity and place of the individual in context to family and community becomes obscured, questionable, and finally, burdensome, to many.

On yet another side, the self-help industry is so full of individual band-aid stories, that the people seeking solutions typically find themselves discovering more personal problems than they bargained for. It’s like reading the horoscope. There are enough generalities and commonalities among people that we can buy into a prognosis which we then make more real through our own belief. In addition, rational and healthy human behavior ends up falling under close scrutiny while answers are sought amongs all the expert opinions, programs, and books.

As I found myself concluding these thoughts, only one question remained. When will simply being a joyful and sharing human being be okay again?

As part of my work, my professional experience with analysis, business, and technology, I had found more and more that I was getting asked by those who know and interact with me, how to do things with the web and technology. Where I’ve been able, I’ve been quick to answer. Where I’ve not, my own curiosity often lends itself to wanting to check it out regardless if I have time or not. The outcome of all this developing activity launched OMC Social Media Solutions (OMC is One Man Can).

From OMC Social, in partnership with iXLd Media Inc. and their technology, I have been able to offer and do much more. The business has grown, the new product and pricing is soon to be online, and the focus upon educating and empowering the do-it-yourself’ers of our technologically advancing culture.

As an artist, you can be sure you’re going to get some culture.

We the consumed hereby swear to uphold the ugly truth, to turn a blind eye, and ensure the survival of the free marketplace to which we will become slave to,  believing in the false security that it will continue to support our best interests.

Psychology is a very big part of the markets that support and sustain us globally. As we speak, third world countries penetrated by war are being quickly introduced to the western market-driven principles of abundance as large corporate stakeholders establish new supply chains to support overseas troops.

Human weakness, vulnerability, naivety, these are the targets of the messages broadcast throughout our world media. Belonging, Equality, Respect, Personal Control, Sex, all things representing a sense of acceptance; people want so badly to ‘fit in’ and to feel accepted – belonging. To know and be known, the very foundation of the human experience.

Is it all bad? In many respects, no. We clothe, food, shelter, millions easily. Our global village has bridged the vastness of geography with the advance of technology. Instant communication, accessibility, are making more possible. The question remains, are we taking ownership of the responsibility of governance – self-governance? In this sense, our adult perspective must include a global self, to support the individual self.

Everywhere we turn, we see ‘make a difference’ plastered in advertising slogans. 2003-2004 this was nowhere to be seen in mainstream media, advertising, or business consciousness. It was taking root in individual consciousness though. When the criminal element catches the shifting wind, they incorporate a strategy without even giving due thought to the real need. The corporate goal is to survive the marketplace, to sell more, to make profit. People like you and I work there, and participate in these decisions.

When an opportunity presents itself to ‘be the change’ in our daily affairs, it can surpass our own personal world-view to become one that has a lasting and positive impact upon a larger whole: our community, now a growing global village, penetrated by a vast corporate infrastructure seeking more. War, politics, oil, power, and cash, are driving forces behind change.

In the movie, The Green Mile, the friendly giant says, “He killed them with their love. It’s like that everywhere. All over the world, they’re going kill each other with their love.’ Manipulation, selfishness, self-centredness, greed, power, control, security. What do you love? How do you wield your sabre and shield?

It isn’t all bad, and there are many who are influencing big change. It is important, however, to also remember that we are bombarded daily with messages intended to influence a direction for some agenda driven for money and politics. We have one simple thing to remember to do, and after a very mind-numbing and exhausting day at work, this is sometimes difficult for some or many to do: Remember to Think. Critically think, being conscious of what is behind the messages.

Question the stories of old, the beliefs that separate, the loyalties that bind. Humankind is meant to be free, to be creative, to grow and discover. During times of expansion in the physical, we see what we have now consumed and amassed globally. Some are terribly concerned about the impact we’re having on the environment, and others deny it. What messages of belief have we adopted?

Look under the skin of each of us, and we see flesh and blood, a pounding pulsating heart, and a complex network of wiring in a brain, and all of this is host to a consciousness similar to our own. So how different are we? Appearance, Education, Culture, Language, Religion, Beliefs, etc. How perfect are these influences?

The child is born, consciousness arrives, and data is input into the biological machine. Each generation, one after the other, handing down the same truth, time after time. Our progress is slow, as the intelligent ones grasp the reins of knowledge in order to advance individual goals without regard to a greater whole. Other intelligent ones also grasp the knowledge, and attempt to counter-balance, and our cycles of change arrive.

Remember, every culture has been affected by war. It was a very long, long time ago when it was discovered that war is the most efficient way to altar a culture, beliefs, and ideologies in an accelerated fashion. With the advance of technology, Culture can be spread more quickly, more readily, across the globe very powerfully and surpass the influence of war.

Our individual responsibility now bears more weight in the fight for what is good for all of humanity. Our voices can be heard. We can participate. For as long as we are aware, thinking, of what choices are being made in our name today. Keeping the Internet freely accessible, not giving up the influence to the power of corporations, remembering our influence and participation in these corporations, and that we are family.

We the consumed, have the ability to change the course of our history.

It appears even to me, that much of my writing is heavy, and even full of anger. Reflecting upon what this is all about, many things raced through my mind. One is how someone once wrote inspirationally is now turned to a style and focus that has brought attention to bear upon the darker side of our human experience. Justification, rationalization, all represent possible arguments, however, I believe that opening up the expressions from those darker spaces has a tendency to level the playing field… To make us remember that we are all human again. That it is okay to not be so perfect. That we were all four years old once. Our social games are taking the joy of being out of life.

by echiner1

February 2005 I sat down at my computer and wrote my own Eulogy. It was an exercise from the Career Counselling days, to draw upon the imagination and inner spirit to describe the life well-lived we want to be remembered. I stumbled upon it today and went, “Wow!”

One Man Can make a difference was a deep belief that propelled Lee through the arduous journey to creating a powerful future for himself and those whose lives he touched. Initially, there was a great deal of struggle as he broke down the structures and limiting beliefs that had defined his life experiences. As he worked through these issues, an awakening to his truest self took root and put him directly into the path of adversity and growth. The lessons he experienced, combined with the wisdom of masters, made him available to the larger community to serve as a guide, a teacher, and a loving mentor on their individual journeys.

His belief that we are all incredible spirits, here to manifest some form of greatness in our lives, was the most inspiring quality that he brought forth in his daily walk through life. His understanding of human nature, our propensity for fear, enabled him to offer compassion and forgiveness, both to himself and for others, further empowering everyone to embrace the journey, the setbacks and failures, and further enabling the forward motion the desire for a well-lived life created. No well-lived life is without mistakes, setbacks, and pain. It is through these experiences that he discovered the richness that lives within us all and has the power and potential to create community, abundance, and great joy.

by h.koppdelaney

His legacy has helped to define a shift in human-consciousness that has created space in western thought to realize our spirituality in a cosmic web of cause and effect. This understanding further instructs us to the power of choice in our lives and the power of intent in mind, body, and spirit that creates our future. What we believe we are, we choose to be. What we wish to see changed in life, we BE that change.

Lee will be missed and he will be remembered as he lives on in each of our lives, while we too create the legacy in our lives that he began for his own life; a life representative of the human spirit and human experience.

Before your eyes
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug

The Whole continues to grow and evolve, just as parts of the Whole grow and evolve, while other parts devolve. There exists both Ascending influences, just as there are Descending influences. As part of the Whole, Descending influences often times cease to exist, while Ascending influences continue to Create as part of the Whole.

In this same fashion, we can apply the same insight to the ebb and flow throughout all life, including the social animal, Human Being.

As we look at our cultures, again we see the same principles at work. We see it particularly as fashion, fads, patriarchy, matriarch, and so on.

Throughout the history of time this game has been played, and we see growth, advancement, and all the while, some of us watch in horror thinking it is worse than ever before. But is it?