Its nesting season here in Australia, and following the ritual of finding a mate and frantic nest building its time for laying and protecting the eggs. I often watch (sometimes with a secret bemusement) as Mrs Magpie, matriarch of the Australian eucalypt, dive bombs helpless hominids whose over the top frantic reactions only seem to make the problem worse.
You see I'm never attacked. I regularly walk a path that at the same time seems to be a practice range for birds improving their pecking skills.
I'm never attacked I say - er..well ... that was until yesterday.
Why? hmmm...
Am I losing my touch?
I have hand fed young magpies introduced by their proud parents, Maggie and Fred, visiting at my back door.
Last week, a few kilometres from home a magpie flew by landing a metre from my head. It 'checked me out' as I noticed a nest, blown down from the late August South easterly winds that cross the peninsular I inhabit.
The nest appeared unused and perfectly clean.
I tried to return the nest to some useful location suitable for nesting, as unlikely as success appeared, while under 'motherly' inspection and walked away unharmed.
So what went wrong yesterday?
I had walked about half the distance of my journey and was picking up speed to overcome a little fatigue. The bird swooped - let’s call her Maggie - scuffing my hair with her claws on the first pass, flying toan overhead branch menacingly rubbing her beak against the bark.
No harm done. As I always do with frightened or threatening animals I chat away calmingly - humans think I'm nuts, so what? Maggie looked on and I walked away.
Swooped again and further up the road again!
What had made this bird so cantankerous?
Contrary to myth, magpies do not attack indiscriminately. At least an expert told me that, and it is true in my experience.
Perhaps a young boy on a bike threw stones at a magpie or a mother with a pram approached a baby fallen from the nest. Whatever the reason, Maggie perceives a young boy or a pram as a cause of future alarm.
Parent birds Maggie and Fred are more likely to attack similar looking people.
The problem spirals when other not-so-nice children decide to take pre-emptive strike.
The cycle of seasonal aerial warfare begins afresh.
Well on the return journey home Fräulein Magpie made one last speedy flurry over my hairline and I simply squatted on my haunches and again my sing-song intoned chat to my cautious feathered friend.
Soon the curious bird walked toward me – pecking occasionally at an unidentifiably small object from the ground. Moving to within only a few feet, she then hopped away stopping to eat occasionally to peck at the ground.
So am I a nut. Is this all the wishful dreaming of some strange man who thinks he is the ‘bird-whisperer’?
I am none of the above.
But I do know this.
When I underwent a divorce and I would pray quietly in the car hoping to avoid what sometimes seemed a never ending conflict. It was in no way as bad as it appeared – but that was the point for when I prayed it seemed no conflict arose.
At another time in my life I applied the same principle, by stilling the mind and letting go.
Whatever one’s religious, spiritual or psychological viewpoint, the act of letting go influenced firstly my inner being and, as constantly witnessed by others, my outer results.
Of course we have heard it all before – thoughts are things. We become what we think about. Our thoughts are part of the unified field – or the field of infinite possibilities.
But prove it!
St the very least I think we can agree that our thoughts determine the quality of our actions in obtaining our goals.
‘First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination’ wrote Napoleon Hill.
Its amazing how the imagination can take on a world of its own. Like a little mental computer game of viral thoughts mutating it no possibilities un-ended. Yes thoughts can take on the qualities of viruses and it is this quality and that quality is called a neme.
A meme, according to Susan Blackmore, (p 64, The Power of Memes, in Scientific American, October 2000) is an idea that behaves in society like a virus does in a body. like the stupid story or lurid joke that upon its first telling is perpetuated and undergoes endless permutations in the game of 'Chinese Whispers'. Just like a virus infecting a host (the person who hears the joke), reproduce (are retold by the new host) and infect new hosts. A virus may hitch a ride on a ‘vector’ (a magazine or website?) and on it goes.
Of course, viruses can be benign or malignant just as an idea could just be stupid, who cares about hair colour anyway?, or even deadly in the case of some racial, ethnic or religious bigotry.
If we think about the last few years alone ideas have changed the face of the map. Before 1917 most of the world was ruled by 5 empires of Great Britain, Russia, Austro-Hungary, China & Japan. Two were gone by 1918, the Austro-Hungarian and Russian, and China’s dying and dead before WWII and Japans effectively gone in function by WWII end. Consider The end of the Colonialist Era up to WWII, the rise and fragmentation of the Soviet Empire and now its reassertion, or the rise of India and China.
Even 'evolution' is affected. I am using the word very loosely here to describe the effect of ideas on the physical and biological environment.
Consider the human figure. I recently undertook a small training program to help make museum grade mannequins. An expert was there as we rebuilt a mannequin using measurements taken from off a dress. Besides the fact I can’t sew and have very little fashion sense– it was fascinating to note how in different periods variations were required because girls were shapely, then the twiggy look was in and then ….. I think you get the idea. I, the ever watchful historian type, was fascinated. Beauty is an ever changing ideal.
The body has varied so much that German researchers are undertaking a mass body-imaging project purely to redesign clothing sizes! Chest capacity is now bigger in men & woman by the way.. for the record, I’m not talking plastic surgery, but rather the lung and chest cavity.
One fashion designer stated: ‘Fashion is designed to become unfashionable.’ Yet fickle or not, fashion is dictating a new physical ideal, as is sport.
Sport stars want to be bigger muscles. Night time ‘Infomercials’ promote another way to more efficiently shape those not too perfect abs!
I read of sumo wrestlers are experiencing injuries because their skeletons are strained even more than would be had they retained their traditional diets. Footballers of all codes want stronger, bigger physiques.
On it goes.
It is not a new phenomenon. The ancient Greeks believed the Gods came to earth even seducing young woman producing the heroes of legend. Physical perfection was seen as a divine attribute to which all should aspire. Much like many a western celebrity today it was desirable to flaunt ones physicality.
Fashion dictates diet and diet effects health. Our diet affects our farming practices and that effects the environment that affects us in turn like a giant spiral.
Nutrtionist Rena Shukla wrote:
“Biologically, when we eat a meal. Until recently, scientists thought food had basically one job: it was metabolised to provide energy for the cell. Indeed, that is what happens to most dietary chemicals - but not all. Some don't get metabolised at all; instead, the moment they're ingested, they become ligands - molecules that bind to proteins involved in "turning on" certain genes. A diet that's particularly out of balance, scientists say, will cause gene expressions that nudge us toward chronic illness unless a precisely-tailored "intelligent diet" is employed to restore the equilibrium.” Cell-to-cell.com Daily Diet 26 June 2008
So diet can affect our genetic code, yet we often choose what went in our mouths only because of an advertisement motivated by someone’s need for a better share price.
Now everyone should be wealthy. But what is wealth? I want money but not billions of dollars gained at the expense of my health leaving me laying attached to life support. Wealth includes the wealth of happiness, friendship, love and heath. It transcends the value of the dollar.
Historically, when nations think they missed out because of the past they often rush into repeating the errors that former masters made to regain their rights. I hope that we can help other emerging nations develop the needed prosperity without the soul destroying and nature degrading methods that were previously used by many in the West.
Wealth is more than money. We know that in our heads but in practice do we follow it?
Consider the association of wealth with fancy eating and convenience. To many it is fashionable for wealth to be associated with a western diet. Japanese youth now eat foods that are now draining the ability of a once brilliant health care system. Australian Cardiologist Ross Walker claimed that 100% of what he called ‘black’ races, African and Pacific Islanders etc, were naturally Insulin Resistant. Although this figure may be disputed ‘Insulin resistance in diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2) can result from membrane lipid alterations’. A study found the ‘plasma membrane of whites showed higher PE and lower PC levels than that in blacks.’ They concluded ‘The combination of increased saturated/polyunsaturated fatty acids, increased saturated nature, and increased cholesterol/phospholipid can contribute to decreased membrane fluidity, resulting in insulin resistance.’ In other words that diet was bad enough but some races are less tolerant to it than others. (For a concise summary of the statistics http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=18287472 )
Meat consumption is also often associated with opulence and societies that were once eaters off little meat now desire it. It takes more land to feed a population of meet consumers than does the production of vegetation. So the environment is changing because of our changing desires.
Again, our thinking influences the world.
All the above illustrates the power of group consciousness to alter the environment of our lives.
There is an inherent problem with this phenomenon.
The neme, the inherent spread and mutation of ideas.
Nobel lauriet Alexander Solzhenitsyn speaking at Harvard University on 8 June 1978 stated “Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic disease of the 20th century”. I suggest that in the 21st century with the added speed of the internet Solzhenitsyn’s words remain true.
“Because instant and credible information has to be given, it becomes necessary to resort to guesswork, rumors, and suppositions to fill in the voids, and none and none of them will ever be rectified; they will stay on in the readers' memories” said Solzhenitsyn.
Solzhenitsyn had experienced both the press freedom of the west and its restriction in Soviet Russia argued that while dictatorships overtly restrict the press, Western media developed a form of self censorship that restricted the transfer of learned information.
“It is a fashion; there are generally accepted patterns of judgment; there may be
common corporate interests, the sum effect being not competition but unification. Enormous freedom exists for the press, but not for the readership because newspaper[s] mostly develop stress and emphasis to those opinions which do not too openly contradict their own and the general trend” he said.
Sadly the reason the neme complex of misinformation succeeds is that over the centuries these patterns of thought have ‘evolved’ that ‘press the right buttons of our psyche‘.
Historically change often occurred when the ‘moral’ course was the economically or politically prefered option for someone.
The British and later US antislave movements come to mind – or the slow unwinding of the colonial system.
So how do we regain control of our mind? How do we take charge of our own world?
We first need a reason.
"He who has a why for life can put with any how" said Frederick Nietzsche
Consider the example of holocaust survivor Victor Frankl. Even in the degradation and abject misery of a concentration camp, Frankl was able to exercise the the freedom to determine his own attitude and spiritual well-being. No sadistic Nazi SS guard was able to take that away from him or control the inner-life of Frankl's soul. Frankl clearly saw that it was those who had nothing to live for who died quickest in the concentration camp.
“Life holds a potential meaning under any conditions, even the most miserable ones” wrote Frankl who often thought of his wife in those difficult times.
“The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world may still know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when a man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way--an honourable way--in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfilment.”
Those who had reason to live survived he observed.
What is your reason?
“Do what you love and you will never have to do a day of work in your life” said Confucious.
Borrowing John F Kennedy’s words “Ask not what the world can do for me, but ehat I can do for the world.”
In spirit I agree with this. What the world needs however is sometimes in question.
Harold Thurman Whitman looked at it a little differently when he said:
“Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Knowing what you can give allows you to give of your best to the world and tailor your gifts as the world reveals its needs to you.
Living in that state of joy, the state of your inner spirit thriving and growing we aopen ourselves to the rewards of positive existence.
Thoughts are things. We must remember that to allow our thoughts influence the world.
There are many wonderful tools to reveal our inner spirit. I like ‘Mindmovies’ at the moment.
Norman Vincent Peale encouraged reflective meditation. A state of mental calm. Being able to relax so that the brain can open to new possibilities. To see the world afresh.
EFT and Sedona recognise that for a large number positive thinking doesn’t work. Its impossible to monitor all our thoughts.
So EFT and Sedona help release hidden stresses thaat get in the way of our natural and inherent ability to attract inner peace, calm and prosperity.
It is in this state of calm I believe I have experienced the disolution of expected conflict and yes feeding the magpies. Due to as computer glitch lets just say it is now later than when i began narrating my magpie novella but an odd thing happened only hours ago.
I was sitting at Redcliffe (Queensland) infront of Santoshi’s, my favourite supplier of all my spices and curries, having missed the bus. I was totally relaxed missing the bus could have been quiet frustrating but whats the point?
As I sat a limping magpie hopped up on the chair opposite me, less than 45centimetres (18 inches) away. He looked at me quizickly rocking hissideways as we retained eye contact for quiet some minutes.
People walked past, the bird moved away and then he returned when they had left. In the last 2 weeks i have had a 4 magpies come down to me calling out, in the words of Denis glover, the refrain ‘Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle'.
Was it that the magpie wanted a free feed? Or was itr sensing the return of my inner calm?
Brian
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