Despite whatever my family and friends might think… I am not a Conspiracy Theorist. I am not Right Wing, nor Left Wing. I have voted predominantly Green Party most of my life. I am a United States Marine (There are no Ex-Marines.), and I’ve canvassed for GreenPeace, worked with Amnesty International, protested a War, and participated in a War. Subconsciously, I believe, I’ve put myself on both sides of the fence, mainly out of curiosity… or possibly naiveté. When somebody starts talking about ‘their’ party I blow them off like I would with somebody talking about ‘their’ team. I guess you could consider this my disclaimer or that you can’t label me that easily.

The Cancel Culture loves labels.

They love to say who is bad, or who is good when we should be taking each and every person on this planet on an individual basis. Contrary to popular belief… we are all individuals. Everybody has their own ideas, their own dreams, their own beliefs. Some of us were born middle class, some upper middle, some of us rich, and some of us in extreme poverty. Some have been on welfare in hard times only to rise above that, go to college and become successful entrepreneurs. Some have stayed on welfare because they never believed they were enough. Some struggle and work their whole lives. Some follow their dreams at all costs.

You can see that there are infinite variables that make up a human. So why then do we try to label people, or put others in a box of what we believe others should be?

F.E.A.R. (False Evidence Appearing Real)

We are afraid that if somebody isn’t on our team and we don’t gather enough people on our side that maybe the other side might be right? We are seeing this right now with vaccines. Half of the United States believes that the COVID-19 Vaccines are going to save us all, and that the unvaccinated are killing those who got vaccinated.

[I’m going to sidetrack here for a moment.]

When I was growing up, my Mother sent my brother and I to a Born Again Christian Camp called Word of Life. I remember the pressure at this camp to become ‘Born Again’. I succumbed to the pressure and got saved back then only to come home and find out that my team wasn’t that popular in my neighborhood. I ripped up my born again access card and never really looked back. I realized the implications at a young age of how teams work. It’s not that I wanted to be on the other team, it’s more the fact that my gut was telling me a different story. I realized that my gut feelings were what I needed to follow, not other people. This kind of made me an outsider, and contributed a lot to addiction and depression. Maybe I’ll write about that in the future, but right now I need to stay on track.

There ain’t no good guy, there ain’t no bad guy. There’s only you and me and we just disagree. — Dave Mason

I see the Cancel Culture the same as when I went to Word of Life all those years ago. You just have to be on their team or you’re the problem. You’re the one creating all of the problems and once you agree with them then the world will turn correctly again.

Being on the winning team is an illusion.

I realized this when years later I found myself in other Countries. I saw really nice people with completely different beliefs. The Christians. The Jews. The Muslims. The Buddhists. The Hindu. All of them had their extremes. All of them had their different sects. I realized that they were all the same if you looked at the big picture. They all want to be loved. They all want their families to prosper. They all want to leave the world better than it was before they incarnated here. I would venture to say that people that don’t get the opportunity to experience other cultures are far more easily persuaded to join a team that thinks they are better than anybody else.

You can’t be objective in 280 characters.

We live in a world now where we don’t take the time to read past the headline. We base our opinions on headlines alone. Most of you that follow me know that one of my many hats that I’ve worn has been that of advertising. Shock value is huge in that industry. The more shocking, the more emotion. The more emotion, the more sales. Nobody remembers boring headlines. How many of you have read a headline and then read the whole article only to find out that the headline had nothing, or little to do with the actual content? Social media platforms have basically trained people to not take the time to look into things more deeply, and unfortunately it has created this culture that we live in now.

What is the solution?

Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy fix. It will take time and patience. It will take all of us collectively to slow down, take the time to understand each other, and be ok with somebody believing something else. A Conspiracy Theory is nothing more than people wanting the truth. When we’ve been lied to and deceived by Big Pharma, Corporations, Banks, Politicians, Social Media platforms, Lawyers, headlines… its human nature to want to see who is behind the curtain or as the band Zebra once wrote…

Who’s behind the Door?

I started using facebook when I worked for Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. It was a tool that we used to get ‘likes’ for some of the advertising campaigns we were rolling out. I was amazed that it was actually working! I asked myself if maybe this might work for my music and it did! Wow! I was no longer a local musician, I was getting gigs around the country and eventually around the world. It was a blessing…

But somewhere along the line something changed. I believe it was the addiction to being ‘liked’. It was turning into the be all / end all for all of our news, all of our social interactions, and then eventually for our politics. Now it has turned brother against brother. This tool has now become an uncontrollable thorn in our side and will be the death of our species if we keep up this vitriol pitting one against the other.

I don’t care if you are vaxxed or not, if you are gay or straight, left wing or right wing. But, if you are one of those souls out there pushing an agenda or being self righteous I want nothing to do with you. As the Native Americans say, “Never judge a Man unless you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins.”

I challenge you to turn off Facebook, Instagram, Mainstream Media. Take it off of your phones. Yes, it’s a bit dull at first but then you start finding yourself productive in areas of your life that you ‘didn’t have time for’. It’s quite refreshing.

Of course this is easy for me to say and do because I was already in my 30’s when all of this transpired. I didn’t have a celphone until I was in my late 20’s / early 30’s. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a kid today growing up with all of this bombarding you.

Here’s my bottom line. We are lied to every day. If you follow the money you will not like what you see. I guarantee it. Hospitals care more about the bottom line than people. Politicians care about the bottom line more than people. Big Pharma are the same people that got you addicted to opioids. They’ve paid millions in lawsuits but still the bottom line was greater than a life.

My bottom line is not money. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life but putting money above people has never been, nor will it ever be my bottom line.

Below is a quote from somebody that I went to Agape with when I lived in LA. He is kind, generous, humble, and most of all… a humanitarian. He is now considered a conspiracy theorist. A term that I hate because it is a very gray area. It seems that you are a conspiracy theorist if you question ‘facts’ that have been put out on Facebook or mainstream media.

“We are so concerned about being ‘liked’ that it stops us from doing our greatest work. You have to agree with me for us to be friends now. You voted for the wrong person? You’re out. So, you protect those ‘like’s’ like you do your money in the bank. So it conditions them to be obedient instead of being brave enough to stand independently and say what’s true regardless if somebody likes it or dislikes it.”

I challenge you to listen to this podcast to the very end instead of just reading the headline and basing your opinion of it as hogwash. I bet 99% of you won’t watch it to the end. For those of you that do I want to hear your comments.

I started studying these maybe 4 years ago or so? Hermes was a Greek god and one of the 12 Olympians who lived on Mount Olympus. To me, all of these Greek gods were actually here on this planet, not actually ‘gods’ but leaders of some sort, or an amalgamation of several people. I don’t know if I’d venture into saying that they were aliens or anything like that, but whoever ‘he’ was we know a few facts about mythology. We know that Homer’s Iliad, once thought of as fiction was found to be real. Troy was actually found by archaeologists.

So, regardless of where these principles started, like the Bible, Bahá’i, Tipitaka, Vedas, Quran, Agamas, Tanakh, Kojiki, Sikh, Dao De Jing, Book of Shadows, Avesta, etc. All of these sacred texts, religions, all have a ‘truth’ to them. It’s when these thoughts become extreme and say they are the end all / be all… that is when we stray. There is truth in everything.

Let me get back on track here. I tend to ramble a bit. 😉

What I like about these 7 Principles is that they can be incorporated into everything that we do, that they are inclusive in whatever you believe. They are a compass that helps guide is in the direction of our own truth.

I will put down the Principles here and what they are but I will allow you to do your own research if interested or feel free to contact me.

The 7 Hermetic Principles

1. The Principle of Mentalism.

The ALL is MIND; The Universe is Mental.

2. The Principle of Correspondence.

As above, so below; as below, so above.

3. The Principle of Vibration.

Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.

4. The Principle of Polarity.

Everything is Duel; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.

5. The Principle of Rhythm.

Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates.

6. The Principle of Cause and Effect.

Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law, Chance is but a name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the Law.

7. The Principle of Gender.

Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principle Gender; manifests on all planes.

Dig in!

Peace!

David

Rumi said, “In the field of spirit there is no division. No individuals exist.”

No Individuals Exist.

Most Marine brothers and sisters that I know or that I’ve worked with, know this. We were trained to co-exist, despite our differences, to overcome a common enemy. We took an oath, whether foreign or domestic to protect and to serve. There is a bond between, regardless of age. We know we’ve got each others backs (I’ve got your 6). Now that I’ve been out for more years than I was ever in, I look at what this means to me now that I’m on a more spiritual path, moving from warrior to spiritual warrior…

x

Are we so self serving in todays world that we are so busy pointing the finger at others, defending our egos, finding faults in others that we just can’t see that this division is killing us?

When did we decide that political affiliation, color of skin, sexual orientation, sports team, vax, no vax, is more important than someones character? When we gloss over someone’s character we are doing ourselves a dis-service. Are we subconsciously allowing our surface self, our ego, to determine what is right or wrong when in fact we might be wrong ourselves because we haven’t acquired information from sources other than what our ego aligns with?

Going back to the Marines.

When we study war, we understand that dis-information, propaganda, is put out to confuse and disorient those that we are trying to ‘persuade’. In a way, when I was in advertising I was essentially studying this art of propaganda by making convincing adverts to persuade…. ok, let us be real… to LIE to people to get them to buy a product.

The Art of Lying.

Have you ever been told a lie so many times that it becomes real? I mean, you hear it repeatedly and so therefore your mind pretty much accepts it as truth. We do this to ourselves as well. We lie to ourselves even though we have answers right in front of us, or somebody that we respect lies to us. We’ve caught them in a lie but we decide, our ego decides, that it’s ok because they are really on our side.

What does this have to do with division?

We are allowing ourselves to let our ego run the show. We aren’t looking at the characters in the play and realizing that these actors, these leaders, are creating this division. I can walk down the street and strike up a conversation with anybody, yes, anybody. Why? Because all people want the same thing. They want to be loved. They want to provide for their families. They want to be judged by their character. They want to contribute. We all want to be one. We want to be indivisible.

Media creates division.

News stations create division as well. They know that by making your blood boil because ‘they’ (insert whomever they are trying to make you hate) are destroying our world. Turn off your TV or reduce your consumption to it and to online media like facecrack, instagram, twitter, etc.

Basically what I’m saying is this…

When you start noticing the similarities in people, the more united you become. Here in the USA, the UNITED States, we aren’t living up to our own name. We are more the DIVIDED States than anything. I would like to think that the country that I served was United and that my service was not in vain.

Please grow up.

Peace,

D

This might fall on deaf ears but let’s give it a shot.

TURN OFF YOUR TELEVISION!!!!

TURN OFF YOUR NEWS FEED ON YOUR PHONE AND COMPUTER!!!

DON’T BELIEVE ANYTHING THAT YOU HEAR, AND ONLY HALF OF WHAT YOU SEE — Ben Franklin

YOU ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS (We are all individuals) — The Life of Brian

Throughout the ages there have been people in our history that have repeated these messages trying to get us to think for ourselves. They have tried, and unfortunately failed.

Why have we failed?

I believe, because the masses, generally speaking, are lazy. It’s easier to hear something and repeat it than look into it for themselves. In today’s society we don’t want to be bothered. ‘Prayers’ seems to be the new catch phrase. It allows us to be passive. Although I do believe in the power of prayer, I also believe in the power of action.

What are YOU doing as an individual to change the world?

I’m going to repeat something that one of my coaches told me while going through Summit Education in 2002…

Act on everything as if YOU were responsible for it.

What if you were responsible for poverty? Would there be poverty in the world? What if you were responsible for war? Would there be war in the world? What if you were responsible for all of the hunger in the world? Would anybody go hungry?

You see… taking on this perspective does not allow you to be passive in your life. Once you take on this role, you take on a role of leadership. You take on the role of giving a shit. You can bring this down on a micro scale if it helps you understand.

Let’s take on poverty.

The foods you eat. Where do those foods come from? Do they come from a local farmer or from a grocery store that ships that food in from a huge corporation? Are you aware that certain foods that you eat get shipped in from countries that use labor so cheap that they could be considered slaves?

The material goods that you buy. Where do those products come from? Are they made in china, so cheap that places like Walmart, Nike, Amazon corner the market on basically (again), slave labor just so you can get something cheaper?

Let’s take on war.

We send our sons and daughters off to war to fight for what we’ve been told is ‘freedom’, or ‘democracy’. But are you willing to look at where that money goes to to support these wars? Are we really fighting for democracy or are we feeding a machine that only thrives on acquisition of land to exploit the minerals?

Let’s take on hunger.

This can piggy back on poverty. So many people go hungry around this world while we throw away more than we can stuff in our faces. Did you know that the Whole Foods in LA locks its dumpsters at night so the homeless can’t get into them? Do you know how much food a DAY they throw away?

This is the tip of the iceberg. Once you start doing research you become more aware of your actions. Once you know, you can’t un-know. And maybe that is the answer right there. People don’t want to know because it will depress them? I get it. Believe me, I get it. But for whatever it is… I now know and there is no going back.

Let me get back to the television, social media, the news.

The news used to be Walter Cronkite telling you what was going on in the world. He would not voice his opinion on air, he would just tell you the facts. It would allow us to form our own opinion. In the 80’s when Ted Turner started CNN, 24hr news, they needed to pay their bills. Advertisers paid hefty amounts of money and they wanted the most bang for their buck. To keep the people watching the news 24hrs a day they realized that they were never going to capture the audiences attention with boring personalities like Cronkite’s. New needed something sexier, more exciting… something that would keep people on the edge of their seats. They needed rock stars of news! People that would inject their opinions into what people were seeing. News turned into a fucking soap opera.

They quickly realized that the more drama there was, the more viewers they would have, and therefore the more money they would make off of advertisers. Advertisers realized this as well so therefore, following suit, advertising had to become more enticing. So much so that I guarantee that you have your own favorite commercial. Basically, a paid for lie about a product that will never live up to what it really is.

The psyche of the world was changed.

We are essentially no different than an addict. We ARE addicts ourselves. Things need to become more exciting, more violent, more… more… more… We aren’t satisfied, ever. We have been left with an emptiness that we don’t know how to satiate. We doom scroll on our phones, on our social media feeds, ‘liking’ what we see. ‘Liking’ is now equivalent to your self worth. Even the person that created the ‘like’ button has apologized for creating it, never knowing that it would create such pain and sorrow.

Let’s get a little deeper now that you have a basic understanding of how these systems operate.

Politicians, Governments, Corporations which I will call the PGC know how easy it is to influence you. They understand how the news, how social media has captured us. And like puppeteers, they pull the strings and make us dance whichever way they wish us to. They follow our trends. They watch our every move as they hone in deeper and deeper into our psyche until we all come to the point of following their influence. We believe the PGC. We adore the PGC. They care about us (so we think). This is the Matrix that Morpheus was warning us about.

Wake up Neo!

Whatever you want to believe, believe. But understand that we have been hijacked and the generations that follow will ask this question, “What the hell were we thinking?”

I’ve asked a lot of questions here without offering you some solutions. If you wish know you can start with this…

Think Globally. Act Locally.

Start working within your own community. Instead of buying products that are shipped to you, start finding local farmers, local retailers, local restaurants. Start spending your money within your community and your community will grow. The ‘j.o.b.’ (Just Over Broke) that you work to pay your bills… is it fulfilling or does it just pay your bills? Maybe you’ve acquired too much. Do you really need two cars? If you start working within your community you might only need a bicycle to get to where you need to go? Killing two birds with one stone. You get transportation and exercise all in one! Win! Speaking of the job and it’s fulfillment. Is it for a big corporation that doesn’t contribute to its own community? Back in the 80’s we had a lawsuit against Walmart in the town I lived in because Walmart had a reputation for entering into a community, wiping out local businesses, and destroying the local economy. And if that isn’t enough… none of their money went back into the local community.

Maybe start your own garden? There is nothing like watching your own food grow that you can eat yourself and share with your neighbors. The food tastes better and your neighbors, well, you get to know them!

I hope that I have planted some seeds. I hope that I have made you look deeper into things because right now we live in a world of fear. The acronym for F.E.A.R. is False Evidence Appearing Real but unfortunately most of us live under a different acronym. Fuck Everything And Run.

We live on a beautiful diverse planet. She will continue with us, or without us. She is giving us this opportunity with this reset to see how beautiful this planet is when we stop, regardless if we were forced to stop or not, to smell the flowers.

Please… let’s move forward and not back to what it was before. Do you really want your old job back? Do you really want to continue this rat race or do you want to smell the flowers with me?