A while ago I saw a documentary on electrodynamics and free energy, where Tom Bearden was interviewed explaining the concept behind free (or radiant) energy. The documentary is titled “Hidden electrodynamics and the final secret of free energy” and is the fifth part of the Energy from the Vacuum series. If you’ve never heard of this series, I highly recommend you check it out. In the interview Bearden explains how it’s possible to get energy out of the vacuum, seemingly out of nowhere, by creating a charge and having the environment (or vacuum) react to that essentially trying to neutralize that charge. It’s important to understand that this isn’t just theory anymore, as there are working concepts of machines that demonstrate how this works. All of this can be seen in the documentaries.

This knowledge exists for a long time now, ever since the time of Nikola Tesla. If Tesla could have had enough funding for his research, the world we live in today would have looked very different. Instead Tesla’s research was sabotaged and stopped because J. P. Morgan, who was financing most of Tesla’s research at the time, didn’t want free energy technology to become available to everyone. That would have been against his financial interests (see the movie “The Secret of Nikola Tesla” for more on this). So instead, all of this technology (free energy, anti-gravity etc.) was held back from reaching the public and today the world is being financially milked by those in control with alternative energy sources that are expensive, finite, pollute the planet and create artificial scarcity. Even today, as Bearden explains, people are experiencing all kinds of resistance when they try to research free energy and try to develop technology that makes use of free energy. It’s either difficult to get funding for it, or scientists end up missing or are assassinated. Meanwhile the entire population of this planet is being held back so that a small group that’s in control can profit. Millions of people are living in poverty and are dying because, supposedly, there are not enough resources to feed them and take care of them.

An electron surrounded by positively charged particles

But the reason I’m writing this is because I think the theory behind free energy, based on electromagnetism, can be used to explain the concept of karma and the way the universe works. I think the goal in this universe, or in nature, is to constantly have balance. If things aren’t balanced, then the universe reacts and makes sure balance is restored. So in the case of the theory behind free energy, as Bearden explains, once you’ve created a negative charge in a vacuum, seemingly out of nowhere positive particles appear and surround the negative charge. What was thought to be empty space around the negative charge, suddenly isn’t empty anymore. This process is called “broken symmetry,” particles that were previously not observable appear and are now observable. This is easier to understand once you realize that what we think of as empty space or vacuum really isn’t empty at all. The reality is that there’s a lot of matter even in what we think of as empty space, but we’re just not capable of seeing or detecting it. Consider that humans are only capable of seeing a fraction (3.5 x 10^-26 %) of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Imagine how much exists around us that our senses and our technology simply cannot detect (not unless it enters our range of observable reality).

So once a negative or positive charge exists, the universe responds by supplying the energy to bring back balance. And I believe that in our daily life this is also the case. I’ll try to explain this by using an simple example with two persons, person A and person B. Each person is made up of energy (we’re all essentially energy, positive and negative) and in an ideal situation there’s balance.

Balance

In their daily interactions person A and person B exchange energy with each other. Consider what happens when person A decides to do something negative to person B (for example misleading or hurting person B).

Person A does something negative to person B

By doing so, person A projects some of his negative energy onto person B. The result is that person A becomes positively charged (more positive energy present), and person B becomes negatively charged (more negative energy present).

Balance is lost, person A has more positive energy and person B has more negative energy

So you can probably imagine what happens next. Since the goal in the universe is to have balance, the universe responds to this situation by sending negative energy to person A and positive energy to person B.

The universe brings back balance

And that’s when what people refer to as ”karma” comes into play. If you project negative energy out onto people, you’re going to get negative energy back. If you do something bad to someone, you should expect to get it back. On the other hand, if you’re hurt or otherwise need help, the universe will respond by sending help. It’s difficult to say how fast the universe reacts, but usually it takes time and maybe things are brought back into balance by other events and other persons also interacting with person A and B even before the universe responds. It’s also important to note that things like conscience and intention may also play an important role in all of this. Whether or not the energy person A projects onto person B is negative or positive from the perspective of person A, may depend entirely upon person A’s intention and conscience. Was person A’s intention to really hurt person B, did he know the consequences? Or was it to help, or was person A not even aware of what was caused to person B? Similarly, the way person B perceives the energy projected onto him by person A may influence the way the universe responds to person B.

Consider what happens when person A projects positive energy onto person B from a neutral starting position, for example by helping person B or by giving something to person B.

Person A does something positive to person B

The result of that is that person A becomes negatively charged (more negative energy present) and person B becomes positively charged (more positive energy present).

The universe responds

The universe then responds to this by sending positive energy to person A and negative energy to person B in order to achieve balance. So for person A we see the concept of “do good and you will receive it back.” However, in this particular example, person B ends up with too much positive energy and even though he may have done nothing wrong, the universe sends negative energy his way. We could argue that since person B was in a neutral/balanced state before receiving positive energy from person A, person B didn’t really need it and should have declined. Or, person B could have accepted the positive energy, but then make sure that he gives back as much of it as possible to someone else who needs it instead of holding onto it.

And so what we see here is that if you think that you’re going take a lot more than you give in life things will get difficult for you. Life is about giving and receiving and the balance between those two. The universe will always try to maintain balance. So when it comes to giving and receiving, we all should strive to maintain a balanced life. Don’t take more than you need but also think of others. If you’re blessed with a lot of positive things in life, consider giving back to those who are in need.

This is exactly what happens if we go back and look at the example of the electron in a vacuum. Being negatively charged, the universe responds by surrounding this negative charge with positive particles. What happens, as Bearden explains, is that the electron continuously absorbs these positive particles but as soon as it has absorbed enough, it releases the absorbed energy again in the form of a photon. It keeps absorbing energy, but it also keeps giving back energy, at such a rate that everything appears to be balanced and static. In reality there’s a continuous process of give and take going on at incredible speed.

All the universe really wants is balance. It makes no distinction between positive and negative, or good and bad. Those are labels that we put on things depending on how we perceive them and depending on our understanding of our reality. To the universe everything just is. Nobody gets rewarded, and nobody gets punished. The universe doesn’t pick sides. The only thing that really matters is balance. This concept is also used in the Matrix movies, where the Architect character is tasked with maintaining balance in the Matrix:

In The Matrix Revolutions, the Oracle explains to Neo that the true purpose of the Architect is to balance the mathematical equations that make up the programming of the Matrix, and he is unable to see the world as anything beyond a series of equations. It is also because of this that he is unable to comprehend choice and free will and cannot see the results of such choices as they are no more than variable factors in an equation to him.

So karma is essentially just the universe trying to maintain internal balance of energy.

In the second Matrix movie, “Matrix Reloaded,” the Architect says to Neo:

“Hope… it is the quintessential human delusion - simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.”

And he would know, because he had been abusing this weakness for the sixth time up to that point if you follow the story in the movie. In fact, Neo was part of the problem: An intentional creation by the Architect with the purpose of giving humans inside the Matrix hope so they could continue to be exploited for as long as possible. As explained by the Architect, he found out that humans would only “accept the program” if they were given a choice. By giving them a choice, not only do you make them feel in control (while in reality they have no control), but if the choice also promises a better future, you also give them hope. If there’s no choice and no hope, there’s no reason to continue and so the entire system comes to a halt and, as agent Smith put it in the first Matrix movie: “entire crops are lost.” To keep the system going and to have everyone accept their current situation, you have to give them something positive to look forward to, you have to give them a reason to make the choice to continue… you have to give them hope. And Neo served that purpose in the Matrix as the savior everyone was waiting for to help them escape from the Matrix and to bring them better times. And the “prophecy” of the coming of the One (Neo) kept everyone going and kept the system running.

The Matrix movies tell us a lot more about life than most people will realize. It is another one of those Hollywood movies that shows us how we are being controlled and manipulated while being disguised as entertainment. There’s a lot more to say on this subject, but I’ll leave that for another post. The important thing for now is that you realize that the story in the Matrix movies is based on real life.

In the same way that ”the machines” used Neo to give all the humans they were manipulating  a false hope, so too are people around the world being manipulated on a large scale with, for example, the many different religions. They are being manipulated to accept their current reality, or life, in the hope that things will be much better in the near future. For some it is until they die and “go to heaven/paradise”, for others it’s until their savior (Jesus, etc.) returns to earth whenever that may be, and there can be many more reasons. Whatever is needed to get people to believe and to give them hope. In the meantime, people choose to “accept the program” that’s forced upon them and continue to live life and keep the system going while hoping for better times. And this is of course exactly what those in control want everyone to do.

A more blatantly obvious example was during the election campaign of Barack Obama. Obama got associated, even literally (how much more in your face can they get?), with the hope everyone in the USA and around the world needed. After all the devastation that was caused in the USA and around the world during President George W. Bush, everyone was hoping for a change and for better times. So Obama became the Neo everyone (especially those in the USA) was waiting for. Those in control knew exactly what they were doing when they associated Obama with “change” and “hope.” You could say that it was brilliant manipulation, but it’s not so brilliant when you consider the fact that this kind of manipulation is business as usual for those in the know. In fact, they have done this many times before, just like the Architect in the Matrix. And just like he says in the movie, they have become “exceedingly efficient at it.” You just have to look at how the world swallowed the message of hope from Obama hook, line and sinker to see just how efficient they’ve gotten at this game. What this means is that, apparently, you can cause all kinds of devastation to people and manipulate them as much as you want, as long as you give them a reason to go through all of that (at the same time the illusion of choice) and give them hope for a better future.

While everyone has accepted the message of hope and thinks that things will actually change soon, in reality and especially behind the scenes nothing at all changes and those in control continue with their own agenda. The manipulation continues while everyone “accepts the program.” Since Obama became president of the USA, has anything really changed? If you do even a little bit of research, you’ll find that nothing of any significance has really changed, and things have continued exactly as George W. Bush left them. Just watch the documentary “Obama Deception” by Alex Jones for more information on this.

So the reason why hope is humanity’s greatest weakness is simply because it can be used to deceive us and make us a passive herd of sheep, even if just for a while until we are given another reason to have hope again (thus continuing the cycle of manipulation). This is why it is important to be very critical of everything around you and not easily accept things without hard verifiable evidence, facts, and certainly not on blind faith as, for example, religion expects from you. If you have any hopes, always make sure they are based on realistic expectations, which themselves are based on verifiable facts and measurable progress. You have to be as objective as possible, very honest to yourself and very rigorous and ruthless when it comes to this.  Critical thinking is very valuable here and I cannot stress this enough. If you’re able to apply all of this in your daily life, then you will be capable of getting the most out of your hopes in life and you can really make having hope one of your greatest strengths instead of weaknesses. Yes, you can.

Picture of a deep part of the universe, taken by NASA.

The picture of the universe above shows us what is typical of such pictures: Little bits of light surrounded by a vast ocean of darkness. This picture tells us a lot more about the universe, about nature and about life in general, than most people will realize. One of the most important things to take away from this picture is that the universe is a LOT more about darkness than it is about light.

I wrote before about the fact that we’re living in a world of pain. Every day I look around me and I see lots of suffering and lots of pain. Sure, there are positive things happening here and there, but all of that is surrounded by and drowned in all the pain and suffering. It seems that anything positive doesn’t last for very long, and in fact, like I also wrote before, there can never really be lasting happiness in life. And if you look at the picture of the universe above, that is exactly what it is showing us. Small specks of light surrounded by an ocean of darkness. Small positive experiences surrounded by an ocean of negativity. Little bits of happiness surrounded by an ocean of pain and suffering. The little bits of happiness are like a small drop of water on a hot plate; in the end it really has no effect. This picture tells us what life in this universe is all about.

The universe is more about darkness than it is about light. It’s more about the dark experiences than it is about the pleasant experiences. It is more about the negative than it is about the positive. At its core, life is all about darkness, about pain and suffering, from the moment you’re born all the way up to the moment you die. You cry yourself into the world, you enter a constant struggle to stay alive in an environment filled with hostility and in the end you grow old and die anyway. In between you might experience moments of what most people refer to as “happiness,” but it will always be against the underlying purpose of constant struggle, pain and suffering. Again, a small drop of water on a hot plate. If there really is such a thing as a hell, the universe could certainly be classified as some kind of hell. It could be worse, but it’s pretty bad already as it is.

I’m not a religious person and I don’t think much of religion, but it’s interesting to note that even the bible mentions that in the beginning there was first total darkness until god created light. Darkness must have been the very first thing god created, for obvious reasons. And as you can see in the picture above, the light he supposedly created in the universe is almost nothing compared to the darkness that exists. In fact, all the light seems overwhelmed by darkness. It really doesn’t stand a chance. Stars come and go in this universe, but the darkness will always be there. Happy moments may enter your life to stay for a short period, but the only thing that always stays, whether you like to admit it or not, is the underlying purpose of pain and suffering.

And that sums up my experience with life nicely.

Back in 2005 I wrote about the “wonderful” Christmas and holiday season. I invite you to go back with me and read that post again by clicking on the following link: Shiny Happy People.

Nothing has changed.

March 15th 2008 is Z-Day. That’s the day when there will be screenings of the movie Zeitgeist everywhere around the world. I wrote about this movie before. If you haven’t yet seen it, you should take the time to check it out. It’s available for download for free from the movie website. The movie brings into question many things that people in general have come to accept as their reality today, one of which is religion. It shows where the major religions originate from, and then goes on to expose what exactly is behind all the issues that are going on around the world.

Make sure to also check out the content I discussed in this post, and about religion in this post.

This morning I almost sprayed coffee all over my computer when I read this story. Looks like the Chinese want to regulate re-incarnation now. Yes, you heard that right. If you were still in doubt that religion is stupidity used to brainwash, enslave and control people, this is such a clear example of its purpose. Just take a look:

In one of history’s more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is “an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation.”

Just the first sentence had me rolling on the floor. But you know what? It also made me really sad. Sad to see that many people still believe in all this stupidity and allow themselves to be manipulated by it. Sad to see that in the coming months and years, people are actually going to be taking this seriously, and fight for their rights to reincarnate how and where ever they want. And sad to see that those in control still manage to fool large parts of the ignorant population (which is kept that way on purpose) and get away with such absurdities.

Almost a year ago, I wrote a post titled “A sign of true love.” And in that post I tried to explain one way of how you can know if you truly love someone. Basically it had to do with the concept of being able to love someone, even though you may not be able to be with that person, and even if that person would prefer to be with someone else. Being able to let go and watch that person make their own choices in freedom, live their lives as they choose to, even though it may not involve you at all, and genuinely feel happy for them.

If you took the time and thought a little further about the consequences, then you probably also came to realize that what that means is that you’ll eventually love more people at the same time. And I’m not talking about love in the sense of loving your mom, but love in the sense of loving someone from the opposite sex. Because let’s face it, you’re not going to be sitting alone all by yourself if you can’t be with someone you love. You’ll let them go their way, while still loving them, and you’ll be meeting other people and will find someone else to fall in love with. When that happens, you don’t suddenly just stop loving the other person. If that’s the case, it wasn’t love at all. When you truly love someone, you’ll always love them and want the best for them. Even if they hurt you, you’ll want to take action in order to protect yourself, but you’ll never wish anything bad for them.

We’ve been conditioned to believe that it’s only possible to romantically love one person at a time. From very early on during childhood, you learn this through books, cartoons, movies, from grown-ups around you, everywhere. You learn that it’s wrong to love more than one person at the same time. You learn that you should feel guilty if you do. You learn that it’s immoral. You learn that you should feel betrayed and hurt if someone you love loves others beside you. You learn all of that, when experience shows that it’s just not right. How can you love someone and then stop loving them just because you can’t be with them? How can you not love someone simply because you already love someone else and because it’s supposedly not right? Is love really supposed to be that way? Is love so limited? Is love that weak?

The fact of the matter is that if you really love someone for the right reasons, you’ll always love that person. You’ll always want the best for them. And you’ll go on to meet new people, have new boyfriends or girlfriends, and you’ll love them too without having to stop loving others for no reason other than that it’s not right according to rules of society. Not only is it entirely possible to love more people at the same time, it’s also natural and actually the way it should be.

And taking it even further, human beings were never supposed to tie themselves to one partner for most of their lives. The only rules that exist for that were made up by people and most of them come with religion. Now that we know that religion is based on lies and exists to enslave and control people, those rules are meaningless, including things like marriage. Those rules have only caused trouble in relationships, tying people to eachother and restricting their freedom. Even encouraging them to control eachother and pretend to own eachother. Just look at the many problems it causes in relationships and in marriages everywhere. People are always talking about making relationships and marriage work, and nobody seems to realize that it doesn’t work because it’s not natural. If it was natural, you wouldn’t have to try so hard to make it work. You’re not supposed to tie yourself to one person. Just think about it, do you really think there’s one person out there that can satisfy all your needs? Everyone is different, and in everyone you’ll find some things that you like. However, you’ll also find that they can’t give you certain things that you’re looking for. Instead of being unsatisfied and trying to make it work with one person and limiting yourself in the process, you’re supposed to go out and find others who can fill in the gaps. For example, if you’re a guy, today you can spend time with Sarah, who just likes to go out, party and have fun, but tomorrow, you can spend time with Nicole, with whom you can have really deep conversations about important things that matter to you, the kind of conversations you simply can’t have with Sarah. If you couldn’t have Nicole, you’d be expecting Sarah to have the deep conversations with you and since she’s not very interested, it would cause trouble in your relationship with her. Since you can satisfy your need for deep conversations with Nicole, you don’t have to bother Sarah with that and can focus on doing the things that you can do together with her. When you’re not with Sarah, she’s also free to do things with others that you can’t do with her. And so on.

Think of how much richer your life might be in such a case. How many more experiences you’d be able to have, how many more people you’d be able to meet. You’d be completely free, without limitations with who you can love and spend time with. You’d be able to love and be loved essentially without limitations. You’d be able to reach out to all those different people to help to satisfy you and help you grow to what you want to be in life.

Ofcourse when you’re controlled by greed and want to control someone and have that person only for yourself, things are different and it never works out. Not only do you limit the person you pretend to love, you also limit yourself. With the many years of programming ever since your childhood, it might not be easy to accept what I explained above. For hundreds and maybe even thousands of years, people have been forced and brainwashed into accepting the opposite in order to frustrate their lives and make it easier for others to control and manipulate them. And this is just one of the areas where this is the case. If you look around you, it should be more than clear that what we’ve been taught about love, and the rules we’ve been told to live by only serve to frustrate our lives, hurt our relationships and make things more difficult for us. Love isn’t supposed to be limiting. Let’s have as much of it as possible.

St. Matheus

For most of my life, I knew there was something seriously wrong with religion. And I’m not the only one. There are many people around the world who have had the same feeling. If you just spent some time to think about it, a lot of things just didn’t make sense in all the religions of the world. So many contradictions and absurdities. In addition, while religion is supposed to be a good thing, when you do enough research you quickly find that religion is not only made up by people, but that it has consistently been used to manipulate, control and enslave people on earth for the benefit of the few who are in control. It has constantly been changed and interpreted differently based on the agenda of those who were in control and the situation during a specific moment in history.

Normally you wouldn’t need a lot of evidence to be able to see the many problems with religion. Just a little common sense and objectivity would be enough. But due to the massive brainwashing that has been going on for thousands of years around the world, it is very difficult for most people to break through all the programming they’ve had ever since their birth and see religion for what it really is. But when they break through the programming and are able to think and see clearly, suddenly they start to notice the problems. Suddenly they start to see that a lot of things that they accepted as being normal, or that they simply never noticed, are so absurd they wonder how come they never noticed it before.

Many people immediately act on their conscience when they find out about this. But a lot of people still desperately try to hold on to their beliefs, afraid of what it might mean when they accept the fact that their beliefs along with a lot of things they thought were normal have been wrong for many years. Indeed their whole life may have been based on their religion, and their entire belief system as well. Having to admit that their assumptions about life were wrong, means that they’re going to have to act on it if they want to maintain personal integrity, and that will undoubtedly lead to drastic changes in their lives. So most people still seem to take the easy way out, which is to desperately hold on to their current beliefs and ignore anything that may suggest otherwise. If they aren’t able to explain away the many problems with religion, they simply close their minds to it. In addition, religion readily provides “answers” to a lot of important questions in life, such as “Where do I come from?” and “What is the purpose of life?” These are very important questions, and as you can no doubt imagine, when you lack good answers to these questions, it can be very difficult to live your life not knowing where you’re heading. So most people will choose to believe in religion simply to make their life easier and because there is no better alternative. They’ll even believe in fairy tales if it will mean that they can enjoy their life that way.

The other option of course, is to not believe in religion and admit that you don’t have answers to many important questions in life. This is a more difficult road to take, but a more rewarding one for the long term. It is much better to admit when you don’t have the answers, instead of believing in improvable theories from others that require you to accept lots of things based on faith, because in the latter case you open yourself up to manipulation. And if you look around you, it’s not very difficult to see that this has been the case for many years around the world. People are being manipulated to go to war in the name of god. They’re being manipulated to do many questionable things in the name of god. Religions are being played out against each other for the benefit of the few in control behind the scenes. People are being manipulated into accepting a false reality. An example is the caste system in Hinduism, according to which you get born into a specific class of people in society and have to live your life according to all the rules and restrictions that apply to it, when in fact, everyone gets born a normal human being and should be able to freely live his life as he chooses to. It’s absurd to suggest that someone has to be an outcast simply because he was born in a specific class of society. And yet, millions of people still accept these ridiculous theories and live their whole life according to it, to the benefit of those in the higher classes who rule over the rest.

When you start to look into religion, you also find that hundreds of years ago, there were already people who could see through the absurdities and the manipulation. But somehow, their ideas never really caught on and never reached large parts of the public. Many rulers have also tried to destroy all the information that would lead people to find out about the truth. Books were burned on a large scale, certain information made illegal, inaccessible or was simply hidden from people. Still, there’s a lot of information out there and much more information is becoming available thanks to the many scholars and archeologists who are working on this subject. And because this information is now able to reach even more people, and more people are starting to wake up as a result, religion is starting to fall apart around the world. As this is happening, the few in control are already hard at work to find other means of controlling people and to find substitutes for religion to brainwash and enslave people on a large scale.

I’d like to suggest some books that you should read as soon as possible in order to have a better understanding of religion, it’s origins, the many issues with religions around the world, and how it’s being abused. These are essential reading:

• That Old time Religion – Jordan Maxwell
  Jordan Maxwell has done incredible research into many related areas, including religion. In this book he shows us the origins of many religions around the world, and how they’re all based on astrology. I also highly recommend all other books by Jordan Maxwell.
• Losing Faith in Faith - Dan Barker
  This book discusses the many problems with Christianity, the contradictions and the absurdities. Dan Barker tells us the story of how he turned from preacher to atheist. You’ll wonder how it’s possible that you read the bible and never noticed all the stupidity before.
• Jehovah Unmasked - Nathaniel Merritt
  Nathaniel Merritt brings to light even more stupidity in the bible in a very humoristic way. You’ll find it difficult to stop reading.
• The book your church doesn’t want you to read - Tim C. Leedom
  A compilation of works from various authors and researchers including Jordan Maxwell. When you read it, you’ll find out why it’s called “The book your church doesn’t want you to read.”
• The Christ Conspiracy: The greatest story ever sold - Acharya S
  Acharya S is one of the great scholars who has done lots of research into the subject of religion. In this book she mainly discusses the origins of Christianity. Highly recommended.
• Suns of God - Acharya S
  In this book Acharya S discusses the origins of Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. You’ll see the incredible similarities between the spiritual leaders of these religions, and get to know the fact that they were all based on stories that existed hundreds of years before in a wide variety of cultures. Highly recommended.

Update July 2nd, 2007: It appears Jordan Maxwell has part of the story that’s covered in his book “That Old Time Religion” up on his website. I also found some video’s on Google Video and Youtube that you should take a look at as soon as possible, featuring Jordan Maxwell:

• The Truth About the Jesus Myth: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
• Jordan Maxwell Exposes the Illuminati
• Jordan Maxwell Basic Slide Presentation

By now you’ve probably already heard of, and have likely already seen, the movie “The Secret.” If you haven’t yet seen it, the website for the movie is here. You should take a look for yourself in order to better understand what I’m going to talk about below.

The movie is put together really well visually, has nice directing and good marketing. It was designed to appeal to the masses. It attempts to make life look like a fairy tale, to make it seem like all can be nice and well if you just believe it to be so and want it badly enough. You don’t actually have to work for it, you see. All you have to do is forget about the bad or negative things in your life, just focus on what you like and have fun, and everything will magically take care of itself. Everything you need will automatically come your way. Yes, my dear reader, according to The Secret, you can even get rich that way. In fact, the central focus in The Secret is around how you can get rich easily.

But what this movie really is, is disinformation. While the movie does include common wisdom, and even mentions great people from the past like Albert Einstein in a way which would make you think Einstein actually endorses the message being communicated by the movie and agrees with it, it also contains lots of things that are just plain wrong and misleading. And that seems to be the purpose of the movie, to put people on the wrong path, to distract them by making them believe in things that lead to nowhere.

If you want to tell people a lie, and want to make it sound convincing so that they believe you, one way to do that is to mix a little bit of truth into your story together with the lies. That gives people bits of logic that they can hold onto as they follow your story from start to finish, accepting the lies in between as they go along. And if you can make the bits of truth seamlessly flow into the lies and back into the bits of truth, establishing a relationship between them in the process, it becomes even better and as a result a lot more difficult for someone to notice that something is wrong with your story. This is being done all the time these days to brainwash people on a large scale, and The Secret is merely an example.

Like I already said, The Secret exists to distract people from what really matters. To distract them from the things they should really be looking at. If you’re a leader bent on world domination, if you’re busy doing a lot of evil and causing loads of pain and destruction everywhere on the planet while you benefit from it, you’ll want people to ignore you and you’ll want them to look elsewhere for solutions to the problems you’re creating. You certainly don’t want them to focus on you! So what you do, is you pick up a small stone and throw it in a direction that is opposite of you as much as possible, and you send them on a wild goose chase while you continue making life worse for them. And that is exactly the purpose of The Secret. Most people have all kinds of issues in their lives these days which are mostly the result of policies which are decided by very few people who are in control and who benefit. Religion is falling apart right now, and doesn’t seem to be able to brainwash people anymore. A bit more time, and they’re actually going to wonder what the hell is going on and demand real answers. Those in control can’t let that happen. So what is the solution? Invent something new for them to believe in and hold onto, distracting them from what they should really be looking at to fix issues on this planet. Don’t let them look at the leaders who’re causing most of the problems, no no, let them focus on believing they can ignore that and have fun doing positive things and everything will be alright. Besides, they don’t want to focus on anything negative anyway, or anything that would require them to think about and to do tedious things. They want to focus on nice, easy, fun and positive things. So those in control give them that and keep them occupied with it, while they are free to do even more evil.

It’s sad but true. But what’s even sadder, is that most of the things discussed in The Secret are so obviously stupid, that I wonder how they’re still able to fool millions of people around the world with it. If you just look at it and ask some simple questions, it all falls apart in nanoseconds.

For example, the main concept being discussed in The Secret is “The Law of Attraction.” As described by Bob Proctor in the movie, “everything that comes into your life, you are attracting into your life.” And it appears that you do that largely by thinking about it, or desiring it so much, that the universe decides to give you what you want and creates situations for you which enable you to get what you need or desire. But let’s hold it right here. Does Bob Proctor want me to believe that those people in the Twin Towers who died on 9/11 all wished to die on that day under such terrible circumstances? Because it looks like the universe acted on their needs there, according to The Law of Attraction. Right? Bob wants me to believe those people attracted that horrible event into their lives. I find that a little hard to believe, Bob. And in the case of 9/11, we’re talking about 3000 people. Did the tens of thousands of people who died because of the tsunami in Asia a while ago also attract the tsunami into their lives? It’s kindof hard to imagine all those people wishing for death. There were tourists there from all over the world, Bob, and they were there to have fun! How the hell did they end up like that? Surely there had to be a big misunderstanding between them and the universe.

It’s so stupid it’s very disturbing to realize most people buy into this. According to The Law of Attraction, you should forget about your problems because if you think about them, you’ll only attract more problems into your life. But if there’s anything the universe or nature has taught us, it’s that opposites attract eachother. So if I think about my problems, shouldn’t I attract solutions? Strangely, The Law of Attraction wants us to think about positive things to change the negative things, and thus to create or attract positive things in our lives. But ofcourse, you can’t just think positive and hope to change something negative with it. If you want to turn a negative (bad) situation into a positive (good) one, you’re going to have to deal with the negative (bad) things and change them (make them positive (good)). You can’t ignore the negative things and just keep yourself busy with positive things and hope that the negative things will automatically turn positive. You’re going to have to concentrate or focus on them and put some effort into getting them positive. It’s just like in math, which is often called the language of nature. In math, you can’t multiply a negative number with a positive one, and hope to get a positive outcome. No no, you multiply the negative number by a negative number in order to get something positive out of it. This again shows that you’ll have to work with the negative to turn something negative to something positive. Now when you view the whole process, you might say that you’re overall doing something positive (good), because turning something negative (bad) to something positive (good) is a good (positive) thing to do. But take note of the fact that in the process, you’ll actually be focusing on the negative because that’s what you want to change. I wrote about this before.

Things like The Secret fool people into thinking that they can just focus on the positive things and all their problems (the negative things) will automatically take care of themselves and disappear, totally ignoring the fact that the only way to create something positive out of a negative situation, is to change the negative and thus, to focus on the negative. It’s the same thing as those who say “positive thinking” is the solution to all your problems. It’s brilliant disinformation. It keeps people looking for solutions to problems in the wrong places, or prevents them looking for solutions completely. And sadly most people buy into this stuff immediately, because it is the path of least resistance. “You mean I can just think positive, have fun and all my problems will go away automatically??? Wow! Awesome!!” Who wouldn’t love that? If it were really true, it wouldn’t surprise me that most people would rather choose to “think positive” instead of facing their problems and trying to solve them. This is one of the important reasons why the world is a complete mess today. People are too easy-going and don’t like to face problems. They’ll believe in fairy tales if it will allow them to ignore certain issues, to the advantage of those who create the issues and benefit from them.

That’s where things like The Secret come into play. To use the example I mentioned before: If you’re a leader bent on world domination, if you’re busy doing a lot of evil and causing loads of pain and destruction everywhere on the planet while you benefit from it, you’ll want people to ignore you (the negative) and you’ll want them to look elsewhere for solutions to the problems you’re creating by having them believe in The Secret and have them use that disinformation to pursue a better life (the positive) while they ignore you (the negative) so you can continue to do your thing in the background.

And that, my dear reader, is the REAL secret.

Anyway, if there really is such a thing as The Law of Attraction, the fact that nature has clearly shown us that opposites attract eachother means that according to The Law of Attraction you should be thinking about your problems in order for the universe to respond with solutions. You should be dissatisfied with your status quo and let that be known to the universe in order for the universe to respond with things that can help to get you satisfied. If you pretend to be satisfied, happy and think positive, which is what they encourage you to do in The Secret, the universe will respond by bringing negative things into your life. It’s all about maintaining balance in nature. If you’re leaning too much towards being dissatisfied and unhappy, the universe will try to get you more towards the side where you feel satisfied and happy. And the other way around. So the smart thing to do is to never be satisfied, think about your problems and deal with them in order for the universe to continue to respond with positive things in your life to help you improve.

One of my English teachers in high school once made a remark saying “Once you start asking yourself why you exist, it’s a sign you’re going crazy.” At the time, even though I knew what she was talking about, I thought it was quite funny to hear such a remark from her. One of the reasons was that before she made that remark, she was just staring in front of her for a minute probably thinking about something. Another reason was that she was known to be absent-minded most of the time. So I couldn’t help but laugh when she suddenly made that remark.

But like I said, I knew what she was talking about because at that time, I had asked myself that question many times. Why do I exist? Where do I come from exactly? Where is this all leading to? Those are questions that most people probably ask themselves quite often. I did it starting at an early age. And the need for answers to those questions grows exponentially when you look around you and notice the crazy world we all live in. A world full of unexplained things, full of contradictions, full of deception, full of pain…. just absolutely crazy.

I often just lied down on my bed staring at the ceiling, everything out of focus, and thinking about those questions. And I always used to get the same feeling everytime. A feeling of hitting some kind of wall or barrier in my mind that wouldn’t allow me to reach an area that would allow me to get the answers to those questions. It was a feeling of hitting a wall and bouncing back from it. In addition it felt like after that, the series of thoughts that led to that wall would get scrambled and it would take a few seconds to recover and be able to align my thoughts again in the pattern that would lead to that wall, only to bounce back from it when I got there again.

And in search for answers to those questions, most people get really desperate and start to accept all kinds of wild and often deceptive theories, such as the various religions we have today. They just understandably can’t stand to be without answers to these very important questions. It makes them desperate and it makes them very vulnerable. One thing that I have learned in recent years of doing my personal research, is that it is much better to just admit that you don’t have the answers and continue searching, than to blindly accept theories from other people or groups. For most people, it is very tempting to accept religion based on blind faith because it provides answers instantly and makes life much easier. But the results of that, the easy way out, can be seen today around the world.

But I am still very much searching for answers to those questions myself. And while I have reason to believe that it is impossible for us to ever really find the answers to those questions, the amount of things I found out during the last year are just incredible. The world as we know it today is largely based on deception. Incredible amounts of deception going back even thousands of years. A lot of what I learned in school, for example, was just based on lies. The feeling you get when you start to realize what’s going on is like going crazy, but in reverse. You realize that you’ve really been crazy all your life, believing and accepting all kinds of nonsense as normal, and that now you’re realizing what’s been going on and are becoming a sane person, seeing things as they really are. It’s like growing up with everyone telling you the sky is red, and later finding out the sky is actually blue. Once you find out, you have no choice but to re-evaluate everything you know and view them in a totally new perspective. It’s almost like forgetting everything you know and starting from scratch again.

And so finally, I’d just like to take this opportunity to warn you that I will discuss increasingly more controversial and, by “normal” standards, insane, and maybe even disturbing things on my website in the future. So if you think you can’t handle it, or are too smart for the nonsense that is going to follow, you might want to start unsubscribing to my website after reading this (in case you haven’t done so already).

St. Joannes

I’m sure you’ve heard people say before, or perhaps you’ve thought (and maybe still think), that there is one god and that all religions we know today lead to him. Various paths, all leading to the same destination. But is this true? Can this be right? Is it really possible to have various religions, all leading to the same god?

Before you even look at choosing a religion, you have to believe first that there is such a thing as a god. So for the rest of this post I’m going to assume that we’re convinced of the fact that god exists.

Now, even if you were to assume that it’s possible that all religions lead to the same god, you’d have many other questions to answer, one of which would be: Why would god create all those different religions for people to worship him? And if he did, wasn’t he ever worried that it might cause a lot of confusion, among many other problems? Surely he would have been able to foresee that.

If there would merely be differences between all the religions existing today, it would help in trying to argue for the fact that all religions lead to the same destination. But that is not the case. Not only are there differences, but a lot of these differences are in contradiction with each other. Let me illustrate what I mean with a simple example:

Let’s say we have religion A and B. Religion A says that god has blue eyes and a white beard. Religion B says that god has blue eyes and wears a white robe. In this case, I could say that both religions could be true, since god could have blue eyes, a white beard and wearing a white robe.

But if we had a different situation where religion A said that god has blue eyes and a white beard, and religion B said that god has brown eyes and wearing a white robe, we’d have an issue. Obviously both cannot lead to the same destination, since both of them cannot be true. Religion A says that god has blue eyes, and religion B says that god has brown eyes. Both cannot be true. In this case, they are not merely different, but also contradicting. Which one is saying the right thing about god’s eyes?

And so when we look at the many religions we have today, not only are they different, but all of them have various things which are contradicting in relation with other religions. For example, in Christianity, you’re not allowed to worship objects like statues or pictures, and doing so is a sin. But in Hinduism that’s quite normal! In Islam, every person lives just once on earth and faces judgment after death. But in Hinduism, you have reincarnation. In Christianity, Jesus is the son of god and is of great importance, but in Islam, Jesus is just a prophet.

I could go on and on naming contradictions. And these are just obvious contradictions on the surface. When you look deeper, you’ll find even bigger contradictions. You will even find such black and white contradictions, where one religion says something is a sin, while the other encourages it! I gave an example of this in the previous paragraph.

So just look at that! Anyone having to make a choice between these religions faces an enormous problem. Making a bad choice can indeed be quite devastating for you in the end. It could mean choosing to do the right thing, or choosing to sin. If you make the wrong choice, you’re going to be sinning while you probably think you’re worshipping god the right way. For example, if you become a Hindu, you’ll be using statues and pictures while worshipping god, which is a sin in Christianity. And if it later turned out that Christianity was the true religion, that means that you’ve been sinning all your life, while you thought you were worshipping god!

Based on this very simple argument above, I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I conclude that because of the contradictions, some of which are very serious, there can only be one true religion.

But just when you thought it was over, you find out that it’s not.

You see, once you decide on a religion another surprise awaits you. Many of the big religions have sub-religions as well, each with their own interpretation of things, differences and contradictions. For example, in Christianity you have Catholics, Protestant Christians, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and many more. In Islam you have Sunnis and Shias. You have Orthodox and modern Jews. Even in Hinduism you have groups with their own differences.

How can you ever really know which one to choose? In addition it is impossible to be certain about any choice you make, since many differences are based on interpretation of words in holy books, interpretation of intentions, and sometimes even just belief. It’s impossible to make a choice based on any hard evidence, where things are verifiable and you can be 100% sure about your choice.

And remember that you get to deal with all of this after you’ve made a very important assumption first, namely, that god exists. So you begin with an assumption which cannot be verified in any way and which you just have to believe in based on faith. That already is a very weak beginning. And then, you go on to having to confront all of the issues above.

Isn’t it wonderful? A word of advice, if I may: Before you decide to take on this difficult task, you might want to consult your psychiatrist first. Just in case things get ugly.

The world is a mess, and as it seems, that includes religion.

Absence of Life

In March 2006 I got to know about a book by Sarah Menet called “There is no Death”. I went to do some research to find out what it was all about and found that it discussed some interesting topics and questions. Topics and questions that, like most people, keep me busy everyday. So I went ahead and bought a copy of the book. I felt that in my quest to find answers to certain questions, if this was one of the best experiences on this topic out there, I should at least have looked at it for my personal ‘research’ to be relatively complete in any way. In this post I will discuss a few things about the book and give a short review on it.

The story in this book is quite interesting. It’s about a woman, Sarah Menet, who had a very difficult life starting from her early childhood. While reading the book, you might find it hard to believe someone can go through all of those things and have so much bad luck in life. It’s just one bad event after another and it’s very depressing. At one point I even asked myself if this could be true, as it was hard to believe and comprehend the fact that someone’s life could have been the way she described it. In any case, things got worse until one day she decided to just commit suicide. And she then had a Near Death Experience (NDE), which is the most interesting part of this book. The reason for this is because she seems to have been able to remember quite a lot from her NDE in lots of details. I’ve never heard of such a detailed experience before.

But while her experiences are very nice and interesting, and while she attempts to provide answers to some important questions in life, there are a lot of unanswered questions and even contradictions in her story. Certain things are not very clear, and sometimes just don’t make sense. So after I read the book, I contacted her through email with some of the questions I had. I got a reply from her assistant (Sarah herself is now blind and cannot answer emails herself), and I was promised answers to my questions. That was in March 2006. I still haven’t heard from them yet. There could be various reasons for that, and I couldn’t wait much longer for answers, so I decided to put my thoughts about the book online and update it when I receive a response from Sarah in the future.

My overall impression of the book is that, just like religion in general, it serves to give people hope in life. It tries to show people that there is a purpose for life, and that even though they may be going through some difficult times, there are good things to look forward to. Ofcourse, only if you’ve been a good person. It also serves to give people some level of comfort in life. And as a result of this, it should be no surprise when people love the book and praise it. The things described in the book about Sarah’s NDE, are so beautiful, that most people will automatically believe it without any resistance at all. Most people might not give it any serious and critical thought at all. It’s all just so beautiful, seems correct and plausible, and is seemingly in line with Christian faith, that there’ll be little resistance to accepting it and believing it’s true.

But I think that once you start paying some careful attention to certain things, and once you apply some critical thinking to it, you find a lot of contradictions and unanswered questions. And I will discuss some of them below. Keep in mind that this is by no means a complete list of things I found questionable. There’s a lot more, but these are the more simple things that I can mention in the context of this book alone. When you would consider other things as well apart from the book, like religion in general, and put the book in greater context with those things, there are a lot more issues that come to mind.

One of the first things I want to mention is the following: When Sarah was in the spirit world, at some point she had a Q&A session, where she just stood somewhere in that world, and could think of any question she had and would immediately get the answers right into her mind (page 31). She described being able to ask hundreds of questions at the same time and the answers coming back instantly, and being able to comprehend them all perfectly. She described this as being the capabilities of the spirit-mind. That’s great, but then just a few pages later (page 40), she mentions seeing a library, a very large room with row after row of huge books. And she mentions people standing there studying and reading. So this begs the question: If one can easily ask questions and receive answers instantly, why do you need a library in the spirit-world? Why would people spend time there standing and reading, when they could simply ask questions and receive answers directly in their mind and comprehend them instantly as described earlier. Doesn’t make sense to me and is contradicting.

Secondly, Sarah describes (page 104) that before people come to earth, they lived as spirits in the spirit-world for a very long time. And the spirits in the spirit-world are given a choice to come live on earth as mortals. They are never being forced to do this, but can make their own choice to do so. When the choice is made to come to earth, we’re shown some of what our life on earth will be like. We’re given a small glimpse into our future life. God is able to look into the future somehow, and show us some of the joys, suffering and challenges we would face. What this means, is that all those millions of people suffering everyday in Ethiopia, knew they would come to earth and basically live in the dessert starving most of their lives. The children who get born there, knew they’d suffer from day 1, and die very young, possibly even as infants. This begs the question: What is the purpose of such a life? What can an infant possibly learn in such a situation and having died so young?

And I’m not done with this yet. What the above also means, is that spirits about to come to earth, can also see that they will be an evil person and have a very terrible life. Why on earth would they then still choose to come to earth to sin? For example, this means that Hitler knew beforehand what kind of a person he would be, because saw most of his life before he choose to come to earth. A drugdealer and leader of some crime network, can also see his life before he comes to earth. Why would he still choose to come to earth anyway and be such a bad person? Does this make sense to you? Not to me.

But wait, there’s still more. When spirits are able to see their future life on earth, and god is able to show them their future and the events that will take place, this implies that their lives are all planned. And indeed, Sarah mentions in various parts of her book that our lives are planned (page 115), and many things just don’t happen as coincidences. But then, she also mentions that we can change things and make our own decisions. We can also be influenced by good and evil spirits into taking certain actions. This begs the question: If our lives on earth are planned, and if indeed we can see certain events happen beforehand, how is it possible that we can still change things and be influenced to do certain things differently? Afterall, when you are able to view your life beforehand, it’s already pretty much set in stone how your life will be from beginning to end. Indeed, even the day you’ll die is planned, as spirits in the spirit-world are able to tell you when “it’s not your time yet”. When you’ve seen certain events that will happen, it would not make sense to say that you can change those. Afterall, then it would not have been your future and god would not have shown it to you. It would then also not make sense to say that your life is planned. So this is just another contradiction. Plus, if things are already planned, and the outcome is known, certainly to god because he is able to see the future and see our whole life, why do we still have to go through all of this? Why can we not just fast forward through this? The outcome is known and planned, so we can’t change it. And as a result, it doesn’t make sense to go through all of this. It’s not like we can change any major events that will take place. It’s all planned. This just doesn’t make sense.

And related to what I just talked about, Sarah also says (page 113) that “good wins in the end because god is in control.” Ofcourse, we must have a happy ending for there to be any hope and comfort from this story. This is similar to the bible. But I can’t help but wonder, again, what the purpose of going through all this is, when it is fairly clear, and indeed certain, that in the end good will win and god will destroy all evil? Take the bible for example. At the end there’s the book of revelations, where it is described how god will destroy all evil, including satan and his followers. Don’t you ever wonder if satan ever realizes that he has no chance? I’m assuming here that satan has got to be a lot smarter than me. Doesn’t he ever wonder, that if things are already planned and set in stone, and that it is already known that he will be destroyed, what the use is of going through all of this now? Put yourself in the position of satan for a moment. If you knew that it was quite certain that you would die at the end of this day, would you still go through this day as you normally would? No, you wouldn’t. If you were building a house, and you knew that as soon as it was finished, it would be destroyed whatever you did, would you build it anyway? What would be the use of that? If it is so certain that you will lose, and you simply know you can’t change that, why would you still want to fight? Don’t you think satan ever thought of this? Don’t you think satan is aware of the book of revelations? (I wrote a story about this before) This stuff just doesn’t make sense to me. Moreover, when it can be so clear to at least one party that he is destined to win, whatever happens, and is even in control, it does not seem like a fair fight to me, since it implies that the other party never stood a chance to begin with.

Sarah also mentions the mentally handicapped (page 108). She said that those people knew that they would be born with that challenge. Children born with those challenges are very special spirits who are the best and most noble of god’s children. They come to earth primarily to receive a body and help others to learn how to love and give service. When I see such people, not only do I feel sadness, but also lots of anger towards god. Why would he allows this kind of suffering? Like the children suffering in Iraq, who lose their arms and other bodyparts and their families because of others. If I, as an imperfect human being, can feel this much pain and sadness when seeing this, then what must god feel? As Sarah explains in her book, his love is supposed to be far greater than we can possibly imagine. How is he able to just watch and do nothing? Sarah also mentioned that god does not test us on purpose, and that bad things just happen because of our choices and because of bad people around us. So if god doesn’t test us on purpose, why then does he allow special spirits to get born as handicapped people to influence us? Another contradiction in her story.

Sarah also talks about dreams in her book (page 102) saying that one of the ways spirits can communicate with us is through dreams. How convenient. Why do they communicate through dreams when we are not very aware of what’s going on? Why can’t they just communicate with us when we’re awake and aware of what’s going on and are able to verify what we are experiencing? This just looks like a convenient way to make it appear like when we have certain dreams, it can really be a message from someone from the spirit-world instead of just something our brain made up while we were asleep. How can one ever be sure?

Throughout her book, she often mentions that people have to be good and make the correct decisions in order for them to receive god’s blessings and get rewarded. Even in the spirit-world, you only get things within the limits of what you have earned. You have to be able to forgive people to make yourself acceptable to god. Only if we can forgive people who did us harm, can we receive special blessings from god. So I can’t help but notice, that people are only encouraged to do the right thing because of some reward they will get in return. If people would only do good because of wanting or expecting to get rewarded, it only confirms the sad state in which humanity is today. And if god encourages this, it only shows that there is something seriously wrong with this theory. Furthermore, if people would only do good because they fear punishment from god, god is setting himself up for major problems. It also shows the rather sad state of those people. People should do good because they really want to, not because they fear punishment or expect rewards in return.

And finally, her book looks at things from the perspective of Christianity and as a result validates all Christian religions as being true. But she fails to answer an important question. How do we know that the Christian religions, or just Christianity, is the true religion? And furthermore, one of the questions I asked her and am still waiting for an answer on, is that assuming that god exists, why does he make it so difficult and confusing for us to find him and find what the truth is? There are so many religions, with so many different theories, there are so many confusing theories, how am I to know what is correct? Why doesn?t he at least make it easy for me to know what is correct and that he really exists and who he is etc. so that I can have no doubts? Why must it be a puzzle? Is it not difficult enough to, once you know which is the right one, to follow that path? Why does it also have to be a puzzle to find out which is the right path to begin with?

And so, what happens to people of different religions? What happens to those Indians deep inside the Amazon who never heard of Christianity? What about those African tribes? Surely it would not be fair if they get punished just because they never knew the right religion to begin with, and never even had a chance to learn of it.

In conclusion, the book is interesting, mostly if regarded as a work of fiction. When you want to treat it as something more serious, there are a number of issues like contradictions and unanswered questions, that just make it impossible to take it seriously. And since the book is supposed to be about a true story, that is a big problem. Very big.

Have you ever used a (software) product that just felt and/or looked like it wasn’t finished? That had kindof an unpolished feel to it, rough around the edges and minor or even major issues? One that you knew had great potential because you enjoyed using some of its features and could have been a big winner if not for those shortcomings?

Well that is what life feels like to me.

Before I continue, I’d just like to make it clear that for the rest of this post, I’m going to assume that god exists and that I’m going to look at certain things from the perspective of the bible.

With that out of the way, let me state right away that I think god has got to be a very lousy designer and engineer. I’m not sure how they refer to his occupation in heaven, but I’m going to simply compare it to an engineer to make the comparisons I’m going to make easier.

You see, the way I see it, is that god is like one of those smart arrogant programmers who think they created this incredible program that is a testament to how much of a genius they are. They obviously put a lot of work into it, spent days wrestling with some difficult problems, came up with some very clever solutions and finally managed to make it all work. And although the program works, and works well, it is far from ready from an end-user perspective. It only works as intended when you follow the exact procedures given by the programmer in the exact same conditions the programmer expected it to work in. For example, if you press some buttons in the wrong order, or click some menu options you weren’t supposed to click at a given point (even though they were enabled, leading you to think it was okay to click them), the program explodes, possibly in a very spectacular way and in the worst case bringing the whole operating system down with it in the process.

What is clear from this example is that even though major functionality was already implemented by the programmer, from a usability and end-user point of view it still needed work. And depending on the type of program, that could still mean quite a lot of work. It also has to be tested in various situations, all the features have to be tested when used in various sequences and possible combinations etc. Basically everything an end-user might try to do with it. The program also has to protect the end-user from himself by not allowing (disabling) functionality that should not be used at a given moment, especially when you know it might cause unexpected behavior inside the program and cause a lot of inconvenience to the end-user. The smart arrogant programmers don’t like to work on these kinds of ‘unimportant’ and tedious things. If something breaks, obviously the user didn’t follow the right procedures (even though the program actually allows the user to try all the wrong procedures possible).

So with that in mind, when we look at life, there are so many problems to point out from an end-user point of view, us being the end-users. Reality is just full of problems and unexpected and undesired behavior, or just bugs, if you will. For example, sometimes the weather acts up and produces storms causing a lot of destruction to the work of end-users. This, ofcourse, is not normal behavior as the weather is expected to be nice all the time by the end-user, and the bugs just happen sometimes under certain conditions. The same can be said about floods, tsunamis, earthquakes etc. The end-user expects it to rain, yes, and normally it just rains enough to keep life going, but sometimes, under certain conditions, a bug causes too much rainfall causing floods that destroy the work of end-users. In severe cases it even takes the lives of end-users, which, I think, is the worst possible bug a product can have. Imagine the class-action lawsuits that would have been filed if it was possible to sue god. Ofcourse that’s not possible since he can’t be held accountable, which enables him to keep the arrogant attitude of “you’re just going to have to use it as is, and I’m not fixing anything.” Having a monopoly in life also helps. I mean, if we end-users could go to another provider for life, that’d give god some incentive to improve the life he offers, right? As it is now, we’re pretty much stuck with what he offers us.

But okay, I’m moving too far away from the subject. I was talking about the various bugs in life. You often hear people talk about what kind of genius it would take to design something like the human body for example. And yes, I have to admit, it takes a lot of genius to design and build something like the human body. But once again, it is far from finished. There are numerous bugs and even security vulnerabilities. Sometimes bugs cause women to give birth to disabled children. Bugs cause people to get cancer, suffer and die. Due to security vulnerabilities, viruses, for example, are able to install themselves in the human body and cause all kinds of diseases, disabling major functionality, causing system instability and possibly leading to a complete system failure. Etcetera, etcetera. I’m sure you can name thousands of bugs yourself, all of which shouldn’t be part of the user experience, and only cause inconvenience to the end-user. Had god taken the extra time to do some extensive testing before deploying life, we’d probably not be experiencing all of these problems. And I haven’t even mentioned design issues yet. Have you ever heard the joke that asks, with regards to the human body: “What kind of designer would put a waste dumping area next to a recreational area?” Need I say more?

And like any end-user facing such issues with a product, we’re trying to find solutions and work-arounds to the various bugs, but there are limitations to the things we can do as end-users. For one, we do not have the source code to life. It would sure make things easier if we had that. So we’re stuck having to try and reverse engineer as much as we can of life to see how things work, and try to come up with solutions to the bugs we’re having to deal with everyday. It might be difficult for us end-users to repro such bugs and find actual causes, but I can imagine that god almost certainly is able to debug reality and find what is causing all the issues very easily. Not necessarily because he is smart, but simply because he has the tools and the source code. Ofcourse, being as arrogant as he is, and having a monopoly, we shouldn’t be expecting him to put any effort into it.

You see, what actually happened in god’s case, is the worst thing that can happen to one of those smart but arrogant programmers who don’t like to work on the small ‘unimportant’ and tedious things. God created this really great product, started boasting about how he’s so cool and smart, and how incredible life is going to be, when the product wasn’t even tested yet. In addition, god designed life with the intention to be very scalable, but never actually did any tests to make sure it would scale well to billions of users. What he did was do an initial deployment in a very small environment (Eden) with only two users (Adam and Eve) who just followed the exact operating procedures and used life exactly the way god intended it to be used, at least in the beginning. And as we all know end-users are very unpredictable, and given the possibilities to use a feature or combination of features in a given way that makes sense to them, they’ll do it and expect it to work properly.

So after the initial deployment, things worked well in the beginning, and god was proud of himself, boasted about how big of a genius he was, how he was almighty etc. But then the users got more experienced and didn’t feel like constantly reading the manual anymore. And as we all know at this point, then things started to get more interesting. In addition to that, more users started to use life, and the weaknesses became more evident as the number of users grew. The growing amount of users made it necessary to expand the deployment of life beyond Eden and to the rest of the world, which brought along other problems with it. You see, it’s one thing to do a small deployment of a product on 2 computers for example, but it’s an entirely different story to deploy to an enterprise with thousands of users around the world in various locations. And in god’s case, it was far, far, faaaaar worse, as I’m sure you can imagine.

Imagine the technical support nightmare god created for himself. Just imagine the scale of it. When was the last time you called for support, or prayed, and actually got an answer from god? He doesn’t even have an answering machine! And he’s supposed to be almighty? With billions of people, and who knows what other creatures, calling in for help at any given moment because of the countless issues with their life, it should be easy to imagine why god never answers.

So what can we learn from all of this? Apart from the fact that one can clearly see that I have way too much free time, we can also see that it can sometimes be easy to make mistakes. Sometimes we even knowingly make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes are because of our own stupidity. Sometimes we make mistakes, but have too big an ego to admit it and correct it. Everyone makes mistakes, but the important thing is to be able to realize you’re making a mistake as quickly as possible, as early as possible, and have the guts to immediately admit to it, and having done that do everything possible to correct it or minimize the damage done by it.

If god had admitted to himself and all his users that life wasn’t ready for universal deployment, and had he then stopped the deployment to work on fixing issues when it was already clear there were issues during the initial smaller deployment in Eden, we would not have this mess today. Instead, he was arrogant, didn’t want to admit that the problems existed, and went ahead with the deployment. Now it will take a much greater effort on his part to fix the user experience for the billions of users he has today. This is ofcourse assuming he will admit that life as it is now sucks, and that he will listen to his users. A service pack to this version of life is long overdue in my opinion.

But I have to admit that when I look at life, I see great potential. I see a runaway hit. If only god would work on fixing the bugs and polishing it a bit more so we could have a much more improved overall user experience…

David Ray Griffin’s latest book called “Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action” came out a few days ago, and is now available on Amazon.com. Below are some remarks on this book:

“Professor David Ray Griffin has a well-deserved reputation for the thoroughness of his research. All Americans who love their country enough to dig into the facts of these critical times will be well rewarded by examining his books. 9/11 truth is a very important issue—one with the power to bring lasting change to our country.”?The Reverend William Sloane Coffin Jr, author of Credo: Letters to a Young Doubter and A Passion for the Possible: A Message to U.S. Churches

“If you are open to recognizing that the United States behaves much as other great powers have behaved, but you get your information through standard American channels, I dare you to expose yourself to the facts Griffin summarizes, facts that have been suppressed by our newspapers and magazines. If you are one who wants to be a disciple of Jesus, you will have some hard thinking to do about what American Christians are called to be and to do at this historical moment.”?John B. Cobb Jr, co-author of The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God

“Are we brave enough to read this nerve-wracking book, one of the most important theological texts of our time? Rooted in the longstanding belief that Christians share responsibility for shaping a more justice-loving world, Griffin makes a strong case that the real “conspiracy theory” about 9/11 is the Bush Administration’s silly notion that nineteen young Arab men could have pulled it off. Griffin helps us wrestle with questions that are almost too much to bear, yet which may empower us, if we dare, to build a more truthful and, over time, more deeply moral nation and world.”–The Reverend Carter Heyward, Robbins Professor of Theology Emerita, Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and author of Saving Jesus from Those Who Are Right and God in the Balance: Christian Spirituality in Times of Terror

“A gripping account of precedents for the current global empire, from the Rome of Jesus to twentieth-century ?false-flag? operations. . . . His wake-up call to U.S. Christians will be evaded at our peril.”?Catherine Keller, Professor of Theology, Drew University, and author of God and Power.

“In two earlier books, David Ray Griffin established himself as one of the foremost researchers into 9/11. This book is of immensely greater scope and importance. . . . It sees the contemporary world clearly and synoptically in an informed Christian perspective, so that it makes questions of theodicy and the roots of evil as contemporary as the events of 9/11. Even though it makes some claims and arguments I disagree with, I consider this one of the most significant and original books I have ever read.”?Peter Dale Scott, author of Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina

“WARNING: If, like most Americans calling themselves Christian, you prefer the comfort of acquiescing in the official version of 9/11 and the imperial wars it facilitated, DROP THIS BOOK NOW. But if you are open to the grace of honest inquiry and the risk of following the historical Jesus in confronting the evils of empire, this rigorously argued book is a MUST READ.”–Ray McGovern, CIA veteran analyst now with Tell the Word, a project of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour, Washington, D.C.

“David Griffin has previously made the case for the Bush administration?s complicity in 9/11 and the cover-up of this evidence by the 9/11 Commission. Here, in this important book, he puts these shocking realities in the context of Christian theology and the challenge to the churches. In a profound exploration of the nature and history of the demonic, Griffin suggests that American empire is a culmination of human demonic alienation from God.”?Rosemary Radford Ruether, emeritus scholar, Claremont Graduate University and Claremont School of Theology

“Do American Christians want the United States to act like the New Rome, invading other countries to impose its imperial rule and its control of other peoples? resources? That, however, is just what the US is doing, increasingly so since 9/11, explains David Griffin. In this gripping summary of evidence for the truth behind 9/11 and the 9/11 Commission report, Griffin makes a compelling case that the imperial practices of the American government have become a destructive force in the world. And he clarifies the biblical and theological basis for Christians to challenge the resurgent American imperialism that often claims divine blessing on its destructive actions.”?Richard A. Horsley, Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and the Study of Religion, University of Massachusetts, and author of Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder

“Compelling reading. Here is a remarkably thorough presentation of facts regarding 9/11 events. Professor Griffin sets the events of 9/11 in a historical, religious, and philosophical context that is most enlightening. Although this context is also somewhat chilling, he holds out hope in his discussion of where we can go from here. I most highly recommend this book!”–Steven E. Jones, Professor of Physics, Brigham Young University

I’ve read other books by David Ray Griffin (“The New Pearl Harbor” and “The 9/11 Commission Report – Omissions and Distortions”), I’ve read some of his papers and research on 9/11 and I’ve heard him talk, and I have to say ever since the first time I heard one of his presentations, I was absolutely impressed by the way he builds up his argument. I haven’t seen anything like it before. The way he argues and his use of logic are just beautiful. I wish I could argue like that.

There’s also a recent interview with Griffin available for download, where he also talks about the new book among other things.

I’m sure you’ve heard people say that you shouldn’t focus too much on the negative things in life, but rather that you should focus on the positive things instead. Instead of looking at the negative side of things, they say, you should look at the positive side and try to appreciate that. Perhaps you are also someone who shares the same opinion. I however have a different opinion: We should focus on the negative things instead. And I’ll explain why.

Focusing on the positive things in life seems to be human nature. When I see people doing this, I don’t blame them at all. In fact, I can very much understand why they do this. Imagine if you didn’t focus on all those small positive things in life, where would you get the inspiration and energy to keep on living? Life is so full of problems and it’s not easy to be happy and optimistic. In fact, it is quite impossible to be happy in life when you realize certain things and when you want to be really honest to yourself.

So this just makes the need even bigger for people to focus on the positive things. Even if those positive things sometimes don’t exist, they try to make them up instead. Religion is a perfect example of this. It serves to give people something positive to think about in life, something to hold onto, something to give them hope for the future, something to give their lives a purpose, something to explain the unknown to them to make them feel like they are in control and know what’s going on. Imagine if there were no religions, how would most people think of life? How would most people be able to live life without the comfort that religion offers them?

Another example is death. For as long as humans exist, they have been trying to put a positive spin around death. Religion has also been a great help in doing this. Death is another case where people have tried to make things up around it to make it look like something positive. “Yes, it sucks to die, but look at the bright side, you’re going to heaven!” Nobody is fooling me with this. Death is something negative. Nothing can explain that away. I’ll never accept it “as a normal part of life.” The sooner people stop fooling themselves and believing in all kinds of explanations for it, the sooner we’ll be more effective at looking for ways to solve this problem.

When something bad happens, or someone struggles with bad results or outcomes, people always say “Well I know it sucks, but look at the bright side…”, or, “It could have been worse, look at the positive side…” etc. That just serves as comfort. It serves to take our eyes away from the problem and to have us focus on something positive. It serves to make us think good about the situation or about ourselves. It serves to fool us.

We shouldn’t focus on the positive things so much. Instead, we should focus a lot more on the negative things in life. Why? It’s quite simple: Because those are the things that require our attention. We want to get better, don’t we? The positive things are already good and probably more or less where we want them to be. We should use our energy to get the negative things where we want them to be. It is unproductive and not of much use to keep ourselves occupied with the positive things in life and allow ourselves to be blinded by those things. It just serves to paralyze us to some extent to address the real issues. The problem is that people willfully do this most of the time. People would rather fool themselves to feel good, instead of facing the problems.

I see it happening around me every day. And what this does is limit the speed at which things can get better in life. Afterall, as long as people keep focusing too much on the positive things, they don’t sufficiently realize the need and urgency to take on solving or improving the negative things. And this isn’t just about improving life in the broad sense, but it starts at home, at the workplace, on a personal level. Sometimes I see people putting too much emphasis on the things they have achieved so far and what they currently have, instead of putting the most emphasis on what they have not (yet) achieved and what they don’t (yet) have. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t give yourself a pat on the back when you achieve something, but you shouldn’t be blinded by it. Give yourself a pat on the back for a few minutes and then forget about it and see the things you haven’t yet achieved or the problems that still exist and do something about them.

The important thing is that you have to know what you want in life or in a given situation. And if you don’t have it yet, do everything you possibly can to get it. Don’t be afraid to admit to yourself that there are things you’ve lost or don’t yet have, but really want. Especially don’t do this to make yourself feel like you have (achieved) everything you want in order to feel happy about it. Don’t look at what you DO have and try to think about that in a positive way. It doesn’t benefit you in any real way, other than to give you comfort, and to try to make you feel satisfied.

Don’t fool yourself. Know what’s missing, what could be better and what’s wrong, and focus on those things! It will only make you a better person. Be honest to yourself and be realistic about your expectations.

I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while now during my ‘what the hell am I (supposed to be) doing here, or, trying to figure out life’ thinking sessions, and I’ve come to the very painful and frustrating conclusion that I am a hypocrite. In the following I’ll try to explain why this is in fact true. If you’re a bit surprised reading this, and asking yourself who in their right mind would want to convince anyone they are a hypocrite, please don’t be. This is the least of your worries; you’re going to be much more surprised by what else you’re going to find out. So read on with great caution as you may find yourself looking at life a bit differently, and you might also find yourself as frustrated as I am right now, if not more frustrated. The presence of a physician while reading is strongly advised.

So let’s start with the following two scenarios:

Scenario 1: I am against terrorism. I have a friend who I lend money to. He uses that money to fund terrorism.

Scenario 2: I am against terrorism. I have a friend who I lend money to. He has a son who he supports financially. His son uses the money he gets from his dad to donate to some religious group. This religious group funds terrorism.

If I were to walk around and tell everyone how I am against terrorism and people knew about both scenarios I described above, you can easily see how they could say that I am a hypocrite. Afterall, I am against terrorism, but am in the first scenario almost directly funding it, and in the second scenario also helping to fund it even though it is more indirect. If these people wanted to be fair and reasonable, they would consider me a hypocrite only when they know that I know, in the first scenario, that I am helping a friend who funds terrorism, and in the second scenario, that I am helping a friend who’s using the money to support his son, who again is using the money to donate to a religious group who funds terrorism. If I knew what was happening in both scenario’s, and still kept lending money to my friend while I am against terrorism, that would make me a hypocrite.

But assuming that I don’t know what my friend does with the money, does that still make me a hypocrite? Does that still make me a bad person? Afterall, I didn’t know what he was going to do with the money. It in any case does not change the fact that I am, however indirect it may be, helping to support terrorism. I’ll come back to this later.

Let’s consider a real world example now. I am a strong supporter and fan of Microsoft as a company. I’ve always liked Microsoft. I love their technology, and use and prefer their technology to build software. I recommend them to friends and generally support them in various ways. Then I find out that Microsoft is using its powers to do something bad. For example, they use their technology and power to help the Chinese government restrict freedom of speech in China. I am against this. So right now, I find myself in the sad situation of becoming or being seen as a hypocrite. On the one hand I am against the Chinese government restricting freedom of speech, but on the other hand I am a supporter of the very same company that is helping to restrict freedom of speech. By supporting Microsoft, even in the most indirect way, I am helping them to restrict freedom of speech in China. By using their technology, by using Windows on my PC, by recommending them etc. I am giving them the power, supporting them financially and in many other ways to do what I am against. And the sad part is that I now realize and know this. And this makes me a hypocrite.

You could argue that I am not directly funding or supporting Microsoft to do bad things, but the many levels of indirection don’t change anything, similar to the second scenario I described above. The moment I realize what I am doing, or what I am helping to do, I should take action.

There are ofcourse many more examples. You can for example be against killing baby seals for their pelts, but continue to buy fur clothing in stores and help to create a demand for fur clothing, which in turn leads to a demand for more pelts and obviously to killing more baby seals. Buying fur clothing while you are against killing baby seals makes you a hypocrite.

You could go so far as to say that by simply paying taxes in the USA, even the people who are against the war in Iraq are supporting their government and enabling them to fund that very same war that they are against. Even though there are probably many levels of indirection between paying taxes and funding the war in Iraq, this does not eliminate the fact that by paying taxes, you help the government fund and wage war.

If you are the vice president at a company, and you know that some employees are being paid far less than they deserve or should be receiving, even though this may not have been your decision and you are against it, by staying at that company and not doing anything about it, you are supporting and helping that company to exploit those employees. Even if you can’t do anything about it, by staying there and watching as the exploiting continues, you are helping them and supporting them to do it. If you are truly against it and you cannot change it, you’d leave the company and not be a part of it and most certainly not stay to benefit from it yourself. Afterall, the (financial) benefits the company gets from exploiting those employees are directly or indirectly used to pay your high salary!

You can undoubtedly come up with many more examples yourself. And you can probably already see that when you start to look at things this way and that when you start to realize certain things, it becomes very difficult to function. All of a sudden you’ll start to see the way things work, you’ll start to see the interests that are at stake, and you’ll feel disgusted to be a part of it. You’ll feel even more disgusted if the situation is such that you are set up to benefit from it. As an outside supporter, I feel bad about Microsoft helping to censor information in China, but what if I was an employee at Microsoft? What if I was actually the one building the technology to help censor information at Microsoft, while I am against it? I can by the way use the same example for Google.

Another thing that I found is that there is very little you can do about this. If you view the world we live in as a system, there are certain rules according to which things seem to behave in that system. These rules seem to have been in place for centuries. It seems to be by design. So if you as a person would like to be a part of that system, that means that you are going to have to be, or become, compatible with that system in order to be able to function normally in it. This means that you will have to behave according to the rules in that system. If the system is evil, you’re going to have to be evil more or less, directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly. If you don’t behave according to those rules or don’t accept them, sooner or later you will not be able to function well in that system, doors will close around you and you soon find yourself isolated. The very fact that you want to be a part of the system, means that you will sooner or later find yourself in conflicting and hypocritical situations if that is the nature of the system. The very fact that you want to be a part of the system, means that you will sooner or later, and possibly during most of your life, be supporting or helping bad things taking place inside that system, however indirectly it may be. You will be a part of it, and it won’t be easy to avoid it. In fact, if you want to be part of the system, then by definition it is impossible to avoid this.

Let me illustrate this with an example: The very fact that someone lives in the USA and is being a good citizen paying taxes, means that he is (however indirectly it may be) supporting the war in Iraq, even if he is against it. How easy is it to avoid this? Should he stop paying taxes? Should he move outside the USA, in order to get out of the system and stop supporting it in any way? It’s very difficult.

This is the sad, painful and frustrating reality. And there seems to be no practical solution. The only solution I can think of is a radical solution, which means to not be part of the system at all. While talking about this with a friend, he suggested that this is probably the reason why monks isolate themselves from everything, and seem to live far away from everything else. This is probably the only way to avoid being part of the system and to not depend on it. Afterall, if you know the system is evil, why want to be a part of it and depend on it? If you don’t want to be a bad and evil person, the mere fact that you are a part of the system makes you a hypocrite.

And if we look at it from the perspective of religion, how can god, assuming that he exists, expect us to really be good people in a system that is fundamentally flawed and evil by nature? How can you be expected to function in such a system without becoming flawed yourself? Again the only solution as I see it, is to live like the monks somewhere in the mountains in the middle of nowhere and isolate yourself from the system as much as possible.

At the beginning of this post I said I would come back to explain after the following:

But assuming that I don’t know what my friend does with the money, does that still make me a hypocrite? Does that still make me a bad person? Afterall, I didn’t know what he was going to do with the money. It in any case does not change the fact that I am, however indirectly it may be, helping to support terrorism.

One could argue that if one did not know about something, one can not be held accountable for it. So if I did not know my friend used my money to support terrorism, while I am against terrorism, people in all fairness could not call me a hypocrite. It becomes a totally different situation of I knew what he was doing with the money, and still gave it to him. So you can be a part of something while bad things take place without your knowing, but as soon as you know what’s happening, it becomes a different situation. You’re going to have to act on that knowledge. Will you remain part of the system while you know what’s going on?

So now that you’ve seen that the system we live in is fundamentally flawed and evil and that as a part of it, it forces us to support it however indirectly it may be, while we may know it or not, what will you do about it?

Merry Christmas

It’s that time of the year again, when everybody pretends that all is nice and well and they all pretend to be happy and are nice to each other. It’s the time of the year when people pretend to have a heart, the time when they wish each other the best things in life, give away presents to each other and do good deeds.

I find it amazing that people can be like this, that they can forget all the bad things happening in the world and pretend that everything is nice and well, forget about the people dying on the other side of the world for completely unnecessary reasons, forget about the many children suffering and about the many problems we have to face. They forget about all that and about the bad things they have been doing all year long and go on to pretend to be nice and caring. And in January next year it’s business as usual again. They behave bad again, treat people bad, pursue their own selfish goals without thinking of others, fighting continues etc.

Merry Christmas

Who are they fooling? Not me in any case. Why can’t people behave like this during the whole year? Why can’t people be nice to each other, give away presents and think of the poor all year long? Why do we have to wait until christmas to pretend to care about others? The world would probably be better off if everyday could be christmas.

Apart from that, the holiday season is just one big marketing season. That’s all it is. Marketing. From the end of November you can already see the ads on TV. Businesses just want to sell as much as possible. All the “feel good” things around their promotions are just to get you to buy. Companies plan their entire product releases and marketing campaigns around this season. You have got to buy stuff and give to others, otherwise you’re bad, selfish or scrooged. If you don’t go along, you could also be considered weird and be rejected.

Giving and caring during this time of the year has become some kind of formality. Something people have just agreed to do during this time of the year. There’s mostly no real feeling behind all of it. It’s almost like an obligation.
If you get a present during this time of the year or people seem to care about you, you should wonder if they really wanted to give you something or help you from the bottom of their hearts, or if they just did it because it’s the season where everyone is expected to do it. If you’re homeless, nobody probably looked at you during the year. People walked around you and paid no attention. Around christmas, suddenly people seem to notice you, offer you food and money. Do they really care? Or do they want to feel good about themselves during the “feel good, give and be nice” season? You’ll know as soon as it’s January 2nd.

Does he mean it?

I don’t even want to get started about the religious reasons behind celebrating christmas. I keep wondering what Santa Claus has to do with the birth of Jesus Christ, for example.

So while I look at all the shiny happy people around me giving each other presents and pretending to care in the next few days, I’ll look at the news and see people dying and/or living in poverty, I’ll see homeless children suffering, I’ll see people around me being repressed, being fooled and being denied a good or better life all because of those same shiny happy people. And while witnessing all of this, I’ll be listening to “Shiny Happy People” by R.E.M.