Today we are faced with mass extinctions. We are loosing forests, our children are being dumbed down by our corporate driven schools, and, meanwhile, it appears we are moving towards a police state. Our race relations have gone backwards and our desire for an intelligent populace appears to be lacking as reflected in the "no child left behind act". This act is simply a bogus line that says we will dumb down our kids. Why?

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There are two primary ways in which we see ourselves governed. Those two primary ways are the Top -- Down Model, which is exemplified by the pyramid. In this view, God sits on high in His castle while gazing down upon us poor laboring Peasants below. (Sound a bit like Feudalism to you?)

Then there is the bottom up approach. The bottom-up approach is reflected in the following excerpt from Lovelock's "Gaia Hypothesis:"

Gaian hypotheses suggest that organisms co-evolve with their environment: that is, they "influence their abiotic environment, and that environment in turn influences the biota by Darwinian process. Lovelock (1995) gave evidence of this in his second book, showing the evolution from the world of the early thermo-acido-philic and methanogenic bacteria towards the oxygen-enriched atmosphere today that supports more complex life.

The question becomes: Was there a top-down manager, a God that was "in charge" of everything or is it that the Way of Nature is intelligent? This debate is also inherent in the notion of God being more verb (bottom- up with everything being creative in defining creation) than noun (top-down, authority rules, noun on noun).

If God is more verb or process, then is there as much a need for a hierarchy?

To further reinforce bottom-up, there is also the holographic notion of the universe in accord to the quantum physics of David Bohm. Within this model, all things exist in relationship to everything while everything mirrors the whole.

For example, if we were to take a super microscope and go into the little finger of your left hand, you would find that at the highest magnification the atoms and molecules in your body exist in relationship to empty space in the same proportion as stars existing in relationship to intergalactic space.

Gaze up at a starlight night sky, and you are seeing a mirror image of yourself. As the mystic Christians say, "as above, so below."

This relational view of the world works in 2 primary ways. The first is that everything is here to balance everything else. Thus, the lioness eats the gazelle and the gazelle is generally a herding animal that multiplies rapidly. The lioness's job is to help to "weed down" the population of gazelle's, which then reduces the amount of damage to the grasslands.

This relationship is a "win-win" proposition for both lion and gazelle (the species, not the individual. Of course sick gazelle's are an easier catch so hunting does help to diminish that stressor on a herd of gazelles).

Perhaps intelligence is a loaded word. I generally say, "The world works well and has evolved just fine without us hairless monkeys." A working world is my definition of a world that's intelligent. Even without us balding apes, Gaia will do quite well.

Yes, I am not saying we are the cat's "meow" on this planet. Indeed, Nature may just clean up the mess we've made and move on with evolving other creatures." So, on one ear of Nature, creatures are saying, "ma, would you please get rid of these guys?" On another ear, they are saying, "oh, just let them alone, they'll get it. We are all evolving, aren't we?"

Perhaps "not" is the answer to that question for us humans. In fact, it has been hypothesized that the Bible's fall (Genesis 2) was the beginning to the end of human evolution. Yes, yes, yes, we have jet planes and cars that zoom about. But, how have we evolved? Planes don't impress me. If we grew wings, then I'd be impressed.

Oh, but science knows so much now that our ignorant ancestors didn't know. So then you have a guy with a PhD writing a book like The Tao of Physics? That was recent. It was in the 1980's for goodness sake. The Tao was written when? Long before Christ if I'm not mistaken.

Sorry folks, life is not black and white. Science and her findings are NOT necessarily pitted against religion. The traditional religions we are used to in the West may be in question. And, they should be for many of the western churches are very much caught up in Greco-Roman rationalism. Indeed, I would say Christians in many cases have become the Roman Empire. (By the way, Nero's number was '666' which instituted the number being assigned to the anti-Christ. Hey, if someone put my wife, child or best friend into a lion's den, anti-Christ would be an extremely mild label that I would give them).

The number itself according to many is a solar number. In that sense, '666' is our ego mind, which is our more Romanized/Greek intelligence. It's a very surface level intelligence and not very deep. If you identify yourself as your ego, then you are minimizing who you are. You are defining yourself as a ripple riding a wave and not the entire ocean.

(Please note, I AM not saying follow me on this. I'm just putting it out there for you to explore. There is a lot of conflicting information regarding this number. I do know from past studies that 666 was a solar number. Given our being ego based, then it makes sense that being of shallow waters, it does inhibit evolution, which Christ, in mystic Christianity, is exactly that, the evolutionary potential of all creatures (note, not just men, nor just human beings, but of all creatures, plants and other living forms).

If you want a challenging read, I would advise Evelyn Underhill's "Mysticism" in this regard. She does a very good job at putting forth the works of many of the great mystics such as Meister Eckhart, Jacob Boehme, and others. While being Christian oriented, Underhill does a fairly good job at linking the mystics of Christianity to oriental mystics such as Buddhists.

Regarding this morphing of Christianity to Rome, Dylan writes in his "Desolation Row:"

"Fearing not I became my enemy, in the instant that I preached"

How loaded is that line in describing our history and what we are today and what we are being ruled by. Who is the anti-Christ of today? Who won the battle? Was it the Christians, or the top-down structure of the Roman Empire?

I'd say the latter.

At the beginning of this article, I stated I wanted to deal with the politics of Marijuana. Marijuana has been around for a long, long time. Probably much longer than we hairless monkeys. Perhaps marijuana will live way beyond the years of humanity. Hey, who is to say human beings are the "cat's meow" in evolutionary development? With the political, ecological and economic mess we are in, I have far more faith in honeybees and hemp plants than I do human beings! I do not believe we are the sharpest "tool in the shed" (i.e., this planet).

The hemp plant, from which marijuana is derived, is highly versatile in its uses. Indeed, one of the reasons Marijuana was made illegal was because of the nylon industry.

So, what does nylon have to do with marijuana? Easy, the hemp plant upon which marijuana leaves come from has multiple uses. That includes manufacturing things like hemp rope. To initiate your research on this, visit:

(http://www.ozarkia.net/bill/pot/blunderof37.html)

So, is the illegalization of marijuana a protection of our health or a protection of corporate profits for nylon and other oil-based products?

Come on! Be honest! "Oh, the authorities wouldn't lie to us!" Right. So it's ok to have an external agent telling you what to do. And, those external agents are there for your benefit, in what way? And you don't have the good sense to research and question authority?

Regarding the health benefits of marijuana, I am also lucky to know, read and interview people like Norma Eckroate for Envision This! On-line radio. Norma is the reason I am writing this article and reflecting on my life. She is the author of

The Medical Marijuana Handbook: A Patient's Guide to Holistic Healing with Cannabis.

Norma writes,

"As a cannabis patient myself, I have distilled information in these pages that I found essential in my personal quest to understand the herb, its various forms, and the new options available to patients. I want to answer your questions, soothe your concerns, and give you the information you -- or a family member or friend -- need to effectively use medical cannabis."

Again, I (Burl, now) am not trying to convince you of anything. I want you to question and research it if you're interested. If you wish to ask me about the Chrones and my use of the plant for that disease, send me a note. I have no qualms about discussing it. I won't ever however say what's right for you. You are the main one regarding any decision.

To listen to an Interview of Norma.

As a decent introduction to what's in medical marijuana, visit here.

To make more sense regarding the bottom up thesis to this article: The God as Verb article is here.

Bottom Up is an issue I'm finding extremely important at this point in our journey. I do believe our task is to thoroughly question ourselves while empowering ourselves and our communities. if we do not take to that challenge, then, I do believe extinction will occur to a huge number of species on this planet and probably, no hopefully, the human race will also go extinct.

The bad news is that WE need to take responsibly for our lives and the well being of the planet. The good news is that it provides us with the opportunity to get the likes of the Koch Brothers out of our lives. Yes, we can choose freedom! Or, we can keep our heads in the sand while the Koch Brothers have a wide open target for some butt kicking.

So, do we ONCE AGAIN go down the same chute by behaving like an ostrich? I am recalling a 1950's book by psychiatrist Eric Fromm titled Escape From Freedom. Fromm was a Jew living in Nazi Germany during WWII. In many of his writings post war, he truly saw the dangers inherent even in the United States. His work is one reason why when I began seeing police cars going to black and whites in Baltimore, I knew exactly where we were headed for. Fromm's intuitions and fears were coming true and are now close to being at the point that the corporations want us at.

If you haven't read Fromm, I suggest you do. He saw the pattern in the United States long before the likes of Bush, Reagan, came into power.

Please share your ideas below. At this point, we need to network and brainstorm. These are huge issues. The consequences of our work in this day and age are enormous.

Authors Bio:
Burl Hall is a retired counselor who is living in a Senior Citizen Housing apartment. Burl has one book to his credit, titled "Sophia's Web: A Passionate Call to Heal our Wounded Nature." For more information, search the book on Amazon.

Burl's philosophy entails the idea that "everything effects and causes everything thing else." His spirituality of Sophia i.e., Wisdom is universal as well as within each of us. He also sees the idea of Chaos as not being "all over the place" but as infinite relationships.

The question I present in my articles speak not so much towards the politicians, but how WE the people can empower ourselves within a planet that is healthy, wealthy and wise.