The Seduction of Safety

This phrase ‘the seduction of safety’ occurs in Mary Oliver’s poem The Journey and it suddenly struck me as identifying a significant problem for many of us. That problem is the belief that the world is a dangerous place, and it’s not safe to be here actually alive in a physical body. This belief informs the matrix of existence here on earth, almost universally. It gives rise to a culture of fear that supports notions of ‘security’ on an industrial scale. It might even be dangerous to read this article.

Walking in the Mind Field

The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else. – e. e. cummings Being yourself may well be the biggest challenge you will face in life. Not least because it involves discovering who you are first, and that’s no mean feat in itself. Do you actually dare to consider who is actually walking around in your skin, or will you settle for who your world tells you it is? There’s a huge, complex, invisible structure that exists to tell you who you are and what you should do, think and feel. This structure is the cultural consensus. It’s a shifting interconnecting network of collective thought-forms – a mind field. The mind field comprises a combination of beliefs, stories, fears and the generalised interpretations of personal experience of every member of the social order…. Read moreWalking in the Mind Field