The Truth Agenda
Talking of truth being within us, I'm often disarmed by the truth coming through people around me. One example of this was at a presentation I went to last week by Andy Thomas, author of The Truth Agenda (I don't know if you've heard of him, but I would recommend hearing him speak, if only to challenge set beliefs you didn't know you had – always a good thing in my book!) It was an extraordinary and (thank the Lord!) hard-hitting talk exploring the themes and the theories, truth and fiction around '2012 – the concept' (people can get a bit flaky about this subject, and in my eyes this doesn't help things).Andy looked at the weave of astrological and astronomical, political, scientific and phenomenological perspectives that make the year 2012 - and specifically December 21st of that year - significant in so many peoples' eyes. We have all heard the predictions stemming from the Mayan calendar, but there are examples of writings and prophecies around the ending of one 'age' and the beginning of another 'golden age' across all the major religions and in texts from many ancient cultures. Looking at it from a scientific perspective, meanwhile, there is evidence to suggest that Earth could be in the early stages of a magnetic polarity reversal and this, coupled with the much-studied changing behaviour of our Sun, could potentially have some interesting effects on our subtle energy fields - and even bring about changes in consciousness, due to heightened levels of the psychedelic compound DMT in our pineal glands and affect the configuration of our DNA - especially at the exact time of the suggested pole shift. Andy also explored the phenomenon of crop circles and explained how one ornate example traced an exact map of the planetary system on 21st December 2012, with the exception of one mysterious planet, which he said could potentially be one of those mentioned under various names in ancient Hopi, Sumarian and other key texts as heralding the beginning of a new age. However you view crop circles, it's interesting to contemplate!What I particularly enjoyed was Andy's exploration of the behaviour of world governments, who seem to be creating ever more subtle ways to control the masses at a time when more and more of us are waking up to our true potential, our rights and our power to choose. Much of this seems to be using the tools of fear and distraction. And one of Andy's powerpoint slides was more poignant than any other for me. It was an image of a wall of riot police and, in front of them, the image of a surrendered being 'ascending'. This spoke volumes to me. However much the 'powers that be' seek to control us, whether through crowd control, biometric identity devices or media control, they cannot control our consciousness - this is our responsibility alone! We have, and we will always have the opportunity to choose love (or even laughter) over fear. I'm reminded of Victor Frankl's experiences of the concentration camp of Auschwitz in the 1940s (chronicled in his excellent book Man's Search for Meaning) - and the choice of personal empowerment over powerlessness, however much an external force seeks to cut us off at the knees (think of Nelson Mandela or Aung San Suu Kyi). And of course there's no reason to get all 'them and us' about all this - as I see it, external challenges, on whatever scale, can be seen as gifts to help us discover, heal and transcend the unhealed parts of ourselves.Two key messages came out of Andy's talk for me: one, the importance of learning discernment. 'Over the next few years,' said Andy, 'it will become increasingly difficult to determine whether what we're being presented with is true. We need to learn to feel, in here [putting hand to chest], what's right'. Second, he stressed the need for us to get on out there and do what we can: 'Don't wait for everything to be put right. These [our hands] are the tools the change is going to come through!' I'm reminded of the quote, often attributed to Goethe, which I know I refer to a little too frequently, because I LOVE IT: 'Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.'But back to my little 'teaser' at the beginning. Andy went on to look at the significance of 2012 for Britain itself. He said that judging by the fact that the eyes of the world will be on us for much of the year with London hosting the Olympics, the messages that we are sending out are very confused. The faceless Olympic mascots Wenlock and Mandeville, for instance and the Olympic tower being constructed to stand beside the Olympic stadium, of which architect Anish Kapoor said, 'I wanted the impression of unstability'. Andy asked the audience how they felt we were to view this? A rather wonderful lady, who I've connected with since the talk, piped up, suggesting that the one-eyed mascots could be seen as symbols of the 'third eye', often associated (again) with the pineal gland. She said perhaps we need to use the associated skills of focus, one-pointedness and intuition to cut what she called the 'Gordian Knot' (ie, a seemingly intractable problem, which was to her represented in the rather chaotic and confusing Olympic 'tower' construction) and this would see us safely through 2012 and all the challenges that confront us, into the 'golden age' (sic). However you look at it, it was a powerful and wonderful indictment to how we can all be vehicles of truth and how, if we speak up, often this truth can be of help to others. So speak up! Or at least write in to me with your own viewpoint (tee hee!).