tisdag 12 december 2017

Kommunikation är inte bara att prata. Det är också att skriva.

Många är rädda för att skriva. Man är rädd för att göra fel och blir blockerad och kan inte komma på ett enda ord , så det finns skrivkurser, naturligtvis, och på många skrivkurser så lägger man tonvikten vid att få eleverna att våga.
”Skriv vad som helst! Skriv hur som helst! Skriv det du kommer att tänka på! Om du inte kan komma på något alls så skriv att du inte kan komma på något!”
Det är egentligen samma metod, som man använder med en Talking Stick. Om du inte vet vad du ska säga så säg bara precis det du upplever, nämligen att du inte vet vad du ska säga. När du väl kommit igång så lossnar det!


Av en kvinna, som arbetade som lärare, hörde jag att man använde en sådan metod även på lektionerna i konst / teckning. I alla fall så gjorde hon det. Dvs det var bara en uppmuntran till eleverna att våga göra något alls, för att de skulle komma loss och våga.

Jag sade att det där inte var en teckningslektion utan att det snarare var en psykologiskt inriktad lektion i att våga. Det innebar att en elev inte kunde göra något fel. Allt var rätt och riktigt och syftet var att eleverna då skulle få självförtroende. Ja, det var väl bra, men i så fall så borde man väl ha både den psykologiska övningen och en riktig, mer strukturerad teckningsundervisning. Man får inte bra självkänsla bara av att våga. Man får det också av att kunna något. 

På skrivkurser kan man alltså göra samma sak, man bara tränar på att kunna komma loss. Ja, det är väl bra, men det ska ju komma ett nästa steg också. Man ska kunna stava rätt. Nu har vi visserligen ordbehandlingsprogram, som rättar stavfel men ofta kan de göra fel. 
Sedan kommer vi till grammatiken, som ordbehandlingsprogrammet inte klarar. Meningarna måste vara uppbyggda på rätt sätt. 

Om man nu vågar skriva och om man även kan stava och bygga meningarna på rätt sätt så kan man ändå behöva redigera texten efteråt. När man börjat skriva kan man komma in i ett ”flyt” där det går i full fart så att man skriver allt man kommer på i den ordning som associationerna dyker upp och så kanske man också måste göra om man vill fånga flyktiga tankar som snabbt drar förbi. Det man då skriver är en fritext och en sådan måste redigeras, rättas och struktureras, vilket inte är så kul. Det kan vara ganska svårt, speciellt om texten är lång. 

På Facebook verkar alla texter vara fritexter, där både stavning och grammatik ofta kan vara helt fel. Det leder till missförstånd och folk börjar gräla hej vilt.
När vi pratar med någon "i verkligheten" så upplever vi i första hand personens utseende, känslan, mimiken och tonfallet. Orden upptar bara 7% av det vi tar emot. Hela detta paket triggar igång minnen, begrepp, associationer och bilder i vårt inre. Man kan känna hur den andra personen tänker och känner så att man spontant sätter in orden i rätt sammanhang.

När vi läser en text har vi bara orden. Vi har alltså tappat bort 93% av det som vi är vana vid att uppfatta och det betyder att orden nu får en enormt mycket större roll. Stavfel syns tydligt och ger en negativ känsla. Grammatiska fel kan göra att en skriven mening inte alls går att förstå. Ovanpå detta så gör man som man brukar: man ”känner” vad den andra personen menar, men man känner helt fel och sedan är grälet igång. Jag vet att många på grund av det har blivit rädda för att säga vad de tycker på Fb. Man bara klickar Gilla och svarar ”Fina du, vad du är söt!” och liknande. Eller så gör man en sport av att gräla och kallar sig debattör.

Om man inte har en levande person framför sig och i stället enbart använder skrivna ord så är det viktigt att man skriver rätt och är tydlig och man kan behöva vara övertydlig på samma sätt som man är övertydlig med sina gester när man enbart använder teckenspråk.

Men det är inte alls säkert att tydligheten hjälper eftersom folk i allmänhet inte kan grammatiken så särskilt bra. Man skriver en sak, men folk uppfattar något helt annat (i enlighet med sina egna minnen och känslor). 
Det verkar som om skolans grammatikundervisningen har kraschat. Speciellt med tanke på att så många inte ens kan skilja mellan de och dem, två böjningsformer som förmodligen snart är förpassade till gammelsvenskan. Förenkling låter ju bra, men det betyder också att det försvårar översättningar till andra språk. Om grammatiken är fel så kan man ofta inte se vad en mening betyder, inte ens om man försöker. Man gissar och tror att gissningen är detsamma som att man känner vad som menas. Och känslan ska man ju lita på, eller hur? Jo, men man kan känna både rätt och fel.
Jag gillar att skriva själva fritexten, men att sedan redigera kan vara både tråkigt och besvärligt.
Det bästa skulle naturligtvis vara att lyckas med att omedelbart strukturera flytet i tankegångarna, men då måste man bygga in en mall i hjärnan och det är väl det som utbildade journalister har gjort.

Om man vill lämna in en text till en tidning eller en myndighet så måste den vara strukturerad, klar och tydlig.
Läsarna ska reagera på den idé, den bild, som man vill förmedla. Om läsarna reagerar på ett stavfel, så gör det att de missar det som man egentligen ville att de skulle tänka på.
Citat:
Problemet är att man fortsätter att läsa medan man reagerar. Det kan hända att man läser tre fyra rader utan att förstå vad man läser därför att man tänker: Vad är det här för ett stolpskott som inte kan stava...?

"Tänk om det viktigaste i hela din text 
ligger precis efter en felstavning eller efter något annat språkligt fel. 
Då kommer läsarna troligen att missa just det du helst av allt vill att de ska förstå.”


Här hittar vi uppmaningen Skriv mottagaranpassat!
Det betyder att man inte ska lämna in en ostrukturerad fritext till en myndighet, som är van vid extremt strukturerade texter, som närmast ger intryck av kalla, perfekta, fyrkantiga byggklossar. Att skriva en ostrukturerad text till dem resulterar inte i att man ”mjukar upp dem” och får dem att se regnbågar, fåglar och kosmiska sanningar.
Det skulle bara leda till att de tycker att skribenten är rörig (och förmodligen inte kan tänka klart och förmodligen också röker marijuana) och sedan lägger de skriften åt sidan och struntar i den.


Det finns också allmänna, svenska skrivregler.

söndag 3 december 2017

Fake News Vad ska man tro egentligen?

Kommunikation, oberoende av om det är mellan två personer, i en liten grupp eller i den stora världen, präglas av dualiteten "sanning eller lögn". När det gäller användningen av en Talking Stick, vanligen mellan ganska få personer, så läggs tonvikten vid att tala sanning, vid att man ska säga vad man verkligen känner och upplever. Det spelar ingen roll om det man säger är logiskt eller ologiskt, klokt eller dumt, det viktiga är bara att man försöker att så tydligt som möjligt beskriva vad man verkligen "har på hjärtat". "Fantasi", som kommer av inspiration, ligger på ett högre plan, men om den blandas in i vanlig kommunikation så kan det bli fel och bli till "lögn" i stället. Hur långt sträcker sig konstnärens frihet?

Lögn eller sanning
I Sverige har vi allmänt den åsikten att det man säger ska vara sant. "Det är fult att ljuga!"
Pressen tycks fungera på ett annat sätt: det viktiga är att det blir bra rubriker så att tidningen säljer.
Facebook har blivit ett sammelsurium av olika åsikter och folk grälar ofta hej vilt om vad som är sant eller inte sant. Här träffas folk, som annars ute i verkliga livet, aldrig skulle prata med varandra och helt olika tankegångar drabbar samman så det ryker om dem. Grupperna blir fler och fler och fungerar som olika idéers egna revir där de får vara ifred och slippa attacker från motståndare, troll och dumbommar som inte begriper något.
Det finns folk, som man skulle kunna kalla scientister. De är nog ofta medlemmar i VoF och de använder ordet "Science" ungefär som andra använder "Gud". De har en slags religiös tro på att inget kan existera med mindre än att det är "vetenskapligt bevisat" och att man är otroligt dum ifall man försöker hävda något som inte är "bevisat"!

Fantasi och andliga sanningar
Men i samhället har vi ju också dem, som kommunicerar med massorna på annat sätt än genom att tala sanning på det normala sättet. Vi har författare som skriver sagor, noveller och romaner där berättarförmågan och underhållningen är det viktiga. Eventuella sanningar ligger här på ett annat plan, som kan kallas andligt eller psykologiskt. Så är det också med alla gamla historier, som vi hittat inom olika religioner. De är inte sanna i fysisk bemärkelse - de är sanna ur ett högre perspektiv. Dvs om man pratar om den historiske Jesus eller om den mytologiske Jesus så är det helt olika sanningar, som man konfronteras med.

Från postmästaren till YouTube
Att publicerade påståenden varit felaktiga, osanna eller vinklade har varit vanligt ända sedan 1600-talet, i alla fall i Sverige där "pressen" redan på den tiden blev anklagad för att manipulera nyheter, vilket berodde på att det var staten som hade hand om nyhetsspridningen, som bestod av ridande kurirer som kom med nyhetsbrev och sedan var det prästen eller postmästaren, som blev nyhetsbyrån. Så de hade också chans att ändra på nyheterna.
Nu, med Internets växande, blir allt så tydligt när det läggs ut och debatteras så snabbt och vi har fått begreppet Fake News, som inte längre bara är fejkade i smyg utan också helt öppet påhittade så att de bara fungerar som underhållning. Är det "bara på kul" eller vad är det egentligen det handlar om?

YourNewsWire
Det är inte ovanligt att man på Facebook hittar artiklar från YourNewsWire och det är ofta braskande, sensationella nyheter som säger att nu är det bevisat, precis just det som alla ändå trodde. En typ av nyhet som jag sett flera gånger nu är en gubbe, som ligger i en sjukhussäng, under en rubrik, som säger att han döende bekänner något sensationellt, som väldigt många ändå trodde var sant.








Jahapp... och vad ska man nu tro om detta?
Ja, vad man tror har att göra med vilket tankesteg man befinner sig på.
Det första 
är att man läser rubrikerna, ser fotona och tänker att det är en riktig nyhet och delar nyheten på olika sidor på nätet. Många gör så och den sprids på Facebook, på bloggar och tidningar och många använder "nyheten" för att göra YouTube-filmer med säljande rubriker. Filmen består egentligen bara av att man kopierar bilden, läser upp texten i sin egen mikrofon och kanske också klipper in andra bilder och filmsnuttar. Man anser att det är sant, sensationellt och viktigt!

Andra steget Nu har man blivit en aning misstänksam och vill kolla om det verkligen är sant. Och vad gör man då? Jo, man googlar på nyheten och finner att den "finns överallt" och om nu detta är något som "alla" publicerar så måste det väl vara sant. Eftersom man nu faktiskt har kollat så kan man med gott samvete dela nyheten vidare.
Ja, man anser att man har kollat och att man har funnit att det är sant! 

Tredje steget:
Man inser att även en fejkad nyhet kan vara publicerad av många. Man snokar litet mera.... jaha, det finns inga referenser... och gubben som kom med den sensationella uppgiften har inte alls några journalister eller fotografer omkring sig. Ingen mikrofon, ingen inspelning. Bara ett enda foto. Om det hade funnits journalister där så hade det funnits många bilder av honom. I alla fall mer än bara en enda! Det hade funnits en ljudupptagning. Har han varit ensam med en enda person då, en som lyssnade på hans bekännelse? Vem är i så fall den personen? Är han trovärdig? Finns han? Varför är han i så fall anonym? 
Eller är det bara ett gammalt foto på någons avlidna gamla farfars kusin, som man använt till artikeln? Nu kollar man vad tidningen heter och får veta att den är känd för att publicera fake news, gärna i samband med annat som är riktigt. Inte nog med det: det är ofta tidningens ägares mamma som skriver historierna! Man inser att hela nyheten nog bara är påhittad!

Fjärde steget: Man kan börja att intressera sig för den här tidningen. Vad sysslar de med egentligen? Fake news, OK, men varför? För att det blir smaskiga rubriker och man kan naturligtvis tjäna en massa pengar på det. Egentligen kan det väl kvitta om det är sant eller inte - huvudsaken att det är kul att läsa. Alla journalister vill väl ha bra nyheter och det som vanligen står i våra tidningar kanske inte heller är sant. Kolla bara i en vanlig veckotidning: Kronprinsessan Victora är förtvivlad.... Drottning Silvia är osams med Chris...osv Allt det där är nog mest bara påhittat och vi till och med kan förstå att det är påhittat, men vi läser det i alla fall. För att det är kul att läsa det!!! Tidningens astrologiska spalt kan också bara vara påhittad (det händer!). So what? Det är underhållning!

Våra vanliga tidningar är fulla av påståenden, som inte alls stämmer med verkligheten. Fake news, med andra ord! Den här nya trenden med verkligt, ordentligt jättefejkade nyheter, som sprids på nätet, kanske har uppstått för att vi ska lära oss att inte vara så lättlurade!? Vi måste lära oss att vara kritiska och inte bara tro på allt som skrivs och sägs! YourNewsWire har en viktig uppgift att fylla!

Femte steget: 
Det är en sammansvärjning! Det är andra krafter, som ligger bakom. Tidningarna är sponsrade av sådana som ex George Soros!!! Varför? Jo, för att dölja alla dessa sanningar, som folk ändå tror på. Klart att Prince blev mördad! Och Marilyn Monroe! Och....! Det är så många, som har tagit reda på hur det egentligen förhöll sig och nu publicerar de allt detta också!

Det är makten, som ligger bakom, vilket den nu heter CIA, NSA, Illuminaterna, bankirerna, oligarkerna, läkemedelsindustrin eller Soros,,,, det kan kvitta.... den, i alla fall... DOM!!! De mördar alla som har sanningar att säga!!! Och nu när alla kan skriva vad de vill på nätet, nu blir allt detta avslöjat!!!! Hur ska de nu försvara sig? De kan ju inte mörda alla som skriver.
Ja, om det nu finns någon grupp, som verkligen har intresse av att folk inte ska tro på alla dessa historier, vad ska då den gruppen göra för att folk inte ska tro på dem? En sak man kan göra när man vill att folk ska ta avstånd från något, det är att förlöjliga det. Om en idé är förlöjligad så är det ingen som vågar att framföra den. Hur ska man då göra för att förlöjliga en idé, som många tror på? Jo, man publicerar den på ett sådant sätt att den kommer att framstå som fejkad, osann och påhittad. Den som nu för denna "nyhet" vidare kommer att bli utskrattad för att han är så dum och naiv att han "går på det där". Haha! Dumskalle! Det var ju bara fejkat! Fattade du inte det?

Det finns andra nättidningar som tycks anse att en teori bevisligen är falsk om den har varit publicerad av YourNewsWire, vilket betyder att YourNewsWire kan användas för att rentvätta dem som anser sig vara avslöjade med anledning av pedofili, korruption eller mord. En historia måste ju inte vara fejkad bara för att den blivit publicerad i en fejktidning.

Nu inser man att fejktidningarna bara är en välplanerad del av Den Stora Konspirationen för att sopa bort alla avslöjanden som dyker upp och hotar dess framfart. Det är väl ingen dum teori?

Sjätte steget: 
Ägarna till YourNewsWire (och liknande tidningar) kanske verkligen är ute efter att berätta en massa sanningar! Men det törs man inte för då kan man bli förgiftad, försvunnen eller skjuten! Så hur ska man göra? Jo, man publicerar sina sanningar i form av fejkade nyheter för att ingen ska bli arg. Man har samma roll som clownen hade vid hovet, som indianernas heyoka.och som vissa författare och filmskapare har. De berättar sina sanningar i form av sagor, noveller, romaner och filmer, som bara utger sig för att vara påhitt, fantasier, konst och drömmar! Inget annat! Om man skriver en sann historia på ett sådant sätt att den uppfattas som fejkad och tio miljoner människor läser den, då har man ju uppnått att man har förankrat historien i det undermedvetna hos dessa tio miljoner människor! Resultatet kan bli att sju miljoner människor tror på historien och då har man ju uppnått det man ville? Historierna är sanna! Man bara fejkar att de skulle vara fejkade!

Sjunde steget: 
 Ska man kanske se fake-tidningen som ett fritt konstverk, som speglar verkligheten? Ja, varför inte? 

Åttonde steget: man undrar om det verkligen är si eller så!

Tänk om det nu bara är så att ägarna till YourNewsWire och andra sådana tidningar tycker att det är 

kul att hitta på historier och tjäna pengar! 
As simple as that! 
Money, money...

Illustration av Viveca Lammers


fredag 11 augusti 2017

Talking Stick / Truth / Money / Media

Illustration by Viveca Lammers

A person holding a Talking Stick is supposed to speak the truth, but not only that. He is also supposed to look within a little bit more to be able to discover what is hidden, what is really true. The real ”truth behind” is often not what we believe (before we have taken a closer look at it).
If you have a lot of lamps turned on in your home you might believe that it is dark outside, but if you dare to step out into the darkness you might discover that it is not at all dark, at least not when the moon and the stars are visible.

The astrologer Kapiel Raaj describes his impression of ascension (spiritual development) as the ability of being more and more awake, more and more able to see the truth. Not only in Jesus or Buddha, but everywhere. To see more and more of the essence of, the truth of anything that you look at. It is not the same as seeing ghosts, ancestors and angels walking around, which any dog or cat can do.

Acceleration of Ascension energy 
2015-2022 & Nakshatra news

The Talking Stick, or at least the method of having such Talking Circles, are getting more popular now among us, white people, to solve communication problems. To have a look at ”the truth behind” becomes bigger in whole society (compared to 50 years ago) and there are alternative news channels that can be said to walk the same path as is suggested by the Talking Stick method for single individuals.

Some of the last sentences that I wrote in the previous chapter here ”Is shamanism a religion?” are these:
"Today our psychopaths operate through the political systems, Internet, Medical Companies, Food Companies, economy, war industri...... and we believe them and follow them.... but they have started to have problems with facebook and YouTube. I suppose they are busy inventing new algorithms that will fix the problem." 

They seem to be quite busy with creating s new system to ban free speech. The basic idea is not too difficult to understand. You just have to tell the people that we do have ”free speech”, but only as long as we are nice to each other. That´s OK. But who is ”each other”? And what is ”nice”? When should we tell the truth and when should we not? And what is truth? Who decides what is true and what is not true? Answer: The one who is the strongest, the one who has the power! The one who owns the press. Or any newspaper. Of course, because he is the one who is responsible for everything that is written in his medium. That is not strange.

So if one medium covers several billion people, the owner of this medium platform is also having the power of controlling the minds of all those billions. It is also about money, because the big companies are making ads in almost all big media and in this way supporting them with money, without which they could not exist.

So the alternative reporters like Tim Pool are being placed on a ”ban list” to tell the companies that they do better not place any ads here. So they get no money. They can no longer make a living from their job. So they have to get another job. In reality it is not so that they are telling lies – it is just that they are uncomfortable for the big companies and the medium owner, who now has to clean up.

It means that the big companies are supporting all ”free speech” that they like (that supports them!) but not any other ”free speech”. Free speech can be dangerous for them as it can reveal the hidden dark agenda that they are baking into our breads.

What to do about that?
Is this the beginning of an alternative News Machine, supported by alternative companies?
What is true and what is not?




He put it out yesterday and in one day the film has got 237,440 views.

tisdag 8 augusti 2017

Is shamanism a religion?

K: börjar du inte bli ofokuserad? (Aren´t you losing your focus now?)
Viveca: Jo! (Yes!)
K: Bra att du ser det själv (Good that you can see it yourself!)
K: har du ingen blogg där de där religiösa funderingar hör hemma? (Don´t you have any blog where those religious thoughts belong?
Viveca: Jodå (yes)

That was a comment that I got after having written the text Our New Heaven.

How interesting!
 Now I just have to think more about that!
I start where I am and then I will see where I end up.



OK I was writing about religion and not specifically about the Talking Stick. But as the Talking Stick is a tool for introspection and for telling others what is really going on in the mind and for understanding what the emotions are based upon and how they have been created, how they get triggered and how they can be changed, the Talking Stick can not be separated from those other disciplines and theories that are focusing on the same thing and they are many. There are innumerable approaches to the study of the psyche and we can take looks into many of them and get the same answers, but they are presented with different words and names. Some disciplines are called religions, some are just called methods and some are called shamanism and we have psychological schools, esoteric orders and so on and on and on..... they were started by introspective people who were interested in looking closer at our inner reality, formulate theories from the discoveries and teaching them to others. But a method can be taken over by people with other interests.

The Talking Stick has appeared to us in the form that is invented by the Red Indians (with pearls, hide and feathers and so) and their culture is accepted by us, much because we think that it is ”not a religion”. Some call it shamanism and they see shamanism as an opposite to, or at least a good escape from ”religion”.
The Sioux Indians get really angry when we (outsiders) claim that they ”have shamans”. They answer: ”We have Medicine Men and not shamans! A shaman is something else!”

So... how is it?
Is shamanism a religion or is it the opposite to religions and thus being able to save humanity from all those religions? According to what i read here shamanism is a religion.

Tengrism:
Tengrism is a Central Asian religion characterized by shamanism, animism, totemism, poly- and monotheism and ancestor worship. It was the prevailing religion of the Turks, Mongols, Hungarians, Xiongnu and Huns and the religion of the five ancient Turkic states: Göktürk Khaganate, Western Turkic Khaganate, Great Bulgaria, Bulgarian Empire and Eastern Tourkia (Khazaria).
"Unlike the shamanism of former times, Tengrism is a monotheistic form of religion with a cosmology that is suitable for the modern world. It is firmly based on trendy ‘green’ or environmental concerns and believes that humanity should live in harmony with the natural world."

It is a religion, "but without dogma, prayers or a priesthood".

But the main god (Sky Father) is not alone. There are the Fire God, the Wind God, the Sun God, the Moon Goddess, the Water Goddess and many, many others, so it is quite polytheistic.
Christianity is also not really monotheistic when you also worship and pray to a lot of saints and angels. It is just to play with words.
If Tengrism has rituals instead of dogma, deities instead of gods, songs and drums (and talking with spirits) instead of "prayers" and shamans instead of priests....where is the difference? Maybe just that it has not yet been taken over by the "power people". It has not become a church. It has not yet been transformed into an institution.

Maybe it will be taken over by the music industry and focus on a performing art on stages? And in time it will just be a name for a certain kind of folk music and dance? 




There is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion so people have different opinions about it. I would say that there is also no consensus over what shamanism is. It is often used in a generalised way to describe all kinds of indigenous magical practices in a wide range of cultures worldwide. The essence of the real, old core, shamanism has been lost into deluted, more romantic forms that can suit people in the cities. So the word is losing it´s meaning. Many abstract words lose their meanings!

Religion is a Latin word and to many languages it can not be translated because these languages do not have any equivalent term for it. Not a wonder! Of course it can be impossible to translate a word if you do not even know the meaning of it! We also use the foreign word shaman because we cannot translate it. The first western people, who met with shamanism in Siberia, called it ”devilish rites”. 

According to Wikipedia religion is:
Any cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, world views, texts, sanctified places, ethics, or organizations, that relate humanity to the supernatural or transcendental. Religions relate humanity to what anthropologist Clifford Geertz has referred to as a cosmic "order of existence".

I make it shorter: a religion is a cultural system of ingredients that relate humans with the supernatural.

In that case all old cultures had such systems. It was so common that it was looked upon as reality and not something that could be named. "Shamanism" is a word that we put on their systems. Shamanism is also a cultural system of ingredients that relate people with the supernatural, but it is a religion that is focused on co-working with (the spirits of) nature, instead of just using and killing it.
One can wonder if our Christian religion really "relates humanity to the supernatural". At least it does not relate us to the supernatural in general. Shamanism is much more designed to do so and following that thread it cannot be wrong to claim that shamanism is a religion but Christianity is not.

So when a person insinuates that he is against all religions – what does he mean?
Maybe he means that he is against only our own religion, which might not at all be a real religion.
Maybe he is against the church (but in that case he would have said so?) Is he then against all institutions? Why not?
Maybe he means that he is against anything that should "relate us to the supernatural" as he claims that "the supernatural does not exist!"

OK! What is it that does not exist?
Supernatural? What is that? Super natura? Above nature. Above the material world = not visible to the physical eyes. Transcendental is another word for that and it is something that goes outside of, goes down through, and beyond nature, beyond the world, beyond materia, beyond the physical world. Beyond the world that we can see with the physical eye.

"Transcendental, i filosofi egenskap bortom tingens kategorier (till exempel godhet och skönhet)". Wikipedia  

So it can be something that belongs to dreams! Do dreams exist? Dream therapy or any psychological therapy would be dealing with something supernatural, but people would say that a psychological therapy exists and can work and have real and useful effects. Still it can be based on "only fantasy".

OK  Something supernatural is what we call an abstract noun!
Love, hate, beauty, anger, greed, happiness, fear are abstract nouns. Do they exist or do they not exist? No! Not in material form. They are more like spirits that can possess someone. It depends on how your language is made up. 

Most people would say that anger exists (because they can experience how it feels). It is just because they know what I talk about. If I called anger a spirit instead of a feeling they would say ”no”, because they have learned (from fairy tales and films?)  that a spirit is like a ghost, a real but invisible figure that is running around. They have decided to believe that it is something that they do not believe exists and then they deny the belief that they have created.

They also say that a spirit is just fantasy. But in that case it is something that people would say exists (as they do not deny fantasy) and then religion can be called fantasy therapy. What´s wrong with that? We already have that, but we use other words for it. It is just a playing with words.

The best way to describe such an abstract noun to children is to make a story where one person is always described as an incarnation of beauty, goodness, love, anger or greed. That figure becomes a symbol for a certain feeling.
Listening to these stories you can start recognizing all these figures within yourself. You can be full of love or full of anger. Then you can say that this figure is living in you, is using you to ”incarnate”. The next step is to consciously choose which feeling you want to be filled with by using your fantasy. That can be done by focusing strongly on the figure, that is in the story representing that specific quality, till you get into cohesion with it, you feel like it, identify with it.  Et voilà! You have a god!

That is a fantastic invention for psychotherapy and now we can start making a system out of it to teach the ignorant population how to do and how to think! We write down the rules for it. We create schools for that! We create teachers! It grows. Et voilá! You have a religion!

The teachers are called priests and the teaching a priest is doing in a tempel can also be called mind manipulation. But that goes for our modern schools too, so if we do not like ”religions” we should also not like our school system. "Religion" (the reading in temples and monasteries) was the start of our schools. That kind of repeated reading is today called plugga in Swedish.

Our modern definition of the word religion is not the old one. 
Cicero said that the word comes from legere, to read (to pick). Reading or listening (picking up knowledge) was (is) the first step in a learning process, but at that time it was focused on spirituality, cultus deorum (the worshipping of the gods). Those people who were honestly learning and taking part in the rituals in the temples were by him called religious (religiosi). The people who were offering in the temples many times a day only to please the gods (and not for learning) were called superstitious (superstitiosi) because their only interest was that their children should survive them (superstare = survive).

We get institutionalized and then we want to break free from that.
When a system grows big it attracts the psychopaths that want to use it to get power by taking over. Et voilà! We have the priests, that kind of priest that we say that we don´t like.

These priests understand that they can get more powerful by operating in groups, which can control bigger herds. If the groups come together the priests can get the whole population into the same institution and now there is a need for one person to be the alpha male..... Et voilà! They have created a church with a bishop.

Some seem to be convinced that these power people were products of something that they call religion, which would be something supernatural that had taken hold of those poor priests, who had been very good people if this transcendental entity called religion had not existed!
No, they use what the population is interested in, be it gods, health or money.

The ones, that we today call psychopaths, are just happy that we put that focus on the word religion (which we do not know the meaning of!!!) because they are not there any more. (Except for some wild Muslims that are still living in the medieval age, but they have no intention of hiding their intentions.)
Today our psychopaths operate through the political systems, Internet, Medical Companies, Food Companies, economy, war industri...... and we believe them and follow them.... but they have started to have problems with facebook and YouTube. I suppose they are busy inventing new algorithms that will fix the problem.






söndag 6 augusti 2017

Speak the truth!

Illustration by Viveca Lammers
One demand from the Talking Stick is that the one who is holding it also speaks the truth. But before we can do that we have to train on it. Train to look into the own, mystic, dark, inner dream-world. 

When it comes to other people we cannot really know the truth behind their words and actions, but still we tell others about how they are and in the same time we have a tendency to lie also about ourselves. 
We often say that we like or dislike something or somebody, even if it is not true, just to be liked or to avoid trouble. 

We say that we are fine even if we are not. We do the same with others, but too often in the opposite way: we say that they are sick even if they are not. 

Focus on finding your own hidden emotions!
One thing we should learn from the Talking Stick is to stop telling how other persons are ”inside”, because we don´t know it. We should focus on learning to recognize different ”original feelings” in ourselves, which is also not easy. Christianity, Buddhism, shamanism, psychology... they all have mountains of knowledge about how to identify and treat various emotions and feelings within the own psyche. If we cannot even identify our own inner feelings and motivations, how then can we identify the deeper energy motions of another persons mind? 

In a group the participants usually do not search for "own opinions". They say what is written in a book or spoken by a leader that they refer to and this leader has a certain intent (which might be obvious or hidden), but if the group is so big that it is called mainstream, with no single dominant leader, it is more difficult to see what is going on. You will have to step out of the group to become an individual, but then you will be accused, by the other sheep, of having stepped into another group and being brainwashed by it! (And maybe you have!)

To follow a group is a ”sheep behaviour” and a group can also be referred to as a ”spirit”. It is a ”bigger mind” that is controlling many small individuals who feel safe and taken care of by the group, who is like a ”fathers´s house”. The whole group shares the same dream, which is the fundament for it´s existence. So it becomes very dangerous to say something that the group does not like – you can get cast out from your home and be looked upon as an enemy! A sheep cannot understand how it is possible not to be part of a flock, so if you are not in my flock you must be in someone else´s flock. There is no third alternative for a good sheep.

Tell about your own status and not about someon else´s!
A fresh example of judging others blindly is from facebook: 
”...i USA styr en patologisk narcissist...”

You can say truthfully that from reading the news about a person, you get a bad impression about him, that you get the impression that he might be a narcissist. But is it really OK to write that "he is...", which is to publish a clear statement (a truth), in this case in the form of a psychic diagnosis about someone else, a statement that might not be true? Not even for a trained doctor or psychologist is it OK to do so!

It is OK that I talk about my own impression, because then I talk about my own inner space. But if I judge someone else the next question is: how did I get this impression and what is it based upon? Did I meet this person in real life? How did I feel when I met him? Why did I feel this? 

In this case the impression is not coming directly from that person, who is being judged,  - it comes from someone else who has made a film, article or headline about him, so it is filtered through that third person, who is unknown to the judge/writer, if he/she has not met him. "That third person" can also be a spirit in the form of a flock of sheep with an unanimous agenda, that he/she knows nothing about.

If I did never meet this person, from where did I get so much information that I could make such a diagnosis? From having had long talks with his wife and children or from talking with his enemies? 
Or just from headlines in the media that are having a certain agenda, sharing the same dream? Is this really my own opinion or am I just following the mainstream, my sheep flock, because I don´t want to expose myself to the risk of getting "cast out from the herd", which in nature would mean death and in business something similar.

Or am I just throwing my own frustrations on to another person that I want to blame for something within my self? The use of the Talking Stick is focused on at least trying to find out what is behind my emotions and opinions about the outer world. 

Byron Katie has done work with exactly this, without using a stick, but her method is not far away from the Indian Talking Stick Method. Look closer at your dream! 
The Talking Stick is also a tool to show who is "having the word" but when making a film this part is often taken care of by cameras, microphones and editing. 

She has helped people to look inside themselves to understand what was behind their opinions of other persons. 



fredag 4 augusti 2017

Our New Heaven

Illustration by Viveca Lammers
Many are focused on the old idea of the Church manipulating people and they blame ”religion” for everything negative. But in reality ”religion” does not exist in the form of something higher that would be manipulating people against their will. 

And people who want to manipulate the population do not have to use any ”religion” to do that. They use the tools that are available to them and if people believe that ”religion” is the cause of all evil (some say so!) in the sense of ”a belief system that is focusing on a God”, then they just invent an atheistic model that works in the same way. 

The old word god means ”the one that is being worshipped”. To worship an invisible spirit, which is then to be called a god, is the same as to worship an idea, a king, a prophet, a principle or whatever that you are focusing on and taking your information from. And obeying!

The word worship is related to worth and the German werden (to become) and it comes from Gothic wairþan (to turn into) from the root wer- (to turn, bent).

To worship a god is in reality not different from becoming something by turning into it. You bend your mind into a desired direction, that you have chosen or that others have chosen for you.
It can be an idea, an ideal, a company, a club, a skill, a profession......anything that we focus on to become something more than what we were before. Something that is worth it. By doing this we get a higher value so we also become worth more. 

We are manipulated into believing that there has to be a God in the form of a glorious picture of an invisible man with a name, giving commands from a heaven. This belief is excellent and also needed for the new priests who are today using IT-technology to lead the sheeps where they want to lead them. Jesus was the first one to claim that he saw people as sheep and that one man could lead the whole pack where he wanted to. 

If we believe what most people believe about ”religion” we cannot see that modern mind manipulation is basically the same thing as the method they accuse the old religions of.
This is like running from the an old enemy looking only backwards all the time and because of that falling right into the arms of his friend who is waiting in front of you.

Internet is working like a big brain (the artificial brain of Earth) and if we can find and identify some main principles that it works with, then we have found the aspects that in the old times would have been called the qualities of the gods. 

A human brain can focus on something and the Earth Brain can also focus on something.
The focus of my brain creates certain emotions in me and the focus of the Earth Brain creates certain emotions in the population that is worshipping it = is tuned into, turned into it, because it finds it worth or worthy to do so.

Imagine a control room with 100 people controlling the thoughts and feelings of a billion people.
Their goal is to capture your attention and to do that they have to know how the human mind works. So says Tristan Harris, who used to work in one of these control rooms as a Design Ethicist at Google.
He learned how to manipulate the human mind when he was earlier a magician and he says that once you know how to push people’s buttons, you can play them like a piano. And this is exactly what product designers do to your mind.  Read more...

You can precisely target a lie directly to the people who are most susceptible! And because this is profitable it is only going to get worse.” More in NewsVoice....


The manipulative tricks tech companies use to capture your attention



torsdag 3 augusti 2017

Swedes are said to be extremely afraid of conflicts.

Illustration by Viveca Lammers
It is not possible to get rid of all conflicts because they are there all the time, but mostly they are so small that we just don´t care about them so much. If we have different opinions about something we often quickly talk about something else because we want to ”avoid conflict”. Especially in Sweden. 


"In its more destructive forms, the need to avoid conflict also manifests itself as a strong reluctance to be direct, or even indirectly honest, with someone."  Läs mer...


"...to be able to communicate with Swedes in a successful way, there are a few things you probably need to know. One of them is the fact that people from Sweden usually tries to avoid disagreement at almost all costs."  Läs mer...

There are two ways of getting rid of a conflict. One way is to pretend that it doesn´t exist or to stop talking about it and the opposite way is to get curious and start investigating what the conflict is about. And learn something from it! 

Most people don´t dare to do that because there is a risk that if we talk more about ”this subject” the conflict will get bigger and end with anger, tears and a broken relation. We have collectively decided that conflicts are negative and for this reason we have to avoid them. We must avoid everything that is negative! Make love not war! Only think about positive things like flowers, sunsets, good food, fine wine and sweet little kittens! But conflicts can also be thought of as something positive. It just depends on how curious we are and what kind of approach we choose.

But what is a conflict? It can be two people having different opinions about something. The quarrelling is often about who is right and who is wrong. To discuss ”how it is” is usually just leading to higher and higher voices and more stress and anger and of course it feels like being on a negative path. The conflict has become negative and destructive, but in the beginning we could have chosen to turn it into a creative conflict. A little mental adventure.

That sounds good, but in some cases it can be difficult without a Talking Stick, because the stick makes it very clear who is speaking and who is listening. You cannot interrupt the other person by screaming ”Dont´t interrupt me!” (Yes, it happens!) 

The stick slows down the tempo and then the lower brain loses the power and the higher brain gets a chance. So now, why not just take a close look at the roots of the conflict? What is it made of? Here is a possibility to find out what it is that calls for our attention like a little child in danger.

I don´t mean that we should create conflicts just for the fun of solving them. But if they are already there we can treat them better than just pretending that they do not exists (if there is a negative feeling from this suppression the subconscious mind will store it till it gets solved and dissolved.)




Dale puts emphasis on not getting emotional in a conflict. (14:55) You must control your emotions so that we can have (our controlled) conflict without emotions.

A Talking Stick is saying the opposite: ”Please, take contact with your emotions and tell us what you really feel!” The idea is that when the emotions are no longer pushed back, when they are being expressed and listened to, they can relax and stop fighting.

The difference is that Dale is creating a discussion where different people are promoting and defending opposite ideas, like in a court, and he calls it conflict.


Solving an emotional conflict is not the same as setting up a court room for decision making.

His idea about creating a "conflict" to get better results in decision making seems to be a more creative method than the Swedish method of "alla ska tycka likadant". 

onsdag 2 augusti 2017

How to turn the Talking Stick into a useful tool.

Illustration by Viveca Lammers
Medicine Pipe Illustration by Viveca Lammers
A Talking Stick is almost a so called Medicine Item with the difference that it is for communication with people instead of spirits.

A Medicine Item should be wrapped i red and then packed in something else and put aside. It is personal and should not be handled by other people. It can even be a secret tool that other people should not even know about. According to Swiftdeer it is protected by the red color.
Apart from that story the red color has another effect: it wakes you up. It gives the brain a signal that something has to be attended to or noticed, so you get a little bit more energy and focus. Magical ceremonies always have ingredients that can shift your consciousness in various ways.

As the Talking Stick is not used in this way you can wrap it in any color, if you wish to take it with you when you travel. But take a material that you really like and that gives a good impression. Maybe with some embroidery. And notice the symbolism of the different colors! The red is still OK because it is a symbol for the heart.
But a Talking Stick session can begin with a situation where two people disagree about something so they are already upset and excited so they don´t need to get more awake from having a red blanket in front of them. They are already overstimulated and have to calm down. That is the situation, which is described in the old Legend about the Talking Stick.

When we are home, and especially if the family has many children, there can always pop up a situation where one person agrees to something that he/she doesn´t like to agree with. Or two persons having different opinions about something. Often one person wins and the other one gets silent but remains irritated for a while.
We believe that we forget all these irritations, but even if we do not remember what happened our subconscious mind remembers the feeling of irritation and it also remembers who the other person was (who caused the irritation). If that happens many times it will build up something deep inside, like the small water drops slowly filling a big glas.
An unfinished talk is the same as an unfinished action, which is called karma. It is an action that is still going on because it is waiting to get a chance to be finished. Such little pieces of karma can be called emotional hang-ups and they can create trouble in other situations.



-- I looked at a film with someone who suggested that the Talking Stick should always be hanging on the wall in a way that also a small child could reach it. That was a good idea, wasn´t it?

-- Yes, but we don´t have such problems, because we listen to our children, so we don´t need any Talking Stick.

-- Yeah...OK... but in case that there would be a little conflict? It can always happen, you know....

-- Well, yes, in that case we could use it.


That was a little example from reality.
It sounds good, but what would happen if A and B ended up in a conflict and then B suddenly takes up a Talking Stick and says that now A has to use it. Probably A will refuse. If you are in a conflict with someone (even if it is just about a piece of bread) the last thing you want to do is to obey this person! So the Talking Stick method will not work if you suddenly and unexpectedly present your stick to someone who is already irritated. That person will rather get a feeling that your stick is a weapon that you now want to use to win the fight.

A Talking Stick is not a magical object that works in it´s own way and solves all our problems by itself! It is like any other tool: you cannot use it well if you have not learned how to use it and also trained on it. It is good to have it in a conflict situation, but only if all the participants are used to it. So we should not start using it for the first time when a conflict is already active, because then the stick will just be associated with negative conflicts, the negative side of perceiving the world in different ways.

It would be better to train on it by having a little Talking Circle once a week. Without conflicts! Just for the purpose of learning and getting used to it. In such a circle everyone can tell the others about what has happened during the week, what was fun and what was not and why it was not etc.. with focus on the emotional effects of this and that. Then... in time... the stick will become a tool that can be used also in conflicts.
There is a reason why certain ceremonies are repeated every day in so many cultures.

torsdag 27 juli 2017

Creative Conflict

Today I was tidying up my home and later in the afternoon I wanted to finish the writing about Creative Conflict that I had started yesterday, but that was not possible because I was so tired that I almost fell asleep. 
There is one thing that always wakes me up if I am tired in daytime and that is to get down to the lake and throw myself into the cold water. It is like waking up to a new day!


It is a cloudy day and not too warm so I thought I would be alone with the trees, sands, winds and waters, but...

I reached the place exactly in the same time as twelve other persons also came in their cars and gathered on the sandy shore. They were dressed in white with black belts and holding long, wooden sticks.




About Creative Conflict
The Talking Stick is about understanding each others emotions and motivations, those that are behind the conflicts that arise. Conflicts are often transformed into agression and what we call bad or destructive behaviour like quarreling, screaming and fighting, which we want to avoid because we want to ”have peace”. Quarreling about who is right and who is wrong is like a war. And wars are killing the world!!! So we must have peace!!! And some people think that one day there will be peace on earth!

But the result of this nice ideal is that we are so afraid of conflicts that we no longer dare to say what we think or mean.

Some people do not really like this kind of peace.
They prefer energy and energy can be created by two opposite forces, so they find oppositions more interesting, because there is a chance to understand something new and there is a chance to creativity. If we just look at the opposition and investigate it! From what is is it built up? And how?

So... why not a little creative conflict, where we can get new energy from focusing on something that we did not understand before and then step out of this conflict as two coworkers that have gained new insights?
Isn´t that better than to be peacefully sleepwalking with empty words that do not reflect reality. When the Indian gurus talk about love they do not mean that kind of empty ”love” that just consists of avoiding conflicts. They mean ”the love of everything that belongs to nature and to our psyche”. It does not mean that they love bombs and missiles. On the contrary: the bombs and weapons are the result of us not being able to solve conflicts at an early stage.
Why do we not? Because we do not dare to look at them. We pretend that they do not exist because we want to be ”positive”.

But conflicts should be solved as quickly as possible, before they start growing, so we have to learn to discover them as quickly as possible. That can also be called ”positive”! It is just a little bit more difficult!

As a conflict gives energy some people just create conflicts because they like to get this energy kick. Those who like to fight might not be interested in solving the conflict. Earlier we had the knights that were fighting with each other to test who was the strongest and there are also many martial arts where a more elegant fighting method is taught. Such disciplines should be taught at every school together with the Talking Circles (with Talking Sticks!) to send light into newborn conflicts to prevent them from becoming ”real” and destructive.
Instead of being afraid of conflicts – why not love them and treat them in more subtle, refined and graceful ways?



tisdag 25 juli 2017

Are you introvert?

The use of a Talking Stick demands some degree of introspection, because the speaker is supposed to ”talk from the heart”. That does not just mean to tell all the others that you love them (just because the word heart is mentioned) unless you really are overfilled with that emotion. 

The use of a Talking Stick demands some degree of introspection

The "electromagnetic heart" is an instrument that reads everything that happens around a person and delivers this information in the form of subtle feelings, so these feelings are fluctuating all the time and if we are not used to listen to the heart we might not be able to recognize them as anything else than attraction and repulsion, whereafter attraction is called love and repulsion changes to flight or anger with accusations and gets called fear, agression or ego.  Hundreds of years ago they were called God and Devil.

Introvert people can often be more familiar with inner fantasies, deeper thoughts and the analysing of emotional fluctuations so it can be easier for them to understand what "talking from the heart" means, but as they can lose energy from being with people they might have to go home and think about it before they can tell others what they feel and mean. They have to "sort it out" by themselves before they know.   Read more...







söndag 23 juli 2017

Walking Bear

I have a friend, Karsten, who lives in Denmark but has a little house here in Sweden where he creates unusual flowerbeds in his big garden. He is a hobby gardener, a good photographer and writes a blog about all his beautiful and often also unusual plants.

Part of Karsten's Garden

The day before yesterday he wrote to me on Skype and asked if I wanted to come and look at his ”Bear Ash”, as he called it, and maybe I wanted to get a branch from it to make an Ash Talking Stick, which is a good idea as the Ash tree has an important mythological role being the Yggdrasil, the World Tree, which is an immense mythical tree that connects the nine worlds in Norse cosmology. The word probably means Odin´s horse.

The ash with the fresh marks of the bear

So yesterday I went over to him and he showed me the big marks that a bear had made on the tree. He said that the bear had made similar marks on many trees around his house and this is the way that the bear shows his territory and also shows how big he is (how high up he can make the marks). So now most of the tree had to be taken down because it was destroyed and the upper parts of it would die anyway.

But first we went down to the lake because he wanted to collect grit from the the shore. He is using such grit for certain plants in his garden.

I parked the car on the side of the narrow gravel road and he took his empty bucket and walked down to the lake while I was still searching for my things in the car. When I was about to walk away I heard a loud and clear sound that was the same rhythmic sound as that from a big, heavy person walking at a normal speed on sand or gravel. Crunch...crunch...crunch...crunch.... almost like the slow sound of a rattle.

I looked up and down on the road, but there was nobody. The sound was very clear and very loud so I thought that maybe it was my phone that had started to make noise. I picked it up but there was no sound from it. I looked on the road again and the sound was very high and very near, it was ”all around me”. I thought that there might be some other technical device in my bag, that had started to make noise, but just when I thought of searching for it in the bag the noise suddenly stopped!

I went down to the lake where I swam around for a while and I also took some photos of Karsten collecting his grit. I told him about the strange sound and he said that it was probably a ghost. 

”No!” I said, ”this was a strong, real and clear sound”, but he meant that people who have hallucinations usually say so!

Later in the evening, by a campfire, he said that ”I have heard that the Red Indians really appreciate people who have hallucinations” and he continued to tease me (he likes to be provocative): ”Fantastic that you have such good hallucinations, I am impressed!” and then he laughed!

When the sun went down behind the trees we went up on the mountain and visited Bertil, an old ”forest man” and hunter, who ”knows everything” about the forest (except for the Latin names!) He and Karsten drank some whisky and after a while, I told the story about the strange noise that I had heard by the lake.
Bertil immediately said:
”That was a bear! That is the typical sound of a bear!” and then he added ”If you meet a bear you should make yourself as small as possible to show that you have no intention of fighting. And of course not try to run away from it!” 

We came back to Karsten´s garden at twilight (which is almost in the middle of the night in summer in Sweden) and I managed to take some tiny branches before I had to escape from the swarm of little gnats that surrounded my head. I think that a Talking Stick made from that tree could get the name Walking Bear.  But they are also to be associated with Yggdrasil which is excellent for a Nordic Talking Stick. The Bear reminds us of the strength of being grounded.

When I had written this I noticed that I had forgotten to take a photo of the ash, so I drove back to the garden. After a while, Karsten said: "Hear! Did you hear? That is a raven! So now you have all your symbolism! Both Yggdrasil, a bear and a raven!" 

The raven is the bird that is together with Odin. He has two of them, Hugin and Munin.

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