#and like. the high evolutionary DID destroy an entire planet and everyone on it

[sillayangel]

wait. was "The Galaxy" even in any direct danger in gotg vol 3? was that actually the LOWEST stakes out of the three guardians movies??

[thestile1972]

Living Well in the Face of Coronavirus, Climate Change and Other Potential Disasters

By Jason Segedy

February 24, 2020

If you spend any amount of time on social media following the news, you may have noticed that much of the discussion and coverage is geared toward generating tremendous fear and anxiety about a wide variety of horrifying ways that we (as individuals), and our civilization (as a whole) could meet an untimely and unexpected death.

This is nothing new.  Back in 1948, in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, which culminated in the dropping of the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and just as the Cold War was getting underway, C.S. Lewis wrote an essay entitled On Living in an Atomic Age.  You can read it at the bottom of this post.

In it, Lewis reminds us of something that those of us living our materially-comfortable and fairly predictable modern lives have tended to forget - at least until the latest virus, or environmental disaster, or weapon of war intrudes upon our somnolence - the fact that we are a doomed race living on a doomed planet in a doomed universe.  Neither the invention of the atomic bomb nor the discovery of some new microbe has changed that grim fact one iota.

This essay is as relevant today as it was 72 years ago.  Today, it could just as easily be renamed On Living in an Age of Climate Change or On Living in an Age of Coronavirus; or the original title could remain, since (spolier alert) the threat of nuclear destruction has never gone away.

As Aldous Huxley famously said:  “the knowledge that every ambition is doomed to frustration at the hands of a skeleton [has] never prevented the majority of human beings from behaving as though death were no more than an unfounded rumor.”

Lewis’ essay is a prime example of the maxim that people need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.  We need to be reminded of the kind of universe that we are actually living in.

Many people in the West today, both the educated and the uneducated, hold to a personal philosophy of life that is functional and utilitarian but logically inconsistent: a blend of progressivism (belief in endless human progress); techno-utopianism; neo-marxism; modernism; post-modernism; narcissism; atheism; philosophical materialism; and scientism (as opposed to science).  

This convoluted and self-contradictory stew of beliefs simultaneously holds that at bottom, we (our thoughts and our very consciousness) are no more than the sum of our biochemical and physical parts, and that our actions are (by the inescapable logic of philosophical materialism) simply nothing more than the products of mindless and purposeless collisions of subatomic particles and electrical impulses in our brains which give us the illusion of free will, consciousness, and self-hood itself.  

Human beings, like the rest of the world, are material objects, through and through; they have no soul or ego or self of any immaterial sort.

Yet, at the same time, they believe that we, even as accidental products of this mindless and exclusively material universe, still possess individual objective dignity and worth, have intrinsic human rights, and are part of a mysterious and cosmic evolutionary process that goes far beyond basic biological evolution; which strives and has purposes and is moving toward some final state or goal that represents real and objective progress over the state that we are currently in.  

Although we are insignificant specks of atomic stardust, we somehow rose up out of the primordial muck and mire and are now indispensable participants in a drama which will culminate in something that represents real and lasting progress.  Weak and diminutive bipeds that we once were; we are perhaps haltingly, but inexorably, on our way to becoming the masters of the universe and the makers of worlds. 

Even as intelligent and vaunted an atheist and believer in philosophical materialism as Richard Dawkins is unable to avoid smuggling in nods to meaning and purpose, despite (given his dogmatic belief in materialism) all evidence to the contrary:

It thus comes as no surprise that Dawkins turns out to be an old-fashioned Hegelian when it comes to global politics, believing in a zeitgeist (his own term) involving ever increasing progress, with just the occasional ‘reversal’. ‘The whole wave,’ he rhapsodises in the finest Whiggish manner, ‘keeps moving.’ There are, he generously concedes, ‘local and temporary setbacks’. . . .Dawkins. . .believes, in his Herbert Spencerish way, that ‘the progressive trend is unmistakable and it will continue.’ So there we are, then: we have it from the mouth of Mr Public Science himself that aside from a few local, temporary hiccups like ecological disasters, famine, ethnic wars and nuclear wastelands, History is perpetually on the up. 

-Terry Eagleton, Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching

Millions of people, just like Dawkins, continue to believe in human dignity, progress, meaning, and transcendence while simultaneously holding to a materialist philosophy which leaves absolutely no room for any of those things.  

Given philosophical materialism, what you do ultimately makes no difference.  All human plans, hopes, dreams, and loves will come to nothing in the end, when the sun goes supernova, the universe collapses in upon itself, all atomic particles cease their motion, and all matter (which is all there is, and which is all “we�� are, anyway) reaches absolute zero.

As Lewis points out below:

What were your views about the ultimate future of civilization before the atomic bomb appeared on the scene? What did you think all this effort of humanity was to come to in the end? The real answer is known to almost everyone who has even a smattering of science; yet, oddly enough, it is hardly ever mentioned. And the real answer, almost beyond doubt, is that with or without atomic bombs, the whole story is going to end in NOTHING.

So, the ultimate question is not whether humanity will be wiped out by a plague, by climate change, or by nuclear weapons.  One way or the other, it is inevitable that our race and the universe that we inhabit will perish.  

Whether it happens today, tomorrow, or a million years from now, of course, concerns us as individuals.  But the worry that a virus, or climate change, or nuclear destruction is prematurely and tragically ending something that ever had any real future hope of going anywhere must be dispensed with entirely.

The question that Lewis is asking us to consider is whether nature is all that exists.  The answer to that question, and that question alone, will determine whether the answers to our other questions have any ultimate significance.  

I believe in science.  It teaches me that all of this will come to nothing in the end.  It gives me no reason whatsoever for optimism about the future of our universe and those who inhabit it.

But I also believe in Christianity.  It teaches me that in this world we will have great trouble, but that God has overcome and will ultimately redeem it.  It gives me every reason for hope about the future of our universe and those who inhabit it.

You can read the essay below, or listen to it here:

On Living in an Atomic Age

By C.S. Lewis

In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or, indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.” 

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors - anaesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which, death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty. 

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things - praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts - not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds. 

“But,” you reply, “it is not death - not even painful and premature death - that we are bothering about. Of course, the chance of that is not new. What is new is that the atomic bomb may finally and totally destroy civilization itself. The lights may be put out forever.” 

This brings us much nearer to the real point; but let me try to make clear exactly what I think that point is. What were your views about the ultimate future of civilization before the atomic bomb appeared on the scene? What did you think all this effort of humanity was to come to in the end? The real answer is known to almost everyone who has even a smattering of science; yet, oddly enough, it is hardly ever mentioned. And the real answer, almost beyond doubt, is that with or without atomic bombs, the whole story is going to end in NOTHING. The astronomers hold out no hope that this planet is going to be permanently inhabitable. The physicists hold out no hope that organic life is going to be a permanent possibility in any part of the material universe. Not only this earth, but the whole show, all the suns of space, are to run down. Nature is a sinking ship. Bergson talks about the elan vital, and Mr. Shaw talks about the “Life-force” as if they could surge on for ever and ever. But that comes of concentrating on biology and ignoring the other sciences. There is really no such hope. Nature does not, in the long run, favour life. If Nature is all that exists - in other words, if there is no God and no life of some quite different sort somewhere outside Nature - then all stories will end in the same way: in a universe from which all life is banished without possibility of return. It will have been an accidental flicker, and there will be no one even to remember it. No doubt atomic bombs may cut its duration on this present planet shorter than it might have been; but the whole thing, even if it lasted for billions of years, must be so infinitesimally short in relation to the oceans of dead time which precede and follow it that I cannot feel excited about its curtailment. 

What the wars and the weather (are we in for another of those periodic ice ages?) and the atomic bomb have really done is to remind us forcibly of the sort of world we are living in and which, during the prosperous period before 1914, we were beginning to forget. And this reminder is, so far as it goes, a good thing. We have been waked from a pretty dream, and now we can begin to talk about realities. 

We see at once (when we have been waked) that the important question is not whether an atomic bomb is going to obliterate “civilization”. The important question is whether “Nature” - the thing studied by the sciences - is the only thing in existence. Because if you answer yes to the second question, then the first question only amounts to asking whether the inevitable frustration of all human activities may be hurried on by our own action instead of coming at its natural time. That is, of course, a question that concerns us very much. Even on a ship which will certainly sink sooner or later, the news that the boiler might blow up now would not be heard with indifference by anyone. But those who knew that the ship was sinking in any case would not, I think, be quite so desperately excited as those who had forgotten this fact, and were vaguely imagining that it might arrive somewhere.

It is, then, on the second question that we really need to make up our minds. And let us begin by supposing that Nature is all that exists. Let us suppose that nothing ever has existed or ever will exist except this meaningless play of atoms in space and time: that by a series of hundredth chances it has (regrettably) produced things like ourselves - conscious beings who now know that their own consciousness is an accidental result of the whole meaningless process and is therefore itself meaningless, though to us (alas!) it feels significant.

In this situation there are, I think, three things one might do:

(1) You might commit suicide. Nature which has (blindly, accidentally) given me for my torment this consciousness which demands meaning and value in a universe that offers neither, has luckily also given me the means of getting rid of it. I return the unwelcome gift. I will be fooled no longer.

(2) You might decide simply to have as good a time as possible. The universe is a universe of nonsense, but since you are here, grab what you can. Unfortunately, however, there is, on these terms, so very little left to grab - only the coarsest sensual pleasures. You can’t, except in the lowest animal sense, be in love with a girl if you know (and keep on remembering) that all the beauties both of her person and of her character are a momentary and accidental pattern produced by the collision of atoms, and that your own response to them is only a sort of psychic phosphorescence arising from the behaviour of your genes. You can’t go on getting any very serious pleasure from music if you know and remember that its air of significance is a pure illusion, that you like it only because your nervous system is irrationally conditioned to like it. You may still, in the lowest sense, have a “good time”; but just in so far as it becomes very good, just in so far as it ever threatens to push you on from cold sensuality into real warmth and enthusiasm and joy, so far you will be forced to feel the hopeless disharmony between your own emotions and the universe in which you really live.

(3) You may defy the universe. You may say, “Let it be irrational, I am not. Let it be merciless, I will have mercy. By whatever curious chance it has produced me, now that I am here I will live according to human values. I know the universe will win in the end, but what is that to me? I will go down fighting. Amid all this wastefulness I will persevere; amid all this competition, I will make sacrifices. Be damned to the universe!”

I suppose that most of us, in fact, while we remain materialists, adopt a more or less uneasy alternation between the second and the third attitude. And although the third is incomparably the better (it is, for instance, much more likely to “preserve civilization”), both really shipwreck on the same rock. That rock - the disharmony between our own hearts and Nature - is obvious in the second. The third seems to avoid the rock by accepting disharmony from the outset and defying it. But it will not really work. In it, you hold up our own human standards against the idiocy of the universe. That is, we talk as if our own standards were something outside of the universe which can be contrasted with it; as if we could judge the universe by some standard borrowed from another source. But if (as we were supposing) Nature - the space-time-matter system - is the only thing in existence, then of course there can be no other source for our standards. They must, like everything else, be the unintended and meaningless outcome of blind forces. Far from being a light from beyond Nature whereby Nature can be judged, they are only the way in which anthropoids of our species feel when the atoms under their own skulls get into certain states - those states being produced by causes quite irrational, unhuman, and non-moral. Thus the very ground on which we defy Nature crumbles under our feet. The standard we are applying is tainted at the source. If our standards are derived from this meaningless universe they must be as meaningless as it.

For most modern people, I think, thoughts of this kind have to be gone through before the opposite view can get a fair hearing. All Naturalism leads us to this in the end - to a quite final and hopeless discord between what our minds claim to be and what they really must be if Naturalism is true. They claim to be spirit; that is, to be reason, perceiving universal intellectual principles and universal moral laws and possessing free will. But if Naturalism is true they must in reality be merely arrangements of atoms in skulls, coming about by irrational causation. We never think a thought because it is true, only because blind Nature forces us to think it. We never do an act because it is right, only because blind Nature forces us to do it. It is when one has faced this preposterous conclusion that one is at last ready to listen to the voice that whispers: “But suppose we really are spirits? Suppose we are not the offspring of Nature. . .?”

For, really, the Naturalistic conclusion is unbelievable. For one thing, it is only through trusting our own minds that we have come to know Nature herself. If Nature when fully known seems to teach us (that is, if the sciences teach us) that our own minds are chance arrangements of atoms, then there must have been some mistake; for if that were so, then the sciences themselves would be chance arrangements of atoms and we should have no reason for believing in them. There is only one way to avoid this deadlock. We must go back to a much earlier view. We must simply accept it that we are spirits, free and rational beings, at present inhabiting an irrational universe, and must draw the conclusion that we are not derived from it. We are strangers here. We come from somewhere else. Nature is not the only thing that exists. There is “another world”, and that is where we come from. And that explains why we do not feel at home here. A fish feels at home in the water. If we “belonged here” we should feel at home here. All that we say about “Nature red in tooth and claw”, about death and time and mutability, all our half-amused, half-bashful attitude to our own bodies, is quite inexplicable on the theory that we are simply natural creatures. If this world is the only world, how did we come to find its laws either so dreadful or so comic? If there is no straight line elsewhere, how did we discover that Nature’s line is crooked?

But what, then, is Nature, and how do we come to be imprisoned in a system so alien to us? Oddly enough, the question becomes much less sinister the moment one realizes that Nature is not all. Mistaken for our mother, she is terrifying and even abominable. But if she is only our sister - if she and we have a common Creator - if she is our sparring partner - then the situation is quite tolerable. Perhaps we are not here as prisoners but as colonists: only consider what we have done already to the dog, the horse, or the daffodil. She is indeed a rough playfellow. There are elements of evil in her. To explain that would carry us far back: I should have to speak of Powers and Principalities and all that would seem to a modern reader most mythological. This is not the place, nor do these questions come first. It is enough to say here that Nature, like us but in her different way, is much alienated from her Creator, though in her, as in us, gleams of the old beauty remain. But they are not there to be worshiped but to be enjoyed. She has nothing to teach us. It is our business to live by our own law not by hers: to follow, in private or in public life, the law of love and temperance even when they seem to be suicidal, and not the law of competition and grab, even when they seem to be necessary to our survival. For it is part of our spiritual law never to put survival first: not even the survival of our species. We must resolutely train ourselves to feel that the survival of Man on this Earth, much more of our own nation or culture or class, is not worth having unless it can be had by honourable and merciful means. 

The sacrifice is not so great as it seems. Nothing is more likely to destroy a species or a nation than a determination to survive at all costs. Those who care for something else more than civilization are the only people by whom civilization is at all likely to be preserved. Those who want Heaven most have served Earth best. Those who love Man less than God do most for Man. 

[vulpinmusings]

Ski’tar and Friends part 15: Hidden Truth

This week, Ski’tar, 6, and Vemir head into the shielded insect city to learn the mysteries of planet Elytrio

To the start

Previously

Archive

Before we left the Husk hive, we traded some basic information with Klarima so we would know what to expect in the city and so she could introduce us properly.  Klarima’s people called themselves the Membrane Gebrani, while our tribal cockroach-y hosts were called the Husk Gebrani.  The two peoples were evolutionary offshoots of the same ancestors, with the Husks having lost the ability to fly while the Membrane retained it.  Klarima credited the divergence to the influence of the local Mother God, Taloo, saying her people were chosen and blessed while the Husks were outcasts.  She clearly looked down on the Husks as objectively inferior, but she held no malice toward them and was grateful that they had found her wounded by a kind of razor-sharp tumbleweed and bandaged her up.

Klarima was amazed that 6, Vemir, and I were all completely different species despite us not looking at all alike.  When I explained the differences between android 6 and my simpler drone, Klarima declared it must be just like the difference between Membrane and Husk Gebrani.  She understood the idea of space travel, but it was something beyond her people’s current abilities.

With the introductions out of the way, we prepared to leave, only to be stopped momentarily by the Husks so they could bestow some gifts on us for taking down the big lizard.  The gifts consisted of three vials of a substance that I quickly determined had healing properties equivalent to the most basic form of Healing Serum, and one of their rifles, which 6 took.

Captain Navasi called, asking for an update, and I was all too happy to inform them that the locals seemed perfectly friendly and that we had found a guide that would get us into the city.

During the long walk back to the city, Klarima warned us about some of the dangerous flora, particularly the razor-sharp flornettles she’d run into earlier.  We encountered one of those rolling across the ground at one point, just when Vemir was being distracted by his own thoughts enough to blunder right into it.  It didn’t hurt him too much, but his pride was quite wounded.

We arrived at the border of the city of Archeos as the sun was starting to set.  To get us in, Klarima produced an old, clunky datapad and entered a code, although it took a few tries for the signal to actually be received and processed correctly and open a hole in the force-field large enough for us to pass through.  Archeos was definitely a city designed by creatures capable of flight.  All the Gebrani that we saw were flying as they went about their business, and the tower buildings had absolutely no doors on the ground level.  The only things on the ground with us were automated drones sweeping up garbage.  The city’s artistic architecture gleamed, but on closer inspection we saw many signs of deterioration, especially down on our level.

Before we got too far, we were stopped by a bunch of Gebrani dressed in guard uniforms.  They wanted to throw us out on principle for not being Membrane Gebrani, and Klarima’s attempts to persuade them that we should be treated as guests didn’t go over well. Fortunately, Vemir managed to sweet-talk them into giving us a chance, and after some heated whispering with Klarima, the guards agreed to take us to their leaders, the Most Elevated, for closer consideration.

The Elevated’s tower was in the center of the city, naturally, and the closest entrance to the ground was eighty feet up, four times as high as Sixers or my Jump Jets could lift us.  Klarima solved the problem with her datapad, summoning several table-sized cargo-hauling drones that we would need to balance on.  The drones seemed stable enough at first, but they accelerated to dangerously high speeds as they rose, and just as we reached the top, Vemir’s ride suddenly glitched out and fell back down.  The drone managed to reboot before impact, but it was a lot slower coming up the second time and Vemir needed a second to find the courage to stop holding it in a death-grip and hop across the gap into the tower.

The five Elevated were sitting at a long table in what had probably once been a throne room with a tall dais in the back.  They were quicker to accept us than the guards had been, and we traded information with them again.  We learned that the planet had been ravaged by a terrible war, although the Gebrani couldn’t tell us many details since it had been so long ago that the Gap – that mysterious event that had wiped several centuries of history across the whole galaxy – obscured everything except the end, and the city’s survival was credited entirely to Taloo.

I started to get the feeling that the Gebrani weren’t really on the same level as the city’s technology anymore, and when the dinner bell rang my suspicions were confirmed in the most unappetizing way possible.  Feeding time for the Gebrani seemed to dissolve all social boundaries, as the Elevated, Klarima, the guards, and we three all sat at the same table and were served by drones.  The food was presented as being a delicacy provided by Taloo herself, but it looked like anything but.  It was a jumble of unidentifiable bits of protein and carapace suspended in a clear, pale gelatin, making the whole thing look more like the contents of an old deep fryer that had just been cleaned for the first time in years than a dish fit for a goddess.  I poked my serving for several seconds, trying in vain to determine precisely what it was and whether it was fit for Ysoki consumption, while Vemir dared to actually take a bite out of common courtesy and barely managed to keep it down.  Sixer evidently decided not to claim that androids didn’t need to eat (which I’m sure the Gebrani would’ve believed), instead opting to sneak his portion onto the plate of the guard sitting next to him.

With the Gebrani starting to look agitated that I wasn’t eating, I decided to try and get it over with and took a huge bite for experimental reasons, with the intention of just storing the rest in my cheek pouches for later, discreet disposal.  Sadly, my stomach violently protested to the meat gel, which somehow tasted a hundred time worse than it looked, and I had to quickly improvise a theory that Taloo never intended for Ysoki and Gebrani to subsist on the same kind of food while making sure none of my innards had evacuated along with the food.

I thought we were in the clear after that, but then the drone brought out seconds and our hosts insisted we keep eating.  As I paled at the thought of putting any more of that gunk into my body, even just my cheeks, the lights suddenly went out and my group quickly seized the opportunity.  I opened my drone up and stuffed my servings inside, taking care not to short anything out and swearing to erase the moment from the drone’s memory banks later so it wouldn’t resent me when I eventually upgraded its AI.  From the sound of things, Vemir was agilely darting to the nearest window to throw his mess out, and when I looked up I saw him grinding on a banister to make back to his seat in time.  6 Just tried to throw his plate as far away as he could, and accidentally hit one of the guards in the face. Oddly, that didn’t start a fight.

When the lights came back up, the drones returned with a third course, but everyone ignored it until the cleaning drones took it away again.  We asked what had happened with the lights, and one of the Elevated waved it off as just the city’s mainframe glitching. It did that all the time; it was nothing to worry about.  When we pressed the issue, we were told that the mainframe’s building was taboo; no Gebrani was permitted inside.  Worried that the blackout was a symptom of a larger problem that could potentially destroy the city before the Starfinders could contact Elytrio again, we pointed out that we were not Gebrani and thus shouldn’t be subject to the taboo.  The Elevated were initially unsure, but after some discussion they decided it might be ok for us to go inside.  They arranged some quarters for us so we could get a little rest before tackling the problem.

We called Navasi to update him on our progress and assure him that we could get out of the city if things went wrong, and he told us the ship was ready to go whenever we were.  So, we slept easy.

The mainframe building was located at the outskirts of town, on the opposite side from where we’d come in, and in a neighborhood that was more run-down than anyplace else.  There were no Gebrani around except our guide, Klarima, just lots and lots of drones going in and out of the mainframe.  Klarima confided that she was curious about what was inside and asked us to tell her on the down-low when we got back, and flew off.  As the group approached the mainframe, we saw signs that we couldn’t read and realized that Klarima’s translation spell had worn off, so we had to track her down again and mime for her to refresh the magic.  I didn’t want to have to try and translate Geberani on the fly while also dealing with whatever security protocols would be on the mainframe.

Finally getting inside, we walked through a long, dirty garage containing many kinds of drones, including an orbital defense platform like the one we’d had to fight up in orbit.  Nothing bothered us, though, and we made it into the mainframe itself.  The antechamber was white and spotless, and there were several white coveralls hanging on one wall.  The door forward didn’t open when Sixer tried it, so he gave it a harder shove and activated a security trap: tesla coils behind the grates.  I ran over to the terminal and, by luck, found that the code Klarima used to open the city force-field also deactivated the traps before they got warmed up and unlocked the door.

The next room contained four waist-high power generators and four pillars covered in electronic coils.  The pillar in the northeast corner had a blinking red light, and when I investigated I found that one of the coils had come loose.  I re-seated it, and the system went through a reboot.  The lights came back up steadier and brighter, all lights were green, and two Gebrani-shaped security robots emerged from the walls to kill the intruders.

My first move was to activate the energy shield I’d been tinkering with and try to take cover behind the nearest generator, while my drone did its usual thing to little effect on the north-side robot. Vemir got his trusty sniper rifle out and caused serious damage to the south-bot, while 6 tried out his new Husk rifle, only for it to jam.  North-bot grabbed Sixer by the head and slammed him into the wall, while south-bot tried to hit us while strafing across the room. I fired at the south-bot, melting its head a little, while 6 tried to clear his rifle and avoid north-bot while my drone continued to shoot it.  South-bot strafed again, hitting Vemir and my drone, and ended up close to my position, so I decided to give my plasma lash a second try.  The lash had done nothing to the lizard, but it proved capable of cutting the old security robot in half with a single swing (or at least, to finish the job Vemir’s bullet had started).  6 resorted to his sword to fend the north-bot off, while Vemir landed a devastating snipe shot on it, prompting it to strafe across the room, hit my two friends, and right into the range of my plasma lash.  One swing left north-bot splitting in half as well, and decided I would keep the lash after all.

We proceeded to the last room of the mainframe, which proved to a long, narrow room full of server racks and a single console.  Hacking into the mainframe with ease, I found centuries of historical data and pictures that gave us a clear story of Elytrio unclouded by myth.

As we’d figured, the planet had once been lush and green.  There had been a great war, but the Gap obscured the cause.  After the Gap, there were records of cults to a bloodthirsty war god dominating the Gebrani culture and escalating the war all the way to nuclear annihilation.  Only the city of Archeos survived thanks to the force-field, but it was unable to support all the survivors living inside.  The city leaders decided to address this issue by staging several disasters and pinning them on the people’s lack of faith. The leaders had invented the goddess Taloo and proclaimed that she would bless anyone who was willing to leave the city and live out in the radioactive wastes.  Those who left and survived the radiation developed into the Husks, flightless and primitive, while the privileged few who were permitted to stay in the city became the Membrane and had been steeped in a religion that encouraged them to stay put and stagnate.

6 hypothesized that the mainframe had been declared taboo to prevent any Gebrani from discovering these history records, and after a brief discussion we decided it wouldn’t do them any good to learn the truth just yet.  The city was still sitting on the edge of ruin, and trying to convince the membrane that they were the descendants of self-serving liars and not blessed by a goddess would likely either lead to mayhem or us getting thrown out on our ears.  We’d have to report all this to the Starfinder Society and let the higher-ups decide if and how to help Elytrio recover.  I copied the highlights of the history logs, along with several relevant pictures, and some information on the planet’s orbital defenses and the city’s drone technology.  For good measure, I set up a new lock code on the server room to prevent any potential taboo-breaking Gebrani from getting to the computer before they were ready to learn the truth.

Klarima met us as we left the mainframe, and we told her the cover story: the mainframe didn’t appear especially holy to us, but there were places we couldn’t get into because Taloo probably didn’t think anyone was ready for what was inside.  We had fixed what was wrong, though, so the blackouts should stop.  Klarima seemed satisfied, and agreed to relay what we’d learned to the Elevated. She was understanding when we said we needed to report to our own leaders and expressed hope that we would be able to come back some day.

It would probably be nice to visit Elytrio again, but only after they’ve had more exposure to the wider galaxy and learned to make proper food.

Klarima opened the force-field so we could leave, and we reported back to the ship and set off for home.

[nightsmudge]

October Day 14: Fluffy Alien

Here's a funny little fact: When I first designed her, I wanted her to look weird and uncanny, but as I fleshed out her backstory and her species, she sort of became... cute, and fluffy. Very fluffy. Borderline furry And now for a very long description, enjoy

Name: Truskeh Skehr Age: Around early to mid 20’s by human standards. Gender: Female Species: Liray Tozenta
Personality: Curious, patient, loves art and anthropology, is an absolute sweetheart at times, has a high determination to bring good wherever she goes, tends to be a little bit mellow when showing her expressions. Species History: The Lirays are a race of people that have a history similar to human society. They derived from a highly predatory canine-like species, but have evolved to be a lot more docile and intelligent over the millennia. They began to truly develop a society after the introduction of a religion and philosophy revolving around the balance of Life and Death, and the parallels between certain moral aspects such as Love and Hatred; Friendship and Greed; and so on. This single ideal was spread across the world, and morphed into numerous different interpretations as different cultures were developed. Eventually, the Lirays progressed, and got to the point where human society is currently, with advanced technology and scientific discoveries. And like humans, they reached a state where the world was ruled by greed, self interest, and monetary gain, to the point where they were beginning to destroy their planet. But then, a revolutionary, but highly controversial set of laws were put in place by those who were sick of greed and destruction, creating a program that forced the Lirays to breed out any form of selfishness, aggression, and lack of knowledge. As those were laws were being enforced, the education, career, and government systems were put under intense revision as well, to make sure intelligence and empathy would be valued the most, everyone was capable of getting a steady job, all countries had to support each other so everyone would be balanced, and no laws or political figures could go against what was good for the people and the environment. Of course, most people were highly upset from the program while it went on for the next couple hundred years, as some weren’t allowed to have children, numerous towns were torn down to make room for forests and nature reserves, and the economy became incredibly rocky at the start. Now before the program was started, the Lirays had reached a point where they allowed their old philosophies and morals fall into obscurity, their legends of Life and Death no longer of importance. But out of despair and wanting to find happiness again, they turned to those old stories, which gave them hope, and a sense of unity, to help them get through the hard times. Once the program had finally ended, the groundwork was laid out for an area of peace and intense scientific advancements. With a high interest for intelligence and knowledge bred into them, and a rebirth of their old culture, they began to build their way towards space exploration, medical and cryogenic technology to preserve the body and mind, advanced and autonomous AI, the ability to transfer consciouses, 3D print anything physical or biological, and so on. The Lirays now are living in balance and prosperity, valuing their old culture and whatever advancements that are to come next. Truskeh’s Backstory: After working for nearly her entire life to become a researcher for alien cultures, she finally gained an amazing opportunity for a solo space voyage to another planet to see and discover the process of how creatures can gain sentience and create a society. Though the research expedition would be bittersweet for her, as she had just gotten married to her loving husband, butshe was convinced to take the chance. With a somber farewell, she was loaded onto a ship with a cryogenic pod and an AI companion, her husband was placed in a pod on their homeward so they could be together once the mission was over, and she was put on a route straight to a planet; our planet, Earth. Once her ship arrived on prehistoric Earth, at the time right before the human’s evolutionary ancestors began to use tools, she travelled around, scanning the entire ecosystem and landscape of the world, and had her ship burrow and hide deep within a mountainside. After the initial in-depth scan, she began her protocol of sleeping in her cyro pod for 500 Earth years, coming out to briefly explore and send out scanners across the planet, and then repeating until something happened. Once she noticed that a species of primates was beginning to show intelligence, she reduced the sleep cycle to every 100-200 years, and began to disguise herself to avoid interfering with the species’ development. Though seeing humanity progress was fascinating, watching them go from cave dwellers, to tribes, to farmers, and even beginning to create their first towns, complex languages, religions, and cultures, it did start to get boring for her, seeing how slowly it took for a society to develop. She did have a bit of fun, going around in disguises to see the beginnings of human culture and how their lives constantly changed, but she couldn’t truly connect to them, as she wasn’t allowed to interact with them too much. 
But then, one day, she awoke from her pod, to see her AI companion, MI-EN, alerting her to something strange. Only 200 years before, the humans were only using horses and crude firearms, but now, there were electronic signals everywhere, the planet was now lit up with artificial lights, and everything ever had seemed to change drastically. It was now the year 202? (actual year to be determined), and humanity had finally reached an era of technology. Luckily, after a bit of decoding, Truskeh’s AI was able to decipher the wireless signals to find a massive interconnected database, the internet, to find that the humans had mostly recorded their own history, and the drastic changes that had taken place over the years. Excited to see what the humans had to offer, Truskeh had her AI 3D print a set of modern-looking attire, and she went off to truly explore and experience the world, starting with walking to a nearby town. Little did she know, some humans were just as curious as she was, and one of them was quick to realize that she wasn’t human. That human ended up being her first connection, and first friend she’d have on the planet Earth.

[orderoftheavengers]

Courage and Cunning 

Summary: Thor and Loki are both a credit and embarrassment to their Houses. 

Thor Odinson 

House: Gryffindor 

Species: Asgardian 

Blood Status: Pureblood 

Wand: Ygrassil wood, 14 inches, Bilgensnipe heart string 

Broom:  Mjolnir, forged by dwarf blacksmiths 

Specialty: Lightning spell 

Patronus: Bilgensnipe

Familiar: Heimdall, loyal family owl (unique Asgardian species) 

Loki Odinson: 

House: Slytherin 

Species: Frost Giant 

Blood Status: ? 

Wand: Ygrassil wood, 10 inches, unicorn tail hair (snapped in half when expelled; pieces integrated into his broom-scepter) 

Broom:  Custom sceptor/sword/broom combination, now also his wand (containing its pieces) 

Specialty: Transfiguration and the Imperius Curse 

Patronus: Serpent 

Familiar: Formerly Heimdall, loyal family owl; these days, who or what ever he can manage to get under the Imperius Curse 

Jane Foster: 

House: Honorary Ravenclaw 

Blood Status: Muggle/No-maj

Specialty: Science! 

Familiar: Darcy Lewis (You all saw that coming) 

Asgard:

FACT: The beings that Muggles know as the Norse "gods" are actually a race of incredibly powerful magic humanoids, with evolutionary links to elves, veela and giants, who live in Asgard, a magically concealed region in the mountains of Scandanavia. (Source: my ass.) They live high in the mountains of Scandanavia, and would've remained there had fate not willed otherwise.

Enrollment and Sorting:

King Odin observed that his two sons were ignorant of the world outside Asgard, and decided that at age 1,704 and 988, Thor and Loki should begin to learn about the outside world, especially if Thor was to someday rule Asgard. The boys where both sorted by a Screaming Sorting Hat before it even made physical contact, as the two fought violently to be the first to sit on the Sorting Stool. Thor bellowed that it was his birthright to be sorted first, as he threw Loki acrosss the Great Hall and through a glass winow. But just as Thor was crowning himself with the Sorting Hat, Loki apparated beside the stool in snake form and slighetered up onto his brother's head, curling up into a Sorting Hat shaped cone. The hat spit out Loki--still in snake form--sending him fluttering over to the Slytherin table where he landed in a pumpkin pie and his fellow Slytherins began the ritual hazing. The Hat then then hollared at Thor, "And he's Gryffindor's problem now!" sending him off with a smack-bottom.

The brothers enforced their Houses' stereotypes to the max, much to the chagrin of their classmates. Thor's fellow Gryffindors quickly grew tired of him interrupting every teacher's lecture to loudly declare his intent to conquer the next challenge, as well as his tendency to smash potions bottles to the floor when it was time for "Another!" While Loki's fellow Slytetherins admired his snake-shifting powers, it didn't prevent them from mercilessly bullying him for his wardrobe, pretty hair, and outdated conversational skills about being "burdened with glorious purpose," and the little trickster frequently found himself stuck head-first in cauldrons, giant pumpkins, and Moaning Myrtle's toilet.

Thor's expulsion, and meeting Jane Foster:

Thor was not a week into his first semester when he managed to get himself expelled, for organizing a violent Quidditch duel with the visiting Durmstrang students that almost led to the next wizarding war. Deciding a mere expulsion was not enough, King Odin gravely declared that he was banishing Thor to a desolate land, until he proved learned his lesson.

"Until you prove yourself worthy, you will spend the rest of your days in the company of brutish, violent cavemen like yourself."

Thor stammered, "You're sending me to live amongst trolls?"

"No. Americans."

Thor's agonized scream was drowned out by the sound of his father's thunder magically teleporting him overseas.

By a stroke of irony, Thor landed right next to a research facility of Muggles, working to prove that magic exists. Not surprisingly, the Ministry of Magic did their damndest to ensure all of Jane Foster’s research was destroyed and covered up, but she wouldn’t have it. After Loki tried to take over Hogwarts and was defeated by Thor, Thor was welcomed back to the school and renamed his father’s heir to the giant throne, while Loki was now the one expelled.

Thor’s custom wand and broom are both contstructed from branches of Ygdrassil. His wand contains the heartstring of a Bilgesnipe (a horned magical creature native to the mountains of Asgard). Thor's lightning spell is his specialty, and his Patronus is, predictably, a Bilgesnipe.

Jane, Darcy and Erik:

It's usually routine to memory-wipe Muggles who witness magic. But there have always been exceptions. Leaders of the world's nations (like the Prime Minister of England); muggles married to wizards; and muggles who wizards just really like, such as Newt Scamander's friend Jacob Kowalski. The Ministry of Magic decided that these three particular Muggles--or No-Majes, as they were known in the States--could keep their memories. (In this age, who would believe them anyway?) The trio was even hired by the Ministry's Deparment of Muggle Relations. They often visited Hogwarts, and the Sorting Hat dubbed all three Honorary Ravenclaws.

Loki:

At age nine-hundred-and-something, during his first year at Hogwarts, Loki learned that he was not in fact Asgardian, but an adopted Frost Giant. Already an especially powerful Metamorphmagus, Loki had no trouble disguising as whatever and whomever he wished, with his shape-shifting powers making Natasha Romanoff (another metamorphmagus) look like an amateur.

After Loki was expelled, his wand (Ygdrasill wood, unicorn tail hair) was obviously snapped in half. However, he salvaged the contents of his wand, and placed them in the broom/scepter/sword that his mother made him for his birthday. Now very fond of the Imperius Curse, Loki sought to make all of Earth—Wizards, Muggles, Giants, and other creatures alike—his bitches. His first victims were the Muggle Dr. Erik Selvig, and Hufflepuff Clint Barton. Loki was outraged when an arrogant mortal--albiet a Slytherin with good looks--had the gall to threaten Loki in Parseltongue. When he failed to work the Imperius Curse on Tony Stark, Loki's frustration increased, and when Tony commented about "performance issues," Loki sent him off the North Tower after some intimate goatee-groping. Nevertheless, Loki eventually mellowed out over time, and was even permitted back at Hogwarts, where he continued to be a pain in everyone's backside. His specialties are shape-shifting--which rarely requires more than minor spells if that, due to being a Metamorphmagus--and the Imperius Curse. He is not overly fond of thunder, Tony Stark, green werewolves, Tony Stark, his adoptive father, Tony Stark, falling, or rival caped sorcerers whose goatees remind him of Tony Stark.

Heimdall:

The royal Asgardian family's loyal owl, Heimdall acts as a guardian and messenger for Thor and Loki. He will have none of your shit, and any mortals attempting to pluck one of his shimmering red or gold feathers always goes home with fewer ears and noses than they originally had. Sadly, when the Infinity War begins, he ends up becoming the next Headwig. (Shut up about spoilers; the movie's been out for a month and the book's been out like a decade.)

Waning Stereotypes

For a pair that began school as walking stereotypes of Gryffindor and Slytherin, both Thor and Loki mellowed out significantly by their final year. 

As Thor’s understanding of heroism and chivalry matured, he soon surpassed Captain America in humility and compassion (though, admittedly, that is not always saying much). While Steve Rogers treated a traumatized Tony Stark like a naughty younger sibling in need of patronizing cliches, Thor was talking down the god-f*cking-damned Hulk with genuine, imperfect words of friendship. Thor, the master of narrating his own life like an epic poem, shelved his cliches when things got serious, and told the green werewolf exactly what he needed to hear, when he needed to hear it. 

Loki meanwhile exponentially lost his ambition, until he was only aiming to rule Asgard, rather than the whole planet. (Remember, Asgard isn’t its own planet in this AU.) His ego shrank from a martyr complex to a generic diva, content to sit in a throne and watch plays about himself. Sadly, even his cunning became lackluster, leading to his death at the hands of Thanos............maybe. 

Thor--now having lost his entire family--remained Gryffindor strong. Teaming up with a large mandrake with a limited vocabulary, and a niffler/raccoon hybrid who gave him a new magical eyeball (to replace the one his sister Hela had taken out), Thor demonstrated his courage and durability by obtaining a magic through a long, painful ordeal that could have killed him (but only if he died). 

Sadly, he was no Ravenclaw, and didn’t aim for the head. That’s twice a Gryffindor screwed up a so-close defeat of Thanos... (Star Lord is a Gryffindor as well, and no, not just because he has a red jacket. More on him elsewhere.) 

Endgame

After the Dusting Curse,  Thor is arguably in the worst position. His entire family has died one by one, plus the wise family owl Heimdall, and the mountain region of Asgard has been destroyed, along with three forths of the Asgardian population (first half were slaughtered by Thanos’s army, and then half of the surviving half were Dusted). Since Hogsmede now has some extra space, the surviving Asgardians are able to get a new neighborhood there. Thor spends most of his time in his apartment above the Three Broomsticks, playing Muggle video games with his friends, and spiraling into alcoholism and overeating.

During the Time Heist, Thor and Rocket travel to Asgard’s past, to get the Reality Stone. Thor reunites with his mother, and sees he’s still worthy of his hammer/broom, which he brings back with him to the present. Before he leaves, Queen Frigga tells him, “It’s time to start being who you are, rather than who you’re ‘supposed’ to be.” “Are you telling me to step down from my throne?” “…step down? After your first five years were less than ideal? You’re barely 1500 years old, my son. What I’m saying is, you could  take a bit of time off to find yourself. A decade or two of vacation, having adventures with your rabbit friend, maybe. And you can even stay fat for a few centuries if you want. But why in the world would I be suggesting that you should throw away all you’ve fought for, just because of how things turned out over the last half-decade?” “I’m sorry Mother…living with Midgardians must’ve gone to my head. Though, I always was rather impulsive anyway.”  

After Thanos’s defeat,  Thor plans to find a proper new home for his people. Joining the Guardians of the Realm, he is on the lookout for any unclaimed mountain range or forest that can be called New Asgard. In the meantime, he has left Valkyrie in his stead, back at their burrow in Hogsmede.

Loki is still playing “dead,” but no one is buying it anymore. And Thor is now 99% positive that his trolling brother is Noobmaster69.

Jane, Darcy and Erik are now openly working with both Muggle and Wizard scientists, now that the magical world has been exposed, and Muggles must learn to coexist with it.  

For the moment, Thor is still fat, and he still has fangirls. 

Notes: These two were a pain to draw, but worth it. The Asgardian backstory was a bit tricky, as I could find no adequate equivalent in the Potterverse. By far Thor and Loki are the most fun to write parody wizard versions of. But oddly enough, my favorite to create the backstory for was actually Jane. I may do a separate entry for her, Darcy and Erik. 

UPDATE: I had Loki's species wrong, incorrectly citing him as a Dark Elf. Special thanks to Misaki, who pointed this error out to me in Archive Of Our Own. Apologies and thanks!

[rocknrollfuldead]

I'm flushed with realizations about myself and the very act of realizing is giving me joy of sorts. The overwhelming awareness of my acceptance of the time, the comparison of the notions of my times and ancient times. I'm accepting and propagating the dress codes and the hairstyles and the systems and methods of living and existing of today's times. I accept short hair to be normal, I accept the bean bag in my room, I accept the black metal studded bag beside my thighs, I accept the curtains and fairy lights and the mirror on my cupboard and the amp in front of my bed. I accept these things accepted by the majority around me. It may not be how others live but the basic format and range of options is common to a lot of us. Other things are normal to other people. Normalcy is so subjective and things evolve and form so much within themselves as time passes. Evolution is the only goal of any species. And as humans, our evolution includes formations of roads and buildings and houses, where all different aspects that could easily be categorized by our brain, evolve within themselves as time goes on. We are constantly advancing and improving ourselves and it seems we are destroying the world around us as we evolve more. But truth is that it doesn't matter because evolution, as I understand in my sensibilities, is growth of the particular species and the concept of survival of the fittest comes along. We are a more capable species by the virtue of our brain to body mass ratio. We have the ability to communicate visually and verbally in such variations. We have the ability to communicate even more powerfully in form of the arts, whether it's music or visual art or dance or acts Etc Etc Etc lol. Language is a barrier but that is why the arts are so important. And as time passes, so do the conventions and the numbers and ideas and clothes and make up and music and everything that talks of the things happening societies. It's quite insane how humans function. It doesn't make sense but holy shit, order and chaos. Evolution and devolution. Our species is one that probably wouldn't last simply because our evolutionary abilities and advancement is high to the extent that we would have advanced as a human Specie so much that we would be the only fit specie, forgetting in our arrogance that we need other species to exist too. And that's the price we would pay for being a bit too aware of ourselves. In a sense it is required for us to be more ignorant of our capabilities to function more peacefully. One way to look at it is that if we forget our ability to comprehend, understand, categorize and grow on ideas, to evolve external stimulus to fit our personal needs the best, we could live at peace and balance with the nature and other species. If we forget the notion of systems that have come up: financial, political, educational, ecological, entertainments, luxuries; we could live as our primitive ancestors did. To forget all that we have created and go back to the most primitive form of survival, would create a balanced environment on This planet as much as it can be, as I understand in my abilities. However, this hypothesis has two major flaws: firstly it is almost impossible to devolve to that extent for we seem to have come a long way from a 5 thousand years ago. Secondly, how can we say which point we should ideally return back to? It is plain redundant and pure idealism that could possibly never exist. So the second and more probable way to go about is to evolve as we do. The question holds, how do we evolve keeping in mind the other species that we need to continue to exist. Truth is the concept of survival of the fittest is a competition of species in a way and thus meaning that it could be considered natural to be selfish as a specie, as a lion I would not consider welfare of a deer but Rather of its own kind. As humans we are aware of the harm we do to other species but I suggest that it is in our nature, as a specie, to think of the advancement of our own kind. And due to the extremely high abilities of our brain as compared to other species of earth, we end up heavily influencing/affecting other species. Thus maybe as a responsibility of our evolutionary advancement, we should find ways to exist with other species in as balanced ways as we can, keeping in mind our own evolution. But going back to the point, it is quite insane how humans evolve ideas and societies. Entire populations have similar awareness on a very wide scale. For instance globalization has affected the whole world and a very wide majority has a basic understanding of the current systems, the same as in the past, different cultures knew about their own systems and not so much about the foreign systems. So even back then, the common factor was the same kind of unawareness of other humans. It was a different evolutionary stage. And today everything I know is indirectly affected by the old stages which are now long gone. But they led to what I know today and make up a lot of part of the present times. And the pattern of more or less has been steering towards development that promotes individual human's welfare. Every single one chasing similar dreams for themselves, dreams that have been created by societies that existed in the past. It's insane! This world is insane and I feel we all are haha. But again.....sanity is subjective lol. We are all so human! Just like the cats are so fucking cat like. It's quite a weird realization to have, how much I am and everyone is a part of evolution of our species. And how there are so many kinds of species. And so many kinds of people. I think this is where the concept of free will emerges. The only limit to free will is the domino nature of evolution. It can serve as quite an influential limit and not one who's affect is almost null. If we look at the role of conventions and formation of ideas of societies in evolution, we would see that it limits the ways of living. For instance, religion makes way into a lot of lives and even if people don't follow it, a very very vast majority is aware of it Barring a few exceptions maybe. The education system is also one that is being spread heavily. Toilets and beds and tables and chairs are things that have come to us from the time they were invented (or discovered) and have made an inescapable move into our lives. Now this does not mean that there is no other way of living, the possibilities are endless per se but the consequences of these activities are externally dependent. Thus one must be willing to face the consequences of their activities. Sometimes there are none and sometimes there are many. The only way to understand the consequences is to understand the system, thus that is one option to opt for if one is willing to make the effort. The other way of being is to accept any consequence one may have to face in order to live as they please. Thus enabling free will to its fullest in our minds. Is it worth it? That is up to the individual to decide.

[kennysamathedeviant]

Man of Steel's Critique Of The No Kill Rule

I’ve made it no secret that i detest the no kill rule, and it’s not because i think the rule is bad in and of itself, but it’s that it’s always been presented as this superficial, mentally coddled world view of absolutist morality; a view that says that no amount of innocent lives being wasted and lost is ever a reasonable, nor justifiable reason to circumvent your morals, you’re better left shrugging and holding onto it, regardless of consequences. It’s a rule that celebrates apathy but masks it to be about virtue. If your virtue comes at the expense of letting evil prosper, then are you really virtuous? This rule, of which my distaste is bottomless, has only ever been applied intelligently twice to my satisfaction, once in the DCAU Justice League and secondly, as a broken rule (imagine that) in Man of Steel. I’ve always had very high opinions of Man of Steel, it’s only gotten higher ever since i became conscious of the anti mos/dceu narrative (i was out of the loop initially), which challenged me to scrutinize the story and it’s final act all over again and again and again and again and for me, it continues to hold up and it will continue to hold up for eternity.

Man of Steel, as the complex masterpiece it is, can be interpreted in numerous ways, as long as your “interpretation”, is supported by the canon. One such interpretation i’ve had forever, is that the entire film can be viewed as a direct critique of the moral absolutism associated with the no kill rule and the kind of apathy it creates in the name of virtue. Basically, it criticizes the no kill rule, not as bad, but as horrifically ineffective and atrocious in most applications, just like the movie shows what actually happens (what you see but don’t think about even when it’s right in front of you) when superheroes and supervillains fight in populated areas, so also does it reveal the inherent folly of holding so tightly to the no kill rule as if it’s about virtue, when a little closer inspection will reveal it promotes apathy and detachment. Let’s look at the ways i believe the movie makes this statement:

The Kryptonian Council 

This is the first red flag we’re introduced to in the story, the Kryptonian council is painted in a negative light right from their introduction. They are horribly ineffective, engage in endless debates and when they do bother to make a decision, it’s a decision that negatively affects every other Kryptonian in the story. With their planet on the verge of death and their race on the verge of extinction, what does the Kryptonian council do? Dedicates the last of it’s resources to imprison a criminal who goes on to later cause pain and hardships for everyone else in the movie. For clarity, this criminal; General Zod, who’s murdered dozens of people, a council member, and his own best friend, all in the name of being more proactive in comparison to the slowness of the council, is sentenced to the Phantom Zone. This requires the very last of their resources, resources that could have been used to get however number of Kryptonian citizens off-world to the old Kryptonian outposts like Jor-el suggested in the first place. And in so doing, they damned not only their race, but Earth by extension because their actions, while unforeseen, were callous enough to be considered culpable. And this isn’t the first time the Kryptonian council is guilty of finding “another way” when they blatantly had only one way out.

In the Man of Steel prequel comic, the council stashes Dev-em; a Kryptonian murderer, the first in generations, aboard a maiden voyage to the stars in search of new worlds, because in their own words, “we are not barbarians like the Thanagarians” so in other words, they were too “moral” to execute him. That maiden voyage’s crew included Kara Zor-el, Kal-el’s ancestor, who was undertaking what was at the time, a bold move for their race to stretch their influence to other worlds. The magnitude of this mission can’t be understated, this voyage was one of many that led to the creation of the Kryptonian outposts mentioned in the film. The film points out that abandoning this venture, was one of the ways Krypton’s eventual demise started, along with artificial population control, the eugenics based system it employed, the predetermining of a child’s purpose and the waste of their natural resources including drilling into their planet’s core. But back to the council’s decision, Dev-em escapes captivity, kills all crew on board the ship, gets in a scuffle with Kara Zor-el and crashes the ship. That ship is the scout ship that summons Zod to Earth in the movie, it’s distress signal being a cry for salvation from Dev-em. So we have two important instances where the Kryptonian council would rather find “another way” than take the one in front of them because it’s not moral enough for their virtuous tastes. But let’s also look at the methods they seemingly prefer to use, shall we? Let’s see if these methods are actually better than this immoral action they constantly refuse to take.

The Phantom Zone Prison

To those unaware, the phantom zone is a Kryptonian prison that houses Krypton’s most dangerous criminals. But even more insidiously, it has in most incarnations, been described as and looks like a fate worse than death, with the Donner movies, Smallville and the DCEU basically contesting for the most horrible version ever. Donner’s Phantom Zone was a diamond shaped prison where prisoners are stuck and ejected into space forever, Smallville had the prisoners bodies destroyed and their essence left in the zone as shambling, body stealing wraiths. The DCEU’s version will require a more explicit explanation. It involves a process of encasing the accused completely in ice, a very painful process as seen by General Zod’s cohorts screaming in pain, with the exception of Zod himself and Faora, who manage to bear it all with teeth clenched willpower. There’s also the implication that they are completely conscious even while encased completely in ice and in pain the whole time, their nociceptors working on overdrive. It’s so easy to overlook the horrific nature of this “moral” punishment while joking that their ice-maiden cocoons (because they look like and function like iron-maidens) look like dicks, doesn’t it? Then they’re sent into a ship, that carries their cocoons through a hyperspace portal to the phantom zone until their sentence runs out and then they’ll be released. Except they wouldn’t be. Krypton was dying, the end was here, their sentence of 300 cycles of sematic reconditioning meant nothing, they were damned for all eternity by those who considered execution too morally repulsive, even though given a choice, they would likely choose death. They were to consciously suffer their punishment within the ice for all eternity, and yet were only being sentenced for 300 years in what sounds like a sick joke.

Zod: You won’t kill us yourselves! You won’t sully your hands but you’ll damn us to a black hole for eternity!

The phantom zone is the go to excuse for that “another way” but there’s nothing better about the way it’s been applied in most media, it’s just there to coddle the morality of a desensitized viewer about what was right and what was needed in a story and Man of Steel clearly shows that there was nothing right or “moral” about it. But does the kind of morality that Kryptonians display influence the way Zod or any of his followers view Kal-el?

Expectations of Kryptonian Morality

If you’re like me, and you believe that absolute morality is being criticized in this movie, then Faora’s verbal smack down on Kal carries more meaning. While it’s easy to interprete her words as being about Clark having moral principles which put him at a disadvantage compared to their advantageous lack of it, it could also be interpreted as Faora pointing out that she expects him to display the very same self righteous air of moral superiority common to Kryptonians, a morality so high, it’s not above letting evil triumph as long as it stays intact. She expects him to be so caught up and drunk on his idea of morality, that he’d be willing to let people die rather than stop them, just like the Kryptonian council did. It’s decision to imprison them, ensured their survival, hence their “evolutionary advantage” over Kal, who could still be stuck in that same bubble.

Even in the final battle, Zod visibly smirks when Kal declares he’ll stop him, how could he not? Kal’s statement was virtually empty, how could he stop Zod? He’s exhausted all alternatives, sentenced his people to a fate worse than death, now he was going to feel Zod’s wrath. It was going down, of course he’d smirk. Kal’s been placed in that very same position Krypton’s council was, an entire planet’s fate in his hands, and Zod naturally expects his mind to be soaked in that same Kryptonian mentality, so will he keep trying to find “another way” as people keep dying or will he realize that there’s only so much he can actually control? Is his sense of morality really stronger than his concern for the billions of lives depending on him? And throughout the fight, Zod hammers the message home:

Zod: I will make them suffer, Kal. These humans you’ve adopted, i will take them all from you one by one!

Zod: There is only one way this ends, Kal. Either you die, or i do...

Zod: If you love these people so much, then you can mourn for them!

Add to this, earlier in the movie Jonathan tells him he has to decide the kind of man he wants to be, because that man; good character or bad, will change the world. Throughout the movie he’s proved what kind of man he was in different ways; selfless, brave, vulnerable, kind, empathetic, trusting, hopeful, etc. Now, he had to make a choice again, this time for an entire race and he chose what is undoubtedly the right choice in my opinion. Sure, it may not be a comfortable message for people to hear or read that Superman’s choice should involve killing Zod, but this is a movie that has proven time and again that actions have consequences, there are no deus ex machinas, get out of jail free cards, nothing. Clark has helplessly watched his father die, all his life he’s learnt there’s only so much you can control, you can’t save those who don’t want to be saved, you can’t just harmlessly stop those who don’t want to be stopped. He’s been pushed hard all his life but Zod is no schoolyard bully pushing him against a fence, Zod isn’t some nobody that can’t hurt him, Zod is the single worst phenomenon that dwarfs everything else he’d been able to passively endure in his life. Clark was able to keep his existence a secret for most of his life but within an hour of showing up, Zod outs him. Clark’s been passive his whole life despite ridicule, bullying and humiliation but within 24hrs of showing up, Zod pushes him enough that he throws his first punch ever. Everything he was taught, Zod was that antithesis that put it all to shame. But more importantly, Zod was proof that Clark was ultimately as helpless to control life like any other human and therefore, his decisions will carry repercussions and can’t be taken naively. And so, Clark chose to kill Zod, out of a lack of other options beyond falling back on the suicidal black/white morality his people were known for.

But since i said the no kill rule encourages apathy and detachment from viewers, is there any basis to any of it in the real world? Hello? This is Man of Steel, aka the movie that proved lots of people are fine letting evil prosper as long as they can shrug and say “at least my morals are intact”. This movie definitively proved that people’s sense of morality had taken a nose dive straight into apathy masqueraded as virtue. There was no end of “the real superman would have found another way!” in a story where an entire race vanishes overnight over that very same mentality. The obsessive focus on the action of Superman killing Zod rather than the context that more than justified a death that was already rightly bought when Zod commanded the World Engine be used to kill people. That the movie frames his death as a last resort only adds to my respect for it because he doesn’t even deserve that benefit. “Superman never ever kills! Ever!” cried detractors as they salivated over a version of superman killing a powerless man and joking about it. What do we call this kind of morality? One that calls an unavoidable death inexcusable but relishes a senseless one? And then would years later, go on to salivate over a near repeat of it, another senseless death covered up in jokes considered as acceptable? Because it seems people are 100% okay with their heroes (especially superman) killing, as long as they joke about it and feel nothing. So is this really about virtue? Or is it just an apathetic and detached populace fooling itself that it actually cares about morality? Because when it comes down to it, even despite proving that he wasn’t the kind of man to let people die in some misplaced sense of moral superiority, Superman mourns having had to take such a decision and mourns the death of a man who didn’t deserve it and refused to back down or stay down regardless of his pleas. He cries over his own helplessness and the ultimate imperfection that living in the real world (so to speak) brings. Because even though the movie criticizes moral absolutism, even though it hammers home the inherent stupidity of the no kill rule as an absolute, it never pretends like subverting it was without it’s own moral and emotional consequence. It was a blow to all his years of upbringing, his ability to navigate the world, to make decisions, his pacifism, but most of all, his conscience and faith in himself. A bad man died, a world lived and a good man was broken despite taking the only reasonable decision he had left, actions have consequences, we make decisions and we have to live with it. So Superman ends up showing more moral fiber in a movie where he kills than his own detractors do and it became just one more reason why i detested the rule because people didn’t care about morality in the first place.

[spirit-science-blog]

For this extraordinary episode, I’ve tailed the script into three segments. The first is for everyone, whether you’ve seen the show or not, so no spoiler warnings just yet - you’re free to enjoy. Then there will be the first spoiler warning - in which I will discuss episode 1, which is a safety net for those who haven’t seen it, are curious about it, but don’t want to ruin the whole thing. Then there will be a second spoiler, in which I highly encourage ANYONE who hasn’t seen the show, to stop watching and enjoy the full series, and then come back because we’ll be going deep into the whole thing! Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, translating mostly to Heaven Piercing Crimson Face - is a show about the transformation of the soul. It’s about brotherly bonds and finding true love, and recognizing when someone else is oppressing you and overcoming the evil forces at all odds. It’s a narrative on modern society and the spiritual movements that lead to a collective awakening of the human spirit, and rising to overcome our inner deadness and become full of life, love, and burning willpower! It’s about the activation of the human DNA and the intrinsic evolutionary spiral power inherent within each one of our hearts and how if we work together - there is nothing we can’t accomplish! It’s a story of redemption, grave emotional hardship, the craziest trials and tribulations, and above all else - it’s about learning to believe in yourself.

Honestly, words cannot describe the love that I have for this show. It planted some spiritual seeds within me when I was in high school, which activated several years later during my spiritual awakening at 19. The show has been so meaningful to me that even plant medicine will show specific scenes or character arcs in a ceremony from time to time, to teach me lessons, and you’ll also find references to it in Patch Tarot.

As a fair warning, not only is the show amazing, hilarious, and epic as epic can be - it’s also wildly sexy. There’s no shortage of fan-service here, and I genuinely believe this was done to get more young men to watch it and wake up to higher spiritual wisdom.

Gurren Lagann is an expression of the lessons of brotherhood, and along with FullMetal Alchemist, there aren’t too many shows like it that hit this mark dead center, straight and right. Gurren Lagann will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and with every single episode, except maybe chapter 4, you will find yourself loving this show more and more until it’s done, bringing out an ending more epic than epic can be - it’s bittersweet, it’s beautiful… honestly- this show is a force to be reckoned with. You can probably tell, I have an affinity for this adventure, and so I am thrilled to present you with this extraordinary episode - Gurren Lagann and the Birth of Odin.

With that, here is our first spoiler warning. If you haven’t seen the show but want to get a feel for it, keep going. Here’s the hidden spirituality of Episode 1.

Gurren Lagann begins with Simone the Digger and his Brother in Spirit - Kamina. The entire concept spirals around the bonds of brotherhood and the spiritual connection that we form in life with those we care about. At this point, humans are all living underground, isolated from other pockets of civilization. There is a very strict dogma in their village - there is no surface, and anyone who believes that there is a surface is a foolish fool, so they don’t dig upwards because of how ridiculous an idea is.

Right from the start, we have this metaphor for our society and the dogmatic ideologies in the world. In the story, the people all live in darkness, and they are convinced that there is no such thing as the expansive surface. The conversations of higher spiritual or heavenly realms, astral dimensions or other similar concepts are often ridiculed, despite a never-ending stream of testimonials from individuals who have personally experienced these different planes of conscious awareness.

Speaking to Simon and Kamina, they beautifully depict a man in his fullness, and a boy in his weakness. Kamina fulfills many roles for Simon, supporting him and reminding him that he is meant for something great. Simon, who is a digger - is told by Kamina that his drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens! It’s beautiful to see how Kamina’s encouragement gives Simon the confidence and motivation to believe in himself. He says, “Don’t believe in yourself, believe in me that believes in you!”

The moving lesson here is that so many of us today struggle with confidence and self-worth issues. There are many introverts, shy; we make ourselves lowly and weak and stay in the shadows of the world. Then others are outgoing, confident, and sometimes brash and arrogant, which Kamina is. This is very important because the world needs these kinds of people to pair up. If you are confident and healthy and see someone who is shying away on the inside from stepping into their inner power - you can be that strength for them, and that is such a special thing. In fact - to you who is watching this, if you can’t believe in yourself, believe in me that believes in you. Because I believe in you, and the world is ready for you to shine your light be the highest expression of who you indeed are!

What’s remarkable here is that Kamina mostly plants this seed within Simon. He sees the light in Simone that even Simon doesn’t know there, and by telling him, reminding him, encouraging him over and over, Simon grows as a person to overcome the obstacles he faces.

One of the things that are very motivating here that gives Kamina his strength - was his father and experience that he had when he was a child. His father sought to find the surface, and he was also called crazy, but one day... he did! Kamina was with him, he saw the surface with his own eyes, and while he didn’t stay with his father up there, he knew it was true. This is a powerful lesson in TRUTH. When we experience the truth, even if the world tells us we’re crazy, we know it deep down.

On a spiritual level, this is akin to having a mystical experience in life, perhaps synchronicity, an out of body experience, or some mystical experience that proves without a doubt for us that there is something more significant than the mundane world we are presented with. Even in the face of scrutiny and ridicule, you keep on believing, because you know in your heart that it’s real. These scenes depict an awareness striving for something more significant in the face of those who would mock and ridicule, which we all must do if we are to attain a higher light.

Throughout this first episode, Simon discovers this little drill necklace and a giant face underground, revealed to be a mini-mech that he can ride in. Kamina names it Lagann, which represents the vehicle of our soul, but I won't be able to explain that until later.

Everything changes when suddenly, a massive mech falls from the ceiling, illuminating the cavernous village. Along with it comes a compelling woman named Yoko who swings in firing a large rifle. Yoko is a character who, throughout the series, is revealed to have tremendous depth, and stands as a powerful archetype of the divine feminine. She’s not a girly girl as so many women are depicted to be, and despite her outfit, she isn’t just there for the looks. She is a strong woman entirely in her power who can fight off giant mechs single-handedly with nothing but her rifle. Throughout the series, she carries many very human moments, with a wide range of emotional depth.

Yoko teams up with Simon and Kamina and explains to them that this mech is called a Gunman and that she comes from a nearby village. They do battle against the great enemy, and from an unknown source of power within Simon, as he overcomes his fear, Lagann ignites with energy and they blast off into the sky, destroying the enemy gunman and liberating themselves from the cavern, and into the surface world - giving us a view that’s so beautiful, it makes for excellent desktop wallpaper.

Alright, if you’ve not seen the show yet - this is as much as I can give you. I hope this is enough to inspire you to watch it because it genuinely is an INCREDIBLE show. If you have any intention to view the full presentation, I’d recommend giving it a go first, because you don’t want to ruin the surprises that await throughout this series.

Now, we’re about to enter a spoiler void. Please DO NOT PASS THIS POINT UNLESS YOU’VE SEEN IT! OKAY?!

OKAY.

See you on the other side… maybe!

~ ~ ~

So, was it worth it to wait and watch it?

One thing I love about this show is that it wastes no time. In contrast, from the beginning of his journey, it took Goku 575 Episodes from landing on the planet earth to embodying cosmic ultra-instinct superconsciousness. Naruto took over 700 episodes to become Hokage and Luffy… jeez, it’s been over 900 events, and he STILL hasn’t found One Piece yet!

But Gurren Lagann? 27 Episodes take no time at all to go from living underground suppressed by the entire universe, to the ultimate colossal superconscious mega ultra cosmic Gurren Lagann! I mean seriously! They do not waste any time! This is important because not all of us have time to watch 900 episodes of Luffy not finding his treasure.

Built into the fundamental fabric of this show - The ability to believe in anything makes it possible. Kick logic to the curb and do the impossible! We can see this practice throughout human history - how many people told the wright brothers that it was impossible to build a flying machine? How many people said Michael Faraday that he was insane for believing in the electromagnetic field? Yet, these people in history felt in something more significant than the limits of what society said was true, just like the village chief in Jiha village. They created and discovered things that completely changed the world forever.

To that end, we also see the wisdom of the ancients coming through. The powerful mech that Simon finds in episode one is a remnant of an ancient technology known to humanity. Today, we say “hogwash! There was no advanced technology so long ago,” - and yet we have evidence of ancient civilizations with advanced technology in several different ways all over our planet, from Gobekli Tepe to the Baghdad battery. And this weaves in very well to Episode 5, as Team Gurren falls into the pit of Adai Village, and discover that this isolated community believes that the Gunmen are face-gods from the celestial lands.

There are so many lessons and allegories from this one episode alone, such as how the theoretical perspective of the village is used to keep their town from overpopulation due to the lack of food they have, and how they would necessarily kill people by sending them to the surface, except its under the guise that they are going to some supreme world. It’s curious then why they all wouldn’t just go there freely, with this belief, which is very similar to the process of Ascension from Cloud Atlas, where the slave women would be killed, all the while believing they are about to ascend. This episode stands as a lesson to the use of dogma to shroud the truth. Once conditioned to a particular way of being, especially after generations of these beliefs, some people are simply not ready to hear the truth. When Kamina tries to tell everyone the truth, the people of the village reject it.

The episode title, mirroring Kamina's line, is called “I don’t get it, not one bit” - and I think this reflects how many people feel when looking at other belief systems and perspectives of the world. It takes a gentle mind and compassionate wisdom to understand that the leader of Adai village knew the truth all along. He deceived people because he could see that the people were not at a level of consciousness to receive the fact, at least not without creating havoc in the village. Herein we find a valuable lesson for all of us - Team Gurren was forced to leave the town and move on, they were not in Adai to be saviors of anyone, even though it may have felt good to awaken everyone - we must learn for ourselves that we cannot save anyone. Still, we must each follow our path to its completion, and let go of others on their way. We cannot take anyone except for those who are already walking alongside us or choose to join us on our journey.

Continuing throughout the entirety of the series, starting with Episode 3 - is the principle of Combining! Brotherly, epic combining! Combining seems like a fun idea on the surface, but how does it practically relate to any of us? It’s quite simple - the truth is, we gain tremendous momentum when we can collaborate and work together to make things happen. When we put our heads, hearts, and bodies together, items become more accessible and more possible than ever! Take Spirit Science, for example - Team Spirit, the name of which was inspired by Team Gurren - is comprised of this ragtag team of people from around the world, and together we do things that would be impossible for one to do alone.

If you think “Wow, Spirit Science is great! Go, Patchman!” Just remember that behind Patchman is an entire team of people. Sure, we have a Simon, but we also have our own Yoko, Kittan, Dayaka, and everyone that makes it possible to produce all of the videos and content that we do! Everyone whose enrolled in Spirit Mysteries is contributing to the spiral energy that allows Spirit Science to level up and evolve, so if you’re in Spirit Mysteries - you are also a part of Team Spirit! This is the power of combining, bringing our energies together to make things happen, to make the impossible, possible!

Now, moving on - I think Episode 4 is a test to see how many people will react, vs. Respond. You might have noticed the animation is weird, and the story on this one doesn’t lend TONS to the show. This episode was animated differently because it had a different director. It was a bit of an experiment on the part of the producers. Some people see it and think, “oh, this show went to crap” and stop watching. Yet, for those who see it through, you get some heavy-hitting deep stuff in the immediate next episode, and the rest of the show is beautiful and moving all the same.

Continuing in these core themes of the show, we have fighting spirit - which is more than just a feeling, but a mysterious power that allows their machines to activate and even increase in power. We see this from Episode 1 when Simon suddenly getting fired up creates a surge in Lagann, and this is a continuous thing throughout the show. It even allows Gurren Lagann to repair itself in the middle of battle temporarily. Kamina’s attitude here, in the face of EVERYONE telling him he’s insane, brings about one of my favorite micro-scenes in television history.

*play scene* It repaired itself? FIGHTING SPIRIT!!!”*

He just yells at them with this told you so attitude, I mean come on, weren’t you listening to me all this time?!

What’s especially surprising here is that they weave this into the core of the show at the deepest level. Fighting spirit is a reflection of Spiral Power, the limitless untapped potential within our spiraling DNA. And this ALSO holds a convenient lesson for all of us. Here’s a short example - When I was a kid, I played soccer on a team. I remember several times when I was there, out on the field, being exhausted and weak, but time was running out, and we needed a goal. I’d get fired up somewhere within me, so I would get so motivated inside to perform that out of nowhere. All of this energy would surge through me, and it was as if I could temporarily repair my systems and provide my body with peak performance.

Sure, we can call it adrenaline on a physical level, of course - yet it was the burning will-power, this feeling within me that motivated me into that state in the first place. In many occasions, I would start running or moving faster than I usually would, and helped the team to turn around and get those last-minute goals! The adrenaline wouldn’t have kicked in if the motivation was not there.

Now, I know this is not exclusive to me, so the lesson here is that this burning fighting spirit lay dormant within you. It’s waiting for you to turn the key of your drill, activating the motivation to do the impossible, see the invisible, row row, fight the power!

This motivating drive is one of the show's driving forces, and we see a brilliant unity here between Kamina and Simon. In their combining, they form the head and the heart of everything they stand for and believe in, both literally and figuratively. However, we also see the counter energy to this; what happens when fear takes over? It makes sense that Simon, the one with the most fear, would be seated in the Head of Gurren Lagann, representing the Ego before and after self-actualization. Simon is forced to learn some painful lessons, even fatal when Simons's fear ends up distracting the team in an epic battle, and Team Gurren suffers a deadly blow to the heart. The death of Kamina.

Up until this point, Kamina carried this thing almost single-handedly. He was the one who inspired humans to take control of the Gunmen. He was the one who gave everyone this dream that they could be free and overcome the tyranny imposed on them. He inspired everyone to believe in themselves against all of the odds and no matter the opposition… and then, suddenly… he was gone.

Instantly, everyone has lost their faith. What’s more so, they discourage Simon from his greatness too. Kamina always said it was Simon who gets them out of a bind, and it was Simon who had the keys of importance within him, that it was HIS drill that would pierce the heavens… yet, when Kamina was gone, nobody believed this anymore. Nobody showed faith in Simon, and in fact, they treat him like he’s nothing, a loser, a wimp.

And we must understand that because of Kamina’s death - Simon becomes a mopey, angry, very emotional little guy, but yet it’s impressive to see how other people treat him as a result. Because he’s not acting like a leader, they cast him aside very quickly, leading to one of the most emotionally challenging three episodes in anime history, at least in my books. It’s such a sharp turn for the series, yet it’s so incredibly necessary because Gurren Lagann - while on its surface might seem like it’s about mech fights and explosions, reveals that it’s about so much more than that.

Because of this twist, we get to experience deep emotional heartbreak. We get to see Yoko having some extremely human moments and overcoming the loss of the man that she loved… Perhaps most of all, we discover that the show itself is not at all about Kamina, as much as he was the center up until this point. The show is about Simon - about the individual who didn’t, and couldn’t believe in himself due to his traumas in life, like losing his parents. The lesson here is that it’s about all of our souls, that light within us - rising into becoming genuinely incredible people, embodying the light of who we are.

Yet, as a door closes, a window opens, and we have the introduction of a new character named Nia, with a very different energy. She represents the innocence and purity of the world, nature, and human consciousness. She is literally like a flower, which you can see by the way her eyes are drawn. She is also the next step for Simon in his journey of learning to believe in himself. One of my favorite scenes of the show is that after his three episodes of Trauma, Simon saves the entire team, comes to Nia's rescue, and defeats one of the Spiral Kings generals. It’s so moving but not because it’s a heroic rescue, but because it’s the first time when Simon steps fully into manhood. It’s a coming of age when he reveals that he is not his bro, but he is himself, and his bro lives on through the emblem on his back, and inside his heart forever.

His bro set the stage for his ascension, and Simon will keep moving forward, keep drilling to the heavens, and overcome all obstacles in his way. Several places in this show make me well up, and this is one of them. He expresses the real quality of his soul, and even his entire team just watches with amazement at how incredible and beautiful soul shines are. From then on, they see it too, and they know what Kamina saw from the very beginning. They believe in Simon, and it fuels all of them to save the world from the Spiral King's tyranny.

And now let’s just jump straight there. First, it’s worth exploring the name itself. He is the spiral king, Lord Genome. A genome is a complete set of genes or genetic material present in a cell or organism, so Lord Genome is named as such because he is the overlord of spiral power of the planet, controlling and maintaining that people stay at low spiral energy, while also creating the Beastmen to rule over the world and keep people from standing up for themselves. Yet, he reveals that no beastmen will ever be able to stand up to a spiral being entirely in their power, which also carries a powerful lesson for us - that the spiral power, that burning energy within us, when truly awakened is infinite.

In the Spiral King fight, there is so much on the line, but it doesn’t seem like Simon himself is enough to defeat Lord Genome, who has the same tech as Simon, but a more muscular body. Yet, in the final moments of their epic duel, Simon defeats the Spiral King with his core drill, demonstrating that the power is not within the robots, but within the people, flowing through us all - and he explodes Lord Genome, leaving a massive hole. The spiral king plummets to his death, but not before giving a grave warning… That the moon shall one day become hells messenger and destroy this world…

It’s fantastic because we get all this way in the series and you think “hm, this would make for a great ending!” - but we haven’t even gotten started yet! Season 1 ends with the fall of Teppelin, the Spiral King's order, and a new world to emerge, a world where humans can live on the surface…

~ ~ ~

Seven years later… Wow! I must say, seeing all of these beautiful characters all grown up was fantastic to see where this show was going, and there’s no stopping the powerful reflections on human consciousness. After the 7-year jump, we know the world has taken an entirely different form… Reflecting on modern civilization, what happens as more considerable technological advancement is given to humans, and even shows how people behave today. We see this with people focused so much on themselves and their luxuries, taking for granted everything that brought about their liberation, and forgetting the past struggles from only seven years prior.

They have forgotten the courage of Team Dai Gurren. Even the old Jiha village chief, which was horrible to Simon and Kamina, now has all of this wealth and status, saying things like, “oh yeah, I raised those boys.” It’s such a stark contrast to how things were, and a strong reflection of the world, how humanity generally isn’t very heart-centered… they can be, but how quick we are to forget when there is the potential for luxury and wealth. Let this be a reminder for us to stay in the heart, as Simon does, no matter what circumstances befall us.

What’s worse, with no more battles to face, the warriors of Team Gurren are forced into becoming political leaders, which - interestingly, is exactly what is described by Avatar Airbender in the transition to Korra, another series that we will one day explore in Hidden Spirituality. The job is especially hard on Simon, who suddenly finds himself having to sign stacks of paperwork, a position that just really isn’t suited for him at all. Out of all of Team Gurren, the one with the most sense about her is Yoko, who leaves the team to go and become a teacher way off on basically Hawaii, which reflects her following her dreams and passions.

The one who is most suited for leading a civilization is also the worst for it all - Rossiu, who has a lot of ego blocks he has to overcome first. He becomes a great leader by the end, no question, but in his position, there is a lot that he too has forgotten about the days of the triumph over the spiral king and the power of the spiral in general. He doesn’t truly understand the nature of the spiral and is led by fear because of his upbringing in Adai village. Because of this, and his fear of the prophecy of the moon from Lord Genome, he actively sets his goal on controlling and maintaining the population of humanity to protect them, but doing so becomes a tyrant in his own right, inflicting rigid control over everyone, forcing people from their caves even if they didn’t want to leave… and then later, forces Simon to trial, and also sentences him to death.

We are shown a lesson here of the power of fear to destroy faith. The people are so quick to blame Simon for making the moon fall, they live in terror of their demise and don’t have faith. We also find the lesson that it’s far easier to point the finger, instead of taking responsibility for ourselves. Not only is everyone ungrateful for the lives that they now have thanks to Simon and Team Dai Gurren, but they are also instantly to reject him and throw him under the bus for the impending doom to come. Further, Rossiu is more interested in people's cheers and making the people “satisfied” rather than doing the right thing and solving the problem at its core, and a great piece of wisdom is revealed here. When you live in a fear-based mentality, freedom is not an option with that kind of thinking.

Rossiu says to Simon, “you know nothing, Jon Snow,” when he was the one who knew nothing but acted as if he did. Spiritually speaking, we can look at this whole thing and see the influence of fear on our lives. Rossiu actively lives from fear in all of his decisions until the Arc Gurren returns to the Earth when he realizes the true nature of Spiral Power. Fear causes him to become a rigid tyrant, fear causes him to close his heart to his friends, and while fear can be a powerful motivator in life, we must see the results that we create when we act from fear ultimately only leads us down a path of despair. Also, a side note - the Arc Gurren is likely a reference to the story of Noah’s ark, as the Arc Gurren is a great vessel that Rossiu wants to use to help humanity to survive the impending cataclysm that is coming towards them, with the Moon crashing into the earth.

Now, be mindful that there is a difference between fear and caution, for Rossiu could have acted very similarly, except being more open-hearted, keeping people informed about what he was doing, and how he felt. Instead, by keeping everyone in the dark, he created a division between the truth, his team, and the entire human population. This is another great lesson for us all, to live in reality, and to remain open, especially with those we love and trust. This is especially important for political and social leaders in the world today, by keeping information from the public, we limit others from having proper information to make informed decisions.

Speaking of uninformed decisions, we also see Gimmy playing out a familiar role that many young people experience growing up - arrogance. Gimmy is so proud of his mass-produced Grappurl machine, talking about how the old Gunmen were outdated - yet the Grappurls are ineffective against the Mugan because they were not designed to fight such an enemy. Gimmy shows arrogance and ignorance towards Simon, before being humbled by the revelation that he cannot take on the mugan, and needs Simons help.

Okay - so one significant twist in the show throughout this is that - when the millionth human is born, Nia is suddenly overtaken by anti-spiral consciousness, and serves as a messenger, speaking about the destruction of humanity to prevent the spiral nemesis. For the rest of the season, Nia is no longer herself but mentally enslaved by the anti-spirals, who we’ll explore shortly. This is a profound reflection for us, in that the divine feminine, and the christ Sophia, the pure-hearted feminine christ consciousness - that which Nia represents, has been lost or purged from the world. Nia disappearing movingly shows us this, which fuels Simon to the show's inevitable conclusion. 3

Now, as the show continues, more of the truth is revealed to us. Until episode 18, the show is shrouded in mystery. What is spiral power? How does this all work, why does it work? Up until now, it hasn’t been explained… and then, at last, we get some answers. We discover that Lord Genome, who we all thought was a villain, was protecting humanity to survive all along! Does that information suddenly change your perspective of him? In a way, he is benevolent, perhaps his methods were cruel, yes, but if not for him, humanity may very well have gone extinct entirely.

Speaking of changing our perspectives, perhaps one of the most remarkable and most heartwarming transformations is found with Viral. For all of season 1, Viral is one of the main enemies, continually showing up with the Spiral Kings generals to try and subdue the team. However, after the fall of Teppelin and the time skip occurs, he is trying to protect humans, giving them the freedom to live underground if they wish, where Rossiu is forcing people to the surface count them.

After Simon and Viral are imprisoned together, the once enemies become friends, ultimately leading Viral to pilot the body of Gurren Lagann, Kamina’s seat. When Viral first sits down in that chair, it is such a heartwarming moment, because it shows the transformation through illumination, wisdom, and love. There is no better pilot than Viral for this final mission, showing that Beastmen and Humans - or people of an opposing mentality and consciousness, can work together for the betterment of all. Sometimes, it just takes getting to know someone else better. Deep down, we all share a common understanding that brings us altogether if we can get to the heart. What’s more, Viral is sitting in the center of the body of Gurren Lagann, a demonstration of his care, even though he’s a beastman.

This transformation with Viral was prophesied throughout, though, in a way that most people would miss. The name of his Mech was Enkidu - named after the character from the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, a character who is quite literally a beast-man, a wild man who roams in the wild with the lions and the bears and the other creatures of the wilderness… In the Epic of Gilgamesh, he transforms into a more normal human, after being introduced to them, and mating with a woman. So the fact that Virals name is Enkidu indicates that he too - over his story - slowly transforms from more of a beast-like individual to a more conscious and awakened being. x

Now, we discover that the war between the spiral races and the anti-spirals was the secret cause of everything from the very beginning, and the Anti-spirals represent those who would push down human evolution and progress, stopping the inherent spiral power within us because they believe it would lead to the destruction of the universe. We see this in the world today, the Anti-Spirals are reflected by the corporations, social systems, and politicians who would seek to slow down evolution and direct the focus into keeping things from changing, out of fear of what would happen if humanity was to attain too much power.

What’s more, the anti-spirals also represent that part of ourselves, which colonizes our desire to grow and evolve by keeping us little. It’s like the part of Simon who didn’t believe in himself, that was afraid, that would keep himself small- which means the Anti-Spiral energy is within us - as they describe at the end, they are trying to inflict absolute despair, to quench the human spirit from wanting to spiral, to grow at all.

The Anti-Spirals are also noticeably enjoyable because they are different kinds of enemies, not physical. Still, energy, or a particular consciousness imposing control, so they are animated entirely differently. Their weapons are almost wholly animated in 3D - demonstrating that they are more like energy bodies than real bodies. We also see this with the Anti-Spiral himself, who is animated 2D because the Anti-Spirals were once spiral-beings, but changed their DNA and became a different kind of being, so they are animated with scribbles instead of typically drawn like everyone else, and his colors are inverted. Usually, character outlines are drawn in thin black lines.

What’s more, we even see a fun visualization from the Mugan, which demonstrates what it might look like to move between dimensions, which is an entertaining way of visualizing multidimensionality. And I mean, how amazing is it to see the Ark Gurren Lagann punch the mugan so hard it rips a hole in the space-time continuum. I wonder if we opened up a dimensional portal, might it look similar in real life?

And of course, there is the revelation that the moon isn’t real, which was probably drawn upon from the conspiratorial source material that suggests that the moon isn’t real, or was placed there artificially by aliens, due to several curious synchronicities about the moon that stand out and indicate that the moon is not a naturally occurring phenomenon on the planet. Its size and position in alignment with the Earth are so precise, such as being a perfect match to the sun to create a complete solar eclipse, it seems like it didn’t just appear here so correctly in an ancient collision so long ago, but seems to be carefully calculated and precisely shaped and place to offer such unique alignments to our planet. Even the great Geologist and educator Randall Carlson today provides us with the wisdom - the Moon is one of the greatest mysteries for all of humanity today. We would do well to take that mystery seriously, and not pretend we have all the answers to the secrets of the moon.

Now, I don’t venture a guess, to tell the truth about the moon in this particular video. Still, it’s interesting that Gurren Lagann draws upon this, and offers this idea that the Moon is a giant Gunman itself, the Cathedral Terra, but which had been purposed by the Anti-Spirals to become Hells messenger, watching over the planet and destroying all of life if the human population grows too large. Further, they later show that the real moon also exists, but was hidden in-between dimensions. After the Cathedral Terra is free from the Anti-Spirals control, they can retrieve the actual satellite, which restores the gravitational balance to the planet. Fascinating material!!

At last, only after this, we are explained Spiral Power, which they do in a brilliant way, where Leeron explains all of the details about it. Nobody gets it, and so he simplifies it for everyone. Essentially, the Spiral Power is the infinite helix spiraling power of our DNA, but manifests as Fighting Spirit, and that Love powers the universe, and it is through the power of love that we can break through the limits that bind us, and do the impossible!

Leeron also offers another piece of wisdom when he is on the Ark Gurren… The Faster we spin - the faster we break free of the bonds of gravity. We can relate this not just to severity - but that “raising our vibration” breaks free of the relationships and limits of our old life and sets us on a course for a new kind of tomorrow!

What’s also uniquely special, that after Rossiu realizes his grave mistake and tries to kill himself, Simon offers him the same advice that Kamina gave him all of those years ago. You better grit those teeth! Followed by words of compassion and wisdom. We all make mistakes, sometimes we need to have a loud wake-up call, to snap out of our funk, but that doesn’t mean that we are inherently bad or wrong… We keep moving forward. This is especially amazing because when they return to Team Gurren, everyone forgives Rossiu as if nothing happened. They treat him as if he was one of their own, with a compassionate understanding of what he went through and the tough position he was in. Powerful lessons of forgiveness right here, indeed!

We learn that Simon and Nia have a love that extends beyond time and space, and through Simons love itself, they can track her to the farthest reaches of the universe, and even into other dimensions where she is hidden. It’s curious too; the Anti-Spirals are presiding in their own created aspect, between the 11th and 12th dimension, demonstrating their artificial imposition upon the universe and created reality itself. This, in a way, reflects the Demiurge's idea, a concept that we previously explored in our Hidden Spirituality episode of Final Fantasy 7!

Finally, seeing the way that the Anti-Spirals are animated and operate also reveals to us more wisdom we find within the Emerald Tablets of Thoth - The difference between the Curved Dimensions vs. Angled Dimensions, that the realm of angles is dangerous, speaking to the difference between organic vs. inorganic. The legendary Team Dai Gurren band together for one showdown, the final battle against the forces of oppression, and head out into space. When they finally meet the Anti Spirals, they appear as these bizarrely elongated ships with many faces. Hey, who the hell do you think you are, having so many faces?! These ships represent vessels of absolute despair, existing purely to inflict torment upon the spiral life forms. Their smaller ships are hands and feet with singular eyes, which speak to the manipulation of heartless beings, forcing others into submission. They do this by pushing the Cathedral Terra into a dense mass of energy, that actively drains their spiral power.

What we discover here is that they are now inside of a giant anti-spiral toroidal field. It is eerily reminiscent of the Martians synthetic Merkaba's idea from the Spirit Science Human History Movie - using natural forms and forces but for evil purposes. At first, their solution to this is to increase their spiral output, but eventually, Simon gets too tired to keep up this energy and needs a new plan. Another piece of hidden wisdom comes from their solution - to destroy the energy field at its core.

We can see this as a common problem in today's world, as often when we face a challenge, the default response from most people is to treat the symptom, instead of going to the core. Yet, going to the center, which sometimes is more complicated, has much higher rewards. It is sad, yet a very heroic end to Kittan, who surrenders his life for the more significant cause, manually flying in and destroying the anti-spiral vortex. Amazingly though, Kittan is not truly dead. It is only his body that dies, as later on, we see Kittan and the other comrades who died along the journey in Simons's vision when he becomes trapped in the labyrinth of his mind Anti-Spirals… So let’s jump there!

This is one of the final significant challenges of Team Dai Gurren, even once free of the anti-spiral field, and releasing tremendous spiral power, they are then trapped mentally by the Anti-Spirals, once again showing the method by which people are controlled in the world today. We are manipulated by our beliefs, our ideas about who and what we are, or what the future may hold, and it stops us in our path. The Anti-Spiral then walks freely around the deck of their ship, multidimensional space.

Yet, it’s not over - because the way we free ourselves from this entrapment is to find the truth within. First, we see Simon does this by connecting with the spirit of Kamina. He is presented with an alternate reality, one where they live under the capital, stealing from the beastmen and living off the riches. However, then we jump to seeing them being caught, and this version of Kamina falls into submission, begging for forgiveness. Yet, a second Kamina appears to Simon and asks Simon to choose which version he likes. One is the Kamina we all know and love, and the other is the one kneeling on the ground like a dog.

This scene presents each of us with a choice. Which reality will we choose? We are creators of our realities, but we are trapped within our minds, each of us. We have to be the ones to choose freedom, doing what’s hard to create massive change in our lives… we can do this, we can make each free ourselves of our entrapment, but it takes recognizing that we have a choice first. Simon delivers a mega punch to the false Kamina and reclaims power over his mind. In a very emotional scene, he says goodbye to Kamina for the last time, something he didn’t get to do the first time that Kamina passed.

Simon transforms and whisks himself away back to the Anti-Spiral fight and Nia. We are then shown the same scenes with the other members of team dai Gurren, what fantasy is playing out inside of everyone's minds, keeping them trapped there. Yoko’s story is especially moving. Kamina assists her in her mental release, and Viral is revealed to just want a loving family deep down in his heart, providing even more depth to the nature of his being.

And then… The entire team Dai Gurren warped to Nia just in time, and we entirely a few fantastic lines, it’s a special moment!

Even when trapped by the Karmas cycle, the dreams we left behind will open the door! Also, if the universe stands in our way, our seething blood will determine what will be! We’ll breakthrough time and space and defy all who would stop us, grab hold of our path!

The final battle is just legendary… It’s so epic that words cannot even describe it. You just have to see it. And - if you’re a true fan of the show, and want to go all the way, you can watch the movie version, which takes it to a whole other level, with each member of the team getting their galaxy-size gunman, and then they all merge into a universe-size Gurren Lagann too.

What’s impressive is that in the final fight, the Anti-Spirals decide to fight on equal terms now. They no longer resort to tactics like spiral absorbing fields or mind control, and this is another lesson for us. That our egos, the force within us that keeps us limited, inflicts fear and despair that energy can only fight you at your level. It will never be a power higher than that you can achieve, so they cannot be more reliable than the spiral beings when operating from max capacity.

When the fight is done, the anti spirals are destroyed, and the game is over. They can return home and receive cheers from the entire universe who witnessed the battle. Free of enslavement, the whole world may now explore what it means to exist unobstructed by the imposed limits of the anti-spirals.

Now… the ending of the complete series is something that sometimes gets people a little riled. Simon and Nia get married, and then suddenly, Nia disappears, robbing us of our happily ever after ending that seemed like was a shoe-in at this point. The idea is that the anti-spirals created nia’s consciousness. So she was no longer able to exist for long after they were destroyed, and to be honest - the movie version did a better job of revealing that ahead of time, as a method of the anti-spirals trying to inflict despair on Simon during their fight, because it does come as a bit of a shock for viewers at the end.

Yet, the lesson here is sound. It is revealed that the story is once more, not about what we think it was. It is Simon's journey, yes - but it wasn’t about Simon finding love; instead, it was about Simon becoming his sovereign being. It was about him finding completion as a human, as a soul, not leaning on, nor relying on others to help him lift himself. Upon the end of his story, he walks away, not sad or angry about Nia leaving, but accepting the completion of the journey. He is not trying to use spiral power to bring back people who have died because they would just get in the way of the new people coming into being.

After the credits, we also get our first and only post-credits scene, where we see Leeron and Rossiu as older men, having organized intergalactic councils of spiral life across the universe, a meeting of the greatest of civilizations to discuss the future of spiral lifeforms, and making sure that what the Anti-spirals said about spiral lifeforms destroying the universe - doesn’t come to pass. We also see Simon as a wise hermit, reflecting Odin from Norse Mythology. He is the wise wanderer, and even one of his eyes is illuminated with spiral wisdom, another reference to Odin - who only had one eye.

And so - we finally come to what may very well be the deepest parts of this entire show... What everything has been building up to from the very beginning. The birth of Cosmic Wisdom within Man. In Norse Mythology, Odin gave many sacrifices to attain divine wisdom and to understand the workings of the cosmos, and here we see this reflected within Simon. The idea here is that Simon is ultimately a man who within himself took on the responsibility of breaking through the limitations imposed upon not just him, but the entire universe. At the end of his quest, he becomes a keeper of sacred knowledge, a sage who wanders the world, taking care of others, planting the seeds of wisdom everywhere that he goes. Even though the child he helps at the end was not ready for this cosmic understanding of the spiral, he still imparts simple wisdom to the boy - the virtue and power of being gentle with one's energy, and that the lights in the sky are stars\. We are apart of something so much bigger than we know…  

With that… I guess that’s it. I mean, there’s always more! One of the main theme songs of the show, Rap wa Kan no Tamashii da, teaches us amazing lessons throughout the show, every time it plays. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of rap, but I can listen to this song on repeat for hours. It teaches us to Do the impossible! See the invisible! What you’re going to do is what you want to do, just break through the roof and see the truth! It also even has lines telling us to open our third eyes, and that the revolution ain’t never going to be televised. We cannot expect the mainstream media to cover the awakening of consciousness and the transformation of humanity. We have to be the ones to connect and make it happen ourselves.

Bringing this mighty episode to a close… I just have to say - this show has such a special place in my heart. It was a massive part of my awakening journey in life and is so much more than just a show. It’s an encoded message for us all about liberation, truth, and freedom. Maybe this is just me, but I’ve had ayahuasca journeys that used the archetypes in this show to teach me lessons about myself. I can’t watch it without crying, and even writing this script brought me to tears more than a few times with just how beautiful and well presented these ideas are.

Thank you, Gurren Lagann, for being such a moving teacher in my life, and the lives of all those who connect with it. And thank you - for watching through this massive episode. I hope you enjoyed it thoroughly, and may this episode of Hidden Spirituality aid in your deepening of wisdom in all aspects of your life.

If you enjoyed this, and want to connect more in-depth, I might suggest exploring the seven-day transformation. Using a number of the same wisdom teachings found within this show, we have created a seven-day course that helps you create lasting change in your life to live a life free of the imposition and limitations upon you. If you connected with this episode, or any aspect of Spirit Science, consider checking this out by using this link or in the author's comments below.

Thank you again, be blessed, and we’ll see you again for something new, very soon!!

[lx-5point0-blog]

Universal LUBRX CHURCH

Initiating contact… LX – 5.0 Uploading… How I spent my summer vacation 2016 by John Driver "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" (Exodus 20:16). In the immortal words of B-A Barackus, Mr.-T A-Team, "I pity the fool." …….. 11-15-16 @ 11am Los Angeles, undisclosed area.. Dear members, In response to a sad situation I have recently been involved in as a test of my character, and the strength of my integrity, I have prepared a not too long piece, in hopes that it can make all of us a better person. The truest tests of character always come with great adversity, strong temptation, or the amassing of personal power. We sell ourselves out when we perceive that the promise of temptation, and immediate gratification, is greater than the risk of the negative consequence. Even when we are aware of the price we may have to pay for it. An example of a lack of ethics perhaps. By looking at a persons actions, some may perceive this to be. A judge of character must be made by another of stronger character, but, remember this, Character can be GOOD, and, it can BAD, as well. Some like to deal in the 50 shades of gray on this subject. I do not. Also, integrity. Integrity is NOT the state of honesty. Integrity is the ability to hold water. The solidity of the vessel. Translation: Are you gonna perform the character that you posses the same way every time when faced with adversity? Therefore; a person of BAD character can posses integrity, as can a person of GOOD character can posses integrity. No gray exists in that sense of the words. All of us display solidity of character when we deal patiently and mindfully with adversity. Some do not see the value of suffering, but it is what strengthens our core as Men. Instant gratification and instant relief deprive, or rob, our age of man of the source to actually build and strengthen our character. I welcome the challenge, the confrontation, the test, as it gives me a sense of energy in my soul every time. In my Humbleness as a Man, I came to a biblical resolution to the actions of another Christian brother, of whom has attempted to take my freedom from me, as they did Brother John the Apostle. He attempts have an authority, behead me, and place it up high. It is very unsportsmanlike in my opinion. In fact, if I am not mistaken(insert sarcasm font here), it is rather... Warlike. Today, as I am driving my car out on the highway, the turnpike, directed my true path, through the Badlands, of a stream of consciousness I have. As it did in the past, in the Lost Hills of the Wilderness. I recall the power of all the energies, and, the collective beliefs of the good, and, the kind. Reminding me, my abilities are mine, and, no one else. Responsibility for actions, Is in MY possession, and, NO ONE else. Therefore, I, am in control of EVERYTHING, I am. Brother Charles, Rest In Peace, said it so, precisely, well," BELIEVE." Because, to "know" is to believe. As a Minister of theology, universally, and, with an education in Fire Science, I have put to work, what I know, and, consulted with my "Father. The omnipotent... I am." You know who I am referring to, I hope. I mean, I understand, there are a few of my fellow Christian brothers, and sisters, that may, mmm, backslide a bit on their ethics at times, or, only think of the subject on Sunday's. It's alright. You are still a great person. I am meek, so, a little something about myself many of you nose-bleeders may not be privy to. The Human condition derives its power from a belief, that something greater than ourselves is the way to survival and happiness. I am human. And an awesome one at that. I also can humiliate myself way better than anyone else can, and, I can tell bad jokes, as well. My imagination is pretty vivid. I write and I am an author, too. I have a condition only 1% of the human race. Oh, and I can defend myself, and protect others with amazing results, also. I am a warrior of energy and light. A spirit of FIGHT. And of compassion. Empathy. Kindness. Oh, and a Good Samaritan. So, the word is strong, and, by example, our true character is judged. "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord" (Romans 12:19). "For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffetted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an EXAMPLE, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, WHEN HE WAS REVILED, REVILED NOT AGAIN; when he suffered, HE THREATENED NOT; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously" (I Peter 2:20-22). “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake” (Matthew 5:11). The old nature, the fallen nature, will always tend to the sins of the flesh and these are contrary to the Spirit, we know that. The new nature imparted by Christ Jesus will produce the fruit of the Spirit, which fruit is contrary to the sins of the flesh, we know that too (Galatians 5:16-24). But, how often do we yield to the flesh rather than the Spirit when we are attacked or otherwise set upon by an injurious accusation coming from someone unscrupulous enough to not establish the facts in the matter? Remember that when we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be like Christ in how we respond to things like false accusation. "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof" (Romans 13:14). The Lord Jesus Christ took upon Himself the mantle of meekness. When He was reviled, He reviled not again. He was meek and lowly. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am MEEK and LOWLY in heart: and ye shall find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:29). And understand that meekness is not weakness. It is strength, for God honors the meek in spirit, and upholds those who would depend upon Him in the clearing of any unjust matter. The man who will chose to not defend himself against the unjust accusations of others is taking the position of meekness and humility leaving the matter in God's hands alone for His resolution. When a brother or sister is falsely accused, and matters are taken into one's own hands, pride and arrogance will follow, leading to a bad case of bitterness and anger. Translation: Malicious behavior with an agenda of only destroying a persons life is usually an excuse for a caveman to crush his skull. Usually, ending up in Life without parole. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: THE LORD REWARD HIM according to his works" (II Timothy 4:14. "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord" (Romans 12:19). God will honor those who honor Him, and the false accuser will find that his wrongdoing will come down upon his own head. God knows how to clear the just, and in time He will do that. In the meantime, it is important that we pray for those who have falsely accused us, and have made themselves our enemies. Let us guard our own hearts against this sin, and let us deal with false accusation in a manner that pleases the Lord. Have an awesome day, JL That being said… there is more… Tactics used against a victim of harassment or more clearly defined recently , is PsychoTerror. Perfected by Scientologists and the L Ron Hubbard doctrine, are: • Sleep deprivation (a step required to achieve brain washing according to Russian documents) • Noisy investigations / accusations(a cowardly, in my opinion, tactic of defaming a victim without ever coming into contact with a person) • Arrogant (shit eating grin-a subconscious method of the absence of humility)) • Mimic(meant to disrupt/ or a want to be something other than ones self; cops dream of being Outlaws) • Up bridge (Image/ status/ success perceived) • Kennesaw, GA (Location and proximity of past residence and employment is a trail of the crime in all cases.) REVENGE is entirely a feminine trait. REVENGE is sweetest served up cold. I personally do not seek revenge, but, do seek to even the score, impose STREET justice, put my hands on them, but, my hands are my words, and my words are weapons of humility. That being said, I do not ever chase or hunt, instead prefer to trap. Patience is key to successfully trapping the perpetrator. I've already mentally imagined the encounter, for life is like a wheel, and whatever goes around, comes around. The inevitability of the encounter is highly likely. The network or social connections, prove that we all know each other, or, if you know the right seven people, you are connected to everyone on the planet. This is the reason I choose kindness and honesty, live and respect. Somebody I have never met before is some how a friend of a friend of an associate to a relative, and so on. It is my Legacy I am creating. I prefer to find the strengths in people, and if it is good, dwell on this. I know who I am and I am forever learning daily of new subjects. The human race is one race and racism is not a condition I participate in. I am colorblind, literally and figuratively. I am only 1% of males in the world with this brand of visual deficiency or an Evolutionary Mutation an Adaptation. It is considered to be an assets to overcome and see through objects which are camouflaged. Just an interesting point I would like to add. In the human race, and the species of homosapiens, I believe the female is the smartest of the two. Why? Because the emotional and subconscious blinders that men have do not exist in women. Therefore, they do not need testosterone. The power of suggestion is the strength of the most intelligent ones. These times and situations are changing to allow the woman to excel and produce far more than the male. Some women, even believe they do not need one man. And that marriage is a trick, and an unnecessary social brainwash. I know of a woman that believes this is true. And she convinced her parents of this, and to assist her in a purchase of a home. Our paths crossed during the occupancy of that time, and it taught me a valuable lesson of why it is necessary to never assume anything about someone you have recently just met. And that everyone, is up to something. Without a doubt in my mind. It's just relative to the degree of good or bad. But they are doing it, or thinking it, or even talking about it. Some are special patient creative and selfish in their methods. Some will attempt to talk you around and around, or just out in out lie, believing they have convinced you of something that is not reality, in an attempt to create another more suitable for them. Excerpts from Sermon on the Mount: Matthew, Chapter 5-7: 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. The Fulfillment of the Law 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.19Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Murder 21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. 23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you,24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. 25 “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.26Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. Eye for Eye 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.40And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.41If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.42Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. Treasures in Heaven 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.23But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Judging Others 1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brotherʼs eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brotherʼs eye. 6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. 9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. The Narrow and Wide Gates 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. True and False Prophets 15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheepʼs clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?17Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. The Wise and Foolish Builders 24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” 28When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. Stay Strong, John T. Lober, Minister of the Universal Life Church ©COPYRIGHTED ™LUBRXbrand ®UNIVERSALlifeCHURCH