Alias has time-travelled to the year 2050. The world is largely intact and functional. All the false predictions have been postponed. The space aliens are now scheduled to land in 2080. Everything runs on clean, renewable energy. All waste is recycled leaving the earth in pristine condition. Alias steps into the shoes of a knowledgeable man. He has studied hard and he participates in a quiz show.
To his disappointment, all participants are handed a mobile phone. Points are scored by the speed one can look up the answers, for this is the only function contemporary brains are capable of. Most of the human brain has been made redundant and substituted with apparatus. Literature has been phased out and condemned to nostalgia. The first question is: Who monitored the telescreens in George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’? Alias, now a learned man, instantly replies: “Big Brother” and he is disqualified for self-thought, which is considered immoral and un-ethical. He wonders what the world would be like in 2084 and he travels back to 2020. Back home with his wife, they decide to make yet another attempt on having a baby. Not that there was any medical reason for the lack of success in this matter. The problem was that longstanding popular opinion stressed that for having a baby, conditions must be perfect, or else, it would be too hard to handle. As we know, Alias, even though now a learned man, was a follower not a leader. To no surprise, populism was like a religion to him. He had previously convinced his wife to halt starting a family when there was talk about a looming recession. On another instant it was the threat of the zika virus in South America. Then, an earthquake in Japan generated doomsday predictions. Not to mention a volcanic eruption on the other side of the earth. All this was constantly overshadowed by climate change. Alias and his wife certainly didn’t want their child to experience life in a catastrophic, few extra degrees celsius. So, they both fast forwarded their existence back to the future, namely the year 2050. The current seemingly favourable conditions finally allowed them to become happy parents. Gradually it dawned on them that the world was still governed by middle aged, geriatric high school bullies, dictators who didn’t realise they were a thing of the past and should be condemned to the dark history books. Alias and his wife realised having overlooked that law was still abused by corrupt judges, hence ‘crime still ruled’ and they feared for their child’s future.
Alias
International mental health month, October 2020, will soon fade off into sunset but the sun of the enormously powerful human mind will keep shining for those who seek it. Read the sad story of Alias, who rejected the light and draw your own conclusions.
ALIAS
There was a man named Alias. His name allowed him to step into anyone’s boots and adopt their personality, gender, race, or ethnicity. The world lay at his feet. He was destined for a meaningful, exciting life of freedom, prosperity and all the good things the world has to offer, but Alias was a busy man.
Personally, he had no time to try anything outside the square of the daily routine. He was complacent, and had no time for truth because his world view, which he was busy guarding, served him ‘just fine’. He had neither the desire nor the time to try and understand the make-up of his world view, hence he didn’t realise it was actually created by other people’s interests and ambitions. He ignored the angel of truth, who came to visit regularly and vividly portrayed the real world right in front of Alias’s eyes. Alias had no opinion on most topics, but he enthusiastically supported those who did, without questioning their integrity. He even committed acts of violence on their behalf. After all, they seemed to know what they are doing, and their vociferous speeches and slogans conveyed a sense of competence, assurance, and self-righteousness. Alias was scared of freedom, because he didn’t like making his own decisions, except for election time, when he voted for the party that promised him the highest financial benefits. Alias felt secure and comfortable in groups of people no matter what their purpose of association was. He disliked challenges, and he only spoke up in support of and backed up his peer group. Alias began to experience re-occurring periods of unexplained sadness, but being the complacent man he was, he ignored what was happening within. As we know, he wasn’t interested in anything outside his world view’s curriculum, which did not cater for anything psychological, other than how to utilise your mind for academic and commercial success. At work, others got the job done while Alias sought success in self-promotion, an obsession he vigorously cultivated. He chose books by their cover but never read much of the content. According to his world view, reading was for wimps. Non-fiction was too scary for him. He found it more comforting to watch movies, mainly fantasy, because thinking wasn’t exactly his favourite activity.
His sadness worsened and occurred more frequently. His loved ones and acquaintances, some of whom had experienced and overcome depression themselves, noticed something wrong, offered advice and recommended beneficial literature, but he found it all too hard to follow. Alias wasn’t stupid. He understood that to solve a problem, you have to know, at least to some degree, the nature of the problem and it’s mechanisms, then take control of the situation at hand. His handicap was that he did not want to know how the human mind works and what was causing his depression. He believed that real men don’t get involved in those ‘girly things’. So he battled on, trying to escape his emotions, keeping busy ‘doing things’. The more things he did, the more drained and lonely he felt. He was afraid of going to sleep and the nightmares awaiting him. The days were no better. Nothing made sense and nothing was normal. There was only emptiness. After Alias survived a suicide attempt, he was treated for clinical depression. As part of the therapy, the psychologist introduced him to wonderful preventative methods for mental agony, such as change of life-style, relaxation, meditation techniques and education which Alias had previously heard of but fiercely rejected. Alias responded: ”If only I had known”.
After the Monster Storm
In the wake of a predicted ‘five day monster storm’, which proved to be no match even for the ‘cookie monster’ from the Muppet show, in other words: “it failed to eventuate”, I have lapsed into one of my frequently occurring contemplative moods. While my mind hovers through various planes of consciousness in search of truth, the haze clears, revealing vivid images on the horizon. I see reality TV is progressing well in reverse gear, turbo charged with decadence and its role model examples of bad behaviour.
A memory flash brings to light the many Americans I met on my travels who firmly believed, that the greatest desire of humanity was ‘to live in America’; makes me think: they couldn’t have envisaged the rise of Donald Trump!
Now my mind’s eye journeys back to a ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’ magazine that was left in my letterbox many years ago. It depicted resurrected people contented and happily working on a farm. There was no sign of a tractor or any other work assisting machinery. Well, I grew up doing farming but the JWs obviously didn’t. Let me try and get this right: Do I have to be a good boy in this life, make all sorts of sacrifices and live under heavily dictated restrictions, only to be rewarded with fucking back breaking farming for eternity? Perhaps I should sin a bit more than usual to avoid such a miserable fate. Suddenly, some of my brain cells bring to my attention that laughter is still the best medicine.
Distracted by the reality of the presence, I read that Xi Jinping has promised that all the Chinese people will live in prosperity by 2050. What an interesting notion, seeing that the climate apocalypse is re-scheduled for the same year and so is a manned mission to Mars. Is ‘Ping Pong’ planning an Exodus? If he is, the ‘Red Planet’ Mars will have to be re-named the ‘Yellow Planet’. Oops, this remark may brand me a racist. Well, who cares! I am more concerned about the clearly marked ‘4 litre’ can of paint I bought, which actually contained only 3.5 litres, written inconspicuously in very fine print on the stick-on label. Without warning, one part of my brain drifts back to Mars and asks: “Why would anyone want to travel all that way?” Couldn’t we simply follow many of the earth’s leading figures who appear to be already living on some other planet.
Gradually the air pressure drops, arthritis kicks in affecting the old brain in a rather unpleasant manner. A body in pain won’t let the mind immerse in deep thought, so I stop writing, rise to the occasion and vigorously scrub the house floor seeking relief in distraction while I sing the ‘back pain blues’.
Thoughts keep rolling on and I see myself in the ‘not so distant’ future, shocked, running a ‘go fund me campaign’ for the sick old pensioner I now am, desiring some privileges and luxuries I cannot afford. The ‘day-dream nightmare’ vanishes when I realize that this is totally out of character. Though, if I had no conscience, I would start up my own ‘MBM Church’ (Mind, Body & Money in the preacher’s pockets). While my mind still dwells on retirement, I realize that I don’t have a bucket list. Having ‘been there-done that’ in many more ways than one, I feel no need to stress about ticking off items during the final era of my life. I will take one day at a time and go wherever life takes me, though there is one item I will have to complete: ‘To kick the bucket’, but I am compelled to outsource the ticking-off.
On Mental Health
Besides the increased level of attention mental health has been receiving in recent years and even more so during the current corona virus crisis, I find that the ‘social soil’ is very poor, a breeding ground for mental illness. The focus is treatment driven with little or no education on prevention.
Stress and anxiety, both conspicuous and silent are promoted in our hyperactive society that blindly runs ‘full speed ahead’ on overdrive.
Good news is quickly killed off by anxiety provoking horror predictions, quoting anonymous or fictitious experts. Constant, persistent panic mongering prevails, so does cut-throat competition in all aspects of daily life. Express learning and achievement leave us no ‘time to breathe’.
People ask for answers, seeking effortless solutions that only exist within their own fertile imagination. Help comes in vain when people don’t want to be helped but supported in ruining their lives with drugs and mind mutilating habits. Help often comes in the form of advice, which calls for effort, the reason why it is mostly ignored in the present ‘age of entitlement’.
‘Evil flourishes when good people do nothing’. Stress-based mental illness flourishes when people are too complacent and ignore the symptoms, as I did many years ago, eventually burned out and hit ‘rock bottom’.
Find out how I utilised the ‘enormously powerful human mind’ and travelled the journey of and far beyond recovery, becoming enriched with invaluable knowledge and insight, which I now share with the world, helping people to cultivate and maintain good mental health.
Read my book: “Journey of Life”, especially Chapter 3 Anxiety and Chapter 15 Relaxation. Download from this website.
“I consider myself not only cured, but also more content, healthier and happier than ever before”. (‘Journey of Life’ Chapter 3 Anxiety).
“The future is bright for those who are willing to make an effort to live in it, and it starts now”.
The author wishes to assure the reader that the use of the personal pronouns ‘he’ or ‘she’ does not imply the exclusion of any person.
The Traveller
The traveller doesn’t shy an alien, for he himself is one wherever he goes. As a white European in Africa, the Middle East and Asia I was mostly met with curiosity and hospitality rather than discrimination or apathy.
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehn, good-bye is all an integral component of travelling. The traveller, desensitised, keeps his cool and ‘hits the highway’.
The traveller blends in, adapts and integrates wherever he goes. Home is wherever he hangs his hat. His mind dwells nowhere in particular. Like a martial artists’ mind, it flows like water in the river of freedom.
The traveller knows the game of life. He is a freelancer who embraces truth and faces reality on the front line of life, taking full responsibility for his actions. Unattached to any organisation, he finds his own way out of trouble or he simply perishes. He may share breakfast with beggars and dine with kings, he eats alone or not at all.
With no familiar door to knock on, he endures rejection and enjoys hospitality. The traveller will never settle, though he may establish a base from which to radiate into the world. Once flesh and bones deny him, his aura transcends into an elevated realm of motion.
The traveller never runs away from anything, he just moves on for no particular reason to the tune of the ‘highway blues’, riding the wind of intuition, divine guidance and destiny.
Like a passionate truckie, the traveller knows that life is a highway, more spiritual than bound to matter, that eventually evaporates into the clouds of heaven.
The traveller endures the bad times and savours the good. Neither the horrors nor the pleasures of the world are foreign to him.
The suffering of the species bears no hindrance, but compassion to the traveller. He remains calm in times of crisis.
When you mindfully travel the way, you live life to the fullest, knowing that all the ups and downs will balance out. You have won all your battles and made the greatest conquest of them all; that of your own mind.
“Keep on Travelling”
In observant contemplation
In observant contemplation I find:
• Confirmation that the human capacity for self-delusion is infinite (Albert Einstein);
• The stupidification of society is well in progress;
• Some people are seeking re-education in the neo-faculties of common sense, logic, and other basics, through quick fix lectures and courses;
• The voice of a singer at a karaoke bar is all but drowned out by pre-recorded music, the same goes for democracy;
• Most bestsellers are little more than well marketed rubbish, rated by corrupt insiders, who are harbouring a conflict of interest; people read or watch them, simply because they are best sellers;
• Some leftist atheists make it their life mission, (or lifestyle), to support radical, self-centred, monotheistic extremists whom they have never met;
• Viruses have become political;
• To some, looting and vandalism is now a protest not a crime;
• Preachers of truth are ignored, hated, and persecuted.
We live in an age of reverse contrast, an era in which the intoxicated are the sober and the sober are the drunk – drunk on hype, paranoia, sensationalism or fanaticism. The once discriminated have become discriminators of convenience. A social divide lies between those who think for themselves and those who don’t. Metaphorically, some people’s skulls resemble corona viruses, which are empty shells. Unlike these human skulls, the viruses are packed with information. Man is turning into beast through brainwash, false religion, and mental and moral decay and perversion, such as mob rule. Everything works in cycles, we have almost reached the peak in various ways, where the mind has been weakened to the point of collapse, by external and/or internal forces. People hate change more than anything else, this is an ideal time for doomsday prepers and panic merchants to maintain their present life-style; they have no plan B or C etc. ‘One day of circuses is soon forgotten, a hundred days of circuses are remembered forever’. The connection between technology and humanity is out of balance, with technology driving humanity to extinction. In a functioning world, both compliment each other. To commit a crime is now a mistake, not a decision. We worry about bullying at school while we tolerate ‘Role Model Bullies’ like China and corporate thugs and crooks threatening the world. The greater picture of truth is approaching completion, but no-one takes note.
Music in exotic places
Drifting off, my mind wanders back to a summer evening in 1980 when a group of us volunteers linger around a campfire in Kibbutz Misgav-Am in upper Galilee, Israel. We enjoy the moment, absorbing the calmness of the evening after a week of continuous cross border shelling and bombardment.
Guitar music fills the air to the tune of all the alleluia lyrics, alternating with rock’n’roll, blues and country music, which becomes increasingly more pleasant to the ears, the more we indulge on cheap beer, wine, vodka and Israeli brandy.
Having reached a higher state of oblivion, a drunken Dutchman throws his empty bottle into the darkness with great pitching skills. Shortly after and unannounced, our concert is interrupted by search lights and an army unit on night guard, who expect to find terrorist insurgents from Lebanon. Their search proves fruitless, there is no sign of any attempted border crossing.
What they do find, is the Dutchman’s empty bottle, which has hit the electric wire on the Lebanese border fence, only ten metres from where we are sitting and triggered off the alarm.
Every performer knows that ‘the show must go on’, so we compose a song: “Dutchman throws the bottle away – Alleluia”, where it falls, he has no say, “Allelu-u-ia”…
Cry Freedom
Living in a democratic society we imagine that we are free. Business and media Guru’s tell us we are free in that we buy their commodities and/or services. Governments are trying hard to make us believe we are free as long we support them and their policies. The rock band ‘Queen’ sang: “I want to break free”, though questions arise: Do we really understand the concept of freedom? In fact, do we really want to be free? In my view freedom is born, lives, evolves and rests more internally than on the external and superficial spectrum. ‘True freedom has few takers’. It is a state of mind that comes with a responsibility and it requires change from existing mindsets. This calls for effort, the reason why most people rather dwell in the misery of their comfort zone than try and liberate themselves. For a profound and extensive, yet simple and compact view on freedom, download now and read ‘Real Bold & Simple’ chapter 3 (Born to be Free). “Freedom is not a privilege granted to us by someone else or some authority, but a basic human right which we inherit at birth”.
Happy Easter
Dear Members of the Australian Taekwondo Academy Marmion Coast. Conditioning is an integral component of the Martial arts. The unusual situation we presently find ourselves in offers an excellent opportunity to enhance the conditioning of our Martial Arts mind, in that it posts yet another picture in the album of our life experiences. Amidst the global medical threat we face, we have to deal with unprecedented panic, uncertainty and high levels of anxiety. The answer is: Take some time out, practice your techniques and patterns, grappling defense, hand sparring, kick sparring and free sparring. All this can be done in a visualised version. It requires your undivided attention, taking focus away from all the troubles of a confused world. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a very Happy Easter, from Brian and myself. God Bless
Hubert