The Power of Uncertainty

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If there’s one thing that COVID-times have brought us, it’s uncertainty. We wake up each morning wondering what unexpected changes are coming our way. Will there be work, will there be school, will there be money? Will we or our loved ones become sick or well? What governmental regulations will be imposed or lifted? Will there be flour or toilet paper at the grocery store? Will a COVID vaccine save us or harm us? Will we ever be allowed to travel and associate freely with others again?

Unfortunately, uncertainty is something we humans tend to dislike. We work very hard to cultivate the sense of safety that certainty can bring. But in our never-ending quest for more certainty, are we robbing ourselves of the very juiciness of life? At what price safety? At what price security? Those too, are questions we ponder each day in the times of COVID.

But what if uncertainty actually affords us even greater potential power?

I remember standing at a street corner as a child, waiting for the bus and not knowing when it would appear down the street. The anticipation and unknowing, and also, a kind of temporal space in which I could just look out at the world around me and take it all in. In contrast, today we may know exactly when a bus will arrive down to the second, thanks to a smart phone app. Since I (intentionally) don’t use a smart phone myself, I was unaware of this new capability until my son Izaak, who lives in Sydney, Australia, showed it to me. To him, knowing exactly when a bus will arrive is a wonderful convenience. To me it feels oddly unsettling. That level of certainty that is so characteristic of our too-much-information age feels unnatural and even imprisoning to me.

Now let’s consider the advantages of cultivating at least some degree of uncertainty in our lives. One of the things I love best about traveling is not knowing what will happen, what I will see, and how I will navigate it all. It’s invigorating and enlivening! Many of us have had the experience of spending a week on an exciting vacation and feeling like a month has gone by. It’s because of all that uncertainty, the newness and growth and unexpectedness of it all. Life becomes an adventure once again, much as it was for us when we were small children. Remember how summer vacations used to seem downright endless? Uncertainty and newness is actually youthifying.

Or consider sporting events. One of the wonderful and fun things about them is that we have no idea what will happen and who will win. Similarly, gamblers know that it is the uncertainty of the game that creates that rush of anticipation, possibility, and excitement. Similarly, soldiers who keep re-upping for another tour of duty know the addictive craving for uncertainty and even fear that the battlefield can bring. Without the potential for failure or even death, such intense experiences would be nullified.

Of course, another lesson of COVID-times is the wretched and depressing quality of monotony. If you’ve been mostly at home in 2020, have you noticed how quickly time has passed? Although our future may be uncertain “in the large,” how we live our lives each day has become increasingly predictable and confined. The unending certainty of our daily routines has become downright stifling. I recently heard a phrase that aptly describes this situation: the interminable interim. Many of us feel like our life potential is slowly and inexorably dripping down the drain. Drip, drip, drip. But introduce one tiny element of newness — a trip to a locale you’ve never been to, learning a new skill, or even trying a food you’ve never had before — can help break the spell.

But there is still more power lying within uncertainty than you might realize.

Think about it. Without uncertainty, no real change would be possible. As I discuss in my second book Active Consciousness,  at each moment in time, we are at a gateway of uncertainty. Which of the infinite possible futures will we step into next? It is uncertainty that enables our power to alter the course of our  individual and collective future. Moreover, it is often the seemingly minor or “insignificant” events that can create sudden and huge changes. Twenty years ago, who could have predicted the legalization of gay marriage swiftly spreading across the globe? Seemingly unmovable mountains of certainty can be shifted by just the right event at the right time. That’s the power of uncertainty.

As I describe in my first book Impossible Cure, it is this phenomenon that also enables the outsize power of homeopathy’s infinitesimal doses. How could a single dose of a substance that has been diluted and shaken into seeming nothingness dislodge a chronic disease of many years standing? It happens, and it happens surprisingly frequently in the practice of most homeopaths, because of the power of uncertainty.

Homeopaths understand that all living things are, at base, energetic beings. We have physical bodies, but these bodies are ultimately governed by our energetic state. You might think of yourself as a complex vibration that is unique to you. An intransigent disease can then be visualized as a state of vibration that you just can’t seem to shake. Somehow, you’ve gotten wedged into a vibration that creates arthritis, chronic pain, allergies and other sensitivities, or depression, and you can’t break free of it. You feel stuck and blocked, and it seems like the only certainty is needing to take an unending stream of palliative medicines for the rest of your life.

But always, there is the ever-arising current moment, the Now. The power of homeopathic remedies lies in the ability of a minute dose of vibration, a vibration that is very similar to your wedged vibrational state, to shift you onto another, less likely, path into the future. That’s why this form of healing is called “homeo-pathy” — which literally means “similar suffering”. The homeopath’s job is to find the best-matching similar remedy that will provide that critical trigger. It’s not always easy to do and it’s not always easy to apply in practice. But it is at least possible — because of the power of uncertainty.

How can we apply this homeopathic principle to heal our current collective world-state of suffering? The very nature of COVID itself provides us with a clue. After all, if the entire world is experiencing similar physical, emotional, mental, and behavioral symptoms at the same time, these symptoms must somehow be significant. I wrote an article about this earlier in 2020.

It turns out that homeopaths all over the world have been very successful in treating COVID and have usually been able to keep their patients from needing hospitalization. (And as is true for most alternative approaches to COVID — and even some allopathic approaches — this curative information has been suppressed. Speculation about why this is happening could fill another article or two!) Homeopaths have also been compiling information about the strategies and remedies that have been successful in global databases. By analyzing this information, it has emerged that many of these remedies are associated with symptoms of loss — and not just physical forms of loss (e.g., loss of oxygen), but emotional ones as well.

Now think about the state of our planet. Loss of habitat, loss of species, loss of hope for the future in the face of looming climate disaster. Is it any wonder that we are manifesting a global disease pandemic that is reflecting an energetic state of loss? And how could we apply the homeopathic principle to remedy our predicament?

One option would be to give everyone a dose of an appropriate homeopathic remedy. Another would be to use a method that it utilized by psychological support groups. In particular, sharing our experiences and feelings with others who are going through the same thing is actually a psychological form of homeopathy — like vibrations cure like vibrations.

Of course, I’m not suggesting that we intentionally wallow in loss. I’m talking about truly facing and hopefully learning and growing from our loss rather than running away from it. Indeed, could the emergence of COVID itself be Gaia’s way of healing the planet from the intense loss that was already underway, long before 2020? It’s possible, and only time will tell — if we ultimately experience a global form of healing as a result of it. If so, we may also experience other common symptoms of the healing process along the way (known to all alternative practitioners): an initial aggravation of symptoms (which we might be going through right now), discharges of various kinds in order to clear toxins, an increased need for rest, an enhanced self-awareness of the various delusions we have been carrying, and more. Sound familiar?

As we move forward into 2021, let us remember that the power of uncertainty is our ever-present and available saving grace. And, as I also point out in Active Consciousness, it is ultimately our own state of consciousness that determines how we navigate and    experience the future as it unfolds. In other words,  consciousness literally is the tool we use to wield the power of  uncertainty. If we constantly think about dire and bleak futures, we will be much more likely to manifest them. Or if we simply give up and abdicate our lives to circumstance and the dictates of the powers-that-be, we rob ourselves of our innate power to create something different.

Instead, let’s use the power of uncertainty to create a better future. And don’t forget that when we do so collectively, this creative power becomes even greater. Let’s envision and create the 2021 we would like to see, together.

How Much Is Too Much?

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How much is too much?  That seems to be a question that keeps coming up these days, in one form or another. 

How much surveillance is too much surveillance? How much money is too much money? How many immigrants are too many immigrants? How much state control is too much state control? How much freedom is too much freedom? How much population is too much population? How much food is too much food? How much medicine is too much medicine? How much safety is too much safety? How many mandatory vaccines are too many mandatory vaccines? How much parental control is too much parental control? How much nudity is too much nudity? How much alcohol is too much alcohol?

I could go on and on. The answer depends on where and when you live and what the norms of society are. Not too long ago, it was about how much women’s rights is too much women’s rights? Or, how much tolerance of different religions is too much tolerance?

We take many things for granted now and expect certain things, like our freedom of movement or expression. But norms are always changing. Social perceptions of propriety and safety change over time. As they do, friction can arise and increase until some threshold is met — and then big shifts happen and new norms are born. Women gain the right to vote, own property, and control whether or not they have a child. The divine right of monarchs or the inherent superiority of one group of people over another is questioned and then toppled. But freedoms won can also be lost. Thus, tolerance of philosophical or religious opposition to medical interventions (like vaccines) can be withdrawn, based on perceptions of public safety, whether these perceptions are valid or not.

In general, a key factor that can foster change is our inherent human sense of fairness. And especially, when something personally affects us adversely, we start opposing it. If your child has been injured by a vaccine and you don’t have the right to sue your doctor or the manufacturer, you get angry. If you then can’t can’t protect your other children (or that same child) from further vaccinations without taking them out of school and losing their right to an education — and perhaps even needing to move to another state, you get even more angry. And when this happens to enough people — say, a majority of families — something will be done. That’s why I predict that the recent mandated vaccine juggernaut that is affecting more and more states in the USA will end, one way or another, within the next 10-20 years. But in the meantime, people will suffer.

So do we need to wait until a majority of people are suffering (with respect to any kind of issue) in order to take action? Or can we do something sooner? Only if people are aware of what’s going on. When we see police killing unarmed black people on our cell phone, then it suddenly becomes clear that police brutality has gone too far — whereas before, enough people weren’t sufficiently aware of it to be spurred into action. 

That’s why freedom of the press is essential. That’s why it’s part of the first amendment to the Constitution. If we aren’t aware of what’s going on, we can’t feel it and react to it. And that’s why those who want to exert control over others do all they can to block free access to information. That’s the reason for state-controlled and corporate-controlled press and media.

Unfortunately, that’s also the reason why there is an increasing amount of censorship on the internet today. Most of us still believe that the internet is an open free for all, with the Google search engine indexing it all for us and allowing us to call it up on demand, like an infinite and fair library of the world. Indeed, it started out that way! But things have changed dramatically over the past few years. Under the guise of alleviating or saving us from “fake news from Russia”, whole swaths of information are now blocked from your view, especially on mainstream forums like Google, YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, etc. I’ve been seeing this for a few years now, and I’ve even been the victim of it.

My first true realization of this shift occurred in mid 2019. At that point, Google changed their search engine so that it “disappeared” various forms of content. The stated excuse was to filter out “fake news”. The content that I personally noticed  disappearing pertained to alternative medicine and health — even on seemingly innocuous  subjects like diet and supplements. The top-ranked and most trusted website on alternative approaches to health, Mercola.com, was demoted, overnight, so that its links now appeared on, say, page 20 or 30 in a search result, whereas before they would have appeared on page one. I also saw the effects on searches that pertained to me and my writings about homeopathy and autism. In response, I switched my search engine to DuckDuckGo.com (which provided fairer results) and moved on. (Much thanks to Charles Eisenstein who pointed to this search engine in one of his articles.)

Unfortunately, ever since COVID-times began, things have dramatically escalated. At the onset of COVID, information now was being blocked on subjects like the utility of vitamin C or any holistic approach to COVID treatment. Alternative practitioners, like naturopaths, were even asked by their own professional associations not to talk to their clients or write about the importance of  bolstering ones inherent immunity. And just recently, several alternative health sites (like Mercola.com) were completely censored on Google search — many of them sites I personally trust and visit frequently. There are also an increasing number of warnings on sites like Facebook and Youtube, alerting users that this kind of content is “suspect”. Email from alternative health sites is also increasingly filtered out by spam filters, since these filters tend to be created by organizations that share their information across many platforms.

Of course, Wikipedia has been actively attacking this kind of information for ages. The pages on any form of alternative medicine, including popular ones like chiropractic, are essentially hit pieces on those subjects. If you try to edit any of this information, your changes are attacked and removed by an army of watch-dog “editors”. It would be a full-time job to fend them off and in the end, you’d fail. They are essentially the thought police. 

I gave up on Wikipedia years ago. There used to be a short page about me and my work in both computer science and homeopathy. Ultimately, so much content was “removed” from my Wikipedia page (despite an effort to defend it by a top Wikipedia editor) that it essentially became content free and was unilaterally removed. To tell you the truth, I was relieved. I truly don’t trust Wikipedia at all anymore, and certainly not if it’s about a subject that’s controversial in any way. You shouldn’t either!

For years, I’ve accepted the censorship and unfair degradation of homeopathy because homeopathy has always suffered these kinds of attacks. The mantra that there is “no scientific evidence for homeopathy” is repeated by the media ad nauseum, despite hundreds of positive studies, including ones on animals and even cell cultures. Homeopaths have always been resigned to it. They just sigh and carry on. It’s kind of like how women have always had to grin and bear the sexism they experience. We just sigh and carry on. But the lies and censorship have become more widespread and extreme, and it’s not just about homeopathy anymore. It’s not even just about vaccines anymore. And I keep asking myself — why is this happening?

Is it because Google is greedy and is now actively invested in the pharmaceutical industry? Is it truly a plot by people like Bill Gates who want to control us and make money off of us? In general, I chalk such things up to a series of random events that people decide to take advantage of — like the government establishing the surveillance state after 9-11. Was 9-11 a false flag operation created to allow for this, or just an opportunity for those who wanted to seize more control in the name of security? Was COVID hatched up by drug companies in order to exert more control over our health and track us, or just a great opportunity to do so?

I don’t know the answer to this, but I suspect that serendipity, human stupidity and error, greed, and shortsightedness are the usual reasons. And things can certainly get very bad — until enough of us find out about it (if we can) or are personally affected by it and rebel.

The essential point of this article is that the most important thing we need to do right now is to loosen the censorship that has taken hold of us. One form of censorship is blocking information. But another form is skewing it; in particular, the information presented to us is deliberately “curated” so that it is ostensibly more of “interest” to us. Outlets like Google and Facebook are actively doing both and it has definitely contributed to the silo-ing and polarization of our world. 

Yes, Google and Facebook are private companies and therefore can claim the “right” to do what they want. Or do they have this right? Have these companies essentially become utilities, like the phone company? Can they legally skew our access? That is the essential question, and that’s why I’m so glad that courageous people like RFK, Jr. are finally mounting law suits to question this kind of power.  In fact, just after I wrote this article, I watched a new video by RFK, Jr. on this very subject. I recommend you check it out and watch this brave man in action (before Youtube decides to remove it!)

In summary, I believe that if we don’t loosen this censorship in its many forms, things will continue to get more and more oppressive until the only solution is outright revolution. I hope it doesn’t come to that! But revolution can take many forms, not necessarily violence in the street. One form of revolt is taking hold of your own awareness and your own mind and refusing to participate in the madness as best you can. We can be like the Russians who learned to block the surveillance bugs in their apartment by playing loud music, or who passed around bootlegged copies of forbidden Beatles music. For goodness sake, remove all those various “dots” around your house! I can’t fathom how people have been cajoled into buying and placing listening devices into their homes.

As for me, I’ve always refused to keep my email in the cloud (I still download it “old style” onto my computer and do all the backing up myself), nor do I use a smart phone except for emergencies. Did you know that Google reads the contents of all gmail, supposedly for neutral “advertising” purposes?  And that your cell phone is tracked at all times when it’s on? 

While today’s surveillance has become much more insidious and difficult to avoid, your resistance is possible. And if the lessons of the past are still applicable, eventually the tide will shift, one way or another.

Personally, I tend to be an optimist and believe that things will progress in the right direction in the long term. We are awakening, as a global community, with respect to many things — LGBTQ rights, the BLM and “Me Too” movements, and more. Things certainly have improved in many areas in my own lifetime. And soon there will be a greater awareness of what I’m calling the “techno-pharma cabal” too. We need to take the long view, putting things in historical context. As Ken Wilber has stressed, things tend to evolve, not devolve. It’s just not a straight line as it happens. Two steps forward, one step back.

Finally, I  tend to have a spiritual view of what’s going on, trusting in what Great Spirit has in store for us. That doesn’t mean I don’t have days when I’m depressed, scared, and need to take a swig of wine to get to sleep. But I also believe that the ultimate goodness of the human soul will win the day. I also know that my thoughts and beliefs do have an impact on the greater whole, so I try to visualize the future I want, not dwell on apocalyptic scenarios.

What do you think?

When Will This All End?

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We are all asking ourselves that question right about now!

In the first couple of months of our “COVID Adventure,” it seemed a bit exciting and even interesting. Of course, there was suffering too, but we all felt engaged in a global joint effort. We learned new routines and many of us got into new diversions and interests. We thought it would last for a few months and then life would get back to normal.

Now that it seems this experience will go on for at least many more months, and perhaps even another year or two, we’re all wondering how long it will last, how we’ll fare on a personal level, and what the outcome for our society will be.

Naturally, most of us have adapted to life under COVID. That’s what humans are really good at — adapting. And in some places around the world, things may even be more or less back to normal, at least from a day-to-day perspective. In other areas, like where I live in northern California, restrictions have not eased very much since the end of May. It feels like we’re living in a perpetual twilight zone of indeterminate length. But no matter where you live, you probably feel the global collective energy of suffering that envelops us all.

So when will this end? This must be answered on two levels – on the personal and on the global level. For both, the answer is essentially the same: This will continue until what is no longer brings suffering.

On a personal level, the COVID experience will end for you when your outer experience no longer seems onerous and your inner life feels more joyful once again. On a global level, this experience will end when the world goes through the same transition. How can we get there? I believe that we must achieve the first in order to achieve the second. That is, global healing will require more of us to be personally healed.

So how exactly do we do this?

To answer this question, we need to ask another: Why is this happening? Is it because a virus spread from a market in China or from a bioweapons lab? Is it the work of a cabal of technopharma evildoers?

I would like to suggest this: Blaming your suffering on external causes is a sure path to continued suffering,

Let’s entertain a new and deeper possibility, one that many in the spiritual community have been suggesting. Let’s try on a new theory about why this is happening:

Our current state of angst has been triggered by a spiritual energy whose underlying goal or purpose is to coax us individually and collectively into a shift in consciousness.

How it has manifested has taken many outward forms: the virus, fear of viruses, misguided notions about maintaining health, pollution, corporate and government corruption, greater awareness of racism and misogyny, climate disaster, and more. But outer circumstances have always triggered outer and inner forms of evolution. That is what and why this is happening now.

We all knew a change was coming. We didn’t know when, but the time is now.

Our next step is to acknowledge that each of us is reacting to these changes in a way that is unique to us. For some of us it is anger and impatience. For others it is fear, worry, depression, or guilt. Yet others choose the escape route and go into self-indulgence, self-drugging, or perhaps even suicide.

Your job is to recognize that your personal reaction to what is going on is your clue to the work you must now do.

Of course, this has always been true, even before COVID. But now it is critical that you engage with this truth.

Are you angry and impatient? Work on that. It’s likely been your go-to reaction to many things in life. Are you scared and anxious? Work on trust and letting go. Are you too drunk or stoned to even read this? Shake yourself back into consciousness. Are you sitting in blank depression? Get up and get going. Each of us has a job to do now.

To motivate you, I suggest that you begin by assuming that this is going to go on for at least until the end of 2021. Stop waiting for a vaccine or some other magic bullet to appear that will end your suffering. Assume that nothing will change for the next year or two.

Now, you have a choice.

1) Stay stuck in your current state and remain in pain and suffering for what might be years.

2) Heal your reaction to what’s going on, which is likely your typical reaction to many things in life, and evolve.

If you choose option 2, you will find that your personal process of healing will require you to do various things. Some will be outer actions. More important, though, will be inner processes of healing. For me, my tasks include going out more in nature, meditating more, getting back to my art and music, reducing my watching or reading content that stokes my fears, making more of an effort to socially connect and form bubbles with select friends and family, more healing work vis-a-vis my lifelong emotional habits, and building up my inner gratitude and trust. For you, it will mean other actions. Once you embark on this path, you will gradually become joyful again and your suffering will diminish on a personal level.

Finally, if enough of us choose option 2, the whole dynamic of the world will change. Perhaps we’ll share more of our personal resources with our neighbors. We’ll become more generous and less isolated. Governments will become less corrupt and violence will decrease. Global efforts to repair climate disaster will be energized. In other words, there will be a cascading effect and humanity will start doing what it needs to do to create a more joyful world.

So it’s up to you. And, it’s up to us.

Where There’s Fire There’s Smoke

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Greetings from California and the West Coast of the United States, land of fire and smoke. Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, those of us living in this part of the world have been visited by, first, unbelievable hot spells, then extremely rare lightning storms, and then rampant and huge fires accompanied by a blanket of smoky air. I myself was almost evacuated at one point due to the fire that raged on the San Francisco peninsula. Although it wasn’t the biggest fire in the state, it did cause some of the most damage to human life because it was in the most populated area, with about 1000 homes destroyed.

Thankfully, my husband and I were never evacuated, though we did have one set of friends who were evacuated for the same fire staying with us for a week. Now, just this past week, the Santa Rosa/Napa Glass Fire unfortunately claimed the home of another set of friends who are living with us while they get their bearings. One thing I can tell you — COVID recedes way into the back of ones consciousness during these experiences. They also put life and “possessions” in perspective.

We’ve lived in our home for nearly 40 years, so you can imagine — it’s chock full of possessions. During our own evacuation scare, we were all packed up and ready to flee, just in case. We also spent a day walking through our home thinking about the meaning or lack of meaning of all our “things” and what we’d do if we lost it all. At first we thought we might go northward to Oregon if we lost our home. That would have been a bad choice! Now the whole West Coast looks like burnt toast. Although our nearby fires are under control, we’ve had to stay inside because of the bad air and smoke. We even had one day that was so dark with smoke that it looked like it was night at 11am! Unfortunately, with climate disaster under way, the yearly fires, which have been growing steadily worse each year, are likely to continue and expand. We’re seriously contemplating relocating or at least buying some sort of “escape hatch” elsewhere. The recent loss of our friends’ home has only made that more clear.

I know this doesn’t have much to do with homeopathy, but while I have you here, I looked up the remedies recommended for smoke inhalation. In Murphy’s Repertory, the appropriate rubric is listed under: Toxicity, Vapors, Smoke inhalation. One of the number one remedies is Carbo Vegetabilis — not surprising! It’s made from burnt plants — vegetable charcoal. The full listing is as follows (note: italics, boldface, and capitalization all indicate various levels of importance or common use of the remedy for this symptom):

Bryonia, Calcarea Carbonica, Causticum, CARBO VEGETABILIS, Euphrasia, Natrum Muriaticum, Nux Vomica, Oleander, Sepia, SPIGELIA, Sulphur.

My Family’s COVID-19 Experience

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Today I am happy to report that my son Max, now 29 years old, has survived COVID-19 . Thankfully, his experience of the disease was no worse than a standard flu. I thought all of you might be interested in hearing about this experience, how homeopathy helped, and some lessons learned.

Max lives in Los Angeles and has worked for many years as a motion graphics artist, generally working in advertising for the movie and television industry. He spent March and April in lockdown on his own. For May and June, he came up north to the Bay Area (where my husband and I live) and stayed with us, but was anxious to return to LA at the end of June. Unfortunately, this was also when cases started to surge there.

Like many young people, Max wanted to get back to some semblance of his normally active social life. While he had been very careful about social distancing before he came up north, he became more lax upon his return to LA. He marched in a Black Lives Matter protest (that’s not where he got it) and started seeing some friends.

Max started feeling sick on July 25. He called all his recent contacts and they all got tested. Based on the results, it looks like Max got COVID from a friend who came to his apartment and was an asymptomatic carrier. Max later gave it to another friend the day before he felt sick. Happily, the asymptomatic carrier has remained well and the other friend got well within a week . Max, however, needed to spend a full two weeks at home before really feeling well.

So what did we do and what remedies did he take? The quick answer: during the entire two week period, Max only needed to take two doses of his standard constitutional remedy. Since this remedy (which had been prescribed by his homeopath about a year ago) helped him with another acute illness and because it happened to be a mineral remedy that included Phosphorus as a component (Phosphorus is one of the leading remedies for COVID), I was fairly confident it would be helpful for Max’s case of COVID — and it was.

Here’s a recap of Max’s symptom progression:
– Onset — tiredness, fever (which reached a maximum of 100.9 F), headache, and what he described as a “light-headed” feeling.
– This was followed by diarrhea, which lasted for several days.
– After taking the first dose of the remedy, Max’s fever went down below 100F and never went above that again. He felt more energy and the headache lessened. The diarrhea slowly diminished and normal stools reestablished by the end of the first week.
– I kept monitoring Max’s respiratory situation each day, but he never felt out of breath. The only respiratory symptoms he eventually developed were some nasal congestion, post nasal drip, and a bit of coughing.
– We called him twice a day and monitored his temperature. He also bought an oximeter online so that we could monitor his blood oxygen and it was always normal.
– After the first week, Max’s improvement seemed to stagnate and his fever went up slightly, so he took another dose.
– Over the course of the second week, his fever dissipated completely, the headache and lightheadedness went away, and all that remained was some nasal congestion and a bit of tiredness. He was also now able to do some work.
– According to the contact tracers who had called him after his positive COVID test, Max was free to come out of quarantine when there was no fever whatsoever for 3 days, and he emerged on August 10.
– After this, Max was still feeling a bit wiped out and didn’t feel 100% (eager to do work, exercise, etc.) until two weeks later, a month after he came down with symptoms. During that time, he took one more dose of his constitutional remedy, on the advice of his homeopath. It is also interesting that Max has been retested for COVID a couple of times since recovering and has had mixed results — both negative and positive. Apparently, you can test positive for a couple of months after recovering, even though you aren’t contagious anymore.

So what lessons have we learned?
– He was prepared. Max had kits of the 100 top remedies in both 30c and 200c potencies, which I had supplemented with some more obscure COVID-related remedies when he came to visit us. So I knew he was well prepared.
– The constitutional remedy is a good first line of defense, especially for healthy people. I am thankful that Max is under the care of a good homeopath, so we knew this remedy in advance.
– Guard and boost the immune system. Ever since the beginning of March, Max and the rest of my family have been taking daily doses of vitamin C (1000mg) and D3 (2000 IU = 50mcg). While he was sick, Max dosed with vitamin C three times a day. He will now reduce back down to once a day gradually (I have found that it’s important not to cut back on vitamin C too quickly).
– Stay in touch. Although Max doesn’t normally want to talk to Mom and Dad two times a day (what 29 year old does?), he was thankful for the fact that we were touching base frequently, especially since he was going through this alone. It was a big comfort to him (and to me!). At one point, some of his friends dropped some flowers and chicken soup outside his door, which was also a big morale booster.
– Asymptomatic carriers. I must admit, Max’s experience alerted me to the pervasiveness of asymptomatic carriers, especially among young people. Don’t get careless, even if someone is well, and especially if you’re not really sure of their behavior.
– Use tools to keep anxiety at bay. In general, Max stayed fairly calm throughout this experience. I’m proud to stay that I stayed pretty calm too — especially given that I tend to be an anxious person. One thing that helped both Max and me quite a lot was listening to the Logosynthesis meditation each day during this experience. I have mentioned the utility of this meditation in previous newsletters. I do it any time I feel any kind of anxiety about our collective experience of this virus. I can’t emphasize enough how helpful it has been! You can find it at this Youtube link. The essential component of the meditation starts at 5:40 and ends at 27:45, though I advise watching the full 30 minutes your first time around.

The good news is that hopefully! Max is now immune to COVID-19 going forward. The jury is still out on that. But if he’s not, then a vaccine will be of no use to anyone either (not that I’ll be standing in line to get one!). In the end, I believe the only way out is through. This experience, like every virus in history, must eventually run its course.

Our Purple Future

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If you have read my book Active Consciousness or have become familiar with my writing in general, then you know that having a vision of the future is what brings it into being. Toward that end, here is the bright future that lies ahead…

I have a dream. That the increasing possibility for and advantages of remote work will trigger a remarkable shift in human living patterns. Leaving crowded, expensive, and cramped quarters in the big cities, young families will now move to smaller and more affordable towns, bringing with them renewed energy and new ideas. That these once languishing rural outposts experience a rekindling of their past vigor and find new purpose. That these small towns also have the wisdom to enact laws that prevent gentrification and displacement and instead encourage cross-fertilization between new and old citizens. I have a dream!

I have a dream. That the newly reinvigorated towns dotting our landscape evolve in a remarkably wholesome way. Their local governments will now be composed of engaged people who bring new thoughts and old ideas together, merging big-city blue and small-town red into vibrant purple. The creativity and future-minded energy of the newcomers will blend with the experience, neighborliness, and grounded qualities of the old-timers. Wisdom from the region’s indigenous beginnings is sought out and welcomed too. I have a dream!

I have a dream. That the exodus from the big cities will bring to these once-frenetic citadels a calming of energy and pace. Their now diminished populations will enable service and support workers to once again live close to their jobs and in an affordable way. The new proliferation of electric self-driving cars will have a calming influence on pollution and tension as well. Shared public transport will be increasingly used. And weekend visits to the newly vibrant nearby towns will become a joyful diversion, which will also further invigorate them. I have a dream!

I have a dream. That the spreading out and localization of life on Earth changes the way we grow food and what we eat. All of us now have more room for home gardens. Local farms are able to serve the capacity of their region. Pesticide-free, renegerative agricultural practices become the norm and mitigate climate change. Waterways and the air are cleaner. Food is once again nutritious. The need for artificial medicines now lessens and local natural healers are able to handle most problems and become the norm. I have a dream!

I have a dream. That the localization of life also brings with it a lowered tendency towards global power and control. While we are definitely more interconnected globally, our local environments are more unique and creative. Although many jobs have become automated, it is handiwork and creativity — the personal touch — that is now most valued. The arts flourish. Each person becomes freer to follow their personal gifts and inclinations. I have a dream!

I have a dream. That this vision of our purple future is taking place worldwide. That we all look back on 2020 as the beginning of this change. That we know with certainty and trust that everything has happened for a reason — a reason that we couldn’t have understood or foreseen at the time. That our new human experience of life on Earth is unlike anything from the past and that, finally, we can say: humanity has reached a golden age. It is an age that we now know was fostered and nurtured by the force we call Gaia — the consciousness of our planet. I have a dream!

Get Current

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My teacher Gary Sherman often tells his students to “get current.” He means that, periodically, we all need to take stock of our lives and readjust to what is. That might mean looking through your clothes closet and donating items that you haven’t worn in years. It might mean looking at the design of your home or daily routine, getting out of whatever rut you’re in, and readjusting these things to your current needs and wants.

Right about now, it’s time for each of us to get current. I stopped looking at the “COVID curves” weeks ago. Why let them affect my mood each day, whether positively or negatively? What good does it do? Why waste time lamenting a lost job or something that was cancelled? Or constantly worrying about some hoped for event or feared scenario that may or may not take place? (As a worrier, that’s my own tendency). In the end, you’ll cross the bridges ahead when you come to them. Get current.

The Sedona Method teacher Hale Dwoskin often begins his release meditations with the phrase “Can you just be what you are?” or “Just for now, can you welcome what is?” I find that when I focus on these words, an inner sense of calm overtakes me. I just am. It’s also a great state of mind to be in when it’s time to get current.

The whole world seems to be busy getting current right now. The resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of more police killings of black and brown people has given all of us a dose of what is. Of course, this has long been what was too. The same goes for the Me Too movement. It’s time to stop ignoring these societal patterns and get current. Let’s finally make real changes.

Ever since the beginning of June, I sense the tide is turning. The question is, will we return to our old habits and comfort zones, or shake ourselves awake and get current? As individuals and communities, we need to take these steps:

1) Let go of the past (and engage in whatever grieving process is necessary to do so);

2) Take stock of what is;

3) Decide what you really want and need now, given what is; and

4) Move forward to make that happen.

And don’t forget, when you engage in this process, active consciousness can help you along the way!

Let’s use this unusual time as an opportunity to create lives that truly serve us better. Your vision and intention really do play an important part.

More Hopeful Resources to Explore

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One of the most exciting pieces of news to come my way lately is the amazing successes the Indian state of Kerala is having with its egalitarian healthcare system, which includes the use of both homeopathy and Ayurveda. 20 million doses of Arsenicum Album were distributed free of charge as a preventative for COVID-19, and as of June 15, they’ve had only 19 deaths in a population of 35 million! In fact, this blog about Kerala’s successes went viral. Hopefully, the entire Indian government and the whole world will take notice of what’s truly possible with homeopathy.

Another movie about homeopathy! I think it’s truly excellent. It has a more scientific and less emotional tone to it than some of the recent movies and I believe it may get some skeptics to open their minds. It also includes one of the best explanations I’ve heard of how ultradilutions capture the energy of substance. Entitled “Homeopathy, Another way”, it was created with the help of French pharmacy Boiron. Be aware that the dialogue is in French with English subtitles. And watch it soon! It my only be available for free online for another month or two.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again — I love the monthly newsletters from Washington Homeopathics pharmacy. I encourage you to sign up for them — they always include interesting feature articles. I only wish they’d put them permanently online! June’s newsletter includes 2 great articles — one on how homeopathy is a nontoxic green medicine that doesn’t hurt the environment (unlike the heavily polluting pharmaceutical industry), and another that highlights famous women homeopaths from the past. Read it before it disappears.

Speaking of articles, in the past I’ve also pointed you to some written by my own homeopath, Deborah Olenev. She recently added one on the ever important topic of susceptibility, especially important these days. As she points out, this fundamental aspect of health and disease is left out of the dialogue in Western medicine. This omission underlies allopathy’s failure to understand that it is more important and effective to foster a patient’s health (thereby lowering their susceptibility) than it is to kill a virus.

Helpful and Hopeful Resources to Explore

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(This is from my May 2020 Impossible Cure Newsletter).

At this point, most of us are probably used to the “new reality” but are still coping with ups and downs. Who to trust? What to believe? How scared should we be? What level of protection do we have to engage in? Does anyone really know what they’re doing?

I’m in the same boat as the rest of you. I have good weeks and bad weeks. Hopeful and happy times as well as sad, disappointed, and scared times. Personally, I’m now more frightened of what society will do and become as a result of this experience than of COVID itself. But I also try to remember that fear just “brings it near” and positive intentions and beliefs are paramount! I’ve also learned to shield myself as much as possible from the media hype and fearmongering. I no longer look at the “curves,” because I find that looking at them doesn’t really help anyone and only makes me feel worse. Beside, I have no choice but to follow my county’s rulings anyway.

I do know that nearly everyone has found their own comfort level — what they need to do in order to feel safe. I quickly learned that it was important for me to try to respect what each person thinks they need, because their belief system affects their immunity. Thus, if you think you need to stay 15 feet away from people to feel safe, you will more likely get sick if you only stay 6 feet away. If you believe you only need to stay 3 feet away from people, then doing so will likely suffice. Same for masks. Did you know that many countries (like Australia) never used them and have done very well?

Of course, there are limits. It’s all a matter of susceptibility. A healthy immune system (bolstered by belief, good eating habits, general health, sleep, etc.) can protect you. But if contagion and exposure is strong enough, anyone can fall ill. It’s all a possibility/probability game. There are no absolutes.

For all of these reasons, it’s important to not only bolster your immune system with physical measures (e.g., try to sleep well, drink plenty of water, take vitamins C, D, and Zinc — I usually take Zinc only if I feel I’ve violated my own comfort level, get some sun, go outside and breathe fresh air and get into nature if you can, exercise, and meditate) but also try to increase your own confidence in yourself and your natural healing abilities. I also find immense comfort in the fact that I have homeopathy if I do get sick. In fact, homeopathy has been successful in keeping COVID-positive people out of the hospital in almost all cases.

Here are some resources to check out that have all improved my overall attitude about my own sense of safety and well-being. Enjoy!

– Italian homeopaths report on their successful treatment of COVID-19. You can read either Dana Ullman’s summary or the original paper.

-There are other cases of homeopathic treatment and discussions about COVID-19 in the May 2020 issue of Hpathy. Signup is free. (By the way, this is an outstanding monthly publication and is well worth signing up for!)

– In this article that appeared on Medium.com, Dana Ullman talks about the subject of immunity, including homeopathy’s past successes in treating epidemics, as well as other effective methods afforded by alternative approaches to health.

– Zach Bush, M.D. puts everything into perspective vis-a-vis our relationship with viruses and life in general in this genius interview with Del Bigtree (start at minute 55).

– For the more esoterically-minded among you, I highly recommend listening to this Youtube created by Logosynthesis doctor Willem Lammers. I have found it useful whenever I’m having a down day and it invariably creates a positive effect in me.

COVID-19: Facing Loss, Letting Go

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As you might expect, homeopaths are busy trying to understand how to heal COVID-19 and to come up with a set of genus epidemicus remedies — the ones most likely to successfully treat the various stages of the disease. As more and more people become ill, more folks are contacting homeopaths. And as things progress, I will be especially interested in hearing from India, since homeopathy is a mainstream form of medicine there, with thousands of working homeopaths functioning as full-fledged doctors.

Recently, homeopath Jeremy Sherr, who (along with his wife Camilla) leads the amazing group of homeopaths in Tanzania treating AIDS and other ailments, spearheaded the creation of a database to collect and analyze COVID-19 remedy and treatment information. The preliminary results point to the following top remedies: Phosphorus, Antimonium Tartaricum, Bryonia, Gelsemium, Phosphoric-Acid, and Arsenicum Album (with Antimonium Tartaricum being Jeremy’s favorite).

Of course, Bryonia and Gelsemium are important plant remedies for treating the flu. However, I am struck by the fact that the other mineral-based remedies are all made from elements in the same column of the periodic table: phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony. In fact, another useful remedy for COVID-19 is the more obscure remedy Antimonium Arsenicosum — made from a combination of antimony and arsenic.

Some of you may be familiar with the work of the brilliant Dutch homeopath, Jan Scholten. Using existing proving information for remedies made from the elements, he came up with what has turned out to be an incredibly powerful theory about the inherent meaning and nature of these remedies. Using this theory, homeopaths have even been successful in treating patients utilizing remedies made from heretofore unproven elements.

As Scholten discovered, remedies made from elements in the same row or column tend to have a theme to their symptomatology — physically, emotionally, and mentally. The rows have themes, starting from the top, of Being, Identity, Relationship, Work, Ideas and Creativity, Power, and Spiritual Power. In contrast, the columns have themes that begin (on the left) with slowly building confidence and mastership, to complete mastery (the center column), and then slowly losing that control and mastery until there is release. By combining this information together, a theme for a particular element can be derived. For example, the element at the center of the “Work” row would have a theme of obvious mastery over work.

Given this information, Scholten posits that the progression of elements through the periodic table mirrors our evolution as human beings — from finding out who we are, to attaining mastery over the various aspects of life. And in order to spiral upward, we also need to be able to, at times, let go of a particular theme and move on.

Now as I said, all of the COVID-19 mineral remedies are made from elements in the same column, to which Scholten has attached the theme: LOSS. In particular, we have:
* Phosphorus: Loss of relationship
* Arsenic: Loss of work
* Antimony: Loss of ideas, creativity, and honor

Since the entire world is going through this experience, these themes must indeed be significant! And in fact, the theme of loss does pertain not only to humanity, but to the entire Earth organism. As above, so below. As below, so above. Just think about what the Earth is also experiencing. Loss of oxygen (and remember — COVID-19 kills due to respiratory symptoms and an inability to breathe). Loss of habitat. Loss of species.

The following is a string of quotes from Scholten’s writings about the Loss column (derived from pages 58 and 59 of his book Homoeopathy and the Elements). Many of these symptoms will sound eerily familiar!

“The power has gone and they no longer keep up the facade either. Everybody knows it is all over. They lose everything they have built up, they feel a complete failure and they are very hurt. They feel everybody is letting them down: people they thought they could trust suddenly don’t support them any longer. It is as if they have to face everything alone. It is like a bankruptcy. The business has collapsed.The sense of loss is expressed in dreams and delusions. They have a great fear of death and they think about it a lot. They have become superfluous. Their skills are no longer needed. Or they have such an abundance that others can’t digest it. This can result in overeating, or being overly concerned for others. Everything is exaggerated. They have to hand over everything they have built up over the years. They are good at sacrificing. They might give so much that they become a martyr. Another theme is poison. They have the feeling that people are trying to get rid of them by stealthy means. This makes them very suspicious: they are always on their guard, ‘you never know, a friend can soon turn into an enemy.’ Any moment something could happen. Any moment their project, or their life, may come to an end. You never know when it will happen, the end always comes suddenly. They feel as if they are powerless to prevent it. In the first instance they’ll refuse to believe that things have really come to an end. They’ll do everything they can to obstruct the final dismantling. They may do the most desperate things in their attempts to delay the end.”

We all feel helpless and confused right now. There is a sense of not knowing what’s going on, what’s going to happen. We try to pin it down by coming up with conspiracy theories or resorting to draconian measures of enforcing control and protection. But ultimately, I believe we just need to let go and accept what is.

Don’t forget: an important lesson of Scholten’s periodic table is that loss is required before we can evolve and begin anew. As he also writes about the Loss column: “At this stage, acceptance is the only possibility.”

Rather than holding on to what we have lost, we must let go. And after letting go, we can move on to the next stage. As Lao Tsu so wisely said, “By letting it go, it all gets done.”