What Happened to Silicon Valley?

AmyLansky.com Posted on by

It’s been about a year since I posted my last article, “Looking for America.” Steve and I did finally find our new homeland. We moved to South Carolina in September 2022, arriving for good at our new home exactly one year, to the day, after we originally left on our first voyage of discovery in September 2021. It was a long and exhausting year, and I didn’t have any time for writing! Rest assured, I will write an article about the completion of our journey — to be titled “Finding America” — in the near future. In the meantime, though, I was inspired to write the article below, reflecting on what happened to Silicon Valley over the 45 years I lived there. Even if California’s fires, drought, and COVID policies disappeared tomorrow, Steve and I grew to realize that the part of the world we had called home for so many years had become out of alignment with who we are now and what we value.

Let me start at the beginning.  Well, my beginning.  I arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area during the summer of 1977, ready to start a PhD program in computer science at Stanford University.  As was true then and is still true today, Stanford is one of the top three computer science schools in the USA, probably the world. I was the only woman in my entering class, and for a few years, there were only two women PhD students in the entire department.  At that time, there was no undergraduate major in computer science (CS) and the department was housed in a small cluster of makeshift buildings on the outskirts of campus. Today, computer science is the number one undergraduate major at Stanford and the department is housed in a gigantic and rather grim building, Gates Hall, built with money contributed by — you guessed it — Bill Gates. Perhaps that alone says it all.

Way back in 1977, one of my classes required students to use punch cards for programming.  For those of you too young to remember what that is, it means we typed our code into a typewriter-like machine that punched holes in cards, one line of code per card.  The cards (called a deck) were then fed into the computer.  Computer output was printed on long old-fashioned computer printout scrolls.

Luckily, PhD students back then also had the luxury of using computer terminals that communicated with a shared computer. Most of us did our programming at an old research lab located in the foothills near Stanford. We called it the “AI lab” because some of the AI (artificial intelligence) research was conducted there. The lab was truly a wonderland of hippie weirdness.  Let’s face it —  pretty much anyone into computers in those days was a long-haired nerdy hippie. And of course, in the late 70s (especially in the Bay Area), life was also about sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll.  The 60s were still very close at hand. In fact, after I arrived at Stanford, I discovered, much to my surprise, that one of my former undergraduate computer professors had lost his tenured position at Stanford because of an LSD scandal! By and large, though, things of that nature going on among us computer nerds was pretty innocent and experimental.

Nighttime at the AI Lab was all about programming into the wee hours on ingenious terminals that, unlike most computer terminals of that era, weren’t confined to displaying characters.  Instead, they were more like TV screens, composed of bits (like today’s computer screens). But rather than offering full color, all you got was a  black background with content displayed in bright green. Nevertheless, those terminals were unique in many ways. You could ask your terminal to map onto anyone else’s terminal and see what they were doing, and even map your screen onto a TV feed and watch TV in black and green.

There were many other wonders to be found in the lab as well. Wandering the network of halls, you might find very early robot arms being built and operated, experiments in generating electronic sound and music, and a vending machine rigged up to be computer-controlled and operated using a homebrew remote-control device. All of this was accomplished on one shared computer. Indeed, I vividly remember the delivery of one megabyte of new memory to the lab — a big physical disk the diameter of a car or even truck wheel.  It was a huge cause for celebration! And best of all, we PhD students had access to email.  We could communicate electronically with anyone in the department or at one of about twenty computer science departments and research labs around the USA. Very few people had access to email in those days. 

Of course, there were plenty of pranks going on too.  Because I was usually the only woman programming at the lab (the other woman in the department programmed elsewhere), it was definitely a bit creepy to receive an anonymous message telling me how sexy I was, or being told that someone was remotely spying on my terminal screen. Still, no one could imagine the kinds of spam and scams and pornography that go on today.  After all, we were all just a bunch of harmless nerds. We all knew each other, and there were unspoken rules of etiquette.

So how did we get from there to where we are now?  That was just over 45 years ago and the computer science world, at least at Stanford, felt very innocent and benign.  Even just twenty years ago, when Google and Facebook made their appearances on the scene, everyone assumed that these organizations would be similarly enlightened and benign.  Remember Google’s old maxim: Don’t Be Evil. That kind of sentiment and expectation harkened back to those early days. 

How things have changed! Now those who control the big tech companies and the many biotech companies of the Bay Area (most of them spawned from Stanford) are essentially our overlords, exerting extreme forms of control over our society and influencing our beliefs and behavior in profound ways. Most people are unaware of how dangerous this all is — what is coming our way or is already here. We are lulled by the convenience of having computer devices and systems as ubiquitous parts of our lives. So clever, so clever, our master controllers!  They have even convinced us to pay for Big Brother to spy on us!  Indeed, the incorporation of all this technology into our day-to-day lives and the changes it has wreaked are accelerating so fast that we can barely notice and assimilate what’s happening to us. Think about it:  everyone staring into their smart phones all day — phones that are simultaneously tracking our behavior. And what about the devices so many people eagerly attach to their bodies in order to monitor health statistics — information that could easily be relayed elsewhere.

These changes were gradual at first. Personally, I was generally unaware of how vast they had become. I was living out in the foothills near Stanford, raising my kids, working at a research lab, and not really paying attention. But when one of my sons went to Stanford in computer science in 2006, I started to get a glimpse of how different his experience was from my own. Things became even more noticeable when he began to work at Google. For example, the Google hiring process was very mechanical and impersonal, with coding tests being conducted remotely. Gone were in-person interviews and letters of reference. After being hired, he wasn’t even told in advance what team he’d be working on; instead he needed to “sell himself” to a team upon arrival. One day my husband and I came  to the Google campus to visit him. I was shocked to find “coding advice” on the back of the toilet stall doors.  Not only were there no longer private offices for employees, but they couldn’t even poop in peace! 

So who are these people running us all ragged? Actually, I know several of the people who became titans of tech. They were among my peers back in the day. They came to my parties. Many of  them became mega rich, in contrast to me and my husband who stuck to research labs and pay checks. In my experience, most of the people who scored big actually mean well. Although some of them have vast power, sitting on national committees and running universities, they aren’t bad people. They truly believe that the high tech world they are creating is positive, for the good of mankind. And I’m sure that is true of most of the biotech researchers too. More is better, right? Bio-engineering is all for our benefit, right? Right??

Sadly, I believe that things have indeed turned a very dark corner, and that it all boils down to a few key things:  naivete, money, hubris, and power. They form a kind of progression. Let’s consider the first — naivete.

I have seen incredible and surprising naivete among my old compatriots regarding the ethical implications of what they are creating. They may pay lip service to “ethics,” but they have no real idea of the personal impacts their creations are making on the average person, or how that person perceives their computerized life. In essence, the tech titans are living in ivory towers, with Silicon Valley being one big overarching tower. For example, ask the average computer illiterate person and they will tell you that the decisions made by AI are infallible. When I mentioned this to one of my prominent AI researcher friends, they were quite surprised. Every AI researcher understands the limitations of AI. This disparity in perception is quite dangerous, because our technologically uninformed politicians and businessmen make similarly uninformed decisions about the use of AI that could wreak havoc upon our lives.

Allow me pause here to talk a bit more about AI.  While I didn’t do my PhD in AI, I spent most of my working career doing research in what is now considered “old AI” — that is, failed AI. Back then, we were trying to create programs that (we believed) mimicked human reasoning and perception from first principles — through logical reasoning. Essentially, we assumed that our brains (and therefore the computer programs that we were building to mimic them) worked according to logical principles — A implies B, B implies C, therefore A implies C. Unfortunately, this approach proved to be largely a failure. It could only work on small problems or when confined to very specific types of tasks and information.

Today’s AI is nothing like this.  It is really just about statistical manipulation of large datasets.  For example, Google or Facebook “mines” all the data that you provide to it through your behavior.  Then, AI algorithms attempt to find statistical patterns within this data.  For example, an algorithm might discover that you tend to search for particular products. Naturally, they then use this information to advertise those kinds of products to you. However, from the various patterns that the algorithms notice, they also start to make guesses about relationships between things.  For instance, they might guess what political party you belong to, based on the fact that you tend to buy certain products and have certain friends. They might then use this information to sway your voting pattern. Of course, the algorithms might guess wrong, and that’s the danger of today’s of AI. It sees patterns and makes guesses that seem statistically correct — that is, they may usually be correct.  But if the underlying data is flawed or weak, the patterns and guesses may be all wrong. Garbage In — Garbage Out, as they say.  AI is thus very far from infallible.  And yet, our computer illiterate society is making serious decisions about how our lives are controlled based on AI.  Scary.

The same well-meaning naivete of the Silicon Valley computer elite is also true within the biotech sector.  One of my moments of awakening to this occurred when I was listening to a Stanford radio interview as I was driving home one day.  The interviewee was a CRISPR researcher doing work on gene editing. The interviewer asked if it would soon be possible for a person to grow a tail. Yes, said the researcher, very soon.  The interviewer then asked if this was ethical? The CRISPR scientist replied, “Well, if someone wants to grow a tail, why not?” I almost vomited right there in my car.  Of course, the researcher also hastened to add, “Well, the real reason we are doing this research is to cure diseases.”  But was he so naive that he didn’t think about what his research might also be used for? Indeed, who was actually funding his research? It’s only a short hop from people with tails to genetically engineered super soldiers, cloned human slaves, and designer babies. Is there any limit to what’s permissible or wise?   Sadly, this trajectory is now what Stanford and so many other universities are so proudly and naively all about.

Next comes money. The quick riches to be found in Silicon Valley are known world-wide, which is why so many people move there. When you think about it, California — the Golden State — has always been about easy money. Think Hollywood or the California gold rush. While there may have been get-rich-quick scheming going on back in 1977, money was not what most of us nerds were thinking about. When you walked the streets of Palo Alto in those days, the conversations were all about creativity and fun and experimentation. Today, when you sit at a restaurant in Palo Alto, all the twenty-somethings are talking about their stock options and signing bonuses. And sadly, the divide between the mega-rich and the poor in the Bay Area is growing wider. The main street that runs in front of Stanford University is now lined with the motor homes of the homeless. Home invasions of the rich and mob-theft at nearby stores have become commonplace. Service people who work for the wealthy now have to drive two hours each way to find affordable housing. The big tech companies have not shared their good fortune to alleviate these systemic problems, including growing infrastructure problems. The rising tide of Silicon Valley has not raised all ships.

Next comes hubris. What happens to a person who becomes an instant billionaire at age 30? Do they feel like they just lucked out, won the lottery?  Maybe.  But they will likely start to think that their sudden riches are well deserved.  They will believe that they are smarter and more daring than the average person. Maybe. But are they truly superior, wiser? Not at all. After all, how superior and wise are the suddenly-rich and talented young movie-stars of Hollywood?  The train wrecks of their lives are written in the tabloids found at every supermarket checkout counter.

In my experience, the riches bestowed upon the Silicon Valley elite often results in them believing that their success and knowledge renders them the best arbiters of what’s best for the global population of the world. Even the kindest and most well-meaning among them can display this quality. They believe they are so smart and so informed that they, after all, know what is truly best for the world at large, for the every day person. They are also convinced that technology provides the only answer to the world’s problems. They couldn’t possibly fathom leaving  important decisions about mankind’s future trajectory to the unwashed ignorant masses. Instead, the line of thinking goes more like: “We will save the world with our technological superiority and smarts. We know what’s best for the common man. We are so wise and caring, we wouldn’t do anything to harm them.  We are entitled to this role as controllers of information flow, climate control, health policy, and more. Politicians are generally idiots who don’t understand what we understand. The masses can’t be trusted to make these important decisions for themselves.”  This attitude belies both hubris — believing they know and understand more than they actually do — and condescension.

Unfortunately, the tech titans have (naively) forgotten an important thing: smart is not the same thing as wise.  And in my experience, true wisdom is something quite lacking among so many of the tech elite, my old peers among them. I believe that one reason for this is that almost all of them are at least disinterested in, but usually downright disdaining of, any form of spirituality. Theirs is strictly a materialistic world, and atheism is the general rule of the land in Silicon Valley.

This segues nicely into another emerging phenomenon in Silicon Valley:  transhumanism. It’s a word and concept new to most people —  the almost religion-like philosophy that  advocates for the merger of human and machine.  Transhumanists desire to incorporate computers and computational abilities into their bodies. Although this idea is new to most people, it’s actually been percolating for quite a while.  In fact, my first experience with the transhumanist phenomenon goes back to my AI lab days in the late 70s.  One night, as I was wandering the halls, I started talking to Hans Moravec, a robotics researcher at the lab who later wrote the book Mind Children. Hans said, “Amy, in 50 years, we will be merging with computers.” At the time, I thought this was ridiculous, impossible, nonsense. How wrong I was, and how accurate were Hans’s predictions! 

Fast forward to 2009. My younger son started college and his quiet and reclusive roommate announced that he was a transhumanist.  I looked up the term and thought, “Well, gee, a harmless nerd.” Around the same time, my husband and I were invited to a birthday party in San Francisco of an old friend of mine from back in the 1980s. The party was filled with young computer entrepreneurs; my husband and I were the oldest people there (we were in our late 50s). As the evening wore on, we were regaled by these people declaring their near immortality. They were busy freezing their eggs and sperm and maintained that they would live to be at least 1000 years old!  When we told them that we didn’t mind getting old and that aging was an important part of the human experience of life, they were practically filled with revulsion. As we walked back to our car that night, we remarked on how weird and deluded these people were and chalked it up to nerdity in over-drive. Now I realize that these are the people in control of Silicon Valley, and by extension, all of our lives.

This brings me to the last factor in the big change: the quest and lust for power.  Think about it. What happens to a person who has become insanely rich and filled with hubris? Not only do they believe they deserve power, but they begin to crave it. As the old saying goes: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That’s why we now have the unelected and self-appointed tech elite making policy decisions for the USA and the rest of the world, and becoming part of international bodies of control like the World Economic Forum. They are even using their power to manipulate the media and elections. And while most of the tech elite aren’t intrinsically “evil”, I’m sure that there are nefarious players among them. I can name one or two suspects. These people were generally disliked way back when by me and my peers. Though they usually weren’t the smartest among us, they were definitely the most power and money hungry. And it is these folks who quickly rose to the top of the heap.

And lest you think that the intoxicating smell of power is available only to a small minority of the mega wealthy, you should know that even not-so-rich young programmers can easily get a whiff of it in Silicon Valley.  For example, you might be surprised to learn that big changes to the software that influences your life — Google search, Facebook, etc. — are often made by a small team of young programmers, sometimes fresh out of college. A small “cute” design decision can cause all kinds of change and wreak havoc on many people’s lives and emotions.  That’s huge power in the hands of young people in their twenties. Consider the no-doubt trivially implemented (and likely not-well-thought-out) incorporation of the “like” button in Facebook.

So what’s to be done? Can this juggernaut be stopped? Can we change course? I’m sad to say, maybe not. The computerization of our lives and even our bodies is much like a steam roller. It all began rolling very slowly and imperceptibly many years ago, but it is now barrelling down on us at speeds most of us can no longer control.

Perhaps the best we can do is become aware of it and get out of the way as best we can. There may also be places in the world and groups of people that block it from encroaching upon them. That’s one reason I am writing this article — to boost awareness and inculcate a different kind of consciousness that doesn’t give up one’s humanity and privacy in exchange for convenience.

So please don’t populate your house with Alexas and other “smart devices”, created just to spy on your every word and behavior. These things aren’t just “convenient”, they are making money off of you and could easily be used to control you. (How will you feel when your “smart thermostat” refuses to heat or cool your house because of some “infraction” that you never dreamed possible?) And please do everything you can to preserve the use of cash — the only way (besides barter) to conduct anonymous transactions. In particular, work to stop the extremely dangerous conversion of our savings to e-money (a rather imminent development). Such systems could easily be used to control and monitor your spending and behavior and will likely lead to a Chinese-style social-credit-system that can “disappear” an “incorrectly behaving” person from functional society, now without the need for messy gulags and death squads. 

Ultimately, of course, I hope that all of us wake up to what’s going on before it’s too late. Legal and political decisions could still be used to mitigate the damage in localities that decide to do so — there are some efforts to do this in some areas of Europe. The future is definitely uncertain.  But at the very least, become aware now. The changes that crept up on Silicon Valley happened in a way that even I, a person who spent most of my adult life working and living there, was unaware of it.  I hope this article serves as a wake up call for you.

Wake up!

Looking for America

AmyLansky.com Posted on by 
Let us be lovers 
We'll marry our fortunes together..  
And (we) walked off 
To look for America 
-- from "America" - Paul Simon

On September 18, 2021, my husband Steve and I loaded up our Prius and its new roof box with three suitcases, two backpacks, three shopping bags, two duffel bags, a laundry basket, and a tent and sleeping bags (just in case), and embarked on a two and a half month driving trip around America.  Unvaccinated and in our late 60s, we drove 10,000 miles, visited 20 states, and stayed in 33 hotels, motels, and Airbnbs. Our friends and family were shocked that we decided to do this at the height of the Delta variant wave. But we had begun taking Ivermectin as well as a host of vitamins as part of a recommended regimen for staying healthy. And we were also armed with COVID testing kits, over 100 homeopathic remedies in two potencies, my homeopathic repertory and materia medica, and a nebulizer for hydrogen peroxide. We were a bit nervous but felt ready.  And we believed it was critical that we take this trip — now.

Why? First let me give a little background.

Steve and I are retired computer scientists and writers who have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 40 years. In fact, we have lived in our beautiful home in the foothills behind Stanford University (where I got my PhD) for over 37 years. During that same period, however, our life took several twists and turns that led us to alternative views about health and life in general. You can learn all about this by reading my books Impossible Cure and Active Consciousness.

Perhaps most important, however, was that a series of unusual circumstances led Steve to create and maintain — for over 20 years — the most popular search engine for the CDC’s vaccine injury data (VAERS). You can check it out here: medalerts.org.  Over the years, Steve’s site has been used heavily by both pro-vaxxers and anti-vaxxers alike. And over the course of just 2021, vaccine injuries, hospitalizations, and deaths from the COVID vaccines grew to outnumber those from all other vaccines combined cumulatively for over 30 years. Because of this, Steve and I found ourselves in the unlikely position of knowing more about the US vaccine injury data than almost anyone in the world — and definitely more than the mainstream media has publicized to the general public. As a result, we became increasingly convinced that the COVID vaccines were the most dangerous in the history of vaccination and we grew more and more resolute not to partake in them. Thus, our decision is based on almost too much understanding and knowledge. It is mostly medical, but it is philosophical and religious as well. It is also a decision that we believe we should have the right to make.

Unfortunately, since we live in California and especially since we live at the epicenter of tech-pharma power and preeminence — Stanford University and the surrounding Bay Area — our personal choices have rendered us pariahs and untouchables among most of the people we know, despite the fact that we have remained perfectly healthy. Almost all of our friends will no longer come into our home or allow us to enter theirs. Some won’t even meet with us outside — at a distance. And ironically, their fear has increased since they were vaccinated; they were much less fearful throughout 2020.

In addition, we have increasingly been barred from entering or attending a variety of gatherings and venues. For instance, I recently found out that I could no longer enter two art institutes at which I used to take painting classes. Steve and I are beginning to wonder if we may soon not be able to see our doctors as well. Even back in September we saw all of this coming down the pike at alarming speed. So before winter set in, we decided that we needed to find out if there was another place in America where we could belong, live in peace in a relatively normal way, and find new friends and community who would accept and welcome us.

Believe me, at ages 66 and 69, retired and living in our dream home and two-acre property that we have developed for almost 40 years, embarking on this journey was tinged with disbelief, sadness, and loss. We felt like COVID-vaccine refugees. But it was also exciting. Over the course of our voyage, we slowly grew accustomed to living in an almost complete state of unknowing. What would we discover?  Would we survive or find ourselves sick with COVID in a random motel room? (We didn’t. No COVID.) Would we find our new homeland, or come back relieved to return to our old home? (We found some candidate places to check out more deeply in 2022, and discovered that once we did return to California, the situation had escalated further and become more intolerable.) How would the people we met along the way, including some friends and family members, react to us? (The results were mixed. However, in general, only the unvaxxed welcomed us with hugs and parties.)

Now we’ve begun to talk to real estate agents to better understand our options. I’m still not fully accommodated to the idea that 2022 may bring huge changes and shifts for Steve and me — where we live and who our friends will become. But just “waiting until things get better” — as advised by some of our Bay Area friends — no longer seems like an option. Besides, even if things do get better, our experiences over the past couple of years and the changes that have taken hold of the entire Bay Area over the past decade (changes that I’ll admit we had been ignoring) have made it a less attractive place to live, despite its beauty.

I have many thoughts and theories about what we saw driving around the USA. It is too much to put into one article.  So let me begin by briefly describing eight key discoveries. Note: I will tend to use the terms “open” and “closed” to indicate the level at which things have returned to the old norm of human behavior (open), versus the new norm characterizing places like the Bay Area (closed).


1. There is still freedom in the USA.

Once we left the Bay Area and especially California, a change in energy and spirit was immediately palpable and visible. Thank God for the innate spirit of freedom cherished by so many American citizens, who refuse to let their lives be controlled by fear. I have a vivid memory of being at a gas station/mini-mart in Nevada on the first day of our trip. No one was wearing a mask. And when we checked into our first stop at a little motel in Winnemucca, NV, I was amazed that the clerk was not wearing a mask either. At the gas station, however, I saw people get out of a car with California plates. With their masks fully in place, they seemed to be looking around in abject fear, as if they had entered a plague zone. It was the first hint that what I had considered normal and “protective” over the past 1.5 years may actually have been based on misguided and excessive fear.

Over time, as we traveled the country, we saw the use of masks became rarer. We even began to forget to keep a mask in our pocket. Not that I’m a rabid anti-masker; I’ll put one on if most people are wearing them. But we soon realized that the dwindling use of masks in “open” areas was accompanied by greater ease and less fear.  When they completely disappeared from use, everyone acted like the old normal. In other words, the prevalence of mask wearing became symbolic of the state of mind of a place and its level of fear and separation between fellow human beings. I also found that the process of unmasking is a bit like taking your clothes off or at least getting down to your skivvies. You feel a bit weird at first and rather naughty and reckless.  Soon, however, you forget all about it and feel freer and more connected to other people and your surroundings.


2. Once you are outside of the big cities, things tend to be more open. The more “blue” the city, the more closed.

I say this with sadness as a life-long Democrat who has always leaned far left of the Dems. Cities that I once would have chosen as ideal liberal spots to live in — for example, Madison, WI or Asheville, NC — are now the most closed cities. Once you are out in the rural areas, you begin to see more resistance to masking, restaurants with unmasked waiters, motels with unmasked workers, and the disappearance of plexiglass shields. Along with this, of course, is an increase in pro-Trump and other signs that protest vaccine mandates or discrimination against the unvaccinated.


3. The more vaxxed up a person is, the more fearful they tend to be.

We saw this time and again with friends and family we met. Among our vaccinated friends, there was not a single one who was willing to meet with us inside. The only exceptions were my brother, some family members who had lunch with us indoors after a belated funeral for Steve’s mom (though some relatives wouldn’t enter the restaurant or even bump elbows with us outside), and a few family members at a wedding (which we attended after promising to be tested first). We could also tell that some friends were still extremely nervous when they ate outside with us at a restaurant. One of my oldest friends (triple jabbed) would not meet with us at an outdoor restaurant in the DC area, even though we had driven all the way across the country and I had been Zooming with her regularly during 2020. I’ll admit, her refusal to see me was extremely hurtful.

In contrast, every person we met who was unvaccinated hugged us immediately, invited us into their homes, or were happy to meet with us inside. Many of these people were complete strangers — people we had connected with as part of an online community of people who are inspired by the writing and speaking of philosopher Charles Eisenstein. Although we had never met them in the flesh before, these folks felt more like true friends to us than our fearful long-term friends. Over the course of 2021, the meaning, importance, and sadly fleeting nature of friendship — even very long term friendship — has become a profound and often painful teaching for us.


4. Fear is contagious.

I am a pretty psychically sensitive person.  I can really pick up on the vibes of a place. As we traveled the country, in and out of more open or more closed places, I felt my own level of fear and anxiety about COVID ebbing and flowing. You’d think that when we were in the super open and reckless red states, I’d feel more fear. Completely the opposite. The more closed a place was, adhering to all the rules of “protection”, the more fearful and worried I became about getting COVID. The more open a locale was, the less fearful and free I felt. I’ll make one admission though. I never got “open” enough to be willing to mingle in densely crowded bars, like the wild 24/7 party scenes in Nashville. But other than that, Steve and I just did what others were doing.

The fact that fear breeds more fear also explains the toxicity of places like the Bay Area that have embraced the closed attitude with relish. As soon as we got back home (a wealthy area that has one of the highest rates of vaccination and lowest incidences of COVID in the country), I slowly became not only depressed but also more worried about getting COVID myself. It took a week or two, but the creeping fear and anxiety sank back in again. It is no wonder that people who haven’t left this area since March 2020 simply can’t believe what the rest of the country is like. I have more than one friend who has not left self-imposed complete lockdown in almost two years. When we tell our friends here about our voyage across America, most of them simply ignore us. I now believe that most of the people living in the Bay Area are in a psychotic delusional state of fear. They truly believe that the emperor is wearing regal robes. In contrast, most of the country can see that he is naked or at least has hardly anything on.


5. America has become homogenized and corporatized. Local charm has become harder and harder to find.

Unfortunately, almost every city in the United States has become more or less the same as any other — the same big box stores, the same restaurant, motel, and hotel chains, the same everything. The gas station chains may change names (some very humorous — e.g., “Kum and Go” gas in Wyoming!) but the ubiquitous mini-marts are the same everywhere. Interestingly, each state does seem to have its own variety of rest stop. Some states take pride in theirs (Iowa and Tennessee stand out), whereas others have had their rest stops sponsored by Geico, complete with annoying audio ads that blare 24/7 (N. Carolina).

In each city and town we visited, we searched for “local color” — the mom and pop shops and recommended local restaurants. Small towns and cities were most likely to have retained some local charm. Decorah, Iowa was a standout. And I’ll never forget visiting a famous candy store in teensy tiny Wilton, Iowa.  On the door hung a sign that read: “You can wear a mask if you like, but we’d prefer to see your smile!” Wow, you’d never see anything like that in California. One person in Texas remarked to us, “All small towns in America are the same.” Well, they are the same in that they are more open and friendly and more likely to have their own unique quirkiness. The small towns tend to epitomize what is best about America.

But the truth is, the large cities also tend to be the same as any other too, with many suffering from a languishing inner city with homeless and disenfranchised people roaming the streets. In many you can see an attempt to build downtown luxury lofts accompanied by a fleet of outdoor scooters (probably in order to attract the younger crowd). Sadly, in almost all cases, these lofts and scooters remain empty and abandoned, perhaps victims of COVID. Nashville was the only city where we saw one person actually using a scooter.

All in all, our observations made a strong argument for moving to one of the smaller towns and cities, which we now aim to do.  Apparently, many other Americans are now making that choice as well.


6. Drop your stereotypes! They are generally false.

If you told me even one year ago that I would be considering moving to Texas or South Carolina, I’d think you were joking. Like most coastal liberals living in places like California, I stereotyped these places as backwaters of ignorant, racist, gun-toting Trumpers. But the truth is, the United States is full of good and kind people living everywhere. As one person said to us, “Texas will surprise you.”  It’s true. Sure, Steve and I are an older white heterosexual couple, so on the surface, we would be welcome anywhere. On the other hand, we are also identifiable as long-grey-haired “hippies” driving a Prius with California plates. We are also of Jewish background. So we still do have some hesitancy about some of the red states.

In general, however, we discovered that there is friendliness everywhere. If we were open, people were open — and in fact, more friendly than people tend to be in California, especially now. We told a great number of people we met along the way about the nature and purpose of our voyage and were usually met with enthusiasm and an encouragement to “move here!”  This was true in Texas and South Carolina and Tennessee and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and Iowa and almost everywhere we went, especially the smaller towns and cities. It’s true that many areas do not have as good restaurants and health food options as California. But there is often a surprisingly good gourmet or Asian restaurant (especially Thai, Japanese, or Vietnamese) and some form of health-food store to be found in even the most obscure places.

7. The great migration.

Before 2020, if you drove almost anywhere around America and told people you lived in Northern California, they’d be a jealous. “Oh! So beautiful! I wish I could live there.”  Not true anymore. Everyone we met and told about our trip said, “Oh yeah! Get out of California! All the the Californians are moving here now.” People are calling it the great migration. Apparently, it’s now quite expensive to get a moving van to move you from the West to the East because the truckers have to drive empty on the way back. Between the fires and drought and severely restrictive COVID policies, California is beset by malaise and a feeling of decline. And it’s not just California. I know people who have run screaming from Oregon as well. It’s sad to see.

In contrast, in many red states, things are booming and home prices are rising as a result. In 2021 alone, a million Americans left the blue states and moved to the red states. My prediction is that not only will the Republicans retake the White House in 2024 (especially if they find someone more palatable than Trump), but the red states will increase in predominance and power. I don’t agree with many policies of the right, but with a huge infusion of people from the blue states, the COVID era might be the turning point that yields a more purple and less-divided future for America. I wrote about this in August 2020.  As far as I’m concerned, this migration could end up being a wonderful thing for the future of this country. 


8. A theory: Fear of COVID is, in general, inversely related to sincere spiritual belief and a deep relationship with the land.

All through our trip, I kept searching for some unifying explanation for what determined the openness or closedness of a particular locale. Sure, there is the political divide — Republicans vs. Democrats. But that doesn’t explain, for example, the fact that most blacks are not vaccinated and are more tolerant of the unvaccinated in their communities. And what about the Latin communities who, by and large, want no part of the new COVID “narrative”, as people are calling it? I remember that in the summer of 2020, we had our house reroofed by a Latino operation on July 4 weekend. The whole extended family had a party on our property, no masks, good food, good times as they did a beautiful job on our new roof. What a contrast to our fearful neighbors cowering in their homes. Truthfully, at that point we were cowering in our home as well. In any case, my current theory is this:

If people have a sincere spiritual belief of some kind and/or a true feeling of connectedness to the Earth, they are less afraid of COVID.

How so?

If you have faith that there is life after death, if you are willing to put your life and spirit into the hands of some greater spiritual power, if you accept that your body is mortal just like any other living thing on this planet, then you will more deeply accept that, yes, you will ultimately get sick and die. And you will also more deeply value and maintain your connection to friends and family while you are alive. You will not accept that you must be separated from your loved ones if they are dying. You will not accept that you have to live forever behind a mask that blocks interaction and connection between people. You will not accept that you can no longer gather with others you love and must instead sit fearfully in your home in front of a computer screen. And certainly after months and years of this existence, you will believe that it’s no longer worth it, no matter the consequences. You will insist on being free again.

However, there is a different impulse that has grown up around us. It is the same impulse that keeps us glued to our cell phones and computer screens. It is the impulse that values virtual over direct human connections. Unfortunately, the younger people are, the more they are cajoled and hypnotized into this impulse. And I’m sad to say, this impulse has been bred and spread by my former peers in Silicon Valley who value being “safe” more than anything else. Never mind that living in a chronic state of fear indoors is anything but safe for their immune systems and health.

About 15 years ago, Steve and I attended a birthday party in San Francisco that was filled with young computer entrepreneurs. We were probably the oldest people there. Throughout the evening, these folks told us that they believed they could live to be 1000 years old, that they were freezing their eggs and sperm, etc. They were aghast when we told them that we didn’t mind getting older and dying — that there was beauty in living the full arc of life. These people called themselves transhumanists — a term that was new to us at the time. 

Steve and I left the party thinking, “That was weird!” and believed these people were anomalous nerds. Now we realize that it is people like them that are running Silicon Valley and increasingly the world. Transhumanists look forward to a future where humans and machines merge. They do not believe in a spiritual reality. Instead, they believe that the physical body is all there is and that once they die, that’s it. Given this belief system, it’s no wonder that they will do anything — take any drug or insert any gadget into their bodies — in order to extend their lives. They will also happily attach or insert monitoring devices that alert them to any deviations from the norm, and welcome any new discovery that promises to let them live forever. Unfortunately, human history is filled with unexpected disasters that befall this kind of hubris — the belief that you can outsmart Mother Nature.

Ultimately, I see two futures lying ahead of humanity, and that human civilization might bifurcate as a result. One is based on a fully controlled and mechanized society, where humans essentially merge with computers and, yes, feel safe and secure within high-tech bubbles. The other is guided by the goal of becoming more fully and deeply human — with a deep spiritual connection to the land, to each other, and to our higher selves living in unseen dimensions. 

—

To summarize, the observations and experiences that Steve and I had on the road made us realize that the Bay Area is increasingly out of alignment with who we are now and what we believe and value. Uprooting our entire lives and starting over in a new locale is a difficult thing to contemplate at our age.  And what if we make a mistake, move, and don’t find what we’re looking for? Given the cost of living in the Bay Area, we could never afford to move back and recreate what we  have. But we also realize that it’s now or never. If we don’t make a leap now, we will be too old to do so in ten or even five years. The bottom line is: Steve and I know what kind of future we want to be a part of.  And unfortunately, it’s becoming obvious that the Bay Area, once a beacon of openness and “groovy” spirituality and creativity, has abandoned that future. 

My question for you, the reader, is: which future do you want to join?

What Is Liberation?

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It seems like everyone these days is thinking about liberty. Here in the US, people were feeling so much freer after various COVID restrictions were removed in June and July. Now the clamps are coming down again, with all the fears about the delta variant and emerging talk about vaccine mandates and passports. We may not hear about this in the mainstream media, but huge protests are taking place in all of the major cities of Europe (watch these short videos — video1, video2 — on YouTube before they are removed). Also well worth watching and food for thought is this video.

If you are vaccinated and believed that the vaccines would be super effective and that you were completely in the clear, it may be coming as a rude awakening to now find out that you can still get COVID (and yes, die or be hospitalized) and spread it to others. The fact is, the vaccines are losing their effectiveness against the variants over time. For this reason, Israel, which was one of the first countries to mass-vaccinate is now recommending a booster for those over 60. Soon, boosters will be in the picture for everyone.

On the other hand, if you are unvaccinated because you never trusted that the vaccine would be that effective, knew that naturally gained immunity is always stronger (which it’s proving to be), and feared that the vaccines would be shown to be unsafe in the long-term, you may not be all that surprised that the effectiveness of an untested genetic form of vaccine is waning and becoming less resistant to the growing variants. In fact, as Nobel Prize winning virologist Luc Montagnier has reminded us, variants are almost always triggered by the vaccines themselves, because viruses are always trying to work around them. As a result, the world will be playing a chasing game with COVID variants for many years to come. Hopefully, they will grow weaker over time, not stronger.

Another unfortunate development is the escalating effort to demonize, scapegoat, and bar the unvaccinated from normal life. This is already underway in Europe (spurring the recent mass protests) and is also starting to appear in the US and Canada. Alternative medicine advocates are now being portrayed as domestic terrorists by President Biden and the New York Times. For a fascinating read about this phenomenon, please check out the ever-brilliant Charles Eisenstein’s essay about this subject. Everyone should read it and it should give us all pause.

Also shocking is the banning and cancelling of any form of dissent within the scientific and medical community about COVID and the COVID vaccines, including information about effective allopathic (conventional) treatments for COVID. As a result, respected virologists, vaccine developers, and doctors are now losing their funding and their jobs. Similarly, the CDC’s own data about vaccine injuries, deaths, and hospitalizations is being censored from mainstream media.

So where can liberation be found?

Most of seek our sense of freedom through the external world. We naturally want to do and say and go where we want. No one wants to be forced to hide in the shadows, guard their speech, or not trust strangers or even their own friends. No one wants to be forced into something they don’t want to do or that they believe will harm them. We all want agency and control over our lives. And we all just want to be free to be who we are. This is a basic human need. Without it, we become stressed and eventually diseased.

Unfortunately, because of this, we can also be easily convinced that in order to be free, we may need to enslave or subjugate others, even if the promoted rationale is a lie. As Charles’ essay and the aforementioned video point out, people can easily be manipulated into almost anything, especially if messaging is repeated over and over, fear is constantly stoked, and dissenting voices are blocked. As a result, we cannot truly be sure of “proven science” if all dissenting voices within the scientific community are silenced. And this is especially true if “accepted science” is corrupted by financial forces. Remember that before COVID, most of us knew about the toxic influence of the pharmaceutical giants and their control over both government agencies and almost all medical research.

Happily, however, even the incarcerated and downtrodden can achieve a state of internal liberation and freedom. How so? Because true liberation must ultimately come from within. Remember that if your sense of freedom strictly depends on externals, it will always be subject to diminishment and manipulation by others. To be truly free, to find true liberation, you must find it within yourself. It may not be easy. But it’s possible.

A friend of mine likened our current COVID world and the media surrounding it to a hurricane. It’s so easy to be swept into the swirling fear that is constantly being stoked by the government and medical authorities, the never-ending messaging by the media, and by our own constant participation in that storm through conversation and internal chatter. We may try to escape it by dulling our minds with entertainment, food, or drugs, but eventually we are caught up again in the maelstrom.

The only reliable form of quiet can be found in the center — the eye of the storm. And that center is within. I’ll admit, it’s a constant struggle. We may achieve a bit of peace for a while and then so easily be swept back in. So we need to keep working our way back to that center — perhaps by going out into nature, turning off all media, and meditating. Just as with a storm, we may also be lulled into complacency if the winds seem to have slowed or ended. That’s what happened for a couple of months this summer. But when the storm is restarted or stoked up again by some force, we need to remember to make our way back toward center once again.

Of course, you may also convince yourself that you can escape the storm by going somewhere else. Yes, there may be smaller, weaker storms elsewhere. But ultimately, all of the storms on Earth right now are part of a much bigger storm: not just the global COVID storm, but also the climate disaster storm. Indeed, even countries that have sought to keep out everyone else’s storm — like Australia — are beginning to find out that it’s not really possible to do. We are all caught in a giant storm together and the only way out is for each and every one of us to find our own eye of the storm.

Honestly, doing so can be a daily struggle. I know it is for me. But in my experience, it’s totally worth it. If each of us can manage to find our place of liberation within, we can not only be freed from external manipulation by others, but also achieve the new and peaceful and free world we all want. Not only is this truly necessary right now, but perhaps it’s also the grand opportunity that our universe has created for us so that humanity survives. Because if we can all find our calm center within, our world will be transformed.

Keep the Faith! Homeopathy Works and Will Always Survive

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Wow, things just seem to get grimmer, don’t they? Mandated COVID shots for many people, negative news about homeopathy in the New York Times (because a California naturopath was selling products as “COVID vaccines” and issuing false vaccination cards), and on and on.

But despite all this, we must remember: homeopathy has faced extremely difficult times for over 200 years and has always survived. Even when reduced to a small flower, it grows back. Why? Because it works. And those who use it know this and guard it like a treasure at all costs. Moreover, the world actually needs homeopathy now more than ever! It is our duty to keep it alive and keep the faith. Don’t forget: your thoughts and beliefs and visions for the future have creative power.

Just to keep you going, here are some recent articles about scientific studies that are helping to keep the flame of homeopathy alive. Thanks to all those who do the research and write about it!

Our intrepid Dana Ullman never gives up and got two articles accepted to highly respected journals!

–Exploring Possible Mechanisms of Hormesis and Homeopathy in the Light of Nanopharmacology and Ultra-High Dilutions

–An Analysis of Four Government-Funded Reviews of Research on Homeopathic Medicine

Also courtesy of Dana’s HES newsletter:

Tremendous Popularity for Homeopathy from French Oncologists for Cancer Treatment. A survey published in 2021 in a conventional cancer journal found that 10% of French oncologists prescribe homeopathic medicine for patients with cancer and 54% think that homeopathic medicines are potentially helpful in cancer treatment. Learn more by clicking here.

From the NCH newsletter:

Homeopathy in Sports Medicine… The Olympic teams should use homeopathy! I wonder how many do — at least surreptitiously? I bet more than you think… Kayne S. Homoeopathy in sports medicine: Br Hom J 1992; 81: 142–147, Complementary Therapies in Medicine, Volume 1, Issue 1, January 1993, Page 57

How about osteoarthritis in the knee? Kneusel O, Weber M, Suter A. Arnica montana Gel in Osteoarthritis of the Knee: an open, multicenter clinical trial. Advanced Therapies 2002 Sep-Oct, 19-5, 209-18

Or chronic tension headaches? Sharma N, Ameta A, Sharma S. Effect of homeopathy on chronic tension-type headache: a pragmatic, randomised controlled single blind trial J Headache Pain. 2013; 14(Suppl 1): P56.

From the Washington Homeopathic newsletters, which always include great articles:

Homeopathic Treatment of Pododermatitis in Magellanic Penguins
Penguins, particularly those in captivity, often suffer from inflammation of the skin of their footpads. In a recently published study, a group of penguins with this problem were treated with homeopathy. During treatment, the patients remained in the penguins’ living area, and the effect of the treatment on the progression of their lesions was assessed visually once weekly. The results? After treatment, the appearance of the lesions noticeably improved. In the majority of penguins there was no longer evidence of infection or swelling in the feet. The rate of recovery depended on the initial severity of the lesion. Those penguins that still showed signs of infection nevertheless exhibited a clear diminution of the size and thickness of the lesions. Homeopathic treatment did not cause any side effects. Source: Narita, F., et al., “Homeopathic Treatment of Pododermatitis in Magellanic Penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus)”. Homeopathy 2021; 110(01): 062-066

Brand New Study: Impact of Homeopathic Treatment on the Quality of Life of Women with Chronic Diseases: A Randomized Controlled Pragmatic Trial
Despite the increasing demand for complementary and integrative medicine, only a few studies have evaluated the effect of these types of treatments on the quality of life (QoL) of patients with chronic diseases. That has now changed with the release of this randomized controlled pragmatic trial from Brazil. For this study, patients were divided into two independent groups, one group underwent homeopathic treatment in the first 6-month period, and the other did not receive any homeopathic treatment. In both randomized groups, patients maintained their conventional medical treatment when necessary. The results? Homeopathic treatment showed a statistically significant positive impact at 6 months on the quality of life of women with chronic diseases. Source: Champs, N., et al., Impact of Homeopathic Treatment on the Quality of Life of Women with Chronic Diseases: A Randomized Controlled Pragmatic Trial. Homeopathy. March 2021.

Infertility Research
Infertility can be a painful challenge for many couples. Might homeopathy help? A German study of infertility comparing homeopathy with placebo in 96 women resulted in twice as many pregnancies in the homeopathic group, but only one-third of adverse events when compared with the placebo group. The authors noted that in more than 1000 patients followed in post-marketing surveillance, there was a 60% success rate with homeopathic treatment. Source: Gerhard I, Patek A, Monga B, et al. “Mastodynon(R) Bei Weiblicher Sterilität.” Forschende Komplementarmedizin 1998;5(6): 272–78.

Seasonal allergies are increasing worldwide, though the specific reasons for the increase are not yet known. Given the scale of the problem (23 million in the U.S. alone and counting), researchers worldwide are exploring whether homeopathy can help patients with these issues. In one such recent study, medical researchers in India conducted an interventional study on patients suffering from allergies defined as seasonal allergic rhinitis. Their findings? Researchers saw significant improvements in several measures of symptom severity. “The outcome of this study suggests that individualized homeopathic treatment may be a useful measure for the patients suffering from Allergic Rhinitis.” Source: Ghosh S, Saha S. Allied health – 3006. “Homeopathy in treating allergic rhinitis – An interventional pilot study” World Allergy Organ J. 2013; 6(Suppl 1): P182.

Homeopathic News and Views About COVID

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Lots of interesting videos and information to share about the COVID situation, from both a homeopathic and non-standard medical point of view.

– Prominent Indian homeopath Rajan Sankaran discusses the current COVID situation in India and remedies that are being used.

– Another Indian homeopath, Manish Bhatia, weighs in on the Indian situation as well, which unfortunately seems to be different in nature and severity from what’s been going on in the rest of the world.

Cuba has been very successful in using homeopathy to lower the impact of COVID. Check out this article and search for “Cuba” to read this information.

– An excellent paper by the aforementioned Ronald Whitmont, MD about his views about the reason for the severity of COVID outcomes. Whitmont is the son of famous homeopath Christopher Whitmont whose work I discussed at length in Impossible Cure.

– Not homeopathy related, but this excellent talk by a Canadian vaccine researcher, may give you pause about the current COVID vaccinations, if you have still not partaken of one.

Homeopathy Is Alive and Well — and in Action!

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Do you recognize the image on the right? It’s taken at the Hahnemann monument, located on the east side of Scott Circle, a traffic circle in the northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. The next time you are in the US capital, it’s well worth paying a visit and being inspired (and perhaps amazed!) that such a glorious tribute to homeopathy’s founder sits in such a significant locale. It’s testimony to the important history of homeopathy in the USA — and hopefully a future that will be even more glorious!

Happily, I can report that I believe homeopathy in America is alive and well. This was reinforced by my participation in April in the Homeopathy on the Hill (HOH) event (thrown by Americans for Homeopathy Choice) and by talks I viewed as part of the annual Joint American Homeopathy Conference (JAHC) sponsored by the National Center for Homeopathy. Kudos to both organizations for their vigilant tending of the homeopathic flame, even in difficult times!

As part of HOH, I attended conferences calls to the staff of both of my California senators and a video call with a staff member of my Congresswoman. Our goal was to start a legislative process to formally separate homeopathic medicines from other medicines (which has been true for over 80 years), thereby blocking the FDA’s draft guidance which is rendering all homeopathic medicines as “new drugs” that must go through a conventional drug application and approval process (something untenable for homeopathic medicines). Previous efforts to block implementation of this draft guidance have failed, so the legislative approach is next on the docket. Happily, such legislation has been approved in the past, and our efforts today already have champions on both sides of the aisle. The HOH volunteer staff, led by the incomparable Paola Brown, prepared all of us really well for this event. Although there were some hitches on the big day, I was truly impressed by the dedication of the mostly young moms who run this organization. It gives me confidence that these young defenders of homeopathy will carry the torch for a long time.

As far as the JAHC conference, I wasn’t able to attend very many of the talks (the time difference made it a bit difficult for this sleepy-head!), but I was particularly impressed by Denise Straiges’s talk that was full of historical wisdom and future-looking optimism. She was inspirational! So was Dr. Ronald Whitmont, in his fascinating and well-referenced presentation about how the severity of COVID is ultimately the outcome of iatrogenic disease — that is, ill health caused by overuse of conventional medicine.

Also particularly inspirational was a talk given by actress Lindsay Wagner (of Bionic Woman fame), which was the finale’ event of HOH. I knew Lindsay was a supporter of homeopathy, but I had no idea how deep her knowledge and support ran. She spoke about how homeopathy literally saved her life in the 80s and how she could be found studying homeopathy texts on the set of the Bionic Woman! Who knew? We need more celebrities like Ms. Wagner to speak out about the power of homeopathy.

Something Is Definitely Not As It Seems

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It’s been a while since I’ve written, mostly because I’ve been rather flummoxed over the past few months and didn’t know what to say.

Doesn’t it seem like we’re all living in some kind of strange dream? I feel like we’re floating in unknown waters with our heads above the surface, trying to pretend that everything is “normal.” But below the surface, we sense that something is definitely not as it seems.

Naturally, how we respond to this state of affairs can tell us much about our inner life. My usual pattern is to go into fear and sadness, but lately I’ve also felt frustration and stagnation. I’ve come to realize that, beneath these feelings, I am actually resisting accepting the new “status quo.” But as I’ve written about before, resistance is ultimately futile. Instead, we must accept what is and go from there. And in order to do so in a way that is healthy and effective, we must find a way to heal our personal patterns and wounds.

So what finally inspired me to write? It was an unusual day of contrasts that occurred a few weeks ago. It all began during a video chat with a spiritual group I meet with every Saturday morning. One of the participants (who has usually been supportive of alternative medical views) declared that she now intended to wear a mask for the rest of her life, even after COVID is done — just in case. Somehow this really rattled me.

Only hours later, my husband and I went to a gathering at a local park organized by a group opposed to mandatory vaccination. We knew nothing else about the group or who would be there. But we soon experienced something even more rattling — and quite at the opposite extreme.

After some introductions, we all embarked on a 2 hour hike, during which our experience gradually became more extreme. First, it emerged that everyone (except us) adamantly refused to temporarily put on a mask when masked folks passed closely on the narrow hiking trail. One woman in the group proudly told me she even refused to put on a mask to go grocery shopping and has to make a special appointment at the store in order to do so!

Over time, it then emerged that most of the group espoused some rather extremist views. Some were anti-BLM, some didn’t believe in climate change, some blamed the Jewish media for everything, and so on. What an experience! These people fulfilled every media stereotype of “anti-vaxxers.”

And once again, as has been happening repeatedly lately, my husband and I found ourselves to be outliers — sitting in the middle and belonging nowhere, except with a few of our friends who are alternative medicine practitioners or adherents.

So what’s my message today?

I believe that no matter what you believe or what media outlet you’re listening to, most people are at least sensing that no one truly knows what’s going on.

This is certainly true of the medical authorities. None of the COVID vaccines have been tested in the way vaccines are normally tested before they’re released. As a result, medical researchers actually have no idea what the long term consequences of the vaccine campaign will be, including its ultimate safety or effectiveness. My friend who works at the CDC confirmed this. The authorities know that there are significant risks in the vaccine campaign, but they just don’t know what else to do. Each of the vaccines represents an experiment with a different technique, dosage, and dosing regimen. Only time will tell what happens. And in my experience, even the most enthusiastic of vaccine recipients is a bit nervous when they get it and, afterward, seems relieved that they are still alive.

And of course, we still have no definitive information about the origin of the pandemic, what will happen with developing variants, or what will happen with our world economy. We also have no idea whether society will become bifurcated into the vaccinated/unvaccinated, whether basic freedoms of movement will be upheld or forbidden to the unvaccinated (including the possibility of forced vaccination), what kind of monitoring and tracking we will all be subject to in the future, and so on. Add in climate change, social unrest, and all the rest and you get an almost complete state of utter uncertainty. No wonder the internet is full of seminars on depression, anxiety, and how to sleep! These days, the furthest any of us can forecast into the future is about a week or two, a month or two at best.

So how do we, as humans, react to such an extreme state of not knowing? I think there are three main types of reaction: denial (in all its many forms), conspiracy thinking, and searching or inquiring within. The first two are focused outward onto the external world. The third turns the focus inward.

In general, denial has become the most common reaction and is characterized by an undercurrent of fear and sometimes sadness and/or numbness. As far as I can see, this denial has been taking two forms:

1) Blocking or escaping from thinking about the situation through a variety of often addictive pursuits: drugs, eating, social media, shopping, and other entertaining distractions. All of these behaviors have increased significantly since March 2020. Of course, another (and healthier) form of escape is occupying oneself with busyness — e.g., work, exercise, home improvement, learning new skills, etc.

2) Attempting to find a sense of control and safety by rabidly embracing the conventional narrative and following every mainstream media directive, usually without questioning it or its consistency with previous directives or common sense. Such folks tend to be glued to the news, may wear many masks at once, even if the authorities say it is no longer necessary, and are also the most likely to demonize or ostracize those who question the narrative in any way.

Next, we have the conspiracy folks. Their general state is dominated by anger. Often their conspiracy ideation is another type of denial: e.g., a belief that there is no pandemic, there is no climate change, cops don’t treat black and brown people any differently than white people, etc.

Another aspect of angry conspiracy thinking is scapegoating — usually the authorities, but also specific individuals or groups of people. Such people also tend to angrily refuse to consider multiple points of view or have sympathy for those who do not agree with them. In many ways, they are much like the conventionally-minded rabid news junkies; they are just listening to different news, each calling the other side “fake.”

Then there’s the third option — going within. Increasingly, I have found it is the only healthy path for me going forward.

In my last newsletter, I talked about the vaccine debate. If you read it, you will understand why my husband and I want to avoid getting vaccinated, at least as long as we can. We know better than most about the inherent dangers of the COVID vaccines and their likely shortcomings as a strategy in the long run. We also have faith in non-invasive methods of prevention and alternative medical options of healing if we do get sick.

Unfortunately, our beliefs and choices have made our lives increasingly more difficult since January 2021. We are in our mid-late 60s and almost everyone we know is vaccinated. Many friends and acquaintances think we’re either nuts, irresponsible, selfish, or reckless. We are occasionally ostracized and are increasingly dismayed at what’s going on. Unfortunately, this has affected both of us physically. In my case, my blood pressure has risen considerably since January.

Most people in the USA are feeling better in 2021 than in 2020. For us, it is the opposite. Each week my husband downloads the vaccine injury data from the government and this data (which is never publicized by the media) is shocking. We now have over 4400 deaths associated with the COVID vaccines in the USA, with about 30-50 people currently dying per day. These vaccines are the most dangerous in history by a huge margin. For example, they are statistically 200 times as dangerous as a flu vaccine. But no one seems to know about this, and if they do know, they don’t seem to care. This has affected our peace of mind and our bodies in a palpable way.

So now, with my blood pressure speaking loudly to me, I realize that I have no other choice but to confront my own personal demons. Going within is truly my only option. And in many ways, this is true for all of us — whether it means confronting our fear or our anger or our sadness. Because the bottom line is that, in all cases and for all people, our demons have not originated in 2020 or 2021. They usually go all the way back to childhood and our family patterns of experience and trauma. I know this is true for me.

I’m now engaging (once again!) in a concerted effort to deal with my own lifelong patterns and issues. This has involved unsubscribing from or filtering out several email lists that have been consistently triggering me. I’m also utilizing several therapeutic modalities in order to heal myself. I know that I don’t want resort to escapism or denial or conspiracy anger or sadness and shutdown. I want peace. I want ease. We all do! So I believe we must all now work hard — perhaps harder than ever before — to release our personal demons. I believe my life — and the future of our world — depends on it.

In Active Consciousness, I talked about the manifestation process. An important part of it is developing the ability to truly believe that a goal can and will occur. But as Huna teachings also stress, this cannot fully happen as long as there are emotional and mental obstacles (often subconscious) that stand in the way. For this reason, being mired in negativity — fear, anger, sadness, etc. — will ultimately block you, especially if you desire peace.

Unraveling the Vaccine Debate: Finding the Fulcrum Beneath Polarity

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Many of us are growing to realize the dangers inherent in the increasing polarities in our world. Polarity is all about two camps fighting one another on two sides of an issue, each side “othering” and dehumanizing the other as an enemy to be vanquished at all costs. Of course, polarities have likely plagued humanity for thousands of years. But the information age and the rise of social media have worsened the problem and also made it much more obvious.

Lately, I’ve been listening to Charles Eisenstein‘s 10-part lecture series on political hope. Charles encourages his listeners to not only understand where each side of a polarity is coming from — in essence, putting oneself in the other’s shoes — but also to search for what truly lies beneath a polarity. When I think about the nature of polarity, what springs to mind is the image of a see-saw. One side goes up at the expense of the other, which must go down. But under a see-saw lies its fulcrum. The word “fulcrum” derives from the Latin word “fulcire,” which means “to prop”.  Besides being a prop for a lever, a fulcrum has also been defined as something that plays a central role in or is in the center of a situation or activity. Given any polarity that you may be embroiled in, what is supporting it? What lies at its true center?

As it turns out, on the exact same day that I listened to Charles’ talk about polarity, I had a Zoom chat with two lifelong friends from elementary school — two women with quite different mindsets than me but who are also much like sisters. One lives in Jerusalem and the other in Washington, D.C. Before COVID times, we talked to each other on our birthdays and got together every 10 years or so, but since March 2020, we have been Zooming once a month. This particular Zoom took place the day after the inauguration, so our conversation naturally drifted to the next topic that is dominating the news — the COVID vaccine.

Unfortunately, this conversation pushed on my own hot-button polarity issue: vaccination. I will discuss my own views in more detail later, but let me just say that one of my friends had already gotten the shot and the other was having it the next day. In contrast, my husband and I want to avoid it if we can. The truth is, my friends have always viewed my involvement with alternative medicine as nonsense and we avoid talking about the subject. But it was hard to avoid it when it came to this Zoom discussion. In fact, I experienced my first dose of “vaccine shaming” from one them, who accused me of avoiding the vaccine at her expense, intimating that she was doing her duty to achieve a herd immunity that I could ride upon. In actuality, this couldn’t be further from my true thoughts. And after the Zoom ended, her comment triggered a response in me much like Charles had warned against: a desire to completely disengage from my friends and to view them as “sheep-le” who unthinkingly follow media directives. This article is my effort to follow Charles’s advice and disengage as best I can from this polarity, to put myself in my friends’ shoes, and to find the fulcrum that underlies this increasingly divisive issue. (Please forgive the fact that this article is written from the perspective of a person living in the USA.)

Let me begin letting you know more about where I’m coming from. Unlike the stereotype of the “anti-vaxxer” who knows nothing about science and ignores the obvious facts, much like a flat-earther or climate-disaster-denier, my own experience of people on “my side” of the vaccine debate is very different. Many (if not most) are parents of children who have been injured or even killed by vaccines. Some have been injured themselves and are suffering from a lifelong chronic disability. Among them are medical doctors and many other types of professionals. Because their vaccine injury experiences were swept under the rug or outright denied by the medical establishment and by society in general, and because vaccine manufacturers have had no liability for vaccine injuries since 1986, most of these people have spent years trying to recover from their injuries at their own expense, usually with the aid of “alternative medicine” in various forms. They also tend to be highly educated on the topic of vaccines, and know more about it than most doctors. They are also familiar with the many scientific studies that go against the media party-line that vaccines are “safe and effective”.

While I have never had a vaccine reaction myself (though I haven’t been vaccinated in at least 35 years), I believe one of my sons was vaccine injured and eventually healed with the aid of homeopathic medicine.  I was so inspired by this event that I gave up my career as a research computer scientist in Silicon Valley to write about this form of medicine and become an advocate for it. After my book on homeopathy (Impossible Cure) was published, I was approached by someone to see if I could do something about making the government’s vaccine injury data (VAERS — the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) more accessible. At the time, it was available to the public for download, but as pretty cryptic raw file data.  Over the course of a weekend, my husband (also a computer scientist) downloaded the data files and created a more usable database. About a year  later, he put it online (medalerts.org). Although the CDC eventually created their own website to share this data with the public, my husband’s website still provides the most complete and usable view of the VAERS data and is thus the one often used, even by CDC researchers and vaccine manufacturers.

Up until recently, new VAERS data was made available for access once a month. Since the COVID vaccines came out, new downloads have been made available once a week. As a result, my husband and I are some of the very first people in the world to know the latest stats on COVID vaccine injuries. As of March 5, 2021, there have been 1524 deaths associated with a COVID vaccination and 3470 hospitalizations (you can find a summary of the latest stats here).  So when I say that I am aware of the potential dangers of getting a COVID vaccine, I am not exaggerating. I also know that, in the past, every vaccine that has been rushed to market has ultimately been pulled because of injuries. I am also dubious about whether the action of the COVID vaccines released so far (which are experimental in nature and different from traditional vaccines) will create herd immunity.

I’ve also got to admit that I have been personally traumatized by the vaccine debate, aside from my own child’s injury.  Because of my husband’s involvement with VAERS, he was asked to testify in Sacramento in 2015 when they were considering SB277, a bill which ultimately removed California children’s ability to obtain philosophical and religious vaccine exemptions, mandating vaccination for attendance at any public or private school or child care center. Thus, it forced anyone who didn’t want to vaccinate their child to homeschool or move to another state. Although medical exemptions were allowed, they have been increasingly circumscribed and many doctors have been persecuted for writing exemptions since that time.

As part of the SB277 hearing, hundreds of protesters came to Sacramento to voice their plea to the legislators. Since I was in the hearing room with my husband, I got to see it all. Over the course of many long hours, parent after parent, sometimes towing an injured child in a wheelchair, came up to the microphone to ask the legislators not to pass this bill. Some of these parents were doctors. Some had children who died. One man was removed by guards for an angry and anguished outburst. The author of the bill, Senator Pan (the largest recipient of donations in the California Senate from the pharmaceutical industry), smiled and nodded at each one. The legislators paid rapt attention to the people who gave formal testimony in favor of the bill. But when the anti-SB277 contingent provided testimony (including my husband), the legislators talked amongst themselves and ignored them. The bill was rubber-stamped by the committee and within weeks, had become law.

This experience traumatized me so much that I got sick for several weeks afterward. In addition, the newspapers wrote articles about the event that differed from what I had actually witnessed. I cancelled our longstanding subscription to the San Francisco newspaper. I no longer trusted the media or the political system. In many ways, my complete view of reality was pulled out from underneath me because of this experience.

So what about putting myself in my friends’ shoes? I must admit it’s hard to do now, but with effort, I can recreate my world view before all this happened.  I totally trusted doctors and conventional medicine back then, and I would follow their directives without question. I would never think of not vaccinating my child or myself. Injuries from prescribed medicines and treatments? Surely these things must be rare or apocryphal.  Besides — and perhaps this is the key thing — what other choice did I have but to trust my doctor and medical authorities? Alternative medical ideas seemed archaic and bogus to me. Everyone was saying this was true, especially the media. So if I didn’t have modern medicine, I would have no way to heal myself. To question this would be to question science — perhaps even the foundations of civil society. More importantly, to question it would be to endanger my health, my children’s health. 

So I get it. To my friends, I am their “crazy sister” who followed her delusional ideas about homeopathy, alternative medicine, and vaccines. They love me anyway, but they certainly don’t want to follow my advice and wait a few months before getting vaccinated. In fact, they worry about my own health, as much as I worry about them getting vaccinated. They may also fear that I am some kind of dangerous outlier, perhaps as dangerous as a Trump supporter (even though they simultaneously think I am much too left-wing in my views). So they pat me on the head and hope that I will finally get a clue and get vaccinated. After all, they do love me.

So where is the fulcrum? What lies beneath this vaccination polarity?  Charles suggests that one strategy is to discover something both sides hold in common. In the case of vaccines, it seems clear that at the center is everyone’s natural desire to be healthy and to keep themselves and their loved ones safe from disease and death. The main difference between the two sides is how to go about it. One side has lost faith in the conventional medical establishment to achieve this aim, and the other has not.

Perhaps it is also a matter of degree and a knowledge of and access to alternatives. While it is well known that many people have, for one reason or another, lost some confidence and trust in mainstream allopathic medicine and especially in the pharmaceutical industry, some have greater distrust than others. In addition, awareness of, and the ability to afford, other options for staying well can differ greatly. And herein lies the conundrum and the debate. And it is also now clear why imposing severe mandates on “anti-vaxxers” and marginalizing the vaccine-injured isn’t going to help matters much; it will only make their distrust grow. So let’s explore this issue a bit more.

Perhaps first and foremost is the current state of health in modernized countries and especially in the USA. Chronic disease has become rampant, even among children. A majority of both children and adults are now taking prescribed medicines on a regular basis. Parents have grown to accept chronic disease in their children as the new norm, and are likely not aware that this kind of thing was rare 50 years ago. In this context, a dependence on conventional medical solutions seems more necessary now than ever. And the specter of some new acute epidemic disease being added into the mix is too much for many to bear. Vaccines and “accepted” solutions seem to be the only answer. 

On the other side, from the standpoint of alternative health approaches and the people who use them, the rise of chronic disease is directly linked to over-vaccination and the overuse of medicine. They also believe that an underlying factor for chronic disease is our increasingly poor state of nutrition. Soils have been depleted, foods have been poisoned by pesticides like glyphosate, people have become addicted to nutrient-empty junk food, and obesity is rampant. Add into this mix a growing toxic stew of electromagnetic radiation and air pollution. So once again, while most can agree that people are increasingly and chronically unwell, an awareness of the severity of the trend and an agreement about what is causing it differs.

Another factor is that, in general, the conventional approach to disease (and especially the use of vaccines), tends to be blanket in nature, without taking into consideration that each individual has their own health tendencies and therefore may be more disposed to injuries than others, especially long-term chronic injuries. In contrast, alternative medical approaches are generally  all about individualization, and those who use them are very much aware of this. Unfortunately, vaccine mandates only allow for a very narrow form of exemption based on acute and rapid reactions and therefore do not take individual health tendencies into account. To those who already distrust mainstream medicine, this further exacerbates it.

Let’s talk a bit more about the awareness issue. After the early 1900s, many forms of medical alternatives were actively suppressed, denigrated, and virtually disappeared. Initially, it was largely about medical competition, fueled by the rise of the pharmaceutical industry and the fact that some of the more modern medicines finally did work well. This period also coincided with the rise of the notion that science was the only solution to mankind’s problems. It featured the “green revolution” and the rise of big-agriculture, along with the development of many amazing medical technologies. Although several medical alternatives re-emerged and gained a lot of traction after the 1970s, over the past couple of years (and especially since the pandemic began), they have been targeted and intensively suppressed with the aid of big-tech and the media. This is true not only of more controversial systems like homeopathy, but also of the use of vitamins and various foods and supplements to bolster immunity and avoid disease. As a result the public’s awareness of and willingness to try alternative approaches has become weakened, while at the same time, it has increased distrust among those who already rely upon these alternative health approaches. 

Another factor in all of this is our view of illness and death itself. Over the past 50 years or so, it has become increasingly intolerable to people to suffer and recover from an acute disease, whether it be the flu or even a cold. Even in my childhood (I am 65), people expected to be sick for a few days occasionally and spend some time recovering at home. Everyone (and especially doctors) understood that getting and recovering from an acute disease strengthened one’s immune system. In addition, pretty much every child in the USA got the measles, mumps, and chickenpox to no ill effect. It was anticipated and accepted, like a rite of passage, and doctors knew that experiencing these childhood diseases led to leaps in cognitive and bodily immune development, and also conferred lifelong immunity. In contrast, today, taking time out for illness and recovery has become unacceptable, with people taking suppressive medicines so that they can go to work anyway. This is the new norm. The collective memory and acceptance of acute illness as part of our everyday experience has been lost. Could an underlying reason for this be the societal breakdown of family structures and supports? For example, if no one is available to care for sick children, it is no wonder that working parents want to avoid the childhood diseases which often kept them at home for a week or more.

When it comes to death, most people will undergo any form of treatment if it affords them one more day of life, even if it renders their remaining days miserable and bankrupts their families. Doctors and hospitals actually encourage this, due to their own fear of lawsuits. In the end, our acceptance of death as part of life has been lost. Death has become almost unspeakable, with the dying largely hidden from view. In contrast, suffering from a lifelong chronic ailment has sometimes become a badge of honor and even identity. Is an underlying reason for this phenomenon the breakdown of the extended family? After all, when the elderly were living with their families, everyone got to see the dying process first hand. Or could it be the modern notion that “science” can cure every ill and death is no longer required? The growing transhumanist movement is actually touting such ideas.

I’m sure there is more beneath the polarity of the vaccine debate. I also suspect that the COVID-19 vaccine experience will, ultimately, bring this polarity to a head, much as the BLM and Me-Too movements have intensified our awareness of racism and misogyny. Our world seems to be going through a kind of cleansing, with polarities intensifying and coming more clearly into view, and hopefully, ultimately, bringing awareness of their underlying issues and solutions into focus. 2021 will no doubt be an interesting year.

















Homeopathic Success in Treating Cancer, Vaccine Injuries Climbing, and More Signs of a Momentous Year of Change Ahead

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As we enter a new year, I sense that 2021 will be a year of change. Many are hoping that the COVID vaccine will enable our world to get back to the old normal. But I believe it will be a year of surprises and action that takes us into a new reality that none of us could have ever anticipated.

In a recent post, I wrote about the power of uncertainty. When the world becomes utterly unpredictable, we have an increased opportunity to shift things toward the direction we’d like to go. As a result, it is now more important than ever to visualize the desired future that we’d like to see.

2020 was certainly a year of stasis. In spiritual jargon, we were sitting in “the void”, a dark and quiet place where all seemed rather gloomy, unchanging, vague, and uncertain. But the void is also where change and new manifestation incubates. I believe that we will begin to see these shifts occur in 2021 and onward into the next decade.

Things certainly were rather bleak for alternative medicine in general, and for homeopathy in particular, in 2020. It was a year in which homeopathy and every form of natural medicine was actively suppressed by the media, blacklisted by online venues, and the FDA continued to threaten our access to remedies. There was also the specter of looming COVID vaccine mandates. But one maxim of homeopathic philosophy is that attempts to suppress often create blow-back reactions. And there are now glimmers of this happening and a shift arising as a result. Let’s consider some of these.

Dana Ullman has recently reported an article in a major medical journal that confirms the utility of homeopathy in treating lung cancer.

An attempt to push back on a flu vaccine mandate for schools has been successful in Massachusetts.

Very surprisingly to me, California (known for its recently-passed draconian vaccine laws) has announced they will not mandate the COVID vaccine. (Go to the very bottom of this page and see the answer to the question: “Will you make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory?”) Of course, it remains to be seen whether this holds and whether employer mandates will be enacted. Hopefully, there will be the opportunity for at least religious exemptions.

The VAERS database (the CDC’s vaccine injury database) used to be updated monthly, but is now being updated weekly. After just five weeks of entered COVID vaccine data, the number of deaths went from 0 to 13 to 66 to 181 to 329. You can find the most current weekly summary here. It is usually updated on Friday. In the meantime, hits on the this particular VAERS data site have gone from 50,000 a day to 320,000 per day. Part of this may be because major news outlets (like Good Morning America) have mentioned the existence of VAERS — something unthinkable before now.

People are certainly becoming more and more aware of the possibility of vaccine injury. A large percentage of medical professionals all over the USA are refusing the vaccine. In Norway, they have realized that the vaccine is killing or injuring very frail seniors and they are considering whether or not to administer the vaccine to this population. While much of this news is rather gruesome, it certainly portends a shift in consciousness about the inherent safety and effectiveness of vaccination in general. Much remains to be seen over the next few months.

My hope and vision? For whatever reason, the world decided to put all its COVID eggs into the vaccine basket in 2020. If this option fails or proves insufficient (and truthfully, I hope this will not be the case), we will have no other choice but to stop suppressing both allopathic and alternative medicine options for treating COVID in 2021. (Sadly, even in India, homeopathic treatment of COVID has been blocked, but a recent court case lifted this blockage.) All of this could mean a resurgence of homeopathy! After all, we have many COVID-treatment successes under our belts and data to prove it. Homeopaths will also have success in treating the vaccine injuries that will surely be increasing.

Let us pledge to rise to this task and let our amazing homeopathy shine for all the world to see. The genie will finally be out of the bottle! The limitations of the allopathic medical system will finally be understood. The high death rates in countries in which obesity, poor diet and food, and environmental toxins are most predominant will become increasingly obvious. The net effect, over time, will lead to a worldwide revolution in health and healing. And so it is!

The Power of Uncertainty

AmyLansky.com Posted on by

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.