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Dear Reader,
There is so much going on at the moment and it does take time to process all of this. It has been difficult trying to make some sense with so much new information coming out every day. With that in mind, I wanted as always to use some of this information under one theme, maybe in an effort to put things in order and in perspective and highlight what I see as essential, present and important. I have already written about some of the possible lessons that can be learned from the corona virus and its consequences. As new information is surfacing ever day is important for me at least to understand any new lessons and adjust our responses to them. In Greece we are currently starting to get out of the lockdown and allowed some more freedoms than before. It did not make sense to keep going in lockdown state as the new infections and deaths are really low at the moment. In my sense sooner or later we are all going to get infected and develop antibodies that constitute our natural bodily protection until an effective vaccine is found similar to the normal flu situation. The main theme that travels through my mind these days is that of the 'truth'. It feels that there is an exaggeration of announced measures from governments and quite disproportional to the degree of threat from the virus. The death rates compared to the infected people with or without symptoms (tested and not tested) are not as high as it was initially expected. Facts that make me suspiciously question they eagerness with which governments are willing to take these restrictive measures. Cameras at schools, removal of family relatives from home, prolonged social distancing from friends and loved ones seem extreme measures comparing to harshness of the situation so far. I understand that there are a lot of unknown parameters so far including the infection rates, the behaviour of the virus etc but it is really surprising to me that governments have not reacted like that before in other 'life threatening' situations such as normal flu and populations starving every day. Moreover, instead of waiting to see the advancements of the virus and science, they are very quick to examine strict measures. It also sounds that so far our survival instincts are selective and country based as each country takes its own measures based on their perception and estimation of the reality of the virus. This is exactly my main point: that we live our lives based on the truth that we know of ourselves and we believe for others. For example, if we are told by an authority that every chinese person is a threat to us as they can infect us, then we might believe this as reality and start constructing our lives around this believed 'truth'. So, we will avoid chinese people at all costs, we will use masks, gloves and anything we can to protect ourselves from them, even wish for them to leave our countries in order to remain healthy. We would do not recognise them anymore as people that can be treated, neighbours, friends etc, but as possible infectious bomb that we have to separate ourselves from. To follow someone's rules, means that there is belief that those rules are based on the honesty and transparency of intentions. As children we obey punishment from parents as a way to learn the 'good' way of behaving over the 'bad' one. 'Good and 'bad' in this instance are defined by what the parents believe as good or bad which in turn might have learned from their parents and so on. This is the ultimate power of parents, that under the role of a 'caring authority' can shape the behaviour of their children through punishment and reward (conditioning). It is clear that at some level we all play 'hide and seek' lying to one another. We are constantly trying to negotiate our truth with the truth of others revealing a game of mistrust. What is really hurting me in what we live right now is that it appears more and more probable that we are being lied to, the same way that we have been lying when we have not followed the quarantine rules. There is always a reason why someone lies. While it is clear that people have been lying when disobeying the quarantine rules taking a risk doing an activity they enjoy, it is not so clear and highly suspicious why governments have been lying in declaring false reasons of death in favour of the virus. If the virus is the threat, why are they declaring that it killed more people than it really did? Why we become so sterilised weakening our immune system that really protects us? that It does not make sense. Every lie told creates a gap in the glue of any relationship, trust. The last few weeks a big part of greek society has been following the trial of two young men who raped and killed in a very violent way a young girl. The girl's trust was broken as she did consent to meet them, but not to be raped and killed. It is really shocking and hurtful for anyone who has a bit of empathy to realise that someone else, for whatever reason, may assume that 'it is ok' to become the authority of what is going to happen to another's life. I am really wondering who could possible taught those two young men that 'it is ok' to make another human being and particularly a woman, suffer and take her life. Not only they misused her trust but, also they did not have the courage to tell the truth in the court and the real truth will never be known as the girl is not alive anymore to tell it. The silenced the truth and only some of its traces can be found. This is only one 'small' example of what human nature is capable of. For thousands of years we have been killing one another in the name of countries, religions, justice, democracy, human rights, profit and so on. Oh yes, we did use to believe those truths, that the killings were justified but were they? It is completely different to kill from self defence than to to kill for other reasons. Remember all laws are man made, hence changeable, and mainly reflecting of where the evolution of human spirit is really at. Not too long ago, it was law enforced the existence of slaves! My interest is to follow the presence of the light in every dark corner. There can be no real appreciation of light, if we have not experienced darkness and, yet, choosing darkness is another thing. Each one of us is part of the same ever expanding thing, existence, and we have all been given the capacity to reach our own truth within it. We need to search for it deep within. We need to question ourselves, 'does that feel right to me or is it something that I am being told and I consent to it blindly, because I do not know anything else?'. Standing up for one's truth requires courage and integrity similar to the need of our bodies for water in order to be sustained. So where does one find their truth, strength and integrity? To what does one devote one's life? Sadly, what happened with the two young men was that their inner compass of love, respect and compassion was not working and another programme possibly learned by their parents had overruled it. Regardless of what our parents had taught us, what the governments tell us, what the expected norms are, we always have the option to change things and be true to ourselves. God, Universe, Light want us to be free and peaceful only if we choose it to be so every single day. Trusting the 'wrong lord' will have devastating consequences for us and others, similar to what happened with the young men. The choice is always ours... With love, Panos
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Dear Monetary System,
I have been wanting to write to you for a very long time. To be exact since at least 2008 where my country and the rest of the world experienced an economic crisis due to an internal problem of yours. To begin with I would like to thank you for providing the framework with which we, humans were able to organise our lives for centuries. Instead of existing 'without purpose' we learn as soon as we come into this world that in order to eat, drink, have a home, have clothes and a bed, get education etc we need to work within your framework, sustain a job and earn money to spend. It does truly make sense how humans needed to create a system in order to be able to manage the wealth that exists in this planet for their purposes. I know you have worked hard along with aspects of human nature such as greed to strengthen your place in human life across centuries and you have done so very successfully, even creating byproducts such as credit cards and bonds to facilitate that process. I have to admit my relationship with you has always been one of many contradictions that has been hard to reconcile. On one hand, I understand that having lots of money gives me access to many things that I may want to have, such as a nice house, beautiful clothes, trips to interesting destinations etc . At the same time, the lack of money allows for people to die due to hunger and thirst, live in dirty conditions, not have access to education and beautiful clothes. I have always felt privileged to have some access to these things knowing that some people have more access and other people have less access, but I never understood how I got to have this status. I certainly do not believe I am in any way 'better' or more worthy of them than anyone else in this world. Maybe that is a question for God to answer and maybe not... Since your system is a man made one, then God's intervention must have occurred indirectly through man's will, I imagine. Your crisis that begun in 2008 with global consequences was the first warning sign I saw since my birth that you are not as stable as we thought you were. The situation with the corona virus reinforces this realisation. You are definitely flawed and, as a matter of fact, you have become a dangerous weapon in the hands of man as in your name people continuously die and suffer. I will not lie to you, I have been angry with you for a very long time for playing that role. However, I understand that there is a shared responsibility here. Under your name humans found an excuse or, better, a way to exercise control over one another. If one 'owns' or 'manages' earth's water and your are thirsty, then your survival depends on that person. If you do not have money to pay for the water, then you are twice dependent on that person. I find quite hard to understand, though, why humans do charge one another for things that are provided to them freely by nature. Nature does not send a monthly bill to all of us for the oranges, lettuce, wood and all the resources she provides to us, why do we? With all the respect for whatever you have been and done for humanity, I feel that you are collapsing and we are in need of a new system. I feel humanity needs to create a system that is going to reflect its whole true nature. At the time of your creation, we felt you were the means to an end and that 'end'is most likely completed now. For a while now we have become the merciless ruler of this planet with precarious values who is depleting its resources with the YOLO (You Only Live Once) motto. Driven by greed and arrogance we have been deciding who is going to eat and live or not having to eat and die, who is going to have access to education, who is going to be healthy, who is going to have bigger houses, fine clothes, 'exotic' adventures. To a large extent we have been controlling or being controlled by one another on what we can and can not do in this life. You have helped us to see and experience what it means to become slaves of our own instincts. You have helped us to make reality many dark parts of our human nature such as selfishness, brutality, greed, injustice, pain, suffering etc. For all these we are grateful to you. Call me a 'dreamer' but I have a strong belief and faith that humanity will start gradually to turn into another system based on real values acknowledging that all humans are equal and deserve to have access to everything that will help them create meaningful and fulfilling lives. It does not make sense, dear monetary system, to continue with you as our main system. We are passing byers on this planet and the recent events showed us that values such as life itself, health, mental and emotional peace and happiness, appreciation of freedom and nature are much more valuable to us than money and guess what, they can be free! The main reason for people to group together and organise ourselves in societies is that we can help one another, take care and look after one another trusting that one's thriving is everybody's thriving and not at the expense of the others. Even if we do not consciously acknowledge it, I feel we are getting stronger and wiser through life's continuous lessons to choose a different way of living. Under the recent threat, the majority of us have felt grateful for everything we have. During lockdown, we appreciated our walks in nature, the freshness of the air, the cleanness of the atmosphere and the waters, the reappearance of animals near us, the relaxed pace of living without having to work and live in frenetic rhythms only to end up being in debt to our artificial bank accounts and our souls! Now that your system has shown us all its vulnerabilities and limitations, I do hope that humanity will integrate previous lessons and will accept the not so easy challenge to create a just, peaceful, full of gratitude, enjoyable and fulfilling world for everyone to live in. If it is not in your hands, neither in God's, maybe it is in our hands... With love, Panos |
Panos GoumalatsosCounsellor/Psychotherapist, Archives
March 2023
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