From the watch: sea of glass in Korea, Turkey, Catalonia

For about three months, I have refrained from posting much from "the watch," a rather specialized thing... for many reasons. It would be grossly irrational to entangle the watch with other threads I have been pursuing; perhaps I should even set up a separate blog just for the watch, to avoid false linkages.

But: my silence has not been based on a lack of inputs. Quite the opposite. Rather, the inputs have been so complex and so tricky I have worried about creating more heat than light. Also, my recent adventures in Nepal brought home my need to rely more on "going through channels" and to work harder to avoid causing unjustified disruptions through any kind of direct action. I will say more about that, what the hell. But the spirit of truth (as well as advanced age) impel me to "let it all hang out" to a greater degree than I would in the past.

Sea of glass... this morning I woke up with a sense a bit like a headache. Certainly a kind of pulsing feeling, but bigger than my head or even my body. A headache about Korea.

A few weeks ago, my sense of responsibility said: "Paul, this quantum stuff is fun, and you ARE justified in transferring what you already know, but it's time to shift your probing from what's fun and basic to what immediately threatens the human species, the urgent developments in the Informatoin Technology (IT) space, where your design insights are needed." OK. Important stuff first, even if the problems right now SEEM unsolvable and frustrating. Figuring out how brains and quantum mechanics work ALSO seemed impossible and frustrating, until, after the right kind of effort, they could be solved.

But this morning... what's about to happen in Korea pushes this logic beyond the reasonable point. For many people, it actually IS reasonable to say "It's too hard for me; let God take care of it." But.. the watch changes a few things.

Part of "the watch" is simply opening one's eyes, starting with the mundane eyes.

I was really amazed at how oblivious the CNN reporters seemed a few days ago, reporting on Trump's recent activities. He said "This is just the calm before the storm." (People wondered: is he expressing his deep compassion for the people of Louisiana? This illustrates the difference between dreams and eyes.) He said he is putting great pressure on his military to give him the options for action he wants now. He says diplomacy has totally failed. The military have started to grumble and hint that they might dissociate themselves from what may happen soon. They all agree that silence is a necessary part of military operations. So why would people be so convinced that they are sure that the military operations have not ALREADY STARTED?

(CNN this evening says "Doesn't he know these kinds of vague threats are not likely to work in diplomacy?" Duh. he said he has pretty much given up on diplomacy. )

But then, beyond mundane eyes?

A few months back, I posted here some details of "assumption dreams" where I do believe I got to experience life as Trump was experiencing it. There was veridical content to support it, such as his views of some people working for him. But watching Trump by night most nights, and by day on CNN, got to feel a bit confining, and even uninspiring. After the truly awful healthcare proposals, I was tempted to post a joke:

"God appointed a guardian angel to look out for Trump, but after a few months, the angel pleaded for a transfer, and the position is now vacant."

I really enjoyed a couple of months in Europe, and ten days in Nepal and Qatar  -- not to mention France24 and Bloomberg TV as alternatives to CNN, at least to fill in when CNN gets repetitive, most of the time. But there are certain invisible connections which persist and cannot be just repressed. (In this period, I also got to see the series Touch on Netflix, which has a mix of typical TV stuff and very serious observations on things like connections, which I actually could describe in mathematical terms...) This morning's headache was based in part on resonance with what Trump is undoubtedly feeling right now about North Korea.

Imagine a voice wailing in pain: "Do I really HAVE to do it? Please, God, SOMEONE, can't you offer me a better way... or at least some reassurance that things will not go totally to hell?"

And as for me... well, it is certainly not MY right to try to intervene in any active way. (This blog does not count as an action.) Yet it is also my duty, on the watch, to notice. If I could be creative and come up with a better path, not just for two weeks but for twenty years, I would certainly have a strong duty to at least spell out what it is, as a possibility. Perhaps the Chinese or Russians have a path even now to make things better (NOT JUST for two weeks but for 20 years at least)... but not me. Lots of BS about "calm down little child" sure would not fix the problem, or even slow the military operations. Trump really cannot ignore the prospect of a man promising that he WILL send the US back to the stone age (with lots of mass death on the way) about to obtain the means to fulfill his promise. For decades, people have laughed at Kim's plans and promises, but clearly  that is not a rational way. So what can I say? My job, as I see it, is to pass the buck, report back, and move on to other things. (There are more details, but not for here and now.)

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It is curious that potentially fatal problems are ALSO surfacing in Turkey and in Catalonia at the same time. It is sad how oblivious so many people in the US are about those developments.

Erdogan, the strongest visible manifestation of the Moslem Brotherhood Third Caliphate movement in the world today (would-be first Caliph of that caliphate, victim of typical human ego narcissism but with more foresight than Trump seems to exhibit) has just made a deal with ISIS, to allow them to stay in operation and coordinate their joint actions against their joint foes. His deals with Qatar are also part of the recent history. I am ever so glad that the rulers of Saudi Arabia have become more aware of attempts to subvert and take over their nation, but they are not totally out of the woods yet. I am ever so depressed that even Donald Trump and his security advisors do not appreciate the power of the Third Caliphate pawns in the US, who have pushed for the US to side with Qatar!! (Of course, a really effective rapprochement with Qatar, on lines informed by tough realists in Saudi Arabia, could be great; it is the advocates of appeasement ghat should be watched. US intelligence agencies should be looking THERE, not so much at Russia, which has done far less to corrupt and suborn actual powerful political structures in the US.) It was interesting in Qatar to see how Qatar became a strong ally of the Second Caliphate, a vassal of the Caliph in Turkey, as a way of counterbalancing the bedouin tribes of their day -- but respect for the old Qatary way of life does not require sharia!

Why would Russia associate with such a thing, such a setback in the war against ISIS?
"Don't worry. The new alignment makes it easier to just find them all and kill them all, and it will help the US to wake up and realize that this is what it has to do, and ally with us on."

OK, Catalonia?

Luda is bemused by the phrase "Cat-exit." Images of cats whining at the door, finally being let back in, tail held proudly high in the air, pretending it had nothing to do with it.

We had some very serious experiences in Catalonia (really just Monserrat and Barcelona) again two months ago or so. We understand both pros and cons, and have deep feelings for what the Catalonians want. There DO exist constructive ways to restructure things... as there were for Scotland and northern Ireland, even maybe linked a bit. But will humans EVER be intelligent and calm and creative enough to find those constructive ways? The EU has ever so many positive ways forward (unlike poor Trump facing Korea)... but they have also shown ever so many ways to go to extremes which get them in trouble lately. I have at times wished my old PhD advisor Karl Deutsch were still alive and active, in a way which would let us talk through some of this and him to insert key ideas where they would really help. (Really. He did a lot, quietly, to make the EU stronger in olden times.)

But even so, I can't help remembering what happened on our first day on this trip to Barcelona, when Luda and I both showed up by accident in shorts in front of the main Cathedral. Since spiritual connection is at or tied for the top of my list in all of our travels, and since Luda has her own sensibilities, we decided to try to walk in anyway. The guards at the door looked at her shorts and said firmly "NO," would not let her in.

Me, in shorts.. well, neither of us is twenty hears old any more, but me he just waved in.  Inside, I went to a side enclave marked at "for prayer and meditation only." In Rome, I had had great experiences meditating in exactly that kind of room, so I went in. But just a few minutes later,
as I sat quietly meditating. a Catalan guy in the back stood up, aggressively approached me, shouted at me in Catalan loudly and threateningly and would not stop threatening physically until I got up and left. Of course I know some Spanish, and can even make sense of a little Catalan written down, but I have no idea what he was saying -- only that this holy man was wholly... to put it gently, auditioning for the book of Esdras. Yet expressing a major part of the thoughts floating around in the local lobe of the noosphere. How could Spain be much more truly constructive, respecting the best on Monserrat, while being realistic about the horrid scum which has also been growing on the ponds in that area?
not my job; I just do due diligence, report, and move on.

By the way, when I tried to move on, I learned that things were Very Well Organized there at that time. (It reminded me of Moltrasio in Italy, a little town where bus tickets can only be bought in ice creams shops and folks who don't just know that face "Ignorance of the law is no excuse." A town ruled by joint venture of Christian Democrats (a meeting of women in the local church) and the Communist Party (a meeting of men in the bar next door), who jointly develop ever so many rules. I remember the janitor who told me about the ice cream shop and explained "We have so many rules here. We here are ever so much better organized than those sloppy Swiss just over the hill, who don't even know what rules are about. Someday they will learn what it takes to  make a modern well-organized economy... ) By the rules, I was required NOT to return to my wife, but to travel thorough a long path to another street in a city strange to me, and find her again maybe an hour later.
(As a half-naked woman posed for cameras just at the front of the Cathedral...)

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More? Why not. What the hell.

Long long ago, when I was first getting to know Luda, a time came when I owed her some confession in confidence, so she would know what she is getting into. "You know my feelings, and you know me as a person in normal life and in scientific activities. But before going further, you need to know just how crazy I really am. I have heard your attitude towards parapsychologists and towards the orthodox church, and I know of your two PhDs in hard science and former high jobs in the USSR, so you really need to be fully warned..." I was ever so happy when she replied: "Oh, don't worry. I have contempt for people who make strong statements about things they have no understanding of. But no, I am not out of touch with Reality. Since you have confided in me, let me say something about my own family.

"It is well known, when people shake hands with a real member of our family, as matter of honor, registered as a matter of honor, and they later break that... first to go ate their pets, then their elderly relatives, then closer relatives, and if they don't get the message... But no, we don't use nay kind of direct action or violence. When they violate an agreement of honor, we just look closely, fully register what is happening, and pass it on up. That's all. We do not even indulge in hate, let alone violence." (No hate, but I have seen a few smiles of contempt at times. But I have also seen Azderbaijanis show sheer terror at mention of the name.)

A few weeks ago, in Nepal, on the entry path to the  Pashupatinath temple, a British woman (Joan Walton) and I were confronted with deeply malicious soldiers pointing automatic weapons right at us at a checkpoint, yelling "No Westerners." The Hindu monks kindly leading our group tried to explain that they had had troubles with jihadi terrorists there recently, so we should understand it that way, but it was obvious that the word was "Westerner" and they they were discriminating against light eyes not beards. (We knew these were probably a legacy of Maoist guerillas, and that Maoists still control the government, folks much more Communist than anyone with real power in China.) To make things worse, just before that event, I had tried to reach out and open up some connection with the Shiva Temple visible past the checkpoint down a long alley -- something which raises energy. Within a minute after that violent shock, one of the monks pulled out his phone and told me that the hotel where I had a reservation had decided suddenly to cancel it and throw me out; he explained that he was working to convince them not to just throw away all my things in the hotel room. And suddenly my wife's google cell phone (which I had been using the take photos) went dead.

OF COURSE, I did not initiate any escalatory behavior. That would be ultradumb. Though I did mention to the monks that the hotel was violating an agreement not only of law but of honor.
I suddenly realized that it would be a major challenge for me to keep my own qi from becoming a threat to myself and others. yet there is also a rule NOT TO JUST repress one's reaction to wrong things. My first response -- remembering what Luda had said, which was not my normal total modus operandi -- was to stand not far from those soldiers, and focus very hard to register the full four-dimensional realities as precisely as possible, from guns to qi to connections and so on. To try to take a kind of precise 4D photo in my mind. as I stood there, one kind and sensitive guy in our group, from India, appraoched Joan and me gently, and suggested we move out of sight of the soldiers, clearly hoping to just stop all this. I was calm but did not move, until the picture was clear enough and well enough registered at the right level.

Sometime then, Joan mentioned "If anyone tried to pull that kind of discrimination in the UK, they would be sent to jail instantly."

But then we walked just a few meters more, where I sat down on a low stone wall, and explained that I really needed a bit of time to restructure and stabilize my emotional reactions, and properly register everything, to calm down the right way. The Indian guy was delighted he could then focus on Joan, to describe his ideas for a new education initiative he wanted Joan and me to work with, as I tried to work on a meditative level. I felt really overwhelmed with feelings and energy and thoughts. As I groped for a constructive stability, I included in my groping both reaching out to "pater galacticus"
(more or less my view/synonym to Jesus's old buddy) and to the Vishnu archetype, suitable for someone desperate for a bit of constructive order confronted with incredible shivaite violence.
"Hey folks, any hints would be appreciated." But of course, I tried to focus my own mind VERY hard...

As I sat there.. trying to center... suddenly a kid of about ten or twelve sat down next to me on the stone wall, and asked questions like "what is the name YOU used for God?" He WAS a child, and Joan was almost freaked out at how he spoke in child-like words, yet he did seem to have been speaking to a fairly enlightened teacher, and his many odd questions were helpful as I worked on focusing my own quite turbulent mind. I replied "pater galacticus", but felt some hesitation in doing so, because of all the complex unvoiced caveats and explanations' I was later thinking that I should at least have added the word "cosmos." In any case, things worked well, and the experience helped me be clearer about the depth and complexity of "connection" (important a few days later when I passed through Qatar).

As the boy and I calmed down, and perhaps he even left, the Indian guy tapped me on the shoulder and said, "By the way Paul, you have been just looking back, where the boy was along the wall, where we came here. Look across the 'street' and see what you see." What I saw, starting just a few feet in front of me but continuing far beyond, was the most extreme physical devastation I have ever seen with my mundane eyes in this life. A clash of extreme earth energies, focused right there, echoing from a few years ago... perhaps when Maoist guards were first posted there? Who knows? But wild energies can cross space and time....

I certainly did absolutely nothing, and struggled hard to do nothing. (Struggled not to repeat a few accidental experiments done farther away from people in the past.) I only REGISTERED... Just due diligence.

But it is sad how much due diligence is now called for in so many places, over the whole world, from DC to Turkey to even a bit of Tsinghua University itself. What will happen? We will see, and we will register.

I am also very grateful to the kind Bhakti guy who led us to the sleeping Vishnu shrine, next stop for our tour after that Shiva place (and lunch? I forget. Notes are on my tab, but I won't read them now).
Calm and improved reconnection were a good idea. So many reconnections are needed all over the earth... and our survival as a species is ever so much at risk from every so many directions.

Best of luck....