Livia Kent writes in “Editor’s Note” in the July/August, 2023 issue of the Psychotherapy Networker:

We all know social media inundates teens with images of “perfect” bodies and glittering social lives, while spewing comparisons and judgments like so much toxic confetti. How much does this play into rising rates of teen anxiety and depression, or the unprecedented rates of suicide and suicidal ideation? Dare I even ask that question? It seems too simple to place all the blame on social media, which, after all, has a salutary side.

My primary care physician at my annual physical back in 2010 asked me how my practice was going and whether the recession had affected it? I said, “No, but the impact of digital media is huge.”

Ms. Kent is referring in her Editor’s note to the impact of social media on teens because the July/August 2023 issue of the Psychotherapy Networker’s theme is “Facing The Teen Mental Health Crisis”. However I find the impact of the digital media is bigger on adults than it is on teens.

Many of my adult clients have mentioned how upset they are by the constant negativity in the media and some have said they are trying to cut down on their consumption of what they perceive as a toxic stew of continuous acrimony, recrimination, grievance and outrage.

Livia Kent’s statements in her Editor’s Note struck a chord with me because I recently read Cal Newport’s book, Digital Minimalism: Choosing A Focused Life In A Noisy World. Newport writes in the introduction to the book on page xi

 “I also learned about the negative impact of unrestricted online activity on psychological well-being. Many people I spoke to underscored social media’s ability to manipulate their mood.

Newport, Cal. Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World (p. xi). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

As psychotherapists we often talk with clients about the main ingredients necessary to maintain wellness such as nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management, social connections, and mindfulness. How often do we mention media consumption?

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The claim reminded me of ones I sometimes hear in Germany: my grandfather was a secret resistance hero. Like any other significant movement, the civil rights movement created longing, exaggeration, and outright lies. When the shouting is all over, who doesn’t wish they’d been a hero?

Neiman, Susan. Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil (p. 153). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition. 

After the evil behavior is over it is a common defense mechanism to assuage the guilt and shame of participating, or doing nothing, to imagine ourselves secret resistance heroes. It’s like the little girl who says to her father, “What did you do in the war daddy?”

We deal with our guilt by absolving ourselves of it by pretending we took courageous stands against the wrongdoing when at the time we were too afraid to do so. So we make stuff up or embellish what we did do to cast it in a more favorable light. 

How many people now will admit they voted for Donald Trump or one of his supporters who advocated the insurrection? The common excuse is “I didn’t know at the time.” Really? Ignorance isn’t an excuse, or is it?

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For book information click here.

Psychiatric diagnoses are notoriously invalid and unreliable. Study after study has shown this. 

I remember way back in the 80s when the DSM III came out, a study was done when the same case example was given to multiple diagnosticians in the US and the UK and something like 65% of US diagnosticians  diagnosed schizophrenia while 65% of diagnosticians in Great Britain diagnosed BiPolar. I thought that finding was a hoot. There are few psychiatric diagnoses where a differential diagnosis has a bearing on treatment, but Bipolar is one because Lithium just came into common use and was pretty effective.

One of the models of psychotherapy where external factors are taken seriously and incorporated into treatment is Narrative therapy which Michael White and David Epston pioneered. One of the key concepts in Narrative therapy is externalization. The person's not the problem, the problem is the problem. Externalizing the problem leads to "externalizing conversations." I start each one of my psychotherapy sessions asking, "What's happened to you since we last met?"

I remember Michael White consulting on a case where a 10 year old child suffered from significant symptoms of ADHD. The parents had taken him to therapist after therapist and tried all kinds of medications to no avail. Finally they wind up in Michael's office as kind of a last ditch effort. 

After saying hello to the parents and the boy and listening to their story about how they had wound up in his office, when the parents tell Michael their son has been diagnosed with severe ADHD, Michael asks with a straight face, "That's very interesting. What kind does he have?" 

The parents were quite taken back, and said, "We didn't know there were different kinds." 

Michael says, "Oh, yes," and looks at the boy and asks, "What kind of ADHD do you have?" 

The kid says, "The kind that gives me headaches and keeps me awake at night."

And a wonderful externalizing conversation goes on from there that left the boy and the parents hopeful that there were things that could be done to interfere with the nasty things the ADHD was doing to their lives.

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The Matel toy company makes the Barbie doll and all the outfits and other paraphernalia. The toy has become a cultural icon with multiple generations of girls having played with the doll since its launch into the American toy market in 1959.The Barbie doll is loved and much sought after but also the target of multiple feminist and cultural critiques.

In the movie the stereotypical Barbie is the main character who travels between the world of toyland and the human world. She goes through a crisis of identity entailing whether she wants to stay in perfect toyland or the imperfect human world.

This is not a kid’s movie. It is intended for an adult audience presenting a cultural critique in a colorful, comedic, and thoughtful way. The question of whether Matel’s Barbie toy dynasty is a force for good or evil or both is explored throughout the film in a playful way (no pun intended.)

The main point seems to be that Barbie has empowered women to be more than housewives and mothers of the 50s to independent, self assured, empowered people in a slowly atrophying patriarchal society of today.

The movie might be required in a sociology course which uses cinema to demonstrate social norms and attitudes and how they develop and evolve over time. It could be recommended to people struggling with issues of authenticity, genuineness, self worth and self esteem. Barbie was a social icon of sorts which fueled the imaginations of millions of American girls who created all kinds of stories of social and personal identity in their play. The movie is also of interest to people who care about cultural history and how its knowledge can be used for self and social understanding.

Barbie earns a 4 out of 5 on Markham’s cinematherapy scale.

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It’s impossible to reconcile that sense of gentleness with the knowledge that more people were lynched here than anywhere else in the country, and lynch is a word that hides more than it shows. They were hacked to pieces, burned to death slowly, fingers and teeth sold as souvenirs to the mobs who drove for miles to witness and jeer. Mississippians’ beloved Jesus, mocked as he hung dying, did not suffer more. It’s hard to square with any definition of gentle I know.

Neiman, Susan. Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil (pp. 139-140). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition. 

Neiman is describing the lynching that occurred in Mississippi in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and I say to myself, “Who are these people who do such things to other human beings?” What is the thought system and value system that contributes to people doing such things to other people? To what extent do these thought and value systems still exist in the US? We still see this kind of brutality today in the cases of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Aubery, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, etc.

These situations have been dealt with as if they were cases of "bad apples" rather than part of a pattern of behavior condoned by administrative and political power perpetrated by people voted for office by the citizens of their communities.

When we point the finger at the people in Germany who perpetrated the anti-semitic holocaust, we should remind ourselves of the people of America who continue to support the racist policies and practices targeted toward BIPOC people.

Where does responsibility lie for the continuation of this behavior, attitudes, and values? These behaviors, attitudes, and values are baked into our culture and it is forbidden now in some states such as Florida to even mention it in school and university settings.

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One of the points of Critical Race Theory is that even those who didn't own slaves did benefit from slavery. For example slaves were used to grow cotton in the south. That cheap cotton was shipped north where it was woven into thread which was woven into cloth which was made into clothing which was worn by people all over the country. All along the supply chain the various components benefited by cheap cotton produced with stolen, uncompensated labor.

All the components of the supply chain were parts of the economic system in which the whole country participated. It would be very few who could say they were immune to participation in this economic system.

The conservatives hate it when this participation is pointed out because it makes them feel guilty and they don't like the uncomfortable feelings of guilt so they project them on others. Most people participate in this system unconsciously and not intentionally and until their participation is pointed out and when it is  they have to make a choice: to continue to participate or not.

The saying "ignorance is bliss" applies in these situations because life is so much easier and simpler when my inadvertent participation is unknown. So in the Southern Slave states they ban the teaching of CRT because it does make people feel guilty and unconscious people should be spared the distress of becoming conscious. However, the conservatives are not exercising compassion but rather are attempting to keep people in the dark so that the economic system from which they benefit is not disrupted. These conservatives would rather that people be kept blind and stupid because then they are much more easily manipulated and, as they say, "everyone is better off." It seems that there are a lot of people who support this as books are banned and curriculums are censored.

Ignorance is bliss. And so it goes..............

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UU A Way Of Life as of 08/16/23 has moved back to blogger. You are encouraged to follow the UU A Way Of Life posts there. uuawayoflife.org

You are not free to give up freedom, but only to deny it. You cannot do what God did not intend, because what He did not intend does not happen. Your gods do not bring chaos; you are endowing them with chaos, and accepting it of them. All this has never been. Nothing but the laws of God has ever been, and nothing but His Will will ever be. You were created through His laws and by His Will, and the manner of your creation established you a creator. What you have made is so unworthy of you that you could hardly want it, if you were willing to see it as it is. You will see nothing at all. And your vision will automatically look beyond it, to what is in you and all around you. Reality cannot break through the obstructions you interpose, but it will envelop you completely when you let them go. T-10.IV.5:1-10

A Course in Miracles (p. 347). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

We are not free when we have been lied to, and we have been lied to continually by the world of the ego which tells us that its idols will make us happy. Once we get these idols of the ego out of the way we become aware of our freedom in the unconditional love of God.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and the encouragement to spiritual growth. This encouragement focuses on giving up the idols of the ego in favor of the unconditional love of God. This involves a rising above the things of this world of the ego so that we can dwell in the peace and bliss of the Divine. Jesus put it very accurately when He said, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”

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God’s laws will keep your mind at peace because peace is His Will, and His laws are established to uphold it. His are the laws of freedom, but yours are the laws of bondage. Since freedom and bondage are irreconcilable, their laws cannot be understood together. The laws of God work only for your good, and there are no other laws beside His. Everything else is merely lawless and therefore chaotic. Yet God Himself has protected everything He created by His laws. Everything that is not under them does not exist. “Laws of chaos” is a meaningless term. Creation is perfectly lawful, and the chaotic is without meaning because it is without God. You have “given” your peace to the gods you made, but they are not there to take it from you, and you cannot give it to them. T-10.IV.4:1-

Schucman, Dr. Helen. A Course in Miracles (pp. 346-347). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

There is the world of God, non dual Oneness and unconditional love, and the world of the ego, separation and conditional love. The laws of God’s world provide peace and bliss and the laws of the ego provide bondage and chaos. We cannot have both and in actuality the laws of the ego do not exist but are beliefs conjured by our imaginations. The imaginary laws of the ego can never give us peace and bliss because they are not real, not being based on truth.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. These are imaginary qualities in the world of the ego which are made up and are part of the laws of chaos. Compassion is based on forgiveness and forgiveness involves giving up making the world of the ego responsible for our unhappiness. Happiness will never come from the world of the ego because the world of the ego is based on illusions. Happiness can only come from turning our will over to the will of God. We would do well to stop looking for love in all the wrong places and instead turn our attention to the world of God.

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The fourth principle of Unitarian Universalism is to join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Pilate wasn't interested. He would not have been a good UU.

Pilate would have been a great member of the Trump administration which deals according to Trump’s spokesperson, Kellyanne Conway, in “alternative facts.”

Pilate scoffs as other government officials who tell the media, “What is truth?” The media tells their audience it is “fair and balanced” as if there is another side to the truth.

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After a fitful start, late ’80s West Germany seemed to have achieved a consensus: Nazi crimes are incomparable to any others, and any attempt to compare them is an attempt to get the Germans off the hook. One-half of Todorov’s principle—Germans should focus on the singularity of the Holocaust—was accepted.

Neiman, Susan. Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil (p. 87). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition. 

A primary defense to avoid taking responsibility for wrongdoing is to play the game of “what aboutism” in which the accused party points the finger at someone else to deflect the accusation and avoid taking responsibility.

Neiman writes that in the late 80s the West Germans decided not to play that game and take responsibility for what Germans did committing the holocaust. The first step in restoration of right relationship is to take responsibility for one’s own behavior.

In our current time, playing what aboutism is a favorite game of the GOP in defending itself from accusations about all of Trump’s lies and the insurrection and our news is full of stories about Hunter Biden’s lap top.

Children start playing this game at a very young age, about 4, when they cry, “He did it first!” as if this pointing the finger at others dissolves one’s own responsibility. As a couple’s counselor, I have witnessed this game played by couples very often when they face divorce as the mutual recriminations fly.

The Sonship cannot be perceived as partly sick, because to perceive it that way is not to perceive it at all. If the Sonship is One, it is One in all respects. Oneness cannot be divided. If you perceive other gods your mind is split, and you will not be able to limit the split, because it is the sign that you have removed part of your mind from God’s Will. This means it is out of control. To be out of control is to be out of reason, and then the mind does become unreasonable. By defining the mind wrongly, you perceive it as functioning wrongly. T-10.IV.3:1-7

Schucman, Dr. Helen. A Course in Miracles (p. 346). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

The prime concept in A Course In Miracles is that God is the non dual Oneness of which we are a part if we choose to be aware of this. When we give up our separate egos we are filled with peace and bliss. When we remain separate,  we suffer. Some of us want it to be both ways, to be one with God and also to retain our egos. This passage teaches that we can’t have it both ways. It’s one or the other. Either we are One with God or we stay in our ego. There is no such thing as being partly in our ego and also One with God. This idea, the Course teaches, is unreasonable and doesn’t work that way. It’s all or nothing.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. This inherent worth and dignity comes from our Oneness with God and has nothing to do with our egos. Most people who call themselves UUs don’t seem to understand this. They continue to seek social justice for their egos and have forgotten what religion is for, the Atonement, healing the separation. Were they healed, social justice would become moot.

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Neiman writes in Chapter Three, Cold War Memory, in her book Learning From The Germans “There are crucial facets of any successful attempt to work off a nation’s criminal past.” p.84 Then she lists five of these facets:

1. A coherent and widely accepted national narrative.

2. Narratives start with words and are reinforced by symbols, and many symbols involve remembering the dead.

3. Narratives are transported by education.

4. Words are more powerful when set to music.

5. Things like prison cells and cash.

I would add a few things from moral psychology:

1. Naming the crimes and sins.

2. Providing an opportunity for an offender - victim reconciliation meeting

3. Taking responsibility for engaging in the harmful behavior by giving those harmed their say about what happened to them, engaging in a good faith explanation of the factors that contributed to the behavior occurring, expressing a heartfelt apology, making amends to repair the harm.

The most difficult hurdle to restoration of healthy relationships is step one and often must be initiated by a third party.

God said to Adam and Eve in the Garden Of Eden when they ate the forbidden fruit, “What have you done?” At this point, self awareness was born in the human psyche. Sometimes the tree described to children as an apple tree is called the “tree of knowledge of good and evil.” It might better be called the tree of self awareness.

The memory of evil is the first step in restoration or redemption. If it can’t be named it can’t be redeemed.

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Reality can dawn only on an unclouded mind. It is always there to be accepted, but its acceptance depends on your willingness to have it. To know reality must involve the willingness to judge unreality for what it is. To overlook nothingness is merely to judge it correctly, and because of your ability to evaluate it truly, to let it go. Knowledge cannot dawn on a mind full of illusions, because truth and illusions are irreconcilable. Truth is whole, and cannot be known by part of a mind. T-10.IV.2:1-6

Schucman, Dr. Helen. A Course in Miracles (p. 346). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

The bumper reads, “Reality cares nothing about your beliefs.” Most people’s minds are clogged with bullshit. How can one be aware of reality when their mind is clouded over? Until one wants to clear the clouds of bullshit away, reality can’t be apprehended.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This search involves recognizing, acknowledging, and discarding bullshit. So much of what UUs study, teach, and pursue these days is bullshit and is it any wonder that the denomination is so small and not growing? The denomination has great intentions of searching for truth and meaning, but it has no idea where to search and what it takes to discern the Truth.

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All magic is an attempt at reconciling the irreconcilable. All religion is the recognition that the irreconcilable cannot be reconciled. Sickness and perfection are irreconcilable. If God created you perfect, you are perfect. If you believe you can be sick, you have placed other gods before Him. God is not at war with the god of sickness you made, but you are. He is the symbol of deciding against God, and you are afraid of him because he cannot be reconciled with God’s Will. If you attack him, you will make him real to you. But if you refuse to worship him in whatever form he may appear to you, and wherever you think you see him, he will disappear into the nothingness out of which he was made. T-10.IV.1:1-9

Schucman, Dr. Helen. A Course in Miracles (pp. 345-346). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

Bullshit is not lying but rather not caring about the truth and just saying things to impress and manipulate other people with no regard for the truth whatsoever. Magic is what the Course calls bullshit. Bull shit and the truth are irreconcilable and religion, spirituality, realizes that a person can’t have both. You can believe the bullshit or believe the truth. My friend, Jim, told me “You can’t bullshit a bullshitter.” We both laughed but he was wrong. A bullshitter can bullshit a bullshitter. It also is called “the blind leading the blind.” And once the bullshit has all been produced, and spread, and deteriorates , what is left? The Truth.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. However, even given this principle, there is a tremendous amount of bullshit in UU. The problem that UUs have is that they have no way of discerning the Truth from the bullshit. There is no one text or synod of authority to appeal to. UUs believe that each congregation on its own can discern bullshit from Truth and so each congregation does its own thing which has led to disastrous results similar to the biblical story of the Tower of Babel.

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Beliefs, opinions, values, and practices are the components of a psychological legacy which is transmitted down through the generations in thought, word, and deed.

Do the sins of the fathers contaminate the children? And if so, for how long? It’s a question that quietly underlies German discourse, from sociological tomes to tabloids, since the late 1960s. The fear has overshadowed so many German lives that it’s hard to find anyone who’s entirely free of it. This is psychology, not piety. It’s not easy to feel touched by what your great-grandfather did; chances are, you never knew him. It’s another story if his sins continue down another generation or so, and that is indeed the problem. None of us can entirely escape the residues of attitude transmitted from mother to daughter, father to son, unless we are bitterly scrupulous. Even then, those who make an effort to reject those attitudes are likely to retain their traces.

Neiman, Susan. Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil (p. 65). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition.

This month the Allnonfiction book discussion group is reading Learning From The Germans by Susan Nieman. There will be some posts in August, 2023 about this book.

Here is a brief discussion of a topic, working-off-the-past posted to the list today, 08/08/23.

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Americans love private property. Nobody goes to the beach when they have a swimming pool in their own backyard.

I learned a lot from Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond

Poverty is one of those dynamics of culture that affects everyone in the culture. Most people are unaware of its function in the society in which they live. The thought system operating at the stage of modernity upholds the belief in free markets, private property, zero sum capitalism, and reductive cause and effect. This belief system has improved the welfare of humanity but also has contributed to a social Darwinism which supports the survival of the fittest economically. This view has contributed to a cruelty and even sadism that is very destructive for the society and which risks the end of the very society which has supported it.

Some of us have learned the toxic effects of free market capitalism based on it zero sum belief system and have called upon the members of the society to awaken from their belief in it so that the society that benefits from it can become aware of its limitations and move on to the next stage of human evolution which is the understanding that to survive human sapiens must appreciate and nurture the commons.

I live in Hilton, NY where, while Lake Ontario is only 6 miles away, few people go to the beach any more because they are in the backyard with just a few selected others swimming in their pool and barbecuing as the climate deteriorates around them,

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A code is a set of rules and regulations which govern behavior. In sociology they are called “norms and attitudes.” These codes are often unconscious and are understood simply as the “way things are done,” and “the way things are.” The beliefs, values, and practices of the cultural code are held as the “truth” by those utilizing that code for living their lives in the society they find themselves conditioned and socialized in. Usually, people socialized at lower level codes are not even aware that other cultural codes and stages of psychosocial development exist.

Understanding the cultural code is the expertise of one of the authorities in the culture. This authority figure understands what makes the culture tick. They use this knowledge for their own benefit and for their class. Outsiders are marginalized and dominated by those who know. An important form of power is to “keep people in the dark.” Knowledge and skills are only provided on a “need to know basis.”

Unlocking the secret of cultural codes is what we intend to do. Currently, only a few people deeply involved in human development really understand the cultural codes that inform the ways we think and the values we live by. But that is changing. It is time for all of us to gain entry to understanding our own humanity.

Beck, Don Edward; Hebo Larsen, Teddy; Solonin, Sergey; Viljoen, Rica; Johns, Thomas Q.. Spiral Dynamics in Action: Humanity's Master Code (p. 24). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 

Donald Trump said during the 2016 presidential campaign to the people fearful of their perceived helplessness and sense of victimization, “I alone can fix it.” And they voted for him to save them from the doom they falsely apprehended.

Donald Trump provided a message to people at the egocentric level of psychosocial development who believe in the strong warrior code where might makes right. Trump’s promise to unlock the secrets of the cultural code that resonated with them led to their choosing him to lead them out of their experience of fear caused by their ways of thinking which are no longer relevant to current planetary circumstances. The egocentric way of thinking in this era of American history being at a lower level of development than required in the time of global interdependent way of life on planet Earth led to harmful consequences for the people of the United States and other countries.

Understanding codes of psychosocial development and how they are facilitated and sustained by societies in which individuals participate is fundamental to being an aware, wise citizen at our current stage of human development.

The age of the strong warrior and egocentric thinking is past if homo sapiens are to survive as a species.

In the next article the characteristics of the various cultural codes will be described.

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Be mindful of what you want to learn.

A Course In Miracles teaches a curriculum that we all must learn sooner or later which is about the unconditional love of God. There are many ways to learn this; ACIM is only one. There are many roads to Rome and many ways to skin the cat. Having investigated many paths to learning the unconditional love of God, ACIM, for me, seems to be the best supplemented by others.

The Course teaches that we learn what we teach and we teach what we want to learn. Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, and probably not due to the conditioning of the world of the ego, we are teaching all the time by demonstrating who we think we are to ourselves and to others. We also are constantly teaching others what they are to us.

The Course teaches that life, at its ultimate basis, is very simple: do we teach the thought system based on unconditional love or conditional love? It is important to remember that we learn about the thought system we teach. Be mindful of what you want to learn.

This commentary is based on The Manual For Teachers.Introduction. Paragraphs 1 and 2.

Questions for reflection and possibly discussion:

1. What do you think about the idea that sooner or later all human beings have to learn about unconditional love?

2. What paths have contributed to your learning about unconditional love, if any?

3. What do you think about the idea that we always are teaching what we think about ourselves and others by how we act?

4. What do you think about the idea that we have two basic choices about how we live our lives: teaching about the unconditional life of God or the conditional love of the world of the ego?

5. When, if ever, did you realize that you have a choice about what you learn based on what you teach?

6. Based on this lesson to what extent has your awareness been raised about your choices in what you want to learn and the influence in learning that by teaching.

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Among the most accomplished and fabled tribes in Africa, no tribe was considered to have warriors more fearsome or more intelligent than the mighty Masai. It is perhaps surprising then to learn the traditional greeting that passed between Masai warriors. “Kasserian ingera,” one would always say to another. It means, “And how are the children?”

It is still the traditional greeting among the Masai, acknowledging the high value that the Masai always place on their childrens’ well-being. Even warriors with no children of their own would always give the traditional answer. “All the children are well.” Meaning, of course, that peace and safety prevail, that the priorities of protecting the young, the powerless are in place, that Masai society has not forgotten its reason for being, its proper functions and responsibilities. “All the children are well,” means that life is good. It means that the daily struggles of existence even among a poor people, do not preclude proper caring for its young. I wonder how it might affect our consciousness

Degruy, Joy . Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing (p. 14). Kindle Edition. 

This month my nonfiction book discussion group has been reading Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond. It is an excellent book and has taken me back to my roots in Social Work when I and others cared about poverty and its devastating effects on human development and well being.

Desmond is a Sociologist and focuses on the structural aspects of poverty and the function it serves in a capitalistic and semi-democratic society. This perspective has encouraged my thinking about mental health in America from a public health perspective and led to my re-appreciation of the fact that mental health is not simply a clinical problem to be managed at the micro level.

I picked up Dr. Joy DeGruy's book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome  in a used book shop which has added more fuel to the fire burning in my mind and heart about what my life's work has been about for the last 55 years. So please join me as I explore mental health from a sociological and public health perspective on my substack at davidgmarkham.substack.com. You will find a series of articles on the topic of mental health from a public health and sociological as well as clinical perspective.

Social Workers are trained in systems theory and to view human problems at a micro, mezzo, and macro level. The idea is that we do a disservice when we focus on the problem at only one level without including the others.

The Masai greeting is one that perhaps we should practice in the U.S.

So I greet you, "How are the children?"

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This makes the country’s stalled progress on poverty even more baffling. Decade after decade, the poverty rate has remained flat even as federal relief has surged. How could this be? Part of the answer, I learned, lies in the fact that a fair amount of government aid earmarked for the poor never reaches them. To understand why, consider welfare. When welfare was administered through the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, almost all of its funds were used to provide single-parent families with cash assistance.[12] But when President Bill Clinton reformed welfare in 1996, replacing the old model with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), he transformed the program into a block grant that gives states considerable leeway in deciding how to distribute the money. As a result, states have come up with rather creative ways to spend TANF dollars. Nationwide, for every dollar budgeted for TANF in 2020, poor families directly received just 22 cents.

Desmond, Matthew. Poverty, by America (p. 28). Crown. Kindle Edition. 

One of the big reasons that poverty continues to exist at the scale it does in the US is corruption. Most of the money intended to help poor families gets siphoned off by state legislators and executives for things like Brett Farve’s volleyball stadium at his daughter’s college in Mississippi, the state with the highest rate of child poverty.

What kind of a thought system contributes to this kind of mismanagement and immorality? What kind of thinking leads to human suffering and harm even when resources are available to ameliorate the situation?

The thinking that leads to this kind of dysfunction is based at the egocentric/exploitive stage in the Spiral Dynamics model which is about dominance of the strongest for the benefit of self and one’s immediate group. This way of thinking is considered normal around ages 3 - 7 when adults attempt to teach egocentric children the skills of cooperation and sharing for mutual benefit and facilitate their development to the next stage which is ethnocentric thinking which champions the welfare of the group with which one  identifies and belongs. 

Poverty exists in the United States because the developmental level of the majority of the population has been arrested at this egocentric stage. The thinking and behavior is about “me and mine” rather than “us and ours.”

The egocentric thought system can be thought of as narcissistic and in the US is admired and supported by the majority of the population who elected in 2016 a sociopathic narcissist to be their president. He immediately gave tax cuts to the richest 10% of the population and denigrated poor people as rapists, drug dealers, and people who came here from “shit hole” countries. It is this kind of thinking which leads to the poverty in the United States which is concentrated in the southern states where human enslavement has been the basis for their economic development from the founding of their state and continues today.

The likelihood of poverty rates changing in these states is low as long as the thought system of the people who elect their governmental leaders does not mature to higher levels. The esteem for the rich and disdain for the poor must change if the belief system and consequent behavior is to change. 

As we have learned from the civil rights era, the best way to bring about social change is not in changing beliefs but in changing behavior. Behavior is changed when the consequences for behavior changes with new sets of rewards and punishments. Behavior often has to change before beliefs change because new behavior facilitates the development of new thinking. 

Corruption often is rewarding and therefore there is an incentive to engage in it. Martin Luther King, Jr. said he realized that he could not change the attitude of racists. What he was attempting to do was make discrimination illegal. Social change occurs when the incentives for behavior changes. Poverty exists because those in power make money exploiting human resources. This exploitation takes many forms but the dynamic is the same based on a thought system which thinks that dominating others for one’s own benefit is desirable.

Editor’s note: This is one of several articles on poverty and the social welfare system in the United States.

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Today's headlines are just revealing the symptoms – not the cause. 

We each have many ways of seeing things – lenses that color our perception of the world. We don't all think alike. We don't all have the same values. We don't all see the world through the same lens. That is what makes the twenty-first century so complex and dangerous. 

We now have more than six billion humans with different world views connected by migration, air travel and the internet into one intermingled whole. Most of us are convinced that our view is right, our values are right. We are pushing and shoving and growling and threatening and carrying banners that say, “My way or no way.” Some of us are even killing each other.

Beck, Don Edward; Hebo Larsen, Teddy; Solonin, Sergey; Viljoen, Rica; Johns, Thomas Q.. Spiral Dynamics in Action: Humanity's Master Code (p. xvii). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 

I struggle to make sense out of all the bullshit. The bullshit is constant in our post truth world where we all deal in "alternative facts" as Kellyanne Conway, Trump's spokesperson told the media, meaning that there is no truth. She was asked by a reporter if "alternative facts" are lies and she bullshat her way out of that saying that "alternative facts" is just a difference in perspective. She might have said that there is no truth, no accuracy, no validity, no reliability, any line of bullshit is okay because as the ex President said about the White Supremacist rally at Charlottesville, "There are good people on both sides."

Harry Frankfurt the philosophy professor who wrote the now classic book "On Bullshit" back in 2005 defined bullshit as different from lying because liars care about what the truth is while bullshitters have no regard for any truth at all.

So now that we are living in the age of bullshit with no moral compass, no "guard rails" as the pundits like to call them, how is one to orient themselves in the sea of narcissistic nihilism? Spiral Dynamics provides us with a map to guide us through this treacherous terrain of incoherence.

I encourage my readers to get a copy of the book Spiral Dynamics In Action: Humanity's Master Code by Don Beck and others and study this model with me. It will restore you to sanity.

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Northern Florida is cold in January and I walk fast for warmth but also because, though the neighborhood is antique—huge Victorian houses radiating outward into 1920s bungalows, then mid-century modern ranches at the edges—it’s imperfectly safe. There was a rape a month ago, a jogger in her fifties pulled into the azaleas; and, a week ago, a pack of loose pit bulls ran down a mother with a baby in her stroller and mauled both, though not to death. 

It’s not the dogs’ fault, it’s the owners’ fault! dog lovers shouted on the neighborhood email list, but those dogs were sociopaths.

When the suburbs were built, in the seventies, the historic houses in the center of town were abandoned to graduate students who heated beans over Bunsen burners on the heart-pine floors and sliced apartments out of ballrooms. When neglect and humidity caused the houses to rot and droop and develop rusty scales, there was a second abandonment, to poor people, squatters.

Groff, Lauren. Florida (p. 2). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

The last paragraph describes what happened to Brockport, NY, but it was in the 60s. The slumlords bought up these old beautiful Victorian houses, cut them up into apartments, filled them with college tenants on semester long leases, and let them disintegrate. Destroyed the charming, family friendly village I grew up in.

Life goes on and just leaves us grieving for the beauty and goodness that existed before profit making came to town and exploited it,

I wrote a little book about it way back in 2014.

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Sheepish is about a married lesbian couple who start and maintain a sheep farm in Minnesota. The book describes mostly raising sheep and what is done with the wool produced. It also describes the author's ambivalence about farming, her marriage, and her purpose in life. The book describes the struggles and joys of working a small family farm that brings one back to nature. The chapters are short, informative, descriptive, and witty.

I learned alot about sheep and wool. I also learned about how to tolerate and manage ambivalence in one’s life. The story also describes a connection with nature and a back-to-the-earth  way of life.

I recommend this book to people who are stuck in a mid-life crisis or looking for purpose and meaning in life. The book earns a 9 on a 10 point scale.

To remember is merely to restore to your mind what is already there. You do not make what you remember; you merely accept again what is already there, but was rejected. The ability to accept truth in this world is the perceptual counterpart of creating in the Kingdom. God will do His part if you will do yours, and His return in exchange for yours is the exchange of knowledge for perception. Nothing is beyond His Will for you. But signify your will to remember Him, and behold! He will give you everything but for the asking. T-10.II.3:1-7

Schucman, Dr. Helen. A Course in Miracles (p. 340). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

When we are incarnated into our physical body at birth we forget from whence we came and are socialized into the world of the ego. This socialization is based on a conditioned faculty of perceiving. This perception seems true enough to us that we forget about our ultimate reality which is our non dual Oneness with God. 

The experience of Transcendent Oneness is the eleventh skill out of twenty-one in Cindy Wigglesworth’s model of Spiritual Intelligence. To what extent have you experienced cosmic consciousness, a oneness with the Universe: never, once, a few times, many times, whenever I focus on it? This ability to become aware of our cosmic Oneness is that spiritual traditions call “awakening,” and “enlightenment.” We can wake up when we become aware that our ego perceptions are illusions and are not real in the realm of cosmic consciousness. Jesus said that we should give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that our God. So while we are here in our bodies, we live in two worlds. We are living in parallel worlds. Which one do you prefer?

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In the July, 2023 issue of Psychology Today magazine there is an article entitled “Pulling No Punches” by Tyler Woods which is an interview he does with Deontary Wilder who held the heavyweight boxing title from 2015 - 2020.

Here are some disturbing quotes from the article:

It’s rare to see a boxer cry out of compassion after a match. What were you feeling after the Helenius fight? 

Being a fighter, you go in there and put your life on the line for others’ entertainment. I was speaking also of another fighter, Prichard Colon. [Colon is currently in a vegetative state after an injury suffered in the ring.] Prichard was the breadwinner of his family. Now, he can’t feed himself. To see this young man, his life all of a sudden changed, seemingly in the snap of a finger, that saddened me. Doctors always tell me, “The head is not meant to be hit.” This is a cold business.

Editor’s note - It is more than just a “cold business.” It is immoral. In this sport one person is deliberately trying to injure their opponent by concussing them. If this happened anywhere outside of the sport it would be considered criminal.

You’ve said that the mental health of boxers is visible only behind the scenes. What should people know that they don’t know?

A lot of fighters don’t want to reveal what’s going on with them. They try to be tough, to keep that persona up. But PTSD is very common among fighters. Mental illness is a big thing in boxing. I think a lot of fighters should get checked out.

Editor’s note - To engage in a sport where the object is to concuss an opponent is immoral, and requires an immature thought system which valorizes this kind of egocentric behavior which some might say is psychopathic.

In a mature society that has achieved a higher level of spiritual intelligence, gladiatorial combat would no longer be acceptable for any reason let alone entertainment. As Wilder says “you go in there and you put your life on the line for other’s entertainment.” Who are those “others” who pay for such a spectacle? Is this enjoyment a form of sadistic schadenfreude? Should such entertainment be made illegal?

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More and more the issue of phone tracking has come up in therapy. Parents are tracking their kids and romantic partners are tracking each other and employers are tracking their employees and marketers are tracking customers.

It is easy to download tracking apps for phones and other electronic devices and simply to monitor a phone's location when the app is turned on which many websites request and sometimes every require.

Placing people under surveillance and stalking raises questions such as: Are people with certain types of personalities more likely to surveil and stalk than others? When is surveilling and stalking another appropriate? To what extent is stalking an indicator of the qualities of trust and security in a relationship?

Surveilling and stalking others electronically is a generational thing. It was not unheard of but very difficult before the advent of cell phone technology. Now the practice is ubiquitous. Some have called it putting others on an electronic leash.

Coupled with the ability to tract is the ability to text which many insist calls for an immediate response. A person who resists this is considered rude, guilty, uncaring and contributes to conflict.

People who are insecure and rejection sensitive suffer the most from the availability of this technology. The desire for reassurance and contact is often insatiable unless there are clear, consistent limits placed on the need to surveil, stalk and obtain immediate connection.

In general the use of this technology to surveil, stalk, locate, and contact others may have more disadvantages than advantages and should be used only with clear understanding of the purpose and consent of the parties involved.

In most cases, especially in romantic relationships the use of surveillance technology is a bad idea because it erodes the trust and peace of the parties involved.

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George Orwell warned us of this kind of silencing by the government in his novel,  1984, where the government of Oceania tried to control people's thoughts by censoring their use of language. The allowed language was called "Newspeak".

The actions by the Georgia State Education commission to forbid the use of words like “equity” and “inclusion” in public school teachers lesson plans are a further symptom of totalitarianism which is infecting the people of the United States.

The infection of totalitarian thinking is much more pervasive in some states than in others. The fact that Newspeak has infected the Georgia State Education Commission is noteworthy because of their power to infect all the public school teachers in the State of Georgia who can then pass the infection on to their students and students' families.

As this infection of Newspeak spreads throughout the South, how will the citizens of those states be able to collaborate and cooperate with others in the current world where equity and inclusiveness are ever important principles in creating our mutual life together on this planet?  

Unitarian Universalists have seven principles which they covenant together to affirm and promote. The second principle is equity, justice, and compassion in human relations. You can read more about this here.

The Georgia State Education Commission’s policy is not only in violation of the Unitarian Universalist second principle, it diminishes the development and strengthening of several of the skills of spiritual intelligence such as “awareness of worldview of others,” “awareness of the interconnectedness of life,” “awareness of the limitations of human perception,” awareness of spiritual laws regarding love of one’s fellow humans”, etc.

This policy of the Georgia State Education commission is indicative of the low level of spiritual intelligence of the people in  leadership in the Georgia State government. In the future the level of spiritual intelligence of the candidates for political office should be taken into consideration for whom to cast one’s vote.

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This is the first of many, many planned posts on spiritual intelligence. Please join us in our spiritual intelligence discussion group. You can sign up here. https://groups.io/g/SpiritualIntelligence

Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living. How many people do you know that live examined lives? Are you one of them?

What makes you tick? Do you understand why you think what you think, why you feel what you feel, why you do what you do, why you want what you want?

To what extent do you think you can influence the creation of your life or are victimized by it?

The first skill in spiritual intelligence is thinking about what you think. In spiritual practice this is called “contemplation.” Contemplation is thinking about what you think and understanding what you think about what you think. This skill of contemplation is also sometimes called “meta-cognition”. Another term is “mindfulness”. 

On a scale of Low, Medium, High how would you rate your level of self understanding? 

To what extent do you understand what makes you tick?

To what extent can you explain the factors that make you tick to a nonjudgmental person?

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Please join me in discussing spiritual intelligence on the Spiritual Intelligence discussion listserv.

We will be discussing what spiritual intelligence is and how to nurture it.

If you subscribe, your first two messages to the group will be moderated to ensure that the messages are coming from a human and not a robot. After the first two messages to the list are determined to be of human origin your posts will not be moderated.

You can subscribe here: spiritualintelligence+subscribe@groups.io

Thank you for your consideration, and possible joining us,

David Markham

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Today our daily postings of the A Course In Miracles and Unitarian Universalism is being discontinued.

The postings henceforth will be periodic and depend on reader request.

If you have questions, concerns, comments, forward them to davidgmarkham@gmail.com.

If you have been following this thread, thank you for reading it.

Eternity is one time, its only dimension being “always.” This cannot mean anything to you until you remember God’s open Arms, and finally know His open Mind. Like Him, you are “always"; in His Mind and with a mind like His. In your open mind are your creations, in perfect communication born of perfect understanding. Could you but accept one of them you would not want anything the world has to offer. Everything else would be totally meaningless. God’s meaning is incomplete without you, and you are incomplete without your creations. Accept your brother in this world and accept nothing else, for in him you will find your creations because he created them with you. You will never know that you are co-creator with God until you learn that your brother is co-creator with you. T-9.VI.7: 1-9

A Course in Miracles (pp. 329-330). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

One for all and all for one forever is one way of summarizing the above passage.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the love for the interdependent web of existence of which we all are a part.

Today it is suggested that we consider that the world is bigger than any one of us and can be described as the “eternal now.”

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Miracles have no place in eternity, because they are reparative. Yet while you still need healing, your miracles are the only witnesses to your reality that you can recognize. You cannot perform a miracle for yourself, because miracles are a way of giving acceptance and receiving it. In time the giving comes first, though they are simultaneous in eternity, where they cannot be separated. When you have learned they are the same, the need for time is over. T-9.VI.6: 1-5

A Course in Miracles (p. 329). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

The miracle, according to A Course In Miracles, is when the shift in perception from the world of the ego to the nondual Oneness occurs. When we experience a miracle, time stands still. We experience what the Course calls a “holy instant.”

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. The only true thing is the miracle state. The miracle is not magic and an alteration of natural events, it is an experience of cosmic consciousness.

Today it is suggested that  we stop what we are doing, take a deep breath, and momentarily become one with everything.

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You are not yet awake, but you can learn how to awaken. Very simply, the Holy Spirit teaches you to awaken others. As you see them waken you will learn what waking means, and because you have chosen to wake them, their gratitude and their appreciation of what you have given them will teach you its value. They will become the witnesses to your reality, as you were created witness to God’s. Yet when the Sonship comes together and accepts its Oneness it will be known by its creations, who witness to its reality as the Son does to the Father. T-9.VI.5: 1-5

A Course in Miracles (p. 329). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

To awaken simply means that one overcomes their social conditioning and becomes aware of their essential self. Sometimes it is easier to see past other’s ego conditioning to their Divine Spark within than it is our own. When we see the Divine Spark in another person we remember who we, essentially, are.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity in every person. When we perceive the inherent worth and dignity of each person we encounter, we become more aware of our own inherent worth and dignity.

Today it is suggested that we look for the Divine Spark in each person and connect with it and experience it within ourselves (plural.) Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is within us beneath our social conditioning.

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God is more than you only because He created you, but not even this would He keep from you. Therefore you can create as He did, and your dissociation will not alter this. Neither God’s light nor yours is dimmed because you do not see. Because the Sonship must create as one, you remember creation whenever you recognize part of creation. Each part you remember adds to your wholeness because each part is whole. Wholeness is indivisible, but you cannot learn of your wholeness until you see it everywhere. You can know yourself only as God knows His Son, for knowledge is shared with God. When you awake in Him you will know your magnitude by accepting His limitlessness as yours. But meanwhile you will judge it as you judge your brother’s, and will accept it as you accept his. T-9.VI.4:1-9

A Course in Miracles (pp. 328-329). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

The Buddhist monk said to the hot dog vendor “Make me one with everything.” and we laugh, but supposing this scene and request is not seen as a joke, but a serious request? Could the hot dog vendor actually help the monk to become one with everything? The answer to this question in today’s passage is “Yes!” The hot dog vendor and the monk are already one with everything, they just don’t realize it. And this Oneness is what we are.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person and this inherent worth and dignity comes from our Oneness with each other and with God.

Today it is suggested that we meditate, let go of all our ego thoughts, and become one with everything.

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If your brothers are part of you, will you accept them? Only they can teach you what you are, for your learning is the result of what you taught them. What you call upon in them you call upon in yourself. And as you call upon it in them it becomes real to you. God has but one Son, knowing them all as One. Only God Himself is more than they but they are not less than He is. Would you know what this means? If what you do to my brother you do to me, and if you do everything for yourself because we are part of you, everything we do belongs to you as well. Everyone God created is part of you and shares His glory with you. His glory belongs to Him, but it is equally yours. You cannot, then, be less glorious than He is. T-9.VI.3:1-11

A Course in Miracles (p. 328). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

The saying is “All for one and one for all.” Another saying is “United we stand and divided we fall.” Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is within you (plural.)

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. Unitarian Universalism is a religion of inclusivity not exclusivity. God loves all of God’s creations unconditionally. Any other belief is of the ego.

Today it is suggested that when we say we love certain people we should become aware of who we are leaving out and choose to include them.

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It seems to you that the Holy Spirit does not produce joy consistently in you only because you do not consistently arouse joy in others. Their reactions to you are your evaluations of His consistency. When you are inconsistent you will not always give rise to joy, and so you will not always recognize His consistency. What you offer to your brother you offer to Him, because He cannot go beyond your offering in His giving. This is not because He limits His giving, but simply because you have limited your receiving. The decision to receive is the decision to accept.T-9.VI.2:1-6

A Course in Miracles (p. 328). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

One of the paradoxical principles taught by A Course In Miracles is that you learn what you teach. A corollary principle is that you receive what you give. If you would have joy, give joy for it is in the giving that joy is generated. These principles are not the way of the world of the ego but the say of the Spirit.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and the encouragement to spiritual growth. It is in this acceptance and encouragement that joy is manifested.

Today it is suggested that we reflect on what we want to receive and if it is loving, give it.

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How can you become increasingly aware of the Holy Spirit in you except by His effects? You cannot see Him with your eyes nor hear Him with your ears. How, then, can you perceive Him at all? If you inspire joy and others react to you with joy, even though you are not experiencing joy yourself there must be something in you that is capable of producing it. If it is in you and can produce joy, and if you see that it does produce joy in others, you must be dissociating it in yourself. T-9.VI.1:1-5

A Course in Miracles (p. 327). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

People who are aware of the Holy Spirit working through them often report that the experience is mysterious to them and they have no idea where the inspiration comes from, how it is manifested, or how the influence it has is produced.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. How this works seems ephemeral at best and yet we understand what Jesus meant when he said, “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I will be.”

Today it is suggested that we watch for the impact that the Holy Spirit has on those we interact with and then consider how this was manifested through us and thus become more aware of God’s unconditional love within ourselves.

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This course offers a very direct and a very simple learning situation, and provides the Guide Who tells you what to do. If you do it, you will see that it works. Its results are more convincing than its words. They will convince you that the words are true. By following the right Guide, you will learn the simplest of all lessons: By their fruits ye shall know them, and they shall know themselves. T-9.V.9:1-6

A Course in Miracles (p. 327). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

There are many roads to Rome and many ways to skin the cat. We can ascend the mountain on multiple sides and still attain the same peak. A Course In Miracles is only one spiritual path. It assures us that it works, and the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. The search takes many of us in different directions but the destination is the same: the non dual Oneness.

Today it is suggested that we review the many different paths we have taken which have led us to the one we are on now and how our journey at present is going. Then tell someone.

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Remember that you choose the guide for helping, and the wrong choice will not help. But remember also that the right one will. Trust Him, for help is His function, and He is of God. As you awaken other minds to the Holy Spirit through Him, and not yourself, you will understand that you are not obeying the laws of this world. But the laws you are obeying work. “The good is what works” is a sound though insufficient statement. Only the good can work. Nothing else works at all. T-9.V.8: 9-16

A Course in Miracles (p. 327). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

How do we know if what we believe and say is helpful or not? Is it from the Holy Spirit or from the ego? If our beliefs and speech is from the ego, it will not help. But if our beliefs and speech is from the Holy Spirit it will. How to tell the difference? If it is from a place of conditional love, it is from the ego. If it is from the place of unconditional love, it is from the Holy Spirit.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Does this search take us to the realm of the ego or to the realm of the Holy Spirit?

Today it is suggested that we be mindful of the place in which we place our faith: the world of the ego or the world of the Holy Spirit.

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A therapist does not heal; he lets healing be. He can point to darkness but he cannot bring light of himself, for light is not of him. Yet, being for him, it must also be for his patient. The Holy Spirit is the only Therapist. He makes healing clear in any situation in which He is the Guide. You can only let Him fulfill His function. He needs no help for this. He will tell you exactly what to do to help anyone He sends to you for help, and will speak to him through you if you do not interfere. T-9.V.8:1-8

A Course in Miracles (pp. 326-327). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

As teachers of God we are conduits and extenders. God’s unconditional love passes through us to others. In order for this to occur we must be aware of it ourselves. We can’t share what we are not aware that we already have.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person which arises from the unconditional love of their Transcendent Source.

Today it is suggested that we recognize, acknowledge, and accept God’s unconditional love for us and pay it forward.

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