Edward Snowden & Intuition in the Long Run

Sometimes you have to wait a very long time, years, even decades, for the full import of an intuitive message to come through. That means you have to remember them, so you can refer to them over time. Edward Snowden's flight to Moscow reminded me of this.

I grew up during the Cold War. This was a time when political prisoners were jailed in the USSR, and often sought political asylum in the US.

I was curious about the Soviet Union, asked questions, and expressed an interest in visiting. My parents told me I should never go there, because the hotel rooms were bugged. They knew a couple who'd visited, who'd told them stories of their guides making comments about things they'd only said to each other in the "privacy" of their hotel room. I had a bad habit of telling the truth, and couldn't keep my mouth shut. (I still tell the truth, but I've learned when to keep my mouth shut! :) )

My dad subscribed to all sorts of magazines that came to our house, but went to his doctor's office waiting room fairly quickly. One of these was Travel and Leisure. When I was 11, the cover photo on one issue was a beautiful shot of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. I was captivated! I stared and stared at that photo. Then it came to me -- I just knew -- that the US and the USSR would become more and more alike, and that we'd be trading with each other. I decided right then that I had to learn Russian, and insisted on being sent to a high school where I could learn the language. My dad really heard me and made that possible.

3 years later, I was in my first year of Russian classes at a school near Albany, NY. That year, the Russian wheat harvests had failed, and our governments had arranged a grain deal, in which some of our wheat would be shipped to the Soviet Union. And our teacher took our class (all 4 of us) on a field trip to the Russian freighter that had docked at the Port of Albany. I didn't understand much of what the sailors were saying, but I still remember the sight of the grain pouring into the hold.

This was at a time when social programs in the US were still expanding, which were described by some as "communist". Wow -- we're getting to be more alike!

I had to drop out of Russian classes after 1 year at Princeton, because it was just too hard to do that on top of my engineering courses. But by the time I moved to New York in the late 1970's, we were actively trading grain with what was still the Soviet Union. In fact, a good friend was a grain trader.

Then the second Russian revolution happened -- the Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union was dismantled, and the promise of democracy beckoned. Wow -- we're getting to be more alike!

We all know that democracy didn't really take hold in the Russia. And we know that the security state has grown in the US. Wow, we're becoming more alike. :(

And today, irony of ironies, Edward Snowden has had to seek political asylum by transiting through Russia. Has the US become the USSR?

I keep thinking about that knowledge that my 11 year old self had, and how she had no way to know how right that information would turn out to be, no way to predict exactly how it would play out.

Sometimes you have to wait years -- or decades -- to watch your intuitive information play out. And the only way to do that is to remember it. Sometimes, like what my 11 year old self got, it just sears itself into your mind. But journals help, too. And no matter how scary it is, it helps to tell other people what you get, because they'll help you remember.

The REAL Value of Meditation (You'll Be Surprised)

How many of your thoughts are pre-programmed? How many of them come automatically? For example, if it's going to be a hot day, do you automatically think about watering the plants? Or going to the beach? Or what time you're going to have to turn on the A/C? When you get up in the morning, do you automatically think of your shower, or that first cup of coffee? Often those are thoughts we've come up with ourselves, out of our personal experience. We know how good that shower or coffee are going to feel, and so our minds go automatically to them.

Many of our thoughts are automatically programmed - some by us, but some by our families or by society. For example, if you see a Rolls Royce, you might have automatic thoughts about that. Most of us have never owned a Rolls Royce, or even ridden in one, so we don't have a personal experience of it. That means that we've been taught what to think about the Rolls by society.

Our bodies are programmed by nature to operate within a small range of various parameters. This is called homeostasis. For example, our bodies don't work outside of a small temperature range. Yes, we've been able to extend that with clothing and shelter, but even then, we only operate from perhaps -50F to 110F. which is quite small considering that fires often go to 1500F, and the temperature of most of the universe is about -118F. Our bodies only work in a small pH range, as well.

People are intimately connected with their bodies, often identifying with them, thinking that they are their bodies, and only their bodies. Consequently, society, which is just people, is set up to foster homeostasis. That is, society is generally set up to keep things the same, or at most, change in tiny increments.

This applies to thoughts, too. People can only transmit thoughts they already have. Again, society is just a lot of other people. So in a way, society programs us to have the same thoughts other people are already having -- society programs us to stay the same.

This rigid framework does keep us safe in many ways -- it keeps us physically safe (we know to run away from fire), and we're accepted by the group, which also helps to keep us safe (from the odd marauding wolf, which will attack an individual, but not a group). But it prevents us from shifting in ways that might be beneficial, as well. A simple example is that 70 - 90 years ago, cigarette smoking was promoted as being healthful. Despite decades of medical studies, lots of women applauded cigarettes' effectiveness in weight loss, so they ignored the studies, continuing to believe in the health benefits.

It's as if our thoughts make an impenetrable cage around our energy fields, preventing new information or energy from getting in.  Meditation, however, is the cessation of conscious thought. even briefly. As a friend said once, "I can't seem to stop thinking completely, but I can make the spaces between my thoughts longer." That cessation of thought makes spaces in the thought cage around your energy field.

Those spaces are where new information, in the form of wisdom, creativity or energetic upgrades can occur.


In general, higher energy is more powerful than lower energy. It travels farther and affects more people. This is exemplified by the fact that X-rays (the frequencies of which range in the 10 to the 16th to 19th powers) can penetrate things that look solid in the visible light spectrum (whose frequencies are in the 10 to the 13th power).

So beings, like gurus or spirit guides, who transmit higher energy will always spread higher light than is currently available. This higher light carries higher wisdom, creativity and new ideas.

Unfortunately, the higher light, higher wisdom, new ideas and creativity are a mixed blessing, at least at first. This is because the higher light is confronted by homeostasis, both personal and societal, which is unbelievably uncomfortable. The two are going to fight for space in your energy field, if you will, or in the common thought forms of society. In the end, though, the higher light always wins. It changes you for the better, as it changes society for the better.

(This material was given to me in mediation, of course!)