As the world feels increasingly chaotic, many grasp for control by predicting the future. But what if you’re already prepared? This retreat explores how to stay centered amidst societal unraveling, distraction, and survival anxiety—and how to view current events not with fear, but as curious, even entertaining signals of change. What if nothing is quite as it seems?
Editor’s note: This excerpt is from the Current Events Retreat in 1998. It was probably held in Warner Springs, CA, or nearby. It is one of dozens of current event classes.
Many times, you as human beings, try to discern the future. To try to plot your way, or plan your way, or somehow solve whatever problems it is that you think that arise within your lives. You try to do this by trying to grasp what’s coming next, so you might be prepared. The reality is you’re already prepared. It’s whether you will use the skills that you have or not that will make the difference of whether you perceive yourself safe and prepared. In this time, you have noticed that there are apparently some very interesting things happening within your society. There are things where it is that treasured belief systems are dropping away because they are not real. That there are times when it is that you look upon your society and you perceive that everyone around you is, as you call it, “losing it.” That is the effect of “running naked in the street.” And if you have the capacity to remain somewhat focused on purpose and participatory within your life, it can be very entertaining for you watching this. It does not need to be too much stress.
Mostly, what happens to you, though, is that you are surrounded by other people whose belief system has set them to look upon life and say, “This is the way that life will be.” The problem is that it seems to be accelerating for them. You are then also surrounded by people that are very distracted. So they are doing something, but they aren’t really doing that thing; they are doing something else. You think that you are speaking to someone who is dealing with you, but they are dealing with this issue over here. You talk to clerk in store, and your thought process is that you are talking about the thing that you want to purchase, while the clerk is actually thinking about his boss or her boss. Or thinking about the bills. Or virtually anything else except what you think you are talking about. And they will very often give to you an answer that you walk away with thinking that’s what’s going to happen, and how many times do you find it doesn’t? That’s the nature of these changes.
All of you are getting essentially touched with survival thoughts. Every human being upon your planet senses it. The shift and the changes to the gravitational flux, the shift and the changes to the atmospheric elements, the shift and changes for the energies as they are, is leaving you all with a sense of “something isn’t quite right but you don’t know what.” Because of that, you tend to focus upon the thing that you think is the most important issue. Very often, it is not the most important issue.
So, what it is that we are going to play with is how to be able to see the world around you as entertainment. That is what we will do this weekend, and it has a lot to do with current events. What we will do is focus upon how easy it is to get out of control with them. That is good? And how easy it is to stay in cooperation with life. You have many questions, so perhaps tonight is a good time to get them out of the way. Useful? Also, it will set a stage for you to perceive all of those questions in a little different light than you normally might use. I will give you hint. Just because it looks like something doesn’t mean that’s what it is.