Modern astronomers are busy with microscopes and spectroscopes, exploring distant star systems, searching for planets that might support life as we know it—maybe intelligent life… like us. They're finding hundreds of exoplanets that orbit distant stars and just might have life forms like the plants and animals of our world.

Why? Because the exoplanets are like "Mama Bear"… they're not too big, not too small; they're kind of like the Earth… jus-s-st right. And they're not too close to their sun or too far from it. Again, they're sort of like the Earth: jus-s-st right.

To a modern scientist, looking for extraterrestrial life means looking outward toward the stars with the assumption that conditions for life out there will be a lot like conditions for life here on Earth… and finding life out there would be the ultimate proof that "we're not alone."

Well, folks, there are a couple of problems with that thinking. First, you don't have to go to all that trouble. If you really want to find extraterrestrial life, you don't have to open your coffers to fund billion-dollar space astronomy programs… you just have to open your mind. Your mind's like a radio tuner that's normally set to your favorite station and mine—the vibrations of the material world and material universe. Most of us assume it's the only station, but the fact is that there are countless other stations—other worlds and universe in-beyond* of our physical universe that march to a different beat, dance to a different vibration. And we can learn to tune our minds to visit those other worlds. And when we get there, we sometimes find them flourishing with life… conscious life… life that's sometimes so conscious and bright that it makes us feel like bugs... but in a good, reassuring way, because those brilliant beings only want to love us, not step on us.

So that's the first problem with modern thinking about extraterrestrial life—the assumption that we have to look outward into the stars to find it… when it's really right here, all around us, superimposed over our world, flourishing in countless worlds that are invisible but not inaccessible to us.

The second problem is that we expect to find life existing under the same conditions as here on Earth. Most scientists, like most people, assume that life everywhere is based on the same familiar principles of physics and biology as life found in our world… but nearly two decades of inter-dimensional (afterlife) research have convinced me that that's not at all the case. The fact is, our world is illusory in the bigger picture of reality in virtually all aspects that we take for granted. Life, time, space, gravity, structure, motion—most of the stuff studied and measured by scientists—it's all illusion. The forms and forces of this world are what eastern mystics for centuries have called "Maya" or "Samsara," which is the manifestation of pure, genuine divine life or consciousness as it has to transduce down into very dense, heavy vibration to form life in the material universe. This dummied-down force of life comes together as the structures and energies that we have come to accept—consciously, at least—as reality.

Science today is mostly engrossed in the illusion, and the most popular projects to study extraterrestrial life are completely off the mark—looking outward into the stars, instead of in-beyond* into subtler realms of existence.

- - Mark Macy

* "In-beyond" is a term I coined in my new book, The Project, to refer to the direction of looking into other dimensions. Not up or down or left or right. Not outward into the macrocosm of stars and galaxies, and not inward into the microcosm of cells and molecules, but in-beyond: into the worlds of spirit.

In the late 1990s our INIT group received word from our spirit team, through a text file planted directly on a computer in Luxembourg, that a famous man in the entertainment business (whose name we decided not to make public) was stuck in a confused state between the Earth and the afterlife. (See the story in Contact! #96/02, page 14.) Before his death some 30 years earlier, he had decided to have his body frozen cryonically in hopes he could be restored to life at a future time when technology could make that possible.

What we learned from the ITC contact is that cryonics interrupts our spiritual journey as we leave the Earth. Normally when our physical self dies and our spiritual self moves on to paradise, it's a smooth process that's wonderful almost to the point of being overwhelming, but when our physical body is not allowed to completely die and disintegrate, our spiritual self becomes confused. There's something inside tugging at us to come home to paradise, and there's something else inside saying we can't go yet; our time on Earth is not yet complete because our physical body is still there.

People in that position tend to get stuck between worlds for awhile. That famous man, whose work has made millions of people around the world laugh and cry in delight, became stuck in that confused state, between heaven and earth, for about three decades of Earth time. I don't know what's become of him since the ITC report.

My own fear of death

I was an agnostic until cancer nearly killed me in 1988, and then I set out on a spiritual search. I was suddenly driven to find out what really happens to us after we die. Until then, I was like that entertainment mogul. The normal ups and downs of my day-to-day life were driven by an underlying current of tension, frustration, and desperation.  Fear of death does that to people. (See the report in Contact! #96/03, page 5.)

Fear of death manifests in many strange ways in our world…

… from movies about the "living dead" …

… to scientific experiments to extend human lives…

… from medical techniques that keep us alive to the last, dying breath…

… to unaffordable healthcare and health insurance.

People, we need to relax about death. Enjoy life to its fullest, do what we can to achieve our life purpose… and then relax. Living on Earth with knowledge of our spiritual destiny brings contentment and inner peace. It lets us experience terrestrial dramas with the reassuring promise of paradise. It stirs compassion and empathy in our dealings with others while sweeping away envy and mistrust.

In short, afterlife understanding removes the fear of death and lets us tread more lightly on the planet.

 -- Mark Macy

 " I don't want to believe, I want to know "

-- Carl Sagan

-- Mark Macy

The military plays an important role in a nation. Like white blood cells (phagocytes) in the body, our soldiers and sailors defend the system against hostile outside forces. Their job in the system is to fight, to kill and, if necessary, to be killed. Serious business! Vital business in a rough world.

However, the military (like the body's defense system) has a specialized role as a fighting machine, and generals have no business making policies in the best interests of the system unless the system's under direct attack. Under normal day-to-day, decade-to-decade conditions, generals should be left out of policy-making. When they advise on foreign policy, they tend to advocate strategies for attack. That's what they do. They're fighters. Especially in modern nations like the US, militaries have powerful weapons and huge ranks of soldiers and sailors… and the generals (as well as weapons developers) are always looking for ways to put them to use. Heed their counsel under normal conditions? Bad idea.

In today's tense and troubled world, the best political policies are those that foster peace, understanding, equity, freedom, and the well-being of all people. Those are the attitudes that lift the human spirit (they literally raise our spirit to a finer, lighter vibration). Political leaders must make the effort to keep their generals on a short leash, soliciting their help and advice only in times of genuine crisis. If given voice in times of peace, a trained fighter often sees a threat where there is no threat—a crisis where there is no crisis. Fighters often pick fights. Again, it's what they do… and the fears and animosities stirred up by aggression produce a dense, dark spirit within us.

A light spirit brings happiness to us on Earth and carries us like a homing signal to a paradise afterlife once we shed the physical body. A dense spirit torments us now, and when we die it pulls us to dark, dismal realms for awhile… until we can sort through the troubled feelings, find peace, and ascend in vibration to the paradise where we all belong.

But let's stay grounded for now and focus not on our personal destiny, but on the fate of our world and its big social systems like nations and religions. How best to avoid crises in today's world? Well, one step is to identify those professions that are driven by humanity's savage side—those that stir up people's fears, doubts, animosities, greed, selfishness, lust, and other primal sensations—and to keep those professionals on a short leash.

• The military is one such profession, as explained above.
• The legal system, at least in the USA, is another savage profession. It's based on litigation, which involves confrontation, intimidation, and a win-lose outcome between two parties. That sort of legal system, pitting foe against foe, invariably stirs up fear and contempt on both sides (darkening the human spirit), and it's expensive! Those who control and manipulate the laws of society—i.e. lawyers—often tend to manipulate conditions for their own comfort and luxury, locking themselves into salaries that are much higher and benefits that are much cushier than the norm. There are alternative methods of conflict resolution (such as mediation, negotiation, and arbitration) that are more affordable, more humane, and less savage, but litigating lawyers resist those options for obvious reasons (e.g. they're not as profitable to the lawyers). Short leash needed!
• The same applies to political leaders (at least, once again, here in the States). US Senators and Congressmen set themselves up for high salaries and health and retirement benefits that are far beyond the reach of average Americans, and many of them resist efforts to extend such benefits to the public… partly because of pressures from special interest groups, and partly because of selfishness. Short leash needed!
• Bankers and financiers (stockbrokers, venture capitalists, fund managers, etc.) also need a short leash, since dealing with large sums of money invariably stirs up the greed within us humans and opens many roads to temptation.

Well, there's a long list of professions that require close oversight in today's tenuous world simply because we humans have a savage side that can stir up all kinds of problems when we're placed in positions of power. I started out with the military mostly because it's in the news lately—President Obama seeking counsel from General McChrystal on America's policy in the Middle East. Bad idea. Bad counsel. Short leash needed!

In any case, gathering up each of these savage-prone professions onto a short leash is just one step in minimizing crises in today's world.

In all of my research over the past 35 years into political and economic systems, religions, science, industry, and other social systems—as well as the real meaning of human spirituality—I've never found a single panacea that would help bring all of human affairs into a state of peace and order… so I had to develop one.

There's only one technique that I'm confident could bring humanity into balance, minimizing major crises for our children and grandchildren, and that's the Vitality Ratio. It's a simple, natural, outside-the-box economic theory that identifies the root of the most serious human crises (famine, mass execution, war, economic depression, class struggle, environmental pillage…) and lays out a single, workable, high-tech remedy for them all.

The longer I live, the more evident it becomes to me that the Vitality Ratio won't be implemented in my lifetime. It's a little too far outside of today's political, economic, scientific, and religious box… but if our great-grandchildren are successful in building a peaceful world, and if you want a glimpse of what that world will look like, you might want to peruse the Vitality Ratio, and more important, The Project, of which the Vitality Ratio is just a part.

Meanwhile, we don't let pit bulls and leopards roam freely in society without a short leash, and we shouldn't allow savage professions to run amok either. They need oversight and regulation.

This month someone broke into my Facebook profile and placed disreputable website links on the walls of 14 of my FB friends. They looked like this:

  Mark Macy   I tried this, and it really worked…here is the link if you wanna give it a wirl!! www.phonyurl.com/xy

 At first I thought it was just an irritating case of some clever hacker breaking into FB to sell stuff, and I just happened to be one of the random victims… but the more I sniffed, the more it began to stink. The websites in the links all had bad reputations, accompanied by warnings from search engines like Google.

It began to occur to me that this was probably NOT someone trying to sell something. It was more likely someone trying to weaken my credibility… to make me seem like a source of bad information, a person NOT to listen to. And it didn't take long to figure out the most likely suspect.

As you may have noticed from my writings, I lean a bit to the left politically. :-))) I went through a right-wing, conservative craze during my first year of college in the late 60s, getting fired up by Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, and other books that extolled the virtues of personal freedom and the dangers posed by bureaucrats who restricted it.

But it was a conflicted time for me. I also loved the rebellious upswelling underway in the 60s, led by liberal troubadours like Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel. ("I've been Ayn Randed, nearly branded a Communist 'cause I'm left handed. That's the hand I use! Well, never mind." – Paul Simon, "A Simple Desultory Philippic.)

In the 1970s and 80s I was seeking a middle road. I was working with peace researchers from various countries, who educated me on the real differences between the right-vs-left, capitalist-vs-socialist debate. I mentioned those differences a few weeks ago in my September 5 blog entry:

By definition, capitalist democracies rate freedom high and equality low (as opposed to communist countries which rate freedom low and equality high), so one of the inherent weaknesses of capitalism is its tendency toward inequity—a growing chasm between the rich and poor. That gap in American society today, which is becoming more and more noticeable in difficult economic times, seems to be close to the core of the healthcare crisis. The wealthier Americans can afford excellent healthcare, while the poorer Americans get almost no healthcare whatsoever. The have's and the have-not's scenario is an ever-present possibility in a capitalist democracy.

Although a few peace researchers and I were writing about the equality-freedom debate 25 years ago, I've seen nothing about it since then—zero, nada—until I posted it on my blog early this month. Then it apparently swept through the conservative grapevine. Right-wing columnist George Will came to Denver on Sept 17 for a scholarship ceremony and announced that there's "a new clarity" in American politics: "Liberals today tend to stress equality and are therefore willing to circumscribe the free working of the market to engineer more equality of outcome. Conservatives stress freedom and are therefore willing to accept greater inequities of outcome."

Well, that's great, George! If that understanding really does sweep through the consciousness of Americans on both sides of the political aisle, there will evolve a new social-political-economic system built upon the best qualities of liberal and conservative thought, of equality and freedom. I'd love to see that glorious compromise in my lifetime!

But I doubt it'll happen anytime soon. One reason is that people at the political fringes, especially at the far right where small groups of people have large reserves of money and power, relish the conflict and resist change. They're finding clever ways, especially with the Internet, to spread their opinions and to undermine those who have opposing views. That's the main reason why I lean toward the left today. I'm  driven to break down the forced inequalities and injustices imposed on us Americans by a lopsided system. If I were living in Europe I'd probably be moderate. If I were living in a ruthless African dictatorship I'd almost certainly be a right-wing freedom fighter. That's just me; I push for balance. I root for the underdog.

Nowadays I enjoy listening to National Public Radio, and there was a recent story on NPR about Wikipedia, and some troubles the great online encyclopedia is having. Just about anyone can post just about anything on Wikipedia, and it can then be polished up by people with more expertise on the subject. Works great in theory, but in practice, people who learn the Wikipedia rules are able to change certain listings and then prevent other people from changing theirs. Apparently the far right is busy today giving Wikipedia a conservative slant. Listen to the NPR story, starting around 8:15 into the file. You'll hear journalist Farhad Manjoo and call-in guest Kate from California discuss how neoconservative organizations pay computer users to become Wikipedia experts, to create a conservative encyclopedia.

I suspect this is just one of many neoconservative projects underway that use the Internet for political purposes. As I wrote in my August 19 blog entry, "Public Health Insurance in America, a Must" (which I linked on Facebook):

Peace researchers have found that groups are most peaceful and vital when there is a good blend of equality and freedom. Each virtue has some great effects on people, but either virtue, without the other, leads to problems….

The USA has become obsessed with freedom, or liberty, to the point where equality is shunned. Since the Cold War, when American freedom and Communist equality were vying for world dominance, many Americans have associated equality with communism, and thus consider it "evil." Here are just a few of the freedom-fanatic groups that fight against equality in the name of liberty:

CRC, CRC Public Relations (which coordinated the "Swift Boat" attacks on Presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004 and now fights against health care reform as "Conservatives for Patients' Rights," which of course is doublespeak, since that group is really trying to squash patients' rights), CPR, RNC, ALA, FW, AFP, CFG, TH, PF, PUN . . . to name a few...

There's a ruthless character to many of these freedom-oriented groups, whose aim it is to sustain the wealth and privilege of their members (such as drug-makers and oilmen), generally at the expense of the public as a whole. The fact that millions of Americans are going broke because they can't afford health care doesn't seem to be a concern of theirs. As long as they're free.

Equality, along with the empathy it can foster, is out the window in America, thanks to these conservative groups.

Well, that pretty much hits the nail squarely on the head, at least from a liberal point of view, and it's not the kind of thing that those on the far right want people to be hearing about. The conservatives make note of people with liberal views, and the smear machine is often turned on.

Smear campaigns are the specialty of America's freedom-fanatic groups and their front-men, who include Rush Limbaugh, most of the Fox News anchors, Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. I haven't heard much about neocon mastermind Rove since the Bush regime, but dark, devious minds don't hide quietly in the shadows; they're always busy nurturing terror and chaos in the minds of otherwise decent people, filling them with fear and outrage, which the masterminds then channel for their own narrow purposes… such as disrupting Town Hall meetings and attending rallies with "I'm addicted to Fox News" signs.

To make a long story short, I would not be surprised to learn that the recent hacking of my Facebook account was choreographed from the far right.

- - -

Anyway, based on what I've seen on Facebook, I'm definitely not using it the way most other people do. I like to post little teasers that lead to my blog, sometimes adding a little inspirational video or picture. Most people use FB in a more chatty kind of way. Millions of FB useres who are feeling friendly and loving at the moment spread a cloud of good will around the planet. And as thousands of people vent their anger or frustration on FB, they create a little dark cloud around the planet. It's basically what we humans have always done—spread a lot of light and a little darkness, depending on our moods—but now with there's high-tech twist that amplifies things.

My little blog teasers don't seem to fit in real well with all that healthy sharing and venting. Because of that, and also because of the hacking problem, I'll probably phase out of Facebook this fall.

The piracy epidemic underway off the coast of Africa, with its many-faceted nature, is a good example of what's wrong with the world today. By digging through the hidden complications of that problem and getting to the heart of the matter, we should be able to open avenues to healing the world at large. Let's give it a try!

Let's begin with a common misperception of the situation. Here in the Northern hemisphere, the problem seems simple: Bands of African renegades are hijacking US and European ships for the sake of extortion. They kidnap the ships' crews and demand ransom. Simple solution: Protect the ships and thwart the pirates.

From the southern hemisphere, though, things are more complicated. First, there's severe overpopulation, stirring up famine, disease, war, and mass execution, locking the African people in desperate straits, compelling many of them to do whatever it takes to survive. [1]

Second, European hospitals and industries pay the Italian mafia bargain rates to get rid of nuclear waste and toxic heavy metals, which the mobsters load aboard ships and (you guessed it!) dump off the coast of Africa. The toxins wash ashore, poisoning the people and the land. Rather than idly watching this gross violation of their homeland, some young African men resort to piracy as a means of standing up to the invaders from the North.[2]

Third, fishing conglomerates in the industrialized North (in both Europe and Asia), having depleted their own coastal waters of seafood, now send their trawlers to steal nearly a million dollars a day in shrimp, lobster, and tuna off the coast of Africa . . . another gross indignation driving some young Africans to piracy.[3]

Granted, there are also thugs in Africa, as there are everywhere, who jump into the conflict for the thrill of crime and the promise of easy riches, but when the piracy epidemic is observed in its entirety, from a distance, where political borders and national interests begin to blur, it's not so easy to determine who all of the culprits really are.

Heart of the problem

So what's at the heart of Somalian piracy? It seems to be a global economic crisis caused largely by overpopulation in the South and overdevelopment in the North. These two growing conditions fuel desperation in both hemispheres that will probably cause them to clash with growing frequency in the coming years if we humans don't get to the heart of the matter very soon.

So let's go to the heart of the problem now and try to get a handle on the bad economics that manifests as overpopulation in poor countries and as overdevelopment in rich countries. First of all, can we solve those problems with the tools of modern economics? Probably not. Most modern economists essentially ignore overpopulation in the South, and they look at unbridled economic growth in the North not as a problem but as a measure of success and stability--exactly the opposite of what it really is.

What it'll take is a new way of looking at ourselves as human beings, as social groups, and as a single planetary species. It'll take a new economics. I've been developing just that during the past 25 years, and it's summed up in something I call the Vitality Ratio [4]. I plan to write more about that in coming articles, but if you're interested in a preview, just follow the link.

Endnotes

[1] The birthrates in most African nations such as Somalia (where most of the piracy occurs) exceed 40 births per 1,000 people per year. Doing the math, then, the average African woman has 7 babies in her lifetime, and if everyone lived to age 70, the population would double in less than two decades. That can't happen, of course, because natural limits to growth, such as famine and war, happen continuously to curb population ruthlessly… and the horrific cycle continues until countries learn how to limit population in humane ways, through sensible family planning programs. The population problem extends beyond Africa, but when we humans get serious about solving the world crisis, that would be a good place to start.

[2] "You are being lied to about pirates," by Johann Hari, "The Independent," UK

[3] "The battle against illegal fishing off east Africa's coast," The Economist (Aug 3, 2006).

[4] "The Vitality Ratio," from The Project.

Wasn’t sure if I’d see it in my lifetime or not—the inevitable demise of growth economics, which is the celebration of endless growth and profit… a false, widely-held measure of a nation’s general soundness that has led us into the current worldwide economic slump and all of its mini-slumps, such as the callous and defunct US healthcare system.

Lately, though, even presidents of great nations are starting to talk about scrapping the econogospel of growth to come up with a more sustainable measure of a nation’s stability… such as a balance between its economic and political stability on one hand, and the general well-being of its citizens on the other.

Hundreds of bright minds around the world today are talking about ways to rebuild economics… and I believe that every one of them is moving on a course that will eventually lead to the Vitality Ratio, something I’ve been building up, boiling down, and building back up since the late 1970s.

Today I believe the Vitality Ratio is ready to fly, thanks to the Internet and computer technologies, and when it does take wing… humanity will set off on its greatest adventure ever… toward its paradise destiny. Paradise on Earth is the culmination of The Project! And the Vitality Ratio (I believe) will play a key role in that.

Whether you and I will see paradise unfold on Earth in our lifetimes is unlikely… I’d say, next to impossible. The Vitality Ratio is way ahead of its time. It’ll spark a complete transformation of political and economic systems, and so I doubt it’ll be embraced anytime soon… considering how people resist change….

But that’s okay. I mean, for me it’s okay. I’m happy spending the rest of my life using this blog (and in any books that might be left in me) to planting seeds for our great-grandkids.

And when you and I come to the end of these transient and troubled lives of ours here on Earth, let’s get together over a cup of tea in the paradise that is in our personal destiny—the light, subtle realm that has gone by so many names down through the ages: Astral World, Eden, Marduk, Heaven, Jannah, the Summerland….   Put it in your calendar… :-)))))

MarkM

Healthcare in the US needs a complete overhaul for lots of complicated reasons… but that’s not the only thing that needs an overhaul. Here’s the short story…

Why do we need a complete healthcare makeover? Because…

… health INSURANCE is outrageously expensive, and insurance companies weasel out of paying policy holders for treatments they need.

Why?  Because…

… health CARE is outrageously expensive, so insurers in turn have to raise prices and go to desperate measures to cut costs.

Why is health care so expensive? Because of two things…

… growth economics (which pressures health-related companies to get ever richer), and our fear of death (which pressures doctors and the public alike to spare no expense to keep dying patients alive as long as possible).

As an ethereal being (angel) told our ITC group in 1996, (as published in the Contact! ITC journal, issue 96/03, page 5):

Fear of death is one of the most distressing concepts of human culture, based on the conscious belief that your bodily existence offers life and security, which it never wants to lose. Fear of death therefore is evidence of the mind having lost its roots. It shows a spiritual being who has far removed itself from its higher self. You owe this mentality largely to an intellectual and scientific way of thinking. It wants all thoughts reduced to a comprehensible level of material existence. Heaven is in man and those who have heaven within themselves go to heaven. Heaven is in all those who recognize what is of God and let themselves be guided by the Divine. The priority and basic concern of every religion has always been the acknowledgement of God.

So before we American can reform our healthcare system in any significant way, we’ll have to:

… reduce insurance costs, which can’t be done till we…

… reduce health care costs, which can’t be done till we…

… overcome our fear of death, which can’t be done till we…

… realize the truth of our spiritual existence—that our body is just a short-lived, carnate vehicle that our spirit uses to navigate on this dense, rugged material world. At the end of the physical journey, our spirit—our true self—lives on in finer realms.

That simple truth lets us physical human beings breathe a sigh of relief and helps us tread more lightly on the Earth. We’re no longer desperate to pack our lives full of experiences and of stuff… and to stretch our personal lives to the very last, respirator-assisted breath.

We know about our true, eternal destiny, and we embrace the promise of new life as death approaches. With the end, comes a beautiful new beginning. We no longer fear the “grim reaper” accompanying us six feet under the cold, hard ground; we welcome the glorious transformation into a paradise world of beauty beyond words.

Then, when the fear of death is gone, healthcare will evolve smoothly into a system that helps us all to make the most out of our lives on Earth through wholesome habits, wholesome thinking, service to others, and all-around happiness.

...

Meanwhile, when wealthy groups stir up lies about the reform efforts (death panels, communism…), and when hysterical people shout, “I’m not your ATM, Obama,” we can relax a bit, knowing that the fear of death brings out the worst in people—selfishness, greed, contempt, disrespect….

Consumed by their own desires and fears, they overlook the plight of the suffering masses.

I’m going to use this blog to talk a bit about myself and my views… so please indulge me a moment.  :-)))   Some may call it a dose of megalomania, others, having a sense of one’s purpose… but for whatever reason, ever since I was little, and spent hours writing long into the night, I’ve wanted to write the most important book ever written… and I believe that’s what I’ve done with my current book—The Project. I believe it is the most important book written in this Second Epoch.

Granted, I’ve felt pretty good about my other books, too, but this one gathers up everything I’ve learned in this lifetime about worldly things and other-worldly things, and paints a clear picture of the human heritage and the human destiny.

That destiny is to find paradise—referring not just to our personal ticket to paradise at the end of our difficult lives on Earth, but also our destiny as a species to convert this rugged ecosystem to a paradise similar to Eden, the paradise of our ancient heritage.

The book explains in clear terms what’s involved in achieving our paradise birthright at both levels, based on my own 20+ years of research, working with some of the greatest minds in this world and beyond. What I’ve learned from them is miraculous.

So, as promised in an earlier blog, I’m still offering the paperback edition, through September, at the low price of $10.50, including shipping. (Sending the book outside the country costs me nearly $10… so I’m selling at a loss.) The easiest way to buy the book is through PayPal.

We live in the most crucial time of this Epoch, so I’ll close this short blog with a personal message to the guy I consider the most important human being on Earth at the moment:

Mr Obama, don’t let the fear-driven freedom fanatics pressure you into waffling on the most important issue for our country.

DON’T SETTLE FOR ANYTHING LESS THAN A PUBLIC HEALTH-CARE OPTION!

We desperately need to balance our grand gift of freedom with the other grand gift of humankind, which has been lacking in our country since the Cold War: EQUALITY. A public healthcare option would give us that needed equality at this crucial time, moreso than any other conceivable policy you could enact.

So far, in my view, you’re doing everything right—EVERYTHING… hm, except maybe our military presence in the Middle East. I really think it’s possible to heal that situation with love, good will, and your strong commitment to alternative energies. (It might be difficult for awhile, but our vibrant society can adapt to a life without their oil. After all, we’re Americans—the innovators! We invented the 12-step program for individuals addicted to alcohol, drugs, shopping, sex, and other dopamine disorders, and with your steady hand we could adapt it to our nation’s addiction to oil.)

I’d love to see you get us out of the Middle East militarily… but the more pressing concern at the moment is a public healthcare option here at home.

Do it now, my friend! Don’t let anyone stand in the way, especially if their stand is based on fear or greed—the great human disablers!

--Mark Macy

Outwardly, at least, we humans are biological beings susceptible to a rugged environment in which bones break, bodies bump and bruise, and life preys on life to survive (regardless of whether the predator is as big as a grizzly bear or a mugger, or as small as a mosquito or flu virus). Being physical beings in a physical world, then, injuries and disease happen, and so we need health care.

Our humanness boils over into our nations, which are like great, big lumbering people and are vulnerable to similar dangers and uncertainties. When a nation gets injured (militarily or by natural disasters such as drought) or when it gets sick and bloated (economically instead of biologically), problems start cropping up on all fronts. Businesses might falter, transportation and communication networks might get harder to maintain, and so on. Down at the grassroots of a sick society, people have to pay higher prices, some lose their jobs, and lifestyles throughout the system start feeling stress.

At that point we humans start noticing the growing problems around us, pointing fingers at each other, and name-calling. It would be a nicer world if, instead, we exercised the gray matter, got to the root of the problem, and came up with a solution… but it's just so much easier to let the adrenaline take over.

Getting to the core has been my life-long motto. I've got hormones and ego like everyone else and often get hot under the collar, but when I back away from a macro-issue and start looking at the big picture, I sometimes find a cool solution outside the box (case in point, the Vitality Ratio). Sometimes I get lost in the maze for awhile, but if I stick to it, (with lots of research and reflection and writing) I usually find a way out with a clearer view and a possible solution.

Healthcare in the States at the moment is one of those really messy macro-issues. I've been thinking about it for some time, and I'm using this blog today to see if I can find my way out of the maze of insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, pricey medical equipment, faltering economy, political activism, fear-mongering media, special interests, socioeconomic theory… and, of course, the universal desire for good health.

It's been a very personal issue for me since my 1988 bout with cancer priced health insurance way out of reach. Fortunately, a 4-year stint in the Navy during the Vietnam War qualified me for Veterans medical. It's a bit of a drive to the nearest VA hospital for 6-month checkups, but at least my healthcare is covered.

Nearly 50 million American's aren't so lucky. They can't afford health insurance, and for the most part get no health care at all until crisis hits the family in the form of serious illness or injury… then they may go into debt to pay the hospital bills.

So that's what Americans are arguing about today. President Obama and his liberal supporters (like me) want everyone to have access to health care, and a public (government-supported) health insurance option is the surest way to do that.

Opponents argue against public healthcare for various reasons, the loudest one being that government involvement would be socialistic and a threat to freedom.

Finger-pointing and finger-biting

Human beings resist change, American healthcare is due for a complete overhaul, and so the healthcare debate is escalating to the point of rage. A few days ago two groups of demonstrators clashed in the Los Angeles area—Group A supporting a public healthcare option, Group B opposing it. At some point, a Fellow B decked a Fellow A with a punch in the face, so Fellow A got up and bit the other guy's finger clean off. Ouch.

We tend to hear more about scuffles like that than we hear about the economic, political, and social forces that shape the healthcare crisis. Why? Humans prefer stimulation over contemplation, action-romance movies over documentaries, novels over textbooks… so TV news and other media thrive on drama to attract an audience.

When the real issues ARE addressed by the media, they usually involve the opinions of one group or expert at odds with the opinions of another group or expert… with a lot of finger-pointing as to which side is the real cause of the problem. Again… drama… with no discussion of real solutions.

When we do get past the drama of this issue, usually the first thing we notice is the sky-high price of health insurance, so it's our first inclination to blame insurance companies. In truth, they're just the scapegoat—the stooge. Let's trace the problem to its source.

The real forces behind the healthcare debate

First off, why is health INSURANCE is so expensive? Mainly because health CARE is so expensive here in the States. Highly paid doctors, expensive hospital procedures, expensive malpractice insurance, expensive outmoded record-keeping methods, expensive surgical procedures, expensive high-tech medical equipment, and expensive drugs all add up to huge bills submitted to insurance companies. In order to pay those huge bills, the insurance companies have to charge their customers or policy-holders outrageous sums. So now our fingers start pointing toward doctors, hospital bureaucrats, lawyers, pharmaceutical companies, and so on. But again, these folks are like second-tier scapegoats. There are forces deeper-down compelling them.

So why do all these players in the health CARE field charge so much money for their products and services? Mainly because the healthcare business is part of America's market economy in which the economic health and well-being of each business is gauged by its growing profits. By law, publicly traded corporations in America (including most drug companies and hospital corporations) have to do whatever they can to maximize profits for their shareholders. The result: ever-growing health care costs.

So our fingers start moving toward capitalist democracy, a political-economic system in which relatively free businesses compete with each other throughout American society with the primary aim of maximizing their profits. Modern capitalism can be traced back to Adam Smith's booklet "Wealth of Nations," which suggested that a free market economy is the most productive society and provides the greatest benefits to the people. It's fitting that it was published in 1776, the same year that the US declared its independence from Britain, since the Smith philosophy has been the cornerstone of American-style capitalist democracy ever since.

By definition, capitalist democracies rate freedom high and equality low (as opposed to communist countries which rate freedom low and equality high), so one of the inherent weaknesses of capitalism is its tendency toward inequity—a growing chasm between the rich and poor.

It's that gap in American society today, which is becoming more an more noticeable in difficult economic times, that seems to be close to the core of the healthcare crisis. The wealthier Americans can afford excellent healthcare, while the poorer Americans get almost no healthcare whatsoever. The have's and the have-not's scenario is an ever-present possibility in a capitalist democracy.

So, we're close to the core of the problem now, but we're not quite there.

Capitalist democracy is also based loosely on the idea of "survival of the fittest (or most adaptable)." That concept was developed by naturalist Charles Darwin and socioeconomic philosopher Herbert Spencer some 150 years ago to observe that living systems (and social systems) compete in the terrestrial ecosystem, and those most adaptable to environmental change survive… and those unwilling or unable to adapt, perish.

We do indeed live in a world in which life not only competes with life to survive; life on Earth kills and consumes life on Earth to survive. And it's only when we trace to the beginning of THAT situation here on Earth that we come across the core of the problem.

If you've read my new book, The Project, or watched my video clips on the subject, you know what I think: We have a noble side and a savage side tracing back to ancient cross-breeding between superhuman Edenites stranded on Earth, and the animalistic humans of this planet.

The genetic engineering that happened long, long ago… THAT is really at the core of the healthcare debate today. It's basically a battle between our noble side (which wants to make sure that everyone is taken care of with such policies as a public health care option) and our savage side (driven largely by our fears that controlling forces like government will tend to strip away our freedoms to take care of ourselves in this unpredictable environment).

Until we can come to grips with our savage side and reshape society so that our noble side can flourish free from fear, we'll continue to experience dramas like today's healthcare crisis in America.