Morten Tolboll

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

United States of America: Homeland of the New Gurus

This post is based on a French documentary, I´ve just seen. It is called “The New American Gurus”. View trailer:

A Critique of Tony Robbins and His Mishmash of Management Theory, Psychotherapy and Spirituality

TONY ROBBINS: I AM NOT YOUR GURU, a feature documentary film about internationally renowned life and business strategist Tony Robbins, is a revelatory cinéma vérité film that goes behind the scenes of his mammoth seminar "Date With Destiny," attended by over 2,500 people in Boca Raton, Florida, each year, to give an insider look at how one man can affect millions. Granted never before seen access to the behind the scenes modus operandi of this enormous event, this film captures both the immense effort of producing this live seminar, as well as the life-changing transformations of the participants in real time. Embedding with Tony Robbins and his team over the course of six days, Academy Award nominated filmmaker Joe Berlinger turns an unflinching eye on Tony Robbins' powerful and uncompromising approach to achieving success, ensuring the attendees leave "Date With Destiny" with new perspective on the forces, thoughts, and feelings that motivate their behavior and help them take control of their lives. Pulling back the curtain on Tony Robbins, a man that traverses the globe and counsels over 200,000 people annually, including world leaders, pundits, entrepreneurs, CEOs, athletes and celebrities, through interviews and unprecedented access, TONY ROBBINS: I AM NOT YOUR GURU is an emotional tour de force that unveils the inner-workings of this mega event, the zealous participants and the man himself.

Piers Morgan has said Meghan Markle told ‘17 lies’ in her Oprah interview.

Since I already have written a critical article on the New Age promoter, Oprah Winfrey (A Critique of Oprah Winfrey), it caught my attention when I heard about an interview called “Oprah with Meghan and Harry”. I thought: “Why is it Oprah Winfrey, who are doing this interview?”

Meditation as an Art of Life is not a momentary process but a continual living, a continual sharpening of the mind.

Pages from The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden (1871-1920)

Meditation as an Art of Life is not a momentary process but a continual living, a continual sharpening of the mind.

Hedgespoken – A Travelling off-grid Storytelling Theatre

HEDGESPOKEN is a travelling off-grid storytelling theatre run from a 1966 Bedford RL lorry, converted to be a home and a go-anywhere stage. Storyteller, mask-maker and writer Tom Hirons and internationally-respected artist, puppeteer and musician Rima Staines tell tales and spark imaginations from the Hedgespoken truck wherever they can, from busy festivals and family camps to quiet laybys and secluded forests.

The general goal of life for man is embedded in you, because you are part of the whole

The Argonauts, by Edmund Dulac

The general goal of life for man is some kind of hope, some kind of safety, some kind of permanency.

If the brain suddenly realizes its own limitations – can it then change?

A Beech Shaded Hollow, Cranborne Chase, By Howard Phipps

Our brain is not merely a certain brain, but the brain that has evolved through millenniums.

The Galileo Commission has written an Anti-scientism Report, but is itself a worst-case Scenario of Scientism

I have just discovered, in the Danish new age magazine Nyt Aspekt (January 2021), something called The Galileo Commission. In a report, we see a psychologist (Harald Walach) teaching philosophy of science, supported by 90 "advisor researchers".

Thought has divided the world not only geographically but also psychologically, inwardly

Unity, by Marja Lee Kruÿt

Many volumes have been written about the world outside of us—the environment, the society, politics, economics, and so on, but very few have gone to the very length of discovering what we actually are. Why human beings are behaving as they are doing—killing each other, constantly in trouble, following some authority or the other, some book, some person, some ideal, and having no right relationship with their friends, with their wives, with their husbands and with their children; why human beings have become, after so many millennia, so vulgar, so brutal, so utterly lacking in care, consideration, attention to others, and denying the whole process of what is considered love.

A Critical Review of Deepak Chopra´s book: The Third Jesus

In my article, The Conspiracy of the Third Eye, I described the New Age attempts of reinventing Jesus Christ in the image of New Age. In his book: The Third Jesus - How to Find Truth and Love in Today´s World, Chopra is contributing to these attempts. His thesis is that there are three versions of Jesus: 1) the guy of flesh and blood whom we basically know nothing about. 2) The Jesus, which is the church´s interpretation. Chopra claims that this Jesus never has existed since it is a "dogmatic" distorted interpretation (Chopra is, like other New Agers, extremely anti-Christian) 3) Then there is the third Jesus, which is the true Jesus: meaning, the Jesus, Chopra wants us to believe in. Chopra says that this Jesus not is a metaphor (interpretation).

It is only in aloneness you can know the quality of total living

Little Wildrose, by H.J. Ford

To be alone, which is not a philosophy of loneliness, is obviously to be in a state of revolution against the whole setup of society—not only this society, but the communist society, the fascist, every form of society as organized brutality, organized power.

Listening to the Inner Movement of Life

“Thumbelina”, by Lisbeth Zwerger

In order to be able to see clear, you must be present in passive listening, you must listen, not only to the outer things, but also to the inner movement of life, the inner movement, which is desires, motives, worries, fear-conceptions, sorrows.

If you in the moment of conflict are passively aware, then there is not left any track at all

There is only a finger´s difference between a wise man and a fool

- Diogenes

Another human being says to you: ”You are a fool!”

You are yourself absent in your emotional evaluations, you don´t like it, and it leaves a track in your mind.

As a Life Artist you must study the whole structure of the thinking

Hedgehog, Deer and Salmon, by Danielle Barlow

As a Life Artist you must study the whole structure of the thinking, and see what place the thought has; see where it isn´t a necessity, and only then you will discover, that the mind functions in a reasonable way, both when the thought isn´t active, and when the thought has to be active.

Saturday, December 12, 2020

The Arrival of the Frost Queen

The Snow Queen, by Kay Nielsen 1924

From my Forest Diary:

December 6, 2020

The Frost Queen passed through my window this night and left her breath. Look at it! Pure art.

A Movement from Mind to Consciousness is Essential for Peace in the World

Rhinemaidens (under the rainbow bridge to Asgard), by Arthur Rackham

Our consciousness is not yours or mine. It is the consciousness of all human beings.

A Radical Change Requires Spiritual Anarchism and a Religious Revolution

Kenneth Grahame´s, ”The Wind in the Willows”, illustrated by Inga Moore

In my philosophical counseling practice, I talk about three aspects of my teaching: Meditation as an Art of Life. The third aspect is about going beyond all ideas an images. This aspect is also called Spiritual Anarchism.

It is necessary that you as a Life Artist ask yourself the question about what you are interested in

“The problem is acceptance, which is something we´re taught not to do. We´re taught to change uncomfortable situations, to change things, alleviate unpleasant feelings. But if you accept the reality you have been given – that you are not in a productive creative period – you free yourself to begin filling up again” – Anne Lamott

The Philosophical Diary is the Art of Discovering the Difference between Presence and Absence

“Unicorn Dream”, by Marja Lee Kruÿt

A central tool for the Life Artist is the philosophical diary.

Write all your thoughts down in the moment they appear in your mind.

The Silence of the Vagabond

The Nightingale, by Henry Justice Ford (1860-1940)

Out of silence look and listen.

Silence is not the ending of noise; the incessant clamour of the mind and heart does not end in silence; it is not a product, a result of desire, nor is it put together by will.

To live entirely as a dropout requires a love of wisdom that is unconditional

The Wild Swans, by Anton Lomaev

To live as an outskirter, as someone who totally has dropped out, requires a love of wisdom that is unconditional. This is meditation as an art of life.

"Meditation as an Art of Life" is about seeing the world as a complete whole and not divided

“Taproot Illustration”, by Jessica Roux

Man is in habit of seeing the things from outside, fragmented. You observe the tree as something separate, you observe your wife or husband, as something separate, the office, the boss – everything in fragments; that is to say: from outside as something cut off.

The Function of the Mind is to Investigate and Learn

“Falling Through Starlight”, by Catherine Hyde

To learn in philosophical sense doesn´t only mean to cultivate the memory, or to accumulate knowledge, but to learn to think clearly and rational without illusions, to start with facts and not with beliefs and ideals.

Following the Birds from the Mundane World into the Otherworld

Blackbirds and Mulberries, by Angela Harding (also have a look at her Bird Alphabet)

In her article, Following the Birds, Terri Windling quotes H.E. Bates´s book, Through the Woods, the Story of a Year in an English Woodland. Bates is describing the busy, beautiful, bird-filled months of the passage from winter to summer.

How Raven Spring Got It´s Name

Ravnkilde (Raven Spring), Rold Forest, Denmark

From my Forest Diary:

Midsummer, June 21, 2018

You can find three kinds of springs in Rold forest: 1) String-springs, 2) Pool-springs and 3) Swamp-springs (there is also a fourth kind, which is human made: the Spring Fountain, where you simply knock a thick iron pipe into the ground, and then jumps clear spring water like a fountain. This is just one of the phenomena in Rold Forest which borders to magic – if it not is magic – I will return to that in another post).

New Netflix Documentary Gaslights People into Becoming Drug Users

The Matrix Conspiracy News:

Netflix has just launched a new documentary called: Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics. It could be said to be one long commercial for beginning to use drugs. A long line of famous actors, musicians, comedians and writers are telling their best drug stories. It is incredible how this can happen without critique. However, Netflix is also known for its political correctness. Right now, we have seen how it has cancelled the brilliant comedy series, Little Britain, due to political correctness. The brilliance about Little Britain is that it wasn´t algorithm television, contrary to the endless other boring Netflix produced series.

The Matrix Conspiracy News:

The spiritual teacher, and shaman, Mary Shutan, has written an article called, Five Types of Energy Vampires. She writes how they prosper on the internet.

The Language of Birds and How to Communicate with the Wholeness

The Fairies´ Tiff with the Birds, by Arthur Rackham

Birds have been creatures of the mythic imagination since the very earliest times. Various birds, from eagles to starlings, serve as messengers to the gods in stories the world over, carrying blessings to humankind and prayers up to the heavens. They lead shamans into the Spirit World and dead souls to the Realm Beyond; they follow heroes on quests, uncover secrets, give warning and shrewd council.

Saint Lucy´s Day in the Mines of Thingbæk

The witch from Rold Forest, Dannie Druehyld.

From my Forest Diary:

December 9, 2019

I met Dannie Druehyld in her workshop, which is situated near the entrance to The Mines of Thingbæk (situated in Rold Forest, Denmark).

To understand what another person is saying, can only happen when there is a stillness without thoughts

“Murmur of Pearls”, by Gina Litherland

Communication is possible at depth only when both persons are concerned about the same subject, about the same ideas, or concerned about a certain thing.

Interpretation is to Have Your Identity in an Absence

A rock carving near Tintagel, Cornwall, and a 15th century illuminated manuscript

We don´t know how we unprejudiced can observe a problem. We want to deduce a result from the problem. We want an answer.

One Thousand Roads to Mecca

Bird Brain, by Lori Field

I was sitting in an old garden

in the Medina of Tangier.

Oh Birds, Let My Thoughts Follow You

“Hare in April”, by Catherine Hyde (the painting is from her book: The Hare and the Moon – A Calendar of Paintings)

It is morning

and I´m sitting in my chair.

The night has left

an imprint in my mind

of the moon´s mirror.

The Core in Disorder is Inner Contradiction

“A Study for The Mystic Wood”, by John William Waterhouse

What is the actual core in disorder? Our existence is disorderly, split, we are absent, place ourselves outside, and are classifying life in different rooms, using specific perspectives; we are not a complete nature.

If you the day through are yourself and the surrounding world present, then you will not at all dream in the night

“The May Queen”, by Virginia Lee

How can you as a Life Artist understand the meaning of a dream?

If you are the dream present in passive listening it will uncover its meaning. Dreams are an indication, an exposure of the deeper motives and intentions; the anxiety, which has to do with the separation of the observer and the observed, or differently said: with your self-image and world-image, the discrepancy between idea and conduct of life.

A Mind Without Thoughts Will Show You a Fathomless Deep

How deep can the mind travel?

Most of our lives are very superficial and is it possible to live at great depth and also function superficially? Is it possible for the mind to dwell or live at great depth?

A Vase of Flowers From Ancient Times

Vase With Flowers On the Window, by Paul Gauguin

I meditate in the early dawn.

We Live In A Society Where The Egocentric Pursuit of Fulfillment Has Been Made Respectable

Competition, ambition, and success are the gods of the particularly prosperous society we live in today.

Love is not Attachment. When there is Attachment there is Fear.

You have collected so much, not only books, houses, the bank account, but inwardly: the memories of insults, the memories of flattery, the memories of your own particular experiences, neurotic achievements which give you a position.

To Find Out What Freedom Is You Must Have Tremendous Energy

Freedom from authority is an extraordinary thing. It is called Spiritual Anarchism.

How to Heal Our Disconnection From Nature

Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter

In her elegiac essay "Into the Woods " poet and scholar Ruth Padel writes:

"What would Robin Hood have made of Country Life's recent excavation into the fantasies of British 7-to-14-year-olds concerning the wild life and wild places of their native land? Two thirds had no idea where acorns come from, most had never heard of gamekeepers (do they mug people or protect the Pokemons?), and most believed there were elephants and lions running round the English countryside. A third did not know why you had to keep gates shut -- was it to keep the elephants in (or was some joker taking the piss just then?), or stop cows 'sitting on cars,' upsetting the countryside's most vital beast -- the traffic?

The Connection Between Shamanic Healing and Creative Unfoldment (essay)

Epona, by Susan Seddon-Boulet

...

The Wound is the Place Where the Light Enters You

Rumi

…

In this essay I will present my ideas of the connection between shamanic healing and creative unfoldment. It is something I make aware of in my philosophical counseling practice, which I combine with forest therapy.