"The Moving Finger Writes, 42"
| "The Moving Finger Writes, 42" | |
| Page | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| “One day, after a long and largely uneventful life, the little man had a premonition that it all was about to end. Being of a philosophical turn of mind he decided to spend his remaining hours in walking the countryside. Mid-afternoon, atop a hill, he surveyed the land spread out below him as he reflected upon his life. A history of small achievements and unfulfilled dreams. His regrets were not for what he had done, but for bypassed opportunities; chances offered but not taken up. It was then that he sensed the presence of Death at his shoulder. “So soon?” he asked. Receiving no reply, he rose to his feet to take a final look at the world. “Oh, well,” he said, “back to the unknown.” “No,” Death replied, “that which is before and after are fully known. It is life which is the great unknown.” “Oh,” said the little man, “I didn’t know.” © DANTE 82. |
Socrates' words are one of the signposts on the mountain of knowledge concerning the human situation. A mountain honey-combed with labrynths of caves and covered with a network of trails that wind and turn. Paths that can end in a blank wall, or suddenly turn a corner to reveal an entirely new view of life. Life is a journey through time. A quest for better choices. We can choose to follow the worn and narrow pathways of conditioned response, or to spend it in aimless wandering, but the easiest paths are often those that lead downhill. A better alternative is to lay out a broad plan to follow for as long it serves our purpose. Adapting our plan as we go along; reshaping it to meet changing circumstances, or changing our circumstances to meet our plans. An unplanned life is doomed to be forfeit to the randomness of chance. It is pointless to vaguely hope for a better life. It is far more realistic to hope for the fulfilment of your plans for a better life. A well thought out plan is similar to a well-designed machine. Hope is an emotion and is therefore unable to solve problems; it exists to give fuel to the mind's decisions. So, if one is to plan, let it be a plan for the best that we can achieve. The planning of the future direction of our life can very often appear to be an undertaking that is beset with undeterminable factors. It is a very human trait to study complicated issues in a piecemeal fashion. Through long habit we think and act as if each piece is a separate entity, having only a tenuous relationship to the whole. This has been particularly noticeable in our studies of our self. We have spawned countless specialists of the mind, of our bones, emotions, gall bladders, egos, eyes, lungs, genes, intelligence, etcetera,etcetera. Learned people for every single part that goes into the making of you and me. Their work has been of immense value in widening our understanding, but, somewhere along the way, walls have grown up between these discrete fields. A fault in that way of seeing things is that it does not allow for the interplay between differing components, the fact of their myriad interconnections. |
network |  |  |
| The Charisma files are an assembly manual. They bring together all the scattered parts to construct a high-performance entity. They show our evolution, both as a species and as individuals, and point out ways and means to avoid the many obstacles and pitfalls that stand in the way of unity. The files are also a communications manual. The basis upon which the texts are founded will be illustrated in the early chapters, but it can be briefly summarised as follows. At differing periods during our long evolution, we have developed various brains to manage our increasing complexity. Our first, the Hind Brain, was hardly more than a swelling at the top of the spinal column. It looked out through our eyes and controlled our bodily motions. It developed a mind of its own. With the development of the Limbic System, the Hind Brain became cut off from direct perception of the external world. Although many of its functions were taken over or modified, it did not atrophy. It still has its vital purposes and its own mind. A mind that evolved to deal with situations that have not existed for millennia. We subsequently developed the two, quite distinct hemispheres of the Neocortex. The neural pathways of the Corpus Callosum link these Left and Right Brains, and although sharing some tasks, each brain has unique functions and qualities. They have also developed their own minds. It is a common experience to be using one mind and, at the same time, be aware of another mind observing our thoughts and actions. An experience reflected in the saying, 'to be in two minds about something.' Logic dictating one course of action, emotion wanting another. There should be no doubt that two minds are better than one, while four minds should increase the owner's potential on an exponential curve. Assuming, of course, that the minds were working in unity. But each mind arose to meet situations that are no longer extant, and there are frequent divergences of opinion as to how best to act to meet each situation that exists in the modern world. |
| So much energy is dissipated in this internecine conflict. The purpose of the texts is to develop methods whereby this conflict can be resolved by a communication of equals; each 'department' doing what it does best, each working for the common good. It is only in this manner that we can finally reach our full potential as human beings. We human beings are currently the end product of millions of years of evolution. Our ability to adapt is the one, single reason why we are still here when the dinosaurs, the ammonites, and countless other life forms have disappeared forever. During the millions of years of our development, we have acquired the physical hardware and mental capabilities that our forebears could not even dream about. One of the most potent tools in our armoury is our imagination, our ability to picture something, and then make that picture come true. It is ironic that it is only through our scientific advancements in psycho neurology over the past few decades that we are coming to understand just what we are, and how that hardware and those capabilities function. In using our imagination, we alter the chemical composition of our brains and our blood. When we think, we promote the growth of neural pathways in our brain; we physically alter ourselves. Without some basic understanding of how those mechanisms operate, we are in the position of monkeys trying to write the works of Shakespeare. I am aware of the adage that a million monkeys banging on a million keyboards could make this happen, but the Internet itself has proved the fallacy of that one. |
| It is for this reason that a number of the opening chapters of the Charisma Files treat upon the technical aspects of what goes on inside of us. If we want to imagine what uses we can put a gizmo to, then it helps to know what the gizmo can do, and how it does it. My purpose is to present a series of maps revealing a wide range of mind/body/emotional capabilities that we have acquired during 2 billion years of evolution. By using these tools, we can speed our personal evolution in ways that may seem incredible. The reader may have cause to wonder why it is that a book dealing with the development of a charismatic personality should be concerned with genetics and the immune system. The reason becomes obvious when one considers that these are parts of us that are amenable to conscious manipulation, and that it is a contradiction to expect to be able to present a charismatic personality if one is in poor physical, mental, or emotional condition. The texts deal with aspects of human capabilities stemming from a wide range of Left Brain disciplines and Right Brain art forms. They include information from Paleo-Psycho-Neuro-Immunology, to the use of tools such as our inbuilt response to ritual, and a set of Tarot Cards. They are not the embodiment of a secret and arcane lore graven in stone, but are a work in progress. Therefore, they will be added to or otherwise edited as occasion requires. A proportion of the material is comprised of previously published magazine and newspaper articles written by the author; and of talks and lectures given by him. Some of that material has been rewritten to incorporate updated information, whilst other parts of it have stood the test of time. |
| Several completely new chapters have been added to keep pace with the times, or to allow for the inclusion of a greater understanding of folklore, myth, and current mind research. The files are a set of mind maps for navigation and communication between the Left, Right, Mid, and possibly the Stem Brain. The purpose is to signpost shortcuts towards an integrated personality that is in charge of itself in any situation. By that, I mean a co-operation of the many diverse parts that go to make us what we are. The Intellect (in its many guises), the Emotions (in all their strengths), and the physical body (right down to the immune system); all working together for their common good. The files started as a collection of personal theories that came to be proven by observation, experiment, and practice. In the past few years, those theories have been independently discovered by a large number of the scientific community in many diverse fields. This flowering of interest has, through the scientific methods of the laboratory, brought them to a much wider scope of attention. However, much of their published work has been in the obtuse language of their respective disciplines. A language that is largely incomprehensible to those without formal training in it. (Footnotes). Not the least of the problems of understanding is their usage of the same word to express differing meanings in separate but similar fields. To my knowledge, the word 'conscious' is open to five distinct interpretations. |
| The chapters range through what at first may appear to be widely disparate fields. They include immunology, myth, psychoneurology, ritual, and linguistics. Other way stations include archaeology, faith, genetics, and the wells of emotion. About the only field of general interest that, by design, is not covered, is that of extra-corporeal powers. Any possible influence by, or from, UFOs, gods, and heavenly bodies is outside of this book's realm. The files are solely concerned with the built-in functions of human beings. The search for the godhead within. These are mind-maps: people for the use of. Like all maps, they act as a guide for a journey. They are only maps; not the journey, nor the end in itself. Although every traveller has to make their own way, a good set of maps can give notice of things to come; of routes that are more direct and of pitfalls to avoid. There are few sets of maps better than those used by large numbers of successful travellers. Particularly when they tell of their own experiences along the way. Without maps or compass, most people tend to veer off course, wandering erratically across the landscape, to walk in circles, following their own footprints. Important requisites are a destination and the courage to keep going when one loses faith in themselves. The destination is total sanity. De Ropp spoke of the Inner and Outer Theatres to denote the world view that we carry inside our heads and the common reality, which we all share. The idea being that sanity is achieved when both theatres have performances going on that bear a close relationship to each other. A difficulty is that we, as a species, tend to conceive reality rather than perceive it. My definition of a sane person is one who is in harmony with themselves and, therefore, with the world at large. Few of us are so unfortunate as to lead lives in which bitter enmity is the order of the day. For most of us, we are our own worst enemy. We are the ones who hold us back in life. We are the tribe that didn't get around to it; whatever the 'it' we meant to achieve. Hardly surprising when we are zones of conflicting interests; the Don Quixote's of the animal kingdom. Strange that, when as individuals and as a species, we have the tools with which to manage things much better than we do. In the texts, I refer to differing national and ethnic groups as being involved in certain activities at differing periods of their history. This is only done to offer a checkable validity of certain facts concerning the way people have behaved throughout our history. It is not my intention to imply that these groups are any better, or worse, than any other set of people from other geographic or chronological areas. People are people, and individuals will often act out of character when their identities become submerged in a group mind. It is a regrettable truth that groups of people tend to behave badly towards less powerful groups. History shows that the majority has almost invariably been wrong. The end purpose of all groups or causes, be they political or religious, is to control the thoughts of others by the management of opinion and the imposition of illusion; with force being the ultimate tool of choice. It is all to do with the pursuit of power, the weak attempting to control the strong, with each group claiming the moral - but not ethical - high ground. The danger of losing one's own identity in the group mind is the negative side of the powerful need to belong; to not be the outsider. Causes, by their inherent nature, are designed to march on through time; using individual lifetimes as their fuel. The files are designed to empower us as individuals, so that our choices are always our own. |