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Pandemic.

                                         Nature.com

I

I am no economist or political analyst, but as a general theorist here is my take on the coronavirus. There is no doubt this pandemic has caused panic in the world’s communities and while many are suffering, we only have to look back into history to see that there will always be those who find ways to benefit from other’s who are in pain. Plagues have brought down governments and destroyed empires. During the 6th Century bubonic plague stopped Justinian I from reuniting the west and eastern sectors of the Roman Empire. It ended an era and invoked the period we call the Dark Ages.
As for the current coronavirus pandemic, two things caught my attention, first the massive billions, if not trillions of dollars worldwide, put into stimulus packages and second, the institution of what is effectively Marshall Law in Australia. Let us think about these two things first and foremost, beginning with Marshall Law. Governments bring in the military when there is a strong likelihood the population will riot to bring down the authority and damage individual economies of a country, or in this case the global economy. To put it more succinctly when the elite in society, those who run the society, have their position severely threatened they come out fighting.
As for the amount of money governments have thrown at a world-wide economic stimulus, this is unprecedented and it is designed to prop-up the (global) economy. No secrets here!
A crash in any economy usually leads to chaos and the more people hurt, the bigger the threat to the elite. History shows us that the result is usually violent. So, who then are the threatened elite? We like to think of them as the rulers, the banks and big business; but in reality, they are the entrepreneurs, investors and largely the middle class. The capitalist revolution was a middle-class revolution that stole the power of the aristocratic society. That said, the middle class did not want equality or justice, they wanted what the aristocratic society had. The middle class are the mass consumers and the engine that drives capitalist consumption. If the middle-class fall into decline (and this is happening) so too does capitalism fall into decline. What we see instead is the establishment of oligarchs.
What we have today is a declining middle-class and the establishment of a global labour class, which also causes a decline in broad based investments and brings about new forms of centralisation in capital and power.
Following the Second World War, the British Empire was in deep financial trouble and the war itself had taken its toll on Briton’s economic power. Hence, America won the privilege of leading the world’s economy. However, the American boom is over and the militarist imperialist policies of Poincaré have failed. Global capitalism is in decline and declining rapidly despite reports to the contrary.
Capitalism began declining following the Second World War. Prior to the Second World War the bourgeoisie had succeeded throughout the world, with the exception of Russia and China, in establishing its capitalist hegemony, but the short post-war boom ended in a period of crisis for capitalism and it never fully recovered. We have been going down hill ever since with consecutive booms and busts, each being longer and more difficult than the one before. As capitalism expanded geographically it has drawn the originators (the middle class elites) into a vortex, whereby attempts to boost the middle class do not satisfy the labour needs of global markets. Inevitably, the middle class must become the new working poor.
Let us put aside the devastating impacts of a pandemic on ordinary people and look at who benefits. What we know from past experience that whenever there is a crisis, no matter what the context, governments always manage to secure more powers and in some cases, they will turn ordinary civilian life into life in a police state. This in part gives governments some indication of how far they can push the public before the radical groups protest. It is a way of testing whether the Constitution and Human Rights can survive a crisis and a scheme of rigid authoritarian discipline. Why would governments want to test the waters this way? Governments and economists across the world know that capitalism is a sinking ship. How else can they prepare for the inevitable? People are going to be hurting and the masses will protest.
Nonetheless, as far as government are concerned, knowing what is happening to global economies on a grand scale cannot change it. Capitalism is now a lost cause. Capitalism has reached its apex.
Western nations in particular are terrified of a total capitalist collapse, because when governments fail, the people have to step up. Today, we are seeing people stepping up. Communities are becoming more cooperative, independent and sustainable. This is not good for big business and it is not good for capitalism
I am not saying that the coronavirus was deliberately introduced for political means. I am not advocating any kind of conspiracy. What I am saying is, the coronavirus has provided an opportunity for governments to gamble huge amounts of money, not only to keep capitalism afloat, but as a two-way bet on future markets. When the markets are cheap the elite go shopping and they make millions when markets recover again. This may seem like a good thing and perhaps the economies will bounce back; but it will only forestall the inevitable.
The transition to an equitable way of life is not going to be easy. The elites will hold on to their power in any way possible. What the coronavirus crisis has done is to shed light on numerous other problems, such as the damaging effects humans have on the planet, which is going to cause a collapse anyway if we do not act to prevent it.
Supreme political and social control take a discursive and insidious journey through everyday affairs and a politics of opportunism. According to John Hopkins Coronavirus Centre and Transcend media, official reports indicate that the COVID-19 virus has so far infected 372,563 people in a world population of 7,800,000,000 (that is, about .0048% of the human population), killing 16,380 (4.3% of those infected) with 100,885 (27%) recovered already (and many more highly likely to do so). Moreover, as one doctor has reported after researching the data on Italy, where the greatest rate of COVID-19 infection has occurred: ‘80% of the deceased had suffered from two or more chronic diseases’ and ‘90% of the deceased are over 70 years old’. In addition, ‘Less than 1% of the deceased were healthy persons’ defined, very simply, as ‘persons without pre-existing chronic diseases.’
Compare this to the ever-increasing numbers of people suffering human displacement through wars, poverty, curable illnesses and climate change. The coronavirus will peak and reach its end. The other injustices will continue and increase as capitalism falls into greater decline.
This is not to undermine the serious impact coronavirus has had on individuals and communities. Rather, to just look at the bigger picture. We know that coronavirus can have a perilous impact on health and the relative support systems, but keep in mind that those who surrender their Rights rarely get them back.

 

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Peace.

 

We demand action on Climate Change. Why are we NOT outraged at the proliferation of nuclear weapons?

Albert Einstein wrote: “Man has within him a lust for hatred and destruction. In normal circumstances this passion exists in a latent state; it emerges only in unusual circumstances; but it is comparatively easy to call into play and rise to the power of a collective psychosis”. How do we tame the human animal? When a world government was suggested the west thought it a communist idea and the east thought the west was wanting supremacy. Perhaps it was a good idea, but nobody wanted it. Is there hope for a federation of nations coming together for peace?

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Outrage.

I, for one, am outraged at the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force.  I cannot believe this was a rationally calculated decision, but one reflecting President Trump’s instability, narcissism and envy. Further, it came after the U.S. President had said he had no desire to go to war, he was against wars. In fact, he had pulled troops out of the region.

This act of war carried out against Iran demonstrates the unpredictability of the U.S. President and the need to have him removed immediately. There is an impeachment notice pending, but action appears to have stalled due to the fear that an impeachment trial to convict Donald Trump will fail. This raises the question of why the man, pending such a hearing, is still allowed to make crucial decisions that impact directly upon the nation’s safety and well-being. It is a constitutional question that America  needs to address.

Qasem Soleimani was one of the most influential and popular figures in the Islamic Republic and a thorn in the side of the United States, but he made no direct threat against the American homeland, in fact he fought against one of Americas main enemies, Islamic State (ISIS).  Had the U.S. stayed out of Middle Eastern politics in the first place, we may never have heard of Qasem Soleimani.

In effect, we must rely on the western media, from which we learn that Qasem Soleimani led Iran’s campaign to arm and train Shiite militias in Iraq, the war that America fought on the basis of Iraq having weapons of mass destruction that were eventually found not to have existed.  America’s miscalculations in respect of this war were incomparable.

While Qasem Soleimani could be said to be responsible for the deaths of an estimated 600 American troops from 2003 to 2011, tens of thousands of people died fighting in the Iraq War, which lasted for 15 years.  Nearly 5,000 of them were U.S. service members. Tens of thousands were insurgents battling the transitional Iraqi government put in place after Saddam Hussein was ousted.[1]

The true number of deaths is not known. During the Islamic State’s occupation (they held a third of the country)   the death toll escalated into the hundreds of thousands. Many civilians were killed as a result of violence and many died due to the collapse of infrastructure.  The emergence of the Islamic State increased the ensuing instability and prolonged what was a three-phase war brought about by the U.S.

Qasem Soleimani was the chief purveyor of Iranian political influence in Iraq, most notably through his efforts to fight the Islamic State (ISIS).[2] At the closure of this epoch America did not only turn on its enemies, but also its friends.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump argues that Soleimani was a terrorist and that assassinating him was a defensive action that stopped an imminent attack. Accordingly, the Washington Post, details how Qasem Soleimani is said to have driven “Iran’s policies to arm and support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including by deploying an estimated 50,000 Shiite militia fighters to Syria”. He was believed to be “the point man for Iran’s relationship with Hezbollah in Lebanon, helping to supply the group with missiles and rockets to threaten Israel”. In addition, he was accused of creating “Iran’s strategy to arm the Houthis in Yemen”. Undoubtedly, Soleimani was a cult hero in Iran and across the region.

There is no simple answer to these accusations, it comes down to issues of neo-colonization by the west and if this is going to be acceptable or not.  Seemingly, it is not!  And why should it be?

Whether the accusations against Soleimani are true or not, the action against the Iranian general by the U.S. was just another example of the reckless policy the U.S.  administration has pursued since it came into office.

In May 2018, Trump left the Iran nuclear agreement and adopted a “maximum pressure” policy of economic sanctions on Iran. For a year, Iran responded with restraint in an effort to isolate the United States diplomatically and win economic concessions from other parties to the nuclear agreement.

There was no restrained approach by the U.S.  The President is known for throwing his weight around and his tactics of bullying.  By May 2019, it was alleged that Tehran had chosen instead to breach the nuclear agreement. The President had thought the agreement irrelevant anyway.

This escalated tensions across the region.

Then came Iranian mine attacks against international shipping in May and June, if they were caused by Iran, all we have is the American President’s say so…  Then Iran shot down a U.S., drone.   Was the drone in Iran’s territory?  It was open to question. In September, Iranian missiles struck the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia, the most important piece of oil infrastructure in the world. Again, we only have the word of the President and his cohorts as to who was responsible for this breach. Then we are told, Shiite militia groups began launching rockets at U.S. bases in Iraq.

The fact is, who can we believe?  The President is not known for his honesty.

Where is the rule of law, innocent until proven guilty? Personally, I am, not one who is willing to take Donald Trump at his word.

None of the actions carried out by Qasem Soleimani or other parties give the U.S., the right to assassinate him, it brings the International Law into disrepute and it only serves to escalate the already existing tensions in the region.

Can America pull back from this without going to war?  Maybe, but frankly, I feel this whole scenario is not going to end well.

Where to now?   This from the Washington Post’s correspondent.

“The most important question now is how will Iran respond. The Islamic Republic’s behavior over the past few months and over its long history suggests that it may not rush to retaliate. Rather, it will carefully and patiently choose an approach that it deems effective, and it will likely try to avoid an all-out war with the United States. Nonetheless, the events of the past few days demonstrate that the risk of miscalculation is incredibly high. Soleimani clearly didn’t believe that the United States was going to dramatically escalate or he wouldn’t have left himself so vulnerable, only a stone’s throw away from U.S. military forces in Iraq. For his part, Trump has been adamant about his lack of interest in starting a new war in the Middle East—and yet, here we are at the precipice”. 

The correspondent goes on to say,

“United States must, at a minimum, expect to find itself in conflict with Shiite militias in Iraq that will target U.S. forces, diplomats, and civilians. Iraq is the theater where the U.S. strike took place and therefore the most rational place for Iran to immediately respond. Moreover, the militia groups have already been escalating their activities over the past six months. They are among Iran’s most responsive proxies and will be highly motivated, given that Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, one of their top commanders, was killed in the strike along with Soleimani.” 

The assassination was such an extreme violation of Iraqi sovereignty, Many Iraqis have no love for either the United States or Iran and they fear being put in the middle of a confrontation.  Nonetheless, the United States should not expect to get away with this.  No one wants a declaration of war, but it is about time the U.S. received the kind of sanctions it is happy to dish out to other nations.  America cannot be permitted to rule the world.

If  the U.S. find itself in conflict with Shiite militias in Iraq all we can expect is another rise to the death tolls.  The President has shown himself to be a revengeful individual with little restraint, so we might find a full-on confrontation with Iran unless the more rational country leaders can pull the President back.  The only group who will benefit from this in the long run are ISIS who appear to still retain a strong underground presence.

I feel for the victims who have no voice in these matters, but who bear the consequences.

[1] Philip Bump Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/03/20/15-years-after-it-began-the-death-toll-from-the-iraq-war-is-still-murky/ March 21st 2018. Retrieved 5th January, 2020.

[2] Ibid.

Dr Chris James

www.doctorchrisjames.com

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Junitta Vallak: Obituary.

                                                  Peace Chamber at Maldon .

Junitta Vallak passed away on the 12 of December, 2019 and she will be sadly missed.

I first met Junitta in the early 1980s.  She had retired as an art teacher and was living on a property at Maldon in Central Victoria.  Out of the dry and dusty farmland Junitta and her husband had carved a magnificent place of healing, which they called Casuarina.  It was named after the tree (also known as the she-oak) because the Casuarina was said to have sonic qualities that relate to the sound of the singing earth.  It was a place for peace.

Junitta and her husband built the first Peace Chamber in Victoria.  There were Peace Chambers around the globe and the couple visited most of them. The aim was to have all the Peace Chambers inter-connected for the purpose of healing the Earth. Junitta’s goal in life was to heal what needed to be healed.  She was an active environmentalist, a geomancer, a member of the inter-faith movement and an advocate for Aboriginal Rights.

At the time of Casuarina’s inauguration, I was working with women in crisis and I had organised for a small group to visit the Maldon Peace Chamber for the weekend. As soon as we turned off the main road towards the property, there was something very special about the location. It had been chosen carefully, it was the home of the Jarra people and it was a sanctuary where everyone could feel welcome regardless of religion, race or creed.

Junitta had a very close affinity with Aboriginal people and she was constantly drawn to Australia’s red centre for meditation and spiritual guidance.  However, this affinity was not limited to one nation. Junitta supported the cause of Aboriginal Rights across the world.

Open a conversation with Junitta and it would generally turn to the topic of Aboriginal knowledge or the placement of ley lines upon the Earth.

The Casuarina Peace Chamber rested on the crossing of ley lines and their vortex.  Above the vortex there was a large Aboriginal healing crystal. I remember thinking, it was the most magnificent crystal I had ever seen. Surrounding the crystal there was a mystical mosaic in the shape of a lotus. People would sit in a circle around the lotus awaiting instruction.  Junitta would tell of her travels and of her experiences with the Native American Indian Joseph Rael, also called Beautiful Painted Arrow.  Junitta studied with Joseph and they became close friends. Later Joseph visited Australia for the official opening of Casuarina and the healing sanctuary.  It was the first time a Native American Indian had set foot on the land and together with local Aborigines it made for a splendid token of indigenous unity.  Junitta was all about unity.

Junita was a teacher of the arts and of the mystical cultures and it made for some wonderful conversations between us. She had studied the Holy books of just about every belief and religion and she always reminded me, when I mentioned the word “God”, not to forget the Goddess.  People called her “the goddess of Gippsland.”

Whether one believed in the mysteries or not, everyone who visited Casuarina marvelled at its creation. Hundreds of trees were planted on the land as an example of Junitta’s love for the environment and nature.  She liked to walk in nature, especially among the banksias of our region.

Junitta was truly an advocate for peace and she was a great inspiration to the up and coming generations.   In 2018 she had her final exhibition at the Stockyard Gallery with her great god daughter Skylar Farley who was eight years old at the time.  The exhibition was called “A Cosmic Exhibition of the Rainbow Serpent and the Comet Venus” and it represented every aspect of Junitta’s thinking; that we should better honour the marvels of the world.

The generations exhibiting work together was another way Junitta would spread her message of peace, compassion and understanding. Her motto was “learn by teaching” so wherever she went she shared her knowledge and she was, without doubt, an excellent teacher.

When Junitta finally left Casuarina and moved to Gippsland her work for peace did not stop. Her sanctuaries in Gippsland were a small cottage in the green hills, Wilsons Promontory and the Foster Community House.  She loved the majesty of the hills, the sea, the sky and the universe and she loved people.

I spent many happy hours with Junitta, sometimes it was just over coffee in Foster. Sometimes a drive through the country.  There was always something new to talk about.  Junitta was a highly accomplished artist and literary scholar who created art and poetry of the highest calibre.   She had an innate sense of humour and was known for her one-line jokes.

Junitta was fascinated by the role of Angels in the various traditions. In one section of her book “Angelology”, she quotes the Book of Exodus  23.20 “See, I am sending an Angel ahead of you to guard you along the way.” Junitta has been a guarding angle for many and now, I hope she has an Angel guarding her into the ultimate sanctuary of peace.

 

 

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Maladaptive Daydreaming.

 

Introduction.

We all dream.  We all have fantasies. Our world is made up of dreams and fantasies, made more mysterious by the virtual landscapes of the modern media. Where then do we draw the line between normal and abnormal dreaming? When are dreams and fantasies acceptable and when are the maladaptive?

Maladaptive dreaming is not classified as a mental illness. It does not appear in the fifth and current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSMV), but is can be a problem to those who take fanciful dreaming to another level of compulsion and addiction and this in turn can lead to anxiety, addiction, loneliness and alienation.

 

We all have a mental repository for vision and wishful thinking, but fantasies and daydreaming need to be distinguished from simple reverie as they can cause pain, trauma, loss, and feelings of sexual inadequacy. Dreaming and fantasies can also give rise to sexual arousal at times when it may n0t be appropriate.  So, what is maladaptive dreaming, what does it do and how should we treat it? We do not yet know exactly what precipitates maladaptive  draming, we do there are similarities between  maladaptive dreaming and Obsession Compulsion Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, there are areas where symptoms overlap.

We know that maladaptive dreaming is highly scripted, there is usually a plan or a plot. We know that there is an extensive emotional component and we know that there is movement attached to the maladaptive dreaming practice. We also know there is a degree of fantasy.  The fantasy is structural and the fantasiser is secretive for fear of embarrassment or losing the dreaming.

The biggest problem of maladaptive dreaming is that, like any addiction, it can be enjoyable (fun) to begin with, but then it prevents a person from living in reality and appreciating real life situations, plus it undermines the ability to achieve real goals.  People who experience maladaptive daydreaming say that they love their characters so much, it makes it impossible to relinquish them for a real life.  For example if I were to engage in an elaborate plan to meet someone and I take time to plan the perfect meeting, the moment that meeting becomes a reality the dreaming, upon which the dreamer depends for stimulation, is lost.

Sometimes them maladaptive characters are fictional, at other times they are real, There are also occasions where the dreaming and fantasies are about someone real, but the real character cannot be brought into the real world without the same feeling of loss. This can cause pain to the party who in not controlling the dreaming or fantasies.

The capacity to fanaticise raises a number of questions. To begin with, we live in a society that is so bound by rational thinking that fantasy and daydreaming become a soothing escape. In the book By Force of Fantasy: How We Make Our Lives, Dr. Ethel S. Person discusses how fantasies can affects us.  She tells us that the terms daydreaming and fantasy are often used synonymously, but there are differences we need to be aware of. “Daydreams are building castles in the air, taking time out for a reverie. They are idiosyncratic and repeating, you concoct a daydream that becomes a favourite and at will you can call it up again”.[1]  These fantasies and daydreams are normal, we all experience them.  The shift beyond normal is manifest in the fantasy prone personality (FPP) which is a disposition or personality trait where a person experiences a lifelong extensive and deep involvement in fantasy.[2]

American psychologists Sheryl C. Wilson and Theodore X. Barber first identified FPP in 1981, and it was said to apply to about 4% of the population.[3]  Besides identifying this trait, Wilson and Barber reported a number of childhood antecedents that likely laid the foundation for fantasy proneness in later life, such as, “a parent, grandparent, teacher, or friend who encouraged the reading of fairy tales, reinforced the child’s … fantasies, and treated the child’s dolls and stuffed animals in ways that encouraged the child to believe that they were alive.” They suggested that this trait was almost synonymous with those who responded dramatically to hypnotic induction (people who are easily hypnotised). Interestingly, susceptible  subjects are not necessarily those who have had traumatic childhoods, rather they are those who identify fantasy time mainly by “spacing out”. [4]   Exposure to abuse, physical or sexual, can be a cause of fantasy whereby it provides a coping or escape mechanism, but physical or sexual abuse is not the only cause, exposure to severe loneliness and isolation, can also lead to fantasizing, which provides a coping or escape mechanism from boredom. Creativity can also be predicated on extreme forms of fantasy whereby the thing created offers the escape. Here we see Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and/or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder playing a part.  None of these findings are conclusive.

Sigmund Freud stated that “unsatisfied wishes are the driving power behind fantasies, every separate fantasy contains the fulfillment of a wish, and improves an unsatisfactory reality.” This shows childhood abuse and loneliness can result in people creating a fantasy world of happiness in order to fill the void.  [5]

Maladaptive dreaming which incorporates fantasy sits in a category of its own.  Not yet classified as   psychological disorders, they probably will be as the imaginary activity is not just obsessive, it replaces human interaction and interferes with work, relationships and general activities. Those who suffer from this condition experience excessive fantasies where they take on characters and roles in scenes and landscapes that they find appealing.    People who suffer from excessive dreaming are aware that the scenarios and characters of their fantasies are not real and they have the ability to recognize what is real, this makes their practice of fantasizing and dreaming different to that of the   schizophrenic who loses all touch with reality. [6]

A 2011 study reported on 90 excessive, compulsive or maladaptive fantasizers who engaged in extensive periods of highly structured immersive imaginative experiences found that fantasizers often articulated distress stemming from three factors: difficulty in controlling their fantasies that seemed overwhelming; concern that the fantasies interfered in their personal relationships; and intense shame and exhaustive efforts to keep this “abnormal” behaviour hidden from others. [7]  The secretive behaviour of fantasizers is also a precipitating factor in acute anxiety and debilitation.     The loss of will to act, especially in a discontent person is supplemented by the fantasy contained in the dreaming. The habit is difficult to break because we are not used to telling others about our fantasies and daydreams.  We are permitted these traits as children, but the general rule is, we grow out of them.

When does fantasy and day dreaming become a real problem?

Maladaptive dreaming is forms of dissociative absorption, which uncontrolled can interfere with normal functioning and cause immense distress.  Any maladaptive behaviour can separate people from their daily social activities and cause them to live in alternative worlds where the love, attention and security they have been missing are seemingly replaced by a story, scene or comforting imagery. Once the love is experienced the dreaming must be maintained.  Feelings of sexual inadequacy are commonly placated with maladaptive dreaming and/or fantasy.  What is more this situation can go unnoticed if it is acted out alone. When this behavior involves other people it can be read as deception, but the dreamer is unable to see it tis way.

Maladaptive dreaming or fantasy is not classified as a mental illness because it is not a psychosis. The psychotic is unaware of what s/he is doing. Conversely, the maladaptive dreamer is fully cognoscente of what s/he is doing.  This does not mean the action should be judged or punished.  The maladaptive dreamer has an addiction. can, however be an addiction and anti-social behaviour can still have serious consequences, including at include an increased proclivity to continue the addiction.

Normal to abnormal daydreaming and fantasies.

Many human experiences range between the normal to the abnormal. Fantasies and dreaming are a forms of normal dissociation associated with absorption, which is a highly prevalent mental activity experienced by almost everyone, [8]  to the extent that it is thought to encompass almost half of all human thought, with hundreds of dreaming sequences experienced daily. [9]

Some individuals possess the ability to dream so vividly that they experience a sense of presence in the imagined environment , this kind of visualization has often been used as therapy to lift self-esteem and to reduce the impacts of trauma.  When this happens in a controlled clinical setting it works to alleviate pain.   Our instincts can use fantasy and dreaming in much the same way. This experience is reported to be extremely rewarding to the extent that some of those who experience it develop a compulsion to repeat it, over and over again, like a drug addict with a needle of heroin.[10]

The scientific literature suggests that a portion of people with maladaptive dreaming can spend up to 60% of their waking time dreaming, and could, therefore, be classified as suffering from a behavioral disorder. [11]

Maladaptive dreams and fantasies are so prevalent diagnosing the problematic incidence is difficult, especially in today’s virtual worlds of the mass media.  We recreate places and events, that have come from wishing thinking, but which have also been grounded in a virtual world of media and daytime dramas that bode with the accounts of our own personal experience.  The “symptoms” are also numerous.

The overall condition of dreaming and fantasies is also extremely animated and vivid with storylines and histories that are rewritten to suit individual needs.   Media sources, such as movies, video games and music can be major influences in a maladaptive dreamer’s life, they can be serialized or one-off events.   These fantasies are often shaped like a book or movie. The emotional component involved in their fantasies, causing them to react physically by talking, laughing or engaging in acts of sexual gratification.

A better understanding of maladaptive dreaming.

In Israel, maladaptive dreaming is considered a psychiatric condition that was identified by Professor Eliezer Somer of the University of Haifa. [12]  The following description has been reproduced from Healthline. Somer can also be found on Youtube.[13]  Somer writes:

This condition causes intense dreaming that distracts a person from their real life. Many times, real-life events trigger day dreams. These events can include:

  • topics of conversation
  • sensory stimuli such as noises or smells
  • physical experiences

This disorder does not have any official treatment. But some experts say it is a real disorder that can have real effects on a person’s daily life.

What are the symptoms of maladaptive daydreaming?

A person who is purported to have maladaptive daydreaming may have one or more symptoms of the disorder, but not necessarily all of them. Common symptoms include:

  • extremely vivid daydreams with their own characters, settings, plots, and other detailed, story-like features
  • daydreams triggered by real-life events
  • difficulty completing everyday tasks
  • difficulty sleeping at night
  • an overwhelming desire to continue daydreaming
  • performing repetitive movements while daydreaming
  • making facial expressions while daydreaming
  • whispering and talking while daydreaming
  • daydreaming for lengthy periods (many minutes to hours)

[1]Dr. Ethel S. Person By Force of Fantasy: How We Make Our Lives,

[2] Lynn, Steven J.; Rhue, Judith W. (1988). “Fantasy proneness: Hypnosis, developmental antecedents, and psychopathology”. American Psychologist. 43: 35–44.

[3] Wilson, S. C. & Barber, T. X. (1983). “The fantasy-prone personality: Implications for understanding imagery, hypnosis, and parapsychological phenomena.” In, A. A. Sheikh (editor), Imagery: Current theory, research and application (pp. 340–390). New York: Wiley. ISBN 0471 092258. Republished (edited): Psi Research 1(3), 94 – 116. http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1983-22322-001.

[4] Barrett, D. L. The hypnotic dream: Its content in comparison to nocturnal dreams and waking fantasy. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1979, Vol. 88, p. 584 591; Barrett, D. L. Fantasizers and dissociaters: Two types of high hypnotizables, two imagery styles. In R. G. Kunzendorf, N. Spanos, & B. Wallace (Eds.) Hypnosis and Imagination, NY: Baywood, 1996 (ISBN 0895031396); Barrett, D. L. Dissociaters, fantasizers, and their relation to hypnotizability. In Barrett, D. L. (Ed.) Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy (2 vols): Vol. 1: History, theory and general research, Vol. 2: Psychotherapy research and applications, NY: Praeger/Greenwood, 2010.

[5] Mackeith, S. & Silvey, R. (1988). The Paracosm: a special form of fantasy. In, Morrison, D.C. (Ed.), Organizing early experience: Imagination and cognition in childhood (pages 173 – 197). New York: Baywood. ISBN 0895030519.

[6] Rhue, Judith W.; Jay Lynn, Steven (1987). “Fantasy proneness: Developmental antecedents”. Journal of Personality. 55: 121–137. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1987.tb00431.x.

[7] Novella, Steven (2007-04-03). “The Fantasy prone personality”. NeuroLogica Blog. Self-published. Retrieved 2011-11-13.

[8] Singer, J. L. (1966) Daydreaming. New York, NY: Random House.

 

[9]   Killingsworth, M., & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). “A wandering mind is an unhappy mind”. Science. 330 (6006): 932.  And  Klinger, E. (2009). Daydreaming and fantasizing: Thought flow and motivation. In K. D. Markman, W. M. P. Klein, & J. A. Suhr (Eds.), Handbook of imagination and mental simulation (pp. 225-239). New York, NY: Psychology Press.

[10] Somer, E. Somer, L. & Jopp, S.D (9 June 2016). “Parallel lives: A phenomenological study of the lived experience of maladaptive daydreaming”. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation. 17 (5): 561–576.

[11] Kelly, Jon Kelly (5 October 2017). “The daydream that never stops”. bbc.co.uk

[12] Professor Eliezer Somer of the University of Haifa. https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/maladaptive-daydreaming Retrieved 10th December, 2019.

[13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFnsjqBXLeA Retrieved 10th December, 2019.

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in the Green Movement.

the German American Bund 1930. Courtesy of the Atlantic.com

In 2013 I wrote a book called The Deep Green Delusion: Vitalism and Communal Autarky. It was a critique of the deep ecology movement, arguing against the views of one of its gurus, named Pentii Linkola who advocates a return to primitivism.  Linkola calls for an end to democracy and the establishment of an authoritarian ecological regime that ruthlessly suppresses modernism and all forms of consumerism.  My argument was that Linkola was promulgating eco-fascism, which has its roots in a nineteenth century  German  movement called the Heimatschutz. When we think about fascist groups we tend to assume they are to the Right of politics, but the Heimatschutz was to the Left.  It was the forerunner to National Socialism.

The green movement in the west has always been thought of as being in the domain of the political Left and linked with the social justice movement, but this is not environmental history. Environmentalism began in the eighteenth century and arose from the Romantic Movement, which was deeply conservative in its politics and it was largely the realm of the well-to-do or the aristocracy.  In Germany the green movement was also born from the Romantic Movement, but it found its way to the realms of the extreme Far Right who were concerned with blending ecology with racial purity.

Linkola’s discourse is no different from the Heimatschutz.  It is attributable to an increase in immigration and his desire for population controls, but this is only a tiny morsel of what Linkola proposes and he is not alone.   Neo-fascist organizations have been growing since the 1980s with such organizations as Germany’s  Deutsche Volksunion and the French Front. In Australia it is the patriotic groups like the Australia First Party who are advocating the new fascism.    The 2008 economic downturn provided a fertile grown for a burgeoning neo-fascist movements across Europe, the US, Australia and elsewhere. Further, fascist groups may be a long way from taking power, but they are changing attitudes and causing disharmony and the setting in which they articulate their aims is a very familiar one that we should all be concerned about.

Let me set the scene by reverting to history. In 1929 the Wall Street collapse was very similar to the 2008 economic crisis across Europe. People suddenly realized that the stock markets would not rise indefinitely. When the stock market finally collapsed everything was impacted. In the 1930s European agriculture was faced with a severe depression. The poor agitated for land reforms and high food production, but there was not the means to meet the public demands.

By 1931 people had lost faith in their politicians and there were violent protests on the streets. It was about this time that the writer George Orwell predicted a future of totalitarian rule.

In Germany the Heimatschutz movement began reviving an earlier green movement that was based on the land and racial purity: Blood and Soil. Cities and towns were re-ordered into small communities for food security.  It would lead to the worst kind of primal behaviour, two world wars and the European Holocaust.

The popularity of the movement was promulgated through festivals and entertainment, that connected the land to families and communities.  The festivals would open and close with a patriotic or religious song and there were processions and marches as well as speeches on nation, homeland and loyalty. Rituals were modelled on the ancient practices of the Druids and pagan Rome.  Rudolf Steiner’s wife Marie Von Sievers gave a performance of mystical dancing similar to those performed at deep ecology and mystical festivals today. The sacred May Day glorified the God  Atlas the God of War, not only an important symbol for Adolf Hitler, but also Gustav Le Bon (Freud’s teacher) and his theories of crowd control. Everything was patterned by mythology and the Heimatschutz became known as Hitler’s Green Party.

The Heimatcschutz, lasted a long time, it fed the German armies during the wars and upheld the racial policy that saw six million Jews and others exterminated in the concentration camps of the Second World War.

Heimatschutz, worked because it was built on the wider Volkish movement that aimed en mass, to reform life, an idea that originated from the German idealists, Goethe, Lessing and Schiller; all three were Freemasons, a movement which Hitler later opposed.

The Volk has a different name now and the players have different roles, but the same sentiments abound in a far more discursive and insidious way than before. The Volk has found its legitimacy in a kind of communitarianism that closes borders and ranks on anyone who is not of their thinking.  Let me give you a further example.

Rudolf Steiner and his deep ecology otherwise called anthroposophy, is on trend across the western world.  The Steiner schools are popular in Europe, America and Israel even though Steiner, by his own admission was active in the Pan Nationalist Movement in Vienna at the end of the nineteenth century and although he became a rival and enemy of Hitler, he appears to have advocated the same forms of racial segregation.   Many of the current Steiner schools are funded by state authorities and their businesses are thriving.  Should we be concerned? Should we disregard history and assume that the Steiner movement has changed its spots and is working towards a better world?

The aim of the legitimate ecology movement has been to draw peoples’ attention to the (w)holism in nature and to create a more sustainable planet.  In reality, it has been a shift away from the bigger political and social problems to intimate forms of localization. It is anti-globalization and therefore not focused on the betterment of fellow citizens and their global rights.

The ecologist’s mantra is  Small is Beautiful a term coined by E. F. Schumacher and his book by the same name, who just happened to be the head of the British Coal Board an industry that sent men into the perilous pits to boost Britain’s economy, while damaging their health and risking their lives.   This gives a clue to the ambiguities in the green movement, today and in history.

Take for example Richard Heinberg’s advocacy of a steady state economy,   which fails to address the social concerns inherent in capitalism or its polity. We are not seeing anything new. In the United States the New Green Deal was designed to kick start rabid consumption.  The then President, Theodore Roosevelt used the New Green Deal as a panacea for ending the 1920s American Depression and it pushed America into a global war.

Today, the US President Donald Trump is pulling troops out of wars and leaving the warring parties to fight between themselves at the cost of innocent men, women and children. What is in it for Donald Trump?  America has a reputation for destabilizing smaller nations and then restoring them, whereby America reaps the spoils.  The nations at war are also rich in resources the western world needs to prop up its mass consumerism. Is this not another form of mass genocide? If this is ecology, it is ecology on steroids.  No one ever asks, how green is the act of war?  It is a topic that seems to escape the ecology and other green agendas.

In the 1960s when the environmental issues gave way to an apocalyptic discourse  the earth was heralded as the embodiment of the Greek Mother Goddess (Gaia). Was this supposed to save the planet or would it simply invoke the same mythologies that could lead to another German Heimatschutz?

Environmental problems are very real and they are both local and global.    We have to ask, does the environment movement have its investment in the same kind of transcendentalism that created the Volk?  In the west there has been an acute rise in the forms of anti-Semitism that we have experienced in history. They are on the Right and on the Left of the political spectrum and where there was once an abundance of  single issues groups, anti-Semitism appears to be infiltrating the entire protest spectrum covering many demands and issues.

Nations across the world are going through a massive transition, not unlike the agrarian transitions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that saw people leaving the land and moving to the cities for a better life. Today, while  city entrepreneurs are eating up important pockets of land and cutting down forests for their larger enterprises, such as mining and the expansion of factory farming.    Today’s mass production is still dependent on the natural resources as it was at the time of the Industrial Revolution.    The loss of resources, combined with the drive for profits, impacts on the countryside and the traditional way of life, but how can we change it without reinventing the Heimatschutz?

Fascism arose in Europe after World War I when many people yearned for national unity and strong leadership.  Today, we are no closer to national or global unity than we were a hundred and fifty years ago, but the yearning for unity has become a dangerous phenomenon driving violent protests on the streets, corrupting governments and sending the world into violence chaos. Where will it end?

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My new book.

We all have a democratic right to protest, but can the violence that erupts in demonstrations be justified in order to create social change?  Further, is change possible from mass protest?  This work examines social movement theory in light of the current direct actions.

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Losing a Freind.

                                             Kiva.

                                         Joseph Rael.

I have been visiting the hospital to sit with a friend of thirty years who is dying. I have been reciting Hebrew prayers and blessings for her. Her name is Junitta and years ago she started one of the world’s first peace chambers.  It was situated in central Victoria and built in the design of a kiva.  Junitta gathered a few people together and they made every mud brick by hand and laid every stone with a prayer for world peace.  It was an amazing achievement and it still stands today on land that has been regenerated for wild life.  The Native American medicine man Joseph Rael came to open the kiva and it became one of many around the world working towards global harmony.

Junitta was a beautiful young woman with a vision and a gentle soul. She did not have much time for modern technology, instead she preferred the simple rustic lifestyle close to the land.  Junitta’s soul is still gentle and giving, but her body is emaciated, just thin skin stretched over a tiny and fragile skeleton. I held her hands that were barely warm and so weak, it brought tears to my eyes.  Her mind is alert, albeit with a little wandering, but the body is a vision of degeneration and it makes life seem so cruel.

Junitta is taking it all in her stride. She is a woman of faith and she is incredibly brave.  Indeed, she told me that the Native America Indians believe the skin of the body wrinkles so it is made ready to join the earth when the time for burial arrives. The Mother Earth, according to Junitta, recognizes every person who is returned to her primal womb.

My friend has maintained her humour and she is not afraid to die. She just wants to be out of the hospital and back at her beloved property on the top of a mountain that overlooks the spectacular southern coastline.

Junitta plans to be buried in an upright position so her head is still close to the stars and so she is remembered by the sun every morning when it moves across the horizon.

Junitta was always very upright, forthright and the first to speak out against social injustice.  She was a friend of the Aboriginal people and an advocate for indigenous land rights.  She loved the red centre of the Australian country and she made numerous pilgrimages to it for spiritual guidance.

Junitta is resigned to her fate, but I am going to miss her a lot, she has been a wonderful friend, a dedicated teacher of wisdom and an excellent craft’s person and artist.  She will continue to live in my sanctuary through the small painting of Squeaky Beach which she gave to me some years ago and which sits on the wall of my library.  Today, will be my last visit to Junitta as she is being moved to another facility. I am left to wonder if I will ever see her again before she passes.