St Valentine's Day Massacre

Have you seen the High Street lately? In case you've been living in a virtual world for the past few weeks, let me set the scene.

Every window has had a makeover.

The confectionary shop is an explosion of heart shaped chocolates and red ribbons. The book store has replaced all the celebrity autobiographies with poetry. The supermarket has an entire aisle dedicated to edible love tokens, pink champagne and recipes for romantic dinners.

And don't get me started on the card shops who must pray for the arrival of February. As soon as the Christmas stock is in the recycling bin, they're off and running with Cupid's bow and arrows.

In boutiques, the winter coats have been cast aside in favour of pink cashmere jumpers and red lingerie (grown up pink!) bearing the placard 'Ideal Valentines gift' – just in case you'd missed the hundred visual clues you've encountered so far.

Girls stand wistfully at jewellery shop windows gazing at heart shaped diamond pendants. 'She'll never see it coming!…' Because it won't be arriving any time soon! Sadly, this plethora of advertising usually serves to disappoint women rather than inspire men. The requirement for romance, so prevalent in a woman's DNA was probably in that extra rib conveniently removed from Adam at the beginning of time.

Just as the shadow side of Christmas is associated with weight gain and family rows, the shadow side of Valentine's day is often represented by anxious men and disenchanted women.

How did we get to this crazy state of affairs.

Last post we talked about redefining creativity. Now we have to redefine love.

Do we want the personality of love or the soul of love?

Just as creativity takes intense discipline; love requires huge amounts of determination. Neither of these are popular concepts because we've become such an indulgent species.

We like creativity that arrives fully formed inside our head (thank you God) and manifests easily in the outside world (God who? This is all my own work). We like love that's fun and playful but we quit as soon as we have work to do ("the magic's gone".) We truly are like little children… but we ain't entering the Kingdom of Heaven any time soon.

Love is a very small word for a great, big, huge deal, but it has become an abused, misunderstood word. When we fall in love, we feel expansive. This allows more life in, which stimulates our creative spirit. The outcome? Love songs, poetry, art and great sex.

However this expansion also wakes up the inner dragon of our neediness. The outcome? Jealousy, fear, self doubt and demands. This usually leads to an outpouring of chianti not creativity.

Our current method of dealing with this love-hate relationship with love is to distance ourselves. We go from "If you don't love me I'll die" to "I don't need anybody". We become super independent. We ridicule Valentine's Day. After all cynicism is the only intelligent stance right? It's just one big merchandising opportunity for those stupid enough to get sucked in.

And yet there's a sadness in this cynicism. Particularly for girls, who hate the tawdry commerciality but long for something else – something that's hard to put into words. A higher vision of love, romance and sexuality. A sacred ritual.

It wasn't always this way.

Three thousand years ago, initiates of the Greek, Egyptian and Indian Mystery Schools studied the interweaving of sexual and divine love. Far from pushing sex underground, they received extensive training in raising sexual energy to a higher level where it interfaced with the divine. This energy was far removed from the hormone induced lust we associate with sex today. The union of a man and woman at this level produced an ecstatic spiritual experience (ex statis = out of body). This was a cosmic event, not a fumble in the dark.

But the ancients also knew the power of love, which is why some of them created Religion to control it. Political and spiritual leaders destroyed or buried the teachings of the hieros-gamos. They outlawed the Mystery Schools (Universities of the Soul) and created Universities of the Intellect and Seminaries (for the upper classes) and Church (for the lower classes).

They separated sex from spirituality, making sex shameful (unless used for the creation of more Christians haha!). They turned Jesus into a celibate God. And worse still…

They changed the definition of love.

And now thousands of years later we have sentimental love, self-agenda love, manipulative love, co-dependent love.

Because without infusion by the Divine, love is neediness.

And neediness creates… country and western songs, pornography, religiosity… and Valentine's Day.

A far cry from the ancients.

So to honour Socrates let's ask a question. What do we really want on Valentine's Day?

Gifts, cards and gestures create a temporary distraction from our scary inner space of loneliness. We think these tokens will provide us with the proof that we're loved. But if we're trying to prove something, it means we don't really believe it. We're just filling the inner space with extravagant gestures and meaningless rituals (every restaurant in London has already been pre-booked).

What we really want is to be known.

The Indians originally didn't have a word for 'love' instead of saying "I love you" they said "I know you". In other words I know the deepest part of you – and I'm still here.

Deep inside we are very flawed human beings, just pretending that we're doing ok. When someone else can love us at that level, we are finally able to accept ourselves and find peace.

Ah the bliss! No scratchy underwear. No cuddly toys. No violins. Just two people, surrounded by candlelight and a killer soundtrack, fully prepared to inhabit the space. Presence is always the best present.

If we extend ourselves to both the depths and heights of experience in unity with another, we can finally transcend our psychology. (Hurrah!) It's the only thing that takes away all that neediness (Thank the Lord!).

The potential contained in this love is incalculable. It re-creates divine love on an earthly plane, the union of masculine wisdom with female compassion. It could change the world faster than any strategy, vision or political party.

Don't settle for less.

We need to boycott the banal, turn off the Rhapsody in Red, step away from the helium hearts…

and have the courage to open our own.

Psst... Year of The Dragon - 7 things Quentin Tarantino taught me about creativity.

It's 2012 – the year the rubber hits the road. The year you finally get to achieve your dreams of success, before the Mayans return and ask for their ball back.

It’s also the Year of the Dragon.

With time running out, how are you going to tame your inner dragon and achieve creative mastery? Are you going to fight like Bruce Lee or Uma Thurman?"

Before you answer that let’s look at two possible scenarios.

Enter Beatrix Kiddo (Uma in Kill Bill) stage left…

Martin wakes up and declares “Things will be different this year.” He reaches for his computer and starts THE DEFINITIVE LIST. From now on he’s going to think like a Ninja.

Oh yes.

He smiles as he starts to experience the download on his new life. First he will banish any thoughts that are not “all kick assy and shit”. He knows all about the Law of Attraction.

"Set a clear intention and the world will beat a path to your door."

Next he starts to build the platform for his new life – after all, the universe will need some sort of landing strip on which to deliver his goods.

He writes a brief for a website re-design and fires it off to a brand consultant. He knows what he wants – something that clearly demonstrates the fact that he’s a total badass. His fingers fly across the keyboard. He wants visual impact (people are time poor - they like pictures), buzz words (but like totally authentic man), and above all a newname – one that is a better representation of his Ninja status!

He pauses and curses his mother for calling him Martin. How on earth was he expected to succeed with such a lame name? He starts Googling Punk Rock heroes for something more suitable.

"Create your own reality."

Perhaps he could do a Don Draper and completely re-invent his past! Father an American scientist. Mother a Russian ballerina. Or no parents at all! Caught with false papers in Berlin and sent to a Gulag. Romance AND intrigue.

Special people were usually orphans – look at Harry Potter. And let’s not forget Bruce Wayne didn’t become Batman until his parents were murdered.

"Dream bigger" (or is that "Make the lie big enough!")

The creative muse is now doing double backflips in Martin’s mind, demanding something… Caffeine!

He goes to the kitchen to make a triple espresso – two sugars. The detox can start tomorrow. No rush on that one. He knows that if he eliminates all carbs and drinks wheatgrass he can lose twelve pounds in a week.

He goes back to the computer and orders the One Hour Body and Six Pack in Six Minutes from Amazon.

That oughta do it.

Pleased with his achievements, he wanders over to the Games Console. If ever there was a day to get to the next level of Samurai Showdown this was it. He can already feel the delicious sensation of success.

Job done!

Scenario Two

Enter the Dragon stage right…

Julia wakes up and declares “things will be different this year.” She reaches for her notebook and starts THE DEFINITIVE LIST. From now on she’s going to think like a Ninja.

She writes quickly.

"Get out of bed – early!!!"

(No matter how rubbish the weather or how bad the hangover.) And while we’re at it…

"Quite drinking."

This is more realistic. (D’you think Bruce Lee could do those high kicks if he’d sank a bottle of Rioja the night before?)

"Write faster."

Julia pauses to think about her latest Blog post. It had taken two weeks to write and she still wasn’t happy with it. She had to get quicker. Bruce Lee’s reactions were so fast, his films had to be slowed down (otherwise viewers couldn't actually SEE the moves he was making.)

Hmmm.

She opens the laptop to Google the number of hours a day Bruce spent practicing his craft.

Oh my good God!

"Write more."

"Write while waiting for the bus; while waiting for the client to arrive; while waiting for the supermarket queue to shorten." Then she adds…

"Notice stuff."

Bruce Lee’s peripheral vision was so cutting edge you could sharpen a samurai sword on it.

"Creators need content. And content is all around if we have the eyes to see it. Right now there are poignant interludes, angry exchanges and passionate glances. Everywhere there are heart stoppingly beautiful moments that we miss with our linear vision. Look out!"

Julia examines her list. It’s missing one more thing. But she doesn’t have the right word for it. She thought about “Discipline” but this just brought up memories of school. The memorising of times tables. Detention for late homework. Freezing to death on the hockey pitch.Instead she wrote…

"The Intel is inside."

That was better. Everything she needed was right here, right now. She just had to develop the practice of getting it out of her head and onto the page.

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee was not born a genetically superior human being, in fact he was a frail child. He was just very, very determined.

Pleased with her achievements, Julia puts the list down, picks up the laptop…

And starts to write.

Which path will you choose – the personality of the Ninja or the soul of the Ninja?

Beatrix Kiddo achieved her goals with the aid of computer graphics, a blue screen and a yellow jumpsuit.

If we're travelling the creative road, technology is a great tool for the backpack. It isn't a substitute for the real thing. (Please tell Martin.)

And while we're at it, can we also have a reality check on the following New Age mantras…

The Law of Attraction. Positive Thinking. Clarity of Intention. Future Vision. Creative Dreaming.

Tools, all tools. Tools that need a skilled operator.

Quentin Tarantino is a skilled operator. He knows how to use the tools of his craft. But he knows that tools maketh not the movie.

Bruce Lee on the other hand, preceded both computer graphics and folksy new age wisdom. He still managed to kill the competition. But he did it with Mastery not Final Cut Pro.

Bruce will have a place in the history books as someone who transcended the limitations of what it is to be human while turning combat into an art form.

Beatrix Kiddo will have a place in the cartoon books as someone who looked unspeakably cool in someone else's creative dream. (Go Quentin!)

In the above scenario, Julia made the wiser choice. She may not have to chop wood and carry water. But she will have to obey the rules of the dojo…

1. Get up. Both literally (get up as early as necessary every day) and metaphysically (get up when you've been knocked down with disappointment.)

2. Fight addictions. Both literal (tequila, donuts, caramel macchiatos) and metaphysical (fantasy, complaining, internet surfing.)

3. Get quicker. Everyone has too much to do on their To Do List. Spend less time list making, speed up the grunt work and you'll have way more time to spend on creative pursuits.

4. Practise. We live in a passive world of more and more information yet the key to any creative endeavour is practise. Commit to less input and more output.

5. Increase bandwidth. Creativity requires the synthesis and juxtaposition of random patterns, images and ideas. It makes sense that the more we can let in, the more we have to play with. Stretch your senses by seeing, hearing and sensing more.

6. The intel is inside. Enough with the over consumption of workshops, seminars and courses. Quentin Tarantino never went to Film School, instead he watched movies. Before making Kill Bill he watched all Bruce Lee's films. It's important to learn the techniques of painting/writing/directing but it's equally important to be inspired by masters of the craft.

And finally

7. Cross genres with impunity! This is a controversial one. In an over crowded marketplace we are advised to specialise. Niche Marketing! Own your subject! Describe your work, your style, your novel in one sentence, one word, one icon!! Ever since the meteoric success of Apple, we think we need to squish ourselves into a very small, beautifully designed box. With Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino crossed Kung Fu with Spaghetti Western. (WTF right?)

In other words, once you have the discipline to follow rules, you can turn right round…

And break them all.

Personality of the Ninja or Soul of the Ninja? Looking good or Being real? The final word goes to Bruce.

"To me, martial arts means honestly expressing yourself. It is very difficult to do. It has always been very easy for me to put on a show and be cocky and feel pretty cool. I can show some really fancy movement. But to experience oneself honestly, not lying to oneself, and to express myself honestly, now that is very hard to do."

And if it's hard for Bruce, you must be in pretty good company.

Me = Ecstasy (Squared)

Me = XTC²

Einstein was a bit of a geezer. After all, he did manage to get two opposing forces to agree with him.

Until recently, these two forces were clearly defined as Religion and Science. Life was either a random grouping of molecules, or it was God's divine plan for humanity.

Both forces had their prophets. Scientists foretold technological advances. Holy men channeled God's wishes for the world. Black or white.

Einstein was a scientist who believed in God. He was going for colour. His prophecies skipped both Church and Laboratory and ended up in the hallowed halls of Business.

"You can't solve a problem on the same level you created it".

Management consultants love this one! But what does it mean?

Problems are multi layered and complex. For instance we hate the fat cat Bankers and think the distribution of wealth should be fairer. We all have an inner Robin Hood and the Sherriff of Nottingham is SUCH an unpleasant character. But the corporation tax from banks and big evil corporations pays for our free National Health Service. And this system can in turn be abused by people who accept no responsibility for their own welfare.

Things were so much easier in the old days when the commoners were lovely agricultural people portrayed by Constable. Men were noble and hard working. Women suckled their children and made soup. The ruling classes were cold hearted, cowardly and cruel. How much easier it was to pick a side!

Now we're not so sure. The commoners sometimes look like an urban nightmare with tattoos, attitude and feral children. They demand job creation and a 'living' wage. But life has moved on. Jobs can't be created, they emerge from a need. 'Living' is subjective, now that cappuccinos, pre-cooked meals and i-Phones are considered necessities.

What would Robin Hood and Maid Marion do now? (If, according to Einstein, they're on the wrong level.)

They could visit a Management Consultant, who would no doubt do a lot of research to establish the facts. Percentages of poor versus rich 90%-10% 99%-1%. Whatevs. There's a gap. Tax the rich more than 50% and there's a good chance they'll emigrate – or lie about their income. Duh!

The fact is data doesn't tell us what we really want to know - i.e. The state of the Nation's heart.

Who are the deserving poor and who are the lazy thieving ones? Who are the benevolent rich and who are the bone idle avaricious ones. That would be some useful information and that's not going to come out of any consultancy any time soon. Time to get to the next level – but we need a very different energy to take us there.

If we could take an X-Ray of our current energy system, it would reveal that most of our energy is coming from below the waist – our lower chakras. This type of energy is best suited to prehistoric times when individual survival was paramount – kill or be killed. Be the best. Immortality via excessive procreation. It's rapacious, competitive alpha male energy.

But now individual survival is an oxymoron. We're all connected. Floods, hurricanes and earthquakes are no respecters of an individual's environmental credentials. The collapse of Lehman Brothers affected the finances of the entire world. The SARS virus went global in two days. Yet we're still trying to survive by use of the "C" word. Command. Control. Competition.

How do we change our destructive behaviour?

The TV series Mad Men epitomised the golden age of persuasion techniques. We know legislation and exorbitant prices won't stop kids smoking, when the 'promise' of cigarettes is both a ticket to adulthood and an act of rebellion. They'll steal the money and/or bribe an older sibling to buy them on their behalf. Barriers and restrictions merely serve to make them more creative. This is as true for children as it is for the crony capitalists.

We don't like being told what to do. It triggers our 'below the waist' energy system.

The Occupy London movement has split the religious community at St Paul's. They wring their hands and say 'What would Jesus do?' Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say 'What would Don Draper do?'

He'd probably make stepping up to the next level cool. Instead of condemning greed, he'd make it absurd. Rather than being judgemental about luxury brands, he'd make them an object of derision, before pouring a glass of bourbon.

It's time for the creatives to rebrand the values of the heart. For too long these values have been hi-jacked by evil corporations and turned into monochrome representations of love.

Sentimentality and Sexuality. Black and white. Fuelled by below the waist energy. The Outcome – Specialness. Soppiness. Jealousy. Need. The Upshot - Hallmark cards. Valentine's Day. Soap Operas. Daily acts of vengeance. Random acts of blandness.

The re-brand has a lot more colour and much more unity. It's a movement, not an attitude. It has passion and action. It favours wild maternal love over sentimentality. It laughs at adversity. It has humour and compassion. It has beauty and grace – let's make Commoning less shabby and more aesthetically pleasing.

It is possible to make integrity cool, to make the global village hip, to make ideas sexy again.

After all, God is a good idea. And as Einstein said, "I only want to know God's thoughts, all the rest is just details."

Small Talk

Escape the city. Hit the open road. Get back to nature. How simple are the dreams of city folk?

It's the Christmas holidays – the perfect time to travel with my beloved to the Highlands of Scotland for seclusion, romance and breathtaking scenery. A mish mash of images from Performance Car and Wuthering Heights morph in my head.

The problem with real life is it doesn't quite match up to our expectations. Our dreams have been digitally enhanced by media companies who have access to state of the art editing facilities.

Photoshop doesn't just eliminate cellulite from model's thighs. It can remove tractors from open roads and increase the depth of color on Highland moors.

The real thing doesn't seem as real as the picture in our imagination. But more shockingly, it doesn't allow for our contradictory demands!

We want a remote cottage, but one that contains all the conveniences of city life – under floor heating, hot water and a Starbucks next door. Perhaps a Michelin star restaurant down the road. Oh and Wi-Fi.

Of course that's not going to happen. Luxury to rural folk is a phone system that works in a gale force wind – so they can tell someone the power lines are down and the back up generator's been blown into the next bay. Cottages are damp and bleak. Unlike Don Draper, Heathcliff's reticent demeanor wasn't done for effect – he was just cold and probably bored.

What to do?

Without an editing suite, this is an either/or situation.

We decide to steer clear of the remote cottage and book the luxury country house hotel instead. Fluffy towels, deep claw footed bath tubs and coffee that at least looks familiar (with foam on top).

We park the 4 wheel drive in the car park and enter a medieval romance – wood panelled walls, covered with a tapestry depicting the Knights Templar. A jovial host takes our luggage and ushers us towards the sitting room for a welcoming glass of wine.

It was all going so well. Until we remembered…

There would be other people!

What is it about small talk that fills us with dread? We meet our fellow guests and immediately launch into a game of charades, played to some unwritten rules we've absorbed over the years. Where are you from? How was your journey? What brought you here? We've exhausted all the preliminaries and our wine hasn't arrived yet! There is an awkward pause as we struggle to the next level – What do you do for a living? This is slightly more personal, but desperate to avoid the silence, I ask the question anyway. There's bound to be some common ground.

"Insurance Broker".

Dear God.

I've never felt a need for insurance. I'm superstitious about a system that requires bad things to happen before you can capitalise on your investment.

Fortunately the host arrives with a tray of drinks, allowing a whole new conversation stream to open up. Wine! "I know this fabulous little vineyard we discovered in France last year… Of course supermarkets are killing the smaller importers… Some of the Chilean Sauvignons are giving the Marlboroughs a run for their money…"

We make our excuses and head for the room.

Half an hour later, up to our neck in hot water and bubbles, we ponder why this social custom has become so torturous.

Conversation needs a revamp for the Energy Age.

Our journey to higher consciousness requires that we move from a primitive fear based operating system to one built on true connection and creativity. The energetic arc of this journey follows the chakra system – Chakras 1-2-3 store all the data relating to our survival. Where are you from? What do you do? Are you friend or foe?

There's a lot of wariness and competition at this level, therefore a lot of distance. Distance being the opposite of connection, the conversation is boring.

Chakras 5-6-7 store all the data relating to our ideas. Being abstract they need an organizing principle, which is usually created by work or a shared purpose. Conversations here are much easier as there is no emotion involved – that's why we love work so much (if we like what we do!) and why we need to find a vision (if we don't!)

For many years we've accepted these two sides of the divide - the either/or conversation. But the world is becoming more integrated. We have a sense that there is another conversation to be had. One that involves the link between the two - our heart.

We need to understand the new context.

Context is big these days, particularly in business. Ever since Steve Jobs changed the rules, CEOs have been desperately trying to find ways to stay relevant in a constantly changing world – to find the real need behind the need. Steve knew kids didn't want functionality – they wanted 'cool.'

Forty years ago, Harvard Business School professor Ted Levitt established this premise with the adage "No-one needs a drill – they need a hole." Now, business gurus have developed this to its logical conclusion. "Nobody needs a hole, they need to hang art. Nobody needs to hang art, they need a better looking room. Nobody needs a better looking room, they need to be happier."

So, whether you're selling furniture, lipstick or holidays, delve deeper and you'll find… you're really in the happiness business.

So, what would happen if we applied this process to conversation?

We first used words because they were an effective means to get more of what we needed – food, sex and territory. Then we used them to express ourselves – devotional prayers, legal letters, love songs.

But what next? We're all in the happiness business, but many of us aren't happy. What makes us happy is connection. And words often don't cut it any more. They're too generic, too sentimental, too cliché ridden. We don't have enough of them. We have too many of them. Or perhaps they just don't convey what we mean any more.

We're moving into the Energy Age and words are a blunt instrument when it comes to describing energy.

Energy doesn't do small talk – it's way too dynamic for that. It goes straight for the connection.

We get a taste of this experience through sexual attraction. The energy takes over and we don't need words. Bliss! But what would happen if we could develop our ability to interpret and direct energy above the waist?

Because we have no framework for this process, we cling to the only method of communication that we've validated.

Words.

Whether these are part of a Company mission statement, a Retailer's crib sheet or the unwritten rules of Cocktail hour pleasantries, we feel the lack of meaning. Words fail to address the real need behind the need.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel, it's time for dinner. Brioche croute with goose liver. Veloute of celeriac with truffled mushrooms. If it could talk, this food would demand to be photographed for a lifestyle magazine. Our fellow diners speak in hushed tones, perhaps out of reverence for the cuisine or perhaps to disguise how little they have to say to each other. The atmosphere feels like a cross between a church and an old peoples' home.

Energy has left the building.

The following morning, like a couple of co-conspirators we make our excuses and leave. The cottage is suddenly the preferable option. The car battles through a squall – gale force winds and horizontal rain. Nature is definitely in charge here. The elements are neither civilised or polite, but they're real. And we're grateful for that.

An hour later we reach signs of civilisation! A village with church and shops! Goddam those expectations! The church is boarded up. The food shop sells 120 brands of confectionary, tinned soup and magazines. As for the gift shop, there is only one word – Why? Can there really be any market left for ceramic thimbles, tartan tea towels and teddy bears in sporrans. The proprietor looks up anxiously as we walk past the window of generic awfulness.

We want to connect, but there's no mechanism to do so. We feel guilty for not needing a single thing he has to sell. We'd happily pay $20 for a macchiato.

Later, in the solitude of the cottage, we dine on peanuts, liquorice all-sorts and instant hot chocolate, but there is an endless supply of laughter and conversation.

Our context is changing. As we evolve, our needs change too, so it's important to re-evaluate them constantly. We think we know what makes us happy. But often our dreams of happiness are artificially created by images and influences that we have never really questioned.

Who are you? How do you want to live? What makes you smile?

These are soul questions. We often can't answer them in words and even if we could, we don't need any more data (we really don't need any more data!)

We're all in the happiness business now.

Read the energy. Try to imagine how to language it. For in that language we can create a new shared meaning. And out of that will come…

Big talk.

Beyond the Age of Reason

Gary Speed is dead. Here are some of the words that described him before he ended his own life… Footballer. Father. Successful. Popular. Handsome. Happily married.

Something is wrong with this picture but we can't seem to adjust the set. While the media scramble to find a story angle or uncover the missing piece that would make sense of it, perhaps we should look instead at some of the concepts behind the stories we live (and die) by.

The story of "Cause and Effect". Things happen for a reason…

A man loses his job, loses his wife, loses his money, decides life is not worth living and reaches for the noose. This trajectory of events is understandable. If the purpose of life is to get more – more success, more money, more status, then losing (being the opposite of getting) is a forerunner of death. This is a reasonable assumption.

Rene Descartes summed up the Age of Reason with his motto "I think therefore I am". In other words, consciousness is in our brain. We glorify the mind to the detriment of our emotional and spiritual make up. Take Dominique Strauss Kahn – emotionally deranged, in a spiritual void but sharp as a tack so he still commands respect (like many business and political leaders). The mind trumps heart and soul.

But something is wrong with our mind. A million people are committing suicide every year with 10-20 million failed attempts. Suicide in American males 35-49 is the Number 3 cause of death. There is an epidemic of depression.

Our standard response to this phenomenon is "Buck up. Be more positive. Think of those less fortunate". In other words, other peoples' misfortune should cause us to feel happy.

Hmmm. Happiness is the equivalent of winning?

This rationale of 'More' and 'Winning' isn't working any more. And that's because we have left the Age of Reason and we have entered the Age of Energy.

New Rules. Changed Stories. Altered States.

The Story of 'More'. As humans we are instinctively drawn to the concept of expansion. This is evident from our earliest recollections. The sight of a bean plant slowly growing in a jam-jar of wet blotting paper is a magical event for a child. The interest that accumulates on a bank account set up by a grandparent intrigues a teenager.

But this is a literal interpretation of a metaphysical principle. In the Age of Energy, growth needs to be holistic. We are meant to grow emotionally and spiritually, otherwise all physical growth will be distorted.

We forgot to ask the childhood question - "Why?"

Why do we crave more money, status and success? The answer will always lead to "in order to feel valued, appreciated and loved; in order to have a meaningful connection to another human being; in order to see someone we like when we look in the mirror".

When 'More' is a strategy of the mind, it is incapable of achieving any of these things. It can only create a picture of success. Being a thought, this picture is an illusion that (a) we don't believe in and (b) we can't see in the mirror. It might look wonderful to the outside world but our inner experience will tell a different story.

The Story of 'Winning'. As humans we are hard wired to compete but this is an old 'Survival of the Fittest' pattern from Neanderthal times – we either win or we lose. Now that we've entered the Age of Energy we are developing an awareness of ourselves as one organism. The singularity is getting nearer. On some unconscious level, we know that winning brings with it a sense of loss.

The beginning and the end. We crave connection and we're terrified of connection. This is the paradox of our times and our greatest challenge. If we believe we are "our mind" we will know ourselves as small and inadequate beings who cannot connect without losing the little that we have. This leads us to misuse our desire for 'more' by:

1. Accumulating stuff – we need more money if we are to achieve validation through high status brands.

2. Accumulating knowledge – books, subscriptions, seminars… we need to know more in order to feel successful.

3. Accumulating wisdom – seminars, retreats, psychics… we need to heal ourselves with more superior guidance before we make our contribution to the world.

All this 'more' has caused us to become psychically obese. We are filled to the brim with information and now we feel sick. Not old fashioned sick like Tuberculosis, Polio, Smallpox – these are diseases of the Age of Reason.

The disease of the Age of Energy is Depression. Like energy, it can't be seen and it certainly can't be reasoned with…

But it is definitely deadly.

Look what they've done to my song Ma

Last night I sat through possibly the worst thing I've seen on a London stage – Rock of Ages.

Of course I've been to things before that just don't work – The Umbrellas of Cherbourg eek! On these occasions the audience is usually polite enough to clap at the appropriate places before filing out, exchanging expressions of mutual pain with anyone who makes eye contact.

Not so this time!

The audience loved every tawdry, cringe making moment of it. Instead of a slow shuffle to the exit there was a standing ovation and a rush to the merchandise stand (T-shirts emblazoned with 'Hooray for Boobies' - I kid you not).

Honest to God, I could swear that evolution is going backwards not forwards.

The plot features sex, love and rock 'n' roll. Boy meets girl in the bar of a music venue. He sweeps the floor, while she waits tables, but they both have aspirations. (I have a dream!!) He wants to be a Rock God. She wants to be an Actress. (Sorry Martin Luther we've sunk to new lows since you've been gone).

Because He doesn't jump her bones on their first date, She interprets this as the absence of love, so feels compelled to have sex with the singer of a rock band – in the toilet.

Nice.

The singer immediately dumps her, after which she loses her job and is forced to become a stripper. Eventually the Madame of the lap-dancing club brings the couple back together for the grand finale in which they relinquish their dreams, get pregnant and have a baby. (Sorry Martin – the bar just doesn't get any higher). The singer gets his come-uppance when he is arrested for having sex with an underage school girl… Gary Glitter lives! Rock on.

The main aim of the plot seems to be an excuse for the female members of the cast to remain in their underwear pretty much all the time. You can just imagine the pre-production meeting. "We don't have a script! The choreography is appalling! Some of the songs are only B list hits! How on earth are we going to pull in the punters?"

Pause for inspiration.

"Basques and suspenders!"

"Brilliant"

"And endless opportunities for simulated fellatio".

"Job done! Let's go to the pub".

Of course if we criticise, we're told to "Lighten up" "It's just a bit of fun" "It's rock 'n' roll man". The producers acknowledge and celebrate its awfulness with the strapline "London's guilty pleasure".

I hate what's happened to sex. I feel the same way about sex as Jamie Oliver feels about food, after they turned it into Turkey Twizzlers. Jamie Oliver doesn't want to ban food, any more than I want to censor sex – he's just passionate about real food and thinks it's tragic when kids grow up on McDonalds. "Well it's fast and it fills a hole". It's not just the content that concerns him, it's the empty experience. Food is more than a function of survival, it's a shared ritual of connection.

Sex is a sacred ritual. But in the popular media it's become a parody, a power play, a grotesque distortion. Music videos are as cliché ridden as porn films and are targeted to children at an age where they are attempting to define their own sexuality. 13 year old girls think sucking in their cheeks and pushing out their chest while attempting to lick a lollypop in a suggestive manner is flirting. 13 year old boys presume girls are "gagging for it". They've never read Jane Austen, they take their cues from the Pussycat Dolls and Snoop Dogg.

So back to Rock of Ages. We know the sex serves to get bums on seats, but what's the excuse for the puerile script? In the same way we've reduced food and sex to their lowest common denominator, we've got pretty lazy with our vocabulary!

Take "awesome". I don't think I could be more irritated by the word awesome if I tried. Like a strange virus, it has seeped into everything from blogs to self-help manuals.

Let's look at the real meaning of awesome - "an overwhelming feeling of reverence produced by something sublime or extremely powerful… a connection with the universe beyond the narrow band of our consciousness".

Hmmm. As usual, we've kept the concept and lost the reverence. Now we use the word to describe everything from computer games to chocolate cake.

The latest version of the word "awesome" is "rock star". This expression is now popping up everywhere as in "He/she is such a rock star". This means he/she is supremely awesome! (in the 'evolution going backwards' world).

If you want to see classy, sophisticated women in suspenders (without the tedious simulated fellatio) go to Chicago – where they'll throw in some great music and killer choreography.

But Rock of Ages… well I guess it's Rock Star Awesome. And it takes popular culture to a new all time low.

Losing My Religion

I'm in France, land of a thousand churches. To be more exact there are actually about 40,000 of them, built mainly in the middle ages. With a medieval population of around 6 million this would mean one church per 150 people.

I think we can safely assume that religion was more popular than a Led Zeppelin gig – put your child's name down at birth for a guaranteed season ticket. So what happened?

Our minds evolved.

We don't take things literally any more. We know that hell is not a place with flames and pitchforks and heaven doesn't come with harps and cloud pavements. We don't have to leave this earth to be in a state of heaven or hell – these are energetic states of being.

This has been a bit of a problem for the Roman Catholic head honchos who built a successful cult our of our predilection for fear and superstition. In medieval France the Catholic church amassed a fortune through the selling of "indulgences" (instant removal of sin without the need for penance or remorse).

In the old days you really could buy a Stairway to Heaven.

And then there were the lucrative merchandise concessions – fingernails of Popes, splinters from the Cross, droplets of Stigmata. These would guarantee to lessen your days of suffering in purgatory (another literal place where all sorts of sado-masochistic fantasies were fulfilled).

Of course the universe abhors a vacuum so what rushed in to take the place of the Catholic Church?

News Corp!

Let's look at the similarities.

1. Both churn out fear inducing nonsense on a daily basis but particularly on a Sunday.

Fearful, superstitious people are easily controlled. The hierarchies of Religion and Media know this.

The early church-goers may have thought the Monarchy was corrupt, but they knew the real enemy was…

The Devil!

The readers of tabloid newspapers may be unhappy with the Government and the Bankers, but they know the real enemies are…

Unmarried mothers, Drug addicts and the Taliban!

This takes the heat off the actual power brokers and allows them to get away with all kinds of stuff.

2. Both are obsessed with sexuality

The Roman Catholics repress theirs, ensuring that their dirty little secrets explode in the most dysfunctional manner possible. Priests cannot marry but are protected when they abuse altar boys. Loving sex outside the contract of marriage is sinful, but rape within marriage is perfectly ok.

News Corp express theirs every which way but loose, managing to glorify and vilify simultaneously. They are fascinated by the sex lives of celebrities, politicians and rock stars – as long as the sex is extra marital, illegal or contains some sort of perversion. Loving sex is boring and not worth talking about.

3. Both are rapacious for money

The Roman Catholic church is one of the wealthiest institutions on the planet. Most of its dogma is man made (not passed down by Jesus as they imply). Just as the Virgin birth was added on later, the idea of priest celibacy didn't arrive until 1000 years after the crucifixion. Before then priests could marry, which meant the wealth they accumulated from collection boxes was inherited by wives and children. Celibacy ensured that the money went straight into the church coffers – not to their mistresses and (now illegitimate) children!

News Corp is another of the wealthiest institutions on the planet. Its stock in trade is bribery and corruption. They routinely bribed both the police for information and their journalists to keep quiet about it. Dodgy accountants ensured that Newscorp Investments have paid no corporation tax in the UK for the past 11 years, despite pre tax profits of nearly £1.4 billion.

4. Both have a triumvirate of power

The Catholics have a Father, Son and Holy Ghost – two male figures and an androgynous vapour or winged creature who acts as intercessionary mediator.

News Corp have Rupert, James and a token female string puller.

There was Rebekah, the pre-Raphaelite bird who transmogrified into Princess of Darkness, eager to do her Father's bidding.

And there's Wendi, aka Lady Macbeth, presiding over her assets more like a hawk than a dove. In the above picture she literally is the string puller! It's clear to see that she married for love!

Less holy trinity – more Monsters Ink.

Enough!

As humans, we are on a journey of evolution to higher conscious beings. It's a tough call and we're doing our best. We try to rise above things, to find the positive, to exercise compassion – but it's a daily struggle. Rupert and his empire seem hell bent on sending us backwards to the dark ages. They want to create a Planet of the Apes scenario in which we forget about our potential for brilliance and turn our focus to rage, sex and screeching – simultaneously if possible.

We need to do a 180 and start marching the other way towards a more positive, creative future – one free from fear and superstition.

Our minds may have evolved, but our souls need to follow suit.

The real Holy Spirit is the creativity that lies dormant inside each and every one of us. If we wake it up and join with the creative spirit in others, we can reclaim the media, change our lowest common denominator systems into highest common denominator ones and start building heaven on earth.

It ain't over till Our Lady sings. But for Rupert et al… stop hey what's that sound?

What the world needs now is NOT love

Burt Bacharach was wrong.

What the world needs now is a parent.

Rioting, looting kids? A parent would have picked up on the fact that the children were about to go bonkers and done something about it BEFORE the event. It stands to reason. It's the summer holidays - they're bored, with nothing to do and nowhere to go. The only thing they have to look forward to is the winter of discontent . Having been spoon fed a diet of doom and gloom from the world's media, they see no positive future.

Scamming, looting bankers? A parent would have nailed these guys. "Stop being so greedy". "Learn to Share". "Play nicely". You just don't DO that to other people.

Deceitful, looting politicians? Same thing - "Think about the consequences of your actions". "You're setting a bad example." "You're a big boy/girl now, you have to look after the others".

Ironically at a time when the world needs parents with "the right stuff", we're making parents out of children. Teenagers - either because they're bored or naïve - are having children of their own. Many of the rioting kids in London last week have no stable background and in many cases have grown up without a father.

Add to this crazy state of affairs the Ugly Sisters of Business and Media - and you have the perfect molotov cocktail.

Business is all about selling. We've exhausted traditional forms of selling (because we now have everything we need). In order to keep selling, businesses have had to be more creative – so now they sell Brands and Lifestyles. You may not need a phone but you need THIS phone. You may not need a pair of trainers, but you're a loser if you wear those trainers. You're a sexy, cool person if you wear THESE trainers.

The Media are in on this heinous scam. Their message is "Rich and famous is the only gig in town – and you don't need to be a decent, honest person to be rich and famous. In fact you don't even need to be educated".

The Media create celebrities, who promote lifestyle brands for CASH. "Wear this stuff and be like me". This is pretty much like hanging outside the school gates selling starter packs of crack cocaine.

Then, when all the kids are hooked on smack – either glassy eyed with hopelessness or crazy eyed with yearning, the politicians tell them to grow up.

Is this not the most ridiculous scenario in the world?

Smash the unholy trinity of Business, Politics and Media and bring in some parents.

Irony - not just a Pittsburg by-product

If I'm going to write about the soap opera previously known as News International, perhaps I need to adopt some tricks of the trade.

It's all about the headline.

In surveys 8 out of 10 people will read a headline, but only 2 out of 10 will go on to read the rest of the copy. Little wonder then that so much content is lacking in substance – it's irrelevant. How many times are we seduced into buying, only to be disappointed by what follows.

News International are masters of this craft. And now in a fitting irony, they have been hoisted by their own petard. In a revealing two hour interrogation, both Rupert and James Murdoch apparently had no idea what was going on within the organisation they ran. They hadn't read the story behind their own headlines.

Questions like… How did they think they were getting the information? Did they not find it odd that they were paying the legal fees of the hackers? When hacking was discovered why were the initial payouts so ridiculously high? Did they think this would nip the scandal in the bud?

There were no answers, just incoherent mumblings from Rupert and over repetition of words like "don't know, have to get back to you on that one, not sure but I'll find out" from the over zealous son and heir.

It's all about the buzz words (Sex! Scandal!) Who cares about the correct words.

"This is the most humble day of my life" is of course grammatically incorrect. But then Rupert is only head of the largest media corporation in the world, so no biggie.

It's all about what will stay in the mind of the reader.

Everyday masses of information comes towards us. We filter this into what gets remembered. The media have taken advantage of this for years. They can peddle rubbish then print an apology, knowing that no-one filters for apologies, they filter for sensation.

What was the lead in all the news coverage today? The lack of answers to the damning questions? Of course not! It's the three second caper with the foam pie. If this wasn't a set up I'll eat my hat. Who was the perpetrator – some political activist? No… it was an actor! With more security than Heathrow airport on full terrorist alert, there was no way a metal canister of foam could get through the x ray machines.

The Murdochs may not know how to be decent human beings, but they do know how the media circus works. Fighting them with committees and enquiries is a waste of time and money. We are now going to spend years and enormous sums of money informing thousands of people that their phones may have been hacked. Meanwhile, the real story has been buried – even the most stupid person in the land would have deleted any incriminating emails years ago.

And the headline?

When asked if the scandal would make him think about about what his headlines would say in the future, James stammered something about establishing an independent ethics board.

That would be a "no" then.

Creativity. Nailing jelly to a wall

On the whole we're pretty macho with our creativity. We don't like the airy-fairy nature of the ephemeral. We talk about wresting our creative demons to the ground and showing them who's boss.

Creativity isn't something we do, it's something we are.

For way too long masculine energy has ruled the world. At first this was a good thing. To be honest, we were all a bit bored in the agricultural age and were quite happy when men got all geeky and started inventing bits of machinery. It's one thing to look at rural pictures of loveliness on "beautiful boutique hotels of the world.com". It's quite another to cope with the mundane routine of unchanging days where nothing new or different ever happens.

Masculine energy shakes things up a little. It's busy and purposeful. (We only have to watch the journey of a sperm reaching an egg to know exactly how focused masculine energy can be). It gets things done.

Of course one could argue, that over the course of the last hundred years, too many things got done and we are now looking at the side effects of all that "doing". This is the point where Mother Nature pops her head in the door and is slightly alarmed by the chaos and mess created by all those boy's games. "I turn my back for five minutes!"

But wait! Creativity was supposed to be a feminine thing. The muse is female. If we want more creative solutions to the world's problems (cleaning up the mess of the last hundred years) we need to put women in charge. We need to go back to the harmony of the rural idyll.

Well no… not really. We can't flip flop from a masculine to a feminine way. "Tag you're 'it'… Your turn now." We are evolving creatures. We can't go backwards. Funnily enough, in our current state, we can't go forwards either – things are way too messed up for that.

But we can go sideways.

Cutting edge creativity requires a male and a female component. Luckily we have both elements within us – obviously in varying proportions. The idea (masculine) is incubated and birthed through the female. If the female is wounded, she cannot love the idea and bring it to term. If the male is wounded, he creates too many unloved and unlovely ideas without thought of the consequences.

It's the crime of the (last) century.

Enough's enough! We need a new plan. A merger. We need to join up, make friends and "play nicely" together. Because we have been so in awe of masculine energy, society has placed a high value on its attributes. We're all about the doing, focussing and goal setting… so obviously we try to "do" creativity. This is where we went wrong.

Put down the hammer. Creativity isn't something we do, it's something we are.