Transhuman Erotic Freedom

An Introduction to the Worship of Love

Photo by Jonathan Emmanuel Flickr/creative commons

Photo by Jonathan Emmanuel
Flickr/creative commons

Here is small clip* from A Course in Immortality, (en espanol, Un Curso En Inmortalidad), written as an Appendix for our upcoming book, The Unseen Journey (working title), about the erotic connection to cosmic technology. The Course’s complete table of contents can be found here. Tell us what you think either by commenting here or on Facebook/VenusPlusX or by private email (columbia@venusplusx.org).

The most direct, basic, physical manifestation of the reality of Love is experienced in erotic joy, in the intense experience of neurological orgasm, in which the stimulated sensorium explodes with joy as the individual consciousness briefly impinges on the reality of absolute Love.

And what should be our attitude towards this experience of momentary contact with maximum joy? Certainly not fear, though that is the reaction of far too many who have been told and/or come to believe that they are unworthy of pleasure.

What is the appropriate action of any person confronted with a vast goodness beyond any other human sensory experience? There can be only one answer.

Worship.

Worship erotic joy.

Worship the living experience of orgasm.

Worship the most basic sensory experience of Love.

Worship is the conscious act of surrendering one’s mind, one’s will, to the object of worship. Worship makes the worshiper more like that which is worshiped.

Worship of the orgasmic spirit of Love defeats barriers to interpersonal expression of Love through service. Worship opens the door of the mind to Truth, which directs our action.

Through erotic worship the human spirit is progressively attracted to higher levels of understanding, enjoyment, and service.

Those who would deny this first great step, this open and personal acceptance of a physical gift of Love, place a barrier between the human state and the progressive expression and experience of Love.

When worship of Love is only invoked in the abstract or in deep meditative states, extreme focus is required to experience enlightenment. By comparison, when the first step in the path of Love recognition and worship is taken in the erotic, growth of the consciousness to experience greater enlightenment is simplified and expedited for most people. All humanity knows erotic joy. The time has come for all humanity to acknowledge the supremacy of erotic joy and join in worship of this amazing, far too long ignored, gift of Love to humanity.

* All humanity knows erotic joy. If you are among the less than 10% of adults who have not yet experienced ecstatic orgasm, or for some reason you cannot, don’t feel left out! There are innumerable instances that are considered non-sexual experiences of erotic joy happening for you everyday. Maybe it’s your friend’s hand on your shoulder to comfort you when you needed it. Or that thrill that courses through your body during exercise or sports. Or how your pet makes you feel. Or when your child embraces you. Or that feeling of well being when you acknowledge the certainty that you are in the right place at the right time to turn a situation to the positive. Your internal love pathways are alive within you no matter what, so think of those as you read this.

Also see: Manifesto for The New Age of Sexual Freedom

Appendix available on-line for upcoming book

A Course in Immortality was written, and translated to Spanish (Un Curso En Inmortalidad), almost 2 years ago as preparation and background for our planned book on the erotic connection to cosmic technology. This course is an explicit, prescriptive guide to navigating the paths of individual and collective erotic destiny. When published, The Unseen Journey (working title) will have this series of papers (number 0.0 – 0.9) as its Appendix.

(Dan Massey and I cowrote A Course in Immortality, and just before Dan set out for higher shores unexpectedly in early 2013, we completed the first working draft of The Unseen Journey.)

by Alice Popkorn Flickr/creative commons

by Alice Popkorn
Flickr/creative commons

The gradually released excerpts from the upcoming book are meant to stimulate conversations and critiques with our formal editorial group, our informal network of sexual freedom advisors, here and abroad, and visitors to venusplusx.org. The Course in Immortality serves as background and a reference for this work. Around here, we crave criticism and feast on opportunities to revise our writings prior to formal publication. So . . . we hope to hear from more and more people over the coming months.

The first paper in the series serves as an introduction to our concepts within a framework that may be called, spiritual, by some; however, it is more about how anyone, believer and non-believer alike, can develop a personal consciousness of their true transhuman destiny.

Transhumanism is best described as a way of thinking about the world that nurtures creativity and progress, in your life and in the world around you. A transhuman, and you may already be one without knowing it, is anyone who can: (a) conceive of a better world ahead; and, (b) actualize these concepts in their everyday present. Everytime you think about a better world, you are experiencing the future. Pretty simple attitude but revolutionary at the same time. Try it for week and see what happens. Surprise yourself. It’s free.

In the upcoming book and elsewhere we refer to a Supreme Being, or The Supreme, not in the usual religious sense but as shorthand for the embodiment of cosmic LOVE. When we talk about worship it is in terms of happiness, pleasure, and the erotic, alone or in combination they are all aspects of erotic joy. Erotic senses built into each of us are activated (turned on) in both non-sexual and sexual experiences, from a friend’s hand on your shoulder that comforts you when you may have needed it to the experience of ecstatic orgasm, and everything in between. These are the aspects of cosmic technology, the delivery system for the power of LOVE, that are central to discovering your immortal destiny. The corporate religion industry offers to take control of your destiny while doing nothing for you or it, inserting itself as an entirely unneeded but nevertheless paid intermediary between you and whatever the cosmos actually holds for you. These are just contortions of your misguided cohorts and an another form of patriarchal enslavement.

Long ago, Dan and I set out to do nothing less than change the world by freeing humanity from the man-made constraints upon the fundamental freedoms we are born with. We focus on the coming New Age of Sexual Freedom because that signifies the end to racism and sexism throughout the world, eradicating this desperate, ultimate, and final bastion of those who would enslave us. Racism and sexism are at the root of all our world’s ills, everything from war to local policies and laws. The faster we wipe racism and sexism from the world the closer we come to that future better world.

In my recently released Manifesto for The New Age of Sexual FreedomI expand on this idea by unpacking the mechanics of human progress. Like transhumanism, there is nothing new about understanding the irresistible forward urge of progress, and practically all man-made religions (they are all man-made), secret cults, and philosophies, and movements, from Marxism to Feminism and Transhumanism, have attempted to talk about these mechanics. Progress has an observable ecology and when we work in harmony with it we are engaged in raising up cultures, communities, and civilizations, escorting them to a better future. There is even a formula for it, something I like to call the Peace Formula, that’s easy to remember: GET RID of everything that is old and coercive, useless, and inhumane; SALVAGE anything that is old that actually serves the best interests of the whole of humanity. And, REMIX that old and also good stuff with new, humane voluntary associations, ones that benefit all of humanity. Check out the complete Manifesto for some examples.

Here is small clip from The Course in Immortality, to start you on your way towards discovering your individual and collective erotic destiny. A complete table of contents can be found here. We encourage everyone to read all 10 papers in the course (they are not very long, just a little booklet) and check out our weekly or sometimes twice-weekly released excerpts. Tell us what you really think either by commenting here or on Facebook/VenusPlusX or by private email (columbia@venusplusx.org).

These prescriptions are based on examining and integrating rational human knowledge and understanding effective mental and spiritual technologies.

“Reverse engineering” the process can explain how personal immortality comes to be, can provide motivation to engage confidently the process, and show us what to expect.

Reverse engineering is the technique of analyzing a product or process to determine exactly how it works and why it is designed to work a certain way.

The benefit of reverse engineering is that, if you understand how a system is put together and works, what principles are involved in its operation, you can use it more intelligently, as well as potentially improve its operation or repurpose it.

Although manufacturers generally try to discourage reverse engineering of products in which they have a proprietary intellectual interest, no such conflict exists with the cosmic government of the universe.

Spiritual technology is something quite different from proprietary products and processes—it is a gift of Love to humankind.

We know, or think we know, a great deal about faith, even lack of faith, as an experience, but those insights portray imagined products of spiritual development without providing any convincing explanation of the how or why.

These articles are meant to correct that misunderstanding.

We believe based on our own and observed experience that, if you understand how spiritual growth technology actually works in the universe, you will be more willing and able to participate in the important work ahead of us as a global society.

Join us in manifesting The New Age of Sexual Freedom.

 

What is real and genuine?

This is a newly carved out space to periodically share excerpts from our new book prior to its publication later this year. We welcome (we crave) your comments, suggestions, and critiques.

We already shared an excerpt pertaining to the unification of eros and agape, along with a little wisdom borrowed from Goldilocks. Next, we began to introduce the concept of the Supreme Being, not as a religious construct or mystical superstition, but as a logical conclusion of and representation of actualized Love. In fact, substituting the word, Love, for the words, Supreme Being, or the Supreme, will always be factually correct. Love is the cosmic power that connects us to each other and all available elements of cosmic technology.

by Alice Popkorn Flicker/creative commons

by Alice Popkorn
Flicker/creative commons

How does an individual learn to unify the experiences of eros and agape? There is no one specific answer to this question. The necessary path must be found and established within the experiences of the individual and will not generally be the same for all. But there are some obvious consistencies in one’s approach that can be identified as signposts along the way.

Since people acquire their initial concepts of agape from socialization of myth, and since such concepts tend to be wildly distorted, even while preserving a thin thread of Truth, we begin by examining what is real and genuine in the worshipful experience of agape. Only in this way can we know we are talking about the same experiences for all people, even when those experiences vary greatly in detail.

The simplest and most efficient explanation is that orgasms and eroticism in general are directly connected and a key component of one’s adoration of the Supreme.

The key understanding is that the Supreme, as the creator-person of the universe, enjoys a personal connection to every human through which every thought, emotion, attitude, belief, pain, or pleasure of that human is shared and appreciated by the Supreme. The enabler of this contact is the Spirit of Truth, the active element of the Supreme in the human mind. No one is ever alone in the universe, though they may suffer from personal and social isolation at times.

The practice of agape is not a matter of personal whim. The Spirit provides to every human a certain conviction of Truth—that which is real in the universe and consistent in the intellectual mind, and so, in human experience. Individuals who ignore these leadings because they conflict with greater attention to greed and fear, or shame and guilt, lose any rational basis to consciously choose the Supreme, abandoning their fate to the leadings of their self-centered and primitive human mind.

Genuine, vitally powerful agape depends on the willingness of the human to set aside preconceived notions of personal importance and desire in favor of the subtle direction of the Supreme. Fortunately, human engagement with the spirit is a self-correcting process that leads to significant personal enlightenment. In effect, one must first decide to exchange one’s personal desires and attitudes, no matter how deeply felt (or how shallow), for the inspiration of the best ideal response to life circumstances. But once this decision has been sincerely made, the Supreme can take over management of the uplift of personal desires and attitudes. You will never be forced to act or not to act in specific ways. Rather, you will always choose something, be satisfied with the result, and gain further insight into your choice, which may affect subsequent choices you make.

Although the surrender of one’s selfish desires takes both time and effort, the initial step of conceiving of engagement with the Supreme as the guiding principle of one’s decisions opens the door to progressive enlightenment. Once freely admitted to the privacy of personal decisions and attitudes, the Supreme is capable of refining and upgrading these decisions and attitudes to be in line with cosmic realities and destinies. One has begun the process of becoming fully human and a partner with the Supreme in the constructive development of the universe, and one’s self.

It is the adoption of this enlightened agape that makes possible the unification of eros with the divine experience. Without such conscious preparation to bring these two ideas together, eros and agape, we are forced to run the risk that unreformed egos may serve only base human desires that lead to exploitation and abuse of others, turning the human mind from adoration of Truth. Fortunately, the adoration of Truth provides a baseline vital experience to which eros may be effectively integrated.

© VenusPlusX, 2013. All rights reserved.

Already available now as a companion reference, A Course in Immortality (and in Spanish, Un Curso En Inmortalidad), which will be published as an included Appendix in the new book.

Desire and accomplishment are inseparable

With the last released excerpt of our upcoming book on sex and spirituality, we introduced the concept of an eventuating Supreme Being, free from superstition or myth, and available for both the believer and non-believer. Here we are continuing this thread, and welcome your feedback.

3759375253_2de9c1992e_bIt is difficult for some of us to imagine how a being can be identical to a desire. Are not our desires just feelings that drive us to act? Are not beings just consciousnesses capable of action? When we unify the desire for action with the accomplishment of that action as one and the same occasion we enter the universe of effective action. Here the desire and accomplishment are inseparably identified.

We seek to perfect this experience in our own lives through the practice of the presence of Love—our “communion” with our desire to do good towards others and our experience of oneness with the Supreme. Although every human has the innate ability to experience this, major enterprises (e.g., human religions) have been established on the false idea that a third party, perhaps a priest, is a necessary intermediary between a human and this highly personal and individual communion. Or that one must have a detailed gnosis of the qualities of God in order to “worship the right way.”

Nonsense!

This communion (our desire merged with the entirety of the Supreme) assures that the true desire is realized insofar as it is synchronous with the manifestation of the Supreme.
© VenusPlusX, 2013. All rights reserved.

Already available now as a companion reference, A Course in Immortality (and in Spanish, Un Curso En Inmortalidad), which will be published as an included Appendix in the new book.

New “SecureDrop” is a game changer

Guardian Launches SecureDrop System for Whistleblowers to Share Files

We took to Facebook the other day, so thrilled to see that The Guardian has just launched something called SecureDrop for use by anonymous whistleblowers to securely submit documents and data. Our first reaction?

This . . . will be a real game-changer.

Flickr/creative commons

Flickr/creative commons

Game-changer really understates the significance of this matriculation from grassroots efforts such as Anonymous, a loose, silent brotherhood of freedom fighters, and WikiLeaks, a bold and successful effort to organize these nascent efforts. Now the Pulitzer-winning Guardian, a 200-year-old news organization with a growing international media presence, and important progressive voice, has stepped up to formalize the very first secure drop that whistleblowers anywhere can safely bring material directly to the public.

This makes a huge, planet-wide, progressive stride towards our better future, a world free from nationalism and war and the racism on which they are based.

The Guardian’s SecureDrop will be managed by Freedom of the Press Foundation and Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg was a hero of my generation of anti-war activists, bringing us the secret Pentagon Papers when we needed it the most, and helped hasten the end the Vietnam War. (The Foundation accepts tax-deductible donations, if you can help that way.)

“A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know.”  —Judge Murray Gurfein, Pentagon Papers case, June 17, 1971

Any new material received through SecureDrop will be professionally evaluated, corroborated, and then carefully time-released to the public, protecting the sources to the full extent of the law, while arming ordinary citizens with the information they deserve to know about world governments. Lawyer, author, and international columnist Glenn Greenwald was the Guardian journalist who took receipt of Edward Snowden‘s waterfall of government surveillance secrets, and won his own Pulitzer Prize (and George Polk Award) for doing it. (In 2014, Greenwald went on to found First Look Media and its first online publication, The Intercept.)

Too many people have wrongly labeled whistleblowers outright traitors (Chelsea Manning, for now still incarcerated, and Edward Snowden, in temporary exile, and even Greenwald, and just as they once did Daniel Ellsberg), but all of these accusers are misinformed luddites, failing, tragically, to see that there will be no peace in our collective future unless we live in a world where there are no secrets, no necessity for them under any circumstances.

Manning, Snowden, and Greenwald rightly, and now the Guardian news organization, know with certainty that they have made giant steps toward releasing humankind from the enslavement imposed upon us by a consortium of fear-driven, power-drunk oligarchs who occupy themselves, not with the health or well-being of the all people, but willing do absolutely anything and go to any lengths necessary to control anyone they possibly can in order to protect their selfish special interests, whatever they might be.

We have brave hearts in our midsts, again when we need it the most. We need more of it.

Never fear and never stop exposing the truth and disinformation around you, starting at the grassroots upwards, even to SecureDrop yourself. You can do you part, so what’s stopping you?.

For more about the progressive transference from old and coercive systems to new, and completely voluntary associations, check out our Manifesto for the New Age of Sexual Freedom.

Related: Internet Giants Erect Barriers to Spy Agencies 

Voluntary sex work is destined to evolve into a legitimate Sexual Healing Industry

Jamie Raskin, law professor and Maryland State Senator, is trying in vain to explain to the luddites in Congress why free speech shouldn’t cover things like bribery to politicians, recently okayed by the US Supreme Court in several rulings. He wisely invokes prostitution to get their attention, to show the context of free speech, but it’s just used as a expositional device.

2309188862_4769c9c6fd_bBut let’s take his point in another direction. The legalization or decriminalization of prostitution is a campaign VenusPlusX and other civil rights organizations have long-championed because it is a necessary and often vital part of life and there are many reasons why it hasn’t gone away on its own, it will not go away, and it’s ready for real reform so that it constitutionality can be protected as vigorously as any other human right.

The desire for love, for touch, for compassion, and for companionship and the improvement of physical health doesn’t have and shouldn’t have any boundaries or interference by governments or religions because our erotic senses are foundational to our connection with others and the cosmic technology around us.

Crime, sex trafficking, and financial exploitation accompany sex work only because it has always been criminalized.

If money paid to a sex worker (or a casual dinner and a movie with a new boyfriend) leads to sexual activity, why should this warrant any interference at all. The dinners, movies, jewelry, etc., accepted by girlfriends and wives is the very same thing as the commercial transaction made by a sex worker.

So, let’s consider a new model: A Sexual Healing Industry.

Note that this industry and network of professionals already exists. Highly skilled masseurs have become well known by word of mouth, as empaths who can safely shepherd you towards greater understanding of yourself and your body. They see you in well suited surroundings although right now they don’t explicitly advertise themselves as sexual healers. Why shouldn’t every sex worker who is involved in commercializing their skill on a voluntary basis be able to put out a shingle in a safe environment?

“Oh, by the way, I am going out to my yoga class and I have an appointment with my sexual healer after that so I’ll see you for dinner around 6.” Why not? This is the future, get ready for it.

Let us know what you think by commenting here or contact us at columbia@venusplusx.org.

 

 

 

A Manifesto For The New Age of Sexual Freedom

The figure of Columbia, with a gender-fluid, two-spirit American native as the model, is VenusPlusX's icon for The New Age of Sexual Freedom

The figure of Columbia, with a gender-fluid, two-spirit American native as the model, is VenusPlusX’s icon for The New Age of Sexual Freedom

Editor’s note: republishing it by popular demand …

The New Age of Sexual Freedom is synonymous with the end of sexism and racism (the greatest form of sexual oppression), and the end of nationalism for the purposes of war (the greatest form of racism), in the shortest amount of time (because we are killing each other).

 

One of our most frequently asked questions is Why A New Age Of Sexual Freedom? Also, what’s that got to do with human rights — equality rights, immigration rights, environmental protections, and safeguarding net neutrality?

In honor of the relaunch of VenusPlusX, I am answering this question in the form of a manifesto, for the express purpose of continuing this conversation on line, which was developed for the most part with Dan Massey before he went on to other shores. Your thoughts and comments are welcomed. We crave your criticism.

To fully understand why VenusPlusX frames the quest for a more perfect world in terms of Sexual Freedom, specifically erotic freedom, first widen the lens a bit for the long view.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons

We are all capable of imagining an ideal state of being wherein every baby is born into the world free from all forms of discrimination and enslavement, and where human rights reign, including sexual freedom. These children are free to express whatever their personality wishes, to live and prosper wherever and however they determine. At last, there are no barriers preventing an era of world-wide mutual cooperation and support. Living Peace.

This state of being signifies that we have finally attained the most fundamental and personal human right, our inherited and inherent sexual freedom.  Only the achievement of universal sexual freedom, or erotic freedom, will symbolize our civilization’s full maturation — the point when everything that ever interfered with Peace on earth and good will among humans has been eliminated. No more sexism, racism, ageism, certainly no more war or destruction of the earth’s natural resources. Just universal pluralism, a world wide family.

Sexual Freedom is also important in another more basic way, and why VenusPlusX has propogated the more appropriate erotic freedom to get beyond words and get physical. Each human is endowed with health-promoting erotic senses. When a friend puts their hand on your shoulder when you need it, both of you feel comforted. Your electro-chemical systems fire up with the thrill of exercise and sport, and other activities you feel passionate about. Even your adrenalin in an emergency rushes through your every passageway. Erotic senses are your human senses and they operate asexually in numerous ways and also through sexual pleasure all the way to the ecstatic orgasm, something more than 90% experience. All of your erotic senses bring comfort, warmth, and safety in various dimensions everyday, igniting and awakening us to the larger world, even the cosmos itself.

And, more. Whether you perceive pleasure from your erotic senses as the stairway to heaven or just something that makes you feel better, more connected . . . more creative, our awakened erotic senses inevitably bring about much needed healing.These senses bring us into the realm of Love, and the expression of that Love, through Truth (consistency in real time), Beauty (harmony), and Goodness (Love IS the desire to do good to others). Again, another reason the attainment of sexual freedom is crucial to all human progress.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons

Your experince of your erotic senses may be mostly inexplicable, but they are there for a reason. You may have felt these, even for a fleeting moment, now try to put together as many consecutive moments just like them, and have a happy day.

These erotic senses are to be revered, even worshipped, for they are what connect each of us with every other human in the world, and beyond. 

It’s possible to open the lens wider still, and try to take the longest view possible, to understand how our perfecting world can progress speedily to the ideals we have in mind.

The progression and transformation of civilizations over millenia pass through many stages, from their most primitive roots all the way to universal pluralism (worldwide Peace). The attainment of Peace is the direct result of obtaining the most fundamental right of sexual freedom, the holy grail of all other freedoms.

Progress is a creative act, the ability to transform our selves and our world by adapting to better ways of doing things. Progress is always active and is often upstepped under certain positive circumstances.

Progress has its own evolution and ecology, always preserving and building upon what is old (historical) and also good (humane) while gradually dispensing with all other forms that are old and bad (inhumane, coercive), always in a state of forging a new and better art of living that is free from all forms of local and global enslavement.

All efforts to strengthen communities, the health, housing, and employment of one’s neighbors, especially those most in need, are surely part of this new age. Hospice is an excellent example of an eleventh-century global concept worthy preservation. So is the Internet, now unfortunately under attack by special interest profiteers who would impinge on its free and productive use by everyone on an equal basis. 

The military-industrial complex is an easy example of an inhumane and coercive system requiring redirection (say, a green army to protect our environment).

Progress’s natural ecology, then, becomes reflective of how we are getting from Point A (now) to Point B, that perfected world. This concept is nothing new since its been long recognized by agrarians, religions, cults, marxism, feminism, and the transhuman and futurist movement. Progress always synthesizes all that is good, forms worthy of survival and preservation, with everything that is new and also good, on micro and macro levels, so therein is our simple equation, what I like to call a formula for peace. And, progress has scientifically proved to us that the more you apply this formula for peace each day, the better today becomes, not just for you but for everyone that you touch.

Progress is a constant, gradual, sometimes cataclysmic, transfer from coercive systems— created during intermediate and often painful stages of civilization—to new, humane, voluntary associations. 

Wherever and whenever an approach, a thing, a process, whatever … is coercive (enslaves another human), a humane alternative can be found with just a tad of creativity. (Love, Truth, Beauty, and Goodness are good places to start looking.)

Expanding and improving voluntary associations are the result of creative, thoughtful, and for the most part selfless people working for the good of humanity, a silent form of mercy on a mass scale. There are those who go through life in an uncaring trance, not really present in any moment to make a lasting contribution to the evolution of civilization, or even be aware of much that is going on around them. The rest of us have to wake them up! (Maybe once they realize that enjoyment of sexual freedom is key to something better, they might become more attentive,see above.)

Most dangerous, the generational uncaringness (learned or invented) of people “asleep at the wheel” turns them into blind fodder for the relative few who would amass power, enslave them, and sacrifice their humanity through man-made, always corrupt at their core, coercive systems. The longer and deeper these maligning systems persist, the more hopelessness ensues and even more people drift into this semi-awake state.

So, there’s no time to wait! Arise!

Eventual, inevitable, universal pluralism is built of mutual
respect and individual responsibility, and is only made possible
through the creative energy of Love, a very
high form of Peace wherein we do good to one another.

 Related: A Personal Call to Action

Is Love God?

From time to time we have been releasing portions of our pre-publication manuscript for an upcoming that Dan and I completed shortly before he transitioned to higher shores. It’s working title is The Unseen Journey, and, as always, we crave your comments and critiques.

This included a discussion of the conjunction of eros and agape, how their false division has created many falsehoods, harmful and entirely unnecessary, that have crippled humankind’s understanding of the direct connection between sexuality and spirituality. In this excerpt we are introducing the concept of a Supreme Being, not as a religious construct or mystical superstition, but as a logical conclusion of and representation of actualized Love.

Love is in the Air flickr/creative commons

Love is in the Air
flickr/creative commons

When better understood, the simple sentence, “Love is God,” contains and summarizes the true and final answer to all human seeking and speculation about the meaning of existence.

All of us have personal knowledge of Love, the experience of Love, from our own lives. One of the greatest and most durable linguistic definitions of Love has been revealed to humanity in the statement, “Love is the desire to do good to others.” In thinking about this statement, we can observe that various things are necessarily true in order for this single statement to be universally true.

In one sense, “a god” is something which humans consider controlling and directive in their lives. These gods have been everything from rocks to other human beings, as well as varied ideas and spiritual ideals. But one logical and durable definition of God is “that than which nothing greater can be conceived”—in effect, a Supreme Being. [This definition, first proposed by St. Anselm of Canterbury in 1078, has generally been accepted by philosophers of vitological ontology since then and achieved broad recognition in the work of the great metamathematician, Kurt Gödel, who reduced Anselm’s argument to an ontological proof of the essential reality of such a God.]

As U.S. President Bill Clinton once explained to us, there are many possible meanings attached to the simple word “is.” The most perfect and complete meaning of “is” necessarily becomes pure identity, not merely congruence, similarity, or inclusion, all of which could be incorrectly assumed. When we say, “Love is God,” we mean that the beings designated by the words “Love” and “God” are the same thing.

You may have heard it said, “God is love, but love is not god,” an utterly false and terribly misleading statement. Love most certainly is God. Not a power or an emanation of some being called “God,” but the actual real thing. Where Love is, God is, for they are one and the same, eternally indistinguishable. To avoid confusion with lesser human concepts of pure deity, we use the name, Supreme Being (or just the Supreme) to designate the fullest possible meaning of “Love is God.”

Taken together, “Love is God” means that the desire to do good to others is identically the same as the Supreme Being of all creation.
© VenusPlusX, 2013. All rights reserved.

Already available now as a companion reference, A Course in Immortality (and in Spanish, Un Curso En Inmortalidad), which will be published as an included Appendix in the new book.

Misogyny in the news, at last

Editor’s Note: There are few if any links in this post about the recent mass murderer because we have to stop sensationalizing perpetrators instead of sympathizing with the victims.

 

[Unfortunately]. . . we don’t see misogyny as an ideology, we see it as a given for young men.

— Jessica Valenti, Author, Guardian columnist, and founder of Feministing.com (@JessicaValenti)

God bless the most recent mass shooting victims. Their senseless sacrifice may mark the beginning of a serious discussion about the evils of misogyny, and Valenti is among the few journalists to hit the nail on the head about the root cause of this tragedy, and all the proceeding tragedies, not just mass murders but the 8 youths murdered every day in this country and the thousands of honor killings in places like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and, of course, rape.

Flickr/CreativeCommons

Flickr/CreativeCommons

The roots of racial, sexual, and gender oppression are both overly established and overly ignored, and delaying The New Age of Sexual Freedom.

Misogyny is so endemic in our culture, such a root cause of so many ills (wars, starvation, inequality), women don’t even realize they are unknowingly (and often knowingly) themselves instrumental in strengthening these suffocating roots. Mothers teach their toddlers what their mothers taught them about deference to males. Even ardent feminists might not curtail this deferential behavior in every instance of child-rearing. That is our sad state of affairs, and activists working on all fronts have to keep this subject on the front burner now that it has a running start no matter what their special focus is because each one can trace its roots to misogyny and sexual and racial oppression at the core.

While  ignoring the enlarged picture of how much sexual oppression permeates and is ruining society, most media coverage of this recent mass shooting has shown so little restraint in glamorizing the young and good-looking man that is responsible, much more than for his young and not-so-camera-ready predecessors who didn’t leave behind long manifestos and polished YouTube selfless.  

Media is just another corporation commercializing the misery of the powerless after all, but still. Even liberal media are fawning over this kid and making his victims practically invisible in their coverage, because, shucks, he’s so attractive-looking. 

But there’s something different this time. In the California shooting we are presented with a shooter directly from central casting, a beautiful, erudite boy at war with himself, whose actions are not summarily damned but analyzed in a way to explain his heinous behavior.  This is so much more interesting than profiling any of his victims. What’s the matter with us?

Organizations such as Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence are there educate us and deserve our support, by why do we continue having so much trouble galvanizing grassroots action, boots on the ground, to challenge the notion that 8 children can be murdered everyday in this country because its just the cost of being an open (and armed) society. This daily tragedy and shame is only highlighted when there is a mass shooting because there is an expected and familiar script, a storm of consumer interest then radio silence again.

In a world we we care for each other and understand the implications of our action, male privilege is no longer a given, it doesn’t exist at all. Like any other privilege it is something only to be selflessly bestowed on those with less privilege. Those that don’t yet understand this essential truth are impoverished in a way that no conquest or accomplishment can ever rectify, so we must god bless them too, and pray that they someday soon obtain the values to understand their own behavior and change it, for their sake and for the rest of us.

 

Also see:

VIDEO: Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes (@ChrisHayes) discuss misogyny embedded in our culture

A Gentleman’s Guide to Rape Culture

“If I Can’t Have Them, No One Will”: How Misogyny Kills Men 

The Erotic Vitalizes Life

Here is another excerpt from our upcoming book, The Unseen Journey (working title), all about the connection between the erotic and spirituality. A first step is to start you thinking analytically about sex, reproduction, and the erotic senses so you can understand their distinct differences. We are still editing the final manuscript so all comments are welcomed.

Flickr Creative Commons

Flickr
Creative Commons

Sex is most definitely not about penis-vagina copulation, although that is the one expression of sex everyone learns about and most people will practice, thinking that there are no alternatives. In fact, penis-vagina copulation is not really about sex at all—it is about reproduction. It seems that evolution has assured reproduction by embedding the supporting organs and activities within the vital erotic functions of the human pelvic systems. But it is mistaken to believe that the reproductive function is the only factor dictating the emergence of compelling erotic satisfaction.

In reality, the erotic senses are where the story should properly begin. All universe creatures are endowed with erotic senses; however, only physical biohosts actually reproduce. The erotic senses are essential to vitalizing life in all forms, whether any reproductive capability exists at all. And there are a great many possible and gratifying forms of erotic stimulation (individual or group) that provide no pathway to reproduction and are vitally valuable in and of themselves when properly understood and employed. 

Considered are all levels of the erotic senses, not just ecstatic orgasm, but all happiness and all pleasure. That warm feeling you get when someone lays that hand upon your arm or back to comfort you or to show admiration and friendship is pleasure from the very same senses.
© VenusPlusX, 2013. All rights reserved.

Already available now as a companion reference, A Course in Immortality (and in Spanish, Un Curso En Inmortalidad), which will be published as an included Appendix in the new book.