The Seductiveness of Platonic Love

JUST SAY LOVE
The seductiveness of Platonic Love.by David J. Mauriello
Is “spiritual’ love the hottest love of all?

Literature and legend are replete with tales of the alchemist attempting to discover
the formula that will turn base metal into gold. And many of us remember the story of
Ponce de Leon and his quest for the fountain of youth.

Stagewright Films’ premier production JUST SAY LOVE exposes both
tales as metaphors for the truth that we are both “golden” and “ageless” , not in
body but in spirit.

And this should be great news because even the most beautiful of bodies have their
bad hair days and grow old while our spiritual selves enjoy endless good health,
beauty and sexual vigor.

Before you say “aw shucks” to the connotation of dry, pedantic philosophical wisdom
and whimsy that the word “spiritual” might elicit, take heart. JUST SAY LOVE is a
lusty yet sublime story of love and the law of attraction that portrays “spirit” as a
muscle, real and practical as our biceps, pecs, heart, you name it and yes our sexual
organs.

It’s common sense that all muscles need exercising and we have no problem in seeing
when the afore mentioned body parts are calling for a workout. Problem is that we
forget to exercise our spiritual muscle because we can’t see it; we have to
experience it.

JUST SAY LOVE tells us exactly how to do that in this parable-like story of
Guy, (Matthew Jaeger) a student of Plato and Doug (Robert Mammana) a hunky
construction worker who is looking for more than a stroll in the park to blow off
some steam. From their first fiery encounter that would make one believe that their
relationship can never move beyond physical addiction alone, to the sublime “you’d be
my wings if I had them” the film becomes a how- to manual for finding joy and
fulfillment and challenges us to consider that helping each other to grow spiritually
is the paramount ingredient in and the real paradigm for personal relationships.

Advertisement

MAKING THE CRUELTY CONNECTION

A (fictitious) Newspaper Report Part 4 (1995 edited April 2011)

Imagine the following headlines on the front page of major newspapers and on covers of major magazines across the world —-

WORLD IS ASTOUNDED BY PLUMMETING RATES IN VIOLENT CRIMES,TEENAGE SUICIDE, PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL DISEASES 

Decline connected directly to the closing of factory farms, animal research labs, puppy mills.

Preservation of rainforests also has positive effect.

The discovery of an electricity-like energy that connects every living thing on our planet, one to the other, has led to conclusive evidence that the mass killing of sentient animals in our slaughter houses inflicts the same damage to a person’s psychological health as a punch in the stomach does to the physical body.

The consequences of this connection are amazing. Stopping cruelty can now be considered an act of SELF DEFENSE, the same self defense employed by a person thwarting off a physical attacker!

Discoverer’s call it making the CRUELTY CONNECTION.

The shocking and astounding evidence mounts and leads to the virtual conclusion that, just as ingesting bad food makes a person ill, negative experiences suffered unnecessarily by sentient beings at the hands of man can poison all of us. The effects of this “invisible poison” range from mental disorders and depression to frustrations leading to violent crimes, AND may even be linked to immune -suppression linked diseases such as AIDS.

CRUELTY BECOMES A MAJOR CRIME

No longer can an animal research proponent use the arugment: to save a child we must kill animals in research. For the very act of the cruelty involved in that research is making all children ill,including the very ones intended to be saved. The implication is that compassion has a healing effect and that the elimination of cruelty will keep the child healthy to begin with.

A consortium of animal rights organizations will soon release their findings in a paper that defines Cruelty as any act or behavior that inflicts pain unnecessarily for reasons motivated by luxury/vanity sport, or intellectual curiosity. This avoids the arguments such as: what about Eskimos eating meat, animals in the wild eating each other or even the question of becoming a vegetarian. Once the facts are out and the public sees the connection to their own health, animal rights researchers believe that the appropriate steps will be taken. Says one animal rights official. “If a person sees a speeding truck bearing down on them, the person gets out of the way. Once our study hits the public, what each person must do to protect themselves will be as clear as jumping out of the truck’s path. Cruelty is a speeding truck; let’s eliminate it.”

STUDY CONFIRMS PHILOSOPHY OF INTERCONNECTEDNESS OF SPECIES

The study holds that we should not be surprised that this invisible link between all life forms exists. All of us have experienced the vibrational effect another person can have on us. Our language is replete with words and sayings such as “team spirit” “being psyched up” and indeed it is this very connection that leaders call upon when they talk of patriotism.

For ages, the great philosophers and religious teachers have preached that good thoughts beget good things, that thoughts ARE things. Recently practitioners of Transcendental Mediation have proven that if a certain percentage of people meditate in a given area, on peace and love, crime rates go down, and on a personal level, blood pressure can be lowered.

Jung’s “collective unconscious” speaks of a cosmic cloud enveloping our world and raining down upon it the contents of the cloud.  The cloud is inherently good, but as it collects the ongoing thought/behaviour patterns from all life on earth, negative signals competing with positive signals , can distort the cloud into negativity. The result is an invisble rain shower, analogous to the acid rain caused by chemical factory smokestacks. This invisible negative rain -shower affects a person’s inherent well being with psychological ills that eventually lead to physical disease.

FACTORY FARMS, SLAUGHTERHOUSES WORST POLLUTANTS

Just as a chemical factory sends poisons into the air, the immeasurable suffering that animals experience on factory farms and in the slaughter houses is bombarding the invisible ethers and is so distorting them with negativity that not only are people being made ill, but so are other animals as well as the winds, rains, seasons, growth of plants and amounts of sunshine. The leads to the theory that cataclysmic earth shifts could occur.

What we sow, we reap, takes on an immediate and ominous meaning.

VICTIMS CAN SUE PERPETRATORS OF CRUELTY

Just as now non-smokers can accuse a smoker of causing them injury, we can accuse those who commit cruelty of committing crimes against ourselves and our children. “When a person scares off a deer in the forest so that a hunter can’t shoot it, the person can now claim it is act of self-defense.” states one animal rights official, “furthermore, once the hunter sees that he himself will suffer from an act of cruelty, apart from being called a criminal, it would appear that all logical persons would lay down their guns.”

STUDY FORTHCOMING

A detailed paper from the consortium will be published soon. In the meantime it is advised the people immediately write their legislators asking that reviews be made of the conditions on factory farms, slaughterhouses, research laboratories, and puppy mills. Animal breeding and ownership of pets might well come under the same scrutiny as having children, ‘for once again we must remember the cruelty connection”, an offical states, ” the irresponsible pet owner who chains a puppy outside in freezing weather is committing a crime against you and me. The victims of abuse, children or animals include all of us.”

Animals rights is no longer a fringe cause, a case of the overly sentimental, or a question of ethics: it is the prevention of crime and a call to self defense.

TWO ALBERTS QUOTED

Albert Einstein called for “a new way of thinking”. Albert Schweitzer called “for a reverence for all life.” Intuitively both these great men have tapped into this invisible link that now, erupted by the intense negativity of man’s bad choices has manifested itself as a deadly psychological acid-rain via the animals that share the earth with us.

PREAMBLE TO THE REPORT PROMISES HARMONY

The preamble of the report has been already made public. It states: “Universe” means “one sound”. Now perhaps all of us will sing it, and when we do we will return to the harmony inherent in creation, we will return to harmony in quantum leaps, an ever quickening of higher consciousness, of attunement and balance, for what you are about to read will resonate in the song which is your soul, and upon hearing it you will recognize that its voice is yours, and as you sing it to others and they sing it to you everyone has everything and so you have no need to want but for one thing: the desire to sing. 

The Connection

The Connection

 

The Connection by David J. Mauriello ©

There was a child who talked to friends that only he and other children could see.

One day, after his mother put him out in his play pen under the apple tree that was pink and white with blossoms, the boy laughed and said, “Sumbata leq eli puswah.”

“Abatta wi?” asked one of his angel friends.

Gurgling with laughter the boy nodded and suddenly his dear angel friend Abatta bounded over the fence.

The boy and Abatta hugged and kissed and rolled over and over their limbs entwined.

“Ahee,” laughed the boy. “Grwoff, grwoff,” answered Abatta, his tongue licking the boy’s face and hair.

“Fa se tour wick a lat twoo se? the boy asked.

Abatta thought for a moment. He wasn’t sure he could grant the boy’s wish. A breeze shook the branches of the apple tree creating a shower of blossoms. Joyfully, the two friends interpreted this as a sign that Abatta would remain in the boy’s world as the boy had requested.

The boy’s mother called out “Bobby.” As she approached her precious child in his play pen she observed a large dog standing next to the boy. She felt a chill in her veins for the dog was bigger than the boy and had an unearthly look about him. Especially it’s eyes. They were golden and shining like the sun.

“Shoo, go away,” she snarled. Hoping to frighten the beast off, she picked up a large stick and waved it menacingly.

Abatta, who had no experience with animosity, was confused. He leaped from the pen and disappeared over the fence.

Bobby cried “Noo.”

His mother embraced Bobby, showering his tear filled face with kisses. “Don’t be afraid, he’s all gone, all gone. Big bad monster is all gone.”

But Bobby cried even more and reached his small hands in the direction where Abatta had jumped the fence.

“Abatta, Abatta,” cried Bobby when his father entered the bedroom later that day.

“What is he saying?” the father asked.

“He’s still frightened. That dog..”

“Oh yes. Don’t worry. I had my laboratory assistants hunt the animal down. No one has claimed him and he’s a wonderful specimen. Just what my students needed to practice their surgery techniques.”

“But how do you know it’s the same dog?”

“You said it was very large and it had strange eyes that had a golden glow.”

While feeding Bobby the next day, his mother noticed his face darken. For a moment he didn’t move, then he convulsed in the high chair, vomiting his food. He screamed as if he was in great pain. Minutes later Bobby and his mother were in an ambulance being driven rapidly to the hospital.

Bobby had stopped screaming but appeared to be in a state of shock.

“They don’t know what’s wrong?” His mother shook her head as Bobby’s father hugged her in the waiting room.

“We’ll keep him over night,” said a doctor,” and put him through more tests tomorrow. Why don’t you go home and try to get some rest.”

Finally Bobby’s mother fell asleep. His father, puzzled and concerned, couldn’t sleep and went to his study to review some of the work his students had done in the research laboratory that day.

The folder was marked “Sunny”, the name given to the stray dog because of the unusual color of this eyes. The date that Sunny was captured was noted. There was also a complete description of the dog and the specifics of the experiment that it had endured that day.

“Fractured left front leg with hammer. Animal kept conscious to study full effect of trauma. Vocal cords cut to eliminate screaming. First major surgery for the student in charge. Required repeated blows to fracture the bone. Animal fully restrained by harnesses. Convulsions. Incontinence.”

The next day one of Sunny’s hind legs was broken and repaired with a steel pin.

At the hospital Bobby went into severe convulsions and had to be given great amounts of pain killers. His temperature rose to an alarming number.

“Sunny’s temperature is dangerously high,” one of the students observed, “and his heart is very erratic”. He turned to Bobby’s father. “I recommend that we schedule the open heart experiment immediately before the heart deteriorates, robbing us of any meaningful results.”

Sunny, fully conscious, was forced to lie on a metal table on his back. Harnesses bound him; only his ears, eyelids and tail could move. His four paws were each tied and secured outwardly so that his chest and stomach were totally exposed and vulnerable. As the scalpel cut Sunny’s body, students exposed his internal organs by pulling on his muscles and bones with metal tongs.

The dog’s heart could be seen beating rapidly. A student slipped a gloved hand into Sunny’s chest.

“God, it’s beating in my hand!” gasped the student in an excited and triumphant voice.

Careful not to break the heart’s connection to Sunny’s body, the student held the dog’s heart so that the other students could see and marvel at it. In their excitement they did not see the light draining from Sunny’s eyes. But when the room darkened they looked about mystified.

At the hospital, the machine monitoring Bobby’s heart began to beep faster, a warning that the boy’s heart was failing. The nurse rang the alarm and doctors and nurses came running.

At the laboratory, Bobby’s father nodded to the students as if to say “Well done, well done.” He had been watching closely, trying to gauge whether the light in the dog’s eyes or the dog’s heart died first. The students waited, hoping he had found the connection he was seeking. When he looked up at them he shook his head. “We will need another one to experiment upon.”

Bobby’s mother and father sat under the apple tree. She was too exhausted to cry anymore. She looked at her watch. “Gone, my baby has been gone for six hours. He died at exactly twelve noon.”

Bobby’s father jerked his head upwards as if some alarming thought had occurred to him.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

The next day he opened Sunny’s folder. Under the heading “time of death” a student had written “twelve noon.”.

The father shivered. Was this a simple coincidence? As he noted the connections between the experiments on the dog and his son’s experience, he grew more and more frightened. Simultaneously he was aware that he was receiving intimations of a profound revelation.

He bowed his head. “It can’t be, just impossible that..no, can’t be.” He found himself trembling because of a startling and awesome insight. He reached for his journal and began writing.

Many hours later a student interrupted him. “Excuse me doctor. We have another dog for your experiments. Do you want us to prepare it for surgery?.”

“No. The laboratory will be closed. I have a new theory. It will need experimentation. The first step is to see that the dog is fed and well treated. Hold it in your arms and love it. Allow it to play. Be sure it lives as nature intended it too.”

As he handed his journal to the student, he said “I want everyone to read this immediately. I am calling an emergency meeting of the Board of Overseers.”

The student opened the journal. It was titled “The Cruelty Connection.”

end- The Connection

Brown Beauty’s Prayer

Brown Beauty’s Prayer

Brown Beauty’s Prayer (copyright David J. Mauriello)

YOU have not yet understood that we, like your hands, eyes, feet, your heart and your emotions, are part of you?  YOU have not yet realized that what harms us, even if you are unaware of it, harms you and your children.

Listen.

I am a horse, a mare. I roamed the wild country of the West. One day they came flying over us with helicopters. We ran but to where? My foal tried its best to keep up with me but it soon collapsed from exhaustion and fear. I was pushed on by the tide of the herd, horses that only moments before were calmly grazing but now were wide- eyed with fear, hearts thumping visibly as if they would burst through their bodies.

Captured, with no water or food, packed into trucks so tightly that if one fell it would be trampled beneath the hooves of the others.

Then singled out, put into a tight stall where I could not turn. A man approached with a long sharp knife. I tried to see what he was doing but he stayed far enough towards my back that I could not turn my neck sufficiently to see him. And then came the pain. I screamed. Again and again, the knife was pushed into my flesh. I twisted, recoiled, kicked against the hard wooden bars, anything to escape. But to no avail.

I was being stabbed and bled to death while fully conscious.

Worse, I was being betrayed by my angels.

My last cry was not for myself.  It was a plea to the angels of all animals – YOU – to stop the darkness that is slowing overwhelming the light of the world.

You don’t see the shadows falling quickly. You think what has happened to me is separate from your fate.

But consider what I have already said. “Like your hands, eyes and feet, and your heart and emotions, I am part of you?” How can this be? you ask.

We are connected by a universal sympathetic nervous system. It exists invisibly in the space between you and me and all others, space you believe to be empty. But it is not empty. It is filled with pure light that in a coarser form is energy. It is the Creator’s light and energy. It is the thought pattern, the blueprint for the world. That energy is affected by what you and I do and what others do. When we love, the energy vibrates with love and like a peaceful sea kisses calmly on the shores of your life and the lives of all others.

When you experience the touch of this invisible energy you are soothed, you are calm, you are enjoying the purpose of creation which is to be love.

But what of the absolute terror I experienced?  What do you experience when you feel its touch. And you will feel it for it does not die when I do. That is why I cry out to you, angels of the animals.

Once created, terror does not disappear. It is transferred to the energy field and like an angry sea it dashes against all living things. Fortunately, your creator gave you bulwarks for protection. But as more and more terror is created, those bulwarks, your innate sense of goodness and honor and civility, will begin to crumple and turn into depression, anxiety, hopelessness, anger, suicide and rage.  These are the symptoms of one who is in a constant state of fight or flight, symptoms of one under constant attack, symptoms of one who is gravely ill.

My angels, you are under constant attack. Sending money to animal rights organizations, writing laws to stop using animals in medical laboratories – these are all worthy and are signs of your compassion.

But these measures still leave YOU open to attack. As long as you see us separate from you, you will fail to take the most crucial action of all. The action you must take is SELF DEFENSE.

Are you still not convinced that what is happening to me is also happening to YOU?

Consider the horror and terror, the anguish I experience as I am being slaughtered.

 Now look at the world around you: my suffering is mirrored in the pandemic of depression, anxiety, hopelessness, anger, suicide and rage. These things are the result of the poison polluting the once pure light of the energy field. Do you feel blue today? Do you feel melancholy? Yet there seems to be no apparent cause. The cause is myterror that is released into the energy field. It matters not that you are unaware of what has happened to me. The terror still invades your life. You are silently being poisoned by chronic stress because you inherit my experience as – not feeling well, being depressed, melancholy, morose. More, you develop physical ailments, high blood pressure, aches, cancers.

And the effects of the poison are not always passive or unclear. They can result in specific horrific acts. For example, witness the mass shootings that are becoming commonplace in your culture. As the light fades, as it succumbs to darkness, your weary defense mechanisms grow “used” to these vicious occurrences.

Again, consider my plight. Imprisoned in a tight stall with no chance of escape as I am stabbed repeatedly. My terror has housed itself in the bodies of human victims as, in one shocking episode which made headlines, they are “herded” into a backroom, bound and systematically slaughtered. Is this not what happened to me? The perpetrator has been given an invisible movie script from which he/she acts by my specific bloody ending and by the grossly inhuman slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals, indeed millions, that are butchered every minute. And you cannot escape because we are totally connected.

My angels, do not look away as your children are being made ill. Why are they so unhappy? Why do they need “instant” gratification for their physical desires? Because they are filled with terror toxins. They need more and more violent stimulus to “feel.” More and more find that stimulus in rage, hatred for themselves and you, and even suicide.

 Another sign that the poison is overwhelming your body is the emphasis your culture puts into the intellectual realm, the so called rational mind. You have lost your intuitive sense, a pure and sensitive aspect of human nature that is snuffed out by the sheer weight of physical overloads. You misread the Bible that speaks of your dominion over the ‘beasts’. The beast referred to is the emphasis you put on your lower self and the illusion that you are separate from us and therefore free of what befalls us.

You therefore think I and all animals are dumb, insensitive, incapable of feeling pain, or of thinking.

But we are living the role assigned to us in the blueprint of creation. This is our work, to be the beast of burden, to submit to you our angel masters. Did not Jesus play his role? One could say he was stupid. He could foresee his future but he lived it anyway. He bowed his head and submitted to the harness of the prophecy just as we submit to you. He suffered, as we do, but was still hopeful that he could awaken you to your true nature which is love.

Your role in creation is to be merciful, kind, and certainly not cruel. And to be happy! Are you happy? I don’t mean a momentary giggle, a flash of contentment. I mean joy, a sense of well being, optimism, fearlessness, a hunger to do nothing else but to spread love. Oh what a wonderful role you have been given. Imagine it.  In fulfilling your role you come face to face with the creator. You come to know that you are immortal.

Dwell on the virtues. As the terror- poison causes you to forget your true nature, they are your reminders. The virtues are the antidotes to the toxin invading your soul. “Drink” them in just as you would wash a wound with clean water.

Now examine the sources of the poison and eradicate those sources quickly. There are many ; slavery, intolerance, genocide, torture and cruelty to animals and to the earth. And, hypocrisy, the hypocrisy of those in power who fail to carry out their responsibility to protect the animals from cruelty.

There is not much time. A tipping point will soon be reached when the poison completely overwhelms the good.

You will see the signs.

When evil men are appeased. When compromise of principle is the natural order. When you find there is no one you can trust. When the young “follow” men who speak false words about the importance of our physical bodies while forgetting how to think for themselves. Why is this so? The terror toxin is in their veins. They can no longer see because of the increasing darkness.

But the tipping point can go the other way. If enough of you inject love into the energy field, the poison will be neutralized and eventually will disappear. Love is more contagious than the poison for it is who you are. Every act of love can defeat ten acts of hate. So use your advantage.

I am a horse, a mare. I am helpless to act in the physical realm now that I have been slaughtered. But my prayer can still impress the energy field and thereby reach you. I pray my foal survived and has at least some years free in the open country where the wind blows clean. I remember those days, when I would lift my head from the sweet clover and my nostrils would quiver in the delight of the smell of rain borne on the cool gentle wind. I can hear the thud of the hoof beats of my family as we cantered joyously over the hills. Ah, those velvet dark nights when we were crowned with stars. We knew then that we had to live the role assigned to us. That it would be a terrible thing to fulfill it completely but those few years of freedom gave us the strength to do it – for you, our angels. I am a plain horse, brown in color, with quite a full mane and luxurious tail. My eyes are dark brown. They reflect the light. I shine them on you. I trust you. I know you will come to the defense of we your animal friends by defending yourselves. And that we will not have suffered and died in vain.

SECOND HAND CRUELTY – THE HIDDEN EPIDEMIC

Edited February 2011; April 2014

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”   John Muir

(this is a work in progress)

PURPOSE

To prove that perpetrators of cruelty are literally attacking all members of society and all other sentient beings resulting in dire health issues both emotionally and physically and in some cases death and thereby to make the case that banning cruelty is an act of SELF DEFENSE.

To provide the basis upon which to bring law suits, on the grounds of SELF DEFENSE, against perpetrators of cruelty to animals, including governmental officials and agencies that fail to protect animals under their care from cruelty.

The process

In the first part of the paper a general discussion of the theory of Second Hand Cruelty will be offered. These comments will be augmented in the second part of the paper by essays and tales that illustrate and expand them in, hopefully, a more readable and engaging way.

The author is a lay man who through his own study, intuition and contemplation and especially his feeling of being directly attacked by acts of cruelty, believes that there is a case to be made for stopping cruelty on the grounds of Self Defense. The growing awareness today of the interconnectedness of all life helps makes this case. The author seeks validation (or not) of his theory. All comments are welcome.

Compassion is not enough.

We may write about or show pictures and videos depicting animals suffering but some people just don’t care. But they do care about their own self-preservation. We must prove to them that banning cruelty to animals is necessary to protect their own health and welfare.

What is “second hand”?

The dictionary defines second hand as ‘an intermediary person or means.” “Received from or through an intermediary.” “Indirectly.”

The smoke given off by smokers upon non-smokers is called “second hand” smoke. It has deleterious effects on the non smoker just as smoke has on one who smokes. Non-smokers have been successful in having smoking banned on the grounds of self-defense.

What is “second hand” cruelty?

Cruelty is the act of being cruel which is to inflict pain and suffering and death and/or to endanger life or health or to cause mental suffering and fear.

“Second hand” cruelty is cruelty inflicted indirectly upon a secondary victim(s) (in this case ALL SENTIENT BEINGS) as a result of a direct act of cruelty by a perpetrator(s) on a primary victim (s). The secondary victim need not be aware (and usually is not) of the direct act of cruelty in order to suffer the effects “second hand”. And the perpetrator of the direct act of cruelty may not (and usually is not) aware of the “second hand” cruelty being inflicted. “Second hand” cruelty therefore is “hidden.”

Just as we have the right to Self defense against a direct attack upon our person, we also have the right to Self defense against a “second hand” attack.

The (invisible) sympathetic nervous system

Second hand smoke victims are inflicted with smoke through the air.

Second hand cruelty victims suffer cruelty inflicted upon them by way of the invisible sympathetic nervous system that connects all life. Other names for this invisible connection are the “energy field”, the “collective unconscious” or the “universal mind.”

Among the variety of definitions of “sympathy” in the dictionary is – “the correlation existing between bodies capable of communicating their energy vibrations to one another through some “medium.” (quote marks mine) The dictionary leads to other words such as affinity, kinship and the autonomic nervous system, all of which support the idea of all life being totally connected.

In this case the medium is an energy field which scientists and physicists are more and more beginning to accept as the fabric that makes all life ONE. The sympathetic nervous system is part of this energy field. What happens to one happens to all. Just as we receive a radio broadcast transmitted over the air waves, we also receive the horrible experience of the direct victim of cruelty that is transmitted into the universal consciousness.

The “fight or flight” Syndrome

Second hand cruelty, because of the “fight or flight” syndrome results in physical ailments to the secondary victim just as second hand smoke does.

When under the stress of an attack upon us this syndrome comes into play and causes major bodily changes. Chemicals are produced, hormones secreted, blood vessels restricted. The energy of the body rushes from the heart, lungs and other growth and health related parts of the body to the muscular part where it is needed to fight the attacker. If of a short duration this state has a beneficial purpose. Because we are aware of the attack the surplus chemicals have a place “to go.”

Because of our connection to the primary victim via the sympathetic nervous system the stress we suffer from second-hand cruelty is chronic and the problem is compounded because we don’t even know we are under attack. Unfortunately, ignorance of an act of cruelty does not inoculate us from its consequences.

Second hand cruelty puts all bodies into a constant “fight or flight” state resulting in adverse effects on two levels. First are the more emotional effects such as anxiety, fear, despair, terror; conditions which ultimately wreak physical and quality–of- life havoc. Secondly, because the constant “fight or flight” state has cut off the growth /health parts of the body, the immune system is depressed and opportunistic organisms, always present, exploit the situation making bodies sick. Just a cursory look at the health of our society on both emotional and physical levels indicates something is wrong.

The “fight” component of the syndrome may lead to alarming and dangerous consequences. When attacked, the victim may fight back and deter the attacker with a new found strength created by the chemicals and hormones secreted by the body. But in the case of second hand cruelty, the attacker is not known. Who, therefore are the self defense mechanisms of anger, rage, and chemically induced violence turned upon? Is it the cashier at a slow check out counter or the driver of a car who stops when the light is still green? Is this unfocused “fight” the cause of drive by shootings or the slaughter of fellow students by a suicidal college student? Could it be the fuel for terrorism? Does second hand cruelty raise the odds of a person being murdered?

The sources of this chronic stress (second hand cruelty) are many and worldwide and must be addressed.

However, the author has focused on those sources of cruelty pertaining to animals in the United States as a starting point because it is an area in which the public has been made aware of the problem by the good work of so many animal rights/welfare groups. The stage has been set for the Self Defense argument. Whether a person is for the animals or not, every person wants to protect themselves.

These sources of cruelty and second hand cruelty are the wild horse roundups and their deadly ends, factory farms, puppy mills, slaughterhouses, and vivisection laboratories and the many other cruel acts inflicted upon animals. Imagine the deadly vibrations being transmitted into the universal consciousness from these terror factories and the constant stress that both the first victim(s) and the second (us) are experiencing. And because we have not made “the cruelty connection,” which is to connect our ailments to the root cause (cruelty) we wander aimlessly trying to cure these ailments with pills or visits to the psychiatrist.

Throughout the ages wise men, teachers, Saints have not only agreed that we have a right to happiness and well being, but that these qualities are the basis of creation itself.

It is our duty to reclaim our rights by taking action in the courts to ban cruelty to animals and to ourselves.

INTERCONNECTEDNESS OF ALL LIFE NOT A RADICAL IDEA

Society is familiar with and commonly accepts the existence of non-phenomenal situations.

For example, a law suit in a divorce situation where the injury is one of ‘mental distress” is accepted as a breakdown of a prior connection that is not just physical but emotional, too.

Although people may be unfamiliar with concepts such as the universal sympathetic nervous system, the collective unconscious or the universal mind they will recognize and accept the commonly used distant cousins to these concepts such as “team spirit”, “esprit de corps” or “rally the crowd”, all of which are evidence of an overarching invisible connection. We have all experienced our own moods being “psyched up” or “depressed” by someone who is either very up beat or sad and dreary. We have all walked out of a theatre drying our eyes, just like everyone else, because a work of art “touched” us and in doing so made us “one. And we have all experienced prescient ‘hunches” or two or more people having the same idea at the same time.

That all life shares a common, non-physical connection is supported by society’s concept “crimes against humanity” A crime against humanity is one in which there are actual victims, but also a crime in which harm is done to a non-physical victim, in this case a quality; humaneness. Cruelty is a direct attack on our humaneness.

IS CRUELTY TO ANIMALS AFFECTING YOUR HEALTH

ANIMALS AND COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS – IS CRUELTY TO ANIMALS A THREAT TO YOUR HEALTH!

Most of us, when we support an animals rights/welfare group do it out of compassion. This speaks well of our humane nature. But by helping to eliminate cruelty to animals we may be increasing our own chances to a healthier life.

It wasn’t long ago that non-smokers didn’t realize that smokers were endangering everyone’s health. It was also not long ago that most of didn’t link the smoke spewing from the chimneys of chemical factors as the reason for our polluted lakes and rivers, our dead fish and our poisoned air. Then we became aware of the danger of second-hand smoke and second-hand poison and when we made the connection between those things and our own health we banned them both as an act of SELF DEFENSE.

Eliminating cruelty to animals is also a matter of our SELF DEFENSE.

Most of us, if we witness first hand an act of cruelty feel “sickened”. And if we were to actually see what happens in slaughterhouses, puppy mills, fur farms, vivisection laboratories or on wild horse roundups, we would also feel sick. As bad as we might feel, this “sickness’ is usually temporary, although over time it might have a lasting negative effect.

But there is something much more dangerous and DIRECT – the cruelty that happens out of sight and beyond our awareness. I call it SECOND-HAND CRUELTY, and we must make the connection between it and our own health just as we have made the connection between second-hand smoke.

I believe that cruelty, first or second hand, produces negative emotional trauma that affect the entire human population.

How can cruelty we don’t know about be connected to our health?

My theory rests on the premise that all of us, indeed all sentient life forms, are connected by a single consciousness and by an invisible sympathetic nervous system, that, when in danger, goes into the “fight or flight” syndrome.

We have all experienced this syndrome. Our pulse races, our temperature rises, our bodies tense, our heart is stressed, we are fearful and anxious. We know that a body in the fight or flight syndrome mode produces chemicals and responses that otherwise do not exist or at least not in the same amounts. A body that is constantly in this fight or flight mode will not be healthy for long and certainly the inhabitant of that body will not be happy or peaceful.

Not only are the animals suffering from cruelty but we too are its victim. Because we are connected as a single consciousness, the flight of flight syndrome affects us all. We can prove this connection when we examine the symptoms exhibited by the first-hand victim of cruelty and those of the second-hand victims; in the first case, fear, terror, pain, struggle to escape, misery and in the second, resulting from the first and affecting our entire culture; a pandemic of depression , unhappiness, tension, anxiety, rage, violence and suicide.

Some of the worst sources of cruelty and those we can do something about have been listed above; the slaughterhouses, puppy mills, etc. I call these sites of horror our “cruelty smokestacks” which emit, instead of smoke or deadly chemicals, deadly invisible poisons that rain down up all of us.

And as an act of SELF DEFENSE they must be closed.

Comments are welcome.