This chapter highlights ideas from spiritual thought systems and explores how "secrecy" is a value and an attitude that produces ill health and dysfunctional family relationships, including between government, its commerce and its citizens. This paper will further present how we as a nation and as a society can reclaim healthy and sustainable values by de-institutionalizing secrecy. Changing our minds about the value of secrecy is a powerful example of how individuals can positively influence the functioning of government and its social institutions.

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

This chapter highlights ideas from spiritual thought systems and relates them to observations in quantum mechanics to discuss how subjective and objective reality is perception filtered through thoughts, attitudes and values. Utilizing these propositions this paper explores how "secrecy" is a value and an attitude that produces ill health and dysfunctional family relationships, including between government, its commerce and its citizens. This paper will further present how we as a nation and as a society can reclaim healthy and sustainable values by de-institutionalizing secrecy. Changing our minds about the value of secrecy is a powerful example of how individuals can positively influence the functioning of government and its social institutions.

Our perceptions are the result of how we think and what we believe. Our individual and collective consciousness manifests our subjective worldview as well as our collective reality and how we exist in it. This idea is found in many spiritual traditions and their teachings. Modern physics also argues that physical reality exists as a function of consciousness perceiving it to be there. So-called objective reality exists by virtue of one or more minds perceiving it to be there.

Our experience is an interpretation generally consistent with our values and attitudes. We act as though our interpretations and perceptions are factual and real. It would not be possible to get anything done if we did not. We seldom consider, however, that first we project "out there" what is already in our own minds and then perceive through our values and attitudes. We mostly go along acting as though there is a factual "out there" reality without being aware of our projected interpretations that are a consequence of how and what we think. Here is a simple example.

A logger cuts down a legitimate resource with a work ethic that includes pride in doing a good job and making an honest living that he enjoys. The conservationist chains himself to that same tree to protect an altar from being defiled with no less earnest or sincere motives than the logger. In most instances one will oppose the other, like we all do, and both will focus on the forest because it gives every appearance of being the tangible playing field on which to settle things. In most instances neither are likely to see they first react to an interpretation of their own creation consistent with their values and attitudes.

Many quality thinkers have observed the interpretive nature of perception and experience, yet too few of us step back and ask how is it we might think into existence not only what we believe, but also the very reality we inhabit. Unless we first look to our attitudes and values before trying to change things "out there" then we are forgetting that we put it "out there" with our thinking in the first place? Mostly that’s appropriate because who wants to think about it when reaching for a cup of coffee. If you wish to no longer reach for a cigarette, however, that will only be accomplished by changing the thinking that reaches for one. Our thinking determines what we prioritize, create, intend, and how we react to all that occurs. I think that is fairly graspable if not obvious upon a little reflection, but we must also consider the final point; recognizing that we perceive into being what exists or it could not exist.

"Wait a minute," you may say. "You’re trying to tell me that I think earthquakes into existence, along with the trees and the stars, and how the financial markets move? No way!"

The scope and totality of the meta thinking of all sentient beings manifesting our collectively perceived world is beyond the scope of this chapter. I am, however, presenting that our individual and collective thinking, values and attitudes give rise to everything that we experience. Thinking, values and attitudes can change and what they manifest can also change.

The one sure way never to solve a problem is to look for the solution where it’s not to be found. Moving the props around on the life stage does not change the script that only exists in our own minds. Things can be moved around in life, obviously, but only changed thinking fundamentally changes anything. By that I do not merely mean our internal dialog, or the myriad repetitive thoughts we mostly call our thinking, rather the much deeper fabric of perception that structures what we foremost believe to be true.

Here is an example of what I mean by that. You almost certainly did not consciously decide that the chair you are sitting in would support your weight before you sat down. You already "assumed" it did or you would not have sat in it. That attitudinal thinking, which you almost certainly did not hear yourself doing, produced your reality that the chair would hold you up. Consequently you react to the chair with a distinct certainty that is mostly unconscious and functionally helpful since none of us want to think about the chair when we sit in it. Sometimes the chair breaks and our certainty is unglued for awhile. Some will fix the chair and others will think about how to reinvent the chair. Neither is likely, however, to question whether it is a chair in the first place! Sound absurd? Then please consider that to an aboriginal bushman the chair would almost certainly exist as firewood and not something to sit on since no thought system exists to manifest "chair" for the bushman. The so called obvious is still only what we interpret and perceive.

So how do pre-cognitive thoughts interpret our reality? I would say through our values and attitudes. We value reclining in a sitting position. The aboriginal bushman does not. The same for everything we perceive. Conscious and precognitive thought, which is a function of values and attitudes both recognized and unrecognized, upholds all that we perceive. If you would like to see a chair disappear from reality spend some time with aboriginal bushmen and bring one to the campfire. It will be seen as firewood and handled accordingly. Anyone can learn about "chair", however, and thereby reify it into existence, and that’s also the point. Reality is learned. Whatever the exact nature of the formula, values and attitudes are precursors to learning any reality, and therein lies much power if recognized and applied. Of course there is a little more to it than that, such as translating E=MC2 into interstellar travel, but the principle is sound to guide a serious inquiry. We exist within what we think and perceive and we can train ourselves to perceive and to think what sustains us just as easily as what does not.

The first problem we have to deal with is our disbelief that real answers already exist for all problems. We will have to honestly ask ourselves whether we want solutions more than the problem, especially if the solutions are not what we think they should be. So without meaning to suggest that anyone should practice a spiritual thought system or change what they already practice, I would like to offer examples of how ideas from spiritual thought systems generally found throughout the world’s perennial wisdom traditions can be applied with far reaching sustainable consequences.

A foundational distinction of any thought system is that it contains self-referencing ideas that organize complexity into comprehensible principles that when applied predict and create experience. For example, Newtonian physics gave us a concept of gravity that was self-referencing (asserted that gravity exists) and then presented principles that when applied predicted a consistent outcome such as an object always falls downward. The truthfulness and usefulness of a thought system depends upon its general applicability and how consistently it allows anyone at that level to apply its principles. Newtonian physics worked fine before air flight and space travel that rendered "up and down" to be relevant and no longer absolute. Space flight requires another level thought system.

Thought systems demonstrate that reality and ideas are one and the same. History tells us that the idea "the world is flat" compelled commerce and governments to act accordingly until the idea could no longer be sustained before a growing body of "ideas" to the contrary. Circumnavigation became instantly valid as soon as the idea was significantly valued. All systems corrected themselves to align with the new idea that consistently predicted a wider experience. The "fact" that the world was round was not what changed things because circumnavigation was still a self-referenced, invented, made up claim and nothing more than an "idea" since only an infinitesimal percentage of the population ever personally verified sailing East and arriving West. It only took a few to accomplish that part for the idea to become globally valid because the idea successfully predicted a means for navigation into many new territories both abstract and physical at a time when a new and wider reality was very much wanted and needed.

A thought system is the set of values and principles with which a mind establishes perceptual reality, analogous to how a computer program determines what the computer performs. Regardless of the performance potential of the computer it will only perform within the limits of its program even though its potential may be far greater. Similarly our perception arrives through a system of values and principles and what we perceive can be illusory or real but it will only provide meaning within the values that the thought system allows.

One place we notice change in our social thought systems is through vestiges in our language. Such phrases contain unsupportable anachronisms that mirror earlier thought systems. For example, have you ever heard someone say, "this earth point location is rotating beyond the trajectory of the sun’s electromagnetic radiation penetrating the ionosphere" rather than "the sun is setting"? Not likely, even though the former is accurate and the latter inaccurate. When we watch a "sunset" with a loved one we usually perceive the sun "moving" below the horizon and it serves us quite well at the time to do so. That level of thinking will not be very useful, however, when helping your fifth grader with science homework and disastrous if you are a pilot.

The consequences of our romantic misperception of a sunset are fairly benign until we realize that we retain similar patterns of anachronistic thinking for much more important matters where inappropriate level thinking is eventually disastrous. A farmer may be able to sustain himself whether or not he thinks the world is flat or round, but our civilization cannot. The existence we perceive for ourselves, the totality of our personal experience, will exactly mirror what kind of thought system the mind chooses. A spiritual thought system instructs us how to recognize the consequences of our choices without guilt or blame, and gently guides us how to make changes at the source of problems, our thinking.

Since the word "spiritual" connotes religious interpretations, let me make a distinction between religious institutions and pure mind training found in spiritual thought systems. While this is hardly the entire story, the essential distinction between "spiritual" and "religious" is that the latter prescribes behavior while the former inspires thinking. Religion in any form may or may not contain spirituality and may or may not contain a coherent thought system that will verify its Source through application. Any examination of religion and its institutions, current or historical, will uphold that generalization. I will simply leave it at that and instead turn our attention to some principles found within the spiritual thought systems of the world’s perennial philosophies.

I once heard Buckminster Fuller refer to Spirit as "Omni-Radial, Omni-Directional Infinite Love continuously communicating from Source to everything." While that definition cannot be institutionalized, I regard it as an inspired idea and an exemplary principle for our discussion.

In spite of the hatred, fear, vengeance and domination humanity has engineered upon itself, there are people found in every walk of life who do their best to live a peaceful life in harmony with others. All of us know people who endeavor to reign in their egos and grant those around them freedom to be. These are people found everywhere, with no particular outer appearance other than exhibiting more peaceful ways of thinking than simply reacting to events. Some are spiritually trained, some are religious and some never think about such things and may or may not agree about many issues, but their commonality is found in their values and attitudes. Some of our greatest social compacts have their origins in the inspired thinking of many such people who were deeply influenced by spiritual thought systems.

An example of an "inspired" government document is The Declaration of Independence. It proposes an organizing principle found in humanity’s perennial wisdom traditions. It says "…that we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," and goes on to say that no governmental process can abolish that truth and all should govern accordingly. It was an unprecedented statement about a proper relationship between government and its governed, that everyone is endowed from beyond this world with the right to pursue happiness without oppressing another, and that government "and its commerce" should respect that principle in all of its working agendas. Now where do you suppose those ideas came from?

Epistemological history (study of how we know) tells us The Declaration of Independence was a radical idea that was neither recognized nor accepted in governments of the day. The thinking that produced it did not come from the horizontal axis of the prevailing thinking of the times. Colonial America was as fraught with problems as we are today, if not more so, and yet a single document from an inspired mind offered all of humanity a more sustainable and healthier direction for government’s relationship to its governed than anything previously recorded. A spiritual principle that underlies our constitutional democracy is a high regard for all peoples due to recognition of our "common" Source. That principle certainly did not come from the prevailing institutionalized thinking of colonial times. Government on the national and world stage was revolutionized by The Declaration of Independence, and is one example among many that constitute an incredible leap forward in the human condition due to "in-spirited" thinking.

The source for inspiration is perennial and unlimited. Inspiration confirms Spirit and no one has options or prerogatives, which only belong to everyone. Once an idea is found to work it is no longer a matter of belief. Spiritual thought systems and inspired ideas, when consistently and coherently applied, extend the peace from which they come. They work on the human stage perfectly well and are available to anyone who desires the peace they bring. Here is an example of a single, simple and clear premise that would be intrinsic to any spiritual thought system and is a foundation for healthy relatedness.

Wherever one finds a healthy, thriving community of relationships there are rarely secrets of any significance. Values such as openness and honesty prevail. Whenever one finds an unhealthy set of relationships always there are secrets and usually values that uphold non-disclosure attitudes. In healthy relationships one always finds qualities such as compassion and forgiveness and clear avenues for restoration of identity without agendas to hurt or punish people for mistakes. Rather than condemnation or judgment one usually finds values such as healing, correction and restoration instead of punishment. That’s important to realize when considering values and attitudes that sustain healthy relatedness.

When healthy values ("we are endowed by our Creator") are alive and present they make the environment safe to be known. Looked at this way it is impossible to justify secrecy whose only design is to foster an advantage of one group over another, creating an elite privilege for a select minority to control and manipulate the uninformed. At best it is arrogance. However secrecy may be justified it is not healthy. Tiny, secretive groups of elite decisions makers control our national and global community. That statement is a vast and complex subject beyond the scope of this chapter but we all know it’s true. The vast majority of us do not have a clue what our government its commercial leaders and decision-makers are doing, a perilous situation that warns of ill health among the members of our nation. As a nation we are a family of relationships, and we owe it to ourselves to esteem healthy values and attitudes instead of dysfunctional habits.

How well did your family do when someone held a secret? It is no different with our nation as a family. Secrecy is dysfunctional no matter how it is justified. That’s important to understand and I think obvious once you think about it. Healthy values and attitudes manifest healthy relationships. Secrets manifest dysfunctional relationships. That’s not rocket science, is it? The practice and application of non-secrecy begins with consciously examining the values and attitudes that foster it and then learning to embrace new values and attitudes. It will not work to go directly to the behavior and try to make the change there if healthy relatedness and sustainable community are the point. In other words, it won’t work to condemn secrecy and try to pass laws to abolish it, or at least not until we examine our values and attitudes that cherish secrecy in the first place. If we see the unhealthiness secrecy brings then we will change our values and attitudes around it no differently than abolishing the Marlboro Man as a national icon.

"So what about the individual’s need for privacy," you may ask, "and what about military and industrial secrets? Should we simply tell all to all?"

Privacy is an entirely different matter than secrecy. What all of us do in the bathroom is no secret while it is also private. The abandonment of secrecy as an institutionalized value does not mean that big brother, or anyone else, should be empowered to pry into anyone’s private life. At the same time there is nothing private about any decisions or actions that affect the health and welfare of nation peoples and civilizations, not to mention the sanctity of our global biosphere in any regard. Secrecy compromises the sanctity of equally "endowed by our Creator." We need to be aware, or at least able to become aware, of all governmental and commercial decisions that affect our collective welfare and which cannot possibly be private since by definition everyone is involved. An epiphany for privacy exists in our Bill of Rights, the first amendments to our constitutional government. We really do not need to know, at least in most instances, what occurs in the intimate lives of our leaders or fellow human beings. They are doing exactly the same things we are all doing, which is why it is private, but hardly a secret.

To address the military and national security concern let’s look at an example for how our spiritual principle can offer a practical alternative to institutionalized secrecy. It is an idea that is congruent with a thought system in which secrecy cannot be justified. My purpose is to give a practical example of how a truly inspired idea ("secrecy can never be justified") can give rise to values and attitudes that nourish healthy relationships. I can envision a sustainable future in this example and could see it being applied in an efficient and practical manner.

We as a nation could easily create A 5,000 Person Citizens’ Committee charged with reviewing EVERYTHING that is marked "secret" by our government, its institutions and its commerce. We could simply change the rules (when our values and attitudes change) to mandate that everything marked "secret" would be automatically forwarded to this citizen’s committee without exception. These people could be selected in many ways and would have term limits to insure a continuing turnover to the committee rather than institutionalizing another elite group of information brokers. The committee’s existence would reconcile our most basic and fundamental governing processes with our inspired governing principles. How to implement such an idea is not as important to this particular chapter as is realizing that this could be done, and rather easily. We could implement requirements for those who invoke secrecy to disclose "everything" to at least five thousand of their fellow citizens, less than 1/200^th of one percent of our population. If we did it would remove their thinking from the darkness of labyrinthine governmental (or agency, or boardroom, or bureau . . .) corridors where only a select and mostly anonymous few make irrevocable choices that are consequential to our entire civilization.

The 5,000 Person Committee would not need to have any formal power whatsoever other than knowing the exact same information available to all major decision-makers as soon as they know it. Such a citizen’s body merely by their knowing the information would have a tremendous impact toward a sustainable future by removing the unhealthy practice of secrecy from its elevated and institutionalized status. Even if the committee was officially sworn not to tell for x years during and following their tenure, still we would see a healthy personality emerge between citizens and their government much closer to the founding ideas of a democratic and constitutionally organized nation. Such values practically implemented would also move us much closer as a nation family to the spiritual sustenance that we need and depend upon. While such a committee may or may not be an idea whose time has come, it is nevertheless a realistic example of how seminal ideas from our perennial wisdom traditions manifest values and attitudes that offer sustainable solutions for complex problems.

We can choose to think differently beginning with an utterly honest self-appraisal of what we currently have in place. Or are we now saying that we really don’t believe in our founding principles, that we don’t trust less than 1/200^th of one percent of our citizens to know what is decided in behalf of our nation and planet? I don’t believe that and I don’t believe you really do either, but I can almost hear it as I write.

"You can’t just turn over our national secrets to a bunch of people. They would leak the information and endanger us all!"

Well, if you believe that statement then by assumption thinking it mandates that the vast majority of us must be too pathetic in our approaches to our individual and collective way of life to know and understand what is right or decent for any or all of us. Being such Neanderthals we simply cannot be allowed to even comprehend the thinking and decisions that determine our national or global reality. Instead we must relinquish such personal freedom as "endowed by our creator" to the institutionalized privilege of a tiny and fractional elite to decide our safety, heritage and destiny. Very few of us really believe that and yet we uphold that very thinking within our current institutional and societal values. It’s time to rethink this by asking whether we want healthy relatedness enough to think and act congruently with sustainable values.

Nothing could be more contrary to our everyday common sense and our highest ideals than invisible people making encompassing decisions for nations and civilizations without the consent or knowledge of the vast majority being affected. Saying we must relinquish our awareness of the thinking that determines the health and direction of our civilization’s heritage to an elite and mostly anonymously privileged few is not an idea from an inspired thought system. That to me does not sound like the United States of America as it was envisioned by our founding documents. There are unquestionably ten thousand trustworthy, conscientious and dutiful people at any given moment in this country who are absolutely and totally competent to understand the decisions that affect our way of life if not our very existence. We certainly have the technological ability to securely transmit to this committee everything government and its social institutions designate a secret. Everything. It could be that simple and that’s an example of how changed thinking will immediately bring us closer to a healthy and sustainable future. After all, what is more sustainable and healthy than all parties involved being "equally endowed" by knowing the truth within a mind set that makes it safe for everyone to be fully disclosed?

"That simply is not realistic," you may say.

Well, the origins of our country say otherwise not to mention many, many enclaves of people who successfully and happily live as examples of these principles. So why not nations and civilizations? After all, that’s how we began. Remember Paul Revere? He was not simply a patriot madly riding along the road yelling, "The red coats are coming." He was an official messenger among the ranking leadership of the times. He exemplified what the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that we as a people take all critical information to all the people as soon as we know about it, because it is "by the consent of the governed" that we will act. Our inspired principles ask that we fully inform ourselves by fully informing us all. That inspired thinking worked well enough to found a nation on principles that transformed a combative conglomerate of fractured and private colonial interests into a viable nation and government by valuing the body politic as one. Inspired thinking still works perfectly well today if we value it, and our attitudes uphold it.

In addition to affirming the same inherent identity existing in everyone, the spiritual thought system acknowledges that we have the capacity to impose tremendous suffering upon ourselves while blaming others. Our capacity for pain is not infinite. There is a breaking point at which individuals and humanity can tolerate nothing further, though I do not know what that is. I personally feel that enough is already enough, and I do not wish to see us explore further where that breaking point might be. Sustainability for our civilization is not to be found from engineered social attitudes and cultured values that produce secretive agendas that disenfranchise people from feeling positive and kindred to all peoples. We must recognize the necessity for cherished relatedness if we wish a healthy family as a nation and a global community of Homo sapiens. Why would we not want that?

Now I would like to present attitudes found in spiritual thought systems that if consciously valued and esteemed within our individual and collective perception would make it safe and possible for secrecy to become disenfranchised from our way of life. These are ideas that anyone can understand and field test as to whether they offer practical, positive guidance at the thinking and perception level to remedy personal and collective suffering without dominating another.

Light sustains everything that exists. All life forms directly or indirectly require photosynthesis and the presence of light to exist. Literally everything that you see has been transformed by light. Even terra firma has its origins in light. If there is some life form existing in utter darkness of subterranean caverns, whether terrestrial, psychologically, mythically, spiritually, or even socially and culturally, its existence still depends on what is nourished in the light. We normally think and therefore live as though material reality sustains us. In an immediate sense that is entirely understandable at face value, but still it is not true. Better to acknowledge the correct source of life than to remain oblivious. Secrecy resides in darkness, at best attempting to limit light to a hidden elite. Clearly humans can act that way, but it is not healthy or sustainable.

We live predominately a perceptual existence. We perceive what we believe based on interpretations derived from our values and attitudes. This should not be an insight reserved for the reductionism of media and marketing agendas, rather it is a profound recognition about the nature of our awareness. Any person reading this article has the ability to scrutinize what they believe. Even if you do not know what that is, carefully examining all fearful thinking is a place to begin. Not only the obvious fears, such as something surprising or unpleasant happening, but more importantly the daily grind of repetitive thoughts in which we constantly ruminate ideas that are fearful and continually react to them. There is a wide range of healthy attitudes beyond fearful thinking that will always take better care of you (and everyone else). If your thoughts are not kind, then they are fearful. Fear will never guide as wisely as the mind without it.

Imagine a seedling in the ground afraid of the light, fearing it would be changed into something unrecognizable to its current existence. We would certainly say it is a misguided seedling that is content to remain in the underworld unwilling to discover itself as a magnificent apple tree or giant sequoia. Fortunately the seedling inherently recognizes where its safety lies and trusts itself unconditionally to go toward the light in order to grow. Once it breaks ground the rest occurs naturally. A fearful seedling is a contradiction in terms but humans, of course, are much more complex, and it is entirely understandable that we are too often afraid of illumination. When we stop externalizing fear and projecting it onto the dirt that surrounds us, and take complete responsibility for recognizing fertile ground from which to grow, then we have done our part to pop to the surface and the rest will occur quite naturally. The world one dwells in is either something to fear or a place in which to grow and evolve. Which you think it is will create your world entirely.

A seedling is not threatened by another root entering its space but humans threaten other humans sometimes. Perhaps we can take a lesson from the seedling. If it marshaled its defenses to deter that other root it could spend all of its energy defending itself in the dirt while forgetting to realize that its protection is getting into the light and growing from the nourishment that surrounds it. The goal of illumination is a superior choice to attack and defense because it is the source of sustenance. The Light is always present and being aware of that will eventually turn the seedling into the bud and can be a lesson for human relationships. There is nothing more fortifying and health expanding than moving only toward light in any sense you care to apply it. Dark thoughts, dark agendas, institutionalized secrecy or any idea that you would not want to fully disclose will eventually hurt you.

However one defines Spirit, "Infinite Love and Light" cannot be too far from an appropriate description. There is nowhere in creation that we do not see love extended from parents to their children. As individuals and as a species we are no different. We have been created, and our Creator loves us, absolutely and eternally. The Light will not bully us into coming to the surface to bask in its radiance though its gentle reminder is ever present. It will change us when we reach for it, absolutely, into something more breathtakingly beautiful than our subterranean thinking can imagine. Light is love and we can all learn to think that way because nothing is more natural. Clearly we have been acting unnaturally for a long while in too many ways and it can all change very quickly, taking about as long as it does a seedling to break surface once it decides it wants to. The mind that chooses love over fear will find a world of infinite beauty no longer enraged by human mistakes, and all playing fields will glow in it.

We project "enemy" onto many people but finally he or she only exists within our own perception. Remedying whatever grievance we justify with attack will never solve the problem. Never. Even if we kill off everyone who disagrees with us, to do so will not resolve the source of our fear (hateful thinking, values justifying attack, supremacy attitudes, etc.). As long as we justify attacking an external enemy then the laws of mind will permit us the illusion but require that we attack ourselves as well. Eventually we will create yet another scenario that we will again have to attack, all the while fearing reprisals. That is the mechanism of projection and the nature of illusions. We see only "out there" forgetting that first it is "in here." We all recognize that when we love another we also love ourselves. The same is true about attack. Nothing of lasting value ever comes from attack and whoever believes in it is certain to attack themselves with guilty self-reprisals in one form or another. There’s nothing sustainable about that.

If we are to be serious about relinquishing secrecy from our national thinking then we must also value healing, correction and restoration toward the secrecy thinkers and most especially ourselves. When we are willing we can replace attack and punishment in every form with healing, correction and restoration. Such a process unfolds naturally when values and attitudes support it. We all remember the lessons from our families and they are true globally as well. Thinking you can beat another into submission or into goodness is a serious mistake because it never achieves a sustainable or healthy relationship.

I have presented key ideas from spiritual thought systems with references to discussions from quantum mechanics, which purport to demonstrate that reality is a perceptual representation of our values, attitudes and thinking. Accordingly, for any change to occur in reality that is not an illusion it must first occur at a fundamental perceptual level, a reflective process that can be accomplished by any person or group willing to conscientiously examine their attitudes, values and thinking. This paper focused on "secrecy" as an institutionalized idea that is unhealthy and dysfunctional using a family model to represent the relationship between government, its institutions and commerce and our nation society. A practical conceptualization is offered for how secrecy can be released from our national attitudes and values in a sustainable and healthy manner. To do so would be congruent with the principles of our founding documents that say our social compacts and its commerce should only govern with "the consent of the governed."

Randy Fuller is the founder of Wisdom Moth, an informal spiritual community in northern California offering programs for personal transformation. With roots from university teaching and twenty years practicing family therapy he extends mystical spirituality and cross-cultural shamanism. A Course In MiraclesÔ is his foundational spiritual thought system.