Farish A. Noor on the gory history of corporal punishment (reprise)

Punishing the Body or the Person?
Why Some Cannot Accept Physical Punishments

By Farish A. Noor ~ August 28th, 2009

In his book Torture and Modernity: Self, Society and State in Modern Iran (1994), the scholar Darius Rejali looks at how the processes of torture and punishment have evolved over the centuries in Iran, from the period of the Qajar dynasty all the way to the regime of the Shah and the Islamic Revolutionary government. He makes one interesting and important observation which remains relevant to all of those who are concerned about the use of corporal punishment and torture by modern states today: that corporal punishment dates back to the medieval era where the popular perception of punishment was that it was a public spectacle that ought to be enacted upon the body of the individual, and not the subject him/herself.

In this respect, the modes of torture and punishment that were used in pre-modern Iran were no different from the modes of punishment that were used in China, India, Africa or Europe. Throughout the world during the pre-modern era the popular understanding of punishment was that it was meant to be a form of public humiliation, operating through the mode of public violence, that was intended to compel the guilty to repent and alter his/her ways through the threat of violence and force.

Hence we see how in medieval Europe, Asia and the Arab world the modes of public punishment were all equally gory and bloody: Heads were chopped off, bodies were impaled, whipped, burned, branded, broken, quartered and sliced to pieces. Most of these punishments were carried out in public, ostensibly as a 'lesson' to others. But as many modern psychologists have pointed out, these public spectacles of violence also served the voyeuristic inclination of those who relished the sight of bodies being violated in public, and were thus also forms of bizarre public pornography.

In his study on the evolution of torture and punishment in Iran, Rejali notes how this medieval mode of punishment gradually developed to become a more sophisticated mode of care and policing instead. The violent spectacles of state-sanctioned violence that involved public enactments of torture eventually gave way to the regime of the prison and the culture of pastoral care and reform of the Self instead. Why?

Simply put, the reason behind this evolution lay in the growing consciousness that the medieval modes of punishment of the past were simply barbaric, primitive, and missed the point. Particularly after the advent of the Iranian revolution, Iranian lawmakers realized that the aim of law enforcement was not simply to exercise legitimate state violence upon citizens, but to help citizens reach their full potential as rational agents and responsible individuals. Medieval modes of violent punishment could not do that for the simple reason that by abusing and violating the bodies of the condemned, they were targeting the body, and not the conscious Self.

The argument can be illustrated thus: Pre-modern modes of punishment assumed that if an individual had committed a crime or a wrong against society, then the offending organ or part of the body of the individual would pay the price. Hence in many primitive societies we come across instances of bodily abuse and torture that target the organs or parts of the body that were to 'blame': The person who lies or slanders, for instance, would have his tongue cut out. The voyeur would have his eyes gouged out. The thief would have his hand cut off. The rapist would be castrated, and so on.

Such modes of physical punishment were, however, deemed to be less and less effective and furthermore failed to solve the problem of criminality itself, for the punishment was not being inflicted on the truly offending party, namely the subjective Self. For it is not the tongue that lies, but the person. It is not the hand that steals, but the person. It is not the penis that rapes, but the person. Addressing the responsibility of the person entailed going beyond the body, and dealing with the psychology of the individual itself. This in turn meant that violence was not a solution to the problem, but in fact only made things worse: For a state that endorses violence as a means to achieve justice eventually arrives at a different destination altogether. Such a state merely normalizes violence and makes violence more and more commonplace and acceptable. Rather than morally uplifting society, it debases and brutalizes society even further. An example would be the case of the French Revolution, where the revolutionaries who executed the leaders of the old regime eventually ended up being murdered themselves too, including Robespierre, who died at the guillotine that he himself introduced.

The development of the related notions of justice, care, reform (of the Self) and responsibility (of both the State and the Individual subject) only came about much later, with the development of modern social sciences that included political sociology, psychology and notably the psychology of criminality. The modern age marks its difference from the medieval age by accepting that bodies are not to be blamed, but rather subjectivities and selves. In other words, modern human beings relinquished their obsession with violent torture and punishment when they realized that torturing and abusing people would not make them better human beings.

Which brings us to the current debate about caning in Malaysia, be it caning that is enforced by civil secular law or by Islamic law. Already in Malaysia we have the instance of a woman who may soon be caned for the Shariah offence of drinking beer. And meanwhile in Malaysia we have illegal immigrants being caned for over-staying their visas and entry permits in the country.

Human rights activists who oppose caning and other forms of state-sanctioned physical violence do so on the grounds that we believe that such violent punishments do nothing to solve the attendant problems and issues that need to be addressed in another, more intelligent way. Caning an illegal immigrant does nothing to reform the person, but merely violates and abuses his/her body. Likewise caning someone for what is perceived to be a moral crime by religious law does nothing to reform the person’s subjectivity, but merely abuses the body of the person instead. Why, even in the Islamic Republic of Iran the regime of the Ayatollahs realized that physical torture was never and could never succeed in making someone a better human being, but would actually lead to the opposite and create a society that was more and more violent and accustomed to violence. Hence their use of public education and counselling instead.

Malaysians are now faced with a similar question and we need to ask ourselves whether the time has come for this society of ours to understand and accept the fact that violence is not and will never be a solution to the social problems of our times - be it criminality, corruption, abuse of power or the breakdown of the social contract. The modern human subject realizes that one cannot be forced to be just or good, and that a good society cannot emerge out of violent compulsion. State violence merely brutalizes us further and denies the value and primacy of human reason and the capacity for human beings to think rationally and to alter themselves rationally too. Whipping someone into submission cannot ever do that; for violence and reason are never complementary.

Would you like a Norwegian fishwhipping? Great for your morals!

[First posted 28 August 2009, reposted 15 November 2014]

COMPUTERIZED HYPERPORN

If you find this attractive, you might be an AI.

Google recently unleashed its image identification artificial neural network to the internet masses, and, predictably, the internet has quickly decided to turn it into psychedelic porn for robots. Google's DeepDream program takes images fed into the company's image recognition system and turns them into the most extreme version of that image imaginable. The network snags tiny portions of an image and runs it through its recognition system, exaggerating small features within it. As we explained last month:

"This basically generated a feedback loop, which exaggerated or read more meaning into simple features. For example, the researchers explained that: 'If a cloud looks a little bit like a bird, the network will make it look more like a bird. This in turn will make the network recognize the bird even more strongly on the next pass and so forth, until a highly detailed bird appears, seemingly out of nowhere.'"

UNCLE ANT’S AGONY & ECSTASY COLUMN #1 (repost)

In early 2004 when the arts portal kakiseni.com had the infamous Pang Khee Teik as editor, we experimented briefly with an "artistic agony aunt" column that only ran for a few months before it fizzled out for lack of interest. Rummaging through my files, I found these obscure documents I felt were worth re-issuing for posterity.

The very first person to send a question to Uncle Ant's Agony & Ecstasy column happened to be the ever-popular actor/author/raconteur & restaurateur Patrick Teoh....

So much has been said about Malaysian English language theatre. Elitist... Incestuous... Self serving... Must not be entertaining or it will not be theatre... etc., etc. So my question is this: Which should fuel whom ah?


Stratford fuels West End? Broadway fuels 'serious' theatre? These theatre baargers talk too much and do too little. Sometimes I wish that they would just shut up and do their thing, whatever that may be, and let the paying public decide if they want more or not. Let's stop or at least pull back a little on this "hey we want to make you think, make a difference in your life and your community, etc, blablablahhhhhhhhhhhh"...

I buy a ticket, and they are getting really expensive these days, so make it fun for me first lah. Then if I get something out of it that will make a diff in my life OK that's a nice bonus. If not so what lah? Nowadays, first first already WAH must think about this and that, much fight with authorities, issues, issues issues... Wah theatre damn difficult to enjoy lah... let's buy ticket go to Tanjung Golden Village cinema lah.

I hope I am making some sense to you, my old friend. if not just delete this email and relegate me to that bunch of wankers above and I shall not bother you again lah :-)

Pax,
Patrick Teoh

AGONY ANT says...

Congratulations, Patrick, for being the very first to pose an "arty" question to Uncle Ant's all-new Agony Column on kakiseni.com! Can't think of a better way to kick this off than with the funny-serious question you raise - which actually opens up a complex of issues to which no straightforward answer could possibly apply. 


First of all, it prompts us to return to the foundation of all artistic endeavor and see if we can learn anything by excavating there. But let's keep our search focused on theater so this doesn't degenerate into a wordy tome. 


Theater has long been represented by a pair of masks - comic and tragic - showing the two sides of human experience, the light and the heavy. The mask as a symbol of personality goes back to prehistoric times when tribal shamans would trance out by donning a mask and robes while channeling an animal totem or the spirit of a powerful ancestor. This magical ritual was usually to bless a hunting expedition with success, or rescue a soul from the astral realms and return it safely to its physical vehicle, thereby curing any illness afllicting it. In Athens, theater served as social catharsis as well as moral education - with masked players personifying various attributes and tendencies like nobility, loyalty, courage, jealousy, greed, cruelty and deceit.

In general, tragedies were favored by the ruling elite who found solace in watching their own tragic flaws depicted on stage and were thus able to assuage their guilt a little and discharge a few sentimental tears (even tyrants enjoy a good cry, as exemplified by Hitler's S.S. officers who reportedly shed copious sentimental tears while listening to Wagnerian opera - after sending trainloads of unfortunates to the death camps).

Comedies were often a form of stress relief for the masses who could enjoy a public snicker or two at the foibles of the upper classes without having to risk their skins by openly rebelling against the power structure. Satire was, in effect, an important safety valve promoting social stability without actually threatening the status quo. 


Nevertheless, theater certainly contributed to radical shifts in the mass consciousness by triggering perceptual change from within, on the ethical and aesthetical levels. Those who desire to maintain tight control of public opinion are understandably wary of the potentially subversive power of artistic expression. Indeed, almost all major shifts in the mass psyche can be said to have been precipitated by specific literary and theatrical works. 

Scene from Tristan & Isolde

How about the visual arts? Well, they do inevitably exert their aesthetic influence, but they have traditionally been addressed more to the privileged classes than to the masses (cartoons and photography are interesting exceptions that warrant a whole separate study, which we won't delve into here).
 
So where does "entertainment" feature in all this? A play doesn't necessarily have to be funny to be entertaining. Any story told with great skill is entertaining in that it effectively engages the audience's attention. Millions enjoy following soap series on the boob tube in a multitude of languages and dialects. Tragic romances like Tristan und Isolde - the inspiration for Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story - have enchanted audiences for generations. In effect, it doesn't matter whether the subject matter is light or heavy - what's important is that the tale be masterfully told. 

There's nothing more deadly than a good joke badly told. A heart-wrenching tragedy, artistically rendered, can be life-affirming and uplifting. In short, giving theatre audiences their money's worth has little to do with actual content - but everything to do with the degree of skill, the intensity of commitment, the level of passion the performers manage to inject into the overall effort.

While those in theater are often accused of being there to gratify their enormous egos, the same can be said about every other human endeavor - including warmongering and empire-building. Perhaps it's our deeply-ingrained need to seize some species of immortality, spawned from an awareness of our pathetic mortality and vulnerability in the face of life's vicissitudes.

Returning to Patrick's question about whether our theater scene is "elitist, incestuous, self-serving, etc"... of course it is, old chum! Elitism vs Populism is an age-old issue. Elitism assumes that the hoi polloi is a dumb ass that needs to be thrown a stack of hay once in while (or at least a loaf of bread and a few circuses). 

Bread and circuses: another bad review

Populism believes the public is a dumb ass only because elites have rigged the game to keep it forever so. Each of us conducts within our own psyches a neverending argument between the Elitist and the Populist. The Elitist in us knows we are far superior to Most People. The Populist feels it's our sacred duty to disseminate our gifts and insights as far and wide as possible, in the hope that Most People will ultimately benefit - and, even if they don't, at least they'll be forking out hard-earned money to keep us in the business of having fun. 


The true Populist is shamelessly vulgar and watches only wrestling videos, 'Survivor' and late-night product promos - dismissing everything else as "one big self-indulgent wank." The true Populist came into his or her own during Mao's Cultural Revolution, when intellectuals and artists had a real rough time. I don't believe I've ever met a true Populist and I pray I never will!

Incest is how it all began and incest is how it all ends. Remember when there were only a handful of families on the planet - and they were all related? Brother-sister marriage was common practice amongst the ancient royals. Why, they learnt it from the gods among whom incest was not only prevalent, it was perfectly normal. 


Since theater people the world over are a great big fraternity (and sorority) - and since all of us are evolving into soul-brothers and sisters (or water-siblings if you prefer Robert A. Heinlein's terminology as presented in his seminal work of speculative anthropology, Stranger in a Strange Land)... how can any of us have any fun if we don't practise incest? Just answer me that, Bro.

Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the
Dominican Republic in the 1930s

If you argue that incest breeds stupidity... hey, do you think a smart species would go about destroying its own ecosystem and expending most of its energy on perpetual warfare? Maybe it's high time we invited a new crop of ETs to come and revitalize our Gene Pool?

Self-serving? Hey, show me someone who claims to be serving the "common good" or "public interest" - and I'll show you a politician or a creepy civil servant who just wants to get on the censorship board so he gets to see all the naughty bits everybody else can't. Never trust anyone who isn't serving his or her own interests, Patrick. They all grow up and become dictators and dickheads. 

Which brings us to the possibility of ENLIGHTENED self-interest, wherein we finally realize that our lives are all interconnected and interwoven in time and space - and that by guiltlessly fulfilling our own ego needs, we are actually playing a unique role in evolution. There's nothing more inspiring than a self-fulfilled individual, free to do his or her own thing, and in the process turning others on and firing synapses they never even knew existed.

As for your remark that theater tickets are “getting really expensive” – it’s all part of the yuppism that began in the mid-1980s. Remember when a cup of kopi-O cost only 50 cents (that was before the day of the sen)? Now you pay at least RM5 at the Coffee Bean (and it’s not even the tasty local stuff but some fancy imported variety that makes you think you’re in Europe). I couldn’t afford to see a single play if I didn’t get comps as a reviewer – yet I still see full houses at some productions, even the ones with RM100 tickets or more! Obviously there’s a new middle class that can afford a night or two out every week. They constitute the main support of English language theater in KL and Penang.

Theater is generally priced for the comfortable middle class no matter where you live. But now that we have affordable digital technology, there’s no reason why every major production can’t be professionally shot on high-grade digital video and packaged as DVDs and VCDs which can be sold at pirate prices or uploaded on YouTube, so those who can’t afford the luxury of a live performance can at least enjoy good theater at home. Indeed, it’s about time we introduced a cultural channel on TV that features televised plays, interviews with interesting personalities, intelligent discussions on current issues, documentaries on inspiring writers, actors, dancers, sculptors, composers, and so on.

To sum it all up, I'd say that despite the odds theater is alive and well in Malaysia and has actually come quite a long way. There is only one stumbling block as far as I can see: it's the "katak di bawah tempurung" (tempurungism, I call it) patriarchal-provincial mindset - the same that produced the Inquisition and the Taliban - still prevalent amongst our bureaucrats. The sort of bungling interference that has put City Hall in the limelight recently can be viewed as a sign that our theater scene is gaining influence, maturity and power - and therefore poses a threat to the status quo which must be nipped in the bud (not pinched in the butt). This presents us all with an opportunity to seriously question why City Hall has been charged with issuing entertainment licences - why do I need a licence to be entertaining? It's absolute crap.

Anyone know a professional abolitionist who can help abolish all primitive, irrelevant and suppressive laws? Methinks only an abolitionist can deal with those perverted abortionists of art that lurk in the corridors of officialdom.

Agony Ant
25 Feb 2004

UNCLE ANT'S AGONY & ECSTASY COLUMN #2

[First posted 16 January 2012, reposted 10 December 2015]

MOTH BALLS ONLINE: New Blog In Progress!

From MOTH BALLS ~ Scatological & Eschatological Poems by Kit Leee 

(now Antares)

Chief Rosy Lips, no use flogging a dead horse, catch a bus! (repost)

Native Americans (often referred to derogatorily as "Indians") never owned land. They saw themselves as caretakers and had the wisdom to respect others’ right to walk upon the land. If only the White Man had befriended them and left them in peace, he would have learned a lot from them and been better off for it.

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that: when you discover you are riding a dead horse, your best strategy is to dismount.

However, in our government, more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:

1. Buying a stronger (and more expensive) whip.

2. Changing riders.

3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.

4. Arranging trips to other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.

5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.

6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.

7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.

8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase efficiency.

9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase dead horse's performance.

10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance.

11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some live horses.

12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.

And of course....

13. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

If you don't understand the stupidity in this reasoning, you probably are happy with the way our tax money is being spent... and that would totally make you part of the problem!

[First posted 1 January 2012, reposted 24 February 2014 & 5 November 2015]



[Dead Horse story courtesy of Olivia de Haulleville]

Celebrate the funky rhythm of life with Youssou N'Dour!

Youssou N'Dour is one of my favorite male vocalists. Watching him perform never fails to inspire and uplift. Blessings to all in the new spiral of evolution!

Umnesty, The Best Policy? (revisited)

The New Straits Times Group, fully owned by Umno, have a travel-and-tours subsidiary called Enesty - which once led to my flippantly suggesting they adopt as a corporate tagline, "Enesty is the best policy."

Since the exhilarating results of GE12 - which might have been far more exciting if BN had been reduced to playing the role of Opposition, instead of still clinging on to the reins of federal power (a feat accomplished through massive electoral fraud, gerrymandering and devious manipulation of postal votes) - Umno has been misbehaving so hideously the party has become a bad joke in very poor taste.


As things stand - with between 70-80% of the rakyat pushing for REFORMASI under a Pakatan Rakyat government, led by the increasingly popular Anwar Ibrahim - the entire nation seems to be in a political deadlock.

Anwar Ibrahim at the Kelana Jaya Stadium, 6 July 2008 (Photo courtesy of TV Smith)

The Pakatan Rakyat cannot move forward without a sizeable section of BN parliamentarians crossing over. And BN is paralyzed by its abject fear of non-survival - for its survival as a political party now depends entirely on holding on desperately to the primary tools of governance, viz., control of the mass media, the police force, the treasury, judiciary, and the armed forces.

BN's fear is very real and understandable. Once it loses power, anything can happen. A brand new government would abolish the repressive laws that have all but stifled dissent since the Mahathir era. With the complete overhaul of the judiciary and police force, replacing the contaminated elements with politically neutral and professionally qualified personnel in key positions, thousands of Umno skeletons will surely come tumbling out of the closet.

Not just Umno misdeeds perpetrated by members of the present cabinet, but the lifting of the lid on issues of criminal mismanagement will unearth reprehensible acts carried out by former Umno warlords like (to name but a tiny handful) former finance minister Daim Zainuddin, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, former home minister Megat Junid, former Malacca chief minister Rahim Thamby Chik, and scores of their cronies in the corporate sector.

Former finance minister & Umno mafia don
Tun Daim Zainuddin

Would the rakyat be content to let bygones be bygones? Personally, I think not. Simply because the magnitude of the criminal excesses committed by various Umno, MCA and MIC leaders (particularly during the Mahathir era) must be exposed to the light of day. The poison must be pumped out of the system once and for all or it will work its evil again on any administration, especially since the backbone of government is the civil service - and old, entrenched ways are hard to weed out without some sort of ritual, Greek theatre style, catharsis.

The problem is that these miscreants are extremely well-connected. Like a rainforest ecosystem the complex intertwinings of political and financial power reach far and wide and, ultimately, impact on millions of lives. In America a similar situation prevails wherein influential political families like the Bushes, Kennedys, Rockefellers, and so on are genetically and economically linked with a plethora of other powerful lobbies - not the least of which is the Zionist-Israeli-Khazarian lobby which cohabits openly with the rightwing fundamentalist Christian lobby and heavy-duty media owners, defense contractors, the Pentagon top brass, US Airforce, and the Office of Naval Research.

In effect, yanking out a Godfather-like entity like Daim Zainuddin will reveal an entire root system of corruption, greed and corporate misdeeds stretching across the region and back in time over generations. The Status Quo cannot be forcibly and too hastily demolished, lest the ceiling itself collapses around us and kills some of our family members and friends.

Name the dirty deed. These characters in Umno, MCA and MIC have done it one time or another. From straightforward CBT (criminal breach of trust) and barefaced lying to outright theft, rape, incest, pedophilia, abduction, blackmail, and murder - the accumulation of BN's sins is monumental. Indeed, pile them up in a heap and even Mount Kinabalu would be dwarfed.

What I propose is that we take a page out of South Africa's book at the end of the Apartheid era. There was a period of National Reconciliation during which Special Commissions were allowed to investigate and expose a broad spectrum of abuses - particularly on the part of the secret police - and perpetrators were offered the opportunity to publicly apologize for their crimes. The most serious ones were then imprisoned for a spell before being paroled, while most were absolved and released from public service. In other words, many hardcore criminals received little more than a slap on the wrist.

This approach suits me fine as I personally do not believe that vengeance is all that healthy. Where forgiveness is possible, it has to be the option we choose. However, forgiveness is impossible without public revelation, full disclosure, and a heartfelt expression of remorse. The stubbornly recalcitrant understand only one thing: harsh justice. So we have to give them what they want - but in gentle, measured doses. For we don't want to become like our enemies. "You become what you hate" is indeed a sagely observation.

So let's consider a period of Umnesty - when we allow Umno warlords and senior lackeys the chance to come clean, so to speak, with the proviso that they will not be too sternly judged and punished for past misdeeds. Once the terror of severe punishment is allayed, we may witness a collective sigh of relief such as has never been heard in the entire spectrum of time. Those who have misappropriated the rakyat's money will be required to voluntarily return at least two-thirds of it. A wag of the public finger, a sharp slap on the wrist, perhaps a token jail sentence and/or fine. More serious crimes - like blackmail, conspiracy to defraud the public, and even cold-blooded murder will, under the terms of our Umnesty, be handled with genuine compassion and mercy.

For example, if Najib and Rosmah confess to their complicity in the abduction and gruesome murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu, we shall not demand that they be "hanged by their necks till they die." We shall give them the chance to buy their freedom by returning 90% of the ill-gotten gains acquired through abuse of their privileged positions - and then allow them to live their lives out undisturbed in any country that will offer them permanent residence. They will only be allowed to visit Malaysia after a minimum cooling-off period of seven years; and, even then, they can only stay for a maximum of three months each time, like any other tourists.

As for Dr Mahathir, perhaps the best punishment is to simply ignore him. In any case, I'm pretty certain that the day Anwar Ibrahim takes his oath of office as Malaysia's new prime minister, the foxy old coot will suffer his final, fatal heart attack. He will be given a modest-scale funeral and buried in an unmarked grave - so nobody will be tempted to defecate on it. As a human being, he deserves at least that much respect.

[First posted 24 July 2008]

SPIRITUALITY AND SEX (revisited)

Seven Lectures from The Reconnections

As these lectures are quite long, I shall present only brief excerpts from each one, leaving it up to you whether you would like to read all seven in their entirety from The Reconnections website.

Part One

As the vibrations of earthquakes and tsunamis resonate all around your world, we must now take some time to share with you certain insights concerning the emotional core of your Planetary Oneself. It is these issues, being suppressed on the Inner Planes of Consciousness, that are causing most of the trembling down below.

The topic of Sexuality has always been a stormy one - particularly in cultures whose religious traditions gather themselves around a Masculine Deity. Ever since the Temples of the Goddess were toppled, way back when - a wedge has been placed between your spiritual nature and various core levels of innate sexuality that dwell within each of you.

Granted, there has always been a strong religious emphasis placed upon the holiness and beauty of sex in marriage, and the blessing that comes with a house that is filled with children. But the rest of the energy, sourced within your sexual nature (the sensorial and erotic aspects) has oft been relegated either to the subconscious, or to houses of "ill repute" - presided over by those who are openly reviled by members of "decent society" in the light of day - yet earnestly sought after when sunlight fades into a twilight of secret desire.

What people are saying they've been doing, sexually, does not always match what they are doing. And even when it does, there is often a divergence between what folks are experiencing and what they long to be experiencing. The evidence for this is everywhere - in your television, movies, print media, and even in lively conversation at the office or factory. You are fixated... obsexed (if you will), and many of you do not even realize it, or acknowledge it. Therefore, nature must sometimes take up that task, bringing forth rumblings from the Earth that correspond to dark rumblings going on inside many of you.

The "as above, so below" dictum is now applying itself to your physical body. It is reconstructing your human vehicle, from the inside out. "As in the greater, so in the lesser." The micro is entraining itself with the macro. The Earth Mother and Her Human Family are now becoming ONE.

Not everyone will experience this transformation at the same time or in the same way. But all will experience it. If they don't feel it in themselves, they will see it in their wives, their husbands, their children, friends, neighbors, and so on. It will soon be going on all around you. What has been hidden for centuries... for millennia, even... must now be brought to light. It must be unsealed, and healed in the sunlight of conscious awareness. The pressure inside you has become too great. And yet, what we will share with you, about this process, may be far from what you'd expect.

THE RETURN OF THE GODDESS

The Goddess Religions were founded upon many of these hidden elements of which we speak. The power of the Goddess rests, not merely in her mastery over nature, but also in her deep knowledge of what motivates and stimulates the heart of humanity - what makes it glow, and what keeps it healthy and strong. Is it any wonder that heart disease is a major killer in your world today? When the pillars of Her Temples were knocked down, a good deal more than a religion was lost.

We speak now... ultimately... of the Divine Feminine, as she re-establishes Her relationship to the Masculine Dominance that currently fills your planet. What will shine forth in humans, on a small scale, is but a faint glimmer of the bigger picture, which is now playing itself out in a whole host of ways. [MORE...]

Part Two

The worlds from which you are now transitioning are part of that spectrum of universes whose foundation rests heavily upon a masculine view of reality. Because of this, the prevailing attitudes about sexuality are strongly colored by that view as well. The feminine has existed here, of course, but its influence is still considerably repressed.

Masculine energy tends to separate life issues and focus upon them. Feminine Energy tends to gather them together and intuit them. Masculinity is individuated, femininity is familial. Masculinity is logical, and runs on reason. Femininity is emotional, and sources its power in relationship.

Sex, in a masculine-dominant environment, would be defined as an ACT, a moment-in-time experience that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. In a feminine-dominant environment, sex is an ATTITUDE, a "connective force" that holds people together, like tendons and cartilage hold together a body structure.

The masculine wants to "penetrate, inseminate, and emigrate" from each connection as quickly and easily as possible. The feminine wants to "collaborate, consolidate, and administrate" each connection so that deeper needs are recognized and addressed. Masculinity falls in love with something specific - a focus, an essence, a trait. Femininity falls in love with potential - a direction, a vision, an anticipated way of life.

Both genders carry both sides of the energy spectrum, in a physical Game Format. The males, at any given point, can be seen as embodying (or wearing) the current status of masculine energy in that Game. The females will wear the current status of the feminine. The judgment of each state is in the eye of the beholder. In other words, if a woman looks at a man and judges him - she is really judging her own inner masculine. If a man looks at a woman and judges her, he is naming the current state of his own inner feminine.

And so it goes. Each gender becomes a reflector for the other - a mirror for what's happening in the life of whoever beholds it. And each society of humans becomes a reflection of the Creator God/Goddess Force that has formed and infused it. Every part of the Game needs every other part, at some point. Nothing can be eliminated, even though both "sides" in the dance have attempted to do this, across time and history.

The pendulum swing from masculine dominance to feminine dominance has been played out to the hilt. Now is the time of resting. Now is the time of integration of BOTH FORCES into One Congruous Whole.


THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES

Sexuality, within a masculine-dominant paradigm, will always take on the form of a battle. This is because masculine energy is so filled with the essences of hunters and warriors. Even when two partners say: "I am tired of this battle," they are doing battle. They are challenging WHAT IS, in order to bring about WHAT COULD BE. We spoke earlier about the urge of the masculine to "penetrate, inseminate, and emigrate." This pretty much characterizes all the life functions that are handled in a masculine way. And, if it doesn't emigrate immediately, the secondary urge of the masculine would be to possess and control. [MORE...]

Part Three

If any of you are feeling disturbed about the connection we are building, between children and sex, it is probably because humanity has placed a corona of honor around that time in your lives when things were simple, and everything was about laughter, play, and sweet innocence. Some of you may feel that those times were all too short in duration (so do we!), or worse... they never really came around for you at all.

Our purpose for offering this series of transmissions is not to encourage adults to have sex with children. Rather, we are suggesting that you return to the beauty of having sex AS children... and see where that takes you. It is possible, you know... regardless of age. Being an adult seems very much the art of putting on masks and facades, convincing yourself and society that you are: (a) worthy of their trust, and (b) able to live among them in a thoughtful and responsible way. All the while, you are still grappling with the same fears, dreams, and repressed desires - left over from when you stood, steadying yourself at your father's knee.

Before we can continue with our comparison of a child's view of sex and an adult's view, there is some clearing that must take place in your perceptions about adulthood.

WHAT BEING AN "ADULT" MEANS

The oft-heard admonition: "Act like an ADULT, will you?" is very telling. And your endless expositions on and descriptions of healthy adult sex, couched in terms of "sexual performance" is also quite interesting, is it not? Is all of it an ACT? A Performance?

A wise man once expressed: "Always BE what you wish to seem." These words were never truer in history than they are now, My Friends! The vibratory pulse of your planet has reached such a pitch that your bodies and minds can scarcely withstand the weight of your incoming awareness, let alone the burden of carrying facades and picture postcards concerning who you would like people to think you are. What was once seen as an ideal (be what you wish to seem) is rapidly becoming a crucial skill for maintaining mental and emotional survival.


One of the primary meanings for your word "adulterated" is: "To make impure by adding extraneous, improper, or inferior ingredients." And yet, your word "adult" is said to mean: "To become mature. To grow up." Even allowing for the fact that someone might be able to dive deep into ancient language derivatives to explain away the similarity of these two words, they seem to offer us all some powerful insights, do they not? [MORE...]

Part Four

Let us temporarily change our emphasis from the natural, pure expression of Spiritual Sexuality in Children to healing some difficulties that are confronting the adults in society today. Even though there are many souls who still feel quite energized and excited by "Sex Games" that are being played all over the planet, there are many more who have grown tired of all those manipulations and ploys - seeking to infuse their lives with a new kind of joy... a place in consciousness where Spirituality and Sexuality meet and mingle, sharing powers and gifts that will take humanity to a new place altogether.

When committed couples, in your current culture, go in for "Sex Therapy," it is often because one or both of them feels that sex has become "dull and flat." The frequency of their lovemaking has, perhaps, dwindled down to almost nothing, in comparison to the beginning of the relationship.

It is not unusual for a Sex Therapist, beginning work with just such a couple, to actually require that they cease, for a time, any practice of "normal sexual relations," in favor of softening the nature and quality of their interactions together. We are speaking here about simple touch, staring into each other's eyes, being together in romantic settings. Simple touching, no "sex" by your present standards. In this way, a couple learns to de-emphasize the issue of "performance" or the repetition of certain "acts," in favor of expanding and adjusting their overall sexual attitude towards each other.

In a more liberal and non-traditional environment, a Sex Therapist may be replaced by a Priest or Priestess of the Goddess Traditions, seeking to install a new viewpoint about making love (which is also a very old one). As mentioned in Part 1, the newest evolution of sexual expression and appreciation will be to expand localized focus and sensitivity from specified "sexual areas" in yourselves and diffuse it throughout the whole body.

Those who are "Tantric" in their orientation, will seek to use sexual arousal to produce Kundalini Activation in the root chakra and carry that energy up the spinal canal to the heart, throat, and intuitive areas, rather than ejaculate it into another person. In this way, one's overall spiritual connection can be enhanced and amplified, creating a clear channel of unfettered communication between the intuitive and primal levels of human energy.

KEY PLAYERS IN A NEW HUMAN DRAMA

What we will speak about now may be quite alarming to some of the 3D cultures in which you live. In fact, there are some cultures in which what we will describe might be considered illegal and immoral. So be it. We do not mention these things as an initiative to make political changes to the world(s) you inhabit, or to break the law. Instead, we are seeking to open another window into the Multiverse, so that you may become aware of alternative universes, where things are handled differently than here. These universes are REAL, right now. If you want to visit them, all you have to do is believe, and you'll be there.

Let the Old Paradigm of Separation and Control move away from you. Drop it, like a butterfly sheds its cocoon, or a human spirit lets go of a body whose life cycle has run its course. You are more than those attitudes, and you are far more than one single body. Unlike the "sexual revolution" that was attempted in the 60s, and then moved back again into fear and judgment - this current shift will be meaningful and fruitful, because it is sourced in each human heart, rather than legislated in books of law, or part of some outward revolution. [MORE...]


Part Five

Adults represent those who claim to know things. Children admit that they don't know, but are open to discover. A child's genius is found, not in what he knows, but in the way he learns and why. We will cover this at length in a future transmission. Young people focus primarily on what interests them, or seems relevant to their Now. Adults spend time trying to "master" subjects, gathering and collating knowledge in order to establish themselves as "experts," usually to gain respect and influence. And, indeed, they may gain some respect, but many of them trade their childlike openness in order to sustain it.


An adult who is pretending to know is really just a child who is hiding behind a facade. The effort that is taken to conceal his naiveté not only blocks him from enjoying the inner child, but it also keeps him from truly becoming an adult. After all, one of the primary steps for becoming enlightened is a realization that one is in the dark, is it not?

The Return to Oneness is a dance of trading places between positions on these Universal Game Boards. Sometimes, you are this, and sometimes you are that. Moving from 3D to 4D, the Game continues, albeit at a more expanded level. As you break away from dependence on time, chronological age, or human personality to define and contain you, you begin "phase shifting" up and down the time continuum. You can be anywhere, anywhen, or anyone... because, deep in your core, you know that you are EVERYWHERE and EVERYONE.



ABUSE, BETRAYAL, DRAMA, AND EXCITEMENT

That which has been termed "abuse" in your society, particularly sexual abuse, stems from a Soul Contract, between two or more individuals - designed to assist them as they sustain whatever energy essence is required to complete their Journeys here.


Were it not for the presence of these "Soul Contracts," what you think of as "abuse" could never take place. Regardless of age, you are far more sovereign in planning and executing your life that most of you realize. In the most expanded sense, there are no "victims." There are only participants and volunteers, every step of the way! This may be hard to believe, and if you like, it is okay to remain skeptical about it for as long as you need to do so. [MORE...]

Part Six

All across the land, there are those who will continue, for a season, to wear a stern and reckoning gaze of rejection and condemnation, especially in regard to various liberties and social practices that arise from life styles built on the concepts of innocence and freedom.

We are The Reconnections. We represent all those parts of your Expanded Self that you had to forget about in order to become human. We've never really been far from you... just far enough. Within our ranks are included all of those necessary Bridge Concepts that will connect you with what is known as The Multiverse, that compilation of possible/probable realities ALL OF WHICH represent levels of YOU, the Oneself Dreamer.

In regards to Spirituality and Sex, there are trends afoot, which seek to lead humanity to return to its "traditional" FAMILY VALUES and SOCIAL ORDER - which certain individuals equate with narrowly defined ways of living and being... RULES, that embody whatever divine qualities are revered in the minds of those who currently hold power. However, as humanity's vain attempts at personal "brainwashing" continue, the awakenings of primal energy (primary life force) are also in motion - nurtured, in no small part, by a continuing bombardment of LIGHT ENERGY which is arriving into your physical space via Soul-ar Rain, originating from both your Central Sun and also from that 3D symbol of Universal Light and Heat. (For more imagery around this, please see our transmission "Aids and Planetary Healing.")

In Part Two, we demonstrated that whatever is focused upon, yet held at a distance, becomes an object of obsession. And, what's more... it becomes fixated most clearly on the minds and hearts of those who are attempting to restrain that focus. Even though their intention clearly states: "We want to put an end to this practice," their Magical Manifesting Mind will not recognize the command line "put an end to it," since they are words of negativity and exclusion. Your mind was not created to operate in that way. That which is denied will always be multiplied. What you resist will always persist. As Obi-Wan Kenobe put it, to Darth Vader: "If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you could ever imagine." This is equally true of what you call "Dark Forces" as it is of those you consider to be "Light."

The current drama surrounding pedophilia in many of your cultures is proof of this. Your stated concerns about the molestation of children has become your newest form of "Salem Witch Trials." As we demonstrated in Part Three of this series, ANY initiation into a child's space, with design to regulate or manipulate that person's life functions, is a form of ABUSE, and deserves close scrutiny. Your current focuses on "keeping children safe" from predators are mere political screens - highlighting a statistical increase of illicit sexual contact or intercourse with minor children - while completely overlooking the manifold OTHER ways that children are MOLESTED and MANIPULATED to fit the needs of your "dominator" societal model.

Whatever is popularly considered to be the height of shame and degradation will eventually metastasize into the mainstream because the only cure for SHAME is the realization of SAME that exists in all of you. The proliferation of these "shameful acts," within popular media and knowledge, illustrates how any attempt to hush something up only adds gasoline to the firestorm surrounding it.

The only way to resolve your concerns about "ruining the lives of children," through improper and premature contact with adults, would be to stop "screwing with them" on ALL LEVELS, not just the issue of forced (or coerced) sex.

As people begin to let go of their walls of separation, they will go through some necessary rites of initiation that will return Goddess Energy to their specific "mix" of transformative energy. The elements of "form" and "function" need not be lost, however. All that is needed would be the addition of an element of FEELING to balance things out. This necessary component moves beyond a mere hunger for orgasm, or titillation of the senses. It will bring with it an expanded form of PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY that always accompanies a truly compassionate ability to "love your neighbor as yourself." [MORE...]


Part Seven

The planetary rumblings continue, as your collective Dance of Awakening becomes more focused and intense. The Winds of Destruction - which shattered your Gulf Coast in America are simply one of many powerful ramifications that will flow from your recent decision to shine light into those dark corners of your consciousness, finally exploring what has been hidden within you for so long. The Solar Flares which preceded this turbulence also symbolize this. Little by little, you are dropping the Veil - exposing, on many levels, the YOU that has existed since the very foundations of time.

In Oneness, there is no such thing as "evil" or "malevolence." There are simply varying degrees of unconsciousness. What appears as cruelty or heartlessness, in the heat of the moment, often reveals itself to simply be the product of an emotional disconnect, created through times of early childhood trauma. Emotional disconnect... cradled by an overwhelming drive to discover and recover that which was stolen, so long ago.

PROJECTIONS AND DISSOCIATIONS OF POWER

Let us speak now about Demons, Scapegoats, Sacrificial Lambs, and other storage receptacles for Supernatural Power, whether they be deemed Light or Dark. We build our commentary here on certain knowledge that was previously set forth in transmissions such as "Dealing With Psychic Disturbances" and commentaries such as "In the Cleft of the Rock." If you haven't had a chance to review those yet, you may want to do so now.

We are The Reconnections. We represent all those parts of your Expanded Self that you had to forget about in order to become human. We've never been very far from you, just far enough. Within our ranks are contained all those necessary Bridge Concepts that will connect you to what is called The Multiverse, the infinite storehouse of possible/probable realities, all of which represent levels of YOU.

You are so much more than you think you are. But you have forgotten it. And, in your restless thrashing about - tossing and turning in your third dimensional dream - you have cast off many of your powers, giving them separate form and function, according to your individual need for emotional and/or mental stimulation.

Included among those disowned energies, which so many have laid aside and abandoned, are raw emotional states which are essential building blocks for personal passion, and key components for your soon-to-be-expanded Spirituality and Sex Interface. To deny the intensity of these raw emotional states is to deny yourself the power they are here to deliver. They stand as both Inquisitor and Deliverer for those who are ready to invoke their presence. [MORE...]

[First posted 15 July 2009]