Dear Betsy,

I am an author living in the mountains above Golden, Colorado responding to your recent angst about Hurricane Katrina.  

On September 11, 2001, when the Twin Towers tragedy occurred, I was deep in the heart of the Grand Canyon on a river trip.  Our group didn’t find out about the terrorist attacks until September 15 th…. Last week, when New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, I was in the depths of Cataract Canyon, in Canyonlands National Park near Moab, Utah, with eight other women. We did not find out about this tragedy until we got off the river, on September 3. Both times, upon re-entering the “Rim World above the canyon walls,” our small groups were haunted by the question: “Are we going to reality or coming from reality?"

Betsy, this is what the river, and these experiences, are teaching me about how we co-create our own reality.  I hope these ponderings of mine will in some small way help your own search for answers.

1.) On each river trip, the group starts out as strangers. We live for a short time on the river, thousands of feet below the Rim World, and during this time we become community. We evolve backwards into an ancient and natural way of relating to each other. The river becomes our lives, allowing us to flow through each moment always in the present. Yet the canyon walls – history’s sentinels – firmly guide our journeys, each new day is as intrinsically linked to the past, as it is to the future. There is no separation.

2.) This small community is a microcosm of the world at large. Every member’s well being is important to the health of the group. Every member’s emotions are a reflection of the emotions of the group. Every member co-creates the group experience. The external, emotional “weather” of the trip is a manifestation of each member’s internal weather (turbulence, placidness, joyfulness).

Betsy, in your recent article in What the Bleep¸ you write:  “This past week I have been asking myself, ‘Did all those people really create this disaster for themselves?’”

Perhaps, in situations of this magnitude, it is not the individual who has created the disaster, but the unsettled consciousness of the entire species of mankind. Why did this disruption of the human heart as a whole, manifest itself in New Orleans ? For the same reason, perhaps, that it is the weakest thread in the rope that gives way first. It is the most atrophied limb that falls from the tree. Perhaps this is Nature’s way of bringing to our attention where the greatest need exists. 

I don’t know, Betsy. It’s all conjecture, an attempt, like yours, to makes sense of things. Yet I do know that these explanations seem to me to be less judgmental than believing that the citizens of New Orleans wreaked this havoc upon themselves. I think we must all take responsibility for this reality.

The beauty of this awareness is the realization that we are all, then, empowered through our connection to the creative energy within the universe to make changes as large and as glorious as the world herself.  And this is a hopeful realization.

Thank you, Betsy.  And thank you, immensely, for What the Bleep.

Sincerely,
Page Lambert
Golden, CO

Betsy,

We in the UK are horrified at the scale of devastation in New Orleans and the apparent lack of action from Bush. FEMA seems to have a very sinister agenda which has little to do with 'saving' people!

Anyway, I am very happy to hear that your brother is OK. You say in the article how 'the disaster made you wonder about creating your own reality'. I offer you this thought; What if someone knows, and has always known, that we humans create our own reality? What if there is a ratio of conscious creators to unconscious creators that is needed to make an event manifest, like in that Washington (meditation) test that is mentioned in the movie?

What if the people that know this incredible secret actually run the world and they own all the media and therefore control what the world’s population thinks? What power you could wield. What if Katrina was no 'act of god?' Perhaps it resulted from the use of weather modification systems like HAARP? What if 9/11 was engineered by this [same] corrupt organization in order to make Americans think in a certain way? Don't blame Russia or China either - the most dangerous organization in the world is a lot closer to home than we dare think.

You, of all people, know what can be achieved if one can control the unaware, unconscious consciousness that exists just beyond our perception. I think you guys should all read some of Timothy Leary's books. It will make you wonder what can of worms you may have uncovered. What the bleep is a film that has changed my life.

Thank you Betsy,

Andy Welch,
United Kingdom

Dear Betsy,

A wrong question cannot have a right answer. This society has assumed that just because any question is formulated and asked, there must be an answer to it. However, a question in itself can contain a bias, a hidden direction, which makes it impossible to answer. Whenever I find myself struggling with a question and circling without any plausible conclusions, I step back and reevaluate the question and look for an “incorrectness” imbedded in the question, and try to reformulate it.

You asked the question many people have been struggling with, “Did all those people really create this disaster for themselves?”

This question holds within it a separatist philosophy; one might even consider it an elitist belief. A clue to reconciling this question might be found in two words: “Did all those people really create this disaster for themselvesS?” The use of these particular words automatically indicates distance. This question arises from a belief system that assumes “those people” are different from “we,” and “themselves” is a different entity than “ourselves.”

I am very grateful for the tremendous strides I have made in understanding that I am responsible for the creative power of my thoughts. I thank “ Bleep” for significant contributions to this evolution. The next step in this evolutionary path is to recognize that the “whole” works the same as the parts. Everyone, even those who were not actually in Katrina should consider the question: “Did we really create this disaster for ourselves?”

The truth is: We are ONE. Collectively, we create. Just as it is true that our individual intensions and thoughts manifest a reality, the being that is comprised of “us” creates a bigger manifestation.

Truth can be found in ancient wisdoms as well as current technologies. Many of our ancestors believed that All was comprised of the elements: earth, air, water, fire, and spirit. “We” are the spirit in this equation. As I watch continual strings of devastation on television, not only from Katrina, but all of the floods, fires, earthquakes and various “natural” disasters, I see that the elements of earth, air, water, and fire are responding perfectly to us as spirit. We, as a whole, as a people, as the spirit, are in tremendous turmoil. We, as a whole, have within us overwhelming imbalances in resources, devastating wars, crippling addictions, and a ruinous spiritual crisis. At the core of this collective internal crisis is the belief that we are separate, individual cells, living alone, apart from “others.”

Just as: “There is no ‘out there,’ out there”… There is no “them,” … only “us.” Yes, in my humanity I can’t swallow that they created this disaster either. To blame them for creating this tragedy for the purpose of spiritual growth isn’t compassionate and those concepts don’t feel good. But the alternate and deeper truth can initially contain an even more pain, which makes it all the more difficult to come to terms with. The same way alcoholics need to nearly jam their fists down their throats to rip out the words: “I am an alcoholic,” for the first time, it is with that same sense of incomparable dread that we must admit: “We are responsible for Katrina…I am responsible for Katrina.” I, myself, am a contributing factor in the creative forces that manifest into physical ramifications that destroy so many. I, myself, as a cell of the whole, cause disturbances in the “One” through my own addictive tendencies, my own desires for retaliation, my greediness, my internal chaos, my fears, my denials, and my beliefs that I am alone, not connected, separate from others. Regardless of the pain that is involved in this admittance, it is the beginning of freedom, the beginning of owning a life and the ability to choose to change it.

Accepting responsibility for my place in this communal act of creation brings into sharp focus the importance and immediacy of caring for my own soul, my own sensibilities and my own internal life that is not hidden, as I would like to safely pretend, but is in fact as big and as obvious as a hurricane. If we say we want peace, we must look into this hurricane and see ourselves, and then we must choose peace and calmness within ourselves until we no longer see a hurricane. Together, we can still the storm from within. Thank you, all of you, who are creating our next evolutionary step. Blessed Be All.

Nancy Jewell, Denver, CO

Dear Betsy,

I am writing about one of the excellent points/question you raised in the latest Bleeping Herald. 

I am trying, and I stress trying, to live with an idea of dualities within myself. The chemical me and the intellectual/spirit exist side by side. The only way I can resolve things these days is to try and let them all observe each other. The balance comes from recognizing both and accepting both which, perhaps, sounds easier than it is. People who try to be totally good often become totally repressed and 'victims' because they can't accept that we are both good and bad - as simplistic as that sounds! 

I live in Milan,  Italy and on one side of me is a Mosque, the other side is a Christian Evangelical church - two extremes, yet identical in numerous ways. I hold that picture in my mind, particularly when the bells for the Catholic churches are all ringing.

The challenges we set up for ourselves as spirits are pretty difficult to accept on a day to day basis. When we slip, when we blame, when we fall into self-pity and anger, well, we can just stop and start again. I do it a hundred times a day but I won't give up.  Eventually it makes a difference. Anyway, those are some thoughts. Thanks for all your good work.

Sylvia Van Nooten, Milan, Itlay

Betsy,

Your piece in the Sept. 2005 newsletter, about the suffering of the hurricane victims and how this is an intentionally created reality for those affected really struck a nerve with me. One of the biggest debates I have with "God" (my inner self, whoever I am debating with) is about suffering ... especially of innocent children and animals. (How could a loving source allow such things?)  But your article did such a great job of putting it into a context that makes perfect sense. “People set up their destinies for spiritual growth purposes.” It was an "ah-hah" moment ... even if in the middle of the chemicals and emotions of my humanity, I forget the next time I am confronted with a suffering that just doesn't seem fair. Thank you so much.

Kathy Fischer, Roy, WA