The above is a chapter title in my 2003 book, Ageless Wisdom Spirituality: Investing in Human Evolution.  7 years later, there is still no significant discussion of technology’s pervasive and profound impact on our individual and collective lives, unless there is something specific or dramatic (a media ‘”hook”) like the current Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  Even in these cases, the incident/ event is treated as an unfortunate, unforeseen “single issue”, which soon becomes “old news”,  even if the consequences continue and worsen outside of the brief news-cycle.   Who is interested in mortality spikes a few years later or interconnections with non-oil issues?  Not very “sexy”.

The general  impact and control (or lack thereof) of Technology  does not lend itself to media coverage or legislation, because it is gradual, complex, subtle and generally un-dramatic, which doesn’t translate well into  sound or video “bites”, media ratings or opinion polls.  To my mind, the unexamined implementation of new technology is far more dangerous and destructive than the threat of “terrorists” over which we currently obsess.  “Terrorists” will eventually succeed in killing anywhere they want if they are willing to sacrifice their own lives.  You or I, if sufficiently desperate, deranged or “motivated”, can strap a bomb to our bodies and detonate it in a crowded shopping mall, restaurant, market, subway station etc... and make the headlines, stampeding millions of people!  But what does that really mean or require for prevention?  More surveillance and Big Brother/ Police State policies (costing billions $ out of the Public Purse) which will eventually fail in the face of individual Human Will?
Here are few of the “hidden effects of technology”:

There is much more but space dictates the end of this blog. We need more discussion. Technology is not just a glorified hammer or shovel, but highly interactive and interconnected with us.

For 26 years, I taught the exploration and integration of body, energy, emotion, mind and spirit. My 2003 book Ageless Wisdom Spirituality: Investing in Human Evolution (AWS) suggested Ageless/ Perennial Wisdom was necessary to meet humanity’s global challenges. As a member of the (trans-traditional spirituality) Forge, I helped create the Call to Global Spirituality Citizenship (www.globalspiritualcitizenship.org), hoping to bring such ideas into the popular arena.

Recent occurrences started me questioning Freedom of Thought and the interface between Private and Public. Rather than getting my opinions out, should I shut my mouth because Big Brother might actually be paying attention!? The first occurrence was that several well-established, traditional, shiatsu organizations in Ontario were suddenly banned from teaching (some heavily fined) because they were not registered/ qualified under the Private Career Colleges Act 2005. They were small with no organizational muscle or “credibility”. The second was a CNBC program on Google, which revealed that Google keeps the IP addresses of all searches, which are available to the US government under the Patriot Act! Within the last few days, the US Library of Congress announced it was keeping all Tweets for “posterity” and the Privacy Commissioners of 10 countries - Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and Britain - criticized Google for “negligence in protecting user privacy”. The USA was absent in this initiative.
What if a powerful body – political, corporate, governmental etc – decides I (or any law-abiding citizen) was not just insignificant, but a “threat”? Apart from all I have published or spoken in public, Facebook, Twitter and Google now provide loads of multi-media personal information. Is there a picture of me looking drunk or “high” or with nubile women? Telephone conversations and emails are easily intercepted; life style habits are exposed through bank accounts, debit and credit cards (your “credit rating”), and through GPS tracking of cars, cell phones etc. Such investigation is not restricted to black-garbed terrorists!!

If I was taken to court, could I financially withstand the army of lawyers Government or a large corporation would summon? Having lived and taught Oneness and Interconnection, “both-and” thinking, the existence of Qi or Prana life energy etc., could I “prove” the legitimacy of all this in an environment of “either-or” thinking and within which the definition of “reality” is rigid, simplistic, “quantifiable cause-and effect”? How could I prove “consciousness” much less argue there might be different levels of consciousness available to adult human beings? I would be ridiculed! Ironically, if we take a detached look at what “hard-headed reality” has created for us, the Ridiculous is not hard to find. 

If you think the above legal, nightmare scenario is far-fetched, research Monsanto’s many ruthless legal campaigns. This Vanity Fair article is one example: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805. Another is Monsanto’s persecution of Percy Schmeiser (www.percyschmeiser.com), a 79-year old farmer, around whose property Monsanto’s genetically modified (GMO) seeds were growing. Don’t seeds blow in the wind? Anyone seen the movie Erin Brockovich? How come no one wants GMO “Frankenfoods” and yet they constitute the majority of all we actually buy and take into our bodies? 

All this is not just conspiracy-theory paranoia, since it is verifiable. However, facts don’t necessarily impact us if we (including non-Americans) are indentified with a Belief, which in this case is mostly the American Dream. For some time, I have sensed a growing Disconnection in the USA (and in my own country, Canada) between Illusion and Reality.. and the inability to recognize innate quality. Chris Hedges’ explores this Disconnection in depth in his Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.
A few related thoughts and facts:

The last 60 years, corporate and technological power has exploded and transformed society in fundamental ways which are still not recognized by our populace or leaders. President Eisenhower warned about the rise of the “military-industrial complex” and its effect on government, while subsequent Presidents, especially Reagan and George W, openly and enthusiastically supported it. Corporations wield enormous power within society generally as well as in the depths of government and politics. Often they are “too big to fail”, even if they are blatantly corrupt. For many people, even the exploited poor, corporations are seen as synonymous with the “national well-being”. This is an unexamined and probably flawed assumption. Venerable corporations and institutions (including the Catholic Church) have collective egos as fallible and flawed as individual egos... except their impact on individuals is greatly magnified because of their sheer size and power!

A direct result of corporate monopoly has been the acceleration of the gap between rich and poor and the negative impact of “quality of life” issues, the consequences of which have been analyzed in detail in the book, The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality makes Societies Stronger.

Blog space is ending. To end, I think we need a shift in the way we think and feel, which I feel can only come about because of a (spiritual) shift in consciousness. We need to recognize wisdom in individuals apart from celebrity/ marketing and how much money they have. How that can come about is a question which I hope will come into the popular arena. I have a few ideas!

Looking back over the first decade of the new millennium, the event most people remember is 9/11 and the fall of the Twin Towers.  People were shocked and shaken; George W. Bush launched his “War on Terrorism” with which Obama is now saddled; time has slowly dulled the pain and shock.

What are the real consequences and lessons of 9/11?  Thomas Walkom recently wrote an article in the Toronto Star entitled, “Who won the decade? The Terrorists”.  He argues that the West has taken a leap backward because of our own fears and anxieties - civil liberties and social movements have been rolled back; torture has become acceptable; surveillance of citizens is increasingly more intrusive; the Liberals are divided and indecisive, fearing to be called soft or unpatriotic, and so are leaving the field more and more to the extreme Right.

Way back in 2004, I pointed out in my book, “Ageless Wisdom Spirituality: Investing in Human Evolution”, that the American invasion of Iraq was wrong-headed, largely trumped up by the Bush-Cheney administration (google:  project for the new American century) and doomed to failure.  Now in 2010, we know that many more Americans have died in Iraq than died in 9/11, not to mention tens of thousands more injured; Iraq and its population have been devastated and have become a recruiting ground for terrorists; the war has been a huge drain on the American Treasury; Afghanistan has been neglected and now festers, while Al-Qaeda has become stronger as a rallying point for extremists.  Al-Qaeda cannot be defeated by armies because it is an idea, which is spread and enabled by the internet.  Another terrorist attack in the USA will succeed sooner or later because all it takes is one person with relatively crude devices - or even just a computer.

In Ageless Wisdom Spirituality, I pointed out that our greatest strength is actually internal.  We need all our bravery, clarity, common sense and compassion to meet our collective global challenges: the health of the planet, the poverty gap (which I think is linked with terrorism) and the indiscriminate implementation of science and technology.   9/11 was a tragedy but the loss of life and property was relatively small considering what other countries around the world experience.  The terrorists are winning because they have plunged us into Fear and distracted us from our really important challenges.  Americans are living in the past.  They keep on spending more than they earn and borrowing the difference from China, which is now poised to challenge the USA both economically and military; they cling to Old Oil, while the more forward-looking countries are already positioning themselves to lead the next wave, which will be “greener” and based on more alternative energy solutions; they refuse to look outside of their own borders for new ideas and inspiration or even feedback.

And what of Canada? Since 9/11, Canadian leaders have voluntarily (or been pressured behind closed doors) fallen in line with American policies.  Under Harper’s minority government, this process has accelerated with Canada having fallen off the international stage and become not much more than a neglected, American state, toeing the Presidential line.  Harper is operating more like an American president (especially Bush) with the PMO’s office holding ever more “secrets”, controlling talking points and bullying anyone who opposes or contradicts it, including career diplomats like Richard Colvin. Probably the next big bi-lateral issue to surface (or be pushed through in secret) is one which I have mentioned before in my blogs: the idea of Canada being included in a North American defensive “perimeter”, which will be manned mostly by the American army.  Of course, in exchange for all this “security”, they will expect more control of our water and natural resources and whatever else they find useful.  If we are going to hand over our defence to the USA, why is our defence spending increasing?  The whole point of a stronger army is to deter bullies, including the Americans!

Apart from the obvious issues of the erosion of Canadian democracy and independence, does it make even strategic and economic sense to bind ourselves ever more tightly to the sinking American Empire?

The above is the sub-title of “Eco Harmony Dawn Cooking”, which I have just co-written with Nicola Lawrence, the Chef of Harmony Dawn retreat and my wife.

Recognizing the Interconnection / Oneness in life and the individual and collective implications and possibilities arising out of such a realization is the whole purpose of the www.andyjames.ca website and blog.  That may seem remote from the realities of life to some, but interconnection within and between our external and internal (mind-body) environments is a fact, logically undeniable, but commonly denied anyway.  Our book points out, “Food is a prime example of the interaction of inner and outer.  It is something ‘external’ we ingest into our bodies, which then affects our internal chemistry, energetics, moods, health etc.  These internal factors subsequently influence our interactions with the external world, including how we produce food…and so the circles go.”

The first 30 pages of the book are devoted to explaining how the internal and external environments are interconnected, with special emphasis on the environment, food and health.  We also explain how these principles have been incorporated into Harmony Dawn retreat, which has so strongly resonated with our guests that we are now mostly booked up a year in advance.

The rest of the book is stuffed with more than 160 easy, delicious (already taste-tested by our guests) recipes and environmentally-friendly and healthful shopping and cooking tips and advice.  This book is the result of popular demand by Harmony Dawn’s guests, as was Nicola’s first enthusiastically received book, “The Dao of Harmony Dawn Cooking: Innovative and Acclaimed Spa Cuisine”.

We have book launches October 27 and November 4 in Toronto.  Check out www.harmonydawn.com for details.  You can get copies of the book on www.harmonydawn.com or www.andyjames.ca  It makes a healthful and informative Xmas gift!

The above is a title of a new book by University of Pennsylvania neuroscientist, Andrew Newberg.  Judging from an interview with the author which was featured in the Toronto Star, his findings seem to make much general sense, at least according to my own experiences and intuitions.  He found that those who engaged in a positive spiritual practice enjoyed not only better brain health, but overall health. Here are a few of the Q/As.

Q: How does God Change your brain?
A: There’s not just one God part of the brain.  The whole brain is affected.  When you fully engage the mind, which we typically see in spiritual practices, it activates different parts in a robust and fundamental way.  When you look at God in a positive way, it turns on the part of the brain that makes you feel more compassionate, more loving, more
forgiving to ourselves and others.  People with these positive feelings about God have lower levels of depression and anxiety.

Q: Are there different changes for different religions?
A: It’s not your belief system, it’s what you are doing.  If you’re deeply focused on a sacred object, the brain activity is different from someone praying, which is different from someone speaking in tongues, which is different from Sufi meditation.

Q: You also say extreme beliefs can permanently damage your brain.
A:  People who think of God as vengeful, exclusive, angry at people who don’t believe the way they do, that activates parts of the brain involved in those negative emotions.  It turns up the heart rate.  You’re ready for anger, ready for a fight.  It turns on a whole stress cascade that actually damages the brain, makes it work less efficiently.  In health care, we see people who look at God as angry at them.  They got cancer because God is punishing them.  That’s extremely detrimental.