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http://carolynbaker.net/2018/03/22/introduction-of-beyond-hope-letting-go-of-a-world-in-collapse-by-deb-ozarko/

Introduction Of “Beyond Hope: Letting Go Of A World In Collapse,” By Deb Ozarko

“Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind. Speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.”

—Gandhi

For the next 3 weeks, I will post a chapter from my new book release, Beyond Hope: Letting Go of a World in Collapse to give you a taste of what lives inside. This week, I offer you the powerful Introduction.

If you dare, read on.

***********

This book began as something very different than what you now hold in your hands. Originally conceived as a testament to the “beautiful new world” my heart still believed was possible, the working title for this masterpiece was, Revolution 3.0.

Revolution 3.0 would be the ultimate transformation in consciousness that inspired the reclamation of wholeness leading us back to the very essence of who we are: the interconnected, non-separate Soul.

It would be a heart-driven revolution that roused the collective from the coma of disconnect that has destroyed all that is sacred in our world. Revolution 3.0 would inspire an epic awakening, activating what deep ecologist, Joanna Macy calls, “The Great Turning”: a life-sustaining, Soul-inspired, utopian Earth that made manifest the words of John Lennon’s beautiful song, “Imagine.”

I duped myself.

In the last few years, it’s become increasingly clear that the beautiful world of my imagination has always been nothing more than an elusive dream. With a collective of 7.6 billion (as of this writing) and growing exponentially, each child birthed to this world is enslaved by the cultural conditioning of those who preceded them. Because of a rigid allegiance to the story driving the endless perpetuation of this cultural programming, there is no way out. Every human bred to this world is born into an industrialized civilization that conditions them to be separate, and to therefore negate life through the commoditization and consumption of animals, Earth and the Soul. There is no way to stop an epidemic of madness when the global mind has so willingly embraced it.

The rapid acceleration of violent events around the globe: the uprising of religious fundamentalism, xenophobia, homophobia, speciesism, misogyny, societal breakdown, mass animal die-offs, the unparalleled disintegration of the cryosphere, and the rapid decay of our very biosphere; it all weighs heavy on my mind and heart. There is no denying that we are living through what scientists are calling, the 6th Great Extinction Event. These are indeed unprecedented times.

For the past few years, persistent premonitions of total ocean collapse have haunted me. These portents consistently present with two words: “It’s over.” The result is a dramatic about-face for
this book.

We are living in a time of planetary hospice.

Regarding the message I’m now implored from within to share, I was recently criticized by someone who said to me, “that is some heavy stuff.” I believe it’s only “heavy” when denial is the primary modus operandi in life.

What’s heavy is the voracious consumption of trillions of sentient land and aquatic beings for their flesh, maternal and menstrual secretions—every single year.

What’s heavy is the persistent technological distraction that rules, and ruins our lives.

What’s heavy is the frivolous obsession with narcissistic celebrity culture and blatant indifference about the plight of the planet.

What’s heavy is the economic stratification of society into rich
and poor.

What’s heavy are wars against terror, wars against drugs, wars against cancer, wars against animals, wars against each other, and the war against Earth and Soul.

What’s heavy is rampant overpopulation, starvation, poverty, homelessness, mass shootings, racism, xenophobia, transphobia, homophobia, speciesism, and generalized hate.

What’s heavy is the widespread epidemic of depression, obesity, fear, anxiety, addiction, stress, and mental illness.

What’s heavy is the uprising of sexism, misogyny, objectification, rape, and violence toward all that is feminine.

What’s heavy is fracking, oil spills, plasticized oceans, overfishing, aquatic dead zones, mountain-top removal, tar sands, mining, smog-filled air, clearcut forests, wetland development, nuclear waste, polluted rivers, lakes, streams, and oceans: ecocide.

What’s heavy is the numbing of our capacity to care because of our addictions to alcohol, pharmaceuticals, reality tv, pornography, gambling, social media, shopping, and conspicuous consumption.

What’s heavy is the meltdown of the Arctic, raging floods, wildfires, droughts, superstorms, hurricanes, rain bombs, algae blooms, Medicanes, earthquakes, bomb cyclones, and our wholly fucked-up Earth climate.

What’s heavy is the vortex of space garbage spinning around Earth, and continent-sized garbage patches choking the seas.

What’s heavy is the arrogance that prevents us from owning our role in this mission of ruthless omnicide.

We’ve created it. We’ve ignored it. We’ve denied it. Earth is writhing in pain, and she’s fed up. We are now experiencing the dramatic repercussions and getting precisely the cultural, civilizational, and ecological breakdowns we’ve created. The laws of the universe are inexorable. For every action, there is a reaction.

Action: Rape of Earth. Reaction: Runaway biosphere decay.

For every cause, there is an effect.

Cause: Human separation. Effect: Extinction of life.

We are caught between a rock and a hard place.

Karma’s a bitch. We are so fucked.

Separating from, and destroying an intricate web of life while denying the dire reality of our collective choices is what’s really, really heavy.

There is no more “don’t worry, be happy, everything will be ok” world anymore.

It’s over.

There is no Revolution 3.0. There never was. There never could be.

The words that follow speak to painful truths. At times, they are outright scathing.

I make no apologies for the disillusionment, betrayal, and disgust I feel for my species. I also make no excuses for giving a damn, and for loving life as much as I do.

The bottom line is that I don’t write for comfort. I don’t write to make friends. I don’t write to preserve the status quo.

I write to rattle cages until the locks fall off. I write to demolish old paradigms. I write to give voice to the voiceless: animals, Earth, and the Soul. I write to make hearts bleed with grief, and heal from Self reclamation. I write to shock, anger, irritate, and destroy the ignorance of antiquated belief systems. I write to bring light to the critical conversations that are swept under the rug and spotlight the cracks in our consciousness that have separated us from life.

I write to puncture the bloated, arrogant, profoundly conditioned ego.

Michael Beckwith once said, “A bad day for the ego is a good day for the Soul.” If my words irritate, ruffle, anger, and get under your skin, I’ve touched your Soul.

I write from the heart for the heart.

I am the irritating pattern interrupt that rattles your core and reminds you of the sacredness of life.

The words that follow channel my inner Kali: goddess of death, destroyer of the illusion of the separate self, and best friend to the Soul. To embrace the energies of Kali is to embrace the destruction of human conditioning for an expansion in consciousness. That is Kali’s ultimate intention. Kali the destroyer demands our attention so that—whether we like it or not—we are transformed.

And so the words that follow are meant to provoke, agitate and shake the very foundation of cultural programming that holds the Soul hostage. I write without apology for the courageous few who are willing to claim their most profound truth by remembering who and what they are, even in—especially in—a world that is falling apart.

The words that follow shine a spotlight on the collective shadow, so it no longer lurks in the moldy, dank darkness of the heavily programmed human mind. This is not a book about saving, fixing or changing the world. It’s much too late for that. This is a book about radical personal evolution for the sake of Earth and the Soul—right now.

This book speaks unsparingly to painful truths. It’s written for those who are no longer willing to deny what they already know in their hearts: that we have reached the end of the line. It’s a book written for the warriors of truth who are ready to reclaim the Soul, let go of our broken world, and put love and compassion into action for no other reason than because that is the deepest truth of who they are.

When I write about the dire predicament we are now living in; I use the language of “our” and “we” throughout this book. I realize the implications of these sweeping generalizations. Because of our collective enslavement into a lifeless civilization that has negated the Soul, however, we are in this together. Like it or not, we are all plugged-in to a collective consciousness that is hell-bent on ruin. And so, fire and flood, drought and deluge, displacement and death, are the extreme natural responses to the extremely unnatural conditions we have created.

At a time when there was not the scientific, technological or cultural separation from the Soul we now know, came prophecies of war, social unrest, cultural collapse, and ecological devastation. Every spiritual tradition spoke of the dire times we now find ourselves living in. By opening the lens of our awareness, this truth becomes clear, and we can no longer rationalize the irrational, or deny the undeniable. It is upon us now.

I realize that warnings of “collapse,” “end times,” “apocalypse,” and the “end of civilization” are often viewed as fringe, “doomer” or alarmist, but I also believe that on some level, we are all feeling it. To the naked eye, things may still look relatively “normal” as business-as-usual plods along, but lurking below the surface, many of us know something very different.

The Greek definition of apocalypse is “revelation,” or “a lifting of the veil.” As the truth of our Soul separation becomes more apparent with widespread breakdown, a collective uprising of resistance, fear, violence, and denial accompanies this revelation. Those who stand the most to lose in our harsh world are growing increasingly oppressive with their military-like rule. Cultivating a stable inner sanctuary is of great importance in these unprecedented times. The Soul is—and always has been—the only source of peace and power, regardless of how desperate things may become.

For the few who understand this on a visceral level, they will also recognize the urgency for their accelerated evolution. This urgency prompts an awakening to the only thing that can liberate the Soul from the confines of our conditioned humanity: acceptance.

This is not a book about science, history or philosophy. It’s a book about letting go. Letting go of the need to define an outcome. Letting go of the fear of uncertainty. Letting go of false hope for an illusory future. Letting go of the dream for a collective awakening. Letting go of the stories of what may or may not be. Letting go of what once defined meaning. Letting go of the fear of mortality. Letting go of what we’ve been conditioned to believe ourselves to be. Letting go of our broken, dysfunctional world.

In most books that expose the horrors of our world, there is often a final chapter that states, “if we can collectively pull ourselves together and do “Y,” we can save ourselves from ourselves, and “X” will not happen.” But words drenched in hopium succeed in only lulling us back to sleep. The implication is that somebody, somewhere, is somehow dealing with this monstrous mess and we need only make a few small adjustments in our personal lives to save our sinking ship. And of course, the worst stuff will never happen in our lifetime.

The reality is that time has run out. We are well past global warming, climate change and even anthropogenic climate disruption. We are in an irreversible state of runaway biosphere decay with no way back to what once was. And so I write this book with no hope-filled final chapter to lull anyone back to sleep. There is no to-do list filled with quick steps, painless fixes, and simple solutions. There is no strategic plan to perpetuate the belief in a happy ending anymore. The line in the sand has been drawn.

It’s over.

This is a book written for those who are no longer willing to deny the reality of our broken, dying world. It’s a book of painful truths. It’s the book I’ve been hungering to read my entire life. A book free of lies, magical thinking, denial, and hopium. It is a book I could never find because I was meant to write it.

This book is not for the faint of heart. It highlights everything wrong with the culturally conditioned human, and how by separating ourselves from the natural world and the Soul, we have become our own executioners.

My purpose with this book is not to convince you of the apocalyptic times we are now living in, or of the biosphere collapse currently underway, or of what you already know inside yourself. The fact that this book is in your hands is indicative of a truth that already lives within. My purpose for this book is to highlight the inauthenticity of who and what we’ve allowed ourselves to become so that in these final times, we can awaken to, and embrace all of who and what we’ve always been meant to be. At the very least, let’s make our final ride enlightening, compassionate, and caring. Let’s at least become as a result of what now is.

In the end, my hope for those who heed these words is not to soften the blow by couching it in passive language, but to inspire presence, passion, and compassion, for no other reason than because that is the calling of the Soul—the most profound truth of what we are. Ultimately, my greatest desire for this book is to break the cycle of samsara once and for all so that we never incarnate among such lunacy again....