Give me insight into to-day, and you may have the antique and future worlds. – Emerson
Peter Russell is among the few insightful contemporary scientists who seem to agree with Emerson: “There exists only the present moment, a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence.” (1) That’s easy to say but how do we wrap our minds around a reality so at odds with our life’s (apparent) experience.
How do we stay in the present moment when the behaviors of our politicians in Washington are not exactly comforting or reassuring? How do many of us cope with the fear and pain that results from realizing that our leaders don’t know how to lead? We can distract ourselves with our substance (drugs) or process (gambling) addictions or use fantasy as a distraction. A genre of literature that makes for good escapist entertainment is science fiction.
For example, in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy (1951-1953), the book “has less to do with the plots or characters than with the books’ fictional science of psychohistory, a system for predicting future events, even thousands of years from the present.” (2)
We have arrived at a time as a species when we have to make a critical choice. Shall we decide to wake up and take responsibility for creating our own reality in the present moment or shall we continue looking for distracting entertainment?
Clearly, choosing to escape from the suffering produced by identifying with our false self rather than our True self is leading us deeper into the darkness. Asimov created a character he called the Mule, a mutant telepath who could control human behavior. “The mule also suffers from megalomania, an inferiority complex and ‘an intensely psychopathic paranoia,’ which may strike some readers today as uncomfortably familiar.” (2)
With the “Mule” in the White House, we don’t need the science of psychohistory to know where we are headed. If we choose to pursue plenty, pleasure and power, the energy sources of the false-self survival strategy, we won’t need any psychics to tell us our future. It will resemble what the character in the film “Groundhog Day” experienced. The past will be our future and nothing will change.
To read about what a different choice would look like click on the link below.
Insight #63: Fear is not of the present, but only of the past and future. – A Course in Miracles
Link:
- Present Moment in this blog and also in the print version of The ABC’s of Simple Reality, The Encyclopedia of Self-Transformation, Vol II (2018), by Roy Charles Henry, page 108.
References:
- Russell, Peter. Waking Up in Time. Novato, California: Origin Press, 1992, page 93.
- Nevala-Lee, Alec. “Essay: Back to the future.” The New York Times Book Review. November 4, 2018, page 19.
