The Pendulum Swings

by Bill Harris, Director Centerpointe Reasearch Institute

This may be the most important article I've ever written for Mind Chatter. I'm going to write about something I've been thinking about sharing with you for some time now, but have been waiting for "the right moment" to do so. This seems like the right moment, and when I saw Marc Gilson's review of Chogyam Trunpa's "The Myth of Freedom" I knew I was right about this. Please do read this book review, as it also speaks about the ability of the conscious person to realize that the negative side of things is not to be resisted, but at the same time, you don't have to get sucked into it, either.

You'll see what I mean by this in a moment.

The reason I've waited to share this is that it may be sensitive or controversial information for some people. If that is true for you, I urge you to read very carefully and be sure to get my point, since I can see a possibility for misunderstanding.

You may have noticed that the world seems to be becoming more and more polarized lately, and I'd like to give you my view on this--a very different view than you have heard anywhere else, I'll bet--and give you a little advice on how to handle what I see coming in the future.

In the second of my online courses, The Accelerated Change Maximizer, one of the the things we've been talking about is how the entire universe is a vibration. This means that everything goes on/off, on/off, on/off, over and over and over. We see this with things we commonly think of as vibrating, as when light or sound waves have a crest ("on") and then a trough ("off"), but this vibration also happens with everything else in the universe, from the smallest sub-nuclear particles to the largest collections of galaxies.

The coming and going of the seasons is also a type of vibration. So is the change of day to night. Feeling good, then feeling bad, is a vibration. Waking and sleep is a vibration. And, the big one for most people is the vibration of life and death.

Things vibrate between their polar opposites. Things come into being and pass away, endlessly, and this on and off and on and off rhythm, which is reflected in everything, is the most fundamental characteristic of the universe.

I'd like to give you my thoughts today on one of these on and off rhythms and how it affects the world situation.

Few people have looked at this from a big picture perspective, but one of the things that goes on and off in its own vibratory pattern is social mood. Social mood swings from positive to negative and then back to positive again, over and over. We don't have the space to go into a full description of these changes in social mood, from one extreme to the other, over and over, but this swing back and forth is fractal in nature. This means that when the main trend in social mood is going up, for instance, it improves a certain amount, then backs off a bit--but not as much as it went up--then advances even more, then backs off a bit again--but again not as much as it went up--then advances again. When the main trend then changes direction and the overall trend is down, toward the negative, social mood first becomes more negative, then improves a bit--but again not as much as it went down--then goes down again even more, then improves a little bit, then goes down again, and so on.

When social mood is at its most positive, everyone is so positive that they think things will improve forever, always getting better and better. It's at this point, however, that "it's as good as it can get"--or at least as good as it's going to get, and that's when social mood turns down and trends toward becoming more negative, until it has reached the maximum amount of negativity. Then, when social mood is at it's most negative, everyone thinks the world is pretty much coming to an end, and things will never improve. This is, of course, when social mood, always vibrating, changes its trend and moves up, becoming more positive.

Over and over, social mood moves from extreme optimism to extreme pessimism, and then back again to extreme optimism, over and over.

A recent example of such a change in trend was right after the Twin Towers terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The stock market was already severely down from its high in early 2000 (social mood was already trending down after it's high in 2000), and social mood was becoming more negative. When 9/11 happened, the stock market really tanked, and the social mood in the US plummeted as Americans envisioned being under attack from people who hated them and wanted to indiscriminately kill them.

But this dark moment was the bottom, at least of that particular move in social mood, and from that point social mood improved. The stock market began to improve about a month after 9/11, and Americans came together in response to the terrorist attacks in a very dramatic and united way that no one had seen in this country in quite a while. Just when things looked blackest, social mood changed direction and improved.

The last time social mood was extremely low as in the 1970s. This manifested in a number of ways. Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Medger Evers, and Malcolm X were all assassinated. There was a huge polarization about the Vietnam war, with marches in the streets, and even riots--including a riot in the streets of Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. There were many race riots all across the US. There was increased labor strife. Richard Nixon was forced to resign as President, the first time this had ever happened in US history. The stock market tanked. The Cold War became more intense. Terrorists killed Israeli athletes at the Olympics. Iranian fundamentalists took US citizens in the Iranian Embassy hostage and created a world-wide crisis.

This showed up in the mass culture of the 1970s, too. Movies became more violent, and the themes in other art forms became darker. Overall, there was an increased polarization between all kinds of groups, whether political, economic, national/international, gender-based, religious, racial--and every other "us versus them" distinction you could make.

Before that, you could look to the 1930s and 1940s for an even lower low in social mood. During this time, the economy fell apart all over the world, resulting in a world-wide depression. War enveloped nearly every country in the world, and millions of people died. During this time Hitler and Stalin murdered millions of people who weren't even war combatants.

In both of these cases, periods of positive social mood followed. After the end of World War II, the world experienced the greatest increase in prosperity and awakened social consciousness the world has ever seen.

After the 1970s, the world experienced the biggest boom ever, culminating in the 1990s, with the highest standard of living, even in the poorest countries, the world has ever seen. The Soviet Union and world communism pretty much ended, the Berlin Wall came down, peace treaties and weapons treaties were signed, and Middle East peace talks took place.

What, you might ask, does this have to do with personal and spiritual growth?

Bear with me, and I will explain.

Once you see how social mood moves from extremely positive to extremely negative, over and over, in a vibratory cycle, it may occur to you that we are once again entering a period of increasingly negative social mood. As in the 1970s, nearly every social group is polarizing itself, whether it's Republicans and Democrats, Liberals and Conservatives, pro-life and anti-abortion, pro-Gay marriage and anti-Gay marriage, pro-war and anti-war, the US and the radical Islamicists, rich and poor, white and black--and every other possibility. Even the negativity toward people like Martha Stewart and the CEOs of various corporations is a sign of deepening negative social mood (these people were heros just a few years ago when social mood was at its highest).

In my opinion, we are at the beginning of an era which will result in an incredibly intense polarization of every possible group. The war in Iraq may be just the beginning of a series of wars that may turn out to be very intense and destructive. The latest drop in the stock market may be the beginning of much greater economic problems. The darker and more violent movies you see all around you may be just the beginning of a much darker tone in popular art. The attacks of one group on another (Liberal and Conservative, pro- and anti-Gay, pro-war and anti-war, and all the rest) are increasing and become more intense and more cruel. The treatment of Iraqi prisoners by US service people, and the beheading of a US citizen by radical Islamicists is just another symptom of darkening social mood.

And so on.

Here's why I'm telling you this. I'm not doing this to take sides in any of this. I have my opinions, but mostly I'm sitting back and watching. I'm also not doing this to scare you. In fact, just the opposite. When social mood turns up or down, herd instinct take over. It is very easy to be caught up in the tidal flow of events and feelings. Social mood is contagious, and it's easy to get caught up in it.

If you want to get caught up in it, that's your choice. I believe social mood is going to become incredibly negative in the coming years. The most prevalent feelings will be anger, hatred, negativity, and fear. Do you really want to follow the crowd into these emotions, and the behaviors that go along with them? I know I don't.

I'm seeing what is happening (and what I think is going to happen) as the natural "on" and "off" of humanity, the natural vibration of positive to negative and back again. I wish it wasn't coming, but I think it is. When this happens, the unconscious, unaware person, the person who is allowing their internal state be determined by what goes on in their environment, is swept along with the crowd, and with the tide of social mood.

On the other hand, the conscious, aware, awake person sees the vibration of social mood as part of the going on of it all--neither positive nor negative, but just what is. When social mood turns negative, those who are aware have a choice as to how they feel and behave. If you're unconscious, you don't (or at least it seems as if you don't) have a choice. So I'm alerting you to what I see happening because I want you to know that you don't need to get sucked into the fear and negativity I believe we're going to see in the world in the coming years.

It will not be easy to stand aside and watch without getting pulled into the extreme feelings you'll see and feel in the rest of society. I find myself having to guard against it every day. I care about the people in our Centerpointe family, and I want all of you to remain happy and peaceful regardless of what happens around you in the coming years. The world will need people who are conscious and compassionate and who are not swept into the intense emotions I believe are going to swamp the world. Your use of Holosync is going to help you to be more aware and to be more able to create happiness and inner peace regardless of what is happening around you.

There will always be the tug to join in the factionalism, to choose sides and see the "other" as the enemy, to see the world as good versus evil, and to join in the fight on whatever side seems to be "good" to you. Don't do it. There is no benefit to you to do so, and there is no benefit to the world. As events unfold, be the watcher of what happens, noticing the polarization without getting swept up in it. Your ability to do this will be a stabilizing effect in a world going sideways. If you stand aside from the tide of feelings, you do not contribute to the increasingly negative social mood, and you can do much more to help those who are suffering. You will be an example of what it's like when you don't allow outside events control your mood, and that will be a good thing for the world. This will also be a very good thing for you and for your family and loved ones.

I want to be very clear that I'm not writing this to be negative. I don't feel negative about this at all. I think it is unfortunate, since many people will suffer, but you don't have to be one of them. I'm writing it to give you a perspective. Negative times are coming, but you don't have to participate. It's when you play the game of Black and White, with the added rule that "White Must Win" that you make what happens into something negative.

Please do let us know in the coming months and years how Centerpointe can support you in being happy and peaceful regardless of what happens in the world. I plan to do whatever I can to help as many people as possible to remain happy, peaceful, centered, calm, and compassionate, regardless of what the coming years may bring. Please help me do that.

And know that after this period of negative social mood, the pendulum will swing the other way, and social mood will turn positive again. I'm guessing that those who use Holosync will be among those who lead this upward swing when it happens. Be one of them.

Be well.

Bill Harris, Director

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