The vast conspiracy among “experts” is to make one think there is more to what they do and know than there actually is -- for if there wasn’t, why would we need them? Not that there aren’t things that most people would rather not know about and become their own experts on -- but those specialties comprise a minor presence and preoccupation in most people’s lives. Even if one could perform his own brain surgery, if he’s done it right, it’ll be a one-shot deal and probably worth hiring the guy who’s done hundreds of them before and who’s developed a high degree of proficiency and efficiency at such procedures.
But for daily health attainment/maintenance, most are best off becoming their own experts. In this case, “the experts” just make it seem more complicated and unattainable than it has to be. In fact, the harder one has to work at it, the less he understands what he is doing. The greater the understanding, the less arduous it has to be. So that is the first clue: those in good physical condition don’t work hard at it. Those who work hard at it, are not in good condition.
The skilled practitioner of any discipline/activity never chooses the hard way over the easy way. He makes it (look) easy and not hard. That is an essential component of doing anything properly -- making it (look) easy. It is that very effortless that marks the master of what he is doing -- and that is not the result of strenuous effort. It requires learning the effortless way from the very beginning.
Yet with most people’s conditioning program, they’re erroneously led to believe that the difficult is a sign of doing it right -- when it is precisely wrong. Because the whole objective is to move effortlessly and painlessly, is it not? So why would practicing great effort and strain enable one to perform the effortless and painless? One becomes what he practices -- and never the opposite. His practice is what he perfects -- not the opposite.
Mere practice makes one perfect at what he is already doing -- and not how he hopes to be doing it some time in the future. One does not learn how to do things badly before one can learn how to do things well. Proper learning is learning to do anything well -- and not badly -- as though that were a prerequisite to learning how to do them well. Learning badly is poor instruction -- and no amount of poor instruction will result in good learning. Bad learning leads to more bad learning -- and not that any learning is better than none at all. Actually bad learning is worse than no learning. It’s learning all the wrong things -- which the uneducated mind at least knows he does not know. The great handicap in life is to be certain of what he knows -- that isn’t true. It may be a handicap he may never overcome in his life -- not because it was insurmountably difficult to overcome. He just never saw the need for it and so may question and examine everything but a single, simple premise that reveals the awesome simplicity of the truth.
That premise in education is that in order for the student to benefit, he must find the lessons difficult -- rather than simple, clear and easy. In order to achieve the latter, the lesson must be simple, clear and easy to the instructor, otherwise, he can only communicate his own confusion and lack of clarity and understanding. And that is what we largely learn in all our years of education -- the confusion, uncertainty and insecurity of others.
The reason most people are out of shape and in poor condition -- is because they don’t know how easy it is to be in good condition -- so brainwashed have they been to the notion that it must be difficult and arduous to be in good health. It is far harder to be in bad health and poor condition than to be in good health and condition. Those in poor condition think it takes hours a week to get into good condition -- when it can be achieved on five minutes a day, without breaking into a sweat or raising one’s heart rate, or breathing strenuously. It could just be the everyday routine of normalizing one’s essential functioning immediately upon waking in the morning. That is, articulating the movement at the head, hands and feet (increasing the blood flow to those critical areas) -- immediately upon waking, when the body is in its weakest state. In that condition, simple movements at these extremities represent exponential gains in momentary capacity.
After one is fully awake and at the peak of his abilities, doubling his momentary capabilities would be virtually impossible. However, immediately upon waking, it is quite possible not only to double, triple, quadruple and increase by tenfold one’s momentary capacity as at no other time in one’s day/life. It is precisely at such time that exercise does the most good and because it is that productive, requires very little to produce rapid increases in capabilities/functioning. The movement/exercise doesn’t even have to be very difficult -- starting from a dead stop (sleep). In fact, many people observe that as they advance in years, it may take hours before their bodies are operating at “normal” levels after waking. Obviously what is required is movement/exercise as easy as possible, and which doing so, makes greater movement immediately possible. Quite simply, it has to be the easiest movements possible -- and not the most difficult. That’s where most of the exercise experts have it wrong. They’re falling all over each other to create the most difficult exercises possible at the moment of greatest capabilities-- instead of the most logically simple at the moment of least capability, when the minimum is also likely to be the maximum.
Then one will find that he doesn’t have to get into shape or work hard to keep in shape; he’ll just be in good shape and condition because apparently that’s all a body requires to maintain peak functioning capability. Five minutes a day -- just getting up, in this systematic, programmed movement sequence. It is not difficult or strenuous; it doesn’t make sense to wake up any other way -- when this is the most effective way to awaken and recover/optimize one‘s faculties from sleep and disability. It doesn’t have to be hard, rigorous, strenuous. It merely has to be deliberate, thoughtful and intentional -- for five minutes. This practice is transformational. It may be five minutes more a day than they’d get otherwise. But that’s all one needs. More is not necessary. That is the minimum required to attain and maintain optimal health.
The first five minutes after awakening is the critical window of opportunity. At no other time in the day will one’s momentary capabilities be as low -- and thus capable of being so dramatically improved. And that is the significant factor -- improvement in momentary capacity. When one can double that on demand, one has developed an incredible power and ability. It doesn’t seem like much -- but the magnitude of improvement is what the body will respond to, will model subsequent movements after throughout the rest of the day -- quite naturally, progressively.
Science and technology has come up with all kinds of ways to keep people feeling good and healthy into the years that formerly were thought of as the age of aches, pains and irreversible and unrecoverable deterioration and decay until death. But these improvements are not uniform in society at large and across the board. Some are benefiting immensely from these discoveries and some are still living life as it was experienced a hundred years ago -- without the benefit of recent enhancements and understanding. So on one hand we see a generation of people never seen before in history -- still robust beyond the years it was thought possible and even imaginable, much less desirable. Meanwhile, another segment of the population insists the traditional aging pattern they’re manifesting is as nature intended, “natural,“ and to accept any other fate is vain and futile, as though neglect, ignorance and deterioration was a virtue.
But mostly that is a rationalization and justification because they think remaining in vibrant good health requires extraordinary efforts -- that dooms them. It doesn’t, and that is the pity of it all. The danger of these times is not any lack of information but the abundance of it that which is not true creating problems that disappear once the beliefs that sustain them are no longer reinforced and propagated as “conventional wisdom,” “popular culture.” That is the revolution in the age of information -- that beliefs are not reinforced by mere repetition but are reviewed like every other as to their authenticity and credibility. That is to say, no claim can be substantiated simply on the basis that the “experts” say it is so but rather has to hold up on the strength of its own common sense and verifiability by anyone, and not just the self-proclaimed experts sticking together. That is the new world order the old minds don’t want to give up, are not ready to accept. It is the quintessential democratic society -- without all the implied and explicit hierarchies of authorities of which the experts are its foot soldiers.
The great legacy of present civilization is this very challenge to the authorities and authority about 2,000 years ago -- against the experts of their time, the Pharisees and the scribes. Things were done because of their say so. That made it law, inviolable, a commandment. The story of Jesus is not merely a religious one -- and in fact, marginalizes the universality of this quintessential human fulfillment by making it a mythical, supernatural fairy tale. The diversion is deliberate and intentional -- or it would be a great problem for many societies still trying to hang on to their hierarchies and control, including all but the best, the most capable, the most fearless. That is the familiar and predictable reaction of the threat to the status quo -- drilled into the citizens of most societies, even while espousing high and noble ideals promoting the questioning of erroneous ideas -- as distinguished of course, from their own highly proper ones. Frequently, the indoctrination consists of only one lesson repeated countless times each day -- who is the authority?! The question is not how did we come to that conclusion but already decided in “the experts say…” -- unexamined, unquestioned and unchallenged.
Now it would be one thing if there were no problems following the recommended solution of the experts -- but when they don’t solve any problems and actually perpetuate and exacerbate them, the intelligent layperson must eventually come to the conclusion that the expert may have no idea what he is talking about except that “all” the experts are saying the same thing, backing up each other -- with similar disappointing results. It seems to be the case of the store not selling what the customer wants but what the store has to sell -- regardless of whether it’s any good. And then to compound matters, instead of the store listening to what their customer wants, they redouble their efforts to sell the customer what he doesn’t want, cannot use and may even be harmful to one‘s well-being. What is even more vexing is that despite not offering any solution, they want to forbid customers from going anywhere else -- as though it were one of the Ten Commandments.
Life on the cutting edge of human possibilities now is the realization that more is not better but that better is more -- or a qualitative shift from merely a quantitative orientation. That is, simply making or spending more money is not an indication of what may be the most meaningful measure of what is going on -- and that instead, there may be much more significant things going on, even transformations and revolutions, while we are preoccupied with our old measures -- as though they still meant something, if they ever did in the first place. Oftentimes what was measured was simply that which was easiest to measure -- instead of what was most significant to measure.
Probably the most familiar example of such a measure is the Consumer Price Index, or some similar cost-of-living adjustment, which though widely-used and referenced, has become meaningless because of its overuse and abuse -- because not only will the government come up with its number but so will everybody else using that figure making his own personal add-on adjustment or interpretation to that figure. The union using the cost-of-living to justify their pay demand will ask for the CPI rate in addition to the CPI rate to compensate for the CPI rate -- rather than that it should be a moot point in that this adjustment is already implied for everyone -- and every other middle man should not be tacking on an extra inflator as his own entitlement for fairness. Not that the CPI really is that valid a measurement to begin with. After all, it is a fixed market basket of goods purchased regardless of price -- as though price was never a major determinant in purchasing decisions, and that is of course, wholly false, in that for any rational person, price is usually the greatest factor and not a non-factor. So that measurement is based on a great fallacy -- in the first place, and serves as the basis for much greater distortions justified by it to the point where it serves no valid purpose anymore. When the tide rises for everyone, it doesn’t serve any useful purpose to use that as a benchmark for distinguishing differences within a population. What would be a significant and distinguishing characteristic is the varying individual adjustments to a universal challenge and not citing the common element as some kind of special consideration for the one who thinks of it first.
Another area in which change changes everything rather than causing everything to remain the same is in scientific studies and observation itself. That is to say, that the realization that one is being observed, measured or studied, changes the outcome and result -- because of that consciousness itself. Therefore, the results that would be observed can be greatly affected by how much the subjects are aware of the purpose and objective of the study -- and want to influence its outcome! This is highly important because in much of behavior, that which is desired, makes it no longer a random and therefore “scientific” study. In some studies, those who want to be cured, may show more improvement on placebos than those on an actual medication -- with no idea that they should or could get better on their regimen. So that is a major difficulty in any human study and observation -- frequently overlooked and not effectively accounted for, with even deliberate efforts to deceive the true purpose.
With these difficulties inherent in any observation, the natural limiting factor is not one’s attempts to enforce ignorance but the acknowledged limits of the understanding -- that is not presumed to be the ultimate understanding or actual reality. It is merely an understanding -- and that understanding is the greatest variable among us. However, those individual variations are in many cases presumed to be the constant for all -- and when such a fundamental flaw is built into the equation, the possibility for deception and distortion overwhelm every other consideration. It is not nothing, or simply a minor distortion or disagreement. It is a gross distortion making the entire discussion absurd and pointless. There has to be a common ground from which divergence of viewpoints can emerge -- but not possible if there is no agreement on anything to begin with, the presumption that we even agree on what is up and what is down!
The disturbing thing to anyone observing contemporary discussions in the usual public forums is the emphasis on differences before any common ground is established -- or to impute to others, statements they have never uttered, unconscionably. And lacking such integrity, one cannot hope that such discussions can be conducted honorably and conscientiously -- requirements for working fruitfully with any others. Establishing understanding with others certainly has to be regarded as demanding work for the most conscientious, honorable and trustworthy -- and when done without assuring the aforesaid qualifications, is a futile quest at best that should be abandoned at the first signs of major resistance and sabotage. Without an auspicious beginning and earnest efforts all along the way, nothing good can come of it, try as one might. The understanding has to be there first to justify the commitment -- and further commitment. The money invested in this process may be the least important consideration, yet it is often, the ONLY consideration.
So the paradigm shift of this time is from the quantitative measurement to the qualitative understanding that critical changes may change everything and nothing is the same in the presence of that quality. Simply more of the non-critical elements have no similar transformative effects, which is to say, that they don’t make a difference, or the critical difference -- so one should not fixate on them as though that were a significant or relevant point of observation and discussion. By this we hope to become more discriminating students and not non-discriminating ones who can’t tell any differences that make a difference. Such contentious and argumentative people will consume all the time we will lend them. They need to be identified early on and treated deservingly -- as those who have no objective but to waste as much of our time as possible. That is their point -- and only accomplishment, objective and purpose.
Unquestionably the greatest personal discovery I made in the past year is the effectiveness of guaifenesin as the single best supplement most people should consider taking on a regular basis. It might eliminate virtually all the ailments one has accepted over the years as just the way it is since they don’t remember when. For most, deterioration and dysfunction is not a dramatic, traumatic event but is a gradual process over time -- which one simply adapts to as best he can, gets used to, never breaking above the threshold at which he resolves, something’s got to be done about this. Rather, one merely accepts it as he accepts the air he breathes -- uncomplainingly, indiscriminately, unless the pollution is so toxic that it cannot be ignored and dismissed.
Although a seemingly innocuous drug that goes unnoticed and unused except when one has a cold, flu or other respiratory condition, its effects are profound, as it regulates the viscosity of the mucus in the body -- the other great fluid of the human body. In fact, it is so essential and fundamental a fluid that there are animals that can function quite well without the other, blood -- but never without mucus. For as we recall in our studies with the simplest life forms, the body is contained by the mucus membrane -- that which holds the fluid constituting the body of water (mucus). Now, we surely can appreciate the difference the viscosity of that liquid would make in all cell functioning. Those with arthritis pain at any joint would be interested to know that in movement, the cartilage releases mucus as the lubricant to enable that movement. One of the properties I’ve noticed over the years is that almost all the drugs/supplements recommended for their favorable effects on health is that they invariably thin the blood -- rather than clotting it, or causing it to become thicker and less flowing. When a cell becomes solid so as to crystallize, it can no longer function as a healthy cell but increasingly malfunctions and eventually dies.
So if there is a nutrient that reverses this effect in the body, it would have a very powerful influence on the functioning of all cells, and the organism systemically. We can see how the whole system can fail simultaneously although certain tissues and organs might be the exclusive focus of our concern as the first to manifest critical failure. In disease, it is not likely that everything else is in perfectly excellent condition -- except for one’s heart, kidney, liver, etc. Of course they are all connected, interrelated -- by the fluid, the flow, the basal viscosity of the body.
That is so pervasive a reality that it should be the metaphor for how we regard life, health, and human evolution. What increases the flow enhances life; what crystallizes us leads to deterioration and death. Those are the simple facts of our daily existence -- even as we take these things for granted. The constant and pervasive is always the most difficult thing to see. That is the value of change -- a disruption that reveals the constant as a variable/choice and not the inevitable and necessary it has come to be regarded by tradition and habit.
Once you get change started, it takes on a life and momentum of its own. So the difficulty in any undertaking is merely getting started -- and never the length and hardship of the duration. One thing logically and inevitably leads to the next -- without having to plan and execute all the steps ahead of oneself. As champion athletes are fond of saying, “They take one game at a time.” And that becomes the base for subsequent actions and accomplishments. People in the habit of failing, do so because they are preoccupied with their actions and responses in a future moment rather than staying fully focused in the moment and movement they are in presently -- and doing that as well as can be executed. Perfection knows no other way. And realizing that is the eternity and possibility of the greatness in each and every moment. That is the richness in life -- overlooked and taken for granted. Some manage to harness those moments and possibilities to more fruitful harvests than others -- and those are the skills we wish to learn about and cultivate.
Masters of the Universe? I think rather Everyman. And it doesn’t take several reincarnations, countless meditations, harsh disciplines and all the rest. It merely requires letting go of all that is false -- so that all that remains is the simplicity and clarity of truth. The effort and hardship is maintaining all the beliefs that cannot be verified by the actual; the truth requires no effort -- it simply is what is. But the demagogues and pedagogues would have us believe that is the difficult attainment -- and one must go through all the untruths first, of which they are qualified, certified and happy to instruct us in.
That is the curse of modern civilization -- that societies have become so productive and efficient that they require people to create inefficiencies and want amidst the affluence and prosperity. This is most powerfully influenced through the control and manipulation of information -- more than the abundance or scarcity of real goods and services. Since at least the year 2000, the battlefront has been the information wars, the status quo and the emerging alternatives. That is the real master game of this time. Nobody know the rules -- and if they do, they aren’t telling. It used to be the province of the journalists, publishers, broadcasters, information directors -- but somewhere along the way, they lost their positions of prominence and eminence nobody is certain when and where that all happened, that they simply became voices among the many. Which is not a bad thing.
Now one is only as good as he can be -- in his own thoughts, words and actions, as self-evident truth. The information hierarchies have all broken down. One is only as good as he can communicate that to another. And if he can’t, nobody can make that compelling testimony or affiliation for him. That’s just today’s world -- and those who haven’t learned that yet are in for a rude awakening the next time they attempt one of their heavy-handed attempts to manipulate and deceive. It’s not your grandfather’s world anymore.
But of course there are always the forces of the status quo fighting desperately to keep things as they are, maintain their positions of privilege and perceived rights -- often the divine right of kings and tyrants to rule over everybody else. What is surprising is how such tyrants get their subordinates to fight these battles for them, sacrificing their lives, their families, their integrity and morality. They’ve been conditioned to obey above all else. That was your grandfather’s world and times; it was not the good ol’ times they would have their subordinates believe. Maybe it just seems better because they were younger and more vibrant despite the times and conditions actually being worse; they themselves were more capable. So obviously, one’s personal health and well-being is the most significant factor in how life is perceived, whether times are good or deteriorating.
When there is this persistent deterioration as the basic fact of one‘s existence, everything and everyone around will seem to be in decline and dysfunction. It is a projection of who they are -- and how they interact with the world, and how everybody else interacts with them. Projection is not just what neurotic people do but what every person does -- whether they are well or ill. It is not simply imagined but the essential relationship to the world and everybody in it. That is also how one determines truly healthy people -- and whether one wants to be in that circle of influence.
While being supportive is nice, the most chilling human experience for anyone is to find himself in a circle of emotional vampires -- demanding that you sustain them. That is the case for greater self-reliance and self-sufficiency -- that any citizen’s greatest contribution to that community could ever be. That is the underlying value of freedom and independence -- that one actually be free and independent, and not merely longing to be free and independent, which is an indication of its lack. For most in this society, the bars and chains are largely of their own making, their own conditioning, and not what is the total possibilities of their existence. They choose not to be free, not to exercise any options -- and then complain there is no choice. And there will be supporting structures and organizations that will sustain him in that belief -- because it is profitable for them to do so.
That is the world of old. But the world of the new is something else altogether. It is the world experience of getting better -- so striking in its manifestations that the personalities of the old can only suspect this new relationship and realities, when these new personalities acquiesce but do not commiserate with their difficulties and self-imposed/self-defined “problems.”
As one who has spent his entire lifetime observing and studying exercise, a great step backwards was the professionalization of exercise BECAUSE individual expression and freedom of movement is the life-sustaining value of it -- AND NOT once again, creating another sphere and field of activity that creates life-depleting hierarchies of authority, specialization and expertise -- that EVERYONE must be their own masters of learning and exploration. It’s a very powerful learning model for the rest of our lives.
