Can we avoid the Crisis of the birth of the New Age

Chinaman:…. I believe L…. you raised a question following on from my talk about the birth of the New Age, as to whether something of the coming crisis could be averted.

L:… yes.

Chinaman:….  It is a question which I am sure nearly everyone will ask in their own minds at least, if not openly amongst others, and the appalling answer is “no”, it cannot be averted. There may be change to the degree of the disaster or the war but the crisis it cannot be averted.

There are obvious factors to consider. What of your global warming debate? I do believe it is generally accepted now and there are very few people who would deny that it is taking place. Yet the awful situation is that even if there was no further growth in the world’s population and all the demands that that population makes upon the environment, it is still too late to avoid a catastrophe to the climate.

There are now various parts of the world where there are regularly bush fires where there never were, or floods or drought where they hardly ever happened, and where there are such disasters there is human suffering. Where there is human suffering there are voices raised to those who are in authority to do something about it, as if they could avert all the natural disasters that occur. Of course they cannot. And it will get worse, and the voices will rant even louder. But climate is only a small part of inevitable change.

Very recently, of course, your economic situation showed how fragile your society has become, and how one country cannot but impact upon another and this strange monetary system suddenly lose all its strength and stability in a matter of hours. That affects everyone and once more voices are raised in disquiet, in discontent.

Remember a few years back how this country was brought to its knees in three days when the transport fuel, the oil, was no longer being conveyed to your petrol stations. In three days there was chaos. Now, of course, you are told – but perhaps not loud enough – that the oil that is used is no longer being produced and found in sufficient quantities to meet the demands put upon it, not just for your transport but for food, for the agriculture and chemical industry, for the maintenance of your law and order and your armed forces.

Who is going to be the one who decides the priority of its use?

So you see it isn’t one factor but many factors that are apparent, and the voices of discontent will get louder and louder as sections of your society will suffer more than others. That is a recipe (I think you use the word) for civil disasters, for revolution and for bloodshed.

All of this is inevitable. It cannot be stopped. It may be limited if everyone decided to do something about it, but it will still occur.

In that kind of a situation there will be people looking for a saviour of the world.

In the past, you will notice, if there was trouble at home then politicians were glad to look elsewhere. Is that not what happened during the events which led up to your second world war? Is that not what happened during your Falklands war, and so the nation rallied at home against a common aggressor? But you needed that political figure as the focus who spoke the right words. How surprising it was for your leader, Mr Churchill, immediately after the Second World War when all was well again, to suddenly lose power, when you might have thought he would have carried on.

So it is that the stage will be set for politicians to vie with one another, to offer the ways of salvation, and one will indeed rise just as Adolf Hitler did. The question will be raised as to how the crisis can it be averted, and he will seemingly give the answers. And at first that will prove to be a way of damage limitation or peaceful co-operation, but only at first.

So, L….., I am sorry to say that nobody can avert the coming disaster at all.

L:….. Thank you for that. Thank you.

S:….. One of the things J and I talked about was if there be a nuclear war?

Chinaman:….Of course there will. Yes indeed.

S:….. What chance is there for Cornwall?

Chinaman:…. I do not know. I have various gifts and talents but I am not that kind of a prophet or predictor of the future. I cannot see that kind of detail. But those who live in less industrial or military areas and areas where there are natural resources, they will be safer from the civil unrest or outright destruction. My own opinion is that Cornwall has a far greater likelihood of escape than the rest of the south coast. Even the usual winds are favourable if there is a nuclear explosion on Plymouth. Of course the nuclear visions that prophets have seen throughout the centuries – although they have not been understood in those particular words or terms but of brimstone and fire – were not the only forms of disaster that were seen. What of illness? So you will have your biological weapons also.

Water will be fought over. In America, are not reservoirs always thought to be available now emptying at an alarming rate? The past mighty rivers of the Middle East are now mere trickles – the Tigris and Euphrates. The rivers in Russia are no longer feeding their inland seas. The same is true in Israel. Water will be a commodity that people fight for. Cornwall is fairly well blessed, I think, in that commodity.

That has put a damper on the conversation I think.

R:….. In light of your words, would you recommend that we fulfil our desires on this earthly plain and live our lives to the full?

Chinaman:…. I would hope that fulfilment of your life would not be changed by any threat of war or disaster. No matter where you were, in whatever age of this world you would be living, you would endeavour to live your life, your destiny, to its full. Or are you talking of a hedonistic enjoyment rather than seeking fulfilment of the heart and soul?

R:….. Is it possible to marry the two?

 

Chinaman:…. I would say not, in terms of overindulgence of the body, for that leads to depravity. But where there is a delight and respect of the body in the enjoyment of life, then yes, for isn’t that an exaltation? Isn’t that a form of worship to be upheld? I cannot see the greater glory of abstinence. I know there are people who choose that as their way of spiritual development, but I do not see that as the way I would advocate. Rather enjoy all that is around you and delight in what God has given, which includes the body, includes the tastes, but also includes wanting to help others – compassion. Isn’t spirituality an embracing of all of this?

 

R:….. Absolutely! Thank you.

 

Chinaman:…. But I am sure that there are people who, if they see the threat of war, go all out for sexual depravity, and acquiring or spending their wealth in a selfish manner. That I would decry. They fail to realise that their karma will increase many fold against them, rather than for them, and that their own spiritual growth will be stunted or held up by such an attitude.

 

C:…..Will there be movement of people to where the resources are? Will people want to come to Cornwall, for example, or will they be stopped. Will there be problems?

 

Chinaman:…. I cannot see an army being stationed on the Tamar Bridge but you are quite correct, of course. More and more people will be moving to areas where there is plenty. There are so many refugees and immigrants that have come to Europe from Africa. People do not heed the dangers of crossing in unseaworthy boats. They move because the alternative is hell. So although this country is becoming more and more overcrowded people will still be lured here by the seeming plenty, and places like Cornwall are far more accessible than parts of Scotland and Wales. So yes, Cornwall will have more of a population in the near future.

 

H:….. Can you say something about what we should be teaching our children and grandchildren to protect them from all this?

 

Chinaman:…. It is not so much the future generations that needs teaching as this one, for what is to take place is already beginning now. If you have young children then you will do your best, no doubt, to protect them and teach them self defence or to be aware of strangers. You will teach them to look for food and to grow your own, to be learned in ways that are not dependent on the society as a whole but to be more self-sufficient. You can teach them to take up hobbies which were trades of yesteryear and to look to community spirit or community involvement rather than a national complexity. These are some the things that can be encouraged and taught to groups in your community, not just your own children. Is that what you mean H?

So study your herbs which are all around you, not to look always to drugs for medicine. You already have gifts and talents as healers and therapists but perhaps there could be more teaching and sharing of that. There are all sorts of societies and groups which are beginning to grow plants once more, growing your own vegetables and relying on each other for seeds rather than some mystical company somewhere else in the world. It is taking place, but it could be encouraged much, much, more.

And in all of this, I am sorry to say, where are your spiritual leaders? I deplore the silence which is evident. I, in turn, will be silent on that one!