I am feeling really conflicted, inside today. This Secret is in part so late because I am being challenged by all the emotional churning I am attempting to release.

I do not have thoughts, which are mine, battling against each other, but as an empath, I am feeling overwhelmed by the thoughts of my brothers and sisters, in the U.S.

I was sitting at my temporary job, Tuesday night, and I was merely observing conversations. Fear and anxiety, about the direction this country is headed, was the strongest energetic in the conversation.

I have felt this all over the internet, as well. People are genuinely, passionately afraid that this country is taking away their personal freedoms, is becoming a socialist country by taking from those who "have" and giving to those who "have not," and is destroying the planet in the process.

In my fifty-five years, I have never felt so much fear and anxiety.

Here is what concerns me about the state of our planetary consciousness, right now: We are so addicted to the direction of the Glenn Becks, the Rush Limbaughs, and the other hate mongers, on our airwaves, that we seldom take the time to form our own opinions on things. These prophets of fear tell their millions of followers that the government is going to ration death, or that it is going to destroy life as they want it in some other way, and they believe without even using their common sense, without doing any further investigation.

It astounds me how many talking heads are exploiting people's fears and finding it hugely profitable to do so.

Understand that I do not blame Rush, Glenn, and the other spin masters. I actually applaud them for finding a way to express their talents. They are very skilled at their crafts and appear to be following their passions by spewing forth their own hatreds and fears. If there were not a demand for the vitriol they are espousing, they would not have so many followers.

What concerns me is the split that is encouraged between the supposed liberal thinkers and the conservative thinkers. Having balance between the two polar opposites is a healthy thing and has always been essential to maintaining the freedoms we enjoy in this great country. Most Americans have a difficult time choosing to fully align themselves with just one side or the other. Most find, as I do, that there are important values, in both perspectives, and would not want to be forced into acceptance of only one side of this ideological system.

For example, I do not believe in abortion, especially as a means of birth control; but I believe even less that the Government should have legislation which tells an expectant mother whether or not it is "legal" for her to do what she feels she needs to do. It is not an issue the Government should have any part in. It is between the expectant mother and her Higher Power. It is not between her and any group of citizens, regardless of their agenda.

Where does that place me, politically? I am somewhere in the middle. I suppose on this issue I would be called a Libertarian, because I think the Government has no "right" to be involved at any level.

There are many of us who cannot identify ourselves with just one side or the other of the political spectrum. I believe, in fact, that most Americans who actually think for themselves find themselves in the middle in most areas. We want the government to be smaller, less intrusive, and to be fiscally conservative, yet we do not want the rights of the individual freedoms to be eroded.

I could write, for the rest of my days about the complexity that I am feeling in the split between the American people. What concerns me is the anger and distrust which is being fueled by hate-filled rhetoric. These flames of separation have consequences which we are all feeling inside, even if we do not find ourselves directly involved in any of the debates.

There is no escaping the fact that the emotions, we are expressing as individuals, impact the collective consciousness.

It is time that we, as global citizens, take an honest look at what we value and then turn off all the garbage which seeks to exploit our fears, while purporting to be defendants of our values.

It is absolutely impossible for me to Love God and hate my neighbor, even if he is in the country illegally.

It is inconsistent with faith in a higher power for me to be so consumed with fear.

We are in a time where special interests are spending billions of dollars to drive wedges between us. We, as conscious, awake individuals must ask why this is occurring.

The truth is that many of these organizations only serve the Green God of the bottom line. If I can make you afraid of your neighbor, I can sell you more guns, gun training, bullets, fences, bars, alarm systems, tasers, self-defense classes, and on and on it goes.

If I can keep you in fear, you will willingly give up all personal freedoms, so that you can feel some degree of safety.

It is a time when we need to be tearing walls down, not erecting them in some hope of keeping that which we fear away from us.

The truth is: our fears are gifts. They come up so that we may examine an area, in our lives, where we are not loving. They show up, in our awareness, so that we may heal them. When we allow them to move from unexamined emotion, into thoughtless words and actions, we miss the gift which was offered.

Please consider these wise words: "If we do not like what is happening in the world, all we have to do is change our consciousness - and the world out there changes for us." - Lester Levenson

We do not need to try and change each other. We do not need to write more legislation in an attempt to force people to act in a way we think they should. We only need to love more.

Please hear this.

Fears can become addictive. Seeking out people to distrust because they are different from me is a behavior which feeds my addiction to being afraid. I am so good at lying to myself, about this addiction, that I do not even think I am afraid. I believe I am justified. I believe I am right, and those who disagree are wrong. Hell, I have dozens of places I can go for confirmation of this inner truth. In some cases I can even hear this "truth" uttered from church leaders.

We do not need to change others.

If I can only learn to love more, that which my ego-mind resists loses its importance. That, which my ego-mind insists will harm me, loses its power. In giving up the ego-mind which fights to defend its truth, love opens possible avenues to reconciliation, where once fear forcefully held the door closed.

We do not need to build more prisons to hold those we fear. We do not need to build more weapons to kill those who threaten the world we believe in.

We only need to love more.

We do not need to pledge allegiance to the party we think best represents our interests.

We only need to love more.

Love unites.

Fear divides.

In Unity, we have the opportunity to find ourselves in one another and recognize that the perceived separation has been and always will be imaginary.

In fear, this ability is not only rejected, it is not even considered as a possibility.

I will not ask you or tell you to stop listening to programs which insist that this group or that group is out to get you, or to disrupt your way of life. I only ask that you pay attention to how that is making you feel. Do you find yourself more loving, more kind, more joyous, more open after investing your time with these talk jocks, or do you find yourself angry and fearful (even if you are not yet willing or able to recognize it as fear?)

I am not suggesting that you place your head in the sand.

If you really passionately feel that there is an action you should take, and taking this action seems to be an expression of love, then by all means take the action.

I am just calling for us all to be conscious of the fact that everything we think, everything we do either adds to a collective consciousness of Love or impacts the entire field in the opposite direction.

We always know if the action we are taking, if the thought we are feeding, is loving or if it is not.

Empower ONLY that which is loving.

Our fears are being manipulated in service to the god of the Bottom Line. And this Green god has nothing to do with loving our environment.

In all we do, we need to choose love.

It is the only choice which honors the Truth of who we are and why we are here.

Elliott Teters      

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