Question: What is CircleoftheEarthTM?

Answer: We present a visionary, positive, mystical, total, utopian, spirit-derived revolution for modern human beings, and the societies which have so much control in regulating their lives. In the 1930s, many thinkers said "Change society and you will change people." But, in the 1970s, this reversed and the dominant thought became: "You can't change society, you can only change yourself." We believe that both of these alone have proven to be fallacious.

We know that we are visionary and radical. But we wonder: When our species comes to the moment of facing its extinction, when we see that, what will we choose? Will we side with the Evangelic life-haters and jump on the hallelujah boat they think will take them to eternity? Or will the deepest urge within every living plant and animal surface: to continue the species? To struggle for the survival of human beings on this planet?

And, even if we do this, will be able to pull this off and to survive?

We emphasize the importance of creating a radical new society called CircleoftheEarth. A new social structure. An entirely new system of culture and all of the institutions, laws and beliefs that underlie its consciousness. Central to this new culture will be a radical new definition of art and artists. How they are defined socially and psychologically, and the social roles they play. It will involve universal acceptance of a new earth calendar, and world-wide observance of its celebrations: universal participation, encouraged by society, in spiritual, transcendent events.

All of this, as I said, is utopian and "far-fetched" unless there are major cataclysmic events that destroy much of the sickness and insanity that now controls things. That has to die, but that is no guarantee that we will survive or that conditions will exist that allow a new, positive order. So, right now, to summarize, I would say that CircleoftheEarthTM is a group of "special people" preparing for what is coming–and what their possible roles can and will be.

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Question: Why do you call CircleoftheEarthTM "the World-Wide Mind/Spirit Web for New Artists?"

Answer: It is our desire and goal to change how this species lives on this planet. Although it does appear that human culture is constantly changing, and more rapidly than ever now, this is change that is no change. We all know this, and if we do not, we should. We live with the same lack of harmony that we always have. And now our awareness of this is leading us to deep cynicism.

A better way to live here must come from the Spiritual: the highest, most intelligent part of ourselves. Many of us can understand this need and so we engage in some spiritual practice. And yet, we experience this deep split and lack of fulfillment. However much we do to improve as individuals, we are immersed in a culture that is antithetical, hostile, even, to what is most healing for us. For this reason, not only must individuals raise their consciousness but, as importantly, our social structure must support and encourage this. It must totally change. This new order would have two aspects which can be reduced down to one: It would embrace spirituality and it would be in harmony with our planet, the Earth. That is, it would express the desire contained in our "Collective Species Consciousness." --And what is our Collective Species Consciousness? It is the spiritual "knowing" in all persons--that part of each of us that makes us all the same. That is, underneath our differences, we all possess the same brain and the same anatomic/proprioceptive/sensory orientation to our earth environment. That is, it is the universal spiritual experience that the human mind is capable of.

Carrying out the task of creating this new social environment, we feel should be the task of artists. For two reasons: First, until the post-modern era, artists were regarded as those persons who spoke spiritually for societies-at-large. It was their task to create physical representations, called art objects, of the spiritual in the material plane of time. From da Vinci to Dylan Thomas, artists have shown us the feelings that we know to be of Goddess, God and the Universe. Secondly, although our existing religions are also spiritual, they are all burdened by a lot of historical baggage. Because of this, and the fact that they are multitudinous and differ in their beliefs, they lead to divisiveness--when what is needed here is unity and harmony. We need to go beyond individual religions and their separate and often differing, argument-invoking texts, prophets, masters and lineages, to the Collective Species Consciousness--our unity that is beyond all this.

But. . . for this to work, we need also to redefine "artist." They must become New Artists. We must overcome the split between "artist" (the person) and "art object" (the work). The best model for an artist who overcomes this split, as well as seeing Earth as a part of spirit, were, and are, shamans of indigenous cultures. The shaman, or medicine or holy man or woman was also the first artist--who's art was not "object" but a direct expression of his/her consciousness. A powerful person in his/her society who's art was an extension of self.

CircleoftheEarthTM is thus a Circle of New Artists. We teach the shamanic techniques which allow these New Artists to enter a "Religious Feeling State." And those who accomplish this may then create media which stimulate this "State" in the public at large. When enough New Artists are up and functioning, we will begin CircleoftheEarthTM. We will manifest a circle of energy around our planet on the new moon before the Winter Solstice and renew this circle at each succeeding new moon. This is the meaning of "A World-Wide Mind/Spirit Web for New Artists."

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Question: What do you think about compassion? I get the impression that you lack compassion for human beings.

Answer: I don't know: I just feel this terrible sorrow and grief and outrage. Most of our religions teach that there is some flaw in the human species, in earthly human life, that is inevitable. They call it "Original Sin," "Pain, suffering and death," and so forth. They promise that life on earth is not of itself but has the purpose of serving something else: when we leave here. And that indeed may be true. But then I look at how we actually are living on this planet. I look at the history of the human race on this planet and how we have always lived. And I think, this cannot be right. This is not what they mean. We don't have to accept this. Whatever religions teach, this cannot be the way it's supposed to be. This isn't inevitability; it's insanity. It's nuts. And we have to change this.

So whatever you say about me, please do not say that I don't care about people. That is not my problem. My problem is that I care too much about you.

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Question: What do you think about science as a vision for the future? Scientists now claim they understand a lot about the universe. And many believe that someday we will live on another planet, indefinitely, with robotic bodies and computers for minds.

Answer: Robert Frost said "Earth's the right place for love." On another world, in a different skeleton, with a brain that humans themselves have made, we will be just as screwed-up as we are now. No more, no less. We can't escape from ourselves.

It's not in science; the answer doesn't come out of our heads. How can you understand the universe if you don't understand the Earth? That's been the problem all along. You know, if this species of intelligent beings had seen the earth as a sacred place from the beginning, if they had awareness and thus respect, we wouldn't have many of the problems and diseases, mental, physical, environmental, social, that we have now. That science now tries to solve. So the future of the species is not in fantasies of the scientists and science fiction freaks–it's not in our heads. It's in seeing what is real. Here, the place where we live, our home. Making contact with that. Really making contact with the Earth's energy. Seeing the sacredness of the Earth. And its beauty–which is the same thing. Understanding that we inhabit a sacred place, and that religion isn't somewhere out there in heaven or the sky, which is where God is.

The problem is that most "science-types" can't understand that. They can't SEE the Earth. So, for them, this argument is just baloney. Which is too bad, because they have a large say in dictating the actions that we take on this planet. This makes me very pessimistic.

"New Artists . . . must reverse the current status of technology. We must give the earth power over technology rather than allowing our technology, as is now the case, power over the earth. The spirit of the earth must run our machines and computers. They must be made to work for the earth rather than against it. And, if that seems a bit vague, and still seems so by the end of this book, may I suggest you have missed a good bit of it: what the shaman's Other Reality means and the confirmations one receives from the earth." The New Artist by Abe Frankel

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Question: SEEING the Earth. What do you mean?

Answer: Well, all you need to do is to be able to SEE Earth Time.

That is, these are different time zones: There’s Human Time and there’s Earth Time. These time zones are diametrically opposed. All of us live and exist in Human Time and almost all of us are unaware that Earth Time even exists. That’s because, in order to experience, be in, the Earth Time zone, you have to go into an altered state of consciousness--a trance state. Also, it is very difficult to contact Earth Time when you are living where almost everyone now lives: in urban areas. Because the energy is greatly diminished.

But, if you are able to see, enter, Earth Time, you will understand how unenlightened Human Time is–just because it is unaware of the Time of the Earth.

Let's forget trance states for now and take an easier way of altering our consciousnesses. There are some places that you can go to on this planet, in deserts, at mountains, etc. and it is very easy to stop time. Why? Because the Time is already there in a very open form. That is, you can stand or sit there and you can SEE that you are sitting or standing in a place--and you can SEE that place for what it is: that where you are sitting or standing is now 25,000, 50,000, 100,000 years ago. That you have gone into a different time. You can see that energy. Such places are called "power spots."

Now, if you SEE this, you can then shift in your mind back and forth from Human Time to Earth Time, Human Time to Earth Time, and you will understand the narrowness of our human time perspective.

Let me try to say this another way that you may understand if you don’t already. Although understanding of course isn’t the same as SEEING: The Earth is 4.6 billion years old. Now, if we imagine that 4.6 billion years to be one year of 365 days, then the human species does not appear until the last half of the 365th day. And all of our eight thousand year recorded history, everything, that rush of events from the settling of the Tigris-Euphrates valley to yesterday's freeway jam in the L.A. morning--all that's etched in our human consciousness identity--occupies the final 32 seconds.

Now, keep that thought in your mind and, while doing so, focus upon your body–feeling the emotions and feelings this thought stimulates in you. Then, shift back to Human Time and again focus on your body and it's connected emotions and tone. Contrast the differences in these two realities. Can you experience the Reality that the human species exists in and the Reality that the Earth exists in? Do you feel and understand the conflict between these two Time Zones?

Which Reality is the most meaningful to you? In which do you feel the wholest? The happiest?

Question: How would you describe Circle of the EarthTM as a religion?

Answer: We believe that human beings are capable of knowing the divine through their own direct experience. We call this experience a "Religious Feeling State" and teach people how to enter it. Because the experience is internal, and a complex "feeling" rather than "thought," it is wordless. How then can it be communicated? The best one can do is to go into this State and allow it to evoke words that describe what one experiences. These words, phrases, sentences, then become religious ideals. And can then be chanted in religious services and to induce and intensify the experience of the Religious Feeling State. These are things we feel all humans are capable of knowing:

1. That the universe has a reason, a purpose, a design, and that this purpose is good, beneficent, love.

2. That WE ARE ALL ONE. There is a unity beyond our differences.

3. That the earth emanates an energy. Again, although the experience of this energy is beyond words, it evokes religious ideals. Here are some of them:

One Life One Mother All
or:
This Earth, this Life, Is All Sex, All Desire
and, conversely:
This Earth, this Life, Is All Death, All Dying

Question: Why is it that most people, when they're with someone else or in a group, feel it's necessary to talk?

Answer: Recently, I took a trip to Egypt. The sacred places were swarming with tourists. I came away with a new "tourist" definition: someone who travels thousands of miles to see a renowned thing and then goes home having never seen it. A few years ago, I gave a talk on earth religions at Rio Caliente in Mexico. I began by saying: "The first thing to know if you want to practice earth spirituality is that, when walking on the paths in the gorgeous mountains that surround us, you must be silent. Cut out the abstract chatter. Not only does it upset the sacred energy of these forests, just as importantly, it prevents you from making real contact with them."

Many claim that we're heading to a "new age." But there will be nothing new, ever, as long as our collective consciousness is defined in the same way as it always has been: by words and thoughts. This is crucial to the future, and yet many new age people do not comprehend this.

When two people are together, what is it that prevents them from not talking and being silent together? The first thing is uneasiness and embarrassment: we assume that the other person expects us to talk. That is, there is an implied contract when two people are together because our "normal" way of relating is with our minds and language. Silence requires a mutual understanding and shared knowing. They must establish a new contract: an agreement to be silent but, also, if it's a real coming-together, an intuitive understanding of what silence means.

Secondly, just stopping the flow of words and thoughts is not enough. When you are alone, you aren't talking. Even so, usually, your mind is working and you are involved in your thoughts. Out of contact with the world. The same often happens when you are silent with another person. You both can be in your own separate thought worlds: out of contact with what's around you and with each other.

So, this is what I'd say you need to do with special friends. One, there has to be a silence contract. A mutual, understood understanding. Then you need to get out of your language/word/thought mode and enter the silence mode.

And then you need to make contact. You need to experience with all of your five senses and extra-senses the physical, extraordinary outside where you are. You need to experience the inside too: what you are feeling at that particular moment. And, at the same time, you must make contact in the same way with the person, or persons, you are with. Then you will start to SEE. Then you may enter the silence.

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Question: Much of the time, I feel alienated from the human race, and the culture that they've created. Sometimes this makes me feel angry. It seems to me that man has surrounded himself with this urban, man-made, techno-electronic, fake environment that allows him to be completely out of touch with the true environment of the earth.

Answer: Welcome to the club. That's one of the reasons we're here. You may be a part of a minority but you aren't alone. I often feel the same way. And, if you read the things that other people write in here, they feel that way too. Also, you are not alone because you're a human being. You're just experiencing what all human beings should experience if they are not too injured--deadened, delusional--to experience it.

You say that this makes you feel angry. I used to be angry, but beneath anger, there is almost always grief and sorrow. This planet really cannot afford to have this species around anymore unless it changes drastically. It is sad to say this but it is true. And we should grieve for that death.

The amount of "freedom" that most human beings have to really contact the truest spiritual nature in themselves is limited by psychological factors of denial, unclear thinking, fear of the unknown. And by the limitations put upon our minds by the societies we have chosen to create, within which we must then exist. That is sad. If you're a doctor, you don't feel mad at tumors or strep germs for being what they are. And, too, the human species cannot help itself. But for healing to occur, the diseased condition must first be eradicated.

And so our planet is doing that. Our planet heals itself. It is not up to us or our actions. Despite our noble environmental efforts, this is really beyond our responsibilty. It's a part of Our Mother Earth's cycle of self-renewal. Our Mother Earth is doing that right now and we only need witness. As we say in Circle of the EarthTM:
CELEBRATE THE DYING!

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Question: What do you think of the Green Party and radical environmentalists?

Answer: We agree with the Green's politics and goals. However we feel, in the best possible society, the focus should be upon the entire person. The most meaningful political actions are those which come out of spiritual beliefs. Then human beings are unified and whole: body, mind and spirit.

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Question: You attack Fundamentalist Christianity a couple of places on our site. Why is that?

Answer: No, that's not the point we'd like to make. We are opposed to all Fundamentalists: Those who confuse their particular reading and interpretation of a code of law for "the word of God." Those who think their code is the only one. Those who put law above human beings. As Circle of the EarthTM says: "Some think that their religion is the only one that is right. And yet, there is only one religion and that is no religion. WE ARE ALL ONE."

But it isn't what they believe. We respect their right to believe whatever they want. For the most part, they are sincere and honest people. But Christian and Muslim Fundamentalism are as much, or more, political movements as they are religions. They want everyone to believe what they believe. We aren't really "attacking" them. Read our articles. They are satirical. We just poke fun at them because we think they take themselves much too seriously. And then other people might take them much too seriously.

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Question: Why do you think we can't have a new age unless the old one is destroyed or greatly damaged? Many New Age, higher consciousness people think we can evolve into it peacefully and naturally.

Answer: The New Age loves to suffer the ostrich effect. With its head buried in the sand of sentimentality, it's seriously out of touch with reality.

We do not bring about these changes. The changes are coming. That is part of the Cycle. The cycle of death and rebirth. Our task in Circle of the EarthTM is to contact what is going on. To assist it and to plan for the future

Also, the changes we seek are much more invasive and radical than those envisioned by the so-called New Age. Our mass culture sucks up any new idea like a super Cookie Monster. Just check out the New Age Journal to see a good example of co-opting. The mass culture, as we know it, must be destroyed.

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Question: If the Old Reality is destroyed, as you maintain, that does not insure that the particular new one that you propose will then come into existence.

Answer: That is right. Very right. I certainly don't know what will happen for sure. That's one reason why it's so scary and why many, many people are in denial about it. And why the destruction must be an unwanted catastrophe. Something where the human species loses control and must trust Mother and Father.

And I don't have any clear plan yet to bring about this new Reality once the catastrophe hits. In the first place, I am not that smart. And, secondly, the specific actions that one takes can only come out of the specific events that happen. Those can be anticipated, intuited even, in a general way, but what we would have to do can only be known clearly when the thing happens, and the moment to moment detail of events unfolds.

But there is one thing we can do. We can get together, organize, into a group. Those of us, the Special Ones, the one's who can SEE. We can get together and prepare ourselves as best we can. That is important. For whatever hope there is for bringing a New Reality--and we may not succeed--we've got to give it the best shot we can.

CELEBRATE THE DYING!

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Question: What kind of government do you favor?

Answer: We would like to see a system of "weighted democracy" in which the influence of each person's vote is equivalent to their levels of education, intelligence and, above all, spiritual consciousness. While Honest Abe once was right that "You can't fool all the people all of the time," he would certainly now agree they can be manipulated, spun and anesthetized. A real democracy requires an electorate that cannot be duped. We don't need "campaign finance reform."We need super-intelligent voters. But, of course, "weighting" is also a very tricky issue too. The criteria for "weighting" would require a good deal of thought and care to insure that it's both legitimate and accurate. This would have to come out of a lot of sensitivity, intelligence and love.