“Vanity asks the question - is it popular? Conscience asks the question - is it right?”
Martin Luther King Jr.
One of the things that has been difficult about our coronacrisis is all the fear and anger we have to wade through.
What this emotionality does is force our identity to choose “sides.”
That’s what identity is -- thoughts and resulting emotions that shape our view of life and who we are, on the surface.
If we’re committed to living a more evolved life, we have to learn to set aside our interpretations of what is so and move past the discomfort of evidence contrary to our opinions.
Every day, I work to let go of my personal upset around injustice, inaccuracy, and fear-mongering.
In other words, I have to manage my own stories surrounding what are simply facts.
In the beginning of this mess, we had a lot of unknown variables, so not a lot of evidence.
We had to look to models, formulae, and (hopefully) expert speculation.
We made some decisions with what we had available.
We did have long-standing and scientifically-sound pandemic guidelines (that did not include mandatory masking and lockdowns), but in a panic over the unknown, most countries ignored them.
(Except Sweden.)
Of course we can be forgiven for 2 weeks, even 4 weeks, of madness.
In a spiritually evolved world, we would be able to admit our mistakes.
We were scared, we tried something extreme, it didn’t work.
But instead, we let our collective ego, our collective unconsciousness, roll.
Policymakers doubled down.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
In the beginning, those who didn’t go along with lockdowns were portrayed as uncaring.
The more you were willing to sacrifice, financially, the more you appeared to care.
Because lockdowns were perceived as only economically damaging.
We had yet to experience the increase in heart attacks, cancer, and other illnesses and deaths caused by lack of treatment of anything other than covid.
We had yet to comprehend the impact on the working class and millions already living in poverty.
We had yet to see the wave of mental health issues and suicides among the young.
And so a bizarre oneupmanship occurred, to see who “cared” the most based on who was willing to make the biggest sacrifices.
History will not judge us well.
For a long time, I’ve felt that science and spirituality have, at their foundation, much more in common than we generally presume.
It is in science and spirituality that I locate my sanity these days.
Though science has always been a struggle for me, I have learned to push through my discomfort.
I take comfort in the reasoned, logical discourse between science-minded people.
This interview between Irish health expert and avid truth-teller Ivor Cummins and Swedish emergency room doctor Sebastian Rushworth is a good example...
In it, they cover several of the topics in Dr. Rushworth’s new book, Covid: Why Most Of What You Know Is Wrong.
I ordered the book after getting half-way through the interview and it hasn’t disappointed.
In fact, it has exceeded my expectations in both its comprehensiveness and its calm articulation of the facts.
In the book, you'll find...
A history of the Swedish Covid response
How to understand scientific studies
A quick primer on statistics
How deadly is Covid-19?
What is long Covid?
How accurate are the Covid tests?
Does lockdown prevent Covid deaths?
Why did Sweden have more deaths than other Nordic countries?
What are the harms of lockdown?
Do face masks stop Covid?
Are the Covid vaccines safe and effective?
Why did the world react so hysterically to Covid?
The interview covers many of these chapters.
When it comes to more speculative aspects of this situation, Dr. Rushworth is as confounded by the misinformation as most of us are.
But he maintains an almost zen-like scientific perspective.
To me, he’s like Mr. Spock observing our behaviour with one eyebrow raised, exclaiming, “Fascinating.”
Science, though its public voice has been usurped and censored in the past year, focuses on what is so, rather than what is acceptable to the majority opinion.
As Ivor rigorously points out, the job of science is to actively pursue where you’re wrong -- to disprove your own hypotheses.
Looking for a single “black swan” is a key principle that he explains in this interview.
As it stands, there are many black swans that disprove the lockdown hypothesis, and yet they are being ignored.
That is ego.
A concern for looking like one has done the right thing versus identifying what one has done wrong and correcting it.
Spirituality, when practiced authentically, has us observe our ego's attachment to being right, and puts that aside for something deeper -- truth.
See the science/spirituality connection?
This practice is not easy.
In the beginning, I felt proud to participate in the lockdown and to wear a mask to protect others.
But when that pride becomes a thing in and of itself, without science to back it up, it is just an egoic illusion.
An empty shell with no facts contained.
In following exterior illusions, we become empty shells with no substance contained.
Principles, values, and truth are replaced by following the crowd, trying to look good, and ignoring the evidence.
Science and spirituality are both damaged when our surface identities, our egos, are allowed free rein.
We can, instead, drop our illusions and find solace in science.
We can do this by using the spiritual practice of observing our identity's pull towards confirming what we already know in an effort to strengthen our ego's beliefs.
Only then are we open to what may be the contrary evidence of science.
Watch the video.
Buy the book.
Get your questions answered and think for yourself.
Otherwise, politicians, policymakers, media, and media buyers are happy to do it for you.
But it won’t give you the truth, power, or peace that you’re looking for.
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