alan's blog @ the natural mind project

So. It’s nearly christmas for those of you in countries that “celebrate” it. For most people it’s a time of goodwill, friends, loads of presents, way too much food and plenty of alcohol, usually resulting in the usual family arguments around the dinner table.

For others it means nothing. You may belong to a different religion that celebrates at a different time of year, or you may call yourself an atheist. But what does christmas really mean? Does it have any true meaning or is it just yet another man-made event which has the intended or unintended effect of dividing everyone through their conditioned belief systems?

Whatever the case it seems that christmas now is about spending and indulging as much as possible – especially in the rich western countries that so many of us inhabit. Now I am not here to criticise what you do during this “festive season” but instead to help shed a little light on the effects of this one day.

I could go on at length about the food waste, the felling of trees, the massive increase in electricity needed due to the number of lights that go up, the plastic packaging used to contain the presents, the mass slaughter of millions of birds and animals, the debt created by spending too much, the workers paid pennies to create your presents in far away countries, and the connection we are making between love and receiving consumer goods for our children…. But I won’t! After all, it is your choice, and as long as you are aware of the consequences of your actions then it’s fine with me. The problem is, we aren’t aware or at least we just say, “it’s for the children…” or “I know we spend and waste so much but what can you do, it’s christmas and it comes but once a year…”

The one good thing about christmas (they say) is that people are nice to each other! Well, that can only be a good thing, no? But it seems to me a shame that we can’t take that feeling of goodwill, peace and love and carry it through our lives.

All I ask is that each person spends a little time on that day to reflect on what each of us has created in the 364 days leading up to christmas day, and ask of ourselves “what have I created in the world? Have I created fear, jealousy, hatred, anger, violence or greed, and if so how can I become more aware of myself  in order to  transcend these things?”

Whether you are a christian, a muslim, an atheist,  a  warmonger, a politician, a criminal, or any other label you apply to yourself,  these are questions we can all ask of ourselves….

Of course you don’t have to agree with me! It’s just my view that’s all. Enjoy the 25th December, and make sure to get in early for the post christmas sales on the 26th!

So does christmas have any true meaning? You tell me…

Alan

Well it’s been a while since I last updated my blog for the project. Primarily because I felt I didn’t have anything useful to say!

Over the last two months I have spent most of that time trying desperately to find a way to integrate the project work with something that brings in enough money to pay the rent, heat the house, pay for travel, food etc.. Needless to say, when you are trying to do work which is in line with strict ethical boundaries it becomes very difficult. Sure I have plenty of skills that I could put to use (and do), but in this money-centric society, if you’re not conforming you’re on the outside!

So, as someone who is committed to remaining firmly in the centre of society, I’ve got a bit of work to do on keeping the project afloat. But with a few royalties, a few kind donations, and a bit of work here and there, and the help of people who have already volunteered for the project, I think the natural mind project is here to stay!

But enough about me! What about you? If you happen to be one of the half a million people who downloaded the book over the past 11 months, has anything in the book resonated with you? You may have put it down after the first few pages, after all, trying to discover what it truly means to be human isn’t quite as easy as  reading a nice novel!

If you persisted with either the audiobook, the ebook, or the hardback book (thanks for buying it!), has anything you have read made you want to do something? Has anything stirred inside your emotional system? Have you decided that, once and for all, this was a moment to make a choice, not a choice to change the world, for that is purely external.

So we are not talking about deciding to run off and save the entire african continent, save the rainforests, or stop global warming, or even stop nuclear war etc etc. If you had to do that you’d have to be around for a lot longer than you’re going to be! You see, the world (human world) has been in what looks to be a terrible state for the last x thousand years. So, if nothing has really changed  over all this time, what difference can one person make during their short time on earth?

Everyone will tell you that it is better to do something than just idly sit back and watch the human race ultimately destroy itself, but signing up to work for a charity, donating money etc, whilst commendable , is still an external activity. The only way to change the world is to change yourself – fundamentally, at the core – and let the world take care of itself. After all, whether you believe you were created by god, evolved from apes, or landed in a spacecraft – planet earth has been here for a long time, and will still be around long after you and I are gone.

So have fun in life, enjoy yourselves, and never change unless you truly want to. Never feel like you have to change the world, save anyone, or shift your thinking. You will know when it’s time to change. And you may find it hits you just when you are not expecting it.

Thanks to everyone who supported me and the natural mind project over the last year. We have already started several collaborative projects including the evolving book, earthrunner – a global running community, a film project, and the translation of the book into other languages, and the one big shift website where you can tell everyone you’ve shifted your thinking!

There are still plenty of big projects about to get involved with as this is just the beginning!

thanks again

alan

If you want to get in touch just send me an email at alan@thenaturalmindproject.org

As the project really starts to get into full swing this month, the age old problem of how to finance it has become a reality. That’s right – the project’s broke! Well, what do we need money for anyway?

“And anyway,” says you, “wasn’t this project supposed to be about reducing the grip money has on our basic needs such as food/clothing/shelter”?  And you would be right – it is.

You see, it seems very hypocritical of me to be talking about raising money for a project that is supposedly about reducing our dependence on money. It is a beautiful paradox!! Just like so many other things in the world we live in.

The problem is, I have commited myself full time to this project. So when people ask me what I do for a job, I tell them that I run the natural mind project. “But it doesn’t make any money, that’s not a real job is it?” But it is a real job, and the project itself is very real, as are the thousands of people being senslessly murdered around the world because of greed, hate, religion etc…

We are in a transition period. We cannot move forward unless we accept where we are. And where we are, is living in a society obsessed with the aquisition of money and the things it provides…

So, I need money. I need money to house, clothe and feed myself (I am currently living off the kindness of family & friends). I need money to travel and talk to people. I need money to keep the website going etc etc etc…

So with that out of the way, I want to ask for your help. I gave the book away on the internet for free, as I wished to share my work with you, and although the book is for sale, most people prefer something for nothing (including me). I need fund raising ideas. That’s the help I need, I’m not writing to beg for your hard earned cash (you’ll be glad to hear).

I have thought about asking people and companies if they would like to sponsor the book, and thereby get their name on the front cover?

Any ideas would be welcome. Either post them as a comment or email me at alan@thenaturalmindproject.org

Thanks and have a great day

alan

I received an email from someone in australia the other day who had downloaded the book in december. He said to me that although he was impressed I was still continuing to help wake people up, he saw that there wasn’t any “community” activity on the website, and that it looked a little bit like a lost cause.

He told me a story of a female friend who buys caged hen eggs because “they wont stop producing the eggs just because she (alone) stops buying them. Conclusion – she may as well buy them because they are cheaper.

He asked me how you “battle that sort of argument?” He said that “Yes she is right that in isolation she makes no difference, but that fact she is buying them means she is also contributing to generating the market for them. It comes back to sacrifice. People will resist it unless they are forced to change.”

This got me thinking! We all see our individual actions as having no effect because we think that just because i stop buying battery hens/ beating my wife/being greedy/ambitious/hateful or violent that it won’t make a single bit of difference to the world. Well, that’s because of the way we think. We fail to see that we live in a connected world. Everything I do affects others, and everything everyone else does affects me.

We are so caught up in the “me,” my needs, my wants, my desires, my happiness, my unhappiness, my money, my lack of money, that we do not understand that by not buying battery eggs for example IS having an effect. Real change is made up of  tiny adjustments in thinking and action in the individual. After all, we don’t want to start a revolution do we?

We all know what happens when there is a revolution. Someone like me has an idea, and someone like you follows it, followed swiftly by the massacring of everyone who doesn’t agree with us, followed swiftly by forcefully controlling everyone else in case one day they ever disagree with us… So no, the world doesn’t need any more revolutions, at least outward ones.  What we do need is an internal revolution, a change so drastic that we change our very being to the core. Where we realise that we are love, and that we show compassion to others, and do work that benefits others, not by doing charity work, but  having a state of mind that says “what I do I do for the benefit of the planet, and all species.

We do not need to force people to change.. people must come to it on their own, all we can do is plant a seed, and watch it grow. Convincing people not to eat meat, is exactly the same as convincing them to eat meat – it is just conditioning. When people wake up – through the development of awareness, whether through my words, or others, or just because they start to observe themselves in action, in relationship to others they will change.

But we are so impatient aren’t we? We want change to happen right now. We want the world to be a better place for us to live in right now. So we go out campaigning and keep complaining that change is not happening quickly enough.

That’s because we see the universe from human “personal time”. We only have 80 years or so on this planet so we want to see the change whilst we are alive. We want to know we made a difference whilst we can still experience it. But I know the changes I have made, are having an effect, slowly and silently they are spreading out into the world…

Whether I view them as having had an effect has no bearing though. I will be long dead before the conditioning that has taken thousands of years to implement is completely reversed out. We are a complex animal, and thinking everyone is going to give up their lovely capitalist lifestyles and start thinking like me is pure fantasy. Just because I have given up meat, and dairy products, and don’t have a tv, or a car, doesn’t mean you should. Do you understand?

We all have to change for “me” we cannot change for someone else otherwise it is not authentic.

Real change will happen, but it may not happen at the pace we want it to, and it may not be the change we necessarily want, but we live in an ever changing universe. Where once were mountains, is now oceans, and if that isn’t evidence enough that change is possible, I don’t know what is…

Enjoy your day…

After spending most of yesterday trying to (a) figure out why I couldn’t record anything on my laptop and (b) trying to figure out why I couldn’t upload the audio book to mininova.org I finally succeeded – about one a.m! That’s the trouble with technology, it never does what you want when you want it! If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that the software was deliberately trying to make my life difficult!

I have been quite pleased with the audio books, and although they have not been recorded in a professional studio (if anyone has a spare 30,000 pounds I will!) It seems that people find it a lot easier to listen rather than read. I don’t know if this is just laziness, or perhaps because you can do something else whilst listening! But I guess as technology moves on, so does the way people interact with literature.

I have recorded approximately 85 topics but there are still over 120 to go which is rather a daunting task! I have had people offer to record some for me, but I think it is more authentic if I record them myself as it is my journey.

Anyway, I hope you are enjoying them, and if you don’t know where to get them you can listen for free on last.fm

http://www.last.fm/alan+macmillan+orr

Have a good weekend. I plan to record one more audiobook and then relax…….

Well, it has been almost 16 months since I finished writing “the natural mind – waking up” and about 3 months since it became available for sale. Whilst the free downloads are going great, it seems people aren’t as interested in buying it, seeing as they can get if for free! Which makes sense!

All my friends and family (and people I hardly know) have been criticising me for (a)not asking for money for the downloads, and (b) not putting any copyright on the book. But, as I said in the book, I believe copyright stifles creativity and I want to help encourage it, and hasn’t the world got enough things for sale without me only allowing you to access my work if you have the money to do it?

You see, charging loads of money for things is fine over here in england where the money tree flows fruitfully (even if you are not working), but I want to share my thoughts with everyone who wishes to access them, not just people who have plenty of cash (erm  seeing as half the world’s population is living on a less than the cost of a cappuccino every day!

So, for me, money doesn’t count. Except of course, it does. Whilst editing the book, distributing it, recording the audiobooks, designing the website, etc, I have not been earning money. Although, contrary to what my family and friends thought, this is work! In fact I spend nearly every waking moment on this project, and I don’t earn a penny from it. I have been fortunate to be able to stay with my mother, and she has been kind enough to support me with food, a roof over my head, and a little bit of pocket money to spend. So actually, instead of thanking me for this work, you should be sending an email to my mum and thanking her. She’s the one who pays for the electricity that powers this laptop I am writing on! So yes, money does count. In fact, it counts so much, that I cannot do anything I wish to do woth the project as I have no money.

“Get a job, you lazy ***** If we all have to work so should you!” I hear some of you saying.

But you see, I’m not lazy, I do work, but the work I undertake to do comes with a very low income, which would be fine for me, but how am I ever going to be able to leave my mother’s house? How will I ever be able to take a train to talk to some of you lovely people, about how money is evil!! The simple answer is – I won’t. So I will be destined to stay living with my mother at 40 years old, waiting until the day she leaves it to me in her will…. But hang on! I wanted to break through the money system, and by waiting to inherit a house still leaves me in it. So there’s no way out is there?

I choose to not undertake work that compromises my ethics, and I also choose not to ask the government for unemployment benefit – because (a) I am not unemployed, and (b) it’s you, the workers who would have to pay for me, wouldn’t you?

My vision for the project was “REDUCING THE POWER OF MONEY ON OUR BASIC HUMAN NEEDS” so how have I done so far? Well, my first idea, in line with my thinking in the book, was to secure a piece of land, one which needed no money to buy it, one that was given to us to hold in trust, where we could build a sustainable straw bale centre where people could come and be in silence and work the land. These crops (amongst others) would then be used in our cruelty/animal free fine dining restaurant where the only difference between our restaurant and a commercial one would be that ours had no till.

You see, the point is to create a collaborative environment where people come together, not because I told them to, or because we are trying to save all the animals, or all the starving children in africa, but because, they, humans – the most intelligent species on the planet – have come to it, through awareness of themselves and awareness of themselves in relationship with the whole (everything!) and have gained insight that the greedy me me me lifestyle we are all guilty of is doing nothing to make the world a more compassionate, loving place. They understand that by doing everything for the benefit of all others ( a state of mind, not a charitable act) starts to make the world a better place…

A collaborative environment where people give their time, and energy, and contribute the food that the restaurant provides bygrowing it in their gardens or allotments.

“What a load of rubbish!” I can hear you saying. “Why don’t you just get a job! There’s a reason money was invented, it’s just stupid idealistic people like you who can’t help complaining about everything”

But you see, you are forgetting one thing and we mentioned it just a moment ago!  Most people in the world have no money. And most people don’t have access to the lifestyles we have here in the west. So whilst you are all telling me that people coming together and collaborating as a community (the earth) is a pointless idealistic waste of time remember, if our money system collapses, which I assure you will happen one day as all good things come to an end! (as most rich civilisations found out again and again over the last five thousand years).

So instead of thinking about me, my money, my family, my house, my car, my career etc think of the whole, how you are connected to it (which you are) and how you can benefit others. Not by giving money, but by giving yourself. Why not start today. Before we have to, because we want to.

But enough of the philosophy! I still haven’t solved my problem of no money! So I still have no means to get the land, no means to start the restaurant, no means to travel, no means to eat, no means to live. I am officially destitute because I have no money. Surely, for the most intelligent species on the planet to be measured solely by how much money they have, and not be able to live without money is a sad day indeed.

So, for now I am going to spend the next six weeks in deep contemplation at a silent retreat in a zen buddhist monastery (i am not religious but it’s cheap and its quiet) and I WILL work this out. The answer should be so simple, but maybe we’re not asking the right question. Maybe because we don’t care. Maybe because we have money. Maybe because our basic needs are being met at the moment. But imagine for a moment, will you, that you suddenly found yourself with no money (for whatever reason) and everyone just walked over you, and said “get a job”. How would you feel, I mean, really FEEL?

Wouldn’t you wish that you had helped set in place an alternative to the money system, not a new system built out of idealism, but one that exists because of people’s compassion for others, and the awareness that doing work to benefit all others is a sure way to a kick start in thinking, followed by a shift towards love.

I’ll leave it with you. But then again, you’re probably much too busy earning money to think…

tv... what is good for?

After spending approximately ten minutes scanning through my mother’s television set. (I don’t own one) to see if there was anything on, whilst I took a break from recording this weeks audiobook for mininova.org I was amazed by the amount of junk filtering through the invisible airwaves.

House selling program on bbc one
repeat soaps on itv
house selling program on channel four
some dire american soap on five

The rest of the 40 or so channels compiled of house cleaning programs, reality tv shows, doom and gloom on the news channels…

Now you may call me an old moaner unable to enjoy light entertainment, but as a member of the most intelligent species on the planet, being brainwashed by ultra-tanned whiter than white teeth doesn’t appeal to me!

Sure, there are a few good programmes on tv, but I don’t want to give these organisations, whose only motive is profit and advertising revenue, access to my lovely human brain!

That is why I may just start my new website “humanamorona.com” to celebrate the stupidity of the most intelligent species on the planet! Hey I can see real maketing opportunities here; t-shirts, caps, promotional wear for all the family, advertising opportunities, a televison show….

Oops I am beginning to get carried away with myself. Perhaps I should just forget that idea and just ignore the output from these faceless corportations before I turn into a couch potato with a mind of mush!

Today in england has been beautiful, with the sun shining all day… I spent all of it outside and as usual forgot to wear a hat and put on sunscreen. It is only when you get a head that is redder than the sun that you begin to realise the power of the sun!

Spent most of the day today mulling over the ideas of creating an ethical clothing line and accidentaly spent 250 dollars on facebook ads instead of 25! that resulted in aquiring one (1) fan to the alan macmillan orr page!

Well that will teach me! This week plan to work on the development of a local community barter app for the site and try to find a local shop that someone is prepared to rent the natural mind project for free!

It is incredible that a project that is trying to reduce the power of money on our needs is being stopped at the first hurdle by a lack of money!! Still, if I had loads of money it would make it too easy, no?

Welcome to my new  blog and all things natural mind project. I thought I would start this blog so everyone who is interested in the natural mind project can keep up to date and to clear a few things up!

Just in case you think that the natural mind project is some large organisation with hundreds of employees worldwide and a budget of millions of dollars but at the moment it’s just me! No money. No permanent base for the project (or permanent home for me).  Just a lot of effort and the belief that what I am doing is benefitting others..

I wrote the book over a period of 5 years and edited it myself, until I finally completed it and made it available for sale on amazon.com and free of charge on bittorrent less than 6 months ago. It’s been a really strange and at many times painful journey but here I am in june 2009, and everthing seems to be moving along slowly but surely! I am finally about to move the project from cyberspace (and my head!) into the physical world.

As usual I always take on too much, and end up dead tired! I am still working on the audio books and a million other things and to be honest, I could do with a brain holiday!

I’ll be posting my thoughts and  comments here on a regular basis. So make sure you check in every now and then!

Alan