[drumbaker]

Alas, I disagree. Intuition CAN be part of experience, but sometimes we follow our intuition for no good reason. Perhaps on a conscious or unconscious level we have “faith” in our intuition as well as memory of a plethora of experiences where it worked for us, but every time we use it, because it is impossible to “prove” the outcome of it—because we do not know if it will lead to a better or worse outcome, we take some leap of faith, regardless of how small it may be.

What I am trying to do here is separate “faith” from religion or spirituality and notice it as part of the human psyche and the human condition. Again, I encourage everyone to read Derrick Jensen’s new book, “Dreams” where he travels deeply into the notion of faith as something separate from “belief” in religion or dogma. What I am also trying to do is emphasize how phenomenally uncertain we can be about much of anything that happens in collapse. We can conjecture, and much of our conjecturing can be dead-on, but we absolutely cannot KNOW much of anything about how it will turn out. Our best preparation will be preparation for uncertainty, and with uncertainty comes a lot of doubt, needing to rely on intuition—and invariably, inexorably some moments, however brief they may be, of faith. By the way, faith can also be about faith in oneself, as well as faith relating to anything outside oneself.

[drumbaker]

I am not suggesting “relying on faith for everything.” Furthermore, I’m suggesting that intuition is PART OF FAITH, that is to say, part of all things “uncertain” according to the pundits of religion and science who BOTH rely on faith to “prove” things that no one can be certain about. The challenge is how to navigate a collapsing world where the only thing we can rely on is uncertainty, using intuition and other right brain options.

[drumbaker]

I highly recommend Derrick Jensen’s latest book, “Dreams” in which he argues that not only is capitalism a faith-based system, but so is science which claims to be the enemy of religion. Moreover, spirituality of any kind is a faith-based process. Perhaps it is in the nature of being human that we are required to exercise some kind of faith at every turn. It is time that we stop making “faith” synonymous with “stupidity” and explore the notion that as Pascal said, “Faith has its reasons.”

[drumbaker]

I am delighted to see this topic being discussed; however, I have no interest in faith or religion. I have enormous interest in spirituality which is very different from religion. I proudly identify as a Doomer, and at the same time, the core of my work is emotional and spiritual preparation for the collapse of industrial civilization. I like to say that on one level, one can have all the doom without the gloom—well almost.

I have written two books which I believe must be considered in this discussion: Navigating The Coming Chaos: A Handbook For Inner Transition (2011) and Sacred Demise: Walking The Spiritual Path Of Industrial Civilization’s Collapse (2009) I invite the reader to read both of my books which are not books of information, but rather studies, providing an extensive toolkit for inner transition alongside external transition.

We are living at the end of one paradigm, but also the beginning of a new one. The new one hasn’t yet been constructed, but it is very important to hold a vision of it alongside all of the horrors that are likely to unfold. Otherwise, we can easily be overwhelmed. There are no guarantees that any of us will survive them, but physical survival alone isn’t the point. The deeper questions that must be asked are: Who do I want to be as I navigate this collapse? and What did I come here to do?

Meanwhile, we must focus on creating beauty in our lives and in the world at every opportunity through art, music, storytelling, poetry, dance, and more. With these, we nourish ourselves and the community. Likewise, it is important to practice gratitude for the smallest moments of goodness in our lives and in the world. Creating beauty and practicing gratitude are twin practices that steady and enrich us as we move through the end of the world as we have known it and as it will never be again.

For more tools, please visit my website at http://www.carolynbaker.net

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