With a Range That Affects the Entire World, Skynet Infrastructure Is Now Fully in Place

[Truth Comes to Light editor’s note: All related to the rollout of Skynet, below you will find Patrick Wood’s (Technocracy News) commentary, a video by Rob Braxman (The Privacy Guy) and an article by Luis Quintero at The Conversation. You will also find link to a timetable for the rollout as posted by Android Authority (thanks to Sharon James for the heads up on this). ~ Kathleen ]

Skynet Has Arrived: Google Follows Apple, Activates Worldwide Bluetooth LE Mesh Network

commentary by Patrick Wood, Technocracy News editor
April 18, 2024

Wearables: Smartphones, fitness trackers, Smartwatches, hearing aids, Apple Air Tags, Ring products, etc., all use Bluetooth LE (low energy) to form an independent “mesh network” that is not based on the Internet. All these devices can receive, send, and forward data packets and instructions to other devices. Almost all IoT devices will be equipped with BLE. Thus, the INFRASTRUCTURE is complete, just waiting to sink its teeth into humanity everywhere.

Without AI running on massive computers, BLE would be a waste of time. Let me give you a simple example: CONTACT TRACING. With BLE, all other devices that you get close to can disclose frequency, length of contact, and other subsequent contacts that you make. Most BLE devices cannot be turned off, as in Apple Air-Tags. But Apple and Android Smartphones can transmit and receive BLE data even if the are turned OFF. (only a Faraday bag can stop transmission.)

So, the simple concept of Contact Tracing can be implemented during a future pandemic, documenting every person you have exposed and all you have been exposed to.

Mesh networks form spontaneously and dynamically, depending on how many devices are nearby. With the latest update, Bluetooth “long-range mode,” distances over 1 kilometer is possible. Eventually, collectors on the Internet will forward packets to who requested them in the first place. Returning instructions can be dropped back into the BLE mesh network for execution and control of devices.

Worse, BLE transmissions can blasted from space thanks to systems like Elon Musk’s SpaceX mesh network of satellites. To reiterate, BLE does not depend on the Internet or Internet addressing addresses.

Bottom line: The minimal infrastructure for Skynet is now in place. This a dark day for humanity.

 Video available at Rob Braxman Tech Rumble & YouTube channels.

The last piece in the infrastructure that allows the operation of Skynet is now in place just announced a week ago. With this piece the advent of wireless peer to peer command and control of devices and robotics now become possible in full, with a range to affect all of the world.

See: There’s a Secret Network – Skynet 2.0 (more detailed explanation of BLE)

A new wave of wearable devices will collect a mountain on information on us – we need to get wise about the privacy implications 

by Luis Quintero, The Conversation
April 17, 2024

Web and mobile services try to understand the desires and goals of users by analysing how they interact with their platforms. Smartphones, for instance, capture online data from users at a large scale and low cost.

Policymakers have reacted by enforcing mechanisms to mitigate the risks inherent in tech companies storing and processing their citizens’ private information, such as health data.

Wearable devices are now becoming a more significant element in this discussion due to their ability to collect continuous data, without the wearer necessarily being aware of it. Wearables such as smart watches gather an array of measurements on your wellbeing, such as sleep patterns, activity levels and heart fitness.

Today, there are portable devices to obtain high-quality data from brain activity, eye trackers, and the skin (to detect temperature and sweat). Consumers can buy small devices to measure the body’s responses that were exclusively available only to research institutions a few decades ago.

Although wearables are commercially focused on health monitoring, researchers have long envisioned capturing other kinds of data on a user. A computer that could collect useful information related to a person’s brain activity, heart and skin function, or their movement patterns would be able to understand a huge amount about the user.

But it’s AI that could prove a game changer. Smaller wearables combined with AI algorithms to process the data could produce tools that amplify and augment our goals and performance in life. But there are also downsides to all this information gathering.

Daily routines

Let’s imagine a world where wearables play a more prominent role daily. Smart beds could wake us up at the perfect time to feel rested by reading our body temperature, respiration and brain activity. Intelligent kitchens could help us eat more healthily, preparing a tailored diet based on chemical cues in our bloodstream (biomarkers). A smart bike would automatically change gears based on the changing inclination of the terrain, and on our fitness levels, to support an effective workout.

Smart glasses could analyse the responses of the pupils in our eyes and our overall eye movements to feed us content that we are likely to enjoy (supported by AI algorithms). Video calls could evolve into 3D full-body holograms of friends and family. Lastly, immersive entertainment could be projected in our living rooms or exist in headsets to become 360-degree experiences rather than being confined to flat screens.

Although it may seem futuristic, hardware manufacturers are already trying to move screens and devices out of our hands. For example, the Mobile World Congress 2024 showcased several smartwatches, an AI “pin” device made by the company Humane that can remove the need for a screen by projecting images onto the user’s hands, or the Air Glass 3 XR smart glasses.

Other companies have also recently released head-worn devices such as the Ray-Ban Meta, the Apple Vision Pro, or the Meta Quest 3. A device known as the Galea project is a kind of helmet that can be attached to XR headsets to capture data from facial muscles, the brain, eyes, the skin and heart.

This is clearly more invasive than a smart ring or smart glasses. It allows researchers to explore how future digital services might look if computers could access a range of data from the human body. This data would go far beyond what they can currently access – such as what we do on our smartphones.

In general, body data from wearables could fundamentally change how we interact with computers and the internet. In 2007, the audience at an Apple product launch was held in awe as Steve Jobs scrolled on an iPhone for the first time, introducing an intuitive interaction that the entire world would eventually take for granted.

Similarly, replacing smartphones with wearables and headsets would free up our hands and require new kinds of interaction with technology. Current prototypes propose using the gaze of our eyes to point and hand gestures in mid-air to click. However, this implies that these systems must continuously collect data on the user’s body.

Digital sovereignty

Large datasets based on responses from the human body could unlock the design of digital tools that weave seamlessly into our daily lives with capabilities that are highly personalised. This includes the smart bed and the intelligent kitchen that can suggest a tailored diet.

The next wave of the internet is being designed around data decentralisation – where users can potentially have greater control over how their data is used. This could prevent the misuse of personal information.

For example, the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners Lee, has been working on something called Solid. This open source initiative lets people handle their data in personal web servers and choose which organisations can access it.

Instead of making people create an account for each service they want to use, Solid would provide a protocol to build what the project refers to as personal online data stores. This would be a way to let users host their personal data on their own computer or, alternatively, choose a trusted provider to host it based on their reputation and physical location.

However, to really cement these initiatives, proactive legislation towards digital sovereignty – a person’s right to control their own digital data – would be required. This would guarantee an internet that truly takes privacy seriously.

In the era of wearables and powerful AI systems, a decentralised approach to the internet would be vital for letting citizens enjoy the benefits of these technological advances while continuing to own their data. This would move us towards the ability of citizens to make active decisions on where their data is stored, who can access it, and for what purposes.

See related (thanks to Sharon James for the heads on on this):

Here’s when Google’s new Find My Device network rolls out worldwide: Google has confirmed plans to complete the global rollout of the new network within the year.

The article above is dated April 8, 2024. Here is an excerpt:

Connect with Rob Braxman Tech

Connect with Technocracy News

Connect with The Conversation

Cover image credit: David_SMC & Wikimedia Commons

Frequency Technology (HAARP), Strange Cloud Formations & the Intentional Blocking of Our Sun

Gov Using Frequency to BLOCK THE SUN! 2024 ARCTIC FREEZE was MAN-MADE! Undeniable PROOF

Are chemtrails becoming a thing of the past? Have they found a better way to steal the sun? I say “YES!”…

by Agent131711, Agent131711’s Substack
April 3, 2024

They tell us these are normal clouds that have been around forever and we are just too stupid to remember them:

Yeeeah, ok…

It’s utterly idiotic. For those of us who have old school photo albums, you know, the kind with actual photographs and polaroid’s in a binder, these clouds are nowhere to be seen.

There is no photo of grandpa on his wedding day in 1940 with this in the background:

There’s no giant d*ck in the sky pics:

What causes clouds to make shapes and patterns is blasting them with frequency:

“Agent, how do you know the clouds are changing from frequency?”, you ask. To which I reply, “Great question! The answer is, because we see the exact same thing when water is blasted with frequency”. Here’s a little 1-minute video. There’s thousands of these videos on the internet, but I picked the shortest one: (1 minute 13 second video)

Throughout the video we see the water forming the identical shapes as the clouds:

closeup for people reading this on their cell phone:

closeup:

Unless you have a severe learning disability or are a shill, working for the government (redundant wording?), it’s not hard to tell that this:

Is the exact same f*cking thing as this:

Read the full article here, including additional videos and images: Where are the frequencies coming from? How and why are they covering the sun?

Connect with Agent131711

Cover images credit: Sharon James

See related photos by Sharon James. All were taken in Iowa farm country.

April 3, 2024:

February 26, 2024:

November 26, 2023

November 1, 2023:

GeoEngineering Watch: Dimethylamine Skies, 90 Second Alert — “How Long Can You Hold Your Breath?”

by Dane Wigington, GeoEngineering Watch
January 31. 2024

Transcript prepared by Truth Comes to Light

Question:

Is highly toxic dimethylamine now being sprayed into our skies?

Consider this, patent number 202-203-12691, October 6, 2022. Method for rain cloud formation using airborne dimethylamine injection.

In this patent, a process is described wherein said nucleation is catalyzed by the injection of a chemical substance dimethylamine into the upper atmosphere, preferably through injection of said substance into an electron-rich aircraft engine exhaust.

The subsequent formation of negatively charged ions has a catalytic effect on the generation of cloud condensation nuclei.

But governments would never subject their populations to geoengineering jet-sprayed toxic elements, would they?

Look up for your answer.

So just how toxic is dimethylamine?

Here’s how bad it is from newjersey.gov.health.

Hazard summary: Dimethylamine can affect you when breathed in and passing through your skin. Dimethylamine can irritate and cause severe burns of the skin.

Contact can severely irritate and burn the eyes with possible permanent damage, corneal opacities, causing blindness. Breathing dimethylamine can irritate the nose and throat along with the lungs, causing coughing and or shortness of breath. Higher exposures can cause a buildup of fluid in the lungs, aka pulmonary edema. Repeated exposure may damage the liver.

Dimethylamine is also highly flammable.

Anyone remember Lahaina?

Dimethylamine is a colorless gas with an ammonia-like odor.

And now climate engineering patents are promoting spraying dimethylamine into our skies?

Question:

How can you hold your breath?

Connect with GeoEngineering Watch

Cover image credit: Iowa, Nov. 2023, photos by Sharon James

See related:

Dane Wigington With Greg Hunter: Lahaina Incineration Is Deadly Weather Warfare

The Dimming, Full Length Climate Engineering Documentary

Will the Mass Poisoning of Our Skies Cause a Killing Field Effect?

by Gary D. Barnett
May 3, 2023

“When people look up into the sky and see white trails paralleling and crisscrossing high in the sky, little do they know that they are not seeing ‘condensation’, but instead are witnessing a man-made ‘climate engineering CRISIS’ facing all air-breathing humans and animals on planet earth. These white aircraft spray-trails are the result of scientifically verifiable spraying of aluminum particles and other toxic heavy metals, polymers and chemicals. These toxic atmospheric aerosols are used to alter the weather patterns creating droughts in some regions, and deluges and floods in other locations. Even extreme cold can be created by climate engineering under other conditions. Unfortunately, these unfolding catastrophes are not capturing the attention of America’s citizen nor politicians. Weather warfare has already almost reached beyond possibility of devastation of all mankind and animals. It is that serious, and it is time-limiting.”

Signed: General Charles Jones, Brigadier General, U.S. Air Force.

The term Chemtrails, while accurate, is a common term that has been widely mis-used by the general population and media, certainly by design, in order to discredit all efforts against weather and climate geoengineering, cloud-seeding, and the manufacturing and spraying of chemically-based artificial clouds meant to reflect sunlight, by spraying the atmosphere with chemicals, deadly metals, and toxins. This is, and has been done, for a long time in the false name of ‘protecting us’ from the farcical and fraudulent ‘threat’ of manmade ‘climate change.’ Those who expose this fraud are of course, generally called “conspiracy theorists.” This is most always an unwarranted and rhetorical ad hominem attack on character instead of examining substance; all in order to avoid any discussion of what is a valid subject matter concerning the top-down manipulation of weather, and the poisoning of all living things. There is actually manmade weather engineering, and toxic spraying of metals and chemicals, but that has not occurred due to one driving a car, or taking a trip on a plane, but has been affected by government and military operations. In other words, global warming, global cooling, or the benign term, ‘climate change,’ are intentional acts, and not due simply to human existence and the basic daily functions of life.

I will preface the rest of my comments with an anecdotal experience that I personally witnessed over the past two days in the Rocky Mountains here in Montana. What I saw, is almost a daily occurrence here, and most everywhere else as well, but I spent the entirety of both days watching the unfolding of fake chemical cloud seeding, and the resulting atmospheric changes. We had a rare period of total blue skies, although not as blue as in the past. On both days I watched from 9AM until late evening, as jet after jet continued to spray metals and chemicals across the horizon. The patterns were crossing, and at different altitudes, moving from section to section of sky, likely dependent on wind currents. Both days were forecast to be clear, but by afternoon on both days, the unnatural cloud cover was enough to block the sun entirely; at least from partial to heavy.

What began as completely clear skies, changed to a manmade and broad-based cloud cover that hung in the air until I could no longer see the skies. This was obviously the purposeful spraying of toxins in order to block vital sunlight, but much more is going on than just simply blocking the sun, as all these metals and chemicals eventually disperse and fall to earth, harming every single living thing. This very adversely affects all plants and animals, including humans. Given what has been proven to be in these payloads, the risk of agriculture devastation, changing weather patterns, killing bug life and pollinators, weather manipulation, geoengineered weather systems, and cancer-causing toxins made up of nano-particle metals and chemicals, are all threats to all of nature, including to water, soil, insects, animals, birds, fish, and humans.

This has been going on for decades, but at this point in time, it is inundating airspace everywhere in this country and the world. Some of this is being done by commercial aircraft, but most it seems is being done by the military, mainly the Air Force, by and with approval of this government, by NASA, and by others. This is a deliberate and planned attack against mankind and the earth. This is a weaponized form of war against all life domestically and globally. These tactics can be used as war weaponry, for food and agricultural destruction, and for depopulation through bodily system devastation.

Weather phenomena recently have been extreme. While proving without question that these are not normal, but designed events, is certainly difficult, but these anomalies are happening so often and are so far beyond reason, that one cannot ignore that these events are likely engineered. Well above average temperatures in mid-spring have been changing to very cold and heavy snow, and then back to high temperatures in many areas across the country.  Even in my area in just the past two weeks, I saw record temperatures, then very cold and record snow, two feet or more, and now temperatures of close to 80 degrees. This is happening everywhere, and is not due to what is called ‘climate change,’ but in my opinion, it is due to manmade manufactured systems. There are masses of tornadoes, 90 degrees and then snow, unreal flooding, as happened in Florida recently, and many weather events that belie imagination, in that a vast reversal of normalcy is present in most every area at once.

But this is not the only threat concerning the toxic chemical and metals spraying that is continuous across the country and the world. We are literally being poisoned, sickness is expanding greatly, and cancer is advancing in numbers and severity. This is certainly due to this heinous spraying, but it is also evident due to deadly ‘covid’ bioweapon injections, poisoning of food, including plants and animals, destruction of farming and ranching, and land and water poisoning due to very toxic chemicals and metals. This population and others are being attacked from every angle in what appears to be a mass depopulation effort by the State, its controllers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, the CIA and military, NASA, HAARP, the so-called scientific community, and the technological giants. This war against humanity is now seemingly never ending.

Geoengineering, weather engineering, and bogus ‘climate change’ policies, are not meant to help humanity or the earth, they are purposely being used only to harm and control. In addition to what I have mentioned here, there have been an inordinate number of chemical spills, massive explosions and fires of not only toxic materials, but in food production facilities nationwide. At this point, no mass food distribution can be trusted, as it is impossible to know what is being put into our food supply.

Solar geoengineering, high-energy waves, and toxic poisoning of the skies and earth, are causing increased storm activity, droughts, floods, tornados, fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and extreme volcanic activity. In addition, the health of humanity is being systematically destroyed. As I noted last year: “The most major tenet of this grand assault on humanity at the hands of the manipulative state, is advancing the ‘climate change’ agenda, so that total control over all of humanity and all property, can be solidified with very little resistance. It is all based on false fear, as always, but the state players in their haste to complete this takeover coup, have actually through climate and weather manipulation, also placed themselves in harm’s way. The plot was allowed to continue because multiple state agendas were being sought, and it is still in place today, even with the risks to all due to this horrendous plan. Oh, what a tangled web they weave.”

“What’s coming will make post-apocalyptic movies look like a Disney world vacation.”

~ Dane Wigington

Reference and source links:

Chemtrails, HAARP, and the Full Spectrum Dominance of Planet Earth

Geoengineering Watch

Geoengineering Parts I, II, and III–Congressional Hearings 2009 and 2010

Elana Freeland: Geoengineering Transhumanism

“The Dimming: Exposing the Global Geo-Engineering Cover-Up”

Weather Modification History Timeline

HAARP and the Sky Heaters

Spain Allows Geoengineering as do over 50 Other Countries

Spain Admits to Spraying Chemtrails in Secret U.N. Program

Chemtrail Poisons Are ruining Your Health From Above

Connect with Gary D. Barnett

Cover image credit: Sharon James, contributing writer at TCTL

More photos taken by Sharon James, contributing writer at Truth Comes to Light. All photos were taken during October of 2022 as she drove through American midwest farm land where she lives and farms.

Come What May

by Sharon James, Contributing Writer at Truth Comes to Light
November 2, 2021

This morning I woke feeling sad. I cannot count how many sad mornings there have been for the past twenty months. On my early morning walk I watched a bank of clouds swallow up the sunrise. My family and friends tell me to stop reading and listening. They tell me to take breaks.

But you do not take breaks from friends who are suffering with so many degrees of struggle and loss. You cannot let the clouds swallow them up too. You read and listen to help those who cannot — to help them navigate in this nightmarish storm. And maybe you can rescue some who do not yet realize they are drowning.

My first listen today was of a dad and a young daughter speaking before a city council. They were choking on the stranglehold the mandates are putting on their community.

You want to know what he does for a living?

He runs the heart and lung machine that maybe your grandma or brother were on during open heart surgery. He says there are only two in his local hospital who do that work and neither will take the jab. So people will die when they are fired for their choice. Some will call him foolish or selfish and some will call him a hero.



He struggled to remain composed. He said he has tried to see his way around it and through it but, in the end,  standing for freedom is the only thing that makes sense for the long term. Because, well, we do not know what they will ask us to do next.

My sad did not end there. We needed a few things at a local store whose name you would know. There were bright red signs on every cooler door and on end caps and more. “Hiring Event – Today!” Other local stores have signs that say “Immediate Interviews”. Lines are long and shelves have gaps.

Manned tables were placed strategically. People were stopping by. There sat a tall man with a long beard – older. I overheard. The woman in control harshly said, “You cannot fill out an application online?” Him: “No.” Her again: “Do you have a cell phone you could fill one out on?” Him, dejected: “No.”

I walked away, knowing he was not going to get a job, no matter what. He wanted a job. He was willing to work. But he was not even good enough for a large chain retail discount store who were having a “Hiring Event – Today!”. What a false hope they held out to him and others.

With my cart filled with more than we need — because one never knows — I checked myself out. I opened my wallet to pay cash because right now, more than ever, it is important to use cash. That is another right being threatened.

After feeding the machine my money I made my way to the parking lot. It was still cloudy like my heart. I loaded the groceries into my van and drove out the side exit, heading home.

I live in rural Iowa near a very small town. I shop in a town that is bigger, but still small — less than 30,000 residents. So seeing what I saw next is rare — a beggar by the side exit of the store parking lot. Even more rare, it was a young woman.

I could have looked the other way. That is sometimes easier in the bigger cities when you cannot tell if it is a ruse or real. But I chose to read her sign. The first phrase had me.

“I have kids.”.

I pulled over. I opened my wallet, still well supplied. The tears from the dad and daughter talk threated to spill again. I put the window down and looked into the grateful eyes of a young East Indian woman — a surprise in this small town.

Her accent when she said “God bless you” confirmed her origins. A couple of scars on her face said she had suffered. I could only get out “You, too” when I handed her less than I should have. Whether her need was real or not — God bless her.

Turning left, I headed north. A sudden realization came as did the tears. My kids’ generation rarely carry cash. If you do not carry cash, how do you help in a situation like that? If people do not carry cash how does someone in need ask for help?

What if, one day, I am the beggar? Then a song came on the radio… “Sometimes heartache is the gift I need…down broken roads You’re still my rock. My hope remains, I’ll rest in the arms of Jesus, come what may.”

Come what may, I will stand firm for what I know is right.

Come what may, I will help my neighbor.

Come what may, I will trust the Lord who will care for me.

What is your ‘come what may’ list?

See my previous essays:

My Solitary Journey Through Fear: A Life-Changing Paradigm Shift — From Pandemic Believer to Uncovering the Truth

My Approach to Opening Those Feared Yet Needed “Pandemic” Conversations

Sharon James — along with her husband, children & visiting grandchildren — has lived and worked for nearly 35 years on a century farm in Iowa.

She is an avid researcher and life-long learner with a degree in education and strong interest in natural healing. Her now-adult children were all home schooled.

Sharon James is a contributing writer at Truth Comes to Light.

Sharon welcomes your comments or questions. Her email address is:

cover image credit: StockSnap / pixabay

My Approach to Opening Those Feared Yet Needed “Pandemic” Conversations

by Sharon James, Contributing Writer at Truth Comes to Light
May 21, 2021

My farmer husband and his brother needed some repair parts at the local implement dealer this week. The parts man turned to these two prominent respected maskless farmer brothers and said, “I have a personal question for you two. Did you take the shots?” The brother farmer said a quiet, “Yes.”. He has clearly not been excited about that event; he’d even told us months ago he was not taking the shots – possible family pressure may have preceded his change of plans.

The parts man turned to my husband and asked, “What about you?” to which he replied, “No.” The next question to him was, “Will you ever?” to which he replied, “Probably not.” – which in my husband’s language means no, but I’m not wanting to hurt anyone so I will state my answer as inoffensively as possible. The parts man indicated that he really didn’t want to take them; he feels something is just not quite right about what is going on around all of this.

When my husband relayed this account to me I told him that clearly the parts man was both courageous and in need of specific answers to bolster this courage. Don’t we all! We are both afraid to ask and afraid to answer. Name calling on social media and elsewhere is at an all-time high – I guess we’ve learned nothing from all the anti-bullying campaigns.

There is so much I’d like to discuss openly with my friends and family. I’m not out and about much like farmers running errands in the community so I’ve tried to “go there” in social media. But, in my attempts, I’ve been warned and had posts throttled by the powers that be.

Every day I open my email and go through the prominent news stories. I open the tabs of the articles and videos that I want to fully address. One morning this week I had a number of tabs open and thought how much I would like to share these freely on social media. But…that will simply not work these days.

So I decided to place a post in an attempt to open some private dialogue on the topics of these past many months.

It went something like this and it included this poster:

There is so much I would like to share and discuss with you. I have been on both sides of the fences we find ourselves behind these days. If you are open to discussing your thoughts and experiences of this past 15 months send me a message or an email.

I don’t like fences between myself and those I care for. Many of us had differing views on many topics back in 2019 – but we were friends none-the-less. We never called each other the names I’ve seen both sides call one another lately.

I am opening my arms wide here – making myself vulnerable in very tenuous times. Are you willing to take the risk with me? I love each one of you, no matter where you stand!

About wide open arms – I nearly hugged a total stranger in the store recently. A very tall broad woman caught my eye and I smiled with my unmasked face. As I was moving on she leaned toward me and with an exaggerated blinking of her eyes above her disposable mask and said – I want you to know that I’m smiling under here! I told her I could see it in her eyes and I knew! And we laughed! What I wouldn’t give to sit down and visit with her and her endearing cheerfulness.

After posting I avoided checking for replies or reactions. I was a little nervous. What kind of confrontation might I face? Did I have the energy or fortitude to handle a disgruntled or hurting friend?

I had no cause for worry. Twenty-five positive reactions and a dozen or so comments in the first 12 or so hours told me that I had a small army of support for the potential conversations to come. One friend even said she had my back.

If given the opportunity – I will handle the conversations with care and prayers for wisdom. I will begin with questions. No accusing. I will share with openness. How did I get to where I am from somewhere out there? As we share, our stories will speak for themselves. We will discover where our common ground is. The proverbial seeds of shared thoughts will be planted with potential for growth.

But this will not and cannot be a time to agree to disagree and simply move on. I have invested many hours in what has definitely become a battle for accurate information. Where it can be had, it will be shared. What the willing listeners choose to do with it will be their responsibility as it was mine.

I stood on the other side of the fence for most of 2020. I watched television news and read similar posts in social media to the point of nausea – but I believed it and acted on it. Unbeknownst to me, two close friends were praying for me to “get it”.

I was “following the science” but discovered that consensus is not science. When I told them of my paradigm shift they were both nearly giddy — so excited to have someone with whom to speak freely and safely. Someone they trusted, loved and thought highly of had heard and listened and acted.

My brother was next, the one who had sent me some of the controversial and often banned videos to review. I told him I now understood he was not asking for reviews. He was asking me to consider coming through the gate to the other side of the fence. His comment, “Welcome to the rabbit hole, sister! Know that many of the holes will run very deep and very dark. Take breathers when you need them. But keep digging and keep praying!”

As questions like these are explored together further with those who are willing, I will use opportunities to share some of those mined for gems and jewels of truth.

We can choose from questions like these. Each one is weighty so we will go slowly – at a pace we can both deal with, picking and choosing the topics we are both ready for.

What are your overall thoughts regarding the pandemic?

Is it simply a “PCR Pandemic”? What of the testing, the masks and the six feet?

Did you experience “covid” personally or in your household?

Do you know someone who went to the hospital or died of “covid”? What if we explored what may really be making us ill?

What are your favorite news sources? Have those changed?

Now for the million dollar question – what do you think about the vaccines — whether you took them or not? What is your take on them? What of the data cover ups?

Now that you’ve come with me down mud filled rabbit holes and possibly taken me down some you have discovered, please share your personal experiences and thoughts and how they’ve changed you? How has this all made you feel? How have you dealt with those emotions? Have you had support?

I do not want to argue in these conversations. I want to pose questions in as gentle way as possible – but there will be a passion that has grown with the truth discovered. The topics bring feelings that are tender and run deeply for all of us. It may be a difficult thing – but worth the risks.

Some have lost loved ones to “covid”. Some have lost loved ones or themselves to fear, depression and anxiety. Some have lost jobs or family businesses. Friendships have ended. Family feuds have begun or heightened. Perfectly planned weddings have been stolen. Some have taken experimental medications like the mRNA injections and have regrets or anxious wonderings.

I’m not firing a gun or shooting arrows. I’m opening my arms wide. We need one another’s arms wrapped around us more than ever before.

We need connection – even virtual. There is a uniqueness to social media, particularly Facebook for me. Even with its challenges it has been a place of connecting with friends, both old and new for over ten years. In the past few months and especially in the past couple of weeks I have both reached out and been pursued by many – some are total strangers – struggling to find both truth and support.

Most of these people I have never met and only got acquainted with during 2020 to the present. We shared common health group ties or met in new groups seeking truth during these times of propaganda and lies.

Mothers of adult children who have taken the shots have asked for prayers. Friends whose husbands have taken one shot have reached out for information to convince them not to take the next one. Canadian and British friends have asked for supporting information to wake their friends before their countries crash and burn.

Friends I’ve never met have reached out to me to invite me deeper into the rabbit hole and to help me to breathe when I go there — that I might continue to see this for what it has been and what it is becoming. They’ve given me the strength and courage to write, to take off my mask, to stand firm in the face of dying freedoms.

Vulnerable sharing will be required as we struggle together for truth and how it applies to our actions going forward. Best case is that questions that dig little holes in the paradigms of friends and family, as they did mine, will become mine shafts with gems and jewels at the end. New paths will be walked in the lives of family and friends. Conversations, while scary at first, may lead to peace and hope even in the midst of this “pandemic” sadness.

If you have been encouraged to experiment with these risky conversations, let me know how they go – I’ll do the same. You can reach me at:

References you may find helpful:

Dr. Michael Yeadon – former CEO of research for Pfizer on the pandemic, the vaccines and our loss of liberties

Stéphane Blais interview with lawyers Reiner Fuellmich and Dominic Desjarlais on crimes against humanity during this crisis and current legal strategies

PCR tests: Dr. Sam Bailey

Masks: GreenMedInfo here and here

Covid vaccines: Children’s Health Defense

VAERS report research: Dr. Jessica Rose

Links discussing what does and does not make us ill:

Dr. Stefan Lanka’s work: here and here

Lester and Parker’s work: Interview with Stefan Lanka and interview with Amandha Vollmer

Kaufman and Cowan’s work

Audio of covid chapter in Virus Mania book

Some of my favorite alternative news media resources:

Truth Comes to Light, Technocracy News Daily, GreenMedInfo, John Rappoport, Corey’s Digs, The Freedom Articles, The World View, LifeSiteNews

See my previous essay:

My Solitary Journey Through Fear: A Life-Changing Paradigm Shift — From Pandemic Believer to Uncovering the Truth

Sharon James — along with her husband, children & visiting grandchildren — has lived and worked for nearly 35 years on a century farm in Iowa.

She is an avid researcher and life-long learner with a degree in education and strong interest in natural healing. Her now-adult children were all home schooled.

Sharon James is a contributing writer at Truth Comes to Light.

Sharon welcomes your comments or questions. Her email address is:

My Solitary Journey Through Fear: A Life-Changing Paradigm Shift — From Pandemic Believer to Uncovering the Truth

Aloneness – From One Extreme View of the Pandemic Journey to Another

by Sharon James, Contributing Writer at Truth Comes to Light
March 30, 2021

Here I sit – tears streaming – nearly sobbing – I feel alone – but am I?

The aloneness began when I was mocked for wearing a mask in a small town long before anyone else was. “Here comes a masked bandit,” smirked a fellow customer over his shoulder to the clerk as I entered and he exited.

I have come full circle – from being very alone on one end of the spectrum of “covid” to where I sit today.

I’m typing this from my computer desk in what used to be the kitchen in the very home where my husband and his father both grew up. The home has been remodeled to fit our family’s lifestyle needs.

My farmer husband is skilled in many ways, so we did the majority of the work ourselves over many years. Most of his time is spent as a grain farmer. He’s very good at what he does. I’m the support crew. The sheep we kept to keep the creek area down were sold off nearly thirty years ago.

I’ve been blessed to be a stay-at-home wife and mom all of our nearly 35-year marriage. We homeschooled our children all the way through. They are now grown.

We now grandparent six really special kiddos ages two months to seven years of age. They are spread all over the country, but our century farm here in Iowa often draws them home.

How I believed in it all

In January 2020, I got a bad cold with laryngitis and connected with a private researcher I’d found in other groups regarding EMFs a few years before. She was all about taking ascorbic acid and melatonin for “covid” and all health issues actually. I followed her research carefully into the world of studying the pandemic from the side of virology and immunology. I listened to about four hours per week of the podcast “This Week in Virology” for about 10 months.

I read tons of studies and articles about how “covid” was working in our bodies and how bad it was from the “scientific” and “medical” perspective.  At first I only understood about 5% of what they said in the podcast and the studies.

I felt driven. I knew, somehow, it was very important for me to learn. I felt out of my league. My degree is in education.

Over time I grew to enjoy this team of virologists and immunologists and could maybe understand about 50% of what they said.

I have chronic low white count and other chronic undiagnosed issues, likely due to lifestyle issues along with childhood trauma plus EMFs. I’ve worked long and hard on my health, but I was obviously concerned about what my body would do if it got “this illness”. I wore masks and stayed home LONG before anyone in my corner of a rural state.

As I studied, I kept getting videos from close friends and family to review that seemed to be in the conspiracy theory camp. My overall take at the time was that the virus is real, and there are really powerful people taking horrible advantage of the world during a pandemic, but I didn’t want to join that camp. Even the contemplation of their ideas freaked me out. Then I stopped getting the videos for a few months.

But in recent months I began to receive the same types of videos from more than one person over the course of a week and knew that it was the Lord saying ‘ok, you now have the bank of knowledge I wanted you to have so that you can understand and accept what you are about to learn’.

It began by learning of the inaccuracies and original purposes of the PCR tests as invented by Kary Mullis and adapted for use to “diagnose covid” by Christian Drosten (interviewed twice on the above mentioned podcast).

I knew all the vocabulary around the PCR due to the podcast so the new information was jaw-dropping. I then realized the numbers of cases and deaths specifically named “covid” made no sense; something was very wrong — something in which many unsuspecting, loving medical professionals had unwittingly played the devil’s pawn. And loved ones have been ill without in-person advocates and so many have died alone, but for the loving nurses and doctors who stood with them.

So NOW I’m LISTENING. I heard podcasts and interviews of Catherine Austin Fitts, Prof. Dolores Cahill, Dr. Tom Cowan, Dr. Andy Kaufman, Dr. Sam Bailey, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, David Icke, Reiner Fuellmich, and others.

These are brilliant and courageous people who put the data together and asked the right questions, and were willing to share their take on the narrative.  This was a pivotal time for me.

I’m not sure I would have listened or fully understood in spring 2020, but by December 2020 my paradigm had begun a huge shift.

I began to ask questions and to put pieces of my own health journey together with the current narrative. Due to my own EMF sensitivity and my study of that field for the past four or more years, I now believe that EMFs and 5G have to at least be weakening our bodies, making them more susceptible to a virus.

I stumbled upon the following information through a series of internet queries with my carrier:

I found out that the small towns near me now had 5G even though we do not yet have it in the country. These are towns of 1,800 and 400 population.

I asked WHEN my local towns got 5G capabilities. The answer was mid November 2020.

Next question was when did my carrier roll out 5G fully. The answer was mid November 2020.

They use a tech called DSS where 5G can ride the waves of 4G towers in parallel so the small frequent towers aren’t needed. I think this is a hybrid 4G/5G that will eventually be a full on 5G situation either by the small towers or by the satellites that will be launching (unless the Lord prevents that).

Meanwhile, Beverly Rubik and Robert Brown came out with their preprint indicating “covid” is at the very least exacerbated by EMFs. Confirmation.

Here is the kicker with that — If you scroll down on the statistics page for my state health department’s records of all positive “covid” cases you will see that “covid” never really showed up in my state with any significance until mid November 2020 when our entire area of the country blew up with “covid”. My guess is that many carriers also rolled out in different locations at the same time.

5G, in our part of the USA, was our “covid” surge! We experienced none of the post-holiday surges that they predicted but for a slight bump after New Years.  I had also just read The Invisible Rainbow by Firstenberg. His parallels of health issues around the world down through history correlating with cosmic, electrical, radar and EMF roll outs are uncanny. More confirmation.

So, I put together the inaccurate PCR testing with 5G roll out, along with WHO lowering PCR threshold cycle numbers on January 20, 2021, reducing false positives by as much as 85% in some studies. Researchers reviewed test cycle threshold data and it all adds up to a very small pandemic – which is not a pandemic at all.

I saw overall average of all-cause death rates, and the absent flu stats, and I felt like a year of my life — our lives — had been manipulated — stolen — abused.

We’d been betrayed. Those who care for us and serve us in our communities had been betrayed. Much of our local and state leadership had been betrayed. Betrayal became the norm.

My studying has not stopped. More of Bailey and Cowan and Kaufman’s views along with finding Dr. Stefan Lanka’s work (an ex-virologist in Germany) and my whole view of what really makes us ill shifts yet again (see book called What Really Makes You Ill? by Dawn Lester and David Parker).

This I am currently sorting out.  But I’m far enough along now to have set aside the long year of fear and entered back into the sanctuary with my fellow sisters and brothers for worship.

No discussions yet about why I’m now there — and maskless — but I am there! I’m sure there will be time to share in the days ahead. For now I will joy in the arms of a seven-year-old girl wrapped around my waist after the sermon was over. “I’ve missed you so much!”. And I’ve missed her too!

For context, our church went back indoors for worship in July 2020 after a season of online only worship followed by outdoor worship. Until the past month or so, my very supportive husband and I stood outdoors, in the cold of winter, and greeted folks as they entered our church — where masks were always optional — and then worshiped from our van on the radio alone in the parking lot. We then got out to say good-bye to all as they left so that we could remain connected with our church family — a very small rural church. We were sure I needed this kind of protection due to my health issues and this potential illness. It still feels very strange to think that I would have been fine – even at 60, with health issues, I would have been fine. But we just didn’t know.

My focus of late has been on the vaccine issue. I’m am extremely opposed due to the lack of safety with potential short and long term harm. I’m wondering whether there is even a need for it. And then there is the eerie worldwide push like what is happening in Israel, and how we are hearing of sporting events, and now colleges requiring the shots for entry here in the USA; and the new term coined “medical apartheid” strikes a greater fear than the word pandemic ever did.

More friends and family are getting the shots each week — they are so excited. Even those who weren’t going to and felt strongly have caved. They want to fly across the country to see their kids and grandkids and enter nursing homes to see parents, so who can blame them. I pray for their health.

But my aloneness continues and it now faces a brewing anger among those who believe the resisters or holdouts are a new and a worse danger.

I thank the Lord for the few local holdouts and my internet friends who lend support and join hands. We’ve even exchanged phone numbers and email addresses so as not to lose one another – our life preservers – across the oceans and the seas of this aloneness — turned connection.

Sharon welcomes your comments or questions. Her email address is:

 References:

State of Iowa’s Health Department COVID stats

Evidence for a Connection between COVID-19 and Exposure to Radiofrequency Radiation from Wireless Telecommunications Including Microwaves and Millimeter Waves by Beverly Rubik and Robert R. Brown

The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life by Arthur Firstenberg

What Really Makes You Ill?: Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Disease Is Wrong by Dawn Lester and David Parker 

 See related:

A Pandemic of Insanity by Arthur Firstenberg
www.cellphonetaskforce.org/
[link to more by Arthur Firstenberg]

The Injection Fraud – It’s Not a Vaccine by Catherine Austin Fitts
https://home.solari.com/
 [link to more by Catherine Austin Fitts]

Dr. Andrew Kaufman at Trafalgar Square, September 19, 2020: Global Enslavement Via a Fake-Virus-Pandemic Live Exercise | “We Must End This Now.” by Dr. Andrew Kaufman
https://andrewkaufmanmd.com/
[link to more by Dr. Andrew Kaufman]

Dr. Stefan Lanka & Dr. Tom Cowan: How We Got Into This Mess — The History of Virology & Deep Medical Deceptions by Dr. Tom Cowan
https://drtomcowan.com/
[link to more by Dr. Tom Cowan]

The New Holocaust: Israeli Shai Dannon w/ David Icke on Horrific Tyranny Unfolding in Israel for Jews Who Refuse to Comply by David Icke
https://davidicke.com/
[link to more by David Icke]

Dr. Tenpenny: This is The Biggest Scam Ever Perpetrated on The Human Race…
https://vaxxter.com/
[link to more by Dr. Sherri Tenpenny]

Corona Investigative Committee: Dr. Reiner Fuellmich & Vera Sharav on Historical Ties of the Unfolding Medical Tyranny to the Holocaust
https://corona-ausschuss.de/
[link to more by  Reiner Fuellmich]

Sharon James — along with her husband, children & visiting grandchildren — has lived and worked for nearly 35 years on a century farm in Iowa.

She is an avid researcher and life-long learner with a degree in education and strong interest in natural healing. Her now-adult children were all home schooled.

Sharon James is a contributing writer at Truth Comes to Light.

Deep Resistance: Nature, Freedom, and Joy

The essay below is the final part of the Deep Resistance series by W.D. James. It was first published on Winter Oak.  The rest of the series can be found at Winter Oak or at W.D. James’ Philosopher’s Holler.

Nature, Freedom, and Joy (Deep Resistance Part 5)

by W.D. James, Winter Oak, Philosopher’s Holler
February 2, 2024

Fish in the sea, you know how I feel
River running free, you know how I feel
Blossom on the tree, you know how I feel

It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day
It’s a new life, for me
And I’m feeling good

– Nina Simone, Feeling Goodⁱ

So far in this series of essays we have talked much of ‘nature’ and things like ‘custom’ that may get in its way. However, we have not yet really gotten down to brass tacks about what nature, phusis, is for the ancient Greeks. The great Stoic maxim was “Live according to nature”. So, we should determine what that really means.

Phusis

According to Pierre Hadot, explaining the Stoic doctrine, “Living in conformity with reason thus means living in conformity with nature, which causes the evolution of the world from within” (my italics).ⁱⁱ For we moderns, ‘nature’ pretty much just means all the bits of matter out there plus the energy that moves them and possibly the laws of physics which govern that movement. For the Greeks, it meant all of that plus the innate striving of all things toward good order. They called this the telos of things; the aim and purpose of things. While we tend to see nature in terms of mechanism, they saw things as genuinely organic.

To illustrate this, we can take Aristotle’s famous example of the acorn. For him, and the Greeks generally, it is not wrong to speak of the acorn having the purpose of becoming a mighty oak tree. This tendency is innate to the acorn as an acorn (is part of its acorn/oak nature). It is not going to become anything else: a cherry tree, a chicken, or an amoeba. Further, it will seek to become a good, healthy, flourishing (eudaimonia) oak tree. It might not succeed: it might not get enough water or sunlight, it might get eaten by a squirrel, or might get ripped up as a sapling by a mischievous person. Nevertheless, it possesses the internal propensity to grow towards becoming a mighty oak.

Further yet, all things have this internal propensity toward good order. The first bits of matter formed themselves into galaxies and solar systems, every living thing strives towards its perfection, even inert matter behaves as proper to its nature. In fact, everything in nature strives towards the good. Nature is an engine of goodness. The acorn strives towards the oak tree, the thoroughbred horse delights in running swiftly, and the human being seeks to live in accordance with her nature as a rational and moral being. The Stoics did not hesitate to describe this universal quest for goodness as a providential order. As Gilbert Murray expressed it, “We now see what goodness is; it is living or acting according to Phusis, working with Phusis in her eternal effects towards perfection…. It means living according to the spirit which makes the world grow and progress.”ⁱⁱⁱ

Finally, as Nina Simone celebrates in the lyrics of the song quoted at the opening of this essay, freedom consists in just this fulfilling of natural tendencies towards the good. The fish swimming in the sea. The river coursing down a mountain ravine. The blossom on a tree (no doubt an oak). Goodness, freedom, and joy ultimately all coincide and inhere in nature.

Philosophic Practices

The practices, or spiritual exercises, we explore in this concluding look at Epictetus will demonstrate some of the practical implications of this view of nature. First, we’ll delve into what it is to live according to nature and then look at the conception of virtue that goes with this.

Practice 3: Living according to nature

Conduct yourself in all matters, grand and public or small and domestic, in accordance with the laws of nature. Harmonizing your will with nature should be your utmost ideal. (9)

For good or ill, life and nature are governed by laws that we can’t change…. Freedom isn’t the right or ability to do whatever you please. Freedom comes from understanding the limits of our own power and the natural limits set in place by divine providence. (21)

Each of us is part of a vast, intricate, and perfectly ordered human community…. We properly locate ourselves within the cosmic scheme by recognizing our natural relations to one another and thereby identifying our duties. Our duties naturally emerge from such fundamental relations as our families, neighborhoods, workplaces, our state and nation. Make it a regular habit to consider your roles – parent, child, neighbor, citizen, leader – and the natural duties that arise from them. (42)

Your possessions should be proportionate to the needs of your body, just as the shoe should fit the foot. Without moral training, we can be induced to excess. In the case of shoes, for instance, many people are tempted to buy fancy, exotic shoes when all that is needed is comfortable, well-fitting, durable footwear. (67)

When we name things correctly, we comprehend them correctly, without adding information or judgments that aren’t there. (73)

Stoicism is one of the primary sources for the Western ‘Natural Law’ tradition. Epictetus was able to build a whole theory of natural law out of meditating on a pair of shoes. Let’s see what is involved here. We need shoes because we have feet. Our feet have a certain nature, a purpose to serve. They help us to stand upright and to propel ourselves forward. That’s what they are for. Hence, if we are to clothe them well by putting them into shoes, those shoes should augment, not hinder, the natural purpose of feet: they should work with nature. So, the shoes should fit well, be sturdy, support us in propelling ourselves forward. Those would be good shoes. Bad shoes would hinder this. Perhaps they have pointy toes that cramp our feet because we think that looks good or inordinately high heels to make us look taller, but which make us clumsy. Bad shoes. Perhaps they’re cheaply made and will fall apart or damage the arch of our foot. Bad shoes.

Further, we will choose the shoes. This will also be in accordance with nature, or not. The shoes are to serve our bodies, our feet. It is not part of the natural aim of shoes to augment our social standing, make us look good to others, or demonstrate our wealth. If we make our choice in footwear to serve those purposes, say by having them be made of expensive materials that don’t make them any better shoes or because of their brand recognition (the devil wears Prada), we have chosen in a way contrary to nature: contra natura as the medieval theologians would have said.

In this little illustration from a pair of shoes, Epictetus has shown us the pattern we can apply to all human artifacts and actions. What is it we are talking about? Nail that down, get it right. Call it what it is. This is what Confucius, in another tradition of natural law, called ‘the rectification of names.’ Ok, we are concerned with X. What is the place of X in the nature of things, what is its nature, its purpose and function? Given the nature of X, as a free being, act in accordance with nature by cooperating with X performing its function. Then, things will go well.

We can learn the same sort of lesson by reasoning from the very mundane and intimate outward. Each part of your anatomy has a purpose to serve in the overall flourishing of the organism of your body. Recognize that and support the healthy functioning of your parts. You as an individual also have a role or roles to play in the overall functioning of the social organisms of which you are a part (your family, your neighborhood, your nation, the society of all humans—the Stoics coined the term ‘cosmopolitan’ to denote that). Do your part. Our species has a role to play in the overall operation of our ecosystems and planet.

All of this is what is meant by ‘live according to nature’.

Practice 4: Cultivating virtue

Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths. (17)ⁱ

The surest sign of the higher life is serenity. Moral progress results in freedom from inner turmoil. You can stop fretting about this and that. If you seek the higher life, refrain from such common patterns of thinking as these: “If I don’t work harder, I’ll never earn a decent living, no one will recognize me, I’ll be a nobody,” or “If I don’t criticize my employee, he’ll take advantage of my good will.” (19)

Attach yourself to what is spiritually superior. (29)

Clearly assess your strengths and weaknesses….Different people are made for different things…. You can’t be flying off in countless directions, however appealing they are, and at the same time live an integrated, fruitful life. (40-41)

….find worthy models to emulate…. We all carry the seeds of greatness within us, but we need an image as a point of focus in order that they may sprout. (60)

Decide to be extraordinary…. (79)

Goodness exists independently of our conception of it. The good is out there and it always has been out there, even before we began to exist. (91)

Virtue has gotten kind of a bad name in recent times. Mainly, that is because we have turned it into its opposite. We tend to think of a virtuous person as a person who doesn’t do certain things. Don’t smoke, don’t drink , don’t rock-n-roll. We conceptualize of virtue as restraint, as not doing. That is the opposite of the ancient Greek idea. Virtue, arete, means ‘excellence’. It referred to a power, a capacity for doing. The virtuous person was the one with the power of character to achieve excellence.

Excellence by what measure? By the measure of nature, phusis, as developed above. To perform one’s purpose, to achieve one’s natural goals, to achieve the state of flourishing, requires power. The acorn must have a certain power to survive and grow into that oak. My beagle dog Ellie, if she is to fulfill her purpose of beagling (rabbit hunting), must possess certain powers and capacities of smell, speed, sight, strength, intelligence, endurance, etc… These are her virtues and she is a ‘good’ beagle to the extent she possesses these virtues. With humans, we move to the specifically moral sense of virtue: the powers of will and character to choose and act in accordance with our nature.

There are a great many potential moral virtues, but the Greeks distilled these down to four virtues on which all the others were held to rest. The later Christian moralists called them the ‘cardinal virtues’ to denote their fundamental status. These are wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. We need to be able to see into the nature of things to know what they are, what their purpose is, and what would constitute their state of flourishing. We must be wise. There will be those who hinder us, who wish to block us from acting according to our wisdom. We must have courage to face up to them. In the particular circumstances in which we find ourselves, we must know how to apply the abstract wisdom we possess to the situation at hand. We must possess the virtue of moderation: neither too much nor too little, neither too strong nor too weak, neither too strenuous nor too apathetic. Finally, we must give each thing and each person their due. What do they need from us? What do we owe them? We must act justly.

Epictetus encourages us to cling to our high ideals and find noble examples to model ourselves on. Do what comes naturally to us, seek the good. Life will test you with hardship. It is a providential world: each time you reach down inside yourself and find the moral resources to respond appropriately to a situation, that resource will grow stronger and equip you for even more challenges in the future. We become progressively stronger and more integrated with ourselves. We experience the tranquility of the Stoic sage.ⁱⁱ

Practices of Resistance

Living according to nature

• The modern world has defined itself against nature. The current ‘woke’ ideology of our global elites actively denies nature with its anti-gender and transhumanist goals.
• Capitalism denatures everything by commodifying it.
• Stick with nature, with reality.
• Call things what they are. Not what we are falsely told they are.
• Get good at recognizing the organic purposes in everything, including yourself and your life.
• Discipline yourself to will what nature wills.
• Seek the natural good.
• Nature is a resource for values, not just commodities.
• The Stoic seizes on these values to cultivate their soul.
• With an emboldened soul, they are prepared to take on the large, impersonal world of a complex society and start setting it to rights.
• Buy proper shoes (you have to start somewhere).

Cultivate virtue

• Natural, harmonizing, power usually operates from the inside out.
• Become wiser, braver, more balanced, and more just.
• Act for a wiser, braver, more balanced, and just world.
• Start with yourself. Then your family and friends. Then your community.
• Virtue does not depend on the results, but on the intentions. No one can keep you from becoming morally stronger.
• If you steel yourself against the many subtle arts of persuasion and control, you establish a center of freedom.
• Take opposition and setbacks in your stride; all things can work for the good of your character.

i  Listen to the song here: Feeling Good – YouTube

ii  Pierre Hadot, What is Ancient Philosophy?, translated by Michael Chase, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002 (original French edition, 1995), p. 129.

iii  Gilbert Murray, The Stoic Philosophy, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1915, pp 38-39.

iv  As with Diogenes, I have opted for a non-literal but more flavorful translation that seeks to capture Epictetus’ meaning: Epictetus, The Art of Living: The Classic Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness, translated and interpreted by Sharon Lebell, HarperSanFrancisco, 1995. This contains the whole of the Enchiridion as well as a few supplemental passages from The Discourses.

v  The ‘sage’ was the Stoic ideal. However, no Stoic philosopher ever claimed to be a sage; it was always an ideal goal for them. Maybe, just maybe, there had been a few sages. Maybe Socrates was a sage. Maybe Cato, who had opposed the rise of Julius Caesar, was a sage.

W.D. James’s essays on Egalitarian Anti-Modernism have now been brought together in a 118-page pdf booklet, which is available to download for free here. Winter Oak’s complete collection of free books can be found here.

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