I actually thought about proposing marriage to you, Andrea, but since you’re already having so much trouble reading my name–not to mention the unmentionable things I think and talk about–I changed my mind.

Of course, I apologize for everything I’ve said. Nothing of it is true, as you have figured out so brilliantly.

The real truth about Massive Inspired Action is: do a lot on a Sunday afternoon, when you otherwise would just take a nap, and you’ll have better results than from the nap alone.

Trust me. It truly works! Oh no, ouch! Please don’t ever trust me, ’cause nothing is more threatening to decent human beings–I’m not one of them, obviously–than the imminent danger something might work.

Good Luck & I love you too!

Oh, well …

Blessings,
Andrea

Blessings,
Andrea

I love and respect you both and I know that you’ll come to appreciate one another.

Black and white this discussion isn’t. It’s a juicy grey that I intend to come back to and comment further. Thank you both for being the strong individuals that you are.

Clem yes results do come out of the blue and the surprise of it is extremely delightful. Would they come without massive inspired action? Perhaps they would but in my experience the likelihood is greater with MIA.

Suzanne I enjoyed reading about your feelings of being swept away with your higher self at the wheel. I especially identified with being deliciously spent and exhilarated.

Karl stepping slowly into the water is a strategy that works and it may even suit your personality more to do so. Yet I’m betting that one day you will jump into massive inspired action when of course you are massively inspired. One thing about MIA if the waters cold you don’t even feel it. In full inspired frenzy the thoughts of going back just do not come up.

Oh dear, what have I done? I am stuck between two dilemmas: firstly, my answer to Andrea’s comment may distract from Tom’s subject “Massive Inspired Action;” secondly, my star sign, the worst anybody could end up with–Sagittarius–won’t allow me to be polite or remotely diplomatic. What can I do but ask forgiveness in advance?! Not that I care much for it (you see, even forgiveness is hocus pocus I don’t believe in) but at least I asked …

Dropping a grocery bag filled with cash into a busy mall just before Christmas causes about the same effect as peacefully mentioning the word ‘war’ during a harmless conversation about recipes for chocolate chip cookies: individuals lose their heads, and a different part of the brain takes over than the one capable of discussing Pieter Bruegel the Elder or Søren Kierkegaard. Fight-or-Flight kicks into gear and even if you hate war–or should I say especially then?–you are in the middle of it, engulfed by “the fog of war,” triggered and fed by details of our DNA that are in evolutionary terms a month or two older than our inventions of fire and wheel.

Kay is right of course, I am an evil entity, and it behooves you to break out into thunderous laughter before you get caught in my trap or in your mind.

I did not write the previous comment as a response to Andrea: I wrote the comment as a response to Tom’s initial post and I only mentioned something Andrea had said (I also commented on Tim’s post, if you recall). Andrea, however, took the bait. She did what others didn’t dare. Please do know, Andrea, that you have my utmost respect! It is not at all my intention to hurt you, but that will not stop me from saying things you or others may not like to hear. My beloved Kay blew my beloved cover: I will even say things I don’t agree with myself. It’s too much fun to play devil’s advocate, doubly so when juicy fruits can be gained from it.

Even though I seem to be answering Andrea here, I continue to have Tom’s subject matter (MIA) in mind and this is NOT a dialogue between Andrea and me. I am talking to YOU. For Andrea it would be a healthy idea to detach herself a bit from taking my answer too personal, everybody else might benefit from feeling meant. Please do yourself a favor and put yourself in Andrea’s shoes. We have all been in her situation, and that includes me.

Andrea (I’m not talking to you, Andrea, remember?) went off on a tangent, defending her life’s philosophy, but she didn’t really address the content of my comment as it pertained to Tom’s MIA. Something I said ATTACKED her core beliefs and she lost the objective, MIA, out of her sight.

First off, it looks funny when you’re fighting for your life while trying to convince me that you believe in peace more than I do. Examples of “the fog of war?” Andrea insists on disagreeing with me without noticing that we are actually in agreement:

Let’s take something harmless first. Andrea: “If we don’t know which action created the desired result, then we cannot duplicate it, learn from it, expand into it, can we?” According to Webster’s, a rhetorical question is ‘a question asked merely for effect with no answer expected’. Andrea did NOT expect anyone to answer her “question.” She meant it as a self-explanatory statement. No agreement necessary, and for sure a dumbass answer like mine was neither called for nor expected. AFTER going into defense mode, however, she was afraid that pretty much everything I say must be an attack or at least something negative. Calling a rhetorical question a rhetorical question is simply stating a fact, no evil ulterior motive behind it. Nevertheless, Andrea felt compelled to tell me that her rhetorical question was not a rhetorical question.

Do I care who is right? Of course not. What did happen though, was that she had lost her “grounded stance,” and the very balance she finds so important. Any engagement in Massive Inspired Action is futile and completely screwed if you lose your focus, if other people’s behavior (mine) can distract your thoughts, unsettle your feelings, or disrupt your actions towards your aim.

I couldn’t care less what you think how life works. Neither do I want to “teach” you the nonsense I believe in. As Kay said, I care about you discovering new answers for yourself (mine ain’t it and I’m glad you’ve figured that out instantly) instead of being caught up in your old ones or by undoing yourself messing with me. You are after fresh answers, YOURS I hope, and that’s why you are subscribed to Tom’s blog.

Another agreement Andrea believes we disagree on: Andrea doesn’t like war and she believes I do. Hm, I wonder why I fought a lengthy lawsuit against the German government to become a conscientious objector, depriving myself of the opportunity to learn how to kill and die proudly for my country and for the legacy of my genocidal ancestors (it’s a rhetorical question, Andrea)? That, of course, you could not know. You could have known that I WARNED you of MIA (”You have been warned.”) and possible dangers–like becoming hooked on getting high, or did I not? Accusing me of promoting cocaine or anything equally addictive as a great thing and helpful for your business is slightly on the silly side.

Do I promote Bill Gates’ business strategies and tactics? No. Do they work? Duh! Will I tell you what works if you ask? Yes–even more than Gates will ever reveal (if you cared to read my previous comment, without getting stuck in your morass of ethics). Does that mean I suggest you do the same as Billy boy? No. But I won’t bore you or patronize you by peddling “moraline.” Did I tell you that winning a presidential campaign should be a worthwhile goal for you to pursue? Nope. I said it’s rather insane to do so, but it is the most extreme example of MIA you can watch unfold right before your eyes day by day on your TV screen. Watching the 2008 campaign is a crash course in MIA, with three different approaches, for free. It’s not a good idea to just do away with it as stupid. You care for learning MIA? Read the Wall Street Journal, listen to NPR and, God forbid, listen to conservative talk radio. The “brief burst” of MIA–called “Blitzkrieg” in Egbert’s private dictionary, to rattle your cage a little more–to get momentum up to speed takes a lot longer if becoming president happens to be your objective.

Again, if you have an objective–and Massive Inspired Action is superfluous to consider if you have none–DO NOT waste precious time and energy with other people’s real or (worse, as in this case) PERCEIVED disagreements! Tom said, “Massive Inspired Action is a process I developed where you engage a variety of fierce and creative actions to increase the probability of reaching an objective.” He also talks about a “project,” “your drive for success,” and of increasing “the probability of your success.”

Now, if you don’t have an objective, projects, or any interest in some sort of success, you don’t need to increase the probability thereof. Not even making money is of interest to you? Then, what the hell? Grow your own celery and throw your car keys in the trash. Why do you bother reading my claptrap and responding to it? In that case you don’t need “fierce action.” You don’t need anything massive. All you really need is a nap and perhaps a warm cave when the OPM level gets too low.

Andrea (please do recall, this is not about Andrea) has goals, even though she tells me how wrong I am to have goals! Not only is she telling me how ignorant of me it is to have goals (”Life is about the journey, not the destination.”) and how mundane (”like making money”), she also feels it appropriate to insult “the majority of people in this country.” I am not sure what she means with being “joyfully busy” while feeling such tremendous resentment (it’s not bitterness, is it?) toward the majority of people in this country (the United States of America, I assume, which is painful for a lot of people to publicly admit). Not enough, she believes you are pretty much dead if you don’t live as she thinks you should (”If we’re not applying ourselves to discover exactly how we are creating our lives, then we’re not living at all.”).

Bad move!

I don’t know Andrea–though I sincerely hope we get to know each other at some point in the future–but we do know a few of her goals, even though she claims not to have any. “Peace” might be one of Andrea’s goals. “Balance” another (”The energetic output of “doing” [] balanced by the energetic receptivity of “being.”). Reduction of “ego-based action” and an increase of living one’s “soul’s purpose.” Etc. It’s all beautiful stuff, and if I’m not too mistaken, she would love to share the exceptional spiritual gems she knows of and she is experiencing with the majority of the people of this country. Am I that wrong (rhetorical question)? Don’t think so.

If that is true, and you have those or similar objectives for your immediate human environment and for humankind, I think you should consider Massive Inspired Action as a possible tool!

See, I can offend people people all I want because peace is not my goal. You can’t! I love tension. If peace is what you want most and you tell the majority of people how stupid they are and how wrong, perhaps you are after something that I call “John Lennon Peace.” Kinda bigot, don’t ya think? Ask John’s son Julian how Mr. Lennon and Yoko Ono thought about “imagine no possessions,” “sharing all the world,” or “peace” in the family. “I hope some day you’ll join us and the world will live as one.” Really? What a coincidence! Adolf Hitler thought the same thing!

I am not joking. There will be peace when everybody thinks the way I do, and the way I think is best for the world and for you? What? Oh, that would be bad and ego-based, causing unnecessary tension and war, but if the world joins you and thinks and feels and acts as you do–it’ll be called PEACE? John Lennon was a damned fascist if there ever was one (and there were, and there are, and I’m afraid there will be plenty of them in our future). God, I hope that’s not the peace you have in mind, Andrea. And if it is, don’t tell anyone because it’ll be hard for you to accomplish your goal that way, with or without MIA.

Please note: if your goal is not popular–or you are not popular (and you won’t be if you tell the majority in any country that they are dead beets)–DO NOT permit anyone to discover your true objective, the way you really think, the way you feel–or any Massive Inspired Action will be met by a counter force large enough to suffocate your greatest efforts in their infancy.

Bonus:

If you pursue an objective, via MIA or slow and gentle, anything you hate along the way will COST YOU DEARLY–unless you learn how to love to hate it. Fight it tooth and nails, and you will lose. It does not matter whether you are right or wrong. Oh, it does actually: when you are right about an issue, you are tempted to invest more energy into convincing the other side of your opinion. Can you see how dumb that might be, when you’re trying to get to the airport fast?

Poor Andrea, we need to use more of her wealth of examples (Andrea, I love you! I am serious. Please don’t take this personally: You are doing us–and yourself–a huge favor by being so open and generous about the way you think and feel!).

Say, an issue as heavy as war pops up, and it triggers you to get off like an IED and you forget about your objective altogether while jeopardizing your MIA mission. You don’t like war, I don’t like it. The average general (and most generals are anything but average)–at least the ones I have talked to or whose opinion I have dug up–hate war a thousand times more than you and I do. They have witnessed it first hand, smelled it and felt it!

You MUST find a way to “integrate” it (no, I will not elaborate on that until you’ve paid me huge amounts of filthy lucre!), make peace with it. Peace with war? Damn right! If you don’t, it’ll haunt you. The I-hate-war demon–or any other kind that pisses you off and causes you to snap into a defensive mode at every street corner–will suck your energy resources dry. Since MIA requires you to unleash ALL energy you can possibly muster, and preferably at once, anything that feeds off the same resource must be considered an enemy.

Exactly, even if you hate war, war is not your enemy: hating war is your enemy. Don’t try to love war instead. That’s what the army of positive stinkers try and regularly fail with. When you see there is a side of you ENJOYING how you hate war, you may continue hating war, but energetically it’ll be transformed into something else and useful and playful. Enjoying how to hate? Yes! Have you ever been in a heated discussion, a screaming match even, boiling and pissed off about someone who didn’t “get it,” but you secretly LOVED the intensity of your feeling, your engagement, the bristling sizzling NOW of that event? Don’t lie to me! Have you ever been crying, bitterly sobbing in grief or sadness, and reaching a point of awareness how comforting and miraculously wonderful that felt? Of course, you have, but usually we don’t talk about how cool it was to cry next to the open casket of uncle Eric, do we?

In the same way, you can discover your enjoyment of hating war! Gandhi loved war also. No? Oh, being beaten to a pulp, fasting your body almost to death, and intentionally risking to be killed is not violent, I guess? Non-violent fight for independence is not war? When people die as a direct effect of your non-violence, it’s not violence? You don’t like killing? Don’t go to a hospital, then. Two-year old daughter of a friend of mine got leukemia, during chemotherapy her body was practically killed 8-times: that was almost ten years ago, and she is healthy, bright, and happy. Bad? Our peaceful non-action kills people in Darfur, North Korea and elsewhere every day. A good thing? Right, I forgot. Don’t remind me of the peaceful role of the U.N. in Rwanda!

My life, my very existence depends on the ugliest war in human history so far: my parents would have never married had the U.S. not entered and ended WWII–saving the Germans from slaughtering each other and everybody else–because my father did not want to turn my mother into an early widow. They married in 1945. I am grateful to every American soldier who had to kill Germans and may have lost life or limbs himself for me to show up eventually. Want to talk about “cause and effect?” There you have it. Quite a perverted heritage to live with, don’t you agree?

I don’t love war! I hate when people get hurt and killed! I am not happy my life was made possible by people butchering each other! But, I cannot disconnect my life and my love of and for life from the facts of war and all its doom and bloody gloom. Hell, to become a conscientious objector at age nineteen, I studied the history of war and I used strategies of war, as taught by Clausewitz, to get and stay OUT OF war.

To engage successfully in MIA, you cannot afford to have major obstacles in your way! You’ll have to learn to turn them into something else, and I am confident you got the message.

Last, but not least: You got God(s) you believe in? Unless you want to build a congregation–or your objective is to talk people out of the God business, like Richard Dawkins–don’t let anybody know what you think. If you do, it’ll hurt your MIA. Why? Simple: whatever you say, somebody (me, in this case) can easily dig up crap proving the opposite perspective.

“Do you think divine thoughts can ever be likened to waging war? The ego wages war.” Yes, I do believe divine thoughts can be likened to waging war! The Judeo-Christian God–if that’s what you believe in–has committed genocide many times over (flood, Noah? Any faint memories of stories about God drowning the ENTIRE known world? Sodom and Gomorrah?) Yeah, but they were bad people and they deserved it. Yippee ki-yay, that’s the kind of peace I am talking about! No living breathing ego left to haggle with. Now I understand. Moses, drowning the Egyptians in the Red Sea? An act of divine peaceful intervention.

Jeremiah 14:14-16: “Then the Lord said to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds. Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the prophets who are prophesying in my name: I did not send them, yet they are saying, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine. And the people they are prophesying to will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons, or their daughters. I will pour out on them the calamity they deserve.” Killing prophets and men, women, and children who happened to listen–or who didn’t listen and just picked their noses–is the divine thing to do, if you ask me.

That’s divine nourishment we should all crave. I dunno where you buy your bibles, but in mine I also find numerous examples of God just getting so goddamn angry that he kills a guy just because he feels like it–not in an ego-based way, of course–even when that person is busy doing something positive FOR God: “When they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God.” (Chronicles 13:9-10) Nice! It was probably a peaceful death.

You want to peddle God and divine stuff? You better be ready, willing, and able to sell and defend genocide, mass murder, and lynch “justice” as something wonderful and important to make us the civilized bunch we pretend to be. If murder don’t look too good on your God’s resume: don’t talk about it.

Just act massively and look inspired!

ta ta

P.S.: Ego-Guarantee: I promise every single word I write and its meaning is purely ego-based. The sheer length of it should convince you of this eternal truth!

THIS OPINION HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED BY TOM. HE HAS NOT SEEN IT. THEREFORE HE HAS NOT ENDORSED IT. HE IS UNLIKELY TO AGREE WITH IT IN ITS ENTIRETY. DO NOT HOLD TOM RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS TEXT !

Kay - I LOVE the image of you running, yelling, for the drop-off - talk about courage in the face of fear! Wow! Now THAT’s the feeling that comes to my mind when I read about/talk about Massive Inspired Action!

Egbert - the emotions your response evoked in me remind me of the times I have, in fact, taken MIA - pushed myself to the limit and then felt the wind of the Divine beneath my wings just when I was sure I was about to fall flat on my face. I get kind of ’swept away’ by MIA - but I think that’s part of it, as I think about it. To be in total control is both a myth and an impossibility. It’s the ‘inspired’ part of MIA I feel is responsible for that swept away feeling - others call it ‘flow’. I’m (at least not the thinking me) not driving that bus - that’s my Higher Self at the wheel.

Andrea - in my experience (which you and I have discussed recently) I have called myself taking MIA when in fact I was missing the ‘I’ part completely. That’s the “coke”-induced addictive ‘do something - anything-everything!’ trap our minds like to trick us into believing will give us the positive outcome we desire - no matter how many times we prove otherwise. No one knows better than I how to stay extremely busy ‘doing’ yet accomplishing next to nothing at the end of the day. And no, I don’t want to knowingly engage in anymore of that! MIA, for me, requires me becoming present, in the now, and quiet so that I can see/hear/feel/know the inspiration that awaits me. Once I get a sense of that, MIA feels (to me) more like Kay’s running at the drop off - yelling as much as a result of the joy of Being as fear. Exhilarated…and spent, when it’s done.

Tom - bless you for initiating this!

When I comented on MIA bringing me alive and leaving no time to listen to the 3-headed committee of Judge, Critic and What-If, I was in NO WAY suggesting that we should all get high on action vibes and ignore those parts of ourselves forever. It IS vitally important that we place our attention on what we want to expand, and I do not want to expand those voices’ impact.

It is my desire to accept ALL parts of me, even the nasty shadow parts, and integrate them into the whole, not allowing them to take center stage whenever they want to. Sometimes surprising them into silence is a great way to move into a new way of being, where my Higher Self is running the ship instead.

This feeling of “coming alive” during MIA instead speaks to BEING present in the now, much like an olympic athlete when she is up for her race. The race and her body, and her preparation all come together in a one-pointed focus, and it’s a beautiful thing. She is using self-discipline to quiet any voices of fear or doubt, and it works.

When I am in action on behalf of something which inspires me and comes from my deep passsion, I am most definitely in the present moment far more than when I am focusing on the other voices in my head. When I am in movement which aligns with the highest and best expression of myself that I can imagine, I am using a kind of spiritual self-discipline to keep my attention on the action which brings me closer to that expression, and I couldn’t be more Present.

To Your Deep Gladness & Inspired Success,
Kay