Dec 13, 2023·edited Dec 13, 2023Liked by Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
The underlying thematic behind what you’ve conveyed succinctly in the triad posts of yours is the same that lies behind the notion of prison, and what it stands for as a “correction” instrument.
This stillness is rooted in our genes. It’s a fundamental genetic marker in our biology that we experience as a pressure to be still so we can focus.
In prison you’re locked into a focus because there is nothing else to do. You get locked up so you can focus, think and contemplate. You ruminate over your life, your past actions, your behavioral patterns; you get to re-evaluate them in your mind’s eye and reexamine them from every possible angle.
And it’s that process that gives you a much broader perspective, that otherwise is not possible. That is, without that necessary stillness you can’t really do that. There are so many people who have gone to prisons for things and it was a transforming experience because they had nothing else to do but be forced to be still.
More than that, by having this genetic marker, what one discovers is that it’s one of the basic frequencies of our development as a species.
Your examples about Newton et. al. reflect that exactly.
It is this stillness that is so magical because it is what focuses our pattern system. Then, the potential in being of service is by revealing the pattern. It's the only thing that makes a difference. It's the only thing that makes a difference between us being killer monkeys instead of just monkeys. You can't imagine how important that is for the development of our consciousness.
All of that opens up the possibility for humanity to transcend its physical limitations, to build tools that are far, far more precise, advanced and sophisticated than our opposable thumb, to be able to travel into space, to be able to do research deep within the body. We’re always under pressure to deal with the fragility of the form, which means we become more efficient at building forms, find ways to compensate for the deficiency in forms.
The tragedy is that nowadays, even when we have the opportunity to be still we don’t take advantage of that. The dumbphone age has robbed the individual from the possibility to contemplate and introspect which are so vital for ”correction”.
That is, if we don’t have enough people who are able to sit still in order to find what patterns are false, and instead, are just automatons being busy for nothing really, there’s no more counterpoint. There’s no more the necessary judgmentation process to scrutinize and toss that which no longer severs the larger whole.
Didn't know that about Cat Stevens. Like Leonard Cohen, who was a recluse most of his life then intentionally isolated himself in a Buddhist monastery, both of those folks were huge influences on my own music. I've never been forced to endure social isolation but willingly chose it as a preference.
A gallery I know did a series of interviews with visual artists during the pandemic shutdown. It wasn't surprising to me that almost all of them hardly noticed. They were and continue to be off in their solitary studios working away. I've heard artists described "...as people with an inordinately long attention span". Decades long I might add. That is where the joy of uninterrupted, consecrated effort lies. Where you get lost and found.
Well good for them! My “confinement” almost took away our home & 30 year old family business. You are only seeing this issue from an elite, laptop money maker point of view. Not at what those sick days do to a struggling family!!!! Are you losing pay? Are you using up the PTO that you hoped would be a vacation? Are you struggling to get your kids to school or daycare, while you lay around, doing some deep thinking??? Just stop it!!
What a bad mother I must have been, marvelling in the creations of my children in covid isolation, far more visible and pleasing than the socialisation would've been, for me.
My children, being primarily homeschooled, have always had brief times of isolation and it has had good effect on their character and academic abilities. My son and youngest especially benefited, since the plandemic forced him and I both out of class (I was an instructional aide). We tutored each other, one on one: my teaching him language arts and him teaching me to long board in addition to all of the quiet time we were able to have individually was great.
We should never avoid, suppress or deny the trying condition of sickness; instead, accept it as a healing power and use it for our inner work of transformation.
I loved your article and thank you for posting that poem. But allow me a provocative snark (that perhaps I do not want to agree with myself), but is it just not the case that all mental activity requires a certain amount of peace and the effects of isolation? At the risk of being trivial, is this not the reason why there are "quiet please" rules in libraries?
Have no doubts about your observations; genius arrives in the silence without distraction often.
Sometimes, wonder if it's human intellect or God speaking when we're capable of listening.
.
It Is Important To Acknowledge
That The People
Who Took The Vaccine
Didn’t Get Any Smarter
Just Because They Are Suffering.
.
The underlying thematic behind what you’ve conveyed succinctly in the triad posts of yours is the same that lies behind the notion of prison, and what it stands for as a “correction” instrument.
This stillness is rooted in our genes. It’s a fundamental genetic marker in our biology that we experience as a pressure to be still so we can focus.
In prison you’re locked into a focus because there is nothing else to do. You get locked up so you can focus, think and contemplate. You ruminate over your life, your past actions, your behavioral patterns; you get to re-evaluate them in your mind’s eye and reexamine them from every possible angle.
And it’s that process that gives you a much broader perspective, that otherwise is not possible. That is, without that necessary stillness you can’t really do that. There are so many people who have gone to prisons for things and it was a transforming experience because they had nothing else to do but be forced to be still.
More than that, by having this genetic marker, what one discovers is that it’s one of the basic frequencies of our development as a species.
Your examples about Newton et. al. reflect that exactly.
It is this stillness that is so magical because it is what focuses our pattern system. Then, the potential in being of service is by revealing the pattern. It's the only thing that makes a difference. It's the only thing that makes a difference between us being killer monkeys instead of just monkeys. You can't imagine how important that is for the development of our consciousness.
All of that opens up the possibility for humanity to transcend its physical limitations, to build tools that are far, far more precise, advanced and sophisticated than our opposable thumb, to be able to travel into space, to be able to do research deep within the body. We’re always under pressure to deal with the fragility of the form, which means we become more efficient at building forms, find ways to compensate for the deficiency in forms.
The tragedy is that nowadays, even when we have the opportunity to be still we don’t take advantage of that. The dumbphone age has robbed the individual from the possibility to contemplate and introspect which are so vital for ”correction”.
That is, if we don’t have enough people who are able to sit still in order to find what patterns are false, and instead, are just automatons being busy for nothing really, there’s no more counterpoint. There’s no more the necessary judgmentation process to scrutinize and toss that which no longer severs the larger whole.
It also shows why we are at an end.
Excellent discourse. Our talents and tasks given to us by God the Creator and Sustainer are fired up in solitude.
I would add to your list Emily Dickinson, Emily Bronte and John of Revelation.
Didn't know that about Cat Stevens. Like Leonard Cohen, who was a recluse most of his life then intentionally isolated himself in a Buddhist monastery, both of those folks were huge influences on my own music. I've never been forced to endure social isolation but willingly chose it as a preference.
A gallery I know did a series of interviews with visual artists during the pandemic shutdown. It wasn't surprising to me that almost all of them hardly noticed. They were and continue to be off in their solitary studios working away. I've heard artists described "...as people with an inordinately long attention span". Decades long I might add. That is where the joy of uninterrupted, consecrated effort lies. Where you get lost and found.
Well good for them! My “confinement” almost took away our home & 30 year old family business. You are only seeing this issue from an elite, laptop money maker point of view. Not at what those sick days do to a struggling family!!!! Are you losing pay? Are you using up the PTO that you hoped would be a vacation? Are you struggling to get your kids to school or daycare, while you lay around, doing some deep thinking??? Just stop it!!
What a bad mother I must have been, marvelling in the creations of my children in covid isolation, far more visible and pleasing than the socialisation would've been, for me.
You make a case. I'm sure John Bunyan of Pilgrim's Progress has a spot. Come to think of it, add Apostle Paul. I'm for choosing, for sure.
My children, being primarily homeschooled, have always had brief times of isolation and it has had good effect on their character and academic abilities. My son and youngest especially benefited, since the plandemic forced him and I both out of class (I was an instructional aide). We tutored each other, one on one: my teaching him language arts and him teaching me to long board in addition to all of the quiet time we were able to have individually was great.
We should never avoid, suppress or deny the trying condition of sickness; instead, accept it as a healing power and use it for our inner work of transformation.
Thank you, John Leake. A joy to read at 2:30 in the morning when one can't sleep!
"And never the twain shall meet".....but in the Word, and love of God.
I loved your article and thank you for posting that poem. But allow me a provocative snark (that perhaps I do not want to agree with myself), but is it just not the case that all mental activity requires a certain amount of peace and the effects of isolation? At the risk of being trivial, is this not the reason why there are "quiet please" rules in libraries?
Along these lines, it is said that.... Boredom is the mother of creativity. Distraction is the death of it.
Great stories about all three of these people. I was aware of Newton's but not the other two.
Thank you for sharing these gems with us.
Danny Huckabee