Independent spirituality: Not bound / limited to any specific religion, philosophy, or methodology. Ethical spirituality: Learning beyond personal development by referencing a higher inspiration, individually and collectively, supporting a more ethical day to day life without the goal of material success or riches. Engaging spirituality: Raising awareness of the necessity of continued spritual growth through appropriate societal positioning, advertising, and real world engagement.
TORN OUT BY WAR (M. Sager, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 100 cm)
TORN OUT BY WAR
I walk in an unknown, dust burnt by the sun, street, a busy one, and blocks in a line. Traces of war on walls, the street’s potholes, slow the convoys, and directed arms. Keeping the steady pace, to meet at my place, aimed to displace and cover my face. Shooting and hellfire, despite the scene so dire, I’m back to inquire, and I do see her. I could shoot as well, an angel from hell; they don’t yell and then repel. Torn out of this dream, no way to remain; I hope you’re fine, and we’ll return. A better time, peace, less shooting at least, conquered the beasts and where love wins. Strong to not lose faith, don’t give in to fight, a temporary night, and we’re alright.
ARE YOU SURE (M. Sager, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 70 cm)
ARE YOU SURE?
According to Buddhist teaching, we all go through life with blinders on. We might be hiking along a forest road coming to a shack, one of those inviting oases, and we spot a rope rolled beside the entrance, but we mistake it for a snake. This provokes thoughts associated with that perception. We know that there are working tools like ropes used by foresters but start to ask whether there are also snakes. Concern about our safety in the face of dangerous animals in the woods arises. Should we avoid the area, and should we protect and arm ourselves? We spin a web of thoughts that are not necessarily based on the first sight of the thing initially interpreted falsely. Further distortions of thoughts follow, and all combines into creating a biased view. Having gotten the idea that forest huts are infected by dangerous animals like snakes, it impacts our behavior overall. We pay attention to this seemingly looming danger and see even more evidence that our fear is justified. We might stop taking walks in the woods and approaching shacks at all. The initial misperceptions got hardened, which impacts how and what data we collect. The vicious circle is perfect.
(I do not expect this text to be (easily) accessible to people, especially to who have not read previous texts on Awareness Intelligence. It is also not posted for likes. It is part of my practice and a gift to publish it without oversimplification anyway.)
Changes in a person’s life situation can rearrange one’s mental socio-temporal schema in such a way that new coherences emerge. One may coherently consider the self in the whole range of time to create temporal coherence. Or, one may add the intra-personal to the already prioritized inter- and extra-personal in the present to attain social coherence. Thereupon, a person may become enabled to follow coherently through on the chosen/valued temporal or social focus, which might represent a form of versatility and agency. Indeed, agency can be understood as the deliberative, reflective activity of a human being in framing, choosing, and executing their action toward a valued goal in a way that is not fully determined by factors and conditions other than their own understanding and reasoning.
Creating more coherence and, therefore, also more agency might be a learnable capacity. For instance, perceived self-efficacy develops through changing one’s patterns of thinking, which could be of the like of, for example, the above-illustrated changes in one’s socio-temporal mental schema.
All possible types (i.e., temporal and social) and sub-types of coherences (i.e., on all three respective levels of each of the temporal and social dimensions) could be observed in the schemas generated by the studies in Awareness Intelligence. Also, the research shows that temporal coherence may be a precondition for social coherence as the latter only existed together with its temporal occurrence: social coherence did not exist in isolation. In any case, both social and temporal structures are crucial for mentally modeling the world and for becoming a temporally integrated and socially whole agent in life.
Wisdom could be defined as the consequence of applying intelligence for the benefit of the broader good that is attained through adaptation to pre-existing, interaction with current, and creation of new surroundings, all in the sense of equilibrating limited and expanded time. Applied to a socio-temporal worldview as presented for the first time in the studies of Awareness Intelligence, these elements of wisdom would be temporal coherence through learning from the past, interacting with the present in a socially balanced way, and solving problems to creating a future for all. Further, wisdom emerges from balancing intra-, inter-, and extra-personal awareness and engagement. In terms of the socio-temporal framework, this stresses the benefit of social coherences. In that sense, the ability to reflect on and mentally cover the whole socio-temporal scope of the world makes Awareness Intelligence.
WIE SOZIO-TEMPORALE KOHÄRENZ HANDLUNGSFÄHIGKEIT UND WEISHEIT BILDET
(Ich erwarte nicht, dass dieser Text (leicht) für Leute zugänglich ist, spezielle nicht für diejenigen, die keine früheren Texte über Bewusstseinsintelligenz gelesen haben. Er wird auch nicht für Likes gepostet. Es ist Teil meiner Praxis und des Geschenks, ihn sowieso ohne Vereinfachung zu veröffentlichen.)
Veränderungen in der Lebenssituation einer Person können das mentale sozio-zeitliche Schema so umordnen, dass neue Zusammenhänge entstehen. Man kann das Selbst im gesamten Zeitbereich kohärent betrachten, um zeitliche Kohärenz zu schaffen. Oder man kann das Intrapersonale dem bereits priorisierten Inter- und Extrapersonalen in der Gegenwart hinzufügen, um soziale Kohärenz zu erreichen. Daraufhin kann eine Person in die Lage versetzt werden, den gewählten/bewerteten zeitlichen oder sozialen Fokus kohärent zu verfolgen, was eine Form von Vielseitigkeit und Handlungsfähigkeit darstellen kann. In der Tat kann Handlungsfähigkeit als die abwägende, reflexive Aktivität eines Menschen verstanden werden, der sein Handeln in Richtung eines geschätzten Ziels in einer Weise gestaltet, wählt und ausführt, die nicht vollständig von anderen Faktoren und Bedingungen als seinem eigenen Verständnis und Denken bestimmt wird.
Mehr Kohärenz und damit auch mehr Handlungsfähigkeit zu schaffen, scheint eine erlernbare Fähigkeit zu sein. Zum Beispiel entwickelt sich wahrgenommene Selbstwirksamkeit durch die Veränderung der eigenen Denkmuster, die beispielsweise den oben dargestellten Veränderungen des sozio-zeitlichen mentalen Schemas ähnlich sein können.
Alle möglichen Typen (d. h. zeitliche und soziale) und Unterarten von Kohärenz (d. h. auf allen drei jeweiligen Ebenen jeder der zeitlichen und sozialen Dimensionen) konnten in den Schemata beobachtet werden, die durch die Studien in Bewusstseinsintelligenz generiert wurden. Die Forschung zeigt auch, dass zeitliche Kohärenz eine Voraussetzung für soziale Kohärenz sein kann, da letztere nur zusammen mit ihrem zeitlichen Auftreten existierte: soziale Kohärenz existierte nicht isoliert. In jedem Fall sind sowohl soziale als auch zeitliche Strukturen entscheidend, um die Welt mental zu modellieren und ein zeitlich integrierter und sozial ganzer Akteur im Leben zu werden.
Weisheit könnte als die Folge der Anwendung von Intelligenz zum Wohle des Allgemeinwohls definiert werden, die durch Anpassung an bereits vorhandene, Interaktion mit der aktuellen und Schaffung neuer Umgebungen im Sinne eines Ausgleichs von begrenzter und erweiterter Zeit erreicht wird. Angewandt auf eine sozio-temporale Weltsicht, wie sie in den Studien in Bewusstseinsintelligenz ein erstes Mal vorgestellt wird, wären diese Elemente der Weisheit zeitliche Kohärenz durch Lernen aus der Vergangenheit, Interaktion mit der Gegenwart in einer sozial ausgewogenen Weise und Lösung von Problemen, um eine Zukunft für alle zu schaffen. Darüber hinaus entsteht Weisheit aus der Balance zwischen intra-, inter- und extra-personalem Bewusstsein und Engagement. Im Hinblick auf den sozio-zeitlichen Rahmen betont dies den Nutzen sozialer Kohärenz. In diesem Sinne macht die Fähigkeit, den gesamten sozio-zeitlichen Bereich der Welt zu reflektieren und mental zu erfassen, Bewusstseinsintelligenz aus.
SPORT AGAINST WIDESPREAD DISEASE NO. 1 (NO, NOT CORONA)
Like every day, I moved a lot today and even trained a little harder. I feel every muscle fiber much more and in greater detail than a lump of mass. Without a fitness center, without equipment and devices, just with my own body. Thank god gravity is still free. Exercise makes you feel good, and exercise feels good when you feel good. The opposite of a vicious circle; a circle of joy. I wish that to everyone. All it takes is a little overcoming and maybe an hour less overtime at work, TV, social media, or Netflix. Nothing new? I actually think so too. And especially nowadays, a lot of people call themselves very health-conscious. I often hear how people love nature, but I meet surprisingly few there outside of the tourist routes catered for astronomically.
Today four out of ten Swiss people are overweight. Obesity leads to cardiovascular disease (the number 1 cause of death), diabetes, and certain types of cancer (cancer is the second leading cause of death). The associated medical costs tripled between 2002 and 2012 and now amount to CHF 8 billion a year. The deeply anchored habit of the majority of the actually physically capable population seems to take the car even for short distances in fine weather and the elevator or escalator even for non-urgent situations. This is only one example, but it shows a fundamentally depraved attitude. Taxpayers’ money is used to further promote and maintain this unhealthy attitude. Corresponding infrastructure is being further expanded, and the number one “widespread disease” (still today in the Corona era) is being marketed as a business. So, the temptation is omnipresent and great to take the path of least resistance.
The most natural thing in the world is, e.g., walking even in the rain, or if you want to go faster, by bike (not to be confused with the battery-powered scooters with bike frames); to experience the freshness, beauty, and inspiration of direct contact with nature. We have fantastic bike and hiking trails in beautiful Switzerland at our disposal (I am happy to pay taxes for them). Nobody becomes overweight if more calories are burned than consumed. Healthy exercise also regulates a healthy level of appetite. Everybody enjoys movement. But humans also get used to inactivity. It is not easy to get used to exercising built into everyday life again, but it is worth it. All the best on a hopefully moving path!
SUNSET / SONNENUNTERGANG (M. Sager, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm)
SUNSET
The sun is to set Just on my face So I can let A kiss to amaze How was the day I can’t even say Anymore Explore Your night
SONNENUNTERGANG
Die Sonne geht under Auf mein Gesicht gedrückt Ich lasse darunter Ein Kuss, der entzückt Wie war der Tag Kein Wort ich vermag Nicht mehr Komm her Du Nacht
BIRDS (M. Sager, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 cm)
Like a bird, you can let your thoughts fly across the infinite topology of awareness. But be wary; to have a birds-eye view on the wholeness of the world can be intimidating; too much is it also a threat to poles of powers everywhere. The flight routes of free birds guided by the universal intelligence of nature can’t be predicted precisely even by the most advanced artificial intelligence, which presents an issue to the desire to control. To ignorantly look up and take a side is encouraged, while shame is imposed on those who, full of awareness, don’t belong and choose their own way. I wish you a lot of strength; you need it to choose deliberately and fly in freedom.
CYBORG / SPIRORG (M. Sager, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm)
The glorified vision of cybernetic organisms aimed at “improving” humans through electromechanical devices and software algorithms is a mechanistic approach that reduces humans to machines. Instead of a cyborg-like facade and mind, developments would be desirable, through which the human beings learns again to express their inner authentic, unique, creative and colorful true self with courage as an expression of their liberated souls. Back to nature, art, and love. Let us be spiritual organisms; It would be for the good of each and all.
THE SUBCONSCIOUS (M. Sager, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm)
Do we have a dark side that we can’t help it? The self-responsible answer is no. It’s a character choice that needs to be consistent over time.
The process between the conscious and the unconscious goes as follows:
Every action and thought is motivated by the unconscious at some level. Some motives are temporarily not acted out as long as the mechanism of repression works. Distraction, stress, sleep deprivation, and drunkenness can release repressed behavior by activating the subconscious. Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality. Therefore, there is no excuse for the stressed or drunkard who ask what took possession of them. All behavior in any situation, including the subconscious surfacing, is created through the conscious. One can only act out what was before accepted to be put into the self. Consequently, to learn to behave by suppressing unwanted behavior (i.e., because fearing negative social consequences) is not the goal. Instead, one should cultivate thoughts and a worldview that can only generate desirable behavior under any circumstances.
TEACHING PLANT (M. Sager, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 150 cm)
Plants can feed themselves. Humans need the help of plants because only they can process the nutrients of the soil into food. Humans have to compensate for their lack of natural intelligence with more complex structures. If plants were to economize as ‘intelligently’ as humans, humanity would depend on plants’ grace. The plants are unconditionally gracious, though. We know that plants can process information, communicate, and (re-) act. Do the plants know more? Why are they ready to plunge into ruin because of and with us? Is that how nature teaches us to love?
In this regard, two poems:
SOUL EARTH
Who mocks the soul but adores the sky, adores the idolatry of a heavenly origin, the megalomania of a cosmic meaning, and the aloofness of a higher purpose.
Who adores the body but mocks the earth, mocks the responsibility of an earthly connection, the humility of a planetary nature, and the groundedness of a profound liability.
Who adores the soul and the earth, indeed, responds to the heavenly origin with an earthly connection, humbles the cosmic meaning through a planetary nature, and grounds her higher purpose on a profound liability.
PLANTS ARE STUPID
Plants are stupid.
They organize to turn earth into food, provide to the needy without being asked. Plants are stupid.
They share their parts and live on, provide in abundance without demands. Plants are stupid.
They cooperate for reproduction and growth, provide of harvest without a price. Plants are stupid.
LIFESPAN I & II (M. Sager, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 70 x 50 cm)
LIFESPAN I & II (M. Sager, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 70 x 50 cm)
Lifespan Development: Cultural norms or personal needs?
Which one would you choose to visualize your life? They may seem quite similar and yet be very different. Both go along nine stages of a lifespan but in different directions and different coloring.
Birth
Kindergarten, school
Work-life
Marriage
Having children
Building/buying a house
Career/Personal development
Retirement
Death
Do you experience different timing, sequences, or different qualities of life stages? Or do you even have different ones than what is socially customary? Maybe there’s indeed a need to rethink the concept of conventional lifespan development. There will still be falling in love, having children, and many other aspects (not to forget spiritual ones). But because today many young people worry about their life ahead, adults struggle with seeing meaning in it, elderly living in apathy long after they’ve stopped to lead a functional one, and then regret or denial on the death bed. Shouldn’t life be more joyful? Without giving prescriptive answers, the following considerations from lifespan psychology may provide some additional perspectives.
When and how one progresses with what personal development step varies a lot between cultures. Even within a particular culture, if not suppressed completely, different life paths can be observed as well. However, the vast majority within a culture chooses to conform with an established “norm.” But do these norms meet the personal desires of a human being, and do they take individual developmental needs into account?
Developmental neurobiological processes are more influential in early life stages (i.e., childhood), but cultural and social learning effects increase at later life stages.
Individuals in Eastern cultures relate in a more interdependent way than a more individualistic Western understanding of the self. At the same time, though, it was found that even in the East, the desire for some autonomous identity is a universally inherent human feature. Similarly, Parental over-control frustrates children both in the US and China.
19th and 20th century Western and Eastern artists were analyzed, and it was found that Eastern artists tend to arrive at their artistic peak achievement later in life, reflecting the Eastern tradition to emphasize the process to excellence rather than the more Western focus on originality and delivery.
Low self-esteem is linked to depression and reduced subjective well-being. Still, on the other side, heightened self-esteem risks degenerating to narcissism and the need to be better than others, which results in separateness. Instead of such a discriminatory pathway to self-worth, Eastern philosophies, such as Buddhism’s mindfulness practices that promote self-compassion instead, are hopefully more and more (re-)discovered.
Mainly, lifespan development focuses on behavioral and material aspects, while it still discards concepts of expanded consciousness such as the already decades-old self-actualization theory. Also, statistical analysis prevails, and more qualitative research might help understand individuals’ life journeys better and add to a more person-centric and contextual perspective in studying lifespan development.
Economically developed regions, sometimes referred to as Western countries, make up only 20 percent of the world population, while developing economies’ population is even disproportionately continuing to grow. At the same time, economic development in the Non-Western, often collectivist societies is likely to dramatically influence the outcome of related cultures. Therefore, psychology needs to focus more on where the big changes and populations are to understand human development.
To further integrate all relevant aspects of human development, a closer collaboration between life-course sociology and life span psychology seems to be a further promising aspiration. Like the emergence of culture and art marked a new era of Homo sapiens some ten thousand years ago, maybe breakthroughs in understanding human lifespan development related to culture may define the next evolutionary steps of humanity.
I am convinced that more answers lie in how people manage to develop independently of the good opinion of others. In the past, critical thinkers were persecuted and hanged; today, these are considered heroic philosophers. Is it still worthwhile to stand up for something against the resistance of the mainstream? Surely. I believe that this is precisely one of life’s goals: to express one’s ideas, create, and put service to something bigger above one’s own desires.
THE ENERGY HEALER (M. Sager, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 50 cm)
Have you ever tried to send positive energy from the inside (e.g., to comfort or heal others) and defend negative energy from the outside?
As a psychologist who has studied the scientific literature and discussions at leading Universities, read ancient wisdom, and experienced and conducted independent interdisciplinary research, this is the best explanation of what we are about from a holistic point of view. We are a constant energetic part of all universal energy, which vibrates in and as endlessly different frequencies. If we want to change anything, the vibration of energy needs to be changed, within and around us.
Don’t fight symptoms. Don’t fight your negative habits. Hopelessness raises the value of chemical aids. It’s hopelessness itself that needs to be addressed in the first place. Hope comes from within. Don’t rely on external approval and support for becoming who you really are and want to be. Use Awareness Intelligence to freeing yourself from others’ opinions and potentially wrong beliefs about yourself that may hold you down (i.e. disturbed, slowed down energy). We are not dependent on prescribed substances, behaviors, or even persons, if we are willing to take control ourselves.
I know, there is still a lot of Newtonian approaches around, which may make sense for the limited capabilities of our eyes observing the slowed down energy fighting gravity that our body represents. For the faster energy of consciousness and even particles on atomic level, however, common sense isn’t applicable anymore as Einstein or more recent quantum physics would tell you.
From a psychological point of view, it seems to be clear that doctors don’t heal; healing occurs within oneself. It’s life itself with all its rich variations, diverse types, and different ways that expect us to know and express what we really need. If life can create new bodies and souls, why shouldn’t it be able to heal the same? We can find everything we need in the life that is in us if we listen and serve it naturally as it is meant to be.
It is too hard to always send positive energy and fight negative energies at the same time. Therefore, rather than taking pills, real healing may require you to quit unwholesome situations, be it jobs or relationships, or anything that is unsupportive of your journey in line with wholesome living. For example, I have even left a faraway country, which I had made my home, as it became impossible to keep the energy balance. Being not welcome by my daughter’s mother while sending them both constantly positive energy took too much. I was not allowed to see you anymore, my daughter, but nobody can take away all the love I’m living to be the healthy, strong, and kind father I’ll always be to you. I hope you will forgive your mother and me some time. I miss you incredibly as I want to be there for you. But I’m sure you can feel that I’m continuing to be your energetic angel, although out of range of being bombarded with negativities all the time. Love you.
ROOTS OF INTENTION (INTUITION & IMAGINATION)
M. Sager, 2021
Acrylic on canvas
80 x 80 cm
The term ‘intention’ in medicine means the healing process of a wound. We may create plans based on any beliefs that bring us to an achievement of something out there we think is missing, or we can be drawn to deeper roots that are pulling towards internal healing and recovery of inner truth. While intuition is the messenger from and to our source (or in AWI terms: intra-past), imagination is the force pulling from and to our purpose (extra-future). Intention resides in the inter-present in full cooperation with others, and it is the binding element between intuition and imagination. Intention is the doing between one’s true intuitive being and imaginative becoming. If you have intentions in line with your intuition, even if there seems currently no practical way to act upon, do maintain the thoughts about them, and you’ll keep a healthy attitude. The universe will conspire to co-create over sooner or longer if one stays awaringly alert. The benefits of staying authentic are to reveal in any case. Because even without external stimuli and actions in the here and now, mind-wandering back to intuition and forth into imagination does create present moment emotions and thoughts, similar to real-life experiences. The brain cannot differentiate between real and imagined, and images get memorized similar to experiences. Therefore, intentional mentation is as much real reality for answering the big questions of life beyond practical considerations as is the experience from physical respectively geographical immersion into a socio-cultural and possibly even individually mismatching interpretations of reality. The mere memory or the prospect of a joyful experience can enable a joyful desire to let go of curtailing attachment. It is highly awareness-intelligent to motivate oneself and inspire others to achieve this prospect of joy by accessing the roots on both ends, the past and the future, intuition and imagination.
The awareness for and about humanity as a whole is deliberately removed from the educational and journalistic framework. Instead, scare tactics, celebrity cults, groupthink and stereotyping are encouraged. Herd thinking seals off the boxes in the stables of the mind farms owned by the one percent that owns ninety-nine percent of global resources. In these closed mindset farms, people’s ignorance gets exploited. The domesticated herd of human livestock is fed and paid well enough to not revolt. Everything gets automated, and the thought-farming industry leaders stay mostly out of sight. Almost all of the financial means of this world are invested in businesses that help the money multiply. So, the breeding goes on and ever more extensive and efficient platforms are created for the keeping of human farm animals.
We can hold a rose despite its thorns. It’s the same with touching a defensive soul. The art lies in not attacking, respecting the thorns, and not hurting yourself. That’s the only way to make prickles unnecessary eventually.
