Dear friends,
I am continually reminded that people can change things. Consciousness changes things. A whole new mindset dissolved the Soviet Union, for example. The same powerful force actually has changed China from a very poor isolated backward country into something very different today. I am not saying that all these changes are good, but I am saying that changes of consciousness change the world.
In the United States, we are in a position of great power and great influence. We have amazing resources at our disposal, if we can just change that consciousness and be focused more on the future for our children and our children’s children. We need to realize that your child and mine, Whether they are living in the United States or wherever they are living, cannot have a great future unless the children of the poorest countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America also have a good future.
Earlier this year in a podcast with members of the Global Dialogue Center, I was asked to comment further on how these beliefs relate to moving experience described in my book in the chapter, Jesus, Seen differently. It seemed timely, based on recent news accounts on the continued turmoil in the Middle East, to share my perspective with you:
On Jesus, Seen differently
Since I was very very young, Jesus has been a guide to me. I was not brought up particularly religious; it’s not the Jesus that many people find in church and so forth. It’s a very strong personal guide to me. I talk about this dream I have in my book of seeing Jesus come to me. He was not the Jesus that I have seen as a child, which was fair skinned and blond-haired. This one was darker skinned with dark curly hair. He put something upon his shoulder, which I thought was going to be a cross, but it turned out to be an axle with a wheel rim at the end. It formed a halo around his head---and the grease was dripping out. It dripped like blood. It was quite an experience. He told me that if he’d come back in this lifetime, it would be very different. I didn’t go into a lot of detail in the book, but he talked to me about how he would probably come back as a Muslim now.
This is interesting as Muslims are being terribly persecuted in many parts of the world and we in the United States may look fearfully at the Jihadists and terrorists. The fact of the matter is that since the 1800’s, and especially the 1850’s with the British empire, Muslims were terribly persecuted and put down around the world. That has continued throughout the development of the empire. We have really done a job of denigrating Muslim cultures in many many countries, including the one with the largest Muslim population, which is Indonesia. Certainly, in the Middle East, we are attempting to westernize and make them come around to our values.
So as I said, for me Jesus has been a very strong and powerful force --- and a guide that came to me when I was in the hospital last year. He was one of the energies that pointed out to me that I need to get on with my work---and must do the things I must do, because my time is limited in this life, in this body. The messages have been a very very powerful thing. I think spirituality for me is a great savior and it gives me great hope. Again this isn’t to advocate any religion over another; I would not classify myself as a religious person, but I would classify myself as a deeply spiritual person. I think it is a really important thing for us to have to understand that there are greater forces than us and our own materialistic lives.
I welcome your comments and encourage you to continue working to help influence a change in our collective consciousness across the world. Also, I thank you for all you have already done! Together, we can change the world.
John Perkins
