Dear Friend and Reader:
Good evening. I trust this letter finds you well, or at least doing your best. I’m writing to you tonight with thoughts I’ve been gathering over the past month or so. This letter is really several articles in one. You might take them slowly, or select the section that speaks to your situation.
Our research team at Planet Waves continues to track news about the virus and the resulting diversity of crises. If you’re watching television, you will get one vision of things. If you’re reading, especially scientific sources, you will get another. You can track our Covid19 News log at this link.
We’re still following the genesis story (where this virus came from, if not a fish and wildlife market), the history of testing and problems with testing, and political issues in the background. We’re debunking what we can, affirming what we can, and doing our best to keep up. I can tell you that the more I read, the more questions I have. Yes, the political angle is a shit show, the economic angle is frightening, but the scientific angle is where things get strange.
If you watch TV, you get fear and spin, and if you’re reading social media, you’re getting fear, chaos and disinformation. Television does not bring events to you. Rather, the camera is an extension of your eyes and your central nervous system. So when you’re traipsed past scenes of agony in the back of the emergency ward, or a field hospital, or a morgue, you’re really being taken there — and it is exhausting. While you cannot catch a virus from a video image, the fear effect is similar: you’re being put into a potentially harmful situation. Again, the effect is just exhausting.
Remember, if you’re only watching TV, you’re going to be hit with a 24/7 mainline firehose of fear. If you’re following social media, you will get fear and chaos. This is why we at Planet Waves are taking the time and effort to create our focused news feed. My specialty is keeping things in context, and that is what you get. When we see an article on a topic, we can contrast it with the last 10 articles we saw on that subject, and related ones.
Give Your Fear a Voice
Fear and chaos are disease states, which are not helping anyone hold center. People have different ways of handling fear; of addressing it or not. We need to create safe spaces where people can express their fears. It is important to give your fear a voice, rather than to suppress it.
Fear is related to the trust issue: matters of whether media, government officials and the medical establishment are being honest; trust in existence; and the profound distrust being sown by keeping people apart from one another, as a presumed mortal threat. Any child told that they cannot hug their grandfather is likely to carry that in some form for the rest of their life.
I am familiar with many different medical and environmental theories of what is happening, and I’ve been following frontline reports that question whether people are being treated correctly, whether we’re treating the right illness, and whether we know what is really happening. We don’t know what the statistics mean. Therefore, how will we know whether it’s safe to come out of hiding?
Life is more stressful for many people — though a few who live close to the land or are more self-sufficient are doing very well. Personally, I prefer the ambiance of the world at the moment: slower, quieter, less traffic, less noise, less activity. Since I was born, the United States population has increased by about 140 million
people, and I’ve noticed this growing over time, as the feeling of being crowded everywhere.
Personally, eating all of my meals at home, and upping my game on eating the right foods, has focused me on my kitchen. My interest in herbalism and homeopathy has come to the front of my life. The homeopathic knowledge, and corresponding pharmacy, that I’ve been collecting for 20 years is suddenly rather useful. I trust that a good few people are being centered on self-care. Others have figured out that all this spiritual training they got was for a time like right now.
Identify the people in your circle of friends who study these matters as part of their life path. Seek out the homeopaths, naturopaths and herbalists in your community and stay in communication with them. Find out if they need help, offer what you can, and seek information on how to take care of yourself.
Prevention and Self-Care
There is a lot we can be doing to take care of ourselves, and prevent this mystery illness, besides isolating ourselves and washing our hands. You could watch cable news around the clock for a week running, and read every newspaper, and you would not see one word about this — except stay away from others, wash your hands and how to turn an old bra into a face mask.
If we are working under the assumption that a virus called SARS-CoV-2 is the disease vector and evidence of disease, that’s so lame as to be humorous. There is a lot we can be doing, though it involves seeking information, learning how to be discerning, making decisions and taking action.
Here is the problem, and it’s a serious one, and one to grapple with from a spiritual growth standpoint. We are accustomed to medical advice being unquestionable, authoritative and opaque. For example, if you are taking a drug, do you know what it is, how it works, and what detrimental effects it may have and why? Or do you do as you’re told and hope for the best? If you take a vitamin, do you know anything about its mode of action, or the source of the chemical in the bottle? To step away from the authoritative medical model, you need to gain knowledge, and question prescribed “truths.” This is a revolutionary act.
Let’s consider one example. At the beginning of the crisis, I read a letter from James Robb, one of the early researchers into coronaviruses. He said that these viruses are deactivated by zinc. Therefore, in his view, zinc lozenges really work. Snopes said it reached Robb personally and he confirmed that he was the author.
Here’s how he put it:
Stock up now with zinc lozenges. These lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx. [My note: please do not choke yourself while doing this.] Use as directed several times each day when you begin to feel ANY "cold-like" symptoms beginning. It is best to lie down and let the lozenge dissolve in the back of your throat and nasopharynx.
Under the official virus hypothesis, we are officially told that respiratory tissue is the first target. The virus then officially grows in the nose and the throat before officially moving down to the lungs. It would seem like better oral and nasal hygiene would help a lot. I am gargling with a zinc solution and salt water. If this thing really does lodge in the nose and throat, that would seem more important than hand-washing.
Apart from this one scientist and a rare mention on a holistic website, I’ve seen nothing about this kind of precaution that could be very helpful — and there are many things we can be doing. Instead, the virus is being treated like a mass shooting incident, where you have to stay out of the way of gunfire, and shelter in place.
Keeping your mouth and throat clean is easy. Zinc solution is cheap and available many places. So are lozenges. You may be waiting for this to be "proven by science." It is not, however proven by science that SARS-CoV-2 is the disease vector of evidence of infection. This is merely an assumption. So, I say this all on the assumption that it might be the cause. You may read more here and make up your mind. To me, this seems like a basic, harmless precaution — one that could save many lives.
There are a number of other similar preventive possibilities. I read compelling ideas that lead me to believe supplementing melatonin may address some of the potential problems caused by EMF radiation such as 5G. EMFs are listed as a probable carcinogen, and cancer is always a high-dose response to any aggravating substance. On the way to giving the body cancer, carcinogens cause many, many other problems.
Let’s Consider the Environment
I’ve written this a number of times before; it cannot be explained too many times, because there are so many distractions from this simple concept. The focus of the current discussion is on a “virus.” Can you give an off-hand definition of what a virus even is, or how it works? I would struggle to — and I’m a science writer. So we’re in the midst of something we don’t understand. But it’s the thing being focused on, illustrated, talked about, tested for, blamed for, crashing markets, driving up national debt by the trillions, made war against and on and on.
Assuming this virus exists as a distinct entity, with a mode of action that harms people, it is doing whatever it’s doing in an environment. That happens to be an immune compromised environment: compromised by herbicides like Roundup and 2,4-D (also called Plus-2), electromagnetic fields, nuclear radiation, dioxins, PCBs, DDT, food additives, drugs and many, many other substances. These substances are ubiquitous: they are in every being, sometimes in every cell, on every continent, and in every bite of food. Many are passed from generation to generation.
The virus, such as it is, has not entered a healthy, balanced situation. It has entered a state of chaotic imbalance, and in that way, gets its results. All of the emphasis is on the figure (the virus) and not the ground (the total environment). It’s very, very difficult to focus anyone’s attention on these “other” problems. They are not “other.” They are THE problem. The virus is like a rodeo clown, distracting attention from the real issues.
One environmental condition that exists in the body is suppression. For example, when many people feel cold symptoms coming on, they take an over-the-counter chemical like NyQuil, Tylenol, Mucinex, Robitussin (or others, depending on your culture). If someone has allergies, generally they take one of the many antihistamines that are available. All of these substances suppress. Much of what they suppress is natural immune process.
Usually, Fever is the Body’s Cleanse Mode
What exactly is a fever? In my training, when the body has a fever, it’s going into cleanse mode. This would include what we call cold, flu and other causes. Sometimes it’s dangerous; most of the time, it’s a necessary and helpful process. And generally, the first thing that most people do is suppress both the fever and their mucous membranes. Decades of suppression damage tissue, cause the accumulation of toxins, and create a dangerous situation in the body, like a spring about to pop. It’s as if each act of suppression pulls the spring tighter. Then eventually, something breaks it, and symptoms go out of control.
That is my assessment of where we are at. We are overwhelmed with toxins, and then when the body starts to cleanse, we tend to add more toxins that suppress the cleansing process. This creates an extremely vulnerable state. Currently it is one that is affecting all of society.
Learning how to take care of yourself, and trust your body’s processes, takes time, thought, reading, study, conversation with knowledgeable others, and practice, practice, practice. This is a great time to start.
One effect of the virus situation is that humanity in total is creating less toxins, and less pollution. The air, the skies and the waterways, are all cleaner, I’ve read that before this crisis, 37,000 barrels of jet fuel per day were burned. Now, that is close to zero. Burning of motor fuels has been reduced vastly as well. So it turns out we can reduce if we have to.
Now we know what radical action looks and feels like. We might make a point to decide now to set some limits when we bring things back up to some speed. We have, at least, demonstrated that it’s possible to use less, do less, and slow down. However it may work out, I think we are at a transition point in the history of our global civilization.
I am concerned that most people do not envision the future, do not resolve the past, and are driven by fear and guilt. This is a rare moment when we can make a better world; now we have to decide what that means, and most of us would need to agree on a few basics, like we need to keep the planet, the food, the water and the air, much cleaner.
The Rising Fear Level
The United States tends to be a fearful and ignorant society, glazed over by a kind of chipper optimism. Now, nearly everyone is spooked in a way we have not seen since duck and cover drills. The current response far exceeds the phantom kidnapper menace, the scourge of libertinism, commies and perverts, and even polio. Now, everyone who wants one has a reason to be afraid of everyone else. People are edgy, and some are becoming more hostile, for example, to checkout clerks in grocery stores.
I’ve heard a good bit of rage being expressed, online and in person, if people do not appear to be protecting others. A friend’s neighbor freaked when asked to bring in the mail, as if we’re dealing with an anthrax situation. People are being attacked for posting photos of people "too close together."
We’ve gone from "wash your hands" to thousand-dollar fines for standing too close to someone. This notion of oneself or anyone else being contagious is a disease miasm unto itself. It is a potent and debilitating thought form.
There are plenty of economic fears to keep one’s mind preoccupied. These range from fears associated with survival, to longer term fears about the ability of the economy to support the population. I think these are all legitimate concerns.
Fear leads to people being easily manipulated. Look at how much has changed how fast, with how little information. There are massive power plays going on behind the scenes right now — big forces deciding whether we’re going to have digital certificates of immunity (mandatory for travel), whether we will be tracked by phone to enforce social distancing, the possibility of mandatory vaccinations, and lots else.
There is not much to be reassured about regarding that now, and I am concerned this kind of stress is going to take a toll on people. We need to devote ourselves to positive outcomes, rather than investing all of our energy into preventing negative ones.
The Mental Health Situation
Even before this happened, many people were on edge. Many were lonely, and felt invisible, irrelevant and forgotten. Many had trouble getting through the day.
Then there were all those running around with their spring about to pop: people whose lives are driven by paranoia and defensiveness, and who always assume the worst. Some of them are likely to be pushed out a little further. Do we have a plan for how to handle that?
There are all the people who cannot work, whose work is not just a source of income but a matter of purpose, of creativity, and of necessary social contact. Many people were not made to sit at home and wait for something to happen. Others are waiting for anyone to notice they exist. Please be attentive to your neighbors and see if you can help them meet any of their needs. Help anyone you can, any way you can.
Then there’s everyone else — the rest of us — the people who like to hang out with others and do things like drink coffee, play music, spend time with our friends and families, or whatever. To my knowledge, this is the first crisis where we’ve been told to stay away from everyone — including our families. Even in 1918, it was mass gatherings that were banned — parades, events in theaters and so on — not normal socializing.
Humans are tribal and social animals. The last thing we need right now is to be pushed even further into dependency on the internet, which is the origin of most of our problems to begin with. We need to be having the conversation about what to do in response to our situation, in a time when people are being pushed further apart and made fearful of one another.
Though I love what I do, I do very little besides work. The Minor League Baseball season is one of my summer passions. It may seem silly, but I’ve got an empty feeling about that not happening — and I reckon everyone has something comparable, some small but meaningful element of life they’re going to miss.
Maybe there will be some alchemical reaction, some enantiodromia, where our situation as we see it today will emerge as its opposite.
I don’t know. There’s a lot I don’t know, and I’m taking things from day to day. I do know that thanks to our subscribers, we paid April’s bills and have been meeting payroll. I truly appreciate that.
And welcome to the many new people who have discovered Planet Waves the past month.
With love,
