The ecology of mind: What is your mind embedded in?

How do you make up your own mind? How are your ways of thinking formed?

It seems to me - that only only the past few weeks, tension mounted again - after only a few weeks of peaceful co-existence.

In addition to that, pressure on our ability to live life peacefully, rose to extreme levels.

I am going to describe five events, show their interconnectedness as well as their relation to different fields, draw them together and synthesize - thereby looking at them from the perspective of 'Ecology of mind'.

In addition to that I will also provide potential solutions, ie healthy ways forward and useful ressources to broaden and deepen your continuous understanding.

Looking at these from the perspective of: 'The Ecology of my mind' :

The following five events - mentioned in the radio broadcast as well in social media platforms - caught my awareness.

[ Interesting here to observe is that 'extreme' / 'hyped' events are broadcasted - and thereby brought to the awareness of people. ]

These five events seem to me correlated and therefore interconnected. The connections make sense.

I am aware that there are many more similar events 'out there'.

However I have chosen the ones that caught my attention first:

A)

The Swiss Federal Council voted again for the 'regulation' of wolf-families, from the 01.09.2024 onwards, after having killed many wolves already (!!!).

[ = some 50 wolves, including two entire packs, were shot as part of a two-month cull in 2023, authorised by the Swiss authorities! ]

These lives were taken, based on an unfounded and not-sense-making 'precautionary principle'

[Note: we (roughly 9 Million people in Switzerland) kill 84 Millions of our own farm animals - per year! - for our own provision of food. In stark comparance, wolves only kill roughly 0.001% of the farm animals - thus naturally for their sustenance = roughly 1200 farm animals per year ].

In reality - this decision of the federal council boils down to - in essence:

That the decision was made to kill defenceless life.

This in the light that Yellowstone showed clearly how important wolves, as a keystone species are to ensure a healthy environment and biodiversity -> look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q

[ I invite yo to remember that those men that have gotten the order to kill, do have guns. They do not do that with their bare hands, like wolves do. Wolves are unarmed. ]

What upsets me in this case the most is:

In the Swiss Federal constitution it is stated that we all, living in Switzerland, are: "mindful of our responsibility towards creation".

This entails that we are conscious and aware that we have a responsibility towards creation.

Responsible means that we are accountable. Accountable means that we hold ourselves to a certain standard of excellence. Excellence means: the quality of being outstanding or extremely good. Creation means respecting the energy that creates life.

- and above all: "peace".

Peace means being in a stress-free state, being secure, being calm, everything coexisting in perfect harmony and freedom.

To me alienating is that the 'highest council' creates a discrepancy and dissonance in regard to the very Federal Constitution it has hold on to and uphold. In stark contrast however, it even contradicts it!

I start to wonder why the values mentioned in our Federal Constitution Preamble are not lived by so many.

I also noticed that, what is given to us by our forefathers to hold dear - written in the preamble, is mostly unknown to many of the Swiss citizens - why?

What behaviour does our role-model, the Federal Council, model, state and show?

What should the Swiss citizens live by?

This decision shows that decision-making is not being aligned and not being in synchrony with ' law & order ' - because creates a discord, dissonance and confusion.

Whereas we look for synchrony - and a decision taken, making sense.

B)

Last weekend [ 17. / 18. August 2024 ] one woman in Lucerne got so upset that she damaged multiple cars and threw rubbish into the lake.

According to psychological and anthroposophical insights:

A human being 'freaks out', because the environment lets the human being feeling 'helpless', being 'un-autonomous / externally determined', having 'no-say in things' and feeling like having 'no power', having 'no future / no perspective'.

Why was that woman pressured in re-acting / acting out in such an extreme, but very obvious way?

What did her environment do?

and - more importantly: What did the environment not provide? What did it not do?

What was not seen? Which need was not being noticed?

Because obviously the unfulfilled need was unbearable.

C)

Roughly a fortnight earlier [09. August 2024 ] a man killed a woman in Basel, during a 'weekend off', after having been held in an institution for the murder of multiple humans.

There the due dilligence and the assessment of the possible consequences - when considering the mans' history - was completely off.

Why?

Why was there a lack of foresight?

D)

On social media I was interacting with several people, with whom I am not familiar with, people that are unknown to me, what we label: 'strangers'. [ This means I was not in their in-group - so they were defending their views. ]

I was intending to establish a dialogue of fostering understanding in regard to the 'biodiversity-initiative' (that Swiss citizens can vote for on the 22.09.2024).

The raised topics were, ie. 're-wilding' channelled rivers

(we have an example at our doorstep of how 'not do do it', because it causes unforeseen consequences of further needed investment and actually caused biodiversity loss)

as well as plants that are wrongly labelled as 'neophytes'.

[ Mind: this means every plant that grows 'more than normal' ( is labelled 'invasive' ) in Switzerland after the year 1492 (this is the year Columbus discovered America) - meaning:

Today we as 'good citizens' are called to annihilate plants that are already part of our biodiversity, have been living amongst us for the past roughly 400 years - in harmony.

Thereby also destroying the species that depend on these plants, like bees, bumblebees, other insects, birds that feed on the insects etc.

By doing this we create futher (unintended) consequences 'down the road' and diminish our biodiversity, destroy habitats for life even further.

In biology they see that and even have a name for it: This is called 'tropic levels' in other words how does it influence the 'food chain' further up and down? What does this annihilation cause?

Strange - or rather 'normal' is that my observations on 'social media' were met with 'violent communication'.

To take the stance from psychology: This field would describe such behaviour as: 'deflection' and 'dissociation'. Because witnessing this, 'seeing' this and the consequences - holding it all in mind - is simply: too much to bear. So we tend to deny it, discard it and look away - to ensure our 'healthy functioning'.

However, the questions are:

Why do we 'cry for war' 400 years later?

Why now?

What changed?

E)

Switzerland recently signed a MOU [ Memorandum of Understanding ] with Norway to store carbon under ground.

This means that the village I live in would have to transport 100 trucks of condensed CO2 every week.

When looking from the perspective of 'having the ressources' this makes absolutely no sense, because:

a)

We lack the savings/money, because we the people, living in Switzeland aleady carry a debt burden of roughly CHF 30'000 per capita [ per person ] - and this being independent of our ' position in our journey through life ' - whether one is a 'newborn', 'working' or 'retired'.

b)

We lack resources.

The activities in the whole country Switzerland already consume the sources of 2.8 planets earth.

This means we have already exceeded (!) the carrying capacity on a personal, governmental as well as planetary level. This means in reality: ".. there is no more room to wiggle...".

We don't have:

• funding (we already carry a debt of 30T CHF each - Globally there is USD 315 Trillion debt = minus = in red = we already have consumed what is not yet grown / produced / earned... )
• facilities (we need to engineer / optimise / build them first)
• trucks (we need more of them + maintenance)
• roads (these need maintenance more often, which leads to higher cost / tax burdens),
• people (need to be-trained and/or educated) and
• the entire supply-chain that does not (!) address the root-cause (for only removing and storing a tiny part of what our air consists of: 0.01%, that is CO2.

How about the more health-endangering nitrogen oxides NOx ?

How about the other emissions in our air, like the gas: HFC-23?

Why do we 'navel-gaze' on one gas only?

How do we ensure that there will always be enough CO2 which our 'greens', ie trees and shrubs & Co. feed on?

What happens when we create a 'Vortex' with such machinery that would remove 3'000 tonnes of CO2 per year?

[ See links below: Deep Sky facility in Canada and the Swiss Climeworks in Island ]

Note: If we wanted to remove enough CO2 to get back to the preindustrial level of 280 ppm, it would take 2.39 x 1020 joules of energy. For comparison, the world's total annual energy consumption is 5.8 x 1021 joules. [ wired ]

Why don't we chose the most beneficial, easy as well as healthiest solution for all involved - also for the next seven generations? -> Trees.

-> Protect & Plant our existing trees and forests, let them grow into mother, father grandmother and grandfather trees - and afforest massively on a global scale. [ see the example in Scotland: trees for life . co. uk ]

The trees, forests, shrubs - the green on our planet leads and balances water movement, purifies our air, provides habitat for the other 8.7 million species (!) we share our planet with - and a relative air humidity that we need to have in order for our lungs to breathe and our immune system remaining strong. Low relative air humidity is connected to ill health.

Why do we chose for such a high-energy consumption solution?

Energy that we literally don't have?

Be reminded: we all want to be online, air-conditioned, buy/sell via blockchain / online-currencies, AI / Artificial Intelligence, be digital in all processes we invented - all this needs a lot of energy production. We can not source this sustainably / healthily without destroying the planet earth. We urgently need another way of 'doing things' !

Why do we not look for a holistic solution and change the 'root-cause'?

I ask:

Why do we focus on one part only, invest heavily and make such a heavy effort that further adds to the overshoot and burdens the carrying capacity for our lives, living today - as well as our future generations.

This narrowly-focussed, expensive, burdensome solution makes absolutely no sense.

Looking at these five events and trying to find similarities and/or outliers, I noticed the following:

When writing about what came to my awareness, I also try to provide potential solutions, ie ways of perceiving and making up minds - helping paving the way forward to a peaceful and healthy environment:

1. Living toxic governance: deciding in favour for, supporting, allowing and authorising violent acts that lead to ( unforeseen / unintended ) ripple-effects, cascading down onto people and businesses, causing havoc and further cost on health care expenditures, administrational, justice etc.
2. Creating an environment that leads to immense pressure and acts of violence vs creating an environment that allows peace. [ Mind: It is crucial to provide psychologically and physiologically safe spaces to live in. ]
3. Creating an environment that leads to such a pressure that thinking things through thoroughly is difficult to adhere to. [ what is not being seen, not being heard ? ]
4. Violent communication, lashing out, belittling and a judgemental vision, being 'highjacked by your amygdala' - that shows up in each one of us as an inability to think, not being able to look at the root-cause, but from a psychological point of view dissociating and deflecting / defending ones view, because more is 'too much to bear'. [ The root-cause and solution lie in the calm reasoning, sense-making, the relationship between what is. ] -> Mind only in calm waters, we can see what is reflected.
5. A general hubris and disconnectedness to real-natural-life that led us to believe that technology will bring the solution [ thereby creating a 'new saviour' / 'new artificial gods' whereas the solution lies in and is already provided by nature - our only source. We only have to learn how to see again. [biomimicry: how does nature solve this already?]
6. We are designed by nature to be able to live healthily when we live balanced within a certain bandwidth and we are provided with the ability to perceive in a certain bandwidth only. Everything outside our bandwidth of perception we can't see naturally. Under pressure / stress we even see less. Less pressure / stress would allow us to live in peace and possibly see more.
7. Last but not least in essence: I witness a power over vs. power with [ use of coercion / force vs consensus and peaceful co-existence ].

These upsetting observations lead to the following questions that are intended to stimulate a life-respecting way of making meaning, ie thinking, making up our own mind and healthy governance:

1. What is the ecology of our minds that lets us arrive at such an immature/ not-grown up / not fully matured [ Mind: we are the youngest species on the planet and are the only species behaving in such a destructive, dominating, colonising way. The frontal lobe of a human brain is 'fully matured' around the age of 25. ] and violent, destructive decision-making?
2. What is your mind embedded in?
3. What are your thoughts rooted in?
4. Why do we make decisions that lead to such a pressure that lead as a consequence to creating war-like environments and destruction - also seen in homes, families, organisations, governance?
5. What is the root-cause? What is it that led us to that what we have created today?
6. What needs to change urgently?
7. If we don't change the way we relate, the way we see, perceive now: "Where does this way of thinking, reasoning and making up our minds lead us all to?
8. What will be the allostatic load, accumulative effect, and result of this thinking, reasoning? Do we want that?
9. What do we need our future to feel and look like so that it is healthy?
10. How do we need to feel in order to create a healthy future?
11. What needs to be adjusted in order to allow for a healthy decision-making and healthy governance? That is supporting and allowing a healthy, flourishing co-existence?
12. What does living in peace entail? How do we create living in peace together?

Look at the ones that lived before us, the ones that came before us, our ancestors, our forefathers:

Founding fathers of Switzerland:

" In the name of Almighty God!

The Swiss People and the Cantons,

mindful of their responsibility towards creation,

resolved to renew their alliance so as to strengthen liberty, democracy, independence and peace in a spirit of solidarity and openness towards the world,

determined to live together with mutual consideration and respect for their diversity,

conscious of their common achievements and their responsibility towards future generations,

and in the knowledge that only those who use their freedom remain free, and that the strength of a people is measured by the well-being of its weakest members,

adopt the following Constitution.. "

Albert Einstein, ETH - freely translated:

" The thinking that led us to creating this mess up until today will not help us to arrive at a different place in the future. "

-> meaning: Today we need to learn to relate, to be in relationship with - and make sense in a different way, because we experience today the causes of our past thinking. [ see: massive transgression of our planetary boundaries. ]

Gregory Bateson:

" The pathology of wrong thinking in which we all live, can only in the end be corrected by an enormous discovery of those relationships which make up the beauty of nature. "

and:

"Without the context, words and actions have no meaning at all. This is true of all communication... which tells the sea anemone how to grow and the amoeba what we should do next."

Look at the ones living today, 'raising the issue' so that it can come into our awareness:

Nora Bateson:

" A linear thinking in a circular world, does not provide us with answers [ and find viable solutions ] . "

Chief Oren Lyons:

" To survive we must transform: our values. "

In this sense I end this writing by inviting you to:

1. explore your current way of making up your own mind and making sense
2. engage and participate in real-life conversations in/with nature / natural beings
3. make the right decisions that foster life for today as well as the next 7 generations
4. Do you want to talk about it? Get in touch with us.

I am looking forward to read your response and ways of making up your 'right mind'.

With kindness,

van der Glas & van der Glas

Manuela

P.S.:

This content has been researched and written by a human, no AI involved.

If you would like to support our contribution, you can do this via the QR-code below.

We appreciate that we are allowed to facilitate your continuous understanding and that you appreciate our contribution. Thank you.

van der Glas & van der Glas, Niederurnen

We appreciate that we are allowed to facilitate your continuous understanding and that you appreciate our contribution. Thank you.

For further information, please connect via: [email protected] and www.vanderglas-vanderglas.org

References / more learning for you:

https://mothertreeproject.org

https://treesforlife.org.uk

https://www.learnbiomimicry.com

https://batesoninstitute.org/

https://www.warmdata.life/

https://www.amazon.com/Combining-Nora-Bateson/dp/1913743853

https://indigenousgov.hks.harvard.edu/people/oren-lyons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj5bxLEoL0M

https://www.vanderglas-vanderglas.org/shop/white-papers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q

https://www.wired.com/story/the-stupendous-energy-cost-of-direct-air-capture/#:~:text=If%20we%20wanted%20to%20remove,5.8%20x%201021%20joules.

https://www.admin.ch/gov/de/start/dokumentation/medienmitteilungen.msg-id-102155.html HFC-23

https://worldpopulationhistory.org/carrying-capacity/#:~:text=It%20would%20take%201.75%20Earths,Earths%20by%20the%20year%202050.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/global-debt-hits-a-new-high-of-315-trillion/

https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/1999/404/en

https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/1999/How-Many-Species-Exist#:~:text=Estimates%20range%20from%203%20million,the%20list%20of%20known%20organisms.

https://ourworldindata.org/how-many-species-are-there#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20most%20widely,million%20species%20on%20Earth%20today.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/atmospheric/question651.htm

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2828853/#:~:text=McGilchrist's%20essential%20message%20is%20that,in%20other%20words%2C%20his%20emissary.

A word of caution- the following links are upsetting:

'Wolf-Management'

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/society/fifty-wolves-shot-over-two-months-in-swiss-cull/49171642

Swiss Climeworks in Island: The for-profit organisation was founded in 2009 already!

https://climeworks.com/?utm_source=googleBrand&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=EU-Brand&utm_term=climeworks&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAACmRAPUlLyt_xkJ-llJl1mYRtD7bs&gclid=CjwKCAjwoJa2BhBPEiwA0l0ImMwW-FS0PqTGWERuGPdHsHh3GEL9gXVEd8i09akAqpYGQM2x5I3U2xoC8qMQAvD_BwE

Deep Sky facility in Canada:

https://interestingengineering.com/energy/worlds-1st-carbon-removal-facility-to-capture-30000-tons-of-co2-over-decade

The current global average concentration of carbon dioxide (CO 2) in the atmosphere is 421 ppm (0.04%) as of May 2022. This is an increase of 50% since the start of the Industrial Revolution, up from 280 ppm during the 10,000 years prior to the mid-18th century. The increase is due to human activity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth%27s_atmosphere#:~:text=The%20current%20global%20average%20concentration,is%20due%20to%20human%20activity.

Carbon dioxide naturally composes about 0.03% of the atmosphere, but the amount is increasing due to the burning of fossil fuels. Plants and eubacteria use carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. Humans, other animals, and plants add it to the air through respiration. Carbon dioxide is a heat-trapping greenhouse gas.

https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/air-quality/whats-in-the-air#:~:text=Carbon%20dioxide%20naturally%20composes%20about,a%20heat%2Dtrapping%20greenhouse%20gas.

Hashtags

#federalcouncil #federalconstitution #bundesrat #parlament #Schweiz #CO2 #emissions #wildlife #reality #nature #biomimicry #carbonstorage #violence #federalconstitution #eth #carryingcapacity #futuregenerations #emissions #healthygovernance #makeitbetter #waldschweiz #lignum #psychology #patterns #mentalhealth #systemicissues #greenhousegas #systemsthinking #overshoot #sevengenerations #thinkingthingsthroughthoroughly #health #sustainability #synthesizing #continueunderstanding