5/4 Forgiveness and Emotional-Cognitive Evolution

Texts for this class

1. Toru Sato, The Ever-Transcending Spirit, pp. 77-99.

2. Marianne Williamson on forgiveness 

  (and A Course in Miracles)

Gnostic Ethics, Restorative Justice, Forgiveness & Interbeing

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” 

  Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"

1. The Meaning of Forgiveness as a Spiritual Path and Method for Philosophical Liberation

“The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.” Each human being is a strand in an interconnected web of relationships (an expression of Love) which perceives itself as separate and autonomous (an Ego, a holographic ball of fear). 

b

2. Two basic emotions of Love versus Fear, corresponding to two systems of thought, two perceptions of reality (fear-based view that we are all separate from each other versus the love-based view that we are all One.) The Ego is sustained by fear, and is dissolved by love, oneness, the fading of the illusion of separation.

3. The Ego - Principle of Self-denial or Self-hatred, NOT the principle of self-love. An image which replaces, and needs to suppress our awareness of, our true Self. “The ego is the mind’s belief that it is completely on its own.” “The ego is certain that love is dangerous, and this is always its central teaching.” “The ego literally lives by comparisons. Equality is beyond its grasp. The ego never gives out of abundance, because it was made as a substitute for it.” Narcissism as a form of self-hatred. 

4. Your Ego can only control you if you listen to it (as still invested in it.) “The distractions of the ego may seem to interfere with your learning, but the ego has no power to distract you unless you give it the power to do so. 2 The ego's voice is an hallucination. 3 You cannot expect it to say "I am not real." 4 Yet you are not asked to dispel your hallucinations alone. 5 You are merely asked to evaluate them in terms of their results to you. 6 If you do not want them on the basis of loss of peace, they will be removed from your mind for you.

5. Connection to Indigenous Wisdom / Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ (All Are Related) - Lakota prayer. 

Are we separate from each other or are we inter-related and inter-connected? The concept of interrelatedness is key to understanding why needs, roles and obligations are so essential to restorative justice. “In this worldview, the problem of crime - and wrongdoing in general - is that it represents a wound in the community, a tear in the web of relationships. Crime represents damaged relationships. In fact, damaged relationships are both a cause and an effect of a crime. Many traditions have a saying that a harm to one is a harm to all.”

6. Connection to Buddhism: Basic Goodness as a Positive Core Belief (from the Prison Mindfulness Institute’s Path to Freedom)

1. Below our conditioning (habits, patterns, behaviors) is a ground of being that is unconditionally good.

2. When we don’t feel a connection to this, then struggles and problems are all we know.

3. Through meditation we develop an experiential relationship to our own basic goodness and basic ok-ness.

4. Everyone has experienced this - if even for just a few moments. A time when our mind stopped and we connected to something wonderful in life.

5. In that moment, there is a deep sense that “I am okay, Life is okay.”

7. Political Implications: Restorative Justice  

Based on an old, commonsense view of wrongdoing as a violation of people and interpersonal relationships. All indigenous cultures use restorative practices, as do many families. Whereas criminal justice sees humans as separate, autonomous beings, restorative justice sees individuals as part of an interconnected web of relationships. People who are harmed are centered in terms of their harm being seen and valued and addressed, bystanders are called in to encircle the person, the person who harmed is called in to take accountability for what was done.

Criminal Justice	Restorative Justice
Crime is a violation of the law and state	Crime is a violation of people and relationships
Violations create guilt	Violations create obligations
Justice requires the state to determine blame (guilt) and impose pain (punishment)	Justice involves victims, offenders, and community members in an effort to repair the harm and ‘put things right’
Central focus: offenders getting what they deserve.	Central focus: victim needs and offender responsibility for repairing harm.

8. Forgiveness Practice (The Six Steps to Freedom derived from the Choose Again model, as created by Diederik Wolsak 

1. I am upset. Step 1 in the conflict/upset resolution dance is to acknowledge, own, that I am in conflict or upset. The conflict serves a purpose and will lead to a joining if resolved.

2. It is about me. The conflict is not about the other person. (In comes the little voice, “yea, right” ). The conflict is never about anyone but me. Trust this step even if you don’t believe it yet. Without this step, peace and joining will not happen. It is about me. Ok, ok, so it’s about me. I know that blaming anyone for the conflict will not get me what I really want and that is: to be happy.

3. Feel the feeling. How do I feel? It is surprising to see how hard it is to really know how I am feeling. This is where commitment to honesty is essential. I have to know how I feel in order to go to:

4. Remember when I felt this way before. How is that feeling familiar? Now I have to become a detective. I am looking for the source of this feeling. When did I first feel this way? Go back as far as I can in my memory. And after a little searching I’ll remember an incident when someone said or did something that made me feel that way. Now follows:

5. Establish what my judgement of myself was in that moment? What was my perception? How did  I interpret the situation? What was my judgment of myself in that situation? What did it say about me that that person acted or spoke that way? I’m not important. I’m not supported. I’m ignored. I’m not heard. I’m inadequate. What kind of person deserves to feel this way?

6. Embrace the Truth about me. Now I must shift my old perception. Who was the “i” that made that judgement about myself in that moment (eg.- I’m ignored)? Was it the real “I” or the false “i”? If it was the false “I”, the conclusion I made about myself in that moment was also false. My judgment of myself in that moment was wrong. It said nothing about me. Whatever happened way back when was not about me. Who I am is unchanged and unchangeable. The belief I formed about who I am is wrong and doesn’t serve me. It is easy to forgive myself for believing a falsity about myself.  “Forgive me for believing I was _______. 

Forgive me for believing I am ______.” You name it; most of us have at least one of more of these limiting beliefs. So there it is. Now, I’M FREE.

Meditation & Forgiveness Practice Discussion

The Sanctuary's Virtual Meditation Miracles Sangha will be meeting again via Zoom this Sunday, May 3rd from 2-4 PM. We will practice mindfulness meditation for 20 minutes and then continue with our close reading of Chapter 16 of A Course in Miracles [https://www.miraclecenter.org/a-course-in-miracles/T-16.V.php].

Zoom Meeting link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3407540334?pwd=RHU1WXl1WkwxUlBKeU5ISGd0TWdTQT09

Meeting ID: 340 754 0334
Password: namaste
One tap mobile: 646 558 8656

Summary of our discussion so far in Chapter 16:
False (ego-based) empathy Versus True Empathy

To empathize does not mean to join in suffering. Nor is true empathy selective in any way. Both of these ideas pertain to ego-based empathy, which is actually destructive, ego-strengthening, a form of unconscious attack rooted in guilt and scarcity mentality; what Hoffmeister calls ego-induced politeness rooted in guilt and distinguishes from True Empathy, or Spirit-guided courtesy rooted in joyful communion.

Because our ego has convinced us that (Unconditional) Love is dangerous and irrational, we are totally confused about what true empathy (and so morality itself) really are. Our efforts to really connect and help others are often an ego-trip, an ego-strengthening gesture which maintains separation and the insecurity and judgment which keeps it in place.

We confuse people-pleasing (the codependent inauthentic need to have people approve of and like us) with real morality - deep sense of being with another soul - the “miracle” which reveals our power and Oneness with each other, connects us to Purpose, and removes all basis for Fear and Self-Judgment.

Because we “do not know what empathizing means,” we have no idea how to be a moral person, and so are not even really responsible for our relationships. Hence, "you do not want anything you value to come of a relationship. You choose neither to hurt it nor to heal it in your own way. You do not know what healing is."

This is because, to act without knowing what you are doing is not being responsible at all. This is why the study of true empathy returns us to the insight that we must let go of the need judge - to organize our life (our week, our relationships, our responsibilities, etc.) through understanding and through judgments of relative importance. Instead, practicing devotional agnosticism, we devote ourselves to daily prayer, or: asking for, listening to, and acting on, Guidance which we receive intuitively from Higher Self.

“You do not know what empathizing means. Yet of this you may be sure; if you will merely sit quietly by and let the Holy Spirit relate through you, you will empathize with strength, and will gain in strength and not in weakness.”

4/29 Philosophy of Life Force Energy cont.

Reading for this class
Toru Sato, The Ever-Transcending Spirit, pp. 39-76

Zoom Link

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Meeting ID: 340 754 0334

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One tap mobile: 1 646 558 8656  

Endgame for Final Project for the Love of Wisdom

Dear Philosophers,

You have three options for your final philosophy project. All projects must be 5 pages long minimum and are due by midnight on May 13th via email to justin@oursanctuary.org

Have fun! :)

First option: Having Good Judgment Vs. Having Non-Judgment: The Relationship between Critical Thinking & Mindfulness 

What did you learn about the importance and possibilities for critical thinking in terms of one's belief system? What did you learn about mindfulness? What is the relationship between these two abilities? Why learn both? What happens if one is missing? What are their respective roles in learning how to learn? 

Use as many examples as possible to illustrate your points, including: how your views have changed, key insights, what questions have come to light as closest to your philosophical curiosity, biggest surprises, cave-related fears, shifts in self-perception, connections between philosophical questions and personal issues you were facing this fall, attitudes towards judgment, mindfulness, etc.

Second option: Reflection on the Purposes of Education

This class has been designed as an experimental departure from many standard practices used for teaching in higher education. If you found these departures interesting or useful to you, you can use your final project as an opportunity to reflect on your college experience, and on what our seminar has revealed or served as an alternative to. 

What should education strive to offer? How well does this work given standard teaching/classroom practices in college? Did the experimental methods you experienced during our class highlight any limitations on conventional practices or suggest other aspects of learning which are important for growth?  

Third option: Questions about Justice, Energy, Forgiveness and Ufos

You may write about anything we discussed in class, in whatever style you wish within reason, (although formally, certain features are generally encouraged, such as (a) having a key point or thesis or question, (b) logical flow (marshaling evidence to support a proposition or perspective) and/or (c) a developing story). Choose one of the following questions to focus on or make up your own.

1. Prison abolitionists argue for a restorative approach to justice to replace the adversarial model of justice currently institutionalized in what Mariame Kaba calls our “criminal punishment system.” How does this restorative model differ from our current carceral approach? What are some of the practices? What is its view of human relationship?

3. Are humans separate from each other or are they spiritually interconnected and inter-existent? What are the moral and social ramifications for how we answer this question?

5. Does evil exist? If so, what is it? If not, why should we deny its reality?

6. What are the philosophical, social, spiritual and/or practical ramifications of Toru Sato’s analysis of life force energy and its relation to the Internal Conflict Model of Happiness?

7. Is Forgiveness possible and why does it matter?

8. Are some unidentified flying objects piloted by non-human intelligence with advanced technologies? Consider and weigh the evidence for the possibility that advanced non-human civilizations are currently visiting the earth.

9. After Disclosure. How might the world change if and when contact between humans and non-humans (extraterrestrial or from wherever) is verified scientifically and acknowledged publicly?

10. What does looking at human relationships and institutions through Riane Eisler's "Partnership Lens" allow us to see?

The Tao of Qi: Presentation on Life Force Energy

4/27 Philosophy of Life Force Energy

Texts for this class

1. Toru Sato, The Ever-Transcending Spirit, pp. 1-37.
2. Brene Brown TED talk (below)

Zoom Link

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Meeting ID: 340 754 0334

Password: namaste

One tap mobile: 1 646 558 8656  

Notes on Riane Eisler & Partnership Societies

Riane Eisler's Key Insights

1. Two models of cultural organization: Power as domination (ranking) versus actualization (linking) The opposite of patriarchy is not matriarchy, but rather partnership (gylany)

2. Eisler’s new terms to describe fundamental modes of cultural transformation:

Androcracy - a social system ruled through force or the threat of force by men.

Gylany- a social system organized through the linking together of male and female through equal partnership.

3. Two kinds of hierarchy:  dominator hierarchy - system of human ranking based on force and actualization hierarchy - systems based on ability to actualize. (105)

Discovery of Partnership Societies in Old Europe’s Neolithic Civilization

4. Remained invisible to mainstream patriarchal scholarship with its assumptions about male dominance (12) Confusion about how to interpret the neolithic Goddess iconography, as a ‘fertility cult.’ (23)

5. Archeological data supporting a different model of society: partnership - equal size graves, no evidence of war, idealizing of female power to give birth. Females in charge of religious rituals, agriculture, social maintenance. (14) Matrilineal order (24)

6. Civilization as beginning before Sumer - women as the original agriculturists, domesticators of plants and animals. (68)

7. Crete: an example of a long standing partnership civilization with a non-violent state, (equalitarian, sexual equality, peaceful, abundant, focussed on spiritual, artistic and technological development) in contrast to standard view of western civilization as starting in Sumer c. 5000 BCE in Mesopotamia characterized by social stratification, constant war and women as non-citizens. Crete gone by 1100 BCE. (53)

More Examples

8. "Socialism" - From each according to their abilities, To each according to their needs. (a society without bosses, without coercion)

Dominator version - Soviet-style socialism or "state capitalism" - Exploitation of workers by private capitalist bosses replaced by exploitation of workers by the State. The State replaces the private capitalists as the boss, maintaining domination.

Partnership version - Worker-owned cooperatives in which the employees of a company own and manage the company in partnership. 

9. Monetary Systems (a rational way to measure wealth and the Commonwelfare)

Dominator version - Privatized Money created by private banks which bears interest, concentrates power centrally and produces wide-spread debt peonage (slavery).

Partnership version - Money created by governments spent into existence to create new economic acitivity which produces no debt (does not need to be paid back.)

10. Retributive versus Restorative Justice

Dominator version - State-mandated criminal justice

Partnership version - Community-based restorative justice

Criminal Justice	Restorative Justice
Crime is a violation of the law and state	Crime is a violation of people and relationships
Violations create guilt	Violations create obligations
Justice requires the state to determine blame (guilt) and impose pain (punishment)	Justice involves victims, offenders, and community members in an effort to repair the harm and ‘put things right’
Central focus: offenders getting what they deserve.	Central focus: victim needs and offender responsibility for repairing harm.

11. Revenge is not Justice. 

A retributive-punishing system is rooted in the mistake of using emotional pain as a basis for public policy. This system does too much punishing (i.e. the mass incarceration phenomenon) and not enough protecting and “making right.” (e.g. Out of 1000 people who rape, 200 are reported, 20 are moved forward to trial, less 5 are convicted, out of those 1 ends up behind bars, while 83% get away with murder.)

12. Restorative Justice  

Based on an old, commonsense view of wrongdoing as a violation of people and interpersonal relationships. All indigenous cultures use restorative practices, as do many families. Whereas criminal justice sees humans as separate, autonomous beings, restorative justice sees individuals as part of an interconnected web of relationships. People who are harmed are centered in terms of their harm being seen and valued and addressed, bystanders are called in to encircle the person, the person who harmed is called in to take accountability for what was done.

13. Three different questions

Criminal Justice	Restorative Justice
What laws have been broken?	Who has been harmed?
Who did it?	What are their needs?
What do they deserve?	Whose obligations are these?

Common Justice in Brooklyn NY as a model of using restorative practices to deal with violent crime.

Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ (All Are Related) - Lakota prayer. 

Are we separate from each other or are we inter-related and inter-connected? The concept of interrelatedness is key to understanding why needs, roles and obligations are so essential to restorative justice. “In this worldview, the problem of crime - and wrongdoing in general - is that it represents a wound in the community, a tear in the web of relationships. Crime represents damaged relationships. In fact, damaged relationships are both a cause and an effect of a crime. Many traditions have a saying that a harm to one is a harm to all.”

4/22 Identifying Domination Systems, Partnership Systems

Hello Everyone!

Thank you so much for our conversation on Monday inspired by Riane Eisler's work on domination systems. The introduction to The Chalice and the Blade shows that we have been taught a limited vision of human alternatives.  We have also been taught to divide the world into opposing camps such as religious vs. secular, capitalist vs. communist, developing world vs. developed world, light skinned vs. dark skinned races, and so on. To gain insight into how these systems and structures affect humanity it is useful to look at the dominator or partnership aspects in each of them.

For tomorrow, please finish reading the Introduction and Chapter 1, in addition to a chapter of your choosing. Select a quote and be prepared to share and talk about it in class, or you may discuss the following question:

1. Name or identify partnership and/or dominator aspects of particular religions, philosophies, and political structures, focusing particularly on contemporary trends toward partnership and the dominator resistance? 

Please also listen to the following talks holding the question:  How and what (domination system) problems do these thinkers, Arundhati Roy and Vandana Shiva, identify? What partnership solutions do they offer?

The pandemic is a portal - written by Arundhati Roy

The pandemic is a portal - written by Arundhati Roy Author Arundhati Roy's article "The pandemic is a portal" published on April 5, 2020 in the financial times. Ful...

Zoom Link

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Meeting ID: 340 754 0334

Password: namaste

One tap mobile: 1 646 558 8656  

4/20 Introduction to the Philosophy of Partnership

With Guest Philosopher 
Jennifer Taylor

Reading for this class
Riane Eisler, The Chalice and The Blade, 
Introduction and Chapter One

Zoom Link

https://zoom.us/j/3407540334?pwd=RHU1WXl1WkwxUlBKeU5ISGd0TWdTQT09

Meeting ID: 340 754 0334

Password: namaste

One tap mobile: 1 646 558 8656  

Zoom numbers for today's class, Wed, April 15th

https://zoom.us/j/3407540334?pwd=RHU1WXl1WkwxUlBKeU5ISGd0TWdTQT09

Meeting ID: 340 754 0334

Password: namaste

One tap mobile: +1 646 558 8656 

Exophilosophy Presentation

Exophilosophy Presentation for MILES Oct. 30th 2017

Jerusalem UFO (2011)



Gulf Breeze UFO (1995)



Mexican Air Force video of UFO (2004)

The 2004 USS Nimitz footage of the "ticktack" UFO.

8/13 Philosophy of Extraterrestrial Contact

Introduction to Exo-Philosophy

Texts for this class

1. This documentary "Out of the Blue"

2. Stanton Friedman, "The Case for the Extraterrestrial Origin of Flying Saucers"

Other recommended sources

3. Bob Lazar on Joe Rogan
4. And if you have Netflix you can watch this great documentary on Bob Lazar called "Bob Lazar and Flying Saucers"
5. Historic first serious coverage of ufology by NYTimes in Dec. 2017 
6. A decent short documentary on the Nimitz "tic tac" encounters from 2004.
7. Five Large Scale Scientific Studies Prove that ETs are Real and Here. 
8. The Disclosure Project
9. Another great documentary on Netflix called "Patient 17"
10. Blog for PH199 Exophilosophy

11. Dr. Vood's Alien TV, my YouTube channel

Check-in info for class today, April 8th

Zoom Meeting link

https://zoom.us/j/3407540334?pwd=Ujd5VWhnWlJaajNvWE5GVEpXbUNxdz09

Meeting ID: 340 754 0334

Password: 04082020

Telephone: 1 (646) 558-8656

Notes on the Philosophy of Evil, the Deep State and Political Assassinations

A. Evil as a Theological Problem

a. If Universe is a Spiritual Context (If God is Supreme - all good, all knowing, all powerful), why is there needless  suffering? 

Either 
1: God is not supreme, or 

2: Universe doesn’t care / no spiritual-moral reality, or 

3: Suffering is purposive (related to reincarnation/Holographic Universe Theory) 

B. Ponerology, the Study of Evil

a. Psychopathology - 1% of Americans who feel no empathy (banal)

b. Etheric Energy-Vampires, “demons” - neuro-psychic parasites (deep)

c. Concentration of Power - Self-reinforcing Dopamine loop based on fear/control

C. President Eisenhauer’s farewell warning about the “military-industrial complex”

§1. “We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” 

D. The Deep State

§2. “…another government concealed behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, a hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country according to consistent patterns in season and out, connected to, but only intermittently controlled by, the visible state whose leaders we choose.”[Bill Moyers] Or, A loose (non-monolithic) network of financial(banking) organizations, intelligence agencies, powerful law firms, military leaders and political power-brokers who come together from time to time when their interests coalesce: the “military-intelligence-banking-energy complex” [my definition]

E. The CIA as a case study in the Evils of Centralized Power

§3. Creation of the CIA - President Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947, creating the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Council. The CIA is accountable to the president through the NSC — there is no democratic or congressional oversight. Its charter allows the CIA to "perform such other functions and duties… as the National Security Council may from time to time direct." This loophole opens the door to covert action and dirty tricks; 

§4. 1948 expansion of the mission to ‘covert actions’ - The CIA recreates a covert action wing, innocuously called the Office of Policy Coordination, led by Wall Street lawyer Frank Wisner. According to its secret charter, its responsibilities include "propaganda, economic warfare, preventive direct action, including sabotage, antisabotage, demolition and evacuation procedures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance groups, and support of indigenous anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world.”

F. CIA overthrowing governments since 1953

§5. The CIA justifies these actions as part of its war against communism, conflating communism with nationalism or “resource nationalism;” i.e. nations having control over their own resources. Most coups do not involve a communist threat. Unlucky nations are targeted for a wide variety of reasons: not only threats to American business interests abroad, but also liberal or even moderate social reforms, political instability, the unwillingness of a leader to carry out Washington’s dictates, and declarations of neutrality in the Cold War. Indeed, nothing has infuriated CIA Directors quite like a nation’s desire to stay out of the Cold War. The Association for Responsible Dissent estimates that by 1987, 6 million people had died as a result of CIA covert operations. (2) Former State Department official William Blum correctly calls this an "American Holocaust.”

§6. 1953 Iran – CIA overthrows the democratically elected Mohammed Mossadegh in a military coup, after he threatened to nationalize British oil. The CIA replaces him with a dictator, the Shah of Iran, whose secret police, SAVAK, is as brutal as the Gestapo.

§7. 1954 Guatemala — CIA overthrows the democratically elected Jacob Arbenz in a military coup. Arbenz has threatened to nationalize the Rockefeller-owned United Fruit Company, in which CIA Director Allen Dulles also owns stock. Arbenz is replaced with a series of right-wing dictators whose bloodthirsty policies will kill over 100,000 Guatemalans in the next 40 years.

§8. 1973 Chile — The CIA overthrows and assassinates Salvador Allende, Latin America’s first democratically elected socialist leader. The problems begin when Allende nationalizes American-owned firms in Chile. ITT offers the CIA $1 million for a coup (reportedly refused). The CIA replaces Allende with General Augusto Pinochet, who will torture and murder thousands of his own countrymen in a crackdown on labor leaders and the political left.

§9. 2019 Venezuela - The plot to overthrow Nicolás Maduro is being publicly promoted as an opportunity to steal Venezuelan oil for the benefit of U.S. corporations. They’re not even pretending.

G. Was the assassination of JFK a Deep State Coup organized by the CIA?

§10. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th POTUS, assassinated on Nov. 22nd, 1963 in Dallas Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested 70 minutes after the event. At 11:21 a.m. November 24, 1963, as live television cameras were covering his transfer from the city jail to the county jail, Oswald was fatally shot in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters by Dallas nightclub operator by Jack Ruby, a known police informant. the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald assassinated Kennedy, that Oswald had acted entirely alone, and that Ruby had acted alone in killing Oswald. A later investigation, the US House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) agreed with the Warren Commission that the injuries that Kennedy and Connally sustained were caused by Oswald's three rifle shots, but they also concluded that Kennedy was "probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.

§11. Evidence of CIA involvement with the assassination: CIA hatred of JFK connected to Bay of Pigs (1961) and the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962); Military Leadership hatred of JFK connected to Vietnam and Cuba policy of reconciliation; Lee Oswald’s suppressed background in US intelligence agencies; cover-up orchestrated at the highest levels of US government: autopsy tampering, the “Magic Bullet Theory,” ignoring of key witnesses, mysterious deaths of many key witnesses, over 100); Jim Garrison’s lawsuit against the CIA, successful lawsuit against E. Howard Hunt (legendary CIA assassin) incl. death bed confession remarks. 

H. A false flag is a covert operation designed to deceive, an effective tool for persuading war-averse democratic nations to go to war. The deception creates the appearance of a particular party, group, or nation being responsible for some activity, disguising the actual source of responsibility. Other likely false flag operations: MLK assassination (April 1968), RFK assassination (June 1968), Malcolm X assassination (Feb 1965); Gulf of Tonkin Incident (Aug 1964); 9/11 Attacks (2001). 

§12. Operation Northwoods (proposed 1962). The operation proposed creating public support for a war against Cuba by blaming it for terrorist acts that would actually be perpetrated by the CIA. To this end, Operation Northwoods proposals recommended hijackings and bombings followed by the introduction of phony evidence that would implicate the Cuban government. These documents, released due to pressure from the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992,  debunk the idea that US intelligence agencies would never murder/bomb terrorize Americans or carry out false flag operations for political purposes. 

I. 9/11 Grand Jury in the works, endorsed by Franklin Square and Munson Fire Department (Queens, NY)  

§13. In spring 2018, the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry — together with more than a dozen 9/11 family members and with help from AE911Truth — filed a petition with the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan demanding that he present evidence of unprosecuted federal crimes at the World Trade Center to a special grand jury. Then, in November, came the big news: the US attorney responded in writing that he would comply with the provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 3332 requiring him to relay their report to a special grand jury. 

J. Truth and Reconciliation Committee calling for new investigation of 1960s political assassinations

Sixty prominent citizens (including Oliver Stone, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Rob Reiner, David Crosby, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and MLK's nephew Isaac Newton Farris Jr. believe believes the assassinations of Malcolm X, JFK, RFK and MLK were the result of conspiracies [“extra-judicial” actions] that were directed, funded and covered up by the US intelligence agencies, not “the government.”

K. Notorious CIA programs

Operation PAPERCLIP – While other American agencies are hunting down Nazi war criminals for arrest, the U.S. intelligence community is smuggling them into America, unpunished, for their use against the Soviets. The most important of these is Reinhard Gehlen, Hitler’s master spy who had built up an intelligence network in the Soviet Union. 

Operation MOCKINGBIRD — The CIA begins recruiting American news organizations and journalists to become spies and disseminators of propaganda. The effort is headed by Frank Wisner, Allan Dulles, Richard Helms and Philip Graham. Graham is publisher of The Washington Post, which becomes a major CIA player. Eventually, the CIA’s media assets will include ABC, NBC, CBS, Time, Newsweek, Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps-Howard, Copley News Service and more. By the CIA’s own admission, at least 25 organizations and 400 journalists will become CIA assets.

Operation MK-ULTRA — Inspired by North Korea’s brainwashing program, the CIA begins experiments on mind control. The most notorious part of this project involves giving LSD and other drugs to American subjects without their knowledge or against their will, causing several to commit suicide. However, the operation involves far more than this. Funded in part by the Rockefeller and Ford foundations, research includes propaganda, brainwashing, public relations, advertising, hypnosis, and other forms of suggestion.

Operation PHEONIX — The CIA helps South Vietnamese agents identify and then murder alleged Viet Cong leaders operating in South Vietnamese villages. According to a 1971 congressional report, this operation killed about 20,000 "Viet Cong.”

Operation CHAOS — The CIA has been illegally spying on American citizens since 1959, but with Operation CHAOS, President Johnson dramatically boosts the effort. CIA agents go undercover as student radicals to spy on and disrupt campus organizations protesting the Vietnam War. They are searching for Russian instigators, which they never find. CHAOS will eventually spy on 7,000 individuals and 1,000 organizations.

The CIA and Drugs - Nicaragua and Afghanistan

“The CIA has a long history of being involved in global drug trade in all parts of the world under the control of the US or where it has considerable influence. While a few cases have been investigated and exposed by journalists, the issue continues to remain in the shadows… The CIA’s history began in the 1980s. Drugs were seen as the quickest and easiest way to earn money to fund CIA proxies and paramilitary forces that served them, in different countries. Gary Webb, the brave journalist who exposed the Nicaraguan Contra drug trafficking scandal and was eventually driven to suicide by an extensive smear campaign by the mainstream media, described the process like this:

“We (CIA) need money for a covert operation, the quickest way to raise it is sell cocaine, you guys go sell it somewhere, we don’t want to know anything about it.”