COMMUNITY: WHAT IS IT?

Sep 11, 2022 - 06:36 Leave a Comment 2610 views

undefined

For more Elysium''s Passage Blog Posts, go to

https://digitalbloggers.com/arts-and-entertainment/ep-blog-posts for over 190 links or
https://digitalbloggers.com/articles/elysiumspassage for the host site

WHAT IS COMMUNITY?

“Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iww5G24rikU

What does community mean, and what does community do? At the base, community is about relationships, so it is never static and has infinite expressions. What makes for a healthy community, and what makes for a dysfunctional community? Let me share a few simple thoughts and opinions on this very broad topic.

On a micro level, we may say community is essentially a family that lives together since there is a continual exchange of emotions and energies. How each relates to each other impacts the collective, even if only two or three are involved.

As Thomas Edison noted, even the cells in our body are a community, where 70 trillion cells all do their part to keep us alive and stave off attacks by innumerable invasions by viruses and diseases. They do this despite all of the fears we conjure that debilitate and interfere with our body, even while it does its best to serve us with what is highest and best to maintain our health. It’s a good thing they all work together and remain intuitively entangled with every other cell in the body, such that they all work cooperatively. That is an optimal community.

Out of our skin, however, things get a bit dicey when it comes to sustaining a harmonious community. That’s because the ego has a way of promoting itself over everyone else’s interests unleashing the forces of fragmentation, disintegration and destruction. It is in service to self rather than service to others. Community can’t exist without mutual service to one another. Yes, the ego has its place but must be subordinate to the law of love that seeks to bind the whole in perfect cooperation.

By analogy, love may be considered the centripetal, inward directing force, while the separate ego is centrifugal, flying away from the centre since it remains separate and alienated rather than integrative and cooperative. The ego does not care for relationships unless they serve it; rather than it serving others. It is essentially self-absorbed and tends towards narcissistic behaviour.

With this basic and perhaps simplistic philosophical understanding of what underlies community, we may look at examples of what supports its cohesion and what leads to its destruction.

On a macro scale, the world constitutes one large collective of smaller collectives of nations, cities, villages, communes, eco-villages, kibitzes, churches, schools, sports and hobby interests governed in various fashions, though not always by consensus. Many of us belong to several collectives, laterally and hierarchically as communities within communities.

Ideally, we may say that community exists to support its members, but what about those who don’t exist within its circle? Is everyone else excluded? Inwardly looking can lead to fear, pride and animosity toward those on the outsider as enemies since they don’t share the same values. It’s common for the collective ego to become entrenched in their myopia based on culture, race, tradition, language, etc., by disregarding the legitimacy of other histories and perspectives.

Religious wars throughout the ages are infamous for this, as are factions of opposing politics. Communities united in fear and hate won’t survive in the long run. They can’t because they are diseased with inherent entropy. If their cohesion is based on ‘them and us; they are tainted with fear and hostility and are not sustainable, no more than the USSR and Third Reich could survive.

Therefore, a community can provide a sense of belonging, but it can also be hazardous when it has sufficient resources to annihilate its perceived enemies. Communism and fascism are only recent examples of military tyranny that have subjected much of the world’s population in the name of ‘community.’

To avoid descending into this travesty, the human race must freely act, not selfishly but cooperatively, if it wishes to be happy and content. On the other hand, a community can find strength and security in defending itself against hostile aggression from without. Nevertheless, this, too, is conflict, contrary to what a community is supposed to look like in peaceful harmony.

Many might see this situation as impossible to resolve, but only as long as the collective human consciousness remains unevolved. See How Conscious are you?
https://digitalbloggers.com/arts-and-entertainment/how-conscious-are-you

When a critical mass of heightened spiritual awareness occurs, humanity may move into a new era of Christ Consciousness, or as some may say, the Age of Aquarius, where divine transcendence prevails. Will there ever be heaven on earth? I don’t know… let’s find out. But how?

When we come down to it, communities are based on a touchy-feely thing of the heart. Where there is love, there is integration… the glue of the universe. Where love is absent, the ego phantom dominates like darkness from light. As within each of us, a healthy community requires a unified mind and heart.

All the dynamics of communities cooperating as a more inclusive global commune are based on mutual respect for diversity. The mind is not to be trusted since it is inherently judgmental. Yet, in service to the heart, that being the portal to the soul’s divine essence, the unified heart and mind can usher in the new Millenium, literally or figuratively, as preferred.
See Union of Heart and Mind https://digitalbloggers.com/book-reviews/union-of-heart-and-mind

On an individual basis, what happens when you feel no community supports or reflects your values and affections? Rather than feel alienated and alone because we're not, It's our responsibility and choice to find your gang.

I use the word ‘gang’ intentionally for a reason. Several decades ago, while I was involved in the Student’s Union at my university, I attended a conference in Washington state where one of the speakers was an off-beat but fascinating character by the name of Wavy Gravy (Hugh Romney, Jr.) For detail on him, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavy_Gravy

He was a hippy before there were hippies and remained true to his ideals. I’ve always remembered him saying, ‘get your gang together.’ He was right; rather than sulk in loneliness, we need to get our gang together to identify with those we shared ideals and passions. And so Wavy Gravy did, setting a new trend, complete with creatively painted VW buses spreading his happy tidings of a carefree bohemian lifestyle of love and peace.

Now, “getting your gang together” is easier than ever with social media. Meet-Up groups are one of many such means to find others who share your passion and create community, be it for a month, a year or a lifetime.

In conclusion, here are the lyrics to an old classic that captures some of these sentiments.

GET TOGETHER
The Youngbloods, 1966

Love is but a song to sing
Fear's the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Though the bird is on the wing
And you may not know why

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now

Some may come and some may go
We shall surely pass
When the one that left us her.
Returns for us at last
We are but a moment's sunlight
Fading in the grass Come on people now
If you hear the song I sing
You will understand (listen!)
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It's there at your command

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now

___________________________________________________-

QUOTES ON COMMUNITY

The topic of community is a vast area from a sociological, psychological, political, and spiritual perspective; I have hardly touched the surface. The following quotes, however, provide some scope to how broad this topic is and how many books could be written on some of these paths of thought.

We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race. Cicero

This world of ours... must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect. Dwight D. Eisenhower

The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members
Coretta Scott King

... our purpose in founding our state was not to promote the happiness of a single class, but, so far as possible, of the whole community. Our idea was that we were most likely to justice in such a community, and so be able to decide the question we are trying to answer. We are therefore at the moment trying to construct what we think is a happy community by securing the happiness not of a select minority, but of a whole. Plato

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. Martin Luther King

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. Mother Teresa

The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. Mitch Albom

The key to the happy life, it seems, is the good life: a life with sustained relationships, challenging work, and connections to community. Paul Bloom

A true community is not just about being geographically close to someone or part of the same social web network. It's about feeling connected and responsible for what happens. Humanity is our ultimate community, and everyone plays a crucial role. Yehuda Berg

The body is a community made up of its innumerable cells or inhabitants. Thomas A. Edison

We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community. Dorothy Day

Some people think they are in community, but they are only in proximity. True community requires commitment and openness. It is a willingness to extend yourself to encounter and know the other.
David Spangler

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
John Donne

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured. Kurt Vonnegut

One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn’t as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing. Jean Vanier

If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life’s exciting variety, not something to fear. Gene Roddenberry

One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone. Shannon L. Alder

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. Leo Buscaglia

For a community to be whole and healthy, it must be based on people’s love and concern for each other. Millard Fuller

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. George Bernard Shaw

But many of us seek community solely to escape the fear of being alone. Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape. Bell Hooks

Community is a sign that love is possible in a materialistic world where people so often either ignore or fight each other. It is a sign that we don’t need a lot of money to be happy–in fact, the opposite. Jean Vanier

Where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. Matthew 8:20

__________________________________________________________-

SUMMARY OF ELYSIUM'S PASSAGE NOVEL SERIES

This is a series of seven Elysium Passager novels regarding a young British philosopher named James Phillips, who finds himself living in an altered state of reality while still remaining on earth.

After experiencing a near-fatal fall while climbing to the summit of a remote mountain in the Andes, James awakens in a new dimension. He soon encounters two mysterious beings who provide him with a very different perspective on the nature of his existence. Over the next year, before his body recovers from the coma, he is challenged to re-examine his understanding of life’s meaning and purpose far beyond anything he previously believed or could believe.

An engaging and sometimes surreal adventure with intimations of impending romance, the narrative explores the most important questions about life, death, reality, and our ultimate destiny.

The Plains of Elysium (Champs-Élysées) was described by Homer, Hesiod, Virgil, and many other poets as the paradisiac afterlife realm reserved for heroes. As the title suggests, this is about a journey through a passage that leads towards Elysium’s exciting realm of adventures.

To read a sample press review at https://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/05/prweb15515775.htm

PENDING PUBLICATION OF ELYSIUM’S PASSAGE SERIES

Amazon in 2024

The Ascent: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

The Summit: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

Quantum Leaps: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

Surreal Adventures: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

Mystical Romance: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

The Elixir: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

The Return: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

1. The Ascent is the first novel in the Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage that’s foundational to everything that happens in the following narratives that embark on an adventure that will surprise and delight the reader like no other book.

It all begins with an extreme adventure of climbing a remote and challenging mountain somewhere in the Andean Mountains. Just as James, the protagonist, is about to reach the mountain summit, he falls into an abyss that leaves him in a coma for almost a year.

After being airlifted by a forestry helicopter and flown back to London, where his body remains for almost a year. Eventually, he learns it was not him but his body that was rescued. Several days later, without understanding what happened, he continues to climb to the summit in an alternate dimension of higher consciousness.

Fortuitously, he meets two adventurers on the summit ridge who are no longer of this world. After that, his surreal life leads him to several new adventures in the subsequent chronicles that include a rich mix of adventure, romance, and fantasy, along with profound discussions of philosophy, spirituality and the afterlife.

2. The Summit, the second novel in the Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage, carries on where James, the narrator and protagonist, is taught more about a multidimensional reality that he finds difficult to comprehend.

Not only does he find he’s not as clever as he imagined, but his off-world companions on the summit demonstrate that much of what he believed about life was not just parochial but wrong. At first, he finds this difficult to comprehend since their teachings are contrary to his limited understanding of non-material reality.

After being tricked into teleporting off a ledge where he was trapped, James becomes aware of the new reality that makes him capable of far more adventures than could have ever been experienced previously in his physical body back home.

Now, if only he would win over the only woman in this life who matters, the nurse on the other side of the veil, who continually demonstrates her unconditional love toward his healing.

Warning: This book may also open the reader’s eyes to a much vaster reality than most might be aware. As with the other Chronicles, there are discussions of philosophy, the spiritual afterlife and what might seem like fantasy.

3. Quantum Leaps is the third novel in Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage, where James, the philosopher-protagonist, teleports back to London to visit his body and make contact with the special nurse taking care of it in his absence. Immediately, he feels an inexplicable spiritual bond with her for reasons he remains unaware of.

Now aroused by a renewed interest in matters of love, the beginnings of a relationship begin to emerge as he attempts to reach across the chasm of their worlds. But it’s not until the fifth novel, Mystical Romance, that he encounters her in a way that he finds difficult to believe.

However, before that can happen, there is much about his failed relationships that must be resolved before he is ready to move forward in his new life in Elysium’s Passage. It is during this time he christens his comatose body as the fall guy since it took the fall for him down the abyss so he could learn the lessons he’s now learning.

That will be the next focus of his life, where in his next Surreal Adventures, he is given virtual lessons to release many of his past beliefs about life.

4. Surreal Adventures is the fourth novel in the Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage, which finds James, the protagonist and narrator, escorted by his companions to a remote South Pacific Island, where he is left to reflect on what he’s learned.

During the next forty days, he battles the demons of his past as he works through some rather painful issues from his early youth. Here, in a tropical storm, he encounters an eery suspended spectre of the one he loved yet still resents for abandoning him as a child.

After this, he achieves peace of mind and is ready to return to his lodge to join his off-world companions on the Andes summit. However, just when it seemed things couldn’t get any stranger, a sixteenth-century sea captain sails his ancient ‘ghost’ ship onto the beach. Together, they sail off on a mystical ocean voyage to a couple of virtual islands supposedly in the South Pacific, where he witnesses and, at times, participates in several important life lessons.

Near the end, these encounters help prepare him for a new challenge within the interior of a mountain, where he falls deep into a dark tomb of fear. After being rescued by a mysterious stranger wielding his Excaliber, he continues on to where his life is about to be transformed in the following chronicle, Mystical Romance.

5. Mystical Romance is the fifth chronicle in Elysium’s Passage, which will surprise the reader with a romantic twist of how love is expressed in higher realms. From this lofty perspective, everything about intimacy is understood as within, so without.

After escaping his tomb, James, the narrator and protagonist, makes his way through a maze of tunnels until he arrives at a large oak door, which he opens with the golden key he had been given. There, he steps into Elysium’s Passage’s Great Hall, where his life and recent achievements are celebrated now that his eyes have been opened to perceive a fascinating interior world of wonderment… and romance.

To say more might risk diminishing the multitude of delightful surprises as circumstances begin to open to The Elixir, where James is about to re-enter his earthly body’s existence.

6. The Elixir is the sixth chronicle of the Elysium’s Passage series that prepares James, the narrator-protagonist, to awaken and return to his body in London. Before that can happen, however, his off-worlder friend presents a mysterious equation enshrouded with a light code frequency that will stimulate multidimensional DNA strands within him.

Much of this narration is centred in London, where his nurse unknowingly becomes involved in how the Elixir’s equation finds its way from a taxi cab driver to higher echelons of science. There are many twists in how she unwittingly brings the Elixir to the attention of mathematicians and physicists, after which they eventually discover how to code the equation into a laser ray to stimulate his fall-guy body into full consciousness.

Ostensibly a new Adam, he is destined to return humanity to a higher multidimensional existence. How this happens is filled with intrigue, as is his shocking return to his earthly body.

7. The Return is the seventh and last chronicle in the series where James, the narrator and protagonist, has re-emerged from Elysium’s Passage as he readjusts to life in the third dimension. Many of the events experienced in the previous novels are tied together in an exciting, fast-moving, action-packed narrative over several countries.

At first, it seems all memories have been lost, with his fall guy’s brain not being aware of what happened to him while in his coma. As a consequence, it takes a while for him to be convinced he had been out of his earthly body for almost a year.

Through some rather unexpected events and evidence, along with his girlfriend’s urging, he is brought to an awareness of much of what occurred. It takes a while for his mind to catch up with the changes made in his heart during his stay in the alternate realm. But after experiencing several harsh realities, he discovers what he became within while out of his body. Gradually, he comes to understand the many challenges that lie ahead for him in fulfilling his future mission on Earth.

This book is filled with adventure, romance and personal intrigue that ties together all six previous narratives of the Elysium’s Passage series.

________________________________________________________

ELYSIUM'S PASSAGE: READER REVIEWS

The following comments are excerpts from among the first readers, including a number of Amazon five star reviews. To read the full reviews, go to READER REVIEWS on www.elysiumspassage.com or directly at https://digitalbloggers.com/arts-and-entertainment/reader-reviews

"A delightful mix of fantasy, reality, conjecture, and humour; Mr Meyers draws the reader into the story with a gentle narrative that captures the imagination, leaving one anxious to get to the next page drawing you into his exceptional world.”

"Quietly, gently, and without imposition, the Author unfolds the pages, creating an intricate, interlocking bridge spanning the chasm between mind and heart. Renewing, refreshing, restoring. In my bereavement, it was vigil and light…."

“Excellently written with an exceedingly deep understanding of this world and the next. The characters are very well written and engaging. I can't wait to complete this book!"

“Takes the reader on both a philosophical and spiritual journey, a journey that at times is both disquieting and tranquil. James, a British Philosopher, can be irreverent and caustic, traits that should have left me cringing but instead made me laugh out loud. Elysium’s Passage is a fun, enlightening and remarkable book.”

“This is a masterful fantasy, becoming a real possibility, as the reader is drawn into the story. The Summit leaves you anxious for the next book in the series, yet also leaves you totally satisfied with the world you have just visited. Genius! An exciting yet calming experience that is not to be missed."

"There was hardly a page on which I did not find at least one sentence worthy of hi-lighting for future reference. In addition, I thoroughly enjoyed the main character, James, whose personality and passionate verbal exchanges with the other characters kept me coming back for more. I am reading the book for a second time while I wait for the next one in this series to be made available."

“N.G. Meyers has clearly put a great deal of research and thought into what the afterlife may look like, and I like his perspective. It’s an altogether welcoming and exciting vision. The book gives one a great deal to think about and a reassuring confidence that the end of our lives is truly the beginning of life in the next. I highly recommend it."

"I am really enjoying your book, it’s fantastic! It is so incredible and diversified that I can’t really explain it to other people, so what I say is just read this book. Thank you so much for the blessings that you’ve given the world!"

“The humour interjected into a serious discussion makes me laugh out loud. Totally unexpected....l may be in the presence of at least a master, if not a genius. A fair ride into reality... seeking that which is unseen, yet absolutely real.”

“An engaging story of adventure embracing man's deepest desire to search for meaning and purpose, N.G. Meyers takes the reader on an adventurous, thought-provoking journey. This book has substance. It is a perfect blend of adventure and fantasy combined with spiritual philosophy. It ignited my imagination. The author magically weaves a good story laced with wit and humour together with deep philosophical wisdom. This book has it all!”

“An evolution in thought is triggered by many fresh philosophical themes which could inspire readers to re-think their reality and former ideologies that have dictated their lives… the author fires readers’ imaginations to view what could be possible when spirit vacates the body.”

“This is the book spiritual seekers have been waiting for. For me, it granted a great read as well as increased inspiration to live every day with a heightened sense of purpose. I highly recommend it.

“The Summit is capable of hooking readers and luring them to search for Book 2 to discover more about Dr Philip’s surreal trek into the mysterious unknown universe. This thick book is well worth the read and to share…”

“Mind-blowing statements and speculation (‘…everyone is a non-physical thought form conceived in the Mind of God, preserved for all eternity because God’s thoughts never die…’). Many will find Meyers’ journey up the Mountain intriguing—and possibly even life-changing.” (BLUEINK REVIEW)

“In its effort to grapple with fundamental questions about the meaning of life, it raises questions that have echoed throughout the ages, including about where we come from, where we are going, who we are.” (CLARION REVIEW)

______________________________

_____________________________________________________