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7_ERASE/REWIND 'CAUSE I'LL BE CHANGING MY MIND

march 6, 1999

Aloha!
Thanx for the input of things to write about and all the unusually long e-mails - especially from John, Cecilia, Fredrik and Pelle.

I have taken a big step towards becoming a netzien (CITIZEN OF THE NET) - I have bought a domain! I can now be mailed at peter@cederholm.net (my old bigfoot adress nolonger works so please use my new instead) and my web-site is to be found at www.cederholm.net. Rock'n roll!

A selection of what you wanted me to write about:
*1)"How our outlook on life (in Sweden) has been affected by our government's choice of religion - is it perhaps not the socialist government but the Lutheran religion that has turned us into a bunch of spineless losers? Is it the Swedish Church that in the 19th century laid the foundation for the Swedish misery with over-full hospitals and a mis-managed public sector?"
*2)"What does it take in order to make us feel like our life has changed, to experience something as being revolutionary?"

Please give me new topics to write about in the next letter!

Here we go:

Theme 1)
Let me start by opposing the presuppositions in the topic: I violently disagree with the hint that it´s ultimately someone else's "fault", that someone else is to blame for who we are. Sure, your upbringing affects you, but you have the choice and possibility to become more! Furthermore, I don´t think most of us are "a bunch of spineless losers", except perhaps those who vote for the socialists or communists...

I know too little about the Swedish Church and what it has done to claim any validity in my reasoning, HOWEVER... In a previous letter I blamed everything I hate about Sweden on Luther and the pietists. Clearly we are affected by the values instilled upon us by society, although we as humans have the ability to change them if we try hard enough. I know from personal experience that the public sector including the health-sector is indeed very mis-managed in Sweden. Being a management consultant forced to visit our hospitals a lot more than anyone would want to, I see an enormous potential for improving service delivered while drastically cutting costs. Even socialist politicians such as Lars Engqvist agree. Did the church instill values such as being jealous, suspicious etc? No. But maybe it taught us not to want to be rich? Many see a conflict between being "disgustingly" rich and spiritual. Clearly, that must depend upon in what way you earn your money! Popular musicians, athletes, actors, writers (and maybe even management consultants?) surely earn a lot of money, but at the same time liven up the lives of millions of people around the world. I believe that everyone has special talents that - when developed and put to use in the service of humanity - rewards them in different ways including monetary. I think the church might be to blame for the conviction so many of us have that it's all a zero-sum game, that someone's gain is somebody else's loss, that the size of the pie is fixed. (I have argued against this at length in a previous letter.) All these values might be the reason so many vote to the left. I believe in balance everywhere including politics, the party I vote for is Moderaterna, which means "just enough", or balance ("lagom"). Thus the saying enough is enough ("lagom är bäst"). Up until about the middle of this century, the socialdemocrats did good things for Sweden, the unions were needed to create balance in the labor-market etc. I wouldn't want to give them credit for creating the welfare state that Sweden was famous for before. No, that was mainly a result of Sweden avoiding participating in wars, even at the cost of many terribly amoral issues. Whilst most other countries were at war, our industry prospered from producing and selling to both sides of different wars. None of our factories were destroyed. BUT, the left was needed to create balance. HOWEVER, that was a long time ago. Now the left has gone WAY too far, and something is needed to restore the balance. People continue to vote to the left anyway. Most people don't see the connection between having the world's highest tax-pressure and everything going to hell at an exponentially increasing speed. They vote the way their parents do, in accordance with the values they where brought up with. So do I. But there's a big difference. I vote for the good guys (!), and hope I would have been open-minded enough to question the paradigms and values had I been raised under different circumstances. It is the left that are responsible for our public sector being mis-managed. Is the Swedish Church responsible for imprinting values that tend to make people vote to the left? I don't know what they did in the 19th century. But today, they seem to have lost connection with educating people in spirituality, in "starting with the man in the mirror", in fostering individual responsibility (most people today think it´s the welfare-state's god given duty to provide for them, to give them work and money). Up until recently, the church belonged to the state, the church was highly politically influenced. I tried to enjoy a Sunday in the beautiful cathedral in Lund a couple of years ago, but was disgusted about the fact that a big part was singing songs about the poor in third-world countries led by a communist woman wearing round glasses, a palestine scarf and boots with "nibs pointing up" ("näbbstövlar"). If she supports a political ideology - communism - that clearly leads to the horrible misery of everyone except the ruling elite (see Soviet union, Cuba etc etc), at least she needn't flaunt her inner paradoxes at a time and place where I come for spiritual guidance. Sure, giving money to the poor is part of what spiritual people do, but it is NOT the ONLY thing to focus on. That is what I dislike about the Swedish Church today. They focus ONLY on this guilt trip, fostering feeling miserable and thus hindering the growth of proactive people who produces wealth to give to the poor. That is, when the church isn't busy giving services for peoples dogs, putting up art in churches where Jesus is portrayed as a homosexual etc. (YES they have done all this and defend it vigorously!) The ceremony was all about complaining why the rich countries simply don't give all their wealth to the poor. Nothing about the teachings of Jesus, of how to apply the wisdom of the Bible in your daily life with your family, friends and working colleagues. Except for feeling GUILTY that you and the rich countries don't give EVERY cent to the poor. Well, if we did, EVERYONE would quickly be equally starving and miserable. That's what's happening in Sweden, and what has happened in all communist countries. "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a life time." Give all your fish and fishing-gear away, everyone dies of starvation. Teach people how to fish and make fishing-gear is the right way. This right way does NOT involve communism and socialism. No, let people pursue catching bigger and fatter fish. Let them eat it too, thus craving even more fish. Because this pursuit of fish creates better fishing techniques, that gives the rookie fisher increasingly better fishing gear and fishing techniques. It makes everyone better fishermen at an increasingly faster rate. This whole process even results in cleaning up waters polluted by socialist/communist countries (those countries pollute WAY more), and in other ways improves the conditions for the fish so that there are increasingly more and bigger fish to catch for everyone. Fewer and fewer have to be rookie fishermen during a shorter and shorter time. "A rising tide lifts all boats" - even the ones that are beat-up!

It is not the church that forced values upon us to make us vote for the communists and socialist that have made a mess out of our beloved Sweden. It is the other way around.

To sum it all up, my answer is no, the church - or even the "who-do-you-think-you-are" values taught by Luther or the pietists - is not to blame for the fact that so many of us are "spineless losers". It is the socialdemocrats and communists who are to blame, having infiltrated and used the church, media and other "channels" to brainwash people into becoming "spineless losers". Astrid Lindgren (popular Swedish author) blamed the socialist for making people small, and said that "great things can not come from little people". My hope is that - the sooner the better - we small people will stand up and end the negative spiral Sweden is in. To recycle the creed of the unions when they were needed way back in time: "Small people, unite!"

I love Sweden but hate the government, the way too powerful unions, our absurdely high taxes and leftist media. (Speaking about the media: the public service TV channel SVT have started a 24 hour digital news channel. In the ad for it - they aren't supposed to have ads, but have it anyway, at the end of the day nobody can mess with the Government - they claim it's a natural step since "they are news leaders". I wonder what CNN or Sky News think of this... PATHETIC! Now the media - at the same time as their focus is still pursuing and black-listing anyone having "too much fish" or "being too good at fishing" in every program including news and debate programs such as "svart eller vitt" - are claiming that too many of it's reporters are too right wing. HELLO!? ). While I'm at it, let me tell you about a new brilliant plan for creating more jobs by stimulating the growth of small companies that the big unions have come up with. In a country where the root of all evil is absurdely high taxes, they want to create government-controlled funds to invest in small companies. The funds will be tax-sponsored, meaning need for raised taxes since this whole thing crowds out other economically sound initiatives. HOW MINDBOGGLINGLY DUMB CAN YOU GET AWAY WITH BEING? (It's the same old socialization idea in new guises, they have tried it many times before, see "löntagarfonder är ett jävla skit, nu har de baxat dem ända hit". And yes, if you look into it deeply, "löntagarfonder" was originally conceived as a way of socializing the capital and businesses in Sweden!)

The motivation for my being active politically during the major part of my life (5th grade up to and including University) and now giving SEK 200 (about USD 25) every month to my party Moderaterna, is my love for Sweden itself. Wanting to stop the socialists with their powerful rhetoric (created by the world's most expensive campaign experts) from brainwashing everyone and destroying my native country. I read an article about emigrating from the nation-state of Sweden with its government, but remaining in Sweden physically, belonging to other preferred social structures on the Internet. They way to do this was to "emigrate to the web", to become a "netzien". I have taken a few steps towards this, by having my own web-site and now owning my own domain (cederholm.net). By the way, Asian philosophy and religion (including most ancient tribes such as the Australian Aborigines , the Eskimos, shamans and medicine-men all over the world, Indians etc) believe in a universal mind, a universal conscience that you can connect to in different ways including deep meditation. Psychic abilities, fortune telling, looking into the future, healing etc are believed to be possible by connecting to this common mind. The Internet is in my opinion a great way to hook up to a universal mind, and has - it can be argued - in fact been created by this universal mind to bring more people together in it in an easier way! Asian wisdom also urge you to simplify your life. I believe the Internet does that already, and will do so more and more in the future. ENOUGH SAID ON THE CHURCH/GOVERNMENT/PUBLIC SECTOR ISSUE AND ALL THE DIRECTIONS IT MADE ME SPIN OFF TO!

Theme 2) (What does it take in order to make us feel like our life has changed, to experience something as being revolutionary?)

Good question! I don't know. If I did know, I would probably argue that it is when we have evolved to a new paradigm (switched the "glasses" through which we see and interpret everything that we experience, the "map" by which we explore) or simply altered some annoying habit or thoughts we used to have. What I'm saying is that we - in order to feel like our life has changed - mainly have to alter ourselves and the way we communicate with ourselves about what's going on in our life, rather than the environment in which we live.

We can win a billion dollars, quit our previous jobs, buy a house, car & boat in the Caribbean, put enough money in the bank to live with style for the rest of our life, give money to family and friends and the rest to save the rainforest, marry happily etc etc. (see the story in my previous weekletter). With the same thoughts sloshing around in our minds, not much will have changed, and I don't think we'll feel that our life has changed too much. But, as someone said, I'll rather feel miserable in a Jaguar - having money is naturally always a big help although I doubt it would be perceived as something revolutionary.

"Real success is success with self. It's not in having things but in having mastery, having victory over self."

"Nothing can bring you lasting happiness and inner peace - but you have it already if you just quiet down your mind and body enough to experience it."

To experience something revolutionary is something more. I would assume having a child is revolutionary, a real life changer that shifts your paradigm quickly, you are no longer the center of the universe, the kid is all that matters. Learning something new and breaking bad habits might also make us feel like our life has changed. Figuring out your mission/purpose in life, creating a master plan for your life that you are really passionate about, that you take massive action towards fulfilling, might also do it. END OF THEME 2

ANALYSIS OF BOTH THEMES

The two themes have a lot in common. One claims that we are "spineless losers and that the church is to blame for it". The other wonders about what is needed to change our life's, or - rather - what it takes for us to FEEL like our life has changed. If we could change from thinking that we are "spineless losers and that it is not our own fault, that we are not responsible for it and thus not able to respond and change" to becoming someone who proactively revolutionize his/her life every single day, we would surely perceive a major change having occurred!

One of you pointed out that what I'm doing in these letters is combining Asian wisdom of inner peace and balance with American just-do-it mentality. I will use this approach to make the analysis.

JUST-DO-IT PERSPECTIVE

"What does it take to change the essence of a man?" - Steven Seagal in the movie On deadly ground

What if we could erase unwanted thoughts and habits, rewind and reprogram and thus changing our mind?

Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) or neuro associative conditioning (NAC, which is Anthony Robbins modification of NLP) does that! It is the art of erasing/rewinding and changing your mind. Very briefly, NAC explains your being and behaviour with a model called the Master System. It consists of 5 elements: what mental state you are in, what questions you ask yourself, your values (about what gives you pain or pleasure), your beliefs and finally your reference experiences. The master system is clearly influenced by the way your life has been, BUT by becoming aware of what the 5 parts look like, powerful changes can occur! Tony says: "If you and I want to change anything in our lives, it's invariably one of two things: either how we're feeling or our behaviors". He claims a single shift in any of the 5 elements of the master system will powerfully affect the way you think, feel, and behave in multiple areas of your life simultaneously. EXAMPLE: changing a belief: He urges us to adopt this global belief emotinally where we feel it with absolute certainty, to make it a 100% conviction: "I AM THE SOURCE OF ALL MY EMOTIONS. NOTHING AND NO ONE CAN CHANGE HOW I FEEL EXCEPT ME. IF I FIND MYSELF IN REACTION TO ANYTHING, I CAN CHANGE IT IN A MOMENT". If you want to quit smoking you could change your conditioned feelings toward smoking by rearranging your values so that health and vitality is at the top of your values list. You might also work with linking something very horrifying to feeling a need to smoke. Go visit people in a hospital that have been operated for throat cancer because of smoking. The guys with a plastic tube sticking out of their throat. Look at x-rays of a smoker's lungs etc. Whenever the urge to smoke comes, force yourself to think about all this horror with as many sense as possible. That's using the power of the pain principle of the master system. At the same time, work with the pleasure principle by experiencing the wonderful vision of you as a non-smoker. By working with NAC, we take control of the portion of our brain that controls our experience of life. The changes end up being emotional and even physical as the brain sets new priorities for what's most important. So, working with NAC is a powerful way to improve your life and make major changes. (Buy Tony's book "Awaken the Giant Within" at www.amazon.com)

Stephen Covey speaks about 7 habits to transform your life. The first three deals with yourself. 1) Proactivity, teaches that you are the programmer, the director of the movie that is your life. 2) Begin with the end in mind, teaches you to write the program, the script for the movie that is your life. 3) Put first things first teaches you to run the program, how to produce the movie. (Buy his book "7 habits of highly effective people" at www.amazon.com).

Well, it's runnig late and this letter is long enough already. In the next letter, I'll write about the Asian perspective on changing your mind and behaviors.

Goodnight, wherever you are!

'TIL NEXT LETTER: REMEMBER TO L I V E W I T H P A S S I O N!

radioSUGGESTION: in Stockholm, be sure to listen to the radio show "Dave in the mornings" at 6 am -10 am mon-fri at Classic rock 106.7 fm. Especially try to catch their hillarious show "radio ÄLG", which I think comes on somewhere between 8.30 and 9 am, at least on Thursdays.

webSUGGESTION: The title to this letter is a song from the Swedish group Cardigans, who have performed in an episode of the soap Beverly Hills 90210 (back in the good old days when it was watchable). The song can be downloaded in mp3 format from http://members.xoom.com/hidesecret/indexmp.htm and a player to listen to it can be downloaded from www.mp3.com To find other songs, go to http://mp3.lycos.com If you want to buy your own domain go to www.quickdomains.com for cheap rates on global domains (.net .com .org) or www.domain.se to buy .se and .nu domains (more expensive)
ALL WRITINGS (C) PETER CEDERHOLM they may not be distributed in any way - except sending the link to this webpage - without my written approval.