"Certainly not a believer of the Gov't., but tired of overblown conspiracy theories and new-age mumbo-jumbo"
Chris, That's a catchy phrase up there...Who are you, where do you live, and what do you believe? I'm asking you as a Quaker who is up to eyebrows in Peace stuff and wanting to be a part of a civil society thing in the US. Is the belief in the priority of taking power, like the right wing of our country has so efficiently done, a conspiracy or just a responsibility that has to be taken if we are going to have a world at all? When I lived on the east coast, there were people all around me who were far beyond the paradigm I knew, and I never rubbed shoulders with them. But then I was lucky enough to know people who followed a Jain teacher and they taught me to meditate. The eastern religions aren't New Age. They're very old, but they are full of mumbo-jumbo compared with protestant Christianity. Then I came out west, and my whole world shifted. I became Biodynamic. I healed myself cold turkey with macrobiotics. I went to an energetic healer. I became alienated from the mainstream big time. People were tougher. Living was much, much harder. You're just asking for a paradigm shift. Merla