The struggle of humankind is a struggle to become more conscious. This is true whether you’re talking about humanity as a species, human society as an individual nation or community, the interpersonal relationships in a specific family or social structure, or the inner processes of an individual human being.
Like a fractal, you see this same struggle to expand consciousness happening on every level of humanity no matter how far out or how far in you zoom the camera.
- On the largest scale humanity is struggling to expand consciousness beyond the distortions of ignorance and propaganda to the point where a critical mass of people understand what’s really happening in their world and use the power of their numbers to force an end to the oppression, exploitation, violence and ecocide of the immense global power structures which rule our planet.
- On the smallest scale we’re struggling to expand our inner consciousness of the egoic structures and subconscious mental habits which dictate our attention, thinking and behavior and cause us to suffer and create suffering for others.
- Between these two extremes you have struggles like expanding consciousness of abusive and unhealthy dynamics in families and relationships, expanding consciousness in cultures and societies of abusive and unhealthy dynamics in wealth distribution, policing, race relations, sex and sexuality, and expanding consciousness in individual nations and communities of abusive and unhealthy dynamics in politics and government.
Real Revolution Means Expanding Consciousness, Both Outwardly And Inwardly
This is my best attempt so far at explaining our plight, our best shot at addressing it, and where we appear to be heading.https://t.co/3lkyCKvnDo
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) June 30, 2020
This expansion of consciousness is not some feel-good hippie dippy stroll through the park–it has enemies. Within every possible recursion the fractal, you’ve got forces opposing that expansion of consciousness. On every level there are forces which have a vested interest in keeping things hidden in unconsciousness, whether it’s global power structures hiding their malfeasance behind propaganda and government opacity, corporations hiding their misdeeds behind PR spin and secrecy, cult leaders and religious exploiters hiding their depravity behind doctrine and domination, abusive partners and parents hiding their abusiveness behind manipulation, or subconscious habitual coping mechanisms hiding the discomfort their discovery would create behind compartmentalization and dissociation.
On every recursion of the fractal, humanity is trying to awaken from the matrix of untruth by moving further into a conscious recognition of what’s true. And every recursion has its own Agent Smith trying to prevent that movement from happening.
When you do deep inner work the Agent Smith you find yourself up against might look like inertia, cowardice, tightly guarded self narratives, or the habitualized movement of attention away from memories of trauma; whatever the unconscious identity structures within you need to do to remain unconscious and keep pulling the strings of your life from behind the scenes. When we fight establishment power structures the Agent Smiths we end up fighting might look like propagandists and deceitful politicians. For every push toward consciousness there’s a push in the opposite direction coming from the darkness, no matter how big or how small.
The good news is that any expansion of consciousness on one level of the fractal helps expand consciousness on all the others. Individuals who have expanded their consciousness inwardly are more adept at helping to expand it their society, because the manipulation of an Agent Smith internally is very similar to the manipulations of Agents Smiths on a mass scale. A society expanding its consciousness frees individuals up to become more inwardly conscious, and helps make humanity as a whole that more more conscious. Any expansion of consciousness for humanity as a whole–such as increased awareness of the importance of personal freedom, equality and justice–benefits every other level of the fractal.
We’re just turning on the lights, so that all which is unseen can become seen. Any new little bit of light makes the whole room that much brighter, and makes it that much easier for people to find new light switches. Soon we’ll have this whole thing lit up, and from there, a movement toward health and harmony for our species will be inevitable.
May All Be Revealed
"The fight for humanity’s future begins at your own eyelids."https://t.co/j1JQcolxIh
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) June 24, 2020
You can’t change something you’re not aware of, but once a sufficient amount of awareness has come to it, change is inevitable. The puppet show can never be mistaken for reality once you’ve had a good look at the puppeteers.
The lights are coming on; what they reveal isn’t often pretty, but they’re coming on. If I had to pick a narrative to describe what’s been happening in 2020, that would be it. The most distinctive feature of the last four years has been expanding consciousness–expanding consciousness of media corruption, of DNC corruption, of government corruption, of the abuse of immigrants, of police militarization, of unhealed racial wounds etc–and the story of 2020 has been the story of the rapid acceleration of that trend.
I don’t see this trend slowing down any time soon. I see it speeding up faster and faster.
Everything which was once hidden is now roaring into consciousness with greater and greater urgency. The lights are coming on, and the more light there is the weaker the Agent Smiths become on every recursion of the fractal.
As the lights come on we’re seeing more and more creepy crawlies that had been previously hiding in the darkness, but that’s just it: we are seeing them, and when they are seen they lose their power to pull the puppet strings from the shadows. I am seeing more reasons than ever to feel hopeful today. May all continue to be revealed.
________________________
Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics onTwitter, checking out my podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following me on Steemit, throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my books Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.
Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
79 responses to “Fractal Agent Smiths”
I like this.
Please refer above. Go do the Google-Fu and find out for yourself how many VIRUS-CARRYING water droplets in the breath are larger than 0.3 microns. Go on! I double dare you. Come back and make me look stupid. Teach yourself some science. It’s okay – I don’t know everything either. 🙂
Genius. Really. You’re a wizard. You do know that the virus is carried by and expelled in water droplets from the breath, droplets which are often vastly larger than 300 nano-meters, perhaps not all, but who gives a hoot? and so anything that slows down the volume of droplets expelled and carried into the air and onto neighbouring surfaces is a good thing, no? Come on genius, find a big hole in my argument and school me some science.
Numbers don’t score you any points.
Face masks are obviously PPE, did you notice all the NON-dead doctors and dentists and nurses around ? and your version of science is weak sauce.
Bite me 🙂
I think more accurate is that people need more of a conscience — but they prefer suckling off whatever is nearest their orifices. And that is why the elite hate them.
Here’s an interesting take on it from https://www.unz.com/ishamir/unmasking-freedom/. There have also been a number of articles recently comparing the response to recent events (eg BLM) as a kind of secular religious reaction, eg like the medieval flagellants during the plague.
.
“If you spell ‘Covid’ in Hebrew letters and read it from right to left, as Hebrew words are read, you will get דיבוק, “Dibouk”, the demon of the Cabbalists, the evil spirit likely to enter and possess a person suffering from ‘emotional intensification’, noted Bogdan Herzog, a Romanian mystic from Timisoara. Dibouk is a popular figure of Jewish folklore, the subject of plays and films. Herzog’s analysis continues: maybe the analogy with demonic possession is not superficial but profound. What if COVID is more psychological than biological? Perhaps through extreme fear induction (“emotional intensification”), people behave ‘as if’ possessed by the Dibouk? They certainly seem to act as though mesmerized, unthinkingly obeying the conflicting demands of the authorities and accepting unprecedented limitations on individual freedom.
That sounds bad enough, but Herzog takes it one step further: Perhaps the problem is not of psychological but of a spiritual nature, as the Jewish Cabbalists insist, and the only possible cure is a kind of exorcism? Perhaps for this very reason the churches were primary targets during the lockdown? Indeed churches were closed both in the East and in the West for the first time ever, even while shops were open. The Lutheran Church of Sweden had its churches open for services, but the most important function, the communion, was stopped. This is a most deadly spiritual attack, for the continuous divine sacrifice of the Eucharist sustains the very existence of society. “Is this the real reason Eucharist was forbidden during lockdown?” – asks Herzog. If the churches were open and communion given, the evil Dibouk would be gone.”
I definitely think that you have found something here that makes more sense than anything else that is happening, in which I mean is being sold to us. They you speak of live for this kind of hidden symbolism. I’m with you brother, now what? It’s almost impossible to convince people that this virus hoax is exactly that. Going this deep might force them to go back to the surface where they think it is safer not to think at all…..again. LOL
Ah, Caitlin. I do love your wonderful and insightful prose. But you sure do have yourself some big time hopiness. I’m looking around and don’t see much, at least not in the realm of which you speak … human conscientiousness raising (HCR).
I’m not talking about the truly remarkable ignorance emanating from the ‘deplorables’. I’m talking about the liberal intelligentsia and typical Dem-leaning crowd most of your readers reside in. My loved ones and hang-out crowd. For the past 30+ years, I’ve encountered a mind-numbing lack of critical and/or uncomfortable thinking. And worst of all, especially since the advent of ‘liberal’ media (NPR, CNN, MSNBC, WaPo, NYT, ad nauseam), a groupthink mentality that dismisses and even ostracizes those who dare to disagree.
The examples are literally endless and monstrously damaging to the struggle for HCR: war-making (Kosovo, Honduras, Libya, Syria, Venezuela, Ukraine); Assange; the love affair with Obama and the Clintons; RussiaGate (!!!); NeverTrumpism; LesserEvilism …. ad nauseam). Not one single self-described liberal person I know is willing to discuss, let alone defend their beliefs in these areas. Not one.
And oh yes, 9/11 (and f**king no, I don’t have to tell you what really happened, dammit; I just have to understand that I live on planet Earth and know YOUR conspiracy theory is so full of impossibilities that it borders on stupid … but I digress).
HCR has one main premise: question everything; and especially everything you ‘know’ is true. Trust, but verify. And ferchrissakes, when you trust, do so with those who don’t have a history of LYING to you over and over and over again.
Pretty damn simple.
Consciousness is an evolutionary mutation , a form of censor purposed to prioritize input and to avoid information overload . A concept Kurt Vonnegut fools around with it in his novel “Galapagos” , probably an evolutionary cul-de-sac was his conclusion ? Both Pink Floyd and Sam Harris agree there is something in our heads but its not we , to paraphrase?
Here’s the very first thing that consciousness-raised Americans should realize and fully acknowledge to themselves by crossing their legs and repeating the following a thousand times a day.
The US has a war-based economy that will collapse if world peace somehow breaks out.
The US has a war-based economy that will collapse if world peace somehow breaks out.
The US has a war-based economy that will collapse if world peace somehow breaks out.
The US has a war-based economy that will collapse if world peace somehow breaks out.
The US has a war-based economy that will collapse if world peace somehow breaks out.
The US has a war-based economy that will collapse if world peace somehow breaks out.
In order to understand why this is true, one has to ask and answer the following question. Just exactly WHY to do warmongers get elected election after election after election; and just exactly WHY will this once again be the case in November?
The REAL answer to that question has absolutely NOTHING to do with “national defense” and absolutely everything to do with money and profit. I’ll use the patriotic voters of Virginia to prove that what I’m saying is true.
Population of Virginia = 8.4 million
Number of Registered Voters in Virginia = 5.7 million
Dollar Amount of Defense Contracts Awarded to Contractors in Virginia from 2000 to 2019 = $781.6 billion
Number of Defense Contracts Awarded to Contractors in Virginia from 2000 to 2019 = 1,291,034
Number of Defense Contractors in Virginia = 17,877
(To confirm my above statistics, Google “governmentcontractswon”, go to that site, select “contractors by state”on the right side of the page and select Virginia on the drop-down list.)
So, what do you think the likelihood is that the vast majority of voters of Virginia are going to vote for a peacenik for POTUS in November? I’ll give my answer.
Zero.
Ans what do you think the likelihood is that the vast majority of voters of Virginia are going to vote for an R or D warmonger for POTUS in November? I’ll give my answer.
100%.
Now, is the reason that voters in Virginia select warmongers for POTUS election after election after election, and will do so again in November, that they are brainwashed, or have not had their consciousness expanded enough, or have not smoked enough dope or taken enough LSD or ingested enough magic mushrooms or stared at the moon long enough; or is it because they vitally depend upon that yearly DoD injection of well over $50 billion dollars, literally forever, and that they do not want to lose their jobs and quite possibly their homes?
It’s the $50 billion!
The awful truth that the vast majority of Americans know, but are too afraid to say, is that Virginians know EXACTLY what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. And that as far as they’re concerned, Mr. Potato-Head or the Tangerine Jackass are both perfectly qualified to hold the title of POTUS because BOTH will increase the war budget from here to eternity. And that Virginia voters don’t give a shit how many people are killed by the weapons they help produce.
The shocking truth is that as long as the present whatever-you-want-to-cal-it “system” in the US remains the same — war-based– the voters in Virginia and the rest of the United In Warfare States of America are not going to elect a peacenik for the next thousand years!
Virginia is a microcosm of the USA. AmeriKKKans say they want peace, but what they really want is perpetual war which justifies the annual DoD money-injection (which, in turn, requires the Fed to print literally “whatever it takes” amount of drone-standard USD out of thin air which will pay for those injections from now to eternity) …………… until the bombs drop on Main Street, USA. And ONLY AFTER that INEVITABLY happens, will there be a very serious, nearly-instantaneous, nation-wide “consciousness expansion”…… in the heads of those still “living”, of course.
All of the above being said, however (and say what you can justifiably say about the Tangerine Jackass), Syria and Iran still exist today as a sovereign states almost four years after the last “election”. Do you think the same would be true if Hitlery had been elected POTUS? I doubt it.
I’d much rather have an old coward who fears the destruction of all-out nuclear war as POTUS than a “brave” sofa-warrior who wants to have a nuclear shoot-out at the OK corral to finally “decide things”.
Remember what all those D and R Russia/China-hating (Deep) State Department “witnesses” who testified at the impeachment hearings had to say? “If the Ukrainians don’t fight the Russians in Ukraine, we’ll have to fight them over here.” THAT is the mind-set, the qualification, that is required for all job applicants to get a job in the FBI, CIA, DoJ, etc. etc. Peaceniks not only do not “get to the top” in present-day American government, they don’t even get an interview.
Therefore, here’s the most important question voters who do not want to experience a nuclear war should ask themselves before entering the voting booth in November. Who do I think will resist the Deep State Department and CIA’s desire/obsession/advice/orders to attack Russia, China, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran etc. — Mr. Potato-Head or the ever-more-disgusting-by-the-day Tangerine Jackass? (Not that those two morons are the only remaining candidates, but as far as the bewildered herd is concerned, they might as well be.)
A large portion of our economy is based on killing people.
But we should focus our attention on the apex (as the rest too dispersed).
Nearer the apex:
https://swprs.org/the-american-empire-and-its-media/
This comment is extremely difficult to ponder because it’s very true. I’m amazed at the intellect of many of the people who express their thoughts here and grateful so many take the time to do so. I do not know what the future holds but having been around for the past 69 years it doesn’t look to be favorable. When all the pieces are put in place it is no wonder we are where we are today. Thank you Caitlin for this avenue of expression, it’s a special unique blog. I wish you all the best.
Personally, I am not smart enough to follow your reasoning, Caitlin.
For me, life is not that complicated –
I believe the complication that you wrestle with is a result of cognitive dissonance cause by reality is not well aligned with your assumptions about reality.
There are sovereigns and there are people of power and influence – they are not always the same people.
Of course, I am in great agreement – with one exception. I do’t view the exploration as a struggle, but as one of my greatest pleasures in life. For example, when something posted seems as though it may not be as it appears on the surface, or as someone is claiming that it is, I love going to various sources, most often looking at the history of involved organizations and of the people who run them. Often, I find negative information that cast a question over everything involved in that search. And, when I can finally say, ‘I’ve got it,’ I don’t see it as an end to a struggle, but to a victory that came easy and that was, in some ways, great fun. As singer/songwriter Harry Chapin wrote in his song, greyhound, “It’s got to be the going, not the getting there, that’s good. For me, it’s not a struggle; it’s good.
The way I see the matrix is that Agent Smith is just AI and Zion is the prison planet earth and at the bottom of the kabbalistic tree. The tunnels of Seth are where the spiders roam to kill mankind who is trying to expose the AI and neo is the sacrifice to restart the cycle. The quest is to escape the wheel of life samsara…what horrible thing did we do to be imprisoned here. Why was the trinity here to sacrifice themselves (herself) to restart the cycle.
The problem with using the Matrix villains to make her point is that the when Neo shuts down the Matrix most of humanity which are just “batteries” die ? Westworld the series , They Live , and American Gods are more tightly scripted ?
The struggle of humankind is a struggle to become more conscious.
.
I guess the reason I have trouble with your narrative is that I don’t accept this initial assumption. If there is some cosmic plan whereby we are all struggling towards a shared future, then maybe the rest of the story follows. I know many people think that way. I don’t.
.
If you started with a statement that it could happen this way, I could follow the logic through and see where it leads. But for some reason, this assumption is an article of faith, and because of that, you see the future in those terms only. To me it’s possible, but unlikely. People who are starving and scared are not more likely to expand their consciousness if they never bothered to when they were fed and secure.
.
I like the analogy of the fractal, which is self-similar at every level. The implication is that a change anywhere flows through everywhere. To me, this is a reasonable assumption and somewhat supported by experience. Even that a change in one person flows through to every person. Or that a change in one person flows on, through channels that are available, and cause channels to become available.
.
To some extent, positive change of the type you describe is more powerful than the opposite, because the opposite is inherently at odds with reality. And, like you say, any light makes further progress easier. Like if you light a match in a dark space, you remember where things are even after the match goes out.
.
But how it plays out in the real world depends on how it plays out in the real world. It’s possible, but not assured. Doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing.
.
I seem to remember you making a point in one of your recent posts about how psychopaths can’t understand certain things. That’s an important consideration. Something to keep in mind, if you’re talking about shared consciousness is the possibility that there are already powerful non-material entities or self-perpetuating thought-forms taking sides in the struggle. If you consider the amount of suffering, greed, fear and hatred manifesting in so many people and animals all over the globe, this is like nutrition to those entities, and thereby they have their own channels through which they can operate. It’s not one-sided. If in your own consciousness you can avoid or transcend that type of “energy”, then you aren’t part of that struggle, but many people are. This aspect of it is also fractal. If you can transmute that kind of energy then that’s a powerful tool, but know your limits.
.
You are a unique writer on the internet, and I like what you do. You inspire a lot of interesting comments.
Synchronicity is what we are talking about.
Yeah, she wants people to become more conscious, but of course she has a list of things to be more conscious of, which are all the same things that the rulers want you to be conscious of, which are also causing all this division in those that were very conscious before and created all of the good things that are now being destroyed because, you know, “you didn’t build that”. She wants you to turn inward so you can find it in you to rail against the police, any form of unifying government, your failure to accept being overrun by immigrants who have nothing in common with you, and of course your racism. I guess if you become more conscious you will realize that it is you that is the problem and if you just sit there and meditate you will eventually go away and the world will be a better place to live in. Maybe if we stopped all the immigration, realized that racism is not a one sided issue, realized that immigrants are racist, that any affirmative action is racist, and that this whole construct is a top down divide and conquer agenda. It seems when looking back all countries were a lot better off when they decided their own borders and were not forced to take in migrants in any shape of form, or for any reason. Bottom line is this whole let’s hold hands and sing Kumbaya doesn’t work on a larger scale. And I am conscious. Of how we are being led to destroy ourselves by being taught how to be neurotic.
You are far from conscious based on your comment.
You are correct we are being led to destroy ourselves.
The idea of awakening is to move to a higher dimension out of the physical body and free of the tyranny.
Or that is what I believe it is about though I am surely no more conscious then you presently.
And I’m sure that as the hawk swoops down on the sparrow, the sparrow is thinking that if it were just more conscious, that this wouldn’t be happening, or that it will survive this. So good luck with your consciousness, while diversity will help you attain the goals you seek in your journey for sure. Ahem brother.
Consciousness is known, in Buddhist teachings, as the fifth Skandha, or “tendency that confused — or ignorant — mind has to identify with.” What are known as the first four Skandhas are body, sensations, feelings or emotions, and ideas or mental constructs. It is not difficult to understand, when one’s mind is clear, that each or any combination of these does not constitute a separate identity. Ego, or the sense of separate identity, will continually try to convince one, however, that any or all of these are who you are, separate from other beings. If one can accept that all life is interconnected, ego can be readily seen as confused or ignorant in this process. Consciousness, though, is more difficult to understand. Science tells us, and some types of medication can confirm, that it arises and falls many times a second, far too quickly for ordinary experience to know. Each element of consciousness is unconnected to past elements, but our memories want us to believe that there is an experiencer that persists across the gaps between elements of consciousness and that that experiencer is who you are, your identity. Insight meditation — sitting and walking — develops both awareness and concentration so that sometimes the meditator may experience the gap and confirm the truth of the illusion of self that ordinary consciousness tells us is true. This refinement and extension of ordinary, everyday consciousness that insight meditation develops can bring the realization of selflessness that is called awakening, usually in a moment of everyday life, or, more rarely, while meditating. You still have to do the work, but that realization is the birthright of every human being.
That’s the dhamma I was taught. People who haven’t encountered this teaching confuse the accumulation of various states of consciousness with progress towards enlightenment. The khandha called consciousness is not quite the same as what many people think when they use the word consciousness, which muddies the discussion a little. I am not convinced that Science knows anything at all about consciousness irrespective of the meaning. How can consciousness be understood by measuring it with material instruments? How many people bring a science-based idea of consciousness into this discussion?
.
As a practical consideration, I use Mahayanan realisation of emptiness as the path to realisation of anatta, even though I conceptualise the dhamma in Theravadan terms. Your comment has given a very lucid description of the Theravadan approach of vipassana and how it produces realisation of selflessness. I am still undecided whether there is any difference in the outcome (let’s say, at sotāpanna ), but I don’t believe I have ever witnessed the “gaps” between the moments of consciousness, so I’m unable to say.
Expanding one’s consciousness does not justify the abandonment of reason. It is not reasonable to conclude that a particular gang of Psychopaths In Charge, which would include any and all governments, would offer a solution to the inequities of the world, even if they could, which they can’t. We can govern ourselves, or be governed by monsters. If we insist on being governed by monsters, it would behoove us to keep said gang as small as possible. Small enough to be disposed of and replaced without expenditure of too much effort or time. Otherwise it will grow into absolute tyranny, every time.
Great idea. Please go do that. I’ll wait here and let me know when it’s done.
Thank you Caity. Ever see Common Dreams site? They just banned me again after 6 years of being banned for putting down OBOMBER and the democrats. I and friends have been banned for over a decade so they can support the neoliberal pigs. Hope anyonewho can join and comment will do since it may take me another 6 years to get on. Guess the comment i made about Israel being war Criminals, or freeing Assange and Snowden or that Obomber and D’s are bad made me bad. This so called liberal site hasbanned me 8 times since I was a member in 2002. Please don’t ban me!!!!
Caitlin often expresses hope that the power of numbers waking up will shrug off the mechanisms of control and exploitation. NOT SO! Research shows that small minorities (elites) use their wealth, superior knowledge and persistent calculated secret strategies to influence and control politics, religion, culture and literature. The masses who dissent or rebel have nothing effective, not even superior numbers, to defeat the elite. Only effective revolutionary action by a wide awake, well-informed and courageous small faction, guided by the Great Liberator will be strong enough to end tyranny. But ironically, His revolutionary strategy and subversive tactics are so brilliant, exceptional and powerful that this is way above the mental abilities even for highly intelligent and well-educated people who fail to grasp what Yeshua meant when training His Ambassadors for revolutionary action.
If that is so, then it doesn’t matter what the rest of us do. The Ambassadors of Yeshua, small though they may be, will overcome. I assume that step 2 of the revolution doesn’t involve control and exploitation of the masses. It’s good that there are people who are smart enough to understand. I guess the rest of us shouldn’t worry ourselves about it too much.
‘Expansion of consciousness’ per se is just so much hooey, and ‘real revolution’ won’t come at all from expanding it ‘outwardly and inwardly’. Madness, LSD trips, dreams, meditation, etc, all expand of consciousness, many individually therapeutic and beneficial to be sure, but not necessarily particularly useful for the transformation of human society. The Dalai Lama, that quintessential representative of ‘expanded consciousness’, especially in the eyes of liberals who’ve reached their own ‘expanded consciousness’, remains the quintessential representative of the oppressive ‘friendly’ feudalism of the Tibetan Lamaocracy — and a CIA asset. He is definitely an ‘agent Smith’. And never let it be forgotten that integrated into the CIA’s DNA, from the 1950s to now, has been its flooding of US black ghettos with heroin to fund its black ops the world over — this has also ‘expanded’ the consciousness of many American blacks.
.
What matters isn’t consciousness expansion per se but what kind of consciousness is gained, what kind is needed to make a revolution. And most importantly what kind of organisation and program to fulfill that consciousness that can have any chance of accomplishing the revolution so sorely needed. In short, it’s not a matter of quantity, of ‘more consciousness’, inward or outward, but of quality.
.
Consciousness not only of society’s ills, which is just the first step, but how to cure them is needed. The latter is sorely needed especially and doesn’t come from within nor from ‘universal human values’ somewhere out in the ether. It comes from understanding and learning the practical lessons from the history of struggles, of class struggles and battles that have won and lost. Otherwise the continual admonition to ‘expand consciousness’ really is only the ‘hippy-dippy stroll in the park’ that the empire, ‘agent Smith’ and the CIA in particular, would be only too happy that people waste their time and energy on.
.
The lights may be coming on, which is always a good thing, but the claim that ‘a movement toward health and harmony for our species will be inevitable’ isn’t true at all. Nothing in history is inevitable, and the capitalist ruling class certainly has learnt from history how to stop or neutralise any and all forces opposing its rule, even if these do favour the natural development of productive and social forces. The rulers have proven very adept at solving the crises generated by their own system and, in addition to their state machinery of repression, they have a full box of tools at their disposal to do so — from sophisticated ideological efforts, to crude and less crude efforts at propaganda, slander and fear-mongering, to murder of key opponents, to fascism or to outright mass slaughter (the latter today is called the ‘Jakarta Method’ for obvious reasons).
.
Consequently, the rulers also have a pretty good handle on the truth. In the hands of the oppressed, the weapon of truth is the necessary but not sufficient condition for a fundamental social transformation. It’s not simply knowing the nefariousness of the ruling class, but of how to go about overthrowing it that’s key.
.
‘Expanding consciousness’ can’t deal with active, physical efforts of the rulers to maintain their rule, and unless capitalism’s opponents also learn from history then Santayana’s dictum applies: ‘Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it’.
.
Instead of expanding consciousness per se, it would be better, at least as a start, to read the following program that speaks to the why’s and wherefore’s, and ways and means to address the burning issues of today, which 82 years after its writing are only too apparent. Only in the struggles and battles themselves to fulfill basic demands that meet the needs of the masses can consciousness indeed be transformed, but also organised sufficiently, to lead to the overthrow of a capitalist system in its dangerous twilight. By all means try and dismantle or improve on it: https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/tp/index.htm
As history shows, smart scheming capitalists studied Marxist literature and devised effective strategies to counteract Marxist influence and prevent the demise of capitalism.
Indeed they have. I neglected to mention the other prime and most important source of enforcing the exploiters rule: the ‘labor lieutenants of capital’ and their social democratic hangers on. These people put up the most ‘sophisticated’ arguments for doing nothing, from ‘that’s illegal’ to ‘violent overthrows only beget violence’, and all their other ‘agent Smith’ sophistries. ‘Consciousness expansion’ is but one of many ‘agent Smiths’.
Stephen, you’re right in calling for a more specific plan of action than consciousness-raising, but it seems to me that revolution in the Marxist sense is not presently a viable option. We do have a growing sense that the neoliberal capitalist system is catastrophically oppressive and ecocidal, but little revolutionary consciousness is yet to be found in its globalized, non-unionized working class. Perhaps this will change if the anticipated post-Covid depression immiserates the working class to the breaking point, but until then, Marxist dreams of revolution strike me as about as realistic as revolution via consciousness-raising. What I think we need is a 21st Century theory of revolution, but where is our Marx?
Marxism may not presently be seen as a viable option but in the end it’s the only one. While there isn’t yet revolutionary consciousness, some first steps toward it have been taken with the George Floyd uprisings: 1. Illusions in the Sanders, AOCs and Gabbards of the world have been shattered for the better; 2. Illusions in the cops and the nature of the state and for whom it rules have been shattered for the better; 3. Workers are just beginning to discover their real power.
.
Most people aged under 40 years in the US have nothing to lose but their chains of debt, and there’s still a lot of righteous fury that hasn’t been dissipated or co-opted. One big strike that wins, despite the best efforts of sell-out trade union misleaders and their Democrat buddies, can turn things around very quickly indeed — to the extent that what seemed a ‘dream’ yesterday is a palpable reality today. That’s the nature of revolutions. As Lenin put it: ‘There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen’. Such a scenario is no longer so far fetched.
Hope you’re right. I still think, however, that we suffer from an absence of big thinkers, men and women of Marx’s intellectual stature and passion. The postmodern death of the big narrative is really costing us right now, leaving us devoid of a unifying vision.
Go post , one should point out that Marx was himself a capitalist who wrote on how to make that form of slavery more stable at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.
“What matters isn’t consciousness expansion per se but what kind of consciousness is gained, what kind is needed to make a revolution.” Agreed.
.
Phrases like “consciousness expansion” and “revolution” are useful because anyone can read into them anything they like. Makes for interesting discussion. But maybe not so good for communicating a precise message.
.
As a Buddhist I am taught that consciousness is a property of mind, and it it can be focused through will. Narrow or expansive, high or low. Single pointed or open-ended, concentrated or free-ranging. It’s a tool, not a goal. There is no inherent value in experiencing infinite space, any more than there is inherent value in perceiving individual atoms. It’s all just experience. “I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space”. Boundless and space-like is not the same as consciousness experiencing infinite space. Expanded consciousness doesn’t equate to boundless and space-like. Boundless and space-like is how it is. You don’t get there by expanding your boundaries. You don’t get there at all.
The “lifes work” of most Buddhists consists of searching for their next meal and finding a warm dry spot to sleep ?
You just described most non-Buddhists too. It’s called living. The “lifes goal” of a Buddhist is realisation. Like non-Buddhists, we also manage to fit a whole lot of delusion into the day as well, to prevent boredom.
Check out a living Fractual Agent named FAUCI
Note, the statement below CONFIRMS Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) planed to RELEASE another virus on page 10 & 39
“A full probe into the COVID-19 outbreak must be ordered immediately by the Trump Administration. It must include an in-depth look into the WHO’s GPMB. It must interview Dr. Elias from the Gates Foundation. It must learn what information Dr. Fauci shared or gave to the CCP beyond grant money for virus research. The investigation must also determine whether the UN and WHO’s new pandemic spearpoint in the GPMB plans to release another virus—for a second outbreak—this fall as its annual report states on pages 10 and 39.
https://vaxxter.com/dr-fauci-is-no-nostradamus-how-covid-19-ran-amok-under-his-watch/
“US intelligence involved in ‘drug trafficking’ in Afghanistan: Russia envoy”
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/07/05/628951/Russia-Zamir-Kabulov-drug-trafficking-Afghanistan
British Empire in coordination with OSS ‘passed the baton’ to CIA at the end of ww2 (basically). South America cocaine, Southeast Asia heroine, wherever they can keep a lab going amphetamines, wherever it grows well (Mexico, among other lands) marijuana, etc… LSD lab, designer drugs (ecstasy, and who knows what else) lab…
Pharmaceutical companies require the same raw material suppliers for production as street drug dealers do. They also require similar (same) distribution networks, and not surprisingly, protection for their operations. Look at the active ingredients in every last prescription medication on the market. If it’s not completely synthetic (fancy way of saying drain cleaner and diesel refinery byproducts), then it is derived from very very illegal stuff, like opium, coca, effedrine, etc…
That’s just one industry, btw. We have a lot of work ahead of us, as facts such as these become less and less easy to ‘not see’.
CIA got into the drug business big time during the Reagan Administration . “Snowfall” a recent and entertaining TV series presents a whitewashed version of this
dea Caitlin;
i get it my way. they get it their way. consciousness is the pretty big word. we all get it differently.
i see you use it as several things, or powers. like AWARENESS. KNOWING. UP-TO-DATE. ALACRITY. IMPERTURBABLE. maybe other would say it means centered. steady as a rock. the rock of ages. religious. spiritual without gods. selflessness. altruistic. considerate. vegan. not a football fan. fasting once a week.
so we have big C. and little c, conscience, or guilt, white mans’ burden, debt to society. picking up the pieces.
the clean-up woman.
i contain myself to speaking of subjects i demand in this age of globalism. these off shore labor markets who could not even afford our sidewalks with a free blanket. or using coal to power the lights. banks that will hide your money. unconscious behavior. or unconscientious bombing of hospitals and schools from 30,000 feet…or seeing reading any of the stuff Assange and Private Manning brought to light. and what happened to them: what do we call those who paid MANNING’S COURT FEES? $250,000….activists in action!
oh so now we have consciousness and awareness and action…which allows us finally to pull the trigger and assault them back in self-defense after all these years, and after our “battery” which legally, is only pointing the gun.
i say i want everything. it is our country, not theirs. they made more money herein, so should pay more for our continuation. we, I want it all. peace. equality, freedom. free HEW, public stuff they never even heard of before. like free water, free food free education free health care and end to wars. dismantling the police back to a service group with armed emergency parts like the fire dept. i want honest elections with no electoral college.
i don’t even wan the senate anymore. how can ND with 500,000 people have 2 senators when CALifornia with 40 million does not have 89?
shit like that. do not distract me.
Speaking about Truth
““The corporate media serve the function of manufacturing consent for government policy by systematically lying to the public about what science tells us about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines,”
https://medicalviolence.com/2019-12-27-cia-funded-vaccine-propagandist-lena-sun-at-the-washington-post-pimping-deadly-vaccines.html
New evidence shows that Mr. Putin murdered Jesus!
…after cutting a secret deal with Trump that allowed him to enjoy another pee shower. THAT’S the state of American MSM and also now the state of Russian media following the “tabloidization” of RT. Sputnik still remains somewhat substantive but for how long?
“The struggle of humankind is a struggle to become more conscious.”
.
The struggle of humankind is in great part a struggle to become less human – at least as far as those base human drives of being possessive, exploitive, predatory, dishonest, lazy, selfish, egoistic, shallow, untrustworthy, insecure, jealous… and other such very humankind tendencies.
.
Having greater conscious awareness is always necessary for upward evolution. But having greater awareness by itself doesn’t guarantee that one’s new found clarity will be sufficient motivation to act on it in a positive way. Greater awareness is filtered (like everything else) through one’s basic inner drives to either act selfishly for personal gain exclusively or to work for one’s evolution to a higher level of being and an elevated motivations and for the benefit of others beyond self. Greater consciousness requires with it a great deal of inner housecleaning and deep examinations into what drives you and why those motivations are there instead of others and in some cases replacing those nasty default drives with much better consciousness software. Only then can all that stuff outside of self start getting attention.
Most human beings are not aware that they are unconscious, living in a dream existence. They don’t know that their minds are using them, rather than they using their minds. That they are being thought rather than actually thinking themselves.
Until I become aware of this, that my mind is constantly thinking thoughts, I can’t possibly become conscious. Once I see this, and realize that my thoughts are not real (and that they are indeed “thinking me”), then I can step outside the box, and begin to reclaim my consciousness. Life then can actually begin for me.
Caitlin is pointing in the right direction. Mankind is on a steady process of slowly waking up to the fact that they’ve been asleep at the wheel. Our consciousness is evolving and will continue to evolve (if we don’t short circuit the process). How far along are we? 50%, 75%? We definitely have a ways to go.
This is an exciting time to be alive because for the first time in history there are thousands, maybe millions of humans involved in finding their true identity (becoming conscious). And it’s readily available to anyone – everyone has a buddha within themselves, ready to be expressed.
Well said but it sure seems the Cartel are trying to prevent the newest members of the human race to not understand the reality of what you stated so well.
They developed these products supposedly to take down the Muslims back in the 70s from what I have seen in supposed DOD meetings though of course no way to know what it really was. They show the parts of the brain that lights up from spirituality or religious beliefs and developed something to prevent it from activating supposedly.
Whether that is Fluoride or some other nonsense obviously I will not even guess but to hear many of the people I work with speak you would never imagine there is any waking up happening.
To hear the sheer hatred of Trump and the statements that they know for years and trust the journalists of CNN, NBC, CBS, NPR, BBC had me completely blown away.
This was from a guy I had great respect for over the years from many business deals we did together.
I have people I work with that seem proud to state I am a Democrat. I had commented about some asshole statement that came out of one of their mouths one day. Oops
Mind you imo Republicans and Democrats are just two sides of the same coin but to admit your affiliated with any of these shills is kind of nuts.
I hope the small subsection of reality we exist in is enough to break up the insanity. Rappaport had stated a few months back that we are in a 10000 year war in an interview with Catherine Fitts from Solari.
You list: “and trust the journalists of CNN, NBC, CBS, NPR, BBC”
Are we to understand the omission of FOXNews from your list as a simple oversight, or as an endorsement of their propaganda program?
Nice Sunday morning sermon, Caitlin, thanks! We’re (must be the “Royal We” but I digress) looking forward to some more poetry from you. Perhaps you can soon address this “within and without” theme and double the pleasure for all of us by doing it in rhyme. I’m of the opinion rhyme makes for the best impressions, besides, the English language is so delightfully ambiguous. Upon consideration, I expect that our cause celebre for “without”, that one involving the good Mr. Julian Assange, shall be resolved in short order. To quote the Bard, “Truth will out”. Julian’s would seem the logical card to show next in this over-ripe game of dethrones. Level four play Agent Smith, November beckons. Always remember, Down Under is at the head of the curve. 😉
Beautiful, Caitlin. Let me add two more dimensions to open to greater wholeness. One is the spiritual dimension of opening to Consciousness (and in all its modes, such as Love, Peace, Joy, etc.) that has no opposite and no Agent Smiths, so that we steep into That and realize That as our own True Nature, Here and Now, Eternally beyond time and yet mysteriously within it. The other is the psychological dimension of opening to the Darkness, Shadow, or Resistance within ourselves, not just out there. All of this goes together, and it seems to me that adding (or rather recognizing) these two dimensions will help perk up the process and make it go more smoothly. For when I consider the process without these two dimensions, I shudder.
It took a couple of readings for me to “get” what you are saying here. If I’ve got it right, you are using the term “psychological dimension” to refer to all the stuff we want to reject, and contrast that with “the spiritual dimension” which is all the stuff we want to embrace. If so, I agree. So many “spiritual” people want to escape from the Darkness and the Shadow, and consequently it chases them wherever they go.
.
However, that’s not quite what you say, because you also talk of the “spiritual dimension” as having no opposite, here and now, etc. My view is that the Love, Peace, Joy etc and the Darkness, Shadow, Resistance etc are both of the same realm, and are not related to that which has no opposite. The path to realisation of Here and Now comes from simultaneous acceptance of and detachment from both the Light and the Dark.
But the CIA agent Assange has been revealed. Your followers and devotes need only to stop believing the msm who are the ones telling you who he is (msm includes its alt right blogs). Agent Assange a media celebrity poster boy of internet impartiality freedom, spokesman for Wikileaks the cia honey pot and with a Zionist head of Harvard law in his “defense team” in the BS media show that is going on.
The msm media doesn’t lie does it as that is all your evidence for your beliefs and narrative about Agent Assange comes from not from a reasoning mind.
Abuse and violence stems from unconsciousness.
You are talking about the ego and “expanded consciousness”.
I think you are talking about the expanding ego .
Consciousness is in everything in the universe , so where is it to expand to?
Realization is needed not expansion.
So you are incorrect CAI-CIA- tlin the realization of who we are is what is needed not an expansion.
Your blog is oddly always the same msm memes with some I’m so “woke” or victim narrative added to it.
The New World Order with “operation COVID” and all these alt right blogs is doing a expansion.
An ego expansion.
Agent Assange’s war propaganda
Wars are started by a collective lack of peace, egos, no inner peace.
Without ego your mind cannot be conditioned( programmed) herein lies the end of beliefs, the peace of God and the start of knowing.
Let the truth be revealed.
Amen
Is that so?
Well, I think much of what you said is rubbish, but buried in that heap were some nuggets of gold.
.
“You are talking about the ego and “expanded consciousness”.
I think you are talking about the expanding ego .
Consciousness is in everything in the universe , so where is it to expand to?
Realization is needed not expansion.”
.
Many people who talk about expanding consciousness are actually just fantasising (and maybe even experiencing) transferring their ego into some kind of world-embracing extra-material energy being or something, full of love and joy and peace – but with ego intact and thriving. Same shit, different manifestation. You nail it with the line about Consciousness is in everything, so where is it to expand to? Or, to give a different example, say a Christian who thinks “I die to myself and I am reborn to eternal life” ‘I’ am reborn, and ‘I’ become eternal. As a contrast, consider “I die and eternal life takes its place”
.
I can’t judge whether Caitlin is coming from that perspective – for example she talks about the ego-less experience, but it’s certainly a trap for the unwary. Moreover, if someone transfers the ego from a material body ego to a boundless space-like ego, then they might not even realise it’s still an ego. As you say, realisation is the key.
.
New Age types who believe in the evolution of Consciousness probably believe that an expanded ego “at a higher vibration” is still a step in the right direction, so you can see how difficult it can be to let go of the ego. The fractal works in both directions. No matter how you zoom the camera.
Thank You, Ms Johnstone. As usual reading your articles is an enlightening experience. Being retired I read an awful lot of articles from many different individuals, as well as some of your posters. I can not predict the future of the United States of America; but that does not mean that I am wrong when I see two speeding passenger trains on the same track heading toward each other for an eventual massive crash and death toll. Many of your posters believe that the Black Lives Matter group is being led by charlatans with their own agenda. If that is correct than another human extermination event is on the way. These two articles are typical of the general United States population seeing riots and looting every day and night while our government shows its ineptitude in dealing with Covid-19:
Racist Fatigue Syndrome
https://donaldjeffries.wordpress.com/
History Lesson
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/history-lesson/
Adolf Hitler used the Jews as his enemy to inspire his country to war and genocide; Donald Trump ( and his puppeteers ) are going to use negroes to that same end. For the next four months the Donald Trump campaign will be about law, order, and ” our great American Heritage “. After he is re-elected ” the great purge begins ” leading to World War Three!
Our problems and lack of progress are directly related to our inability or refusal to expand our consciousness and engage in escapism, deception, willful ignorance and irresponsibility.
So, what?
It’s the serious question regarding the end of the postwar western capitalist economic world, which gradually corrupted into neoliberal financial capitalism, which showed “GDP growth”, while real economy was hollowed out, and pension contracts were invisibly looted to become overt lies.
The power elites are not in one camp. They are in several conflicting camps, none of them willing to give up any power or prerogative, as current economy shrinks, and future economy is in massive negative numbers compared to obligations of debt-service and retirements/pensions.
Somebody, some large group of people needs to be dispossessed, and it can’t be the actual elites.
This is not going to work. That’s obvious, but not necessarily so to billionaires.
We can see that this systemic crisis has been pushed into the present by coronavirus, and a response by the system, which includes lies, lack of material resources, denial, and failures of serial retreats of public policy in a variety of directions. “Nobody is in charge.”
The economic model of neoliberal capitalism has a fatal flaw. It says that “money can replace anything”. An implication of the money-is-enough principle is that “if it doesn’t cost much, it is not very important to the economy”. Provision of food is an example, and so is the provision of power. They are cheap, which allows the rest of the economy to boom and get big numbers, but everybody dies without food…
We can’t really ignore the rioting and destruction of historical symbols taking place in the US. It is anti-system, but it is also funded by certain financial elites.
If it continues on its’ current trajectory, America gets left-totalitarianism, and certain people will be dispossessed, due to their sins. That group will need to keep growing, as it did in France, Russia, China and Cambodia.
If there is a big enough backlash, then America will get more of a right totalitarianism, dispossessing “socialists”, who already don’t have much at ground level.
People feel the fracture in the world, but things are not actually, physically bad yet. There is food, air-conditioning, TV and internet service. Facebook works.
There is not yet widespread visceral desperation. The elites are trying out some models and seeing what “we” resonate with, what tools may manipulate “us” most readily to kill each other until we are worn out, and they present us with some slave deal with an end to the mass murders. Everybody accepts those deals.
Let’s not let ourselves be driven into that chute, OK?
http://www.johndayblog.com/2020/07/pre-fireworks-considerations.html
Thank you
Welcome 🙂
a left totalitarianism. huhmmmm…take a break and read the Grapes of Wrath. how long? how long will it be before the US agrees to select a Stalin who will give us Free health care and free education and a BMI and and end to wars for more wars.
an end to ol and coal, to be replaced by solar and electric…those are the small things about the left totalitarianism you mention. i don’t see that coming anytime soon.
And if it did Qui Bono? the people. so we could endure another ’08 or 1929 if we can get those items i just wrote.
and if it did it would be non-totalitarian.
only the right has dictators. Stalin Mao, and Castro were leftists in that they curtailed the fascist excesses of the corporate state. but they were also right wing power freaks who needed to self-aggrandize at every turn. to keep themselves in power and to keep the ball rolling.
Stalin was a fascist using communalism as his false flag.
use left and right surgically or leave them behind.
and do not forget there was a cold war going on: martial law was required to prevent uncertainty. There will be casualties in any social change.
One thing stands-out in this essay, Ms. Johnstone and accomplices have a good command on the effective use of a thesaurus. Without any definitions (conscious, inner conscious, subconscious, fractal — art or math or a layman’s definition of a fractal?), there are few, if any, cogent points in this article. Gobbledegook best describes the attempts to define the array of perspectives, or viewpoints, held by humans, maybe Australian or American or British humans. How can a response be authored when the underlying accusations in the essay are beyond deciphering?
Good response ? I prefer algorithm , paradigm and solipsist to fractal , a term somewhat dated these days , when discoursing on such weighty measures as the Matrix ? A poorly scripted movie with great special effects and racial balance.
Sorry but addressing Khatika as if the comment to change yourself by looking inward is right on.
We are spiritual beings. We are not these bodies. The concept of being part of consciousness is right on.
The real world is a hologram after all.
How profound — a true solipsist writes to the inert holograms.
Solipsistic thinking says what I can perceive is real, what I don’t perceive is not real, or that my consciousness determines reality. This essay is not solipsistic.
You’re describing the development of Teilhard de Chardin’s noosphere.
Thank You Caitlin.
Well said. Thank you
great comment – thanks
Michael Fish, Longueuil Canada
1 millimeter = 1000 micrometers (microns)
1 micrometer = 1000 nanometers
N95 filtration is 0.3 microns > Virus are 20 ~ 300 nanometers
Face masks are not PPE, but are sheeple submission signal
Learn real science and defeat faux science
Jesus emphasized withdrawing from the physical and expanding consciousness toward thd spiritual. Do not try to change the world but surrender yourself to the spiritual and be changed within. Only then is the world changed by it. I think that is the only path to true change.
Where does Jesus say that?
Khatika. We live in a real world. We need to eat we need drinking water. If we want to fix things we need less spiritual and it’s offspring religion. We need to look in the mirror more often and ask ourself what do I stand for. Start off with do I believe every person on this earth is equal. If you answer YES. Then you are on the right path. Any other answer you got a problem. To many people today seem to think that they or there tribe or country is special. WRONG!!
I get your drift, Bruce, and am in accord. But ask yourself, where does that belief come from that “every person on this earth is equal,” what is the source, the ground of, the impetus for that belief, which I and many others share? Ironically, this was the bedrock belief upon which the United States, now a malignant global empire, was founded: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Most of the signors of America’s Declaration of Independence were Deists, not orthodox Christians, and no doubt there were secular humanists in the mix as well. Yet they referenced a “Creator” because they knew that values like “the equality of all” could not be derived from the observation of nature, which, despite incredible beauty and complexity, is also “red in tooth and claw.” On the heels of the First World War, Albert Schweitzer sought desperately to distill an elemental, universal value, beyond the baggage of all religious and philosophical traditions, into which human consciousness could expand, upon which a better, more beautiful civilization could be built. If you’re interested, here’s what he came up with:
https://newtonfinn.com/2017/12/18/two-rivers-one-spirit/
Thank you
If all that concerns you is the world around you then you are trapped. Jesus said they hear but they dont understand. They say the can see but are actually blind.
If that were true Jesus would not have died on the cross.
Barbara I am afraid that you are not paying attention. Jesus did not die on the cross. (For details if you are interested, see “The Tomb in the Garden.” This ebook is still available at no charge from the Amazon online bookstore and will be through July 8.)
“Do not try to change the world but surrender yourself to the spiritual and be changed within. Only then is the world changed by it.” – there it is in a nutshell!
.
By using the analogy of the fractal, Caitlin is maybe pointing out that awareness or surrender at any level of focus has a corresponding impact at all the other levels of focus. The withdrawing and expanding that you mention are shifts in the focus of awareness. Surrender is the necessary sacrifice that purifies the action and completes it.