Several of you have expressed your thoughts about the cognitive dissonance you’re experiencing due to blogs like this one and the realization that something is seriously amiss. You’re not alone. From What a Way To Go:

When I am with those precious few who have grokked deeply the world situation - who have felt their way through the enormity, the complexity, the fear and the anger, the grief, the despair - when I am with those people, we find that “it” – call it the end of the world, the apocalypse, the collapse, the great turning, call it whatever you like – “it” is pretty much all we talk about. Of course it is. Once your switch gets flipped, once you know, then every single aspect of your life has to be readjusted to this new reality. Every nook and cranny of your psyche must be realigned. Every mundane detail. Every plan. Every expectation. Every assumption. Every hope. Every dream. On this side of that looking glass, the rules have all changed. And nothing remains the same.

Nothing.

I would not switch back, if such a thing were possible. The sense of sanity on this side of the mirror is worth every bit of the pain and upheaval it takes to get here. But because my whole world has tilted, I cannot walk easily in the world I once inhabited – what some have called “the consensus trance”. I try. But more and more often, I fail.

I like that term - “the consensus trance” aptly applies to the abiding indifference I’m seeing in the world.

There are, at least two “realities” that are now at the forefront of the collective consciousness. One remains stuck in the paradigm of the usual and ordinary. The other, is deeply alarmed by the signs of collapse occurring throughout the world. The former required adherence to the consensus that “all is well”, but you’d have to be in a trance to believe it. The other, eyes wide open, are daily beholding the shock and awe of a collapsing civilization due to ongoing human stupidity.

One reality requires almost nothing other then the daily grind for existence (you’ve got to do that anyway). The other reality requires a sharpened mind, honed and trained to carefully look at and examine the other reality, ultimately rejecting it.

This tears at all the known comfort zones and can be debilitating, destabilizing and even dangerous. But you cannot go back, it’s not really possible. This is a subject area that I have had long discussions about, in private. The ability to cope with the other reality (and it is very real to those that embrace it) becomes increasingly difficult. The connections you once had are significantly diminished, or even abolished altogether. This is the inevitable result of the absorption of evidence that changes perception from one reality to the other. The process causes cognitive dissonance, and the loss of stability.

Further examination though, reveals that even this concept was mistaken. Stability was an illusion, built up by an entire apparatus of lies and deceptions. This then, is discovered to be the root basis for that first reality, the one in which we were all born into. Stability is then discarded and eventually replaced with. . . nothing. Not instability, nor anything else. If anything, stability simply becomes existence.

In a sense, hope dies. But first, I need to clarify this. Hope is based upon promise, and promise is predicated upon stability. The steady-state or even improvement of things implied in stability is gone. So when stability is tossed out the window, along with all the other illusions, hope transforms into something else. It’s not really “dead” in the sense that there is no more hope, because that is simply untrue. Hope in the traditional view of stability is gone. Hope becomes something else.

In the new reality, traditional hope is soon realized to be for the hopeless. Hope is for those who do not take charge. Hope is for promise(s) based upon the steady-state of stability, which is to say, the status quo. Never changing, or changing little and always improving. Those that embrace hope in the status quo are truly the ones without any real hope. They’re the ongoing victims of circumstance.

Hope, for the new reality, becomes several things. Focus, dedication, determination, effort, intelligence and will power. Stability is no longer sought after as it once was, or even embraced. Flexibility becomes key instead. The new reality embraces change, recognizing that this is truly the way of the world. Hope becomes a new dynamic encompassing all of these things.

I have hope for the future, but it’s not the same definition of hope employed by many. It embraces change, even cataclysmic change, as the only “real hope” there is. This is the hope that holds the real promise. Stability is no longer a part of it.

The consensus trance denies all of this, because the steady-state of stability is threatened. Vast segments of the population absolutely refuse to correctly identify the changes that are occurring in our world. Their denial is hard to take, and even harder to witness as denial blunders ahead, destroying even more of the biosphere. Clearly, they have not made the journey from one reality to the other. The critical examination of thought, action, events and outcomes eludes them. Their world is illusion, and to them, very real.

Our world is just as real and just as tangible. But we’re badly outnumbered, and more often then not, always looking in to that other world and shaking our heads in disbelief. We are beset by loneliness, isolation, discouragement and even mutual distrust, because our reality doesn’t align with the dominant paradigms. But we already know, that doesn’t make us wrong. In fact, it demonstrates the rightness of our reality and even reinforces it.

In a sense, our reality requires the existence of the former reality we once knew. This is because of several things. First off, our reality is incomplete. It’s really a transitional reality. We have yet to become what we embrace. If we’re honest, we’ll admit it.

This transitional reality is still very much dependent upon the former reality in many, many ways. An example is how we still long for the connections and comforts of that world. This can be friends, family, entertainment and creature comforts. We are not as disconnected as we may like to think. Our dependency is still quite evident. And when that world collapses as I’ve long discussed, that dependency and shock will affect us deeply. Our transitional reality is then, inadequate an incomplete.

To put this into perspective, imagine an aboriginal tribe living in the Amazon. They’ve little or no contact with the outside world. When this world collapses, “our” reality, it won’t affect their reality and even their feelings very much, or at all. The only thing that will affect them is when their reality collapses. Perhaps the Amazon will dry up or something like that. But because they do not have one foot in this world, and one foot in our world, they will be largely unaffected. The collapse of civilization will benefit them immensely, while it would damage us far, far more.

Back to our transitional reality - because this reality is straddling the fence between two worlds, we will be affected very much by the collapse of our civilization. However, we will also be far better prepared then our fellow world travelers who embrace the first, traditional reality of the world. We’re preparing for destabilization, they’re not. We’re preparing for food shortages and riots, they’re not. We’re preparing for job loss, economic meltdown and bread lines, they’re not.

Their world is intricately linked and interdependent upon everything working together, in relative harmony. This works, as long as the resources last and as long as some such catastrophe doesn’t come their way. But when disaster or collapse hits, their reality will suffer horrific blows. Even our transitional reality will endure far better, we saw it coming and we prepared for it.

Transitional reality then, is better equipped because it no longer embraces the steady state equilibrium of society. But I stress that other point I brought forth - this too will prove to be inadequate in the end. I think it is only important to recognize this, because there is almost nothing that can be done about it at this time. Transitional reality will prepare you for whatever is coming and by it’s very nature, allow you to be flexible enough to embrace what we cannot see yet. To me, this is sufficient and all I can expect.

As the collapse deepens, the transitional reality will become the new dominant reality and will be embraced by expanding numbers. I take little comfort in this fact, because I believe it will be too few, too late. A ill-timed belief is simply not much good to anyone, even you. It’s important to be flexible as the world dynamics change. Just don’t do it too late or it won’t do you any good.