In the Mind Detox Dialogue, for example, we employed tools from many disciplines, including most sciences, history, philosophy, linguistics, the humanities, art - pretty much anything that would be beneficial to creating better mental and emotional health. Of course, as was and is customary, we looked to various religious traditions and spiritual beliefs, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism, Islam (Sufism), Judaism and even pre-Columbian beliefs from the New Worlds, Atlantic and Pacific. These spiritual traditions contained great resources for improving one’s mental and physical health, and were easily mixed and combined to provide healing in many forms. Considerable scientific research existed to verify the experience of people in our industry.
After Covid, after a few years of in depth analysis of all available data, including thousands of peer reviewed, published papers from all over the world and that you can find here, or thousands of posts, papers, other studies and videos you can find here, we came to certain conclusions.
Conclusion one was that those who purportedly govern the world via democratically elected positions, and those who really run the world via huge investments in the former, were people with very bad intentions or very few feelings, and their activities were behind great suffering and physical, emotional and ultimately, spiritual damage.
Following the lead of many formerly atheistic or agnostic scientists and medical practitioners from all over the world, we decided the best term for what we had discovered is “evil” rather than “bad.” This was not an easy outcome for formerly relativist mystics, in spite of Google having used it as a tag line much of its history. “Don’t be evil.”
For something to be evil, however, it must be mirrored by the antithesis, a term that doesn’t really exist in English as one might expect. “Good” is no exception, because “good” better reflects “bad”, and “evil” is in a category all its own.
As more and more professionals begin seeing that era as the result of evil being launched on the world, we started hearing another word appear more and more often, that being “Christian.”
Conclusion two began with the question, “why when we held Olive Retreats was it fashionable to mention any religious tradition except Christianity, or any religious leader except Christ? What did Jesus do that required he be cancelled?
Quick research indicated he -
Healed the Sick and Disabled
Fed the Hungry
Taught Love and Compassion
Forgave Sins and Offered Mercy
Helped the Marginalized Poor and Oppressed
Promoted Peace and Nonviolence
Mentored and Empowered Others
Openly Battled Against Religious Oppression and Hypocracy
Opened the Door to a Direct Relationship with God
Sacrificed his Life Doing the Above
Oh, and don't forget, when asked what were the two most important laws or commandments, he advised us to love the Creator first, and our neighbors second, as much as we love ourselves.
Ok, fair enough, he cursed a fig tree, used very harsh language at times, recognized his message was not likely to bring the best life outcomes, especially in families, and destroyed the commercial activities of at least one day at the temple.
So, what’s the problem with Jesus? Has there ever been a more Olive like leader? We’ve been teaching pretty much the same message since we were founded, and especially the battling oppression part, whether it be commercial or spiritual. How did we miss Jesus?
Regardless of the answer to that question, likely to require a very complex historical untangling, we decided one day that actually, like Gandhi concluded, Jesus is the best representative of our message that exists.