These are my opinions on the current Black Lives Matter movement. First, though painful, I welcome the
riots just like I welcome COVID as a precursor to change. I believe we will continue to have disruptive
events that shake our normalcy in the near future, which will help to waken up humanity and enable us
to grow into a future of love and acceptance in our lifetimes, the like of which is almost impossible for us
to imagine now. Growth is uncomfortable. Talking about prejudice, racism, hate, injustice, ecological
destruction, pain and suffering is likewise difficult, but likely necessary to increase understanding and
promote peace and harmony. I am glad that we as humanity are talking more about important issues
and taking action, and there is a lot more we get to do to manifest a world we are all fully happy to live
in.
I am an advantaged, white, tall, handsome, relatively rich, free, US based, man that grew up with
education, a loving family, and few traumas. I grew up in a culture that gave me almost every advantage
I could ask for, and I am deeply grateful for this. I could feel more guilty and shameful for having these
advantages, but I do not believe that this helps people and indeed could get in the way of me fully
looking at and doing my part to improve our world. Like all humans, I do feel some guilt and shame,
primarily for the things I contributed towards, including everything that I allow through inaction. I more
strongly feel sad, confused, angry, and outraged when other people are treated with hostility, disrespect
and violence. It often feels overwhelming. Sometimes I erroneously feel helpless that there is nothing I
can really do. But, one thing we can all do, is deal with our own emotions, feelings, and perceptions.
One of my practices is to fully feel my feelings and allow them to move through me vs. being stuck in my
body. Indeed, we all have emotional trauma trapped within us from this life and genetically from our
ancestors in our bodies. To fully free ourselves to be unbiased and unconditionally loving in the current
moment, we all get to process and move out programming and emotions from the past that no longer
serve us.
Now, in a white male body, I admit that I cannot fully appreciate what it is like to be a person of color, or
a woman, or subject to constant racism or violence in this life. But, like all people, I have experienced
suffering. I do know what it is like first hand through isolated incidents to be persecuted, sexually
violated, abused, live in fear, been poor and hungry, known depression, misery and hopelessness. Who
can judge whose suffering is more important or stronger than others. I don’t say this to mitigate the very
real problem of racism in the world today. I simply point out that there are many issues currently facing
us from the destruction of our ecology, wars, poverty, hunger, and an ongoing list of issues we are all
somewhat aware of and could do more to improve. And through Tantra, I feel that I have a better
handle on the suffering of humanity than many (and far more than I did in my past) due to my many
experiences of feeling one with the Universe. Whether through genetic memories, past lives, or tapping
into a higher group consciousness, I have memories as vivid and real to me as yesterday of being
tortured to death, enslaved as a black man, burned at the stake as a woman healer, having my children
killed in war, being persecuted, hunted, and living in constant pain and suffering. And I have memories
of joy, love, and bliss that bring tears to my eyes. I share this only to express that I am not fully ignorant
of the plight of most people in our world today.
I see two potential dangers in the current Black Lives Matter movement. One is polarity thinking. I have
heard many times that “there are only two camps, those actively working towards fixing racism and
those who do nothing, which by definition supports racism”. It is the classic, if you think like me you are
a friend, if you do not, you are the enemy. This is by definition prejudice that can very well increase
racism. Many people I know do not know how to deal with this issue, and if they share what they are
feeling, they may be persecuted for not aligning with mainstream thought or if white be accused of
making the situation worse because they cannot understand what a black person is going through.
There are also plenty of problems out there to choose from, and we all have a limited amount of time. If
I choose to focus my time and energy on spreading a message of love vs specifically on racism, it does
not mean I support racism in any way. We each have our own gifts, callings, and inspirations that
collectively are needed to heal the myriad of challenges facing us all today. When looking at different
viewpoints or what actions I can take, my favorite saying is “It is not either or, but both and more.”
The second “danger” is that what we resist persists. The more energy and emotion I put into any
situation, the more power I give it. If one is not careful, this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. For
example, if you are a black person expecting to be persecuted, you are more likely to manifest being
persecuted subconsciously. This is why victims of domestic violence are more likely to undergo it a
second time or more. I also know of a racist couple that see the rioting going on as proof that their
racist beliefs are true. Be careful what you believe, as your thoughts and words have power. Mother
Theresa said that she would never go to an anti-war rally, because it gives war power. She dedicated her
mission to peace and would happily go to peace rallies. I focus on how we are alike vs. different. I
highly value and enjoy the diversity of almost all cultures and people’s individual beliefs, so it is not
homogeneity that I seek but acceptance that all people’s perspectives may be equally valid. I believe that
we as humanity get to create a global culture of love and acceptance for all beings.
The primary issue that I see humans have is that, due to the way our brains mature, most of our belief
systems, values, and programming occur before we are 8 year old (not to mention programming in our
genetics up to 7 generations) and then we are on automatic, living out our preconditioned programs
without much thought. Usually only through practices like Tantra or catastrophes do people wake up to
the fact that they are controlled subconsciously by this programming and must actively work towards
changing these patterns to be free. This is why a person who was abused is more likely to abuse others.
Our subconscious controls 95% of what we do. An awakened person, continuously notices how their
biases show up and continuously works on healing past traumas and emotions stuck in their bodies from
the past to be able to truly live in the present. Until we collectively practice mindfulness and individually
heal ourselves, all our conditioned prejudices will continue to perpetuate unconsciously.
I grew up with one of my best friends being a poor African American and did not think anything strange
about it. We were both kids and the color of his skin mattered less to me than his height or color of his
eyes. When I encounter people today, I do not think about what their race is. I enjoy their cultural
diversity as I discover it. If we all viewed each other the way I do (and we all healed our prior traumas
around this issue), I do not believe that racism would exist. I am lucky enough to personally not
experience racism in any major way. I have not spoken up about it until now, because I do not feel that
it is something I am an expert on. My silence has not been support for racism, but a conscious choice to
focus on what I can do to help humanity primarily through Tantra and by raising my own vibration. If we
all focus on ourselves internally and learn to unconditionally love, the external world will be
automatically transformed. I believe change will occur globally less from protests, but from people
awakening within to the fact that we are all connected.
For me personally, when I hear “Black Lives Matter”, I tend to feel slightly upset by the racism of this
statement. While logically, I think that this is a great movement for waking people up, and that violence
against black people is an urgent issue that needs to be addressed now. I also feel compassion for all the
other people; do their lives not matter? I contest that there are also other prejudices that equally need
to be addressed against Hispanics, American Indians, Arabs, Women, Poor People, all religions, cultures,
and perspectives different from our own. Immigrant children are being locked in cages separated from
their parents, many Native Americans are living in reservations with appalling health conditions and are
still having their land systematically stolen from them, women are subjected to more sexual abuse and
disempowerment than men, men are potentially being killed for being gay more often than being black,
people are killed for their religious beliefs even when they believe in the same God, most of the world
lives in abject poverty earning less than $2/day, we are destroying the very Earth that all of our lives
depend upon. In 2019, 13 unarmed black people were killed by police in the US; this is heinous and
should be addressed. Also in 2019, 19 unarmed white people were killed, as well as, even more police
officers which should also be addressed. In the same year, 21,000 people of all races died from
starvation and malnutrition, every day. That is 7.7 million people when there is more than enough food
to feed everyone.
So, while we are increasing much needed awareness about racism, let us also not lose sight of all the
other prejudices that exist within each of us. Let us use these tragedies to spur us on to true change.
We must awaken as a species if we are to truly evolve and I believe that this is actually inevitable.
Growth is challenging and uncomfortable. Humanity has never been more globally and ecologically
focused. We have never been more connected with each other through technology and spirituality and
this will only grow exponentially. We get to wake up and realize that injustice will not be tolerated and
that we will no longer allow ourselves to be repressed by those in power. How are you inspired to make
the world a better place? One primary way of doing this is by noticing our thoughts and feelings,
consciously taking actions aligned with and inspired by our current values vs. our past programming, and
learning to increase our acceptance and love of all beings. Using the tools of mediation, witness
consciousness, breath, movement, sound, touch, and transmutation of sexual energy, we shall create
heaven on Earth much quicker than most believe is possible. Humanity has the potential to become
balanced, healthy, just, peaceful, and fully joyous in our lifetimes. Your life matters!
ScottieO McClure
www.EcstaticHearts.com