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James MacRae's avatar

This relates very well to a piece I wrote on the value of silence. Blaise Pascal said all of humanity's problems could be solved if we spent time in silence in a room alone.

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Francis O'Neill's avatar

I think he is probably right about problems caused by the human but the trouble is most of our problems are caused by the inhuman.

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James MacRae's avatar

Do you mean Satan?

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Francis O'Neill's avatar

Or his minions. I think we have to realise that the conditons we live in and many of the problems we face are deliberately imposed upon us. I haven't finished reading your piece and maybe your views have involved since then but the events of the past four years for example, were not due to incompetence and mistakes but concerted malevolence.

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Francis O'Neill's avatar

*evolved not involved!

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James MacRae's avatar

I get that but it's because humans have lost touch with their source that they are so weak and susceptible to the machinations and wiles of dark forces. We all know that light dispels the darkness. We need more light. We can't get rid of it, we can only repel it if we have the light within.

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Andrew's avatar

Even though I am an 'ex practising catholic', I see that some good came from that time. Many of the priest's believed in quite prayer, getting away from the buzz of life even if it was sitting alone in the church gathering thoughts. At the time I felt this to be very beneficial, as ultimately my thought formation became very different and realised there was something very wrong in the world (many priest's I encountered were uncovered as pedofiles too). This lead my wife to become concerned, as I went down many rabbit holes through my adult life (and have done ever since), she arranged a meeting with our priest which I begrudgingly went to alone. I explained to the priest I thought there was a cabal running the world (bearing in mind this was over 10 years ago), he would not accept any conspiracy was plausible, given this priest continually said God had lifted the veil from him ( through his quiet meditative state ), of a belief in good an evil and thus took up his vocation. Clearly this man was deceived by the very organisation he worked for and his quite prayer encased his thoughts instead of opening his mind.

Point is, at least one of us came out of the other side with a perspective more relevant in our day and age and I realised we who have intense, provocative, good thoughts are more spiritual than the ones with a certified name behind them.

Thank you Francis my friend, for sharing your inner voice as it helps uncover mine.

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Francis O'Neill's avatar

Thank you, Andrew. That's very touching. It reminds me that when I first started speaking out one of my motives was to serve as a 'permission giver' in order to broaden the parameters of acceptable discourse exactly so that others could find their voices.

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Paul O'R's avatar

Just listened to your wonderful conversation with James Delingpole. Clearly, a meeting of minds!

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Francis O'Neill's avatar

Thanks Paul, I'm glad you liked it.

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James MacRae's avatar

Hope to listen to James's podcast over the weekend.

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Francis O'Neill's avatar

Thanks James, I hope you enjoy it.

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Niki's avatar

I have had need of silence and solitude since my childhood. I rarely listen music it disturbs me most of the time. My husband was so kind and he used earphones when (very often) he wanted to hear music ❤️. It looks like that modern people are afraid of being alone with themselves. So they take refuge in noise.

So sad.

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