stephanie brail

Over Memorial Day weekend, beach cities in various parts of the U.S. were overrun by violent mobs. Fights were the least of it. People were killed in Miami. It was called a “war zone.” This out of control behavior came on the heels of some of the most violent tornadoes the country has seen in decades…and as I write this, more tornadoes are touching down in Massachusetts, of all places.

What is going on? Is the world really coming to an end because 2012 is right around the corner?

It is popular in the new age and self help movements to believe in a “Law of Attraction,” which states that you create your reality with your thoughts and feelings. I was never a fan of the Law of Attraction, as I felt it was too reductionist. While I do think we exert some control over our lives through our thoughts and attitudes, I don’t think victims of crimes “attract” their attackers with their thoughts. It’s more that we can do better with what we’re given if we approach things with a pro-active mindset. And yes, affirmations and visualization can be very powerful tools for personal growth, which is why hypnosis can be so effective in curing phobias and addictions.

The Law of Attraction also doesn’t take into account collective or group thought. But my theory is, if there is something to this idea that we can “create” our lives through our intentions, then wouldn’t the group intention or collective thought exert more power over individual thought?

This brings us back to the weather. If you are open to the idea that we live in a quantum universe where the observer can affect reality, can we collectively affect the weather? Is it possible that the bad storms we’ve seen in 2011 in America have a correlation to the collective bad mood we are in?

Now, there are many theories as to why we’re having so many crazy storms lately. One is, of course, climate change. There are more “conspiracy” oriented theories too, including the idea that a government-run science program, HAARP, is being purposefully used to manipulate weather for nefarious reasons we are not privy to. Whether the HAARP theory has any merit or not, I find the videos by YouTube Weather Guru Dutchsinse to be fascinating. He has predicted much of the recent bad weather by following so-called “HAARP rings” that show up in radar.

I do not discount the role of “climate change” (which is a misnomer – we should be saying, “human pollution” if that’s what we really mean) in our weather woes. I’m skeptical of, but open to, the idea that HAARP has a role in all this.

But I’m also wondering if our collective angst isn’t also contributing to the bad weather. Can our collective negative energy create storms? Perhaps.

I remember when I moved to Los Angeles right after the 1992 riots. My timing was pretty bad! Over the next few years LA saw disaster after disaster – fires, mudslides, and a major earthquake. After a few years, when the economy started picking up in the mid 90s, things calmed down considerably. People also seemed happier and gang violence decreased.

There definitely seemed to be a difference in the number and frequency of disasters as the collective mood of Los Angeles improved. As the economy tanked in the fall of 2008, we coincidentally saw a huge outbreak of fires in November of that same year.

Now, all of this is simply observational, and I have not done any sort of “scientific” study to see if there is a direct correlation. I am well aware that such “woo-woo” theories don’t have much basis in science at this point.

However, I will make the following prediction: As the world economy continues to be fragile if not downright depressive, and as people continue to generate “bad vibes” through their anger and frustration (especially due to the poor economy), expect to see more major earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, and other crazy weather. Additionally, a good number of people on the planet are “expecting” doom and gloom because of 2012 – so it’s almost like we are hell-bent on creating it.

This is not to say that our human pollution isn’t affecting the weather and our atmosphere. Or that sun spots and solar flares aren’t also at fault. What I am suggesting, however, that we may potentially be adding fuel to the fire with our bad energy.

Now…what we can do?

Whether or not you agree that our collective ill will is causing bad weather, I hope you can agree that we as a society can’t move forward if we are bogged down by hate and rancor. Perhaps these natural disasters are meant as a spiritual wake-up call. So where do  we start?

First off, I’ve been more and more disturbed by the partisan divide in America turning into a chasm. When liberals in Arizona feel they have to “secede” because they can’t deal with the conservatives in their state, we have a problem. And guess what? The problem isn’t just with conservatives! It’s with extremes on both sides that are unwilling to compromise, listen, or give the other side any credit. Yes, this applies to you, dear liberal friend, who insists on name-calling any Tea Party Patriot a “racist teabagger” in order to dehumanize them and make them into the “enemy.” And this also goes for you, dear conservative Christian, who really ought to know better than call someone a “baby-killing libtard,” because that’s not what Jesus would do.

Our inner city children are in particular expressing more openly the anger and seething resentment in America today. Since they don’t feel they have anything to lose, they feel justified in expressing their rage outwards, whereas the “latte liberal” will simply waste time bitching about Sarah Palin on Facebook.

In this one blog post I can’t lay out all the answers, but let’s start with a few right here:

1.  Stop with the name calling. And yes, that includes you liberal friends of mine. The minute you label someone a “hater,” you are being exactly that which you decry. Let’s start a truce – stop the labeling and start listening. Get curious – why is “limited government” so important to some people? Open your mind and your heart – you might learn something.

2. Focus on positive solutions. Quit yer bitching. And yes, I’m just as guilty of bitching as everyone else. But if you don’t like what is going on in the world, do something positive. Don’t expect the government to do it for you – the government is broke, corrupt, and inept. They can’t and won’t fix society’s problems. You need to roll up your shirtsleeves and do it yourself. If you are disturbed by poverty in the inner city, get some friends together and go volunteer at a non-profit serving teens in that area or start one yourself.

3. Get a spiritual practice. Stick to it. And if you are an atheist, you can still meditate. Think of it as mental decluttering.

4. Send unconditional love out to the world. And yes, that includes sending love out to the “teabaggers,” Obama, Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, and even Lindsay Lohan.

5. Speaking of Lindsay Lohan, get your mind out of the gutter. Consuming celebrity tabloid trash that exploits the pain and suffering of the rich and famous, instead of focusing your energies and attention on more positive things, contributes to the dumbing down of America. And the thing is, if you feel you need a “break” from all the pain and suffering in the world, aren’t there still better things you can read? Inspire yourself with great art and poetry, not celebrity trash talking! Work on illuminating your mind, rather than supporting the mental junk food spoon-fed to us by a corporate elite that is more than happy to keep us dumb and disempowered.

All of the above are pretty good places to start to make the world a better place. And whether or not your actions will affect the weather, you can rest assured that you are at least contributing to a kinder, gentler world instead of an angry, violent one.

I actually started writing this energetic weather report the day before the Japan earthquake…actually, maybe not even 12 hours before it. I ended up getting sidetracked writing about the extreme partisan divide in America and didn’t finish the original post. So it’s easy to say, after the fact, that I had a feeling about Japan…perhaps you may be skeptical, but I really did. Here’s what I wrote on March 10:

My intuitive radar is up, and I’m not the only one. Many empathic, sensitive people are wondering if something bad isn’t going to happen very very soon now.

Now, bad stuff happens all the time. Every day you can read the news and find something bad going on around the world. For example, the Middle East is in total turmoil right now. While I certainly hope more democracy is a result of the protests, the danger is that extremists will win the day. And it’s not good that protesters are being shot and insane madmen like Qaddafi are blowing up oil fields.

So course, some of the unease we’re feeling is due to the uncertainty on the world stage. But I am also wondering if some “big event” may not go down soon, if not a natural disaster, then something man-made that might be pretty shocking. Let’s hope that feeling is wrong.

Well, unfortunately that feeling was not wrong. That Japan earthquake is a huge deal, not just because of the lives lost but because of the current nuclear threat. Yet, I didn’t have this sense of unease prior to the Haiti quake of 2010, and many more people died in Haiti. Was my intuitive radar not working last year? (Perhaps due to all the bad energy I was picking up in Los Angeles?) Why would I pick up on one quake but not the other? Will the Japan quake end up being more devastating in the long run due to a meltdown at a nuclear reactor? I hope not.

My initial gut feeling when I heard the news of the Japan quake was that there was still something more coming. I actually felt that “something more” was possibly a human-made event. I also feel more quakes are to follow, and I am still keeping my eye on Southern California, which has become extremely unstable seismically since the 2010 Easter quake along the border with Mexico. I still feel like there’s something more in the works. I’m not sure what. So buckle up.

Energetic Moods and Trends
These energetic weather reports aren’t really meant to be psychic predictions, by the way. It’s more about the feeling of the “energy” in the air. You do not necessarily need to believe in psychic anything to buy into the idea that we all collectively have “moods” as a species. So with that, let’s look at the current collective moods:

1. Anger and Politics. Increased anger in America with widening political divides that involve demonizing the other side – and both right and left are guilty of this. Concurrent to this is a sense that a lot of people (like myself) are getting a bit fed up with the “lot of them” and tired of the political bickering. It’s almost a comedy when some conservatives believe that the left wants to take over America and make it into an authoritarian socialist state, when at the same time the some liberals think the right wants to take over America and make it into an authoritarian fascist state. Both sides fear the other side wanting an authoritarian takeover and a loss of basic rights. (BTW, this is why some libertarians say the true political measurement should not be right vs. left but authoritarian state control vs. individual freedom.)

The danger with the fear and anger, if left unchecked, is that it could lead to civil unrest and violence. The counter-pull of people wanting to find a middle ground is a positive thing, however, and there’s room right now for a moderate political leader to come forward for 2012. This politician (possibly a woman?) could really be the “uniter” that Obama promised to be but did not deliver upon. This is a long-shot but there is a chance. (This person, by the way, could be a Democrat. I am still not convinced Obama will actually end up being the presidential candidate for the Democrats.)

2. 2012 Fears and the End of the World. Fears over the world ending are ramping up. It’s one thing when you hear a friend making a comment that maybe the world will end in 2012, and they are not totally serious about it. It’s quite another when a mainstream website such as CafeMom publishes fears that the Japan earthquake is a fulfillment of Mayan prophecy and could the end be near? OK, folks, let’s calm down and stop giving the Mayans so much credit. These are people, let’s not forget, who actually performed human sacrifices to appease the gods. If they did that, why on earth do we think they were smart enough to predict the end of the world?

Now. The one thing that the Mayans were right about is that we’re entering into a new astrological phase. This has to do with the positions of the constellations in relation to the earth. Could this mean that we may be entering into a new phase of humanity? Possibly, if you believe the stars have any influence on us. But that’s not an ending. Some new age people actually believe this is a new beginning and a period of enlightenment.

Still, there is this undercurrent of fear around 2012, even though I’d wager most people don’t take it very seriously. But it has the weight of mythology on it, and each time a disaster like a big earthquake hits, it gets people a bit riled up. This, along with the economic uncertainty, is certainly contributing to an overall “mood” that is a bit pessimistic and anxious. Unfortunately, such moods can become self-fulfilling prophecies, and a little more optimism might not be a bad thing right now.

3. Earth Energy and Changes. Along with the 2012 stuff, many people believe we are undergoing earth changes, or that Mother Earth aka Gaia is making shifts because she’s trying to send us humans a message – stop raping the planet! I’m not so sure about that. We’re not really experiencing any more earthquakes or natural disasters than normal – we just have a lot of people on an increasingly crowded planet, which means we’re going to have more casualties when the earth acts up.

Take a look at the historical data for the largest earthquakes with the most casualties – the worst was back in China in 1556, and 830,000 people died!

Now. We have been putting a lot of stress on the planet with our population, so we may well see some “earth changes” that are caused by humans. I’m not talking about global warming so much as I am things like the big patch of floating plastic in the Pacific Ocean. Or plagues of bunny rabbits in Australia, because they were wrongly imported there by settlers.

4. Economic Collapse Fears. There is one big thing going on in America that is contributing to our pessimism, and that’s the rotten economy and fears of an impending collapse. While the majority probably still don’t believe that an actual, literal collapse of America is imminent, they do sense that something is wrong and this is fueling the partisan anger I mentioned above. I don’t sense the optimism in America that was there when I was growing up. Even in the cynical 90s, there was a lot more optimism than there is today. This is course could end up creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.

Unfortunately, I see a lot of people preparing for a collapse by stocking up on food and whatnot, but I do not see a lot of people taking initiative to fix things. There is also the peak oil crowd, which claims that we’ll be running out of oil soon and this could mean the end of Western Civilization. The irony is that, if they really believed this was going to happen, you’d think they’d be clamoring for alternatives. Many of the peak oil folks have unfortunately thrown their hands up in the air and said that no alternatives will make up for oil. So I guess giving up is the better option? Curious.

The Common Thread
The common thread in all of these points above is a sense of powerlessness, despair, and fear. (Ultimately, the political anger is fueled by fear and a sense of powerlessness.) Meanwhile, there are powerful people out there who want to take advantage, and if they see a populace that is pliable, fearful and victimized, they’ll be more than happy to take advantage.

It is for these reasons that mindful, self-actualized people should be doing double-time on looking towards building a better future for us all. There is an opportunity here to shift the energy from fear to optimism. We need true hope, not the hope that is packaged up in a political campaign. I’m not suggesting that we put our faith into miraculous solutions to our very real problems. We need to acknowledge our problems, but not get sucked down into despair, or get swindled by easy answers. We may have a bit of a struggle ahead of us, but the world will go on.

There’s this technology that claims to predict the future based on what human beings are discussing on the Internet. The Web Bot Project claims to have predicted events such as 9/11 and the BP Oil Spill, and this past week was supposed to be a big week for something realllly bad to go down. Nothing of note really happened, unless you consider a mysterious missile-like “launch” being seen off the Southern California coast as an act of war that we’re not being told about. (The somewhat official report is that this was an optical illusion caused by an airplane contrail…so if this was indeed a real missile, we’ll probably never know.)

The “window” of bad stuff has been extended to November 18, so maybe there will still be something big to hit…but so far, the predicted cataclysm has not occurred. No major collapse of the dollar, no World War III starting, nothing. The Web Bot folks had also predicted a massive massacre of people killed because of the BP Oil Spill (millions!) and that didn’t happen either. It seems the Web Bot did pick up something in relation to the oil spill, but the severity was over-hyped in the interpretation of the data.

I like to read the Prophecies bulletin boards, where people post their predictions. Some folks do seem to have an uncanny ability to pick up on things in the future. However, not all predictions come true, at least in the time frame predicted. Some folks have been warning for a while that a big massive earthquake will hit California in the next few days. The “next few days” have been happening for a month (or more)…and still nothing.

I’m not writing this to suggest these people are totally wrong or off their rocker. More, that I’m seeing a pattern. One is that there are a lot of “sensitives” who are having extreme symptoms and anxieties coming up lately. Two is that there seems to be a sense of “waiting” for something to happen or a shoe to drop.

Sensitives take on many forms. I personally believe we are all intuitive, but some are more gifted than others, and some have developed their abilities more than others.

Earthquake sensitives pick up on pending earthquakes through physical symptoms such as dizziness, “ear tones” (high pitched ringing in one or both ears), and sometimes nausea. The idea is that they are picking up on electromagnetic shifts in the earth.

Empaths are people who pick up on emotional energies. I am an empath. The day before 9/11, I suddenly got very upset and started freaking out, thinking that I was losing my mind and needed to go see a shrink (even though I had no intention or interest or need for one the day before). I was anxious, upset and scared for no reason. When 9/11 hit the next morning, I finally understood the context for my strong emotions.

Other people pick up information in visions or dreams. I have personally seen the future in dreams, including recurring nightmares about running from a tsunami a week before the 2004 tsunami hit, and dreaming about the ferry that crashed into the Staten Island Pier some years ago a few days before it happened. That said, most of my dreams are not predictive of the future. Psychic dreams that portend major news events have only happened a few times in my life. The rest of them are either subconscious gobbledy-gook, or dreams that predict more mundane things, such as hearing from someone you haven’t heard from in a while.

Of course, some people experience all of the above, or a combination, such as dreams and physical symptoms – though people usually lean towards one intuitive strength over another.

The problem with predicting anything based on feelings, dreams, and physical symptoms is that it is hard to distinguish sometimes what is coming from our own personal fears and what is a “message” or a warning.

Thus, given that the level of general anxiety and fear seems to be rising in the world…due to global economic meltdown and 2012 coming up…I feel there are a number of factors at play here:

1. I do think some bads thing are going to happen. I can’t say when. But on the one hand, while I do expect some horrible and shocking things to occur, I just don’t feel the world is going to end or civilization is going to completely collapse any time soon.

2. I wonder if some of the predictions and feelings of something really bad happening “any day now” are simply people picking up on all the anxiety everyone has right now. People are unemployed and the holidays are stressful.

We’re also seeing the end of an era, as the “old” stuff (i.e., financial systems, government structures) is starting to disintegrate. We will go through some hard times as we transition from the old forms of government and monetary systems to newer and hopefully better ones.

Transition times are scary and tough. It can be easy to fall prey to fear and worry that the world is ending. This can lead to taking data – whether it’s the computer data of a Web Bot program, or data that is coming from your unconscious mind – and interpreting it as the worst case scenario.

I think we need to step back, calm down, take a deep breath, and try not to panic as things accelerate with the transition we’re all going through.

That said, I do believe that people are intuitive, and if a lot of people suddenly at once start feeling something is “going down,” it’s not necessarily a bad idea to try to be prepared. And heck, in the case of living in California, if you don’t have an earthquake kit already, you should probably have one anyway just in case. It’s simply the smart thing to do.

As for what I am picking up right now…while I don’t feel any major cataclysmic event is going to happen in the next few days…I do sense a “gathering” of forces. Like a storm is brewing. But it’s not a storm that hits quickly and hard and leaves. It’s more of the kind of weather pattern that stays around and lingers…sometimes for as long as a season. I think we are in for some rainy days ahead.

Now is a good time to get an umbrella.

After many years of Southern California living, I am moving out of Los Angeles. I love the weather, the sunshine, and the ocean! I do not love the shallow plastic people, the traffic, or the sprawl. But mostly, the main reason I am leaving is that the energy does not feel good here anymore.

“Energy” can mean a lot of things…and I’m talking somewhat of the “chi” of traditional Chinese medicine but also the “energy” of emotion. Cities and locations can have energies. When I first moved to Los Angeles (now aging myself by admitting this was in 1992, fresh out of college), the riots had just happened. The “energy” in Los Angeles at the time was one of unease. Throughout the 90s the energy slowly brightened and Los Angeles felt “happy” for a while.

Now, in 2010, the feeling of unease is back. The energy is uncomfortable here. Sometimes it makes me feel downright icky…I have a feeling of urgency, as in: “I need to get the heck out of here!” This feeling of wanting to move started last year, but the icky feelings didn’t intensify until this spring.

I’m not the only one who has noticed the energy shift. A good friend of mine who had moved away to South Africa a few years ago visited in May and told me that the whole mood in Los Angeles had shifted. People here were more “somber” and there was not the sense of celebration he felt when he lived here.

The other day, another good friend of mine told me that he felt people here were “sad.”

“When I go outside, Stephanie, people seem so sad now. So I try to lift them up by sending them love if I can. They seem so stressed.”

Of course, the national economy is in sorry shape, so it could be that a lot of people everywhere are “sad and stressed.” However, in a recent trip to other parts of the country, I did not feel the concentrated stress levels I’m feeling here.

There’s a darkness descending over this city. I am reminded of a theater I used to be a member of. It was thriving for a while but then shut down. About six months prior to the shutdown, I started feeling a “darkness” when I walked into the place. It was like the place was dying. The energy felt dead in a way.

This is how Los Angeles feels to me now sometimes. While it’s not totally a “dead” energy, there’s definitely a big damper being put over Southern California right now.

I’m moving to Austin, Texas, and when I was visiting there, the energy was much different. A lot more alive and happy. People are having fun there…I’m sure the economy is hitting people there too, and it’s not all sweetness and light, but there’s just a lot more joy in that city than in Los Angeles right now.

I have other friends who are planning on escaping Los Angeles soon. Some to Denver, one to Houston, and another considering Brazil.

My concern about Los Angeles is that it’s headed for a decline (at best) and at worst, civil unrest. Many storefronts are closing here, although there are pockets of vibrant activity still. Downtown Culver City is still bustling, but there’s an entire strip of stores on Washington Blvd. not too far away that are empty and for rent.

My friend who noticed the sadness also told me that at the piano bar he goes to in Silverlake, only about half the people as usual have been attending in the past few months. “Restaurants are empty,” he said.

Now, it could just be the summertime doldrums. But…with Los Angeles due for another big quake, California broke, a very uncertain economy, and all this bad energy, I don’t want to stick around and find out. I feel it’s time to “get the hell out of dodge” and to any friend of mine who expresses a desire to leave, I tell them they might want to listen to their intuition and move on.

Does this mean it’s bad to stay? Not necessarily. But for some people, it may be time to move on.