Ghostly Hunger

This is a book about trauma, and what some would describe as pathology, or the darker side of human existence. This is a book written for and about anyone and everyone who has or is experiencing in some form abuse, deprivation, neglect, abandonment, stigma, marginalization, alienation and exclusion.

I'm writing this book because I come from a life of such trauma in my past and in my childhood, I have lived a life of many different struggles, and sensing that on some level I'm in some kind of decline, and not being able to find the platform to create the awareness that needs to be created, I've decided to write a book about the subject. This is that book.

In many homes in the West, and perhaps further throughout the world, children and parents are denied many basic needs and opportunities, and this is something that is difficult to conceptualize for many people who have not gone through pathological circumstances and experiences in life.

There are many professionals, among them doctors, psychiatrists, therapists, social workers, and others working in such fields as mental health, healthcare, and welfare support, are simply not trained or prepared adequately to deal with this reality which comes out of this pathology. There is a massive gap, and sometimes a chasm, of awareness, a lack of insight and empathy, which further impacts on the lives of those affected, and thus impacts on communities and society as a whole.

There is a lack of training and awareness among such professionals, and this ignorance which results condemns many lives which have the potential for rehabilitation and which could take a different course, but for the ignorance and the lack of opportunity. This of course is not done with any premeditation, which I also wish to emphasize, but it happens and it happens because of the lack of insight and awareness.

This is not, by any means, hyperbole on my part.

The effects of our inadequate and broken system creates a kind of pandemic subculture which is never really spoken about or discussed with any fairness or open-mindedness, though we are all aware that such a subculture exists and that some people are affected by it.

Not only does this subculture create experiences of homelessness, abuse, addiction, long term unemployment, poverty, destitution, and a lack of opportunity creating experiences and cycles which are extremely difficult to escape from, but it sucks in other people who have other circumstances and experiences beyond their control, such as disability, chronic illnesses, and mental health issues, who also become alienated, isolated, marginalized and 'written off'.

These are experiences which affect not just individual people, they also affect entire families because such experiences cycle through generations of families and there's common experiences between parents and children, who grow up in this subculture and who have no other opportunity but to perpetuate this subculture further.

There is also what I can describe as a political vacuum which is related to this subculture and a general strategy of avoidance when it comes to political parties which also ensures that this subculture perpetuates and cycles with each passing generation. I have tried in my work to raise awareness of such issues within political parties and so far it has come to nothing. This has left me with a distinct impression that there are serious limitations when it comes to democracy.

This means that there is, throughout our society, a barrier which is pretty much impenetrable, which divides those who have gone through pathological experiences in life from those who haven't. Society is not a level playing field by any means, of this I am certain. But there is a certain stigma attached to people affected by this pathology and it affects them in so many different ways when it comes to opportunities in housing, in employment, in education, so that their ability to become part of 'the mainstream' and break the cycles of their past is severely limited.

A major part of my work has been to try and find ways to navigate a path or a path out of this subculture and somehow across the barriers imposed by others not necessarily for myself, but for other people, so that they can break the cycles of their past life experience and resolve their karma.

Now as I get older, and in light of my many failures of trying to shine a light in the darkness, and to seek resolution, there's a part of me which feels that the resolution isn't going to come in my lifetime. The subculture and issues I'm writing about here are just too big, too widespread, and often too overwhelming. I'm just one person and my life is a matter of finite time and finite energy. I can only do so much.

What I'm saying here is that there is a great but unspoken and hidden societal need for culture and media that accurately highlights, displays, dissects and navigates pathology in a way which provides insight, opportunities for empathy, understanding, and the creation of better resources and better opportunities so we can provide those who are 'broken' with better support and better resources to break the cycles.

This is so we don't write off a great many people long before they manage to get a grip on their life experiences and past issues. Writing off such people, diminishing their potential and value to society, condemning them to the restrictions and hardships of this pathological subculture does not serve either our communities or society as a whole. It diminishes society and dis-empowers our communities.

A good starting point would be to recognize and understand that, when it comes to promoting social cohesion and social progress, essential for human evolution, individualism is a failing strategy and a failed ideology. Individualism is based on separateness, continuity and permanence, all of which are false illusions.

Pretending that pathology is something which can somehow be avoided, or negated, or diminished doesn't work. All this serves to do is write off people who are in reality not different from anyone else and it also deprives society as a whole of a great deal of insight, empathy, humanity, not to mention individual human experience and individual human creativity.

I cannot even begin to quantify the amount of human life experience that is wasted, destroyed, or squandered as a result of adopting individualism as a core political and social strategy. I'm writing here about futures that will never be realized, human potential that will never be reached, individual human lives that are wrecked, and wrecked repeatedly, systematically, and cyclically. I'm also writing about death, and the disgusting number of human deaths which take place which are unnecessary and entirely preventable.

If we truly value human life, as we claim to, and we're not just beating our chests, or mouthing empty, meaningless platitudes, then we need to accept that human pathology is a part of the human experience of life and part of our society, and embrace the fact that this is so.

As a society and in the community we need to find ways to empower such people and their experience of life so that they can break the cycles and connect to others in society the same as everyone else.

For that reason I'm going to do my bit and here in this book I offer a mystical perspective and principles which I hope can serve as a guide for others to find their way and navigate their path.