We live in a society where the outcry for both prison and justice reforms has reached a fashionable fever-pitch, where there is an appearance of great strides being taken in those directions. Celebs visiting prisons, changing laws, and prisons closing all give the impression that reforms are occurring in California: The Beating Heart of Prison Industry Worldwide.
Yet, Tomeikia Johnson of Prism, in her November 2024 AOUON article, brilliantly refracted the Light of Experiential Truth that exposed the “smoke and mirrors” of the California Model for prison reform. And as I sit here in the bowels of the Imprisoned Predicament myself3a Youth Offender and First Time Offender LWOP whose situation seems unchanged after eighteen transformative years—how could I possibly see anything BUT the same jester-generated refuse instead of serious reforms?
Appearances…impressions…what seems…to answer what one may surmise to be a rhetorical question, I do see something different, beneath the surface of all seeming, and universally so. The truth is, incarcerated people, and the Justice System HAVE been reforming, but the question is, why have the “new” reforms fundamentally mirrored the same criminal illness and injustices, as recidivism rates and ineffective models reflect?
It is said that the value one places on something determines the intensity in which one seeks it, and as someone who was sent the judicial message that I essentially could NOT reform, reforming has become my highest value. As I’ve spent nearly two decades guided by the books of sages, solidifying my personal reformative healing, I ask that you join me, led by the ideas of one of the Founding Fathers of Physics, Albert Einstein.
His Theory of Relativity gives us a clear window into the nature of reform itself, sparking an understanding to be shared unlike anything any incarcerated person, prison or justice official, or member of society has experienced—but now can—together. WHAT reform actually is, WHY it has not worked well for us, and yet WHY it is destined to unite and heal us all humbly awaits us, but we have uncharted waters to explore before we reach our peaceful destination. What better navigator, then, could we have than a Nobel PEACE Prize winner?
One Einstein biography I read dives into the depths of his Relativity Theory, which includes General and Special Relativity. But for our reformative purposes, we need only a basic understanding. Webster’s dictionary defines “relativity” as follows: (Physics) a theory devised by Albert Einstein which says that the way anything except light moves through time and space depends on the position and movement of someone who is watching.
Now, after becoming obsessed with root-depth reform—despite the LWOP incarcerating implication that I could never experience or share it—I’ve come to see everything I learn through a rehabilitative lens. Naturally, I was then struck by what Einstein’s Theory implied: how we see things in our physical universe directly DEPENDS on our position and movement RELATIVE to them…objectively speaking. Yet isn’t this how we are conditioned to objectify one another in our world as well? Aren’t we environmentally taught to see those different from us (relative to us) as “things” SEPARATE from us, through a judgmental lens of our perceived position in life and the trajectory we imagine it moving in?
Subjectivity speaking, our perception of things/people is first FORMED as a mental thought (concept) given to us by trusted people in our environment, then RE-FORMED into the judgmental vision of things/people, which—in turn—says EVERYTHING about the “form” of our own relative position and movement perceived, NOTHING about the ACTUAL STATE of the things/people perceptibly “re-formed.” In some way, shape or norm, we were all conditioned to see each other as falsely separate from each other, thereby breeding the societal ignorances that have become the callousness of our convicted criminals and the abuses of our systems.
How could we do anything OTHER than perpetuate the false Belief in Separation in new forms…as RE-FORMS? This is what we have been manifesting and clearly witnessing, however dimly. But as Aristotle Onassis once said, it’s during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.
So, how do we stop objectifying one another as separate “things” relative to us, our prideful positions, and our “more important” movements, and start seeing “others” in light of their REAL CONNECTION to us? What must we do to expose the dark world of conditioned, fearful imaginings we have formed in order to RE-FORM substance instead of shadows?
Did you notice the only exception in Einstein’s Theory of Relativity? It was “light” itself: the only thing that moves through time and space INDEPENDENT of the position or movement of anyone watching. Consequently, there is more than meets the eye when it comes to “light” and us as “watchers” (i.e. perceivers), whose positions and movements have NO EFFECT ON IT. Light is the one thing that affects US, causing us to be conscious, giving us the ability to perceive any and everything “relative” to us in the first place! How could anything EXIST without light?
Even if available in the smallest amounts, light is the substance that is absorbed by our eyes—the organs of perception—as we use it to interpret the things/people radiating that same light’s wave-particles. This is how we are constantly RE-FORMING: by absorbing the light around us and THROUGH IT seeing (i.e. reforming) as much or as little as we are conditioned or choose to see. Light is then what determines the existence of a thing/person, governing EVERY position and movement of both the RE-FORMER (the perceiver) and the RE-FORMED (the perceived) relative to everything else in our shared reality of time and space, mind and race.
As Goethe illumined, Light created the eye as an organ with which to appreciate Itself.
From the ancient Creation stories, to the radiation given off by everything from atoms to suns, “light” reflects the Universal Intelligence that allows Creation to know Itself as Parts of Its Whole…THE Whole. In a world where everything physically created is a re-formation of a thought (concept) form expressed from a given light source; can we not say that light wave-particles are the re-formations of Creative Thought Itself; the Formless Form of Consciousness that SHINES through our minds as individuals? As humanity?
As each beam of light that activates our physical eye extends from a radiant source inherently harmonious with the rest of the heavens, so too does Creative Thought CONSCIOUSLY activate our mind’s eye, extended from The Source, Whose Re-formation IS the Heavens Harmonized. Whatever FORM we call The Source (God, Allah, Universal Intelligence, Unconditional Love, Life Itself, etc.), we are ALL Its Infinite Ideas, the Radiant Re-formations and Microcosmic Sources of Light that contain Its infinite enlightening potential.
Everything unites us. Nothing separates us. Unity’s reality is love-based. Separation’s illusion? Fear-based. Which would we choose? Think for a moment about what the light SPECTRUM reveals regarding the ALL INCLUSIVITY of light/Creative Thought: every single color’s difference and blending into one another is NECESSARY for It to be pure, perfect, WHOLE.
This is where we all unite—unseparated, each being Sentient Sources of the Same Light: each ethnic group, economic class, country, nation, culture, faith PART of the Spectrum of Society whose unique shine makes our world creatively complete. But as dim incarcerated persons, the blind Justice System, and the shady society that ignorantly re-forms them both, we must all begin to see OURSELVES AS WE ARE, then consequently, each other in kind.
Here, we arrive at our destination, on the Shores of the Spirit Shared, greeted by the Theory of Reformativity:
The way that any idea/person, except Creative Thought, that forms in mind and race reforms depends on the perception and emotion of the one experiencing.
Being unique, individual minds, part of the human race [mind], when an idea/person formed within it is dependent upon our perception ALONE, the resulting fear-based emotion causes us to experience an illusory reformed shadow of the idea/person, demonstrated by a [negative] thought, word, and/or action in denial of the Substance Shared (i.e. LIGHT). Yet, as we allow the EXCEPTION—Light’s Creative Thought—to illumine our minds as PARTS of the human race [mind], unseparated, then it is our conditions and fear-based emotions regarding any idea/person that is reformed, experienced AS the correct perception of Oneness and Its master emotion, Unconditional Love; uniquely shined as the [positive] thought, word, and/or action of Light Itself: the Substance Shared.
Einstein essentially understood this theory better than anyone, revealed through a personal experience he had that helps usher us into a new reforming era.
Stay tuned…
