If anyone read my previous article, SOCIETY’S VIRUS TRANSREFORMED: CRIME AND THE CRIMINAL CURE, they may have noticed that I misspelled the word “commitment.” A critical eye would have noticed that I spelled it with an extra “t” (i.e. committment). In perceiving this as a mistake—being how I first believed I was spelling the word correctly—I was upset by the thought of needing to go back and validate the mistake by finding and correcting every “committment,” especially given my sometimes nerve-racking, perfectionist temperament. Then I had another thought; a thought that I realized, if true, it would both transreform the word from how we were originally conditioned to see it, and best reflect the rehabilitative meaning I’d like its noun to convey.
I thought to myself, “Is that extra ‘t’ possibly at the heart of the word, in the exact middle of it? And if it is, could this extra ‘t’ stand for “transreformation” being the heart and process I newly see myself and reforming others going through as the Committment? At first, I automatically went to the second “t,” counting the number of letters before and after to see if the number of letters were equal. They were not: six before, four after. My heart sank. But if I counted from the FIRST “t”…
BINGO. Five letters before, five after: C-O-M-M-I-“T”-T-M-E-N-T. The apparent flaw in my original spelling of the word became that which CHANGED the word for the better, given the depth of meaning attributed to it, simply due to my sincere determination to see how the word was POSSIBLY perfect as it was—and now IS—“flaw” and all.
Ultimately, in my healing and ability to inspire healing in kind, I have come to understand myself as that “extra ‘t'”, that in reality was always perfectly placed; never being something “extra” or not-belonging, as I once believed. I just needed to develop the eye to see how and why this was possible, probable, and creatively ACTUAL.
I felt this was innocuous yet important to share because it reflects the significance of two ways we can see every experience. We are either operationally bound by the conditioning of our five senses, or we can choose to operate in the unconditioned freedom that our sixth sense allows; that which prompts us to creatively see the perfection within everything, especially those things we consider to be “flaws.” The former operation is a projection of the unconscious Belief in Separation, the latter is the by-product of one’s awakening to the Creative Thought all individual minds extend from as Its Conscious Light shared.
This realization is most significant at this juncture, as it is crucial to understanding our unique positions and purposes within the Individual Mind of the Criminal Justice System as It wakes to our collective Shared Consciousness; the Conscious Light globally uniting us all. Take a moment and please reflect on how you may currently see our Criminal Justice System, as well as your position in it. With it being an innate part of our society, whether you are a tax-paying citizen, or incarcerated for breaking whatever the law was perceived to be at the time of its breakage, can you possibly see yourself as that aforementioned ” t,” given either your unconscious or conscious committment to the System?
We could only unconsciously be part of the Criminal Justice System’s problem, or part of Its conscious solution. Either way, we are the driving force within It.
Be honest with yourself and yourself alone: how do you see the entire System as “flawed,” or yourself within it as such? How has what is “flawed” and thereby unconsciously validated within ourselves as a society, resulted in Man’s “law” that has been nothing short of “uck”! at the heart of our “f—ed” sense of justice? (Notice the correlation between every word in quotations.) If you did not already, are you beginning to now see how both perceptions are delusionally one and the same, stemming from how you see yourself as the “t” at the heart of our committment to the Criminal Justice System?
The Growth of the C.J.S. Tree
How could we not love the “tree” analogy? What natural phenomenon better symbolizes Life and can therefore bring greater understanding to any part of it? If the Criminal Justice System were a tree, then, we would be going through something akin to a pruning process at the time of this writing. What was once perceived to be a big, attractive, lush tree by the same society who’s legislation planted its seed, is now seen as a problem on multiple levels, including it’s being too costly to maintain, and it losing it’s attractiveness given its poor maintenance.
On the deepest level, it is recognized that this tree has grown mostly in the shadows of our shame and guilt, very little in Light of Creative Thought. On the surface, it has become a societal eye sore at best. At worst, it has obstructed the vision of who we really are collectively as a society, and what we could be if we were to mostly grow in the Conscious Light of Creative Thought.
What was once seen as financially lucrative for our society and economy at large is now being understood as having everything to do with the apparent withering of our Tree of a Criminal Justice System. There is no part of our C.J.S. more reflective of how this “tree” has grown and how it is decaying than the C.D.C.R.: the largest prison system on the face of the planet.
For a time, from the Californian compartment of society at large, our Criminal Justice System was immensely profitable for our economy, especially for the Stock Market and all employment attached to C.D.C.R., under the guise of Crime Control and keeping law-abiding citizens safe. With the majority of those arrested and perceived to be criminals coming from crime-concentrated environments, the normalcy of criminal behavior, the desensitizing workload and inadequacy of Public Defenders, combined with the delusions of politically ambitious Prosecutors, the perfect soil appeared to be in place from which the C.D.C.R. could economically flourish.
Being that economic interest apparently once took precedence over the awareness and institution of effective rehabilitation, recidivism (i.e. people coming back to prison after serving a sentence) actually played to the advantage of the C.D.C.R.’s old model. It also appeared to be most beneficial for society as well, as those that did not “learn their lesson” received stiffer penalties and sentences the second, and third, times around, “three strikes and you’re out” with regard to committing felonies. Quite literally and subversively, perceived criminals made convicts were large in part seen as commodities (as they still are) to be warehoused and shelved, not human beings in need and deserving of the mental/emotional healing transreformation provides.
For this to perpetuate, the programs and methods of rehabilitation offered within prisons would largely in part have to be as superficial as the fantasy of controlling crime, making it probable that those who come to prison once would come back again and again and again—until eventually for good—as has been the case thousands upon thousands of times over. Ultimately, this was neither (nor is) “bad” or “good,” BOTH being inconsequential and irrelevant in reality. Merely, what once “worked” given what we thought we wanted to be, do, and accomplish as a society entailed false beliefs about our Collective Self, and the nature of rehabilitation.
In Truth, no one nor any subgroup of people does anything “wrong,” given their model of the world. One simply needs to examine their own view of the world, as well as what they do in it, in order to understand this as Truth. Obviously, we merely value money and a delusional idea of security (albeit unknowingly) over striving to understand, heal, and reintegrate the mentally/emotionally ill criminal back into society in a healthy way; the same society they could never truly be apart from.
Yet, with changing circumstances come changing beliefs, as well as different ideas about what “works” and what doesn’t. As circumstances would have it, inevitable prison overcrowding would prove to not work so well for our C.D.C.R. and what we thought we wanted it to be, do and accomplish. Question: beyond overcrowding, what else could possibly happen when you not only have the same people coming BACK to prison (some being sentenced to never leave), but more people being born into—and inspired by—the CULTURE of crime, inevitably having adverse police contact?
Being that we can only build so many prisons (of which we may still have more of than Universities in California), overcrowding and the increased costs to maintain all facilities properly, house inmates, feed them and provide adequate medical care could be the only outcome. As money has proven to be the core of why prisons appear to work, it also inevitably proves to be the core of why they ultimately do not work.
In the microcosmic sense, this would be no different from my becoming aware of my ignorant spelling error, painstakingly going back, whiting-out and typing over the mistaken typewritten text in order to be politically correct and keep up appearances. Same principle. As chasing money is the “politically correct” focus in our society, it is still perceived to “work” for us in nearly all facets of society at the cost of “time.” Beyond the perceived “rightness” or “wrongness” of this, what time-saving, creatively healing opportunities are we, in Truth, possibly missing out on as a Criminal Justice System? At the macrocosmic level, what could our “commitment” to the C.J.S. become if we looked at the ”flawed” incarcerated “t” at the heart of it in a creatively NEW, conscious light?
As the “Tree” has become too big and costly, a “pruning process” has been engaged out of perceived necessity. At the cost of time and money, this action is believed to save the C.D.C.R. both, keep up appearances, and hopefully return it to a perceived state of profitability. Again, on a much smaller scale, the same would have been true for me if I’d acted upon my initial belief in my mistake, as I would have put time and money (energy) into making corrections when what was really needed was a change of perception.
PRUNING THE C.J.S. TREE
In conjunction with the same rule of law that has allowed the mentally/emotionally ill incarcerated person to be used as “convict commodities” essentially, the C.D.C.R. Itself is bound to a code of conduct that only allows them to “humanely” hold an “x” amount of inmates per facility given their number of facilities, bed space, and available medical care. Largely exceeding the legal limits on all accounts at one point in time, the State had to begin to quickly change Its beliefs about how It assesses, convicts, and sentences those whom are prosecuted and judged, in order to avoid the financially devastating, federal consequences.
Given the C.D.C.R.’s change in beliefs about what’s working and what isn’t, a sort of “pruning process” has been engaged to the perceived benefit of the C.D.C.R. and the “commodity convicts” under its care. Senate Bills and Propositions have been and are being passed that ultimately result in the lessened severity of penalty for many crimes and the reduction of sentences for those who have been prosecuted and convicted of those crimes, as well as for those who eventually will.
Thousands judged to be nonviolent offenders—largely for decriminalized drug-related offenses—have had their sentences significantly cut, making them instantly eligible for their release. Also, many convicted violent offenders have and are having criminal Enhancements dropped altogether, and/or their Risk Assessments lowered in ways that contradicted their initial assessments entirely, making it mandatory for them to be sent to lower level prisons. These legislative actions have cut a lot of costs for the C.D.C.R., released a lot of “convict commodities” that would still be warehoused otherwise, and reduced a lot of time for thousands once condemned to serve a lot more, stalling the Federal Government from stepping in and taking over State-run prison affairs.
But wouldn’t the decisions behind these actions be akin to cutting the small branches and leaves off of a tree that essentially needs to be uprooted? Hasn’t the “seed issue” ALWAYS been the delusional division between those perceived to be the law-abiding, mentally/emotionally healthy elected to protect society, and the apparently mentally/emotionally ill incarcerated person whom they believe they are separated and benefit from?
Although thousands of incarcerated individuals have been physically released (with many more waiting for sentence reductions and assessment changes), has the base belief in crime and the convicted criminal been transreformed? Has rehabilitation taken precedence over political and and economic interests? How long before our imagined C.D.C.R. “Branch” of the C.J.S. “Tree” grows out of control, again in need of the legislative “pruning” already proving to be much better? Or better yet, how long before the State realizes that the beliefs and ideas culminating in “pruning” will actually prove to be most financially taxing in the long run; the idea of the C.D.C.R. “Branch” always a problem until the ROOT of how the C.J.S. “Tree” is perceived changes?
Once upon a time, what seemed like a million years ago, I was convicted and sentenced to Life Without the Possibility of Parole; a 21-year-old serving his first—and essentially last—prison sentence. Charges enhanced one and a half years into fighting my case without additional incriminating evidence, Public Defended, tried and convicted of a Capital Offense, I was initially assessed to be necessarily restricted to the highest security level prison (a Level Four institution) for the rest of my natural life. The ability to go to lower levels and be eventually released due to reformative good behavior being nonexistent.
The message was two-fold and quite clear: I was perceived to be both unrehabilitatable and unworthy of the proverbial “second chance” in society should the minimal possibility of my reform become actual. My fate seemed sealed.
With no incentive to rehabilitate aside from my own sanity, my family, and peace within my immediate environment, my desire for mental/emotional freedom began to replace my desire for physical freedom. It dawned on me: only the extremity of my mental/emotional confinement could POSSIBLY result in the apparent extremity of my COMPLETE, PHYSICALLY confined circumstances. So I stopped my Federal Appeal, choosing instead to find and document perfect understanding of my unique situation in relationship to our collective, global situation.
Four published transreformative books, two AA Degrees, and a plethora of program completions/certifications years later (all while remaining disciplinary free), and I’m just getting started.
What is striking about this is not the fact that I’m achieving what is thought by most to be impossible by becoming the embodiment of rehabilitation, but the FAITH and decisive action necessary for this. At a time before the “pruning process” began, I had to intuitively “know” via my sincere desire to improve that the shifting laws of the Criminal Justice System would inevitably transreform in congruence with the Universal Laws that connect us all, given my newfound, conscious connection to both.
So instead of trying to “correct” my mistakes and the System’s through the Appeal process, I realized that I merely needed to work on uprooting my view of myself and the System; go from seeing us in our separate mistakes, to seeing us as One in the Same potential miracle, moving forward in our united HEALING POSSIBILY, “flaws” and all.
In choosing to extend this conscious vision of Love over the unconscious projection of fear for the first time in my life, I trusted—as I still do—that my physical freedom could only follow my complete mental/emotional freedom, regardless of what the “current” laws and my situation appears to be at any time. I trust in the Criminal Justice System’s transreformation as I did, and do, my own.
When the “pruning process” finally began, my spiritual convictions began to physically manifest. Long story short, I write these very words from a Level Two facility I was never supposed to get to; the “second chance” I’m never supposed to have more a reality with every passing day.
EXCAVATING THE C.J.S. TREE
By this point, it should not only be quite clear why the C.D.C.R.’s Risk Assessment of me changed more than once, but also why it will continue to still, given the conscious light shed here. Transreformation is occurring in this very moment and all the time, and will continue to, until we all awaken to our Shared Identity.
As Love Itself, uniquely embodied consciously, I intuit this awakening to be our inevitably. Soon enough, the State will realize the irrelevancy of attempting to correct mistakes that don’t exist outside of our own perception; understanding it only necessary to change how we view the criminal component, the C.J.S. Itself, and ourselves CONNECTED in order to manifest what we all truly want, deserve, and are consciously headed toward anyway.
Ultimately, will the State at all really profit by continuing to focus on ideas fueled by cutting cost, where for every “branch” of legal separation belief, “twig” of a prison sentence, and “leaf” of a convicted criminal “pruned,” two or MORE grow in its place? Does it truly benefit the healing process of the incarcerated person who’s faint glimmer of transreformed freedom is snatched away by the mirage of physical freedom due to an early prison release? Does society at large become more loving or fearful when those they have legally condemned to be in need of punishment and separation not only have a chance to come back to society much earlier, but will likely face diminished penalties should they reoffend?
Although these questions are rhetorical, answers quite clear, every apparent “lose-lose-lose” situation is the pretext for a “win-win-win” experience. As transreformation (of the criminal, the System and society) is increasingly recognized as more beneficial than mere economic interest, this shift in belief will lead to the creative behavior that will consequently, in all ways (INCLUDING economically) benefit all.
As revealed, it has been our wrong perception of our C.J.S. “Tree,” Its “Branch” that is the C.D.C.R. and the Felonious “Fruits” It holds that is the ROOT cause of the delusionally divisive effect on the very society the right perception is supposed to be collectively nourishing (healing). This divisive disillusionment is also responsible for the perceived need of the “pruning process” put into play. The former (wrong perception) delays society’s transreformative awakening to each being part of the global community; the latter (“pruning process”) projects a an illusion of where the C.J.S.’s improvement really lies, proving the lack of awareness of our inherent interconnection and interdependence.
Every fruit holds the unlimited potential of the tree it came from; holding the seed-opportunities to grow a bigger, better, and more fruitful tree under improved conditions. As the Felonious Fruit of our C.J.S. Tree, connected by our societal belief in crime, the Conscious Light of Creative Thought Shines upon us through the deep, dark shadow that shades most of our Tree, revealing us at our current best. Given the transreformative nature of this Substance of Substances, our merging with this Light reveals our seed-potential; what our inherent Creative Thought can grow into next.
We have the power—individually and collectively—to solve any problem AT THE LEVEL IT OCCURS, being the way any perceived problem IS solved. Transreformation naturally does this, excavating Separation Belief from our hearts and the deforming delusions from our minds responsible for the past legislation that has left our C.J.S. Tree less than ideally nourished and limited in Its fruitful ability to to nourish our society. In Its place, we can now leave to grow the creative ideas that sprout laws that maximize our Criminal Justice System’s ability to flourish in the best possible light (i.e. Conscious Light), blossoming Fantastic Fruits that wholly nourish/heal our societal environment in the process.
WHATEVER situation or circumstance we may find ourselves in, the key to seeing the opportunity within it and/or transreforming it is to PERCEIVE OURSELVES as the Transreformation in the middle of it—at the heart of it and a part of it—instead of some delusional “flaw” essentially nonexistent and inconsequential.
Who doesn’t make mistakes? Who don’t mistakes happen to? Who hasn’t made a mistake identified with its perceived flaw at some point in time? Yet, we are all a part of what is Flawless. It is not until we see this for ourselves—IN ourselves—that we can TRANSREFORM our past mistakes and creatively do the perceived impossible.
Is not the world we mistakenly made that which we are ALL committed to by virtue of living? LIFE is the Collective Committment, and we are all individually the flawed “t” at the heart of that Committment. Each of us, in our own unique way, has the transreformative power to turn our mistake of a world into a miracle.
