Energía

New age victim signaling

When I was a young lad, my father - sometime in the 1970s of course - got into all sorts of 1970s new age, metaphysical stuff: Uri Geller bending things, the writings of Carlos Castaneda and Erich von Däniken, biofeedback, pyramids. He even started a business building and selling biofeedback machines (he was an electrical engineer by profession; I say “was” because he is retired, but still living). He built little pyramids and scattered them around our house, putting razor blades inside them to see if they’d stay sharper than razor blades that did not have the privilege of residing inside pyramids. He taught himself how to hypnotize people, with my sister and I as his sometimes willing subjects.

My father was fascinated by energy - not necessarily the kind that comes out of those little holes in your walls, or from atoms falling apart - but the kind that is produced by the human mind and human artifacts: the bending of spoons; the unseen but present inverse pyramid that rests upon the apex of a physical pyramid (if that physical pyramid has the correct dimensions and orientation, oh and also if you believe that stuff), the energy waves emitted by our brains. The energy of the spirits who undoubtedly moved among us, even influencing us in unknown ways with unknown motivations.

And even though a lot of that stuff has been fairly well debunked - in particular Uri Geller’s spoon bending and the Don Juan mystic who Carlos Castaneda grew wealthy writing about - not all of it has and I’m sure there is some validity to some of it (isn’t there?). The point is, some of this energy sensitivity sunk in through my thick skull and settled somewhere in my tiny brain. At the risk of sounding like I am blowing some “hey look how special I am” horn, I am pretty darn sensitive to the “energy” surrounding me. Of course this is not unique - most people are. Actually, I would say that all people are sensitive to the energy around them. The difference is, we don’t all share the same reactions to it, or even the same vocabulary to talk about it. And the energy that one person feels comfortable with may not be an energy another person feels comfortable with. Of course. It’s like food, environments, overpriced sneakers; we each have our own individual preferences when it comes to energy, even if we don’t know it.

For myself, I am comfortable with a calm, quiet, welcoming but not too welcoming energy. I am sensitive to kindness, and shy away from people who lack any of it (there are a lot of people who lack any sort of human kindness - I know, I can feel their energy 🤪). I am comfortable with dog energy and introvert energy.

Places, of course, have their own energies - made up of the sum of all the energies of the people and dogs and non-dogs inhabiting those places. Houses. Neighborhoods. Towns. Cities. States. Countries. Considering the title of this newsletter, I’m sure you know where all this is going. Way to telegraph it, Mike.

For reasons that are none of my fault and all of my dad’s, I resonate with whatever energy Mexico seems to be putting out. But I don’t live in and visit Mexico the country - I live in and visit particular spots in Mexico - I’m sure if I lived in or visited particular other spots, I might not get the same vibe. But for whatever it’s worth, I’ve never felt other than energetically “at home” anywhere I’ve been in Mexico - even Tijuana 😲 (also I’ve never been to Cancun - my feathered spirit guide tells me I wouldn’t like it there).

Speaking of Cancun, where I’ve never been, here are some places I have been where the energy has felt wrong to me: pretty much anywhere in Europe (except Wales); most places in Canada where grizzly bears aren’t actively stalking you; Delhi; anything that floats and has a lot of people on it. And the United States.

Much has been said about how the U.S. is an angry place. A divided place. Wealth obsessed, navel gazing, indifferent. And, some of it is just click-bait words, and a lot of it doesn’t apply universally to the U.S. (there are still great places in that country - there must be!). But there is some truth, and it is that truth that wears on me when I am there. Before the tech and entertainment industries ruined California, it was a place with a decent energy. Now it just seems like everyone there is mad, with that madness amplified 20x when they get into a car. There was a time when California actually was a laid-back place; but today, Mexico City at rush hour could take California to school about being laid back. I am typically in California when I’m in the U.S., and I feel it like a brick. All that money, all those golden sunsets - why does it feel like everyone is screaming - if not on the outside, then definitely on the inside. Fortunately for California (and Arizona, New Mexico, Texas), Mexico is hanging out nearby, with dirty emissions but clean energy.

I know Mexico is an awful place for many Mexicans, and I’m just mouthing off with my white money mouth about how great everything is. So admittedly, maybe it is not great. But for me, it feels right (and probably for a lot of you, too).

My dad would take coat hangers and bend them into long L-shapes, and he would have us kids hold the short ends of the L loosely in our fists and walk toward the pyramids decorating our house, with their correct dimensions and orientations. With the long ends of the L sticking out straight in front of us and aimed about halfway above the pyramid, we would approach it, and those long ends would deflect away as they encountered that empty-yet-occupied-by-an-invisibile-inverse-pyramid space above it. That empty space would push those wires apart. All of the space above the U.S.-Mexico border is empty, and yet so full of something that it pushes me - not left or right - but inexorably south.