Letter #38: Lifelong Learners for Spiritual and Personal Growth

The incomparable lotus flowers in Ko Samui, Thailand

Dear Friend

Well, further to last week’s news in my Letter, that storm did arrive north of Chiang Mai city, and the result of so much rain on top of the already relentless amount of rain we’ve had this wet season was Chiang Mai’s worst flooding in 40 years or so. September is always the wettest month of the rainy season, and we had seen neighbouring provinces cop it badly, now it was our turn.

We personally were thankfully spared and remained dry in our house, but it was flooding badly only a mile away or so to the east, west and north of us, and it felt like being circled by a pride of lions moving in on its prey - with us being the prey! So many parts of town and in the suburbs really had it bad, but others like us escaped any waters in their homes. Places north of the town were devastated, and villagers lost their homes, simply washed away by the fast-flowing waters.

Perhaps the worst bit is knowing the floods are coming—the information flow in Thailand is excellent—but not knowing if you personally will keep a dry house or find it flooded. It might be ankle-deep or neck height, as indeed happened to so many. Our house is only one floor, so no upstairs even to take refuge in!

A huge clean-up is now underway all over town as the weather turned dry and sunny for the last few days, and there is no more big rain forecast for the next week or so, so the whole of northern Thailand can dry out a bit and settle down. Winter will start in three weeks and then no real rain for several months. All dams are completely full, so we won’t go thirsty!

However, so much damage and devastation has occurred. I know there’s been many devastating floods in the last couple of years in many countries - China, Japan, Germany, Brazil, USA, Australia, Dubai (this is desert!) and other places. To me, a lifelong activist and researcher, who is deeply suspicious of what big powerful governments do, and what huge corporations will do to maintain their gargantuan profits, I have many questions.

But even if there is no wilful damage being created (which I don’t believe, but let’s say for argument’s sake), there’s a whole tonne of ignorant damage being done by humankind to the very planet that gives us all our life. I know ‘climate change’ is the mainstream media and government mantra, banged on drums and repeated every second of every day almost, and ‘taught’ in schools all over the world, but never do I see the discussions of who or what is causing all the ‘natural’ disasters going on in our world in recent years.

In fact, mainstream humankind only reacts to events, problems, disasters by rushing to try and fix it with plasters and band aids. No investigation into root causes. This applies to the world itself and to our own sickness and disease.

You will well know by now that my view is that neither illness nor wellness is an accident: we choose either one of them based on our choice of diet and lifestyle, not to mention our mindset and general attitude we hold towards life and the world at large.

Well, the fact is that climate change is always a thing, and has been for billions of years, after all life IS change. But, all the while this ‘climate change’ bogeyman is trotted out, like so many other trigger words, it just puts us into fear and we don’t think clearly. And so we conveniently ignore what huge food, agricultural, pharmaceutical and weapons corporations are doing to our planet and to our own bodies and minds. Destruction is their way; we don’t suffer from a capitalist way of life we suffer from a death economy way of life.

When are we, humankind, going to stop destroying ourselves to make money to buy all our possessions? That’s being simplistic, but I just want to make the point.

And what is our own role in both the problem and the solution? My view is that if WE own the problem, then WE own the solution too. That is empowering, and that is the only way out of our mess, in my understanding.

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My focus now is off floods and protecting our home, and firmly back on my mission to heal humankind by bringing powerful life-enriching education to adults, who will then work out new ways to approach education for children in the schools.

I keep on getting told we can’t change others, but governments change us by force, so why can’t we change ourselves and help each other do so through the power of true education? I’ve been facilitating self-empowering learning experiences to my students for many years, so I’m really just speaking from experience rather than theory or ideology.

This is the only solution to our collective, and individual, woes: self-empowerment. And it’s becoming past urgent work to do. By all of us.

All year I’ve been noticing within me a growing sense of the warrior spirit—within my whole being and consciousness—that I know is essential to do my work. I see humankind facing an existential threat of its own making at this point in time, and it’s up to all individual human beings to put their hand up to be counted, even if simply to ask themselves in what way they live out their life:

‘Am I inadvertently supporting this death economy, or am I promoting my own health and the health of the planet?’

And, as I’ve written before, your health and the health of the planet is inextricably interconnected. So if you want one or the other to be healthy, you have to work for both to be healthy. This is the only way to succeed.

‘Ignorance is bliss’… NOT!

Yes that was a neat mantra when I was a boy, and perhaps it could be back then, but nowadays it’s downright dangerous to our wellbeing, if not deadly.

It’s not a palatable fact at all to consider that we might be ignorant, but I know as a rebel educator that the schools simply made all of us this way.

I mean ignorant about what really matters in life: who are we (did you answer this question from Letter #35?!), how does life work, and how can we make ourselves healthy and happy and make the most of our own life, while contributing to the healing of humankind?

Today’s schools, shockingly, are making our ability to be human even harder. They are, for the most part, an abomination of the human spirit. You do not fill children with fear and ideology, you enable and empower them to have fun, and to explore and develop their unique talents, skills and dreams.

Our nature as human beings is to be intelligent, compassionate, creative, curious, wise, friendly, and to seek fun, good health and happiness for our life, and for all those who we love.

Our nurture does its best to shatter that.

We are disempowered by this rotten schooling, lacking the skills, self-knowledge and self-belief we need to grow, evolve and thrive as we journey through our life. This disempowerment is the root cause of so much hopelessness and the sense of feeling powerless to make changes and to fix our world.

We do not live in times that afford us to stroke our own ego and pretend we are what we are not; we have much more urgent stuff to attend to. If we leave everything to our ego, we perish. We need the counterbalancing energy of our soul, we need spirit, we need spunk, we need courage, balls, confidence, kinship, and togetherness. We need a healthy body and mind.

And to do that and get that, it must start with the elephant in the room: we don’t know who we are, nor do we know how the web of life works. If we did, why would we be destroying it all?? I think this is the macro-problem in our human world, and that all the problems, conflicts and suffering we experience in life arise out of this master problem. Solve that, and we solve all problems.

That is very good news, because we only need one solution!

I’d like to share a piece of writing I’ve just completed in the wake of both our own floods and the heartbreaking and overwhelming devastation in North Carolina in the USA a week or so ago from Hurricane Helene. For a few years now, certainly since the 2020 events, there has been a long line of depressing events and bad news relentlessly hitting our senses via all media, exacerbating our collective and individual problems.

If all was hunky dory with us, we would not need to make any changes.

But it’s not. Our world is in a spin, and so many struggle with physical and mental wellbeing. Even those of us who have a good sense of control over our own health can feel the negative vibration of our human world in these times. Our spiritual energies are being attacked, and it’s vital we not only don’t succumb, but somehow learn to cultivate and strengthen our spirituality. We need to be at our strongest to enjoy our own life, but also to be a mentor and motivator for others to do the same.

We all sail in the same good ship of humankind. It’s called Planet Earth.

This writing is about the foundation for the solution that we all have to put into place. Even if we don’t care about ourselves, what of our children and grandchildren? What legacy are we leaving them: tyranny and psychological devastation, or hope, love and freedom, and regeneration, rebuilding and spiritual growth?

But why would we not care about our own health and wellbeing? The only reason is we feel hopeless and powerless to improve our own life. But we have so much power within us if we only learn how to use it and then actually use it.

I often hear people saying ‘do it for the children’, but that won’t work unless you come from your own foundation of psychological strength and spiritual wisdom. That’s what A Spiritual Revolution, when we embark upon it, brings to us.

I say ‘do it for yourself so that you can really help the children, by inspiring them to love learning and to empower themselves with true knowledge and essential human skills.

After all, we only get one life, there is no dress rehearsal, no second goes, no dummy runs, this is it, this is your lot. Love yourself love the children love your fellow adults love life love the world. It’s all the same thing: LOVE.

Here’s how…

Lifelong and skilled learners are warriors for promoting one’s health and the sanctity of all life

(I apologise in advance if you feel I am repeating myself, but I know well that this is an essential facet of true learning… all skills need constant practice.)

Ignorance is not a choice. The schools and society did it to us as children when we had no defences against it.

But remaining ignorant as an adult IS a choice.

We were all conditioned into ignorance by the anti-human, anti-health, anti-education schooling we all had.

Well, at least 99% of us anyway.

We can't unchoose to be ignorant until we realise and accept that we are ignorant. If upon hearing somebody say that you are ignorant, then unless you have taken conscious steps to undo this consequence of your schooling, if you deny this unpalatable truth (most understandable, but there are billions in the same predicament!), then this denial is your choice.

Since 2020 many millions have now died due to their ignorance of the true nature of big government, ‘science’ and mainstream media, and how to live with health and harmony in their own mind, body and spirit. Harsh, but true: remember, if we own the problem we own the solution.

It's been happening for a very long time, but suddenly in 2020 came such a huge event/crime that everybody got the opportunity to find out whether they are, indeed, ignorant or not.

What does 'ignorant' mean? I describe it in the context of our times:

To be ignorant is to ignore important or essential information that gives you understanding of who you are and how life works, which would otherwise enable and empower you to be responsible for, and in charge of, your own health, life and destiny, and to promote and protect the health and wellbeing of our planet, upon which we all depend on for our life.

To counteract all ignorance and the dangers to life that arise from this not knowing or from misunderstandings and misinformation, the single most important skill you, and all individual human beings need right now, is the skill of learning.

I call learning The Mother of all Skills.

And I will emphasise, they don't teach us this skill in school. Worse, they actively block us as children from developing the learning skill.

The most important skill a human being needs, and our education suppresses it. This is why I reserve harsh words for our school systems.

This destructive anti-education is the single root cause behind all hopelessness and powerlessness, ignorance and ill-health in our adult world. If we can’t or won’t learn for ourselves—for whatever reason, and there are a few—then we will remain disempowered and live in almost permanent stress, inner conflict and sub-optimal health.

We will find ourselves being dependent on external authority (see Letter #26), and when that authority is both rogue and ignorant itself, this will not end well for us.

And do remember that health refers to the wellbeing of our body, mind, spirit and our perception of the environment around us.

The Mother of all Skills and her Siblings

In order to become and be a skilled learner, here are a range of key subskills you will need. The Mother has lots of powerful siblings!

This list also acts as a sort of diagnostic checklist for you to decide upon your personal level of ignorance or wisdom… ask yourself what score out of 10 you will give yourself for each of these learning skills, where zero is totally unskilled, and 10 is a master at the skill…

• listening attentively and interactively

• reading attentively and with purpose

• observing life around you, and within your skin

• cultivating self-awareness

• thinking critically and creatively

• reflective thinking

• asking questions of others and of yourself

• questioning answers - your own and those of others

• doing research

• doing action research (research on your own life)

• discerning

• understanding

• discussing

• debating

• speaking

• expressing yourself and your views

• articulating your understandings

• educating

• socialising and cultivating relationships

• collaborating and working in small teams

• writing

Each of those skills have their own sub-skills. For one example: mastering the skill of writing is achieved by becoming skilled in brainstorming ideas, organising and planning, writing, revising, and editing.

If there’s one unique talent the universe gave me (we all get at least one!), it was the ability to train, inspire and empower adults and adolescents to master the skill of learning.

I had to master the skill, mind, but since I found teaching adults to be so much fun and my vocation in life, I have always been super motivated to never stop developing and honing this skill. I am a true lifelong learner, which is the foundation needed by all parents, educators, leaders and world helpers.

I have come to see that the true educator does not teach others per se, they facilitate learning, mastery of skills, self-empowerment and self-leadership in others. The same is true of real leaders whose remit is to work only for the benefit of all (which of course includes oneself).

All my language students and language teacher students get to practise and develop all the above skills when learning with me.

Now, if you sit back and reflect upon what successful and healthy and happy people all have in common, it’s being a confident and skilled communicator.

Communication skills are the bedrock of cultivating strong healthy relationships, and relationships are the bedrock of human life considering we are created as social creatures.

So, as you can see, when the school systems deny us the chance to develop our learning skills, they are denying us the opportunity to develop our communication skills, leading to poor relationship skills, leading to conflict, confrontation, and separation, and, at a higher level, war.

Disempowered, deskilled, anti-educated, dehumanised.

Learning, real learning, is your best possible protection in your life in these troubling times, and once you are a skilled learner, or becoming one, you are a warrior. Communication comes easy, relationships come easy… learning is your liberation.

And the human world needs all the warriors it can get right now, because the God Psychopaths are destroying life everywhere.

Through their own ignorance, AND arrogance.

The Good News: Learning A Spiritual Revolution

To close this Letter out, I want to share my latest news on getting my venture up and running.

It’s happening!

I am just finalising my ebooklet, which will lay out my ‘manifesto’ and pathway for A Spiritual Revolution. It outlines how A Spiritual Revolution can empower individual human beings to learn how to live with Health Harmony and Happiness for the Healing of Humankind… the 5Hs!

I then have to make it widely available to people all over the world.

I will of course send it out to you just as soon as it’s complete. But I’d like to share with you, my esteemed subscribers, the pathway towards one’s self-empowerment, self-education and self-leadership. It has 6 steps at the moment.

Step 1: A two-session interactive and live online workshop on A Spiritual Revolution, offered several times during November and December so that people can choose a time that suits them.

Step 2: Read my ebook An Education Framework and Charter for the Healing of Humankind, if not read before the workshop (I have already sent this out to you).

Step 3: Enrol on my live Foundation Course for A Spiritual Revolution, the first one being at the start of January 2025; at the moment I think this will be 5 or 6 sessions spanning a 4-week or 5-week period.

Step 4: Read my book Menu For A Spiritual Revolution: Health Harmony & Happiness (if not already read; if already read, read it again!).

Step 5: Enrol on my Building Courses aimed at more specific roles in life, for example for activists, parents, educators, leaders, entrepreneurs, youth and adolescents; these courses will expand upon the Foundation Course and really enable participants to grow and spiritually develop themselves exponentially.

Step 6: A one-month-long intensive retreat here in northern Thailand on The Art of Leadership; this will be limited to groups of, probably, a dozen or so. This will take you into the stratosphere! I will plan for it to be in June or November 2025, to ensure we have the best weather.

And so there you have it! People can choose to go through all steps, or even just do Step 1. You’ve already had Step 2 - but did you do it?!

Whatever and however much you choose will be beneficial to your life and health.

During 2025 all workshops and courses will be live with me, and all of them will seriously develop your language and communication skills, your learning and self-leadership skills, and your self-knowledge and self-belief. That means you will build your own toolkit for becoming an autonomous lifelong learner and a sovereign human being.

This is self-empowerment in the truest sense of the word. My mission is to reach thousands to start with, but definitely want more than that. My ultimate mission is for the radical transformation of the curriculums at school, making learning and communication skills and the development of the young human being as the big priority. I have outlined all this in my ebook, which you have.

Everything I teach is done in an interactive, dynamic way (it’s called Task-Based Learning), so you are not only learning all these skills and knowledge, but you will then be in a position to facilitate others in kind. You will become a mentor, motivator and role model for others: when you can lead, educate and motivate yourself you will have the know-how to lead, educate and motivate others.

This is the true magic of this brand of education. I hope you will join me! The workshop will clearly illustrate it to you as you experience it first hand.

Until next week, all the best

Philip