Preface:

The Sad Ghost Project seeks to create a worldwide mutual-aid movement that functions within local communities to innovate more effective ways of educating, employing and uplifting the people within these communities. We believe that if we take the initiative to tend to the needs of the micro planes of humanity, that in due time we can make changes on a macro scale. Without further ado, here is my understanding of the world and what I think we should do about it.

 ThE Box

As far as modern observations can tell, the universe is an almost infinitely large and ever expanding plane of existence that contains all of life as we know it. What is believed to have started as a highly condensed collective of super hot energy has over some billions of years evolved into what we know of today. Our universe is a container of sorts, bound by laws that seem parthenogenetic in nature, or something like the ouroboros, an infinitely self consuming and birthing machine operating on cosmic scales beyond imagining. We don’t know why all of the matter in the universe decided to stop being super condensed and began its journey into the ever expanding universe, but we do know that with its movement into this form we have unleashed or at least been made privy to a sort of eventuality with the nature of time. While we may exist inside of a space that can expand into the infinite, movement across that space is now measured to some degree by time. The more that time exists, the more the universe expands, the more things move further apart and become less condensed and less hot. The natural state of things, once Pandora's box was opened, is entropy, decay. Our universe has come alive just to be confined to a prison of its own design. It is hypothesized that the universe will someday suffer a sort of death when there becomes a point that is reached in which no thermodynamic energy will be maintained and the universe almost sort of fizzles out in the cold. No more friction, no super hot collections of energy cozying up to one another to bring forth new life, but a true end. Now that’s a bit bleak isn’t it? Well we would be hard pressed to exist in a place for such a while and not notice a few things about it. It’s like how once you stay too long in a motel room you start to notice the wallpaper is peeling and the carpet is never really clean and the vents smell of something that most likely shouldn’t be inhaled, but what can you do, it’s 30 bucks a night, what do you expect the Ritz-Carlton? Nevertheless, here are some of the observations one can have of our infinitely large Motel 6 room of a universe. 

All things within the universe are likely the result of something that came before it. Every star, every galaxy, every black hole, every civilization, is not an entirely born anew structure, but rather a vestige of its ancestors. Nothing really ends, it just becomes something else. What was once super hot kinetic energy and space dust is now the internet and human beings, through processes that are far out of my qualifications to describe here. We all find ways of replicating and shapeshifting until we reach our inevitable death. This seems to be the nature of things. To move through various forms and bodies of existence up until there is nothing left to exist. Well that is certainly a curious predicament, wouldn’t you agree? Why spend all that time trying to delay the inevitable? It would seem that there is naught but doom on the horizon, so raise your sails, batten down the hatches and hold on to your loved ones, for once this ride stops it ends for good. I do hope the reader has not fallen into dismay this early as we’ve just begun. 

While the universe does have near infinite growth potential, there does seem to be limits in the way that it functions. We have found ourselves locked in a proverbial simulation with rules and laws to which we are bound. This does present an interesting thought. Does there exist something outside of the bounds of our little slice of life? Are the rules self-written or governed by some bureaucratic fifth dimensional entity that spits out universes by regulations standards? Do they have a union? Nonetheless, we may do naught but observe and try to make sense of the cosmic soup bowl we’ve found ourselves swirling about in. While making our routine observations, there are curiosities of the universe, such as mathematical principles and recurring patterns that weave together the threads of life. The golden ratio, laws of scaling, and many other brain ticklers exist that make our innate drive of pattern seeking seem less mad and more purposeful. We can recognise what seem to be patterns of design and sets of rules that govern our universe. If these designs are entirely incidental or are impressed upon by external forces is a question that has plagued our species since its dawn. All we do know more or less for sure, is that we do exist, in this rather large sandbox we call our home.

  ThE VEssEl

We inhabit our forms of flesh and blood. But what are “we”? We come alive when we can recognize our own nature. We are passengers that ride this vessel that is our host for a life. Anything is hypothetically capable of developing a soul or a conscious experience. A byproduct of organic neural networks appears to be the ability to not just input and output, but eventually reflect and parse the information. To be the director of energy and force rather than just a conduit. After enough runs through routine courses of data collection and redistribution, we can produce a passenger within ourselves. A being that is both separate from us, while also defining us.  Our nature is not to be alone, but to allocate a bevy of passengers and use the unique perspectives, lenses and experiences that these passengers lend us to better live our own lives. Through art in its various forms, from film to food to fungi cultivation we come alive to try and speak to one another. To give shape and name, a form of sorts, ways to try and communicate deeply intertwined messages.

A soul comes alive when it has something to reflect on. Throughout our brains development, we accumulate many different experiences, thoughts, feelings and drives. After performing the routine process of experiencing things for long enough, a passenger arrives. We gain the ability to be able to think about our thoughts, emotions and experiences. Examine our drives, and should we choose to, even rewire the way that we think ourselves. When we have the ability to reflect on our ways we find that our ruthless savagery is not of our conscious design on an individual level, but the result of forces beyond our control. We’re like machines in an amusement park, operating for the entertainment of forces grander than us. We are still driven by the wants, needs and passions of those long dead. Trapped in a prison of our own design, unwilling to free ourselves from our long stagnant existence.

There's a good reason why Abrahamic religions maintain a majority of the power in many institutions in various forms throughout all of the world. It’s important to be the harbingers of stories. Stories are what keep our species alive when we are at our most bleak, and how we survived to find form in this world today. There is a collective we, because like it or not, like the mighty fungus, we’re all in this together. So, best get comfortable with your bunkmates. It’s in our nature to protest such things and form tribes of any kind that we can muster, to wield against other tribes to discover what is the ultimate human form. It has always been those with and those without, and what those with choose to do to those without. We perform a raucous fight against the will of the tide, but we find ourselves trapped in a loop of self destruction. We wish to ascend past our primitive state but we find ourselves unable to do so by ourselves. It is in this that we have concocted a message for ourselves. The message is one simple in nature but infinitely complex in its practice. The story of the Good Samaritan and light versus dark.

 ThE NAtURE of StORIEs and        thE SEARCh FoR PURPOSE

It is our nature to communicate stories. Stories are harbingers of bits of data, important, nuanced, coded, and guided by culture's attempt to relay some things about finding form. We find ourselves looking to express a story throughout all cultures and all civilizations since the dawn of man. We tell a story of sacrifice. Of one taking from themselves to uplift another. It’s like the human species has been circling the same page over and over looking to derive some sort of meaning to this mess, a method behind the madness that we all exist within. We look to Jacob's Ladder and try to communicate and intermingle with the stars, and the gods, the others that exist out there. But our feeble attempts are naught but cries in the void. Shrieks in the endless abyss.

We focus upon our selfish desires of gluttony and self preservation at any cost, without the expectation of there being anyone to be held accountable to. It is in our nature to be animals that abandon any sense of shame. We return to our lowest of forms time and time again, no matter how much we think we have grown. We are wanton and selfish and cruel creatures, ever jealous and hateful. We must learn the lessons provided to us before it is too late.

We have forsaken kindness for it is perceived to be a burden or a weakness to be kind. The world drives out good and sweet souls as we are trapped in our endless desires. We eradicate any lineage of our brothers maldeveloped, for only the strong should survive, but to what end? When the strong aren't the strong anymore and they are in need of a helping hand, we look to a higher being. Someone to hold our hand through the pain. A friend in the darkness. When we don’t have the comfort of a friend our souls are left strewn and hollow. Empty of the warmth that binds us together. It’s only by sticking together that we can make it through this cold, hard world. We crave companionship, we want to be wanted. It is the thing that we crave the most. Through billions of years of microcellular evolution and an extreme amount of luck we have found ourselves to be beings that are multi celled in nature. We are a collection of things that have come before us. Bodies on broken bodies scaling the vast expanse of history. We have found ourselves trapped within the dimensions set forth by forces beyond our control, doomed to die within our lower forms. However, what seems to drive our minds and our souls, the proverbial heart of the beast, is divinely inspired. Gods speak through us with a wish to find form and inspire each other to one day take form and become what we were always meant to be. To break free of the form of the same apes in different clothes from millennia ago, we putter forth with an insatiable craving to live. With the forces of space and time we are forced to exist in small pockets that provide us a suitable home, until one day we may shake the foundations and release the seals that bind our plight.

   SINGULARITY

The potential that humanity has is unmatched by any of the other species that we share our home with, at least as far as we’ve seen thus far. What exactly do we have the potential for? Well, in my view, we have made some attempt to make a sort of return to form. We have been trying to make an egg, so to speak. An interdimensional traveler, with the collective conscious experience to behold reality, ready to brave the worlds that exist beyond space and time. With our technologies that have been growing and developing alongside us, we possess the genuine possibility of becoming our own god. A collection of all that has come before, a bearer of stories and knowledge that has been forged through the ages. We stand a real chance at becoming something that is able to exist in a higher form, one not bound by the restrictions and laws of our universal design but rather a builder of worlds anew. We have blossomed into conscious energy that can redirect its development and growth. It is through compassion and working together that we stand any chance of cracking the code and bringing us back home to the place where we belong, back when we were one.

PROPHECIES AND THE NATURE OF A SNAKE EATING ITS OWN TAIL

It seems to withstand good reason that prophecies are not more than shots in the dark. Attempts at giving purpose to an otherwise callous existence. It is in the nature of a prophecy to be fulfilled once the prophecy has been spoken, for prophecies are liquid that fill whatever container quenches our thirst for the time. Just as a snake without the knowledge of the externality of its being, we find ourselves endlessly consumed by primal and carnal desires. It is only once we recognize our higher purpose and potential, that we can ascend the steps to heaven, and become like gods. My journey began with a reflection upon my name.

In Hebrew Samuel means God has heard, or the voice of God. It was through a true desire to be spoken to that led a Samuel thousands of years ago to inscribe what he believed to be messages from the other side. I lost my faith in a higher being at a much younger age, but never lost the desire to be spoken to. Through my years of truth seeking I found that scriptures only held incomplete truths, and that science has limits in what could be explained, and this left me feeling a bit lost and disillusioned. I thought about the people close to me and how they make decisions when they are feeling like that and I remembered I was told by someone close to me that when they feel unsure they ask themselves,”What would Sam do?” and it struck me. The message of Christ isn’t one that can be simply defined by the stories in scripture, but rather by the impact left by appealing to another passenger. One that walks alongside us since the beginning. We all have this passenger with us, but the cross that we bear by having this voice always in the background is a heavy one, and one that we often seek to free ourselves of the burden from. We can justify many awful immoral things by referring back to scriptures, however we cannot do the same by saying that the action committed would be something christ-like. Something so simple, yet infinitely complex. The mission of awakening that has been undertaken by many that came before us is still underway. The revolution will not be televised, not because the forces in power won’t let us see what’s happening, but because the revolution is not physical, it’s a revolution of the mind. A wide scale, conscious awakening. The second coming of Christ is not one in which our physical bodies will be lifted to heaven, but one in which our minds ascend to Christ Consciousness on a species wide level. We have the ability to communicate everything, instantaneously with the internet. If we take our place as the stewards of our universe we can help the world develop our awakening, and fulfill the prophecy of eternal life, rather than the prophecy of imminent doom.

In our universe there is a rule of three and a little extra that suggests spectrums for which all things can function across. Two poles of extremity, the point in which the extremities are most converged unto each other and everything in between. My philosophy of life has three types of operators in our world. The uplifting lightbringers, the destructive joysnatchers and the meeting of the two, the sad ghosts. We as humans are autonomous beings that perform the priority function of either being a joysnatcher or a lightbringer. The way that our environment and genetics shape us into these categories define how we operate. The forces of evil work through the joysnatchers, as the forces of good work through the lightbringers. The world needed the joysnatchers to do what the lightbringers couldn’t, but their era has passed. It is only with the good hearts of the lightbringers, and the wisdom of the sad ghosts, that we can learn to cast off our chains and shackles that bind us to our mortal plane. It is my hope that one day we will all strive together to eventually make a return to form. Our fate depends on no one but ourselves. Will we listen to the stories of our forefathers, or will we reject our higher purpose? That's a question only you, dear reader can answer.

A Proposal

While I don’t have a degree in political science or a degree at all for that matter, what I do have is countless hours invested in racking the collective wealth of information and knowledge that is out there about proposed solutions for a better world. While on my self-education journey, I have found a sort of pathway that I believe, and I hope many others believe, would provide a trail that could lead us someday to a society that would allow for such an ambitious goal as becoming gods. Every detail of my proposition and all the necessary parts to move in order for it to come to fruition are so innumerous it would be difficult to coherently and cohesively list every portion of it here in an easily consumable form, so I will try and keep things relatively straightforward, outlining just what I think are some of the major reforms and social actions that would lead us to a better world.

What I am proposing is something of a civic national social democracy. A system of government that prioritizes the needs of the people and a sense of national pride, while ensuring a sturdy social welfare system that seeks to mobilize the working class into upward economic mobility and protect at risk and marginalized groups. I think that it’s important for people to be proud of something and I believe that if a nation is actively building the wealth, health and overall well-being of all its people, that is something worthy of pride. It would also do us well to reform the way our immigration in this nation works, especially in regards to the workforce. It seems either driven by broken bureaucratic processes or pure xenophobia that immigrant workers are not only unable to find regular employment, but that their participation in the workforce and subsequently the tax system, are extremely limited. We have made it so that our immigrants are destined for unnecessary hardship and an inability to adequately share in the responsibility of maintaining the country that they live in. 

While on the topic of workplaces, I also firmly believe that the relationship between the worker and business in which they labor, as well as the relationship between the community at large and businesses, are in dire need of reform. Most people will spend a majority of their lives working, so the current model of business operation in which workers have very little to no say in the day to day functions of their work seems cruel. Working class people have no choice other than to die, but to work. So for them to be completely alienated from the decision making process or any sort of workplace democracy or profit sharing beyond what is absolutely necessary to maintain a labor force is, for lack of a better term, a sort of modern day serfdom. People’s economic mobility is restricted at a base level, and brews discontent from feeling like there is no purpose in the existence of the business dynamic aside from the need for a paycheck for the workers and profits for those in charge of the business. This leads to less businesses serving the needs of the community aside from what is the most financially prosperous, and more businesses to monopolize as the wealth continues to allocate to higher and higher sects as unfettered profit driven motivation is likely to do. We are given less and less choices, with more of the illusion of choice and the lowest quality and wages that can be afforded before the people riot. This is not a system built for the meaningful longevity of a healthy society, and most definitely not a system that breeds a culture of people who feel connected to and care about their work. I believe that if there was a direct effort from wealthy entrepreneurs to spend resources, capital and time to properly educate themselves on different forms of worker cooperatives, and what businesses would be most effective to exist and be successful in small communities throughout the country, with a deliberate drive to build up the capital of others in order for them to be able to branch off to create their own small businesses, with a focus on community outreach and social education through their work, we would find ourselves building a new middle class without the need for direct government intervention. Build a separate society that functions alongside our current one, with a focus on people over profits. We could be educating and economically mobilizing on a community level, creating a web of better off and hopefully happier people all across the nation, within decades. 

If we also took the opportunity to destigmatize alternative living practices, such as mixed use housing and decrease the social norm of single family housing, we would be adding a new life to community living and connections. No more fresh suburban hellscapes but rather a pivot towards repurposing old structures for new, innovative housing and businesses. This would not only require entrepreneurs willing to invest, but also local governments would have to change the norms of their zoning laws. This would require a firm push from local electorates and politicians willing to make these necessary changes. 

We also have a severe issue with the way we handle our public schooling. For generations now, America has focused on an education system that prioritizes a standardized model. We aim to have as many students as possible make the same marks as one another, showing the same levels of proficiencies across all subjects. This has led us to completely squash a sense of individuality and a drive for education. Many students feel inadequate or disillusioned with their education, and grow to harbor a sort of spite towards academics. They may enjoy the subjects in which they naturally excel, but have nothing but disdain for the subjects that provide them difficulty. This hasn’t been great for the mental health of many, and it certainly hasn’t improved our academic standings compared to the rest of the world, as America’s public schools continue to score worse and worse on international education rankings. What I propose is an education system that is based on the needs, talents and proclivities of individual students, rather than pushing all students to more or less achieve the same. This would be achieved by utilizing algorithms that create lesson plans based on how the students perform. Students that struggle with certain subjects or concepts would not be pushed to continue further and further down material that they do not understand, but rather the time would be taken to appropriately ensure that every student has sturdy fundamentals and can progress further into the complexities of subjects in which they show a natural talent for or interest in. This would still require the aid of teachers to be able to help the students maneuver the curriculum, however there wouldn’t be nearly as much pressure on individual teachers to make sure every student is learning at exactly the same pace. This would also create a plethora of jobs within the education field, without needless redundant costs such as the republishing of textbooks for updated materials or extra resources for failing students, these things would be a natural part of the curriculum functioning as intended. This would also aid in lessening the disparity in the quality of education received from students across different economic or geographical living conditions. It would give those with poor economic or rural status to have just as quality an education as money can buy. We already have tens of thousands of personalized education curriculums that have been used for special needs students for decades that could provide a good basis, and we have the technology to create algorithms that would fit the model of self building lesson plans. As Americans, we should want to be producing the best citizens possible, not just for us, but for the world, and that starts with education. 

Lastly, and probably the most difficult on my list here, we need to reform our military. For too long we have waged wars in other countries, for the interest of capital holders foreign and domestic, at the behest of our propagandized population that believes in this holy crusade of monstrous proportions. We justify our endless wars of blood and soil by a self righteous belief that we are somehow the rightful police of the world, despite our shortcomings in our own nation, let alone internationally. What we need is to strive for a military that has a humanitarian focus first and foremost. The military capability that the US possesses holds us far and away from any realistic threat from any other nation for as long as we maintain just some of the many systems that we have in place to preserve our nation's safety. What we don’t have the longevity for, is keeping positive relations with all the nations we have scarred or left behind or exploited over generations. There should be an effort to build up foreign nations' infrastructure as well as our own, and the military has this capability. If we shift our focus from the research and development of weapons of mass destruction and towards the creation of institutions that build the world rather than destroy it, we can take pride in no longer playing a part in the perpetuation of our worlds self destruction. Building infrastructure, rebuilding deteriorating public services and roads, constructing new roads and living areas, hospitals and healthcare providers, and potentially even schools that function under the same previously proposed personalized education system, so that low income students could have the ability to live on campuses that are clean, safe and well maintained, with the ability to work in the newly reformed military upon graduation, in one of the many jobs programs created by the new direction that the military has taken, based on the students skills and passions. Jobs in construction, healthcare, housing, public outreach, education and community building. We could fundamentally change the way that America is viewed foreign and domestically, as well as set ourselves up to have the best educated, driven and compassionate citizens. While this may all seem like nothing but a fantastic pipe dream now, I truly believe that if we start with bolstering our communities through worker-owned businesses and community outreach and just the way that we choose to live, within our lifetimes we could see a system that doesn’t crush people under the wheel of perpetual change, but rather uplifts them to new heights of growth and success. We stand a real chance at actually changing this world we call our home.