Two years later, I can now write about the significance of that incident, ‘the ants incident’. Because it’s only now in the unfolding of our current experiences that this disconnect between the understanding of energy consciousness and the view that all life is sacred, is fast becoming our most painful undoing.

When I wrote Hope for Humanity, I used to think that the global elitists likened us common folk to animals; enslaved and monitored, abused and imposed upon. But it was worse, we are viewed with the coldest disregard of the most unsophisticated and unnecessary nuisance of little more than an insect.  What ever it is we’re thinking (or not thinking) about our fellow multi-legged beasties, some big rich guy with a ‘superiority complex’ is thinking about us. But can really we blame the global elitists for feeling superior when it is merely our human societal conditioning that teaches us to view ourselves as separate? Would a society that considered life as sacred go to war over land? Would we keep animals in factory farms, would we use pesticide or herbicide on our lands? We have all been taught to view our place on this planet within an intellectual order and the disconnect of modern society from its source can be experienced all around.

In March 2020 following a series of unexplained deaths, a deadly and highly transmissible virus was found to originate at a wet market in Wuhan, China. Somewhere in-between wild and exotic animals cramped close together; sodden cages piled high, the unnatural contact of faecal and mucus excretions between animal and human that would never normally mix, cast loose the deadly pandemic into the world. In this breeding ground for bacterial and viral infection, Covid-19 trans-mutated from bat to pangolin to person, before making a beeline straight for humanity.

This alarming tale is what movies are made of. But what is even more disturbing is that what occurred at Wuhan is not unique. There are in fact countless thousands of other almost identical wet markets spread throughout South East Asia, continuing to trade animals in this way to this day.

To some, this outbreak will come as no surprise, because the study of zoonosis (diseases which are spread between animals and humans) has been prevalent within the scientific community for centuries. First thought to have arisen around ten thousand years ago, the earliest emergence of zoonotic disease was birthed in agriculture and animal husbandry through the domestication of the common farm yard animal. 

Over the past century, as a rapid rise in population has seen a steady increase in the demand for cheap meats, so too have the emergences of zoonotic disease. With traditional farming methods no longer serving the way we consume, billions of animals are now held in immense factory farms, housed in inhumane, unsanitary over crowded sheds, where antibiotics are routinely administered in a bid to suppress the spread of prevalent illnesses. In recent history, Zoonosis has been responsible for many highly infectious and deadly diseases of pandemic and epidemic proportion. There are currently around 200 Zoonotic diseases, where 60% of all human disease and 3 out of 4 new diseases are now Zoonotic emergences. This includes, Spanish flu, bird flu, swine flu, measles, mumps, chicken pox, typhoid, SARS, influenza, small pox, AIDS and whooping cough, all transmitted to humans from the domestication, captivity or close contact of wild animals.

As the daily deluge of pandemic reporting continues to grab headlines, there is much to be said for life in this masked and sanitised ‘new normal’. Coming to terms with how Covid-19 has held the world to standstill has brought to light an insecurity many have never seen in the fragility of ‘mighty man’. In this disempowerment we have fixedly looked towards our leaders, holding dear to our hearts the keeping of their three commandments, “wear a mask, wash your hands and watch your distance”. But what remains to be hidden, is the very root cause of the critical change we so desperately need to see, the change of normalising the recognition of animals as sentient and intelligent beings.

We know how to stop a global pandemic, we have known for decades. But while common man continues to be blind sited from the real cause in the wasteful pursuit of the cure, the ultimate battle lies in the ruthless and unrelenting profits of major industries like the meat and dairy and the pharmaceutical industry. We don’t require any more evidence to understand the basis of our problem, captivity and abuse of animals is the major cause of the biggest threat that humanity faces today and the only answer to a lasting solution is in the rapid reduction of the consumption of meat and dairy and the elimination of live animal markets. These may sound like drastic measures any non vegan would be scathed to approve, but if what we have gone through in one year is not drastic enough and if we really are serious about saving the lives and livelihoods of millions more, then what we don’t need is another ‘lock down’ but a collective ‘shut down’ of factory farming globally.

Final thought

The main agenda of Covid-19 global propaganda is to push ownership of responsibility from its place of proper governance and down onto the people. To vilify those for not wearing masks and to imply their heartless arrogance can be seen as an effort to sideline the real issues at heart. If government really were sincere in their tune, ‘in order to stop deaths’ then perhaps we would see them acting with such swift severity to end war, combat climate change, shut down factory farms or even end world hunger. I could be more convinced, but I don’t expect that to happen any time soon because then again lest us never forget... rich people don’t die from starvation.

[1] https://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/news/research-medical-benefits/the-increase-in-zoonotic-diseases-the-who-the-why-and-the-when/

[2] Dr Greggor

There is no hope for humanity until the animals are free, because while we continue to accept the enslavement and exploitation of others, we are allowing the enslavement and exploitation of ourselves. 

From deep inside my underground city cave, amidst the eerily empty streets and suffocating close confinement, months have passed by... Waiting with increasing unease, for the outcomes of the global Covid-19 pandemic to unfold.

In the weeks following the announcement of the UK state of emergency 'lock-up’, the Covid-19 survival guide arrived, Its contents, detailing an ‘all you need to know, in overting a mass contagion crisis’, which was in reality, little more than second rate garb, notably lacking in any key substance and generating nation wide confusion.

In full blanket blow to democracy, this document proceeded to shamelessly exploit the common rhetoric, ‘in the interest of public safety’, to further tighten legislations over arrest and surveillance, without review or repeal for years to come. Alarmingly, these attacks on civil rights and basic freedoms have increasingly become the status quo. Gaining ground by assimilating into our daily lives, further altering our boundaries of normality. Sending us to that place of quiet forgetting, a realm whence few dare return.

Five months into the crisis and the curtain is slowly rising. As the first signs in the unveiling of this new world start to emerge, we hold witness to untold damage, set to change the future of humanity forever. From enforced suppression of immune system response, threats of compulsory vaccinations and an entire generation of children bearing the psychological scars of social isolation. The direction the world has moved in such little time is astonishing, and this is only the beginning.

Throughout our lives we have been lead to believe that we live and rejoice in the great and glorious freedoms of our civilised lands. But far from this notion, it is those who have been born into the furthest reaches of the last remaining indigenous tribes, who have truly come close to the experience of inherent freedom. Because at that moment our parents unwittingly sign away our lives to the state, we begin a life of social programming. Throughout institution and establishment, affiliation and arrangement. The end result, to have moulded our minds into submission, making money for the man. Objective complete.

The human race is fast entering into an age of great captivity. As the grip of control continues to tighten, and the last of our remaining freedoms are lost to the state, I am horrified. I am horrified at the prospect that there is no escape. For how long in our history have we sang songs and shared stories, dreaming of the day we took the power back? We were calling for social change centuries ago, and we are still not winning. In fact, we are losing really badly. So now there is only one thing left to do. To live in truth. 

For many years I have admired the thought of going vegan. Well aware of the suffering food animals endure, yet never finding the right time to remove the dairy dependence from my diet. But this goes beyond health and even far beyond compassion and kindness, this is the restoration of a fundamental sacred law that we have forgotton and are now paying the ultimate price. As a global community, we have ruthlessly exploited our power, over all other life forms on this planet. 100 billion sentient beings will end their lives in captivity every year. The vast majority of them food animals, reared in factory farms and forced to live under submission of their will, every right taken from them. But this is more than just a pitiful tale this is our collective story, the fate that humankind is facing today.

Because our outer world is only a manifestation of our inner thoughts and actions, so what we deem as acceptable for others, will in turn one day reflect back upon ourselves. I can not accept or allow the enslavement of myself, nor can I fight a force so great as our ruling government bodies. But I can join a force much greater than that. To live a life in the power of respect, and in honour of the freedom of all living beings. Because we live in the collective consciousness, where the experience of true freedom is to set all others free.

Do unto others as what you would have others do unto you. ~ Jesus Christ, Luke 6.31.