Here are some news updates for the Summer of 2018. It's been awhile since I sent out a message to my email list. I have this underutilized email list that I control and that isn't under the direct whim of tech giant algorithms. I really should utilize it more often.
I have a potential book project in draft stage. I still can't say if it will get off the ground at all. As things stand right now, I don't see anything new being completed anytime soon.
It's been almost exactly eight years since
The Universe Is a Dream was first released. Unfortunately, the publishing world is just as inhospitable to comics as eight years ago. Printing comics in color and selling comics as Kindle ebooks is an exercise in gluttony for punishment. Everything is optimized for regular books, not comic books. I had it in mind to release
The Universe Is a Dream revamped and in color for the 10 year anniversary but the technological logistics haven't improved enough to justify doing that. Instead, things are going in the opposite direction. Print costs are going up. File size is still greatly punished by Amazon Kindle. And Amazon is becoming so saturated with books that less and less people are finding mine to buy.
Since releasing
The Universe Is a Dream eight years ago, I've come to accept that I'm an artist guy who doesn't want to be a guru. But really you have to be a guru to some extent if you really want to sell books, especially in the spirituality genre. You've got to go out there and sell your ideas. And if you're unwilling to do that, there is little point in making books. Because chances are no one is really going to promote your stuff other than you. And to go out there spreading ideas is to jump into a war zone.
When I talk, I talk about three main things. I call those three things my three guiding axioms. And all those things fly in the face of convention.
My Three Guiding Axioms
1) Being: Oneness (Pure Non-Duality Principle)
2) Thought: Quantum Forgiveness (Non-Guilt-Projection Principle)
3) Behavior: The True Golden Rule (Non-Aggression Principle)
I can live by those axioms without directly talking about them. But those axioms are behind just about everything I ever want to talk about, since I naturally want to talk about the things I live. At least the first two axioms are mostly accepted by people who accept A Course in Miracles. But once I get to the third axiom, which is the most pertinent to day to day life in a social sense, I don't even have many ACIM people on my side. ACIM explicitly says the Golden Rule is the rule for appropriate behavior. However, people don't take the Golden Rule very seriously. Part of that lack of seriousness is probably the fact that just saying, "Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you," is a bit too vague. When you start studying natural law, Kantian categorical imperative, the non-aggression principle, and even the negative formulation of the Golden Rule (don't do unto others...) you start to appreciate it more.
When talking to all audiences, I have a tendency to want to start with axiom 3, the Golden Rule. Because the Golden Rule is kindergarten forgiveness. Last year I started the blog
Forgiving the News to start publicly exploring the minefield of putting people's beliefs up to the test of the Golden Rule; in that sense the blog is basically designed to piss everyone off (lol). Because the problem with getting deep into the Golden Rule is that I invariably have to start telling people that their politics are complete garbage regardless of left or right persuasion (lol). People don't like that, because politics is secular religion full of contradictory garbage that falls apart when exposed to light.
Whenever I start exposing the dark side of people's behavioral beliefs by exploring axiom three, it transitions into axiom two. Axiom two means delving into unconscious guilt and the Jungian shadow. The great thing about starting with axiom three is that the people able to get through axiom three usually have some hope of facing the darkness within when projected out. And those able and willing to face the darkness within have some hope of dealing with axiom one, which is the ultimate abstraction. Oneness is an abstraction so abstract that it cannot be modeled. For that reason I find working from oneness back into the profane world less useful. The people attracted to the positive love and happiness stuff are too often unwilling to deal with the darkness.
I'm sure there is a much bigger audience ready for the hardcore ACIM-based messages I want to bring. But going the route of talking to general audiences to weed out the people who are ready for my full messages puts me on the radar of lots of adversaries. And I have a hard time believing that such a task is worth the aggravation (lol).
The way I see it, if I'm unwilling to jump into the ideological war zone to help increase the popularity of my current books, there is little point in making more books. So that is my current crossroads. I don't know what I'll do or when.
In the meantime though check this out. If you haven't heard, I was on the
True Forgiveness Teachings Podcast with Jackie Lora Jones twice in the last few months. We got into some good stuff. The main theme was forgiving the First Law of Chaos: the truth is different for everyone. That's my favorite topic since it's one of the few I have lots to say about due to the world providing a constant stream of new material. And at the end I gave seven useful forgiveness tips. So give that a listen.
Part 1 4/24/18:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/trueforgiveness/2018/04/24/why-some-things-seem-harder-to-forgive-than-others-wguest-alexander-marchand
Part 2 7/17/18:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/trueforgiveness/2018/07/17/why-some-things-seem-harder-to-forgive-than-others-part-2-wguest-alex-marchand
Also worth noting,
The Universe Is Virtual is being released in
Portuguese soon. And
The Universe Is a Dream continues to be available in a number of
different languages.
And as always, if you've been depriving yourself of any of my books, get them while you can.
https://alexandermarchand.com/books/books/
Keep on forgiving,
Alex
