Educating Ourselves Out of Hell

My Faith teaches that Heaven and Hell are more than "places" one can go depending on some amount of ethical behavior--they're very Real states of heart and mind we all experience while still in our bodies here on Earth!

{{ This image is the photo-logo of a group I helped get off the ground recently, Mountaintop Conversations.

We're using some novel methods of communication in small groups to reach within and find ways to realize the "Dream" of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Reach within" is the important part of the process because if we want to educate ourselves out of the "hell" of poverty, racism, and violence we must go within and release the qualities we all have that Dr. King so eloquently portrayed.

Even the word "Education" comes from roots that mean to Draw Out !

I've mentioned before my parallel immersion in a simulation of non-violent methods and I've recently found a virtual world, Second Life, that looks to be a marvelous tool for training people to educate themselves out of their personal hells.

I believe even the most sceptical would find a space of interest in Second life (I personally, along with my work of Waging Peace in this virtual world, find it extremely calming to hang out at a huge castle...)

For any of you who want a glimpse behind the magic of Second Life and a more technical view of it's educational potential, Google has a neat video about all that [N.B.: The vid says there are 150,000 people using 2ndLife... That was when they made the vid; it's now over 5 million \\+// you can actually make money in this simulation !!!]

Wrapping up this post about my virtual educational experiences are two pictures--one of me in the Real World and one I created in Second Life. I'm still learning how to use the controls so my avatar doesn't look as much like me as it could; but, I'm Learning!