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The dialogue concerning the crisis situation in energy and healthcare has steadily ramped up in the U.S. for nearly a decade. The tone of that dialogue is also becoming more impatient with seeing real change delivered on a global scale. While everyone insists that a revolution must come, very few are willing to recognize the number one hindrance to that end.

It may not, on the surface, seem that oil pumping and healthcare have a single common denominator, but they do. It is the consumer. Both industries are completely consumer driven.

While researching many of the topics in The Sage Age, I had to follow their trail back in time to gain historical context. In doing so, I came across several stories that forever altered my perspective on such things as the healthcare industry. One such instance came while researching the study of light. It involved the invention of the X-ray as a diagnostic tool.

Consumers were so enamored with the novelty of being able to see inside their body that they insisted they be given an X-ray even if they only had a cold. If the doctor refused, then the patient would simply seek a doctor who would comply with their wishes. In other words, money walked out the door and was spent elsewhere if the doctor didn’t follow the patient’s orders. This trend remained undaunted until reports began surfacing of the possibility of X-ray radiation poisoning from over-exposure.

Today, that trend of consumers dictating the standards of healthcare is still with us. Everyday there are countless TV commercials showing a person in their late 20s or early 30s advocating a pain reliever that lets them run another 10 miles. Translation – give me whatever I want so I don’t have to disrupt my life or be inconvenienced with the underlying cause I want to put on ignore.

It’s easy to argue that the pharmaceutical industry is creating the above scenario. The fact is, the consumer is creating it. No industry can sell a product for which there is no demand.

The industry follows the consumer. Case in point. When over a billion dollars a year began flowing out of consumer pockets into the alternative medicine arena, hospitals began offering Complimentary Alternative Therapies (CAM) and insurance companies began covering some of those services. Healing the underlying causes of illness takes time. That fact is the one that consumers are just beginning to wake up to.

Everyone in the U.S. is currently up in arms about the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and demanding that off-shore drilling be stopped. While public pressure may indeed bring about that very result, the fact is that the consumption of oil will not simultaneously decrease. In other words, the oil will simply be drilled somewhere else and likely cost more.

Want a real solution? Stop using all petroleum-based products. How easily pacified we are to buy a battery driven car not realizing that most everything from the dashboard to the exterior paint is made from oil.

The total amount of oil spilled in one month from the BP disaster is equal to what U.S. consumers use in one hour and gasoline is only a fraction of that total.

It’s so easy to blame the government, the pharmaceutical companies, and the oil industry. What’s not so easy is to make the real sacrifice necessary in consumption and to face the consequences of that change. When we stop using all of those products, all of the factories that make them shut down. All of the industries that make machines and supplies for those factories shut down. And, we begin to over-consume other natural resources to take the place of everything made of plastic. The same consequences are true in the healthcare industry.

Will real change come by continuing to raise our irritated voices in blaming big government and big industry? Probably not. Are we willing to look at the bigger picture and make the sacrifices needed for real change? We’ll see.

In November 2008, I was a guest on the BBS radio show Beyond the Matrix, which is based in Rome. The host, Patricia Cori, later informed me that she was writing a new book of transcriptions from several of her shows with renowned thinkers such as New York Times best-selling author and theoretical physicist, Michio Kaku; the sixth man on the moon, and founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Dr. Edgar Mitchell; and Paradigm Research Group director, Stephen Bassett. Ms. Cori informed me of her plans because she wanted to include her interview with me in the book. Of course, I agreed.

Earlier this week, she emailed to say that the book is now available and she is sending me a copy. The title is Beyond the Matrix: Daring Conversations with the Brilliant Minds of Our Times. She lists me as an “intuitive physicist,” which I found to be a very interesting description of the content of our conversation about topics from The Sage Age. You can click the link above or image to the left to view the full description of the book on Amazon.

I remember most of our conversation, but I’ll be interested to see how it was edited for the book. If you read it, please feel free to leave a comment here on the blog. I’m sure Ms. Cori will be interested in knowing what you think of the book too.

Because this interview was sequestered for the book, there is no archive link for that show on The Sage Age site’s OnTour page, but there are links to several other radio interviews, as well as links to other text interviews. Plus you’ll find links to the blog tour, which includes more interviews plus reviews.

Downhill skier Lindsey Vonn injured her leg in a training run just a few days before the opening of the 2010 Olympic Games. I’ve been very impressed with her reaction to her condition.

An interview with her aired just prior to coverage of the opening ceremonies. The host questioned her initial reaction to the injury, wondering why she refused to get it x-rayed to see if her leg was broken. Lindsey replied that she wanted to see for herself how it was before any other examination was performed.

Now, to some folks, it may seem that Lindsey had so much at stake that she simply chose to be in denial about the extent of her injury. But, let’s follow the wise advice to consider the source and take a look at who made this statement.

Vonn is a world-class downhill skier, meaning that she routinely flies across the snow with little protective gear at speeds reaching 80 or 90 mph. She knows a little something about focus and intent. As a premier athlete, she is also very in touch with her body.

After the injury, the first thing Vonn did was to ask her body how it felt and what it needed. She didn’t need an outside authority to give her the answer. The next thing Vonn did was to give her injured body exactly what it requested, the main factor being rest.

If Lindsey were in denial, she would have continued to train and increased the injury, or she would not have dropped out of so many competitions. She was in the run for five medals. Instead, she chose to focus on her main discipline and stated that one medal would be plenty.

If she did not consider herself the authority of her own body, she may have tried to meet the demands of her sponsors and the expectations of the TV networks, who were counting on her to be the Michael Phelps of these games. To be in harmony with her body’s needs, she declined to march with the U.S. delegation during the opening ceremonies, denying herself one major part of fully enjoying of the Olympic experience.

You have to have a good head on your shoulders to make split-second decisions as you whisk down a slippery slope. Fortunately, Lindsey Vonn has plenty enough sense to put things in perspective and honor her long-term health. And, she obviously has honed many of the same skills as an intuitive healing practitioner and listens to her own body-voice as well as the skill of focusing intent toward a clear purpose.

She may have injured her leg, but the rest of her is doing just fine.