This morning I found the following letter with the request to put it on my humble blog:
Dear all,
In every age there have been a few of us who knew about alien intelligent life. We passed the knowledge on from generation to generation with no permission to do anything else with it than to convene every 50 years. During our last convention, we unanimously decided to come forward and this is our letter to English-speaking world.
We have strictly kept and passed on our secret. It is not true that some of us sighted, reported or crafted UFO’s. The ones who created Superman did not use our secret knowledge. None of us caused scientists or amateurs to start scanning the skies for intelligent life. We never wrote or hinted about Angles, Gods or the One G-d. Most of this is done on human intuition, this inborn feeling that there must be extraterrestrial intelligence. We are ready now to reveal for the first time that this once was a historical truth.
There was intelligent life Out There, but we all came here. We left no one behind. Most of human DNA comes from outer space. We evolved elsewhere, on a slightly smaller planet. We can still see this today: we are somewhat too weighty, our step slightly to heavy, but we manage.
It was so interesting to find how alike our Early Brethren were. It’s not true that we fought with them or that we hated each other. We all now even have part of the Neanderthal DNA with us. We loved each other. They simply didn’t make it, just like we a few times almost all perished. It was reassuring though, how we from Outer Space and them from Earth were so similar.
Our reason to reveal this history is that we see how our roots now subconsciously threaten to make us die out, this time not because of hardship from the environment but from our own stupidity. We seem to lack enough care for where we landed. We are not mosquitoes or grasshoppers, two of the other life forms that we took with us and that survived. They just parasitize, take what there is to take, without any regard for the life they take from. That’s their nature. But we humans can and must stop acting like this.
If we don’t finally make our relationship with Earth and each other one of symbiosis, we all will be on our way out. Only, this time, there will not be anywhere else to go. Therefore, we must clean up the air and the oceans. We must allow the weather patterns to return to more equilibrium. We must stop toying with nuclear weapons. We must end oppression and exploiting each other.
We are on the verge of a new health era. In many countries, life expectancy has risen from 40 to over 70. Many reach the age of 100 already. This can become the new norm. By the time most of us reached 100, 140 could be the new norm. By the time we get there, death might have been done away with entirely. We might actually already see people around us who will never again die and have their aging be undone! Then, by the word endurance we will not imply: till we die. No, survival will become to mean: individual immortality!
But what’s the use of mankind reaching the potential of physical immortality if we still kill each other in wars and terrorism? If people still die from malnutrition? If people perish from extreme weather and the environment hitting us back? If people are deeply unhappy and plaster that over with recreational and prescription drugs?
Therefore, we call upon all people around to become activists, to contribute to one or more of the following goals urgently:
- Refuse to work against others or our Planet ever again
- Fanatically start teaching non-violent communication and empathy
- Use all your free time lobbying for and demanding environmental clean up
- Massively contribute to sharing honest pure information, cleaned of lying and hidden agendas
- Help end hunger and war; promote recovery time and safety for all
- Teach every free minute you have how to listen to the cries and tears from babies and grown-ups alike, so that we can stop pacifying and numbing ourselves until we die
- Learn to become an ally to people in other oppressed groups and teach them to do the same, including for all the groups you belong to
- Promote incarceration of people determined to be destructive and allocation of resources to nurture them back to human caring.
The contrast between cleaning up our environment and our relationships with each other and not doing so has never been so stark. It’s either eternal bliss or utter extinction. The old idea to leave it to our children to solve this has outlived its time, pun not intended. There will be no children left, if we continue like this.
Become a smart caring activist today. And when you meet one of us, give us a wink (our extraterrestrial “handshake”), so that we know that you’re aboard too.
Chilling, no?
MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. *
As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. *
This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Of the 15 (!) books he has in mind, the next two are about homosexuality in Judaism and new rabbinics. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2600 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog that also may contain updates to Times of Israel posts, to which one may subscribe, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. *
He's getting ready to publicize books on: "Free Will, "Judaism and Homosexuality, "His parents in the Holocaust, "Judaism, "A New Torah Translation and "A New Hebrew Grammar, "Co-Counseling, "Vegan Facts, "Immortality, and more. *
Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He agrees that in a post-truth world, that's irrelevant, but then this is for the record. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. *
Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. *
Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. *
He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. *
He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. *
He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. *
His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. His posts are spell, grammar, and style polished by AI, but all written by himself. *
To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. *
His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1
