Mutant Message Down Under - Marlo Morgan

Hey all!

Hope everything is good in the neighborhood. I've been steady writing my next book, tying tiny pieces and paragraphs together, and I have a really good feeling about this one. Really. For real. Unfortunately, one of my issues is that I meticulously design the book cover before I've even finished five chapters. Talk about foresight.


Anyways.


I was commissioned to write a piece about Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who can read with a stake in the future of the world as a whole. I'm not saying it's life changing, but it's at least eye opening.


The review is on the link below. Enjoy.



Much love,


KL

Mutant Message Down Under

Imagine it. Nothing but orange sand and red rocks for miles in every direction. The air is so hot your tongue sits in your mouth like dry wood. Every cool breeze feels like a gift from God, and every drop of water is as satisfying as a sip of the finest Merlot. The shrubs bite and eat at the soft skin of your soles, and the sun mercilessly whips down on your back as you walk… and walk… and walk…

For three months, this was Marlo Morgan’s life: trekking across the death trap we call Middle Australia with a clan of welcoming Aborigines. They call themselves the Real People. And me and you, we’re Mutants.

Though these labels may seem off putting at first, the Real People don’t feel any hatred or disgust for us Mutants. They merely want us to understand their lessons of the Earth as they know it and have known it for thousands of years. The Real People’s only issue was finding a suitable translator to share their spiritual message.

In comes Marlo Morgan, a successful fifty year old medical practitioner who took a casual trip to The Outback and brought home more than she bargained for. I can’t imagine her experience, driving out into the gaping expanse of nowhere, dressed to the nines in an expensive pantsuit, hair perfectly coiffed, only to be whisked away with all of her personal, priceless keepsakes burning in a bonfire. But somehow, someway, she survived to tell the tale.

Here’s the long and short of the Mutant Message, as I understand it.

Mutants are addicted. Addicted to technology. Addicted to food and water. Addicted to the attention and approval of others, addicted to a strict sense of wrong and right, black and white.

Mutants are even addicted to birthdays. Why do we celebrate ageing, an act that honestly requires little effort when in Mutant lands food is abundant and all of our air is blown out of an A/C? Real People celebrate personal achievement and growth, they focus on the betterment of themselves and others, whether it’s through skills, relationships, or spiritual well being. Despite their harsh environment, longevity comes naturally to the Real People. Their hearts are strong, their bodies are in prime physical condition, their minds are sharp and their wit sharper. Even the elderly are as nimble as their youngest and contribute their knowledge to the tribe. Here in Mutant Land, we stuff our grandparents into retirement homes and watch as their minds slowly decay. These differences are obviously not by accident.

I figure, maybe, just maybe, these Aborigines are actually on to something.

The Real People are masters of medicine. They can tap into a mental almanac that describes all herbs and edibles, key knowledge that dates back to their ancient ancestors. Most Mutants can’t remember what they ate for lunch the day before, much less all of the roots and shoots that are safe to eat in the Outback. The Real People make watertight canteens out of animal hides; they leave nothing to waste, much like Native Americans. I’m convinced that their respect for nature is so great that they could squeeze a drop of water out of a rock and would only drink half. Food is a necessary but non urgent factor for them - they find it when they find it, they don’t when they don’t. Simple as that.

Everyone one has a job and a name to match, and the Real People love each other unconditionally. The Real People find beauty in almost everything, whether it’s nature, animals, the night sky, or each other. To them, it doesn’t matter how many dozens of roses you display, or how large your diamond is, or how many houses you own. All that matters is you at the core, at your spirit, at the very deepest part of your being, and if you strive for oneness and enlightenment along side them, The Real People will welcome you with open arms and consider you one of their own.

That is what belonging feels like. It feels like family. It feels like home even without a roof or a paved driveway. They don’t even need to talk to each other, they are so connected that they communicate through telepathy, through oneness. They listen more than they talk as this makes it easier for them to hear each other. It’s all simple concepts laced with profound meaning.

The Real People take care of their own. They live for infinity, for their children’s children’s children, constantly considering how their actions will impact the future. Mutants live for the now, the present, the today. Real People trust that their faith with carry them. Mutants bend Mother Earth to their desires. Real People maintain close knit communities. Mutants suffer from manic depression and bipolarism. Real People allow their own to choose when they die. Mutants debate the morality of assisted suicide.

Yet again, I get this strange feeling that this hasn’t happened by accident.

What makes the Real People’s view so fascinating is its purity. Their ideas are unchanged, and they are steadfast in their peaceful beliefs despite settlers taking over their coastland and forcing them inward. They don’t resort to war. They resort to educating the Mutant masses.

After delivering their message to Morgan, the Real People explain their collective decision to stop reproducing. The Real People want to leave Earth and return home. They wish her well and send her on her way.

And then she leaves.

And just like that, her journey is over.

What fascinated me about the book was the response Morgan received when she returned to “The Real World.” Racist groups hounded her left and right, Australian officials claimed that they had every single last citizen irrefutably accounted for in the census, and numerous times she was denounced as a fraud, a false prophet, a hippie charlatan hoping to score a quick buck. Even I struggled believing this; it seems more suited to unreal dreams than surreal reality. Was there really a hidden oasis in the middle of desert, filled with sparkling water and pieces of history? Did Morgan really almost drown in a flash flood? Did she really lead a clan of Aborigines to the point of near death?

Perhaps. I’ll never know. But their lesson, their knowledge, their ideas - those will always be very real and very true for all of us. Mutant and Real People alike.