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Why I'm an Eternal Optimist

By WantToKnow.info founder Fred Burks

Eternal Optimist

Miami Beach. September 1992. Age 34. In the middle of the most intense break-up I have ever experienced, the emotional pain is so great I just can’t take it any more. After living together largely in joy and bliss with my awesome girlfriend for a year and a half, I now find myself suddenly an absolute emotional wreck as her love has fled to another man. I have to do something.

So I put on my running shorts and head out to the beach. Pushing myself to run harder than ever with the soothing ocean as my companion, I welcome the physical pain surging in my body as it somehow makes the intense emotional pain more tolerable.

Yet even in the midst of this crushing pain and anguish, I somehow know I will one day be grateful. Even in the depths of this despair and having no idea how it might manifest, the eternal optimist in me deeply trusts that some day I will look back and appreciate this heart-rending loss.

San Francisco Bay Area. September 1995. Age 37. I am delightfully surprised and in awe to have no doubt that the break up just three years ago was a huge gift in my life. I have fully healed and moved on. Yet I am so thankful now to have grown a profound empathy I’ve never before known, empathy for my friends who experience intense emotional turmoil in their love life. With the wisdom I’ve gained, I can now hold them gently in their pain in a way I could never have done before.

My name is Fred Burks, and though I’m one of the most optimistic people you could ever meet, in my work world, I am known as one who courageously shines a loving light into the darkest shadows. As the manager of the website www.WantToKnow.info, which has now received over 20 million visits, I use highly reliable sources to expose little-known cover-ups and corruption of a huge magnitude in our world. Yet I'm very optimistic we can turn this all around.

A key reason my work has become popular is that everything I do is colored by my deep sense of hope and optimism. I know that the more we open our eyes to all that is being hidden from us and are then inspired to make a difference, the more our world will change for the better. The byline of WantToKnow.info is “reliable, verifiable information on major cover-ups and a call to work together for the good of all.”

Knowing of my boundless optimism, many have asked, “But what about the way we are destroying our planet?” I’m actually very hopeful that because many like me are taking decisive action, we will see ever more wonderful changes in our world. And my eternal optimist says that even in the worst case scenario where we end up blowing our world to smithereens (which is extremely unlikely), I believe our souls would all simply migrate to another planet where we would try again to get it right. Is that really such a bad thing?

Remember, too, that the major media which so saturates our world is largely focused on the sensational. Blood and guts sell. If it bleeds, it leads. Is it any wonder so many feel we are doomed? I believe this is but a reflection of the current human condition which is more obsessed with tragedy than with hope. As ever more of us shift our focus from the sensational to the many incredibly hopeful and inspiring happenings around the world, the media will naturally follow this positive trend in order to keep the profits flowing.

As one who is well known in certain corners of the Internet both for shining a light into the shadows and for spreading hope and inspiration, I regularly receive awesome information on how our world is already transforming in ways that few know about. I can tell you that there are so many great reasons for optimism that I could write pages and pages about it. I actually have compiled an inspiring essay on this titled “10 Reasons for Hope and Optimism.” In addition to the 10 reasons there, here are a few more that are particularly exciting to me:

  • The colorful music festivals and dances blossoming all over the planet as a manifestation of our collective desire to come together to celebrate in love and harmony.
  • The growing recognition of the healing and transformative power of breath and breathwork.
  • The safe use of sacred medicines now becoming legal as a potent door both to transformational healing of past traumas and to expanded consciousness.
  • The increasing awareness that sexuality can be sacred without losing the amazing pleasure available.
  • Thriving intentional communities already living a beautiful new paradigm like the little-known Italian spiritual community of Damanhur and vibrant Portuguese community of Tamera.
  • The growing number of awesome inspirational and motivational speakers and workshops blossoming around the world.

Why was I given this gift of eternal optimism when so many in our world are haunted by despair and hopelessness? Is it because of my genes? Was my spirit just oriented that way when I was born? Could it be because growing up I knew that my mother loved me from the bottom of her heart? Might it be because I understood from a young age that being grateful and focusing on the bright side was key to enjoying life? These all may have played a role, but I honestly don’t know why I was given this gift while so many in our world to varying degrees live in anxiety and despair. It’s not fair.

What I do know is that life is not always fair. Why did I get such a loving mother while others suffered terribly at the hands of their parents? Why do I and many of my friends get to enjoy life so much while so many around the world suffer in so many ways? It really isn’t fair. I feel for those who suffer and so wish I could somehow wave a magic wand and share the gifts I’ve been given to help relieve their pain. My words here are a small effort in that direction.

What I know is that my gift of unwavering optimism has given me the strength and courage to look into the deepest, darkest shadows both inside of myself and out in the world. In my early 40s, I first learned about secret government mind control projects and major child trafficking rings who rape and torture children, raking in huge profits as they feed the twisted desires of pedophiles around the world. I found my stomach churning with discomfort as I learned how even some prominent people at the highest levels of business and government are involved.

Yet even on absorbing this gut wrenching information that literally made me feel sick, I knew somehow there must be a greater reason for it all. And I knew that the reason I was gifted with such optimism was to give me the strength to carry out my mission to stop these horrendous acts, and in so doing make my contribution to a better world for us all. Out of this was born my work with WantToKnow.info, which I know without a doubt has had a significant positive impact in our world.

What I also know is that there is some kind of energetic feedback loop where those who live with a heartfelt sense of hope and optimism are much more likely to find countless blessings in their lives, while those who dwell in hopelessness and despair are more likely to experience doom and gloom in many aspects of their lives. I see this unfold again and again even among my personal friends.

I so wish there were some magic key I could give to help those who feel hopeless find their way to hopefulness. Yet these attitudes are often so deeply entrenched that many go to their graves without changing. That said, I know of a good number of people who have made the change.

Some have had to first hit rock bottom – a place of such deep despair that they could no longer take it – before finally making a clear choice to change. Others have been transformed by a profound unexpected event, like a near-death experience, which forever changed them. Yet there are also those who have simply made a soul-felt commitment to change and have had the courage and tenacity to make it happen.

For those desiring more optimism, I invite you to consider in your heart of hearts if you really are ready for a change. If you are, send a call or a prayer out to your higher guidance for help. And then take action. Particularly if you are besieged by hopelessness, consider checking out great teachers like Joe Dispenza and inspirational speakers like W Mitchell who can spark a change. Explore also an inspiring online lesson I and others put together which many have said transformed their lives. Open to all of the many transformational resources available.

I share all of this with the great desire that we might all find more hope and optimism in our lives. Even though I was blessed to be born an eternal optimist, I invite you to consider the possibility that hope and optimism are a choice that every one of us can make at every moment in our lives.

Life is filled with cycles. The dying flower releases a seed that must be buried in fertile darkness before it can sprout. This tiny seed carries the potential of a glorious future. Yet to grow and thrive, the seedling needs cycles of the nourishing light of many bright, sunny days alternating with the life-giving water of many dark thunderstorms to reach its full potential. Both are necessary.

In the same way, we humans need times of joy and loving connection interspersed with times of adversity and challenges in order to thrive and to grow to our full potential. Both are necessary. When we choose to accept and surf the waves of the times of darkness while fully celebrating the times of light, we can more gracefully surrender to the joy of being human.


Final Note:
If you are interested in more about my work on personal and global transformation, I invite you to explore an essay I wrote titled “A White House Insider's Journey Down The Rabbit Hole and Back to Magnificence.” And for a website filled with my mystical musings, see www.divinemystery.net.

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