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Positive male role models are all around us. You don’t have to look too hard to find them. Ben Lawson presents his way of existing justly.
Ben Lawson has learned how to cultivate justice within himself, so he can project it outward to society. A childhood sexual abuse survivor, Ben was schooled in the street gutters of west coast punk rock. His early non-abusive male role models influenced him to seek his own way in the world. Musician, activist, permaculturalist, survival preparedness advocate; these are only a few of the hats that Ben wears. Music may have been the vehicle to deal with the past pain, but it wasn’t until he worked his hands into the soil that Ben found justice for himself.
How would you describe your work’s relationship to social justice?
“I’m blessed to now be making all of my income doing permaculture and preparedness design, installation, and consultation so I’m making the world a more sustainable and autonomous place where social justice can grow within decentralized local economies.”
With a keen insight into the complexity of our 21st century social design problems, Ben sees gender and sexual identities as important aspects of empowerment and health. Again, as a survivor and activist, he is taking his experiential knowledge to the community.
How is your gender identity a part of your work?
“I consider myself an Eco-feminist and a lot of my not-for-profit project work serves that movement. My gender identity has always been a balance of masculine and feminine. The study of Tantra has been very affirming and healing for me. Recently I’ve come-out as a sexual abuse survivor and have started teaching “safe and sacred” sexual education workshops.“
Ben’s healing journey has enabled him to begin to seek ways to create a more just society around him. The challenges he has faced are also indicative of much larger social ills. These challenges lack in proper research, awareness or experimentation. Unfortunately the taboo nature of these topics can create even greater distress for society at large.
“I’ve been blessed to experience a wide range of traditional psychedelic shamanic ceremonies which have given me unimaginable healing and powerful insight. I now understand the pathogenesis of the sexual predation I survived as a youth runaway. Over the last year I’ve been building a team of clinical psychologists, social workers, shamans, survivors, and even rehabilitated ex-convict perpetrators who are ready to drag this shadowy issue into the healing light. I’m currently raising funds to conduct clinical laboratory research studies. Conventional therapists lack the psychedeliscopic lens through which to identify the trans-dimensional parasitic organisms that infect and possess sex offenders. We need to bridge the epistemological and methodological gaps between clinical psychologists and shamans. Psychedelic shamans have taxonomic knowledge of the spirit world and are thus able to operate as gardeners of their patients’ souls. Over millennia they’ve built strategic alliances with so-called angelic entities and have designed effective cross-cultural, interfaith-compatible technologies to exterminate so-called demonic entities. They’re able to provide plant medicine assisted disinfection, purification and healing for victims, and conduct non-invasive psycho-surgical exorcisms on perpetrators.”
Ethical-minded individuals in the new century find a huge challenge attempting to a balance their own moral code with the need to survive in a social system that often runs against their personal moral code.
How do you balance ethics and survival in contemporary society?
“I try to live by the ethics taught in the Permaculture Design Course: earth care, people care, and return of surplus. Over the last several years I’ve gotten heavily involved in the modern survivalism movement. I have found that by combining the tools for empowerment found in both the permaculture and preparedness fields, one can achieve measurable liberation from ‘the system(s)’ both financially and spiritually. Right Livelihood and Right Action can be developed beneath, beside, and beyond The Matrix, which gives me great hope!”
Ben has put years into thought and work on sustainability. His work began during his formative years on the streets of west coast cities and has led him to his current efforts to provide communities with sustainable survival solutions.
The cultivation of justice for the self naturally grows outward. Ben puts it rather boldly, but sincerely, for himself:
“As I’ve stepped out more, the universe is rapidly increasing synchronicity to encourage me to be a voice for the unheard.”
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Check out these articles also by Wilhelm Cortez:
Could There Have Been A Third Gender In Eden?
A Short History of the Eco-warrior
–Lead photo by Janels Katlaps/Flickr
–Other photos courtesy of Ben Lawson
–Find out more about Ben here.
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