Meditations in Time of War with Charles Upton

Charles Upton's first books of poetry were published in 1968 and 1969 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Light Books in San Francisco. He was then considered the youngest member of the "beat generation" as he was still in high school. He has subsequently written many books associated with the traditionalist school of spirituality including What Poets Used to Know, The Science of the Greater Jihad, Folk Metaphysics, Alien Disclosure Deception: The Metaphysics of Social Engineering, Day and Night on the Sufi Path, Dugin Against Dugin: A Traditionalist Critique of the Fourth Political Theory, The System of the Antichrist, and Vectors of the Counter-Initiation. His most recent book of poetry is The Wars of Love and Other Poems. His website is https://charles-upton.com/

Note: There is a GoFundMe page for Charles Upton who is dealing with colon cancer. See https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-charles-upton-survive-colon-cancer

Charles reflects on war not only as a historical and political reality, but as an inner spiritual crisis in which the human soul is tested by suffering, choice, and the apparent absence of peace. Drawing from Sufi metaphysics, revealed religion, and his own poetry, he explores how darkness, apocalypse, and conflict can become occasions for remembrance of God, radical purification, and fidelity to the human form. Upton offers a deeply contemplative meditation on obedience, truth, love, and what it means to stay human in a time of war.

00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:35 The inner war
00:08:48 The purpose of war
00:18:40 The greater jihad
00:29:30 Apocalypse and judgment
00:37:45 Defending the human form
00:46:41 Stay human
00:48:02 Revelation and purification
00:53:48 The wars of love
01:02:29 Conclusion

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in "parapsychology" ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He is Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science.

(Recorded on Thursday, March 12, 2026)

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