Larry Abdullah Oral History, 2022/09/15

Self Description: "I am dentist and I live in a little town in Illinois. Near salt village actually Chicago Heights, Illinois. unincorporated Chicago, Heights. We're very near a town called salt village. I’m Raelian, I don't know this is a member of the Raelian movement, which is, I think important to this particular discussion. I’ve been a member of the Raelian movement for since 2004"

Some of the things we discussed include:
Minimal impact of the pandemic on daily life.
Panic and hysteria.
Danger in everyday life; living without fear of death.
Comparisons between COVID and flu deaths, COVID and AIDS.
Shifting from a private practice dentist to a traveling contract dentist.
Dentistry as a luxury in the 1950s.
Entering the health field to help others and being a role model for younger Black children.
Being raised with the Bible and finding unanswered questions in Raelism.
The atomic bomb, weapons of mass destruction, and world peace.
Automation getting rid of labor so that everyone’s needs are met without needing to work.
Bringing about world peace with smiles.
World changing events and memory: The Kennedy Assassination and 9/11.
Wanting a system of government run by geniuses; scientists setting public health policy rather than politicians.
Getting stressed without staying stressed.

September 15, 2022

Kit Heintzman

Larry Abdullah

Kit Heintzman

video

English Health & Wellness

English Pandemic Skeptics

English News coverage

love

Rael

Raelian

extraterrestrials

stress

AIDS

aliens

Black

Chicago

dentist

hugs

Illinois

kindness

masks

meditation

peace

Raelian

selflove

smiles

Black Voices

09/20/2022

01/12/2023

01/21/2023

03/09/2023

09/15/2022

Kit Heintzman

Larry Abdullah

Chicago Heights

Illinois

United States of America

Video

english

01:17:58

Minimal impact of the pandemic on daily life.
Panic and hysteria.
Danger in everyday life; living without fear of death.
Comparisons between COVID and flu deaths, COVID and AIDS.
Shifting from a private practice dentist to a traveling contract dentist.
Dentistry as a luxury in the 1950s.
Entering the health field to help others and being a role model for younger Black children.
Being raised with the Bible and finding unanswered questions in Raelism.
The atomic bomb, weapons of mass destruction, and world peace.
Automation getting rid of labor so that everyone’s needs are met without needing to work.
Bringing about world peace with smiles.
World changing events and memory: The Kennedy Assassination and 9/11.
Wanting a system of government run by geniuses; scientists setting public health policy rather than politicians.
Getting stressed without staying stressed.

Kit Heintzman 00:00
Hello, would you please state your name, the date, the time and your location?

Larry Abdullah 00:07
Hello, my name is Larry Abdullah. That date is September the 15th 2022. The time a year in Fort Wayne, Indiana is 6:11

Kit Heintzman 00:26
And do you consent to having

Larry Abdullah 00:27
Pm

Kit Heintzman 00:30
And do you consent to having this interview recorded, digitally uploaded and publicly released under a Creative Commons license attribution noncommercial sharealike?

Larry Abdullah 00:40
Yes.

Kit Heintzman 00:43
Thank you so much for being here with me today. Could I ask you to start by introducing yourself to anyone who might find themselves listening? What would you want them to know about you?

Larry Abdullah 00:53
Well, my name is, as I mentioned, Larry Abdulllah, I am dentist and I live in a little town in Illinois. Near salt village actually Chicago Heights, Illinois. unincorporated Chicago, Heights. We're very near a town called salt village. I’m Raelian, I don't know this is a member of the Raelian movement, which is, I think important to this particular discussion. I’ve been a member of the Raelian movement for since 2004. The Raelian movement is an organization that believes that all life on Earth was created by an advanced society of scientists from another planet who came to Earth and created all living things on Earth, including humans. And since they've been since they created us, they've been watching us and periodically sending us guides and teachers in the form of prophets such as Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Muhammad, and a host of other prophets to various communities and cultures throughout the world. And in this, now that we've reached a stage in our development, where we are able to explode the atomic bomb, and which brings with it the ability to destroy all life on Earth, they decided to send one last profit to try to save us from this destruction of humanity's name Rael, and for the last more than almost 50 years, he's been traveling around the country around the world, I should say, and spreading this message and, and in hoping in the hopes of helping to build an embassy, where we can openly come where they can openly come back to Earth and make themselves known to us and to help us with our problems, or with our problems that we face here on this planet, including our use of atomic scientific knowledge a but before, when they can do that and where they will, before they will do that we'll need to we will need to as a human society, bring peace on this planet. So that's my life is devoted to that. Besides being a dentist I’m devoted to trying to help bring peace on this planet by one person at a time by spreading this message. I think that's pretty much who I am.

Kit Heintzman 04:02
Would you tell me a story about your life during the pan

Larry Abdullah 04:06
Okay. I think you asked me kind of breaking up I think you asked me could I tell you my story, my life, my life story during the pandemic. And for me, it was not much different. The biggest difference, I think, during the pandemic was the interaction with people otherwise my life was pretty much the same. I continued to practice dentistry and [inaudible] in a private practice as I had before the pandemic a few the year when the pandemic actually became very widespread. I decided to close my practice and this was actually before it became so So, well, known. And that's but I continued to practice dentistry, doing local work working on as a contract dentists. And I did that, I've done that pretty much every since, since I closed my office, my private office, so really not much changed for me traveling, I guess that's one of the changes that I didn't travel as much some points I wasn't able to fly. But I, my work took me to various cities around the communities as well around the Chicago area. So I didn't really, it wasn't really a big difference in my life afterwards, after the pandemic, or during the pandemic, except for the interaction of people, people were more distant there, there were no smiles, you know, and I, and, you know, there were very little touching, hugging and shaking hands and just those kinds of things. So I guess that was the biggest thing for me and me.

Kit Heintzman 06:18
Has your relationship to touch changed over the last couple of years?

Larry Abdullah 06:21
Has my relationship to touch? You know, fortunately, as a member of the Raelian movement, who did not as a as a, as a group, I think it wasn't, that was not we that was not something that we thought into as much and we still continued to promote free hug campaigns, where we would go out on the streets and what I was signs and encourage people to, to get a hug if they need it. So, and among ourselves, we, we feel very free to hug and as we have always done in the past, so and the leader of our movement in, you know, encouraged us to, to not to be afraid of to have this, of the of the hype regarding this pandemic, so, no, I might my, my I didn't have as many people to hug. But But yeah, it was definitely reduced, if you will. In general, people don't hug too much. I mean, that's yeah, I mean, how many people have you hugged in to in the last week? Very few, a few. You know, I, I haven't hugged anybody this week. I'm not not a single person, have I hugged. But I came here. I shouldn't say this week. I should have said since Tuesday, when I was at home I hugged friends I hugged and other Raelian people that I know and there’s some friends who are not Raelian’s that we hug whenever we meet. It's just one of those greetings that we share. So what I'm kind of getting away from your question, I believe. So go ahead.

Kit Heintzman 08:19
Would you tell me when you first heard about COVID-19?

Larry Abdullah 08:25
That would be difficult to pinpoint exactly when I heard about it. Unlike the Kennedy assassination, or 9/11, you know where you were. It was probably some thing, you know, being in the medical profession, you are aware of these kinds of things, and may have been something, some reports in some dental journals or something of that nature. That has kind of the came before the actual public notifications of this, this disease of this outbreak. And I think I may have heard about something developing in some foreign country before I before it became a big topic here in the US. So But to answer your question about it, I don't remember. In I know in 2019, I took a trip to Africa. And that was the beginning of 2019. And I don't remember any talk about. There were no restrictions at that time. It was after I came back, that the restriction started and they may have so initially it wasn't such a big deal to me. There's always in the media, there's always the flu, this flu this outbreak and you hear that all the time. So the COVID thing was more or less for me, it was something that happens every, every winter or every year we hear about some flu or something, taking shape and spreading. So it didn't really dawn on me, it wasn't a big deal, whatever it was, when I heard it, it wasn't a big deal. until it became mainstream news. And it became, you know, all of the restrictions start to be imposed on on society.

Kit Heintzman 10:36
What were some reactions when it started to become a more mainstream issue?

Larry Abdullah 10:43
You know, I, you know, I remember that one of the, one of the it's funny it’s funny to me, it's funny, one of the things that well, repeat that question, I don't want to go off on a tangent, repeat a question, please.

Kit Heintzman 11:02
When, when it started to become a more mainstream issue, when it started to get more news coverage, what were your reactions at that point?

Larry Abdullah 11:12
I, you know, I just, I felt like it was being overdone. I thought that it was being overplayed, it was being people were being reactionary. There was no, people were repeating. And it's like, you know, like a recording, like, parroting is, I think a word parroting what you hear on the news. And, and, and that's the way I we came over to me it was more or less, it became a new fad, if you will, in the sense of the discussion about this, this, this, this virus, when I talk to my friends, when I hear them talk about it was similar to what I would hear on the news prior to that, so it was just an ide. And even that made me wonder what is really going on, because people are starting to panic, and they really don't have any. And they're just reacting. They're actually just, they're actually just reacting to what they hear on the news. I mean, at that point, I didn't know anybody that had COVID. And for many months, I never knew anybody that COVID. It was none, none of my friends had COVID. No one I knew, had passed away from COVID. And so it was a, I felt like it was just more of a hysteria, then then, than anything else, but what brought it to really brought it out was the, the time when there was a shortage of toilet paper [laughing] I came home, I came home from an assignment was and there was this big thing about toilet paper being taken off the shelves and nobody could find it. And everybody's, everybody was looking for toilet paper. And it was I was like, wow, what is what's going on? And so it dawned on me how reactionary everybody was to this whole thing without and still without without any real. I don't know, scientific basis, if you will. You know, because as I mentioned earlier, there's always there's as long as I can remember there's always at least in the last 50 years, there's always been some form of disease spreading good population going back to AIDS back in the 80s with AIDS and then some other after that was something else and something else so there's always something that's in estimates that that I have, there's always something to keep people on it seems to keep people on the edge and keep them scaring about trying to protect themselves and stay alive. You know, a appears at you know, trying to extend their life. It was just seemed so I don't know, I've found it, I found it to be quite interesting. This [inaudible]

Kit Heintzman 14:54
I’d love to hear more thoughts that you have on the comparison between COVID and HIV and the reactions to them.

Larry Abdullah 15:07
The biggest thing I can recall is all of the hysteria. I mean, you know it’s like, 9/11 when you when, when 9/11 took place, it was all on the news, you turn on the news, every station had something about 9/11. And it was the same with AIDS when, when AIDS was a big thing, everywhere, every every outlet was talking about AIDS and all of the problems associated with AIDS and, and, and that in COVID COVID outbreak reminded me of those kinds of scenarios.

Kit Heintzman 15:48
Thinking of the prepandemic world, would you say something about your experiences with health and healthcare infrastructure?

Larry Abdullah 15:57
Repeat that.

Kit Heintzman 15:59
Would you say something about your experiences of health and healthcare infrastructure pre pandemic?

Larry Abdullah 16:11
I don't know how to respond to that question, or what? What is so much to say about health and in so many realms in so many areas, I don't know exactly how to respond to that question to say something would, maybe you could be a little bit more specific with you. I because I'm a I'm a doctor. And, and there's so many aspects of health in the healthcare industry. I mean, there's distribution, the accessibility, the the affordability, there's so many there's so many. There's so, I found that to be to be very difficult to promote for most people, for instance, dentistry I until insurance jumped into the game, in back in the 70s. Until dental, dental care itself was a luxury for most people. I mean, it wasn't something that people did on a regular basis. Now today with insurance. There's so many people go to the dentist to get their teeth cleaned. When I was a kid, nobody wants to get their teeth cleaned. I mean, if you you nobody that I knew nobody in my community went to the dentist to get their teeth clean. I didn't go to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned when I was a kid. Because we couldn’t, that was something that was kind of a luxury service. And it wasn't until insurance became a part of the program and became part of the culture that then we started to see an improvement in the distribution of health care to more more more and more people more communities. And then as a aspect of education, dental education, for instance, has become more more widespread now and that people are becoming more more aware of the the importance of oral health to their general health. So that pre pandemic that was a that was a big concern is educating the populace about the benefits and the necessity for for promoting and preventing all health disease. Again, maybe you can suggest some other area that to talk about but there's many aspects of health care.

Kit Heintzman 18:57
Do you think of yourself as a healthy person?

Larry Abdullah 19:02
No, yes, I think I think I am pretty healthy. I considering you know considering it. I mean, up until recently, I think I I consider myself more healthy than I have been in the last in the last maybe two years. And now I'm 75 years old now. So I mean, you know I be that. I don't I still consider myself healthy for my age. But I have more problems today than I did five years ago.

Kit Heintzman 19:43
Why did you decide to go into healthcare?

Larry Abdullah 19:48
Well, I guess I guess I wanted, the primary reason is that I like helping people I will seems like that's been been A general theme of my life is that I enjoy helping people and doing things that make people, helping people in one way or another. And the other thing, of course, is the fact that it provides a comfortable lifestyle. So for raising a family, as well. And so those are the two primary reasons that I went into health care, I thought there might be more opportunities as well. For me, in the, in that field growing up in a society that was still there were still restrictions [inaudible] I don't want to. There was still limitations as to the ability to ach for for black American to be able to reach certain levels of society, and I thought healthcare was was, was a, an avenue that I could use to, to, to elevate the status of people in my community in my you know, and so I wanted to help care for pretty much those reasons for

Larry Abdullah 21:28
Excuse me, to help people for the status that it brings in for the the being able to sustain your have a sustainable. Excuse me, my second ability to live a lifestyle that's above the poverty level, if you will. And just being able to achieve a status that can help elevate my community.

Kit Heintzman 22:13
Pre pandemic, what was your day to day looking like?

Larry Abdullah 22:18
Well, pre pandemic, I owned a dental practice. So, my most of my efforts, my energies, or were devoted to, to, to doing that sustain that feel that comes with having a business owning a business requires, you know, a great deal of time and involvement. So, my day to day activities, more or less focused on that particular part of my life growing and developing my business.

Kit Heintzman 22:58
What changed for you when locked down happened?

Larry Abdullah 23:03
Nothing much, like I mentioned earlier, not much change. I mean, I still worked as a health care provider, because I still did contract work. In fact, actually I've been more busy as a contract dentists than I had as my, my, with my own private practice, in terms of, you know, traveling more seeing different places, parts of the region, meaning Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa which I have, I have, I have licenses for those states. So I'm able to I have been able to travel to various places and having a business really, it takes a lot of energies and and you expend a lot of energies and there's no real there's not really a lot of Well, for me, there was not a lot of benefit from it for me. So but having being locums dentists or contract dentists, if you will. I've been able to do more traveling and to do more things and enjoy my life more and not have the burden of trying to manage and run adult practice as well as be a health care provider. So I've had a lot more free time if you will.

Kit Heintzman 24:26
How do you feel government officials handled the beginning of the pandemic?

Larry Abdullah 24:36
You know. Unfortunately, our leaders, our politicians, they're not. They're not scientists. They're not. They're not the best that we can offer in terms of leaders. In my opinion. And that's because of the the design of our, the way our system is set up to promote the popular rather than the more qualified. So, because of that, I feel that the leaders were more or less followers followers of the media, of the propaganda of the maybe not propaganda propaganda may not be the right word. Used incorrectly but knee jerk reactions to information rather than scientific scrutiny. And and I think that our leaders were more reactionary, rather than being true leaders. And following what the whims if you will, of, of, I don't know exactly what the rules or followers were. I don't know, I didn't see much leadership, be honest, in this whole episode.

Kit Heintzman 26:29
What are some of the things you wish had been done differently?

Larry Abdullah 26:37
I wish that scientists had played a bigger role in making the decisions about what how we should respond to this, rather than politicians and people of people with just limited knowledge about things. I that would have been my wish that more scientists, the scientific community was more involved in, in the, in, in, in the in the and the I can't say the word escapes me the the the way we did things, the way we handle everything. I think that I think more than they should have been more involved with that whole, the whole program prop right from the start, they should have been the ones to be consulted, they should have been the ones who have been making the decisions about how we should do it. And those, that that's what I that's what I think.

Kit Heintzman 28:07
2020 was such a big year beyond just COVID-19. I'm wondering other than the pandemic, what have been some of the social and political issues on your mind over the last couple of years?

Larry Abdullah 28:23
Well, I stay I stay away from the political issues. As I mentioned earlier, my my, my biggest my biggest motivation is to try to bring peace on the planet. And that is what motivates me every day. When I get up, I just first thought of the day is to think what can I do to bring some form of happiness to someone else. And, and, and usually, for me, it's in the form of a smile. First of all, I smile at myself. I look in the mirror, and I smile at myself, and I tell myself that I love you. And then when I when I go out into the world, the first person I meet, I smile. I always try to smile at the first person I meet. And throughout the day, I try to maintain a smile I tried to I do try to do little things, little acts of kindness to wherever I am. If it's a matter of just opening a door or just help or just saying hello to someone you know and this is so much for me the biggest. I don't politics is is a game that it's like really giving us too much and we're at the moment we there's so much divisiveness is there's there's there's doesnt doesn't seem among the politicians, there doesn't seem to be any, any mutual concerns, any things that we can agree on to make the planet a better place to make our societies better place. And, and so I stay away from those those, those those activities my focus is with the Raelian movement, our mission is to, to do to try to bring peace on this planet we have several, there's we have several actions and activities that we promote to try to do that. We have, we have a membership, we have an international membership of over 100,000 people in 100 countries around the planet. And we all are united to try to, to promote this promote peace, one of our primary campaigns. At this moment, our most important campaign is our one minute for peace meditation that we promote is actually the 59 at the 59 minute of every hour, we encourage all of our members to stop and meditate for one minute for peace. And this is a campaign that we're spreading throughout the planet. Because Science Science has shown that when we think about peace, it's like we send waves of energies throughout the planet. And when we do it collectively as a people, then we affect all those around us. So I'm more focused on this than anything else. Politics. And I don't know, I may have kind of gone back on your question please, follow up with another one. But that, for me is my biggest joy. And my biggest concern at this moment is to try to help bring peace on this planet and to do what I can to help build an embassy where we can openly welcome our creators back to this planet, so that they can help us with these problems that we're facing in society. Because we're not going to be able to solve them. Apparently, we're not going to be able to solve them on our own. We're continually continually getting worse. We're continually fighting. More and more people more and more countries are developing bombs and weapons of destruction. There's no, there's no, there is no department of peace, in our happiness in any country in the world. Maybe I think in Norway, or one of the one of those countries I think they have actually a department of peace, our of our happiness or something, something like that. But there's very little of that in his planet. And I mean, every day you can see it all around and communities all over the world. People are killing each other people are, there's hate among us in all societies. We there's no, there's no, we have to work to change that. If we don't change that. First within ourselves, we don't start to change that. There's no hope for politics or anything else on this planet. As we are at a point where in any, any particular second, this every human on this planet, every life form on this planet can be destroyed. The atomic weapons are just so plentiful. And we have people that are in charge of these. These weapons there are not very, someone not very sane. Some are not very, very I don't know the word, saying maybe too harsh of a word.

Larry Abdullah 34:09
But I we don't know we don't we don't know what to do it and one more trigger. We could could one thing could just trigger it off. So we're very, we're very, very crucial stage in the in, in the in life of humanity. And and the only way we can change that is to first start to change ourselves. And to then try to spread this among other people like minded people all over the world. It seems like it seems like a task that's insurmountable. I mean, when you talk about that making peace on this planet is really is really seems like a huge task. And it is. I mean, it's not it's not easy. It's not going to be Easy to do. But there's there's no little other avenues to pursue at this point. What can we do? So that's my biggest focus at this point. I forgot your question originally. I told you I wasn't a talker, but apparently I am.

Kit Heintzman 35:22
What brought you to this movement?

Larry Abdullah 35:22
As well, you know, I always felt that there was a better explanation that I was getting I grew up on, I grew up learning the Bible. The Bible was the first introduction of scripture of spirituality to me. And I never found any the answers, I had asked questions that I never would be answered, I couldn't. But I was always wondering why what why is this? What? Yeah. And I told all my life experience, it seems I've been looking for answers to these questions. I've studied many religions, Islam and Christianity. And well, there's not a lot of religions, but I've studied also some, even in school, you study different religions and their tenants and their leaders. And I mean, they're their founders and so forth. And, and so I just haven't found hadn't found any answers to these questions about why we are here. Why? What is our purpose on life in life? What are what, what, what when I, when I read Rael message, that was the message that was given to Rael by these is this extraterrestrials that he met with in 2013. Sorry, that's wrong. In 1973, December 13, 1973, when he, when I read his message, the message that was given to him in the book that he wrote, as a result of that encounter, then I found answers to the questions that I wanted. I found the answers and these answers were, were, were, were what I believed in the beginning, I use what I believed before, I believe that there had to be something else. Besides what we were being taught. It just didn't make sense. And, and when I read his message, I found these absolutes that I was looking for.

Kit Heintzman 37:48
Were any of your Raelian activities interrupted by the pandemic?

Larry Abdullah 37:57
Well, on a on a, on a local level. No, we still had our meetings, we gather together, we still we actually even had before they just before the the limitations at its height, when we went to we had our regular gatherings our national excuse me, and continental gatherings. But I think what the one thing that was shut down was our international gout gathering for we meet in Japan, where this is where Metiria lives now. And once a year, we those who can afford to go there we go to a big gathering there of people from all over the world all over the planet. And that was shut down. And also the continental events were shut down. So it kind of that close that was cut off as a result of the pandemic but the local gatherings were they were not like in some countries, I think maybe in Canada or some other Japan there would need to take people couldn't even gather together in some countries. I think there were that was the rule but not in the US. We were able to get together in groups of people. So that wasn't shut down. But international national international gatherings were shut down and that that that curtailed our get togethers and I missed that part of it. Yeah.

Kit Heintzman 39:40
I’m curious, what does the word health mean to you?

Larry Abdullah 39:45
That's a good question. I think you're gonna get I don't know if I can give you a definition of health. state of being I guess, where were things We're use systems, when it comes to when it comes to body health. Where your systems, your your your systems and functions or your body are in balance, I would think that would be an a definition that I, that I would offer for, for, for body health. And I guess you could apply that same kind of representation, if you will, to health, community health, as well, when, when the systems all systems are working and functioning properly, and, and working together to help to preserve the community. So, and I guess you can apply that even on a broader scale to internationally. So it's, I think it's a system of balance, if you will, health is a system of balance, I guess, you could I guess I would just kind of summarize it is that.

Kit Heintzman 41:21
What are some of the things you want for your own health and the health of people around you?

Larry Abdullah 41:28
Well, for for the people around me, I like to see that they get to the health, the care, they need to provide the provide the to help get the care that they need to bring these systems in their bodies, to, to this equilibrium to this balance state, that they will have the wherewithal to be able to receive the proper maintenance that they need to main to to be able to maintain health. For me, I guess the same I like to make sure I like to be be able to, to balance the systems in my body, as well. Well, yeah, that's, that's, I think that's what I would want.

Kit Heintzman 42:31
What do you think we would need to do as a society so that we could all achieve that kind of balanced version of health?

Larry Abdullah 42:43
There's a, there's a, there's a lot of things that we can do. One of the, one of the things that one of the messages that Rael received, when he when he was met when he met with the these extraterrestrials. Was was that he was given a, a formula system of just for society, to put all of these to put all of these systems in harmony. And it involved is involved. It involved many changes in the way we do business, the way we do things in compared to how we do them now. The first one of the first things that that he reported to us was that we need to first allow our smartest people are geniuses, as a society to be take over the leadership roles. I mean, it's this, you have to read about these. It's a little complicated, but and I won't be able to go into it in detail. But here's a pro as a there are two things. One of them is genie autocracy, which involves allowing up putting in a putting in a system where our geniuses are in control of making the decisions. And the other is a system of paratism. where everyone is able to have everything that they need to sustain themselves in the success of any society, from the moment of birth to the end of their life. It's referred to as paratism And that system is, is one of the and within the systems within these two parameters, if you will, are the keys to establishing a society where everyone can get everything that they need and sustain it throughout their life. The way the system that we have now is created, has created a system where there's a small percentage of people who have every have the majority of the thing. No, I mean, 1% 2% 5% and 95% of the, of the people are struggling to just to have health care, to just to eat, we still have, we still have people, babies that are starving around the planet, in the midst of all of this wealth, and prosperity that we have on this planet. We still have people that are dying of hunger, of not having clean water, of a things that is a travesty, to that exists in this day and age. And that won't change with the system that we have. Because there's no until the people, the masses of people decide that this is enough. We've had enough, we have enough to sustain the whole planet with whatever they need throughout their life. And especially now in this day and age where we have robots to and automation that we have everything, there's we're getting to a point where there won't be any work for the average person. Because the bank tellers, and it won't be a need for bank tellers. There may even be a need for journalists, or even people to do what you're doing. Because we're getting to the point where our technology is such, we're advancing that we don't, we don't need to actually work. We're getting that way, well, we don't actually need to work. It may not seem that way for you now, because you have a job but but there are a lot of people who are out of work now because of automation and technology. And that's growing, that's going to get better and better as time goes on. So we have enough, there's enough wealth, that we are able to sustain every system and in this in this world, and allow everyone to have everything that they need health care, food, water, place to stay all of this is possible. So we knew system that will put into place all of these things. And you asked me what can be done? Well, it's in this book and these two books that he wrote Geniocracy. I don't know if paratism is a book yet. I'm not sure I have to look and I've read so many books that he's written. But paratism is a concept. So I and I believe in those two concepts, Geniocracy, and parasitism.

Kit Heintzman 48:43
Could you give me an example of some of the people that you think are geniuses who would have been good leaders?

Larry Abdullah 48:55
You know, Rael says that there are geniuses all among us. But they don't get a chance to express their gene, gene genius. Because there's no way to test them. There they are everywhere they're in. They're in poor societies. They're in all communities. But we have to have a way of finding them. Now, who's a genius now? Well, Einstein was a genius. I think Einstein was a genius. He could have been a good leader. I think they're probably I'm not sure I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I wouldn't venture to, to call any names of geniuses at this point. What he recommends or what he says that Elohim recommend, recommends Elohim are the extraterrestrials that created us on earth. What they recommend for us to do is to let the scientists create a a test to identify the genius in our, let the geniuses create a test to identify geniuses. And I, personally, I don't know any geniuses, I'm sure there are geniuses out there. What is a genius? I, you know, it's it's there are geniuses everywhere. And every day you hear about him, I mean, these people that are I'm not a genius. So, you know, again, I guess I can't really identify the ones who can be considered geniuses. I really could I really can't do that. I don't think

Kit Heintzman 50:48
What does the word safety mean to you?

Larry Abdullah 50:51
Safety. Safety to me means being, I am going to get I guess I’m going to have to create a definition for myself. It means being away from violence. I think I think that's, that's what safety is being, the absence of violence. I think you can be anywhere and be safe. If there is no violence. I'm just trying to think of that might be a good definition. I'm not sure. Because on the other hand, you can be drowning in an ocean. There’s not, there’s not, there's no, there's no violence, but you're not safe you. So I don't know. I don't know what to say, safety. But I would I would venture to say I was I would venture to say that is the absence of violence is safety. But that probably doesn't fit every situation. But that's the best I can do at this moment.

Kit Heintzman 52:30
[background noise] There was a narrow idea about safety during COVID-19 in relationships with a virus, I'm wondering, what if anything you did to keep yourself feeling safer.

Larry Abdullah 52:48
never, I never thought about that. Because to be to be to be alive. To be alive, puts you in a situation where there's always the potential of being harmed. Just being alive. A, I'm sitting here in this hotel room here now. And and any moment, I mean, there could be an earthquake here now. And I could be walking on the street. And and I walk, I could walk from here to the center of downtown. And there's nothing and then I could go to the bathroom in the lobby. And maybe I might get hepatitis C. B. So I never thought about that. I mean, I grew up in a rural area of Arkansas. And never thought about that. I we played in [inaudible] You know, it was I and I today I look at it the same way. I mean, I don't try to protect myself against except when I'm in the office. Of course it's a different situation. I'm washing my hands. All day long. I'm washing my hands. I'm changing gloves. I'm wearing a mask and I'm protecting myself. It's part of the requirements and part of the profession. But when I go out into the society who knows what you're going to run into? I don't I don't know. Yeah, that's that's your life. I mean, it's that's been alive. It's what that means to be alive is to always be have that potential of having something that you didn't expect to happen, and I never thought about, well, I'm going to wear a mask to protect myself against COVID. I know people who have, because I have, first of all, I know that the mask does not have the virus being as small as it is, I can't see that how a mask to protect it against COVID. And besides that, you know, I just took normal precautions, you know, protecting myself against you know, when I sneeze, or if I'm in. But I never really, I never really thought about that too much. When I was out. I see people wearing masks, everybody else is wearing a mask. So, you know, I’m safe [laughing] I'm okay. Everyone's else everyone's wearing a mask. [inaudible] about anything so. But no, I'd never. I never, that wasn't a big concern for me. As I was doing this whole event, I never thought about that. Because you can get a you can get sick just from being in your home, I guess I don't know, it's just, I you could you could definitely not one. I think Rael said this one time, he said, the safest place to be is to be in bed, just stay in bed. And if you stay in bed, you probably be you probably will be safe. But who, what funny is that, you know, I like I like being alive. I like to be the ability to live and to hug someone to be able to smile and show my smile. And I mean, that's what I enjoy. I mean, I don't want to stay in bed, I won't, I wouldn't want to stay in a room closed up to protect myself against the virus and die of depression, or some other kind of some other kind of ailment that might result from, from something that you can catch while you're inside. I want to enjoy my life from now every day of my life I want to enjoy. There's no tomorrow is not promised anybody, we're going to end eventually we're all gonna die of something. Whether it's what is age, or whether it's a virus, or, or the next wave of something that comes along or, or a stray bullet from some violent activity, or earthquake, if we're gonna die is that's when you born you, you you that story, the whole process to being a dying, so I don't fear death in that I don't fear death. I don't think of that. And I don't live my life, trying to avoid death. Because it's all around you all the time, is what you're living for, is you you've when you were born, like I said, when you were born you, you eventually you're going to die. So whether if you live for 1000 years, maybe the next day, you're gonna die. So just imagine that you've already lived 1000 years. And you're still worried about dying tomorrow. I don't know I want to live today. I want to enjoy myself today. Happy today. And if I die, okay, but I die happy. I won't die having not having lived not having enjoyed my life. And so that's my philosophy about about about living. I don't know if you asked me that question or not even how I got to that. But go ahead with another one.

Kit Heintzman 59:00
What are some of the things you do to take care of yourself when you're experiencing stress?

Larry Abdullah 59:08
Well, I try not to experienced I try not to let I try not to dwell on stress. I'm sure we all we all stress. I mean, when I when I'm working, I'm seeing patients. There's some there's some level of stress. But I'm not thinking about stress. It's just there in the whole thing. I read it in a, there's a scientific journal I read, where every time I give an injection, my blood pressure goes up. So it's, but that's so you live with stress. Stress is a part of life, but I don't dwell on stress. How do I deal with that? Well, I just don't allow things I don't think about things that I can't do anything about. In other words, I'm I don't dwell on anything that I can't do anything about. And I learned this lesson years ago. And this story may be a little long at pre apologize. I was driving, and, and I was driving during the normal speed. And which was I was like 65. And I saw a policeman on the side of the road. Eventually he came up behind me, he pulled me over, he gave me a ticket. And on the ticket, he said, I was driving 65 in a 55 mile an hour zone. And I had an officer, this is a 65 mile an hour zone. And he said, Okay, well, yeah, that's right. I'm sorry. But I've already started to take it, I gotta give it to you. Anyway, I've called it in, he gave me the ticket. And, and he sent me on my way. And I was irate, I was mad. I was, I was thinking, and then I caught myself and I say, why am I going through this, this guy, maybe somewhere, making love to his wife for eating a good meal. And here I am eating myself up on something that I can't do anything about. So as I was driving, whenever this thought came to my mind, I would just change it, I would, what I would do is I would look for water tower, I would just look across the field, because I was on in St. Louis, in Missouri, Southern Illinois, I would just change my thoughts. So I learned from that experience, that whenever I have a stressful situation, I just changed my thought to anything, it doesn't, I do change the trim of thought, because it becomes a train. When you start to stress, it goes on and on and on and on. But if you just stop it, just look around. Okay, countless, countless birds, the building, just break that train of thought, it goes away. And then your thought goes to normal. You don't worry about that. But what happens with most people is that they just keep going. It's like me, I could have just kept on thinking about this guy gave me his ticket, I gotta go back, I gotta fight it. I have to. How am I gonna do this? What am I gonna do about this? All these thoughts, but I decided, so it's a decision, it's a decision, you make a decision that I'm going to be happy regardless. So I make a decision to be happy all the time. And if I find myself not being that I'm not happy, and I put a smile on my face, even the smile on your face, changes the thought pattern. So peop for people who might be going through things. Just have this smile when you smile. Science says that when you smile, the muscles in your face sends a signal to your brain to release pleasure chemicals. And so you can smile and be depressed. You can smile and weary. So that's another technique changing my thought and smiling so I try not to I don't get depressed I don't get stressed I don't stay stressed I get stressed but I don't stay stress

Kit Heintzman 1:03:46
[inaudible] I don’t know if this next question will make sense in light of that answer but I'll ask it anyway. Who's your support structure, who do you turn to when you need to talk to someone?

Larry Abdullah 1:03:58
I have friends I have friends and most of my friends now are Raelian and I can usually talk to them about anything but and they're gonna tell me they're going to tell me I'm sure something that Rael has said or some teaching that he's given are some wise person has made some statements of me to try to help me put things in perspective but usually is some friends or that I'm close to that I will share anything that I you know want to if I need to talk to someone about a thing I have a group of friends that I can always would always Raelians I can share and and there are some real people who are not Raelian that I know that I can share it but I don't get like that as much anymore because like I said I I know know that what I, what I need to do is to choose to be happy. Just choose to be happy. Choose to, to avoid any kinds of situations and choose to avoid thinking about things that I can't do anything about. And I practice meditation, I practice it on a regular basis, I try to enjoy every moment when I'm, when I'm, you know, just just, just this moment, this moment here, just this moment here being here with you, this opportunity to express myself to you about these topics. You know, it's, you know, I just try to enjoy being alive. And, and I don't have a lot of things that that I need to, you know, talk through with anybody, you know?

Kit Heintzman 1:06:05
How do you feel about the immediate future?

Larry Abdullah 1:06:11
I have a lot of optimism about the immediate future. I believe that I, I believe very deeply that society is going to change very soon, there's gonna, There’s gonna, I don't know what's gonna precipitated. But we live in a we live in an age where overnight, the world can change overnight, just like with COVID. Overnight, the World Bank, and the this. this spread throughout this panic spread throughout the world, overnight. Things can change for the better, I really feel optimistic. I feel that way because people are starting to get away from the traditional teachings of the past, the teachings of differences, people are starting to become more connected with one another, we are now an age where we can talk we can communicate with people on all planets, on all continents on the earth. And with just one little post, we can reach spread around the world, I feel like, I'm not sure what's gonna happen. I don't know how it's gonna happen. But I feel confident that something is going to happen to cause us to wake up to the reality that we need to have love on this planet, that we need to love one another. We need to come together to make this planet a better place. Because as we we as Raelians we recognize that we look at the Earth as a spaceship. It's traveling through our universe throughout infinite universe, and we are all members on this planet, we're all on the same train, if you will, the same ship. And in order to survive, we're going to need to come together. Now. Of course, I think the young people are going to make this make this more of a reality than then then then the older ones. But I think that and I think it'd be easier for them. And I see some little evidence of it in certain actions that they are starting to take under their wings, no actions at the moment, but it's only going to take a spark and it's going to bring the change in the world. So I feel very optimistic about the future and about the future of humanity. And it's a very slim percentage of hope but I feel that we are going to we're going to be able to do it.

Kit Heintzman 1:09:25
What are some of your hopes for the longer term future?

Larry Abdullah 1:09:30
Well, to bring the bring peace on this planet first of all to to get the nation as a world to eliminate the nuclear weapons. There are nuclear weapons should be banned from this planet there is no need for them. So that's the one hope that I have is that we that we move away from wars and fighting and and try to solve our differences. In more way in more diplomatic ways, rather than have two wars and violence, and that's, that's been our history for the last since we got bombes and gunfire in, in guns and so forth, and, and but I hope my hope is first of all that we start with the nuclear weapons and that we eliminate the all wars and that we just try to bring peace on this planet

Kit Heintzman 1:10:43
Do you think of COVID-19 as a historic event?

Larry Abdullah 1:10:48
Yes, I think it's, I think it's historic in many ways. I, I think it's it was historic, it just like, in the same sense that, that aids but even with greater in the sense that it became more of a, an international phenomenon rather than just localized to one country. It showed how connected we are. And it demonstrated our ability to communicate around the world. It's historic in, in, in many, many, many ways and able to delineate them all. But I think it's significant in that sense. Well, maybe significant may be a better word historic and it’s is part of history. It's a part of our history. So you have to consider historic as well. Yeah.

Kit Heintzman 1:11:53
Thinking back on your own education, what are some of the things you'd wished you learned about in history when you were younger?

Larry Abdullah 1:12:02
Well, you know, as a young person, I wanted to be an engineer. And so I would have a if I would have, I think I wanted to be a civil engineer. So in in, that's one of the things that I would have liked to learn more about as growing up a is, is engineering and building. Things that are so much more than I would like, like to learn but you know, you can't learn everything, you. You just, I'm happy with what I've learned so far. To say that I won't regret not learning what I've learned. And I won't regret not learning what I haven't learned.

Kit Heintzman 1:12:51
What do you think scholars in the humanities and social sciences, so departments like literature and film and sociology and anthropology and poli sci, what should we be doing right now to help us understand the human side of COVID-19?

Larry Abdullah 1:13:12
I don't know if I can answer that question. I never thought about that. Repeat it again. Maybe I can, repeat it, please.

Kit Heintzman 1:13:23
Watch it scholars in the humanities and social sciences, so fields like literature, anthropology, sociology, political sciences, what should we be doing right now, what should be we'd be studying to help us understand the human side of COVID-19?

Larry Abdullah 1:13:42
I don't know. I don't know what I don't have any idea what that would be.

Kit Heintzman 1:13:50
This is my last question.

Larry Abdullah 1: 13:52
Okay.

Kit Heintzman 1:13:53
I'd like you, I'd like you to imagine speaking to a historian in the future, someone far enough away that they have no lived experience of this moment. What would you tell them they cannot forget about right now?

Larry Abdullah 1:14:08
I would have to go back to this. I was I would say that we are living in a at this time we live in a very tenuous, tenuous meaning a very tenuous situation in terms of sustaining life on this planet and that we should never forget the importance of peace and love because that is what's going to save us from total annihilation on this planet and that's, that's pretty much what I would say. They should know, forget the importance of peace and love.

Kit Heintzman 1:16:04
I want to thank you so much for the generosity of your time, and the thoughtfulness of your answers. Those are all of the questions I sort of know how to ask. But I'm wondering if there's anything you'd like to share that my questions haven't made room for, please take some space and share?

Larry Abdullah 1:16:27
Well, I don't know, as I mentioned, I don't know how many young people you will have, listen, reading this. So I don't know how you're going to present this. But it's important that that the young people realize that it's their future, that we have to, that they have to be concerned about the future, their future, and the future of their children. That we need to be that that needs to be a central point and, and sustaining life on this planet and sustaining this planet. And making it keeping it a planet of sustainability is going to be it's going to be there. It's going to be their responsibility. And and I just hope that they will recognize their responsibility in this regard and do what they can to help in this mission. I think that's it.

Kit Heintzman 1:17:54
Thank you so much.