An update on Jesse James Hollywood’s battle to the death

Posted: May 24, 2009 in Alpha Dog, Crime, criminal, Jesse James Hollywood, Stolen Boy
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The feeling is stacked with a cocktail of emotions brandishing their wares on a daily gut-wrenching basis. The trial is finally here and so many seem to have forgotten its many lessons, while others have jumped back aboard this amazing trail of tragedy and redemption. For me, it’s been a flashback into presence and past, and a future that will dictate the fate of so many. Jesse James Hollywood’s trial is still being talked about in all corners of the globe, not only for its sensational reality, as depicted in Alpha Dog and Stolen Boy, but for it’s painful messages built into the fabric of human consciousness.

There are no winners as the Santa Barbara County District Attorney seeks to put Jesse James Hollywood to sleep for good. Right now, there are only losers. But history will play the ultimate medium in telling whether the many necessary lessons were learned by the celebrated masses who needed them most.

In the meantime, Los Angeles news radio station KFWB’s Lisa Osborne caught up with Stolen Boy for an update on the Jesse James Hollywood death penalty trial.

Jesse James Hollywood and Brandon McInerney will not be cheated in life or death

Posted: May 19, 2009 in Brandon McInerney, children, consciousness, Crime, criminal, death penalty, family, Jesse James Hollywood, life, murder, news, politics, Stolen Boy, transformation
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Since the start of the Jesse James Hollywood trial, needless to say, we have received some amazing letters and notes and comments. Some have been filled with hatred, while others have been amazingly positive and upbeat. Some, such as the one I have attached below, were so thoughtful, I felt the need to sit down, read it thrice, and tap into the many energies and emotions is stirred within. Please read what this amazing woman has asked, and let us know if you think we’re on the right track.

Dear Mr. Mehas,

I am a mother of several children biological and step and I have been reading your web site for quite sometime and I have to say that you are a great writer. But I have a few questions for you. These young men who kill because of something that embarrassed them or upset them in one way or another do you really believe that as they got older that maybe it still wouldn’t have happened? Do you believe that the young man who killed Larry King wouldn’t have killed later in life if a gay man had flirted with him? Do you believe Jesse James Hollywood wouldn’t have killed someone else’s loved one over a drug debt? Do you really believe that these young men no matter the age they were or are at the time of their crime deserve no jail time? I understand that the young man who killed Larry King walked through the school and class rooms to shoot him in the head; some would say that this is premeditated murder because at any time before the shooting he could have stopped and thought about what he was getting ready to do and not have gone through with it. I believe the same applies to Mr. Hollywood, at any given time he could have stopped the kidnapping and the murder of that young man. I also understand that both these young men had a bad childhood, but as we get older we can’t keep blaming our past on what we do in the future. I can say this because my childhood was not very good either. I was beaten on a regular basis by a drug and alcohol addicted mother, who also would pimp me out in order to get her drugs. But I did not let it effect my future. I have made some bad choices in my life with men, but I have lived and learned. But those bad choices were of my own doing and not anyone else’s. I have a mind of my own and know the difference between right and wrong; that is how the good Lord made us; to have a conscience to know the difference. I can also say all this because in 1996 my step son was murdered by his dad’s nieces’ husband because he (my son) called him a smart ass. And just recentl y my natural mother was murdered. I believe that in both of these instances that they could have been prevented if either of them would have searched their conscience. That is what separates people who can kill another human being and those who might think it, but never act on it. (Self defense excluded) So the way you believe is that as long as these people had bad upbringings then they should be spared any retribution. So since I had such a rotten upbringing I should be able to murder someone if they embarrassed me or someone owed me money. Please explain to me how this is right.

STOLEN BOY’S RESPONSE

Hello… Wow, what a letter!!! Thank you so much for taking the time and energy to address these very important questions. I want you to know that I was so impressed by your letter, in fact, that I’m going to run it in my next newsletter.

You have asked me much, and I will try to address your thoughts. I believe in energy. There is a whole energy pie out there, but we only consider what we see, feel, hear, and touch in the physical world. We don’t take into consideration the whole pie of man’s evolution, existence, and his return to the world of spirit. We only see what we see, and act upon it.

I don’t believe life bears any true accidents. We reap what we sew. Our present consciousness equals our ultimate reality. We are conditioned in life to deeply disturbing energies that create misery for ourselves. But these crisis can be jewels in life. They force us to look for a way to end the suffering. They force us to look inside, and to dwell on why we bring so much misery. If we look deep enough, we will begin to touch base with the negative spiritual unconsciousness that pervades us. This is what creates misery that surrounds us.

But let’s throw in the collective consciousness, and the collective pain of the egoic mind. Women bear much of this, as do the African race and those of Jewish origin. As do Native Americans and many cultures that have been raped and tortured and brutalized through the eons. This adds to our collective dysfunction that is seen running rampant throughout the planet. This is what we must overcome, one person at a time. You and I can change the collective pie by taking care of our business. By spreading consciousness from its divine source, instead of filtering it through the egoic mind (thought and emotion), we not only expand our positive consciousness and influence, we deplete the collective negativity on the planet. I don’t need to worry about putting Brandon McInerney in prison for the rest of his life. The universe will take care of Brandon. But I do care about you, and all the others out there in search of answers. This is who I’m trying to reach.

And, last, but certainly not least, there is a fine line between victim hood and perpetratorship. The negative energies that go into both conditions attract the negativity of the opposite energies, feeding off of each other. Have you read Eckhart Tolle? He very well explains all of this.

Hope this helps to build a bridge of understanding, and I do feel all the suffering you have experienced in your life. But as you sit here, right now, this very moment, your consciousness can recognize the bliss. And if you do this 24/7, your egoic mind will stop bringing negativity from past and future into your most powerful moment, right now.

Love and Blessings,

Michael

Alpha Dog Jesse James Hollywood is not a coward

Posted: May 16, 2009 in Crime, criminal, death penalty, family, Jesse James Hollywood, life, Michael Mehas, murder, politics, Stolen Boy
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We sit down and we go through life and we make observations. Based on what we see or hear or the way it makes us feel, we have been conditioned to make judgments upon others, to label people and things in our minds’ eye. Our egos need this to classify what we perceive, to shelve it in the drawers of our brains, and to be able to separate us from everything that surrounds us. This is what egos are good for; they like to separate. We are all guilty of this, because this is what we’ve been conditioned to do. We love or hate, agree with or disagree with, appreciate or don’t appreciate something and this is what colors our view of this thing or that person forever in our minds, until we change it.

This is exactly what the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s office has done with the Jesse James Hollywood case from its inception. They’ve labeled Jesse as a drug kingpin, a kidnapper, a street hood, a cold-blooded killer. And now, he’s being called a coward by people with an agenda, by public servants who don’t really know who this kid was or is, who have a staked interest in where he goes. And, I must tell you right here and now, there is much more to Jesse James Hollywood and his story than can be put in a six-letter word.

BEING AFRAID IS NOT THE SAME AS BEING A COWARD

One of the biggest pulls I felt in needing to write Stolen Boy, was the fact that I believed the labels that had been placed on Hollywood and his five co-defendants during five years of media oriented mass demonization (while Hollywood had been on the run) had been inaccurate. My feelings were based on all the incredible materials I had received from Santa Barbara County Senior Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen (while I worked on the movie Alpha Dog) and all the interviews I had conducted in following up with Stolen Boy. After finally going through the volumes of materials I had accrued, including those from law enforcement officials, I understood immediately that this case was not what law enforcement had portended it to be.

Unfortunately, this realization had not really formulated in my mind while working with my childhood best friend Nick Cassavetes on Alpha Dog. It probably didn’t really begin to gel until the amazing afternoon sessions I’d spent with Nick Markowitz’s brother, Ben. This is when I really began to understand why all this took place. Why six families’ lives had to be destroyed. Why Jesse James Hollywood was facing death squarely in the face. And this was what drove me to write Stolen Boy. I hoped to better clarify the record, to make available to the public eye more truth in who these kids were and what motivated them to do what they did.

Whatever Jesse is ultimately found to have done, I believe the jurors will realize that these crimes were not committed through cowardice. These guys all acted through the negative primordial emotion of fear. Fear for self. Fear for life. Fear for family. And, maybe most importantly, the fear of discovering the truth of who these kids really were.

Right now is Jesse James Hollywood’s most powerful moment

Posted: May 14, 2009 in Brandon McInerney, children, consciousness, Crime, criminal, family, Jesse James Hollywood, life, Stolen Boy
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Any idea what your most powerful moment is? Was it yesterday, last week, the day you were born? Or could it be in the future: tomorrow, next year, or the day we return to our maker? Jesse James Hollywood never really figured out the answer to this question. Nor do most others. You can tell by the problems they have, the difficulties under which they tread through life.

I don’t believe Jesse’s alleged victim, Nick Markowitz, had the answer either. Nor did alleged fourteen-year-old child-killer Brandon McInerney or his alleged victim, fifteen-year-old Larry King. Nor did their families or the major influences in their lives. They didn’t realize something that took over four decades for this author to recognize. And that is this: that our most powerful moment, at all times, whether considering the past, future, or present, is right now.

POINTLESSNESS OF PAST AND FUTURE

At this moment, we have no control over the past. It is a mere pond of memories, energies stored in the world of form and mind. The future? That’s all it is. It is the future. It is not right now. The world of energy and God-consciousness swirls around us at all times, but we act as if we don’t realize this. Because our minds love to identify with form, and the thought forms of negative past or stressful future often prove too enticing to let go of.

We tend to bring into the present too much thought of negative experiences that have colored our past, shaded our present, and often destroys our futures. Jesse had this problem. He couldn’t get over the fact that his former best-buddy, Ben Markowitz, would punk him around. It ate him up. It deflated his ego. It required him to seek a violent end to his internal conflict.

Same for Brandon McInerney. His mind had been so inflated with negative feelings about the type of person Larry King was, and the actions Larry King made, that he supposedly shot Larry in the head twice at point-blank range in their morning classroom. These poor souls, and so many others like them, never figured out how to enjoy life. But you can. And here’s how.

TIPS INTO THE NOW

Use every moment you get to experience in life to count your blessings. Put the energy and thoughts and feelings into what you do have, what you presently maintain control over, not what your mind says is missing. Be appreciative of those many blessings life provides at all times that we so often take for granted. Feel the warmth of the sun upon the face, the smell of flowers and love in the air, the internal grace and beauty of each person who has shared the love – and issues – with you in life.

Sure, you’ve probably had problems in the past with many of these people, but so what? Right now is all you have. So make the best of it. Look at them, all of them, and let the grace from within emanate from every pore of your existence. Recognize that, Yes, we are created from the same thread of life. That we are both born into the world of form, and we shall both one day expire into dust and earth. Yet, we are eternal creatures fruited from the same vine of godly manifestation. That we are connected to all that is, and this will never change. That we were put on this planet to create and to generate and to learn the universal lessons that form and life bring into our Being. That we are here to love and to cherish, not destroy the love that surrounds us. That we are here to share in life’s blessings, not generate the pain and suffering that emanates on a planet so badly in need of balance.

Could surrendering have changed Jesse James Hollywood’s fate?

Posted: May 8, 2009 in children, consciousness, Crime, criminal, Jesse James Hollywood, life, transformation
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I often wonder what might have been had Jesse James Hollywood understood what surrendering is really all about. I don’t mean the kind where you give up and raise the white flag. Exchange prisoners and turn to a civilian lifestyle after the bodies have been burned and the nightmares buried. I’m talking about accepting what life was like at the very moment of his gravest suffering. From all that I learned in researching this amazing story for both the movie Alpha Dog and my book Stolen Boy, all Jesse had to do was accept the fact that Ben Markowitz owed him money. Sure, Ben had spouted off and threatened Jesse. Yes, they’d had major ego-laden, volatile exchanges. And sure, Jesse was worried Ben might hurt one of his family members, but really, so what? Why couldn’t Jesse have just said – okay, the guy’s a punk, I’ve been punked, and now it’s time to move on.

There is an amazing amount of powerful energy behind someone who learns to do this. This is something we can all do. Look around us, and say, this ain’t so bad after all, is it? This is what is called accepting the moment as it is. Surrendering to what is. It may seem very passive, and non-energetic, but it is actually just the opposite. You see we are conduits to God’s energy, to the Supreme Truth, also known as consciousness. Consciousness is the energy of our creator. So, we are the hole in the flute, and what we do is ask the God energy to play us. Let’s not block the hole – let’s open it up to all that is.

Most of the God energy that swirls around us is wasted through negative thoughts, emotions, and actions. This is what the world of form is all about. We see it swirling around us at all times. And what we tend to do is use the negativity from thought and emotion to help us create in the world of form. And look where that gets us. Look at the shape the world is in right now. But what if we tried something different for a change? What if, when the thoughts and emotions frame a negative energy within us, we stop, and recognize it? Honor that, Yes, something is not going right here, so now we need to slow it down, and turn the energy into a positive form before we continue creating in the world of form?

And what if Jesse had done this, if he had realized, Yes, I’m really mad with what Ben had done. And, yes, there is this ball of hateful energy right here in my gut, but I’m not going to let it take me over. I’m not going to let the negative emotions usurp my ego and create hatred and negativity all around me. If Jesse had done this, then he would have stopped living in the past, which is something the ego just loves to do. It loves to color the present emotions with negativity from past thoughts and memories. And this is what happened with Jesse. And the same for Ben, if he had just stopped for a moment – something he couldn’t do because he was so messed up with drugs, alcohol and hatred at the time – then he would have been able to take control of himself, and forget about Jesse. Forget about this little ex friend of his who acted like he wanted to hurt him. And both these guys could have gone on with their lives, all their actions being sponsored by positive emotions and thoughts, which would lead to creating loving, positive happenings in their lives, rather than death to family, and death to self.

The bottom line they could never learn is this – present consciousness creates ultimate reality.

How to deal with negative triggers (Part 4): Surrender

Posted: April 30, 2009 in Stolen Boy
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Jack Hollywood is a man who knows a thing or three about surrender. He’s lived a hell of a life that has included many things that needed surrendering to. And he’s finally figured out how to do it. You got to remember Jack’s a guy from the old school of having to learn dearly for life’s mistakes. And he’s made plenty of them to learn from, for sure. But who hasn’t? This is precisely the path I took in life. Pain after fripping pain. Suffering and unconsciousness. Wasted energy and lost love.

Same with Nick Cassavetes, my best friend as a kid, who brought me into the Alpha Dog project in the first place. We used to suffer together as kids, with all of our other friends, as we battled and fought each other, and anyone else who got in our way, for supremacy of each other and our surroundings. And this is the way it’s gone pretty much for everybody I’ve ever known. The school of hard knocks is what we used to call it. And the key to the whole deal is to be able to look back and recognize all the mistakes one’s made – and to learn from them. There’s no other reason to venture into the past. The past is merely our identification point for who we are. It isn’t really us; it’s just our memories, the points from where we were conditioned. What we have identified as being us. But the key to all this is not to wait too long. Not to wait until we do something really stupid that ruins our lives, along with all those who love us.

CHANCE ENCOUNTER

It was really bizarre when I was in court last week for the Brandon McInerney fiasco. When the judge threw us all out, including the DA, to conduct an in camera hearing with Brandon’s attorneys, Scott Wippert and Robyn Bramson, out in the hallway I ran into, of all people, Jesse James Hollywood’s lawyer, James Blatt. We spoke briefly, and then when we herded back into court, out of the corner of my eye, in the back corner of the courtroom, I spotted Jack Hollywood taking in all the action.

Jack looked good, and he told me he was doing “really well.” He said he was a man who had read all that Eckhart Tolle had to say and he had learned to surrender to his circumstances, rather than to continue to fight against it. He’s now working with life’s flow, and not in denial of it, not fighting all that is, which is a very powerful experience. And it’s made him very comfortable with his present moment, which includes his son facing the death penalty.

I asked Jack if he felt his son had also learned to surrender to his circumstances. Jack didn’t believe Jesse had, yet. Which, of course, is understandable, because Jesse is in a very difficult place. But if I were to talk to Jesse right now, I would encourage him to do so. To put away any anger or resentment that might afflict him. Which is something we all could learn. When we find ourselves in a very difficult spot that we can’t get away from, or we can’t change, we need to surrender to it. We need to accept what is at this very moment. We need to quit fighting the flow of life, and realize that right now, at this very moment, this is all we’ve got. So why not accept it? We may have memories or thoughts of our past, but that’s all it is – our past. It has no bearing on the present other than what we bring into it.

Same with our futures. We have no control over what’s happening later in our lives, because it may never happen. It’s out there, then, in the future, and we’re here, right now.

I would then tell Jesse that his accepting the present circumstances does not mean he has to accept his negative life situation. We all have the opportunity to change our life’s situation for the better, once we learn to accept life as it stands at this very moment. Then, we eliminate the negative thoughts or emotions of how we got here or how we might get away. We realize this is it, and we accept it. We surrender to it. We then put our higher vibrating energies into thoughts or ideas of how to change our life’s situation for the better. It’s that simple. Don’t stress out about the now. It brings a very low vibrating reality into our lives.

Feel the love and joy that emanates from within. Apply this love and joy to everything we do, and see if things don’t begin to transform into our favor. We have no pain and suffering inside, because we’re no longer fighting the moment. There is peace and serenity from within. And if people like Jesse James Hollywood and Brandon McInereney, and all those who find themselves in their own unbearable prisons of hell, can learn to accept their present moment, and to thrive through it, they will begin to transform not only their own negative conditions, but, through helping to raise the collective consciousness, the overall conditions of the universe.

We literally can change the world, one person at a time, right now.

How to deal with negative triggers (Part 3): Get away from them

Posted: April 20, 2009 in Brandon McInerney, children, consciousness, Crime, criminal, life, news, transformation
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There are certain situations that confront us in life that make us wish we’d developed better skills in dealing with them. They act as triggers, allowing our emotions to get the best of us and our negative thoughts and reactions to create grief for others and ourselves. We say things we regret, or we explode and hurt others we love and adore. There are things in life – situations or people or jobs – that are seemingly unbearable to the sanctity of humanness. But they are just situations, and they can be dealt with in a different way.

By rationally handling any life situation from a conscious perspective, rather than from spinning out of control with negative thoughts and emotions, we can improve the reality that awaits us each and every day. We don’t have to continue the painful lessons life so readily offers, if we don’t want to. This is what Brandon McInerney and his family were never able to discover in life. Brandon was not raised with the skills that would have allowed him to deal with the pressure he felt coming at him from his school situation with Larry King. Brandon’s ego wouldn’t allow it. The more Larry teased him, the more hostile Brandon became. His rage grew as did his father’s. Yet, as we spoke about last week, Brandon and his family had made efforts to change the situation. However due to their pervasive unconsciousness, and the fact that school officials lacked a solid plan in handling the escalating problems between these kids, everyone’s attempts to thwart Larry’s provocative behavior failed. Larry may very well have had every right to do everything he did, but the reality is that these were both very immature children from an emotional level. They were both extremely unconscious in their lack of grace in dealing with life and each other, and, unfortunately, so were the adult figures in their lives.

GET AWAY FROM THE NEGATIVITY

And this is where others failed Brandon and Larry by not coming up with a solution to their problems. Once it became apparent that school officials would or could not alter Larry’s behavior, Brandon needed to make greater change in the way he responded to both Larry and the situation. He needed to learn how to calm down. He needed to turn his cheek, walk away, or go see a school counselor. He needed to somehow find the support base that would help him deal with his out-of-control rage. But once it was realized that this was not going to happen, then someone, anyone, had to get Brandon out of there. Remove him from what in Brandon’s immature mind had become an unbearable situation. Which is the second positive step Brandon, or any of us, can take in any given troubling situation.

If we can’t change it, then we need to get away from it. Remove ourselves from the negativity of relationship or the situation. Pick up our foundation and move it to smoother waters. But, of course, not all of us find ourselves in situations that we can just get up and move away from. Many of us live in untenable situations, like in prison, or in a prison-like situation where change and getting away are not options. For these types of situations, the only answer is surrender, which may be the greatest tool life has to offer …

To be continued….

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