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An interview with John Hernandez
John Hernandez is a New Warrior and a visionary! Collaborating with his big-time music partners Steve Roseman and Ed Ulibarri, he has created a visionary rock opera entitled No Nation. I did as John suggested to me and found a quiet place to center myself. I listened to the music and words from beginning to end. It’s a masterpiece! I heard many musical influences including, Celtic, American Indian, Eastern Indian, Rock, and some Moody Blues. The music is lively, as well as bittersweet. The lyrics are inviting of a culture where “… all religions that have helped humans, over the ages, in their search to know and experience the Supreme Deity …” are welcome. The production quality of this CD is superb. The message of this effort is explicit: “This opera is a prayer that current and future generations will actualize the truth that we are all family in God’s eyes and learn to treat each other with love and live in peace.” From the No Nation website www.nonationmusic.com An echo of the context presentation on an NWTA is heard in these words: “The true nature of all matter, including humankind, is that we are all connected and the illusion of separateness is a distortion of reality. Spiritual evolution will hopefully lead us to understand that only our perceptions keep us from knowing the truth that love and light unify everything, and heaven on earth is in the knowledge that we are one.” The story of the album: A messenger comes to earth seven times, once every millennium, starting five thousand years ago. Each song portrays one of the seven visits representing a part of the ongoing saga of humanity’s search of God and God’s attempt to reveal truth. (Ironically, it took seven years to produce this CD.) John Hernandez is a percussionist who has performed with many noteworthy bands, including Journey, Yes, Peter Gabriel, Abraxes, Neal Schons, Suzzane Ciani, and Angel Romero. I spoke with Hernandez by phone at his residence in the Bay Area. He currently works for a music company and does his own creative stuff as well. Hernandez was initiated in 2002 in the Northern California community. Jim Mitchell led his weekend. The musician is currently a regional I-Group representative working with Mitchell’s new I-Group protocol trainings. MKP became involved in the No Nation project through Rich Tosi. Hernandez and his wife work on staff with Rich and Char’s couples workshops. “I broached the idea of doing a win/win profit sharing venture with our CD and MKP,” Hernandez related. “We’re donating a portion of the proceeds to the Project.” Click here to purchase the CD They’re only $9.95! Or, if you are a big fan, you can get an autographed copy for $20. Robert Moore’s work has had a strong influence on the theoretical ideas within the lyrics. “The creators of this opera believed that there was something greater than ourselves,” Hernandez stated. “That greater ‘other’, as Moore talks about, helped us start the project and finish it. We had so many curve balls thrown at us that could have ended it, but didn’t. Spiritually speaking, I come from a Catholic background, but I’m not a current practitioner. I’m a big believer in Joseph Campbell and those kinds of human unconscious collectives in Jungian kinds of beliefs. I believe the human spirit is connected to universal things. Like Ed said, it is an illusion that we are disconnected. "We prove it ourselves: we each come from a different spiritual background, and decided to take a deep breath and evolve past the dogma and to celebrate the human spirit".” Hernandez returned often to mentioning his “life-changing experience with MKP.” “I believe MKP is struggling and succeeding with the same message of inclusivity. It’s great to be on a weekend and see there’s a staff and initiates - all with different backgrounds. We’re all there for one reason: to change the world one man at a time. We are all brothers, all the same. We focus on coming into masculinity and how to become that New Warrior.” The musician said his mission is to “… heal the world through music and illumination.” “Doing this CD is fulfilling my mission. I wanted the message to be spread through music. I took a risk with this album. Some of the reviews we’ve gotten have considered it a religious record. That’s fine. Some people will think it’s another form of dogma and some will get it.” I’d love to have these guys perform at an MKPI conference! “I invite men to listen to our CD and then have a discussion,” he continued. “This is another way of embracing the idea of a safe place where we can do some true multi-cultural work. I ask you men: ‘What’s at risk for listening to the message the way it is? Can you hear it without attaching dogma? Let down the walls and let the truth come in. We’re all connected – one planet, one sun, one heaven, one life. We are mothers, we are daughters, we are fathers, we are sons.” The New Warrior Training Adventure gave Hernandez the energy to persevere until the CD was accomplished, he noted. “Now I want to give back to that community, not only monetarily, but with a message from Robert Moore … what today needs is a new myth. We’re helping with that new myth.” - © 2006, Reid Baer The fame you earn has a different taste from the fame that is forced upon you. - Gloria Vanderbilt
Reid Baer, an
award-winning playwright for “A Lyon’s
Tale” is also a newspaper journalist, a poet
with more than 100 poems in magazines world wide,
and a novelist with his first book released this
month entitled Kill
The Story. Baer has been
a member of The ManKind Project since 1995 and
currently edits The New Warrior Journal for
The ManKind Project www.mkp.org
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.
He resides in Reidsville, N.C. with his wife
Patricia. He can be reached at 
