88597570 Instant Enlightenment
June 4, 2016 | Author: iamhappyone | Category: N/A
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Koda
Instant Enlightenment
Instant Enlightenment: Metaphysical Fast Food By
Koda A guide to understanding psychic phenomena through rational explanations and personal psychic experience copyright 2004 by Koda. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author, except where noted. Cover art by the author. ISBN: 1-4140-5893-4 (Paperback) ISBN: 1-4140-5894-2 (Dust Jacket) This is the final pre-publication version, Feb. 11, 2004
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Table of Contents [6] Closing Psychic Doors [7] Introduction and Acknowledgements [10] Visual Telepathy in Just Minutes (brief instructions) [12] Chapter One: My Personal Metaphysical Experiences Telepathy Becomes a Reality; Does God Exist?; Going Out of Body; Telepathic Staring Contests; Reading Minds; Jesus (or a good rock) Saves; Devine Intervention; The "Telepathy Exercise" Becomes the Psychic Window Technique (two people transporting awareness to another time and place); Ouija Boards; Multiple, Simultaneous Dreams; Learning Telekinesis (mind moving matter); Lucid Dreaming; Another OOBE; Déjà vu; Waking Visions; Reincarnation and "Energy Bolts."
[46] Chapter Two: Koda's Psychic Window Technique Visual Telepathy and Visual Perception of "Reincarnational Selves"
[61] Chapter Three: Analyzing Reality The theory of No Physical Physical Universe; Quantum Mechanics and String Theory; Multiple Dimensions; and Forth Dimensional Perception.
[78] Chapter Four: Reason, Religion and Beliefs [85] Chapter Five: Manipulating Awareness Levels of Consciousness; Meditation; Hypnosis; Concentration and Intent. 3
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[101] Chapter Six: Creating Reality Seth, Abraham and others have been telling us we create our own reality, but can we really make that happen? Here's how to actually make it work.
[124] Chapter Seven: Astrology, Predestination and Free Will [128] Chapter Eight: Adventures in Dreamland Dream Phenomena; Improving Dream Recall; 30 Days to Lucid Dreaming; and Shared Dreams.
[135] Chapter Nine: Psychic Sex and 20-Minute-Plus Female Orgasms [142] Chapter Ten: Drug Use and Metaphysical Development [156] Chapter Eleven: Psychic Party Games (Visual Telepathy); Using Telekinesis to Move a Paper Wheel; Psychic Touch Dancing; Light as a Feather (The Lifting Game); Directional Attention; Psychometry; Manipulating the Pendulum; Perceiving Auras; Using Ouija Boards; and instructions for holding a séance.
[187] Chapter Twelve: Psychological Wisdom Value Fulfillment; Values and Beliefs; Right and Wrong vs. "Good and Bad;” Acknowledge and Release; Responsibility Implies Control; All Unhappiness Requires Self Pity; All Needs Are Based Upon Wants; Every Extreme Implies the Opposite; Celebrate Your Issues; The Grand Cosmic Joke; etc.
[215] Chapter Thirteen: Getting It Together Indulgence and Self Discipline; The Power of Decisions; Eliminating Addictions; Yoga; Choosing a Career; etc.
[233] Chapter Fourteen: Social Enlightenment 4
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Instant Enlightenment One Worldwide Socioeconomic System; The Means of Reaching Agreement; Constructing One-Building Cities; Eliminating Positions of Power; The Personal Freedoms Protection Amendment; etc.
[255] Frozen Fog (a poem)
Appendix: [257] Overview of Metaphysical, Occult and Paranormal Phenomena and Practices A mini-encyclopedia of more than 120 listings describing the most significant types of spiritual/psychic phenomena reported throughout history.
[315] More Info on the Internet
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Closing Psychic Doors Please read this before performing any of the psychic exercises in this book. All of us go around with “our walls up” to some extent. We block our emotions from being easily perceived by others, and block the emotions of others from overwhelming us, by putting up what most people refer to as emotional walls. Another way of looking at this is in terms of “psychic shields.” There is a great deal of perception available to our subconscious on psychic levels, which we normally block from our awareness without giving it much thought. However, spending a significant amount of time exercising psychic abilities can result in a shift in ones level of awareness. This shift of focus can cause one to perceive psychic information without any deliberate effort, a condition which can persist for some time after performing the exercises in this book. For most people this is experienced as a mild "natural high" and is quite pleasant. Such a state of being is one of the objectives of meditation. There are some, however, who may tune into undesired perceptions and would prefer not to remain open to perceiving subconscious information. It is important to understand that you can prevent that from happening. The trick to stopping any undesirable psychic awareness is to simply place all of your attention on the physical world around you. For example, my technique for returning from a lucid dream or out of body experience is to simply wiggle my toes. The attention on the physical body draws one’s awareness back to it. Watching TV, balancing your checkbook, cooking dinner, dancing, exercising, gardening, or otherwise fully engaging your attention in physical activity will prevent any undesirable psychic awareness from occurring and restore your “psychic shields.” 6
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Introduction We are all God. Understand that and you will be instantly enlightened. Chances are that even with the "big answer" you don't feel all that enlightened right now. That's because knowledge is merely information until it is perceived as a reality in your own experience. Over the course of the last few decades I have left my body, "read minds" and performed telekinesis (mind moving matter). I have been fully “awake” while dreaming, experienced déjà vu, transported my consciousness to another time and place, and more. But I am not “enlightened” in the way most people think of that term. I am just some guy who has spent more than thirty years trying to figure out how “God, Life, the Universe and all that psychic stuff” really operates. I have learned a lot, from reading and experimenting, observing and pondering. But simply reading the information is not going to make you enlightened. One needs to experience information as truth. This book is full of exercises and experiments designed to provide you with personal experience which can lead you to discover many previously unrecognized truths about life. Anyone with an open mind can experience visual telepathy in just minutes, regardless of your belief or disbelief in “things psychic,” and the experience will blow you away. Essentially anyone can use telekinesis to spin a paper wheel in just seconds. Some of the other exercises in the “Psychic Party Games” section can produce results almost as quickly, regardless of your natural level of psychic ability. The results happen because this stuff is real. It is just a matter of learning how to tune into the perceptions. In my opinion, there is a rational explanation for everything, regardless of whether or not that explanation is known. Metaphysical phenomena has been mixed up with irrational 7
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religious dogma on the one hand, and plagued with fraud on the other. Religion asks us to accept explanations on faith alone, while so called “scientific” debunkers invalidate all evidence by demonstrating that some of it could be fraudulent. In spite of this, any objective truth is subject to the same principles of reason we use every day. There is no need to accept anything on faith alone. Psychic phenomena is as real as your arm, and equally subject to the critical analysis of science. My efforts have been profoundly influenced by the Seth books by Jane Roberts (1929--1984). Seth is a “multi-dimensional personality energy essence no longer focused within physical reality” who spoke through Jane, while her husband, Robert Butts, wrote down Seth’s dictation. About half a dozen books were written in this way, my favorites being the first two, Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul (1972) and The Nature of Personal Reality: A Seth Book (1974). Seth is often referred to in this present work. The series of nine books by Carlos Castaneda (1925?--1998) have also been a significant influence on my way of thinking. The series begins with The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaki Way of Knowledge (1968). Carlos was an anthropology student at UCLA in 1960 when he encountered don Juan Matus, a Yaki Indian sorcerer. Don Juan spent the next ten years teaching Carlos a complex system of metaphysical thinking said to be handed down over thousands of years from the ancient Toltec civilization of Central America. In recent years some controversy has been generated by the possibility that Castaneda may have fraudulently produced his work, but I find the material consistent with my own experience as well as with Seth’s concept that we create our own reality. I am also deeply indebted to The Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, 4th Edition (1994) edited by J. Gordon Melton, as a much valued source of historical reference. I would like to thank Kristen Risbeck for proofreading the manuscript, along with the other people who always believed in me despite my unconventional ideas. These include my departed mother, who introduced me to astrology, and from the time I was young continually told me I was her “special” child who would 8
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accomplish great things. I am also grateful for the sincere support of Annalisa Sand, Belinda Ray, Darren and Christina Weight, Greg Blackett, my brother Allen, and above all, my father, who made it possible for me to become the person I wanted to be. Writing this book has taken more than four years, largely because I sometimes questioned my qualifications for writing it. There are times when I am fully aware of the spiritual nature of the Universe and feel completely in tune with the flow of my experience. At other times I have found myself stumbling through life feeling like the light at the end of the tunnel may turn out to be an oncoming train. I continually refine my understanding and wanted to include every new insight, but eventually realized I couldn’t do that or this book would never be finished -- because my knowledge will constantly expand, which is true for all of us. In the long run each individual must discover the truth on one’s own. The source of your knowledge must be your own experience. This book is designed to lead you to your own conclusions. If you have a willing partner around, you are just minutes away from personally experiencing a form of psychic perception.
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Visual Telepathy in Just Minutes (more detailed information on this is presented later) You and a friend sit a comfortable distance apart (2 or 3 feet) and look into each other's eye. You look at the other's right eye while they look at your left eye (or vice versa). With your thoughts quieted, both of you attempt to expand the area of clear perception to include all of the other person's face. Blink your eyes whenever they need wetting, but not to regain a clear focus. Remain relaxed, pay attention to what you see and feel, and explain those perceptions to the other person. That's all you need to do to perform this exercise. Within a minute or two you will begin to notice "changes" in your visual perception. The other person's face may become blurry, darker or lighter, or otherwise begin to look different. After a moment the changes become more dramatic, perhaps hallucinatory. (You can stop any unpleasant visual effects by blinking or looking away for a moment.) You are very likely to find yourself looking at the image of an entirely different person, perhaps several persons, one after the other. (These may be images of that person in other incarnations.) You will also notice that any strong emotion you feel while doing this exercise is simultaneously experienced by your partner. Essentially anyone can get these results with minimal effort. These visual and emotional effects happen to both people at the same time and occur with the same level of constantly fluctuating intensity. Let me repeat that. The effects happen to both people at the same time and with the same level of intensity. The two experiences are connected. They do not happen independently of each other. "Something" is linking both experiences on a psychic level. This is proof of psychic phenomenon (telepathy on a visual level) and essentially anyone can experience it personally. The experience is often shockingly dramatic. You will definitely know 10
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something "supernatural" is happening. It is possible to communicate specific information such as colors or numbers using this technique (see the Psychic Window chapter) but simply following the instructions above will produce visual effects that will amaze you. Once you have performed this exercise there will be no doubt that psychic phenomena is a reality and that you are personally capable of such experience. The next chapter describes how I discovered this technique and many other aspects of this magical universe we live in. Other quick and easy exercises are also provided in the Psychic Party Games chapter, including instructions for using telekinesis to spin a paper wheel, which will work for just about anyone.
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Chapter One:
My Personal Metaphysical Experiences Like most people, I became interested in metaphysics when I was a teenager. That's generally when we first encounter stories of "real magic" and feel a pressing need to know just what is and isn't real. This was back in the early 1970's when the hippie movement was promoting peace and drugs as a path to social enlightenment, and I was first awakened by LSD. (The pros and cons of using drugs to assist metaphysical development are discussed later.) My first "acid trip" didn't do much more than produce a few "special effects," such as the car I was riding in filling with smoke, and water pouring like liquid rainbows against the windows as we drove through a car wash. And I laughed so hard and so long my cheeks and abdomen hurt all the next day. The second experience had a much more profound effect on my world view. While listening to "acid rock" music with my eyes closed I saw complicated, 3-dimensional patterns of neon-bright light moving in sync with the music. These patterns were so intricate and real, so beyond my own ability to imagine, that I was convinced they had been “programmed” by the musicians so everyone on "acid" (LSD) would perceive them. (It took months for me to learn differently, but the experience lead me to develop a theoretical 12
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method for creating similar effects: Audio Animation: 3-D “pictures” or “sound shapes” you “see with your ears” in every direction around you at once. You can create a crude Audio Image by moving your hand in a wide circular pattern while continually snapping your fingers -- you will hear a circle. See my web site for more info.) While under the influence of LSD I felt a connection with God, that I was part of this huge thing that contained the world, the universe, everything, and it was called God. The world was no longer solid and real to me, but some kind of "projection." I didn't understand how this metaphysical universe worked, but the experience opened my mind to the idea that there is more to reality than meets the scientist. I started talking with people about different religions, looking for answers, and heard some very strange tales. There was one girl in the coffee shop where I hung out at the time, a strikingly beautiful 19-year-old with long, dark brown hair, who told me about Eastern religious monks involved in astral projection (now often referred to as OOBE's, or Out Of Body Experience). Apparently these monks would have themselves locked up in a tiny room in some remote monastery for years at a time till they learned how to send their conscious awareness out to visit any place they wanted to, including the “astral planes” -- other levels of existence where different kinds of beings lived. Some sort of "silver thread" was supposed to trail out from their astral body to keep them connected to their physical body, and if this thread was ever broken the monks would supposedly die. That girl believed in a lot of crazy things, including mental telepathy; the idea that some people could read minds. Many of the ideas she talked about were totally new to me, and I would have laughed them off as pure fantasy if the experience of LSD hadn't shook me from the "waking sleep," the totally ignorant state most of us are in all the time where we take reality to be as solid and real as it appears to be. I wanted to know if such things as telepathy and astral projection were really possible. The only way to know for sure was to try myself. 13
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The First Telepathy Experience It wasn't long before a friend, Chuck, agreed to help me experiment with telepathy. We were parked in the driveway at my fathers house in Chuck’s old, white Plymouth (with the big rear "wings" common on cars of the early 1960's). My father’s two acre yard in Salt Lake City had lots of tall trees and bushes everywhere, so we would often sit in the car with the music playing quietly on the 8-track stereo without disturbing anyone. On this particular night, around midnight, we were smoking hashish (a concentrated form of marijuana) discussing the spiritual effects of LSD and the strange stories that girl had told me. We decided to attempt using telepathy to convey a letter of the alphabet, in spite of having no clue how to do it. I chose a letter and began concentrating with my eyes closed. Chuck closed his eyes and tried to discern which letter I had selected. He was very patient, waiting for some "clue" to indicate which letter it might be. He was extremely patient. Agonizingly patient. After a few minutes passed I looked up to see if he had "spaced out" and forgotten what he was doing, but there he was bobbing his head gently with a serious expression on his face, concentrating intently, so I went back to concentrating on the letter I was trying to send. I could visualize the letter very clearly due to the "assistance" of the hash. I was altering my visual image of the letter by changing it's color, making it appear 3-D, rotating it, adding ornate decorations to the edges, anything I could do to keep my attention focused only on that particular letter of the alphabet. I glanced at Chuck again and he was still concentrating so I kept at it. Perhaps five minutes passed before I became so frustrated I thought I would burst. I stopped just short of smacking the dashboard with my hand and screamed to myself mentally, “Get it through your head! The letter is –“ "R!!!" he yelled. Wow. He got it. I slumped back down in the seat shaking my head in disbelief. Telepathy was a reality, not just some story people made up. Not only that, but I could do it -- at least I could send. And 14
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if telepathy was real, all those other things like astral projection might be real as well. I was dumbfounded. Thirty seconds went by before Chuck asked, "That was the letter, right?" It wasn't till then that I realized he had actually shouted the letter without knowing for sure it was correct. We tried to repeat the experience several times over the next hour, but failed every time. Still, there was no doubt that we had actually performed mental telepathy that first time, something I have to attribute to my friend who concentrated with such dogged determination.
Answering the Question, "Does God Exist?” Later that night I laid in bed pondering the experience of telepathy and what it meant to live in a world where such things were possible. Is reality truly the sort of illusion it appears to be while on psychedelic drugs? Do monks actually leave their bodies? Is there really a God? The question regarding the reality of God, or the lack of a real God, had been pressing on me for sometime. Before my psychedelic experiences I assumed that people had invented the idea of God in order to feel they had an answer to a question no one could answer -- "where did the universe come from?" I felt that no one had a clue about the source of existence, and "God" was a bandage used to hide from that truth. But for months had I wanted to know for sure if there was a God or not. The question had become an obsession. After the experience with telepathy earlier that night I felt I might be closer to discovering an answer I could trust. I had learned that telepathy was real simply by trying it. Perhaps I could know if there was a God or not simply by asking the question with the same level of determination. I laid on my bed and asked, "Does God exist?" I asked the question with all the determination I could gather. I was so focused on the question, so sincere, I believed I might actually get an answer. After a moment I noticed a feeling similar to becoming high on pot, only the feeling was centered around my head, a sense of "pressure" or "expansion" in a band around my temples. A faint 15
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while light began to gather near the foot of my bed and I felt a tremendous sense of exhilaration and suspense. The light grew continually brighter and brighter and I was certain God himself was about to appear before my eyes. But then the thought occurred to me that if someone really did appear before me, how would I know it was God and not some astral projecting monk pretending to be God? I realized that if someone appeared, claiming to be God, even if he explained every aspect of every detail of reality, I could not rationally be certain it was actually God, even if it truly was God. I became convinced there was no rational way to know if God exists, period. I finally had the answer to the question I had been obsessed about for months. "I don't know," turned out to be a legitimate answer.* Having the long sought answer made me feel so euphoric I nearly forgot about the glowing light at the foot of my bed, which was slowly beginning to fade. My next question was, "Is astral projection possible?" My immediate response was, "I don't know," and the obvious limitations of that answer became clear. I didn't know if telepathy was real until I tried it, and even though I didn't know how to go about doing telepathy, it worked. To find out if astral projection was possible I simply had to do the same thing, to try it. (*Note: The above is not the "real" answer to the question of the existence of God.)
Astral Projection As I laid on the bed looking at the acoustic ceiling tiles above me, I could sense the light at the foot of the bed glowing brightly again. I was having a "transcendental" experience, the kind of stuff we read about but which doesn't seem possible for us regular people. I stared at the ceiling and thought to myself, "Up." My body started "vibrating." It felt as if a vibrating electrical current were passing through me in slow waves, up from my toes to the top of my head, then back down, over and over, faster and faster until I heard a distinct "ripping" sound inside my head. It was like 16
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the sound of cloth being torn at the base of my skull, but I felt the sensation as well as heard it. In that moment I experienced a "swooshing" sensation, like going up in and elevator when it stops suddenly and produces a momentary feeling of weightlessness. I hadn't closed my eyes, not that I could remember anyway, but I suddenly became aware that the ceiling tiles were only a few inches in front of my face! I was floating outside of my body! I don't think I have ever felt more exhilarated. In one night the world had become a truly magical place and I was able to do these incredible things. I was thrilled beyond description. I floated in the air letting my arms and legs dangle, enjoying the incredibly delightful freedom of weightlessness. I was looking at the joints in the acoustic ceiling tiles, and could clearly see the fuzzy little hairs of fibrous material on the corners where four tiles came together. My vision was crystal clear, in fact better than normal. I hung suspended near the ceiling for perhaps ten to twelve seconds before I thought about turning around to look at my body on the bed. I immediately decided that wouldn't be such a great idea because I didn't know how I would react to seeing my body when I wasn't in it. After a moment I realized I didn't know how to turn around anyway. Then I thought I should make a point of remembering how I got out of my body so I could do it again, and realized I didn't really know how I had gotten out. At that moment my pleasant adventure turned into a life threatening nightmare as I realized I didn't know how to get back in either. Panic overwhelmed me. "Back," I said to myself, but nothing happened. I started screaming mentally, "Back! Back! Back!" but still it was just me and the ceiling tiles. Finally I started telling myself this was all a dream and it was impossible to leave one's body. I went into a rage of sorts about how this couldn't be real and finally felt that "swooshing" sensation again, only this time it was sudden and hard. I actually felt myself drop from the ceiling and slam into my body with a sudden impact. The force of reentry was so violent I sat up straight seemingly from the momentum. I gasped for air and flung my arms about wildly, relieved to be back, but the relief soon turned to 17
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horror. My body was icy cold on the inside. It felt ghastly, unnatural, and at that moment I was convinced I had just entered my previously dead body. Needless to say, it took a while before I again thought so highly of the wonders of astral projection, about as long as it took for my body to regain it's normal temperature, which was roughly 20 minutes. But once I recovered from the shock I was indeed quite impressed with the whole thing. I had performed mental telepathy, left my body and "solved" the question of the existence of God all in one evening. My ego was glowing profusely.
Telepathic Staring Contests The next day, returning to the local coffee shop where all my young acquaintances hung out, I was quite excited to tell everyone what had happened. No one believed any of it. I sat there in embarrassed disbelief as my friends all made fun of me for coming up with such a tall tale and expecting them to fall for it. The more I insisted it was all true the more annoyed they became that I wouldn't give up my attempt to deceive them. I was young, felt insulted and vowed to get even with them. It was probably about two weeks later when the next significant event occurred. The coffee shop was a large, open building with high ceilings and three walls covered by tall glass windows. The orange booths had low seat backs and it was easy to see everyone in the place. All of us kids used to play a sort of game now and then, getting into "staring contests." If two of us happened to catch each other's glance we would sometimes stare each other in the eye till one or the other would "lose" by blinking or changing facial expression. I was a serious guy at the time and quite good at it, but everyone recognized one particular girl as the stare-down queen. She was a busty, attractive girl with a round face, black hair and large, dark eyes, probably about sixteen. I could hold out for five minutes at a time with her, but eventually, for no reason at all, I would suddenly find myself cracking a huge grin and lose, every time. 18
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So it was a couple of weeks after my night of "transcendental illumination" that I found myself in a staring contest with the staredown queen. With nothing to do but stare and think, the idea came to me that maybe I could think of something funny, project it to her telepathically and cause her to laugh. I thought of a joke I had recently heard, concentrated on mentally delivering the punch line, and she immediately broke up laughing. I won! I beat the champ, someone no one could get to even crack a smile. She demanded a rematch and this time most of the kids at surrounding tables all watched to see what happened. I again thought of something funny and again she suddenly broke up laughing. Yes! Success! Later the girl asked me how I had beaten her, and when I told her, she said she had always used the same trick. That cinched it for me. Telepathy was real. I knew I was good at sending, so the next step was figuring out how to receive.
Reading Minds Again I was faced with the fact that I didn't know how to proceed, and again I used the same old method -- just try. I don't know why I started looking into people's eyes when attempting to "read their minds" but it seemed natural to make eye contact when you want to communicate clearly with someone. I would simply look into the eye of one of my friends and say, "let me see if I can read your mind." Then I would say whatever popped into my head. It became obvious that saying, "let me see if I can read you mind," caused most people to think something like, "There's no way you can read my mind." I could easily see that from their facial expressions. So the first thing I often said was, "You're thinking there is no way I can read your mind." They'd snicker and say that proves nothing, but I would force them to admit that I had indeed guessed what they were thinking. Next they would try to think of something specific in order to make their thoughts a little less obvious, and I'd say, "Now you are trying to come up with something specific to think about," which was almost always the 19
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case. Then, "You are beginning to think I might actually be able to do this because I have been right all along so far." It was at this point that most people would actually get worried that I might know what they were thinking. The fear that I could dig deep into their secrets would focus their attention very strongly. "You are afraid that I might dig into your deep secrets," would often send people into a sort of panic and they would radiate their thoughts so loudly I could actually begin to pick up specific details. In great fear, and needing to prove that I wasn't reading their minds, they would finally focus on something very specific, and because my attention was so intently focused on them I almost always knew what it was. "You're thinking about the slippers your grandmother keeps under her bed," is one example I remember picking up on. If you can picture what it would be like to be in your late teens and be subject to this kind of intense psychological pressure, you can imagine how terrifying the experience was to these kids. From out of nowhere some guy is doing the impossible right before your eyes, digging deep into your mind as if it were an open book, exercising a power no one else had; a total invasion of one's entire identity. These feelings of fear and helplessness would be broadcast so loudly that I would feel them just as intently. "Please! What did I ever do to you to deserve being invaded like this! Please get out of my mind! Please don't do this to me!" I'm telling you these were hideous feelings and I was being overwhelmed with them. I'd smile and back off, saying, "See, I told you I could do it." My "victims" would acknowledge my achievement and run for the hills. I did this every day for about two weeks, getting better at it all the time. My acquaintances would proudly introduce me to their friends as the "mind reader." I'd do my little trick, drive them into helpless terror, and walk away thinking I was really superior to all these dull-witted people. My ego was totally out of control, and I certainly got even with all those people who had ridiculed me a few weeks before. But I was beginning to hate feeling the emotions of the people I was doing this to. Every time I did it I was left looking at someone begging for mercy, with me telepathically sharing the 20
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feeling of their intense suffering. It got to where I didn't want to do it so often, but worse, all my friends started avoiding me. Who wants to hang around someone who can pry into your mind at will, which is what they (inaccurately) believed I could do. Within two weeks I didn't have a single acquaintance left who would talk to me. When I walked into the coffee shop, everyone who used to greet me warmly would turn their backs and try to pretend they hadn't seen me. When I deliberately engaged someone in conversation they would find an excuse to leave as soon as possible -- being careful not to offend the guy that could read their mind and tell the whole world their dark secrets if he wanted to. I couldn't do that, but everyone believed I could. I felt like a leper. I had no choice but to stop doing the telepathy thing if I wanted to have any friends. I stopped doing it, and told everyone I had stopped, but it took about two months for people to stop fearing me and treat me like I was one of the crowd again. I haven't been able to "read minds" in the same way since then. Two years passed before I thought I would investigate telepathy again. I remembered that as I watched someone's eyes while doing this stuff I would often see their face blur and distort, and once a girl had told me that my face was also distorting. So when I started doing it again, this time with the intent to teach others how to do it so my ego wouldn't end up killing me, I asked about the distortions. Sure enough, everyone would see them at the same time and with the same degree of intensity as I did. My "telepathy exercise" became based upon looking for these visual changes as indications that thoughts or emotions might be duplicated at the same time. There are a few points about all this that are important. First, most of my problems came from an ego that was completely out of control. If you don't keep your ego from letting you think you are superhuman you will soon find out how much you miss humanity. Another thing has to do with being able to pick up specific information so clearly. The methods I used forced people to place intense emotional energy on their thoughts and focus on those thoughts with great clarity. That makes it much easier for anyone to 21
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pick up the information. When you attempt to use telepathy you should encourage people to focus on things that are both emotional and pleasant. Ask people to think about the most rewarding moment in their life, for example, and see what kind of impressions you can get from that.
Jesus (or a good rock) Saves After I had sworn off "reading minds" so I wouldn't be without friends, my thoughts eventually went back to the question of the existence of God. While I was convinced there was no rational proof possible, one way or another, there must be a truth. God exists or God does not exist. "I don't know," ended up not being an answer after all. Again I found myself seeking a direct encounter with God, if there was a God, and that lead me to become a "Jesus freak" for about two months. Jesus freaks were groups of mostly young people who would get together to read from the bible and "freak out" in spontaneous sessions of "speaking in tongues." It was a popular, unstructured spiritual movement of the late sixties and early seventies. "Speaking in tongues" was the real goal of participating in these groups, a condition where everyone would excite each other into a spiritual frenzy of sorts where you would allow yourself to start babbling nonsense. Supposedly the constant stream of babble coming out of your mouth was some other language, from past lives or existence in heaven or whatever. It was reported that people in these groups actually spoke known languages which they were previously unfamiliar with. From my later research I discovered this is true on some occasions, but although I found myself "speaking in tongues" quite freely, I never understood a word of what I, or the others, were saying. But I did experience something valuable as a result of being with those people. For a time, on an intuitive level, I accepted as truth the existence of God and Jesus. Reason was not to be trusted to provide all the answers, so I allowed myself to simply believe. Faith was the key according to those people, and believe it or not, it worked. 22
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I accepted as fact that Jesus was always watching over me, and that I had a guardian angle who was with me all the time. For two months solid I silently chanted, "Thank you Jesus. Thank you Lord," day in and day out. It filled my mind at all times when I wasn't doing something that required my attention otherwise. I talked to my guardian angel out loud when I was alone, and "felt" like I was actually communicating with a real but silent being. My life improved in truly remarkable ways. Before I became involved with this stuff my girlfriend had left me, I was out of work and my old, '63 Chevrolet Nova was blowing huge clouds of blue smoke, ready for the automobile graveyard at any moment. I was constantly depressed and suicidal. Within two weeks of walking around with my robotic chant constantly echoing in my mind, my girlfriend was back and I found a job I really liked, working in a pool hall where all my friends hung out. One night after work, at about 2:00 AM, everyone left the pool hall to go home but my car wouldn't start. Before I could get anyone's attention the others had all driven off and left me alone in the parking lot. I tried push-starting my car, rolling it down the slight grade and popping the clutch, but the strip mall parking lot was under construction and the tires wouldn’t grip on the loose dirt. I ended up with a wheel in a pot hole, stuck permanently. The streets were empty. Home was a three mile walk. For a moment I doubted that Jesus was helping me, then I remembered one has to have faith under any circumstances. I asked my guardian angle to help me and chanted my "Thank you Jesus" thing all the more intently. Moments later a pick-up truck appeared far down the road and pulled into the parking lot perhaps 150 yards away. I thought Jesus had saved me. But suddenly I felt a pressing urge to run toward the truck as fast as I could, so I started running. The driver was drunk and had pulled over to relieve himself. He was already back in his truck and beginning to drive away when I ran up to him out of breath. If I hadn't ran he would have been long gone, so right then I knew Jesus was helping me. I thought the driver would be like an angel sent to help me, but instead he was a burly, grumpy, middle-aged man, drunk and impatient, perhaps fearful that 23
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I might have friends waiting in the dark to rob him. He didn't want to help and began to drive off, but at the last minute agreed to pushstart my car with his truck. I knew beyond any doubt that my faith had saved me that night. It wasn't long before everything in my life was just wonderful. My getting a job and having found God encouraged my father to believe I had gained some responsibility, so he co-signed on a loan and I bought a two year-old, 1968 Pontiac GTO -- one of the fastest, nicest muscle cars of the day. I ended up getting more money from the loan than I needed to pay for the car, so my wallet was loaded with more cash than I ever had before. I was sitting on top of the world, all because I had faith in Jesus. Or was that really what happened? I was driving down the road in my very nice car, talking to my guardian angle about the whole situation, and it became clear to me that "help" had indeed intervened. That night when my car wouldn't start and I was "told" to run as fast as I could -- that was no ordinary event. My faith had made that possible. But there are hundreds of millions of people asking Jesus to help them everyday. No one, not even Jesus, has enough time to look out for all those people. What had helped me was my faith. It was faith that worked, not God or Jesus, and I could get the very same results even if my faith was in something as ordinary as an inanimate rock. I felt my guardian angel agreeing with me. What a relief. I could drop all this constant mental chanting and go back to having a normal life. It turned out that intuition couldn't prove the existence of God either, but I did learn that faith works, faith in anything. I had lots of money and a cool car, so I dumped my girlfriend in order to chase all the cute babes who would think I was hot stuff now. (I was eighteen and my ego was still out of control.) I had enough money to survive nicely for weeks, so I quit my job to have fun for a while. Within a month I was broke, out of work, had this huge car payment, no girlfriend, and I was perhaps even more depressed than ever before. 24
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I realized that it was a lot easier to have faith in some higher power, who could do absolutely anything, than to believe that some rock was going to solve all my problems. I could no longer believe in Jesus when I knew Jesus had nothing to do with it, and a rock is just a rock. I envied my religious friends for their happy lives because they could still believe Jesus was helping them out, but I also felt they were completely missing the truth about what was really happening. I was miserable, but I knew the truth, that the power comes from faith, not the object one has faith in.
Divine Intervention Over the next two years, since I hadn't yet found a rock that could live up to my expectations, I became more and more depressed. I was suicidal, and one day in late November I was saved from killing myself by what can only be called divine intervention. My GTO had been repossessed and I was driving a '63 Volkswagen van at the time. I had turned twenty-years-old a couple of months earlier and some friends had given me a twelve-string acoustic guitar for my birthday. I loved playing that guitar, though I could only strum a few chords. I had held and lost twenty-one different jobs in the previous three years, and the realization that we are all slaves to economic survival was completely unacceptable to me. I felt I would rather be dead than spend the rest of my life being told what to do with my time and energy by some employer who was simply exploiting my efforts for his own selfish gain. I went to a local park at about 11:00 PM and walked around trying to decide if I should really kill myself or not. It was the middle of November, dark and cold and I was bundled up, wearing the guitar on a strap, but I could only play for about two minutes at a time before my hands would become too stiff from the cold. I walked through the shadowy pathways among the leafless trees, strumming two sad chords very slowly, first one (Am) then a moment later another (FM). As I concluded that I was indeed going to kill myself that morning, I felt certain that anyone hearing the sound of those two chords would know, beyond any doubt, that I was about to die. 25
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As the sun began to rise I was sitting in the concrete bleachers of a small baseball stadium, my back up against the walls in a corner to stay out of the wind. I was waiting for my father to go to work so I could park my van in the garage, leave the motor running and be done with it thirty minutes later. The sunrise that morning was amazing. I remember the first, streaking rays of the sun coming over the mountains, the way they illuminated the clouds and suddenly flared on the chrome ladder of the new swimming pool, which had yet to be filled. The fluffy clouds blazed with color and I felt sad to be leaving such a beautiful world, though I hated the cold, hated living in a world where the environment would kill you if you didn’t protect yourself from it with heavy clothing. As I walked toward my van in the parking lot, watching the leaves swirl across the ground and feeling a sadness no one can imagine till you know you are about to take your own life, I saw another vehicle at the far side of the parking area. I had been walking through that park all night and it seemed impossible that I wouldn't have noticed if another car had been there. And someone was getting out of that car. I had no desire to speak with another living being at that moment, but a young man was walking toward me, carrying something. I hurried to my van, hoping to get in and leave before he reached me, but he quickened his pace and caught up with me just as I reached the van. He was carrying a guitar case and smiling warmly. I tried to avoid conversation but he was very insistent in a pleasant way. He pointed to my guitar and said he was also a musician, that he had been traveling around the country playing on sidewalks, in parks, restaurants and bars, and was making enough money to keep going, enjoying his life. He opened his guitar case and on the inside of the propped-up lid "spare change" had been written with letters cut from various colors of felt cloth. There was something unnatural about this guy. He had appeared out of nowhere, saying he had been in the park all night which I thought was impossible, and he just oozed happiness. His smile was friendly and warm and seemed to radiate a genuine, 26
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accepting love for life. And he kept emphasizing how happy he was playing guitar to make a living. Other than that he was just some average looking, dark haired guy who was interfering with my intense desire to be alone and go kill myself. I wasn't very friendly to him, just tried to be polite, let him bug me for about ten minutes then hurriedly got in my van, at which point he walked back to his car. But as I sat in the van waiting for the motor to warm up, wondering if I had enough gas in the tank to do the job before it ran out, a burst of inspiration suddenly came to me. I loved music, and that guy was truly happy playing his guitar and making a living at it. And he was totally free, definitely no one's slave. Bingo! A way to make a living, a way to be happy. I'd be a musician. I'd write songs that would truly move people, like the way I knew anyone would have been moved by hearing just those two sad chords I had been playing all night. I'd not only make money at it but I'd be so good I'd be rich and live the good life. A reason to live. I would stay alive! I practiced playing guitar ten hours a day for the next six months, then found part time work and continued playing five hours a day for the next few years. I was totally dedicated. It was a few days following that event before I really thought about how amazing it was for someone to come up to me at that precise moment and tell me the only thing on Earth that could have kept me alive. The incredible beauty of that sunrise, the realization about how well I could communicate my feelings through two simple chords, and then that guy appearing out of nowhere -- it all added up to an "impossible" coincidence. Was it a coincidence? Yes. But some coincidences are deliberate and have their source on another plane of reality. A very similar event happened about ten years later. Since my "magic rock" wasn't working and I still hated life, I had become suicidal again, had been thrown out of my father’s house (which I was always in and out of) and had driven to a deep gorge in the Utah desert to decide whether or not to end it. I drove to The Wedge overlook during the night. From the overlook, which I had searched for in the past but had previously 27
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been unable to find, one can stand atop a cliff jutting out into a very deep canyon. All around is barren sandstone with multiple hues of reds, whites, pinks and browns. The river comes in from the west, which was to my right. Curving side canyons open up across the way to the south. To the east the small river runs out of the main gorge and winds back and forth, zigzagging between side canyons, stretching out nearly to the horizon. This time I managed to find the place. I was carrying my guitar, playing those two sad chords again, and walked slowly onto the point of rock jutting out into the canyon. The Sun was just beginning to rise over the distant mountain range. In the long canyon to the east the early morning light reflected on the criss-crossing river like strips of a mirrored ribbon. The silver threads glimmered brightly under a thin shroud of mist floating above the distant water. The colors in the clouds were blazing with an intensity that defied the limitations of reality. All around me the ground was painted orange by the fire in the sky, and the orange tint combined with the colors of the rocks. As the sky changed color, so did the colors all around me. It was as if the canyon walls were animated, literally pulsating with life. Just as the Sun cleared the eastern horizon, the full Moon, seemingly twice it's normal size, touched the western horizon as it began to set. For a brief moment two large, glowing orbs where balanced perfectly on opposite horizons. It was just too much for me to take. I wanted to be dead. This same sort of thing had happened to me years earlier, convinced me to stay alive, and I had suffered ever since. I felt as if some "higher power" were trying to make it's message clear to me, and I desperately wanted to know what to do. Should I live, or should I die. What was the message in all this overwhelming splendor? I looked down with a sigh of desperation, and there, carved into the sandstone, exactly in the center of the space between my two feet, was the word, "LIVE." Of course, some real person must have carved those letters. There were a few names and dates scattered elsewhere on the rocks. But just imagine desperately asking a life and death question, with 28
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the world erupting all around you in spectacular surreal-ness, and the answer suddenly appears carved in stone between your feet. I gave in. I decided to live. The next two months were by far the worst of my life, literally starving to death on the streets of Los Angeles. What I want to point out here is that "divine intervention" does in fact occur, even to us "nonbelievers." If it didn't occur I could have saved myself decades of pretty much hating life. But considering my unbelievable ego, the powers that be must have wanted to make sure that ego was ground to a pulp before setting me lose on the world with some real power. My "magic rock" and I raise a toast to “the gods” for their sense of humor in the way they tricked me into torturing myself all these years.
The "Telepathy Exercise" Becomes The Psychic Window Technique In the summer of 1984 I was living with a girlfriend, Annalisa, in Los Angeles -- Burbank actually. My article on Audio Animation had just been published in the largest recording industry trade magazine and I believed the world was about to beat a path to my door and make me fabulously rich. The girlfriend waited tables and paid the bills while I negotiated in meetings with entertainment industry top dogs and venture capital groups. I had plenty of time to concentrate on metaphysics, so I was reading constantly, meditating and trying new experiments. A friend of mine at the time, Gerald, was heavily involved in the Kabala, the occult magical teachings being promoted by many "heavy metal" bands that were popular then. He was well versed in ritual and could make a room shake with the sound of his voice, which was quite impressive. We were sitting in a two-person booth at a coffee shop in Burbank doing my telepathy exercise for the first time together. As I stared into his eyes the visual distortions were going through their regular fluctuations, but because my friend was so well practiced at concentration we were able to become deeply immersed in the experience. At one point I noticed the room around us growing 29
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darker and the sounds of the busy restaurant began to fade. The darkness became an inky blackness with only a pair of eyes still visible, then I noticed the blackness starting to "fizz" as if tiny bubbles were popping. As the bubbles burst they revealed a totally different scene behind them. I was looking directly at a very pretty blond girl about nineteen-years-old. She was perhaps six feet away, facing slightly toward my left as she sat in front of an old-fashion chest of drawers topped with a large, ornate mirror. Her dress was bright yellow, laced up the front and had a white, ruffled collar. She was brushing her long blond hair with very slow strokes, looking rather absent minded, as if she were daydreaming about some hoped-for future. To the left of the dresser was the closed bedroom door. Without knowing why, I was certain there was a hallway on the other side of the door. I knew that toward the right the hall lead to the back door and the barn area, while on the left the hall opened into the living room. On the other side of the hall from the bedroom was the kitchen. I knew where all the pots and pans and lanterns were hung, that the road came in from west in front of the house and most of the fields were in that direction. I knew everything about the place as quickly as my mind could scan the area, including the “fact” that I was in a farm house in Southern California in the late 1800s. Suddenly the image became unstable and an incredible state of confusion overwhelmed me. Blackness engulfed me and in an instant I was back in the restaurant with my friend, who was panic stricken, his hands and feet flying about as he literally tried to get a grip on reality. His eyes were rolling and he was gasping for air as he finally started to calm down, his hands gripping the side of the table. The entire experience hadn't lasted more than about six seconds, and to this day I wonder what we might have discovered if we had sustained it for even a minute or two. After a moment we talked about what had happened. It was a complete shock to me that his experience was perfectly identical to mine, seen from the exact same point of view. In order to be certain of our observations, we took turns describing the details. He would, for example, indicate that the young woman was wearing a yellow 30
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dress, and I would then point out the white collar, he'd say, "with ruffles," and so on. He also verified the same information about the location of the barn, kitchen, etc. We had perceived the same experience from the same point of view. That was very surprising to me, since it seemed more logical that with him looking at me in the restaurant, he should have perceived things in the farm house from a position facing me. As two separate individuals we perceived an identical experience, right down to every thought, as if we were the same person. Until then I would not have considered such a thing possible. It was at this point that I began referring to the "telepathy exercise" as the "psychic window technique," since it was obvious that more than just telepathy was possible, that the exercise can produce a "window" into other forms of psychic perception.
Ouija Boards Later that evening we used a Ouija board to see if we could get more information about what had actually happened. The "personality" we contacted (our first time using the board together) identified itself as Koda (yeah, that's where I borrowed the name from). When we asked what year the event had occurred in, the board responded with apparent gibberish -- a stream of repeated Cs, Xs, Is, etc. Then we suddenly realized the letters were Roman numerals indicating the year 1883, which matched my original impression. The board continued, saying that my friend and I were both "thoughtforms" created by that girl. In other words, we were both future incarnations of that one person, alive at the same time. That's another condition I would have thought impossible, except Seth (mentioned in the introduction) describes what he calls "counterparts" as being multiple incarnations of the same "multidimensional self" alive at the same time. If that is actually what was going on I can attest that you wouldn't necessarily know a counterpart if you encountered one, since I didn't really care much for this particular guy. He's nothing like me at all. I haven't really had much experience with Ouija boards. They are operated by having more than one person (usually) place 31
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their fingertips on a "pointer" that slides across the board, the pointer spelling out words as it stops over the printed letters. The pointer (planchette) that comes with the commercial version of the game is made of plastic, with little felt-tipped feet and a clear plastic window you look through to read the letter selected by the "discarnate personality" you supposedly contact. More serious occult types often use a crystal bowl as a pointer. A woman I know well, and trust, once told me that during a session with a large group of people, the crystal bowl had actually come off the board and moved up and down her arm.
Multiple, Simultaneous Dreams That summer in 1984 was quite exceptional for the amount of metaphysical development I experienced. One thing I should mention briefly is my experiencing three different dreams at more or less the same time, while simultaneously being conscious enough to describe them to my girlfriend. She had come home while I was sleeping, at the precise moment I was experiencing a transition from one dream to another. Somehow I was able to describe three different dreams as they were occurring. In one dream I was a toddler playing with small race cars on a plastic track I could bend into loops. In another I was a nineteenth century artist, working with an explorer and a deaf mute assistant, drawing pictures for an expedition in the Northwest Territories. In the third dream I was a woman traveling with another woman. We had driven a car to a parking lot in the mountains, parked at the foot of a trail at the base of a steep rock cliff, and further up the trail discovered a secret doorway into a cave filled with gold artifacts. Back in the LA apartment, when my girlfriend entered the room I began to tell her about the dreams, and as I described them to her, they continued happening. I was playing with the little plastic cars, then the explorer was standing in the back of the boat while the deaf mute and I were attempting to pull the boat up onto the shore of a large river or lake. The woman and I were deciding to grab all the gold we could carry and leave the cave, then the explorer fell off the back of the boat when it suddenly lurched forward, and my mother 32
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told me to move my race track out of her way. It seemed that the trail to the cave may have been located in the same place where the explorer had fallen in the water (much to the amusement of the mute and I). Then we couldn't find a way to open the door from inside the cave. Each of the dreams had missing gaps in them corresponding to the amount of time I spent in the other dreams. All this time I was describing the dreams to my girlfriend in a half-awake state of mind, so one can say that I was in four different "worlds" at more or less the same time, or at least in very rapid succession.
Learning Telekinesis (mind moving matter) Because I was so focused on metaphysics at that time, I felt I might actually have a chance of succeeding to do telekinesis. (Mind moving matter, also referred to as psychokinesis.) Like everything else I had achieved, I had no real way of knowing how to do it, but I was very heavily involved with the Seth books -- and the idea that anything can be accomplished if you truly believe you can accomplish it. (That's still the best advice I can give to anyone today.) I sat alone at the counter in the same Burbank restaurant where my friend and I had transported our awareness to that farm house, and psyched myself up to move a spoon balanced on the rim of a water glass. The idea was that I would hold my finger tips near the end of the spoon handle, concentrate on a "magnetic-like" force emanating from my fingers, and use that "magnetic-like" force to gently nudge the spoon handle downwards. If I could get the spoon to rock up and down a tiny bit, I could continue to apply a slight force during each downward motion and the growing momentum would eventually cause the spoon to fall off the glass. I tried that for about an hour with no success. But I was very determined. I had seen people on TV supposedly moving objects with their minds, some of it clearly documented as having actually occurred. There was one Russian woman, for example, who could make metal cylinders roll back and forth inside a clear plastic box. If 33
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that person could do it, anyone could. One just had to be very determined to succeed. I put my hands together as if in prayer, nearly touching but not quite, and tried to imagine a magnetic-like force between them. At first all I could feel was the heat radiating from each hand, but then by moving my hands slightly apart and back together again, concentrating on feeling a force between them, I could actually begin to feel a push and pull quite strongly. I had heard that every object in the universe has some sort of energy field around it, so when I placed my finger tips near the spoon handle again I concentrated on the idea that my fingers were radiating a force that opposed the force in the spoon. If you have ever placed two magnets together so they pushed against each other, that is the feeling I was trying to generate. I didn't want to move my hand up and down because that could create a "wind" that might move the spoon, so I moved my finger tips first over the spoon handle, then off to the side. I didn't want to "think" about what I was doing, because what I had read indicated that thoughts have to stop before such things are possible. So in my mind I thought of a "sound." Every time I wanted the force to increase as I moved my finger tips over the spoon handle, I imagined a sound like, "unnnn, unnnn, unnnn." Then I concentrated on being mentally aware of that sound without actually thinking it. There was also something else going on that I only recently remembered. As I was concentrating I could feel a "band of pressure" around my head, that sort of "expansive" feeling I mentioned in reference to my first out of body experience. I now recognize that particular sensation as a psychological indicator of a heightened state of awareness. I don't know if others also experience it, or something like it, but it is often present when I do such things. These days I strive to attain a state of concentration where I experience that sensation before I attempt anything of this nature. After two and a half hours of this, I finally noticed the spoon beginning to move in a way I could be sure wasn't a result of the air conditioning, my breath, or the pressure of my elbow resting on the counter top. I actually got the spoon to rock so much it eventually fell off the rim of the glass. I was ecstatic! But I was also very aware 34
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that the last thing I wanted to do was deceive myself that I had performed telekinesis if I actually hadn't. I continued practicing for a total of five full hours, knocking the spoon off dozens of times before I felt I knew what I was doing well enough to repeat it again in the future. For the next two months I used telekinesis to knock a spoon off a glass at least ten times a day just to make sure I wouldn't forget how to do it. The reactions from people in restaurants ranged everywhere from, "work of the devil," to, "Oh, that's no big deal. They teach that stuff at UCLA." (Of course, they have never taught such a thing.) Dozens, perhaps hundreds of people saw me do that little trick. The girlfriend used to get annoyed from the sound of the spoon falling onto the table at home. It wasn’t long before my situation with the girlfriend ended up derailing my metaphysical efforts. When my quest to find financing for Audio Animation failed we went through a nasty break up and I moved from LA back to my father's house in Salt Lake City. Life was such hell for a few weeks that I hadn't been practicing, and when I returned my first effort to do it again was in front of a good friend, who was also the most "chained to reason" person I've ever met. The (plastic) glass I was using had a bit of a flattened ridge at the top of the rim, which prevented the spoon from rocking freely. I was also in frazzles from the break up and moving everything I owned across country, so I couldn't concentrate well enough to do it. I tried again several times over the next few weeks but failed every time, and finally gave up trying. I haven't tried that particular experiment again in years, but telekinesis is definitely a reality. (See the Psychic Party Games section for a simple method anyone can use to perform telekinesis.)
Lucid Dreaming A lucid dream is one where you are fully aware, with your normal consciousness, of the fact you are dreaming. The out of body experience described earlier occurred while I was fully awake the 35
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entire time, but my first lucid dream was initiated from the state of awareness between waking and sleeping. I was in my early twenties and had been attempting to initiate a lucid dream every night for about three months. I had no real clue how to do this but felt the intent should be enough to make it happen. Finally one night as I was drifting off to sleep, doing my usual, "remember to have a lucid dream" mantra, I had fallen asleep but was close enough to wakefulness to recognize that phrase happening in my mind. I looked around me and realized I was indeed dreaming, yet I felt as normal as ever. I was standing on a dirt road near the top of a very gentle slope. All around me were fields of grain turning yellow in the bright sun. A monk in an orange robe was walking up the road toward me. He acted as if he knew me well and immediately told me, "Today's lesson is learning to deal with fear." He seemed irritated by my excited questions. "Do you know me? Don't you realize we're dreaming?" He looked me over carefully and said something like, "Oh, I see. You've brought your normal awareness along this time." He shrugged off my pestering questions and led me to a group of buildings where several, very large, open tanks were buried in the ground. They were filled with water, and in one tank the water was boiling fiercely. We walked along a wide wooden plank that stretched out over the boiling tank. The hot steam burned against the skin of my face when the breeze blew the vapors toward me. "You are here to learn how to deal with fear," he said. "Look into the tank." I looked and saw another monk swimming about, smiling and waving at me in a friendly way. "You feel the heat and your mind tells you that if you fall into the tank you will be boiled alive, but you also see that our friend is not harmed. You must overcome your rational fears and jump into the boiling water." I figured that since I was dreaming, nothing could hurt me, so I jumped in. The water was warm and comfortable. I looked up at the monk on the plank above me who was shaking his head in disappointment. The next thing I knew I was completely dry, walking with him on the dirt road again, back toward the spot at the 36
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top of the knoll where we had first met. I asked him what I did wrong. "You must be fully afraid, and yet go on," he said. "The problem was you were never afraid to begin with." I told him I knew this was a dream and nothing could hurt me, so what was the point of being afraid? As we reached the top of the low hill I noticed there were railroad tracks crossing the road there. He pointed out across the fields to a large diesel train rounding a curve in the track about half a mile away. "You must stand here on this track and allow the train to strike you with all it's great force. You must allow yourself to be fully afraid, but under no circumstances are you to jump out of the path of the train." He positioned me on the tracks facing the oncoming train, which was just a couple of blocks away now. I could feel the ground trembling slightly beneath my feet, and felt the warmth of the sun on my face and the gentle breeze moving my hair. This was so very real, but it was just a dream. I had to remind myself of that, and for a moment I was afraid it might not be a dream, that I would be smashed into a gooey spot on the front of the train if this wasn't a dream after all. I looked at the monk, who was eyeing me carefully, and clearly recognized that I don't usually stand in fields in the middle of nowhere with monks in orange robes after jumping into a tank of boiling water without being harmed. I was dreaming all right. The train blew it's ear piercing horn and the ground shook as the mass of steel approached the crossing. Everything seemed totally real and my heart was pounding. The train raced toward me at around 70 MPH, the weeds swirling in the wind on either side of the approaching engine. I could see grease marks on the yellow paint and saw the face of the frightened conductor just as the train reached the road, shaking the ground hard now. The horn roared, hurting my ears as I steadied myself for the impact -- two seconds, one second Nothing. The massive train was half an inch from my nose when it froze as still as a photograph. 37
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"What a rush!" I shouted to the monk next to me. He just shook his head as he held his chin, looking disappointed. "You were not truly afraid," he said. "We will have to take this up again some other time." He turned and began walking away. I followed after him like an excited puppy. "But I was afraid! What did I do wrong? When will we do this again?" "In about three years," he said almost half consciously. "Three years!" I whined. "This was great! Let's do it again tomorrow night!" But the scene before me began to lose it's cohesiveness and blurred into the darkness of my room as I awakened. I waited anxiously for those three years to pass, but much to my disappointment a similar lucid dream never occurred.
Another OOBE I suppose it's worth mentioning another related experience that happened at roughly the same time in my life. This was attempting to have an out of body experience where I would project my awareness to a physical location nearby, a place I could return to in order to verify I had actually been there. I had selected a local, all night restaurant I went to often. I thought that if I could get out of body I could go there, see which waitresses were working and who the customers were, then after returning to my body I'd drive over and check for verification. On this particular evening I had been talking about astral projection with a friend, and we had decided to both try to go there at the same time. I had been attempting to do something like this for a couple of months every night as I went to bed. I suppose the discussion with my friend that night made a difference, because as I was on the verge of falling asleep I suddenly felt myself "swoosh" up out of my body, as if I had been pulled up by a giant rubber band. I felt myself go right through the ceiling, through the attic space and then stop just above the trees over the house. I was exhilarated. The view was incredible and I had that wonderful weightless feeling. I didn't want to "wake up" suddenly so I immediately turned my attention to meeting my friend at the 38
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restaurant. I didn't know how to "move" though. So I thought about how I get there when driving, and suddenly I was floating over an intersection in the dark, about half a mile from my destination. Next I thought about the parking lot at the restaurant and was there after a brief moment of disorientation. I was floating in front of the glass door to the building, about two feet off the ground. I tried to push the door open but my hand went through it. Someone walked out and I used that opportunity to "swoosh" myself inside. (I didn’t realize that if my hand could go through the door, so could I.) I was now in front of the cash register, still about two feet off the ground. I willed myself to turn and look at the clock I knew was on the wall to my left, but I couldn't move. I couldn't rotate my field of vision to see who was at the counter or who was working. I became very frustrated and angry at the whole predicament because all I had to do is see who was there and I'd have evidence I could investigate. But I was stuck like a stick in the mud in front of the bottom part of a sign that read, "Please wait to be seated." My anger got the best of me and I suddenly woke up, my body again leaping to a sitting position on the bed as I felt that hard slam back into it. (At least this time the body I returned to was warm as usual.)
Déjà vu Déjà vu is a feeling, often a certainty, that we have experienced a presently occurring event on some previous occasion. It feels as if one knows exactly what is going to happen next, exactly what a particular person is going to say and what the reaction will be. It's like watching a 3-dimensional scene in a movie that you've already seen. It happens to a lot of us at one time or another. My most vivid encounter with this type of experience took place on two separate, but mysteriously connected occasions. Part one occurred when I was in my early twenties. A good friend of mine, Steve, brought his soon to be wife, and I brought a girlfriend, on a camping trip to a large reservoir in the Uinta mountains, a couple hundred miles east of Salt Lake City. The 39
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unusual occurrence began when we stopped at a lookout point to take in the view. We had driven there in my 1968 GTO which was only a few years old at the time (I bought it back after it had been repossessed). While at the lookout point we had all gotten out of the car and walked around, then ended up sitting in the car again, but without respect to where we had been sitting while driving. I was in the front passenger seat, my friend Steve was in the driver's seat, and the two girls had ended up in back. We were just sitting there talking when Steve threw a small bit of wadded up paper out on the ground (an empty cigarette pack, I think.) I politely told him he shouldn't litter, particularly in such a nice, natural environment like that, and suddenly his face went pale. He started raving about how all this had happened before, about the girls being in the back seat and us being in the seats where we were. He was adamant about it. I mean he made such a big deal about it half an hour passed before he'd let it go so we could be on our way again. None of the rest of us could detect anything unusual. It was perhaps two years later when all of this became really weird again. Steve and I had gone out to the desert west of Salt Lake with a girl I was just getting to know. We had driven most of the night and had stopped at a watering hole for sheep called Simpson Springs, on the edge of the Dougway Proving Grounds, a restricted military area containing many square miles of pretty much nothing but empty desert. We had all taken a small amount of LSD earlier, which was wearing off as the sun began to rise. Out of the desert we heard a loud, reverberating "boom" followed by a deep rumble. We all looked at each other to make sure we had actually heard it. Before we could say much about it we again heard the same booming sound, and all of us got out of the car (my GTO). Off to the north I saw a white puff of smoke burst from the desert floor. I pointed it out just as another boom shook the air. Three dark spots were lined up perfectly beneath the disappearing mist of smoke. Suddenly another puff of white smoke appeared at the end of the line of spots, making four dark spots now, and a moment later another boom rolled over us. We had feared something 40
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supernatural, but realized the army was firing artillery shells over the mountain range into the test area. We relaxed and went back to the car. I was sitting in the passenger seat, Steve was in my driver's seat, and the girl had climbed into the back. Steve wadded up an empty cigarette pack and tossed it out the open door onto the ground -- and suddenly I knew all this had happened before. It was as if I were watching a replay of a scene from another dimension of reality, but for the life of me I couldn't remember when it had happened. The other two blew off my amazement as insignificant, but I became obsessed with wanting to know when it had happened before. I just wouldn't let the subject drop. Finally I made the others listen to my explanation of the details, the seating positions, the liter being thrown out, and finally Steve clicked on the event in the Uinta mountains when it had been him doing the freaking out. It wasn't until that moment that I remembered the earlier event. When we realized Steve had reacted so strongly to the first event without any prior experience involved, and this time it was me freaking out, all of us were quite awed by this mystery we call life.
Waking Visions About ten years ago I awoke from a dream where the image of an “anti-gravity” (inertial propulsion) machine was displayed before me. It occurred after I had spent about a week seriously pondering how centrifugal force might be used to propel a spacecraft. The image consisted of a series of golden balls moving in a beautifully complex circular motion. I didn’t pay much attention to the image until I had gotten out of bed and walked across the room and found the image was still there. It remained for several minutes.
Reincarnation and "Energy Bolts" Nearly all of the previous experiences happened to me many years ago, but this next story is quite recent. 41
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On January 3, 2001, I met a woman, Cheryl (not her real name) in a coffee shop and she became my wife six weeks later. Our romance was fairly typical other than our habit of having conversations of such intensity they lasted hours and left us both exhausted. I had been a confirmed bachelor all my life and would have stayed that way if "the gods" had not interfered. One night about three weeks after we met we were laying next to each other in bed, both of us on our left sides, her in front of me. As we were about to fall asleep I noticed seeing "pre-dream" images and began describing them to her. I perceived myself standing inside a bare, white room near a window opening without glass. The walls were about two-feet thick and I had the impression I was in some sort of prison on a hill overlooking a valley. Two men approached and stood outside the window opening, looking in. One was a tall man wearing an eighteenth century military uniform including a tall red hat. "It's French or Spanish," I told Cheryl. "French," she said, speaking with a sense of authority. "The other man," I continued, "is short, with curly, brown hair." The short man sneered at me, as if he were proud to have finally gotten me into his trap. Cheryl said she was seeing the same image and repeated that the men were French. I began wondering if there might be some reincarnational aspect to all this, and mentioned I had developed an impression over the years that I might have been a blond girl in France at about this time. The "prison" image faded as I told Cheryl about two, very brief scenes from what might have been a life experienced then. In one I am the blond girl, about eighteen, running joyfully free on the top of a high hill overlooking a small ocean bay dotted with white houses near the shoreline. The other scene is that of a young French gentleman strutting down a city sidewalk along a cobblestone street, carrying a black cane with a round, silver handle. For some reason I felt that the young man had been responsible for my death as the blond woman in that life. "The cane has a gold handle," Cheryl said. I was laying on my left side, and suddenly the air a few feet above me became "energized" with bluish light and a bolt of incredible, lightning-like energy shot down into my right side, out 42
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through my stomach, sideways into Cheryl's back and out through her stomach, disappearing about two-feet in front of her. Both of us had our eyes closed and we both saw and felt that bolt of energy go through us. Both of us described it as being about two-inches in diameter and described it as taking the same path. At the moment the "lightning bolt" went through me I had a very clear realization that scared the wits out of me. Cheryl had been the man in that other life who was responsible for my death as the blond woman. I recoiled away from her with a sense of utter revulsion. But Cheryl immediately said she had not been the man with the cane -- that I had been him. She knew with absolute clarity that she had been married to me then. Confusion overwhelmed me. We talked about it that night and again over the next few weeks. In the course of our conversations we seemed to piece together a fairly detailed story of a life together in France during the mid-to-late seventeen-hundreds, much of which I'm not sure I really believe, in spite of coming up with parts of the story myself. Cheryl insists I was a Marquis, part of the royal aristocracy, young, handsome, arrogant (figures) wealthy and politically powerful. She was younger than me, dark hair and eyes, beautiful -the spoiled daughter of a wealthy businessman. To give you an idea of how we came up with that information I will explain what occurred when I asked if she remembered how we had met in that life. I had no idea how we had met when I asked her the question, but as soon as I asked it I saw a mental image of a beautiful, dark-haired young woman wearing a wet dress, walking out of a stream or lake. She responded to my question by saying we met by a river where she used to go to look at her horse. She said I had given her the horse as a result of our first "wager," and that wagers were involved the first time we met and were a continual part of our relationship. I asked her what the first wager was, and she told me it was a deal where I would buy the horse for her if she would strip off her outer garments, walk out into the river up to her neck in only her thin under-dress, and let me have a good look at her -- but no touching, of course. We both knew the horse was black, and she 43
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asked me if I knew it's name. "Something like Silver Shadow," I said. She said it's name was Moonlight. Cheryl's recollection of such details is much better than mine, but you can see how we both contributed to putting pieces together by asking the other for "verification." In this way we assembled a story that seems to satisfy us as to what happened in that life, though I don't have the interest at this point to search out objective verification. It seems the two of us were indulgent hedonists, and trying to keep her materially satisfied over the course of our marriage led me to abuse my political position. The scene we were observing before the energy bolt went through us, of the French soldier and the short aristocrat, was at a prison just before I was executed by my political enemies. The blond girl (perhaps myself as a "counterpart" in that life) appears to have been a lower class mistress I had gotten pregnant. I had promised the world to her, but when the "wife" found out the girl was pregnant she used her clout to send the girl back to England, where she may have taken her own life. Or so goes the story as best as we can piece it together. As far as I can tell at this point it could all be nonsense. There is one more point involving Cheryl I think I should include here. It has to do with what I call "interference from the gods" for lack of a better explanation. We were in the same restaurant where we had met, and the moment I asked Cheryl to marry me I "heard a voice" say, "Now everything will begin." That startled the heck out of me because I had never "heard voices" like that before. At the same moment Cheryl felt "an impression from beyond herself" telling her that everything was fine. Now when I say I "heard a voice" I don't mean I heard a voice in the way one normally does. It was "an impression that conveys the sense of having heard a voice." I guess you could say it was as much like actually hearing a voice as seeing images in a dream are like seeing things in real life. I was aware that the "voice" was male and not my thought, but it didn't come from the room around me. Cheryl also pointed out something later which jogged my memory -- a pyramid of grey energy, but missing the top, had 44
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settled around us just as we perceived our impression of voices. I have no explanation for any of this. But don't think you are being left out of any wonderfully romantic, cosmic influences if your relationships don't have all these metaphysical connections. Our relationship was hell. We ran off and got married after six weeks, then split up two weeks later, and broke up every two or three weeks after that for six months. Every time we would break up it seemed "the gods" would push us back together again. She lived fifty miles away so when someone "stole" her car she had to live with me so she could get to work, and one time the spark plug blew out of her next car while it was parked in my driveway. She stayed with me during the several days it took me to fix it. This sort of thing happened so many times we finally decided to just stick it out a while. We managed to live together consistently for about five months, until Valentines Day, 2002. We filed for divorce and can't even speak to each other these days, though I still see her occasionally in the restaurant where I hang out. All this "cosmic" stuff is interesting, but that doesn't mean it's always fun. In this chapter I have described my most significant metaphysical experiences, but far more than this is possible. I highly recommend reviewing the “mini encyclopedia” of metaphysical phenomena in the appendix in order to learn about the many amazing phenomena that have been reported throughout history. Much of this book will attempt to explain how such things are possible, and how to experience some of it yourself.
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Chapter Two:
Koda's Psychic Window Technique visual telepathy and the perception of “reincarnational selves” If you have any doubts regarding the reality of psychic perception, the Psychic Window Technique (visual telepathy exercise) will eliminate them once and for all. This simple exercise produces visual "distortions" that happen to both participants at the same time, and with the same level of constantly varying intensity. These visual changes are subjective perceptions, a form of personal, psychological experience which others are not capable of perceiving by using the physical senses alone. Yet this exercise enables you to describe the subjective experience of another individual (alterations in their visual perception) simply by describing your own experience while performing the technique. This is proof of psychic perception, and essentially anyone can achieve convincing results in just minutes. This sharing of subjective experience is not limited to describing alterations in the visual perception of another individual. It is also possible to describe other subjective perceptions, such as emotional sensations, mental images, and with sufficient practice, 46
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even thoughts. And the visual changes are not always "distorted." At times the image of the person you are looking at can be replaced with the clear perception of an entirely different individual, quite possibly a previous incarnation of that person. The exercise is extremely easy to perform. Two people sit a comfortable distance apart (two or three feet) facing each other. Each person looks at one of the other person's eyes, then attempts to expand the area of clear perception to include all of the other person's face. That is essentially all one needs to do in order to cause the effects to happen. (More specific instructions are provided later in this chapter.) Before performing this exercise it is useful to make some observations about the nature of our physical visual perception. Take a moment to glance around the room and notice that you can see everything in the room quite clearly. Please do this now. Next I would like you to look at any specific word near the top of this page, then without taking your eyes off that word, attempt to read what the third to last word on this page is. Please do this now. You can't tell what that word is without looking directly at it. Your visual perception, while looking at something a comfortable reading distance away, can only focus clearly on an area just over one-inch across. When looking across the room, depending on how large the room is, the area of clear visual perception may only be about one-foot across. When you looked around the room a moment ago and noted that you could see everything quite clearly, you actually couldn't do that. Our visual perception operates by relying on subconscious memories of our past experience. Our subconscious mind recognizes familiar shapes and objects and manufactures the impression of clear perception, when in fact we do not see most of our environment clearly at all. The Psychic Window technique focuses upon what we actually see, rather than what we think we are supposed to see, and in doing so it provides a glimpse at the "reality behind reality." 47
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Other chapters in this book describe reality as an "illusion" or projection of consciousness, and while performing this exercise you confront perceptions that push the apparent truth of those statements right in your face. It can be a frightening experience for some people, but there is no need to be afraid. The physical world will still be the same place it has always been, and these psychic perceptions have always been occurring in the past but have simply been ignored. Telepathy is as real as your arm, as this book. It is simply an aspect of reality that most people are unfamiliar with, in the same way that we don't notice the radio waves which constantly surround us. The phenomena is there, we simply aren't tuned into it on a conscious level. So don't fear your perceptions when you first experience the visual alterations this technique brings to your attention. You can instantly stop these altered perceptions simply by looking away or blinking your eyes. Everything will go right back to normal, and even if you were just intensely startled you might find yourself wondering if you actually saw what you think you did. This isn't something to be frightened of. It's actually quite exciting to personally experience something of a psychic nature. So there you are staring at the eye of another person and attempting to see their entire face as clearly as you see their eye. If you are doing this properly all of your attention will be focused upon your visual perception. Concentrating upon what you see will automatically stop, or dramatically diminish, the thoughts you are aware of. It is important not to be distracted by your thoughts, but if most people deliberately attempt to stop thinking they instead focus nearly all of their attention upon thinking about not thinking. It is for this reason that the emphasis should be concentrated upon what you are seeing. I define telepathic awareness as a merger of conscious perception. In order for your awareness to merge with that of another then, the differences between your perceptions and theirs should be reduced as much as possible. Theoretically, if there is no difference between your subjective perception and that of another you would experience being the same being. This has in fact happened to me on one occasion, as described in the first chapter, 48
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where a friend and I experienced looking at a blond girl in a farm house from an identical point of view, sharing every thought and perception for a few seconds. This is by no means a common experience while performing this exercise. It does, however, support the idea of a merger of consciousness being the basis of telepathic perception. The structure of this exercise helps to reduce the perceptual differences between yourself and the person you are working with. Both individuals perceive an eye clearly and a face that is mostly blurred. Both are involved in visual concentration, attempting to pull blurry, undifferentiated information into a recognizable image. It sometimes helps to sit in exactly the same "non-defensive" position, but it is more important that both participants be comfortable and unconcerned with body distractions. Sitting in a non-defensive position means not folding your arms, crossing your legs or otherwise sitting in a way that "shields" you from direct emotional contact with your partner. You'll get a better idea of the sense of merging awareness when the visual changes begin to happen. These alterations in perception can occur almost immediately or could take as long as two or three minutes to begin, depending upon how well each person concentrates fully upon their visual perception. Those individuals with a very analytical approach to life often have some difficulty stopping their thoughts. They actively analyze the experience while it happens, which slows it from happening. For those individuals I recommend simply letting the experience happen, then analyze it later. The experience can be analyzed to your hearts content once you are able to make it happen in the first place. Other individuals experience dramatic changes within a few seconds. These are people, mostly women, who approach life in an intuitive way. They are more focused upon their feelings than their thoughts, and often make "gut level" decisions rather than relying heavily upon reason. Surprisingly, those people with such excellent, natural psychic potential are often the most fearful of the experience. They are not so readily able to fall back on rationalizations and so fear losing their hold on reality. 49
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It is always disappointing to me to encounter someone with great natural ability who refuses to continue the exercise due to their fear of the unknown. One woman told me of having numerous paranormal experiences she couldn't understand, and I tried to explain how this exercise would help provide a rational framework for such experience. Within seconds of beginning the exercise she disappeared right before my eyes. I was thrilled to have discovered someone with such tremendous psychic potential, but since I had also disappeared in front of her she became so terrified that from that moment on she made deliberate efforts to avoid me. The point here is simply to remember that all this is just another aspect of the world we live in. As such there is nothing to fear, and much to gain from learning more. There are three main categories regarding the type of visual alterations which result from applying this technique. They are: blurs; hallucinations; and the perception of what appear to be other people. The blurry effects are the first thing you will encounter. Of course, everything outside of the limited area of clear visual perception will initially be somewhat blurred, but you will have no trouble recognizing the face of your friend. After a moment, however, parts of the face may become darker while others may become brighter. There is a sort of slow motion in the way these areas change. Individual parts of the face, say an eyebrow or cheekbone, may become suddenly clear. The entire face seems to change, except for the eye you are looking at, which is to remain in clear focus at all times. You are trying to expand that area to include the entire face, the object being to see the face as clearly as you possibly can -- but without taking your eye off the eye of your partner. The intensity of the blurred image will vary over time, with certain areas of the image becoming quite clearly perceived, but at the same time different. For example, the other eye may stand out sharply for a moment and be surrounded by dark shadows, while the cheekbone seems higher or lower than normal. It is of critical importance to point out when these changes occur, and how intense they are relative to other changes. This is how you establish that 50
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"something" is connecting your individual subjective experiences. Without this psychic connection the changes would not happen to both of you at the same time and with the same degree of intensity. Hallucinations occur because the subconscious mind is still trying to construct a coherent image from the limited visual data it is receiving. Subconsciously your brain might detect a high forehead, then a large nose and perhaps a long chin, then try to assemble all these elements into a coherent, albeit frightening image, perhaps quite monstrous. Because this image is manufactured by your subconscious it can be perceived as clearly, say, as a chair appears when you glance around the room. Such a perception can scare the daylights out of you. But it is nothing but an image generated by your subconscious mind. It's totally harmless. Blink a few times or glance to the side and it instantly goes away. I encountered my first full blown, hideous, hallucinatory image early in my experimenting. A young girl I was doing the "eye thing" with suddenly turned into a blurry but frightening monster. She broke off our stare and told me I had also appeared in a monstrous form to her. Both of us were equally terrified by the perception. I have since learned that bit about subconscious image construction, and have also realized that if I am perceiving such a hallucination, so is the person I am working with. Telepathy involves a merger of conscious perception, so if the effect is working well enough to produce a hallucination, a similarly unpleasant image, and the same unpleasant emotional reaction, will be experienced by both people involved. Here we find even more concrete evidence that this is a form of telepathy. Any strongly felt emotion experienced by one person while performing this exercise will also be experienced by the other. If you feel an unusually strong emotion, ask the other person if they felt the same thing. If your attention was fully focused upon the other person when the emotion occurs, you can be fairly certain they also felt it. You may sense the emotion originating in the body of the other person, in which case it is quite likely that the other person originated the thought which caused the emotional response. You 51
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might recognize the emotion within your own body as a feeling you initiated, or you can sense the emotion in the space between you both, meaning each of you originated the same feeling together. (These are general guidelines and may not always indicate who initiated a perceived emotion.) In all of these situations both people are aware of the same emotion occurring. At this point in your experience you have to be very aware of what I call "mental etiquette." Personal, subjective ideas become objectively observed, and one needs to be especially courteous about what you allow your own attention to focus upon. For example, because this exercise is an intimate activity, it is very common for sexual interest to be perceived. This doesn't necessarily mean the other person is sexually interested in you, but if the idea of sexual interest enters the arena it is felt by both participants in most cases. It's a very touchy issue and needs to be handled gracefully when dealing with strangers or others with whom you do not have an existing, intimate relationship. It is possible to "probe" the other person in an effort to determine if they are sexually interested in you. This is done simply by concentrating on your sexual interest in the other person. Because both of you have your attention so clearly focused on each other, what one feels can easily be felt by the other. The idea of sex will occur "out of the blue" to the other person in this case, and the way they react to that idea will be perceivable. The feeling will either grow stronger, a sense of distraction will occur as the person tries to "change the subject," or the other will break off the link because they find it unpleasant subconsciously. At first this might seem like a fine tool for those involved in the dating scene, since you can find out what you want to know without having to be up front about it. Unfortunately, it is very easy to misinterpret the sensations, which can get you in a lot of trouble. And hitting a stranger with a sex vibe can turn them instantly into someone who will make it clear they have no interest in any sort of intimacy with you, including continuing this exercise. Another downside, if you happen to be a person who equates intimacy solely with sex, is that any attempt to do this very intimate exercise with someone will almost always result in sexuality being 52
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brought into the situation. For example, a straight guy doing this purely harmless experiment in psychic perception with a good buddy, might find himself uncomfortably aware of sexual ideas, which might cause your friend to think you were gay or something. A gay man might give a straight woman the wrong impression, etc. Anyway you look at it, if you are not very careful to avoid probing someone in an inappropriate way, they will walk away from the encounter with a very clear indication of your character. They may not understand that they picked up the information psychically, but they will none the less be certain of their opinion of you. The third type of visual perception produced with this technique is the perception of other people. The experience always starts with the blurry effects which can then intensify into recognizable images. If you begin to perceive unpleasant hallucinations, remember you can stop that by blinking your eyes to regain a clear focus, or by simply looking away for a moment. At some point, however, intense images become rather clear perceptions of entirely different people. This sort of perception is, essentially, within anyone's ability to experience. You will know, without a doubt, when you perceive this sort of image. It feels the same way you would feel if you were talking to one person only to have someone entirely different instantly take their place. It feels like you are looking at an entirely different person, and it's the feeling, much more than the image, that will blow you away. It almost seems like you could carry on a conversation with the new "person" before you. Whether or not an image like this is a previous incarnation of the person you sat down with, or just another creation of your subconscious mind, is something I haven't yet been able to determine. All I know is what it feels like to perceive such an image, and believe me, it feels like a real person is there, someone entirely different from who you sat down with. These other images can be of a different gender, some have beards or hats or other such characteristics. Such images are quite a mind blowing thing to experience, and again, it is well within the ability of virtually anyone to achieve these perceptions using this technique. 53
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Biofeedback Testing Skin capacitance (electro-dermal response) changes when emotions occur. It is one of the variables monitored by lie detection machines. If both participants performing this exercise actually experience emotional reactions at the same time, and with the same intensity, this can be proven by monitoring the electro-dermal response curves of both participants. The curves should show strong correlations while the subjects are performing the exercise. Years ago I had an opportunity to test this theory using biofeedback equipment, though in this instance only one monitoring device was available. A subject was connected to the equipment via electrodes attached to her skin. The output of the electrodes was displayed on a computer monitor as a constantly changing graph with peaks and valleys. I sat across from the subject, with no way for me to see the monitor, and successfully described the timing and relative height of these response curves. I did this simply by noting when I personally experienced an emotional sensation and how intense that sensation was relative to other such sensations. In this case my substantial experience using the Psychic Window technique enabled me to be successful, but it should be even easier to prove the correlations in emotional experience by employing two monitoring devices. The subjects would require very limited experience with the technique and the results would not be subject to the discrepancies of verbal description. The resulting graphs could be compared directly.
Detailed Instructions NOTE: It helps to describe the nature of normal visual perception, as explained earlier, before performing this exercise with someone who is entirely unfamiliar with it. Remember to blink your eyes only when they need wetting, but not in order to regain a normal visual focus. If you wish to stop any perception from progressing you can do so by blinking your eyes or looking away for a moment. Relax. No effort beyond simple concentration is required. 54
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Part One: Initiating Visual Telepathy 1) The two participants should sit a comfortable distance apart (two or three feet) facing each other. Sit in a "non-defensive" manner, without folding your arms or crossing your legs. 2) Focus your visual attention upon one of the other person's eyes. I have found it more effective to have "all the action" on one side. That is, if you are looking at the other person's right eye, they should look at your left eye, or vice versa. This would mean the attention would be on your left (or right) rather than criss-cross from left to right. All the action happens on one side. 3) Attempt to expand the area of clear perception to include all of the other person's face. Always seek to perceive the clearest image possible. 4) Both participants should describe any alterations in their visual perception. This means pointing out when the visual changes occur and how intense they are relative to other changes. If possible, describe the nature of the changes you see; variations in blurry effects or increased detail, light or dark areas, etc.
Part Two: Merging Emotional Experience Basically, emotional experience naturally merges while performing the above instructions. You will first notice this when one person or the other reacts emotionally to strong changes in their visual perception. Any time you feel an emotion stand out, check with the other person to see if they felt something similar at the same time. You can do this by asking if they had just felt an emotion similar to what you experienced. Within ten minutes of first beginning this exercise you should have plenty of evidence supporting simultaneous emotional experience. It is also possible to "communicate emotions" by having one person deliberately experience a predetermined emotion while the other simply remains open to any emotional experience that may occur. Remember to continue maintaining eye contact. The "receiver" should not venture a guess as to what emotion the other is 55
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feeling until he or she actually experiences a particular emotion quite strongly. A variation of this part of the exercise is to concentrate upon a physical sensation rather than an emotion. You can tighten up your toes and concentrate on that physical sensation, for example, while the other person mentally scans their own body, or yours, to determine which sensation you are concentrating upon. It is not necessary to produce a sensation deliberately, as you can simply concentrate upon any sensation already available, such as your feet upon the floor, arm upon a table, etc.
Part Three: Perception of "Other People" No deliberate effort beyond the basic exercise is required to perceive images of "other people." They become perceivable simply by concentrating upon seeing the clearest image possible. Again, it is the feeling of being with an entirely different person which makes these perceptions so startling. Whether or not you are perceiving a previous incarnation of the other person is not something I can objectively verify at this time, but it sure feels like that may be the case. It is as if we normally perceive only one of dozens of people who are superimposed together, that this exercise seems to allow us to tune into these other people, who stare right back at us but can't seem to talk. All I can suggest is that you do the exercise, perceive such images, and draw your own conclusions.
Other Telepathy Exercises Communicating Emotionally Charged Mental Images Psychic perception operates in a manner that is quite alien to the word symbolism of conscious thought. Most psychic perception comes in the form of an "intuitive impression" which must be broken down into words, feelings or images in order to be consciously understood. For this reason, emotion is the easiest 56
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subjective experience to communicate on a conscious telepathic level, followed by images and then words. The combination of emotion and mental imagery is "relatively" easy for the conscious mind to perceive telepathically. It is much easier than perceiving word symbolism, for example, but still requires a capacity for perceiving subtle mental impressions. Once you have experienced a fair degree of success with the preceding exercises you will be ready to move on to communicating mental images. You can do this with you eyes closed. You can even achieve results with the other person being in a different room, or across the world while in contact by phone or via text on the Internet. It can help if the sender concentrates upon images associated with a strongly felt emotional experience in the past. The emotion is genuine in this case and can be remembered rather than imagined, which enables greater ease in concentration. The receiver simply clears all distractions from his or her mind and describes any visual impressions that occur, while focusing complete attention upon the sender. For example, a woman I once did this exercise with remembered feeling free and happy while riding down a winding canyon road on the back of a motorcycle. The experience stood out in her life as a special moment when everything was wonderful and fun. I concentrated my attention on the woman and got the feeling of moving from side to side, being happy, wind in my hair, and the image of a winding road came to mind. So I guessed that she was thinking about driving a car along a winding road with the top down. Sometimes you will get the impression of large areas of different colors. The top of your mental image may be all blue in this case, which would indicate an outdoor image on a clear day. If the blue is lower in the image it may be an ocean or a lake. A rectangular blotch may indicate a door or window. There may be a dark spot somewhere that feels like a house or trees, and if you are patient you should be able to separate which of the two it might be. It's not so much that you actually see an image, but the broad details will be received in vague impressions that are half felt and half seen. 57
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Again, you may not necessarily see an image, but will experience an impression or feeling that implies an image. The image itself is not usually communicated directly, at least not in the beginning of your practice. It is the emotion (intuition) associated with the image which produces the impression you later translate into particular visual details.
Communicating Specific Information From the preceding information it should be obvious that "mind reading" or actually perceiving the words that go through someone else's mind is not the way telepathy usually works (though on rare occasions I have experienced this). The information almost always arrives as an impression which must then be translated into words. I will try to clarify what this impression is like by asking you to pay close attention to what you experience, right now . . . Ready? ... How do you feel about cats? If you were quick enough you may have caught yourself pausing briefly while all your past experience regarding cats was sorted by your subconscious mind before being presented to your awareness in a form that could be expressed in words. You experienced an overall "impression" of how you feel about cats. That impression or feeling contains a great deal of information which could easily require several minutes of dialogue to express verbally. I refer to this type of impression as an "intuitive package." Before you begin to speak a sentence you perceive an intuitive package which contains all the information you wish to express. You begin speaking in spite of not knowing which words you will use to complete that sentence. You may not know which words you will use, but you are very aware of the meaning you expect to convey. It is that meaning, that intuitive package, which is perceived during telepathic communication. It must be translated in 58
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order to be expressed, but this is something you do every time you speak. If you wish to communicate specific information telepathically, be sure to remember the basic nature of telepathy. Emotions are easiest to communicate, followed by images and then words. ESP cards (Zener cards) contain images which can easily be associated with different emotional states. A star shape "feels" different than wavy lines, for example. This emotional component enables better results to be obtained when attempting to communicate the specific card via telepathy. Numbers or letters of the alphabet, on the other hand, have far less emotional association and are much more difficult to communicate.
Visual Changes as Cues When attempting to communicate something specific, it sometimes helps to maintain eye contact and look for changes in your visual perception. These changes occur as subjective experience begins to merge, so it stands to reason that when two people are thinking the same thing the visual changes would happen. Theoretically, if the sender is concentrating upon a particular number while the receiver slowly counts through a series of numbers, the changes would happen when the correct number is reached. This is true only if there are no other distractions separating the subjective experience of the two participants. As mentioned, letters and numbers have very little emotional energy associated with them and as such are more difficult to communicate. You should attempt to communicate emotionally charged information if possible, particularly in the beginning. You might try selecting among mental images of people known to both participants as the target, since there is generally some degree of emotion connected with the way we feel about particular individuals. Colors are somewhat easier to communicate than purely analytical data. If you limit the choices to a specific set of colors, you can watch for the visual changes to occur while one person concentrates on a given color and the other scans mentally and 59
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emotionally through the choices. Suggested colors are: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white and black. It helps if both people discuss how they feel about each color prior to experimenting. Another experiment involves regular playing cards. If you first guess the suit, then if it is a high (Jack - Ace) mid (6 -10) or low (2 –5) numbered card, then the actual card itself, it is much easier than trying to guess the exact card right off the bat. Using this method I once correctly guessed four cards in a row. The greatest difficulty in communicating specific information can result from the sender not actually concentrating upon the target. It is quite natural for someone to choose a specific color to "send" to the other person, then drift off to other thoughts. The target must be concentrated upon at all times while being the sender. I should also point out that whenever someone stares at a particular, stationary object for an extended period, visual perception will begin to distort. Doing this exercise in a mirror will also produce similar, though generally less intense changes in the perceived image. When performing the exercise alone no telepathy is involved, since telepathy occurs only when more than one individual experiences similar perceptions at the same moment. You can do this visual exercise while looking at a photograph of a friend in order to “send a message” to that person, but in this case the photo only serves as a way to focus your attention on that person and results may be uncertain. The next chapter analyzes physical reality in an attempt to explain why various forms of psychic perception are possible.
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Chapter Three:
Analyzing Reality In this chapter the objective is to compare what we know about metaphysical phenomena to what we have been lead to believe by science, religion and our own common sense. Since phenomena like telepathy, which you have hopefully experienced by now, are a reality, then popular concepts regarding the nature of existence are in some respects in error. If our consciousness is solely a result of brain function then we should be forever locked inside the confines of our heads, yet phenomena such as remote viewing and out of body experience disprove that idea. If time is a linear series of consecutive moments, as it normally appears to be, then déjà vu and precognition would be unlikely to occur, yet they do. Religion tells us that after death we live in another world called heaven, yet there would be no place for heaven to exist if the physical universe occupies all the space there is. If reality operates differently than we have been lead to believe, then perhaps we can learn more about it by carefully analyzing the fundamental concepts we have taken for granted up till now. What is the true nature of time, space and matter? 61
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The Theory of No Physical Physical Universe Interpretations of the truth, as far as science is concerned, change as new evidence is acquired. Albert Einstein's theory of relativity "disproved" Newton's description of a mechanical universe, yet Newton's laws still apply within the context of objects moving at velocities significantly slower than the speed of light. Any new description of the universe we might come up with to explain metaphysical phenomena will likewise go beyond current scientific reasoning, but at the same time what is known to be true will remain true, within the context where such truths are observable. Both Einstein and Newton describe the same reality, but from different perspectives. One (simplified) way of looking at this is that Newton deals with effects that are observable from a stationary position, whereas relativity looks at effects involving velocities near the speed of light. Reality doesn't change, but when it is looked at from a different point of view, that same reality appears to behave differently. Consider a very simple observation anyone can make. If you go outside and watch the sky, it is obvious that the Earth is in the center of the universe with the Sun, Moon, stars and planets all revolving around the Earth once per day. That is an easily verifiable observation. It is also completely inaccurate. If we change our perspective, so that we can imagine the motion of the planets from a point of view a few million miles from the Sun, we then see that the Sun is the center around which the planets revolve. Observable evidence is relative to the point of view of the observer. The truth, on the other hand, remains the same regardless of perspective. When we go outside and watch the sky with the new information in mind, our observations are not in conflict. It still appears that the planets circle the Earth, but we are able to recognize that this same observation would also be apparent if the Earth were spinning at one revolution per day. Physical science operates on some basic premises which might turn out to be as "incorrect" as the idea that the Sun circles the 62
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Earth. The most basic of these is that physical matter occupies both time and space. From our point of view as physical creatures, the reality of time, space and matter seems very obvious. In order for the above to be true, we must first assume that time exists, one moment following another, the past leading to the unknown future. In the same way, we must assume that space exists, a physical area containing dimensions of height, width and depth. We must also assume that objects are made of matter, the matter being reduced to pure energy from the point of view of sub-atomic particle physics, but from the perspective of our physical bodies, matter is real and solid and occupies physical space. What we have just listed is not a series of facts, but of assumptions. We can refer to this point of view where everything seems solid as the "physical" world. It's the same sort of perspective we encounter when we observe the Sun circling the Earth. Please consider the event I described where my friend suddenly went bananas because he was sure he was experiencing déjà vu (the situation where several of us had changed seating arrangements in my car). Later it was me weirding-out believing it had all happened before. In my experience, a similar event had indeed occurred. But how do you explain my friend's reaction on that first occasion? This is rather clear evidence that from some other perspective, time is not a series of moments leading from past to future. Consider the concept of reincarnation, which more people in this world believe in than those who do not. Science doesn't believe or disbelieve, because when it comes to anything they can't neatly explain, science simply avoids asking the question. Reincarnation could still exist if time were a series of consecutive moments, but how do you explain a person alive now describing events that happened hundreds of years ago when there is no possibility of the information being transmitted genetically? On a more personal level, many of you using the Psychic Window Technique (visual telepathy exercise) will see images of other people superimposed over the face of the person you are looking at. While it is true that some of the images seen while using the technique are simply hallucinatory, many of those images are 63
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very clearly human. They not only look like real people, but while observing these images you experience the "presence" of these individuals. It is as if you are actually looking at someone other than who you are doing the exercise with. Seth once made an interesting comment while speaking through the body of Jane Roberts. He said that when he communicated with someone in her presence he saw all of that person's incarnated selves and probable selves at the same time, and had to remember which of those personalities he was addressing. (The concept of probable selves will be explained in a moment.) During the experience of using the Psychic Window Technique this same sort of perception can occur, where several different facial images fade in and out of focus. Seth also insists that all time is simultaneous, that everything takes place in what he calls the "spacious present." Evidence clearly exists, then, that from a different perspective than our normal one, time may not be a linear phenomenon. Time is in many ways a difficult concept to grasp. At one moment your thumb is against the page, in another it is held off the page. What is the "thing" we call time that separates these two conditions? I can't tell you, because I have no clue. What I can do is demonstrate how time, space and matter may not exist in the way we think they do. My first memorable exposure to an abstract, mathematical concept was in an eighth-grade math class when I was introduced to the idea of a mathematical point: a place in space that is infinitely small, such as the point where two invisible lines cross. That point exists, but because it is infinitely small it can always be reduced to half of any supposed size assigned to it, again and again, forever. How big is the center of a dime? One-hundredth of an inch? One millionth? Even if you were to say it is a billion times smaller than one-billionth of an inch, you could always cut any dimension you specify in half, an infinite number of times. A mathematical point is infinitely small. I have always found this to be a very interesting idea, that something can exist, such as the center of a coin, but be so small it can never be located. 64
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What happens if we apply the idea of "infinitely small" to the concept of time? How long does the present moment exist before the next moment occurs? How long is now? We could say that now exists for a millionth of a second, or half that long, or half that long again, over and over forever. "Now" is an infinitely short duration of time. Imagine ten separate moments of now. If we line them up in a series to create a length of time that is ten times longer than one present moment, how much time actually passes? The answer is that when you add up two or more infinitely short periods of time, the total time that passes remains infinitely short in duration. All the present moments which have ever occurred add up to a total passage of time equal to one present moment. Evidence for this being the way things are is demonstrated in the fact that we never leave "now." Move your thumb up, then move your thumb down. What is that "thing" (other than space) which separates the two conditions? That "thing" is called time, but it all happens at once. It all happens now. Time is not a "thing" but an abstract concept. It is a way of organizing perception. Another interesting observation about time and our perception involves gaps between the present moment and our perception of that moment. This delayed perception is clearly obvious when astronomers look at stars many light years away. If a star is 100 light years from the Earth, the light entering the telescope left the star 100 years earlier. It is quite possible that the star may have exploded and disappeared during those 100 years. The astronomers are not actually looking at the star then, but simply perceiving an image. It is very important to understand that what they perceive may in fact not actually exist in the moment it is being perceived. On a smaller scale the same thing applies to your perception of this page. The page exists in the present moment, but it takes light about 0.5 nanoseconds (one-half of one-billionth of a second) to travel from the page to your eye. After striking the rods and cones in your eye the information must pass along the optic nerves to your 65
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brain, and then those signals must be translated into an image your conscious awareness can perceive. Since the present moment is infinitely short in duration, by the time we perceive anything we are no longer in the same present moment. Our physical senses never provide us with a picture of what is actually happening now, but are always presenting us with the past, much like astronomers are not looking at the present existence of a star but at the way the star once appeared. It seems that the past can be proven to exist, since it is obvious that things change from a previous (past) condition. We can move our thumb and remember that it was in a different position before we moved it. But we can not prove that the past exists. If I set a burning candle on a table, can you prove how tall it was five minutes ago? Can you take a ruller into the past and make that observation? What about the future? Can you tell me the length of the candle five minutes from now? What if I blow out the candle between now and then? We can not prove that either past or future exists because we can never leave the present to make the necessary observations. We never experience any point in time other than now. When trying to define the nature of three-dimensional space, we can apply the idea of infinite smallness to space in the same way we applied it to time. If we line up ten mathematical points next to each other in a row, and then measure the distance from the first point to the last, the total space covered is the same amount of space occupied by just one mathematical point. An infinite number of infinitely small points of space lined up in a row create a total distance equal to one infinitely small amount of space. One might try to argue that even if infinitely small points of space can't be added to create a line, you can still take a pencil and draw a line in what appears to be space. You can also watch an automobile on a television screen, but that doesn't mean you can drive to work in that image. Both are illusions. Thumb up, thumb down. What is the "thing" that separates the two conditions? We think in terms of two different locations in space, but it is impossible for an object to move though enough infinitely small points of space to ever change position. 66
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Space is not "out there" all around us as it appears to be. It is another way of organizing perception. Physicists might argue that time and space are "continuums," structures that are continuous, without separate parts by which they can be divided. If that were true then there would be no division between the past, present and future -- all time would be simultaneous. Likewise, all of space would be the same space, where all objects exist at once without being separated from one another. So we return to that initial scientific assumption, that matter occupies time and space. Anyway you look at it all time is simultaneous because we never leave the present moment, and in that case, all matter must exist at once in the same space, which is physically impossible -- unless physical reality is a "point of view" rather than solid matter in time and space. It is all a “matter” of perspective. Time, space and matter all appear to be very real from the perspective of someone watching the Sun circle the Earth, but from the perspective of the infinitely small, nothing is "real" or tangible in the way we think it is. Atoms are reduced to pure energy at the subatomic level -- nothing solid about it. From the perspective of someone who is infinitely large, the entire universe occurs inside an infinitely small point of space. An infinitely small space can not contain more than one object, and that object can not have characteristics that are not uniformly identical -there isn't enough space for anything to be different from anything else. From that perspective the entire universe can not possibly exist as anything but an organization of perception. Just because the Sun appears to circle the Earth that doesn't mean it's the way things really are. We live in a universe of pure energy, without physical dimension, where everything happens now. According to these observations, that is the universe we live in. All of existence is no more solid than our idea of what we perceive. In such a universe it might be possible to experience whatever we can conceive. It becomes a matter of understanding how our perception is organized. The universe is infinitely large. If it is not infinitely large then something else must lay beyond it, and that something else 67
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would have to be infinitely large or an infinity of “something elses” would have to exist in the space that goes forever beyond our universe. On the other end of the spectrum our universe goes out of sight into the infinitely small, which we can never run out of. Time stretches out into the infinite past and into the infinite future. The concept of infinity thus forms the boundaries of our universe. Our physical universe begins and ends in every way with an idea, infinity, and ideas are not physical. How can something exist physically if it turns out to be contained within nothing more physical than an idea? It has been argued that time began with the big bang, when some microscopically small bit of super compressed energy exploded and formed into our constantly expanding universe. (No one bothers to tell us where all this energy came from in the first place.) The theory is that time began with the big bang, that prior to the big bang there was no motion in the universe, and that time does not exist if there are no objects in motion by which to perceive the passing of time. To me, that is the same as saying time stops within an empty box because nothing is moving inside it. However, I can observe the contents of the box and perceive the passing of time even if I do not detect any objects in motion. If time doesn’t actually exist inside a closed box, then if you put a clock inside the box, the clock would not run. If it did run, then you would have to say that the phenomena of time is produced by the clock. That means anyone who wants to have twice as much time on a busy day should simply buy an extra watch. Time is not produced by objects in motion. Some also argue that the physical universe has a shape, beyond which nothing exists, including space. This would mean that if we launched a rocket from a planet on the edge of the universe toward the area where no more stars can be seen, the rocket would either disappear, ceasing to exist, or it would bounce back off the edge of the universe because there would be no space out there for the rocket to pass through. And that would still leave the question, “what is on the other side of the universe.” It is much more likely that the rocket would simply continue moving through limitless space. 68
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The physical universe is bounded in every way by the concept of infinity, by an idea which has no measurable, physical properties. The only way this makes sense is if the universe is not really “physical” in the way it appears to be from our perspective. The important point is simply to realize that we are not limited by the constraints of physical laws, that this world we experience is some kind of "projection of consciousness." The "illusion" of physical reality has a very definite structure, and while we are experiencing it from the perspective of someone living within it, physical laws will normally apply. But knowing the world is not really "solid" and "out there" gives us an opportunity to investigate our perceptions as the result of "idea construction," as Seth puts it. One of the benefits of considering the world to consist of something other than solid objects in time and space, is the possibility of other worlds of experience such as "heaven." Scientists who are religious insist the universe takes up all the space there is, yet many of them still believe a place called heaven exists. They just don't know where or how such a dimension could be possible. Science neatly overlooks any conflicting evidence when it comes to questions of a philosophical nature, using the excuse that science doesn't deal with questions of ultimate beginnings or endings. Then they turn around and say everything started with the big bang, and people were once lizards. (If you think my ideas are "far out," try understanding the loopholes science invents for itself.)
Quantum Mechanics and String Theory There are currently four forces known by science to operate in the universe. The first is gravity, which holds our bodies to the Earth and all the stars and planets in their orbits. The electromagnetic force is responsible for electricity and magnetism. The weak atomic force holds electrons in their orbits around the nucleus of an atom, and atoms to each other. The strong atomic force holds the protons and neutrons of the atomic nucleus together. The “holly grail” of scientific understanding is the quest to find a single theory which would unify all the forces in the universe 69
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into a single, coherent, mathematical description -- a formula describing a single force which would explain why all other forces work in the way they do. Einstein spent the last half of his life in search of this illusive answer. Physicists studying subatomic particles use quantum mechanics (a set of mathematical rules) to describe and predict the behavior of matter at the subatomic level. A fundamental characteristic of quantum mechanics is that it describes the subatomic realm as being inherently chaotic. For example, quantum physicists can predict the velocity of an electron as it orbits the nucleus of an atom, but not it’s position, or vice versa. The more they can predict about one condition the less they can tell about the other. A similar sort of confusion exists with the nature of light, where photons behave as both a wave and a particle depending on how they are observed. In his quest to discover the theory of unification, Einstein basically ignored quantum mechanics in spite of its obvious use in describing what goes on at subatomic levels. To Einstein, the universe appeared divinely elegant in nature, and he believed any explanation of its fundamental principle would be elegantly simple. Physicists are presently capable of unifying three of the four fundamental forces together, with gravity being the exception. However, some quantum physicists have postulated what they refer to as “string theory” as a potential way of unifying all these forces. The theory envisions vibrating strings of pure energy, billions of times smaller than an atom, as the fundamental building blocks of the universe. Each string is identical in nature, but the way in which it vibrates determines the type of subatomic particle it is perceived to be when atoms are smashed together in huge particle accelerators. String theory appears to work, at least in mathematical terms, but because there is no way to test the theory in a physical experiment, it remains a theory rather than a fact. String theory also poses some conditions that not all physicists are willing to accept. Most significantly are the necessity for multiple dimensions beyond our capacity to perceive (eleven dimensions are currently postulated) and the fact that when they apply the math in order to unify gravity with the other forces, their calculations always result in infinity. 70
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Imagine that. Science has trouble accepting the mathematics of string theory because it implies multiple dimensions and a universe based upon infinity.
Multiple Dimensions in the Same Space Allow me to demonstrate how multiple dimensions of perception can exist within the same space. If you take a close look at the cover of this book, you will notice a large number of “cartoon-like” faces and other shapes arranged in vertical columns. Whether or not you noticed those faces earlier was influenced by many factors, including how patient or hurried you have felt, the amount of light available, if you have been alone or distracted by others, etc. The reality of those images has always been there, but they may have gone unnoticed if your attention was not tuned to perceive them. The reality you perceive depends on how your attention is focused. As you study the images you may notice that a small face can also be perceived as being only a limited portion of a larger face. As your point of view expands to include a larger area, a totally different “reality” becomes observable in the same location. In fact, several different “realities” or “dimensions” (images) can be perceived connected to, and a part of, other images. This is particularly observable when you turn the book up-side-down and see an entirely different set of images in the same area where you were “certain” some other particular image existed. Both images exist, but that first image becomes difficult to perceive when the book is up-side-down, when your point of view is altered. The image (reality) we perceive is totally dependent upon how we organize our perception. The title of that background cover art is “Infinite Images” (#1) because there are essentially an infinite number of images perceivable. By altering our point of view still further, by placing the edge of a mirror against the cover, it is possible to recognize even more images in the spaces between the vertical columns where the other images were earlier perceived. In these areas the mirror can be held either vertically or horizontally to produce new images, half 71
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of the image appearing in the mirror, where none were perceivable before. Multiple dimensions of coherent, organized reality can exist in the same manner. Just as the nose of one face can be viewed as the chin of another, the physical objects we are familiar with could turn out to be portions of other dimensions of perception. An atom could be an entire solar system from some other perspective. This book could be the window of a house in some other reality, or it could be a vast plane covered by low hills where a minute of our time is experienced as an eon there. Our thoughts may be objects in some other dimensions, though it is likely that many realities exist without the necessity for what we think of as objects. The possibilities are endless. Where do dreams happen? All in your mind? Isn't that saying dreams occur in a world where everything exists as organizations of perception rather than as physical objects? Sounds like a world we are already familiar with, doesn't it? Carlos Castaneda (and others) report sharing dream experiences with other people? How can more than one person experience something that isn't real? I can personally attest to the fact that when my friend and I "transported our awareness" to that farm house we saw the same world there, witnessed the same events, and it was just as real to our perception as this moment is to you. In fact I have to assume this moment is real to you, since from the standpoint of someone writing this I can never be certain anyone will read it. Your reality is a hypothetical construction in my very objective present moment. In your world there is more evidence to support my existence than there is evidence in my world to support yours. This book had to be written by someone, right? It didn't just appear in front of you all by itself, right? Well, maybe. The next time I look at this page this sentence will already be here. If I woke up tomorrow and found the book completely finished, it would be done even if I had no memory of writing it. So what is actually the criteria of reality here? Memory. The way ideas are constructed that tell us what is real and what isn't. If I wake up tomorrow and remember writing this entire book, and 72
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find the information all typed up on my computer, it will be real, even if the words just magically appeared overnight. If you suddenly woke up this very instant and found yourself laying in bed you would have to assume that you had not actually been reading this book but had dreamed the entire experience you consider so real right now. It could happen. Similar events may have happened to you before. Haven't you ever been surprised to wake up from a dream that seemed totally real? What I am trying to get at here is the importance of memory and ideas in determining what is real from what isn't. If you remember something happening, then it is real to you, regardless of whether others believe you or not. I communicated a letter of the alphabet telepathically with a friend. The friend verified the experience as being real. Later that night I left my body for the first time, but there were no witnesses. When I explained these events to my friends at the coffee shop, none of them believed it happened. It wasn't real to them. Does something have to be witnessed to be real? Did you brush your teeth this morning? Did it really happen if there were no witnesses? If you believe it, it happened. If you believe you talk with aliens from other planets, it happens. At least in your reality. Seth tells us that we all live in our own reality, literally. That if you and I are in a room with a coffee table, there are two rooms and two coffee tables, and four people -- the two people in your world, and the two in my world. He says that objective reality is a result of agreement, that there is an agreed upon "objective reality" existing as idea construction, and we manufacture our own perceptions, our individual worlds, by tuning in to that information in much the same way as a radio station is tuned in with a car radio. He goes on to say that there are virtually an infinite number of objective worlds we can tune into, a different world for every significant decision we contemplate. He refers to these worlds as “probable realities.” For example, if you seriously considered marrying someone, but didn’t, in another world you actually did. A "probable self" is the person who is aware of following a decision we pondered but did not choose to follow with our present 73
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awareness. To that person, your current awareness is the probable self. Whether or not we actually do create our own worlds via idea construction, or if probable realities are created as a result of our decisions, is something neither you or I can be sure of without personal experience which convinces us one way or another. I mention the ideas here because they seem to be possible within a universe that is not limited to the confines of time, space and matter as we normally perceive them to be. What I would like to introduce next is a different way of looking at reality which seems to explain how many forms of psychic perception might be possible. From the Sun circling the Earth, to the Earth circling the Sun, the next point of view takes us into an entirely different dimension.
Forth-Dimensional Perception We live in what appears to be a three-dimensional (3-D) world of physical space occupied by objects. These dimensions are represented as height, width and depth. Albert Einstein proposed a forth dimension which he referred to as space-time, meaning that not only do all objects exist in the above three dimensions, but these objects exist in connection with a particular area of space as it exists at a particular point in time. Space and time can not be separated because in order for space to exist, that space must exist at a particular point in time. So it appears that from Einstein’s point of view, space and time are interconnected in a forth dimension called space-time. Right. I “thought” I understood all that, but I must also admit that the idea of space-time seemed way too nebulous for me to actually grasp. Joachim Wolf, in a paper describing what he calls “quantum metaphysics,” mentions a little book called Flatland which was published near the turn of the twentieth century by Edwin Abbott. The book humorously describes the experience of creatures having only two dimensions. Visualizing a 2-dimentional world finally 74
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enabled me to actually comprehend how a forth dimension can be conceptualized, at least to some degree. Let’s start by imagining what perception would be like for a two-dimensional (2-D) consciousness. A 2-D world would have width and depth, but no height. It would be like an infinitely thin piece of paper. The creatures which inhabit such a world could have shapes as complicated as an ink blot, but it is easier to think of them as circles on a piece of paper. No solid matter would exist there because their world is infinitely thin. Because there is absolutely no height in a 2-D world, if two of these circles came together they could pass right through each other. Now imagine that we, on the outside of their universe, out here in “3-D land,” were to pass a round ball downward through their 2-D plane of existence. What they would perceive is a constantly expanding circle. As the ball descended downward through their flat world, the circle these creatures perceive would constantly enlarge until the center of the ball had passed through. As the ball continued moving downward, the circle would continually become smaller until it disappeared altogether. Imagine how blown away such creatures would be if they were suddenly able to perceive their world from a 3-D point of view. All the things they know would still exist, but some circles would also be seen as only a small portion of spheres or cylinders, some squares would be recognized as just one component of a cube, etc. Imagine how amazed these creatures would be to perceive shapes as complex as living trees, clouds, mountains and stars. The same universe they have always known would suddenly be recognized as merely a tiny slice of a far greater reality which had existed all the time. In the same way, space-time may exist as the next dimension for us, as the forth dimension. And I think I finally figured out how to conceptualize that forth dimension in a way that anyone, even slow-to-get-it-me, can grasp. Forth dimensional awareness is the ability to move conscious perception anywhere in space or time. Maybe this isn’t what Einstein meant by space-time, but it goes a very long way to explain how many forms of psychic perception could operate. 75
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It would not be necessary for a forth-dimensional consciousness (4-D) to travel through space in order to perceive distant objects, or to travel through time to see things as they were, are, and will be. Perhaps it would be possible for a 4-D to perceive all of time and all of space in one glance, but such perception is beyond my ability to conceive. It seems more likely that 4-D perception would simply be the ability to move through time and space without limitations. This could explain perceptions such as precognition, déjà vu, reincarnation, remote viewing, clairvoyance, Out Of Body Experience (OOBE), psychometry, and more. Here is where logic can help us understand even more about forth dimensional perception. Because we exist as 3-D creatures who can remember past events, we already possess conscious awareness at multiple points in time. All those points of existing awareness (our memories) are simultaneously available. In terms of past experience at least, our present consciousness is not stuck in time. From the perspective of the forth dimension, we would not simply remember a past event, but experience it as it occurred (i.e., déjà vu). Our future experience would also be perceivable. This future experience would include the moment when we became/become (same thing) aware of 4-D space-time perception. In other words, we do not have to manufacture an awareness capable of perceiving in 4-D. That awareness already exists in the forth dimension, because from that point of view all time is simultaneously available. 4-D perception is inherent in all of us. That means psychic perception is inherent in all of us. It would seem that what we need is some method of awakening our already existing awareness of forth-dimensional perception. Any drug that alters our perception of time and space is probably causing physiological changes related to 4-D perception. Meditation and self hypnosis can be applied to reduce physical perception and focus attention in other ways, thus becoming tools for exploring forth dimensional awareness, and beyond. Various techniques for using these tools are provided in this book.
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In my opinion, the single most valuable bit of knowledge you can acquire in regards to developing metaphysical abilities is understanding that physical reality is not what it appears to be, that it is a form of "idea construction." Whatever you want to call it, physical reality is a manifestation of consciousness, a world without solid matter or time or space. We live in an illusory world of organized perception. The true reality is the yet unknown structure which organizes our perception. That structure produces what we perceive as physical existence, but the structure itself is not physical. It is "metaphysical," and can be manipulated by consciousness. Understand that one point and the world suddenly becomes a magical place where nearly anything is possible. Perhaps the information in this chapter is simply too abstract for you to believe. But ponder the impossibility of adding together infinitely small points of time or space to create the sort of world we think exists. Realize that the boundaries of our universe exist only as ideas. Observe how physical matter appears to alter before your eyes during the experience of visual telepathy. Consider your ability to perceive more than one dimension in the same space while looking at the cover of this book. Remember waking up from dreams that seem totally real. Understand that on a subatomic level matter does not exist as anything but pure energy -- nothing is solid even according to science. While I can't prove that anything I have said in this chapter is true, I am not asking you to accept any of it on faith. I am simply pointing the way toward your own, personal evaluation of the nature of your experience. As your experience begins to include more and more perceptions of a metaphysical nature, as a result of performing the exercises in this book, I believe you will find the information in this chapter to have a greater likelihood of reflecting the truth.
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Chapter Four:
Reason, Religion and Beliefs My biggest complaint about religious and new age spiritualistic teachings is that they outline some grand scheme about how everything works and then expect us to accept it all on faith. If any one concept can be accepted as truth simply by choosing to believe it is true, then that would apply to any concept imaginable. Did you know that the gue on the bottom of my shoe is actually an alien civilization where everyone looks like Elvis -- except on Thursdays and Saturdays when these creatures travel to Washington and impersonate political leaders? Of course that can't be true, but would it be true if you had faith that it was true? People have faith in ideas that are just as ridiculous. For example, dying as a suicide bomber will send you straight to a heaven filled with dozens of horny virgins, taking poison will buy you a seat on the space craft hiding behind the comet, or what's good for big corporations is good for the people. Having faith or belief does not make something true. But as Fox Mulder likes to say, "The truth is out there." Objective truth exists independently of individual faith, belief or perception. The Sun appears to circle the Earth, and that appearance is 78
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objective, the same for everyone, regardless of what we believe is really happening. Remember what I said about information needing to be experienced before it becomes true knowledge? Even then one can not be certain that one's interpretation of such experience accurately describes what the truth really is. The exercises throughout this book are meant to provide you with personal experience of psychic phenomena and metaphysical realities. The experience is where the truth is. Then again, however anyone chooses to describe such experience will always be a matter of interpretation. If it seems I am being "overly conscientious" or nit-picky about these details, I hope you will come to realize the importance of accurate communication when it comes to these matters. For example, if I ask you if you believe God exists, how would you reply? Would you say, "Yes, I am sure of it," or provide some other, equally definitive answer? Whenever someone asks me if I believe in God, I first ask that person to define what they mean by the word "God." The word means different things to different people. If you said, "Yes, I am certain God exists," to one person, you would be saying you believe some really tall guy who needs a shave sits in a big chair tossing lightning bolts down upon sinners. To another you might be saying you believe Mother Earth or the Sun is the source of all life. The word "God" has so many interpretations I generally prefer not to use it, though in some cases it is the easiest way to talk about the subject in less than specific terms. An atheist is someone who fully believes God does not exist. An agnostic is someone who does not feel they have enough information to come to a conclusion about the question of God. There is no adequate term to describe someone who is aware of “spiritual reality” yet does not subscribe to religious definitions. Seth provides us with the concept of All That Is as an alternative to the idea of “God.” All That Is is just that, everything. If it can be imagined, and even if it can't, it's part of All That Is. Such an all-inclusive concept leaves little room for misinterpretation. It does differ from the standard Christian concept of God in some respects, though it is possible to simply expand the 79
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Christian idea of God to include all that is without too much difficulty. Christians believe God is the source of everything, whereas All That Is implies that "God" is present in everything. The following poem is an attempt to express my personal interpretation of how and why All That Is may have come to be.
The Loneliness of God Before the beginning There was a total absence of everything Where even nothing did not exist Nor any thought or feeling whatever. In this timeless, placeless place Here and there are as much the same as they are different, Now and then a now where no one knows such things. And then a mystery beyond the conception of God occurred -Something conscious knew there was nothing. We call that consciousness God And the first thing this consciousness knew Was that It was everything It was the totality of all the nothingness there was. And so this consciousness conceived of somethingness A place where nothingness could exist Which we now call space And within this space God recognized something that wasn't nothing Filling everything; It's own consciousness. God is everything. God is utterly alone. And when God realized with greater and greater clarity Just how alone It was 80
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It recognized It's awareness of aloneness had not always been the same. It conceived that space was filled with time as well as consciousness. As the time passed God's awareness of aloneness grew steadily And It desired, creating the concept of value, Something that was not Itself. And so God divided Itself in order to experience Other And gave Other a form, but Other knew It was God And God was still alone with Itself. Then God removed It's memory of being God from Other And as Other, God experienced Other experiencing God. Through Other, God experienced not being alone. But soon God noticed that Other longed to know it's source Just as God had longed to know Other God experienced empathy, and allowed Other to know itself as God. Again God was utterly alone. So God created a multitude of Others And removed their memory of being God And God felt their great joy when each of them became one with God Till they all felt God's great loneliness. The Others remember their paths and choose to return to separateness Because they know they will always return to God And share their joy at returning. We are all God, struggling to overcome our forgetfulness Afraid to return to the knowledge That God is the loneliest being there is. 81
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God is also the happiest being there is. As Seth says, "We are made of the stuff of God." If God is everything, then there is a little piece of God in every flower, every pebble, every cell and atom in your body. Every thought you think is something happening within God, and everywhere you look you see God expressing Itself in a multitude of ways, including as everyone we meet. If God is really All That Is, then we are all God. "God consciousness" or "total enlightenment" is a state of being where an individual becomes aware of his or her connection to All That Is -- by losing the sense of being an individual, or more accurately, by expanding one's concept of individuality to include everything else. "There are no divisions or separations between the Self," says Seth. My first glimpse of "god consciousness" occurred under the influence of LSD. I felt powerful beyond imagination and totally insignificant in the same breath. I felt that if I wanted to I could create entire worlds simply by imagining them, while at the same time I realized the totality of my present life was nothing more than a momentary flicker of thought for such a being. The devastating feeling of insignificance eventually gave way to an appreciation for the amazing fact that individualism exists at all. Just to be alive in a universe that seemed to be separate from me produced a feeling of adventure and joy. Even a difficult life as a human being was better than being the only thing there is. Every thought, every stubbed toe, every child's smile, every hardship, all of life's most minute experiences are valuable beyond imagination to a being who knows no limits or individuality. At the same time, to feel individual, cut off from the source of one's being, alone in a world full of uncaring people, struggling to survive -- this too can become a hell as devastating as the loneliness of being everything. All That Is knows our situation. You are All That Is being you. You are not cut off from the power of your source. All That Is rejoices in your joy and shares the thrill of your adventures. We are free to tap into that source and create the reality we desire simply by 82
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allowing the power to flow through us. Or so goes the theory, which is discussed further in the chapter on creating reality. If we employ the concept of All That Is as an alternative to “God,” it appears to answer some questions that otherwise seem incomprehensible. For example, God is supposed to be good, all knowing and all powerful. This means God has awareness of all human suffering, the power to end it, and the moral imperative to do so. Yet children are killed or maimed in wars or accidents and sometimes fall ill with fatal diseases. Such children could not possibly have offended God to the point He would bring so much suffering upon them deliberately. Bad things happen to good people. If God is good, knows about the suffering in the world and has the power to stop it, reason tells us He must stop it, but He doesn’t. Such a concept of God is therefore irrational. Let’s look at the same situation from the perspective of All That Is, throwing in some other conditions which that might entail. First, to All That Is, any experience is better than no experience. The idea of probable realities means that in other dimensions of experience the bad things do not happen. Reincarnation means we have other lives to work with, and when it comes down to it, hardships often result in personal growth which may not otherwise occur (though this doesn’t mean that suffering is always good for the soul -- sometimes it is simply the price of ignorance). Consider what you have learned from your failures and difficult challenges, how they have enabled you to become a better person, and you can see how value can be gained from “undesirable” circumstances. (The concept of value fulfillment is central to understanding human experience and is discussed in detail in the “Psychological Wisdom” chapter.) Buddhism tells us, “One must know ugliness in order to appreciate beauty.” In other words, there is value in the experience of limitations, especially in overcoming those limitations. There are endless descriptions regarding how the metaphysical universe operates, each religion promoting it's own version, which is taken as fact by those who follow such teachings. It should be recognized that the average individual's choice of religion has far more to do with geographical location than any sincere investigation of the truth. Americans are mostly Christian, 83
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Saudi Arabians mostly Muslim, etc. Seth tells us that we create our personal experience of reality according to our beliefs. If this is true, then any religious beliefs will be experienced as fact by those who hold them. In the search for “the one true church” the answer is that one will do as well as another. There is, however, a rational advantage to Seth's concept of All That Is, creating our own reality, and our having existence in more than just this physical dimension. It resolves the “why doesn’t God help?” question, explains why conflicting religious belief systems all produce “validating results” for their followers, implies that we have free will, and empowers us to overcome our challenges without the necessity for belief in a higher power which exists apart from us. We must remember, however, that just because these ideas have a rational advantage over conventional religious beliefs, that doesn’t mean this is how the universe actually operates. One must experience the truth in order to know it is real, and even then it is subject to interpretation. OK. Here are a few of the ideas we’ve covered which seem to be pretty hard to argue against. There is an objective truth regardless of whether or not anyone knows what it is. The perception of the truth is always subject to an individual's interpretation of the experience. All That Is exists because it is everything that exists. All That Is either is, or includes, God, since God must be part of all that is if God exists, and if God does not exist, All That Is definitely does and It can be defined as being God. (Words can take you to some odd places, eh?)
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Chapter Five:
Manipulating Awareness If we consider that from the perspective of the infinitely small, or infinitely large, that the physical universe can not fundamentally exist in the way it appears to us, the only explanation available is that physical reality is inherently illusionary in nature. The illusion is real, in that it has definite structure and operates according to predictable patterns of cause and effect, but the underlying structure responsible for our perceptions is not physical. This fundamental structure exists connected to, but beyond, our three-dimensional perception of experience. This leads us to conclude that our experience of reality is fundamentally perceptional in nature. It stands to reason then, that if our conscious perception is in some way “manufacturing” our experience, then our experience can be manipulated by controlling our awareness. This chapter provides an overview of various methods of controlling awareness, including meditation, self hypnosis, concentration and intent. These tools can enable us to direct our awareness to perceptions beyond those offered by our physical senses, and to manipulate the “metaphysical structure” in ways 85
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which alter our physical experience. It helps to have a general understanding of these techniques prior to performing the many exercises provided later in this book.
Levels of Consciousness Modern psychological theory describes consciousness in terms we are all familiar with. Our normal, everyday awareness is referred to as ego consciousness. Beneath that is the subconscious, meaning areas of awareness that are easily accessible but are not part of our normal awareness. This includes our breathing, sensations such as temperature and humidity, access to memory, etc. Beyond this is the unconscious, which includes psychological phenomena we are seldom aware of, such as control of our heartbeat and body temperature. The unconscious also contains our biological instincts and deeply buried beliefs which affect our health, attitudes and behavior. Beyond these three easily observable levels of awareness we enter other levels of existence. Dream experience is unconscious to our normal self, except when we remember a dream event, in which case the awareness crosses through the subconscious into ego consciousness. Our dreaming self has it’s own memories and separate ways of organizing experience, and is in some ways a separate personality from our physically aware self. Our “normal” self appears rather nebulous and “dreamlike” to the dreaming self. If we exist after death and experience lives in other incarnations, a step beyond the dreaming self we will find the personality which is aware of between life experience and our previous incarnations. We might call this our “forth dimensional consciousness.” Beyond that, according to Seth, is the personality aware of all our experience in probable realities, including the probable realities of all our incarnations. Further still are levels of consciousness containing “group souls” much like the collective consciousness of a family or community. Beyond that is the awareness of all human experience, experience in other universes, and on and on until, theoretically, one experiences the awareness of All That Is. 86
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The names given to these levels of consciousness are essentially meaningless, and as Seth says, “There are no separations or divisions between the Self.” Each level of consciousness blends one into the other, and there may be levels of consciousness other than those described here, such as astral planes, animal consciousness, etc. The different “levels” simply refer to the perception available to consciousness at any given moment, which depends upon how it is focused. In a way we could say that all these different levels are part of our unconscious, since we are not normally conscious of them. However, perception which is unconscious at one moment can become conscious when it is focused upon. We are conscious of our experience between lives when we are aware of those perceptions, etc. If we think of the ego as the physically focused portion of our awareness, including our conscious memories, beliefs and values; our soul would be the unconscious (to our ego) portions of our identity which are responsible for our existence as ego awareness. We can consider the soul as being our essential self, while the ego is a collection of ideas which forms a personality through which our soul experiences our present life here on Earth. Learning to manipulate on these different levels of consciousness can be achieved though various forms of mind control. Meditation is used primarily to gain control of our attention by stopping the seemingly automatic generation of thoughts and other mental distractions. The ability to stop these “random” intrusions into our awareness is in some ways a prerequisite to manipulating our attention, though it isn’t necessary to have total mind control in order to perceive in specialized ways. Many people, for example, have clairvoyant ability because they are familiar with how to tune their attention in just the right way to enable that sort of perception, while at the same time their ability to concentrate may not be any better than average. However, the ability to concentrate is a valuable asset in these endeavors, and meditation is a form of concentration. Once we learn to control the content of our awareness it better enables us to direct our attention to perception and manipulation on other levels of consciousness. 87
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Meditation There are an endless number of meditation techniques available, but essentially all of them can be reduced to one of two basic types. The first involves emptying the mind of all physically oriented content. The second involves filling awareness with a particular subject of concentration. In both cases the objective is to gain control of conscious awareness. It can be argued that our focus upon physical reality is a result of our constant thinking, that we constantly create, or tune into, our physical experience by thinking about it. The object of meditation is to direct attention away from physical activity in order to experience other forms of perception, though in some cases the techniques involve saturating awareness with physical or mental stimulation in order to achieve these ends.
Not Thinking This, the simplest form of meditation, is also the most difficult. The object is to sit quietly and stop all thinking and all awareness of one’s physical experience. If you have ever attempted to stop thinking for more than a few seconds you will be aware of how persistent our thinking can be. When we are able to stop thinking our attention then shifts to other physical perceptions, such as the sounds around us, our breathing, sensations within our bodies, etc. Once we are able to turn our attention away from these physically oriented perceptions we naturally begin to experience awareness of non-physical information. It doesn’t matter if you sit or lay down to do this type of meditation, though there is a tendency to fall asleep if one is laying down or relaxing in a comfortable chair. For this reason, most people meditate while sitting on the floor in a cross-legged position with their back straight but relaxed. The hatha yoga “lotus” position involves sitting with the legs crossed and the feet resting upon the thighs of the opposite leg. The back of the hands rest on or near the knees while the thumb gently holds the index finger, forming a circle with the thumb and finger. The leg position can be 88
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uncomfortable for beginners but eventually it assists in helping one to sit up straight and relaxed. Choosing a specific sitting position helps to form an association of the position and the state of mind one experiences while meditating, so that after a time one begins to experience the meditative state of mind immediately upon assuming the position. (See NLP in the Psychological Wisdom chapter.) It is possible to practice not thinking while performing many mundane tasks such as walking, doing dishes, driving, etc. For example, I will often turn off the stereo on long drives and see if I can avoid thinking between mile markers along the highway, which can be an entertaining diversion. One should not do such an exercise if your attention slips away from the task at hand, but for most people that should not prove to be a problem.
Mindfulness Mindfulness is similar to not thinking with the exception that rather than trying to avoid thinking altogether, one becomes acutely aware of everything one can possibly be aware of. Thoughts are observed rather than deliberately avoided or created. One attempts to be acutely aware of everything, to notice every sound, smell, emotion, body sensation, movement of the breath within the body -everything. By dispersing awareness over the widest possible spectrum of perceptions one eventually develops the acuity necessary to perceive more subtle perceptions of a metaphysical nature. Mindfulness can also be performed while doing mundane tasks, and is particularly rewarding when hiking through natural environments where it is possible to notice more colors, smells and details within the surroundings.
Candle Meditation I often use a candle during meditation because it provides a pleasant, non-distracting focal point of attention. One lights a single candle, places it a comfortable distance away and concentrates upon 89
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the image of the flame. It can be used with either of the above meditation techniques or as part of a concentration exercise. I particularly enjoy the fact that after a few minutes of looking closely at the flame, if one closes one’s eyes a “negative image” of the flame will appear as a bright, reddish spot. (A negative image is produced by the continual stimulation of the rods and cones within the eye, which creates a lingering perception of color which is opposite to the color one was observing.) The red spot one observes with the eyes closed is the image of something “not physical” yet perceivable. It also helps one to notice other “not physical” visual effects in the form of moving splotches of faint color, which often form into complex geometric patterns or shapes. These are normally, but faintly, perceivable surrounding the negative image of the candle flame, and concentrating upon seeing them can eventually bring them into greater clarity. It is possible to perceive clairvoyant images while practicing most forms of meditation if that is one’s intent.
Mantras and Mandalas A mantra is any sound or phrase which is constantly repeated during meditation. “Thank you Jesus. Thank you Lord,” is an example of a mantra. Hindu mysticism considers the tri-syllable AUM (or “OM”) to be the most powerful mantra due to the “vibration” it creates. Mantras are designed to flood one’s awareness with a single idea which eventually becomes meaningless, essentially creating a lack of physical perception because what one perceives has no relevance. The absence of physical perception allows other, non-physical awareness to become perceivable. In some cases a mantra may be used to focus attention upon a specific concept or perception, i.e., in cases of ritual, or to focus upon a desired belief. A Mandala is an image, usually a brightly colored geometric pattern or art object, which is concentrated upon in much the same way as in mantra meditation, only in this case the concentration is upon visual perception rather than sound. Mandalas can be interesting in that colorful patterns tend to produce emotional 90
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reactions, and different images can create different feelings during the meditation experience. It is also possible to use a mandala in a manner similar to candle concentration, in that after one has stared at a Mandela for a few minutes, closing one’s eyes will result in a negative image, a reverse image of all the colors involved. However, not all mandalas are designed with this feature in mind.
Concentration and Intent Intent is silent. Silence is power. Psychic abilities operate at a "non-analytical" level of consciousness. By this I mean that you do not "think" to make something happen, you simply intend for something to happen. Because these abilities operate in this way it is quite difficult to teach someone what to do to get results, but it is not impossible. For example, say that someone has forgotten how to move their finger. What would you tell that person, what would you teach them, that would enable them to regain the ability? How do you move your finger? Imagine that the nerves in your hand have been numbed by an anesthetic which prevents you from having any feeling in your fingers, but does not interfere with your moving them. Imagine being in a pitch black room with no way of knowing if your fingers move or not, and tell yourself what you do in order to extend your index finger. If you actually ponder this question for a moment you may realize two important points. One is that words or thinking have nothing at all to do with making your fingers move. The other point to be aware of is that more than simple intent is involved. Your intent is what causes the movement to occur, but that intent is applied in a very specific way. It is not the same intent that causes your leg to move, for example. Without actually moving any part of your body, imagine the difference in what you would do to point your finger and to raise your leg. You will note that your attention is directed to a different part of the body. The feeling of being about to raise your leg feels "larger" than the feeling of being about to point your finger. In a 91
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way it seems to require more "effort" to move your leg, but the intent is not the effort. Effort is a physical sensation, a response from the muscles, not from the intent alone. Intent is essentially effortless, and that is a very important point to remember (particularly when performing telekinesis). The exercise of psychic abilities does not require effort. It deals exclusively with how you focus your intent and direct your attention. It works in much the same way as moving your finger, in that subconscious activities are directed by conscious intent. When moving your finger your intent initiates chemical reactions in the brain that cause nerve cells to stimulate muscle response. The physical sensations you experience, including touch and visual perception, all reinforce how effective or not you were at achieving the desired results. The same thing is true with psychic perception. You use your intent to initiate a particular ability and look for resulting input which indicates if your intent was successful. The ability to point your finger was not something you were born knowing how to do. As infants, all of us had to learn the specific way our intent must be focused in order to move each individual part of our body. We did not learn how to make the nerves trigger our muscular response, but simply how to focus the intent which would cause those responses to occur. As mentioned earlier, we do not know how we think. We begin speaking a sentence without knowing which specific words we will use to complete it. What we do know is what we intend to communicate, and that intent is the only part of the thinking process we understand on a conscious level. We are so accustomed to the way we intend the movement of our bodies that most of the time we hardly place any of our attention upon the activity. But if you move in a less familiar way, say standing on one leg while holding the other behind you in one hand while leaning forward, we once again encounter the need to focus our conscious attention in order to avoid falling. If we do this maneuver five minutes every day for several weeks, however, the familiarity enables us to keep our balance with almost no conscious attention at all. I mention this in order to point out that as you 92
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practice using your psychic abilities, those abilities become easier to perform in the same way. When we were babies learning to manipulate our physical organism, we had the advantage of immediate, obvious results to compare against our intent. Psychic perception and manipulation involves far more subtle responses. We have to be very focused in the use of our attention in order to perceive the results of our intent, at least until we become familiar with the activity. The intent must also be focused in just the right way in order to produce desired results, and in the beginning we are not quite sure how to do this. The ability to concentrate then becomes of utmost importance. Learning to perceive and manipulate on psychic levels is directly related to your ability to concentrate.
Concentration Exercises Concentration does not require effort. It does not require forcing yourself to pay attention, but occurs naturally whenever there is a lack of distraction. All of us concentrate with amazing clarity under certain conditions, such as while watching a very dramatic scene in a movie or a tense moment during a football game. At those times we are totally absorbed in the activity at hand, so much so, for example, that we willingly suspend our awareness that a movie is just light flickering on a screen and sounds generated by speaker systems. (Eventually you may realize that the world around you is just as illusionary.) Whether watching a movie or observing the world around us, we become totally immersed in the illusion, and our concentration could not be more complete, nor more effortless. It is important to understand that concentration is simply the absence of distraction, and under proper conditions excellent concentration can be achieved with minimal effort, by anyone. Unfortunately, the pressures of modern life often make it very difficult for most people to concentrate effectively without constant stimulation. The exercise of psychic abilities requires the capacity to concentrate upon very subtle perceptions, and without the intense input we are accustomed to such perceptions can easily 93
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escape our awareness. It is for this reason that learning to concentrate more effectively should be a top priority.
Counting Backwards You can test your ability to concentrate, and by further practice improve your ability, by counting backwards from 99 to zero in a variety of ways, each a bit more challenging than the last. The object is simple. Just think the numbers in the proper order without losing your place. Sit or lay down in a comfortable position so you will not be distracted by any feelings of physical discomfort. You should move on to the next exercise only if you are successful with the preceding one. Exercise #1: To begin, simply count backwards from 99 to zero at whatever feels like a quick, yet comfortable pace. This is probably about two numbers per second. Most people should be able to do this within one or two attempts. Exercise #2: Breath in and out normally and count off one number with each inhale, and another with each exhale. Exercise #3: Count off a number only with each exhale. Exercise #4: Breath very slowly and deeply, approximately five seconds for each inhale, and five seconds for each exhale, counting off one number during each exhale. Do not be overly concerned with insuring you spend exactly five seconds on each part of the breath, which could become too distracting. Just get a feel for the timing 94
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before you begin and remember to breath slowly and deeply at approximately that rate. It is rather unlikely that anyone without previous meditation experience will succeed with exercise #4 on their first attempt, though there will, of course, be exceptions. The chances of your success in achieving results with the psychic exercises can be expected to correlate with your ability to concentrate. So, if at any point you feel your psychic results are less than desired you can repeat the exercises above, beginning with the level that first gave you some difficulty.
Memory Recall If counting numbers seems too boring, you can try another exercise. This involves placing about twenty small items on a table or tray, studying the items for two or three minutes, then cover the tray with a cloth and write down all the items you can remember. It will be necessary for someone else to select the items, however, since collecting them yourself will familiarize you with them even before you take a few minutes to study them. If you can remember more than half of the objects you will be doing quite well. After you have become familiar with all the items, ask some to remove just one of them and see if you can determine which item is missing. A variation of this exercise is to walk into an unfamiliar room, take a fairly quick glance around, then close your eyes and make a mental list of all the items you can remember seeing there. Then compare this mental list with the actual items in the room and note anything you may have missed. Doing these exercises will result in the added benefit of improved visual memory, in that you can develop a greater ability to remember things by recalling a mental image.
Single Mindedness This is a variation of the mindfulness meditation outlined earlier. It is an excellent way to increase concentration, and can be 95
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performed while engaged in any activity. You simply focus your attention on the task at hand as completely as possible. Give close attention to every aspect of your present activity rather than allowing your mind to wander to thoughts about other concerns. This is particularly useful if you work at a repetitive occupation like manufacturing assembly, as it can make your day seem to pass more quickly. Regardless of what activity you are involved with, you will do it better if you focus your full attention on the task at hand.
The Pebble Toss Long ago, before I was seriously concerned about metaphysics, the idea occurred to me that if a person were able to toss pebbles a distance of perhaps ten feet and hit a very small target every time, that person would be enlightened. I don't know if that is true or not, but practicing this activity is an excellent and entertaining way to refine one's concentration. (Playing chess is also an entertaining way to improve concentration.)
Self Hypnosis Hypnosis is a method of accessing what are normally considered to be unconscious psychological, and sometimes even physiological, processes. For example, with hypnosis it is possible to access hidden memories, anything from where you left your car keys to what one did in a past life. The hypnotized subject can be made to accept new beliefs as true facts and to behave accordingly, which includes everything from quitting smoking to petting a nonphysical elephant on an entertainer’s stage. However, it is not possible for a hypnotist to force a subject to do something against that person’s will if the subject is completely opposed to performing such actions. Physiologically, if a deeply hypnotized subject is told that an ice cube touched briefly upon their skin is actually a hot iron, a blister will rise. Hypnosis is also used as an alternative to surgery for breast enlargement, among other things. It is possible that faith 96
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healing, including reported cases of sudden and complete recovery from cancer, for example, could actually involve a form of hypnosis. (See the appendix for other examples.) The mind is indeed a powerful thing. Hypnosis operates by altering beliefs at other levels of consciousness, and it is possible for an individual to act as both hypnotist and subject at the same time. Roughly ten to twenty percent of the population are considered good subjects for hypnosis, in that they readily follow the instructions of a hypnotist. It is unclear how many of us can perform self hypnosis effectively. Self hypnosis requires an ability to concentrate without distraction and a willingness to accept as fact whatever it is you choose to tell yourself. On the other hand, acknowledged self deception will not produce the desired effects because conscious beliefs will negate those you attempt to implant into your unconscious. In clinical hypnosis, the subject more or less accepts that the hypnotist possesses an authority and power capable of producing the intended effects. To be successful at self hypnosis, we must believe with equal conviction that the process being performed will produce the same, powerful results. First we must acknowledge that hypnosis is capable of producing the effects we desire, then we must believe the method we are applying will act as effectively as clinical hypnosis. In most cases (but not all) the subject must be in a physically relaxed and emotionally calm state of mind in order for hypnosis to operate. For this reason it is often helpful when performing self hypnosis to begin with some form of relaxation exercise. This is generally followed by “guided imagery” in which one calmly describes a series of imagined events intended to produce a state of heighten suggestibility. The desired conditions are then described as a reality which the subject (oneself) is fully prepared to accept as truth. Examples include, “I have no desire to smoke cigarettes,” or “I enjoy eating healthy foods and easily maintaining my ideal weight.” Theoretically, another example could be, “I am a beautiful, healthy duck,” but some beliefs are easier to accept than others. 97
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Relaxation Exercise Prior to beginning your self hypnosis routine, lay on a bed or couch, or sit in a comfortable chair where it is possible to relax completely with your head being supported. Take a deep breath, hold it for about five seconds, and exhale through your mouth for about five seconds. Feel the stress leaving your body along with the exhaled breath. Do this a total of five times, then sit quietly and feel your body relax into the cushions. After you have developed some degree of experience with self hypnosis, this brief breathing exercise should produce sufficient relaxation to begin your guided imagery. In the beginning it will be helpful to continue with the following steps. While remaining in your comfortable position, take a deep breath, then gradually tighten every muscle in your body at the same time. Hold the muscles as tight as you can (without strain) for as long as you can do so without discomfort. Five to ten seconds should be enough. Then exhale and relax completely, feeling the tension leaving your body. Mentally tell yourself that with each gentle exhale of your relaxed breathing all the tension in your body is being sucked away through the cushions beneath you, and from there into the Earth below. (If it feels right to you, you can imagine that the energy flowing into the Earth is returning to its source, where it helps the plants to grow, the same plants which we eat in order to receive their energy, completing a cycle.) Relaxing in this way for two or three minutes will produce a profound state of relaxation, and the technique is useful even without self hypnosis as a way to relieve stress.
Guided Imagery Guided imagery is essentially visualized storytelling. The key factors are creating a sense of peace and security, of trust, and also of movement away from everyday concerns. The object is to describe visualizations which symbolically represent a movement into deeper levels of consciousness. For example, this can be symbolically represented as moving up or down to various floors of 98
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a building in an elevator, each floor being a step further away form normal consciousness. Another option could be floating in clouds, where the actions one is capable of imaginatively performing would represent different levels of awareness: Sitting in a cloud would be one level, jumping from one cloud to another would indicate the next level, and flying among the clouds would represent still a deeper level. A predetermined destination is eventually reached. It is at this point that one acknowledges being in a hypnotized state where suggestions will be accepted as fact. If you are capable of accepting what you tell yourself in this state without argument, the beliefs will be firmly implanted into your unconscious and your behavior will respond accordingly. You should know exactly how you will phrase your suggestion to yourself prior to beginning the self hypnosis routine. The messages you give to yourself should always be clear, direct and believable, so work carefully to find just the right way of putting things into words before you begin. One thing I like to do during self hypnosis is “test” myself to see if I have reached the desired state. I do this while laying down with my hands resting one atop the other over my abdomen, and tell myself that a very large “magnet” is holding my hands in place. If I try to raise my hands I will feel a countering force pulling down from below, and a force pushing down from above like a huge weight. I consciously accept that I am in a state of hypnosis where the suggestions I have given myself will take precedence over my normal perceptions, then I try to slowly raise my hands. It is an amazing feeling to discover that force holding one’s hands in place despite rather deliberate efforts to raise them. Once I have “passed the test” I am confident that the positive suggestions I give to myself at that point will produce their desired results. After you have given yourself the desired suggestions, it is necessary to return to normal consciousness by reversing the visualization process. For example, you would imaginatively return to the elevator and go back to the original floor, passing quickly through each floor in between along the way. Once you have returned to where you began, tell yourself to wake up feeling 99
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refreshed and energized -- then forget about the whole thing and trust your subconscious to create the intended results. If you do not go through this process of backtracking to the beginning, but simply terminate the exercise from the hypnotized state, you will create confusion regarding which state of consciousness you are actually in. Your suggestions will lose their power to affect your subconscious desires, and you will have difficulty separating desired suggestions from those which are undesired. In other words, it kind of screws with your head and leaves you feeling spacey and confused for a while, which isn’t much fun. It also makes it very difficult to use hypnosis successfully in the future. So make sure you go back the way you came and all will be well.
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Chapter Six:
Creating Reality Since the publication of the Seth books in the early 1970’s, the idea that we create our own reality has become a standard part of New Age thinking. The basic idea is that we attract certain types of events and conditions into our experience as a result of our beliefs, expectations, thoughts and emotions. These “coincidental” events largely determine the overall quality of our experience. I have personally applied myself diligently in this area for nearly 30 years. One could say that in some areas I have been amazingly successful, but in others I have completely failed to create conditions I worked hard to achieve. I am quite certain that we do indeed create our own reality, that we have been doing so unconsciously all along. I will present convincing evidence supporting that conclusion later in this chapter. Creating reality deliberately, however, can be a more challenging endeavor. As I began writing about this subject a "coincidence" occurred. A friend sent a cassette tape to me containing information produced by a group of non-physical entities called Abraham. This "group soul" communicates through a psychic medium named Ester 101
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Hicks, and over the years a huge quantity of books and recordings have been produced. The Abraham-Hicks material is the clearest, easiest to apply information on the subject of deliberately creating reality I have yet to encounter. A "free" audio CD ($5 shipping) explaining the basic information is, as of this writing, available at www.abraham-hicks.com. Ester and her husband Jerry Hicks encountered Abraham some years after reading the Seth books by Jane Roberts -- which is the material I have been seeking to fully understand for years. As mentioned in the introduction, Seth is the "multi-dimensional personality energy essence no longer focused in physical reality" who spoke through Jane Roberts, while her husband, Robert Butts, took notes in a specialized form of shorthand. In this way Seth dictated a series of books beginning with Seth Speaks. Anyone truly serious about understanding how metaphysical reality operates will eventually want to read that book, and at least the following one in the series, The Nature of Personal Reality. The Abraham material is easier for casual readers to grasp. Seth gets down to the finer details. The basic creating reality principle is that we draw certain kinds of events or experiences into our lives which "resonate" with our thoughts, mental images and emotions. The combination of thought and emotion creates what Abraham describes as a "vibration." Ideas "feel" a particular way. Sadness feels different from happiness, and if you concentrate on those feelings you will notice that sadness feels heavier and "slower." The quality of our vibrations, and the mental images or ideas associated with those vibrations, is said to determine the overall nature of "coincidental" future events we experience. In other words, we are directly responsible for whatever luck, opportunities and "chance" encounters we experience. These to a large extent determine the overall quality of our lives – or so goes the theory. Both Seth and Abraham express essentially the same principles: like attracts like; thoughts held in the present create future experience; the stronger the emotion connected with the thought (or visual image) the sooner it materializes; we will not experience anything we do not allow into our experience through our beliefs or expectations; there are no coincidences; etc. These 102
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principles are said to operate in every level of existence (dreams, between lives, astral planes, etc.). Abraham refers to this as the Law of Attraction, or like attracts like. Seth goes so far as to describe "electromagnetic energy units," smaller than subatomic particles, which are produced by our consciousness and drawn toward locations in the space around us called "coordination points." From there they form what we perceive as physical mater in space and time. Fortunately, it isn't necessary to understand or believe such theoretical conditions, since we have apparently been creating our reality all along without the need to grasp such concepts. Beliefs are ideas we consider to be true. Because we take them as aspects of reality our beliefs resonate strongly on a vibrational level. This is why Seth places a great deal of emphasis on the importance of beliefs in regard to creating one's own reality. There are three basic elements involved in deliberately creating reality. First is the thought, idea or visual image, whatever way it is you choose to represent desired events or conditions. This determines what it is you are creating. The second element is the emotional energy attached to the thought or idea. The more feeling you put into an idea the sooner it materializes. In this case the thought and emotion are always connected. The third element is expectation. You must expect or believe an event or condition will actually materialize in order to make it happen. This is the point where most of us run into trouble. According to Abraham, the desired condition should be expected as "the next logical step" in your experience. The desired effects can only occur, however, if the energy is not blocked or negated with conflicting beliefs. If you concentrate upon wanting to take a vacation to some remote island paradise, for example, and pour your heart into imagining being there, then turn around and acknowledge your belief that it simply isn't something you can afford to do, then that belief will prevent the experience from occurring. When we attempt to visualize having the conditions we desire, knowing full well that those conditions do not presently exist, under normal circumstances our efforts are immediately negated by conflicting beliefs. 103
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When we want something, we automatically focus on the belief that we do not possess that which is wanted. Although the Seth books provide exercises we can apply to help us alter our beliefs, beliefs can be incredibly difficult to change without first perceiving supporting evidence in our experience. For example, no matter how sincerely you try to believe you are a duck right now it is highly unlikely you will sprout feathers and fly to the nearest pond. The theory says that if you honestly believed you could do that, completely, you could indeed become a duck. (Carlos Castaneda explains how he turned himself into a crow using similar methods.) Most of us would be quite content to create more money, more free time, great love and excellent health. But if you believe you aren't experiencing these desired conditions, then you can't change those conditions until you change the belief -- and, according to reason, you can't change the belief until your experience changes. "Catch 22." As long as we are convinced that the world is as solid and out there as it appears, we cannot get around reason telling us what is and isn’t real. If you think about the conditions most people would like to experience in life, it becomes rather obvious that many of us don't have the sort of life we wish we did. How often do we wish we had more money than we do, or better health or a better relationship? If "belief-land" actually works, shouldn't we be experiencing these conditions if we think about them all the time? The truth is most of us don't think about the conditions we want all the time. Rather, we concentrate upon the lack of those conditions. The more worried we are about whether we can meet our bills, for example, the more difficult meeting those bills seems to become. The trick would be to worry less about money in order to "create" more money coming into one's life. Oddly, many women will go shopping when money gets tight, perhaps due to an intuitive recognition that not worrying about money is a good way to cause less financial stress. On the other hand, simply not being concerned when the money runs out is irrational and can lead to devastating financial circumstances. 104
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It would seem there is no way around this problem of conflicting beliefs, but there is. The technique is to place emotional energy on a desired event or condition in a way which doesn't cancel that energy with opposing beliefs. One way to do this is to have absolute faith, which is basically the method taught by most organized religions. The power of prayer can produce amazing results. I used a similar technique successfully during my "Jesus freak" period, when in just two months of constantly, mentally chanting, "Thank you Jesus. Thank you Lord," everything I wanted at that time came into my experience. The constant chanting prevented me from dwelling on my negative expectations. It also turned me into a smiling, mental robot, and the religious dogma attached to the belief system proved to be too irrational and confusing to me. If faith in your interpretation of God will work for you, no problem. You can use your belief in a higher power to go beyond the apparent limitations of reason. Faith works. If you have it, use it! It is possible to "walk in the light," to feel in tune with spiritual power, even if the higher power you believe in does not actually exist. I personally need something more rational than faith alone. The Abraham-Hicks material suggests a simple, three-part technique which shifts the emphasis away from directly altering beliefs to changing our thoughts and emotions instead, which in turn alter our beliefs. First you write what it is you want on a sheet of paper, then below that write why you want it. On the back of the page you then write why you believe you will have it. Focusing on why you want something causes you to visualize what you desire with strong emotional energy. It also avoids the question of whether you can actually have that something, which (hopefully) never enters the picture at this point. After you have clearly and emotionally imagined what you want, by asking why you want it, it is necessary to allow what you want into your experience. You have to let it in by expecting or honestly believing you will experience it. The desired event or condition must seem like "the next logical step." That is why it is necessary to write why you expect to get what you want on the back of the paper. 105
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There is a great deal of value in actually writing these things. If you review what you have written, every day, and contemplate the reasons why you expect to achieve the desired results, you become more alert to opportunities that may otherwise escape your notice. Reviewing and editing your lists daily helps clarify exactly what you are intending to create and helps you find practical solutions for eliminating any doubts. As you review why you believe you will get what you want, you define why getting it has become the next logical step. Once your awareness of the situation has brought you to this point, you're done. The belief is firmly in place and all doubts are eliminated. And the next most likely thing to happen is that a lot of negative crud will probably come your way. I have discovered though my own experience, and from observing others, that whenever we make a significant decision to change our way of thinking, the universe will often test that decision. We experience events which cause us to compare our previous belief with the new belief. Say you decide it's time to break up with a lover. The next most likely thing to happen is that your romantic partner could become very loving and pleasant to be with, or you might encounter someone who recently went through a break-up and they are miserable. Decide to quit your job and suddenly you hear that the bad economy is resulting in job cuts everywhere. That sort of thing. This "belief testing" can lead to serious doubts, but if you are prepared for it you will see that it is actually great news. If you decide to change your beliefs in a certain area, and soon things get even worse in that area, then such experience becomes very clear evidence that thoughts and beliefs actually do affect reality. Just because you didn't get what you intended it does not alter the fact that changing your way of thinking caused a change in the area of life you were thinking about. Just continue your exercises knowing you are definitely affecting the area in question so better results can be expected. Another thing that can get in the way of deliberately creating reality are our "reasons" for believing we do not deserve what we want. I used to joke with my friends, telling them that if I succeeded 106
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in creating a sack full of money falling out of the sky, it would be a bag of quarters the size of a truck and land on my head. Many of us hold "hidden" or "invisible" beliefs that we are somehow undeserving, or otherwise incapable, of experiencing the conditions we truly wish were a part of our lives. These beliefs are not really hidden, since they cross our mind nearly every day, but they often escape our notice because we accept them as normal, everyday facts. Many of us feel we don't deserve financial success, for example, because we feel like we aren't smart enough, that we are too lazy, that the world is against us, that we are destined to be poor, that there is something wrong with having lots of money while others starve, etc. These kinds of ideas are woven into our own self image and feel so much a part of who we are that we don't realize they are nothing but ideas. Blanket beliefs like these are simply thoughts, and they can be changed as easily as any other thought, but only if you believe you can change them. In order to change limiting beliefs, simply look for evidence that what you have believed isn't necessarily true. In terms of financial success, for example, it is obvious that lots of "undeserving" people have tons of money, and those who work the hardest often seem to have less money. Ask yourself what value there is in holding negative beliefs in somehow being unworthy. There is no value in such beliefs. They won't make you more kind, compassionate or understanding. Being kind, etc., makes you that way. The challenge of resolving conflicting beliefs is a fundamental part of human experience. All of us are engaged in this activity long before we understand the concept of deliberately creating reality. Questions regarding choice of career, religious philosophy and relationship goals are obvious situations where we analyze our beliefs in order to make long term decisions. But the same process is involved with all of our decision making, from how much to spend on a loaf of bread to what clothes to wear today. Our decisions are based upon our beliefs about ourselves, our world, and the values we wish to express. When our beliefs are not in conflict, decisions come easily. We buy a particular loaf of bread without giving it much thought. When our beliefs are in 107
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conflict it seems no matter how hard we try we can't seem to make progress in that area. The weight won't come off or the good job simply won't materialize. Consider the situation of a single woman who would like to be involved in a romantic relationship. What she truly desires is to be deeply in love with an attractive, intelligent, kind, successful man, to experience "love like in the movies" and live happily ever after. But she is significantly overweight, has a small child which some men may consider an unwanted responsibility, and she doesn't trust most men in general because she feels they often lie. She believes that due to her flaws, the sort of man she desires would not be interested in someone like her, that if she did happen to meet such a man, she couldn't trust his motivations because no man of such obvious quality would be willing to be involved with someone as "imperfect" as herself. These beliefs conflict with her desire to find "The One." Depending on when you ask her what she's looking for in terms of relationships, she might say she wants to fall in love and settle down, or she prefers "just dating," or isn't concerned with relationships at all. The answers vary depending on which of her conflicting beliefs are most apparent to her at a given time. Deliberately creating reality requires resolving conflicting beliefs. It means deciding what you want, but making that decision from the perspective of understanding that you can create any sort of condition you choose. In regard to our lonely lady, the first thing she would do is choose to find the "perfect" man for her. No one is without flaws, but it is possible to find true love if you believe it is. Being clearly aware of her goal, she would then work to eliminate any beliefs which conflict with her desire. Beliefs such as being unattractive and therefore unworthy of true love must be discarded, one way or another. One must believe one is worthy of the desired conditions. If you have believed you can not find the kind of mate you desire because you are overweight, ugly, poor, stupid or whatever, realize there are people in the world possessing those qualities, or worse, who are happily in love. Even if such ideas about oneself reflect the truth in your present experience, more positive ideas will 108
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eventually be reflected in the same way once you change them. If you are alone, start with throwing out the idea of not deserving love, which is obviously false since you could fall in love tomorrow if the right person came along. All of us are worthy of the conditions we desire, because, as Seth tells us, no one is handing out worthiness certificates. What matters is being the person we truly want to be, and if that requires making some changes, we change, because we know that is what we truly want for ourselves. Much of this book in intended to provide insights which can help in the quest to be one's best self. When it comes to areas like health, romance, experiencing greater awareness, etc., consider the value of taking clear cut steps to resolve your conflicting beliefs. You can make a list of limiting beliefs, then by reviewing the facts, seeking evidence to support the new, desired beliefs, you can cross off many limiting ideas which serve no value in your experience. Those discarded beliefs then need to be replaced with more positive ideas which you can honestly believe to be true. If a person has a terminal illness, for example, it may seem there is no way that altering one's beliefs can change the facts. But take a closer look at all the facts. There are vast numbers of documented cases where people with fatal diseases have fully recovered via spontaneous healing. Sometimes this occurs at religious meetings, through the "laying on of hands," after someone falls in love, after changing their career, or for no apparent reason at all. It is likely that every single case of spontaneous healing involves a sudden and complete change in the person's beliefs about the condition of his or her body. Seth tells us that those who have faith in the modern medical system can be cured via it's procedures, while those who don't possess such a belief are more likely not to recover, or to trade one illness for another. The simple fact that spontaneous healing is known to occur means that any person believing there is no hope whatsoever is in error. Such a belief does not represent the true facts. With that in mind it becomes possible to search for other facts supporting a belief in recovery, and when the facts (beliefs) indicate recovery is likely, recovery can be expected to occur. 109
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This doesn't mean that everyone with a fatal illness will recover from it. All of us die eventually, and sometimes we choose to do so through a chronic illness for reasons not apparent to our normal consciousness. Any sudden, total recovery from a terminal illness also requires a sudden, total change in belief. Physical matter is altered in such cases, and under normal conditions most of us may have difficulty accepting such a radical change in our beliefs, though such cures happen quite often. Even if one falls short of grasping the ability to cause "miraculous healing," in many cases a review of more positive facts can easily lead to a normal yet rapid recovery. Long ago I chose to believe that I would deal with my challenges in the outside world rather than through chronic physical ailments. Even when I thought all this creating reality stuff was a bunch of bull I refused to mess with that belief. Some part of me truly believed I could remain relatively healthy so long as I didn't doubt that belief, and my general health has remained quite good in spite of a poor diet and lack of exercise over many of those years. I think most people have such areas in their belief systems where we simply do not allow doubt to interfere. While it is definitely possible to create amazing circumstances simply by altering one's beliefs and expectations, taking responsible action is generally the most efficient way to produce desired results. Whenever you ask yourself what the most practical behavior would be in a given situation, you see very clearly what your beliefs are in that area. Perhaps it is possible to start your car simply by believing it will start on command, but turning the key in the ignition is what you already believe will work. Acting responsibly means using the beliefs you have in ways that you honestly expect will produce the results you intend. People who are rational, practical and objective, with no faith at all in anything spiritual, can sometimes create reality with amazing effectiveness because they are so clearly aware of what they believe will or will not work. If you are ever confused regarding how to go about improving a situation, you can always do the most logical thing and know you are working directly with your existing beliefs. Knowing we affect the conditions of our lives through our thoughts and emotions is a great advantage, however. We do not 110
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have to accept current, limiting beliefs as our only reality. We can use our imagination to believe we are capable of experiencing great things, and learn to expect wonderful "coincidences" to come our way. As Seth tells us, "there are no coincidences." Another challenge involves the attempt to believe we create our own reality while living in a world where "obvious" cause and effect seems to be the only way things work. Resolving this apparent conflict requires personally observing evidence which convinces you that we do indeed create our own reality. Those who are capable of "great faith" can side step this conflict long enough for their faith to produce the necessary evidence. Others can simply ignore "objective evidence" for a few minutes each day while they place emotional energy on visualizing themselves experiencing desired conditions. If this is done without making comparisons between desired beliefs and current conditions, the results will provide the necessary evidence. But you can’t spend a few minutes visualizing what you want then go around thinking in negative terms for the rest of the day. If you are working toward creating desired results in a particular area, it’s OK if you find yourself considering negative possibilities that might occur. Being rational and objective means you don’t avoid unpleasant possibilities as if they could never happen. The trick is to pay close attention to how you end your contemplation of any particular subject. The last thought you think regarding any situation is generally the one reflecting what you honestly believe. Make that last thought a positive one. Using faith, or focusing more on emotion rather than directly changing beliefs, may work wonderfully well for some people. Others may discover they simply can't believe this stuff without clear cut evidence that we have been creating our own reality all along. The evidence is there if you look for it. One experiment Seth suggests is to observe your experience and then ask yourself what beliefs a person would need to hold in order to create that reality. In other words, you reverse the creating reality process by tracing your experience back to associated beliefs. You will almost certainly see that your beliefs and experience are in complete agreement. Of course, what we think will happen doesn't 111
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always occur, but we rarely experience anything we don't believe is possible. Reason itself is a process of forming beliefs by observing our experience, so even if this doesn't prove beliefs create reality, the correlation of belief and experience is nearly always there. Another way to see how "coincidences" are created from beliefs and expectations is to observe patterns in the experience of others. For example, some women seem to always end up with men who beat them, some people consistently win when they gamble, and we all know people with really good or really bad luck. If you talk to such people you will see that their attitudes are aligned with their experience. People with great luck are usually optimistic, while those with bad luck are pessimistic, etc. Not long ago I experienced a "click" where all this creating reality stuff finally became absolutely real to me. Undeniable evidence was achieved by observing the experience of a good friend, Greg. He has training as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and always carries a "jump kit" the size of a back pack, filled with medical supplies, in his car. Even if he borrows a car he will make sure he has the jump kit with him, which to me seems somewhat obsessive. "I'm a good person to have around in an emergency," he says, which is a clear reflection of his belief. Ask yourself how many times you have come upon an injury accident on the road before medical help arrived. I think I may have encountered this situation one time, and others I have spoken with say they have come across such accidents very rarely; either never, or perhaps one or two times during their entire lives. My friend seems to show up on the scene of an injury accident at least half a dozen times a year! I realized this "coincidence" when he helped at two auto accidents just a week apart. Pure chance alone can not account for such experience. As far as I am concerned this is conclusive evidence that beliefs create "coincidences." If you can find similar evidence in your own experience or that of your friends you will realize that we are not victims of circumstances thrust upon us by forces beyond our control. It's a wonderful feeling to finally understand the power of our beliefs and expectations, even if one has yet to alter one's experience deliberately. 112
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Clarity of purpose brings about favorable coincidences. You may have noticed times in your past when you have become absolutely determined to accomplish some particular goal, and observed that the moment your intent became unwavering, resistance to your intent seemed to melt away. Sales people experience this sort of condition quite often, as do most of us when we fully understand the absolute need to solve some problem we are facing. If you search through your memory you should be able to find several occasions when your clarity of purpose seemed to plow through previous obstacles like a bulldozer, because the obstacles which seemed so insurmountable simply disappeared. Such experiences are examples of how clearly focused intent (beliefs) combined with emotional energy can produce favorable "coincidences."
A Creating Reality Experiment If your primary mode of transportation involves automobiles, here's an experiment you can try in order to practice creating a specific type of "coincidence." It has to do with finding parking places. Whether or not you succeed in finding great places to park your car when you run errands is not a serious concern. It isn't going to make your life wonderful if you succeed or create a disaster if you fail. Because of that, you don't risk anything but a potential blow to your ego if you fail, yet this exercise could enable you to "turn information into knowledge by perceiving it as a reality in your own experience." This experiment can make it possible for you acquire the evidence needed in order to truly understand that you actually do create your own reality. It is also a way to practice the steps involved in creating reality in general. First, ask yourself how often you have been able to park within the first three parking spots in rows perpendicular to the building when you go shopping, run errands, etc. My guess is it's about thirty percent of the time or less. It seems everyone wants to park as close to the building as possible, so those spaces are nearly 113
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always full. The experiment is to see if you can create one of those spaces being available every time. Let's review the steps involved in deliberately creating reality. Step one is creating a goal. Step two is placing emotional energy on the idea of experiencing the desired event or condition. (Clarity of purpose infuses emotional energy into the idea of accomplishing your goal.) Step three is allowing the desired event or condition into your experience by eliminating any conflicting beliefs. In this case the goal is to find one of the first three parking spaces in any row available. You can do this even if you are only a passenger in a car. The goal is to experience success every time you are looking for a parking place. We are not playing around here, we are out to create "coincidences" deliberately, to acquire evidence which could result in the ability to dramatically change our lives for the better. Becoming totally determined to succeed at this experiment is the second step. It infuses your desire with emotional energy. Step three is a l l o w i n g the desired conditions to be experienced -- by eliminating conflicting beliefs. This is accomplished by reviewing the facts while looking for evidence to support your desired belief. In this case we can observe that most people want to park as close to the building as possible. That means people are leaving those parking spaces more often than they leave any others, so chances are good that you can arrive just after someone else has made a desired parking space available. Re-evaluating the "facts" can often eliminate what were once conflicting beliefs, what were once the "facts" to you. This is an example of "the power of positive thinking." Once you believe it is likely that the desired parking spaces will be open, it takes very little faith to believe you can consistently create a "coincidence" where you happen to arrive shortly after other shoppers have left the "most often made available parking spaces." Those parking spaces won't always be available unless you believe they will be, so "faith" or belief is necessary in order to get desired results every time, but you can do it. 114
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If you decide to try this experiment, first spend a few minutes firmly committing yourself to creating this reality. Become very determined to achieve success. Then each time you need to find a place to park, just as you approach a parking lot, remind yourself that you expect to find such the desired parking space available, and look for one with that expectation in mind. You don't have to think about this at all until you are about to look for a place to park. Keep in mind that you are not attempting to control the universe so that you get what you want. It is simply a matter of expecting a particular "coincidence" to occur. If you should pull into a parking lot and feel a twinge of doubt about finding the desired parking space, don't try to pretend you didn't feel that doubt. Instead, use that doubt as a trigger to jump one-hundred percent into the belief that you will find the desired space. For example. "Darn, it's crowded. To heck with that! I want to amaze myself at how well this works!" Get "angry" with yourself for having a momentary lapse, if necessary, and use that energy to demand that the space be there just like it should be. If you can keep up this sort of feeling for a few seconds that should be enough time to find your desired parking place before the doubt can take over. When I say get "angry" I really mean supremely determined. That sort of determination almost feels like anger in the moment it is focused upon. A defensive lineman on a professional football team could feel this sort of determination as he charges forward to sack the quarterback. Rather than let a moment of doubt undermine your efforts, use that moment to inspire your faith for the few seconds you really need it. (This same sort of determination can produce amazing results when applied to creating other conditions as well.) I did this experiment for a period of two months and only failed to find the intended parking space one time in about ninety attempts. The failure occurred on a Saturday afternoon at WalMart, when my rational mind insisted that success would be impossible. The next Saturday I was more determined and the closest parking spot to the door (other than the zillion handicapped spaces) was open. One way of looking at situations like this is "control is predictability." If you can predict that a condition will be the way 115
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you intend it to be, and the condition consistently aligns with your prediction, it can be thought of as a form of control. Take for example, turning on the tap at your sink. You perform an action which you can predict to produce the desired result -- water flowing from the tap. The desired results occur consistently so one can think of this as having control. It is possible, however, that the water supply may at times be shut off, when turning the tap does not produce the desired result and no control exists. The feeling of predictability is associated with the absence of conflicting beliefs. When it comes to something like creating parking spaces, reinforce your positive results with strong emotional energy, and downplay any negative results as simply failing to have the proper focus at that time. But the goal is to find the desired parking spaces every time, so be sure to take that into account rather than risk losing your objectivity by ignoring negative evidence.
Testing the Creating Reality Theory I spent year after year trying to come up with a way to test whether or not creating reality actually works. All I wanted was some simple experiment anyone could do which would always produce the same results. As far as I can tell, no such test will ever be possible, and here's why. Take the exercise above into consideration. You pull into a parking lot and "expect" to find the desired parking space. That word, "expect," is loaded. (It's meaning isn't constant.) Would a person expect to find the desired parking space just as surely as one would expect water to flow when turning on a tap? If that were true, there would be no need to test the creating reality theory, since you would be just as certain of finding the parking space as you were of getting water from the tap. No one bothers to test whether their belief will enable them to wash their dishes. If, in this case, it just happened that the space was not available, it would seem just as odd and just as understandable as water not flowing from the tap. Something must have gone wrong. The belief wasn't fully focused upon, just as the water supply may have been shut off. Whether one finds the parking space or not would make no difference. 116
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If you don't fully expect the desired parking space to be available, whether or not it shows up is irrelevant. Not fully expecting it to be there means you are not properly conducting the experiment. Not being able to test the creating reality theory caused me endless difficulties in my attempts to apply it. I am just now realizing that such a test is not necessary. If the proper conditions are created even belief is not necessary. We have been creating our reality all along without any need for conscious belief or complicated metaphysical theories. Most of us have also been doing so without direction or purpose, bouncing between desire and conflicting beliefs, sometimes making progress, sometimes falling backward into less desirable conditions when our negative beliefs or lack of responsibility gets the upper hand. The parking space experiment is not a test then. It is a challenge. It is a way to see if one can hold the proper attitudes and achieve the intended results. If you find yourself pulling into a desired parking space every time, time after time, you will have learned something invaluable which could enhance the quality of your life dramatically. If you don't get the expected results, it proves nothing. You could not be certain your intentions were not clouded with "invisible" conflicting beliefs.
Creative Visualization The greatest challenge involved in the deliberate creation of reality is dealing with that "catch 22" of conflicting beliefs. Trying to believe you weigh 50 pounds less than you know you do, or attempting to convince yourself that you are fabulously rich when you can barely make your bills, simply won't work. You can not lie to yourself. Self deception always results in an eventual confrontation with the truth and the time between now and then will only be wasted. Looking for facts which support your desired belief, or acting in a purely practical manner in order to make use of your existing beliefs, will enable you to remain honest and change your beliefs accordingly. 117
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Creative visualization is another way of dealing with conflicting beliefs -- by side-stepping them entirely. This is accomplished by placing emotional energy on a desired belief without any attention being given to the current situation. Eventually it will become necessary to connect your present moment with the desired conditions, but in the mean time "coincidental" opportunities will appear and change the apparent facts. In terms of financial conditions, for example, let's say that you would like to hold a belief such as, "I have all the money I need and plenty more." You can repeat that phrase till all the cows in the world come home but it won't do any good if you are certain it is not true for you. One possible approach is to create a belief that the desired conditions are definitely true at some point in your experience, then concentrate on how you feel when that is true, but without separating now from then in your mind. Creative visualization is an exercise where you mentally and emotionally imagine having the condition you desire. Abraham suggests spending fifteen to twenty minutes, three times a day, allowing your imagination to create what he calls a "virtual reality." While performing creative visualization, there should be absolutely no effort to connect the imagined conditions with your present circumstances. Nor should you consider that you are pretending the desired conditions exist. In my opinion, the best way to approach this sort of exercise is to imagine that you are "psychically perceiving" a reality that actually exists in your "probable future." According to Seth, any strongly imagined experience becomes a "probable reality." It exists, right now, in the "spacious present," along with all other potential realities one can imagine. The important thing here is capturing the feeling of what you imagine as being a reality rather than fantasy. It doesn't have to be a reality in your present to be a reality in your future. If we assume that Seth is correct, and probable realities do in fact exist, the act of imagining is at the same time the act of creating and perceiving a probable reality. In any case, the desired conditions are real, even if they only exist as real mental images and genuine feelings. The trick is to explore your desire while feeling that it has reality. That way you do not separate your imagined conditions from what you 118
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consider reality, even when you go back to a world where those conditions do not yet exist. Believing the conditions honestly exist, either in your future or in some imagined dimension, avoids the problem of conflicting beliefs which otherwise negates all the creative visualization you could possibly do. Just be careful not to compare what you want with what you believe you have. All of these "mental gymnastics" are simply meant to allow you to visualize desired conditions with the feeling that they actually exist. Let's apply this to the idea of creating long term financial prosperity. Visualize the home you will live in, the clothes you will wear, the things you will do, etc. Be detailed. Imagine you are in that home and think about how you spend your days. Imagine what you might have for dinner, which friends you might entertain. Look at the kitchen, the living room, the yard, the vehicles in your garage. Be as detailed as possible, believing these conditions actually exist in your future. Then in your mind, believe you are peering into that someday right now. For ten to twenty minutes, two or three times a day, sit with your eyes closed and picture yourself as you are then, with all the material possessions you honestly desire. Mentally describe the desired condition with a variety of different phrases that feel natural and comfortable, then stick with the phrase which feels best. “I love living in such a wonderful home,” is a possible phrase you might use. Repeat your selected phrase as you imaginatively poke about in all the nooks and crannies of your dream home. Do this not as a way of imagining your future, but of perceiving conditions that actually exist, as if you were able to project your consciousness to another location, observing events happening now in the "spacious present." As you stroll around in your dream home, allow yourself to be "pleasantly surprised" by features that just pop into your mind. The kitchen table may be glass rather than oak, or you may find a large tree in the yard which you hadn't expected. That sort of thing. Seth tells us, "Beliefs changed overnight can bring literally awesome results."
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If you should find yourself comparing the desired situation with less desirable, present conditions, stop doing the exercise and start over again later. I certainly don't want to put a damper on anyone's ability to believe whatever they please, but should you find yourself having difficulty believing that amazingly ideal conditions are in your near future, consider creating the best possible conditions you believe are likely to occur within, say, thirty days. Being "realistic" means working with your present beliefs, and success on a small scale can provide the evidence you may need to go for the whole banana. The key is to create what you honestly believe is possible. The fewer conflicting beliefs involved the greater your probability of success. Any sort of specific condition can be created using creative visualization. If you are overweight, perceive yourself at your ideal weight. See yourself in new, well fitting clothes. Imagine how nice you look, and how confident you feel, as you socialize with friends and new acquaintances. Picture yourself standing proudly in front of a mirror, "naked" with the "heavy clothing" of your excess fat removed. Above all feel how happy you are to have achieved your goal, to feel confident and truly content with your appearance, and to have achieved all this so easily. Of course it will be easy. Why create a reality where it is difficult? As you perform your creative visualization exercises you will not be comparing your desire with the present situation. You will mentally and emotionally experience the rewards you desire. This experience feels so nice and is so clearly appreciated that when you return to your daily activities you will be inspired to behave in ways which will result in the imagined experience becoming your present reality. Those wishing to lose weight will naturally become less hungry, develop appetites for less fattening foods and crave physical activity. The desire to experience the imagined conditions will produce a greater reward than indulging in behavior which does not lead to that reward. This happens naturally whenever anyone firmly commits to achieving a new goal, unless they insist on believing the goal requires self sacrifice. Not smoking is another example. Anyone who has a difficult time quitting the habit does not want to be a non-smoker. Such 120
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people feel they "should" quit for a variety of reasons, but have not visualized themselves being happy and content as non-smokers. If anyone truly believes they would be happier not smoking, they would find it difficult to continue the habit. The same thing applies to alcoholics, drug addicts and couch potatoes who spend most of their free time in front of a television. If such people truly believed they would be happier if they changed their behavior, nothing could stop them from changing it. "How many psychotherapists does it take to change a light bulb?" "Only one, but the light bulb must really want to change" (anonymous). Remember that one must eliminate conflicting beliefs. These are not always "facts" which seem forced upon us from the real world, but are sometimes deliberately accepted choices. For example, an overweight woman may place value in being fat because it prevents unwanted attention from men and causes less jealousy from other women. Some men may value being overweight because it keeps them from being pushed around, etc. Alcoholics, drug addicts and couch potatoes may have a belief that their behavior is better than being bored with a life otherwise devoid of reward. So long as one's problem feels like a solution, no amount of effort will cause the behavior to change. The real solution is to recognize that any sort of life one can imagine is actually possible. Imagine a better life, believe it is truly possible, then look for facts which indicate it is within one's reach. When more positive beliefs are accepted, behavior will alter accordingly. The best way to improve overall conditions is to concentrate on feeling pleasant, optimistic vibrations. It isn't necessary to deliberately visualize specific events or conditions in order to affect "coincidences." The visualizations occur naturally as one imagines a happy future. Those with a strong belief in God can simply hand their desire over to the higher power and trust that it will become a reality. Abraham suggests that the ideal attitude to hold in regards to creating reality is, "satisfaction with the way things are and eagerness for more." I can't imagine a better way to put it. In order to be satisfied with the way things are, one must appreciate the good things in one's experience. An attitude of 121
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gratitude is possible when one considers how much one values being healthy, having a place to live, food to eat, good friends, eyes that see, and much more. Let go of your petty resentments. More than anything else, a feeling of gratitude can create the proper conditions for experiencing even more to be grateful for. A feeling of deep satisfaction with the way things are puts one's frame of reference in a positive place where expecting things to improve is not such a big leap from one's present position. Appreciation creates pleasant, optimistic vibrations, and it is that state of being which draws more things to appreciate into one's experience. When coming from a place of true appreciation, it's simply a matter of imagining great things coming your way and having no concern at all for when they will happen -- because conditions are quite OK as it is. When things do improve, you may not even notice because one is used to life being just fine anyway. Frustrations may still develop, but they don't last as long if one remembers to pay attention and take responsibility for one's thoughts. Limiting, negative vibrations such as anger, guilt, blame, stress, etc., automatically prevent more desirable conditions from manifesting in one's experience. Most negative vibrations require a belief in others having more control than you do, a belief in your own lack of control or responsibility. If you honestly believe you create your own reality you would not entertain such thoughts. Vibrations such as joy, enthusiasm, comfort and love open oneself to experiencing more pleasant future circumstances. "Coincidences" often come in the form of chance encounters with other people. Don't be afraid to create new connections if it appears some positive possibility could come from it. Look for ways you and others can benefit each other mutually. Expand your network of association. You never know when someone might connect you to someone else where mutual benefits can be achieved. Cultivate an attitude of gratitude, believe amazing "coincidences" are possible, be alert to notice them when they occur, and follow through. That is really all there is to improving overall conditions in life. The creative visualization or "virtual reality" exercises will enable you to create specific conditions. If, like myself, you do well 122
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in some areas but seem to blow it in others, it means "invisible" conflicting beliefs still exist. These negative beliefs are not actually invisible, but are considered so “matter of fact” that we do not realized they are just ideas like any other. Experiencing difficulty in creating reality simply means we have more to learn, and learning is essentially what physical life is all about. As you go about your day, try to capture the feeling of having what you desire. This can be done without comparing what you want with what you have, because a feeling is not the reality. You can feel like you have all the money you desire, for example, without having to spend any money. The feeling is just a sensation, not a statement of fact. Experiencing such a feeling, consistently, may be the best way to create the associated reality. Seth tells us that we should not continuously look for results. When a desired belief is firmly in place, the results will certainly follow. Being prematurely concerned about seeing results will only undermine your intent by emphasizing conflicting evidence. To fully understand the subject of creating your own reality it may be necessary to read the materials by Seth, Abraham or others, but the information presented here should be enough to get you started with some experiments, and results, of your own. Finding others who share an interest in these ideas can also be a great help. Perhaps you can experiment with creating the presence of such people in your life? The next chapter deals with the apparent conflict between "predetermined life challenges" and the ability to deliberately alter conditions in the present.
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Chapter Seven:
Astrology, Predestination and Free Will It would appear that fate, destiny, astrology and precognitive psychic predictions are all concepts which directly conflict with the ideas of free will and creating one’s own reality. For example, if the position of the planets can be used to foretell a person’s future, that future would be predestined, and all the creative visualization in the world couldn’t change things. I have been a non-professional astrologer for over thirty years so I have some experience regarding this apparent conflict. In my opinion, astrological influences do indeed exist, since I have done countless astrological readings and have seen the evidence repeatedly. Personality characteristics in particular are clearly expressed in a person’s natal chart. But it appears to me that while astrology represents a rough guide describing challenges and opportunities, an individual’s beliefs will take priority. The following example will demonstrate this point. There are some casino’s about 120 miles away from where I live, and for several years I had planned to go gambling when a very good planetary alignment occurred. (For those who understand 124
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astrological terms, the main aspect was transiting Jupiter conjunct natal Uranus in my second house.) Within five minutes of my arrival I hit the highest jackpot possible ($400) on the 25-cent slot machine I was playing. While I was waiting for an attendant to pay me, I hit the machine next to it for $70. I left that casino and shortly after arriving at another I walked out still $50 more ahead. At that point I began to doubt that such great luck could be expected to continue, and it didn’t. By the end of the night I went home with only $200 more than I started with. But the astrology was right. I won. I went back a few days later when the Moon and other planets were in even more favorable positions. I was “creating parking spaces” then, but when I pulled up to the building my “created” parking spot did not materialize. My attitude went into a disappointing tail spin. (That’s when I ended the parking space experiment.) I lost the $200 I had won earlier. Astrology was not so right. My interpretation of the situation is this. Over the course of several years I had emotionally anticipated that I would win at a particular time. Thus I “created the reality” of winning on that first occasion. If I had not been aware of the astrological influences, chances are I would have won then anyway, since astrology does appear to work when such major planetary positions are aligned. But my doubt created an end to the luck that first time -- my presently held beliefs displaced the astrological influence. This effect of belief overriding astrology was also involved during the second trip, when astrology still indicated winning but I lost instead. I believe the same situation applies in regard to precognitive psychic predictions. A psychic could be in tune with energy associated with probable future events, or might intuitively perceive the beliefs held by a person and make predictions accordingly. When beliefs or expectations change, so does the “probable future” we then experience. This may explain why even the best psychics can make mistakes. Luck would appear to be a result of one’s attitudes and beliefs. While it seems that some people are simply “born lucky,” if you observe the attitudes of such people you will almost certainly discover someone who is genuinely optimistic. It is possible that 125
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someone could have good luck in some areas while often appearing grumpy and cynical, but such people are likely to have complicated belief systems. The outwardly presented attitude of pessimism would need to be offset by a firm belief in things eventually working out as desired. In a similar way, some people who always present an optimistic front could be haunted by feelings of unworthiness, the conflicting beliefs then undermining all their sincere efforts. The idea of fate or predestination, that some events or circumstances are “pre-programmed” and must be experienced regardless of our beliefs, is in conflict with the idea of creating one’s own reality. There does in fact seem to be evidence that some of the significant conditions we experience are “destined” to occur. Many people, for example, are convinced that “soul mates” exist, which implies that some lovers are “fated to meet.” There is also the possibility that parents choose their children, and vice versa. A life of poverty or chronic illness could also be a condition we are “fated” to experience -- unless we change our own fate, that is. The general belief among New Age types is that between lives we create “sacred contracts” with ourselves and others in order to experience certain conditions meant to help us grow and develop. If you look back at the most significant relationships and conditions you have experienced in your past, you should see that many of these experiences were critical to the development of your present personality. One can view this either as “predetermined conditions” or simply as chance events. If we create our own reality, such conditions could not result from chance alone. But how can we create our own reality in the present if we are obligated to experience certain conditions agreed upon before life? The answer is found in the simultaneous nature of time when viewed from a perspective other than that of physical beings. All events occur in the “spacious present” and that includes events between lives. The agreements formed between lives are being formed now, so they can be altered now. Our between life consciousness would be aware of our present moment because that consciousness is the larger personality which experiences all of our lifetimes. It has a broader perspective due to it’s greater realm of experience, and as a result can appreciate value 126
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in the experience of limitations, for example, which appear to us simply as undesired hardships. Thus, between lives this portion of our identity may choose to experience a variety of “undesirable” conditions in order to fulfill some larger sense of value. Consider the idea of being totally selfish and getting everything one wants. If this goal is constantly experienced, happiness results. But so does the sense of boredom and isolation, which eventually results in the inability to derive happiness from gaining all one desires without effort. Our between life self would be aware that value is increased if one is not certain of achieving a particular goal every time. It would desire the experience of a challenge, and so create limitations for the ego personality to overcome in order to derive greater happiness. So when it comes to creating our own reality, we must be aware of the greater perspective involved. The limitations we experience exist for very specific reasons, and if the desired results of those limitations can be achieved without suffering, our greater self would have no qualms about allowing us to experience more rewarding lives. We are, after all, our greater self. “The present is the point of power.” (Seth) We create our own reality. All time is simultaneous. Between life agreements are being formed now and can be altered now. By pondering the potential value to be gained by experiencing our limitations, we can learn to overcome them by realizing the lessons they are meant to teach us. When the lesson is learned there is no longer any value in continuing to experience the limitations. You are your greater self, and you can let yourself off the hook once you understand why you needed the limitations in the first place. So yes, it appears that “fate” or predestination exists, but we also create our own reality. There is no conflict. We are personally responsible for the limitations we experience, and we can eliminate them once we understand they no longer have value. While all of this seems to make sense, whether or not it is true is something you will need to decide on your own.
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Chapter Eight:
Adventures in Dreamland All of us are accustomed to experiencing events as things that are outside ourselves, that happen to us. The metaphysical universe is easier to understand as something which is a part of us, intimately connected with our own sense of individual being. Dreams are an example of this kind of experience. The exercises in this chapter will enable you to become more aware of your dream experience and to gain some conscious control within your dreams. This provides direct experience of events which are “non physical” in nature, which will in turn make it easier to grasp the larger, metaphysical explanations for how All That Is may really operate. Greater dream awareness will also improve your intuitive abilities. All of us are familiar with the state of dreaming from our own experience. Most people consider dreams to be random mental fantasies or imaginings, the result of a bored or sleeping mind transforming thoughts and emotions into symbolic mental images which have no objective reality. But dreams are a critical component of human existence. Test subjects who are allowed to sleep, but not dream, begin to hallucinate and lose their sanity after a period of 128
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seven to eight days, which means we can survive longer without food than without dream experience. It is difficult to overstate the significance of our dreams. It is possible to remember our dreams in much greater detail (dream recall); to become fully "awake" while continuing to experience a dream as we sleep (lucid dreaming); and to experience the same dream with other, physically alive people (double, or shared dreams). In this chapter we will concentrate on developing those three activities, but first there are other dream related phenomenon worth mentioning. From a metaphysical perspective, physical reality can be thought of as just one of an infinite number of dream realities. Theoretically, each of us actually travel through many of these other dimensions as we sleep, but we generally forget the entire experience, and its significance, immediately upon awakening. From your own experience you can observe that the environments and individuals we encounter in dreams are just as real as those we perceive physically, at least within the context of the reality where we encounter them. When our attention is withdrawn from a dream experience it appears that the dream reality ceases to exist, but the inability to perceive something doesn’t make it unreal. It is also true that physical reality ceases to be perceived while we are dreaming. Some people experience events in dreams which later occur in physical experience (precognitive dreams). Most of the time these happen spontaneously without any deliberate effort on the part of the dreamer, and many instances of déjà vu may simply be replays of experiences which occurred in earlier dreams. (Seth tells us we first create our reality in dreams prior to experiencing events physically.) It is possible to induce a precognitive dream by giving oneself a suggestion, such as, "I want to dream about how (a given situation) works out," prior to falling asleep. It is also possible to receive answers to questions in dreams. If you simply ask a question with great clarity before falling asleep, the answer will likely be given in some form. Lost objects can be found using this method, where we dream of finding the object, or the next morning we simply get a hunch about where to look. 129
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Sometimes dream events will express answers to questions in symbolic terms, or you could encounter someone in your dream who provides the answer. The Castaneda books describe what he calls "the voice of dreaming" or “the dreaming emissary” -- a voice which responds to questions asked during lucid dreams. In this particular case it is the voice of a personality from a different realm of reality which is reported to be accessible through dreams. According to Castaneda, that voice can never lie, but it has it’s own motivations and can be deceptive. In Castaneda’s case, the voice of the dreaming emissary also became available in his normal, waking state. Should you encounter any difficulty with hearing “the voice of dreaming,” according to Castaneda, you can simply ask the voice to go away until you ask it to return, and it will. In less esoteric terms, it is useful to know that solutions to your problems can often be discovered simply by asking that the solutions be given in your dreams. This often occurs naturally, hence the phrase, "I’ll sleep on it." Telepathy occurs constantly in dreams, which means it is impossible to lie to those you encounter there, or for them to lie to you. If you are having difficulties communicating with someone in your physical experience, before falling asleep you can give yourself the suggestion that you will resolve the issue with that person in the dream state. It is possible that both of you will express your true feelings in a dream and learn where you stand, even if neither of you has any recollection of the event. Individuals who have passed on to the next life can communicate with us in our dreams, though not all dream encounters with images of such people actually involve that particular person. Each of us often manufacture dream environments for our own reasons.
Dream Recall Many people believe they either don’t dream at all or do so only occasionally. The following exercises will help you to realize you have been dreaming all along, and will enable you to gain conscious control over at least some of your dream experience. 130
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You can quickly improve your memory of dream experience by performing two simple steps. The first is to give yourself the suggestion, each night as you fall asleep, that you will remember your dreams. The second step is to write down the details of your dreams immediately upon awakening. You will need to keep a pen and notebook within easy reach of your bed. At first you may have a bit of difficulty remembering your dreams if you are not in the habit of doing so, but a little persistence will produce excellent results. One must begin writing the instant you realize you are awake. Even if you can’t remember anything about your dreams, pick up the notebook and try to remember. If you simply can’t remember any dreams at all, make a note of that in your dream journal. It shouldn’t take more than a few days before images will appear and begin to spark your memory. It is very important to begin writing the moment you awaken, before concerns of the day distract your attention. Allow some extra time in your morning schedule to make your notes. If you follow these directions, within a month you should recall so many dreams that writing them all down could become time consuming. It can be very valuable to give close attention to the way one dream shifts to become another, or to become one’s waking experience. In each case, the perception of one reality is being replaced by another. Anytime you find yourself beginning to wake from a dream, you can try to go back into the dream to continue the events experienced there. If you are successful, the sounds of the physical world around you will cease to be perceived as you literally move from one world to another. You may even recall an earlier dream and be able to move between different dream worlds. It stands to reason that with sufficient practice one may learn to move from the physical world into dream experience at will. Another way to improve dream recall, and to benefit your physical and mental well being, is to sleep more than once a day. Seth suggests sleeping no more than five hours in one block, then taking a nap as needed. By doing this one’s consciousness is not removed from the body for such long periods of time. Moving in and out of dream experience more frequently enables your normal 131
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consciousness to become more familiar with the other state of awareness. Mental alertness improves, and your body has more energy since it has not been laying dormant for such long periods.
30 Days to Lucid Dreaming Once you are able to remember your dreams on a nightly basis you can begin to attempt lucid dreaming. As you fall asleep, rather than suggest that you will simply remember your dreams, give yourself the suggestion that you will become fully aware, with your normal consciousness, while dreaming. The other thing you will need to do is set an alarm to wake you up in the middle of the night. When you hear the alarm, simply shut it off and go back to sleep, but as you do, repeat the suggestion that you will become aware in your dreams. If you are very serious about experiencing lucid dreams you can set the alarm to wake you every 90 minutes, which is the duration of normal REM sleep cycles. (REM, or Rapid Eye Movement, is a physical phenomenon which occurs while an individual is dreaming -- the closed eyes move rapidly as if they are watching something.) When you first realize you are fully “awake” within a dream the excitement can sometimes cause you to wake up suddenly. In order to stabilize your awareness within the dream it helps to know what you will do the moment you realize you are dreaming. The Castaneda books are useful here. Don Juan instructs Carlos to look for his hands, because one’s hands will always be there. The technique is to look briefly at your hands, then at any one object in your dream environment, then look at your hands again, then at the object, and so on. Once you are able to hold the image of your hands and one object in clear focus, add another object to the sequence of what you focus your attention upon -– hands, object one, object two, hands, etc. Do this with additional objects until you are able to hold the entire dream environment in clear focus. It is very important to have a plan for what you will do the moment you realize you are experiencing a lucid dream, at least initially. Looking at your hands will focus your attention on a specific action which will keep your attention on the fact you are 132
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dreaming. Images perceived in dreams have a tendency to distort or turn into other things, creating confusion which usually results in losing lucidity and the experience turning into a normal dream. Once you have stabilized your dream environment you can do anything you please, and I mean anything. Whatever you think about will appear before you. You can fly, experience having an ideal body, travel to other planets, experience extravagant luxury, have incredible sex with gorgeous people, anything at all. Eventually you will wake up, or lose the lucidity and wander off into normal dream experience. It’s hard to predict how long it might require before your first lucid dream occurs. For some the experience might happen on your first attempt, for others it could take months. The results, of course, have a lot to do with what you truly believe is most likely. Thirty days seems like plenty of time for your subconscious to get the point that you are serious about this. I have created some mp3 files to assist in inducing a lucid dream, which are available at my website (kodasplace.com). Instructions are provided for assembling the short files so your computer will play a unique tone after a long period of silence. The tone acts much like the alarm, as a reminder to become aware of the fact you are dreaming, only without forcing you to wake fully in order to shut off the alarm. The files can be burned to a CD if you prefer to use a CD player rather than leave your computer on all night.
Double or Shared Dreams It is possible to share the same dream experience with other living persons, though it is obvious that not all dreams involving people you know are shared dreams. A general rule of thumb is that if you encounter someone you know in a dream where you are lucid, and the other also acknowledges being aware that a dream is occurring, it is likely that the experience will be a shared dream. Genuine encounters with people who have died can occur in lucid dreams, but such experience in normal, non-lucid dreams may only be symbolic. 133
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The first step in creating a shared dream is to attain the lucid dream state, which is necessary in order to express conscious control while dreaming. Once you are aware of being lucid in a dream you can contact a particular person simply by thinking about them. If the other person is also sleeping, he or she will either appear in your dream landscape or you will find yourself in a landscape where they already are. At this point you can see the person, perhaps even communicate with them, but you will need to take an action in order to insure your dream experiences become connected. Castaneda suggests grasping the other person on the forearm just below the elbow and giving a strong pull. If you use your right hand, you would grab your friend’s right forearm, then use your left hand to position your friend’s right hand on your right forearm in the same way, interlocking arms in the process. Once your right arm is interlocked with the right arm of your friend, you pull, just hard enough to make the other person move to regain their balance. From that point on each of you should remember the same dream events, which can be verified after awakening. It is not necessary for both individuals involved to deliberately seek to achieve a shared dream, but it can help if both are aware of the interlocking arm procedure. If you have a friend who is interested in attempting this sort of experience, first practice interlocking arms with them so you will both be familiar with how it is done. Then if someone grabs your arm in a dream you will quickly catch on to what is happening and experience less disorientation. You can pull anyone at all into your dream, but common courtesy is even more important in other dimensions than it is in normal social situations. Remember that any dream experience can be terminated simply by focusing your attention upon the fact you are laying in bed asleep. Wiggling your toes is one way to do this.
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Chapter Nine:
Psychic Sex and 20-Minute-Plus Female Orgasms Some people believe sex and spiritualism are mutually exclusive, that you can't be spiritual if you indulge in sensuality. It's true that any kind of indulgence can distract your attention from spiritual development, but the same can be said for the distractions caused by daily living. In my personal opinion, if your behavior does not harm other's, it's OK. That implies there is nothing "wrong" with sexual fulfillment, and masturbating for twenty minutes is no more detracting from spiritual development than spending twenty minutes paying your monthly bills. Spiritual development is substantially hindered if you spend most of your day thinking about sex, but this also applies if you spend your time concerned about money. Most of us are "guilty" of one or the other, or both, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that metaphysical awareness is in such short supply. In this section I will speak in terms of heterosexual relationships simply as matter of convenience. The most intense spiritual state that many of us will ever 135
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achieve will be during the act of making love. One way of describing spiritual awareness is that it occurs when an individual is capable of perceiving that which is beyond oneself as being a part of oneself. God consciousness occurs when an individual experiences being All That Is. The expression of love, where the loved one is valued as much as oneself, dissolves the apparent boundaries between self and other. When this expanded sense of being is combined with physical sexual stimulation during love making, the stimulation acts as an energy source which powers the emotions of both partners. These emotions can include love, lust, bliss, joy, naughtiness, fun, and other delightful sensations. The ultimate sexual/spiritual experience occurs when physical sensations are at their peak of pleasurable intensity. It is therefore highly desirable to maintain this peak of physical sensual sensation for as long as possible. For a woman, this means continuous orgasm. For a man it means being on the verge of orgasm indefinitely. It is very helpful, but not absolutely necessary, to be in love in order to achieve these physical sexual conditions. The deepest levels of intimacy are involved, which means emotional walls must come down completely. Dropping one’s walls requires that you have respect and appreciation for your partner. The physical techniques I am about to describe will produce the prolong states of peak sexual arousal just mentioned, but it is necessary to be completely aware of your partner’s state of arousal in order to maintain that condition indefinitely. This means one must be in constant communication with one’s partner. Believe it or not, telepathic awareness is the easiest way to maintain this communication. As mentioned earlier, telepathy is a merger of consciousness, and love brings down the walls which separate us psychically and emotionally. All of us are telepathically aware on subconscious levels. This is most noticeable during love making, when two people feel the same emotion. It is not that you feel your own emotion and your partner feels something similar. Emotions produce psychic energy which projects outward from the body. Our auras become filled with this emotional energy, and while making love (as opposed to simply having sex) the auras of both people merge together, becoming a single emotional energy field. What one person feels, the other also 136
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feels, because the same emotional energy field is being perceived by both partners. I know this may all seem a little far out if you are unfamiliar with metaphysical awareness, but I am not describing anything you haven’t already experienced if you have ever been in love. Telepathic emotional communication exists, and it is simply a matter of becoming aware of your perception of it. The visual telepathy exercise described in the Psychic Window chapter enables you to perceive telepathy operating on a visual level in just minutes. The Psychic Touch Dancing exercise in the Psychic Party Games section will further reinforce the way two people can be connected on “other than normal” levels of awareness. It is highly recommended that you perform those two exercises just prior to working with the techniques presented here. Combining all of these together can produce an evening of truly wonderful intimacy. Spiritual sex is all about stimulating energy on several different levels: physical, sexual, emotional and spiritual. Physical energy is experienced as sensation within the body. Sexual energy differs from physical energy in that it radiates from the body in the same way emotions do. The feeling experienced as “sexual arousal” is a form of sexual energy, and can almost be described as a “sexual emotion.” Two people can share the perception of sexual energy telepathically as the sexual energies merge into one energy field. When love is involved our emotional walls, which we almost always have in place, completely disappear. When these walls come down sexual and emotional energy merges freely within the combined aura of both participants, and spiritual or “psychic” energy begins to seek alignment. Each type of energy, from physical to spiritual, is progressively more refined and subtle. The more refined the energy is, the more detail it is capable of communicating. Ideally, all these energies form into a single unit where both people experience the same perceptions, physically, sensually, emotionally and even intellectually. All perceptions become one and the same for both people. In practical terms, there is usually some variation in individual perception, but the goal is to reduce the differences as much as possible. Please keep in mind that what I am describing here is 137
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something that most people are already familiar with. All of this happens to some extent whenever people make love. I am simply pointing out details which most people are not consciously aware of. By becoming more aware of the energies involved it becomes possible to control those energies more deliberately, enabling one to reach new heights of transcendent bliss. OK, now we come to the specific details of how to go about making all this happen. Please forgive my clinical descriptions but they are necessary. First we start with generating sexual energy. This is best accomplished by creating “excited anticipation” of the sexual encounter to come. It means going without sexual release for as long as is necessary for both participants to feel very motivated sexually. In the mean time, over the course of perhaps two or three days, it helps to flirt and tease, to stimulate modest degrees of sexual arousal in both partners. Any direct physical stimulation should be very brief, only enough to stimulate the beginnings of arousal, then discontinued. Talk about how wonderful it would be to experience continual orgasm, or otherwise place attention on the desire for sex in order to create brief periods of arousal. Do romantic things. Give each other massages or otherwise engage in intimate, not-quitesexual behavior. Have fun creating the anticipation. And do not be concerned with achieving results the first time. The ability to experience continuous orgasm will take as long as it takes for both partners to get the hang of it. Simply enjoy the idea that such conditions are possible and that you might actually be able to experience them. Once you are both extremely aroused, the next step is extended foreplay. Burn incense, light candles, put on some romantic music or otherwise create an atmosphere of “special intimacy.” Physically, begin with very subtle stimulation. For instance, if you have long hair, drag it gently across the naked skin of your lover. Men should remember that women are generally twice as sensitive to physical stimulation than they expect, and women should be aware that men generally need more physical stimulation than they do themselves. Take your time and pay close attention to the affect your actions are having upon your lover. Sex is 138
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communication. Communicate your responses to the stimulation you receive so your lover can understand the results of his or her actions. All of one’s attention should be upon the other person and what you are feeling sensually and emotionally. Think less, feel more. Gentle foreplay should be continued until the desire for intercourse is intense in both partners. At no point during foreplay should either person be brought to physical climax. When intercourse begins it should be approached slowly, with attention to all of the subtle sensations one is capable of perceiving. Slow and steady is the rule. It can become difficult to refrain from more aggressive action, but continuous female orgasm requires gentle, steady stimulation of the clitoris. A circular motion repeated approximately once per second is generally ideal. The object is to bring the woman right to the edge of orgasm then apply this slow, steady stimulation. The woman must not “reach for” her orgasm, but should instead allow her partner to “push her over the edge.” When the orgasm begins to trickle in, the woman should focus her attention on all of her sensations, emotional and sensual, and expand her feelings into the space around her. Her partner must continue the same, steady stimulation and “push” his emotional and sensual sensations into the woman’s energy. Feel the energies combine in a sea of excited, and at the same time, relaxed, bliss. The steady stimulation will produce “ripples” in the female orgasm, where the intensity gradually rises and falls. If both people are fully aware of their partner, each will know the current state of the other’s sexual excitement and more or less stimulation can be applied as needed. The man must not allow himself to climax or the experience will end at that time. In the beginning it can take a bit of practice to get the hang of things, and ultimately the woman must control of how much stimulation she receives, with her partner precisely in tune with her every movement. The woman needs to insure that she receives just enough stimulation to keep the orgasm flowing steadily, but not so much stimulation that she exhausts all of her sexual energy in a more powerful climax. Once both partners are aware of how much stimulation is required the process becomes rather automatic. This is similar to the way Psychic Touch Dancing works, in that movement occurs with neither person actively 139
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controlling the movement. This peak experience can be maintained indefinitely, though it is rare to go more than twenty or thirty minutes without becoming physically exhausted. The emotional energy is a sublime experience, profoundly personal and yet shared. It is, indeed, a spiritual high. Once this state of continual female orgasm is experienced, it becomes difficult to feel satisfied with purely physical sex, though of course, essentially all sex is fun. It may seem that the man is getting the short end of the stick in that the woman experiences continual climax while he must prevent himself from climaxing at all. But that doesn’t express what is actually happening to the male in this situation. First, the man shares the same “energy field” as the woman, and thus shares all of her sensations, even physical sensations under ideal conditions, just as she shares his. Secondly, the most intense sexual experience a man can maintain is the peak sensitivity of the moment just prior to orgasm. This peak can be maintained during the continual female orgasm since the stimulation at that time is slow and gentle. Many men may be unaware that the level of sexual excitement achieved just prior to climax can be maintained indefinitely. It is reasonably easy for a man’s partner to provide this experience during oral sex, as the penis swells noticeably just prior to ejaculation, and if the stimulation is reduced or removed at that point the man will not reach climax. Any man who has experienced oral sex in this fashion, being held right on the edge for what seems like eternity, will eagerly agree that it is the ultimate best that head can get. For some couples, continual female orgasm and prolonged male pre-orgasm can best be accomplished orally. After reading this chapter on-line, a woman in France, Louisa, wrote to tell me that it is possible for a woman to initiate continual orgasm while positioned on top. Her advice is that a woman should push (as in childbirth) while moving downward, and tighten while moving upward, repeatedly, in a relatively slow but steady pattern of movement. Push as the penis moves in, squeeze as it moves out. She also warns that a man can fail to achieve erection if too much emphasis is placed upon “performing” well enough to achieve this extraordinary level of sexual fulfillment. 140
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Great sex is full of spontaneity and too much concern about technique can become an interference. So if things don’t seem to be going as planned, just relax and have fun, knowing that one day you may spontaneously catch on to how easy all this really is to do. For those who may feel that this subject doesn’t belong in a book about developing metaphysical awareness, all I can say is there is a good chance the information presented here could quite possibly result in the most profound spiritual experience of your life.
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Chapter Ten:
Drug Use and Metaphysical Development There is no doubt about it. If you have never experienced any sort of psychic phenomena, profound intuitive insight, or other form of "non physical" perception, psychedelic drug use can help to open doors you didn't know exist. Drug use can also pry lose your grip on reality, damage your health or even kill you. With the possible exception of marijuana, any widely used street drug that can help improve your awareness can also mess you up big time. The current laws against using "street drugs" only compound the problem by making it impossible to predict doses and quality. This is particularly true with LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide 25). Not only is LSD a controlled substance, but so is lysergic acid, one of the key ingredients used in its manufacture. The result of these government controls is that "basement chemists" attempt to approximate the real chemicals with other compounds, sometimes producing very unhealthy substances. Real LSD hasn't been widely available since the late 1970's though a few well connected individuals may still have access to it. Much of the stuff one generally finds on the streets these days isn't even close to real LSD, 142
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but instead gives you a lot of unpleasant side effects without the illumination one is seeking. I am by no means an expert on drug use. My knowledge comes from a modest degree of personal experience, and discussions with people who have used the drugs I have always avoided. Long ago I created a set of guidelines for myself to insure that I would never end up abusing drugs rather than using them. The guidelines are: 1) no needles; 2) nothing used habitually, i.e., on a regular basis (other than cigarettes); 3) no "hard drugs" more than five or six times a year; and, 4) totally avoid highly addictive drugs known to do more harm than good. This includes heroin and meth. I have never had any trouble sticking with these guidelines because it is obvious that going beyond these very reasonable limits could lead to disasters I have no desire to encounter. For me, any drug that makes it difficult to function effectively in the real world is a hard drug. Alcohol can be a hard drug if you drink to excess. LSD is definitely a hard drug, since it can be difficult to function in the world if you can't find it! I also try to stay away from any drugs that do not enhance my awareness in some way. Cocaine, and the large variety of "downers" and antidepressants pumped out by pharmaceutical companies, simply alter your mood without enhancing awareness. Such chemicals may have their appropriate time and place, but that doesn't include the quest for illumination. Back in the '60's and '70's drug use was considered an adventure. These days it has become an escape. The quality of life has deteriorated dramatically for young people and the working poor, and to a lesser but significant extent for nearly everyone. In the U.S. the average family has to work twenty hours more per week to maintain the same standard of living as in the 1970s, and minimum wage pays a third less than it costs to support survival. Perhaps this is why the U.S. government estimates that 78 million Americans have tried some form of illegal drug. It seems the world would be a better place if that many people were seeking enlightenment rather than escape. The same God people worship in their churches placed psychedelic drugs on this planet. In the U.S. the most well known of 143
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these are peyote and psychedelic mushrooms. I have never experienced the effects of peyote but Carlos Castaneda describes effects that appear similar to the psychedelics I have used, mainly mushrooms and LSD. I have also used mescaline and MDMA (ecstasy) which are both synthetics. Mescaline is an attempt to synthesize the active ingredient in the mescal (peyote) plant. MDMA is a compound based upon LSD where the goal was to limit stimulation as much as possible to only the "empathy receptors" in the brain. The chemical was initially employed by marriage counselors in an attempt to get couples to relate better to one another. Psychedelic sex is one of the most rewarding experiences available to us mere mortals, though MDMA doesn’t really enhance sexual experience. MDMA, by design, limits the amount of visual and intellectual stimulation otherwise found in LSD. For that reason it is not particularly helpful in pursuing spiritual development except perhaps on the level of emotional awareness. (An acquaintance once suggested that if all the world leaders got together every other month on ecstasy there would no longer be wars. I tend to agree.) The experience of synthetic mescaline is sort of half way between MDMA and LSD. It no longer appears to be widely used, as I haven’t heard anyone mention it for nearly twenty years. Psychedelic mushrooms grow wild in the Northwest of the U.S. and probably come in a variety of types, though on the street the only distinguishing characteristics are whether they are wet, dried or dehydrated. Wet mushrooms taste awful and if you can get high before they make you puke consider yourself lucky. Dried mushrooms are the most common form and look like long, thin, shriveled-up mushrooms. They have a woody consistency and don't taste very good. One generally breaks them up into small pieces before washing them down with a glass of water. Dehydrated mushrooms are powered and often show up in large capsules, which are easier to ingest. I think the typical dose is from one-half to a whole mushroom (one-sixteenth to one-eighth of an ounce dried) but it's been years since I've been around any of this stuff so I really don't know. The effect of psychedelic mushrooms seems to be somewhat 144
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more noticeable in the body than in the mind, though it is quite possible to experience strong visual effects. One's skin feels overly sensitive and yet dull at the same time -- a rather sensual depth is perceivable when you apply pressure with your hand to your body. Physical coordination is slowed, and from what I remember, walking feels somewhat similar to moving through water. I haven't used mushrooms for the express purpose of assisting meditation but I am confident that it would produce significant results for most people. One very important point to realize about psychedelic drug use is that although it can open "psychic doors,” the ability to remember the realizations experienced becomes dramatically reduced. While you might be able to "sneak into heaven through the back door" the amount of information you can bring back for later use is often disappointing. You should also be aware of the psychological consequences of experiencing psychedelic drugs. Your world view will be forever altered by such experiences if they are intense. One should consider how your life will be affected if, for the duration of your psychedelic experience, reality appears no more solid than a dream. Your first “trip” should be with a trusted friend, hopefully someone who has some experience with psychedelic drugs, who can act as a sort of babysitter and keep you grounded. You need to remember not to attempt anything physically dangerous while under the influence -just because you are suddenly certain that you really can fly, if you wouldn't do something when you aren't high, don't try it when you are. Or if you think you can fly, just hover in the air above your bed to prove it rather than leap off some cliff. All "mind expanding" drugs have one thing in common: they enhance concentration while simultaneously reducing "mental agility." While high on LSD, for example, one's attention can become totally absorbed by the most mundane subject matter. I've seen people stare at the bark of a tree for an hour, completely engrossed by the patterns found there and all the psychological implications of observing a living being so alien to ourselves. At the same time, that person could be holding a drink in their hand and stumble around for the next hour looking for it. Concentration is the 145
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absence of distraction, which is the goal of meditation and hypnosis. This ability to concentrate so completely is why psychedelic drugs can be so useful in efforts to expand awareness. But while on drugs this level of concentration is forced upon you to varying degrees. The effort of walking to the kitchen can absorb so much of your attention you may not remember why you went to the kitchen in the first place. I've been with people who can drive a car quite safely while high on LSD, but I know such a feat would be beyond my ability and I definitely don't recommend it. Drugs can indeed assist in developing awareness (the word "psychedelic" means "mind expanding"). But many drugs can be physically dangerous to your health, and large or often repeated doses of psychedelic drugs can more or less permanently interfere with your ability to relate to the physical world. (Pay attention here this means too much can make you insane.) If you accept the idea that we create our own reality, you will realize that the only reason you would need drugs to expand your awareness is because you believe you need them. Still, if you feel perpetually stuck in the perception of viewing the world as a physical rather than spiritual reality, a boost from nature's pharmacy might produce some spiritual progress.
Marijuana Marijuana (pot, grass, weed, smoke, refer, etc.) isn't really a psychedelic drug. It's more like alcohol in terms of how far from normal your perceptions are altered. But while alcohol acts to numb your mental awareness, pot accentuates that awareness, or rather, it concentrates your attention. Pot makes you lazy in a way. Some people like to smoke pot and do active things like ski or hike, but for most it is something that makes you want to relax and enjoy whatever happens to be going on. Many first time users don't even realize they are high. They just seem to have an irresistible urge to laugh a lot, and music sounds more "interesting" and has a more dimensional quality to it. Then there is the dreaded aftereffect -- "the munches." When people begin to come down from the pot high after an hour or two, they feel 146
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like eating -- a lot. Junk food is the usual flavor of choice. The active ingredient in marijuana is THC (tetrahydrocannibinol). The difference between marijuana and the hemp plant is really nothing more than the level of THC. Hemp has been used for centuries as the raw material for making rope, clothing, etc., but because the plant looks like marijuana, even though it has almost no THC, growing it has been prohibited in the U.S. for many years. Hashish (or "hash") is simply a concentrated form of marijuana. Turkish marijuana farmers used to send their children out to run naked through the marijuana fields, allowing the oils and pollen from the plants to collect on their skin. The residue would then be scraped off as a sticky paste, mixed with ground up marijuana leaves and pressed into small "bricks" about a quarterinch thick. Most of the THC in the plant is found in these oils, so hashish is very potent. One or two puffs is usually enough to knock you on your butt. Marijuana has several things going for it that make it superior to alcohol as a recreational drug. While alcohol sometimes moves people to violence and recklessness, marijuana does the opposite. It causes people to mellow out and relax. Another attribute of marijuana is that it's essentially impossible to "overdose" on it. People quickly realize when they have had enough and simply lose interest in the idea of smoking any more. While smoking pot does interfere with physical reactions and attentiveness, it does not cause the sort of stupor alcohol produces. Ask anyone on a construction project if they would prefer a heavy equipment operator to be drunk or high on pot. Most construction workers have experienced both and they will immediately tell you the drunk is far more to be feared. Pot is probably less harmful to the physical body than cigarettes (try smoking tobacco with the same deep inhalations pot smokers take) and there are medical applications such as stress relief and reducing the effects of glaucoma. Pot is cheap, as long as you don't do it as a regular habit. An eighth of an ounce of high quality marijuana, about as much as three or four tobacco cigarettes, costs between $20-$40. One or two dollars worth is enough for occasional users to get enough of a boost to assist meditation, and using it once or twice a month, an eighth of 147
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an ounce can easily last a year. Most pot smokers use it more often, however, some smoking an eighth-ounce or more every week in order to stay high all day. The government estimates there are 30 million people in the U.S. who are regular users. Whatever you usually do as a form of meditation can be performed after smoking pot, as long as your technique doesn't involve too much memory intensive ritual.
LSD LSD, referred to on the street as "acid," is not something to play around with in a casual way. Back in the '70's when my friends and I were young and dumb, we often played with it several times a year. Back then it was simply entertainment, an adventure, one of the benefits of modern technology. We took the idea of "leaving reality" in stride, in the way you might consider a trip to Disneyland a "special adventure." There is a world of difference between marijuana and LSD, and that statement can be taken literally. Real LSD, the stuff available in the "old days," can literally rip the world away from your perception and replace it with an entirely new, ever changing world. LSD stimulates the visual receptors in the brain more than any other chemical I am aware of. If you can recall seeing blotches of color when falling asleep at night with your eyes closed, you can imagine a vague impression of what it is like to see psychedelic visual images. Like those blotches of color, psychedelic mental images constantly move, grow larger or smaller and fade in and out of your visual perception. If you can imagine them being neon bright, filled with intricate detail and moving in more than one direction at the same time (that one is hard to imagine) you can get an idea of what LSD visuals are like. Attempts to recreate such imagery appeared in "psychedelic" black-light (ultraviolet) posters common in the '60's and '70's. Not everyone sees the same sort of images. Some people have reported watching animated, cartoon-like pictures with their eyes closed, some perceived "other worlds," while still others saw only 148
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hallucinations in the real world around them. On low doses the walls of a room may seem to “breath,” patterns become perceivable in textured surfaces such as carpeting, and objects in motion, such as the movement of one’s hand, leave trailing images behind them referred to as “tracers.” Some sort of hallucinatory imagery is common to everyone who becomes sufficiently high on LSD. On higher doses it is most common to perceive colorful patterns in your peripheral vision while nothing in the real world holds still or retains consistent shape. Because of these intense visual effects it is very difficult to meditate under these conditions. While the ability to concentrate is supreme, one's attention often diverges from any predetermined focus to becoming totally absorbed in the imagery, which can be beautiful and fascinating beyond description. Any idea one conceives also becomes a river of total absorption. If you are fortunate enough to ask a meaningful question, such as, "What is God?" your awareness can take you on an adventure of realization beyond words, where everything in the universe makes complete sense. Trouble is, as soon as you come back to the real world (6 - 8 hours later, usually) you can't formulate your perceptions into words. Without the words to file in your memory the awareness eventually fades and it becomes as if you never had the experience to begin with. A similar effect occurs during normal sleep, when you occasionally experience vivid dreams of profound insight, only to forget they ever occurred as time passes. Besides the risk to one's health and mental well-being, this loss of recall is another downside to using psychedelics to gain awareness. I once spent four hours at a typewriter while high on LSD with the specific intent of writing down a comprehensible description of what it is really like to experience that drug. My attention would remain focused long enough to type about half a sentence before I would "space out" and forget what I was doing. When I regained my focus I would read what I had typed, then quickly finish the sentence by writing the other half of the line with a pen. I wrote two pages of material which I continued to edit as the drug wore off, most of it meaningless, finally reducing it all to one very concise statement that accurately expressed what it means to experience LSD. That 149
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very profound statement was, "LSD can be used to escape reality." That makes about as much sense as, "we are all God." Mushrooms, peyote, mescaline and other psychedelics all produce similar effects and have the same negative consequences. Seth is of the opinion that natural psychedelics are less harmful to the body than LSD, his reasoning being that humans have co-existed with the natural plants for ages. He is also quite opposed to massive doses of LSD under clinical conditions, noting that such experiences totally destroy the ego, the new ego which then forms fearing for it's continued existence. I want to emphasize that his comments refer to massive, rather than moderate doses, and to the clinical therapies performed in the past where a psychologist would purposely destroy a patient's ego and dictate new values to replace the old. I agree with Seth that such "scientific" behavior is worse than shock therapy.
Freaking Out "Freaking out" is another potential downside of intense psychedelic drug experience. This is a result of the way awareness becomes focused upon one particular theme and concentration is so absolute it becomes difficult to escape to a different train of thought. Focusing on unpleasant concepts in such a fashion can produce unspeakable horrors. I'll relate one such personal experience. I was about nineteen, walking down our long, dark driveway in November with a "friend" who had an unusual bit of philosophy he wanted to demonstrate. We were very high on LSD, and the philosophical point he wanted to demonstrate was, "you can't know the highest high till you know the lowest low." That statement is totally bogus. If the guy had any real understanding he would have shown me the highest high. Turns out he wanted to freak me out on purpose for his own entertainment. As we walked along the driveway in the cold night we were speaking quietly in order to avoid waking anyone. This "fear" of disturbing others set the tone of the experience. There was a bright arc light on the street corner and it cast harsh shadows all around us. The leaves had fallen from the tall elm trees on either side and the 150
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hard light on the silvery bark contrasted with the blackness all around us. Our footsteps echoed from the effect of the drug and each breath puffed out as a pale mist. He moaned as if he were in pain. "Don't look into the shadows," he warned. One's mind is very susceptible to suggestion while under the influence of LSD and his comment heightened my fear. Remember what I said about having difficulty changing one's focus of attention. "Shut up." I told him, quickening my pace. He groaned again. "Don't look into the shadows," he repeated. I reasoned that there was nothing in the shadows to be afraid of, but still I didn't want to look. The night air felt thick around my head and my neck became stiff. The driveway seemed to go on forever and I was very uncomfortable and just wanted to get out of there as quickly as I could. Another ghastly groan and an almost helpless, "Don't look into the shadows." My fear became unbearable. My reasoning mind was very clear, but the fear was overwhelming. I knew there was nothing in the shadows but a lack of light, but some other part of me felt a staggering presence of evil. I knew I had to look just to calm my fears, but I also knew that if I did I might encounter an unimaginable horror. I decided to compromise. I looked with my eyes but didn't turn my head. The tall elm trees were fifty feet away, and as I strained to turn my eyes to the right, the bare branches were sweeping through the air as if a hurricane were blowing them. The trees were nearly onehundred feet tall and the branches were sweeping down to the ground then flinging themselves upwards into the black sky. From the shadows beneath the leafless trees silver flames erupted in a fireball, the flames becoming short, sliver lines with a loop in the center, each side of the loop moving up and down like wings. The flapping lines poured out of the shadows like a flurry of bats swarming from a cave, and from them radiated the deepest, most profound feeling of pure evil that human consciousness is capable of imagining. The silver swarm gathered above me in the blackness and I 151
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found myself floating in the depths of outer space, alone, terrified. The evil horde moved off into the distance, almost disappearing, and I began to relax a bit, but then the cloud of terror came racing toward me, the swarm of flapping lines intent on killing me. They dove into my right eye and started to drag my soul out of my eye socket. The physical sensation of pain was beyond unbearable. "STOP!" I commanded in a firm voice. "This isn't real," I told myself. "I am not floating in space. I am standing on a driveway high as a kite on LSD. This is all a hallucination." I suddenly found myself standing on the driveway looking at my "friend" who was giggling like a child, pleased with his little joke. My right eye hurt terribly from straining to look without turning my head. I marched myself straight to the telephone pole and spent the next hour looking at the arc light to keep the shadows at bay till I came down enough to go home.
Flashbacks Another potential problem with psychedelic drug use is “flashbacks,” momentary intrusions of psychedelic experience while not on drugs. A month after the previous event I was walking up the same driveway at night, totally straight, and feeling like I had gained sufficient control of myself again, I allowed myself to glance into the shadows under the trees. Little silver flames started flickering in the darkness. I clenched my jaw and walked hurriedly toward the house. As I approached the back door my own shadow was in front of me, as usual, then a little sliver flame erupted in the center of it. A chill sent goose bumps up my spine as my entire shadow, all by itself, drifted to my left, moving to a position behind me. That was impossible. I was losing my mind. I ran into the house and plopped myself in front of the TV set and didn't take my eyes off it for two hours. I hadn't dared to even smoke pot after freaking out in the driveway, but after about three months I believed I had fully recovered and got high with friends, which I thought would be safe enough because they were real friends, not creeps like that first jerk. I was living in an apartment with a roommate and smoking a joint 152
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didn't bother me at all, till the rest of them all left and I was alone when I went to bed. As I laid there trying to go to sleep, my bed started to rock gently back and forth from head to foot. Old box springs under a mattresses will sometimes do that in response to regular breathing. I tried to just brush it off but the rocking grew more and more intense. Then I heard a faint growl and instantly pictured something like the creature from the black lagoon lying under my bed, snarling as it shook the springs to torment me. I sat up in the dark and listened carefully. Nothing. So I laid back down thinking I had imagined the whole thing. A moment later the bed started to rock once more, and again I heard the low, snarling growl. I knew I had to do something to stop this. I tried to forget it but the shaking became more pronounced and I could clearly hear the growling. I knew I had to turn the light on and look under the bed, but if I did that I could only lose. If the "creature" was actually under there it would eat me alive. If it wasn't, I would have just proven to myself I had actually thought a monster was under my bed and I'd be insane. I finally decided I'd rather be insane than monster food, so I turned on the light, held my breath, and looked under the bed. Thank god I was just crazy. There are some valuable points to observe in all this. Perhaps the most valuable lesson is the realization that there is no force of evil that can harm you if you do not believe it can. When I said "stop" while my soul was being ripped out of my body, I completely ended the attack. When I described that experience to a friend some years later he told me that those "flying lines" I had seen had been mentioned in literature before, and were referred to as The Host of Hell. Perhaps those things were real in some dimension of existence, but in any case, simply refusing to participate was all it took to secure my rescue. Another valuable point: Don't do psychedelic drugs with people who aren't your real friends. You want to be with supportive, caring people, hopefully someone with enough experience using psychedelics to know how to get you back from a "bad trip." One trick to remember is that you can get back from any bad 153
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trip, dream, out of body experience or whatever, simply by wiggling your toes. These metaphysical experiences result from focusing your attention on "non-ordinary" realms of perception, and if you concentrate on your physical body, by concentrating on wiggling your toes, for example, your attention will eventually be drawn to your body and the world where it lives. If you are with someone who is "freaking out" or "experiencing a bummer," you should never say anything negative to them like, "Hey man, you're really on a bad one." The best thing to do is supply them with very ordinary things to take up their attention. Remember the problem is caused by not being able to distract one's attention from the subject of concentration. Simply touch the person gently on the shoulder and say something like, "Why don't we go get something to drink from the kitchen," or "do you want to pick some music to play? What's your favorite band?" The gentle touch will bring someone back to this dimension, and as soon as you have their attention distract them with something physical to occupy their awareness. Don't ask them about what they were going through till after they have come down enough to deal with it. True paranormal frights like my experience with "the host of hell" can cause fairly long term psychological instability. Once you understand the "cures" just mentioned it is much easier to regain your composure if you happen across a bad trip, and you are more likely to avoid such problems altogether. Flashbacks ceased to be a problem for my friends and I once we understood they were caused by allowing non-physical perception to occur spontaneously, which we then simply refused to allow. The main problem involved in using large doses of psychedelic drugs to enhance metaphysical understanding is that your concentration is forced to focus upon the subject matter at hand, and when facing the unknown, fear is often a natural focus of that attention. If you do choose to use drugs to assist your metaphysical development, I would suggest starting with marijuana. If you don't use it more than twice a month it's enough to give you a little boost without messing up your reality. If you are looking for other-world adventures, take it slow. 154
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Start with small doses and don't mess with it more than once every couple of months. If you choose to work your way up to larger doses, be very disciplined about the whole thing. Never take more than you need to push yourself into another dimension through an act of concentration, rather than being forced over that edge by becoming too high. If you have children it is best if they are staying with someone else for the night. And be prepared to spend the following day feeling mentally burned out and psychologically out of sorts. You won’t want to go to work the following day or be involved in any significant social activities. Above all, don't mess with drugs at all if you don't have your physical survival well under control. Make sure you have an income, a place to live and your bills paid. If you can't deal with the world you live in, messing around in other dimensions will make it much more difficult to keep from starving. It also feels really good to come back from such adventures and realize your life is under control. It means you have more wisdom than self indulgence, and your trips will be better as a result. In fact, the most predictable result of every acid trip I experienced as a young person was that I would immediately go out and get a job if I didn’t have one, and otherwise act in ways to constructively improve the quality of my life. You can avoid nearly all the pitfalls of drug use simply by sticking with occasional marijuana use to assist metaphysical experimentation. And remember, you don’t need drugs to find enlightenment unless you believe you do.
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Chapter Eleven:
Psychic Party Games Most of the exercises in this section have been published separately in a small booklet called Koda’s Psychic Party Games. They have been grouped together because most produce results quickly and can performed by more than one person. This makes it possible to experiment with friends in a party situation. The detailed instructions for most of these exercises are proceeded by a brief description and followed by a review. This makes it easy to explain the instructions to others quickly. The Visual Telepathy exercise is described in detail in chapter two, but a summary of the instructions is provided below.
Visual Telepathy Summary of Instructions 1) Those wishing to participate form into pairs. 2) The two people sit a comfortable distance apart, facing each 156
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other. 3) Each person looks at one of their partner's eyes, then attempts to expand the area of clear perception to include all of the other person's face. (If your partner looks at your left eye, you should look at his or her right eye -- all the "action" should be on one side.) 4) Blink your eyes whenever they need wetting, but not to regain a normal focus. (You can stop any unpleasant visual effects simply by blinking your eyes or looking away for a moment.) 5) Describe when visual changes occur and how intense they are relative to other changes. 6) Describe any strongly felt emotion or physical sensation experienced. 7) Verify that the visual changes and emotional sensations are duplicated by the other. 8) If you see an image of "another person" describe that person to your partner.
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Using Telekinesis to Move a Paper Wheel
Overview A paper “wheel” is balanced on the point of a needle and caused to rotate by placing your hand next to it. With practice the wheel can be moved from further away or deliberately made to spin in the opposite direction.
Detailed Instructions First you need to make at least one photocopy of this page so you can cut out the wheel shown above. If you make the copy so the 158
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wheel is near the top of your sheet of paper, you can fold the paper in half below the bottom of the wheel and cut two wheels at the same time. Cutting near the fold last will help keep the two papers together. Cut along the lines so you end up with a six-spoke wheel. The wheel can also be made with aluminum foil if you first make a paper template to use as a cutting guide. Another option is to glue two or three narrow strips of paper together to create a wheel with either four or six spokes. The strips should be about 1/4” wide and 2 1/2” long. The number of spokes doesn’t seem to make much difference, though in theory, the greater the surface area the better. It can be difficult to get the wheel to balance if the spokes are not spaced equally, which is why I recommend cutting the wheel from a single sheet of paper. Telekinesis refers to “movement at a distance” and it is possible for anyone to cause movement of this paper wheel without touching it or affecting it with normally understood forces. There is an energy field which permeates and surrounds every living thing. This energy projects outward from our body and forms our aura, and has been referred to as “life force,” chi, prana, and other names. That energy is in motion. It circulates, and it can be demonstrated to exist using this little wheel. After you have made the wheel, you need to balance it horizontally on top of a needle or straight pin. A pin can simply be pushed through a small piece of very thick paper, such as cardboard food packaging, to act as a stand, or you can push a needle through an eraser or other thick material so the point of the needle points straight up. The spokes should be bent downward a bit so they droop slightly, which helps to keep the wheel balanced. If you lay the wheel on a paper towel or thin cloth, then carefully rotate the tip of a pencil in the exact center of the wheel, you can create a small depression which can help the wheel to remain balanced. The graphite from the pencil also acts as a dry lubricant. First try using the wheel without making the tiny dent with the pencil and see how that goes -- but be careful -- you don’t want to poke a hole through the wheel and have to start over. Once the wheel is balanced on the pin, move the palm of your hand slowly toward the wheel. It can begin to spin with the 159
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hand several inches away, but slowly continue approaching the wheel until your curved hand is about half an inch or so to the side of the wheel. It should begin to spin almost immediately. If you switch hands, the wheel generally spins in the opposite direction. Another option is to cup both hands around the wheel with one hand closer to the wheel than the other. This usually causes the wheel to spin faster. Experiment with different hand positions to see which works better for you. Be careful that your breath or other air movement doesn’t affect the wheel. If you have difficulty getting results, you can try creating a wheel using aluminum foil, or place a tiny bit of clear plastic tape on the underside at the center of the wheel to reduce friction against the pin. Neither aluminum or paper are affected by magnetism, but both are affected by static electricity. If you run a plastic comb through your hair then gradually move it closer to the wheel while moving the comb up and down, you will see that side of the wheel also moves up and down. But the wheel will not spin because the energy field is “static.” It doesn’t circulate as “bioelectric” fields do. It may appear that static electricity is the cause of the wheel spinning when you put your hand next to it, but that isn’t the case. If you move the comb up and down a few inches from the wheel so that the wheel also moves up and down, then place your other hand between the comb and the wheel, the wheel will stop moving. Your hand blocks the electrostatic field. This indicates that static electricity is not the force causing the wheel to spin. Static electricity is also discharged from the body by touching a metal object, which you can do and still cause the wheel to spin. Nor will heat from your hand cause the spinning motion. If you place a warm object next to the wheel, such as a hot cup of coffee, it will not spin. Causing the wheel to spin simply by placing your hand next to it is a form of telekinesis -- movement at a distance. The force that causes this movement responds to mental states. It is possible to increase the speed of rotation, or to change the direction of spin, through mental concentration alone. It has been reported that some people can cause the wheel to spin from several feet away, or to spin a wheel enclosed in a glass jar, which normally doesn’t occur. 160
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If you make several of these “energy wheels” prior to your party, everyone can experiment to see how well they can control them. Some people will naturally cause a clockwise spin with their left hand, while it will be counter-clockwise for others. Try reversing the direction of spin using the same hand. You can also place a wheel in the center of a table and have everyone place their hands around the wheel at once in various ways, even with the hands joined, just to see what happens. (NOTE: See “energy wheels” in the appendix for more info.)
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Psychic Touch Dancing Overview Two people stand face to face with their palms lightly touching, their hands moving together as if gliding along an invisible wall between them -- with neither person controlling the movement.
Detailed Instructions I am not aware of the official name for this rather interesting form of movement. It was first shown to me by a woman who did not describe any background information, but I have since heard that it may be an aspect of tantric yoga. It is best suited for intimate occasions between lovers, but can be performed by any two individuals. Two people, preferably reasonably close in height, stand close together facing each other with their feet comfortably apart. They place their hands very lightly palm to palm against the hands of the other person, palms and finger tips gently touching. One person agrees to start things off by moving his or her hands very slowly, as if sliding them gracefully against a pane of glass standing vertically between the two participants. The other person then attempts to follow the hand movements of the first, all the while touching as lightly as possible against the hands of the other. One person leads, the other follows. Remember not to allow the hands to move forward or back beyond the "invisible wall" between you. After a time the leader stops leading, but does not mention when this occurs. He or she simply begins to follow the movement of the other person's hands. If this exercise is performed properly, 162
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with slow gentle movements, the leader will find that when he or she stops leading the hands continue to move. Both people end up following the movement of the other's hands, with neither person controlling the movement. When this occurs the leader should point it out to the person who started out as the follower, and invite the follower to take the lead at any time in order to demonstrate that the original leader is actually following at that point. It is a wonderful feeling when both people realize neither of them is in control while the hands often make great, sweeping gestures and otherwise unpredictable movements. If the hands stop moving for some reason, the leader again resumes leading the movement. Each person can alternate taking the lead, if desired. If the two participants are familiar with the Visual Telepathy exercise, it can help to maintain eye contact while performing this "game," though doing so isn't necessary. Maintaining eye contact, with an awareness of the telepathic nature of emotional experience, can make this is a wonderfully intimate experience when performed with a suitable partner.
Psychic Touch Dancing: Summary of Instructions 1) Two people stand close together, facing each other, feet comfortably apart, holding their palms lightly against the palms of the other, finger tips gently touching. 2) One person leads by moving his or her hands against an "invisible wall" between them while the other follows with their hands. (Don't allow the hands to go forward or back beyond the "wall.") 3) After a time the leader stops leading the movement and both people end up with their hands moving while neither consciously controls the movement. The leader should invite the follower to take the lead at any time in order to prove he or she is no longer leading. 4) If the hands stop moving for some reason, a leader again resumes leading the movement. 5) Each person should alternate taking the lead, if desired. 163
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6) (optional) Maintain eye contact and awareness of the telepathic nature of emotion.
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Light as a Feather (also called “The Lifting Game”)
Overview This is a very old "game" that many people hear about as teenagers and you may have tried it before. It involves one person sitting in a chair while four people lift that person above their heads using only the first two fingers of one hand. (It is possible for just two people to do the lifting, in which case they lift with two fingers of each hand.) The first time you experience this will blow your mind, since it really seems like the person being lifted has become almost weightless.
Detailed Instructions Success requires the ability of everyone involved to concentrate with absolute clarity and seriousness, but it is only necessary to maintain this level of concentration for a few seconds and most people are able to do this. The procedure uses a form of ritual to help focus each person's attention, and once the procedure has begun it should not be interrupted for any reason unless you stop completely and start over. The person to be lifted (it helps to start with the lightest person present) sits relaxed but upright in an armless chair or stool placed in the center of the room. To protect against physical injury there must not be any obstructions around the chair and it should not be placed directly under an overhead light fixture, ceiling fan, etc. The seated person sits with his or her arms folded, knees together and feet firmly on the floor. Throughout the entire experience the seated person must remain silent and concentrate on feeling "light as a feather, stiff as a board." 165
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The two or four people who are to do the lifting stand to each side of the seated person. One person is selected to be the leader and at his or her signal everyone except the seated person says the phrase, "light as a feather, stiff as a board" four times before any movement begins. After the phrase has been spoken four times, the leader places his or her right hand firmly on the head of the seated person while the phrase is repeated again. In a predetermined sequence -- clockwise, for example -- each person standing places their right hand firmly (but not forcefully) on the person's head, one hand atop the other. This cycle is repeated with the left hand until everyone has both hands on top of the seated person's head. Each time a hand is being placed, everyone but the seated person repeats aloud the phrase, "Light as a feather, stiff as a board." Once all the hands have been placed on the head, the phrase is repeated one time while no movement occurs. Then the hands are removed one at a time from top to bottom, the phrase repeated each time a hand is removed. (You may want to practice this much before doing the entire procedure the first time.) Immediately after all the hands have been removed, everyone becomes absolutely silent. The subject in the chair holds his or her body stiff, while the people standing slip their first two fingers under the armpits and knees of the seated person and simply lift that person, in a very gentle manner, as high as possible, then immediately and carefully set the person back into the chair. If four people are doing the lifting, which is best if that many are available, they do the lifting with the first and second fingers of their strongest hand. (Be sure to stand where you will be able to use your strong hand most comfortably.) All the while, from the moment the hands are being placed upon the head, everyone must concentrate on the absolute certainty that the person being lifted is "light as a feather." This is especially important for the one being lifted. As the last hand is removed the sudden loss of pressure against the head actually produces a sensation of lightness for the seated person, and that sensation should be concentrated upon and believed. Everyone must continue to concentrate on the idea that the person being lifted is very light until that person is once again returned to the chair. 166
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Some serious warnings are necessary. If anyone laughs or otherwise breaks the concentration the leader should stop the event immediately and start over when everyone is once again in control of themselves. The lifting motion should be gentle but steady and quick. If you lift too slowly it may break your concentration. If you lift too quickly the person can literally be thrown against the ceiling and come crashing down out of control. People have broken bones doing this! It's possible to break one's neck! If performed with seriousness and responsibility it is quite harmless, but if you don't trust all the people doing the lifting do not allow such persons to participate. And don't lose your concentration once you find yourself almost in shock at the surprising loss of apparent weight. Everyone must understand that the subject must be returned gently and safely to the chair before any break in the concentration is permitted. After that you can all freak out about how amazing it is. Once everyone who wants to be lifted has had the opportunity, but not before, you can attempt to lift someone without the benefit of the intense concentration. The difference will surprise you.
Light as a Feather: Summary of Instructions 1) Place an armless chair or stool in the center of a room, being sure there are no nearby obstructions and no overhead light or fan above the chair. 2) Select a leader to begin (and if necessary, terminate) the event. 3) The person to be lifted sits relaxed but upright in the chair, arms folded, knees together and feet firmly on the floor. 4) Either two or four people stand near the chair, either one or two people on each side, depending on whether two or four are doing the lifting. 5) The leader signals the group to begin saying the phrase, "light as a feather, stiff as a board," four times. 6) The phrase is repeated every time as each person, in clockwise (or counter-clockwise) order, places their right hand firmly (but not forcefully) upon the seated person's head. 7) Repeat this cycle with the left hand, till everyone has both 167
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hands on the person's head. 8) Say the phrase one time while no hand movements occur. 9) Remove the hands one at a time in reverse order, repeating the phrase one time as each hand is removed, until all hands have been removed from the seated person's head. (You may want to practice this much one time before doing the entire procedure.) 10) Everyone becomes totally silent and the seated person stiffens his or her body. 11) Those standing hold their first and second fingers straight and together, then slip them under the arm pits and knees of the seated person, then lift the seated person gently but quickly over their heads -- then immediately, but gently, return the person to the chair. Note: If four people are doing the lifting, they use only the first two fingers of one (their strongest) hand. Do not pause once the event has begun. If anyone breaks the concentration, stop immediately then start over. BE CAREFUL! Take this game seriously so no one gets hurt! (It should be obvious that this game should not be performed if the participants are under the influence of alcohol or drugs.)
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Directional Attention Overview In this game, one person in the group closes their eyes and focuses his or her attention at a specific location in the room, while the rest of the guests attempt to perceive which target location is being concentrated upon.
Detailed Instructions The "sender" imagines two beams of energy going out from his or her body, one beam going out from the forehead and the other from the solar plexus (area just below the chest). These two beams are mentally directed to meet near the ceiling at one corner of the room. The imagined beams form a triangle with the head and chest as the base and a corner of the ceiling as the furthest apex. The rest of the group sits quietly and attempts to "feel" where those beams are directed. After everyone acknowledges they have come to a conclusion, the group voices their opinions, then the "sender" informs everyone of the location he or she had been concentrating upon. (The sender can write down the target location prior to beginning if verification is desired.) Each person in the group should have at least one chance to be the sender. The number of correct guesses can be scored. Statistical odds indicate that if there are four possible targets, each person should correctly guess one time in four attempts. Anything better than this, over numerous attempts, is evidence of psychic perception. If there is a reasonable degree of success among the group, this game can be further refined by having the sender concentrate upon particular objects or people within the room. As long as it is 169
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made very clear what the possible targets are, this game can be applied to any group of possible targets.
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Psychometry (Perceiving psychic information contained in objects)
Overview Five, small, identical blocks of wood are "charged" with emotional energy by holding each one in your hands while concentrating on a particular emotion. Later the blocks are circulated among your guests, with each person attempting to perceive which block is "charged" with each particular emotion.
Detailed Instructions Psychometry is the term used to describe the practice of perceiving psychic impressions from various kinds of physical objects. These impressions often come in the form of emotions, images and/or sounds. It is possible to learn information about the origin or manufacture of a given object, as well as pick up information regarding the people who have handled it. For example, many psychics will ask to hold a personal object before giving a reading, such as a ring, necklace or keys, in order to augment any information they may perceive directly. In general terms, the impressions are the same as with any other type of intuitive psychic perception, only in this case the objects contain the information. The practitioner will see images or hear sounds, or simply experience a "feeling" (intuitive package) which contains information regarding the creation or previous environment of the object. Some objects contain psychically perceivable energy which has been placed into them deliberately. These are called "charged objects" and you will need to create a few of these beforehand if you are interested in playing this particular game. First you need to acquire five identical pieces of wood. Any 171
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size and shape that can be easily handled will do, but I suggest pieces about five or six inches long and an inch wide, of any thickness you feel comfortable with. A wooden yardstick is a good item to start with since the cutting locations are already marked off. These "sticks" need to look and feel identical so you can not tell them apart from each other. (If you start with a yardstick you will need to sand off the painted markings after cutting. It is best not to paint the wood, but you can, after sanding, if you prefer.) You then need to label each piece with an identifying number near the end on one side (1-5). These numbers will correspond with one of five different emotions you will attempt to imprint on each stick. An index card or notebook should be used to maintain a record of the associated emotion. If you are very serious about developing this ability you may prefer to use a notebook in order to document more detailed information. First select the five different emotions you intend to focus upon, then write them down next to the related number in your notebook. Suggested emotions include love, lust, freedom, excitement, contentment, curiosity, longing, etc. You can select any emotion you choose but try to make them as different from one another as possible. (Although it is very easy to "pick up" a feeling of hate or depression, you won't enjoy having to encounter negative emotions later on so I recommend not dealing with such unpleasant feelings.)
Charging the Objects Select a block to be associated with a particular emotion, then while holding it in your hands, focus all your attention on experiencing that emotion. You should attempt to feel the emotion as strongly as you can while you imagine filling the stick with it, pushing the emotion from your chest and head into the object. If it helps to focus on a particular mental image, then do so, and note the nature of the image in your notebook. Sometimes the best way to focus on an emotion is to remember a time when you felt it clearly and concentrate upon a particular image connected with that event. Perform this concentration technique with one emotion for between 172
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five and ten minutes. Then wait at least ten minutes for your emotions to clear before repeating the process with the next block. Follow this procedure until all five blocks have been "charged," each with one of the five different emotions. Some precaution should be taken to keep the sticks from making physical contact with each other. This is to prevent the psychic energy of one stick from "contaminating" the others. Metaphysical literature suggests wrapping each block in a silk handkerchief, but rolling them up, separated in the folds of a hand towel, should be sufficient. In a party situation each guest will need a piece of paper to write down their impressions. Everyone should be told what the five target emotions are, then the five numbers should be listed in a column to the left on each participant’s paper. Each of your guests in turn will be given a block to work with, one block after the other. (If everyone is sitting in a circle it is easy to pass each block to the person next to you.) Then while holding the object in their hands for one or two minutes, each person should focus their complete attention on it while waiting for an emotion to come clearly to mind. The trick here is to clear the mind of any preconceptions and try to "feel" emotion coming from the wood rather than simply "guess" what the emotion might be. Also be on alert for any mental image that comes to mind. After everyone has selected which emotion they believe is associated with the block they are holding, they should write the name of that emotion on the paper to the right of the identifying number of the block. Any mental image that came to mind can be written down to the right of the emotion. Once you have written down this information, pass the block to the next person. Repeat this process until everyone has worked with all five objects before checking for results. If you find yourself feeling the same emotion with more than one block, go ahead and guess that emotion twice if necessary. Logic has nothing to do with this, and it's better to get four out of five than ignore a correct impression because it has already been guessed previously. If you wish you can return to a previous object to reevaluate your guess before making a final conclusion. 173
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Statistical odds tell us that in five attempts each person should successfully choose only one of the five emotions correctly. Repeating the entire exercise five times would produce twenty-five attempts and odds alone would produce a total of five correct impressions. Anything better than this is evidence of psychic perception. After playing the game, you and/or your friends might want to repeat the "charging" procedure in order reduce incorrect emotional energy placed into the sticks due to missed guesses, and to saturate the sticks with as much energy as possible. If your friends assist you, have them concentrate on a specific image you want associated with each emotion. If a particular image is included every time it will reinforce the "target" image you are hoping others will be able to detect. It can also be entertaining to have everyone place their key rings together in a paper bag, then one person can draw out a key ring with their eyes closed and see if they can tell who it belongs to without looking at it. Each person can do this in turn, mixing up the key rings by shaking the bag each time before one key ring is withdrawn. You can also charge other objects, say by concentrating on feelings of love while holding a small gift for a loved one. Note: Psychometry, as described here, can be an excellent tool for learning to develop clairvoyant ability, since once you are familiar with perceiving "impressions" from specific objects you can easily switch to turning your attention to people, events, etc.
Psychometry: Summary of Instructions 1) Prepare "charged objects" by following steps (a) -- (e). a) Create five identical blocks of wood. b) Number one end of one side of each block (1 through 5). c) Charge the five objects with one emotion each by "pushing" the emotion into the object from your head and chest for 5-10 minutes. (Wait 5-10 minutes before 174
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charging the next object.) d) Write down which emotion is associated with each block. e) Store the blocks by rolling them up in a silk handkerchief or small towel. 2) The objects are distributed to the first five guests sitting in a circle, each guest having a pen and paper with the numbers 1-5 listed in a column on the left. 3) Each guest attempts to feel which of the five, pre-selected emotions are associated with the object they are holding (1-2 minutes) then the object is passed to the next person. 4) The selected emotion is written next to the number of the object, along with any visual image perceived. 5) After everyone has written their selections, the results are compared.
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Manipulating the Pendulum Overview and Instructions A pendulum can be any item hanging from a string, such as a spool of thread tied so the thread won't unwind beyond a certain point. It is possible to ask questions of the subconscious and derive simple yes or no answers based upon the way a pendulum swings when it is held by the string in one hand. The theory is that the subconscious mind creates idiomatic (subconscious) muscle contractions which causes the pendulum to swing one way or another. If you ask a question and the pendulum swings side to side, the answer is "no." If it swings forward and back, the answer is "yes." If it spins in a circle it means your question isn't being answered. (Another way of deriving answers is to consider clockwise motion a “yes,” counter-clockwise a “no” and any back and forth motion undetermined. Be sure to decide in advance how you will interpret the motion of the pendulum.) The Visual Telepathy exercise should prove quite clearly that telepathy actually occurs. It stands to reason then, that if we are all aware of telepathy on subconscious levels, and a pendulum can be used to access subconscious information, we should be able to telepathically influence a pendulum being held by some other person. In a party situation you can make pendulums for each of your guests and let them experiment with asking their own questions, but it can also be fun if everyone is involved with just one person holding the pendulum. That person would sit with his or her feet flat on the floor, leaning forward with an elbow resting on one knee and a pendulum suspended from the hand of that arm. A string length of 6 to 12 inches usually works best. The pendulum is stabilized in a steady position before each new experiment is begun. 176
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In one kind of experiment, everyone in the group is made aware of some item of information which the person holding the pendulum does not know, then a yes or no question is asked in order to see if the pendulum provides the correct answer. This can be done by having someone stand behind the person holding the pendulum while showing the group an item, then asking something like, "Am I holding up a book?" If everyone takes this seriously the correct answer should be provided. It is also possible to ask questions that no one knows the answer to, such as, "Is Debbie's next child going to be a boy?" If the woman is already pregnant there is a definite answer "out there somewhere" and such answers can be perceived subconsciously (psychically). The quality of the answers provided with this method are dependent upon how well the person holding the pendulum can remain uninvolved consciously. Any question that can be answered in a yes or no fashion can be asked, and with a good sense of humor the questions can be quite entertaining.
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Perceiving Auras Overview Auras are energy fields that surround all living beings, and according to the literature they even exist around inanimate objects, which are said to have their own form of consciousness. Auras are most easily perceived around higher forms of consciousness such as people and animals. This section describes simple techniques which individuals or groups can apply to gain awareness of these "glowing energy fields" which surround and permeate the body.
Background Information and Detailed Instructions Auras are described differently depending on which school of thought a person subscribes to and how clear their "auric vision" is. Carlos Castaneda describes a "luminous egg-shape" composed of fine, luminous fibers, the aura being as large as a person with their arms outstretched. Christian literature describes a bright, often yellow "halo" around the heads of saints. The general description provided by New Age spiritualists is similar to Castaneda's "eggshape" though with many variations in color, brightness and other features Spiritualist literature describes three types of non-physical "bodies" associated with human organisms. The first is the etheric body, which extends about two inches away from the surface of the physical body. It is composed of fine filaments, usually grey. The etheric aura is the easiest to perceive. It can even be felt with the tips of the fingers if your awareness is sufficiently focused. The second type is the aura most people have heard about, a large, oblong sphere similar to Castaneda's egg-shape. The difference here is that spiritualist literature reports a great many 178
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colors and much activity within this aura. The colors are related to the current physical and psychological condition of the person being observed. Dark splotches indicate areas of blocked energy and are generally associated with illness in a particular part of the body. (Illness is said to appear in the aura before the physical organism is affected.) The colors reflect a person's mood or present psychological condition. "Green with envy" is a term that relates to the aura. Red is associated with anger, i.e., "seeing red." Yellow is related to intellectual activity and blue with spirituality. In speaking with a man who claimed to see auras, he added that the colors were never still, but were constantly in motion. He said he could sometimes see energy bursts much like "lightening bolts" or brief flashes of other colors. The third type of aura is the astral body, a duplicate of the physical form but made entirely of energy. This is the body we experience in dreams and while projecting out of the body. It stands to reason that the form of this body may be different under the varying conditions we experience in other dimensions. Some individuals claim that they can manipulate the energy of an aura in order to assist the healing process. They do this by concentrating on feeling the aura as they pass their hands near a person's body, adding their own energy to that of the patient to realign the flow of energy in the proper patterns. I have seen this sort of thing performed one time, where a friend was relieved of a severe headache after about ten minutes. Fortunately, it is not particularly difficult to perceive the etheric aura, that area of energy which lays just outside the physical body. Success, however, requires a definite shift in your "level of awareness." It is not something you can do while focused on your physical perception alone. But the shift required is quite minimal, and when you achieve this form of perception you will understand what it means to shift your level of awareness. This can be of tremendous value when you apply yourself to achieving perception or manipulation in more dramatic ways. There are two ways to approach learning to perceive the etheric body. The first is to attempt to feel it with your fingertips while running your hands just above the body of a friend. You 179
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should hold your hands one or two inches away from their skin and pay attention to very subtle sensations in your fingertips. It will feel as if you are moving your fingers very slowly through lukewarm water. If you actually experiment by moving your fingertips slowly through warm water you will notice just how subtle those sensations are. With practice the sensations are more easily perceived and there is an almost "sticky" feeling to it. The etheric aura can also be perceived using your eyes. The trick here is in focusing your visual attention six to nine inches beyond the person's body while they stand against a black background. This "out of focus" effect releases your visual attention from it's customary lock on physical data, and the concentration upon seeing something so subtle acts to slow or reduce your thoughts. Thinking is a physical activity, just as seeing and hearing are. Psychic perception brings other, non-physical sense mechanisms into play and in order to engage these mechanisms one must shift attention away from the purely physical. Reducing interference from thoughts and other physical activity therefore assists perception of non-physical information. If you wish to practice this exercise alone you can do so by holding the tips of your fingers about two inches apart and looking for "something" to appear between them. If you sit in a dark room with a small light over your head or to the side, the rest of the room may be dark enough to create the black background required. A reading light or candle can provide the proper lighting. First hold your hands where they are comfortable, the fingertips an inch apart. Then move your hands back six to nine inches and focus your eyes between your fingertips. Then without changing your focus, move your hands back to the first position. It may take several attempts before you can maintain your focus at the more distant position but within a few minutes you should be able to do this reasonably well. With your hands in the first position and your finger tips about an inch apart, observe the blackness in the space between the fingers. You will begin to see a faint bit of light or color appearing between your fingertips. If there is a stringy or fibrous quality stretching between your fingertips you are probably beginning to 180
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perceive the etheric aura. You can check this by moving your finger tips up and down relative to each other. If you are perceiving the aura the "stringy light" will stretch diagonally between your finger tips. It appears as a loose bundle of very faint, fibrous filaments of dim, grayish light. If instead you perceive a reddish glow around or next to your fingers, it is most likely you are perceiving a "negative image" produced by visual stimulation of the rods and cones in your eyes. This is a less intense version of what happens when after looking at a bright light a splotch of color remains after you look away. You might try reducing the intensity of the light source if this unwanted effect becomes distracting. Whether you achieve results with this exercise right away depends entirely on your ability to shift levels of awareness. People who naturally approach life from an emotional or intuitive point of view will achieve results more easily. Highly analytical persons will need to pay closer attention to suspending their thoughts. It might help if you focus on your emotions while simultaneously concentrating on the visual aspects of this exercise. Once you are able to perceive the etheric body you will be familiar with how you focus your intent to make such perception possible. Your mind is fairly still and you realize you are using your eyes in a different way. (It is actually possible to perceive auras with your eyes closed, though you will still be "focusing" them in the same way.) After you have succeeded in perceiving the etheric aura, you can perceive the larger aura by expanding your attention to include a larger field of view and simply waiting for the perception to become discernable. One other aspect of the perception of auras is that some people perceive them directly on an intuitive level but can't see them visually at all. They simply seem to "know" what is happening in the aura, and can describe the conditions almost as well as someone who perceives them visually, though perhaps not in visual terms. Some people who do "energy work" or healing with their hands are in this category.
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Perceiving Auras: Summary of Instructions Feeling the etheric aura – 1) One person lays on their back while the group attempts to feel the etheric aura, a sensation like moving one's hands slowly through warm water, by moving their hands slowly one to two inches above the laying person's body -- do not actually touch the body. Seeing the etheric aura – 1) Everyone sits in a comfortable position in a darkened room with a small light source above or to the side of the participants. (The object is for everyone to have their hands visible against a black background.) 2) Hold the palms and fingertips about an inch apart and focus your eyes 6 to 9 inches further back from your hands. 3) Look for the etheric aura to appear as a loose bundle of grayish "light fibers" in the darkness between your fingertips. 4) Move your fingertips up and down vertically to verify that the aura stretches between the fingertips. 5) Have one person (with tight fitting clothes) stand against a black background. Everyone should focus their eyes 6 to 9 inches past the body just off to one side. Look for the etheric aura to appear as a thin halo around the body. Seeing the larger aura – 1) After performing step 5 above, with the person still standing against the black background, expand the area of visual perception to observe any light or color surrounding the entire body at a distance of up to two feet or more. The group should freely discuss their perceptions to learn if the others are able to perceive the same effects.
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Using Ouija Boards Overview and Instructions Ouija boards are hard, flat surfaces printed with letters of the alphabet, numbers and symbols. You can find them in almost any store that sells a large variety of board games. Generally, two or more people place their hands very lightly on a "planchette" or pointing device which slides very easily across the surface. Questions are asked out loud and the pointer mysteriously slides across the board "all on it's own" to stop at letters or symbols one after another, spelling out answers in response to the questions. Often the person purported to be manipulating the movement of the pointer is someone who has crossed over to the next world. Sometimes it is possible to receive very intelligent, often amazing information in this fashion. Other times the pointer refuses to move, or barely moves and turns out not to be worth the effort. Still other times the pointer will zip across the board so fast you can barely manage to keep touching it. And there is no telling what sort of "character" you might encounter. The best information comes when the movement of the pointer is reasonably fast and steady. A serious but lighthearted attitude goes a long way toward deriving good results. It helps a lot to have someone who is not participating write down the letters and symbols as they are indicated. Otherwise you must stop after every few words to write them down. If the pointer refuses to move after several minutes, you can use a method similar to Psychic Touch Dancing to get the pointer moving. This means one person agrees to move the pointer randomly across the board while the others follow, and after a moment the “leader” stops moving the board deliberately. If the pointer continues to move he or she should indicate when deliberate 183
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movement was suspended. Other than doing this with everyone’s full cooperation, no one should ever influence the board deliberately. You should be prepared for the possibility of encountering a personality who is foul and abusive. The attitudes of those operating the board has much to do with the type of personality that comes through, so remember to be serious but lighthearted. If you encounter abusive language or are otherwise offended, you can politely ask the "person" to step aside, take a brief break and then resume. If this doesn't rid you of the "intruder" you will simply have to put the board aside for another time. It is important to be polite to your “guest” and say goodbye in an official way. It is also important to “clear” the energy of the spirit from yourself by imagining your aura filled with clear or white light after the board is put away. I know this sounds a little hokey, but spirits interact with us via our auras (you can sometimes feel the presence of the spirit afterward) and this clearing process prevents the spirit from hanging around uninvited. It is very easy for people to influence the board either deliberately or subconsciously, so there is no sure way to be certain of the source of the information. The spirit medium Jane Roberts originally encountered Seth, a source of amazingly intelligent information, via one of these boards, and it is possible you might encounter your own "multidimensional self." But most important is the information. If it helps you, the source isn't all that important, even if it is your own subconscious.
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Holding a Séance Séances, or “home circles” as they were often called, became wildly popular following the Rochester Rappings incident in 1848 (see “Spiritualism” in the appendix). Within a few short years millions of Americans were experiencing table tipping and communicating with spirits on a regular basis. Basically, a séance consists of a group of people sitting in a darkened room (often pitch dark) with their hands on a table, everyone’s fingertips touching in order to form a circle of contact all around the table. A wooden table works best, and sometimes the sitters hold hands rather than place the hands flat on the table. The object is to make contact with a discarnate spirit. If no one with skills as a medium is present, everyone sits in total darkness and talks normally while simply waiting for something to happen. A typical sequence of events begins with a sudden drop in room temperature. Cool breezes are often felt upon the face and hands. Luminous lights may be seen, and eventually the table may begin to vibrate or shake. The table may lift upwards at one end, which is where the term “table tipping” comes from. The table may rise and fall in response to questions, bumping against the floor once to indicate “yes” or twice to indicate “no.” Rapping sounds may be heard coming from the table, floor or walls, which respond to questions in the same way. It is very important not to break hand contact within the circle. It is thought that the spirits draw their energy to communicate from the sitters, and breaking hand contact breaks the flow of energy. This use of energy in order to communicate may be why many participants often report feeling physically tired after a séance. It is possible to derive more complicated responses from the spirits by speaking letters of the alphabet in sequence, with the sound of a rap indicating a particular letter as it is spoken. Once the 185
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presence of a spirit has been indicated, it is often easier to light a candle, or turn on a dim red light, and communicate using a Ouija board. If raps are consistently heard, they can indicate letters by running one’s finger along a list of letters, such as those printed on the Ouija board, the sound occurring when the selected letter is indicated. It is important to create an atmosphere of positive anticipation. Some skepticism is OK but the participants must be serious and not flippant, and anyone who might consider faking paranormal effects “as a joke” should be excluded. Too much fear or seriousness can stop a phenomena from continuing, so everyone should remain calm and relaxed. An equal number of men and women are desirable and all those participating should be in good health. In the old days, there were generally one or more persons at a séance who acted as a medium, often going into trance to either speak for the spirit contacted, or performing automatic writing. Many individuals first recognize their abilities to act as a medium while participating in these home circles. The appendix contains descriptions of many different phenomena reported to occur during séances, including apports (materializations of small objects from nearby), direct voice (voices heard coming from the floor or elsewhere), different smells such as those of perfumes or flowers, and the actual materialization of spirits. It might be fun in a party situation to begin with some of the party games just mentioned, then turn off the lights and form a circle to see what happens.
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Chapter Twelve:
Psychological Wisdom This section of the book deals with what might best be referred to as basic wisdom. Some of it is purely practical information which may seem to have nothing to do with metaphysics, but enlightenment includes dealing effectively with the reality of every day life. Understanding the basics of human nature is essential in understanding oneself, while an awareness that we are spiritual beings in a spiritual (metaphysical) universe enables us to discover opportunities that may otherwise escape our notice. As Seth states in The Nature of Personal Reality, a fundamental purpose of life is the experience of value fulfillment -to place value in the idea of experiencing certain events or conditions, and then experiencing those events or conditions. We are single-minded creatures in this regard, always pursuing that which we believe will fulfill our values. We strive to experience happiness, love, health, wealth, enlightenment, contentment, satisfaction, enjoyment, etc., and all of these conditions can be reduced to a single psychological state of being: the experience of value fulfillment. 187
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The Strawberry and the Astronaut Imagine two people with very different value systems. The first is a young man who in grade school makes a firm commitment to become an astronaut and walk on the Moon. Because he places so much value upon this potential future experience he makes great sacrifices to achieve the goal. He takes science courses and stays home studying while his friends get together to have fun. He joins the Air Force after graduating high school and enrolls in officer training during college. He works and studies fourteen hours a day, exercises regularly to keep his body fit, becomes a pilot and volunteers much of his almost non-existent free time to maximize his flying hours so he can qualify for test pilot training. He continues his education taking more than a full time class schedule for years, so that by the age of 24 he has his third doctorate degree and is accepted into astronaut training. At 26 he is a candidate for a Moon mission but is not selected, which is a crushing emotional blow, but his determination is unbending. At 28 his goal is finally realized. He steps off the ladder of the lunar lander and feels the dust give way beneath his boot. The blue and white Earth floats above the crater-pitted horizon like a bright jewel in the star strewn blackness. His heart races with a rush of satisfaction. He has fulfilled his greatest value and couldn't be happier. The other person in this story is an old woman who lives in a small, rustic home in a valley between high mountains. She is a widow, alone, her children having moved to the city to make their fortunes. It is the beginning of springtime after a long winter and she has returned to her habit of taking her morning tea out on the porch to watch the sunrise. One afternoon she goes into the nearby village and buys some strawberry plants from an old friend who runs the garden nursery there. She takes them home and plants them next to her porch, and every morning while waiting for the kettle to boil she waters the plants and removes any weeds that may have sprouted. When the strawberries begin to bud and grow she washes them gently and 188
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props them up off the ground with pebbles or small sticks. One particular strawberry is much larger than the others. She knows it will be the first to ripen so she watches it carefully. Finally she determines that on the following day, that particular strawberry will be perfectly ripe. In the chill morning she goes outside even before putting on the water for her tea. She pulls the berry from it's stem and holds it up to watch the morning sunlight reflect on the glistening due. The sunrise is beautifully serene with pastel colors warming the clouds in quiet flame. She breaths in the fresh mountain air and takes a huge bite of the strawberry. The tart, rich flavor explodes into her mouth. Her heart races with a rush of satisfaction. She has fulfilled her greatest value and couldn't be happier. This story illustrates the nature of value fulfillment, and the point that it doesn't matter how challenging your goals are because if the intensity of the value is the same, the reward is the same.
Values and Beliefs Where you place your values often determines whether you find life rewarding or a hardship. It could be argued that the main reason we are alive is to learn how value-fulfillment operates and which values are most conducive to rewarding experience. If there is a "better world" awaiting us after death, a world without excessive greed, injustice, hate or violence, it would be necessary for those who occupy such a world to have attitudes (values) compatible with that existence. In terms of physical life, happiness requires having values which create a sense of harmony and satisfaction with our experience. Our values are a result of our beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. Initially, as children, we accept the beliefs and values held by our parents, then later in life we encounter other values and begin to pick and choose those we find most desirable. We also acquire many values without consciously realizing we are doing so, and even those which we deliberately choose often turn out to produce detrimental results. For example, a parent may value a spotless living environment 189
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and place great emphasis on never creating unnecessary clutter. In itself, placing value on good organization can be highly beneficial, but if the parent beats a child for making a mess, the child may learn instead to value a lack of discipline as an expression of personal power. Our lives are filled with countless experiences which result in a collection of beliefs and values which are often contradictory. That's why so many of us spend our lives striving to sort out the contradictions and discover the values which produce the best results. There are also those who are mentally too lazy to evaluate the quality of their accepted beliefs regarding what has value to them. They stumble through life continually repeating the same mistakes, either blaming others for their problems or feeling baffled as to why things always seem to go wrong. My experience tells me that just about all of us are "guilty" of hanging on to beliefs we do not wish to question, often because we do not realize the beliefs cause detrimental effects, or because we believe changing our behavior would be too unpleasant. And because we spend so much of our lives feeling unable to get beyond the difficulties we encounter, it appears to us that no easy solution is available, but there is. All of our behavior flows naturally out of our beliefs, so changing behavior becomes easy when we change the beliefs associated with the behavior in question. Solutions to long term problems require recognizing where our beliefs do not reflect the truth. Much of the information in this section consists of observations designed to cut through limiting beliefs about yourself and allow you to choose beliefs which empower you to fulfill your deepest values. As it has often been said, “the truth will set you free.”
Self and Self Esteem The first thing we have to do is free ourselves from limiting beliefs about who we are. From the grand cosmic point of view, we are not our bodies, nor are we our beliefs about our bodies. We are 190
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not shy or confident, happy or sad, intelligent or stupid. We are not what we do for a living. We are not the things we perceive. We are not our emotions. We are not our thoughts. We are individual points of consciousness which experience perception and make choices. In more practical terms, you must realize that who you are is who you have decided you are. If you believe you are confident, you are. If you believe you are worthless, you will act accordingly and experience life from that point of view. Any belief you hold about your individual self will be reflected in how you think, feel and react. That means the quality of your experience is directly related to your beliefs about the “quality” of your person. Self esteem is a result of your judgment regarding your quality as a human being. The only person capable of determining your self esteem is yourself. As mentioned earlier, no one is handing out worthiness certificates, but all of us constantly decide how much self esteem we have. For many of us, our level of self esteem fluctuates constantly depending on the situations we encounter at any given time. While most of us have plenty of positive self esteem when enjoying the company of friends, we can find ourselves feeling timid or insecure in other situations. Public speaking is an example where many people who normally feel confident can find themselves feeling nervous and insecure. A normally secure but “financially challenged” individual may feel uncomfortable among a group of sophisticated, wealthy people, or someone may generally feel just fine about who they are until facing a disapproving parent, etc. The degree of an individual’s positive self esteem is not constant, then. It can change quickly and radically. That means you can change your sense of self esteem at anytime, deliberately, to have oodles of it simply by deciding to do so. If you make that separation between who you are and what you perceive, you will no longer be forced to believe that you are the way you may habitually feel about yourself. For example, let’s take a closer look at shyness. Shyness is a feeling. No one is shy, though many people feel shyness quite regularly. Those who think of themselves as being shy often feel very comfortable around loved ones, and at such times the shyness does not exist. Therefore that person is not shy, but rather has a tendency to feel shy under certain 191
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conditions. This clearly demonstrates that the person is separate from the emotion, that such characteristics are not constant, and therefore what a person feels is not who the person is. There is a difference between feeling shy and being shy. We are not our emotions. Our emotions change naturally all the time, and we can choose how we want to feel without pretending we are changing who we are. “Phony people” are those who honestly believe they are one way while trying to convince others they are some other way. No one likes to be around such a person. On the other hand, it is possible to choose to feel confident without believing it is a lie. Confidence is not a condition of being-ness, but an emotional attitude. It is a feeling. There is nothing phony about feeling confident and full of healthy self esteem, to simply ooze happiness just because you feel like doing so. The more often one expresses a feeling of confidence and complete self acceptance, the easier it becomes to express such feelings. So please give that a try, right now. Let go of any “reasons” you might have to feel otherwise and let your heart crack a big, silly grin. Imagine what it would feel like to have unlimited self esteem. “Pretend” you have it. Pretend you have all those qualities you thought you would need to have to feel that good about yourself. Imagine you have love, money, fame, attractiveness, all of that and more. This is not an exercise in self deception, it is simply allowing yourself to have a feeling, a wonderful, happy, confident feeling. Let yourself have it, right now. There is no reason why you can’t feel good like that for just one minute, and it feels great! So please, sit up straight and tall and for thirty seconds clearly imagine what it feels like to have a wonderful sense of confident, positive self esteem. Please do this now.
NLP (Neural Linguistic Programming) If you are still feeling great right now, and still sitting up straight and tall, tighten your dominate hand into a fist while holding it to your side and mentally say, “Yes!” with genuine enthusiasm. Feel the wonderful, powerful emotion concentrated in your body, focus your attention on your hand and again think “Yes!” as you 192
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clench your fist. Feels great, doesn’t it? NLP, or Neural Linguistic Programming, involves the relationship between emotion and physical body gestures. We are all familiar with the idea of “body language,” how our expressions, posture and gestures reflect our emotional state at any given time. NLP reverses that process, allowing us to control our emotional state by controlling our body language. In this next exercise, which I hope you will perform now, please sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor and rest your elbows on your legs near your knees. Relax your back and let your head droop. While in this position, allow yourself to feel sad for about 30 seconds. Just remember what it feels like when you are bummed out. Please do this now. Feels crappy, huh? Sorry to take you there, but here comes the cool part. Now sit up straight and tall with your head held high, and try to feel bummed out like you just did. Please do this now. Can’t do it, can you? It’s very difficult to feel badly when you have a great posture. The connection between physical expression and emotion works both ways. If you didn’t realize the value of a good posture before I hope this makes the case for paying attention in the future. A good posture can help you feel confident and self assured, even when you may be under stress. If you imagine that you are being suspended from a string attached to the top of your head it’s possible to be fully relaxed without slumping, and it feels good. Now, one more fun little experiment. Remember how great you felt a moment ago when you were enjoying that wonderful sense of confidence and self esteem? Sit up straight, remember the details of that feeling and mentally say “Yes!” as you tighten up your fist again. Please do this now. OK, do it again. Feel it again. Tighten your fist again. “Yes!” Ah, that is a nice feeling, isn’t it? Associating a specific feeling with a specific physical gesture 193
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is called an “anchor” in NLP terms. We didn’t spend much time creating that anchor earlier, so it may have been a bit difficult to pull back the feeling of profound self esteem, but if you spend some time creating a positive feeling like that, and associate it with a physical gesture and mental cue, the subconscious mind will instantly provide that feeling when you make the gesture in the future. This can obviously be very useful. Closing your eyes and putting your hands together as if in prayer will instantly produce a feeling of calmness for most people. Holding you fist near your shoulder, with your arm muscles tight while leaning slightly forward, will most likely produce a feeling of aggression. These are examples of NLP anchors which occur naturally, and if you make those gestures you will see how effectively they operate. These experiments demonstrate how emotions can be changed very quickly, and that you are not your emotions, because you are a constant and your emotions are not.
Justifying One’s Existence Comparing ourselves to others, or trying to live up to someone else’s standards, can lead to an endless degree of useless suffering. Seth points out that no one criticizes a squirrel for being what it is. Can you imagine a squirrel justifying it's existence by bragging that it can carry 31 seeds in its mouth at one time, that its tail is bushier, or that it has climbed higher in the tree than the other squirrels? Do you look at a squirrel scampering across the rocks and think it has no right to act the way it does, to be what it is? You and everyone else have as much right to be here as a squirrel does, because we are all creatures of the Earth. Our behavior, right or wrong, is natural and we do not need to justify our existence to anyone. If you remember the story about the strawberry and the astronaut, you will recall that one person's values are just as valid as those held by any other. It is simply useless to compare your achievements to the accomplishments of others. It is, in fact, an act of self defeat to do so. The purpose of life is not to win in competition, but to fulfill one’s sense of value. If you compare yourself to others you are forgetting that you alone are responsible 194
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for choosing the values which determine your happiness.
Acknowledge and Release The following "serenity prayer" originated with the Alcoholics Anonymous organization and is very popular among the 12-Step Programs employed by different rehabilitation organizations. "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." If you can't do anything to fix it, forget it. If you ask yourself if there is anything you can do to change a situation and realize nothing can be done, or what can be done isn't worth the effort, what good can be accomplished by dwelling upon the issue? It only takes a moment to review a situation like this and ask yourself what can be learned from it. Learn it, then drop it. Acknowledge and release. “Hating someone is allowing a tyrant to live in your head rent free” (anonymous). Long ago when I first heard this phrase I realized how stupid it was to continue “giving power” to people I blamed for hurting me in the past. When we hold resentment towards such people they continue to have power over the way we feel long after they have left our experience. You can finally “win” in regards to such people by simply acknowledging that that part of your life is over and releasing your resentment. Life is much better when hate is no longer part of your experience. When one dwells upon some past event where nothing can be done to change things, the power to deal with the situation remains in the past -- where the power can not be used. You give your power away and feel like a victim. The same situation is involved when you feel that someone else has to change in order for things to be better. Reclaim your power. If you can't fix it, forget it.
Right and Wrong vs. "Good and Bad" If it doesn't harm others, it's OK. If you don't harm others, you are OK. 195
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If you can honestly grasp the significance of the two statements above, you can immediately free yourself from a ton of unnecessary guilt. This definition of right and wrong applies to all situations involving others. All of us at one time or another have deliberately hurt others, emotionally and/or physically. It is part of the human experience. We generally do this as a form of reaction, to get even for others having hurt us. At some point, however, we realize that inflicting pain upon others is an inefficient form of value fulfillment because it perpetuates a cycle where those we hurt seek to hurt us in return. If harming others is part of our character, even if we manage to avoid the pain of being attacked in some way, we end up being constantly on the defensive, always looking over our shoulder or presenting a defensive wall to everyone we meet. Our interactions with others become strained, we feel insecure. We don't trust others, who in turn don't trust who we are because they can tell there is something uneasy about us. On the other hand, if you don't harm others deliberately you can be assured you are a good person. You can respect yourself even with all your glaring imperfections. Parents spend decades teaching their children what they think of as the difference between right and wrong, but what they are actually teaching is morality, a subjective value system dealing with what the parents, religion and local society consider “good and bad.” In some societies it is “wrong” for a woman to show her face in public or to be alone with a man who is not a relative. Public nudity is “wrong” in some societies and a natural state of being in others. Something can not be right and wrong at the same time. The truth doesn’t change as a result of where you happen to be standing on the planet. Right and wrong can be defined as whether or not one's behavior harms others against their will. It's that simple. More harm than good has been done by moral causes that promote standards of behavior which exceed this basic principle. Squirrels do not have to hold their tails just so to be accepted, and people do not have to conform to socially imposed limits if one's behavior does not force others to participate against their will. To a large extent, commercial advertising, the entertainment 196
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media, government and religion are all responsible for making people crazy. All of these institutions continually bombard us with descriptions of expected behavior that few of us squirrels can, or even desire, to emulate. If we don't have impressive possessions and a gorgeous body, or if we feel inclined toward personal behavior that does not conform to some artificially defined standard of acceptance, we have trouble accepting who we are, we feel inferior, that something vague but serious is wrong with us. We develop “hang ups.” Modern psychotherapy involves countless hours (and dollars) searching our past experience for the source of our psychological problems. Save yourself some time and money. Be here now, in the present, and look through your past with one question in mind: Did I harm others intentionally? Most of the problems you will discover come from situations where others hurt you, so you are not to blame. All of those issues can simply be tossed out like the trash and forgotten. Acknowledge and release. In other situations you may feel guilty for hurting someone else. That brings us to another comment from Seth where he defines two types of guilt, natural and artificial. Natural guilt occurs before a person acts and has the message, "don't do this." Artificial guilt occurs after an event when you are powerless to change things, and thus serves no purpose.
Responsibility Implies Control You can not be held responsible for any situation you can not control. Nor can you control anything without taking responsibility for the outcome. Imagine you are standing on a street corner watching a previously parked car which has slipped out of gear and is rolling rapidly down a hill. No one is in the car. You can not do anything to stop it from crashing into other cars parked on the roadway. You might be able to warn people to get out of the way but that is where your responsibility ends because that is the limit of your control. When you look at issues in your past that distress you, ask if you had control. For example, many people can spend much of their lives feeling guilty or victimized by sexual abuse experienced as a 197
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child. If you did not have control in such a situation you are not responsible for it and can not be held accountable in any way. Any guilt you may feel is therefore artificial and serves no purpose. So drop it. Get over it. Let it go. Acknowledge and release. No one but you can control the way you feel if you take responsibility for your feelings. You are responsible for your feelings, therefore you are in control of them. Emotions which have been severely repressed may feel beyond your control when they are suddenly expressed, but you can control your reaction to them by allowing them to happen when you choose to do so. If you ever find yourself experiencing an emotion which seems uncontrollable, momentarily remove yourself from the situation which brought it on, then deliberately seek to experience that feeling when you are alone. Acknowledge the emotion as a perception rather than part of your identity. As the feeling is experienced the energy of the emotion will exhaust itself and naturally transform into a different feeling. Once the energy has been depleted from the emotion it will no longer feel as if it is overwhelming. The feeling, along with any past event which may have produced it, can simply be acknowledged as something you experienced and then released. Problem finished. The more responsibility a person is able to take for their present circumstances, the more control one has. Of course, overwhelming oneself with responsibility will simply result in eventual loss of control, but it is very important to take responsibility wherever it already exists. Unpleasant social situations which may seem beyond one’s control can often be avoided by taking responsibility for whether you are involved in the first place. For example, it is often possible to avoid violent situations simply by staying away from individuals and places prone to confrontation. Or should you see a violent situation beginning to erupt you can simply “withdraw your energy” and refuse to participate. As a youth I realized I could “win” in a situation where I would normally have to fight, by “out thinking” the opponent, often by making someone laugh or pointing out there isn’t any fun in beating up someone who won’t fight back. By taking responsibility for whether or not I was going to fight I was able to 198
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control such situations well enough to avoid the problem. Whenever it appears one has no control, the way to gain control is by recognizing where one has responsibility.
All Unhappiness Requires Self Pity This is another, truly powerful insight if you are able to realize how true it is. You can not change the past because you can not control it from the present, and you can not control the desires and behavior of others. All of our unhappiness comes from not accepting things as they truly are, from wishing and hoping but feeling powerless to fulfill those desires (our chosen values). So we feel sorry for ourselves, helpless and/or victimized. We dive into self indulgent self pity -- self inflicted pain. We indulge in self pity because it gives us a feeling of "artificial comfort." We sort of lean on our own shoulder, patting ourselves on the back like our own best friend and take comfort in feeling victimized. We get some sense of satisfaction out of it or we wouldn't do it. But self pity feels awful when compared to anything like simple contentment. Self pity hurts. It robs us of our sense of personal power. It removes our feeling of responsibility, takes away our control and turns us into victims. Self pity is totally selfdefeating behavior and is the primary cause of all unhappiness. It is, in fact, the only cause of unhappiness. No self pity equals no unhappiness. Self pity is like a shiny sliver hammer that we hold in our hands and smack into our face. Indulging in self pity is just as stupid as smacking yourself in the face with a hammer and often hurts just as much. If you want to be happy, start by putting the hammer back on the table. Let go of it. Stop feeling sorry for yourself for just one minute and you will see how much happier you are, instantly. You will also notice how much more powerful and in control you feel. That sense of power and control will not leave you as long as you don't pick up the hammer again. But you will pick it up, sooner or later. Self pity is a habit. It is socially acceptable in small doses, even encouraged by others who in turn like to complain about how unfortunate their lives are. But 199
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self pity is like a warm, gooey tar pit, and although wiggling your toes in it can feel comforting, it is far too easy to slip in over your head and lose the power to be happy. Staying away from self pity is a challenge that requires responsibility and awareness. It's easy not to smack yourself in the face with a hammer because you know with absolute certainty how much it will hurt, and it can be just as easy to stay away from self pity if you realize it hurts you in a similar way. All one needs to do is clearly understand that all unhappiness is self inflicted, that it requires giving up responsibility for the way we feel, and that we actually exercise our control when we choose to feel like a victim. If you compare the feeling of simple contentment to the feeling of self pity, there is no comparison. Thinking like a victim feels miserable, and all you need to do to be happy is put the hammer down. (Acknowledge and release.) The next time you are feeling unhappy, try not feeling sorry for yourself for just 30 seconds and you will be amazed at how much better you feel, instantly -- and even more amazed at how easy it was to suddenly become happy. I have always said that as long as you can at least fake a smile, you’re still doing OK. It’s when one can’t fake a smile that the self pity hammer has gone too deep into one’s forehead and depression becomes an issue.
No One Does Anything They Truly Know to be Wrong When I say no one does anything they know is wrong, your first impression is probably that I must be wrong about that. After all, we have all done something, particularly as children, when we knew it was wrong to be doing it. It’s wrong to steal a piece of candy from a sibling, to stay out past the time we were supposed to be home, etc. People often smoke when they are trying to quit and eat too much when they are on a diet. On a larger scale, people commit violent crimes, rob banks, start wars, etc. Isn’t it obvious that people do things they know to be wrong, all the time? Nope. It is wrong for an adult to kick a five-year-old child in the face, right? But say that child has a handgun and is shooting all his 200
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classmates on the school playground, and the only way for you to stop the shooting is to kick the kid in the face. Would it be wrong to do that? Of course not. The key word here is know. If you know, for certain, beyond any doubt, that something is wrong, you simply can not do it. For example, could you smack yourself in the face with a real hammer? You could, but only if the reason or justification for doing so prevented you from concluding that doing so would be wrong. It is just as impossible for a person on a diet to overeat as it is to cave in your own face with a hammer -- if both activities are perceived with equal clarity as wrong behavior. There are no shades of grey when it comes to whether or not something is wrong. It is either wrong or it is not wrong, and no one, under any circumstances, can do something if they are certain it is wrong to do it. This is one of the most basic instincts built into human consciousness and it can not be overridden. The grey area in this regard is the reasoning involved in determining whether a behavior is wrong or not. If you truly understand that no one can do something they know to be wrong, that awareness makes it possible to understand why people do bad things. It isn’t wrong to them. Such people simply don’t know better. Thieves understand that stealing isn’t a good thing as far as everyone else is concerned, but they justify why it is OK for them to steal. The rest of us “know better” for a number of different reasons. We want to keep what we have worked hard to acquire and know that others feel the same way. We know that if we steal from our friends we will soon have no friends, that if everyone steals from everyone else there would soon be nothing left to steal because no one would make things, and we like to believe that we are capable of getting what we want through our own efforts. For many people the only reason they don’t steal is fear of being caught and punished. Someone who steals, on the other hand, operates with a different set of beliefs. They may feel that the “system” exploits people by paying less than it costs to live even with a full time job, making it impossible to get the things they want without stealing. They may believe everyone is only out to benefit themselves in a dog eat dog world, that the “smart” people simply take what they 201
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want, regardless of how it affects others. To a person who holds such beliefs, what they do isn’t wrong. It’s justified. It actually seems like the best thing to do. Such criminal behavior will cease to exist when it becomes impossible to find justifications that make it seem OK. Anyone who truly believes it is wrong to harm others simply will not harm others -- unless circumstances change to where they no longer hold that belief.
All Needs Are Based Upon Wants If you don’t want to live, you don’t need to breathe. That pretty much eliminates any ideas you may have held about being dependent. If you are dependent upon someone or some thing then you choose to be that way. You don’t have any needs unless you choose to have them. The want always comes first. Don’t like your job? You don’t need it. You may have difficulty surviving without it, but you only need to work if you want to survive. Survival is a good thing. There are lots of good things worth wanting, but you should never feel that you have a need which is beyond your control to eliminate. Many people value the idea of being needed by someone in a relationship. The idea of need implies insecurity. People who like being needed by someone often feel insecure themselves and share an equal need. It is far better to have deep appreciation for the other person being in one’s life. Appreciation does not restrict freedom in the same way need does. Appreciation is not suffocating, nor does it imply insecurity. Appreciation implies respect, admiration and gratitude, which are elements of true love. As they say, “if you love something, let it go.” Relationships based upon mutual need (mutual insecurity) often deteriorate in quality over time. If one person feels the other needs them, it becomes easy to take that person for granted, to slip into behaving in ways that demonstrate a lack of fairness and courtesy, a lack of respect, which then causes resentments, break downs in communication, arguments and a deterioration in the quality of the relationship. It’s OK to need someone, in the same way a particular tool is 202
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needed to do a particular job. We need the person we are involved with to be with us in order to have the relationship we want to have with that person. But if we realize the need is based upon a want, and are secure enough to know we can get by just fine if our want isn’t fulfilled, we are able to experience the relationship as an expression of appreciation rather than need, as an expression of love rather than insecurity.
The Grand Cosmic Joke It was prom night and you were going to be the envy of all the other girls 'cause the hot football star had asked you to the dance. You were almost finished getting dressed when his mother called to tell you he was going to go with someone else and didn't have the heart to tell you sooner. CRASH! The world collapsed. There you are in tears with your make-up running down your face. You had bragged to all your friends and now they would all laugh at you. You know you will never live it down for the rest of your entire life. It's the end. It's over. You wish you were dead. Ten years later, what does it matter? Zip. Nothing. It is just another example of childhood ignorance and stupid cruelty, long forgotten. The same thing applies to your current experience. You could suddenly find yourself unemployed and on the verge of losing everything you have work for all your life. You may be facing a true crisis and believe there is no way you can come out of it OK. You have survived every crisis you have ever experienced in your entire life, so it is almost beyond doubt that you will survive the next one. If you don't survive the next crisis you will be dead and the crisis won't matter anyway. That's the grand cosmic joke, and the joke is on us -- that we take everything so seriously when in the long run nothing is more important than anything else. Ten years from now whatever is stressing you out today will be long forgotten, so relax. No matter what the situation is you will get through it, just like you always have before. 203
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True Confidence Occurs When The Question Of Confidence Doesn’t Come Up By now you should be able to see what it would feel like to be a truly confident person. It doesn't mean you are sure everything you attempt will be successful, it means you won't feel sorry for yourself if you fail, and you won't be embarrassed by failure because you won’t be overly concerned about how others will react. When you find yourself in a situation that requires confidence you can forget all the worry and stress associated with possible failure. You simply succeed or fail - end of story. It adds up to, "Alright!" or, "Whoops!" and that's that. We move on. Of course, we want to succeed, not fail, but success is not a matter of bravery and courage, it's just doing what needs to be done and doing it right. Competence is the criteria that determines success, and competence is an objective reality based upon knowledge and skill. Confidence, on the other hand, is an emotional state which occurs whenever you aren't concerned about the possibility of blowing it.
The Importance of Honesty While it would be wonderful if we could all be totally honest with everyone, some people will not allow us to be completely honest because they will behave negatively toward us if they disapprove of our behavior. “Honestly officer, it was just a glass of wine with dinner.” To be completely honest at all times with everyone can in fact be detrimental. Explaining that you truly hate the dress your friend is wearing is often unnecessary and can cause bad feelings which could be avoided with a bit of tact. There are limits to how honest a person can and should be with others. But honesty implies recognition and communication of the truth. A relationship is communication, and you can easily assess the quality of your relationships by the degree of honesty each person feels capable of expressing. Your best friends are those you are able to be the most honest with, and as a result they are capable of knowing your true self with the greatest clarity. Such friends deserve 204
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the benefits of courtesy and tactfulness as well as your honest opinions. Problems arise whenever one feels compelled to be deceptive, particularly when such a condition becomes habitual. It can create confusion in one’s own mind regarding what the truth really is. It also generates a feeling of resentment toward the person you believe to be restricting your freedom, or a sense of guilt can develop if you believe you are actually in the wrong. In every case, the more one feels the need to be deceptive, the greater the loss of self esteem. The inability to be honest with others also implies a lack of honesty within oneself, since if you were truly honest with yourself you would find ways to resolve any situation which causes such problems.
Being Willing To Be Wrong Realizing you have been wrong is a blessing because the realization means you have changed your mind and are no longer in error. A lot of people act like know-it-alls and refuse to consider other opinions in a serious way. We've all met people like this. They are usually quite intelligent and pride themselves in having thought things out carefully. But their inflated sense of self importance is directly connected to "being right" and the fear of being wrong causes them to avoid any information that might disturb their preconceived conclusions. Religious zealots and social moralists often fall into this group. They fear that if an opinion they hold strongly is seen to be incorrect, then who they are will be seen as inferior. They haven’t separated who they are from the ideas they happen to hold. People who refuse to reconsider the validity of their conclusions cease to learn and end up becoming what they so despise -- stupid. The truth is we are not our opinions. We are individuals who can accept or discard our opinions at will. If our ideas turn out to be wrong, we are not wrong -- the idea is simply incorrect. There is nothing wrong with taking pride in one's knowledge. If you place value in knowing the right answers, then it must be obvious that holding rigidly to a point which may someday prove to 205
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be incorrect is defeating your purpose. If you are correct, then there is nothing to lose by being willing to reconsider all the evidence, which will only verify the truth you already hold. If a reinvestigation of the facts results in proving your previous conclusion was in error, you win anyway. The object is to be aware of the truth, and the sooner you realize where you have made a mistake the sooner you stop being wrong. You can not be certain you are correct if you are not willing to discover that you may be wrong. Learning that your ideas have been incorrect brings you closer to the truth. It's actually a very good thing when it happens. If you are honest with yourself you will probably agree that we are all wrong about something.
Every Extreme Implies The Opposite What is behind the attitude of a know-it-all person? Fear of being wrong. What is inside the aggressive person who refuses to show any sign of confusion or weakness? Intense insecurity. Those who are violent fear they are weak. Inside the timid, self effacing person is someone who considers oneself superior, holding back resentment toward those who seem confident and aggressively in control. Wherever you find any sort of extreme in personal behavior, the opposite lurks in the background. This is very useful information to keep in mind because it can quickly provide insight into the character of the people you encounter. Understanding that every extreme implies the opposite also makes it possible to understand your self much more effectively. Any extreme quality you find in yourself points directly to the opposite characteristic, which you have probably been avoiding. Getting a good, solid grip on the issues we avoid within ourselves is the first step in resolving those issues. Ask yourself if you are extremely one way or the other about any particular issue or personality characteristic, and you will probably discover a “hidden” truth about yourself at the opposite end.
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Nothing About You Needs Defending Some people are hard to communicate with because they have a perpetually defensive attitude. They always have their guard up, always respond as if someone is criticizing them, always feel as if others are out to deceive them or take undue advantage in some way. I have never known anyone, including myself, who wasn't "guilty" of this at one time or another. There is nothing wrong in choosing to be that way, or with dragging a hundred pound shield around with you everywhere you go, but the result is about the same. Being defensive won't stop anyone from attacking you, and lifting a heavy shield will exhaust you before any battle begins. Being defensive isn't a particularly enjoyable way to live, for the defensive person or the people who always have to peer around the heavy shield. When you stop defending yourself you realize nothing needed defending in the first place. The solution is to figure out what it is you are afraid of and realize it doesn't need defending. Are you afraid people will figure out you are sensitive and vulnerable? Anyone who knows that every extreme implies the opposite will figure that out the moment they see your defensiveness. So OK, they found out. Now what do you do? Panic? Then what? What happens is, nothing. You will respond in whatever way is necessary regardless of whether or not you were defensive beforehand. If you remember that you have survived every crisis you have ever experienced you won't fear not surviving the next one. The phrase, "there is nothing to fear but fear itself," isn't true in all circumstances. Fear is a built-in biological response intended to maximize our alertness in survival situations. It is wise to fear diving into an empty swimming pool because such a fear can prevent you from doing that and so keep you alive. But fear occurring in non-survival situations is an artificial fear, much like artificial guilt. Both of these artificial conditions invoke deep, instinctive responses which are completely inappropriate in purely psychological situations. Anytime you feel a need to defend yourself, ask if your life or 207
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physical well-being is being threatened. If it isn't, all you are doing is holding up a very heavy shield to protect you from . . . nothing at all. That shield keeps people from relating to the real you, and prevents you from recognizing others as they really are. It weighs down your experience in life with an artificial heaviness when instead you can feel light and truly free. Anyone who has a problem with being defensive is in denial about some flaw within their self. Otherwise they would simply admit the imperfection, say something like, “oh well,” and move on. Most of us can find things about ourselves we don't want everyone and their dogs to know about, but there is a difference between maintaining personal privacy and "hiding" from being recognized. If you agree with the statement, "if it doesn't harm others it's OK," that should eliminate any artificial guilt and reduce the number of things you feel defensive about. As for the rest, if one takes the time to think about it, if you ask what it is you are defending, you will see there is nothing that needs to be defended. It is a very liberating feeling when you realize this simple truth. We do not have to justify our right to be who we are. As long as we don't intentionally harm others we are OK. When we stop defending ourselves we experience self acceptance - true inner peace. It is a beautiful, calm feeling, and it's very easy and simple to achieve and maintain. Just stop defending yourself and you will realize what a waste of energy being defensive has always been, how it has harmed the overall quality of your experience in life, and how valuable it is not to become defensive in the future.
About Unconditional Love and Being Judgmental There is an apparent conflict between the concept of unconditional love and the need to be aware that not everyone is worthy of trust. In the first place there is no unconditional love, at least not in human experience. Love happens when someone is recognized as being "special" relative to others. Otherwise we would feel the same degree of love for everyone; for our children, parents, friends, lovers, crooked politicians, child molesters and tyrants committing genocide. It simply isn't possible to feel the same love 208
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for your child and the man who rapes and murders that child. In spite of this there is a soul inside everyone who is a portion of God, of the Source, of All There Is. That soul exists in all of us and in greater terms it is good. From an enlightened perspective it is possible to recognize this good soul in anyone, and you don't have to be godlike to do so. A mother can love her newborn and see that same, innocent soul in the eyes of that child when grown to become a heartless criminal. Sometimes you can see the good soul in the eyes of your lover when you are so angry you aren't speaking to each other. The closest we can come to true unconditional love as human beings is to look for the good in all those we meet. Perhaps some all-knowing god is capable of truly unconditional love, but in real life we must deal not only with a person's good soul, but also with their behavior. We must judge the character of others in order to avoid being harmed by unfair behavior, to insure our survival, to reward behavior we appreciate, etc. If we do not make character judgments we trust everyone equally and set ourselves up to be cheated and abused. Not making judgments becomes a personal fault in that case, and creates unnecessary suffering. The important distinction here is what we judge. None of us have the right to pass judgment on the soul of any individual, because it is very unlikely that we could criticize any soul if we perceived it with true clarity. But we are obligated by reason to judge the behavior of those we interact with. The important distinction is that we do not judge people, but only their behavior.
There Is No Force of Evil If God created everything, then God created what we perceive as evil. Everything in this universe is counter-balanced with an opposite: black and white, up and down, male and female, etc. Without what we consider to be bad we would not appreciate good. Without cold, wet, windy days we would be forever bored with warm, sunny days. So what we consider “bad” often serves a purpose that enables us to value what we consider good. “Bad” 209
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things are therefore part of a greater good. But there is no devil out to destroy all that is good. There are no inherently evil souls, only individuals who behave in evil ways. As mentioned in the section on drug use, I once encountered “the host of hell” on a bad LSD trip, which at the time appeared to me as more evil experienced all at once than this world has seen in it’s entire history. But if such evil were truly independent and powerful in the way it appears to be, it would have been impossible for me to terminate the experience, which I did. I am a mere mortal, so how could I have escaped such evil if it were the powerful, independent force it appears to be? Evil ceases to exist the moment one no longer believes it has power.
We Are All Selfish and Always Will Be When you give a gift to someone, contribute to the nameless homeless, or otherwise do something nice for others, you do so because you place value in performing such actions. If you did not value being kind, you would not choose to be kind. Being “unselfish” therefore provides you with the fulfillment of a sense of value. Value fulfillment is a reward, so you get something in return for your kindness. In other words, your kindness is motivated by selfishness, by your desire to get the feeling you want. Just as none of us are capable of doing something we know to be wrong, we are likewise incapable of performing a truly selfless act. Many of us have sacrificed, sometimes believing we are doing so against our will, but in every case we have chosen to fulfill some other value in the process. We have gone without comforts and freedoms in order to provide for our children, but those who do not place value in providing for their children do not do so. We may give to our church or some charity at significant personal loss, yet we would not give if we did not prefer the reward of giving over the reward of avoiding such loss. This does not mean that kindness does not benefit others, since others are often helped in the process. But kindness would not exist if it did not also fulfill a selfish value, if it did not benefit the one being kind. An example of the truth of this is found in one’s 210
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response to providing help that is not appreciated. If the desire to be appreciated is part of the motivation to be kind, and the appreciation is not forthcoming, the desire to help goes away. Anonymous giving does not require recognized appreciation in return, but if you knew that your gift was completely discarded, simply flushed down the toilet or wrongly appropriated by corporate executives, chances are you would not wish to give in the same way again. When a person realizes the “selfishness” involved in being kind, one avoids the sense of self righteousness and superiority that can come from “self sacrifice.” Kindness actually feels better when you realize you are giving to yourself as well as to others. Fairness is a requirement, kindness is a gift.
Feelings Follow Thought Feelings follow thought First you think And then you feel What kind of thought you’ve got Although it can sometimes appear that your emotions come to you “out of the blue,” feelings always occur in response to thought. The thoughts are not always articulated as mental words, but the intent or idea will exist prior to the experience of the corresponding emotion. Emotions are a form of mental shorthand. As mentioned in the Psychic Window chapter, an “intuitive package” is a feeling which contains large amounts of information which must later be strung out into a series of words to be clearly expressed. Intuition can be described as being half way between an emotion and a thought. Intuition contains more specific information than emotion usually does, and has the quality of thought without the word symbolism. But emotions also contain information of a broader nature. Our emotions express the overall “quality” or “correctness” of the thoughts or ideas which proceed them. Because of this, emotions can be understood as a form of communication from the deeper portions of oneself. 211
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If you are alert to your emotional responses as you ponder possible decisions, you will see this communication in action. For example, if someone where to suggest that you smack yourself in the face with a hammer, you would probably experience a feeling telling you that isn’t such a great idea. The feeling happens before the words form in your mind, but the feeling is in response to the previous thought. Women are often more aware of this communication from within than are men, though in general women are less aware that their emotions are proceeded by thought. The important point is to realize that this process operates in all of us, and by observing our emotions as we ponder potential decisions we can trust them to help guide us. This implies more than simply acting upon our emotions. It means recognizing the emotions, then concentrating upon them long enough to translate them into words which make sense to our reason.
Celebrate Your Issues We’ve all got them -- quirks, hang-ups or attitudes that seem to bother us relentlessly. Whether it is being overweight, shy, insecure, poor, unintelligent, ugly, lazy, addicted, socially boring, superior, inferior, the wrong race or gender, indulgent, sexually weird, dishonest, uncompromising or what-have-you, we all deal with various personal issues over the course of our lives. Most of our issues are temporary and cease to be a problem once we learn the lessons they are meant to teach us, while others remain part of our personality for many years. The first step in resolving personal issues is realizing they exist. All you have to do is ask yourself what topics or situations make you feel uncomfortable, and your issues will be quite clearly perceivable. They feel like anchors holding us back from being able to truly enjoy life, and we would all like to be done with them, once and for all. But our particular issues are there for a reason. The difficulties we encounter in particular areas of life are a source of challenge and value fulfillment. Cows don’t have “issues.” All they need to do is eat, drink and mate, and they are content to be unconcerned about 212
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anything else. But human experience is filled with choices, and one of the most important choices we make is determining what sort of person we want to be. We choose our values and then try to live up to them. In doing so we learn the pros and cons of our choices, learn that conflicting beliefs are often involved, and resolving those conflicts becomes a challenge that gives meaning to our lives. Without them we would cease to grow and would have no empathy for others whose issues are different. Our particular issues define the nature of our personality and make us who we are as individuals. If we had different issues we would not be who we are. So embrace your issues. Celebrate them as key components of what makes you unique in the world, the special person that you are. Know that when you resolve your current issues new ones are likely to replace them, just as other new challenges will open up before you. We must strive to resolve our issues just as surely as cows must eat, but we can do it with joy and enthusiasm knowing how much we will grow in the process.
Success is Loving Life To rise from your bed refreshed and energized, excited to see what wonders another day will bring to your experience -- That is what loving life is like. If you feel that good about your life you are successful. It doesn’t get any better than that. How could it? That’s success. There is no better definition of personal success than to be loving your life, and you don’t have to have a perfect life to be living successfully, right now. If I drop my silly justifications for self pity, and imagine what it feels like to be loving life, I get this terrific feeling coming over me. I can remember moments from earlier in my life, particularly as a child, when I felt wonderful, when I was truly loving life at that moment. Remembering those feelings changes the way I feel now. By concentrating on the feeling of loving life, the feeling becomes stronger. I feel successful, right now, because I am able to recall the feeling from my past. If I then tell myself, “I do love my life,” I can experience that feeling fully in my present moment. I am not deceiving myself here. 213
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I simply say, “I love my life,” and look for supporting evidence. If you throw away self pity for just a moment, the evidence will be there. Evidence means it is the truth. So here I am, as I write this, feeling much more successful than I did a moment earlier. I have changed my emotions deliberately. The fact that I love my life changes everything. I am able to love my life! What an incredible thrill! I repeat: you don’t have to have a perfect life to be living successfully, right now. When you choose to love your life you can not help but have an attitude of gratitude, which is the key to deliberately creating reality. It is simply impossible not to have gratitude when you love your life. You can’t love your life unless you choose to love it, and what is the greatest expression of appreciation? Gratitude. I love my life in this moment because I choose to love it, and because I see the evidence in my immediate environment (all I have to be grateful for) it becomes and is the truth. Choose to be successful, love your life, and you are.
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Chapter Thirteen:
Getting It Together In this chapter I will explain how you can achieve just about anything you set your mind to accomplish, easily. The process is simple: Turn problems into challenges and only do what you want to do. Sounds pretty easy if it will work, right? It works. Getting your "act" together is really a matter of deciding what you want. The hard part isn't the doing of something, but of deciding what you truly want to do. For example, there is no way you could get me up on the side of a thousand-foot cliff climbing toward the top because I have absolutely no desire to do such an insane thing, yet there are people who relish the thought of being there and make rock climbing a priority in their lives. What you do is unpleasant only if you don't want to do it. Anything you truly want to do is a joy. Even if you presently believe your only options are undesirable it is possible to think your way out of that predicament. Getting it together is all about wanting to do what makes your life better. Learn to want to do 215
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What you need to do To do what you want to do
Indulgence, Discipline and Self Control "For the lazy I can offer no hope." (Seth) I fought to find a way around that statement for decades, but when it comes down to it I have to admit he is right. If you want control over the conditions of your life you have to take control of yourself. That should be obvious. The trick is to learn how to do that easily. There is only one cause of laziness -- for whatever reason we do not believe the reward will be worth the effort. We have no difficulty climbing the hill if we know the view will be spectacular. We would wade through a sewer if we knew there is enough money waiting at the other end, and parents make personal sacrifices daily in order to care for their children. At other times we may be so depressed we can't force ourselves out of bed for any reason. It all comes down to believing the reward will be worth the effort. Another way of looking at it is values dictate behavior. If you were to make a list of all the behaviors you would like to change, but have yet to make those changes, you would at the same time be making a list of behaviors you don't want to change. If you truly wanted to change a behavior the change would have already been made. If the change hasn't been made, confusion still exists. There is a conflict in your value system. The cause of these conflicts is often a result of the different value we place on immediate conditions as opposed to long term conditions. You may want to quit smoking, for example, but be unable to quit, simply because in the present the value you place upon having a cigarette is greater than your long term value of not smoking. Values held in the present always win. If you aren't clear about what you truly want all you have to do is look at your present behavior. You are doing what you want to do. That's why you are still doing it. Doing what you want to do is easy. When you change the values you hold in the present, what you honestly want changes 216
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and behavioral changes follow automatically. That means any behavior can be changed as easily as you can change your mind. Knowing that it is impossible to do anything which you know, for sure, to be wrong, can enable you to accomplish amazing feats of "self discipline." Any desired behavioral change can be accomplished effortlessly by tapping into the primal power which prevents us from doing wrong behavior. For example, if you are certain that it is wrong for you to smoke you will not be able to smoke another cigarette, nor will you have any desire whatsoever to do so. The trick is to think things out so thoroughly and completely there is no additional information which could later appear and cause a revision of your conclusion. That is where there real effort is: thinking things out. Anyone who is successful at achieving a disciplined behavioral change actually goes through this process of concluding that for them, the undesired behavior is wrong. If it is not wrong, then there is no reason to alter the previously existing behavior. It is not just a matter of concluding that things would be "better" if the behavior were changed. Making things "better" may be the initial value, but once a goal is accepted as a deliberate decision, it becomes wrong to behave in ways which defeat the achievement of the goal. The really good news is that none of us have to force ourselves to do anything we don't want to do. I spent years trying to force myself to be self disciplined but could never keep things together over the long run. The reason for such consistent failure was a set of conflicting beliefs. On the one hand I wanted to experience all the benefits of disciplined behavior, but on the other I believed life should be enjoyable rather than a means of self sacrifice. To me the idea of discipline was associated with punishment, something one is forced to endure because of some earlier failure or lack of proper behavior. Self discipline became self punishment, self torture. The way to stop the torture was to stop the discipline. I'm sure most of us have experienced this same sort of conflict. If you pause to think about positive behavioral changes you have made in the past, you may remember times when such changes 217
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turned out to be much easier than you had imagined they would be. In many cases the initial effort is very, very difficult, but then the determination finally sets in and from that point on things become easier, almost effortless. It isn't the determination that makes things easier, it is realizing that it would be wrong not to behave in the way you had decided to behave. So you can forget about forcing yourself to make positive changes in the way you do things. The whole idea of "force" is in conflict with desire (chosen values) and that's why self discipline can seem like such an undesirable way to do things. Changing behavior requires being honest with oneself, and that includes acknowledging the possibility that any present, indulgent behavior may actually provide more value fulfillment than you would experience by eliminating that behavior. Being "spiritual" does not preclude enjoying the pleasures of life -- quite the opposite in fact. But if your pursuit of immediate gratification creates long term detrimental effects it becomes obvious that such behavior results in less pleasure overall. If one clearly understands that the goal is to experience the maximum amount of satisfaction in life, then it becomes much easier to modify present values to achieve the most desirable long term results. The way to achieve deliberate behavioral modification is through intelligent self control. Self control is not self sacrifice. It is simply acting deliberately. The way to apply self control to behavior modification is to select one area to work on, look closely at the pros and cons involved (in both immediate and long terms), determine the behavior which produces the most value fulfillment overall, then behave accordingly. This may seem far too simple to be effective in practice, but if you examine your options in enough detail any behavior becomes easy to modify. Don Juan says, "A warrior thinks and thinks and thinks, but once a decision is made he never looks back." I prefer to think that any decision I make is open to modification if new information is presented, but if you do your thinking well enough before making a decision there should be little chance the decision will later need to be altered. 218
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Think about every aspect involved in changing a particular behavior, including how your decision may affect others and how their reactions may affect you. Over the course of several days, make a list or sit quietly contemplating all the pros and cons. Be thorough, take absolutely everything into consideration you can possibly imagine. Think about potential future conditions where your efforts to modify your behavior may become difficult to maintain. Imagine that your will power may not be as great as you would like it to be, and remember that will power is not necessary if you know what you want with enough clarity. Allow yourself not to make the decision to change. If you decide to change, allow it to be OK if you falter in your commitment now and then -- if that is what it takes to get you through. But realize the reason you want to modify your behavior is to get the most reward possible, to be the person you want to be. Self control is doing what you deliberately choose to do, even if you deliberately choose to be an indulgent pig. Discipline implies evaluating how to get the greatest reward overall and using self control to achieve those ends. Disciplined self control turns out to be the best way of maximizing self indulgence, since using the two together allows one to avoid negative consequences. But discipline does not mean self sacrifice. It means knowing exactly what you truly want and doing what you choose to do to have it.
Do What Needs To Be Done Survival is our first priority. You can not concentrate upon expanding awareness and gaining more power over your life if you are constantly distracted by basic survival issues. Survive is the most fundamental instinct in all living creatures, and if you are distracted by questions of basic survival they will take precedence over all other considerations. Survival is so important that everyone has a very clear idea regarding what they should be doing to insure it happens. One might be filled with confusion, such as whether to go to school or what sort of job to get, whether to trust a roommate to pay their end of the bills or if one should marry for financial security, etc. You may be 219
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unemployed and convinced there simply are no jobs available. But you can cut through all that instantly simply by acknowledging that one must survive and choosing to do the obvious. The answer is always there. Just do it. You can find more enjoyable solutions later. Evidence that some sort of solution is always available is demonstrated by the fact you are still alive. You have always found a way to survive. "Do what needs to be done" should, ideally, be applied to everything in life. But once survival is no longer an issue everything becomes optional and clear cut decisions are no longer so obvious. One of the most valuable bits of knowledge I possess is do the smart thing rather than the easy thing. I believe it may be the key to maturity, if used in moderation, of course. When I am presented with an opportunity to do the smart thing rather than the easy thing, I ask myself if I feel inspired to do the smart thing or not. If I do, I do it. If not, I don't. I am applying myself toward doing the smart thing as often as I can generate the inspiration to do so. The more smart things I do, the better I feel, but I don't beat myself up if I decide to take it easy for a while. Dealing with "nasty chores," you know, the stuff you usually put off as long as possible, is an example of smart vs. easy. The more "undesirable chores" one does, the fewer of them one has left to deal with. Pretty soon there are only easy things left to do, and that is a nice feeling to experience day after day. Doing the smart thing is an example of taking responsibility, and responsibility implies control. Control equals power.
Becoming Organized Take a look at your personal environment and ask yourself if it reflects the person you want to be. Is your living space neat and organized, or piled with debris? Most of the time, one's personal environment is a direct reflection of the current state of one's inner being. An exception is when someone may be obsessive about neatness or how others perceive them, when a tidy environment, perfect hair, etc., is simply an expression of their neurosis. Generally 220
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speaking, however, if your environment is a mess, so is your sense of inner organization. A clean, organized environment provides a stable "home" for one's self esteem. Your personal environment is within your power to control, and if you are not controlling the space you live in you are unlikely to have effective control of conditions in the larger world around you. I'm not saying that everyone functions better using filing cabinets than with organized piles of paper, but the issue is gaining control of one's life, and control of one's environment is a good place to start. Do you want more control of your life? Then begin by taking control of the little, easy things you might generally let slide. Clean up the mess in the kitchen, get the clothes put away, vacuum out the car, etc. Then make a point to stay on top of things so you never have a big mess to deal with. If you spend a few minutes each day keeping things tidy you will spare yourself an equal amount of time feeling bad about having a mess to deal with. It may seem trivial to deal with such mundane things, particularly when your real interest is to make a million dollars or otherwise create an ideal life, but "every journey begins with the first step." Taking control of your personal environment will reinforce your sense of positive self esteem and enable you to feel like you are more in control of yourself. It will prove that you have some power over the conditions of your life.
Hatha Yoga and Maintaining Physical Health Performing a daily routine of hatha (physical) yoga can definitely improve the quality of one’s life. Hatha yoga is an Eastern system of meditative stretching exercises, thousands of years old, which releases energy said to be trapped in our joints. The word "yoga" means "union," and these physical exercises unify our body, mind and emotions into an integrated, smoothly functioning system. Properly performing these yoga exercises involves concentrating attention on what is occurring within the body while holding oneself in various stretching positions. With one's attention fully focused on the body, it is impossible to be concerned with 221
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unresolved issues in life. The stress associated with those issues disappears. Physical energy increases along with a sense of well being, leaving one both energetic and emotionally calm. There is also a sense of pride in having the discipline required to do the exercises daily, which provides a feeling of confidence and self control. Yoga exercises do not involve strain and the physical effort is minimal, so the practice is essentially pleasant, even sensual. If you do nothing else to improve the quality of your life, hatha yoga is my recommendation for a good place to start. TwentyEight Day Yoga Exercise Plan by Richard Hittleman is perhaps the best book for beginners, with hundreds of photos and step by step instructions. Every time I break down and start doing yoga again my life improves (due to the effects mentioned above). Any form of physical exercise is beneficial, but with most forms of exercise it doesn't matter what one is doing mentally. People often watch TV or read a book while running on a treadmill, listen to music while they jog, etc. This often ignores the benefits of integrating mind, emotions and body into a smoothly functioning unit. All forms of yoga involve meditation (in this case concentration upon the body) and result in greater mental control. Feelings follow thought, so a calm mind results in emotional stability, which produces a sense of confidence and the capacity for greater awareness. Yoga eliminates nervous tension, develops poise and balance and allows a person's natural beauty to flow outward from within. The sense of having discipline, the often "luxurious" feeling of energy, and improved physical appearance encourage a healthy self esteem, which is one of the most valuable beliefs one can hold about oneself. And being physically fit dramatically reduces the odds of developing chronic illness. Yoga is also easy rather than strenuous, and I really like that word, "easy." Taking care of one's mind, body and emotions creates a stable platform from which other activities can be pursued, but it certainly isn't necessary to exercise in order to develop psychic abilities or achieve other goals. Beliefs create reality. Yoga helps in the ability to concentrate upon desired beliefs. 222
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As Seth says, “Health is the natural state of the body.” It will remain healthy so long as our beliefs do not interfere with this natural state of being. Because our beliefs about our body determine how well it functions, it is possible to remain healthy regardless of diet or exercise. The body is capable of synthesizing the nutrients it needs from just about whatever junk you put into it. But it is easier to believe the body is healthy and perfectly fit if you do things which reinforce that belief. Exercise, vitamins and a nutritious diet reduce the degree of "magical power" one must believe one possesses in order to maximize physical fitness.
Establishing Routines Don Juan made a big deal about how detrimental it was for Carlos Castaneda to have predictable routines. "A hunter discovers how to trap his prey by learning to predict their routines." I avoided routines as much as possible for some time, but then realized don Juan's recommendations were those of someone who didn't live in modern society. In our fast paced world it is often necessary to perform some behaviors repeatedly on a daily basis. For example, we need to shower, shave, eat, dress, get the kids ready for school, do laundry, and dozens of other things repeatedly as we go about our lives, and it makes sense to do these things in an efficient, routine fashion. Establishing a daily routine, with variations for holidays, weekends, and "to heck with it" days, can enable us to do more in less time. If the routines are too rigid, we can become unhappy and feel like our routines have more control over our lives than we do. The ideal balance is found by remembering that we only do what we want to do. We create our routines by recognizing the value of performing certain repetitive behaviors at times when doing them will not interfere with our other activities. It's no fun to be invited for a night out when you have nothing to wear because you haven't done your laundry. If you want to do yoga or any of the many exercises in this book, but don't deliberately make time to do such 223
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things, you may often find yourself going to bed without having done what you wanted to do. In general, the whole idea of having to live with time consuming routines sucks, but when one sees they are the best way to do what you want to do, then routines are seen to have value. So think about making a list of the activities you want to do on a daily and weekly basis and determine a time to do them. Just make a list for tomorrow and see how it goes. Find out what works well and what doesn't, then modify your list for the next day. Continue experimenting until you have a routine that enables you to do all the things you want to do in the most efficient manner possible. Remember all those activities are things you want to do, so don't do them if you don't feel like it. But keep in mind that even "nasty chores" are things you want to do because not doing them creates an even less desirable outcome. An efficient routine, if it isn't too rigid, is the best way to exercise control of your self and your immediate environment.
The Reality of Laziness I like to be lazy. I really enjoy being able to lay around indulging in simple pleasures. I like being lazy so much I have spent most of my life finding ways to maximize my ability to spend as little time as possible doing things I "have to" do. One of my most important goals was to avoid having to get up to an alarm clock, and now that is something I hardly ever need to do. But there is something I enjoy even more than being lazy, and that is feeling motivated and inspired in my work, to get out of bed looking forward to a happy, productive day, enjoying the knowledge that I am living the life I truly want to live. You are living the life you want to live. You may be able to find a million things you wish were different about your life, but if you truly wanted those things you would be working to achieve them, and enjoying the work. It is extremely important to understand that you have been choosing the life you have now all along. If you are physically out of shape but wish you had a healthy, fit, attractive body, yet don't bother to exercise, then you choose not to have such 224
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a body. The same sort of thing applies to essentially every area of your life. Beliefs create reality. Responsibility implies control. If you are not experiencing the conditions you desire then you are not taking responsibility to insure that those conditions become a part of your life. No one but you can determine how you should live your life. There is nothing wrong with being lazy, having addictions, being depressed, frustrated, etc. If you are experiencing such conditions then you are simply at the stage in your life where those things are producing value fulfillment. If you are depressed, for example, you may believe your emotional despair is the last condition on Earth you would choose to experience, that you place no value in feeling that way whatsoever. But if you didn't value the feeling, you would stop feeling it! When you change your values your experience will change accordingly, and you will move on to the next stage of your life. Being so fond of laziness, I have often thought of effort and discipline as "four letter words," things to avoid at all cost. But it all comes down to how you interpret such things. Those who value "hard work" enjoy what is self torture to the lazy. The same hard working person may equate laziness with boredom and avoid unstructured time at all costs. Any given activity is inherently just an activity, and whether it is considered pleasant or unpleasant is a purely subjective interpretation. It is possible to fully enjoy any behavior which you may have previously felt to be something unpleasant, and to no longer enjoy what was considered pleasant in the past. It all comes down to where you place your values. Where you place your values is entirely up to you. There are no good or bad values, but there are some which lead to a happy, fulfilling life better than others. Then again, who says you need to live a happy, fulfilling life? In the long run, "it's all good." But if you think you have had enough of not living the life you "wish" you were living, it's time to place more value upon taking responsibility for your conditions in order to control them.
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Choosing a Career and Achieving Goals One of the most difficult and important questions we have to answer as human beings in this society is deciding what career to pursue for the majority of our lifetime. What do you believe you can achieve with your life? Maybe a decent nine-to-five job with benefits and your own home? True love? What about owning an inter-planetary space vehicle manufacturing plant, being a movie star or the next Christ or Mohammed? Any goal is possible if you believe it is (quack) and you are willing to do what it takes (get out the glue and feathers). If you are less than happy with some situation in life, it's time to get serious about creating your reality in a direct and effective way. The following information deals with choosing a career and making it happen, but the same technique can be applied to any area of life where you may be uncertain of your direction. Know that deliberate effort will be involved, but if you place enough value on achieving a particular goal the process of achieving it becomes a rewarding experience. Four simple steps are involved: 1) Consider all the possible goals you might wish to accomplish, 2) find out what must be done to reach these goals, 3) choose your goal, and 4) do what needs to be done. In terms of choosing a career, the first step requires making a list of all the careers and activities you might possibly enjoy, regardless of whether you believe you can actually accomplish them. At this point in the process the object is to free yourself entirely of any limiting beliefs. Be totally unrealistic, crazy out of you mind, joyously delirious and let your imagination fly. Do you like music? Write it down. What about swimming? Combine the two and put, "underwater violin player" on your list. Forget about listing things in a neat, organized column. Scrawl words across the page, use a crayon if you'd like, fold papers into airplanes with "astronaut" or "waitress" written on the sides. Go nuts. Choose a career as God if you want to. Think of any activity you enjoy, like bowling, having sex, eating good food, anything at all. Write down known occupations that might interest you, such as being a computer 226
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programmer, photographer, writer, doctor, garbage man, musician, actor, accountant, real estate agent, dancer, drunk, anything at all you can think of. Have fun with this until you have totally run out of occupations and activities that could possibly interest you. Next, go through your lists with the idea in mind that even though the occupations may seem beyond your abilities or means, there may be a way to actually end up being successful in anything you truly desire to do. Who knows, there may be a resort in the Caribbean where you could actually get paid to entertain the bored and wealthy by playing a violin underwater. Narrow your pile of crazy possibilities down to things that would honestly interest you as a career, then combine these on a single sheet of paper. These don't have to be actual jobs. You might write "photography" and "music" even though you don't know if you would prefer to be a musician or music critic, a photographer or magazine photo editor. Just list the activities you think you would honestly enjoy. Then look for correlations that might be combined. Music and photography could be combined into "music video producer." Writer and scientist might be combined into "technical writer," or you can combine photography and scientist into "documentary film producer." The object is to freely explore every possible activity you think you might remotely be interested in doing, then reduce them to known or possible occupations. Next, list the five to ten most desirable occupations neatly in a vertical column on a clean sheet of paper. Try to list them in order of the most desirable, but don't be too concerned with getting it just right at this point. You will have before you a list that should contain some rather conventional occupations as well as some off the wall, fun things that could possibly turn into real sources of income. It is very important that you don't simply dismiss the crazy things off hand, because these are probably areas where you could experience real joy if you can find a way to achieve success doing them. At this stage in the game we are dealing strictly in the realm of desire, not practicality. Feel free to go back to your scribbled notes and add any activity that may have seemed too crazy but really seemed like it might be fun. This is your career possibility wish list. 227
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Step two is doing some research to find out what is actually involved in achieving success in these areas. You can't really know what you want to do until you understand what doing it involves. You are not likely to just "believe" your way into becoming a nuclear scientist. Nor would you enjoy that occupation if you don't like mathematics or government bureaucracy. Number your list of possible career choices in order of what you believe to be the most desirable, then beginning with number one, investigate what is involved in achieving success in that occupation. Some of the items can be scratched off immediately. "President of the United States" is a real possibility for anyone, but the effort involved with law school, political campaigning, butt kissing, etc., may for some be easily seen as not worth the trouble. Don't scratch something off simply because you don't feel you can do it, but because you don't really want to do it. There are career information catalogs available at college libraries which contain job descriptions, requirements and current salary ranges. You can call people who do the sort of work you are interested in and ask them about it, how to get started, etc. Basically, do everything you can to find out what is involved in any particular occupation, then decide if you wish to keep that occupation on your list. By the time you have learned what is involved in preparing for and performing each occupation, you will naturally find that you have narrowed things down to what you really want to do with your life. At this point you have completed step three, choosing what to do, and step four is simple: do it. These same four steps can be applied in pretty much any situation where you want to change your circumstances. Say, for example, you want to find true love. Step one is imagine all the possibilities (define the qualities in the lover you hope to find). Then figure out what you need to do (where would you locate such a person and how would you approach them). Step three is choose your plan (to go to social places, place on-line personal ads or whatever) and the last step is simply do what you planned to do. If you are unsatisfied with your current occupation, remember that you do not have to limit your options to working for someone else. Consider ideas such as starting your own business, 228
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inventing something useful, creating a product or service people would pay for, etc. You can brainstorm for ideas regarding inventions, etc. in the same way you listed possible occupations. If you come up with an idea that inspires your motivation, find out what is required to develop the idea and turn it into money. You might also consider meeting once a week with a group of friends interested in brainstorming new ideas. Even if everyone works on completely different projects, meeting regularly in a group can help inspire new ideas and keep the motivation alive. Short term, low budget projects are often best to start out with, since you can make things happen without becoming bogged down waiting for conditions to change. The only way to be truly happy is to enjoy what you do with your time. You may not enjoy washing cars for one dollar each, but how would you feel about doing the same work for a thousand dollars each? It’s not what you do that matters as much as feeling that the reward definitely justifies the effort. In metaphysical terms, all time is simultaneous, and any career or other goal you experience in the future is already happening now in the “spacious present.” Your future experience contains knowledge of what you did to get there. By opening your mind to the idea that the ideal occupation, lover, place of residence, etc., already exists in your future, you can create opportunities where ideas originating in your future are able to influence your decisions now.
On Raising Children I just wanted to point out a few observations about raising children which can make the job a lot easier. First, children like to please. They thrive on praise and positive encouragement. Young children like attention, and they will accept any kind of attention they can get, but what they want most is positive attention. If you give your attention to your children every time they seek it, rather than ignoring them when they are interrupting, you can stop such interruptions and bring more peace into everyone’s lives. They will learn that because you give them attention every 229
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time they seek it, they can get that attention at will, and will not feel compelled to always be seeking attention. When they interrupt, if you respond with a calm explanation of the fact they are interrupting, and how that isn’t fair to others, they will gradually learn that interrupting brings them negative attention. With each continued interruption your disapproval of their behavior should be made more clear. This is done by calmly repeating the same message, over and over, in greater and greater detail, until the child realizes that by interrupting all they will get from doing so is a repeat of the same, longer and longer explanation. Not wanting to endure that they will cease to interrupt in an excessive way. The long explanation is your most powerful behavioral modification tool. When a child learns that the result of any inappropriate behavior is going to be the long explanation, they will seek to avoid that experience. The explanation should always be delivered with kindness and understanding so that it is not felt to be a form of punishment. The long explanation educates the child regarding why the behavior is inappropriate, which is usually a lack of fairness toward others, and this enables the child to predict the outcome of his or her future actions. Eventually all it takes in many situations is a disapproving look and children will straighten right out because they know what’s coming next. In the beginning this may seem like a great deal of effort. In fact, it will be a lot of effort. It may take two or three weeks for the kids to see that the pattern never alters, but once they know the long explanation is coming they will act to avoid it. The initial effort will result in your children learning to be respectful and fair with others, well behaved, and your job will become immeasurably easier. Success requires that you are also fair with your children, since if they perceive a double standard they will not believe the long explanation and will instead consider it punishment, ignoring you and the lesson you seek to impart. It is important that you can be trusted, which means you must not make threats or promises you don’t follow through on. It means you must strive to be as fair with your children as you are with your friends. If you reinforce good behavior with enthusiastic praise, and always respond to negative behavior with calm but serious 230
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disapproval, that is all the “punishment” you will generally need to apply. In extreme cases you may need to force a small child to sit in a chair and hold still for up to five or ten minutes, while you sit nearby observing, threatening even longer “time out” if they won’t hold still and be quiet. It requires patience, but once the results of negative behavior are consistently predictable, the negative behavior will essentially stop altogether. The long explanation is a truly powerful tool.
Achieving the Seemingly Impossible Regardless of what you set out to achieve in life, it is very likely that you will occasionally encounter obstacles which seem impossible to overcome. You may have all the necessary skills and possess endless dedication and determination, yet continually find yourself unable to achieve real success in some area or to overcome a particular hurdle. The reason for this lack of progress is always conflicting beliefs. You will be able to recognize conflicting beliefs simply by looking at what seems to be so impossible. For example, you may need a certain amount of money to do a particular thing and be convinced there is no way to get the money. But that is only your belief at the moment. Regardless of how certain you may feel, if the right idea popped into your head, or the right coincidence were to occur, you could be proven wrong. So the first thing to do is drop the belief that success is not possible, because that belief is obviously inaccurate. You simply don’t know the solution -- yet. Let go of your negative beliefs. Next, focus on the belief that you will find a solution, one way or another. It is quite possible that you may need to change your plan, since it lead you to an “impossible” situation and as a result appears to be flawed in some way. But you don’t need to scrap the whole plan, just the part that creates the immediate difficulty. In the example above, the plan requires acquiring money. You can find a way to get around needing the money, or simply change the way you plan to get the money you need. 231
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One way to find solutions is to ask what you can do to achieve desired results quickly. Be here now. “The present is the point of power.” (Seth) Don’t let yourself get caught up in unnecessary, time consuming waiting. Focus on the belief that you will find a solution. Focus, focus, focus. Be completely unconcerned with outside conditions and develop a feeling of certain success inside you. That belief will work for you. Then approach the problem in a practical way. Be open to any idea that pops into your experience. Be willing to change your entire approach if necessary. And be willing to do what will obviously work. Real solutions are practical solutions, but the inspiration for them often comes from within. Anytime you run into a dead end, just take a look at what seems to be impossible and find some way of changing that belief. There is always a solution if you believe there is.
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Chapter Fourteen:
Social Enlightenment Someday this world will live as one All this ignorance and greed will all be done When someday comes and the old will teach their youth To speak the same language, and seek the same truth (from my song, Someday) It is very difficult to feel content and spiritually enlightened when we look around us and see homeless people in the streets, millions dying from disease, nations at war, genocide, starvation, government corruption, the destruction of rain forests, global warming, etc. We are watching the quality of life deteriorate for the masses worldwide. Individual liberties are constantly eroding, while the threat of terrorism, economic collapse, disease and other preventable disasters becomes more and more a part of even the most comfortable lives. Even if we personally remain unaffected, as each of us gains more personal enlightenment we realize we can not truly be happy while ignoring the suffering around us. These negative conditions are a natural expression of 233
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humanity’s present state of enlightenment, and because we are on this planet to learn, in greater terms it is good. Nor should we overlook that fact that even with these terrible conditions occurring across the globe, many of us live fulfilling, peaceful lives. Every day billions of people are not raped or murdered. They get enough to eat, have shelter, employment and good health. But we would not choose to live in an unenlightened world if we honestly believed we create our own reality. Since this is the world we live in, we must apply ourselves to supporting those ideas which can bring greater peace, happiness and prosperity to all the people of the world. Not because we are kind and understanding individuals, but because we personally, selfishly, want to live in a better world. The ideas presented in this chapter may not appear to be very “spiritual,” but they describe basic observations regarding the means for creating an enlightened society in practical terms. The most significant characteristic of an enlightened society is that the same socioeconomic structure would be implemented worldwide. As I write this in March, 2003, war has begun yet again in Iraq. Terrorism will certainly follow, along with more wars intended to prevent terrorism, which will spawn more terrorism and more wars. War has been part of human society as far back as history can take us. It seems that war is part of human nature, that wars will continue to happen forever, but wars will cease to occur when the conditions which make them possible are eliminated. War is a result of individual groups of people insisting that other groups change in some way. These groups can be nations, races, religions or other organizations of individuals with common ideas. In all cases, war requires the division of populations into groups. There is nothing wrong with feeling connected to a particular group of like minded people or cultural heritage. There can be great value in sharing experiences with others who appreciate similar ideas and activities. The maintenance of various cultural expressions also provides for a diversity of experience which can be enjoyed by all. The problems arise when groups of people create artificial separations from the rest of humanity. 234
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For example, when individuals of a particular race actively develop specialized language usage, custom handshakes, uniform styles of dress, etc., they encourage “racism” by holding their group separate from everyone else. Whole nations enforce “accepted” styles of dress or appearance which separate them from other nations, i.e., some Muslim countries require men to have full beards and women to cover their faces. The danger is greatest when governments enforce artificial and unnecessary cultural/religious restrictions. In this country, for example, it has been immoral for a woman to show her bare ankle, and people have been imprisoned for publicly supporting the idea of free love -- to say nothing of burning witches for practicing unpopular spiritual beliefs. At the same time it was perfectly OK to own slaves and murder Native Americans. An enlightened society involves recognizing and reinforcing those things we have in common while simultaneously celebrating the diversity of every individual. We must be able to communicate with each other, which means sharing a common language in addition to any native language we might speak. It is much more difficult to kill someone if both sides can make the other aware of why one is fighting in the first place. Conflicts can be resolved before they happen if we can first agree upon a common method of discerning the truth. The creation of a single, worldwide socioeconomic system, having fair and reasonable principles which apply equally to every human being on the planet, would eliminate wars between nations because there would be no separate nations. Wars motivated by greed and ideological differences can be prevented if the operating principles of this single socioeconomic system benefited everyone equally and left no legitimate justification for group conflict. There are four primary principles which can serve as a basis for an enlightened, worldwide socioeconomic system: Reason, Fairness, Opportunity and Freedom. Real truth is objective. The means for discerning truth is reason. Reason -- one plus one -- is the same for everyone, everywhere on the planet. Beliefs and emotions do not share this common factor. Reason then, is the only means of reaching agreement. 235
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Reason tells us that whenever more than one individual is involved in some situation, the only way to keep everyone happy is for things to be fair. Fairness does not mean all things are the same for everyone. We were not born with equal abilities and motivations. Some people can run faster or jump higher than others, and some will want to work harder to achieve more. So fairness doesn’t mean everyone must have the same things, but that no one is forced to have less than someone else. In order for everyone to have the same, fair chance, opportunity must be incorporated into an enlightened social system. Cooperation is not possible if people are “forced to cooperate.” Force automatically generates resistance (every extreme implies the opposite). Peace, therefore, is not possible without freedom. Over the years there has been a gradual, but still incomplete transition toward the recognition of the true limits personal freedom. That limit is reached when one’s personal behavior forces others to participate against their will. Reason, fairness, opportunity and freedom must, therefore, be the fundamental principles of an enlightened, worldwide socioeconomic system. It may at first appear that these principles are incorporated into modern democratic societies, which are obviously far from being idyllic examples of civilization. In the United States, our media constantly tell us we are the land of opportunity and freedom, but the opportunity belongs mostly to those who are born into it, and the freedom is restricted to behavior sanctioned as acceptable by government. Greed and control have taken the place of opportunity and freedom. In the U.S., more than ninety percent of the wealth is owned by just ten percent of the population. This is the same as saying one person has nine apples and nine people are left to share one apple. If you imagine ten people going to work somewhere, and at the end of the day one person walks away with nine apples, while everyone else is given just one-ninth of one apple, you can see how unfair our current economic system is. If the guy with nine apples were to take home just eight instead, the standard of living for ninety percent of the population would double. Nine out of ten people would have 236
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twice their present income. This also means one’s current standard of living could be achieved while working half as many hours, enabling one person to support a family, or for two to work half as many hours per week. Ask yourself a question. Would you still do what you do for a living if you didn’t need the money? If the answer is yes, then for you, it would be possible to live in a world where money was not necessary. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all have the things we need and want and get rid of the monetary system altogether? Perhaps some day that may be possible, but I can not imagine it happening in the foreseeable future. Too many of us work only because we have to in order to survive and be comfortable. Fairness means that those who work harder, or contribute in ways which benefit more people, deserve to acquire greater rewards. Communism fails because it’s fundamental ethos is, “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need.” In such a system the greatest rewards vs. effort belongs to those with the fewest abilities and the greatest needs. It is necessary to reward people according to their level of contribution, otherwise no one will want to contribute. This can be achieved without allowing greed to dominate by applying reason and fairness. Items of basic necessity are those which are necessary to reasonably comfortable survival, so the idea that a few individuals should be allowed to make huge profits while others are forced to endure price gouging is unfair. Items of basic necessity include food, clothing, housing, energy, communications, education, transportation, medical care, etc. Since everyone needs these items, it would benefit everyone equally to create a system where they were made available at the lowest possible cost. This would extend to natural resources, which are part of the Earth and therefore belong to everyone, including wildlife, equally. Natural resources should be made available to all manufactures at the lowest possible cost, while at the same time it is necessary to manage natural resources in ways which protect the environment. On the other hand, items which are not necessary to “reasonably comfortable” survival should be marketed without price restrictions. The only exception to this is when a person would be 237
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forced to purchase something, i.e., repair parts needed in order to maintain the usefulness of a previously purchased item. Price gouging is a form of force, and force would not be part of an enlightened society for individuals who were not exerting force upon others. Taxation is another area where reason and fairness would change how things are done. No social system can operate without financial resources, so taxes are necessary. In a fair society, everyone should be taxed equally. But taking the same amount of money from rich and poor alike is not fair, because the rich would hardly notice what would be a devastating loss to the poor. Fairness would mean taking an equal percentage of income from everyone. The poor may feel the crunch of losing ten percent of their income more dramatically than the rich would, but the rich would be financing more of the services taken advantage of by the poor. For example, the rich can send their kids to any school they choose for higher education and losing ten percent of their income would not be felt as a devastating loss. The poor may feel the loss more directly, but free education means their kids can be educated with less financial hardship than would otherwise be the case. When you combine the benefits of being provided with basic necessities at the lowest possible costs, the poor would actually enjoy a better standard of living than they would if they were denied these services while not taxed at all. The rich would pay the same percentage of their income as the poor would, and still have more to spend than they would if they were taxed at a higher percentage of income than the poor, which is currently the case -- at least in theory. Loopholes enable the rich to avoid paying taxes almost entirely. Taxation is presently used for both revenue and control, and tax loopholes make the system entirely unfair. “Sin taxes” are placed upon the sale of tobacco, alcohol, etc., as a way for government to enforce moral choices upon its “free” citizens. Taxes are also levied upon particular items as a way of “hiding” how much taxes a person actually ends up paying. There are taxes on the sale of any item (sales tax), on services rendered, on property, gasoline, utilities, hotels stays, phone and internet access, to name just a few. It is impossible to know how much we actually pay in taxes without 238
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laboriously adding up all one’s receipts, and this confusion regarding how much we are taxed is exactly what the government intended. The result is seeing, say, twenty percent of your income withheld from your pay check, while in fact the majority of us end up paying more like forty percent of our income in various taxes. These additional taxes take a far greater percentage of income from the poor than from the rich, which is entirely unfair. This is particularly true with property taxes, where even after a lifetime of paying for a house, the government can take it away if retired people on fixed incomes become unable to pay the constantly increasing property taxes. The solution is to create a single tax, upon income, with no loopholes whatsoever. The best way to implement this is an “exchange tax,” where the receiver pays a fixed percentage of the amount exchanged in any transaction. An exchange tax differs from a sales tax in that it affects transactions other than simply sales. Workers and others would pay the tax when they receive their income and would never have to concern themselves with being taxed again on the same money. Nor would anyone have to file a tax return. An exchange tax would also apply to all transactions made by corporations and businesses, not just their employees. There would be no deductions for “costs associated with doing business,” including writing off jet planes, houses and automobiles. Loopholes associated with business taxation policies currently enable multi-million-dollar corporations to pay no taxes whatsoever. When businesses pay an equal percentage of their income in taxes along with everyone else the overall tax rate would drop dramatically. Remember that if you are presently paying twenty percent of your paycheck in payroll taxes, “hidden” taxes are doubling that. A true tax rate of twenty percent would cut the average worker’s taxes in half. Twenty percent of all the money that changes hands every day in this world is a whole lot of money. But don’t expect “the authorities” to support such a change in the tax system. For ten percent of the population the tax rates will sky rocket to the same percentage that everyone else would be paying, which is far more than they have had to pay in the past. The 239
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people with nine apples will forecast doom and gloom for the entire world if they are forced to be fair and have to get by with only eight apples. They will point out that you will lose the deduction for interest paid on your home loan, hoping you will forget that you will end up paying even more in property taxes and twice as much in “hidden” taxes. The greedy will fight hard to keep the system favoring them, but fair is fair, and for ninety percent of the population things will become far better when things are fair. Don’t forget that. It is important to understand that no one deserves a free ride. Then again, it should be understood that when society became so large it took away the right of individuals to live freely off the land, society incurred the debt of providing everyone with the opportunity to support themselves. Welfare and unemployment compensation should be eliminated and replaced with guaranteed employment for anyone who wants it. People need items of basic necessity, and people can be provided with employment creating those things. So long as a person can always find decent paying work there would be less justification for petty crime, and no need for bankruptcy, which is unfair to the creditors who incur the loss. There should, however, be a reasonable limit on the percentage of income any creditors can forcibly withhold from a person in debt. Not long ago a man I know found half his weekly paycheck being withheld for child support, then the IRS took the other half for back taxes. It’s no surprise that he quit his job and the creditors received nothing. Everyone, other than the totally disabled, is capable of contributing to their own survival in some way. Those few individuals who are totally incapacitated would require medical care in medical institutions. They would not be considered “special cases” exempt from the socioeconomic structure that applies to everyone else, because free medical care should be provided to everyone. Medical care is one of the basic necessities of life, as illustrated by the following.
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Consider the case of an American making minimum wage who has a toothache and discovers he needs a root canal. At present, the average American dentist wants $500 for a root canal plus over $600 for a crown in order to save the tooth. To save one tooth it will cost anyone making minimum wage (currently $5.15/hr.) over 200 hours to earn that much money, and the procedure will take the dentist about 2 hours. Of course, at minimum wage no one can support themselves to begin with, so such people have no way to pay. If this person doesn’t pay the money he will be in severe pain and his appearance will be disfigured. The same conditions would apply if facing a hoodlum carrying a tire iron in a dark alley -- pay the money or else. Not long ago someone I know had a heart attack, and a few weeks later similar symptoms occurred so he went to the hospital. All they did was hook him up to a monitor for an hour then sent him home $1,000 poorer. An acquaintance recently cut through the tendon of his little finger. Because he has no medical insurance, the doctors refused to reattach the tendon unless $1,000 of the $5,000 for the two hour, outpatient operation was paid up front. Not having the money, he resigned himself to spending the rest of his life with a maimed hand. He also lost his job because he could no longer work as a result of the injury. Fortunately, in this particular case a relative came up with the money for the operation, but not all of us are so lucky. If you have a job which provides good medical insurance, pray that you don’t end up unemployed in an economy where similar employment is simply unavailable, or pain and disfigurement, even death, may be options you also face. Tens of thousands of Americans die each year as a result of not having medical insurance. In the U.S. there are forty-four million people without medical insurance, and the absence of a national health care system which regulates prices has turned medical professionals into millionaire extortionists. We are the only industrialized country without a national health care system, and the cost of medical care here has risen at ten times the rate of inflation for decades. One analogy for this situation would be a bridge called Life that spans a bottomless chasm, where the bridge is often icy and the 241
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wind always blows. It is inevitable that all of us will at one time or another be blown off the side of the bridge where we desperately grip the broken railing. Medical people are like robbers in white coats, who did nothing to put us in our precarious position, but walk the length of the bridge carrying a rope they can use to help people back up to safety. But before they help you they ask how much your life is worth to you, because that is how much they will charge. It’s the same question a robber with a gun would ask, but the robber only takes what you have on you, while doctors and hospitals will take everything you have spent your entire life earning. It doesn’t have to be this way. From my encounters with pre-med students in college, I realized they are not the smartest, brightest flowers of the bunch. They are just people like everyone else, cramming for exams between parties simply to pass the tests rather than to retain the information, with many of them studying medicine only to acquire the wealth and status of being a doctor. An enlightened social system would provide free education to anyone who wants it because education is a basic necessity. If people studying to work in critical professions were actually paid to go to school there would never be a shortage of qualified professionals willing to work for high but reasonable wages. Those individuals who have a natural desire to work in healing professions, but presently can not afford the many years of required education, would be drawn into the field and the quality of service would actually improve. There would be sufficient staff in hospitals so that emergency doctors would not be required to work thirty-six hour shifts and the shortage of nurses would disappear. The motivation of these individuals would not be to make millions of dollars, but to provide quality healing services and make a very good living at it. At the same time the cost of health care to society would drop dramatically, perhaps as much as eighty percent once the unbelievable profits built into the cost of pharmaceutical drugs are also removed. Free health care would also enable people to take more preemptive health measures, such as having regular physical and dental exams, while free education would allow people to take yoga or 242
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other exercise classes and learn more regarding alternative health systems. People would be healthier in general as a result, further reducing health care costs.
One-Building Cities The construction of one-building cities, housing onehundred-thousand people or more, would result in cost savings that would cut the cost of living in half for those fortunate enough to live in them. (Fair taxation and access to basic necessities at the lowest possible cost would double your effective income, and living in a one-building city would double it again.) I am not talking about ugly, over-crowded public housing units for the poor, but spacious, beautiful, and above all, efficient masterpieces of architectural engineering. Imagine a black pyramid a mile across at the base and half a mile high. The outer walls are lined with (separated) residential and office spaces. The living spaces could have large, outdoor patios big enough for a hot tub, dining table, lounge chairs and hanging gardens. These living spaces would be as large as an average home, without stairs, and no yard to keep up. The walls, ceilings and floors would be soundproof and each unit can be configured to taste regarding interior wall placement, with lots of storage space between adjacent units, which further reduces sound transfer. High speed data networks would provide access to virtually unlimited digital entertainment and information, including interactive on-line educational programs (reducing the cost of education). This communication system would also enable individual participation in government affairs. “Smart dumb-waiters” could deliver groceries and other products directly to your residence, while everything inside the building can be reached in just a few minutes via traveling walkways, escalators, etc. The pyramid would appear black because the walls would be covered with solar panels to assist in power generation to individual housing units, so there would be no system-wide power blackouts. Wind, wave and other energy sources could supply electricity with no dependence on fossil fuels and their associated pollution. Since 243
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electricity can be used to separate the hydrogen and oxygen in water, it seems possible that a motor could be constructed which would burn these chemicals (currently used as rocket fuel) while powering a generator that would produce more electricity than needed to separate the hydrogen and oxygen. In other words, it seems possible to construct a motor which runs on water and produces harmless water vapor as exhaust. In any case, it is possible, right now, to generate sufficient energy from renewable resources and completely eliminate dependence on oil and coal. Surrounding the building the nearby areas would contain parks and both community and private gardens, with farmland beyond. There are no roads in site, since no one needs a car, and a railroad tunnel would run under the building to a transportation hub some distance away. Along the outside of the building at ground level, as well as inside, would be shops and restaurants. Office space and light manufacturing would make up much of the interior, which is also open and spacious, with indoor gardens, natural light, and a stadium large enough to seat half the population of the city at one time. Constructing one-building cities is not simply an exercise in community design. The main reason for them to exist is to improve efficiency, eliminate pollution and enhance the quality of life. The cost of mass producing a private residence as part of such a structure is far lower than that of a free-standing building. Plumbing, electrical and data transmission lines are much shorter, streets do not have to be dug up and resurfaced to make repairs, there is no roof to build, and the main structure can be built with automated machinery designed specifically to “mass produce” that project. Using carbon nano-tubes as the primary construction material would enable the building to last a thousand years. Because most of the interior space is not exposed to the outside, heating and air conditioning costs would be dramatically reduced. And most importantly, cars would be eliminated. Consider the reality of our civilization being so dependent upon automobiles. Besides the billions of dollars spent every year on roads that scar the environment, everyone who drives a car has to deal with drunk drivers on the road, speed traps, traffic tickets, 244
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dangerous weather conditions, auto insurance, automobile repair costs, fuel costs, etc. Forty-thousand deaths and five-million auto related injuries occur in the U.S. each year. Many of those injured suffer brain or spinal cord injuries which result in tragic, permanent disabilities. Automobiles result in tens of billions per year in insurance claims, cause seventy percent of water pollution, and about half of our air pollution. If we were to start all over from scratch, is this the way you would design things to be? Constructing one-building cities and eliminating automobiles would save enough in construction, maintenance and insurance costs to double the standard of living for the residents. With everything you could want just minutes away, it could also be a great place to live.
Freedom and Justice Laws governing individual behavior should be so simple and easy to understand they can be written on a single piece of paper in large type. “Do not force others to participate against their will,” is essentially the only law necessary as far as individuals are concerned. Business, on the other hand, needs to be regulated in order to prevent exploitation and maintain public safety. True personal freedom means an individual is the owner his or her own body and can do with it as one pleases. Personal freedom means private sexual behavior can not be regulated, nor can government regulate which substances one chooses to ingest. The “war against drugs” is a battle which can never be won because individuals will never accept that government has the right to restrict private, individual choices. Illegal drug distribution makes up eightpercent of the worlds economy -- a larger industry than automobile manufacture worldwide -- and entire countries are ripped apart by corruption and violence financed by drug profits. The solution is to grant individuals the freedom they inherently possess as the owners of their own bodies -- to make them responsible for the consequences of their own decisions. If society made honest information available regarding the pros and cons of using street drugs, rather than flooding the uninformed with 245
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biased propaganda which is largely ignored, individuals would be able to make informed choices. If drugs were not illegal prices would fall closer to the cost of production, which is minimal, and there would no longer be huge profits to finance the violence, which would then cease to exist. With current wages for unskilled workers being less than the cost of survival, combined with the opportunity to make huge profits by selling drugs, many young people in our inner cities can see no way of succeeding in life through legitimate means. In other words, our present socioeconomic policies and the war on drugs causes gang violence and poverty. Of the two-million people in American prisons nearly half are there on non-violent drug charges, one-sixth for marijuana alone. Due to our drug laws the U.S. has the highest percentage of its population in prison of any industrialized nation. One out of every thirty-seven adults now alive in the US have been, or are, in prison. This does not include those who have only been in local jails. Government refusal to grant individuals true personal freedom causes children to be torn from families, careers to be lost, and personal property acquired over a lifetime of hard work to be confiscated -- all in the name of “goodness.” Freedom does not mean “only those behaviors approved by government.” Freedom means doing as you please so long as you do not force others to participate in your behavior. There is no other way to define personal freedom in a fair society. In terms of real crimes, there will always be those who refuse to play by the rules and will treat others unfairly. There are two main ideas to consider when attempting to decide how to deal with such people. The first is remembering that no one will do anything which they are certain is wrong. A basic education regarding the concept of fairness, and a society that is fair with its people, will do a great deal to reduce real crime. This is sort of “the long explanation” given to adults -- over and over if necessary. The ability to earn a comfortable living with minimal effort will also do a great deal to reduce crime. The second point regarding fairness is that if an individual refuses to be fair, society can refuse to be fair in return. Every opportunity should be provided to enable an individual to see the error of his or her ways, but if the laws are fair and real 246
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opportunity is available, and someone repeatedly refuses to be fair toward others, they should simply be removed from all interaction with society and its benefits, with no attempt to provide comforts beyond healthy survival, i.e., solitary confinement. Putting like-minded (criminal) people together where they associate with others who think the same way is truly stupid. It only serves to reinforce the kind of ideas that got those people into trouble in the first place. When it comes to those who simply refuse to be fair with others after numerous opportunities to learn differently, it would be equally “fair,” and much cheaper, to simply kill such people and be done with it. However, it is better for society to pay the financial costs of a lifetime of incarceration than to unjustly kill a single innocent person with capital punishment.
Eliminating War War is the most unfair of all human acts. Innocent people are killed, maimed or deprived of material possessions as a result of war. Families are ripped apart and the suffering lasts long after the fighting has ceased. The consequences of a nuclear war are horrible beyond imagination. The only thing more insane than a nuclear war is continuing to prepare ourselves to have one. Both sides in a war feel their actions are justified and necessary. But wars are not created by nations. They are created by individuals, the leaders of those nations. There is nothing more noble about dropping a bomb on a tank containing several soldiers than having a sniper shoot the leader of an opposing country and preventing the war entirely. When one considers the enormous cost of expendable military hardware such as bombs and cruise missiles, it seems that dropping new cars, hot tubs and big screen TVs on the opposing forces would do more to end the war, and at less expense. If the money currently spent on military operations were instead spent providing jobs, education and infra structure, on supplying the opposing force with a better life, wars could be avoided. Wars are usually fought by one nation against another, or by one religion against another. In other words, wars are caused by 247
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groups promoting different interpretations of right and wrong, or good and bad. If one group believes it is wrong for a few individuals to profit from the exploitation of natural resources while the vast majority suffer, and another group believes the opposite, there will be war. If one group believes it is wrong for women to have equal rights, for individuals to enjoy financial and social freedoms, or that a particular religion should control government, and another group believes the opposite, there will be war. The good intent of the American people is so sincere that we allow our young military people to die in defense of “freedom” in other countries, and for most of us we can not grasp why anyone would want to harm our county in any way. It is incomprehensible to the average American why the United States government is hated by so much of the world. Most of us never consider the possibility that it is because the U.S. constantly seeks to manipulate foreign economies in ways which benefit the few at the expense of the masses, that we actively seek to impose our morality and form of government on other nations, and that we are not fair with our own people, let alone toward those in other parts of the world. We are far from being the only unfair country, but we are the most aggressive in promoting our policies overseas. On the other hand, corruption and repression are so extreme in other parts of the world that many people seek to come here. And there is the problem of religious morality in other nations creating unopposed propaganda which encourages people to take up arms in order to enforce their morality upon all others. The same principle of “moral necessity” we apply to imprison pot smokers is used by others to encourage suicide bombers. The most effective weapon in any confrontation is communication -- getting both sides to see things the same way, and that means both sides agreeing to be fair. War is not possible where fairness exists. War is a result of unfairness, where each side is convinced, by it’s leadership, that the other side is being unfair. The unfairness often exists, on both sides. Open communication between opposing populations would eventually eliminate war because all people are able to recognize reason and fairness when they see it. (Though it can take some time to sink in.) Because the Internet 248
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enables free expression between individuals across the globe, it is the single most valuable tool for peace in the world today. As Seth tells us, “War will end when all young men refuse to go to war.” There is nothing fair or reasonable about forcing a man to kill other men, so drafting people into military service is worse than slavery. When enlightened definitions of reason and fairness are communicated worldwide, and considered absolute necessities by the population of the world, all young men will refuse to go to war. The sooner positions of power are eliminated the sooner this can come about. Decisions should be made by a consensus of all those citizens who understand the issue at hand.
Democracy via an Informed Population True democracy is a situation where each person has one vote and the majority rules. Another name for democracy is “mob rule,” and angry mobs are not prone to investigating all the facts. True democracy also creates a situation where a completely uninformed person has as much power to affect society as the wisest individual on Earth. Most current “democratic” societies operate by empowering the population to elect individuals who will represent their views in the making of laws. These individuals, however, are not capable of representing everyone, so once in office they are trusted to use their own judgment. This often leads to corruption and abuse of power. An alternative is an informed population, where all those who can demonstrate awareness of the details of a particular case are allowed to vote on the final decisions. In other words, decisions affecting others would be made by an “informed population.” There should be an interactive communication system where anyone willing to study the issue at hand would be able to observe all the facts and contribute opinions, as well as vote. If you don’t believe corruption is a significant problem in every country, consider what has happened to the global monetary system. To make this explanation easier to understand, imagine the world has a population of only one-hundred people, and each of these people have one dollar. Twenty years later the population has 249
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doubled to two-hundred people. That means there would only be half as much money per person in circulation, or fifty cents each. The money would increase in value because there would be less of it to go around. That means wages and prices would have to drop by half. In our present society, instead of money gaining value as the population increases, it loses value. Inflation causes prices to double over and over again. Everyone has to spend twice as much money to buy the same things. But that is impossible because there should be less money to go around due to the increased population. Where did the extra trillions of dollars come from? It was created out of thin air. The monetary system of the entire world has been corrupted. Corruption is also created when government officials purchase products and services from private manufacturers. These contracts often go to those companies who provide favors or bribes to the officials involved. Government should work toward manufacturing all the products it requires and providing its own services, rather than outsourcing from private companies. In the U.S. the gap between rich and poor has doubled every ten years for the last thirty years, and is now even worse than during the great depression of the 1930s. Minimum wage, relative to the cost of living, is a third less than it was in 1973. “Free trade” has resulted in the loss of a three-million U.S. jobs in the last three-anda-half years alone. Manufacturing is shipped off to third world countries where employees are paid one-tenth as much to work in sweat shop conditions and are denied employee benefits, and high tech jobs are increasingly being shipped overseas as American companies interact with foreign employees via the Internet. The result? Millions of Americans with healthcare and mortgages have lost everything. When I was young I believed the world was a mess because no one had been smart enough to come up with effective solutions. So I spent years working towards finding those solutions. Later I realized that the solutions were fairly obvious to a lot of people, but they had not been implemented because those in power make deliberate efforts to keep the population in ignorance. Those who benefit 250
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unfairly from the way things are actively use the power of their enormous wealth and political influence to keep things as they are, and to make us believe we live in the best society possible. Definitions of political left and right have been distorted in order to make right wing politics seem less repressive than they really are. On the right are people who believe it is correct and justified to force others to behave in particular ways. Examples include imprisoning people for using street drugs, having or performing abortions, viewing movies with “indecent” sexual content, etc. The opposite of this is not the liberal left as it is today. The opposite of right wing political thinking is using the same kind of force in the opposite way. It would be to force people to have abortions in order to reduce the population problem, to view pornographic materials to get over sexual hang ups, to use street drugs to gain enlightenment, etc. True left wing politics does not exist because there is no attempt to force others to participate in left wing thinking. What is considered left today is actually dead center. So long as we are convinced we could one day have nine apples, we will be satisfied with one-ninth of an apple, and that is all that ninety-percent of us will ever get. We are constantly told that we have the opportunity to acquire great wealth if we are decent, hard working people, so when we find ourselves living on the streets we think it’s because we are somehow inferior. We accept potential unemployment and the loss of all we have worked to acquire as an unfortunate but unavoidable reality. We are relentlessly bombarded with advertising convincing us we need more things. This results in a lifetime of servitude working to line the pockets of the already wealthy so we can pay for a home and modest lifestyle. A lifetime of slavery to our never ending debt is the American way. It is becoming the way of the entire world, because we are all blindly led to believe that there is no better way. Those who derive profit and power from the existing political systems either ignore or suppress opposing views. For example, many millions of people worldwide protested the 2003 war in Iraq prior to it beginning, while those in power acted as they pleased because they had the power to do so. In spite of this the propaganda has convinced us that government by representatives is the best 251
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political system possible. We believe we live in a democracy, that each of us has an equal voice, but when was the last time you changed a law? There is no voice for opposing positions because the wealthy own the media. The capitalist government controls media licensing, and capitalist companies pay the advertising costs which are the medias profit. When is the last time you watched an American television program proclaiming the virtues of socialism, for example? The idea that competition is good, that it inspires innovation and results in lower prices, has been ground into us from the moment we entered school as children. But competition means survival of the fittest. For example, large corporations with endless financial resources open chains of huge mega stores, buying products at reduced prices due to volume discounts and undercutting prices of all the smaller stores in the area. The small businesses can’t compete and go out of business, but that’s OK because we pay lower prices. Then the mega stores raise prices because there is no longer any competition. We lose. But still we act as if competition is good. The solution is not competition, but cooperation. How well can a team work if the members are all competing against each another? Humans are social creatures and we all interact with each other. Like it or not we are a team, and we need to stop competing with one another. Cooperation doesn’t mean communism, socialism, or any other kind of -ism. It means being fair. The world is a mess because reason is not applied to insure fairness, which includes opportunity and freedom. Fully describing the way an enlightened society would operate could easily fill an entire book, and would be significantly enhanced if the best minds in the world contributed. What I have attempted here is to provide a brief description of some basic concepts involved in making this world the best place we are capable of creating as a society. To review the main ideas: There should be a single socioeconomic system worldwide. The fundamental principles of this system should involve the 252
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equal application of reason, fairness, opportunity and freedom. There should be a single form of taxation, an “exchange tax” paid by the receiver in every transaction, with no loopholes and at the same percentage for everyone. This would reduce taxes by half for ninety percent of the U.S. population. The construction of one-building cities and the elimination of automobiles would double the average person’s standard of living. Items of basic necessity and natural resources should be made available at the lowest possible cost by eliminating profits associated with private enterprise. Private enterprise should be allowed to compete in all other areas. Education and health care should be free to all. Welfare and unemployment benefits should be eliminated and replaced with guaranteed employment. Positions of power should be replaced by an informed population. Criminal rehabilitation should involve education and progressively longer periods of solitary confinement, with no capital punishment. There is one thing we can all do politically to begin improving the world -- which actually has a chance of succeeding because it doesn’t prevent most of those in political power from exercising their greed. That is to legalize freedom by supporting the Personal Freedoms Protection Amendment: “Behavior expressed in the pursuit of happiness, which does not force others to participate against their will, is an unalienable right of the American people.” This amendment would release nearly a million non-violent people from U.S. prisons, cut off the financing of most organized crime, reduce much of the corruption in drug producing countries, dramatically reduce gang violence on our streets, and rid us all of much artificial guilt. It would save tens of billions of dollars now spent every year on prisons and the doomed-to-failure war on drugs. That money could be used to educate and employ those leaving prison. And I wouldn’t be too concerned about it turning kids into drug addicts – it’s easier for a kid to buy street drugs now than to get 253
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alcohol. A similar law could be implemented in many countries around the world, and we could at least begin the process of bringing reason, fairness, opportunity and freedom to all humanity. The necessary changes won’t be easy, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be accomplished. Social enlightenment is not simply a matter of bringing spiritual awareness to the masses. The political and economic system we live within must be capable of nourishing individual spiritual development. Our beliefs about the society we live in help to form the society we experience, and we should all begin by believing there is hope. To bring enlightenment to the world is to create an environment where our own, personal, spiritual development can be nurtured in an atmosphere of peace, tolerance and prosperity for all. Be selfish. Choose to live in such a world for your own benefit. One man can not change the world alone, but one idea, shared by enough people, will have already changed the world.
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Frozen Fog Cold descends shimmering yet unseen, spilling from the dark vault of space behind a guise of cascading mist swirling into fog beneath the towering waterfall. Within this wilderness of listless mist Only the shadows of trees are moving. The sound of hissing behind my back is the campfire sinking further into the snow; I think. The fire warms my naked flesh, the flamelight and smoke a thin tower supporting a pale, flickering dome of emptiness inside the dense purity of surrounding grey. The sputtering light projects my shadow, cross-legged, into the creeping drift of the dome's fog wall. Since twilight I have sat as a spirit in a statue studying the fog's spinning, halting motion deep within my shadow's breathing. After three days of fasting I may be approaching delirium, or perhaps the fire's heat has failed to warm the shadow, but within it, now, the fog has frozen still. Crystallized mists 255
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hang like spider spun lace within the rigid body of the shadow-form, and a dull gleam ebbs and flows across the angular forehead and chin, framing the darkness where there would be eyes. The shoulders and arms drape like icy rain falling between canyons of cloud, and from the deeper dark of the shrouded heart I sense the presence of an ancient warrior. I blink slowly, afraid the breeze blown by my lashes or the pause in my silence may break the delicate fabric of the frozen form. But there are no words of illumination, no gestures, no signs, none of the insight I had come here hoping to find. There is only the living stillness of a warrior's sternness. Cautiously, I reach out and firelight blazes in the crystal eyes for a moment, but I am left alone, my hand grasping a skyfull of falling snow.
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Appendix:
Overview of Metaphysical, Occult and Paranormal Phenomena and Practices There are a great number of events and conditions which traditional science can not explain in terms of previously accepted scientific conclusions. Many of these involve perceptions or manipulations of a “non-physical” nature and are often referred to as paranormal phenomena, falling within the study of parapsychology. The prefix “para” is the root of “parallel” and means “next to” or “along side.” Paranormal would refer to that which is not normal but is in some way related to normal. I have some difficulty with the term “paranormal” largely because it is considered a part of psychology rather than physical science. That which is “not normal” in psychological terms includes some rather unpleasant behavior having nothing to do with enlightenment and greater awareness. “Occult” means hidden, not revealed, or secret. It is often used in reference to paranormal or supernatural phenomena. But there is a difference between something which is hidden and that which simply isn’t understood. Psychic perception, for example, is not hidden, but has yet to be adequately explained in general scientific terms. I prefer the term “metaphysical,” or “that which is beyond the physical,” because, in my opinion, such phenomena is actually part of physical nature -- yet goes beyond our normal understanding of physical cause and effect. If we experience anything as physical creatures, it follows that such experience is physical in nature, and should therefore be the subject of physical science. But even 257
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“metaphysics” falls short of being an adequate term because it is considered to be a branch of philosophy rather than physics. It would appear that none of these terms are adequate, so for the present, one will work as well as another. Perhaps one day science will eventually discover methods of measuring the coherent structures of “non-physical” phenomena and entirely new terms will be applied. Whatever you choose to call it, this chapter provides descriptions of strange and/or interesting stuff reported to happen out there in “boofland.” I‘m sure much of this stuff is actually true, while some of it may not be true, and I can’t say that I always know the difference. The information is provided in order to better describe the potentials of human awareness, and may be of some assistance in our efforts to determine fact from fiction. Items are listed alphabetically. Terms in bold type are described elsewhere in this section. An asterisk (*) indicates the phenomena is also described in other sections of this book. *****
Acupuncture and Acupressure Acupuncture originated in China more than five-thousand years ago. It is a form of therapy which involves inserting needles into the body at key locations and leaving them there for various lengths of time. These points on the body are said to affect the flow of ch’i energy, and the needles are used to manipulate this energy as a means of restoring or maintaining the health of the body. Acupuncture can be used to facilitate anesthesia during operations, and small metal balls or staples placed in the ear lobe are said to assist individuals in losing weight, not smoking, etc., by rubbing the embedded object to reduce cravings. Acupuncture first appeared in the West in France in 1928 but became more popular in the 1970s after the U.S. established friendly relations with China and the National Institute of Health sponsored a research conference on the subject. 258
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Acupressure is similar to acupuncture, but rather than penetrating the skin with needles, pressure is applied at key points on the body, sometimes in conjunction with massage.
Akashic Records Every thought, emotion, and event which has ever occurred is said to be imprinted in an unknown way, perhaps on some astral plane, where it can be perceived by gifted psychics. This “cosmic warehouse” of information is referred to as the Akashic Records. (If time is in fact simultaneous and all events are happening now in the “spacious present,” the same information would be perceivable if such a record of human experience did not actually exist. Rather than the information existing as some sort of record, all human experiences could be perceived directly by psychically tuning in to the events as they occur.)
Alchemy Modern chemistry evolved from efforts to transmute baser materials into gold and silver during the medieval period in Europe and the Middle East. Alchemists of the time combined both rudimentary science and philosophy in this quest. Their knowledge originated with the ancient Egyptians, who used quicksilver (mercury) to separate gold and silver from ore, and associated this process with the power of the god Osiris. When the Arabs conquered Egypt in the seventh century this knowledge eventually found its way to Spain and then spread throughout Europe, where eventually, even Sir Isaac Newton, the father of modern physics, practiced alchemical research in the 1600s. Prior to Newton’s time there were essentially no advances in alchemy for nearly 1,000 years, largely due to the repressive nature of the Catholic Church, which would not tolerate any use of magic (witchcraft) or any philosophy which opposed Catholic religious teachings. The Gnostic philosophy of the alchemists was intended to perfect the soul in the process of changing lead into gold. The belief was that such a feat could only be accomplished by an 259
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individual who had transmuted himself into a higher quality being in the same way. There are only a few reports of alchemists being successful in changing lead into gold. The key ingredient required was the “philosophers stone,” which is usually described as a powder. There are numerous reports of a Scottish man named Alexander Seton who turned any metal given him into gold using a black powder, and even extreme torture did not succeed in making him divulge its secret. Most scholars who accept that gold was ever made in this manner attribute the results to the spiritual abilities of the practitioner, which corresponds to the belief that the philosophers stone also granted long life.
Apports Physical objects materialized at séances. These include everything from jewels and flowers to living animals. They are usually physical objects from the nearby environment but have been reported to have come from all over the globe. In many cases they materialize near the ceiling and drop to the table, but have also materialized in the cupped hands of the medium. Materialized objects include sun flowers over six feet tall and other objects too large to have been fraudulently concealed. In the 1880s, physical medium Elizabeth d’Esperance regularly produced apports of objects requested by the sitters, including ferns matching the leaf patterns of drawings she was shown. In one case, a medium successfully materialized two marked objects that had been placed in the coffin of a child buried a few days before. Few reports of apports have been investigated since the 1920s.
ASCID (Altered States of Consciousness Induction Device) Developed by Robert Masters and Jean Houston of the Foundation for Mind Research. It consists of a metal swing the occupant stands in while blindfolded and wearing ear plugs. The slightest movement exaggerates the motion of the device producing 260
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altered states of consciousness involving hallucinatory visions, often within twenty minutes.
Astral Body, Astral World and Astral Projection According to Theosophical theory, the astral body is an exact duplicate of the physical body but composed of finer matter. It is the body used in dreams, after death experience and Out Of Body Experiences (OOBEs). It is said to be the part of us which experiences all passions, desires and emotions, and communicates these to the physical nervous system. The concept of the astral body originated with Hindu mysticism but is also mentioned in early Western literature. The term “astral body” and the “aura” are in some respects manifestations of the same thing, since the astral body is reportedly perceived as the aura on different planes of the astral world. The astral body is said to be composed of seven layers of progressively finer energy, more and more subtle toward the inside. Each of these layers of energy correspond to perception and manipulation within seven different planes or spheres within the astral world. The seventh plane is described as the realm of physical desire and the second plane the fulfillment of spiritual ideals. The first plane is the Mental level and constitutes an entirely new universe of perception. Astral projection involves the projection of conscious awareness outside of the physical body, or Out Of Body Experience.
Astrology Astrology is a method of making predictions or observations based upon the positions of the stars, the planets, and the angles between them. Stars have relatively fixed positions and form a background of constellations (groups of stars) across which the planets appear to travel. In Western astrology there are twelve constellations (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, etc.,) located along the zodiac (the part of the sky crossed by the Sun, Moon and planets). Each constellation (or sign) is associated with various meanings, as are 261
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each of the planets. The angles between the planets also have various meanings. The most common astrology chart consists a circular map of the sky, divided into twelve pie-shaped sections called houses, with the Earth in the center. A natal chart is one showing the sky as it appeared at the time and place of an individual’s birth. A horary chart is created for a specific time and place such as the creation of a new business enterprise, wedding, or the asking of a particular question. Interpretations regarding personality traits; current, past and future conditions; etc., are derived by combining the various meanings of the signs, houses, planets and angles between the planets. Many different methods of creating and interpreting astrological information have been developed over the centuries in different parts of the world. The precise origin of astrology is unknown, but it appears to have developed independently in both China and Mesopotamia, and was widely used in India from early times. As early as 600 B.C.E.* the Chaldeans, living in what is now Iraq, were able to accurately predict eclipses, and the time of the solar year (within twenty-six minutes). Astrology was used in ancient Egypt, and went in and out of favor in both the Greek and Roman empires. *Note: “B.C.E.” is an abbreviation for “Before Common Era,” our current method of dating years which begins with the birth of Jesus Christ.
Auras* This refers to emanations of light around living beings which are perceived via clairvoyance. They are described differently by various schools of thought, but also have some generally accepted characteristics. They are most often perceived near the head as a sort of halo, but adepts can see them surrounding the entire body. Auras are colorful, the colors being brighter and having more subtleties of shading than physically perceived color. These colors are associated with personality characteristics, health conditions and emotional states. Auras are animated, in that the colors are complex and in constant motion. 262
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Theosophy describes the following symbolic associations of color and emotional states: Rose, pure affection; bright red, anger; dark red, sensuality; yellow, intellectual activity; orange, selfishness or pride and ambition; brown, greed; blue, devotion, from obsession to intense spirituality; green indicates placing oneself in the position of another, from envy and jealousy to sympathy and empathy, depending on the shade; purple indicates psychic ability and power arising out of knowledge.
Automatic Writing This is a process where an individual writes without conscious control. It can be a form of mediumship where the information originates from an non-physical being, a method of tapping into subconscious information, or simply an exercise in self delusion. Automatic writing is the most common form of mediumship and implies an alteration in consciousness away from the normal waking state. This can be anything from a condition similar to daydreaming, to a full trance. Some individuals have been able to write fluently in languages they were previously unfamiliar with (xenoglossic script) and lost items have been found using automatic writing as a method of accessing forgotten memories. In some cases it has been reported that “an invisible hand” has grasped the subject’s arm and forced it move while the subject was fully conscious and unable to stop the movement. Most often the material is nearly incoherent and very little information is conveyed considering the number of words written. In the 1850s Abby Warner, a young orphaned girl who could only read printed letters, was known to write with both hands on different subjects at the same time. Chico Xavier (pronounced sheeko shaveer) a famous Brazilian Spiritist and author of over 150 books, produced automatic writing containing scientific concepts beyond the medium’s understanding, implying a spiritual source since the information could not have come from the subconscious.
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EEG is an acronym for “electroencephalographic” devices which measure electromagnetic energy through electrodes attached to the skin. When placed around the head it is possible to monitor brainwave activity. Brainwaves are bioelectric impulses which fluctuate in association with a subject’s state of conscious awareness. These impulses occur in cycles which are slower when sleeping and faster when fully awake and mentally active. Beta (1450 cycles per second) refers to our normal, everyday state of awareness. Alpha (8-13 cps) is associated with relaxation, light meditation and dream states. Theta (4-7 cps) occurs during deep meditation, sleep and dreams. Delta (0.5-3.5 cps) is associated with deep, dreamless sleep. Biofeedback equipment can enable an individual to monitor brainwave activity while meditating or practicing self hypnosis. In these cases the frequency of the practitioner’s brainwaves are most often displayed as an audible tone and/or flashing light. As the brainwave frequency decreases the tone will descend in pitch or the lights will flash more slowly. This assists in the ability to discern which methods of concentration produce the slowest brainwaves and the associated states of consciousness. Biofeedback devices range in price from under twenty dollars for simple, battery operated tone generators, to hundreds of dollars for more sophisticated devices, some of which employ lights and tones which are programmed to gradually slow in order to induce the desired state of awareness. Biofeedback can be used to monitor such things as skin temperature and heart rate and thus assist in learning to control these otherwise autonomic responses. Biofeedback has been shown to be particularly effective in the relief of migraine headaches, and even the inexpensive devices can be quite effective for those new to meditation and self hypnosis.
Biorhythms The idea that we experience predictable cycles of emotional, physical and mental capacity was popularized in the 1970s. The theory states that we experience peaks and valleys of emotional 264
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wellbeing every 28 days; mental abilities peak every 33 days; and physical energy peaks every 23 days. The peaks are associated with a corresponding low halfway through each cycle. It is therefore possible to begin with an individual’s birth date and create a graph of three rising and falling lines over time. The subject would be expected to do best in each area when the peaks occurred, and to have greater difficulties when any of these factors were at a low point. The theory was tested in the 1970s by comparing the performance of athletes with their biorhythm charts, and no such correlations were found. To date there is no significant evidence in support of the biorhythm theories.
Channeling This is a currently popular term for a process where an individual conveys information from a spirit, usually while in a state of trance. The individuals who do this are referred to as “spiritual mediums” or “channels.” Those who specialize in putting people in touch with their deceased relatives or friends are generally referred to as mediums, while channels communicate primarily with certain spiritual entities in order convey information of a philosophical nature. Some individuals can do both. Channeling first appeared in the late 1800s and a variety of spiritualist books have been produced though channels since then. Channeling was made popular by Jane Roberts (1929-1984) who began speaking for the entity Seth in 1963. She produced a series of some 20 volumes including non-Seth material, some of it claimed to be from psychologists William James and Carl G. Jung. Since the 1980s many new channels have gained popularity, including Esther Hicks (Abraham), Jach Pursel (Lazaris), Alan Vaughan (Li Sung) and J. Z. Knight (Ramtha). In some cases it is unclear whether the spiritual personalities being channeled are separate entities or expressions of the channel’s subconscious or higher spiritual self. Some who have consciously created a “fictitious” personality to be channeled have produced paranormal phenomena. During the mid-1800s many persons 265
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channeled the spirits of American Indians who spoke in broken English but were unable to communicate in native Indian dialects. John Edward is a medium who began to host his own television show, Crossing Over, in the late 1990s, and regularly demonstrates knowledge of the personal lives of strangers said to be given to him by their deceased loved ones. In some cases the living persons are not aware of the information until it is verified later.
Ch’i Chinese term for an energy within the body which can be controlled via meditation and breathing exercises. Similar to the Japanese ki and Hindu yoga term prana. Ch’i can be manipulated with acupuncture and acupressure. In Asian systems of martial arts, ch’i energy is focused at specific points in the body through the force of will to increase strength.
Clairvoyance and Clairaudience Clairvoyance means “clear seeing.” It is the term used to describe psychic impressions perceived as visual imagery in the mind of a psychic. It is the most common form of psychic perception other than “direct knowing” or what is commonly referred to as intuition. Clairvoyance can be classified in four different subgroups. (1) seeing physical objects in the direct environment which is otherwise hidden, such as reading a letter inside a sealed envelope, (2) seeing things at a distance happening in the present, often referred to as remote vision, (3) seeing future events (precognition) or past events, and (4) seeing spirits or other dimensions of experience. Clairvoyant perception does not employ use of the physical eyes, and the first three types have been demonstrated to be a reality on countless occasions. The forth type is by its very nature difficult to verify. Clairaudience means “clear hearing” and refers primarily to hearing non-physical voices. Some mediums communicate with the dead using this type of perception, while others simply become a channel where the non-physical entity is allowed to speak using the 266
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medium’s physical body. Psychotic individuals also hear voices, though it is unclear whether these are always products of the patient’s subconscious or if they may on occasion originate with outside entities.
Crystals, Crystal Gazing and Crystal Healing Crystals are stone objects which have smooth planes as a result of the chemical nature of the minerals composing their structure. The individual molecules have flat sides and these stack up to form smooth planes. Common examples are diamond and quartz. Quartz crystals have some unique properties, in that if an electrical current is applied to them they will vibrate at a very consistent rate, and if caused to vibrate via mechanical stimulation they will produce an electric current. For this reason they have been used in the manufacture of timepieces, computers and lasers. Some people believe certain crystals have “magical” properties and they have been used in rainmaking ceremonies by Australian aborigines and other cultures. Carlos Castaneda reported the use of finger-shaped quartz crystals as “power objects” used in warfare by ancient Toltec indians, where they would be thrown at an adversary and “magically” return to the warrior who threw them. Crystal gazing is a form of divination where the practitioner shifts levels of consciousness (through self hypnosis) in order to perceive clairvoyant images in a smoothly polished globe or oval, usually about four inches in diameter. Historically these globes were made from crystal or precious stone, but the same technique can be applied using glass spheres. The Hindus have employed small pools of black ink in a teacup since early times to produce similar results. The idea of using crystals for healing purposes stems largely from the psychic readings of Edgar Cayce, who described this use by the people of Atlantis, a mythical civilization believed by some to have sunk into the ocean. In the late 1970s psychic channel Frank Alper published three volumes of material describing the supposed healing effects of crystals. This was followed by a number of other books on the subject, but the lack of scientific evidence supporting 267
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the claims has resulted in a decline in popularity of crystal healing methods.
Debunking the Debunkers Much of the cause of a lack of credibility for psychic phenomena by science is due to emotional bias and mental laziness expressed by many debunkers of paranormal phenomena. Foremost among these is “The Amazing (James) Randi,” who routinely claims to have successfully uncovered fraud by rigging experiments which prove nothing. For example, in one of his television programs he presented a group of about twenty high school students with what was supposed to be a document describing their personal, astrological personality profile. Nearly all of the students said that it matched their personality quite well. Later it was revealed that all of them had received the same document which was not produced using astrology. Randi then claimed that astrology was a fraud. The document was a description of common personality characteristics, so it would obviously apply to most individuals. At no point in this demonstration was astrology applied at all. How is it possible to disprove a theory when the theory is not applied in the test? A more effective experiment would be to have five of the best astrologers available collectively review 100 different birthdates of mature adults (rather than naive students) to find those most astrologically different, then from those the astrologers would create personality profiles for twenty different individuals. Half of the participants would be provided with their correct profile and half with a profile belonging to someone else. If those receiving correct profiles did not claim their profile matched more often then those receiving the incorrect profile, then astrology would have, in this one experiment, been shown to have no significance. Perhaps it is time to debunk the debunkers, who in many cases are as irrational as they believe the believers to be.
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This is a French term referring to the feeling that one has previously experienced a currently happening event. It means “already seen” and is sometimes associated with déjà entendu (already heard). Most people report having experienced déjà vu to one extent or another at some point in their lives. In some cases this may simply be a result of associating a present event with a similar past experience, which psychologists refer to as “postidentifying paramnisia.” In other cases no previous associations are present (see chapter one). Déjà vu is sometimes associated with precognition, the awareness of a future event prior to its occurrence.
Direct Voice Spirit voices heard to come from various places in a room with no means of physical production, usually in the presence of a medium, but sometimes heard in poltergeist situations. The voices range in volume from whispers to overwhelming loudness which can be heard from more than 100 yards away. During the Spiritualist period (1850s-1920s) direct voice phenomena were often produced with the aid of a “trumpet,” a cardboard or thin metal tube larger at one end than the other. The trumpet was often painted with luminous paint and would sometimes be seen floating about the darkened séance room while a spirit spoke through it. Sometimes the mouth of the medium would be filled with water to prevent fraud. In one experiment a sensitive microphone was placed in a sealed, soundproof box and the direct voice was then amplified and heard coming from an attached speaker. In more recent times direct voice phenomena have been recorded electronically.
Divination Methods of deriving knowledge of the unknown or future by signs or omens. Divination has been practiced in every culture since prehistoric times, usually by an elite class of priests or shamans, often with the assistance of consciousness influencing drugs. There are more than seventy well defined methods of divining the future, 269
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including astrology, crystal gazing, tea leaves, palmistry, Ouija boards, tarot cards, dowsing, predicting events from the flight of birds, etc. It is remarkable that the many of the same methods of divination were known to all the primitive peoples of the Americas. Astrology has been used in every part of the world since the time of ancient Egypt, often in combination with other methods of divination.
Dream Phenomena* Dreams were considered a second life by the ancients, a much more active life since consciousness was not limited by the body. Writings from early Egypt and Babylon outline steps by which wise men could divine their future from visions experienced during sleep. This would be an example of precognitive dreaming. Finding lost objects by first locating them in a dream could be nothing more than memory recall, or could be an example of clairvoyant dreaming if the dreamer had no awareness of the location of the object prior to it being lost. In this instance it is also possible that telepathic dreaming might be involved, where the dreamer may be interpreting impressions from another person in the present. Two or more individuals experiencing the same dream at the same time is called double or shared dreaming. Being fully aware with one’s normal consciousness while in a dream environment is called lucid dreaming. If the body is asleep but the “dreamer” is aware of traveling in the physical world, it is referred to as Out Of Body Experience (OOBE) or astral projection. Many authors, scientists and others have experienced creative dreaming, where the text of a novel, mathematical problem, etc. would be first resolved in a dream. In a similar way, some creative people have experienced waking visions where a creative idea or solution to a problem appears while fully conscious. For example, Nikola Tesla experienced waking visions where complete details of electrical apparatus were displayed before him. (As mentioned earlier, I personally awoke from a dream where I saw the image of an inertial propulsion device which persisted after waking.) 270
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There is some confusion regarding the terms used to describe these various dream phenomena, since they have altered over the centuries, but these are generally those most currently in use.
Drug Use Many primitive peoples have used psychedelic drugs as part of religious practices. The use of cannabis (marijuana) is cited in Chinese literature as early as 2737 B.C.E. and was used in India before 800 B.C.E. Other drugs used since antiquity, often for the purpose of divination, include soma by the Hindus, peyotl (peyote) by ancients in what is now Mexico, hashish by the Arabs, and opium by the Malays and Chinese. LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide 25) was discovered accidentally in 1943 by the Swiss researcher Dr. Albert Hoffman. It was popularized in western youth culture by Dr. Timothy Leary during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Electronic Voice Phenomena Voices of the dead impressed upon normal tape recordings, usually very faint but discernable within the background noise. Konstantin Raudive made more than 100,000 recordings before his death in 1974, and the phenomena has been duplicated by a number of other researchers.
Ectoplasm During the late 1800s and early 1900s there were many credible reports of mediums producing a strange substance from their bodies during séances (A séance usually consists a group of people sitting in a circle in a darkened room while a trance medium communicates with the dead.) This strange, living substance is called ectoplasm, and exudes from the body of the medium in a variety of forms. It can come from the pores in the skin as thin, wispy threads, exude from the mouth or other body orifices and form into physical materializations such as the body of a 271
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disincarnate spirit, a hand, etc. The color is usually grey or white but can also be black, is usually cold to the touch, sometimes sticky and soft, but can also be as firm as a rubber eraser. The body of the medium, who often sits behind a curtain in a special closet, can shrivel in size and entire limbs can disappear, only to regain normal proportions afterward. If the medium is exposed to sudden light while producing the phenomena he or she will generally recoil in pain as the ectoplasm snaps back into their body like a rubber band, often resulting in physical bruises. Measurements indicate that spirit mediums have lost as much as half their weight while secreting ectoplasmic manifestations. During the 1920s many of those reporting to be legitimate mediums were debunked as frauds who were simply performing stage magic. Harry Houdini, a famous stage magician of the time with a serious interest in contacting his dead mother, wrote extensively about those who were faking ectoplasm. Since World War Two there has been little or no evidence supporting the existence of ectoplasm.
Energy Wheels Items similar to the paper wheel described in the Psychic Party Games section. The phrase “energy wheel” is apparently a registered trademark of Gerald Loe, author of The Gift of Healing. A four spoke wheel is described in the book, Mind Machines You Can Build by G. Harry Stien. The Egely Wheel is a patented commercial product invented Dr. George Egely, formerly an employee of the Atomic Energy Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It is an electronic device employing a thin metal wheel with dozens of notches along the edge. The electronic components do not influence the movement of the wheel but provide accurate indications of the speed of rotation. Prices vary but are generally well over $100.00. A version of the device is also available which will record the information.
ESP 272
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This term was popularized by psychic researcher J. B. Rhine in his book Extrasensory Perception published in 1934. It refers to all forms of awareness received outside of the physical senses. Dr. Rhine was one of the most influential and pioneering researchers in the field of psychic research and derived conclusive evidence for the existence of telepathy and other forms of psychic awareness. He pioneered the use of “ESP cards” (Zener cards, developed by Karl Zener) a pack of 25 cards, each card showing one of 5 basic symbols used in testing for testing telepathic ability, which are still in use today.
Ether It was theorized in the late 1800s that “something” filled all of space and allowed for the propagation of electromagnetic waves. This “something” was called ether and supposedly had a density 10,000 times greater than water and a pressure of 750 tons per square inch. The theory was disproved by Albert A. Michelson and E.W. Morely near the beginning of the twentieth century, resulting in the First Noble prize to be received by Americans.
Eyeless Sight The ability of blind persons to distinguish colors or even read printed material through sense perception other than eyesight has been documented and tested since the 1920s. When the perception involves the use of touch it is referred to as dermaloptical perception. Seeing at a distance is called paroptic perception, and can be stimulated using hypnosis to encourage “seeing through the cheeks” or other sensitive skin areas. (The most recent reference to the phenomena I have been able to find is from the 1960s so it is unclear whether eyeless sight can be proven to exist. However, a friend has told me that his nearly blind father is sometimes able to see clearly when first awakening from sleep, only to lose the ability the moment he realizes he is awake.) 273
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Fairies The existence of nature spirits and other beings of a supernatural nature has been reported in the historical literature of all continents. We are most familiar with fairies as described in the folklore of the British Isles and Europe. They are reported to live in an underground world or some other magical dimension. Fairies are said to be beautiful creatures of smaller stature than humans, who are often helpful but can become mischievous when offended. Many poltergeist effects, such as banging doors, pans falling off shelves, rapping sounds, etc., have at times been attributed to fairies. In better moods they have been reported to help plants and flowers to grow, to sweep floors and perform miracles such as curing birth defects. While it is likely that different sorts of beings exist in other dimensions which somehow interact with our own, the existence of fairies as they have been described has yet to be demonstrated as fact.
Fire Walking The ability to walk barefoot through hot coals without pain or physical damage to the feet has been demonstrated throughout history. In most cases this test is performed in order to prove innocence or spiritual faith. There are two explanations which seem to account for why this is possible. One is that the belief in safety, held in the mind of the participant, produces a condition where the physical effects of the heat are not experienced by the body. It has been reported that the medium D.D. Holmes was able to hold a burning coal in his hands and blow upon it till it was white hot without being burned. The other explanation includes the fact that moisture on the skin creates a vapor barrier which reduces heat transfer, as well as the ash of a burning coal supplying a layer of insulation. Fire walkers move swiftly and only take a few steps through the hot coals, though on occasion people are severely burned. It is most likely that a 274
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combination of both physical insulation and mental focus are involved in successful fire walking.
Geller, Uri One of the most famous proponents of ESP phenomena. Geller was born in Israel in 1946 and at a young age demonstrated the ability to stop and start clocks from a distance, as well as demonstrating telepathic ability. In 1972 at the Stanford Research Institute in California, he demonstrated metal bending without applying physical pressure (now often referred to as the “Geller effect”). He also correctly guessed the contents of sealed cans and the numbers on dice shaken in a closed box. When he appeared on U.S. television talk shows in the early 1970s he encouraged viewers at home to try spoon bending and several people reported success. After his television appearance in Japan in 1974, thousands of Japanese children manifested paranormal powers. Twelve of these were investigated by a team of 15 researchers headed by Shigemi Sasaki, a psychology professor at Denki Tsushin University. One twelve-year-old, Jun Sekiguchi, demonstrated amazing ability at spoon bending and could recharge dead batteries by holding them in his hand. In 1983 it was revealed that James Randi had organized accomplices who faked metal bending experiments in order to discredit the parapsychologists investigating the phenomena. When Randi accused Geller of fakery, Geller filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit for defamation, and lost. Illusionists are capable of faking metal bending, but some things Geller can do which they can’t include: Bending metal objects without holding them (the wedding ring of rocket researcher Werher von Braun was bent in his closed hand); break metal without having touched it; create changes in the crystal structure of the metal at the point of the break (this can not be done with any method known to science); cause objects to continue to bend after setting them down; enable others to cause metal objects to bend, and more. At the height of his fame in the mid-seventies, Uri Geller disappeared from public view for ten years. He is said to have 275
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become a multi-millionaire, largely from royalties received from using his ability to locate oil and mineral deposits by holding his hand over maps and later visiting the sites. As of this writing, from looking at his website (www.uri-geller.com) it appears that he has totally sold out to commercially exploiting his fame.
Gnosticism From the Greek “gnosis” or “to know.” A religion associated with several different groups of the first century who combined Jewish, occult and pagan ideas. They performed magic rituals and fashioned charms and amulets, and were considered heretics by the Catholic Church, which persecuted them. Much of their philosophy died out but was revived by the popularity of Theosophy and later the New Age movement.
Healing, Psychic Psychic healing comes in a variety of forms, which can generally be thought of as methods whereby a practitioner assists a patient in more efficient use of their own, natural healing processes. Autoscopy is a situation where a hypnotized subject is capable of diagnosing their own disease. A related phenomenon involves the hypnotized subject being asked to provide instructions for the cure of their own illness. These processes were popular among “hypnotists” in the 1800s but are now rarely encountered. Crystal gazing, automatic writing, and psychometry (holding some object belonging to the patient) have also been used to diagnose illness. Medical clairvoyants operate in two general ways. Some see the body as transparent and can locate the specific area of disease. Others perceive the aura and make their assessments due to colors being affected by the illness. The most well know psychic healer was Edgar Cayce, who diagnosed and prescribed treatments for thousands of patients while in a self-induced trance. 276
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Absent Healing occurs when the patient is at a distance from the healer. These days the most common example of this is group prayer. Reports of spectacular healings come from many sources, including Christian, mystic, occult and metaphysical groups. In some cases destroyed tissue has been perfectly healed. There are also numerous cases throughout history where miraculous cures have been associated with places or artifacts. The growth of plants can be accelerated by gifted persons who do no more than hold containers of water used to water the plants. Ordinary individuals who are in the habit of talking to their houseplants are known to stimulate faster development. Psychic surgery, popular in the Philippines and Brazil, appears in two forms. One is where the practitioner mimes the act of surgery. The other is where the healer appears to perform the real operation using either bare hands or primitive instruments. The later method has become a subject of controversy due to fraud and attempts to discredit any real phenomena by deliberately faking a procedure (the Randi effect). Faking a procedure can not account for the fact that real cures have resulted from such healing methods. Faith healing differs from psychic healing in that faith, the individual’s trusting relationship with God, is seen as the operational component. It is more properly referred to as Divine healing. This is most often performed by “laying on hands” in the name of the Lord. Evangelist healing movements became popular in the United States beginning with tent revivals in the 1920s, until “the Randi effect” was brought to bear on unscrupulous practitioners in the 1970s, discrediting not only the frauds but the actual healers. It has long been acknowledged that the “placebo effect” has resulted in many healings from real illnesses, i.e., someone taking a sugar pill but told it was real medicine has recovered as well as others taking the medicine. (James Randi could use this fact to discredit the entire medical profession.) The placebo effect does not disprove that Devine Intervention is responsible for some cases of spontaneous healing, but it does prove that psychological factors alone can cause healings to occur. 277
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Healing by touch or the laying on of hands has been documented in Egyptian sculptures and is scattered throughout the New Testament of the Bible. Saints were known to cure such ailments as blindness, deafness, leprosy and even raise the dead. The kings of Europe, beginning with Edward the Confessor of England and Phillip 1 of France, were known to heal diseases of the throat with a touch of their hand. Finbarr Nolan, born in 1952, is a healer in Ireland who has cured many thousands of people with his touch, and only his touch. There is no ritual or faith involved as he also cures animals and infants. In a test conducted in Florida, a doctor introduced Mr. Nolan only as an observing physician who touched ten patients considered incurable three times a week for two weeks. Six of them experienced sixty to one-hundred percent recovery. W. T. Parish was a spiritual healer for seventeen years before his death in 1946. During that time he received more than 500,000 letters of thanks from grateful patients, many of whom had been pronounced incurable. In 1977 the General Medical Council in England allowed doctors to refer patients to spiritual healers.
Houdini, Harry Famous twentieth-century stage magician and escape artist who made a second career of exposing “fraud” in the Spiritualist community. In 1922 he sat on a panel investigating the medium “Margery” for the Scientific American magazine. Unable to explain the phenomena witnessed at the first two sessions, he then designed and built a wooden cage to prevent the medium from manipulating objects in the dark. He would not allow the séance to occur in red light (which would make movements partially visible) and refused to let the other investigators examine the cage. It was found to have a removable ceiling when Houdini was caught trying to climb into it. He was also caught slipping a two-foot long, folding ruler into the box, all in an attempt to discredit the medium. He died believing hypnosis was a fraud. 278
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Hundredth Monkey Effect In his 1979 book, Lifetide, author Lyall Watson described an interesting phenomena involving the potato washing behavior of monkeys on small Japanese islands in the 1950s. Japanese researchers were providing the monkeys with yams, and one after another they learned to wash the sand off the yams before eating them. Reportedly, after the hundredth monkey learned this behavior, the activity instantly spread to monkeys on other isolated islands. This introduced the idea that whenever an undetermined, critical mass of people accepted a new idea, such as the need for world peace, that idea would suddenly be expressed by the majority of people in the world. The Skeptical Inquirer has since reported that those individuals conducting the feeding of the monkeys did not observe any such phenomena occurring. While there may be no validation of the hundredth monkey effect, one should not overlook a similar behavior observable in humans -- mob rule. It is obvious that when a large enough group within a population promotes a particular idea, that idea often spreads to the masses.
Hypnotism* Hypnosis produces an altered state of consciousness which is characterized by a lack of continuous alpha waves. Other characteristics of this state include extreme suggestibility and intense focus upon a single stimulus, where the subject feels at one with the stimulus. In the form of trance-like states of various names, hypnosis has been known throughout history in nearly all parts of the world. Self hypnosis refers to a subject experiencing this state without the aid of an outside practitioner. Hypnotism was known as “animal magnetism” in the late 1700s, and was considered to result from a flow of “magnetic fluid” which could be directed to specific parts of the body in order to produce medical cures. Actual magnets were part of the process, 279
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particularly in the work of Frantz Anton Mesmer in France, from whose name the term “mesmerism” was coined. Alexander Bertrand was the first to propose that magnetic fluid had nothing to do with the cures, which he considered a result of the suggestibility involved with the somnambulic (trance-like) state. James Braid coined the term “hypnosis” in 1841. Until the application of chloroform and ether, hypnosis was used widely as an anesthetic in operations, where even limbs could be removed without pain. Hypnotism bypasses higher mental functioning and allows the operator to direct many actions of the subject. These effects include anesthesia, inducing hallucinations, fulfillment of posthypnotic suggestions and control of muscles not normally under voluntary control. Psycho-physiological effects include patients developing skin burns when touched with an ice cube after being told it was a hot iron, and the creation of stigmata (Christ-like wounds). During the period of animal magnetism, paranormal (psychic) perceptions, speaking in tongues and poltergeist effects (movement at a distance, rapping sounds, etc.) were often associated with hypnotic trances. More recently, telepathy experiments employing hypnotized subjects have been shown to produce the best overall results. Hypnotic regression has been used to recall forgotten memories, and beginning in the 1950s many practitioners have investigated possible past life experience with this technique.
I Ching “The Book of Changes.” Also known as the book of Y-Kim, ten chapters written in the year 3468 B.C.E. by Chinese Emperor Fo-Hi. In modern times the I Ching is primarily used as a system of fortune telling where two sets of three solid or broken lines (trigrams) are drawn one atop the other, depending upon how yaro sticks or coins fall when cast. The two trigrams combine to form sixty-four possible hexagrams, each with a particular divinatory meaning. 280
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Kabala Also spelled Kabbalah or Cabala, or in other variations. The word means “doctrines received from tradition” and is reportedly handed down from the early Hebrews and Jews. It involves a complex explanation of the nature of the universe in Christian terms and was held mostly secret until discovered by serious magicians (not stage performers) of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the 1900s. The most public of these magicians was Aleister Crowley. Practitioners believe there is an inherent power in specific names and numbers and use elaborate rituals to perform magic of various types. The Kabala was made popular for a brief time among fans of heavy metal cult bands in the1980s.
Karma The idea that all actions have consequences. In Eastern religious philosophy all of ones actions produce consequences which must eventually be experienced in a succession of lives until the individual can escape from the wheel of reincarnation. Harmful actions produce harmful consequences, while good actions produce good consequences. The popular phrase, “what goes around, comes around,” is an expression of karmic thinking.
Kirlian Photography Also known as electrophotography. A photographic process where biological objects placed upon an electrically charged photographic plate appear to be emanating an aura. The process was developed in 1958 by two Russian scientists, Semyon Davidovich and his wife, Valentina Kirlian. Interesting effects include producing photos of the outline of a complete leaf in spite of part of the leaf being removed prior to taking the picture, and the hands of a yogi showing huge increases in the intensity of the “coronal discharge” around his hands while meditating as opposed to when not meditating. 281
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Close examination revealed a lack of proper controls in early experiments and little has been mentioned about the process since the 1980s.
Kundalini Described by ancient Hindu religious teachings as a latent force responsible for sexual energy which can be stimulated to rise upward from the groin through six nerve centers (charkas) along the spine to the head, where the energy produces the experience of spiritual illumination. The techniques involved include hatha yoga, breathing exercises and spiritual practice.
Levitation The raising of physical objects, especially humans, into the air without any visible means. This feat is well documented from ancient times as being performed by shamans of primitive cultures, Eastern mystics and Christian saints, including Jesus walking upon the water. In his book, Levitation (1928) Oliver Leroy reports that of 1,400 Christian saints, 200 experienced this phenomena, often in front of crowds during religious services. St. Joseph of Copertino is credited with 70 experiences of levitation, sometimes floating near the tops of trees. Nuns and patrons of religious services have been reported to float high above the ground in a sate of religious ecstasy, sometimes taking aloft several persons attempting to hold them down. The most famous levitation event in comparatively recent times was performed by spirit medium D. D. Home and occurred on December 13, 1868 in London. Three credible witnesses confirmed that Mr. Home floated out one window and back in another, eighty feet above the street below. Hindu yoga teachings state that anyone capable of awakening the Anahara (heart) charka can “walk in the air.” In the 1970s Transcendental Meditation centers began teaching a sixmonth course in levitation promoted by Maharishi Masesh Yogi. His 282
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followers refused to permit photographs on the grounds that yogis are not allow to take pride in such accomplishments because it could impede further development. There are many photographs of people levitating, including the Enfield Poltergeist case of 1977, where one of the children involved was photographed in levitation during the investigation. There are also photos of mediums levitating prior to the 1950s. Since photographs can be faked they are not always considered reliable evidence. Most of those reporting to experience levitation say they feel lighter than air, though some report a magnetic-like force pushing upward from below or the sensation of hands lifting them. Often the chairs the people are sitting in rise as well. Time aloft averages less than five minutes, though more than two hours have been reported on some occasions.
Lucid Dreaming* A “lucid” dream is one where the dreamer is aware of the dream with normal consciousness, or “feeling wide awake” while continuing to be immersed in dream experience. The term was coined in 1913 by Frederick van Eeden and made popular by the book Lucid Dreams by Celia E. Green (1968). Prior to then this state of awareness was referred to as “dreaming true.” Lucid dreaming differs from Out of Body Experience in that the latter involves awareness of being outside the body but within the physical world (or within the astral planes). Keith M. T. Hearn at the University of Liverpool has conducted tests where a sleeping, dreaming subject can communicate with the outside world by deliberating signaling with eye movements monitored by polygraph equipment (ocular signaling). The tests were designed to investigate possible ESP on the part of the dreamer.
Magic 283
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Referring to the ability to cause change by mysterious means, magic has been around since prehistory. From cavemen cutting off fingers to ward off disease (seen in hand paintings on cave walls) to a friend showing you a good card trick, it’s all called magic. There are two types of magic, however. One is the type used by modern stage magicians who are more properly referred to as “illusionists” who simply create the illusion of supernatural powers. The other type of magic involves manipulation of metaphysical forces and is usually accompanied by ritual. Ritual magic can be divided into two classifications depending upon the practitioner’s belief as to the source of the magical power. Some shamanistic cultures believe a great reservoir of magical force exists in the universe which can be tapped into in order to create magical effects. Others perform their rituals in order to seek the power of disincarnate entities. Harry Houdini was an illusionist who actively sought to debunk all claims of “real magic.” Many other professional stage magicians in the early nineteen hundreds investigated paranormal phenomena and were convinced such phenomena actually occurred.
Mantra* A mantra is a word or combination of words or syllables which is sometimes repeated as an aid to meditation. Hindu mystics believe the world was formed from divine vibration, and repeating certain sounds can affect mental, emotional and physical states of the practitioner.
Materialization There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of documented cases reported by critical observers where spirit mediums have caused the appearance of ghost-like forms during séances. These occurred mostly between the 1860s and 1920s, with the phenomena first appearing in the United States. The materializations often appeared as the particular spirit being channeled by the medium, though other manifestations include loved ones of the sitters, flowers, objects like 284
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cloth, steel and precious jewels, and animals of various kinds, usually deceased pets. In most cases, the materializations occurred in darkened rooms where a group of people would sit in a circle while the medium went into trance while sitting inside a curtained, freestanding cabinet. Often, fine filaments of ectoplasm would flow out through the skin of the medium, or thick strands would exude from his or her body openings, from there forming into the shape being materialized. This process often took ten to fifteen minutes to complete, and the materializations would last up to two hours. These materialized shapes generally looked and felt to the touch like the real thing. Spirits could hold the hands of the sitters, carry on intelligent conversations or otherwise engage in normal physical activities such as eating. Often the materializations were incomplete, such as only a head and one arm appearing, or the body would not be visible below the waist. The dematerialization process usually occurred over a period of several minutes, and many people reported effects such as a spirit’s hand dissolving as it was being tightly gripped. Most often the spirits left by dissolving into the floor. Very few instances of spiritual materialization have been reported since the 1920s, when nearly all of the most publicized mediums were accused of fraud, the only exception being D. D. Home (1833-1886). The evidence reported prior to that time, however, leads me to believe materialization did in fact occur. In Seth Speaks, Robert Butts reports that on one occasion Seth altered the hand of Jane Roberts and turned it into a strange claw-like appendage, which Mr. Butts was able to feel and attest to it’s reality. If the universe consists of “idea construction” then such phenomena could easily be possible.
Matter Moving Through Matter Numerous instances of matter passing through matter were reported during the spiritualist period. Solid iron rings, and wooden rings of different types of wood, were joined together. A common demonstration involved one person holding both hands of a medium 285
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and either iron rings or wooden chairs suddenly being found to be hanging from the arms of the participants. In January, 1868, thirtytwo people signed an affidavit stating they had witnessed a solid iron ring, seven inches smaller in circumference than the head of a nineteen-year-old medium, “actually and unmistakably appear around his neck.”
Meditation* See Chapter Five: Manipulating Awareness
Medium A medium is an individual who is able to tune into intelligent, non-physical perceptions and act as a channel of communication between the physical and non-physical worlds, sometimes being controlled by a non-physical entity while in a state of trance. “Sensitives” and “psychics” are not controlled in this way, but otherwise the terms are in some ways interchangeable. A medium may act as a channel of communication by performing automatic writing or allowing the spirit to speak directly using his or her body. In other cases, the medium remains fully conscious and simply communicates impressions received from the “other side.” These impressions most often come in the form of images or intuitive feelings. Physical mediums are capable of creating physical phenomena such as rapping sounds, moving matter through matter, levitation, producing materializations from ectoplasm, etc. They were popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s (the Spiritualist period) but are rare today. Perhaps the greatest physical medium was Brazilian born Carlos Mirabelli (1889-1951). He is reported to have produced automatic writing in more than 30 languages, materialized up to twelve spirits at one time (as well as many objects) performed levitation, etc. What makes his achievements stand above the rest is that most of the time they took place in the full light of day or in well lighted rooms. 286
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The most famous mental medium of the Spiritualist period was Leonora Piper (1859-1950) who was the subject of intense investigation by the Society for Psychical Research for several decades. The philosopher William James and other critical investigators were convinced of survival of the spirit after death after ruling out telepathy as a means by which Mrs. Piper may have derived her information. Transfiguring mediums, which are rare, are those whose physical features alter during trance to those of the deceased person speaking through him or her.
Mesmerism A system of healing originally referred to as “animal magnetism” developed in 1776 by Austrian born Frantz Anton Mesmer (1733-1815). It proposed a new physical force affecting the planets and living beings, a sort of fluid magnetism. Patients would be tied together in a circle around a large tub containing water, magnets and other objects, with iron rods protruding from holes in the top. Touching the iron rods to affected areas in the patients bodies would cause them to react strongly, sometimes by screaming, crying, vomiting, etc., which often affected a cure. Mesmer was investigated by a committee headed by Benjamin Franklin, which found no evidence of animal magnetism, and suggested that the cures were a result of the patient’s imaginations. Later investigators noted that some patients would fall asleep while being wide awake a moment before, thus discovering the state of somnambulism. As the idea of magnetic fluid was becoming slowly discarded, Tardy de Montravel proposed that “transposition of the senses” could be made to occur. Many of his somnambulic subjects could walk through town with their eyes tightly closed. Other forms of psychic awareness, including accurate medical diagnosis and methods of treatment, were also discovered to occur during such trances, and an abundance of new mediums appeared. The most useful affect of mesmerism was as an anesthetic during operations. In 1841 James Braid announced his discovery of hypnotism and demonstrated that he could produce all the affects of mesmerism 287
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without the use of a magnet. The introduction of chloroform and either in 1846-47 resulted in hypnosis losing favor with the medical community and becoming a tool of psychologists like Sigmond Freud and Carl Jung, as well as being employed by those in the Spiritualist movement.
Mysticism The practice of seeking a direct spiritual union with God. Mystics throughout the ages have reported the experience of being one with the Supreme Being. Many Christian saints were mystics, though mystics can be found in nearly any religion and among those who are not affiliated with any organized spiritual system. In Western culture this goal of experiencing a direct encounter with God was established as part of the philosophy of Neoplatonism by Platonius of Alexandria in 233. Neoplatonism attempted to combine the ancient Greek philosophy of Plato with popular (Gnostic) Roman beliefs of the time. This philosophy involved the total rejection of human pleasures in order to avoid any distraction from the goal of God consciousness, which was a rare event in the lives of even the most diligent practitioners. Over the years this philosophy was modified by two major groups in different ways. The Catholic Church used it as a way of encouraging adherence to strict codes of moral behavior. Others had encounters with beings at various levels beneath God, such as angles and demons, and what was left of the divine quest of Platonius became the foundations of ritual magic in the Middle Ages.
Necromancy Divination by means of spirits of the dead. To the Greeks it meant a decent into Hades in order to consult with the dead. In later times practitioners of black magic have performed rituals intended to bring demons into the physical realm.
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Newspaper tests attempted to rule out telepathy as a source of information reported to come from the spirit world. A trance medium would be asked to describe the locations of specific words which would appear in the newspaper the following day. Book tests involved a similar process, where a medium would describe the content of a specific page in a particular, closed book.
Numerology A system of assigning numbers to the letters in a person’s name and/or birth date, where the numbers are reduced to a single digit in most cases. The resulting number is associated with personality traits said to reflect the person’s character, in much the same way as astrological Sun signs indicate a general personality type.
Occult That which is hidden. Refers primarily to phenomena and methods which are hidden from the uninitiated, including paranormal and supernatural events and processes. The term is often used in a derogatory manner to indicate unpopular areas of paranormal study.
Ouija Board* Device used for communicating with spirits, consisting of a pointing device and a board inscribed with letters and symbols, currently marketed as a “game.” Usually operated by two people who place their hands on the pointing device, which slides across the board to spell out words and phrases from supposed discarnate spirits. The name is derived from the French word “oui” and the German “ja,” both meaning “yes.” A similar device was reported to be used by Pythagoras around 540 B.C.E.
Out of Body Experience (OBE or OOBE) 289
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The belief that the normal consciousness of an individual can leave the physical body and return has been documented since the time of the ancient Hindus and Egyptians. The experience is also referred to as astral projection. The traveler can visit distant places or perceive other dimensions of experience, and some report being connected to the body by a thin cord which can snap the traveler back in the event of distress. OOBEs are sometimes confused with what is called remote viewing or traveling clairvoyance, but in these cases the “traveler” is usually awake and conscious in the physical body, while OOBEs occur during sleep or trance states.
Palmistry Also known as cheiromancy, the art of describing character and life events by analyzing the shape and features of the hands. The shape of the hands and fingers refers to broad character traits, while the lines refer to specific areas of personality and events. The practice was known by the Brahmins of India and to Aristotle, who presented information on the subject to Alexander the Great. In the middle ages the practice was associated with the gypsies, and was popularized in the English speaking world around 1900 by Cheiro.
Parapsychology Parapsychology, extrasensory perception (ESP) and psi are terms popularized by researcher J. B. Rhine at Duke University, who sought to bring statistical analysis into the field of paranormal research in the middle of the twentieth century. Initially, parapsychology dealt only with those phenomena which could be evaluated statistically, such as telepathy and telekinesis, but the term has evolved to include most areas of psychical research. The familiar pack of twenty-five ESP cards containing five groups of five symbols -- star, circle, square, cross and waves, was designed by Karl Zener, a colleague of J. B. Rhine at Duke University.
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A means of deriving answers to yes or no questions by observing the movement of a pendulum suspended from the hand. Depending upon the method used by the practitioner, “yes” can be indicated by a forward and back movement while “no” is indicated by movement from side to side, or a clockwise spin can indicate “yes” while counterclockwise indicates “no.” (See radiesthesia in this section, as well as the Psychic Party Games chapter.)
Perfumes Various scents and smells have been reported to occur in conjunction with the spiritual activity of mediums. They include the smell of orange blossoms, freshly cut hay, flowers of various types, musk, and fragrances previously unknown but very pleasing, sometimes referred to as the “fragrance of sanctity.” In some cases foul odors have been perceived.
“Philip” In 1972 a group of researchers associated with the Toronto Society for Psychical Research in Canada began an experiment in which they created an “artificial ghost” in hopes of testing if the phenomena experienced at séances could be duplicated without the assistance of real spirits. After more than a year they finally succeeded in perceiving raps in answer to yes and no questions, and some table levitation. The possibility that these effects were produced by genuine spirits can not be ruled out.
Plant Consciousness Plants possess an ability to respond to human emotion. For example, devices have been created whereby an operator can cause a door to be unlocked by concentrating on an emotion in the presence of a plant which has been connected to electroencephalograph (EEG) machine. The plant triggers the EEG to produce an electrical output which then causes an electrical relay to power an electric locking mechanism. In The Secret Life of Plants the author describes 291
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an experiment where a man pulls one of several plants out of its pot and beats it severely. Later a group of people walk by the other plants and when the perpetrator of the crime walks by the plants trigger a response from the connected EEG machine.
“Plastics” Psychically produced imprints or molds of faces, hands, etc. The medium Eusapia Palladino produced imprints of her face and hands in both clay and putty while being physically restrained across the room. The first casts made with melted paraffin wax were obtained by William Denton in 1875 while working in public halls with the medium Mary M. Hardy. A thin layer of wax is melted on the surface of a bucket of hot water. A spirit placing a hand in this bucket will create a thin layer of wax on the surface of the hand. The hand is then placed in a bucket of cold water which solidifies the wax. Repeatedly dipping the hand in one bucket then the other will build up a thicker layer of wax. This mold is very delicate and must be filled with plaster of Paris immediately in order to retain its shape. Molds of human hands can not be created up to the wrist or with fingers bent because the mold will be destroyed upon removing the hand. Paraffin molds of spirit hands have been created beyond the wrist and even with two hands entwined.
Poltergeist Unexplained noises, rappings, movements and other disturbances are referred to as poltergeist effects. They are documented as far back as 856 B.C.E. and occur all over the world. “Poltergeist” is German for “rattling ghost.” Phenomena include fragile items being broken, objects moving or flying through the air, doors repeatedly slammed, water taps turning on, chairs being stacked, etc. They are often associated with particular people and will sometimes move to new locations when the target person moves. Unlike other spiritual phenomena which usually occurs at night, these types of affects often occur during daylight. Some 292
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poltergeists are friendly and in some cases have been reported to perform domestic chores (see Fairies).
Power Spots It has been suggested that there are physical locations on the planet where metaphysical energies are focused more strongly and spiritual activities produce better or faster results when performed in these places. Seth describes “coordination points” in the nearby space around us where thoughts are propelled to form as physical matter, and main coordination points of a similar nature which connect all systems of reality. The Castaneda books refer to don Juan’s description of power places, usually natural formations of circular rock, where sorcery skills are enhanced. Other supposed power spots include the Great Pyramid in Egypt, Stonehenge in England, areas near Sedona Arizona, and elsewhere.
Prayer In Western cultures prayer is a means of communication between the individual and the divine. The primary components of such prayer are: adoration, gratitude, supplication and sometimes confession of sin and/or intercession on behalf of others. In most cases prayer involves a request for assistance. Prayer is often an instrument of faith healing. A notable demonstration of the power of prayer occurred during the mid-1800s. George Bristol operated charitable institutions assisting hundreds of children for more than fifty years while never asking anyone for money or allowing others to ask on his behalf. During that time the children never missed a regularly scheduled meal. He attributed his success to secret prayers. The donors described feeling an irresistible urge to donate a particular sum of money on a specific date, which just happened to be the exact amount Mr. Bristol was in need of at that time. In non-religious terms prayer can be considered a means of focusing upon a desired belief while feeling certain that the desired results will be created in one’s experience. 293
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Predestination The idea that all future actions are fated to occur and no free will exists. Philosophers have argued both sides of this debate for centuries with no apparent possibility of resolving the issue. (My admittedly biased opinion is that if predestination exists, it should be possible to design a machine which can accurately predict where a coin thrown against a rough stone wall will land on the ground, every time. Until such a machine exists, or even a theory is devised regarding how one might operate, I can see no evidence supporting the idea that all events are predestined.)
Pre-Existence Many people assume that if there is life after death then there may also be a form of existence prior to physical birth. Those who subscribe to a belief in reincarnation obviously accept this concept, and conceive of a between life world from which the soul moves back and forth between lifetimes. Others believe the soul is created during the period between conception and birth.
Premonition, Prediction and Prophecy A premonition is an impression regarding a potential future event, generally vague and often experienced as a warning, though some premonitions can be of beneficial occurrences. Predictions are impressions of future events which generally contain more specific information, such as places or dates. P r o p h e c y deals with premonitions or predictions concerning large groups of people or countries. Six weeks before his assassination, Abraham Lincoln dreamed of a procession of mourners filing through the White House with himself in the casket. A young girl in Greenland told her mother she dreamed of her schoolhouse being covered by something black, and later that day the school was destroyed when black rock from a mining operation slid down a hillside, killing the girl and 294
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many other children. Thousands of accurate premonitions have been documented.
Psi Psi is the name of a Greek letter used in parapsychology to indicate something related to psychic phenomena. For example, “psi-hitting” indicates a positive result in ESP testing, “psi-missing” indicates negative results, and “psi-inhibiting” denotes a condition where extreme skepticism can negatively affect efforts to produce paranormal effects.
Psychic Force Sometimes referred to as “Odic force.” A theoretical explanation attempting to account for the mechanism of many psychic phenomena, in particular, the physical materializations of mediums and sensations of sitters during séances. This force is said to be responsible for actions performed at a distance (telekinesis), the production of sounds such as rappings and music, and the formation of spiritual materializations. The joining of hands is said to produce a means by which the psychic force circulates through the circle becoming stronger over time. The force is noticed by the sitters in several forms, including a tingling in the palms and tips of the fingers, the sensation of an energy current in the body, and sometimes a feeling like spider webs touching one’s face. The energy is said to be drawn from the vital energy of each person in the circle, and many sitters have reported feeling physically drained after a séance. The mediums often experience extreme contortions of the body at the moment of producing materialization effects and some are left physically exhausted afterward. Other mediums experience no apparent loss of energy.
Psychokinesis 295
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Term proposed by J. B. Rhine at Duke University in the 1930s in reference to the movement of objects at a distance by mental power, meant to replace the earlier term “telekinesis.” “Psycho” is a prefix referring to “mind.” Psychokinesis, or “PK,” includes all phenomena associated with movement resulting from mental action alone, including its affect upon objects in motion (i.e., falling dice), plants, healing, metal bending, and the behavior of animals. “Tele” refers to “distance” and does not depend upon “a force emanating from the mind.” Since the actual cause of movement without a physical force is not known, I prefer to use the term telekinesis in reference to the movement of objects at a distance.
Psychometry* Term coined by scientist Joseph Rhodes Buchanan in 1842 to describe the phenomenon of a person being able to describe past events associated with a physical object by holding the object in one’s hands. Common items used for this purpose are pieces of jewelry or other objects of significance to a particular person. The phenomena has no doubt been around since ancient times. Theoretically, every event is permanently imprinted in some manner so that it is never lost (see Akashic Records) and objects can contain this information in regards to any environment where the objects have been. Events of a highly charged emotional nature are most easily perceived by those sensitive to psychometric impressions. A charged object is one in which emotional energy or mental images have been deliberately placed. (See the Psychic Party Games chapter.) Some physical locations may be imprinted in a similar manner by intense emotional experience occurring there. This may be related to some cases of poltergeist phenomena associated with haunted houses, but sometimes the phenomena follows a particular person to a new location. There are at least two reported cases where crowds of people have witnessed battles being continually recreated by armies of apparitions over a period of several days. Two months 296
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after the Battle of Edge Hill, fought in England on October 22, 1664, the king, Charles I, sent a commission to investigate. They reported witnessing an aerial reenactment of the battle on two occasions. A similar event occurred in 1686 near Lanark, where over the course of several days many people gathered to watch a battle scene continually replay itself. It is interesting that approximately twothirds of the crowd were able to perceive the event while others did not. Many people have experienced a feeling of unrest in certain locations, which may have something to do with this psychic imprinting of emotional energy upon the location.
Pyramid Energy It has been claimed that the shape of the Great Pyramid at Giza acts as a collector of energy similar to that produced through spiritual healing. For this reason the location of the Great Pyramid is considered a power spot by those who subscribe to such beliefs. In the late 1920s, Antoine Bovis, a French radiesthetist, claimed that organic substances such as meat and eggs could be mummified by placing them in a cardboard model of the pyramid. A patent for a pyramid razor blade sharpener was taken out by Czech radio engineer Karl Drbal. The idea of pyramid energy was very popular in the 1970s, but to date there has been no detailed scientific investigation into the claims.
Radiesthesia A more sophisticated study of dowsing and pendulum effects assuming some sort of radiation is responsible for the movements. Pendulums are used to locate missing objects or persons, the diagnosis of disease, and even locating minerals or water by holding the pendulum over maps.
Ramtha 297
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Spirit guide or control of J. Z. Knight. Ramtha first appeared to her at her home in Tacoma, Washington, in 1977. Ramtha claims to have found enlightenment thirty-five thousand years ago during the time of Lemuria and has returned to Earth to teach us that we are all gods capable of creating anything we wish. The material became very popular during the peak of the New Age movement in the 1980s. Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment is located on a ranch in rural Washington.
Raps Sounds, usually percussive in nature, created without visible or known means. Raps or knocking sounds are considered the most primitive form of spirit communication and are often among the first signs of materialization during a séance. Yes or no questions can be answered with single or double raps, and letters of the alphabet can be communicated by a number of raps corresponding with each letter. A pencil can be moved along a series of letters and the letter indicated when a rap occurs. Rapping sounds can be as subtle as pinpoints tapping on glass, as loud as explosions, and everything in between. Generally the sounds have the character of the surface they are generated upon, i.e., a “knock” on wood or a “clang” on a metal box. The vibrations can be felt in the material being affected, and in the case of flexible materials the effect can also be seen. For example, a sheet of paper held in the air can be seen to shake dramatically when a rap occurs upon its surface. Raps can also be felt directly on the face and hands. Although it is easily possible to fake the production of most spirit rappings, they have been reported to occur as early as 858 and reports of raps upon the flesh of investigating scientists are clear evidence for the existence of the phenomenon.
Reiki Healing method incorporating the use of a universal life energy called ki, which is similar if not the same as the Hindu prana and other descriptions of a life force. Derived from early Buddhist 298
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sutras by Mikao Usui, a Christian minister in Japan, in the late 1880s.
REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Period during dreaming sleep when closed eyes move rapidly as though watching events taking place with the physical eyes.
Remote Viewing Term coined in the 1970s by Ingo Swann, a full time scientific subject and parapsychology researcher for nineteen years, to describe the process of describing events taking place at remote locations while fully conscious. Mr. Swann described a ring of asteroids around the planet Jupiter on April 27, 1973, which were not believed to exist at the time but were scientifically verified in 1979.
Reincarnation The process where an individual soul is reborn in a repeated succession of physical lives, which can include animal life. The concept appeared simultaneously around 600 B.C.E. in India and the Mediterranean basin. In the West, the idea was postulated by Plato and later denounced by the Catholic church. In Hinduism reincarnation was tied to the concept of karma, where an individual is forced to endure countless lifetimes until one escapes from the world of illusion through the practice of good karma and returns to the divine source. Seth describes reincarnation as a voluntary but necessary process where one returns to Earth experience for enjoyment and personal development.
Rhine, Joseph Banks (1895 – 1980) 299
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Preeminent twentieth century researcher in the field of parapsychology who brought scientific and popular attention to the subject with the publication of Extrasensory Perception in 1934. Coined the phrases “ESP,” “parapsychology” and others.
Runes Ancient alphabet used on stone inscriptions found in Scandinavian countries. Runes carved in stone or ceramics have been used as a form a divination similar to the Chinese system of I Ching.
Séance* A séance, or “home circle,” consists of a group of people sitting together with the intention of creating paranormal phenomena or communicating with disincarnate spirits. In general, the group involves a medium and up to eight or nine people who sit in a dimly lit or completely darkened room. The participants hold hands, or place their hands on a table with the fingertips touching. The hands must remain connected throughout the séance. Everyone talks casually or sings in order to create a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere, then the medium invokes communication with spiritual entities. During the Spiritualist period the medium was often seated in a cabinet with a heavy curtain across the front. The first noticeable effect is often a drop in temperature or the feeling of a cool breeze blowing across the face and hands. Luminous lights may be seen moving about the room, or the sound of raps may be heard. The table or other furniture in the room may move. If raps are heard, it is possible to derive answers to yes or no questions by the number of raps. One rap means “yes,” two indicate “no,” or some other arrangement can be devised. The medium may or may not go into a trance, but in cases of channeling a trance state usually occurs and the disincarnate spirit speaks using the body of the medium. Questions can be asked, and answers given. It is also possible to request specific types of phenomena. Levitation of people and objects can occur, as well as 300
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materializations of spirits, ectoplasm and physical objects such as flowers and jewels. Physical phenomena are often proceeded by vibrations or shaking of the table, then of the entire room. Objects move as if under intelligent control rather than at random, so items can fall into an outstretched hand, or slide upwards across a slope. Ropes can be knotted or untied. People can be touched by invisible hands, and sometimes the hands can be seen. Coherent text can be typed by spirits on typewriters. Musical instruments can be played, or the sound of music can be heard with no physical means available. Drawings and paintings can be created, and clay sculpted, telekinetically. Objects can disappear. Even heavy pianos have lifted up and floated across the room. Fine threads, possibly pulled from the etheric aura, have often been associated with telekinetic movement, and many sitters have reported a sensation like spider webs felt on the face and hands. Mediums exposed to sudden light often experience pain and sometimes bruising of the body, so a red light is sometimes used when a light is necessary.
Sensitive Individual with psychic ability, differing from a medium or channel in that they do not communicate with the dead.
Sensory Depravation Technique for developing spiritual awareness by reducing perception of the physical world. This includes everything from meditation in a quiet atmosphere with subdued lighting, to sensory depravation tanks, where an individual is enclosed in a soundproof, light tight tank filled with salt water heated to body temperature. Many individuals using these tanks report vivid hallucinations and the experience of bizarre fantasies.
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Trance personality of Jane Roberts, mentioned often in this book.
Sex Magic The use of sexual energy in rituals designed to produce magical effects.
Shaman Spiritual leader or “medicine man” of primitive tribal communities, whose main techniques often include healing rituals, prophecy, and communication with the dead. Displays of paranormal phenomena are common among shamans. They pass their secret knowledge from generation to generation verbally, and have been found from ancient times nearly everywhere on the planet.
Slate Writing Popular form of direct writing used in séances near the turn of the twentieth century. A medium and a sitter position themselves at opposite ends of a small table and hold the corners of a small writing slate under the table. A piece of chalk is placed between the table and the slate. A spirit entity writes messages on the slate and signals completion of the message by creating three loud raps. The phenomena has been largely discredited due to the ease with which it can be fraudulently produced.
Somnambulism From the Latin “somnus” (sleep) and “ambulare” (to walk). Refers to various stages of semi-consciousness from sleep walking to deep trance where the subject is consciously unaware of his or her physical environment. Subconscious faculties take the place of conscious control, and all physical perception, including taste, smell and sensation of pain can be completely blocked. The state is 302
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characterized by the eyes looking upward and inward, and can occur spontaneously or be initiated via hypnosis or through deliberate effort of the subject, as in trance states achieved by mediums. The state was first discovered by the Marquis Chastenet de Puysegur in 1784 in connection with mesmerism and animal magnetism, but the term is no longer in use by psychologists.
Spells Spells are words or incantations intended to produce magical affects. The casting of spells has been practiced since ancient Egyptian times and is still in use in non-industrialized societies. Spells are used to protect the practitioner from evil, to cause someone to fall in love, to place a curse upon an enemy, to transform oneself into different person, animal or object, etc. It could be said that the universe was created via a spell, according to the first words in the bible. “In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was God.” Spells are used in modern W i c c a, practitioners of neo-pagan witchcraft, primarily for the improvement in the lives of themselves, their friends and family.
Spirit Photography In 1862, William H. Mumler took a photograph of a Boston doctor and discovered a second image on the plate which the doctor identified as his cousin who had died twelve years earlier. This was just the first of many spirit photographs taken by Mr. Mumler. Similar photos were taken by other photographers of the period and were considered by many to be objective proof of survival of personality after death. Around 1930 investigators reported they could not locate any spirit photographs which may not have been produced by fraud and the phenomena was more or less forgotten. In recent years a few individuals have demonstrated the ability to impress an image directly onto film through psychic means (psychic photography).
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Spiritualism is a social-religious movement of the late 1800s which began in New York and spread into Europe and South America. It was initiated in 1848 when raps were heard to occur in the presence of the Fox sisters, Margaretta (15) and Kate (12) in a house in Rochester, New York. The raps communicated information which was later verified. Trance communications, table tipping, materializations and other effects occurred as many of those who witnessed the phenomenon realized they had similar abilities. Home circles sprung up throughout the Northeast and by 1855 more than two million people had converted to Spiritualism. The fundamental principle of Spiritualism is that the soul survives physical death and can communicate with the living through spiritual mediums. It was the first “scientific” religion, relying on objective evidence rather than faith in an attempt to unify spiritual reality with scientific thought. Spiritualists deny the existence of devils, any sort of final judgment, and believe that only the soul, not the physical body, will be resurrected. The basic philosophy was derived via spirit communications from discarnate personalities operating through mediums and is in many ways similar to Hindu descriptions of the metaphysical universe, including various planes or spheres of existence. Spiritism evolved from observations of nearly every type of metaphysical phenomena being associated with the somnambulistic state produced via mesmerism and animal magnetism (hypnosis). It is an off-shoot of Spiritualism and began in France as a result of the writings of Allan Kardec. The main difference is that Spiritism includes mandatory reincarnation as a fundamental principle of human existence. The religion currently has over four million members in Brazil.
Stigmata Some individuals, most often Christian mystics, display physical wounds resembling the wounds of Christ upon the cross. Stigmatic wounds can include punctures of the hands and feet, bruises on the chest and side, and bleeding from the eyes and 304
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forehead. In many cases these appear on a Friday and disappear on the following Sunday like clockwork for years. Some Christian mystics who displayed these marks were exhumed from the grave after many years and their bodies were found intact without evidence of significant decomposition. In modern times it has been shown that hypnosis can produce these same kinds of physical wounds upon the body.
Surgery, Psychic (See Healing, Psychic.)
Synchronicity Term proposed by Carl Jung to indicate a condition where events are connected without relationship to cause and effect. For example, astrological positions can indicate certain events without being the cause of such events.
Table Turning Also known as table tipping, the oldest known method of establishing communication with spirit entities. A group of people circling a table place their finger tips on the surface and the table rotates, tips, bangs against the floor, etc., in response to questions posed by the group. Letters of the alphabet can be called out and the table will respond to indicate particular letters which result in the spelling of sentences. The phenomenon was first reported by Tertullian in the second century. After the Rochester Rappings in 1948 table turning became an epidemic in the US and later in Europe. Great efforts were undertaken by scientists to indicate that the effects were not a result of spirit communications, while clergy denounced the activity as demonic. The advantage of table tipping is that it can be performed by any group of people without a medium involved. The process begins 305
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when the sitters in a darkened room place their finger tips upon the table and wait for results. The effects generally begin with steadily increasing vibrations or quivering movements of the table, which appears to act as a reservoir of energy which grows stronger over time. The table can then rotate, tilt and levitate completely off the floor. Rapping sounds are often perceived in the table and surrounding area. Tables so massive that all those sitting could not lift them have been known to levitate.
Talisman A small object generally worn around the neck with supernatural powers intended to bring power or benefits to the owner, as opposed to an amulet, which is intended to ward off evil. Talismans were common in both ancient Egypt and Babylon. They generally consist of words and symbols engraved upon metal during ritual ceremonies.
Tantric Yoga A Hindu system of concentrating the sexual energy associated with the female, usually characterized as kundalini energy. While ascetic forms of yoga expose denial of the things of the world, tantra uses those things as a tool of spiritual development.
Taoism Ancient Chinese religion based upon the teaching of Lao Tzu who lived from 605 B.C.E. to 505 B.C.E. Tao means “the way” or “the right path,” and the goal is to balance yin and yang, to unify the apparent opposites of physical experience.
Tarot (Pronounced “tare-row.”) A pack of 78 cards used for purposes of divination. There is some question whether they originated with the ancient Egyptians or European Gypsies. The 306
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cards have been around since the 1300s in Europe but have only been used for fortune telling since the mid-1800s. The most popular are the Waite-Smith deck, released in 1910 by Arthur Edward Waite and drawn by Pamela Coleman-Smith. The Thoth deck was designed by Aleister Crowley and painted by Freda Harris in 1938 but not published as a deck until 1969. Both Waite and Crowley were associated with the secret magical practices of the Order of the Golden Dawn.
Telekinesis* The moving of material objects at a distance without observable force, also referred to as psychokinesis or PK.
Telepathy* Term coined by F. W. H. Myers in 1882 and defined as “the transmission of thought independently of the recognized channels of sense.” I believe it might be better described as “simultaneous synchronicity of the subjective perceptions of more than one individual,” or a merger of conscious perception. Telepathy has been documented to occur among animals and between animals and humans. In laboratory tests conducted by J. B. Rhine using Zener cards, over some twenty-thousand trials, results indicated the positive existence of telepathy. However, science has not wholly accepted telepathy as a reality due to the inability to demonstrate positive results every time. (The visual telepathy exercise described in this book is capable of producing results every time.)
Teleportation There are numerous reports of mediums and others being transported out of sealed rooms and sometimes across great distances. The bible refers to such situations as Habakkuk being carried from Judea to Babylon to bring food to Daniel in the lions den, then being carried back to Judea through the air. On June 3, 1871, the medium Agnes Guppy-Volckman was transported 3 miles 307
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still wearing house clothes and slippers to land on the table at a séance. The July 1930 journal Psychic Research reports how South American medium Carlos Mirabelli was transported ninety kilometers and then called by phone fifteen minutes later with witnesses to verify his location. Carlos Castaneda reports being transported several miles to a shopping area in Mexico as a result of a forceful push by his mentor don Juan. Many mediums being transported out of sealed rooms were found nearby, often asleep or still in trance.
Theosophy Greek term for a philosophical-religious system which claims absolute knowledge of the nature of the deity. Not to be confused with the teachings of the Theosophical Society established in New York in 1875.
Third Eye A center of concentration during meditation in oriental religious systems. It has been said that any individual is capable of focusing attention at the center of the forehead between the eyes until a sort of screen appears at the front of the brain. In yoga philosophy it is known as the ajna chakra or “center of command.” Opening the third eye is usually considered a prerequisite to activation of the other charkas.
Thoughtforms Thoughtforms are mental images which become perceivable in the physical world. Examples include situations where people momentarily see an object which had been previously removed from the location where it is perceived. Some thoughtforms of people have been reported to materialize as apparitions. Thoughtforms have been projected onto photographic plates. They are often perceived in hypnotic states. In 1921 professor Koenig of Berlin hypnotized a peasant woman in a Paris hospital. It was suggested that she 308
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perceive a particular image on a plain sheet of paper. Twenty sheets were used, each being associated with a different image and marked discretely on the back, then the sheets were presented to the woman along with five blank sheets added later. She correctly described the images on all twenty marked sheets but could see no image on the five substitutes.
Tongues, Speaking in Incoherent vocalizations which sound like language, but are not intelligible, resulting from a state of religious frenzy. A common experience in Pentecostalism. Also referred to as glossolaria. This is very different from xenoglossia, which is the speaking or understanding of a foreign language one is unfamiliar with.
Touches, Psychic Physical sensations often reported by sitters at séances. These range from a noticeable drop in temperature, to all sorts of sensations upon the skin, including everything from soft touches and kisses to slaps and punches.
Trance An altered state of consciousness similar to sleep but where the subject is aware or capable of acting with intelligence. Examples include hypnosis, shamanistic practices, automatic writing and trance mediumship. Mediums describe the process of entering the trance state in a variety of ways. Some begin with a dreamy feeling flowed by dizziness, others feel a numbness coming over their mind or a sensation like cold water flowing down their back. Most mediums are completely unconscious during the period of trance, or feel very removed and do not remember the events which take place. Individuals in trance are often impervious to pain. The first surgery of a patient in mesmeric trance was a breast cancer operation in France in April, 1829, followed by a tooth extraction in 309
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1836. In 1842 a leg was amputated above the knee in England, all without any pain being experienced by the patient.
Transcendental Meditation (TM) A Hindu meditation technique made popular in the West during the 1960s by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi with public support by the Beatles, Jane Fonda and other celebrities. The technique involves assigning each student a secret mantra (short phrase) which is meditated upon for a short period each day.
Transfiguration The process by which a medium takes on the physical characteristics of the control personality. In 1931 William J. Erwood reported that the face of a Mrs. Bullock changed into at least fifty different persons over the course of ninety minutes, “as if being molded from one form to another by some master worker of plastics.” Alan Kardec, founder of French Spiritism, described a girl of fifteen who could change into the stature, mass and weight of deceased persons. “Mass hallucination” is always a possible explanation for such perceptions, of which there are few reports in modern times.
UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) Although some writers have suggested that UFOs have been around since ancient history, the first printed reports of UFOs occurred in the early 1800s. In chronological sequence, they were first referred to as airships, foo fighters, ghost rockets, flying saucers, then unidentified flying objects. There are two primary explanations regarding the nature of UFOs. The first is that they are physical machines from other planets in the universe. The other is that they originate from a different plane of existence and enter our world by slowing down their rate of molecular vibration. Depending on who you ask, the 310
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intelligent beings operating these machines are either seeking to destroy the human race or are here to help us in beneficial ways. The U.S. Air Force created Project Blue Book in 1952 to investigate the many sightings reported since 1947, concluding with the Crandon Report in 1969 that the phenomena was non-existent and further investigation pointless. However, Northwestern University astronomer J. Allen Hynek pointed out that fully onethird of the cases in the Condon Report were listed as unsolved. Populations of entire cites have witnessed UFOs appearing in the sky, sometimes with repeated appearances over a period of days. Since the 1950s thousands of people have reported being abducted by aliens and subjected to medical experiments. In spite of thousands of photographs and video recordings no physical evidence of an alien spacecraft is reported to exist.
Visions The visual perception of supernatural persons, objects and scenes has been reported throughout history in all cultures. They were commonplace in primitive societies and in medieval Europe, but occurred less frequently in educated cultures such as among the early Greeks and Romans. Visions can be either spontaneous or induced. Many Christian saints experienced visions frequently. The yogis and fakirs of India induce mystical visions through practices of self denial, while Native Americans and other shamanistic cultures pursued “vision quests” through fasting and the use of psychedelic plants. In more recent times artists and inventors have reported the perception of visions. Most notably, Nikola Tesla saw complete visions of electrical devices he invented, and the artist Raphael painted a portrait of the Madonna when she appeared to him in a vision. Visions can include touch, taste, smell and other sense perceptions, and are often experienced by alcoholics, psychotics and those using mind altering drugs as vivid hallucinations. The perception of apparitions by groups of people, and the performance of some miracles, has sometimes been described as mass hallucinations. 311
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Voices, Paranormal Many individuals throughout history have reported hearing voices which do not originate from a physical being. Some, such as those reported by Joan of Arc, are of a prophetic nature and predict the outcome of future events. Psychotic individuals often hear voices in the same way they see visions. Some paranormal voices are objective, in that they are heard by a number of different people, such as in direct voice communications at a séance where voices are heard coming from a “trumpet” made of cardboard or light metal.
Witchcraft Initially, witchcraft was simply the practice of pagan beliefs. The idea of Satanic witchcraft was more or less invented by the Catholic Church in the 1200s, who sought to gain more control of the population of Europe who were increasingly following the pagan practices of pre-Christian Rome. At first the Inquisition left the pagans (non-believers) alone and concentrated upon heretics (those who argued against church doctrine). But on December 5, 1484, newly ordained Pope Innocent VIII made witchcraft an act of heresy by classifying witchcraft as the practice of acts against the church. They invented the idea that witches worshiped Satan and performed Catholic rituals backwards in direct opposition to the teachings of Catholicism, and as such were not non-believers but heretics. Confessions were obtained through torture and those accused of witchcraft were burned at the stake. This practice continued through the late 1700s. Modern witchcraft originated in the 1940s as a result of the work of Gerald Gardner (1884-1964) who created the Wicca movement. Wicca is a neopagan religion only loosely connected with earlier forms of witchcraft. Wicca professes a belief in the Mother Goddess, nature spirits and the casting of spells (usually for one’s own well being or that of one’s friends). They are nature worshipers. The religion is totally decentralized and various 312
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branches have developed. Some operate in groups of ten or twenty persons forming a coven headed by a priestess, who hold meetings in the nude, though many practice in solitary.
Xenoglossy Speaking in a coherent language unknown to the speaker. This differs from speaking in tongues, which is an incoherent form of vocal expression generally associated with Pentecostal religious experience. Many reports of xenoglossy have been reported since medieval times, when it was considered an indication of being possessed by a demon. Since the 1850s many mediums have spoken (or written) in as many as thirty previously unlearned languages, including ancient Egyptian and dialects of Chinese known only to a few scholars. The existence of a primeval language, spoken by angels and inherent in all beings, has been reported to exist by numerous mediums. One characteristic of this language is that every letter is said to be a descriptive element of each word. It is through this universal language that all communication in other dimensions is said to be possible, though there is no concrete evidence that such a language exists.
Yin and Yang The Chinese concept of the dual principles or unified opposites in nature. Yin signifies earth and the feminine, passive, yielding forces; while yang represents heaven and the masculine, positive, active forces. They are represented by the symbol of a circle divided by an “S” with one side light and the other dark. Yin and yang are basic to the teachings of Taoism.
Yoga Yoga is a general term for various spiritual disciplines associated with Hinduism. The word can be defined as “union” or the unification of the individual with the divine. The Yoga Sutras 313
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(200 B.C.E.) describe a system of special stages: ethical restraints and moral observations; physical postures; breathing exercises; sense withdrawal; concentration; meditation; and various degrees of superconsciousness. There are a number of different forms of yoga which are all interconnected to the others, with the practitioner emphasizing the method most compatible with one’s temperament. Hatha yoga is the most popular in the West and consists of different physical stretching positions (asanas) intended to maximize physical health and the unification of mind, body and spirit. Mantra yoga focuses upon the repetition of sound vibration, with the idea that the universe evolved from sound and spiritual awareness can be gained from repeating certain sounds such as OM (or AUM). Karma yoga emphasizes altruistic actions intended to purify the soul by releasing it from petty desires. Juana Yoga is the path of knowledge, science and wisdom, involving fine discriminations, study and reflection, resulting in the development of intuition. Bhakti Yoga is the path of love and devotion, where love is centered upon a familiar form of God, saint or some great task in life. Tantric yoga focuses upon converting sexual energy into kundalini (vital) energy, and there are other yoga practices involving breath and meditation.
Zen A special branch of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizing intolerable pressure at all levels, mental, physical and emotional, intended to cumulate in a sudden flash of satori or transcendent enlightenment. One element of the teachings are the use of koans, short statements or questions of an imponderable nature such as, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”
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Instant Enlightenment
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