220 Matching Annotations
  1. Feb 2024
    1. One of Seth’s recent projects was called Dreammachine—an immersive art-science hallucinatory experience

      for - BEing journey - Anil Seth - BEing journey - Dream machine

      reference - https://dreamachine.world/about/

  2. Jan 2024
  3. Dec 2023
  4. Nov 2023
    1. the overwhelming majority of our time is spent looking down and as we should have talked about in previous videos we really care about 00:03:57 the hinges that you place in your spine so if you're on a laptop or looking down on your phone there's generally a hinge that we put into our neck and keep it there for a period of time and that 00:04:09 section and it can be right at the top if we're looking at you we've down or it can be lowered down if we're hinging down a lot more towards more of a 90-degree angle the longer in those shapes and the average American at 00:04:22 least can sit you know 10 to 14 hours a day particularly in today's climate without raising an eyebrow it can be just a simple thing that we do and if that's sitting down looking down is a 00:04:33 constant thing then what happens is we take that overloaded tissue to bed and sleep is our recovery time
      • for: BEing journey - unconscious body posture - sleep impacts
    1. there's things in the 10th Century in what we think of as now as broadly Western and Central Europe 01:13:46 that are beginning to show up particularly in art and architecture and poetry and music not an accident the musician we know that artists are often people who sense 01:13:59 things and are ahead of a culture they give the first articulation to a set of ideas and so if you today if next time you're in Ottawa I invite you to go to the 01:14:10 National Gallery because the National Gallery in Ottawa has one of the world's best collections of European northern European art and it starts about 1300 01:14:22 there's some before that but their collections of that's old enough to get you into it and it works through historically as you work through the rooms and at least it used to last time I brought it was there it brought you 01:14:36 out into a post-modern into postmodern art as if what's beyond what we think of as Modern Art uh into post-modern art
      • for: BEing journey - history of art from 10th century to present
      • for: Deep Humanity, epoche, BEing journey, Douglas Harding, Zen, emptiness, awakening, the Headless Way

      • summary

      • adjacency between
        • Kensho
        • Zen
        • Douglas Harding's Headless Way
      • adjacency statement

        • this paper explores the parallels between Zen b experienced of Kensho and Douglas Harding's Headless Way
      • question

        • can this technique be adapted for Deep Humanity BEing journeys and mass awakening /epoche?
      • for: BEing journey - adapt to, DH, Deep Humanity

      • comment

        • Potentiality coupled with limitations - Daseitz Suzuki and the elbow does not bend backwards.
        • The experience of the unnamable quality present in every moment - infinite potentiality
        • The mundane is the extraordinary. Even when we name it and discover it in all our scientific discoveries and articulate it, and mass produce technologies with it, is is still miraculous
      • adjacency

        • Nora Bateson's book Combining and the Douglas Rushkoff podcast interview
        • potentiality
      • adjacency statement
        • both are alluding to the pure potentiality latent in the moment
        • language can be contextualized as an unfolding of the space of potentiality to a specific trajectory. Each word added to the previous one to form a sentence is a choice in an infinite, abstract space of symbols that communicates intentionality and is designed to focus the attention of the listener to one very narrow aspect of the enormous field of infinite potentiality
    1. After I had been searching for ways to flesh out this parallel between contemplative and scientific research, through the common element of a lab method, I finally stumbled upon the Husserlian epoche as a stepping stone or connection piece between the two
      • for: bridge between - scientific and contemplative world

      • comment

        • this describes my current strong interest in the epoche as a potentially b transformative Deep Humanity BEing journey tool
  5. Sep 2023
    1. The invisible hand is a metaphor used by the Scottish moral philosopher Adam Smith that describes the inducement a merchant has to keep his capital, thereby increasing the domestic capital stock and enhancing military power, both of which are in the public interest and neither of which he intended.[1]

      See invisible hand as a force that aids us in our life journey as a metaphor of Adam Smith his metaphor of the invisible hand

      • Joseph Campbell also coined this term somewhere, in his explanation of the hero’s journey
  6. Aug 2023
    1. What is one of our greatest needs, one of our greatest needs for our brain? And instead of telling you, I want to show you. In fact, I want you to feel it. There's a lot I want you to feel in the next 14 minutes. So, if we could all stand up. 00:00:39 We're all going to conduct a piece of Strauss together. Alright?
      • for: BEing journey
      • comment
        • This was a good BEing journey for anticipation.
        • We wait for closure, anticipate what is next based on previous experiences.
        • The sand artwork performed by the artist in the background is also a demonstration of anticipation and of symbolic representation - the ubiquity of the symbolosphere.
  7. Jul 2023
    1. we are modern humans we've been around as modern humans for 00:04:32 200 000 years on Earth but we are hunters and gatherers we have a rough time we live under extremely variable conditions in deep Ice Age we come into the Holocene the neolithical revolution takes part one of the biggest 00:04:44 Innovations in human history and off we go in the civilizational journey that we all know and here we are today
      • for: civilizational journey
    1. Guided meditation: The carbon cycle
      • Guided meditation
        • consciousness thinking about its own atomic constituent
      • Carbon cycle meditation

        • to help achieve awareness of our physical connection to the world
      • Comment

        • This is a limited practice as it still depends on conceptual models.
        • An atom is not an object we can directly experience phenomenologically.
        • Rather, it is a conceptual model and through social norm of using it as if it were phenomenologically a directly experienced object, we confuse ideas of phenomena with the phenomena itself
        • One way to determine if it is a fundamental human quality or if it is simply one narrative, is to determine if there are people such an exercise would NOT resonate with?
          • For instance, it would likely not resonate strongly with
            • climate deniers,
            • uneducated people
            • religious fundamentalists
        • to develop a method to reach ALL people, we need to look at even more fundamental commonalities - namely, how we use language to mediate reality
        • Perhaps a BEing journey can consist of two lievels
          • 1st level: conceptual
            • do the BEing journey as described using conventional concepts
          • 2nd level: meta-level
            • observe how you construct the narrative using language
        • it could be good to animate this with AI drawing program
    2. guided meditation to help achieve this awareness of our physical connection to the world around us.
      • comment
        • these guided meditations are interesting because they are one level of our superorganism (consciousness)
          • thinking about a lower level of the same human superorganism
            • carbon molecule that was part of us
            • genetic material that was part of our ancestors going back billions of years
      • not learning oneself, self-master as self-discovery & self-awareness
      • spirituality as learning of oneself
      • enjoy time doing nothing, also find things you like to do
      • each person find way to climb the mountain (gaining clarity on top of mountain)
      • 5 hindrances as challenges to journey (state of mind, not having/getting clarity)
      • (1) sensual desire
      • 2 ill will (rejection, also see my ideas on madness) "let go"
      • 3 sloth (dullness of mind/body) lack if motivation/energy (see flow)
      • 4 restlessness (not being in present)
      • 5 sceptical doubt (being indecisive, getting lost in thoughts)
      • structure/design life to prevent hindrances from arising (see my way of life as making environments/practices to prevent?) "techniques to remove them"
      • (4 steps to prevent the hindrances)
      • 1 what is your state of mind
      • 2 accept the situation/someone/something to be they way it is/the way they are
      • 3 emotional & mental questioning (why did it come up? understanding it, what will happen if it remains?)
      • 4 non-identification (I am not my mind, my body, or my emotions, it is just that I am there to observe them all)
  8. Jun 2023
    1. 13:00 talks on finding a (1) zone of fascination, (2) go into a congregation (a community, a discours), and (3) master the thing (and fulfil the hero's journey), and (4) add these to the congregation - Scott relates this to the hero's journey

    1. Ulisse

      Ulysses can be considered as an alter ego of Levi in ‘Il canto di Ulisse’ and other passages of the writer’s works. By considering the nature of the link between the author and the classical hero, we can also clarify the reasons behind Levi’s choice of presenting to Pikolo the core episode of canto 26 of Dante’s Inferno. Levi himself connects his experience to that of Ulysses in a 1973 interview, where he states: ‘[M]i ero reso conto che proprio il canto di Ulisse era abbastanza importante, perché è un’evasione anche quella: cioè ero evaso raccontando di un’altra evasione. Questo Ulisse che si strappa dalla vita quotidiana per fare un viaggio che non ha ritorno: mi sembrava che avesse una vaga analogia con la [mia realtà]’ (OC III, 988).

      First, Levi underlines the parallel between his condition of deportee and that of Ulysses, driven by his nature and fate (‘fortuna’?) to embark on a journey without return. On a smaller scale, in ‘Il canto di Ulisse’ we also find one of the few physical movements in SQ – Primo and Jean’s trip to collect the soup. The chapter also represents a textual journey, where, while reading about Primo translating and interpreting Dante’s canto for Jean, we follow the path towards knowledge of the two characters. Finally, we can read it as a sentimental journey: the chapter is a nostos, a (temporary) memorial homecoming of the two protagonists to their homes and pre-Auschwitz lives. In the chapter, there is a constant superimposition of the experience and memory of Dante’s Ulysses with those of Levi (and Pikolo). Far from his home and family, Dante’s character sees Mount Purgatory in the distance before the shipwreck; this episode triggers in Levi the memory of the Piedmontese Alps he used to see on the horizon while going back home by train: ‘E le montagne, quando si vedono di lontano…le montagne…oh Pikolo, Pikolo, di’ qualcosa, parla, non lasciarmi pensare alle mie montagne, che comparivano nel bruno della sera quando tornavo in treno da Milano a Torino!’

      When we consider the presence of Ulysses in Levi’s works, we should not only think of the Commedia. We must consider Homer’s Ulysses too, a character appreciated by Levi since his high-school years and often remembered in his writings and interviews. If we analyse Levi’s quotes from the Odyssey, we can find further points of contact emerging between Levi and his alter ego. We can start with the episode of Ulysses’ deception of Polyphemus, quoted explicitly in the chapter ‘L’ultimo’ in SQ. Here Levi narrates that as he was leaving the shower, ‘un fiduciario del Block si installa sulla porta, e tasta come Polifemo chi esce per sentire se è bagnato’. Primo and Alberto manage to trick the guard and even gain a generous amount of bread from their kombinacja. The common ground between the Greek hero and Levi are versatility and resourcefulness, the most famous traits of Homer’s Ulysses.

      Levi considered this episode of the Odyssey crucial and included it also in his auto-anthology La ricerca delle radici with the title ‘Un uomo da nulla’. First of all, the physical description of Ulysses in the passage quoted in La ricerca delle radici – the hero is described as ‘un uomo da nulla, slombato, piccino’ – recalls Levi’s aspect in SQ. More importantly, the whole passage quoted by Levi revolves around the double name and identity of Ulysses. Introducing the excerpt, the writer notices that, while talking to Polyphemus, Ulysses ‘è fiero del suo nome, che finora aveva taciuto’. The name Nobody, chosen by Ulysses to fool the cyclops, recalls the loss of individual identity and the attribution of a new name (the number tattooed on the forearm) to Auschwitz prisoners.

      In this sense, Ulysses can be seen not only as an alter ego of Levi, but also as an allegory of the Jews detained in Lagers. This is true also for some aspects of Dante’s Ulysses, as we can read in Levi’s comment to ‘Il canto di Ulisse’ in the notes to the school edition of SQ: ‘In quell’istante, all’autore pare di intravvedere una conturbante analogia fra il naufragio di Ulisse e il destino dei prigionieri: l’uno e gli altri sono stati paradossalmente “puniti”’. In his narration of Ulysses’ shipwreck, Dante tells us that everyone on the boat is punished and dies. If we go back to consider the story of Homer’s Ulysses instead, the character could instead be an example of being ‘saved’. Having wandered for ten years, he was finally able to return to Ithaca, just as Levi managed to go back to Turin. Ulysses’ fellows represent instead the ‘drowned’, just like the majority of the prisoners detained in Levi’s barrack.

      A final, crucial shared aspect linking Levi to Homer’s Ulysses is the narrative ability and the urge to relate his misadventures to others. The ethical need to share with others the trauma of Auschwitz is strong in Levi already during his detention and impelled him to write SQ. In the 1976 Appendix to the book, he remembers that ‘era talmente forte in noi il bisogno di raccontare, che il libro avevo incominciato a scriverlo là’ (OC I, 281). Levi will reconsider his previous accounts of the Lager from a new perspective in the 1970s. On several occasions, he compares the urge to communicate his experience of the concentration camp to Ulysses’ narration of his decade-long wanderings at the court of Alcinous. In I sommersi e i salvati, Levi adopts this comparison as the opening of the chapter ‘Stereotipi’, writing: ‘[È] bello sedere al caldo, davanti al cibo ed al vino, e ricordare a sé ed agli altri la fatica, il freddo e la fame: così subito cede all’urgenza del raccontare, davanti alla mensa imbandita, Ulisse alla corte del re dei Feaci’. Ulysses is seen here as a prototypical model of the oral narrator and the founder of the genre of the memorial accounts of the survivor (‘reduce’) of traumatic events. Thus, an alter ego not only of Levi as a character but also of Levi as writer.

      MM

  9. Mar 2023
    1. The European materialist tradition of despiritualizing the universe is very similar to the mental process which goes into dehumanizing another person. And who seems most expert at dehumanizing other people? And why? Soldiers who have seen a lot of combat learn to do this to the enemy before going back into combat. Murderers do it before going out to commit murder. Nazi SS guards did it to concentration camp inmates. Cops do it. Corporation leaders do it to the workers they send into uranium mines and steel mills. Politicians do it to everyone in sight. And what the process has in common for each group doing the dehumanizing is that it makes it all right to kill and otherwise destroy other people. One of the Christian commandments says, "Thou shalt not kill," at least not humans, so the trick is to mentally convert the victims into nonhumans. Then you can proclaim violation of your own commandment as a virtue.
      • Despiritualization
      • Definition
      • Comment
      • This is a very salient term appropriate to modernity's propensity for objectification that uses language and acculturation to remove the sacred from being a lived experience:
      • Means says that European materialist tradition of despiritualizing the universe is very similar to the mental process which goes into dehumanizing another person. This is also the process of despiritualizing nature so we can plunger her. It is the raison d'etre for objectifying nature in the scientific / technological / industrialist / globalist capitalism supply chain. Means provided some examples:
        - Soldiers to kill an enemy soldier.
        - We do it to eat food 
        - Murderers do it before killing .
        - Nazi SS guards did it to inmates. 
         - Cops do it to those they arrest.
        - Corporation leaders do it to their workers and to the environment
        - Politicians do it to everyone
        - factory farming takes away the individuality and recognition of each unique, living being and commodities then all by replacing each life by with the genetic label "food" ( author's addition)
        
        • Mean says that for each group doing the Despiritualization, it makes it all right to kill and otherwise destroy other people/species.
        • Means further says:
        • One of the Christian commandments says, "Thou shalt not kill," at least not humans,
        • so the trick is to mentally convert the victims into nonhumans.
        • Then you can proclaim violation of your own commandment as a virtue.
        • In most indigenous traditions, if not all, prayer is given before a meal.
        • Prayer can be seen as a spiritualistion practice that recognizes that we, as participants in life, must take some other life in order to sustain our own
        • It is the practice of recognizing the built-in cruelty of life.
        • If taking another living beings life is the ultimate transgression, and we must commit that murderous act many times a day in order to survive meal prayer establishes a direct connection with the individual plant or animall that has made the ultimate sacrifice and has forfeited its life so that we may continue ours.
        • meal prayer is therefore, in the context of Deep Humanity practice, a BEing journey of continuous gratitude
    1. Ithaka - C. P. Cavafy, "The City" from C.P. Cavafy: Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard.

      The first version of "Ithaka" was probably written in 1894. Cavafy revised the poem in 1910, and it was first published in 1911. The first English translation was published in 1924, and there have been a number of different translations since then. The poem can be found in Cavafy's Collected Poems, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, edited by George Savidis, Princeton University Press, 1980.

  10. Feb 2023
    1. It might also help to visually split the mapping area in zones, such as "on-stage" (what the customer experiences) versus "back-stage" (what systems and processes are active in the background).

      I like this idea: break it into customer experience and backend enablement.

  11. Jan 2023
    1. Let me pose the question in the following way: Is the condition of autonomia fulfilled or undermined by the condition of sumbiōsis? Could it be that autos and sumbios—the most fully realized, best self and the companion—are two sides of the same coin; that is to say, entangled?

      !- comment : autonomy and symbiosis entangled - this goes to the heart of Deep Humanity, the entangled individual / collective

    1. what i want you to do is to now imagine somebody whose body you would like to have 00:28:23 as your own either for a few minutes or maybe long term i'm not going to ask you why you want that body i don't want to get that deep into your psyche and that might be very personal um 00:28:35 but i'll tell you whose body i'd like to have and for how long just to give you a warm-up feel for this i really would like to have usain bolt's body of a few years ago for 9.6 seconds 00:28:47 because i would love to know what it feels like to run 100 meters that fast now when i form that does i think it's a coherent desire how do i why do i think that because i really do desire it i would love it i'd pay a lot of money to 00:28:59 do that um but what i don't want is to be usain bolt because usain bolt is already the same bolt and that doesn't do me any good um what i want is to be me 00:29:12 j with usain bolt's body so i can know what it feels like to run really really fast now i'm not claiming that this is a coherent desire i'm not claiming that it's 00:29:24 possible for me to remain jay and have usain bolt's body but i am claiming that i can desire it and if you are anything like me for some body or other you can desire to 00:29:36 have it for some time or other if you can form that desire then you in deep in your gut don't believe that you are your body you believe that you have a body and that 00:29:48 you might have a different body just like you might have a different hat or a different cat and if you believe that then you really do believe that whatever you are you are not your body 00:30:01 now you might think well that's obviously true i've never thought i was my body um but maybe on my mind i don't think you really believe that either and i want to do the same thought 00:30:13 experiment to convince you of that now i want you to think about somebody's mind that you'd really like to have maybe not for a long time maybe only for a few minutes um i'll tell you mine again i'm really 00:30:25 big and divulging you know hyper sharing over sharing personal secrets um i would really love to have stephen hawking's mind when he was still alive of course not now um and i'd like to have it only for about five or ten 00:30:36 minutes because what i would really like is to be able to really understand quantum gravity and i can't really understand it but if i had stephen hawking's mind for a few minutes then i could understand it now i obviously 00:30:48 don't want to be stephen hawking for one thing he's dead for another thing he was already stephen hawking and it didn't do me a damn bit of good what i want is to be me jay with his mind so that i can 00:31:00 use it to understand quantum gravity um i think that'd be really cool again i'm not claiming this is coherent i'm not claiming that it's possible but i am claiming that it's a 00:31:11 psychologically possible state to be in to crave somebody else's mind and if you like me can form that desire then you like me deep in your gut do not believe that you are your mind 00:31:25 you believe that you're something that has a mind just like you have a body um and that you possessed that mind and you could still be you with another mind and another body i mean just imagine having 00:31:37 the same bolts body in stephen hawking's mind that would be totally cool then i could understand quantum gravity while setting a new record for the 100 meter sprint um but that's not going to happen alas 00:31:50 um the moral of these experiments um takes us right back to chandragiri serpent i think the moral of these experiments is that deep down at an atavistic gut 00:32:02 level we believe that we are something that stands behind our minds and our bodies that thing is the self the thing that is not the mind in the body but possesses the mind in the body that's the thing 00:32:14 that sean decurity identifies as the serpent in the wall our arguments are going to be aimed at that not at our bodies not as our minds not as our personal identities they're 00:32:27 going to be aimed at that self that we really atavistically believe stands behind all of those that's the illusion that's the thing that causes us to be incompetent morally that causes us to be 00:32:41 confused about our own identities and to be confused about our role and our place in the world

      !- BEing journey Gedanken : imagine yourself to have different body, different mind - if you can imagine this, then you believe you ARE NOT the body or mind, but the SELF that HAS the body or mind - examples of imagining having another mind or body: what would it be like to be there mind of wife? My husband? My child? My friend? My enemy? My dog? My cat? A bat ( Thomas Hagel)? Isn't this imagination salient for empathising? To imagine being another person, don't we need to imagine being in their mind and body to imagined experiencing like they do?

    2. so i want to convince you now that you 00:27:18 really do think you have a self no matter how many years you've been practicing

      !- following argument : will convince you that you are convinced you have a self

  12. Aug 2022
    1. i'm going to simply turn our line drawing upside down and then draw from 00:04:20 the upside down reference what's going to happen here is it's going to force my mind to not think about what i'm drawing but instead focus on the lines and shapes that i actually 00:04:33 see so you can see it takes my left brain out of the process almost completely

      !- BEing Journey : drawing example * inverting the picture upside down to draw it helps to remove the analytic part of the brain from the drawing.

  13. Jul 2022
    1. we term these individually constructed networks by the aggregate namepersonware. Serving as a medium between the individual and the social world, personware provides aself-reinforced and self-cohered narrative of the individual and its relationships with society. It is boththe sense-maker and the sense being made of social reality entangled into an interactive autopoieticconstruct. It maintains a personal line of continuity that interfaces with the broader societal threads bymeans of concrete intentional cognitive selections. These cognitive selections determine how individualminds represent (encode) the state of affairs of the world in language, how they communicate theserepresentations and how they further decode received communications into an understanding of thestate of affairs of the world that eventually trigger actions in the world and further cognitive selections.At moments of decision, that is, attempting to make a choice to affect the world, the human is thusmore often than not symbolically pre-situated. He enacts a personal narrative of which he is hardlythe author and to which almost every decision is knitted in.

      !- definition : personware * individually constructed network of relationships and social systems that * provides self-reinforced, self-cohered narrative of the individual and its relationship with society * Metaphorically conceive of personware as a suit we don based on years and decades of social conditioning "Personware" is a good word to use in SRG / DH framework that views the individual human organism's life journey as a deeply entangled individual AND collective journey or entangled individual/civilzational journey * From SRG/DH perspective the individual human organism is always on an entangled dual journey - from birth to death within a biological body and as part of a much longer civilizational journey since the beginning of modern humans (or even further back) * Individuals make intentional cognitive selections * Individual minds encode state of affair of the world via a combination of cognitive experience and language * Individual minds share their understanding of the world through outgoing language communication * Individual minds decode incoming information and store

    1. when we attribute sensory experiences to 00:06:39 ourselves for instance like the experience of red or the experience of seeing blue the model is external properties and we think of there as being inner properties just like those external properties that somehow we are 00:06:52 um we are seeing immediately

      This comment suggests a Color BEing Journey. How can we demonstrate in a compelling way that color is an attribute of the neural architecture of the person and NOT a property of the object we are viewing?

      See Color Constancy Illusion here:

      David Eagleman in WIRED interview https://hyp.is/go?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocdrop.org%2Fvideo%2FMJBfn07gZ30%2F&group=world

      Beau Lotto, TED Talk https://hyp.is/go?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocdrop.org%2Fvideo%2Fmf5otGNbkuc%2F&group=world

      Andrew Stockman, TEDx talk on how we see color: https://hyp.is/go?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocdrop.org%2Fvideo%2F_l607r2TSwg%2F&group=world

      Science shows that color is an experience of the subject, not a property of the object: https://youtu.be/fQczp0wtZQQ but what Jay will go on to argue, is that this explanation itself is part of the COGNITIVE IMMEDIACY OF EXPERIENCE that we also take for granted.

    2. cognitive illusion and immediate experience perspectives 00:01:44 from buddhist philosophy

      Title: cognitive illusion and immediate experience perspectives from buddhist philosophy Author: Jay L. Garfield Year: 2022

      This is a very important talk outlining a number of key concepts that Stop Reset Go and Deep Humanity are built upon and also a rich source of BEing Journeys.

      In brief, this talk outlines key humanistic (discoverable by a modern human being regardless of any cultural, gender, class, etc difference) concepts of Buddhist philosophy that SRG / DH embeds into its framework to make more widely accessible..

      The title of the talk refers to the illusions that our own cognition produces of both outer and inner appearances because the mechanisms that produce them area opaque to us. Their immediacy feels as if they are real.

      If what we sense and think is real is an illusion, then what is real? "Real" in this case implies ultimate truth. As we will see, Nagarjuna's denial of any argument that claims to be the ulitmate is denied. What is left after such a complete denial? Still something persists.

    1. so this is white light passing through a dispersive prison and this is a visible spectrum from about 420 nanometers in the violet through 500 nanometers and 00:00:18 the green 580 yellow 610 and orange and 650 red and some of the slides that have this along the bottom axis so how dependent I'll be in color what do you 00:00:30 think we depend on color a lot a little lots okay
      • Title: How do we see colours?
      • Author: Andrew Stockman
      • Date: 2016

      Many different color illusions Good to mine for BEing Journeys

    1. I want to start with a game. Okay? And to win this game, all you have to do is see the reality that's in front of you as it really is, all right? So we have two panels here, of colored dots. And one of those dots is the same in the two panels. And you have to tell me which one. Now, I narrowed it down to the gray one, the green one, and, say, the orange one. 00:00:41 So by a show of hands, we'll start with the easiest one. Show of hands: how many people think it's the gray one? Really? Okay. How many people think it's the green one? And how many people think it's the orange one? Pretty even split. Let's find out what the reality is. Here is the orange one. (Laughter) Here is the green one. And here is the gray one. 00:01:16 (Laughter) So for all of you who saw that, you're complete realists. All right? (Laughter) So this is pretty amazing, isn't it? Because nearly every living system has evolved the ability to detect light in one way or another. So for us, seeing color is one of the simplest things the brain does. And yet, even at this most fundamental level, 00:01:40 context is everything. What I'm going to talk about is not that context is everything, but why context is everything. Because it's answering that question that tells us not only why we see what we do, but who we are as individuals, and who we are as a society.
      • Title: Optical illusions show how we see
      • Author: Beau Lotto
      • Date: 8 Oct, 2009

      The opening title is very pith:

      No one is an outside observer of nature, each of us is defined by our ecology.

      We need to unpack the full depth of this sentence.

      Seeing is believing. This is more true than we think.Our eyes trick us into seeing the same color as different ones depending on the context. Think about the philosophical implications of this simple finding. What does this tell us about "objective reality"? Colors that we would compare as different in one circumstance are the same in another.

      Evolution helps us do this for survival.

    1. so here's a straightforward question what color are the strawberries in this photograph the red right wrong those strawberries are gray if you don't 00:00:12 believe me we look for one of the reddest looking patches on this image cut it out now what color is that it's great right but when you put it back on 00:00:25 the image it's red again it's weird right this illusion was created by a Japanese researcher named Akiyoshi Kitaoka and it hinges on something called color constancy it's an incredible visual 00:00:39 phenomenon by which the color of an object appears to stay more or less the same regardless of the lighting conditions under which you see it or the lighting conditions under which your brain thinks you're seeing it

      Title: Why your brain thinks these strawberries are red Author: WIRED Date:2022

      Color Constancy

      Use this for BEing journey

    1. When we see the world from the vantage point of all-at-oneness, always right here, we can be said to be like a pearl in a bowl. Flowing with every turn without any obstructions or stoppages coming from our emotional reactions to different situations. This is a very commonly used image in Zen — moving like a pearl in a bowl. As usual, our ancestors comment on this phrase, wanting to break open our solidifying minds even more. Working from Dogen’s fascicle Shunju, Spring and Autumn, we have an example of opening up even the Zen appropriate phrase — a pearl in a bowl. Editor of the Blue Cliff Record Engo ( Yuan Wu) wrote: A bowl rolls around a pearl, and the pearl rolls around the bowl. The absolute in the relative and the relative in the absolute.   Dogen: The present expression “a bowl rolls around a pearl” is unprecedented and inimitable, it has rarely been heard in eternity. Hitherto, people have spoken only as if the pearl rolling in the bowl were ceaseless.

      This is like the observation I often make in Deep Humanity and which is a pith BEing Journey

      When we move is it I who goes from HERE to THERE? Or am I stationary, like the eye of the hurricane spinning the wild world of appearances to me and surrounding me?

      I am like the gerbil running on a cage spinning appearances towards me but never moving an inch I move while I am still The bowl revolves around this pearl.

    2. I have written previously about the issue of “both”. In one sense, interdependence and total dynamic working implies that everything is both form and emptiness simultaneously. But the problem is that you can’t PERCEIVE both form and emptiness at the same time. They are both there supporting each other but our discriminative thought can only see one or the other; like the front and back foot in walking, like the old lady and young lady optical illusion, or the front and back of a hand. Both sides are always there. We have a whole hand but you can only see either the front of the hand or the back of the hand in a single moment.

      This needs unpacking and can be a good Deep Humanity BEing journey exercise, as all of this can be.

  14. Jun 2022
    1. So, if some of you are still feeling a bit too certain, I'd like to do this one. So, if we have the lights down. And what we have here -- Can everyone see 25 purple surfaces on your left, 00:15:03 and 25, call it yellowish, surfaces on your right? So now, what I want to do, I'm going to put the middle nine surfaces here under yellow illumination, by simply putting a filter behind them. Now you can see that changes the light that's coming through there, right? Because now the light is going through a yellowish filter and then a purplish filter. I'm going to do the opposite on the left here. 00:15:31 I'm going to put the middle nine under a purplish light. Now, some of you will have noticed that the consequence is that the light coming through those middle nine on the right, or your left, is exactly the same as the light coming through the middle nine on your right. Agreed? Yes? Okay. So they are physically the same. 00:15:56 Let's pull the covers off. Now remember -- you know that the middle nine are exactly the same. Do they look the sa

      BEing journey 9 color illusion

    2. also true for complex perceptions of motion. So, here we have -- let's turn this around -- a diamond. And what I'm going to do is, I'm going to hold it here, 00:08:53 and I'm going to spin it. And for all of you, you'll see it probably spinning this direction. Now I want you to keep looking at it. Move your eyes around, blink, maybe close one eye. And suddenly it will flip, and start spinning the opposite direction. Yes? Raise your hand if you got that. Yes? Keep blinking. Every time you blink, it will switch. So I can ask you, which direction is it rotating? 00:09:20 How do you know? Your brain doesn't know, because both are equally likely. So depending on where it looks, it flips between the two possibilities

      BEing journey 8 Direction of motion

    3. What is color for?" And instead of telling you, I'll just show you. What you see here is a jungle scene, 00:02:08 and you see the surfaces according to the amount of light that those surfaces reflect. Now, can any of you see the predator that's about to jump out at you? And if you haven't seen it yet, you're dead, right? (Laughter) Can anyone see it? Anyone? No? Now let's see the surfaces according to the quality of light that they reflect. And now you see it. So, color enables us to see 00:02:32 the similarities and differences between surfaces, according to the full spectrum of light that they reflect. But what you've just done is in many respects mathematically impossible. Why? Because, as Berkeley tells us, we have no direct access to our physical world, other than through our senses. And the light that falls onto our eyes is determined by multiple things in the world, not only the color of objects, 00:02:56 but also the color of their illumination, and the color of the space between us and those objects. You vary any one of those parameters, and you'll change the color of the light that falls onto your eye. This is a huge problem, because it means that the same image could have an infinite number of possible real-world sources

      BEing journey 2 pattern detection

    4. Here we have that exact same illusion. We have two identical tiles on the left, one in a dark surround, one in a light surround. And the same thing over on the right. Now, I'll reveal those two scenes, but I'm not going to change anything within those boxes, except their meaning. 00:07:11 And see what happens to your perception. Notice that on the left the two tiles look nearly completely opposite: one very white and one very dark, right? Whereas on the right, the two tiles look nearly the same. And yet there is still one on a dark surround, and one on a light surround. Why? Because if the tile in that shadow were in fact in shadow, and reflecting the same amount of light to your eye 00:07:35 as the one outside the shadow, it would have to be more reflective -- just the laws of physics. So you see it that way. Whereas on the right, the information is consistent with those two tiles being under the same light. If they're under the same light reflecting the same amount of light to your eye, then they must be equally reflective. So you see it that way. Which means we can bring all this information together to create some incredibly strong illusions.

      BEing journey 5 shadow and light

    5. let me show you how quickly our brains can redefine normality, even at the simplest thing the brain does, which is color. 00:05:29 So if I could have the lights down up here. I want you to first notice that those two desert scenes are physically the same. One is simply the flipping of the other. Now I want you to look at that dot between the green and the red. And I want you to stare at that dot. Don't look anywhere else. We're going to look at it for about 30 seconds, which is a bit of a killer in an 18-minute talk. (Laughter) But I really want you to learn. 00:05:55 And I'll tell you -- don't look anywhere else -- I'll tell you what's happening in your head. Your brain is learning, and it's learning that the right side of its visual field is under red illumination; the left side of its visual field is under green illumination. That's what it's learning. Okay? Now, when I tell you, I want you to look at the dot between the two desert scenes. So why don't you do that now? (Laughter) 00:06:21 Can I have the lights up again? I take it from your response they don't look the same anymore, right? (Applause) Why? Because your brain is seeing that same information as if the right one is still under red light, and the left one is still under green light. That's your new normal. Okay? So, what does this mean for context? It means I can take two identical squares, put them in light and dark surrounds, and the one on the dark surround looks lighter than on the light surround. 00:06:47 What's significant is not simply the light and dark surrounds that matter. It's what those light and dark surrounds meant for your behavior in the past.

      BEing journey 4 Color persistence Try noticing this throughout your life to see how often it occurs.

    6. we see by learning to see. The brain evolved the mechanisms for finding patterns, finding relationships in information, 00:04:38 and associating those relationships with a behavioral meaning, a significance, by interacting with the world. We're very aware of this in the form of more cognitive attributes, like language. I'm going to give you some letter strings, and I want you to read them out for me, if you can. Audience: "Can you read this?" "You are not reading this." "What are you reading?" Beau Lotto: "What are you reading?" Half the letters are missing, right? 00:05:04 There's no a priori reason why an "H" has to go between that "W" and "A." But you put one there. Why? Because in the statistics of your past experience, it would have been useful to do so. So you do so again. And yet you don't put a letter after that first "T." Why? Because it wouldn't have been useful in the past. So you don't do it again.

      Being journey 3 Linguistic BEing journey - filling in missing letters in incomplete sentence is based on our past experience with specific sentences that have those letters. This becomes compelling when we can demonstrate with multiple languages, including ones we are not familiar with. Those people in the other cultures will fill in missing letters in their words in their language that we would be completely clueless about.

    1. (Music) (Applause) (Music) (Applause) (Music) 00:07:16 (Applause) (Cheers) (Applause) Beau Lotto: Ah, how wonderful, right? So right now, you're probably all feeling, at some level or another, awe.

      BEing journey that inspires awe, wonder and the invocation of the sacred.

  15. May 2022
    1. new way of being

      It may be that our civilization must undergo a transformation process that places less emphasis on intelligence and more intelligence on wisdom. That wisdom is intimately bound with rediscovering the essence of what it is to be a living and dying human being. The enormous polycrisis of the Anthropocene leads us to the inescapable conclusion that human intelligence alone is insufficient to lead to a holistic wellbeing within the biosphere. Insofar as the biosphere is a vast interconnected mutually supporting web of life, the overconsumption by one species, modern humans has upset the balance of the biosphere.

      A new way of being requires fundamental collective reassessment of what it is to be a living and dying being. The intelligence alone of our species has led to an extreme imbalance of the natural world, whose blowback we are now beginning to experience. The blind, recursive application of intelligence has led to greater and greater separation from nature to the point of the present polycrisis. As a species, we can only distance ourselves apart from nature to an extreme extent when nature reminds us we are NOT separate from her. She is now violently reminding us that we ARE a part of nature. A new way of being is to reconcile technology, that pushes the limits of intelligence alone, with ourselves as being a product of nature herself.

      Deep Humanity is that open collective process we call which reminds us that we are a product of nature in every way, and is a journey to reconnect with nature. BEing journeys are the crowdsourced processes of rediscovering our deep connection with nature through participatory, compelling, interactive, immersive explorations of what it is to be a living and dying human being.

    2. OP VAK is a concerted effort to make the hyperthreat visible and knowable across the broad spectrum of society. This has practical, educational aspects, including increasing CEC literacy and improving ecoproduct and services labeling. It also links to the integration of CEC into the remit of mainstream intelligence agencies. To address sensory and affective knowing, as well as the deep framing and meaning-making dimension of hyperthreat “knowing,” it will partner with the communications, arts, and humanities sectors in line with the “60,000 artists” concept.24 It will also harness the potential of virtual reality technologies, which have already proven effective in CEC communication.25 Finally, it will involve fast-tracking relevant research and improved mechanisms for conveying and sharing research and knowledge.

      Deep Humanity open access education program in museums, workshops and at public festivals can use the tool of compelling, engaging, interactive BEing Journeys to make the invisible hyperthreat visible.

    3. Here, in PLAN E, the concept of entangled security translates this idea into meaning that humanity itself can make a great sudden leap.

      An Open Access Deep Humanity education program whose core principles are continuously improved through crowdsourcing, can teach the constructed nature of reality, especially using compelling BEing Journeys. This inner transformation can rapidly create the nonlinear paradigm, worldview and value shifts that Donella Meadows identified as the greatest leverage points in system change.

    1. We fail to realise that mastery is not about perfection. It’s about a process, a journey.

      This is such an important concept to acknowledge and face! EVERYTHING we do is framed by a process, whether we are conscious of it or not. There are so many things I consider myself a beginner at, especially in terms of the arts. It is easy for me to say "I'll never be good at [fill in the blank]..." I've become increasingly aware that being "good" at something is relative, and harks back to the "journey" part of this quote. We only become better through practice, and "good" and "perfection" are in the eyes of the beholder anyway. Who amongst us hasn't been moved by a small child's drawing, not because of its "perfection," but because of the the story the child is telling in their art?

  16. Feb 2022
    1. To create trails  When we are studying a text we need to take the time to understand more than just the storyline. During your second reading, any comments made during the first reading (marginal comments or summaries) will quickly give you the gist of your first reading, so that you can take advantage of your second.

      While multiple readings of a text in antiquity may have been rarer, due to the cheap proliferation of books, one can more easily "blaze a trail" through their reading to make it easier or quicker to rebuild context on subsequent readings.


      Look at history of reading to see which books would have been more likely re-read, particularly outside of one's primary "area" of expertise.

      Link to the trails mentioned by Vannevar Bush in As We May Think.

  17. Nov 2021
    1. Yesterday, I was at a thrift store with my wife, Jayne, and as I usually do, I went straight to the books section. I happened upon a couple books. One was entitled Elephant Reflections and included high praise from Jane Goodall. Another was The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers.

      While in the store, I was checking my email and noticed there was something from the Design Science Studio.

      Tomorrow’s visiting Visionary, Catherine Connors will be speaking on New Narratives: Storytelling ARTchitecture!

      As I was flipping through the book in the checkout line, I noticed the preface to the second edition:

      “I’m not trying to copy Nature. I’m trying to find the principles she’s using”

      — R. Buckminster Fuller

      A book goes out like a wave rolling over the surface of the sea. Ideas radiate from the author’s mind and collide with other minds, triggering new waves that return to the author. These generate further thoughts and emanations, and so it goes. The concepts described in The Writer’s Journey have radiated and are now echoing back interesting challenges and criticisms as well as sympathetic vibrations. This is my report on the waves that have washed back over me from publication of the book, and on the new waves I send back in response.

      On the back of the book, the description includes the following introduction.

      Christopher Vogler explores the powerful relationship between mythology and storytelling in his clear, concise style that's made i this book required reading for movie executives, screenwriters, playwrights, fiction and non-fiction writers, scholars, and fans of pop culture all over the world.

    1. Vogler based this work upon the writings of mythologist Joseph Campbell, particularly The Hero with a Thousand Faces, and holds that all successful films innately adhere to its principles.

      Yesterday, I was at a thrift store with my wife, and as I usually do, I went straight to the books section. I happened upon a couple books. One was entitled Elephant Reflections and included high praise from Jane Goodall. Another was The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers.

    1. Professional musicians, concert pianists get to know this instrument deeply, intimately. And through it, they're able to create with sound in a way that just dazzles us, and challenges us, and deepens us. But if you were to look into the mind of a concert pianist, and you used all the modern ways of imaging it, an interesting thing that you would see 00:11:27 is how much of their brain is actually dedicated to this instrument. The ability to coordinate ten fingers. The ability to work the pedal. The feeling of the sound. The understanding of music theory. All these things are represented as different patterns and structures in the brain. And now that you have that thought in your mind, recognize that this beautiful pattern and structure of thought in the brain 00:11:52 was not possible even just a couple hundred years ago. Because the piano was not invented until the year 1700. This beautiful pattern of thought in the brain didn't exist 5,000 years ago. And in this way, the skill of the piano, the relationship to the piano, the beauty that comes from it was not a thinkable thought until very, very recently in human history. 00:12:17 And the invention of the piano itself was not an independent thought. It required a depth of mechanical engineering. It required the history of stringed instruments. It required so many patterns and structures of thought that led to the possibility of its invention and then the possibility of the mastery of its play. And it leads me to a concept I'd like to share with you guys, which I call "The Palette of Being." 00:12:44 Because all of us are born into this life having available to us the experiences of humanity that has come so far. We typically are only able to paint with the patterns of thoughts and the ways of being that existed before. So if the piano and the way of playing it is a way of being, this is a way of being that didn't exist for people 5,000 years ago. 00:13:10 It was a color in the Palette of Being that you couldn't paint with. Nowadays if you are born, you can actually learn the skill; you can learn to be a computer scientist, another color that was not available just a couple hundred years ago. And our lives are really beautiful for the following reason. We're born into this life. We have the ability to go make this unique painting with the colors of being that are around us at the point of our birth. 00:13:36 But in the process of life, we also have the unique opportunity to create a new color. And that might come from the invention of a new thing. A self-driving car. A piano. A computer. It might come from the way that you express yourself as a human being. It might come from a piece of artwork that you create. Each one of these ways of being, these things that we put out into the world 00:14:01 through the creative process of mixing together all the other things that existed at the point that we were born, allow us to expand the Palette of Being for all of society after us. And this leads me to a very simple way to go frame everything that we've talked about today. Because I think a lot of us understand that we exist in this kind of the marvelous universe, 00:14:30 but we think about this universe as we're this tiny, unimportant thing, there's this massive physical universe, and inside of it, there's the biosphere, and inside of that, that's society, and inside of us, we're just one person out of seven billion people, and how can we matter? And we think about this as like a container relationship, where all the goodness comes from the outside to the inside, and there's nothing really special about us. 00:14:56 But the Palette of Being says the opposite. It says that the way that we are in our lives, the way that we affect our friends and our family, begin to change the way that they are able to paint in the future, begins to change the way that communities then affect society, the way that society could then affect its relationship to the biosphere, and the way that the biosphere could then affect the physical planet 00:15:21 and the universe itself. And if it's a possible thing for cyanobacteria to completely transform the physical environment of our planet, it is absolutely a possible thing for us to do the same thing. And it leads to a really important question for the way that we're going to do that, the manner in which we're going to do that. Because we've been given this amazing gift of consciousness.

      The Palette of Being is a very useful idea that is related to Cumulative Cultural Evolution (CCE) and autopoiesis. From CCE, humans are able to pass on new ideas from one generation to the next, made possible by the tool of inscribed language.

      Peter Nonacs group at UCLA as well as Stuart West at Oxford research Major Evolutionary Transitions (MET) West elucidates that modern hominids integrate the remnants of four major stages of MET that have occurred over deep time. Amanda Robins, a researcher in Nonacs group posits the idea that our species of modern hominids are undergoing a Major Systems Transition (MST), due specifically to our development of inscribed language.

      CCE emerges new technologies that shape our human environments in time frames far faster than biological evolutionary timeframes. New human experiences are created which have never been exposed to human brains before, which feedback to affect our biological evolution as well in the process of gene-culture coevolution (GCC), also known as Dual Inheritance theory. In this way, CCE and GCC are entangled. "Gene–culture coevolution is the application of niche-construction reasoning to the human species, recognizing that both genes and culture are subject to similar dynamics, and human society is a cultural construction that provides the environment for fitness-enhancing genetic changes in individuals. The resulting social system is a complex dynamic nonlinear system. " (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3048999/)

      This metaphor of experiences constituting different colors on a Palette of Being is a powerful one that can contextualize human experiences from a deep time framework. One could argue that language usage automatically forces us into an anthropomorphic lens, for sophisticated language usage at the level of humans appears to be unique amongst our species. Within that constraint, the Palette of Being still provides us with a less myopic, less immediate and arguably less anthropomorphic view of human experience. It is philosophically problematic, however, in the sense that we can speculate about nonhuman modalities of being but never truly experience them. Philosopher Thomas Nagel wrote his classic paper "What it's like to be a bat" to illustrate this problem of experiencing the other. (https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/study/ugmodules/humananimalstudies/lectures/32/nagel_bat.pdf)

      We can also leverage the Palette of Being in education. Deep Humanity (DH) BEing Journeys are a new kind of experiential, participatory contemplative practice and teaching tool designed to deepen our appreciation of what it is to be human. The polycrisis of the Anthropocene, especially the self-induced climate crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic have precipitated the erosion of stable social norms and reference frames, inducing another crisis, a meaning crisis. In this context, a re-education of embodied philosophy is seen as urgent to make sense of a radically shifting human reality.

      Different human experiences presented as different colors of the Palette of Being situate our crisis in a larger context. One important Deep Humanity BEing journey that can help contextualize and make sense of our experiences is language. Once upon a time, language did not exist. As it gradually emerged, this color came to be added to our Palette of Being, and shaped the normative experiences of humanity in profound ways. It is the case that such profound shifts, lost over deep time come to be taken for granted by modern conspecifics. When such particular colors of the Palette of Being are not situated in deep time, and crisis ensues, that loss of contextualizing and situatedness can be quite disruptive, de-centering, confusing and alienating.

      Being aware of the colors in the Palette can help us shed light on the amazing aspects that culture has invisibly transmitted to us, helping us not take them for granted, and re-establish a sense of awe about our lives as human beings.

    2. That's a picture of it in the background. And this organism has the special trick that we call "photosynthesis," the ability to go take energy from the sun and transform carbon dioxide into oxygen. And over the course of billions of years, so starting from two and a half billion years ago, little by little these bacteria spread across the planet 00:07:08 and converted all that carbon dioxide in the air into the oxygen that we now have. And it was a very slow process. First, they had to saturate the seas, then they had to saturate the oxygen that the earth would absorb, and only then, finally, could oxygen begin to build up in the atmosphere. So you see, just after about 900 million years ago, oxygen starts to build up in the atmosphere. And about 600 million years ago, something really amazing happens. 00:07:35 The ozone layer forms from the oxygen that has been released in the atmosphere. And it sounds like a small deal, like we talked about the ozone a couple decades ago, but it actually turns out that before the ozone layer existed, earth was not really able to sustain complex, multicellular life. We had single-celled organisms, we had a couple of simple, multicellular organisms, but we didn't really have anything like you or me. 00:07:59 And shortly after the ozone layer came into place, the earth was able to sustain complex multicellular life. There was a Cambrian explosion of life in the seas. And the first plants got onto land. In fact, there was actually no life on land ahead of that. Another way to see this is, this is kind of a chart of pretty much most of the animals that you guys are familiar with. 00:08:24 And right at the bottom in time is the formation of the ozone layer. Like nothing that you are familiar with today could exist without the contributions of these tiny organisms over those billions of years. And where are they now? Well actually, they never really left us. The direct descendants of the cyanobacteria were eventually captured by plants. And they're now called chloroplasts. 00:08:49 So this is a zoom-in of a plant leaf - and we probably ate some of these guys today - where tons of little chloroplasts are still trapped - contributing photosynthesis and making energy for the plants that continue to be the other half of our lungs on earth. And in this way, our breaths are very deeply united. Every out-breath is mirrored by the in-breath of a plant,

      This would be nice to turn into a science lesson or to represent this in an experiential, participatory Deep Humanity BEing Journey. To do this, it would be important to elucidate the series of steps leading from one stated result to the next, showing how scientific methodology works to link the series of interconnected ideas together. Especially important is the science that glues everything together over deep time.

    3. today I'm here to describe that everything really is connected, 00:02:02 and not in some abstract, esoteric way but in a very concrete, direct, understandable way. And I am going to do that with three different stories: a story of the heart, a story of the breath, and a story of the mind.

      These three are excellent candidates for multimedia Stop Reset Go (SRG) Deep Humanity (DH) BEing Journey.

      It is relevant to introduce another concept that provides insights into another aspect required for engaging a non-scientific audience, and that is language.

      The audience is important! BEing Journeys must take that into consideration. We can bias the presentation by implicit assumptions. How can we take those implicit assumptions into consideration and thereby expand the audience?

      For a non-scientific audience, these arguments may not be so compelling. In this case, it is important to demonstrate how science can lead us to make such astounding predictions of times and space not directly observable to normative human perception.

    1. Fundamental features of human psychology can constrain the perceived personal relevance and importance of climate change, limiting both action and internalization of the problem. Cognitive shortcuts developed over millennia make us ill-suited in many ways to perceiving and responding to climate change (152), including a tendency to place less emphasis on time-delayed and physically remote risks and to selectively downplay information that is at odds with our identity or worldview (153). Risk perception relies on intuition and direct perceptual signals (e.g., an immediate, tangible threat), whereas for most high-emitting households in the Global North, climate change does not present itself in these terms, except in the case of local experiences of extreme weather events. Where strong concern does exist, this tends to be linked to care for others (154) combined with knowledge about the causes and possible consequences of climate change (155).

      This is indeed a problematic feature of human evolution. It has given rise to what Timothy Morton refers to as "hyperobjects", objects of such vastness in space and time that it defeats human mechanisms of perception at local scale: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/hyperobjects https://hyp.is/xROjpD_jEey4a6-Urbh4_Q/www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/timothy-mortons-hyper-pandemic

      This psychological constraint is worth demonstrating to individuals to illustrate how we construct our values and responses. These constraints can be demonstrated in a vivid way within the context of Deep Humanity open source praxis BEing journeys.

      As in the New Yorker interview with Morton, we can take Deep Humanity participants on BEing journeys, walkabouts to identify hyperobjects.

      Hyperobjects are also cognitive and highly abstract in nature. This is a clue to another idea that could be enlightening to understanding the problematic context of appreciating hyperobjects such as climate change, and that is the idea of Jakob Von Uexkull's Umwelt:

      "Uexküll was particularly interested in how living beings perceive their environment(s). He argued that organisms experience life in terms of species-specific, spatio-temporal, 'self-in-world' subjective reference frames that he called Umwelt (translated as surrounding-world,[9] phenomenal world,[10] self-world,[10] environment[11] - lit. German environment). These Umwelten (plural of Umwelt) are distinctive from what Uexküll termed the "Umgebung" which would be the living being's surroundings as seen from the likewise peculiar perspective or Umwelt of the human observer. Umwelt may thus be defined as the perceptual world in which an organism exists and acts as a subject. By studying how the senses of various organisms like ticks, sea urchins, amoebae, jellyfish and sea worms work, he was able to build theories of how they experience the world. Because all organisms perceive and react to sensory data as signs, Uexküll argued that they were to be considered as living subjects. This argument was the basis for his biological theory in which the characteristics of biological existence ("life") could not simply be described as a sum of its non-organic parts, but had to be described as subject and a part of a sign system.

      The biosemiotic turn in Jakob von Uexküll's analysis occurs in his discussion of the animal's relationship with its environment. The Umwelt is for him an environment-world which is (according to Giorgio Agamben), "constituted by a more or less broad series of elements [called] "carriers of significance" or "marks" which are the only things that interest the animal". Agamben goes on to paraphrase one example from Uexküll's discussion of a tick, saying,

      "...this eyeless animal finds the way to her watchpoint [at the top of a tall blade of grass] with the help of only its skin’s general sensitivity to light. The approach of her prey becomes apparent to this blind and deaf bandit only through her sense of smell. The odor of butyric acid, which emanates from the sebaceous follicles of all mammals, works on the tick as a signal that causes her to abandon her post (on top of the blade of grass/bush) and fall blindly downward toward her prey. If she is fortunate enough to fall on something warm (which she perceives by means of an organ sensible to a precise temperature) then she has attained her prey, the warm-blooded animal, and thereafter needs only the help of her sense of touch to find the least hairy spot possible and embed herself up to her head in the cutaneous tissue of her prey. She can now slowly suck up a stream of warm blood."[12]

      Thus, for the tick, the Umwelt is reduced to only three (biosemiotic) carriers of significance: (1) The odor of butyric acid, which emanates from the sebaceous follicles of all mammals, (2) The temperature of 37 degrees Celsius (corresponding to the blood of all mammals), (3) The hairiness of mammals." ( From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_Johann_von_Uexk%C3%BCll)

      The human umwelt limits us to a relatively small range of sensed signs. CO2 particles is not one of them. We rely on scientific narratives but these are far removed from direct sensing, into the field of conceptualization and abstraction. We have evolved to respond to danger that is sensed, less so to danger that is conceptualized.

  18. Oct 2021
    1. With the aid of the concept of opposing pairs of magnetic poles, we can clearly contribute in a significant way to our expression and understanding of basic relationships in the overall magnetic field. We are proposing to look at soma and significance in a similar way. That is to say, we regard them as two aspects introduced at an arbitrary conceptual cut in the flow of the field of reality as a whole. These aspects are distinguished only in thought, but this distinction helps us to express and understand the whole flow of reality.

      When Bohm writes "These aspects are distinguished only in thought, but this distinction helps us to express and understand the whole flow of reality", it reveals the true nature of words. Their only ever revealing aspects of the whole. They are NOT the whole.Hence, as linguistic animals, we are constantly dissecting parts of the whole of reality.

      Deep Humanity open-source praxis linguistic BEing journeys can be designed to reveal this ubiquitious aspectualizing nature of language to help us all better understand what we are as linguistic beings.

    1. In the Stop Reset Go project, I have been tasked with a journey map. How do we get a billion people to press a button? What happens when they press the button?

    1. Components of a Customer Journey Map

      1. Review Goals
      2. Gather Research
      3. Touchpoint & Channel Brainstorms
      4. Empathy Map
      5. Brainstorm with Lenses
      6. Affinity Diagram
      7. Sketch the Journey
      8. Refine & Digitize
      9. Share & Use

      This is the same process outlined in this journey map.

  19. Sep 2021
    1. The book, This is Service Design Doing, includes journey maps as a method for participatory design and co-creation workshops.

      I suggested to the Stop Reset Go team that we should map out the interactions and touch points to engage people with the process of bottom-up whole system change.

  20. Jul 2021
    1. How to Create a Travel Website: Types, Features, Industry TrendsTimur YilmazTech JournalistProduct GuideHomeBlogEntrepreneurshipHow to Create a Travel Website: Types, Features, Industry TrendsJul 13, 202119 min readMost people plan a journey by seeking advice from the same source — the Internet. As ending the pandemic is becoming more solvable, many of us think about where to travel next. Ironically, we tend to get easily overwhelmed by the sheer amount of tasks. What place is ok for a night stay? Which is the best camera backpack? Where to refuel? So today, we will figure out how a travel website works. We will also share tips on how to make your own travel website genuinely shine.

      Most people plan a journey by seeking advice from the same source — the Internet. As ending the pandemic is becoming more solvable, many of us think about where to travel next.

      Ironically, we tend to get easily overwhelmed by the sheer amount of tasks. What place is ok for a night stay? Which is the best camera backpack? Where to refuel?

      So today, we will figure out how a travel website works. We will also share tips on how to make your own travel website genuinely shine.

  21. Jan 2021
    1. From morn to night

      We started the poem at the beginning of the day and now end at night. Not only does this show the "circle motif" in this poem - what I mean is how "all things come to a close" and then restart anew - but it also parallels the journey of the youth, from being naive and blissful to being to falling victim to that naivety and becoming unaware of their fictitious bliss in the unknown; the journey leads to isolation from reality.

    2. folly=inescapable

      Blake shows how youth can be unaware that they have been corrupted. When they are brought down a path of ignorance, they become trapped in the dark, unless a light appears to guide them. Youth have few doubts, and when that is fed into, they continue without doubts, content with not having opposing views and nuance - stuck in their own folly.

  22. Dec 2020
    1. Some suggestions:   -Interrogate your life           Who are your heroes?           Who are your villains?           Where did you come from?           Who are your people? - Contemplate your own life story and those concerning your family. - Write down your life story.   - Identify your family rituals (birthdays, marriage, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.). - Write down your dreams and the impact they’ve had on your life.   - Religious beliefs and how they have affected your life. - Identify how your family recognizes the changes in life status, e.g., the passage from adolescence to adult, "coming of age". Note any differences between the way women and men are treated. - Identify any conflict resulting from the change in life status and its resolution. - How does religion or philosophy of life fit into your personal myth? - What major events have influenced your life? In what way have these events been the hinges whereby the story of your life swings? - Think about the story elements in your own life, then look for the meaning beneath the surface. - How does your interpretation of events differ from that of others who witnessed them?

      Prompts for journaling.

  23. May 2016
  24. journey.pathworkers.com journey.pathworkers.com
    1. highlighting and annotating

      Login to Hypothesis to highlight, annotate, add notes, comment. (If you don't have an account, you can create one for free here: https://hypothes.is/ Thanks.

      • Pathwork Journey
    1. that which you have read has awakened a response within, and the Soul of you yearns formore, -- then you are ready for what follows.If you still question or rebel at the seeming assumption of Divine authority for what is hereinwritten, your intellect telling you it is but another attempt to beguile your mind with cunningsuggestion and subtle sophistry, -- then you will receive no benefit from these words; for theirmeaning is as yet hidden from your mortal consciousness, and My Word must come to youthrough other avenues of expression.It is well if your personality with its intellect impels you thus to question and rebel againstauthority you do not yet know to be Mine. It is really I Who cause your personality thus to rebel;for your personality with its proud sense of individuality is still needed by Me to develop a mindand body strong enough that they can perfectly express Me. Until you have become prepared toknow Me it is but natural for your personality thus to question and rebel. Once you recognize MyAuthority, that moment the undermining of the authority of the personality has begun. The daysof its dominion are numbered, and you will more and more turn to Me for help and guidance.Therefore, be not dismayed. Read on, and mayhap the recognition will come. But know that youcan read or not, as you choose; but if you do it is really I Who choose, and not you.For you, who seemingly choose not to read further, I have plans, and in due season you shalllearn that whatever you do, or like, or desire, it is I leading you through all the fallacies andillusions of the personality, that you may finally awaken to their unreality and then turn to Me asthe one and only Reality. Then these words will find a response within:

      As I practice the mantra, I can feel the energy within of the Truth of it, yet I witness the egoic mind doubt that I can really allow this.......... yet I am aware that the part of me that doubts is simply the egoic mind itself..............

      And the amazing thing here is that even this that to me it says that there is 'no problem' in this as it simply means that the persona is "still needed by Me to develop a mind and body strong enough that they can perfectly express Me". This is powerful and it undermines the doubt........... I can relax, allow, surrender and know that my Being is unfolding me.

    2. "Be still! --- and KNOW --- I AM --- God."Yes, I AM that innermost part of you that sits within, and calmly waits and watches, knowingneither time nor space; for I AM the Eternal and fill all space.I watch and wait for you to be done with your petty human follies and weaknesses, with yourvain longings, ambitions and regrets, knowing that will come in time; and then you will turn toMe, weary, discouraged, empty and humble, and ask Me to take the lead, not realizing that I havebeen leading you all the time

      The part of which which is who I AM awaits....

    3. 8Yes, I sit here within, quietly waiting for this; yet while waiting it was really I Who directed allyour ways, Who inspired all your thoughts and acts, impersonally utilizing and manipulatingeach so as eventually to bring you and My other human expressions to a final consciousrecognition of Me.Yes, I have been within always, deep within your heart. I have been with you through all, --through your joys and heartaches, your successes and mistakes, through your evil-doing, yourshame, your crimes against your brother and against God, as you thought.Aye, whether you went straight ahead, or strayed aside, or stepped backward, it was I Whobrought you through.It was I Who urged you on by the glimpse of Me in the dim distance.It was I Who lured you by a vision of Me in some bewitching face, or beautiful body, orintoxicating pleasure, or over-powering ambition.It was I Who appeared before you within the garb of Sin, or Weakness, or Greed, or Sophistry,and drove you back into the arms of Conscience, leaving you to struggle in its shadowy grasp;until you awakened to its impotence, rose up in disgust, and in the inspiration of a new visiontore off My mask.Yes, it is I Who cause you to do all things, and if you can see it, it is I Who do all things that youdo, and all things that your brother does; for that in you and in him which IS, is I, My Self
  25. Jan 2016
    1. So, you must arrive at a conviction, and a willingness to commit to that conviction, which allows you to abandon reason for the apparently unreasonable. It is because what we are doing at this moment, you and I, does not compute with your preexisting conditioning that it seems unreasonable and impractical, and will seem so if you do not stay in touch with the unjustifiable claim that I am making—that you and I are together, actively and consciously together, to the degree that you are Hearing me, in the Fourth dimension, in the Kingdom of Heaven, in the middle of Reality, and that it is only by means of this connection and your embrace of the ability to conceive of your being Here with me that you can break through your “amnesia.”
  26. christmind.info christmind.info
    1. Now, this evening, I want you to explore being from your Knowing, not from your thinking. You will not be tested, nor judged. Just explore it, and the exploration of it will provide us with grist for the mill, as it were—further elucidation which will be relevant to you and will have meaning. And ask me questions. Don’t assume that somehow the process of Listening and Hearing is going to be different.

      Exploration, this is the Journey....

    1. All you can be sure of—and this is the Fact—all you can be sure of is that you are seeing something, and it is something functioning Fourth-dimensionally, even though the definitions and meanings you are giving it, which seem so real, are invalid. In order for what they really mean to register with you, you must go through a phase where, indeed, you are unsure.

      Being unsure is a necessary phase!

    2. Let this sense of Reality and unreality, without clear distinction, be. And do not try to figure it out. But insist, as you have, upon communicating with me, because our communication does now cease to be a communication of information and becomes a substantiation of where you, as you are experiencing yourself, are originating from. In other words, again, our conversation confirms your divinity and its active presence, Fourth-dimensionally speaking. What I am saying, you are experiencing—and I am not talking about an idea! To continue frequently to experience—not think about—that confirmation, you will become grounded Fourth-dimensionally and ungrounded three-dimensionally. That is the shift. As that confirmation is reconfirmed when you frequently address me and hear me respond, it will include illumination of the details which in the past you have hoped to arrive at by means of thinking and reasoning. You are indeed on the move again—not stuck in an improved belief.

      Raj shares with Paul to insist upon communicating with him because through this communication which is in 4d it affirms Paul's divinity.

      The shift is to be more grounded in 4d and less in 3d.

    3. I encourage you, during the next twenty-four hours, to check in with me even more frequently. And again, I caution you not to become concerned because of a lessening of your ability to tell what is real and what is not, what is important and what is not. Allow that flux, and address yourself to the one unchanging, anchored aspect—that of our connection and the fact that that connection is occurring Fourth-dimensionally; that you are not connecting with me from the three-dimensional-only frame of reference, but are connecting with me from and as the Fourth-dimensional conscious experience of Being.

      Again I hear here that Raj is reassuring Paul that 'unsureness' is a stepping stone.

  27. Dec 2015
    1. You are realizing that when that sensation occurs to you in a healing session, it indicates not a three-dimensional point of view on your part, but an awareness of a pervading feeling (distress) in the area of the person you are working with.

      Learn to discern what you are aware of. Is it coming from 3dRef or 4dRef? What is there to be discovered.

    1. Although the transcript gives some slight indication of what we have been discussing, the emphasis should be placed on the actual experiences which you have had. The value is in the communication of meaning as experienced within your consciousness.

      Words are symbols of symbols twice removed from Reality ~ACIM

      It's the meaning of the words that is important - that has value. Meaning is communicated by experience.

    2. The only solution which can actually resolve a relationship problem is for the one experiencing discomfort to drop the personal sense of involvement, thus resolving it actually back into the normal Universal Harmonies that constitute the existence of the individualities involved. This is a phrase which you have heard many times before, but it has been unclear to you how to do it. Trying to lay down a personal sense is like trying to lay down a piece of flypaper. The more you attempt to put it down, the more firmly it sticks! The only way to lay down a personal sense of things is to go within to that Place of quietness and attentiveness, and listen for the influx of your Being as It sees Itself from Its infinite standpoint. This can be achieved through meditation, if one is a beginner. Here, you not only see things as they are, but you experience them as they are. In that experience you cannot find a trace of that personal sense of things from which you had been suffering.

      The way to resolve challenge with in personal relationship.

    1. Raj, is there anything you can do to help me quit smoking, or is there anything you can suggest to me that will allow me help myself more effectively quit smoking? RAJ: As you asked the question, you realized that all you have to do is set into motion the fact that you are not addicted to cigarettes—or, more positively, that you are free of the desire to smoke cigarettes—and that that is the most effective means you could possibly use in order to give them up. As I said earlier, they, as part of Your infinitude, are going to be more than willing to cooperate with that desire, placed at the point of Conscious Being, and set into action by the Law of Being. I would suggest that you simply begin to use that facility to see your desire manifest in your life. You see, Paul, it all has to connect up. There is truly only one thing going on. From the first through the Fourth Dimension there is only one Activity, and that is the Activity occurring as Conscious Being. All of you is always present, and all of you is always functioning and the manner or the means by which it is present and functioning is the simple practice with which I began our conversation today. As you can see, this is not self-hypnosis, nor is it an attempt to influence the three-dimensional conscious frame of reference. It does not involve manipulation of things “out there,” or ideas within your head. You simply go to the Source, bringing to it the perfect desire. The Law, then, together with the Nature of Substance Itself, takes care of the objects “out there” and the beliefs “in here”—in three-dimensional awareness. You are going to have fun with that.

      Raj suggests to practice manifestation of quitting smoking in the manner he described earlier - to actually put it into practice with something occurring in everyday life.

    1. PAUL: Very well. What about the three gentlemen that were here? RAJ: Paul, I know you are still looking for some specific, objective evidence to totally prove the fact that all of this is valid. Paul, it will happen in its own time, and you must be patient. The formation of voluntary trust on your part is still in the development stage. The need at this time is for you to persist in this process because you feel it is right.

      Development of trust

    1. In the present day, the awareness of the Christ-consciousness is no longer new. Indeed, there is a large part of the population—Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, et cetera—who are quite at the point of recognizing that the Christ-consciousness resides within them. And this is where it will come to pass that the reappearing of the Christ will occur. Stop trying to figure it out, Paul. It is obvious that the literal manifestation of the level of the development of mankind today would not be conceptualized as a brand new baby. Instead, it would be an adult facilitator of that inner Self-discovery which will actually constitute the reappearance of the Christ. You must realize that the majority of mankind is not at this conscious point of Self-realization. They are, nevertheless, at the point of recognizing their Divinity. It is for this reason that an adult will appear. This adult will meet the requirements that will allow them to pay attention and give credence to the appearance.

      Paul is trying to figure out what the "Reappearance of the Christ" really means. Raj says, stop trying to figure it out.

    1. Now we are going to talk for a bit about the idea of what it is that you are going to practice on. As your entire Being is becoming consciously integrated as your conscious experience of your Self, it will appear as though the Reality of your Being—to whatever degree you are aware of it—will be brought to bear upon that disowned portion of your experience which is not clear to you is your own Being. It will appear as though that aspect will be “healed,” “improved,” “changed,” or “reversed.” But, the actuality of such appearances is one of the revealing of its true nature as your Being. Every time you have a healing session with anyone, do not believe for a moment that, through your inner growth and development, you are being able to do something wonderful for “them.” It is your Self that you are experiencing, working with, and handling. Figuratively speaking, it amounts to nothing less than your discovery that the piece of the puzzle—which is difficult to identify on its own—is actually some part of the universal portrait of your Self. The Bible quotes Jesus the Christ as saying, “I have overcome the world.” This means that He had come over into the Christ-consciousness of His world, and no longer disowned any part of it as being separate or other than His Being.
    1. I want you to consider for a moment that you are very structural regarding what is and what is not right, and what is and what is not done properly when it comes to yourself. it takes very little for you to feel that you have not done well enough—or that you have not measured up to the mark—and therefore, you are deserving of those negative feelings which are appropriate for such a person. This is unfortunate, because each successive, little dig you have made at yourself—by pointing out to yourself those ways in which you have not measured up—has developed into a rather strong subjective “put down” of yourself. This subjective “put down” is part of what tells you that you can’t move beyond where you are, or you can’t see this, or you don’t know what the answer is to that, et cetera.

      Paul's Belief that he is not measuring up and therefore deserving of negative feelings adds up to a big subjective put down that tells him that he can't go beyond where he is, etc.

      It's an Ego strategy - a 3dRef perspective.

      Raj gives perspective in the next paragraph.

    1. Now, I want to correct a misconception on your part. Your ability to reason and think is not the equivalent of the three-dimensional frame of reference. Your thought processes and reasoning processes are not to be ignored. We would not be communicating at this very moment if you did not have the means to translate the meanings I am communicating into words and phrases. It is only by virtue of the fact that you have imagination, reason, perspicacity—all of the various capacities and functions of Consciousness—that you are able to correctly translate that which unfolds to you. This is true whether it is coming from me, or from that Place wherein you directly experience the Reality of Being. We run into trouble when we stand away from the Door, and begin our thinking or thought processes from their standpoint, and then extrapolate and come to conclusions without going within and being as Conscious Being. You see, Being unfolds Itself as meaning, not as language. It is through the function of Reason and Imagination that language is brought into play, for the purpose of verbalizing these infinite meanings which Being is unfolding. You do have a right to answers which will identify the Absolute Oneness of Being throughout your entire experience of Being.

      Question: what is the best Tag to use when referring to challenges that arise in life - here, Raj, speaks of running into trouble when we begin our thought process apart from conscious Being.

      Raj is correcting Paul's Belief, or misconception, regarding reason and thinking.

      He also further describes Being.

    1. RAJ: It has a direct bearing, an exact bearing, on it. You are trying to make everything fit into your concept of what is right, instead of simply flowing with What Is. You are so busy reacting to your own thought structures and concepts, and how things look to you, that you are not able to perceive what is really taking place. It is not destructive or unprincipled in any way.

      Paul is really challenged by his financial situation and he has hoped that his conversations with Raj would have done something to make it all better - it hasn't and he is questioning the value of his interaction with Raj.

      Paul's belief about what is right and reacting to what is wrong in his world he is not able to see what is really going on.

      Raj suggests he could flow and allow what is.

      (from ACIM: Would you rather be right or happy?)

    1. RAJ: Paul, you are suffering from your “should” system. You are experiencing how difficult it is to lay down conceptualized processes and theories. I will not leave my position that this conceptual thinking relates in no way to what is Actually going on—which is the infinitude of your Being unfolding Itself perfectly, properly, and nondestructively—except of course, in terms of these concepts which are binding you. They will be destroyed. They no longer serve to move you to a new base. As you are discovering, the concepts are actually impeding your growth. You must lay them down. The growth will occur. The growth is occurring. This is why you feel shoved into the corner right along with the concepts. Figuratively speaking, this is why you feel that you are going to be blown up in the blowing up of your concepts.

      Paul is suffering because he thinks things should be different than what they are.

      Raj says that "should" stance illustrates how difficult it is to lay down concepts and theories. This Links directly to ACIM Lesson 189, Simply do this...

      Raj says what's Actually going on is the "infinitude of your Being unfolding itself perfectly, properly, and nondestructively"...

      Paul can't see this because of the concepts that bind him.

    2. PAUL: I feel like I’m going crazy. RAJ: I know you do. But remember, Paul, that is just an idea, just one of an infinitude of ideas, and it therefore holds no position of authority or dominance in your experience. Do not credit it with any value, for it has no more value that any other spurious thought which states an absurd impossibility. Do not attempt to handle it, but simply pass on by.

      Paul's concepts are being challenged and he feels like he's going crazy.

      Raj says not to give that idea any authority, it has no more value than any other spurious thought which states an absurd impossibility.

      This advice is similar to the metaphor of thoughts being as clouds passing through a clear blue sky. They arise and pass away. There is no need to clink to any given cloud...

    1. PAUL: Raj, as you know, nothing has apparently changed since the first conversation we had—objectively, at least—although subjectively speaking, I feel a lot has occurred. As we have progressed into the last few weeks, I have become more and more concerned about the dire straits I find myself in, objectively speaking. It has been very difficult for me to relax and to have faith in the validity of what you have been telling me. Nevertheless, something keeps me coming back, and here I am again. I will do my best this evening to be still and attentive and receptive. I will listen to what you have to say, and not busy myself with arguments and questions and doubts and fears.

      Paul last spoke with Raj 4 days ago, he's been rocked due to the fact that Maitreya did not announce his presence and that he did not receive a visitor that Raj said that he would.

      Paul wonders if he can trust Raj and he's honestly expressing it. And yet something inside keeps bringing him back. He is allowing his doubt, in effect, he is trusting there is something valuable in this relationship with Raj.

      So now, he's going to lay aside the doubt and distrust in order to discover if that is true.

      This is a very good demonstration of walking into the unknown, of not listening to the critical part of the mind in favor the something that brings him back, an intuition or knowing that comes from a deeper part of the mind then his critical thoughts.

    1. We need to remember that all of Life, infinitely speaking, is unfolding Itself at every moment, and not just an isolated part of that infinity. It is essential for you to realize that your thinking processes do not in any way have any effect, whatsoever, on this infinitely detailed, yet harmonious unfolding of Being. This does not mean you have nothing to do with it, but it simply means that you have no three-dimensional control over it. You must come to the realization that it is your Being which is unfolding Itself infinitely on the basis of Its Nature as Intelligence, as Life, and as Mind. Therefore, It is—before you think a single thought about it—unfolding Itself (your Self) with all the precision, Intelligence, and Principle which constitutes Itself. It is this infinite unfolding of your Self that you must learn to bring your thought in line with. You cannot use your thoughts to bring your Being into line with them. This is a part of the letting go which is necessary for you in order for you to experience the unfolding of your Being as complete Harmony. Until you are willing to let go of this concept—that you must in some way be able to control your environment and your life experience with your thought—you will seem to suffer from the unfoldment of your Being.

      Being, all of Life, is unfolding Itself and our thoughts about have no effect on it.

      You must bring your thought in line with this unfolding of Being, you cannot bring Being in line with your thoughts.

      Until you let go of the need to control your environment and experience and allow Life to unfold as it does, you will seem to suffer.

      ForMe: this means that my journey is mine. It doesn't depend on anybody else getting it, that anybody else understands and applies Christ Mind teachings the way I do. If I don't allow things to be as they are - even when they don't correspond to my view (my spiritual view, HA! - folly), I will suffer. And I do!!

    1. If “form follows function,” then it is imperative that your attention be on the function and not the form. What is the Function which you see as the unfolding of daily activities? It is the unfolding of Your Being, identifying and fulfilling Itself as Itself. Activity, money and profit are all aspects of that identification. Money—income—is not the end goal of it all. Every aspect of your day identifies your Being, and not any one is more important or less important than another. Work does not generate income. Being generates work and income and leisure and growth. Yet, not any one of these things exist for their own independent purpose or identity. They identify Being, and Being is the Alpha and Omega—that which is and is identifying Itself completely and successfully. It is the flow of Being which is the Function. It is identified by the forms which constitute your daily activities. Your need is to identify yourself as Being and not as form.

      The Function of your daily activities is the unfolding of Your Being Identifying itself as Itself.

      Every aspect of your day identifies your Being and not any one part is more important than another.

      The Flow of Being is the Function. It (the Flow?) is identified by the forms of your daily activities.

      Your Need is to identify yourself as Being, not form.

    1. RAJ: Whenever you are faced with a demand to give specific attention to some part of your infinitude and it presents itself as being “problematic,” it is simply the time and place for this aspect of You to be consciously incorporated into and as your conscious experience of being as Yours! You say you don’t want to be bothered, that this is not a good time because of other more pressing demands. But, Paul, your Being unfolds Itself as You according to divine Intelligence, Universal order and priorities. Every problem is your opportunity to be the Christ—that accurate perception of Reality (Your Being) that is not deluded in any way—and for that perception to become irrevocably “incorporated” into and as your Self-awareness. There is no more pressing need than that, because when seen, it becomes apparent that pressing needs are illusions of the partial view. They never existed as anything for you to sweat over and tense yourself up about.

      Quote: Every problem is your opportunity to be the Christ - that accurate perception of Reality (Your Being) that is not deluded in any way - and for that perception to become irrevocably "incorporated" into and as your Self-awareness.

      There is no more pressing need than that.

      Pressing needs are illusions of the partial view (3dRef).

    1. Now, I do want to deal with some of these issues which are confusing to you at the moment. First of all, it is an accurate perception on your part that your allegiance, your trust, and your energies need to be placed unequivocally where they have been for the past six months—in other words, in your direct perception of your Self as Fourth-dimensional Conscious Being. You will be foolish to use any external source as a gauge or measuring stick by which to know whether you are on the right track. It would be a backward step for you to allow the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, or any other author, or the current point of unfoldment of any group or organization to become in any way the authority for what you are to think or do. These sources most certainly have their place when one seems to be unable to consciously perceive the Divinity of his own Being directly as his very own conscious experience. But, this is not where you are. Therefore, you cannot afford to place the authority for what you think, believe, or do at any point external to that direct perception of your Conscious Being.

      You cannot afford to place the authority for what you think, believe, or do at any point external to that direct perception of your Conscious Being.

    2. Therefore, those in your experience who are attempting to “help” you see that what is unfolding here in your experience is the Christ-consciousness revealing Itself, are correct to that degree. However, they are incorrect in attempting to “help” you see that an individuality by the name of Raj is an illusory part of this experience. Their view is still so limited—in spite of the grandness and infinity of the view they see currently, as opposed to what they saw originally—that you would be foolish to use their vantage point as your own.

      This reminds me of Rod's assertion that channeled beings are just the channels higher self.

      Read on to get another perspective.

    1. You can see that it truly, completely, means getting yourself out of the way. This is the grand lesson. Do not be afraid of being “out of control.” So many times people feel that if they are out of control, they will be wide open to being controlled by other entities, forces, or powers. But the omnipresent I Am—the infinite, divine Mind that constitutes the Being of every being that be’s—is the only Presence and Power which can exert and manifest Itself, and be the center and circumference—the Alpha and Omega. Therefore, such concepts or beliefs are groundless, and one need never be afraid to let go and say and be the statement, “Thy Will be done.“

      .t:TWBD - teaching: Thy Will be Done.

      The grand Lesson to learn to let go of control and allow Being to flow through and direct the movement of my life. Fear is a barrier against allowing this because of my Belief that will open myself to the manipulation of others.

      This is the grand lesson - indeed. Take a deep breath and walk on - with Trust and allowance and patience and love and courage putting conscious awareness of Being first - using that as the guide.

    1. It is apparently new territory for you, Paul, although you could say it is your “native land.” Nevertheless, as the shift is made from the finite to the infinite view, you are going to have to be a stranger in a strange land, a babe in a new world. Although there will be no aspect of danger involved, it will be necessary to patiently explore, sense, perceive, and understand how to be, rather than do.

      On the Journey of awakening we need to learn to be rather than do. This is experienced as a totally new way of being - so we will feel to be a stranger in a strange land.

      The Practice is to patiently explore, perceive, sense, and learn how to be rather than do.

      .t:SFK - Seek ye First the Kingdom.

    1. RAJ: Don’t add that “but.” Stay with the simple Fact you have just stated. The “but” is the hooker! “All is infinite Mind and Its infinite manifestation.“1 There aren’t any “buts” about it! Being is “neither behind the point of perfection nor advancing towards it. It is at that point and must be understand therefrom.“2 It will never be understood from the standpoint of the three-dimensional frame of awareness (ego). You must stop looking for clues, helpful hints, or reassurances objectively. Being doesn’t need them, and “ego” only needs them in order to hook you. Remember, as you “do battle,” that there is no battle going on at all. It is a process by which you are becoming less slipshod in your self-identification. It seems as though it is an attempt to influence you in the direction of misidentification, but you are at a point where the thrust truly cannot reach you because you are hidden in the Secret Place of the Most High. You have experienced It.

      The expression - "But" is to express the belief that there is an exception to what was previously stated. This is like saying The Truth is not True always, which, of course, cannot be True.

      Here is where the fight is - to NOT ALLOW suggestions of ego to have any credibility whatsoever!!

      Or, from a positive perspective, to lean on your experience of Being and identify with nothing less than that.

      This is an inside job.

      The Battle is one of self-identification. A diagram of this would be a good method of illustration.

      Quote: There aren't any "buts" about it!

    2. PAUL: I feel as though I’m really going out on a limb here by maintaining the position which you outlined this morning and previously. RAJ: Why? PAUL: Because it appears that I might lose something. RAJ: There it is! Ego. If nothing can get outside the infinitude of your Being, then how can You lose anything? Paul, you must be very strict. If you can’t lose anything, then you haven’t lost anything. All of You is still present and functioning, and all of You will continue to be present and functioning.

      Throughout this entire book Raj has been teaching Paul about Being and that Beings is what is True about him.

      Here is a great example of learning to lean on what you know even if you have not yet had the experience - that Raj suggested earlier.

      This is a good use of the logical mind - to argue against ego attempts to bring us back into its system of beliefs. (WoM mentions this).

  28. Nov 2015
    1. The Bible says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.“1 This means that no matter how deeply we may seem to be buried in the distortions of a personal, three-dimensional, finite frame of mind, the faith that we find everpresently abiding within us is our everpresent “connection” with the Actuality of our Being as It is really going on. In other words, it is our Actual experience of Substance, inviolably “held in trust” for us, you might say, so long as we indulge in attempting to experience the Reality of our Being from a partial view. This is why it is “the evidence of things not seen.” It is the evidence of Reality, present and undistorted, in spite of the distortions inherent in the partial view. Faith, intuition, and desire constitute three aspects of our everpresent conscious experience of Reality while we are involved in the deception of existing as a finite mentality.

      Our lifeline back to Reality.

    1. It is a fact that from the three-dimensional frame of reference, conscious identity must come to that point where it recognizes itself as being the Door. Then, it must actively and consciously be the Door. This, then, allows the Reality of Fourth-dimensional Conscious Being to “break through” into and as that apparently finite conscious experience of Being called three-dimensional man. This reveals the eternally accurate conscious perception of what is Really going on—the Christ-consciousness. This break-through is what has been perceived as the statement, “Behold, I stand at the Door and knock.“1 However, it must become clear that the apparent relationship of a three-dimensional consciousness becoming the Door and then the Christ-Truth—the direct perception of Reality as It is—flowing through that Door as the conscious experience of a three-dimensional, finite man, does not then become the new “norm.” Man, as he conceives himself to be three-dimensionally, does not simply forever remain the “conduit” for Reality to flow through. The fact is that the more consistently he is willing to stand as the Door, the more consistently he will begin to experience himself less and less as “a three-dimensional man standing as the Door.” He will become consciously aware of himself as that conscious experience of Reality which includes no distortions of any kind—the Christ-consciousness, the means by which God, or Conscious Being, experiences Its Infinity.

      A description of the journey of awakening.

    2. You must be willing to stand with things the way they are unfolding in and as your conscious experience of Being. Reality does not exist to fit into or coordinate with partial views of Reality. As long as you are expressing clear explanations of Reality, you must fully expect those seeing with a partial view to attempt to discredit Truth if It doesn’t agree with or come in the form that they conceive that It must come.

      Accept your Journey as it is unfolding as your conscious experience of Being despite the disagreement of others.

    3. RAJ: You do not need to feel that you will in any way be deprived of anything worthwhile by relinquishing external authorities, concepts, or organizations, no matter how beautifully they may have served to identify your unfolding perceptions of Reality as your Conscious Being.

      Don't believe that you will be deprived of anything worthwhile by following guidance from the Place of Conscious Being.

    4. RAJ: You do not need to feel that you will in any way be deprived of anything worthwhile by relinquishing external authorities, concepts, or organizations, no matter how beautifully they may have served to identify your unfolding perceptions of Reality as your Conscious Being.

      Don't believe that you will be deprived of anything worthwhile by following guidance from the Place of Conscious Being.

    5. The same old story which is going on is that Reality, the Actuality, Fourth-dimensional Conscious Being, is what is going on and is what has always been going on in Its Totality. You must be very strict in your observance of what you know Actually to be true. Be willing to act, think, and respond from that standpoint. The need is to see the Actuality, not to respond or react to the partiality. Right now you are geared to spontaneously react to the way things appear. You are beginning to perceive that the necessity is to spontaneously respond to the Actuality as though that were the urgent need, rather than the limited, finite, three-dimensional view. I realize what I am telling you is not something new, but it is, nevertheless, the step that needs to be taken. It is the needed thing.

      Paul identifies a problem from his partial view of Being and Raj encourages him to change his perspective.

      Be willing to think and respond from what you know Actually to be true rather than to be fooled into believing what you see, hear, taste, smell, and feel is true.

      What???? Ignore my experience? Ignore what is coming to me through my physical senses and be willing to act only on a theory - an idea that has not yet been experienced????

      Question: We are taught two approaches, one, to live the truth and deny the illusion (5 minutes as Christ), and the other, to feel and embrace what we have always rejected and not wanted to even acknowledge. How does one do this? What does it even mean? The answer comes from living life and finding our way...

    6. PAUL: I am feeling some confusion this morning about things. I feel a sense of pressure, and also of being up against the wall. It is not a comfortable thing. I can conceive of the fact that this sense of pressure and of being up against a dead end is an illusion. But this theoretical knowledge isn’t helping me, at the moment, to know what to do and which way to go in order to see the illusion dissolve.

      Theory vs reality (perception of reality).

    1. Essential to being able to break the partial view, is the shifting of the “point of awareness” from being within that which is observed to that subjective Place wherein It is that which is what is observed—the all-inclusive, infinite experience of being as Conscious Being. It is only the intuitive perception of our Infinity as Conscious Being—prior to our “expansion”—which gives us the guts to expand. That intuition gives us the perspective to see that we are expanding into what we already Are, and that we are not expanding into the unknown at all! True, we may not know the details of our Infinity, but it’s the details that we cannot see until the Universal Nature of our Self becomes an accepted Fact and basis from which to be. This is so essential to understand, and you are beginning to see this. Excellent!

      To Awaken we must shift awareness from being within what is observed to being what is observed, all that is.

      Our intuition, the feeling that we are more than we think, is what gives us the guts to expand, to step into what appears to be unknown.

    1. I mentioned in our last conversation that the Awakening is already occurring. I will add to that, that because you are waking up, the dream seems to be coming to an end—even the “good” aspects of the dream seem no longer to be good, to be functioning properly, to be dependable, and so forth. For this reason it is imperative that you not react to the appearance of “ending” and attempt to keep it going. You will not be able to do it anyway. Even if you could, you would end up with only a further dream.

      Even the "good" parts of the illusion seem to no longer be good as one awakens. Don't try to keep the illusion going.

    2. RAJ: Good morning, Paul. You are beginning to grasp that there truly is a more infinite and accurate view of what you are experiencing, and yet you feel you have no basis upon which to wake up to that larger, more accurate perception. You recognize the demand for something, and I have told you that the three-dimensional situation will not be relieved until you wake up. Thus, you find yourself in a bind from which you see no escape. The fact is that Being has no dead ends. It is only the finite view which would make Infinity appear to be blocked off. You are sitting, right now, as the Omnipresence of infinite Good, actively, Omnipotently unfolding and fulfilling Itself without exception. It is the intuitive perception—it is the desire, faith, and intuition of there being something to wake up into—which must remain the focal point of your conscious experience, regardless of the illusion of being boxed in. Then you must desire to wake up. Do not waste any energy in attempting to overcome any facet of the dream, since the way things appear is imaginary. It, therefore, cannot be dealt with in any way other than waking up!

      Paul is feeling trapped not knowing what to do. Raj says that all is unfolding perfectly, have faith and follow your desire, the only way to improve your experience is to wake up.

    1. RAJ: It is because the time has come to stop manipulating the finite view to improve it according to finite concepts. This does not constitute waking up out of the dream or waking up out of the distortions of the partial view. If you succeed in improving the partial view—in “healing it”—you will find no necessity to involve yourself in the labors necessary to Awaken

      Read Paul's question above:

      Quote: Manipulating the finite view to improve it according to finite concepts does not constitute waking up out of the dream.

    1. Now, even though one has believed that the three-dimensional frame of reference constitutes his boundaries, such a belief cannot change the fact that the one who is seeing himself that way is Infinite Being. He is not limited or bound by the way he sees himself. The infinitude of One’s Being, which has become disowned by virtue of the three-dimensional frame of reference, must somehow be accounted for within the three-dimensional range of consciousness.

      Awakening happens in the context of the 3d frame of reference because the infinitude of Being is disowned there.

    2. So, that portion of one’s Self, which he has disowned by claiming he is finite, becomes an intuitive perception of potential of unattained good, or unattained life, but nevertheless attainable through some path or other. So, while that one identifies himself three-dimensionally, he is constantly reminded, goaded, pushed by his Actual Oneness and Universality to give up his finite view as fact. This whole process has nothing to do with evil, error (as power) the dark forces, evil powers, or the devil. You could say it is purely mechanical, with no values associated with it.

      Source of the perception of evil (devil, darkness, etc).

      The natural evolution of life.

      This is important: The infinity of our Being shines through the belief in death as intuitive perception of potential. We are constantly - goaded - to return to Truth.

    1. Raj, you really know how to put the screws to me. It isn’t easy coming up with pertinent questions, I am finding. RAJ: That’s correct. Learning what questions to ask is half the battle of learning what you need to know. Abstract generalities mumbled in consciousness serve no practical purpose, even though a temporary sense of satisfaction can be gained from such mumbling.

      Asking the right questions is important.

    2. As I observe myself, it seems incredible to me that there is this definite reluctance to get into the subject of Substance, or into the specific answer to the problems we have been faced with over the past number of months. It is extremely strong. RAJ: And, Paul, it is entirely operating at the level of belief. It is a totally ignorant experience. That is what makes it most incredible. It simply means that you are going to have to move through it purposely, and not hope for some way to get around it.

      Paul is having financial problems. He is following Raj's suggestions but it is not helping. I think he is feeling victimized - no matter what he does it is not helping - even being open and receptive to Guidance.

      Now he doesn't want this conversation because he wants to maintain his belief about his situation and is afraid he won't be able to - that Raj will tell him something where he won't be able to maintain his belief. He wants to keep it!!

      Raj says his reluctance and its physical result is a totally ignorant experience operating at the level of belief.

      He needs to be honest about it and purposefully move through it and stop hoping for some magical means to get around it.

    3. Be aware of your reluctance to have this conversation. Simply recognize it. Notice that the reluctance is because you are wanting to glide over the information and understanding which you imagine you are going to be confronted with. You imagine it is going to discredit you in some way. Realize, further, to what extent this fear or reluctance is manifested physically in terms of strong perspiration, discomfort in the pit of your stomach, and just a general yukkiness. I am going to suggest that you clean up your act mentally and physically before we continue further. Go take a bath! And while you’re taking the bath, refresh your consciousness also.

      Paul believes this upcoming conversation with Raj will discredit what he believes and so he doesn't want to have the conversation. His discomfort is felt physically also - strong perspiration, discomfort in the stomach, etc.

      Raj suggests that he simply recognize it - bring his attention to the discomfort and - clean up your act and refresh your consciousness before continuing.

    1. What is not excellent is that you are not yet spontaneously choosing to avail yourself of the answers by means by being the Door on a continuous basis. It is as though it were in some way more laborious than figuring the answer out, or simply postponing having the answer. I want you to take some time to examine what this reluctance is, so that you may understand it better. I could tell you, but I want you to learn it for yourself.

      This is true for me!! To continuously abide conscious of Being, where answers are found, I often still attempt to figure things out.

      I haven't really learned how to do it, or I tell myself that at least.

    1. You give the weight to the Law of Perfection by beginning with the perfect concept. You seem to diminish your awareness of that Perfection unfolding when you begin with a finite concept of what is going on. You cannot actually change the Fact, but you can seem to blind yourself to It. If All is Infinite Mind, then All is Infinite Mind! One must live his experience of the infinitude of his Being as though that were the Fact. Not because that will help make it so, but because that is what is so! And such thinking is, therefore, in line with what is already true.

      Limited finite concepts serve as blinders to the awareness of Perfection.

      One must live his experience of the infinitude of his Being as though that were the Fact because it is Fact. Such thinking is in line with what is true.

    2. In fact, the more you can find your answers coming from that which you recognize to be your own Being, without any possibility of imagining that it is coming from someone or something separate from yourself—such as me—the better it will be for you in tying together those aspects of your Being which you have not consciously been aware of as Your Self. The fact is that it is all You. But, it must become your conscious experience of your Being, without any dichotomy of any kind.

      I have to find my own way.

      You must become your conscious experience of your Being without any dichotomy of any kind.

    1. The Kingdom of Heaven is apparently guarded by “demons,” “evils,” “devils,” because that is the only way ego can see the impersonal existence of Being. It is very EVIL because it means the demise of ego. Ego is the only baggage that cannot go through the eye of the needle. Since it can’t go through, it applies fearful images around the eye to ensure that one will not proceed through it. You may think what has been happening is rugged, but hindsight will show you that you are coming through almost unscathed. This is because of the strength of your perceptions of what’s Real, and your conviction in its Reality. No one can do this for you. That’s why you seem to be alone in this—without communication, without understanding of what’s happening to you, et cetera.

      The impersonal existence of Being appears to ego. This way of living is the demise of ego.

      You find strength from your perception of what's Real and your conviction in its Reality.

    2. Now, let’s clarify that by dropping the last word. You are seeing the appearance of things not working. What is happening here is that you are objectively seeing the fact that things do not work the way you thought they worked when you were seeing three-dimensionally. What you can count on is: Everything that appears not to be working is working right now, right where you are, unchanged in any way from the Actuality of its working. This is an illusion caused by the shifting of the frame of reference from the finite to the infinite view. The illusion will not continue indefinitely. It is a “reverse landmark” or waymark which, because it is reversed, usually stops one from moving forward in the direction of Infinity until he has the kind of guidance, encouragement, and development which provides him with the proper perception of its significance. It is simply to be observed. It is not to be dealt with.

      Everything is working perfectly.

      It just doesn't that way - things don't work the way you think they do when viewed from 3dRef.

      Everything that appears not to be working is working right now, right where you are.

      The perception that things are not working cannot be dealt with - just simply observed. This illusion will not last indefinitely.

    3. Paul and Susan, you are both making the transition very smoothly, no matter how it seems to you. It is because this transition is being made that you find yourselves not able to communicate well with those bound by their three-dimensional-only thinking. Do not be surprised at it, and do not be offended by it. The necessity here, and the only choice you have, is to move forward—or rather, I should say stand still—as Being, as you are both intuitively doing quite well. Do not look for substantiation of the correctness of your position from the finite frame of reference.

      Along the journey you may find it difficult to communicate with those bound by 3dRef thinking.

      Do not look to the world for substantiation of the correctness of y9ur position.

    1. PAUL: Raj, I am failing miserably at demonstrating or seeing the omnipresence of my Being in terms of supply. It’s true that from day to day we have what we need, but it’s far from a comfortable way to live. All we’re getting are basics. The larger debts we owe are not being met. RAJ: Paul, I want you to be aware that you are beginning to give up your faith, trust, and belief in the validity of our conversations. This is indicated by the flip-flopping back and forth between knowing they are real and doubting they are real. I point out also that the doubting comes into play when you are challenged by opinions or circumstances. This certainly is a natural response, but it is not the consistent vantage point which you will find necessary if you’re going to be free from being dangled like a yo-yo or blown to and fro on the breeze of chance. PAUL: Well, if you are wanting me to develop some inner strength which will not yield, no matter what I’m confronted with—and if I’m supposed to do this while it’s my family’s lack that I’m faced with—then I don’t think you should be surprised! Theoretically, intellectually, I can grasp its value. But when it comes down to the nitty-gritty of life, it often seems like nonsense. RAJ: I understand, Paul. I want to refer you to what your Supply told you about how to set the Law in motion. I want you to begin doing this on a regular basis. A word to the wise: Be sure of what you are asking for, because you shall surely get it. PAUL: Alright, Raj. I shall forge forward. I will tell you this: It would be much easier if my family’s needs were being better met.

      Paul's Trust in his conversations with Raj is challenged by his inability to meet his financial needs. He's doubting Raj because he is not seeing evidence (in terms of money) that what Raj is saying is true.

      A consistent practice of Trust and Faith of what is known to be true, even if it has not yet been experienced, is necessary to be free of uncertainty.

      Link to the section where Paul talks with his Supply.

      Quote: Be sure of what you are asking for, because you shall surely get it.

      This quote links to

      • I and I alone am responsible for my experience
      • Your life is your prayer.
      • Common knowledge "be careful what you wish for..." (see brainy quotes)
    1. RAJ: I know you feel like you need help, but no one can help you at this point. There is no other One but You, and you had better be sure that you have no other “ones” before You, You Self, God. Your entire Being, in all Its infinitude, is harmonizing with You, loving You, and supporting You because of the Integrity of your Being. No one but You can relinquish consciously your hold on the false sense of self—the misidentification which feels it can’t do it. At this point I want to terminate the conversation. I will be instantly available if you need to talk, but I want you to be consciously and quietly alone with your own Being and the Reality of things. This is your baby!

      This is my journey to take, no one can do it for me.... I need to remember my True Identity and let go of all of my perceptions...

      To BE alone with my Being, Reality. Trusting my Being in all of its infinitude because it is harmonising, loving and supporting me...

    2. PAUL: I feel really shaky. RAJ: No, Paul, it is not You. Ego is feeling really shaky right now. That’s a positive indicator!

      Paul has the experience of feeling shaky but Raj corrects him, "It's not You, rather it is ego that's feeling shaky."

    1. Only if you are willing to be alone with your own Being will you be alone with the Reality of “things.” It is the undistorted awareness of the Reality of “things” which will constitute the resolution of the conflict that seems to be going on “out there.“ If you try to work it out from the standpoint of the Many, as though It were separate from You, you will be operating within “ego’s” bailiwick. You must remain steadfastly and abidingly with the Fact that your Being is One and that that One is You. That One, being Omnipresent, is Omnipotently Omniactive as every last little detail of Its Infinitude—including every bill collector, every dollar owed, every process server, and every dollar paid. It is fulfilling Itself perfectly in identifying Its completeness with absolute success. It is, Paul! No matter what the three-dimensional insinuation is. You see, it’s the whole dream we’re talking about waking up from! And you can do it. You are able.

      I choose to be willing to be alone in my Being, aware in Reality..

      I choose to remain steadfast and to abide with the fact that my Being is One... The One being inclusive of all that is, now matter how it can be perceived in 3d.

      I choose to receive the encouragement that I am able to do this, to wake up fully from the dream, thank you Raj.......

    2. Only if you are willing to be alone with your own Being will you be alone with the Reality of “things.” It is the undistorted awareness of the Reality of “things” which will constitute the resolution of the conflict that seems to be going on “out there.“ If you try to work it out from the standpoint of the Many, as though It were separate from You, you will be operating within “ego’s” bailiwick. You must remain steadfastly and abidingly with the Fact that your Being is One and that that One is You. That One, being Omnipresent, is Omnipotently Omniactive as every last little detail of Its Infinitude—including every bill collector, every dollar owed, every process server, and every dollar paid. It is fulfilling Itself perfectly in identifying Its completeness with absolute success. It is, Paul! No matter what the three-dimensional insinuation is. You see, it’s the whole dream we’re talking about waking up from! And you can do it. You are able.

      The process of Awakening requires that you be alone with your Being where the undistorted Reality of "things" is known.

      The attempt to work it out from the standpoint that all is separate from You, you will be operating from ego.

    3. Do not misunderstand. I am not saying there is a real fight. I’m not saying there is a real antagonist. I am saying that if you don’t behave as though there were one—if you don’t tend to follow through “come hell or high water”—then you will be lazy and slipshod in your approach. One way or another, ego will insinuate itself into and as your self-awareness, because it is a habit through long years of apparent Self-ignorance.

      There is not are real fight, but we must maintain the attitude that there is because ego identity is a habit that can easily reinstate itself.

    4. RAJ: Paul, do not let your Universe become broken up into bits and pieces, each acting on its own, each attempting to fulfill its own ends. This is exactly what I was talking about this morning. Do not believe any form, organization, or manifestation when it seems to declare that it can demand or cause something, irritate you, et cetera. Not only should you not identify yourself as form, you need to be sure that you don’t allow any form to convince you that it has a purpose and can successfully act independent from the Whole. It is a trick of ego to suck you into believing that you, among these other forms, are a form to be battered about, manipulated, coerced—and that you must defend yourself against them. It is utterly false. Do not buy it for a second.

      All is One - do not fall into the belief that any form, organization, or manifestation can make demands, cause something, or irritate you, etc. In doing so hold the belief that Oneness is not true, I hold the belief that All is fragmented and that a fragment has power over me.

      Raj says,

      • don't identify yourself as form and
      • don't allow any form to convince you that it has a purpose independent from the Whole.

      This is an ego trick - don't buy into it for a second!!

      Diagram this concept.

    5. RAJ: Paul, do not let your Universe become broken up into bits and pieces, each acting on its own, each attempting to fulfill its own ends. This is exactly what I was talking about this morning. Do not believe any form, organization, or manifestation when it seems to declare that it can demand or cause something, irritate you, et cetera. Not only should you not identify yourself as form, you need to be sure that you don’t allow any form to convince you that it has a purpose and can successfully act independent from the Whole. It is a trick of ego to suck you into believing that you, among these other forms, are a form to be battered about, manipulated, coerced—and that you must defend yourself against them. It is utterly false. Do not buy it for a second.

      All is One - do not fall into the belief that any form, organization, or manifestation can make demands, cause something, or irritate you, etc. In doing so hold the belief that Oneness is not true, I hold the belief that All is fragmented and that a fragment has power over me.

      Raj says,

      • don't identify yourself as form and
      • don't allow any form to convince you that it has a purpose independent from the Whole.

      This is an ego trick - don't buy into it for a second!!

      Diagram this concept.

    6. RAJ: Yes, I did, and you handled it very well. It was calculated to arouse your personal indignation. The fact that you find yourself shaking inwardly and outwardly is an indication of the ego viewpoint, rather than the Identity standpoint. But, under the circumstances, you remained relatively clear of getting into the three-dimensional, reactive frame of reference, which he hoped you would utilize.

      Paul is shaking as a result of his phone conversation and Raj says that is an effect of ego identification.

    1. This is an important thing to understand at this point, because it will help in relating what we are talking about to your daily activities. You cannot afford to approach your day as being mechanical in any way. You cannot afford to narrow your awareness down to a particular set of activities and see them as parts of a combination which, if adhered to, will result in a profitable, productive day.

      Our life is not mechanical, it is not a set of activities that, if performed properly, will result in a productive day.

      Isn't this belief often expressed as a routine? The routine of the work week and the break of the weekend, over and over with the promise of the reward of retirement at the end of a successful career?

    1. RAJ: Paul, in spite of what Mrs. Eddy says about manipulation, meaning laying on of hands, and in spite of the fact that the end result will be that you will not use your hands for healing, I want you to follow your inner, intuitive leadings for the present. You will learn invaluable lessons. You will be led, from an experiential standpoint, to the understanding of true healing and its methods, as Mrs. Eddy was. Since you are presently at the point of experiencing the change line, you are finding that the dynamics apparently are greater and somewhat confusing, unsettling, and disorienting. Do not get caught up in any of those points. Allow them. Adjustment is very rapid once the shift has been made, and things will become spontaneously clear to you.

      Follow your intuitive leadings, guidance, and you will learn invaluable lessons.

      Do not get caught up in your experience of confusing, unsettling, and disorienting dynamics - allow them. Adjustment is rapid once the shift is made.

    1. You have been concerned in the last few days that you are not making the connection between what I have been discussing with you and your daily experience. The simple fact is that you have been trying to relate infinite ideas to finite beliefs. There is no connection. There is no connection between Mind and Its manifestation. They are one. It is only from the standpoint of ego—of finite, three-dimensional misperception—that there can seem to be a “connection.” Since ego separates itself from what it sees, it divides things into subject and object, “in here” and “out there,” me and thee, and all the rest of the dualism. This prompts the attempt to manipulate all of these disconnected aspects, so that they will harmonize in such a way as to not destroy the basic illusion of the existence of “ego.” Thus, from the three-dimensional standpoint, it seems obvious that the misidentification of Identity called “ego” must become, do, initiate, manipulate, and achieve. One cannot bring these endeavors into that Place where Self is properly identified and experienced as Conscious Being or Fourth-dimensional Man, since the basic illusion of separateness has no existence there.

      So I am hearing that in Reality, in Being, everything is connected, is One, there is no separation in this place...

      Again I reflect that the ego is what supports the 3d experience, we chose to experience this and now it is time to remember that real Reality is 4d and the world of separation, 3d does not exist in Reality... it is a journey into this remembrance though..

    2. You must beware of the withdrawal symptoms, since the “ego habit” is going to demand another “fix”—and another, and another, and another. It will do so with less and less strength, but it will do so, nevertheless. I am forewarning you of this, so that you may understand the method of its operation, and will not take it seriously.

      Fixing is to see that there is something that needs fixing and in Reality in 4d Being, there is nothing to fix..... all fixing, desire to fix can only be 3d, ego... So here Raj warns us of this trap...

    3. This conversation is, perhaps, one of the most important ones we’ve had. I would suggest that you make an extra copy which you can keep separate from the rest and refer to a number of times each day. You may not seem to feel particularly comfortable and at ease objectively or three-dimensionally speaking. Therefore, it will be well for you to be able to easily remind yourself that ego is an “android” and, therefore not even capable of dying. it had no life to begin with. Although it will seem to present itself as the downfall and destruction of your individuality, such will not be the case.
    4. Your opportunity for activity is as infinite as your Being. You do not need to concern yourself about the ability of your Being to fulfill Itself completely as that which will be recognizable to you as the meeting of your every need—unless, of course, you wish to indulge in the misidentification of your Self as “ego.” Such misidentification will not affect the Reality of your Being in any way, but, as you know, it will seem to engage your conscious awareness in an ongoing blindness to the Reality and an uphill climb which is really downhill all the way.

      Being will meet your every need unless you misidentify yourself as ego. This will not affect the Reality of your Being but it will engage your conscious awareness in an ongoing blindness to Reality.

      Practice being conscious of Being.

    5. You must beware of the withdrawal symptoms, since the “ego habit” is going to demand another “fix”—and another, and another, and another. It will do so with less and less strength, but it will do so, nevertheless. I am forewarning you of this, so that you may understand the method of its operation, and will not take it seriously.

      There is a habit of ego that does not want to give up the doer.

    6. You are afraid that if you let go and stop “doing,” everything will fall apart. This is because you are still caught in the belief that what you have “done” in the past has succeeded in getting you where you are. This is foolishness, and you are beginning to see this. You haven’t gotten anywhere, because Infinity has no place to go. Nevertheless, Infinity—your Being—has unfolded Itself in spite of what you thought you were “doing,” and where you thought you were getting to.

      Here, Being appears to be equated with Infinity.

      Quote: To believe what you have done in the past has succeeded in getting you where you are is foolishness. You haven't gotten anywhere because Infinity has no place to go.

    7. You have been concerned in the last few days that you are not making the connection between what I have been discussing with you and your daily experience. The simple fact is that you have been trying to relate infinite ideas to finite beliefs. There is no connection. There is no connection between Mind and Its manifestation. They are one. It is only from the standpoint of ego—of finite, three-dimensional misperception—that there can seem to be a “connection.” Since ego separates itself from what it sees, it divides things into subject and object, “in here” and “out there,” me and thee, and all the rest of the dualism. This prompts the attempt to manipulate all of these disconnected aspects, so that they will harmonize in such a way as to not destroy the basic illusion of the existence of “ego.” Thus, from the three-dimensional standpoint, it seems obvious that the misidentification of Identity called “ego” must become, do, initiate, manipulate, and achieve. One cannot bring these endeavors into that Place where Self is properly identified and experienced as Conscious Being or Fourth-dimensional Man, since the basic illusion of separateness has no existence there.

      Quote: Only from the standpoint of ego can there seem to be a "connection".

      Quote: There is no connection between Mind and its manifestation. They are one.

      The ego must become, do, initiate, manipulate, and achieve in order to find a connection between disconnected parts. These endeavors are not aspects of Conscious Being because the illusion of separation does not exist there.

    8. RAJ: Good evening, Paul. You are aware of having felt nervous or tense with an uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach all day today. You have not made the distinction between you as Fourth-dimensional Man, and you as three-dimensional conglomeration of thoughts, concepts, physical reactions, emotional reactions, et cetera. You are going to have to be very alert now, because more often than not, the mythical structure called “ego” is going to be in the process of dissolving. Much like HAL, the computer in the film, “2001”, there will be subtle, insistent, plaintive pleas. There will be an even seemingly human capacity to imply that it is capable of truly fearing its own demise. You must realize that ego is a fraud from the beginning, and you must learn to properly identify your Self as Being, Itself, and not as “ego.“ So that there is no confusion, whatsoever, about this process, it had better be clear to you that you will have to listen to, and even seemingly experience, whatever charade is attempted by this false sense of individuality as it gives up the ghost. You will have to remain unmoved and steadfast in the proper identification of your Being.

      Become clear about the difference between 3dRef and 4dRef and properly identify yourself as Being, not Ego.

      To let the Ego dissolve you're going to have to remain steadfast in Being while it complains and you seemingly experience it's charade.

    1. RAJ: Good morning, Paul. I can see you are definitely in that Place this morning, and that is a wonderful way to start out your day. I would like you to not attempt to take on anything today in the sense of being responsible for it—no matter what you do. I do not mean for you to do nothing, but I mean for you to do it with no sense of personal responsibility. I mean for you to do it from exactly that Place wherein you find yourself at this very moment. You feel somewhat too relaxed to type accurately, but you have already found out to some degree that, as you are very relaxed and not attempting to maintain control over your fingers, your fingers are more accurate and speedier than when control is attempted. You do not have to be concerned that you will become too relaxed. The more relaxed you are, from a three-dimensional standpoint, the more all of You is available to respond to the demands and needs of the moment, and the fulfillment of these will become more simultaneous with the perception of the need.

      That Place is Paul's present experience when he is consciously aware of Being. He is very relaxed and not attempting to control the flow moving through him.

      From this place he is faster and more accurate in his typing in this place of no control.

      The more relaxed he is, from a 3d reference point, the more all of you (Being**) is available in the moment.

      Raj suggests that taking personal responsibility creates the need for control and inhibits the flow of Being (all of you) and replaces it with motivation based on his beliefs and ideas.

    1. As you already know, you have two tasks before you. One is the conscious relinquishment of your sense of ego in preference to your Identity. The second is to get into that Place where you’re experiencing your Being as Fourth-dimensional Man, and be conscious of your desire in the form of a specific question. This is to be done at least three times a day. Do not let your objective experience keep you from fulfilling those tasks. Do not let yourself become discouraged, as you almost did tonight, to the point where you would be willing to retire for the night without fulfilling those two objectives. Trust in your Self is the key here, and steadfastness is the method by which your success will be assured. Do not allow the anxiety or impatience of those around you to cause you to feel that you must push things along more rapidly. This will keep you bound in the three-dimensional frame of reference—a frame of reference from which nothing can be initiated.

      The Journey comprises two tasks

      1. relinquish your sense of ego
      2. operate from the place of conscious awareness of Being.

      Paul is concerned about his lack of employment. Raj insists the way to manifest is to

      1. consciously relinquish ego
      2. contact desire - from the conscious experience of Being as 4d man and state it in the form of a question.
      3. Do this 3 times a day and don't allow yourself to become discouraged.
      4. Trust your Self
      5. Don't allow others to affect your Journey due to their anxiety or impatience.
    2. The reason you find yourself feeling challenged is because you are not yet totally secure with the ideas which your Being is unfolding to Itself, and which appears to be a conversation between yourself and myself. The result, inevitably, will be a strengthening of your standpoint through experience—that is, as long as you continue to remain in contact with your experience of your Self as Conscious Being. I reiterate: Do not be discouraged. you are not lost, and you should not indulge in the imagination that you can somehow get outside the infinitude of your own Being and become isolated from your God.

      Your journey of awakening will strengthen as long as you continue to remain in contact (Practice) experiencing yourself as Conscious Being.

      This is the idea of starting at the end - to practice being what you are (Christ) rather than what you think you are (a separated being - Ego) but are not.

    3. PAUL: I have had a difficult day today. RAJ: I know you have. It would not have been necessary for you to have had a difficult day if you had been willing to remain with the ideas which we have discussed in the last few days, since it would have been clear to you that everything is functioning in perfect order and harmony, and is totally and completely constructive. I reminded you of the necessity of staying with this Fact and cultivating It.

      Faith and Trust are required in order to change experience. Before we have experienced the truth of an idea we must be willing to trust that it is true in order to "test" the theory and have the experience.

      It is only in experience that we can accept an idea or concept as true. The words alone, just a teaching, no matter how much it resonates, does not provide proof that it is true.

      Experience is everything.

    1. You will find that as ego fades away, so will feeling good and bad. This is because in the long run, feeling good or bad depends upon how much “ego” has been fed or not fed. This is why so few individuals are able to make the transition from the three-dimensional frame of reference to the being of Fourth-dimensional Man, because in the process, ego is on its way out and that’s b-a-a-a-d news.

      The feeling of good and bad - of duality - is a function of ego.

    2. If at the end of the day you say you are feeling bad, you should in the same breath be able to acknowledge that you have had a very good day, since the Universe has unfolded Itself with Absolute Perfection—regardless of how you feel. The trick is in where the emphasis is being laid. You can be aware of how you may feel, but it is what you Know about the Nature of the Universe and your Being which should get the emphasis. That should be what you base your interpretation or understanding of things upon. It doesn’t really matter whether you feel good or bad. It really doesn’t.

      This offers guidance on how to view the journey - not from a space of right or wrong but from what you know about the nature of the universe and your Being.

    1. As I said before, any attempt to avoid the fulfillment of your Being will result in discomfort far greater than you can imagine. It will be far greater than you care to experience, because you have graduated into the Fourth-dimensional frame of reference.

      For Paul, the effect of avoidance is great discomfort. I wonder how this applies to me?

    2. As you have realized, the theme is “Thy Will be done,” I am not going to answer the question for you. But, as you have already planned, I want you to let your desire be known from that Place where you are experiencing your Being as Conscious Being, just as you did when you fist contacted me. Patiently await the clarification which will answer your question. Trust that it will unfold itself to you just as clearly as I have communicated with you. Remember that the whole Universe is the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Therefore, do not limit yourself in any way by conceptualizing what might be the fulfillment of God’s Purpose. In other words, be totally open. Thus, you will not delay your perception of the answer by the presence of preexisting concepts. As long as you are in need of the answer to this question, I would suggest that you meditate at least three times a day. Once having arrived at that Place, let your request be known. Continue to do this until you get the answer. You can rest assured that the answer is close at hand, since the need is extremely definite. Therefore, do not in any way attempt to justify the idea that the answer will take a long time in coming. Remember also, that one’s experience of time is relative to the intensity with which a desire is felt. Remember, too, that although it only took two weeks for us to make contact in the beginning, those two weeks seemed to be quite extensive and protracted. It was as though there were a delay. Look back, you can see that two weeks was not long at all. Drop the concept of time as you request and desire the answer to your need. Stay fixed on the desire. Do it gently. Do not push it. Do not be overly intense. On the other hand, be genuine, sincere, and consistent. Realize that it is your very own Being to which the desire is being expressed, knowing as you do, that every answer and every demand arises out of your very own Being. As I have said before, trust Your Self. Lean on It. Depend on It.

      Description of the process of asking for Guidance.

    1. Paul, now that you have become aware of this, you have also realized that the false sense of individuality must give itself up on purpose. In addition, you are now beginning to understand why few people actually do it. It is like getting off a drug, kicking a habit. You now have some idea of the task which is before you. You are also aware that when the perception of the Reality of your Being is clear enough, it is easier to give up the false sense of individuality for the true experience of Identity. You can, indeed, anticipate a divine adventure, even though it will involve some labor. Do not expect this to occur overnight, Paul. As a matter of fact, this process began the first night we began our conversations. Be patient and stick with it, and be ready to put your shoulder to the wheel.

      You must choose to relinquish ego - few people do it. It is easier to give up the false sense of individuality when perception of the Reality of your Being is clear enough.

    2. As one makes the shift from the three-dimensional frame of reference to the being of Fourth-dimensional Man, it seems as though one must give up his individuality and allow something which he does not recognize as himself to take over and speak through him. But, the fact is that that which is speaking through him is his original and unchanging Identity. It is on the false sense of individuality called “personality” which is being given up.

      As one grows into awareness of Being - original and unchanging identity begins to speak through.

    3. April 29, 1982 Thursday

      Review this chapter - there's a lot in it.

    1. t seems to you as though you have had a strenuous and purposeless day today. However, these are the idiotic ravings of ignorance, which would fool you into believing the exact opposite of what is unfolding in and as your experience as purposeful, dynamic, fulfilling and intelligent manifestations of your Being. As I have said before, you must learn to recognize that your Being is unfolding Itself at all times in perfect harmony with Its Nature. You must begin to accept this as the Fact, rather than what your imagination can come up with based upon what it sees, hears, tastes, smells, and feels. The Absolute Facts of your Being have never for an instant ceased operating, and never will. Therefore, anything other than this Fact is pure fiction, and you should not waste one moment on it. The only reason you don’t see it is because you are looking through your preconceptions about what is right for you. Then, when your Being unfolds Itself in a direction in which you are not consciously looking, it seems as though unfoldment has ceased altogether.

      Being is harmoniously unfolding at all times.You must learn to accept (Practice) this rather than the idiotic ravings of ignorance your imagination comes up with based on what it see, hears, tastes, smells, and feels.

      Any perception or experience other than that of unfolding Being is pure fiction (illusion) and you should not waste one moment on it.

      You don't see it because of your preconceptions (Beliefs) about what is right for you.

    1. Both you and Susan continue as you have been in listening for the direction in which you need to move. I do not want you to throw the responsibility for figuring everything out in my lap. You must continue to be aware that you are yourself, and I am myself. I am doing what I need to do, and you must do what you need to do. Do not give away any responsibility to another at all.

      No one can do it for us....

    2. As I said to you on the way back from Spokane, the necessity here is for you to learn to flow. The only thing for you to flow with is your Being as It unfolds Itself universally and specifically. As I said earlier, you will be more willing and able to do this as you begin to trust the absolutely constructive, loving, perfect, principled, and cohesive manner in which your Being unfolds Itself. Its very Nature is infinite Intelligence, Mind, Consciousness, Life, Principle, et cetera. This is the demand of the moment, no matter what steps come to you to take physically or objectively. Just remember that no matter what objective steps you take, be sure they are being done from a subjective standpoint wherein you are being at and as that Place where your Being is flowing through and as your conscious experience of Being. This is, you might say, the big secret.

      The secret is to allow your experience to flow from your conscious experience of Being.

    3. Both you and Susan continue as you have been in listening for the direction in which you need to move. I do not want you to throw the responsibility for figuring everything out in my lap. You must continue to be aware that you are yourself, and I am myself. I am doing what I need to do, and you must do what you need to do. Do not give away any responsibility to another at all. As I have said before, I cannot help you with things that will deprive you of your own growth. I am here to help, nevertheless.

      Don't give away your power - you are responsible for your own growth.

    1. I will tell you this: No matter what demands are made upon you, they do not require you to give them precedence over your need to stand as the Door. Do not give them that much credit.

      Do not give control of your life to worldy demands.

    2. You will never be able to experience the infinitude of your Being clearly if you think that there are nooks or crannies—or “levels of belief”—in which the omnipresent Love which constitutes your Being is somehow not present. You must come to the realization that all of you truly is always available to you, no matter how things seem to be. Right now, I am aware that you are feeling as though you are somehow beyond the range of the direct perception and experience of the Reality of your Being as Love. It simply is not true.

      You will not be able to experience your infinite Being if you believe there are conditions under which the Love that constitutes your Being is not present.

    3. I want to remind you that your Being is constituted of infinite Love. That Love constitutes the Substance of your total experience. I want to remind you of that, because the apparently external demands which you have been faced with have caused you to withdraw your attention from your awareness of that fact. As a result, you have not been feeling the loving kindness and the totally constructive and harmonious Nature of your Being as It is unfolding Itself as your conscious experience. Objectively speaking, Love is all around you, because Love is what constitutes your subjective Being. Whether or not you are temporarily caught up in the three-dimensional appearance of things, you are never removed from the ability to perceive the omnipresence of Love, because It is the warp and woof of all four dimensions. I want you to consciously and conscientiously open yourself up to the perception and the experience of the Love that constitutes your infinite Being, no matter from what apparent point or dimension you seem to be experiencing that infinitude.

      Being is made up of (constituted) infinite Love.Love is the substance of your experience - every aspect of it.

      3d demands (worldly demands) can cause us to withdraw our attention from the Fact that every aspect of our experience is comprised of Love.

      Love constitutes your personal experience of (subjective) Being. No matter what is going on in your experience you always have the ability to perceive Love.

      Practice: No matter what is happening in your experience, consciously and conscientiously open yourself to the perception and experience of the Love that constitutes your Infinite Being.

    1. RAJ: Thank you, Paul. You have been very patient and cooperative. Everything that we have done has been absolutely necessary. It has caused you and your family to grow beyond what they would have otherwise.

      We need to experience what we do to create the contexts of learning and readiness to understand more deeply....

    2. RAJ: Paul, you are who you are, what you are, and where you are at this very moment. You cannot do more than you can do. Do not waste your time in self-criticism or self-doubt. As you shall see, it is totally unnecessary. There has been no requirement for you to be something that you are not able to be. What you have needed to learn in order to fulfill your place has been accomplished. You have done well.

      You cannot do more than you can do. Do not waste your time in self-criticism. There has been no requirement for yo to be something that you are not.

      Here is another of Paul's mistaken beliefs - that he has failed to meet requirements. We all do this.

    3. I am well aware that, at this moment, you do not feel strong. But the fact is, that in spite of your thinking mind, in spite of your finite concepts, you have continued invisibly to grow and become strong with the kind of strength I am speaking of. Your faith has been almost immaculate. I know you are almost totally convinced that it has been foolish, and that you have been gullible to the point of insanity. But, the fact is that you are here, once again communicating with me and believing, still, that these conversations are valid.

      Paul keeps coming back to Raj even when his thoughts and concepts tell him that he has been insanely foolish and gullible putting his trust in Raj.

  29. Oct 2015
    1. RAJ: [Addressing Susan.] Susan, nothing is going on of the sort you are looking at and reacting to. I cannot tell you what is going on. But, I have told Paul that what is going on Actually in your experience is not destructive and will not be experienced that way. You are both caught up in your past conceptualizations and what has worked. But, what governed those appearances is no longer in force. They are not in force for anyone any longer. You and Paul are being led through this change. In a way, you both have an advantage, in that Paul chose to speak to his Guide just prior to this occurring. So, you are getting information that most do not have. This is simply because they were not listening, and did not ask to speak with someone who could do what I am doing with you. If others are not aware of this change having occurred yet, they will soon. And you have an opportunity to be grateful for the information you have at this point. I understand that it is not easy to believe this because, based upon your prior concepts, the whole process by which you are becoming aware of it is not “usual” or “normal” as you understand it. It is, nevertheless, true. Paul is being guided and pressured to move along a new path because he desires it and asked for it. You, Susan, are at the point where you are capable of understanding exactly what is going on. But both of you are hanging onto patterns which are no longer in force, and trying to make these appearances fit in. I can do no more than advise you of these facts, and guide you as long as you are looking for help in understanding what is available to you to understand.

      Paul and Susan are fearful of their current situation. Raj says that what they are looking at and reacting to is *not what is going on.

      What is actually going on in your experience is not destructive - you cannot see that because you are caught up in past concept and experience.

    1. RAJ: I know you have to get to this job which you have at hand. Keep yourself centered in that Place to the very best of your ability. I will be helping. Remember not to get into the picture. Do not see yourself the way the three-dimensional frame of reference sees you and wants to convince you of. Remember that Being is Eternal. No single event in the Eternality of your conscious experience of Being takes precedence over that which is aware of it. You are not in it. It is not larger than you, and it is not controlling your Being.

      Paul is faced with a difficult task, Raj suggests:

      1. stay centered on Conscious Being (4dRef)
      2. don't let yourself be pulled into the 3dRef
      3. The event is not larger than you, it does not control your Being, you are not in it.
    2. RAJ: Paul, you must realize that you are not “in the woods” in the fist place. The “woods” are in you. You are that omnipresent conscious experience of Being which constitutes Fourth-dimensional Man. You will always feel trapped when you are seeing yourself as being inside that Omnipresence which constitutes your Being. You will always feel uncomfortable because you are believing something which is not true. I see that you have gotten the point that you can utilize your ability to think and reason when it is based upon what you have learned when you have been experiencing your being as Conscious Being.

      You will always feel trapped when you believe what is not true.

      Make use of thought and reason that are based upon lessons learned from Conscious Being

    1. RAJ: The delight of Life is the signal which indicates the successful completion or Awakening in individual thought. This is because it indicates the amalgamation or connection of the Alpha and Omega—the inside and the outside—the spiritual and material—the Fourth Dimension with the first three as Conscious Experience. I know that this is very difficult for you to put up with, because you feel there are more pressing needs, but if you will bear with me a little longer, it will be worth your while.

      Awakening is complete when you delight in Life. Delight indicates union of spiritual and material, the inside and outside, the 3D and 4D.

      Paul finds it very hard to accept this, he is distracted by his present financial challenges.

      Isn't this (focus on 3dRef) what keeps us bound to the illusion?

    2. You were incorrect yesterday when it occurred to you that the only way you can tell you are growing is if you are feeling some discomfort. Discomfort can be an indication of growth, but it is not the only indication of growth. We are entering a new phase of these conversations, and in this phase we are going to be dealing with the Light energy that constitutes your Being.

      Indications of growth on the journey of awakening are not limited to feelings of discomfort.

      Light energy is what constitutes Being

    1. RAJ: It is causing you discomfort and uneasiness, because what we are discussing is flying right in the face of many well-established concepts which you have entertained and employed in your lifetime. This feeling may well be the last whimpers of your inclination to utilize them. I would allow them, if I were you, to simply do their whimpering, since they will spontaneously fade out. Do not give them credit, and do not act upon them.

      Raj says Paul's feelings of uneasiness arises from their discussion challenging his well established concepts.

      Raj says to allow but do not give them credit and do not act on them - they will fade out.

    1. The conclusion to processes of reasoning and thinking has never, ever been Enlightenment. No matter who it has been, the enlightenment they have experienced has occurred only when their three-dimensional consciousness has been totally silent, or it has broken through in spite of their thinking. Thus, it has illustrated that the thinking process is never responsible for growth.

      Paul wants to accomplish something but Raj asks him to drop that idea - they are going to simply be.

      Paul has a belief that he can figure it out.

    2. Paul, I want you to rely very heavily on the Actuality of our conversations. You are well aware that these communications are not common among your friends. You know that you most certainly are not communicating with anyone in a “normal” way when you are speaking with me. You have no idea where I am, but you know that the process is one which you call telepathy. You also know that the communications are not nebulous, but very definite. You know that they happen with ease. you know that they occur no matter whether you are upset, depressed, happy, or quiet. If you have nothing other than our conversations to lean on in terms of your seeing beyond what the five physical senses perceive, then lean on them heavily as verification that you can get beyond and through the apparent limitations which confront you.

      Paul, like me, wants to move beyond experience arising from the 5 physical senses and finds it challenging.

      Raj suggest he lean heavily on the communication he's having with Raj. And the same applies to me, I'm having these conversations in a different way - but I am having them!!

      So I can lean on them for support on the journey.

    1. You must learn to flow. You must learn that you are not self-directed in the sense of being a puppet with no strings attached, three-dimensionally speaking. From this standpoint, you will always seem to be a puppet with strings attached, and you will not have hold of the controls. From the standpoint of being as Conscious Being, as Fourth-dimensional Man, the concept of strings and controls is irrelevant. I point this out because, after having a wonderful, productive period of meditation, you spontaneously, immediately and without questioning, were criticizing yourself because you did not do exactly what I had told you to do. The fact is that there is no justifiable reason to be found for self-criticism. Watch for this in your experience, and don’t continue in this habit.

      Paul is criticizing himself and sabotaging the success of his immediately prior meditation success.

      This is common behavior on the journey of awakening and Raj suggests that he stops doing it.

    1. However, as long as you are blinded by the belief that it is not You, and that it is “out there”—separate, apart, and existing on its own—it is not available to you for you to experience as your Self. This is a key point in the unfoldment of one’s conscious experience of being as Conscious Being or Fourth-dimensional Man.

      Belief in "other" - separation, blocks the experience of Being as You. The recognition of Oneness is a key point in the journey of awakening.

    2. You see, Paul, Being is not complex, hard to get at, or hard to understand. Half of the problem we have is our belief that it is not easy. We believe that it is bound up in complex religious or occult rituals or mental structures which we must pass through, like mazes, in order to prove our worthiness. It is not true.

      Being is simple and all aspects of it are available - because it is all Your Self.

    1. You must realize, Paul, that the only bluff operating here is that doing this will not work. There really is nothing else presenting itself to you as a valid reason for not continuing. You literally only have two choices—you either do it, or you act upon the basis of a bluff. Now, let’s be good and clear on this: Under what circumstances would you ever base your actions upon a bluff? Normally, you wouldn’t. But, under a sense of pressure and fear, you could possibly be fooled into believing that there was no point in continuing further. That is why I am pointing out the simple, intelligent overview of the situation here.

      The ego loves complexity and what Raj is teaching Paul here is so simple - to live from the Truth of your Oneness, of Christ, rather than the "truth" the ego teaches in smallness, etc.

      This teaching is opposite to what we believe and can seem crazy and totally unworkable - it's too simple.

      But, this is a main practice taught by Christ Mind, WoM has the 5 Minutes as Christ practice.

    2. RAJ: Paul, you are being too serious about this in the sense of emphasis, intensity, and drive. You are not faced with the end of the world. You are not faced with destruction of any kind. What you are faced with is a greater cohesiveness of the All One which You are. If all of you is always present, and all of you is always functioning then the idea of “incompleteness” and “coming up short” is absolutely invalid. It is on the basis of your completeness—and on the Activity of that completeness—that you must let your feelings, your dependence, and you confidence lie. If you try to deal with the way things appear, if you pay attention to what the five physical senses are telling you, you will scare yourself shitless. On the other hand, if you are going to agree with the omnipresence and omniaction of your Being, you will find yourself at peace. And inevitably, you will find that omnipresence being omniactive in concrete, tangible ways.

      Belief that I am incomplete, lacking, and needing to change causes seriousness to be a factor in correcting that perception - which doesn't work.

      You are always complete and to approach life from this understanding come confidence - so apply your practice from what is True about you and not from the way things appear (that arise from limited perspective).

      The journey is putting this into practice.

    1. It doesn’t matter what day the announcement of Maitreya’s return is made on. It doesn’t matter by what means, or for what purpose, you and Susan are receiving an influx of inspiration and enlightenment—whether you’re awake, asleep, in meditation, or flying a kite. The fact is that no matter what is going on anywhere else in the world, you are experiencing the inexorable unfolding of your Being as Conscious Being. You might as well accept it.
    2. Now, tomorrow morning when you get up, take care of your everyday activities. But, before you do them, or have a conversation with me, I want you to get into that Place where you are being as Conscious Being, as Fourth-dimensional Man. Then, from that point, take care of the things that need to be taken care of. Then, when you have completed those, if you would like to converse with me, I will look forward to talking with you. In the meantime, for God’s sake, let go of all this folderol and get back to the point of being the Door. I can promise you this: So long as you are seeking position, power, prestige, by virtue of association with the Masters or Maitreya—no matter how subtly—They will not come near you with a ten-foot pole. The only reasons that the three gentlemen were present at all was because at that point you were truly being the Presence of the Christ. Paul, “person” was nowhere to be found. Learn this lesson well, and you will move forward with great ease. Continue in the frame of reference you are presently indulging in, and you will be sorry. I know that you are not presently experiencing my presence with what you recognize as a feeling of Love. Nonetheless, Paul, it is time for your concept of Love to be broadened. It is time for you to realize that Love is “whatever it takes to bring forth the Reality, right where the belief insists on being.” With that I will say good night for now, and I will look forward to speaking with you tomorrow.
    3. Paul, let the world have its own development in whatever way it most clearly can experience its growth. Remember that this world that is experiencing its growth—in the apparent drama of the reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom—is the infinitude of your Self. One way or another, you are going to have to come to terms with that fact without selling your Self short. There are groups of people actively participating in attempting to pave the way for His return, but this is not where you are. This is not your point of unfoldment. To whatever degree you think they may be doing something more correct than what you are doing, to that degree you are disintegrating your experience of your Self as the One that constitutes the Many. If you try to make comparisons or cross-references to attempt to validate or invalidate what is going on with you, you will lose your awareness of your cohesiveness. Your gut-level feeling of frustration and anger is just a small taste of the suffering that will be in store for you, if you attempt to move back into a three-dimensional frame of reference.

      Don't compare or contrast - your pathway is unfolding, trust it.

    4. RAJ: Paul, I know that since you have gone to dinner, you have frustrated yourself to an even higher degree than when you left. I know that you are arriving at a place where you couldn’t care less whether Maitreya returned or not. Correct? PAUL: Absolutely correct. RAJ: The conclusion that you are coming to is correct. The only appearance of the Christ that is worth a hill of beans for you is that dawning in your own experience of your own perception of Reality. It comes as the result of being the Door. It literally doesn’t matter one way or the other whether Maitreya returns or not. On this point you are absolutely correct.

      Raj is making the point that the return of Christ is an internal journey - not external, not "out there".

      He had believed differently but is now coming to this realization.

    1. PAUL: Raj, something is blocking me from being able to be comfortable with what you are saying. RAJ: I would think by now that “comfortable” and “uncomfortable” would no longer be valid guideposts for you, since those are three-dimensional points of view. You know that when you are in that Place, you are experiencing Absolute Comfort, undivided in any way. If you want to bounce back out onto the surface of your finite consciousness, you will, indeed, find comfort and discomfort, pain and pleasure, gain and loss. I am afraid, Paul, that this is the one essential step which you must make yourself. I can encourage you to take it. I can explain to you why you can take it. But it has to come from within your Being. What is blocking it is simply fear. There is no actual opposition or roadblock. PAUL: In the past, I have experienced healings without taking this radical step. I have experienced benefits of prayer and metaphysical work. I did not have to be under the gun, so to speak. Isn’t unfoldment supposed to be natural?
    2. PAUL: But why does there seem to be an inconsistency between what I am experiencing within, and what is manifest as visibility and tangibility in the three-dimensional frame of reference? RAJ: This is perhaps one of the most difficult things to grasp, and I have reiterated it many times. Your Substance, or Supply, also brought it out to you, and that is: As long as you are bouncing back and forth, from inside to outside, to verify what is going on “out there” against what is going on “in here,” you are losing the continuity of being as Conscious Being. The necessity is to be willing to stand still as Conscious Being. It is similar to using a P.A. system which you have set up in your house, and from which you can speak through speakers which are in your front yard. If you stop speaking into the microphone to go out into the yard to see whether they are working, you will naturally find no sound coming out of them, because you have left the microphone and are not speaking into it. You could easily come to the conclusion that the speakers were not functioning properly when, in fact, the only reason they were not broadcasting your voice is that you were not at your place at the microphone. There is no way to make it any clearer at this point. In effect, I have shown you where the microphone is. I have shown you what it feels like to be there. I have shown you how to get there, and how to get back when you slip away. Believe it or not, I am working with you to help facilitate your ability to stand at and as that Place.

      Being consistent and steadfast in standing still as Conscious Being is critical to manifestation from that place.

    3. RAJ: There is no other way. Mind you, the key word there is “willingness,” The emphasis is not meant to be placed on the collapse of everything around you. PAUL: Does this mean that the unfoldment cannot be harmonious? RAJ: No it does not. But, you are not going to see that harmony of it when your attention is focused on the appearance. You see, Paul, all of you is always present, and all of you is always functioning. This means there is nothing that exists that can be added to you. What you are doing is already done. What you are learning, you already Know. You are in the process of simply beginning to experience what has always been true of you and as You.

      The journey requires the willingness to allow things to be as they are - without resistance, even when it means drastic change.

      Not that it will happen but the willingness to let that happen is to allow a greater wisdom to guide your life rather than insisting that I must do it - especially when the going gets scary.

    4. RAJ: Paul, you have been faithful. You have been attentive. You have been cooperative, willing, and have indeed, grown a lot during the last three weeks. You have listened to what I have said. It has made sense to you. You have believed it, and acted accordingly. The need now is to be willing to go all the way. You were correct that there are innumerable structural safeguards against breaking through the three-dimensional frame of reference. You are running into them popping up in front of you—as a fun house ride. They are calculated to scare you into backing off and not proceeding any further. You must be willing to stand with what is unifying to your conscious experience of being as Fourth-dimensional Man, rather than what is disintegrating or disunifying to you.

      Paul is saying he's listening to Raj and acting accordingly but his problems persist. He's wondering if he's understanding correctly, etc.

      He's being pulled by worldly pressures ...

      Raj is here responding with what is really going on.

    1. Paul, I know I am relentless with you on these points, but if I were not, you would not make the shift. Yet the shift must be made. The shift must be made, because it is the unfoldment of your Being, and because it is the unfoldment in a more universal aspect—it is a change line for your world. It is the age old question of whom you are going to serve. The question is being put before you by your very own Being. Do not mistake what is happening and feel that it is I who is making these demands. I am bound to support only that which your Being is bringing to the level of your conscious experience. I can only help facilitate you in overcoming your ingrained fears, and your habits and patterns of limited thought. I cannot make you give them up. I cannot make you drop them. And, I cannot make you make the shift. You will make it, come hell or high water, because that is where your Being is. But, if you are willing to continue to follow the leadings of your own “upward, individual convictions,“1 as Mrs. Eddy so beautifully put it, then you will continue to experience this shift with no more dissonance or suffering than you have so far. It is finally up to you.

      Many important points here.

      1. I must decide what I want
      2. It is worthwhile to honestly question what I think and feel.
      3. Suffering and dissonance is not necessary
    2. find myself questioning, from the standpoint of a gut-level, non-conceptual feeling, whether this is “right.” Yet, by the same token, I find that by relinquishing my awareness of myself as a separate identity with a will of its own, there is this tremendous influx of understanding and enlightenment, together with a greater experience of peace, which seems far more valid than any sense of relaxation I have experienced before. RAJ: Paul, I realize this is a difficult shift to make, especially since the concept of “individuality” has been so prized—the concept of the “self-made man,” et cetera. I can only suggest Paul, nothing more, that you take a look within your Self. Ask your Self whether the way you have been living for the last two and a half years, as an “individual,” brought with it anything of the sort that you are experiencing now, after having relinquished your “individuality.” I ask you to seriously consider which you find more satisfying, and I suggest you literally make a choice.

      Feeling like a puppet

    3. RAJ: Paul, the clanging cymbals of time are ringing their last clangs. You are feeling a habitual desire to feel “normal” when “what is normal” is changing. It simply doesn’t exist that way any more, even though others whom you see appear to be going about their daily activities as though nothing unusual is occurring.

      Read above Paul's description of feeling out of sorts - wanting to fit in.

    1. Now, these powers which He will apparently bring with Him will be experienced as a general worldwide spiritualization of thought, or inner Enlightenment. But, the fact will remain that it will not move everybody into the position of being a totally enlightened individuality. Their growth will need to be internalized, just as yours has.
    2. Mr. Creme’s book implies that the Christ, together with the Masters of Wisdom, is appearing based on a decision They made. This had to be put this way in the book, but the fact is that They could not have decided to reappear in the year 1551, in the year 1901, or in the year 1970, because the Harmonies of Being, Itself would not allow it. It would not have been a harmonious event. The students were not ready. I know you can see that the Teacher is reappearing by virtue of the readiness of the students, and not because of any great power of His own to act on His own, any more than when you are in that Place where you are experiencing the Allness of your Being as Conscious Being, you can act on your own, doing what you want to do. The only place where you exist in that way is in the imagination of your three-dimensional frame of reference.

      *The only place you can act on your own* is in the imagination of your 3d frame of reference.

    3. Maitreya will apparently come with great transforming powers and ability. but it must be understood that the energy behind those powers is literally being supplied by the very individualities who are about to be apparently changed. Remember, when the student is ready, the Teacher appears. This tells you, Paul, that the Teacher does not appear due to any powers of His own, but due to the inherent readiness of the student. The Christ cannot reappear out of His own fantastic power, because He has none like that. He can only appear because mankind is ready for the growth and change. It is their readiness, whether consciously recognized or not, which causes the Way to be clear for the Teacher to appear.

      the Teacher can not give unless the student is ready to receive.

      Creation/communication/extension does not happen unless the giver is received.

    4. PAUL: And He would agree that I am to keep very clear—I think I see what you’re getting at—you are trying to let me know that I had better not make the serious mistake of disowning my Divinity in any way and placing it “out there,” in Him or anyone else? RAJ: Exactly. And, before you meet Him, this has to be clear to you. Otherwise, you will be overwhelmed or overawed by what you think He is, and you will neglect or slight your Self and will begin to operate from a three-dimensional-only standpoint. As I said before, this will only occur with great discomfort, because you have graduated. There is no need for you to waste your time suffering. You see, you are very willing to serve, but it must be very clear to you that you are not to be the main dish—you are not to give your Self away. You must see that you are fulfilling the purpose of His Being; that that Being is One. It is only at the level of visibility and tangibility that we can see the infinite interplay and interchange of, as I said before, circles within circles and patterns within patterns. As Shakespeare said, “…to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.“2 The only way that you can serve Maitreya is by being true to your Self as He is being true to Himself. This must be very clear, Paul.

      to thine own self be true...

      There's a lot here, Trust, self-honesty, commitment, ...

    5. RAJ: I am saying that, yes, Paul. He and I see much more than what I am saying to you. But you can count on one thing: The more infinite your view becomes, the simpler the understanding of things becomes.
    6. I want you to understand that my primary purpose is with you and your individual unfolding of your Self as your conscious experience of Being. That will become No.1 with you, because you are the one that constitutes the Eternal Constant. The apparent three-dimensional event of the reappearance of the Christ is one of the millions of events which will occur to you as your experience eternally. You must keep in mind that no single event in your experience takes precedence over that which is experiencing it—You. You must be very careful not to classify yourself as a follower of Maitreya, or a follower of any Master, or any Teacher. You are to follow the Inner Path of the evolving of your very own Being as It unfolds and reveals Itself as your conscious experience. This must be a rule, a guidepost for you to refer to often.
    7. It is true that there is infinite progression—infinite, universal progression. It is true that there is more to the infinite progression of Being than you can imagine at the present time. But, it is also true that there is an abundance of misinformation available on your planet regarding these subjects, which apparently have come through Masters, but which were coming through individualities who were caught in great mental complexities. They had not truly grown to the point of being the open Door. They were communicating their own theories and concepts. Tonight I let you have a taste of such theories and concepts.
    1. I can tell you that I’d love to have a cigarette right now, and—Raj, is there something that I can do to botch this whole thing up? Is this a thing where—like I have one chance, and if I miss it I’ve really missed it?

      More expression of the fear of screwing up.

    2. PAUL: Raj, it’s simply a matter that I don’t want any possible confusion or mix-up regarding what you are saying, or what you are going to say.

      Paul is fearful of not clearly understanding what Raj is saying and that fear is disrupting the conversation.

      Raj asks him to just allow the communication and ask questions after - there is no need to be fearful.

      This is a good example of ego behavior. Here, a belief that I'll get it wrong causes fear and disrupts the attempt to get it right.

    3. As I have said before, the key to this is your willingness to stand as the Door. You have been doing this very well, and you are, indeed, seeing changes in the way your infinitude is reflecting your standpoint. Do not make the mistake of overlooking the fact that your infinitude is responding differently. It is a direct result or evidence of the manifesting of your supply. It isn’t just money you need, Paul. it is also a changed experience of your infinitude, which you call your world. You are already seeing evidence of the operation of the Law which we talked about yesterday.

      The key is having the commitment to stay in 4dRef and not return to the fearful 3dRef - to stand as the Door.

      Do not overlook the progress you have made (we often do this as a way to discredit the journey - this is self sabotage).

      It's not just money that you need - it's a changed view of your world. Here he refers to the world as the experience of your infinitude.

    1. As you know, what is ultimately simple can seem totally impossible. The simple fact is, that as things unfold, as things occur, the clarifications will come along as they are able to be understood and internalized. The evolution will be as natural as possible for all concerned. It will occur in such a way that even when it seems difficult or impossible, the individual will also—at the very same time—experience a realization or a conviction that it is possible. This realization will carry him through the difficulty of breaking through his concepts and beliefs.
    2. Paul, all of this is constituting the activity of Consciousness which acts according to Law upon the Nature of the Universal Substance of your Being. The correct vision, felt from the standpoint of Reality, must come forth according to Law as that which appears tangibly, three-dimensionally, as the infinitude of your Being. Remember that once this Law is set into motion. It cannot be stopped from manifesting by any fearful or limited thoughts in which you might indulge from the standpoint of a finite, three-dimensional point of view. Such a point of view cannot be placed at the point of Conscious Being, which is the only Place any action can be set into motion. As you know, when you are in that Place, it is totally impossible to experience fear, doubt, or any sense of limitation. This is a scientific Law that I am talking about. You can prove it day after day after day, without fail, because it is Law functioning according to the scientific, principled Nature of Being. Once you have set a thing into motion by being consciously aware of the Fact from the standpoint of Fourth-dimensional Conscious Being, your only responsibility is to continue forward, being from that point—exactly as you have been doing—without any care or concern as to how or when it will appear. You must realize that Being functions according to Its own infinite, eternal Harmonies. If that which has been set into motion has not appeared, it is because appearing at that point would not be in harmony with Its unfolding Being. You can trust you do not need it at the moment you are considering the fact that it hasn’t yet appeared. I want you to consider this deeply. I want you to consider it while you are in that Place when we are not talking to each other. I want you to let it unfold its infinite meanings to you before we talk about it again.