Hi Folks:

Well, if you’ve read any of my writings already, by now you’re pretty much aware that the lives Marcia and I live are a little outside of ‘normal’.  We wouldn’t have it any other way; after all, it’s been and continues to be our desires and our intentions that have brought us here in the first place.  Still I wanted to start this writing with a quote from a blog post written recently by our friend Samantha:

“Lots of thoughts went through my mind at once. I was at first indignant. I thought, “What the fuck, Samantha. You’ve created an ‘alien abduction’-type scenario.” I was pissed at myself because I know myself, and I knew I would end up writing about this experience, and I knew I could kiss any last bit of normality goodbye. I mean, how can you consider yourself a regular gal when you’ve had one of those experiences that puts you in the loony tunes group? That’s what flashed in my mind when I found myself there–a kind of arrogant, “Oh, shit you’re one of them now” feeling.”

So, yes, we’re definitely two more of ‘them‘ in terms of being perhaps a little canted.  And if that doesn’t make you want to close your eyes, plug your ears and start humming, then read on!

I trust you’ve come here from reading our post on ‘Being the Candle‘.  If not, you might want to go back and read that first, just for context.  I’ll wait.

Okay then.  As we said in the introduction, the idea of ‘Being the Candle’ as it originally came to us fell into disuse as our understandings changed.  But recently it floated back into my mind, and from that there followed a few very late night conversations on the topic.  I started writing about this topic in my own writings, but Marcia’s also excited by it in her own way so it became the topic for this week’s ‘He Says, She Says’ post.  I’m going to start with my own writings and we’ll see where it goes from there.

Now, Seth said:

“You are one self, then, but for operating purposes we will say that you have three parts: the inner self or inner ego, the body consciousness, and the consciousness that you know.

“These portions, however, are intimately connected. They are like three different systems of consciousness operating together to form the whole. The divisions – the seeming divisions – are not stationary, but change constantly.

“… To one extent or another, these three systems of consciousness operate in one way or another in all of the species, and in all particles, in the physical universe. In your terms, this means that the proportions of the three systems might vary, but they are always in operation, whether we are speaking of a man or a woman, a rock or a fly, a star or an atom. The inner self represents your prime identity, the self you really are.

“‘Earth is a nice place, but I wouldn’t want to live there.’ A twist on an old quote, I believe – but the fact is, you are physical creatures because you do like to live on earth, you do like the conditions, you do enjoy overall the particular kind of challenge and the particular kind of perception, knowledge and understanding that the earthly environment provides.

“That environment, in your terms, certainly includes suffering. If joy has always been one of the characteristics of earth experience, so has suffering, and the subject will be covered in this book. Here, however, I only want to mention one facet, and that is the importance of physical sensation, of whatever kind – for the life of the body provides you, among all things, with a life of sensation, of feeling, a spectrum that must include the experience of all possible sensations within its overall range.

“Now as you will see, all creatures, regardless of their degree can and do choose, within their spheres of reality, those sensations that they will experience – but to one extent or another all, sensations are felt. We will later discuss the part of the mind and its interpretation, for example, of painful stimuli, but I want to make the point that those attracted to physical life are first and foremost tasters of sensation. Outside of that, basically, there are all kinds of mental distinctions made [among] stimuli. The body is made to react. It is made to feel life and vitality by reacting to an environment that is not itself, by encountering what you might call natural stress. The body maintains its equilibrium by reacting against gravity, by coming in contact with other bodies, by changing its own sensations, by glorifying in the balance between balance and off-balance.

“The body consciousness is therefore given a superb sense of its own reality, a sureness of identity, a sense of innate safety and security, that allows it to not only function but to grow in the physical world. It is endowed with a sense of boldness, daring, a sense of natural power. It is perfectly formed to fit into its environment – and the environment is perfectly formed to have such creatures.

“The entities, or units of consciousness [CUs] – those ancient fragments that burst into objectivity from the vast and infinite psychological realms of All That Is – dared all, for they joyfully abandoned themselves in space and time. They created new psychological entities, opened up an area of divine creativity that ‘until then’ had been closed, and therefore to that [degree] extended the experience and immense existence of All That Is. For in so abandoning themselves they were not of course abandoned, since they contained within themselves their inherent relationship with All That Is. In those terms All That Is became physical also, aroused at its divine depth by the thrusting of each grass blade through the soil into the air, aroused by each birth and by each moment of each creature’s existence.

“All That Is, therefore, is immersed within your world, present in each hypothetical point, and forms the very fabric from which each portion of matter is created.” ~ Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment, Vol. 1, session 894.

I’ve been working with Seth’s idea of ‘You form your own reality’ for a long time, and it’s been this idea of reality creation that has been at the centre of most of my inner journeys for the past number of years.  However, while my perspectives and understandings of making reality have changed a lot over the years (as evidenced in my writings), it’s been wanting to understand the processes of reality creation that has really driven me.  My journey hasn’t been limited to being a ‘follower’ of Seth, of course.  I’ve studied the works of a lot of different Ways, taking from each of them that which made sense to me and leaving the rest.  I’ve also come to rely heavily on my own intuition.  Anyway, I digress.  For me, for most of this period, my idea of reality creation has had to do with intention, and I’ve seen intention primarily as a focused concentration on something.  After all, Seth said, “You get what you concentrate upon. There is no other main rule.” ~ The Nature of Personal Reality, session 617. That fit in well with my own understandings, and so I held to it.

Abraham’s perspective has always been of a three-step process, their ‘Law of Attraction’.  Step one, you decide what you want.  Step two, the Universe provides it for you.  Step three, you allow it in.  That also made sense to me in on some level, so I decided to incorporate their ideas into the mix as well.  However, doing so also brought some levels of frustration because I’d look at what I’d been asking for, not see any evidence of it in my life and ask myself if I was allowing it in or not.  On one hand I couldn’t see where I wasn’t being open and allowing, and on the other hand I couldn’t see the physical evidence of what I had asked for.  As I saw it there were two probable answers to this; either I wasn’t ‘allowing it in’, or the process didn’t work.  I wasn’t really willing to accept either of these ideas, and that created the frustration.

Abraham also talks a lot about ‘vibration’.  They’re not alone in this, as Bashar talks about vibration as well.  Basically my understanding of vibration connects to Abraham’s idea of ‘allowing it in’, because only by setting one’s vibration to an elevated state of joy can one receive whatever it is one desires, be it object, event or experience.  I still remember the conversation I had with Thomas some years ago, and after I described Abraham’s idea of the garden hose he told me, “Forget about the hose, release the restriction around yourself.”

I’ve already written about being the candle as it was explained to us some years ago; I’m going to jump ship for a moment and talk about neutrinos.  My layman’s understanding of neutrinos is that they’re particles so small that scientists have some difficulty proving they even exist, so small that since atoms are more space than substance neutrinos pass through matter constantly without interacting with it.  Now, thinking of neutrinos got me thining of Seth’s ‘CUs’ or ‘Consciousness Units’, which sound at least similar in size to neutrinos or subatomic particles, but according to Seth CUs are the foundation of all matter as we know it.  According to quantum theory subatomic particles can either be matter (particle) or energy (wave), and I can see matter being formed as CUs transform themselves from energy into matter.  At the heart of Seth’s descriptions of CUs lies the fact that every CU has consciousness, and this consciousness is the basis of All That Is.

So, combining these ideas of being the candle, neutrinos, CUs, consciousness and loving intention brought me to a place of seeing this light from the ‘candle’ the loving light of All That Is not only flowing ‘from’ me, but flowing ‘through’ me as well.  And in that I saw this light as having loving intention, consciousness, and healing everything it touches.  In the introduction I wrote that a candle doesn’t reach out to touch others with its light, it simply is itself, and in being itself its light flows out and transforms everything it reaches.  Darkness, illuminated, becomes light.  In my case at least the question becomes not so much “Am I allowing it in?” as “Am I allowing it out?”  I see this loving light pouring out of me, continuously, and flowing out to everything else.  It’s not just me of course, because everyone who allows it is also flowing this loving energy.  I love this idea for several reasons.  For one, as this light flows through me it touches every aspect of my being – every cell in my body surely, but also every thought, every idea, every belief.  I am therefore being constantly ‘cleaned’ and transformed by this wise loving light.  Second, this light doesn’t end at me, but flows out and touches everything in its path.  Third, I don’t have to direct this energy or attempt to exert any form of ‘control’ over it.  I don’t think I could even if I wanted to, but it simply is, and it touches everything and everyone around me.  One could certainly block it out, intention is a very powerful thing, but unless one is actively blocking it the flow continues uninterrupted.  Therefore I offer a gift, unannounced, to everyone I meet, everyone and everything I pass, everything I think about.  It’s always been important to me to be able to give to others, and so to me this is a very good idea!

As I mentioned earlier, I’m not the only one doing this, not by a long shot, and so as this loving energy flows through and out from me it meets, joins and harmonizes with the same loving energy coming from others, whether people, other animals, plants, stones, or whatever.  I’ve read about research in this area before, but I recently came across an article online called ‘Does DNA Emit Light‘ and in its own way it sums things up very nicely.  And so on I go, being a ‘light being’, by simply allowing this loving energy to flow through and out from me.  I like it!

Another aspect of this is that this light, containing consciousness, also carries intention.  Those things, events and experiences I desire are also carried with this energy, and in Framework 2 the various matches and opportunities are formed so that I achieve what I desire in a way that also allows others to fulfill their own desires.  This comes to the center of what Seth calls ‘Value Fulfillment’.  Seth wrote:

“Value fulfillment itself is most difficult to describe, for it combines the nature of a loving presence – a presence with the innate knowledge of its own divine complexity – with a creative ability of infinite proportions that seeks to bring to fulfillment even the slightest, most distant portion of its own inverted complexity. Translated into simpler terms, each portion of energy is endowed with an inbuilt reach of creativity that seeks to fulfill its own potential in all possible variations – and in such a way that such a development also furthers the creative potentials of each other portion of reality.” ~ Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment, Vol. 1, session 884.

There’s one other idea that fits in with this as well.  It’s a thought that came to me back in December.  I’m going to go back into my notes and dig them up…

December 18, 2009

One other thought that came to me the other day was something I woke up with in the middle of the night.  I was going to get up and write it down, but decided against it and simply set myself to remember it in the morning.  The message I got was simply, “Seek joy, not knowledge.”  That’s very profound for me, in several different ways.  For one, back to when I first learned the idea of ‘you form your own reality’, I figured there must be a process to it.  Since I was at the time separated from my very Being, I consequently decided that in learning this process I could master it and therefore use it as I wished to do.  That’s been a very long road for me, and it has other threads as well.  For one, as I’ve written before, I prized my intellect over everything else, at least partially because that’s where I was given the most credit.  But it was also partially because of my interest in the scientific process, partially because of my intense desire to master my own fate, and for several other reasons.  What I couldn’t see in the beginning was that the process as I saw it was far too linear, and my understanding of ‘knowledge’ far too specific.  As Seth said:

“The conscious mind sees with a spectacular but limited scope. It lacks all peripheral vision. I use the term ‘conscious mind’ as you define it, for you allow it to accept as evidence only those physical data available for the five senses—while the five senses, of course, represent only a relatively flat view of reality, that deals with the most apparent surface.

“The physical senses are the extensions of the inner senses that are, in one way or another, a part of each physical species regardless of its degree. The inner senses provide all species with an inner method of communication. The cells then, possess inner senses.

“Atoms perceive their own positions, their velocities, motions, the nature of their surroundings, the material that they compose. [Your] world did not just come together, mindless atoms forming here and there, elements coalescing from brainless gases—nor was the world, again, created by some distant objectified God who created it part by part as in some cosmic assembly line. With defects built in, mind you, and better models coming every geological season.

“The universe is formed out of what God is.” ~ Dreams, “Evolution,” and Value Fulfillment, Vol. 1, session 886.

Also

“The inner self has a vast and infinite reservoir from which to draw knowledge and experience. All kinds of choices are available, and the diversity of physical matter is a reflection of this deep source and variety.” ~ The Seth Material, Session 509.

It’s mostly the first sentence, “The conscious mind sees with a spectacular but limited scope.” that I was referring to, although the rest of it certainly fits as well.  As Seth said in the first quote above, we tend to limit ourselves in terms of what information, what knowledge we’ll allow our conscious minds to accept.  I’ve been involved with expanding the capabilities of my conscious mind for a very long time, but in using the old ideas, the old tools, I’ve limited how much I’ve been capable of expanding.  To me, knowledge has been an accumulation of facts, built up, sorted through, and discarded as new information became available.  This has given me some new perspectives to consider.  Seth talks about ‘unconscious knowing’ and in the CC writings they talk about a ‘new knowing’, both of which suggest that there’s a different level of experience, a different aspect of knowledge that I’ve so far missed pretty completely.  This promises to be exciting.  By ‘Seek joy, not knowledge’, I’ve suggested to myself that there’s a different Way of experiencing that goes beyond the bounds of what I’ve previously set for myself.

Another way of looking at this is that the suggestion itself is like a Zen koan.  ‘Seek joy, not knowledge’ is like a snake eating its own tail because joy isn’t something one can really seek.  My old friend Paul Cormack once wrote, “The happiness you seek is one you’ll never find, because usually the happiness you seek is one you didn’t know you left behind.”  Joy isn’t something one can seek, it’s something one finds within.  Joy is a choice.  No matter the circumstances of my life, how well or how poorly my life is going at the moment, in every moment I have the choice to decide how I’m going to feel.  This can be in relation to or irrespective of the circumstances of my life.  To seek joy is simply to make a choice to experience it, to make it a central focus around which to pattern the other aspects of my life.  From the time I was a boy my life had the search for greater and greater knowledge as a central focus; switching this focus to living in joy is a very different Way of Being.  Joy is the process – seeing myself living at Shoal Point in joy is more powerful than believing that I’ll be safe if I have a load of money in the bank sort of thing…  The first involves trust, and the second negates it.

“Using the inner senses, we become conscious creators, cocreators.” ~ Seth Speaks, session 515.

December 21, 2009

A few days ago I received a thought that said, “Seek joy, not knowledge.”  I’ve already written some about this, but the thought that came to mind goes back to when I first read about Seth’s concept of, ‘you form your own reality’.  From the beginning I decided that there must be a process to this creation of reality, and all I needed to do was to learn how to do it and then practice it until I mastered it.  That was what I set out to do, with varying degrees of success, but I could never come up with a concrete ‘step by step guide’.  Still, I kept trying.  I’ve written before about how I learned to prize my intellect and to hone it, and that was also a part of it.  The idea of “Seek joy, not knowledge” came at the perfect time, however.  No surprise there…  I’ve been writing lately about knowledge, and about different ways of perceiving knowledge that go beyond the strict scientific linear idea of knowledge and an increasing accumulation of ‘facts’.  There’s intuitive knowledge for example.  Seth talks about unconscious knowledge, and in the CC writings they talk about a ‘new knowing’.  All of these hint at a new way of learning or experiencing that goes beyond the linear idea I’ve had of ‘knowledge’.  I find it rather intriguing, actually.  Another thought that came to me regarding this is along the lines as seeing joy as the foundation of reality creation.  I’m not talking about joy as a linear path to creation the way I once would have; rather what I’m thinking is, “What if being in a state of joy is the nursery that allows desires to grow into manifestation?”  Seth talks about spontaneity knowing its own order, and that reality creation is achieved using a basic unpredictability:

“… magic is everywhere in the operation of your body, and in the operation of the world.

“My definition of magic is this: Magic is nature unimpeded, or magic is life unimpeded. It is true that your thoughts and emotions and beliefs form the reality that you experience – but it is also true that this creative construction is, in a manner of speaking, magically formed. That is, the construction of your body and the construction of a world are produced with the greatest combination of order and spontaneity – an order and spontaneity that seems hidden rather than apparent.” ~ The Way Toward Health, March 10, 1984.

Actually, writing that got me thinking of reality creation as an organic process.  With a tree for example, one plants the seed and provides care and watering, but the plant grows itself.  It sprouts new leaves, flowers, etc. on a schedule that makes some intrinsic sense.  Creating a loving environment can certainly help, but one can’t ‘force’ the tree to grow.  I’ve always seen reality creation as a mechanistic process, whereby one uses skill, pattern, method – a clockworks of sorts.  Now I sound like René Descartes.  Hmmm…

That’s certainly given me something to think about.  Coupled to that is another thought that came to me yesterday.  Similar to ‘Seek joy, not knowledge’, the thought was that rather than seeking health, wealth, wisdom, synchronicity or whatever, I should seek only to be the fullest expression of myself, and to make those other qualities or aspects a part of that.  The reason behind this is that we each have our own beliefs and ideas about what it means to have perfect health, or to be wise, or to be wealthy, or to be _____ or to have _____.  And by seeing those ideas as fixed goals or endpoints that we seek to achieve, we do two things.  One, we see that who we are right now isn’t the person who is _____ or has _____ and we begin to judge ourselves based on our current position.  I’ve done so many times.  The next step we take is that we begin to alter who we are to become the person we believe we have to be in order to be _____ or have _____.  Let’s take money for example; it’s an easy one to work with.  There are several movies out that profile someone suddenly experiencing wealth or success, and many cases the person involved transforms him or herself into someone else.  “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” and “Ziegfeld Girl” are both good examples.  I believe there are two possibilities for this.  One possibility is that this is the true self of the person involved, and suddenly achieving the means to achieve their aims releases the person they’ve kept repressed.  The other possibility as I see it is that the person involved holds beliefs and ideas about how a wealthy or successful person is supposed to be or act, and this alters him or her to fit that assumed role.  I offer these ideas without judgment, and in both cases the person may be involved in ways that can be perceived as ‘good’ or ‘bad’.  Using the first idea, releasing the person within, an angry person would become more angry and a jealous person would find more reasons to be jealous, but a joyful person would become more joyful and a generous person more generous.  Who they perceive themselves to be, at least in part, would be magnified.  As to the second scenario, Bob Proctor once said, “Most people live their lives the way they think other people think they should live.”

To me, though, the most important aspect of this way of being (seeking to be _____ or to have _____) is that it objectifies the ideal and moulds the self this way and that in order to fit in with those objectified ideas.  An analogy would be to go to school and to sign up for courses, whereby the student has to go from room to room, adapting his or her life to fit a fixed schedule.  I’ve lived a good portion of my life that way, and I’m not just talking about school.  I’ve become very adept at being a chameleon, adapting myself to every new situation, every new circumstance.  When one considers that we are each responsible for forming the reality that we experience – individually and en masse – then I am continually adapting to a world that I’m forming in the first place.  Because of the nature of LOA, the ‘Universe’ simply keeps turning the merry go round that I’ve decided I should be on.  I’ve become a dog chasing my own tail.  It’s rather like beating your head against the wall; it feels so good when you stop.

The alternative then is to seek to be the fullest expression of myself.  Here the Self that I am is held in the center of things, and rather than shifting and adapting myself to meet new conditions, my world adapts to meet the vibration that I’m offering.  I don’t have to give up the idea of having _____ or being _____, but the focus shifts and becomes one of ‘Who am I with _____’ or ‘How do I feel as _____?’  Expression of the Self, of ‘Me’ is the central ‘goal’ here.  That doesn’t mean the Self is fixed or immutable.  Quite the contrary, but the difference is that growth and change are primarily internal and then expressed out into the world.  A simple question to one’s self is, “Do I want to be _____ or to have _____ because that is how I see the best expression of myself or is there some other reason?”  With this discovery comes choice.

From Seth:

“Your whole civilization is immersed with the idea that the way to solve a problem – any problem, private or worldwide – is to exaggerate it, see its worst projection; and this, then, is supposed to make you take proper action.

The approach unfortunately solves no problems, and only compounds them, whether the nation is trying to solve problems of energy, or social problems, or whether an individual is try to overcome a dilemma.

You are so immersed in that method of problem solving, however, that it comes back to haunt you. At least you can be aware of it and alert.

I will give you the answers to your questions, but they are not the way to solve your problem–and against all conventional knowledge, reviewing the mistakes of the past does not lead to wisdom.

When you become so worried, of course, you concentrate even further on the problem–how bad it is, and what will happen if it becomes worse in the future.

The problem is, therefore, compounded to whatever degree–and when I give you both such reasons, then sometimes you use them, the two of you, to ADD TO your private and joint self-disapproval.

(snip)

The belief is that if you frighten yourself badly enough through imagined projections and imagination, you will be frightened enough to change–but the nation or the individual following that method does not change for the better, but compounds the original condition, concentrates upon it until it looms larger than before.

Such methods cause panic, national or individual.

(snip)

To solve a problem you begin to minimize its characteristics, diminish its importance, rob it of your attention, refuse it your energy.

The method is the opposite, of course, of what you are taught.

That is why it seems to be so impractical. I have said this so many times–and I do realize it is difficult for you–but you cannot concentrate upon two things at once. So to the extent that you concentrate upon your pleasures, your accomplishments, and to the extent that you relate to the PSYCHIC AND BIOLOGICAL MOMENT, you are refreshing yourselves.

You are not projecting negatively, and you are allowing the problem to un-wrinkle, un-knot.

You are denying it the energy of your attention that keeps it going.

You do not spend time thinking that you have not used your abilities properly. You take it for granted that you ARE using them properly, and that allows them to fully develop.” ~ The Personal Sessions, Book 4, Session 08/14/78, pgs 332-334.

Well, as usual I’ve managed to take something short and make it very long.  Still, I trust you’ve found it ‘illuminating’!  Sorry, couldn’t resist.  Allow yourself to be the candle, and in that allowing, allow the loving light of All That Is to flow through you and out from you, bathing everything and everyone in your life with that same loving intention.  You’ll be glad you did!

Love,
Mike.

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