Awareness and the Perception of Reality

The following is an adaption from posts
at UBRON.org in late February and early March of 2010.


1

As we think about the new information flowing out of physics, psychology and philosophy about the evidence for non-physical aspects of reality, we are tempted to reject them as “strange.” Why would the Urantia Book (UB) mention such literal concepts as “ultimatons” if – as new science is suggesting more and more frequently – matter is just an illusion. I have some thoughts about this situation that I hope might find a sort of compromise between conventional non-UB discoveries and what the 1934 text of the UB has to say.

The ultimaton is a physical metaphor. There are no little solid spheres, called, "ultimatons." It is simply the smallest measurable energy level in space and time. And do recall that ALL physical phenomena are filtered through (at least in our case) human consciousness.

The light you see when you look at a candle is not light. You're seeing what your brain's interpretation of light is. And also bear in mind that because none of the photons that enter your eye are also entering my eye, what you are seeing ("seeing" is based on the reflection, refraction or emission of photonic - electromagnetic - particle/waves) is 100% different from what I'm seeing. We may agree that what we see is extraordinarily similar, but literally the light showing an object to you is 100% different particle-wise than the light showing the "same" object to me. You might want to sit back and think about that for a second. Because, if this is true, then no human being can ever observe any physical phenomenon objectively. How can someone see something as it is? She/he would have to see from all human perspectives at once. And this is impossible.

To put it in more detail, light is made of photons. When these photons reach your retina they are transformed into electro-chemical signals that are then relayed via neurons and chemicals to the visual cortex. But these signals are not light. Same thing with sound, touch, taste... None of these things are the same inside your brain as when they entered your nervous system. The point here is that nothing can be said to exist independently of human (and on higher levels, "superhuman") consciousness, because it takes consciousness to claim the existence of things in the first place.

It is for these reasons that the world is not at all as we observe and feel it. We are still learning what is actually taking place outside our bodies as we evolve. Unfortunately we can only base anything new that we encounter upon already-known perception. Without revelation of some sort, new concepts have to be clothed in the dirty worn-out rags of past concepts until they themselves reveal more or some higher-than-human intelligence reveals them to us.

Thus, hard little billiard balls are the way we imagine ultimatons, and until we can expand that concept into the fractal and metaphoric energy that is really driving the universe, we are stuck with hard little spheres. There may be objective things in the universe, but no human has ever been able to see them. Why? Again, because we have to observe and describe things that are completely changed from what we think they are (photons, atoms, ultimatons) by being filtered in our electro-chemical brains. Therefore all human perception is subjective.

Physics, which led the whole scientific community up through (arguably) the decades of 1970's through1990's, as the sterling example of material truth-seeking, is now somewhere left of the soft sciences, like psychology, when it comes to conceptual understanding. Most "New Physicists" now admit that there are probably non-physical aspects to reality. And because of not being able to measure or quantify the observations of non-physical processes, the physicists are nearing the end of conceptual science (that is, science done using the "scientific method"). The science of the future will be a kind of metaphysics dealing with the power of consciousness to alter physical mechanisms.

Because the cosmos is infinitely revealable, and we are so very far from ultimate, absonite and absolute levels of reality - combined with our primitive evolutionarily-acquired knowledge, that we observe a world and reality that is surely almost 100% different than what it truly is.

The UB uses the concept of a little "sphere" called the ultimaton in the same way a parent gives a child a cartoon or picture-book representation of objects in the "real" world. When a kid finally sees that the moon doesn't have a man's face smiling from it, he/she realizes that the moon presented to him/her was not the moon, but it was good enough to lead that kid to a clearer concept of what the moon really is. If that kid grows up and actually goes to the moon, she/he will get an even better idea of what the moon is. Think about beings who may have existed for trillions of years. There is a good chance that they have a pretty good grasp of what reality is. Yet, still, they can never exhaust the potential for finding greater and greater truths about that reality.

Just some thoughts. Reality is not what we see and feel. That is only our personal awareness of one little bit of the overall picture. As we all seek to learn more about reality, we automatically excavate new conceptual space in our minds in which to store greater and clearer concepts of reality. This is why mind-expansion (of any kind) is helpful and important.

2

Because our human world is primarily subjective, all things must remain as metaphors. Some metaphors come exceedingly close to being what an object is. But some (like the ultimaton) have to be clothed in half-truths, until their presentation can be upgraded by personal experience or revelation. We are not programmed to integrate the truth very efficiently. Winston Churchill said, "Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most times he will pick himself up and carry on..."

As humans we need to separate this one realm because we do not have the capacity to view it as a whole. More accurately, we do have the capacity to view our realm as it is, but we do not generally have the will. That's why people won't study the subject of "what is matter?" all the way through the latest physical theories. People don't want to know that much about the truth... I mean what happened to up is up and down is down? Or more appropriately to our discussion, what happened to in is in and out is out? Surely there is a barrier between out and in?

Again, the quotes from the UB can not be more than a cartoon characterization of what they really want to say. They have to meet us on our very primitive conceptual level.

I have conceived (rightly or wrongly) of the ultimaton as a holographic "thing" that has the potential to function as a building block in spacetime (matter), super-spacetime (morontia) and hyper-spacetime (spirit).

Think about it this way...

No one knows why I can will my arm to rise and scratch my nose and it will actually obey. This is the simplest of actions, but neither physicists nor philosophers can tell us why this is possible. The non-material mind is somehow able to control the body through a liaison with the brain. It has been proven that the brain has demonstrated activity that is non-local (seemingly has "effect" without "cause"). Well, controlling the body is a good enough way to control any other material mechanism. Once you control a material body you are simply restricted by the limitations of technology in that material realm, as to what you can control or not.

In other words, the same hand my mind used to scratch my nose with can also steer the wheels of a car, paint something that approximates for you what I can only see inside my own mind, or (theoretically) detonate the entire strategic nuclear arsenal of the United States, by pushing a button. Yes, one human can destroy the world. That's a lot of power. But the scheme in harnessing and using it is the same as scratching one's nose.

Technology is simply an extension of the human body and mind. There will no doubt be very advanced technologies someday here on Urantia. Instead of raising my arm to push a button, the button (and everything else that is important to me in my being able to control it) will be part of me; technology will have turned my thoughts into the equivalent of a keyboard and mouse. In this way a very advanced culture could live completely in tune with the natural world, while on the "inside" the people would have immense power over the physical objects of their world. And they would not see their power as being inner or outer but simply as is. But this should not surprise anyone. After all, it is simply the same old original mystery of a non-material mind effecting the material world. It is just that in this very advanced future culture all material means of connectivity (wires, circuits, levers, pulleys, cranes, etc...) have been eliminated by former physicists.

Here's the rub, though...

Keep in mind that that kind of technological achievement comes only to those who have concurrently grown more moral alongside their technical advances. No dangerous culture will ever have that kind of technology, because the price for attaining it was coupled to the moral enlightenment stemming from a plan to continuously become more Godlike.  It is also the effect of moral restrasint upon physical power.

Coming back to the "inside" vs "outside" thing, I would recommend reading The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot, The Dreaming Universe (and any other of the many books) by Fred Alan Wolf, Wholeness and the Implicate Order by David Bohm, and any books about Chaos Theory.

Currently humankind wears itself inside-out. People are distracted by the surfaces of things. An advanced culture would see an unbroken vein of reality from the infinite potentiality of personal thought (imagination is limitless), to the infinities of literal, physical, and Ultimate Reality. In a world of highly advanced humans, each member of the society literally sees what other members mean, when they are communicating. Turning the human into a truly moral creature requires that that human stop putting up a barrier between himself and things that are not himself.

In this way, all are one. Yet individuality is safely guarded through the inherent uniqueness of each personality, straight from the Universal Father himself. People who have learned to turn their inside out have also learned to abolish the barrier separating inside from outside.

So, no hall of mirrors; a mirror is simply another barrier. Two mirrors facing each other trap light infinitely. But, remove them and light can flow everywhere. Continue removing barriers and you will become one with the light, even if it takes nearly an eternity.

It is highly doubtful that people can "get" what I'm really saying here. This is not because it is difficult to learn but because our typical, conventional matrix of how we think of the world will completely fall apart when we consider how backwards things in the man-made world actually are (literally and figuratively). People will continue to hold a primitive concept if it has worked out well for them so far. I think that it is very normal for a dark, rebellion-isolated world like Urantia to have a population who is wholly oblivious to the perspective and intuition needed to see things as they truly are.

I guess, our challenge is to not trash the sub-surface truth, just because wishful thinking has somehow kept our heads above water.

Rationally and wisely expanding one's mind to catch glimpses of that which has never been seen before, with a subsequent and purposeful intention to integrate these glimpses (whether physical or spiritual) into one's overall perspective of reality, IS the way to attain more power over the material world whilst learning the moral and spirit lessons necessary to use that power responsibly.

3

Wolf goes on and on about the clues existing in dreams. He and I once corresponded for a while and he surely believes in the reality of the lucid dream. The effects that seem to be only within the mind are still real, in every sense of the word.

When I looked up at the sun in a lucid dream once, it hurt my eyes, just like the regular sun would. There was no difference (I could feel the heat too).

My questions are...

What is that sunlight that I saw? Is it photonic or is it electro-chemical? The obvious answer (since it came from within the dream state) has to be an electro-chemical signal, just like I would receive from my eyes, were I looking at the sun, except there is no input from the "outside." So the electro-chemical, sunlight-image has to be produced in the brain itself. That seems impossible, but it just has to be true. The strange thing is that it effected the pain receptors at the site of my iris and the heat receptive nerves on my forehead and cheeks. It is a kind of reverse engineering of sensory input; the lucid dream inputs signals from the "inside" creating sensations so strong that they are registrable on the "outside."

And if that is so, and the consciousness can be awake in this dream environment where things can be created simply by the mind at will, then all the consciousness ever needs is that some similar environment be provided where it can function, and it will take care of the rest. This can be (as we say) on the "inside" or as a result of stimulus from the "outside" world. Either way, we are fully conscious and able to experience things of Adjuster quality. I know. I have been there. That is why I know that the outside is just an extension of the inside. But this knowledge cannot be relayed. It needs to be experienced to be believed. This is a prospect that is much easier than most people think.

Our prejudice against anything that isn't happening in the physical world as not being "real" is so strong because of the role of science during the last 200 years or so in Western society. It has made itself arbiter of all other intellectual or even moral pursuits. But what will it do, now that it, itself, has discovered the truth that there are non-physical realities?

4

More on the inside/outside thing...

One might wonder: "Is there any input to our senses that we work with?"

Then the answer is: Yes. Absolutely, there is. I'm also saying that the actual source of the input is (though very vaguely) what we think it is. But, I'm saying that our way of describing this input to ourselves as individuals and collectively is still very far from what is actually occurring in the mythical "outside." I'm also saying though, that how events are perceived in the felt moment (or "datum," as Aldous Huxley calls it) of the immediate experience of an event, there is only subjectivity (at least among humans). Their observations can make the event seem more objective as they discuss it afterwards. But the experience itself must always be subjective among humans who have not yet learned how to permanently remove the barriers necessary for greater conceptual clarity for all things.

But getting back to the strangeness of input...

Like the lucid dream, input can originate from within. And if that's the case, how can we tell the difference? Or, more importantly, IS THERE NO DIFFERENCE? For people who like to have a solid foundation for why they do all the things that they do every day, this is not good news. It tells them also that everything they see is not as they see it. In a world of danger and seeming misfortunes, people like stability and they think that living in the synthetic lives we've carved out for ourselves is stable enough. Why rock the boat?

What we UB readers seem destined to not realize is that TRUE stability (lasting peace both local and planetary, a universal religion, the yet-undiscovered cures for all kinds of health problems, etc.) will come when the flimsy boat is finally rolled over and sunk. Only then will we realize that the water was only two feet deep anyway!

But this is the same old story. We wear the birthmark of the Beast, the Dragon, the Devil: backwardness. If the Lucifer Rebellion had not occurred we would much more clearly perceive what is being inputed and where that input comes from. We have been crippled and retarded by our post-rebellion, sorry state of intellectual and (more importantly) moral, growth. Because of this we constantly (as individuals and as a species) teeter on the impossibly fine line between wanting to kill every thing we see and wanting to save it. This species bipolarism has gotten very dangerous in recent years, because our technological development is far ahead of where it should be, when contrasted with our moral development.

I think that science and math are very necessary and serviceable to humanity. But, they measure and analyze things in the abstract; using rules that are either correct or incorrect. The world though isn't either correct or incorrect. They have been a serviceable means of drawing near an understanding of some material constants. But the material universe is controlled by mind. The Infinite Spirit's mind reaches the outer edges of the universe. Where there is matter there is always mind. But where there is mind there is not always matter.

Science and math will never find a "final answer." They need revelation. They've even now reached an end of sorts. Supersymmetry is a perfect example. It is based on elegant and complex mathematics that is the cream of hundreds of years of work. But that math presents a theory that can probably never be fully tested in spacetime. Great math. Great theory. But, no longer science. We need a push from above (or within) to move further than we have gotten thus far.

This is a tricky time for we laymen. If science can't even test its own published theories anymore why trust anything it says? I don't need someone to understand quantum mechanics for my universe to continue on. I don't need someone to understand how a painting was painted to enjoy it. I don't need to understand how a piece of music was composed to feel its emotions. I can do these things for myself. It just takes WILL POWER.

5

Some folks don't understand what I refer to when speaking of “lucid” dreaming. Lucid dreaming is not "vivid" dreaming. It is not about dreams coming true in any way shape or form either. A simple Googling of the words "lucid dream" will give you more than enough information to move beyond any misunderstanding of it.

Lucid dreaming is not “dreaming” either. It is only when you are fully conscious, just as you are when you are awake, that you can be said to be "lucid." There is no way to make this as strongly emphasized as it needs to be for someone who has never lucid dreamed to understand. You simply need to do it. Then you will know. There are strong dreams. There are prophetic dreams. But they are still only dreams.

In a lucid dream you know you are not physiologically awake. Yet, you are awake in the dream. Now it is not a dream anymore. It turns into a laboratory where you can experiment with a different set of physical laws. It is not the type of thing that "comes true" in the physiologically waking state. You remember a lucid dream just as you would a visit to the grocery store from the day before.

In fact, to actually realize you are still in REM as you become conscious in your dream, shocks you to your soul. And you have to make every effort not to awaken (physiologically), so that you can remain in the lucid awareness. I often feel my pillow against my cheek while at the same time I am standing up in the middle of the room in my lucid dreaming-awake state. One time I was doing all kinds of things in the lucid state, but something kept pressing on my upper lip. I knew it was my hand as it rested beside my mouth on the pillow. But I also knew that if I even moved my hand slightly I would lose the lucid state and have to wake up. It got so bad that I did eventually attempt to move my hand, but the lucid state dissolved immediately.

I agree that (except for what Karl Jung called "big dreams") normal dreaming is as garbled as the UB says it is. Lucid dreaming is a thing I used to combat having nightmares after a serious health crisis a few years ago. It worked like a charm. Being the controller of your dream puts a quick end to letting your fears control your dreams.

Here's a lucid dreaming recipe that works pretty well for me...

First I can only sleep 5-6 hours, so I have tried to translate my recipe for an 8 hour night. On a night when you have just a relaxing time planned for the next day go to bed around 11pm. Set your alarm for about 3am or 4am.

Get up then and keep yourself awake for about 15 to 30 minutes doing something, then go back to bed. You don't want to stay up so long that you can't get back to sleep. Try different schedules, experiment with timing. The important thing is to try every night until you get it. And you will get there if you want to.

You will have already experienced your longest periods in Stage 4 (delta) sleep and the brain is beginning to get closer and closer to stabilizing in the REM stage, by this 4th or 5th hour in your regular sleep cycle you will begin to do more dreaming than non-dreaming. You need to go back to bed with the constant thought that you want to wake up inside your dream. And because of the time that you are re-entering your sleep cycle, you set yourself up for getting a dream right off the bat. But you will have more and more chances to become lucid before you finally wake up physiologically.

People work out all kinds of inner signals and signs that tell them they are sleeping physiologically but awake mentally. Mine is usually the repetition of something. I once watched the same shaped cloud go by a few times, realized where I was (asleep), and suddenly became lucid. Look for things that don't happen in the every-day world.

Another good way to tell you're still asleep as you become conscious in your dream is to look for writing. Nearly always, writing will be indecipherable. But when you realize that you've finally achieved this rare state of consciousness, your excitement alone can wake you up. Shivers race up and down your spine as you realize the enormity of what you've achieved. When you realize that now YOU are the boss of the dream no fear can penetrate the mind, it becomes your land and only invited guests can visit. And as I said, it abolishes nightmares quite effectively. It even worked to lessen PTSD symptoms.

It is well worth learning this tool. One time I became lucid in a dream and I did a bunch of tests before just having a good time. I was standing in a sunlit room and was very excited to be realizing that I was also lying with my head on a pillow somewhere else. I ran my hand along the mid molding on a badly painted wall. It was chipped and got stuck under my fingernails. But I just willed that paint out of my fingernails. Because the room was very small (6' x 8'ish), I decided I would walk outside through the wall. I lined up about two feet away and simply walked through the wall to the out doors. Things seemed even sharper than the regular waking world. And I did my favorite thing... I flew. I flew around a town. I flew around a factory. I headed for the moon but got tangled up in doubts about whether I could go that far, then I woke up in the regular world.

It is perfectly obvious and not confusing at all to distinguish between the other-worldly nature of the lucid dream vs the nature of the regular waking world. That is why the experiences are compatible with a reality that has nooks and crannies (and indeed whole realms) that are not of space and time.

It never lasts long enough for me though. I'm just recently training myself to stay asleep longer so I can experience more. I have found an ally in the quest.

Sometimes you have to wake up in several other dreams before you wake up in your room. After one dream I kept trying to wake up, but would end up somewhere else or in the right place but at some other time. I even sat up and was sure I was awake and it was still pitch dark out. I sighed and laid back on the bed, blinked and the sun was pouring through my window and the clock said 9:30 in the morning.

6

At UBRON we talked about how the mind is like a TV. Why spend time trying to learn how the TV works, if you just want to enjoy the program?

People are too afraid (or lazy?) to attempt to find the answers to how our corner of reality works. Someday we will all need to bite the bullet and learn how the TV works. As a person who has never seen an object that I didn't want to understand, I sometimes have a hard time feeling sympathy for people who are fully satisfied with not trying to learn how things really work. You have numerous celestial helpers and instructors to assist you.

The TV is not hard to understand. It is like anything else, you'll miss 100% of the things you never look for.

As an aside...

We are adaquately demonstrating the role of metaphor in truth-seeking, by using the TV as a metaphor for the mortal mind. And I am able to discuss the mind without needing to remind you that we have reduced it to a TV. That is the usefulness of metaphor.

What is unreasonable about asking you to exceed yourself? Jesus demanded it! He told the rich man to give up all his money and devote his life to God...but the man couldn't do it. I'm sure he was probably still quite salvable, for he really did have a guilty conscience about his refusal. But it certainly lessened the quality of the rest of his life in the flesh. He could not stand the idea of having to learn how the TV works (how eliminating worldly treasure would strengthen his spiritual treasure), it seemed like too much somehow... too unreasonable.

Being frustrated by trying to learn how the TV works does require experience with the parts (the "electronics" in our metaphor) to alleviate confusion and clarify one's reality "frame." So learn about electronics! Why not? For myself, I don't accept, "Oh, its SO hard to do!" Tough!! If it's not impossible, then what the hell am I waiting for? The result is well worth the effort.

And, surely you're aware of how many times this excuse has been used to justify sitting on one's hands...

Some might ask, "For if I knew how the television was designed wouldn't I be at the status of a Creator Son"?

Understanding the material world that Creator Sons have made for YOU, is your challenge from them. The idea that you would some how be able to figure out a way of being equal in status to a Creator Son simply by attempting to fully explore the limited mind that has been generously given to you, is almost laughable. Seeking to understand as much as possible about how the mind really works and what is the truest perception of the reality we exist in is the Creator Son's (and Supreme Being's) greatest pleasure!!

That is the whole idea behind the struggle and challenge of the Mortal Ascension Scheme. It is not meant to be easy. In fact, ascension is meant to be as hard as it can be - while still being appealing enough to trudge through the hardest aspects. This is the perfect plan, because it is the Father's plan. So rather than lamenting the small thing that is "frustrating" you - that is, the thing that is going "wrong" with your plan, it seems more proportionate somehow (and even-minded) to give thanks for all the things that go right most of the time. In this confused world, every second where the mind can find peace is like a precious oasis and people who experience peace of mind, more frequently feel the responsibility of helping those who don't, find it.

This argument about fearing to come too close to the Creator is the oldest trick in the book. It is what the church said to Galileo. Each new advancement is met by the friction of those who claim that knowing "new things" is some kind of 'arrogance' against divine creators. Then once the new phenomenon is finally adopted and well understood, everyone realizes how far they still remain from Godliness. Fear not, I think that nothing we can strive to achieve will ever equal the earned power of the Creators.

7

These ideas bring many profound concepts from the UB to mind. Expanding consciousness always makes big things more understandable.

For example, the length of human life when compared with the length of the entire ascension career. This comparison is not often quantified-out. We know it is enormous, but do-able. However, people don't really grasp this very prominent truth in all its wonder. We get the idea sometimes that the life in the flesh is the most important level of existence we will ever have. And that is true in only one way: We make a decision to move on to the next level, or not. We exercise our free will. We choose to survive death. We make the free will choice to be part of the Ultimate and even interact with Absolute levels some day.

And when we fuse we can never ever be eliminated from the universe. The Thought Adjuster part of us guarantees (in exchange for permanently sharing our personality) to never fail us for the rest of eternity.

We aren't citizens of eternity until we fuse with the Adjuster. Mortal life takes origin in a biologically evolutionary-animal, almost-wholly material way. There is no lower origin for will creatures in all the Grand Universe. And this one and first level qualifies us for the Corps of Finality. That's the big time. We will even journey out into the Outer Space Levels to administer them, once the Age of the Supreme has reached its finality.

But think about this. Just getting to Paradise takes a long time. If we live for 100 years in the flesh we are considered fortunate. But try to grasp the fact that far in the future when we enter Havona we will have to gain experience on each of its billion worlds. It is likely that we will spend at least one earth-length year on each world. If that is the average then we are looking at at least 1 billion years spent in the Central Universe, before becoming a Paradise Citizen.

It is an amazing fact that probably no Urantian has ever made it all the way through Havona, since humans have only been on earth for 1 million years (1/1000th the amount of time presumed necessary just to get through Havona). There are no Urantian Finaliters.

Now we add in the amount of time it takes to do all the required work we will have from local system to superuniverse levels. Maybe another billion years? If that is the case then, no Urantian has ever even made it to Havona. In fact, the most progressive Urantian would only be 1/1000th of the way out of the Superuniverse. It might be possible that no Urantian has ever made it out of the Local Universe.

Just traveling straight from Urantia to Paradise at light speed could take a million or more years; never mind having a career. It is astounding, the time scales and distances that we accept are so vast that even as a species we Urantians don't make a dent in the demographics of even Satania. We are on the map because of Michael, but our people are not overly special (in fact, as we know, they are a little retarded) or numerous. There are planets in Satania that likely have billions of years of cultural evolution behind them and are in the deep, late stages of Light and Life. It is probable that the finaliters that once lived as primitive humans on those older worlds are allowed to return. That is one old planet.

This is very interesting to me. One hundred years in the flesh is 10 million times shorter than a billion years. If our ascension career were 1 billion years and that time were displayed as one year equaling 1 millimeter, the ruler would be 1,000 kilometers long but the amount of distance representing our life in the flesh would be the diameter of a small apple. And, again, it is likely that our ascension will take a lot longer than 1 billion years. So in the final Paradise Mortal sense, the life on earth was less than 0.000001% of the total career. It makes me take what is happening in our world a little less seriously sometimes.

8

Of course expanding one's mind means being willing to release control over one's current model of reality in order to allow a new paradigm to be established. Even on Paradise sometimes things get "out of control" (my bold)...

Sometimes all Paradise becomes engulfed in a dominating tide of spiritual and worshipful expression. Often the conductors of worship cannot control such phenomena until the appearance of the threefold fluctuation of the light of the Deity abode, signifying that the divine heart of the Gods has been fully and completely satisfied by the sincere worship of the residents of Paradise, the perfect citizens of glory and the ascendant creatures of time. What a triumph of technique! What a fruition of the eternal plan and purpose of the Gods that the intelligent love of the creature child should give full satisfaction to the infinite love of the Creator Father!

The Urantia Book, 27:7.7

Control is very useful in many applications, most of the time. Everyone understands this. It can't be argued against. But there are certain times when an intentional "letting-go" of control over some deliberate aspects of what I call the three c's of stagnating habit: comfort, conformity and convention, can allow a person to obtain what would not have been obtainable by any other means. The defense mechanisms keeping control over your comfort level are the strongest ones you have. Yet, some folks can bring themselves to actually overtake these body guards of comfortable acceptance.

These people (in daring to destroy and reconstruct parts of their own egos, to be more like what they are continuously learning God must be like) are making an effort as important to their souls - and also related to the same kind of ultimate choice the soul makes - as the acceptance of eternal life itself.

Death (or rather, deconstruction) of the inferior, humanly-constructed ego, as it fights in vein with everything it has to remain untouched - even sending back hallucinations at you in its own defense is rough, rough ride. In every sense this feels like a real death - some people even believe they are temporarily dead if the experience is potent enough. It is scary to lose yourself, but VERY worth finding yourself again, renewed. The biggest, strongest man in the world will cower in the corner when the prospect of ego-realignment is placed on the menu. It takes soul-courage, brother.

But, then the ego's reconstruction with new more efficient and useful parts is a technique (noticed I also bolded that word in the UB quote above) for making a kinder, gentler, but vastly more powerful self (both over the material world and psycho-socially in everyday life). The ego realizes then that it was actually benefited by the chance you took to deconstruct and then reconstruct it. Then it is easier to do it again and again. In fact, the ego actually starts to like what it is turning into. And it becomes more and more SOUL-like and less and less EGO-like. I believe this is an integral part of the degree of "eternalness" in the soul. Perhaps a soul that is able to fuse with its Thought Adjuster while still in the flesh has reached a point where the eternal assurance of survival can no longer be denied, even physiologically.

What this means is that making the effort to break down the psychic barriers you've built (and been born with) can be a way of liberating yourself from temporal despair. It can be a way of conquering your ego and aligning that sucker with the will of the Father. It can be a way of passing through some of those circles you (and I) have been working on. It might even be a way of achieving translation directly from this existence into the next. I realize that is highly unlikely. But do bear in mind that the unlikeliness of it is not something that is being forced upon us. It is unlikely (fusing in the flesh) because of our decision to not make an effort. That's all that keeps us from finding the path to avoiding death all together: our lack of effort.

Personally, I intuitively "feel" that heaven is cheering me on in my personal quest to break down these barriers. It works for me. I know I am becoming more integrated, clear-sighted and far-sighted. It is technique (looking for barrier dissolution) in my life that has improved my ability to understand even more the next time. It has strongly increased my ability to remember and recall things. A have to admit that one of the biggest advantages it has given me is the precious and thankfully-received ability to effectively write and describe novel things from my expanding perspective. This is not a brag. I suck at so many other things that I could never be led to a sense of self-pride just over being able to communicate well. It sure has gotten me to LOVE communication though, and appreciate its value.

When I have the chance to open up the gate more and more - especially lately, the writing just comes out with no effort (besides the constant effort of trying to align it with what I think God's will is). Interesting how the giant effort I had to make so many times just to overcome the protestations of my own ego, the fear of the unknown (the uncertainty of what I would find by releasing control), the heartbreak and disappointment (that ever-linger) of letting go of my most treasured human beliefs and assumptions, the extremely difficult job of climbing back into a new and improved ego (many times now), has allowed me to not have to try as hard to write effectively about what I've found for myself.

As more and more aspects are improved, you find that even greater ones become available to be conquered. It is a very positive kind of feedback loop. And you get to keep all the tools you discover, which makes conquering new ground easier and easier. It is a win, win, win, win situation.

I use lucid dreaming as an example of a bridge between the outside and inside. This is one safe way to see how losing a little control of your comfort level can yield both satisfaction and pathway to greater experiences. There is nothing to buy, nothing to ingest, nothing to be afraid of, and only enlightening mind expansion for all your efforts. But again, it does take effort. There are so many other ways to utilize the technique of mind expansion (without drugs) that not trying something seems kind of lazy (with no offense to anyone sitting on their hands).

But all of these things: learning how we are backwards, learning how to perceive things more like they really are, psychedelic exploration, lucid dreaming, even "big dreaming" like we all experience from time to time, remote viewing, telepathy, etc, they are all part of my point. We see them as mysteries, when in fact they are just processes that we have not truly taken our natural ownership over yet. They are all related in that they are held in the prison of ignorance for most folks. But the doors of that prison are all fully unlocked for us and wide open! You can take these mysteries out of their cells and into the light of discovery.

The fact that I sit here at the beginning of the 21st Century trying to convince skeptical people that there is more to reality than what they have mis-learned about it, and that everyone is capable of clarifying that reality to be more like what it was meant to be, shows just how far we have to go. Younger minds will pick right up on this and agree with it (they are doing that right now). People will look back and read these conversations someday, and say, "Why couldn't they just SEE."

Trying to clarify your inaccurate view of reality, and actually succeeding would mean you have to tear down the cultural assumptions that the conventional world (and even the UB, to some extent) has given you a chance to adopt over your lifetime. But these assumptions (barriers to evolving conceptualization) are limiting your experience on earth, they are not the will of the Father, they were once the will of Lucifer. They are stick-built, rusty, duct-taped, hap-hazard, flimsy versions of the exquisitely beautiful world that our Creators have already provided.

Why paint over the greatest natural work ever presented to the mind of will creatures (that being, nature and divinely constructed reality), with your own animal, half-measured (material-wise), half-hearted (effort-wise), and half-real (perception-wise), crappy, cheap, and drably scribbled colors?

Why cling to Lucifer's method of second-guessing reality?

Why think that what WE can construct to see the world through is better than what the Gods have already constructed for you?

The Father has provided a great castle of glory for us to live in. And instead we prefer the rotten tree house we've constructed out of the mangled post-rebellion history of our race, along with some bent, rusty nails.

But people will continue to dismiss whatever is necessary, putting the blinders on whenever their more inferior perceptions are challenged. I do it too of course in the areas I have not yet faced. It is much easier to talk about changing one's perception than it is to succeed at doing it.

However, as I said above, because I've had success in many varied aspects of changing my perception and have reaped the reward that these diverse discoveries have given me, I have no choice but to try to get others to do the same. And that's what I'm doing.

I can't NOW be convinced that the notion of turning around, walking backwards and crawling back under that wet-blanket of formally-held, erroneous assumptions is somehow a good idea. Once the mind has experienced even the smallest datum of progressive and peaceful freedom, it will never again be satisfied with conforming to locked doors, chains, darkness, barriers, bad painting and self-deception.

Non-rebellion worlds would never even consider repainting their personal perceptions of reality with their own designs. Reality is too perfectly and artistically designed by the Gods to be re-decorated with the shoddy, gaudy, even trashy upholstery of the rebel-world's version.

Finally, age does not have to harden the mind and really shouldn't be used as an excuse for not expanding one's mind. Not acting is a WILLFUL act, not an inevitable one. Whatever you glean from all your earth years and end up with is because of your choice. The devil can NOT be blamed. As I said above, he put the veil in front of our eyes, but we can still lift the damn thing whenever we want! We don't have to ask for his permission. And he can't hold that veil in place either if we sincerely wish to look beyond it.

As I've said, I have found that I am far more open-minded and ready to explore my world more completely with each passing year. I attribute this to deliberately exploring the many techniques of mind expansion.

To those who cannot bring themselves to challenge what they think they know, physical death will bring these revelations to you whether you want them or not, and whether you are prepared for them or not. And after recovering from the shock of filling in so many holes left open from your earth career, you will understand what I've been saying.

9

Some people wonder where the personality is during the lucid dream.

The personality functions exactly the same way that it does when you are awake. Because... you are awake. There is no difference to the personality. You in a lucid dream is just like you sitting in your living room. It is still just you. There is no identity loss at all.

If you lay down and close your eyes, but don't experience unconsciousness, that is what lucid dreaming is like. The difference is that you get dual sensory info when in lucid awareness. When lucid dreaming you can feel things in every way exactly like you can when you are not lucid dreaming. But, you can also feel the state of your body in the non-lucid, everyday waking world. You can feel it lying in bed. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) you can not use your body in both places at once (as I tried to explain in a previous post).

Maybe a better example is sitting down to watch a movie at a theater. You put yourself in the movie, but you can still sit there eating popcorn in the theater. During lucid awareness (I don't like calling it a 'dream') state you not only hear and see the movie you've put yourself into, but you smell, taste and feel its objects too. That doesn't mean you forget that your body is sitting in the theater (or lying in bed in the case of lucid awareness).

Re-question: What is the function of the personality while your watching a movie in a theater? Answer: No different from walking back to your car afterwards. There are a lot of differences in the experience, but the personality and its function is not changed.

10

More differentiation should be explained between dreams and lucid dreams. I found out these differences while first learning how to lucid dream. It was the process of conquering negative dreams that brought me into the lucid realm. Like most people I didn't know I had been dreaming until I'd wake up. But when I finally was able to fully wake up while still IN one of those negative dreams, I realized (through training myself to reach this level) I could take control of the dream. After the very first time of doing that I never had another negative dream like that again.

After becoming more proficient at lucid dreaming I faced new and interesting issues. In the lucid state there are several minor temptations that I face... They are kind of funny to relate.

I always think I should be looking into bigger deeper issues while lucid. But the temptation to just have fun is overwhelming. Flying is the first one. Frankly, having sex is another. When you are there in that state you can summon people to appear. And they can be very friendly members of the opposite sex. I'm not saying you happen to run across the opportunity in a regular dream, I'm saying that you deliberately construct reality where you can have what you want.

But, as I said earlier, I'm learning to fight these temptations. In a light-hearted way they are like sentries sent to distract me from my mission of exploration. No matter what is going on - temptation or exploration – it always seems that the time is always too short.

11

Lucid dreaming is just a technique of hitching a conscious ride on the naturally unconscious (or maybe, subconscious) dreaming process. Something we haven't gotten into is what the brain is doing during our nightly sleep. The brain (specifically, in the pineal gland) contains a naturally-occurring neurotransmitter that has a very similar molecular shape to seratonin, called DMT [n,n-dimethyltryptamine]. This chemical has been observed to function in relatively larger amounts in the brain during REM, stressful situations and especially at the time of death. It is this chemical which naturally facilitates dreaming.

What lucid dreamers are probably doing is simply tricking the body/brain into not "re-uptaking" the DMT (which is normally immediately cleared away during normal consciousness), and allowing consciousness within the DMT facilitated state.

By the way, DMT (read DMT - The Spirit Molecule by Richard Stassman) is a Schedule 1 drug (supposedly meaning it has no medical value) under the federal laws of United States. It can be extracted from plants and purified for use as a psychedelic, but doing that is illegal. So not only is DMT naturally present in all human and mammalian brains but in hundreds of plants as well. They are all illegal. Legal scientific experimentation (though it has been extremely limited, due to the mountains of legal red tape needed to be overcome by researchers to even use this material) has shown that DMT effects us the same way when we use it intentionally (through injection, in Strassman's study, but it can be vaporized and inhaled, smoked or taken orally with a mono-amine oxidase inhibitor - maoi) as dreaming, stress and dying are effected by it, naturally. It's the same stuff. This is an amazing discovery, but no one can study it because of draconian laws. That will eventually change.

The technique of finding lucid awareness is a way of using the body's natural release of this DMT to explore its effects in the same way a psychedelic explorer could use it as an extracted substance. And lucid dreaming isn't illegal.