Klex of the I Ching – L’Été 2025

 

(Above are just 5 of over 100 "I Ching Klex" as manifested and painted by August Goforth & Hermann Rorschach [See Note: 1 below].  His original "10 Blots" can be seen in the Footnotes at the end of this posting.)

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This posting is an extension of the current and ongoing art project between Hermann Rorschach and myself – the link to the gallery of our images at the Risen Gallery of Dreams can be found HERE.

This gallery presentation is the first of what may be a 4-part series, as guided by the 4 Seasons. Thus, this first one is called “Klex of the I Ching – L’Été 2025”.

Other previous painting projects manifested with certain individuals, including Boris Pasternak and William Hurt, can be found HERE. (Once there, scroll down a bit to locate their works called "Spirit Artifacts").

Originally I was only working alone, exploring the possibility of expressing the Rune Stones in some kind of painterly manner. Somehow, in the ways of mediumship and art that are and most likely will always be inexplicable, Hermann was drawn to the energies I was projecting whilst handling the Runes and various art materials to see what might be done. Of course I was quite excited and opened up the gateway for his continued contact, which has since become a more established and steady portal between us.

However, it soon became clear that in spite of having transitioned 103 years ago, he was still essentially confused and scattered about his actual transition. Later this lack of expected clarity was explained by the basic lack in his earthly beliefs, understanding and experience of The Afterlife. It was also eventually revealed that his sudden appearance in my art studio was not random, but part of a sophisticated, ongoing campaign to awaken him to the spiritual clarity that is the birthright of us all into the Realms of Spirit. Such campaigns are usually known as “spirit rescues” and by my acknowledgement and willingness to engage with him and his unfolding transmutation, was onboarded to the ”rescue team.”

After I did a lot of research on his life, greatly aided by Damion Searls’ book “The Inkblots”,  "Hermann Rorschach's Psychodiagnostics - Newly Translated & Annotated 100th Anniversary Edition: (Hogrefe Publishing Corp) and also several hard-to-find writings by his wife, began to reach my own clarity as to his current state of mind and how to assist his continued spiritual enlightenment. It took more than an earthly month of time for him to finally come to an understanding that he was not in a dream state, nor drugged in some way, nor in a medical coma of some kind. This same month also gave me time to establish the fact that while on earth, he gave very little thought or exploration into the possibility of life after death — not that he wouldn’t have been able to do so with the well-known brilliance and energy he was known to have brought to his psychiatric practice and for the immense love for his wife and two children — but he was far too focused on and satisfied with life in the present. Also, he was just at the beginning of the career he chose over instead becoming an artist, and so was not prepared for his sudden transition at the age of 37 from a burst appendix — the symptoms of which he had purposely ignored, choosing instead to focus on the needs of his patients, until it was too late.

[“Synchronistically” I was also able to locate and acquire an original set of the 10 inkblots, which are supposedly not ever allowed to be obtained by anyone other than certified specialists. I myself am certified and licensed in the US as a trained psychotherapist of many years, but even that doesn’t qualify me to own and use them. However, as it so often happens in the mediumistic, spiritual matters that manifest in my life, and as part of the orchestration that brought Hermann and I together, also brought an unexpected resource of a particular collector/hoarder’s basement. And lo, they found their way into my hands for study and a deepening understanding of our artistic collaboration. At the time of my online searching, I wasn’t able to even find viable reproductions of them, so at some possible blurry risk, I am including the images of the 10 original blots here in  this blog posting (see below). The Reader is encouraged to study these and compare them with those Hermann and I have manifested.]

At first I assumed that our work with the Runes would be part of his development, but as he achieved more and more clarity and his brilliant mind was able to grasp and accept the complex reality of what was happening between us, he began to resist the Runes, as they didn’t interest him. He had been aware of them while on earth, and had even explored them briefly when developing his “blots”. But he had actually and secretly been drawn to the I Ching system, which was hardly known or recognized in the West/Europe, and most certainly would not have been acceptable on a professional level of a doctor of Western Medicine. [See Note: 1 below] The translated text did not achieve broader cultural influence until after Richard Wilhelm’s German translation in 1923, (a year after Hermann transitioned) which coincided with increased Western interest through figures such as Carl Jung, who wrote the very excellent forward to Wilhelm’s translation — highly recommended!).

And so after I finally understood what he was trying to convey to me, and ceased trying to force him to concentrate on the Runes, he was able to break through my resistance and the project which would become “Klex of the I Ching – L’Été 2025” began!

It took us about 2 months of exploring various materials — paper, paint, ink, specialized pencils, and wax — as well as techniques in folding the many and various kinds of paper — as well as producing hundreds of failures — that we turned away from all other already-established processes for making basic ink-blots (and there are many) and finally developed our own successful and reliable protocol. The Klex on view at the Risen Gallery of Dreams are all on only one or two particular kinds of watercolour paper, applying water-based inks (over 120 different kinds and colours so far) and manipulating those inks in certain ways onto paper that has been folded in certain ways. Many of the inks are complex formulae, instilled with all kind of metallic shimmering and sheening, as well as shading substances. The original “Rohrshach Blots” are 9 9/16ths X 6 5/8ths inches in size – a size that took Hermann and the publishers ages to arrive at for some unknown reason. Our images are mainly 7 X 10 inches, with a few at 6 X 9 inches.

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NOTES:

(1) Hermann Rorschach (1884–1922) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst best known for creating the Rorschach inkblot test, a projective psychological test designed to analyze personality and unconscious thoughts. Originally interested in art, influenced by his painter father, Rorschach combined his artistic background with medical science, graduating in medicine from the University of Zurich in 1909. He began experimenting with inkblots as a diagnostic tool while still a student, fascinated by how different people interpreted ambiguous shapes. After working in Swiss psychiatric hospitals, he published his foundational book, Psychodiagnostik, in 1921, detailing the use of 10 inkblots to assess mental health. He died prematurely at 37, but his inkblot test has remained widely used in psychology, psychiatry, and related fields to understand personality and diagnose mental illness.

Hermann Rorschach created his inkblots by combining his interest in art and psychology. Some scholars assume he was inspired by a childhood game called Klecksography, where inkblots were made and stories created about them, and that he refined this playful technique into a scientific tool. Jung and even Thoreau, among many others had played with inkblots in those days.

However, Damion Searls, in his book “The Inkblots”, a very good biography of Rorschach, feels that “Klex” (the German name for “inkblot” was the nickname given to Hermann when he was at the elite, 6-year Gymnasium, an academic high school, by his fellow students. It was standard for the young men to give each other a nickname, and in his case, “Klex” did not mean “inkblot” but that he was known to be very good with pen and ink, and who drew quickly and well. (There are archived examples of the charming but very sophisticated drawings and paintings, as well as highly-sophisticated puppets he made for his children.)

Later, on, in his psychiatric practice, rather than simple random inkblots, Rorschach carefully crafted each blot with symmetrical contours meant to evoke specific yet ambiguous images. Between 1917 and 1920, he experimented with over forty inkblots on psychiatric patients and observed how those with different mental disorders, especially schizophrenia, responded variably.

Rorschach selected fifteen blots for their diagnostic potential and later reduced them to ten for publication due to practical constraints. These ten cards include both black-and-white and colored symmetrical inkblots designed to provoke a wide range of perceptions around animals, humans, objects, or abstract shapes. The test works by encouraging individuals to project their unconscious thoughts onto these ambiguous images, revealing insights into their personality and cognitive functioning. The process involves showing each blot to a subject and recording their spontaneous interpretations, which are later analyzed to detect patterns associated with different psychological conditions.

(2) The I Ching, also known as the "Book of Changes," is an ancient Chinese divination text dating back over 3,000 years. It functions both as a philosophical system and a tool for guidance, describing the fundamental principles of reality and the dynamics of change through the interaction of complementary forces called yin and yang. The core of the I Ching consists of 64 hexagrams—figures made of six stacked lines that are either broken (yin) or solid (yang)—each representing different states or processes of change. Traditionally, divination is performed by casting yarrow stalks or coins to generate a hexagram, which is then interpreted through the text's verses and commentaries to provide insight and advice on various life situations. The I Ching has had a profound influence on Chinese philosophy, including Taoism and Confucianism, serving as both an oracle and a deep ethical guide.

The Original "Rorschach Blots":

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The Lightening of Internal Gravity

"Vast emptiness, nothing holy!" ~ Bodhidharma (1)

       Unaware of the ego-mind’s back-door technique, we may assume that the only way to deal with it is to attack and destroy it, as well as the simulate selves and their thoughts, as if rooting out unwanted, persistent weeds from the garden of the mind. But the ego-mind, an integral part of our materialized existence, is here to stay, and there are gentle, creative, aware responses that bring the situation to the infinite openness of compassion. Because we are essentially spirit, all matters of the heart and mind are first addressed in some spiritual way, beginning with directing the will. For most individuals, free will does not yet exist, and much effort will have to be made to gain psychological freedom while seeking the spiritual clarity for which they yearn. (2)   One cannot regain free will on one’s own; assistance must be requested. Communing with one’s Authentic Self while requesting spiritual assistance can be done in solitude or with The Risen, through formal or informal prayers and meditation.
       Although seemingly counterintuitive, sensing spiritual being as an embodied human actually begins with first bringing the attention to the body. The body has its own inherent wisdom to direct us, if we can get to an internal place of quiet so we can hear and listen. Non-competitive exercise, journaling, psychotherapy, chanting, listening to music, guided imagery recordings, singing, dancing, drumming, painting—all may lift the focus from that which is dark and heavy toward a finer vibration that lightens internal gravity. As inner gravity is lightened, muscles and tendons release and relax and begin to smile. Done on a regular basis, these things will maintain a healthy mind-body system.
       We each must find our own ways—which often cycle and change—to get quiet within. After connecting with the body, talking and listening to it, a course of inner direction will make itself known. There are usually no direct instructions, only feelings that emerge and flow with the spontaneity of a new mountain stream. We aim our conscious awareness inwardly by directing our attention away from the world assumed to be outside our body. We declare to the Universe/Higher Power/God/Deepest Loved One that we honestly don’t know what we’re doing or what to do next, but that we are willing to receive help. Asking for help needs no special skills, no holiness or advanced spirituality—we come just as we are. If we don’t know how to ask for help then we can say so and ask for guidance on how to ask, and then be at least willing to trust that some kind of answer will come.
       Be willing to be willing without ceasing, especially whenever feeling the slightest hesitation of doubt, and ignore the ego-mind’s insistence that you don’t need help. You may have to find this inner quiet literally thousands of times a day. The ego-mind will be just as persistent in interrupting the silence with the voice of a negative simulate self, because it knows what’s at stake.


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(1)  When one "empties one's self", there are those who believe that Higher Self or, perhaps, God, can then fill the emptiness. This idea mistakenly approaches the situation from a viewpoint of limitation. Subjectively, from the level of ego-mind, negativity can be removed, and replaced with its polar opposite of positivity. However, the absolute realization, when ego-mind is stilled, is that what was perceived as empty is actually fullness of Self.
(2) Here, “psychological freedom” means freedom from psychological time—that is, freedom from memories. – AG

[Excerpted from the chapter "Ego-mind and The Simulate Selves.] 

The Challenges of the Skeptic Materialist

[First published 5/15/13]

"As for the men in power, they are so anxious to establish
the myth of infallibility that they do their utmost to ignore truth."
— Boris Pasternak

(Special thanks to Dr. Julia Assante who also published the following at her blog, The Last Frontier.)

      As physical mediumship continues to re-emerge into the 21^st century and becomes increasingly more familiar to worldwide spiritual communities, materialist skeptics are also rising to what their ego-minds perceive as a challenge of some kind.

      Who are these resistant and avoidant skeptics, anyway? Do they need any more attention? I recently happened to re-read Soul Force, written by a friend and colleague, Paul Olsen, (1933-2001) a brilliant clinical psychologist, psychotherapist and successfully published novelist. I found what he had to say about skeptics quite stimulating and share it here:

“Skepticism is one of the most prevalent and damaging counterforces to recognizing the power of the soul, a short-circuit par excellence of inner energy. It prevents a living connection, and so it keeps us deadened, inert, checks our every movement.

“The problem with skepticism is that it has become an accepted position. It is even supposed to label a person ‘smart.’ But skepticism is total passivity: you don’t have to do, feel, or think anything at all to be a skeptic. All you have to do is say No. You just have to be negative. It’s an uncharged position, like a dead battery; it has no life to it. It’s a wall trying to dam up a flow.

“The ‘position’ is accepted because it comes from the misuse and misunderstanding of the scientific viewpoint which for decades has had us by the throats. It’s a show-me position that takes the place of imagination with as deadly an effect as a surgical brain transplant.

“Skepticism is a position of arrogance—and it is utterly devoid of imagination and creativity. No spontaneity at all. Yet how can such total passivity be so arrogant? Precisely because anything so passive, so inert, so without curiosity and a sense of wonder, finds itself cut off from its own energy—and so it lives in a world of being acted upon by forces outside itself, and in its helplessness it becomes arrogant. Helplessness—then it feels fear and becomes a dictator that persecutes anything new and different. In psychology this is called ‘overcompensation.’ But kids peg it in a different way: inside every bully is a coward. The skeptic hurts himself far more than he can ever hurt you.

“Maybe at this point you might be asking: what about the ‘healthy’ skeptic? The person who isn’t in the habit of buying the Brooklyn Bridge or getting set up by con men? The ‘healthy’ skeptic hangs loose. The healthy skeptic doesn’t believe everything he hears—but what he does is investigate. Not with the idea of disproving something, but with the idea of finding something that may enrich him. Implicit in the healthy skeptic is that he might find something, and so he sets off actively. He seeks experience. Openly. And so he is not really a skeptic at all. He just wants to do it himself.

“The true skeptic will ... avoid exploration, the main reason being that someone has suggested it to him. He will call it all nonsense. But how can he know it is anything at all unless he tries? Obviously he won’t try, so therefore he knows nothing. Or he will try only to defeat the purpose.

“It is important for the skeptic that nothing ever happens.

“So we can say, with pretty good assurance, that the skeptic keeps himself deliberately in ignorance, in his dark trap. This idea is crucial for almost all that follows. Skepticism is a position of inert, self-willed ignorance. It is soulless.

“The ‘healthy’ skeptic, if you want to use that term, will try—with the idea of experiencing something. And that is a position of self-willed knowledge.” ⁽¹⁾

      The Italian mystic, Massimo Scaligero (1906-1980) reveals many hidden ideas in his exploratory offerings about materialism:

“Materialism is our faith in matter. We do not know how to experience matter by means of the concrete forces of thinking. Materialism is the most obscure mysticism, for it purports to be the opposite of mysticism simply because it is nourished by mathematical calculation and dialectical abstractions. It feeds our inner weaknesses with the dead products of thinking. By failing to penetrate matter, such thinking elevates it to a mystical reality without any awareness that it does so. No bigot devotes him or herself more faithfully to the object of this or her opiated faith than does the materialist.

“Materialism ... signifies the actual situation of present-day humanity. Materialism is the uncognized and, therefore, the unelaborated basis of all the doctrines and spiritualisms, traditional or not, which ignore the underlying process that gives rise to material appearances. It shuns the task of confronting the problem of the physical objectivity of nature: sensory perceptions and its coming into being as representation. This is a problem that cannot be solved theoretically, but only through the active penetration of reality.

“ A corresponding ... error, which leaves the authority of matter over us unchanged, is to accept the physical world as it is, and matter as it appears. With this error, we engage in abstracted experiments or calculations with the physical world and material appearances, or we seek to transcend them theoretically or mystically.” ⁽²⁾

      Some people are Skeptics with a capital S. These Professional Skeptics feel it’s their job to remain closed in their minds and hearts while retaining the right to question anything. Many of them include scientists, who represent a very small minority of humanity on earth, but have been placed on pedestals that raise them above the majority. This misapprehension disempowers the majority, disabling them from assessing their own valid experiences of personal reality. Science has given us brilliant advances in many aspects of human living, but not without a lot of trials and errors. The facets of truth that science presents as dogma are often successful in creating distractions from those with alternate viewpoints. Yet scientific history consistently reveals the inevitable result of radical exchanges of such dogma. Former universally accepted and supposedly proven axioms are continually replaced by new discoveries, which are then made formal by a collective agreement of this minority. Such has been the course of mainly Western science as it has evolved on earth. This is finally changing as science rediscovers the idea of the energy we call spirit. Science is wonderful, amazing, and necessary, and can provide a certain amount of insight into our existence, but not all. Given the amazing changes in our scientific world-views over the past one hundred years, can we truly think we can now put a cap on what is to come in the next hundred?

      Earthly, western scientific methods are not derived from Nature, but from human minds that see themselves as separate from it. But it’s not the only way of thinking about things. If something can be seen, held, heard, smelled and felt, then scientific measurement can be applied. If they’re too subtle to be detected beyond the senses, then they’re beyond known scientific methods.

      The materialistic reductionist models of Western science have attempted to govern humankind’s world-mind for the past two centuries. This is particularly exemplified in the dominant Darwinian life-models. These reified theories have been less concerned with subjective value issues, focusing primarily on objective experiences manifested by those human senses that can be used to physically see, hear, touch, smell, taste, and measure. Traditionally, materialistic science has sought to gather, weigh, measure, compare, and ultimately predict and control aspects of our existence, even if no under-standing of the phenomenon is ever gained. Value is seen in terms of who can predict with the greatest accuracy, and thus who will have the most control. The Global Madison Avenue, or the world of advertising, uses materialistic science to assign value to whatever market they wish to control, including their primary target, the mental market of the masses—the collective ego-mind. One does not have to look too deeply to reach the conclusion that most of our modern societal beliefs—and worldly ones as well—are created, maintained, and controlled by the collaborative efforts of the media and the Global Madison Avenue. Imagine what might happen if the same energy from the efforts placed into creating and selling fossil fuel-burning cars was channeled into communication with the Risen.

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(1) From the chapter “Freeing Your Emotion” in Soul Force: A Step-by-Step Guide to Inner Strength, by Paul Olsen, Ph.D, 1978, New York: M. Evans & Company. Quoted with kind permission by the author's family. This book is freely accessible at an online archive at: http://archive.org/details/soulforcereleasi00olse

(2) From the chapter “Forces of Opposition: Mediumship” in The Light: An Introduction to Creative Imagination by Massimo Scaligero, 2001 (translated by Eric L. Bisbocci, Lindisfarne Books,) SteinerBooks/Anthroposophic Press/Lindisfarne Books, 610 Main Street, Gt. Barrington, MA 01230. Quoted with kind permission by the publisher.

Notes of August: Alignment is All (I)

Oceanus-Tethys

 Alignment is All.

I must be very very caring and consciously,deliberately selective and picky about my moment to moment thinking. My Now signal. The universe always says yes. I say yes.

Power is in my thought and not my reaction to life.

Pay less attention to what is and more attention to who I really am, which is really What Is.

I am a center in God’s Being. It is the pulse of Life in all there is to me.

I am the child of God and heir to all the Father hath. As I let my inner self see things in their entirety and in their right relation, I know that the Spirit of Life and Power is back of all that is visible in this world.

Everything I need today will come to me.

I declare: Life. Abundance. Clarity. Tranquility. Brilliance. Illumination. Immortality. Prosperity. Abundance. Health. Wealth. Opulence. Quietude. Alignment. Peace. Ease. Tranquil peace. Peaceful tranquility. Perfect health. Perfect peace. Perfect tranquility. Perfect Abundance. Perfect ease. Easy peace. Eezy Peezy.

My word shall accomplish that which I please because it is not I, but the Father within me who doeth the work. Today I lose myself in the One Mind of God. Today I center my thought in His mind and my word flows directly from it. Everything I say today shall be spoken from that “ Secret place of the Most High.”

Thought or Imagination of the Spirit is the great reality of Being, and all material facts are only correspondences.

I am a center in God’s Being. It is the pulse of Life in all there is to me.

I am the child of God and heir to all the Father hath. As I let my inner self see things in their entirety and in their right relation, I know that the Spirit of Life and Power is back of all that is visible in this world.

God is Omnipotent Power in me. I am now in a totally fearless state of mind. Neither change nor problem rob my peace. This is simply so because I have ceased looking for help and solution outside of myself. I turn within and let God’s Mind reveal what is already known to It beforehand.

My Now signal

An interval, which is preparation for the good to come, and which sometimes is negatively thought of as a delay.

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Painting by AGoforth; to view other paintings: Gallery of Dreams.

Notes of August: The Quiet Whispering

   
     "The subjective mind is the builder of the body. Then, on the same principle, if we realize that the subjective mind is the builder of the body, and that the body is subject to no influences except those which reach it through the subjective mind, then what we have to do is to impress this upon the subjective mind and habitually think of it as a fountain of perpetual Life, which is continually renovating the body by building in strong and healthy material, in the most complete independence of any influences of any sort, save those of our own desire impressed upon our own subjective mind by our own thought.
    "When once we fully grasp these considerations we shall see that it is just as easy to externalize healthy conditions of body as the contrary. Practically the process amounts to a belief in our own power of life; and since this belief, if it be thoroughly domiciled within us, will necessarily produce a correspondingly healthy body, we should spare no pains to convince ourselves that there are sound and reasonable grounds for holding it. To afford a solid basis for this conviction is the purpose of Mental Science."

~ Thomas Troward

I am free to be.

"I AM the heir of eternal expansion and clothed in my right to partake of it. Oh, do not ever again let me be poor-spirited or faded or gnarled in form! I want the richly patterned life. I want to be gorgeously spirited, I want the ceremonial beauty and fragrance of the spirit. I want the freedom of its force. I want the quiet whispering of its wisdom. I want the simplicity of its love. Oh help me to the fullness of life! I pray for the fullness of life with an undivided heart, so that I may rest absorbing strength, not emptying myself of life!"

~ Betty (SEWhite, Across The Unknown)

"Stars on a Pond" painting by AGoforth; to view other paintings: Gallery of Dreams.

Notes of August: The Nowness of New ~ The Newness of Now

 . . . more copies of my private notes that have slowly emerged over the many years . . . 

"Poppies 1" from the series,
"101 Poppies"

Power is in my thought and not my reaction to what’s going on around me. 

Rather than first taking action, I first allow my vibration to adjust itself. 

All thoughts of fear, doubt, worry, and anxiety are removed from my mind, now and forever now. 

Now I rise and rest in relaxation as an easy, cooperative component of universal harmony — now. 

My life is constantly renewing itself; therefore now is new and I am able to let my life continually evolve forward as it also continues to fade into the past. 

The forward manifesting and its receding could be conceptualized and mentally experienced as happening simultaneously, therefore merging in such a way that any anxious experience of time is rendered equalized and balanced, and so therefore I can only rest in the  nowness of new, and the newness of now.

I rest in the  nowness of new, 

and the newness of now.

Notes of August: I let God be God in me.

I no longer try to change outer things. They are simply a reflection. I change my inner perception, and the outer reveals the beauty so long obscured by my own attitude. I concentrate on my vision and find my outer view transformed. I find myself attuned to the grandeur of life and in unison with the perfect order of the universe.

I’m putting the boat in the water wherever I am, and my knowledge that the stream is ever flowing toward all that I have become and am becoming is enough for me to feel satisfaction with where I am.

 I let God be God in me.

"Horizon VI"
(click on image to see a larger version)

Painting by AGoforth; to view other paintings: Gallery of Dreams.

Freedom is feeling presence, not an absence.

 Freedom is not merely the absence of restraint but a state of belonging and love, rooted in correspondence.

 True spiritual freedom, then, is realized not in isolation but in empathic communion and communing with Source, which is also one’s very own Spirit.

Freedom is feeling presence, not an absence.

Notes of August: Meditation

 [More notes from my private writings]

Meditation is the art of letting go of the tensions of the world so that I can once again be conscious that: “I am in the center of the divine flow.”

I let my mind and heart release all that disturbs me. I let my body be still and all the frettings of my body and all that surrounds it. I let the earth and sea and air be still and heaven itself; and I think of spirit as streaming, pouring, rushing, shining into me, through me and out from me in all directions while I sit quietly. The whole infinite process is in support of me, will never let me go, and I can never get out of it. The truth is that I am always in this relationship with the infinite even though I am not always conscious of it.

Notes of August: I Don't Know

 [Continued notes from my private writings]

"Sunset, Sunrise"

When I completely accept this moment, when I no longer argue with what is, the compulsion to think lessens and is replaced by an alert stillness. I am fully conscious, yet the mind is not labeling this moment in any way. This state of inner nonresistance opens me to the unconditioned consciousness that is infinitely greater than the human mind.

When I fully accept that I don't know, I give up struggling to find answers with the limited thinking mind, and that is when a greater intelligence can operate through me. And even thought can then benefit from that, since the greater intelligence can flow into it and inspire it. Sometimes surrender means giving up trying to understand and becoming comfortable with not knowing.

Mystery

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Painting by AGoforth; to view other paintings: Gallery of Dreams.

Notes of August" Dreaming Reality

[More notes from my private writings]

"Marsh Mallow Dreams of Fiona"

Thought or Imagination of the Spirit is the Great Reality of Being, and all material facts are only correspondences. In other words, the Great Reality of Being arises into many diverse kinds of forms, dream-like, or dreamily, from our awakening from dwelling in what may be called “underconsciousness”. 

We interpret this dream dwellingness as “the world” or “our world”. This Dreaming Reality increasingly and continuously emerges and expands from our gradually awakening consciousness into an evolving, consciously alive experience of Living Reality that continues to unfold unceasingly — forever awakening. 

   For most embryonic awakening beings, at first their personal and unique experience of Reality will be indistinguishable from sleeping and from sleepy dreaming. We continue to sleepily, and still mostly indistinguishably, experience the rising and falling, the in-and-out contrasting rhythms of the universal tides of the Great Ocean that is one’s Resting Source. These “tides” are the “breathing” of Resting Source. Gradually we will begin to more consciously distinguish this contrasting rhythm of dreaming realities. We will then begin to increasingly align in union with the Universal Rhythms when we relax and resist not — resting and drowsing, so to speak — to go along, always without worry, floating and drifting with the ebb and flow of ever-arising Reality manifesting from the Infinite. 

    Our dreaming is an ever-emerging awakening into further personal and personalizing reality — reality is an ever-emerging experience into further dreaming. We can continue to distinguish this rhythm of dreaming realities, increasingly relaxing with decreasing resistance, without worry, floating and drifting with the ebb and flow of ever-arising Reality manifesting from the Infinite. 

     And then, at last, with awakened and yet never-ending awakening awe at the un-articulatable Glory of Never-Ending, Unending Mystery, we will continue our Journey, Forever Onward — consciously. One awakens in the dream, while the dream continues on . . . .

_________________________

Painting by AGoforth; to view other paintings: Gallery of Dreams.

Expansion: What's it Like to be Risen?

“To assert our individuality is to rise … into that more highly specialized use of the Law which brings freedom rather than bondage, joy in the place of grief.”

~ Ernest Holmes ~

[First published February 18, 2016]

It was recently shared with me about someone who had been advised by her son, who is still embodied on earth, about receiving guidance from his father and her husband, who had transitioned around seven years ago. Her son explained that “Dad’s alive” and that he and his father “interfaced … (it feels) like Dad, but expanded. Like he could see everything all at once.” While this may make sense to her on some levels because she is still able to maintain an awareness of her husband’s energy around her, it’s clear that it’s very intimate and experiential, making it difficult to explain much further, and so she’s wondering if anyone could suggest more about this expanded state of consciousness. Tim and I had actually been discussing what his life has been like in his current Risen state of consciousness, and so felt perhaps we could offer a little information that we trust might be useful.

The first thing we’d like to respond to is the idea of expansion, which applies to those of us still on the Earth as well. It’s quite simple, because all it really means is the absence of fear, and then the absence of resistance to the expansion. Fear is contraction, which you might notice as your body's breathing becomes shallow or stops. If you can imagine what it must be like to live and move about with absolutely no fear, you might begin to understand what our loved ones are experiencing. And if you can understand this, your vibration automatically becomes higher and finer, and thus begins the process of growth that will allow us to resonate with our Risen loved ones, and then the shared resonance becomes the transmission and receiving of information—primarily through feelings—which is the communication and dialogue we are hoping for.

The following is an excerpt from The Risen: Dialogues of Love, Grief & Survival Beyond Death:

      “Envision with your mind’s eye a world where poverty is impossible and abundance unavoidable. Because there are no needs there is no necessity to work. There is instant access to infinite sustenance, clothing, shelter, and anything else you might desire. This will be so for everyone there, for these elements will be freely available to all. Hence an economic system of any kind—which implies lack—will not be needed in this world, unless you might want it for yourself. The same will hold true for any social, psychological, political, scientific, and religious systems, which all inherently embrace presumptions of lack and need. The environment—the weather, the light, the mode of transport, and your homes—will continuously reflect your personal consciousness. 

     “Everyone in this world is free to do whatever they like and as much or as little of it. Work and play are indistinguishable from one another. You will work and play, and live and love with those who are most like you, for in this realm the Principle of Affinity is the guiding force of relationships. Those who are not like you will be with others who are most like them. (1) 

     “Most relieving of all, there is no judgment or criticism of any kind in this world, no matter how much we may think we deserve it. If that should be the case, we would be judging only our self and not prevented from such a desire. Rather than judgment, we can expect and welcome only adjustment. The Principle of Affinity will convey us into an environment that reflects our self-judgments. Although nobody will attempt to interfere with our self-judgmental behavior there will always be observant, compassionate Helpers waiting to respond to the slightest request to help release any such unkind intentions toward oneself. 

     “Because we will be able to perceive that there is love freely available to all in this new world the usual distortions from lack of it will not exist, and any falsehoods will vanish quickly when we allow ourselves to fall into love’s awaiting arms. This falling into love will be as easy as breathing, for we are designed to self-correct through change—that is, through intelligent transition. “Death” is also corrected through this loving process of transition, from which we will emerge and arise anew. 

     “This other world exists right now and awaits us at every moment. We already know this Home with great intimacy, for whenever our body sleeps and sometimes when we daydream we visit it and all those there whom we love. Each of us has been leaving our terrestrial body—rising from it—to travel in our spiritual body to this other world, this home, since the day we first arose upon the Earth. Very few of us remember these travels upon returning to our terrestrial body, so heavily does earthly life weigh us down. The sheer density of our physical body filters out the greatly finer vibrations of such memories. If we could remember even just a little bit, our burdensome grief would be tremendously lightened by the awe of such experiences, and further comforted by the sureness that the day will come when we will take our last step away from this Earth, never having to return.”

As reported in our first book, The Risen Dialogues, along with some additional reflections in the upcoming new book, Tim initially had the following to say, which was about five years after his transition and relocation to his new existence. I had asked him if he could explain how he moves through his world as a Risen person. He had apparently recreated his small and cozy studio apartment as well as the Greenwich Village neighborhood in New York City where he had lived when on the Earth, and tried to give me a sense of what this was like for him:

“I see you are wondering what lies beyond this tiny apartment where my cat, Bigfoot and I sometimes rest. Nothing and yet everything lies beyond it. When I go for walks through the old neighborhood it’s the same, yet so much more. Each and every thing is alive, suffused by glowing, pulsating, prismatic lights, filled with life and energy as the sun-filled trees in the parks, effervescent as the fountains which give forth music, their waters welling up and cascading down pieces of sculpture that are never the same. Birds, animals, butterflies, and flowers of exquisite and dramatic beauty populate this geography. It is all a manifestation of my mind, yet infinitely more. It is also a co-manifestation, for there are many other Risen here, drawn together by the resonance of our minds, united by curiosity and love and the never-ending desire to experience and share. Some of the people are familiar to me, many are not, but all are enjoying themselves and each other. Sometimes the landscape will gently change and appear as if several geographies exist in the same place, as many souls overlap here in similar ways of vibration of mind and emotion.

“Although many prefer to walk in this sort of environment, some float or fly. There are those who take pleasure in vehicles of every kind, from old Model T’s to trains, planes, and even boats on gentle streams, scaled down for individual use or for small groups of people. I’ve never seen anything like your giant jets that carry hundreds of people at a time although there is nothing barring such things, so I’m sure they must exist somewhere. It all depends on what we allow our minds to manifest.

“Many travel through the purity of thoughtful desire, meaning that the mere thought of wanting to be somewhere results in instantly being there. They prefer this method of movement to all others. We each choose our method of passage according to taste and need, whatever pleases us.

“I can seemingly walk forever onward but never come to an end, as if eternity is contained within a few short blocks. You and I have been shown and now understand, to a very limited degree, that one of the infinite truths about ‘forever’ is that we manifest it. Some might say we create it but to be nit-picky, everything has already been created and so everything already just is. We are the shapers and shifters of creation, causing it to manifest as it pleases us. There is no end to anything, no walls or boundaries. There are no finalities simply because wherever you go, there you are, something that people on Earth already intuit. On the Risen level we say, ‘As you go, you are.’ We could say that this going, this movement, is one’s manifested reality … it is the manifested realization of one’s immortality.”

Tim’s description is rendered here into understandable language of the material for terrestrial people, but still does not come close to truly describing his intimate experience of his spiritual reality. Essentially, he is saying that his experience of life—his actual world—principally arises as his consciousness arises from within any present moment. His world experience unceasingly unfolds in direct response to his thoughtful or even thoughtless presence—somehow even before each step he takes in any direction. Because there is only his presence he is always present; he is always now. This never-ending now is his immortality. It is the same for those of us on Earth.

His presence is his present, which is a form of mind, or “mind in formation.” While this mind information is similar to that which we terrestrials call “thought” it is not thinking as we know it. If I want to join him in some manner from my present moment, I must find a way to consciously be with him at the point where our presences intersect—which is always in the present and not in past nostalgic reminiscences, or in future expectations. The way in which I use my mind becomes of the utmost importance in this endeavor.

Without his former body’s dense material and its ego-mind, Tim’s lens of awareness is able to focus on a larger range of living than mine. So it might be said that he is waiting ahead of me, which for me would be foreknowledge. When we each focus our lens of awareness toward one another, the interception is where we meet and join in awareness. Because I now have knowledge that he is waiting ahead for me, I’ve achieved a bit of that which some might call faith and which I increasingly experience as knowing. Tim responds to my ponderings here from his Risen state:

“August, it’s not so much that I’m ‘waiting ahead’ for you, but it’s more that our movement within and against different backgrounds makes it seem so. I truly comprehend the difficulty there is in finding a way to compare our two very different experiences of awareness of self while living in different dimensions of space and time. Like space, time has a reality and its beauty is seen and experienced in differing realities, and in changing reality. We can see that change is rooted in Nature—that we are Nature, and change is time. But change is also space.

“Your geography is usually described on earth as an experience of Space-Time. Space appears to stand still while events are perceived to change by passing through it in a linear, timely way, manifesting impressions of past, present, and future. The Risen geography could be said to be an experience of Time-Space. Time appears to stand still while space appears to change as I move through it. As on Earth—and some of you are beginning to grasp this—the Risen interpret and utilize these appearances, which are actually thoughts, as movement or modes of transportation. All time events are occurring simultaneously, reflecting the Risen observation that Creation is finished and always available for manifested exploration. Space-Time and Time-Space, and other combinations of light and sound are the mediums of exploration, the finger paints of the cosmic playroom. You, the Yet-To-Rise, can and do experience Risen Time-Space via spiritual events and realizations—as well as altered states of consciousness, which also include pain and suffering.

“To get some feel for this, I’ll try to use an earthly experience as an illustration that most people can understand. It sort of works because it reflects the experience of an actual train ride you might take on Earth. It’s as if I’m sitting in a train which is moving along at a very fast speed—meaning a state of higher vibration. As I look out the window on the side where I’m sitting, those things closer to the train appear to race past me very quickly, as they would on an earthly train ride—so space appears to change as I move through time.

“Simultaneously, those things that are further away, which are the lower vibrating landscapes of Earth, also appear to move but much more slowly. From my train I can see the combined Risen and Earth landscapes as well as many of their details, but not all. Those objects in the middle ground also move but at a different rate. I can see these different-paced, different-spaced areas simultaneously through the one window, and I can also see them moving in different relationships with one another. Depending on where you are within that passing landscape, I can see more of your life than you can, while mine moves along at its faster pace which still keeps pace with yours. We might even get a brief glimpse of one another.

“Someone in another Risen train traveling alongside mine might see what I see, but in a different way, and from a different perspective. My present Risen State is a little like being in a train at times, although you can see how the analogy breaks down quickly if I try to move beyond this very simplified form. Rather like trying to walk through a moving train while having to pee really badly.”

My thanks to Tim! Any comfort we can find from even the slightest of ideas along the way is a sign that grief continues to transform and evolve. We want you to see that people still on Earth can form a new relationship with anyone who has transitioned, and especially after the grief they have both been sharing has eased.

I would also like to share a bit about my conscious forays into Risen geographies, albeit still in extremely limited ways. It is an enormously rare thing and it can be frustrating finding adequate language to articulate such non-word experiences. The following has been excerpted from a chapter in the new book, still in progress, The Risen: A Companion to Grief.

“After my body fell asleep that night I found myself standing on the top of the mountain behind the same Appalachian farmhouse, and could see the land stretching out far beneath and beyond me. The beauty of the green hills, flowers, and the clouds simply cannot be described—‘beauty’ even sounds like an unattractive word to use. I’ve always loved the term ‘Summerland’ that is often used in the older spiritualist writings, and while it barely does justice to this land I found myself in, I would like to use it here. 

“I was completely conscious and aware of where I was. Rather than try to describe the physical environment any further, it seems more appropriate to speak about the emotional environment—for that is really what it all is, manifesting in outer forms—an outward effect caused by my “is-ness” of inner reality. I almost fainted from the up-rushing of the fountain of feelings that lit up each and every cell of my astral-etheric body, and I could see my hands glowing, as well as light emerging from my fingertips, and even from my eyes. The feeling was one of ultra-intense longing mixed with relief, tinged with the fleeing of the grief one feels of having left a beloved Home, but now finally returned, where any other idea than feeling safe and sound could not possibly exist. My whole being wept—there are no physical tears in the Summerland, for water plays a very different role there—but if I had been on Earth, I would have been sobbing and laughing at the same time. This sensation of weeping was almost frightening in its intensity and there was an awareness that it would have literally melted my terrestrial body away in an instant. 

"I saw a familiar friend who had transitioned some years ago, who also notice me. He hardly gave me a glance and just waved a brief “hi!” my way as he resumed some task he was about. I realized that I probably appeared to him like a barely tangible ghost, transparent and perhaps difficult to hear. I then noticed another friend, who apparently was visiting from her sleep in her earthly bed, just like me. She emitted the same vivid but gentle light like mine. This is how visitors would see each other, even though the Risen would most likely see us as thin veils of energy, perhaps in the form of a person, but not necessarily. I’ve been made to understand that the Risen might see each other as glowing beings of light or otherwise, depending on their own dimensional viewpoint. 

“The three of us sat down in a nearby field and shared about our lives, intimate things which must remain private here. Then, eventually, slowly, I awakened back in my body in my earthly bed, both cats resting on my chest and peering intently into my face. When I realized that I was back in the terrestrial dimension, I began to experience the opposite of what I had felt when I had first entered Summerland—my whole being wept, but for a different reason. I felt lost, abandoned, and shattered. My first thought, was, “Oh god, no ... how can I endure another second of this? There is no way I can ever get out of this bed and start walking in this world of dismal gravity and shadows.” I began to feel overwhelmingly depressed, and if not for my guides who chanted soothing comforts in my ears, I don’t know how I would have made it. It took nearly two hours to get out of bed, and then almost the entire day of unceasing prayer to feel reconnected with Creative Source within and resume an earthly existence. Although I eventually felt fully grounded, for many days afterward I couldn’t stop thinking about that Summerland.”

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(1)  All of these experiences are potentially available to us while still on Earth, if we would let allow them.