Presence: An Introduction

[originally posted 12/31/05]

Truth is a pathless land.
— Krishnamurti

It's been a bit more clarified for me that this blog will have many purposes — including a place for readers to ask questions of me, Tim, and of each other — all underscored by the need for communication — and that the purposes will become themselves clarified in an organic way — that is, as they arise in the way a seed germinates and grows in response to certain key elements. Sometimes the purpose will be self-evident but only to certain individuals, depending upon their own perceptive abilities. These abilities, while in stages of growth, are, paradoxically — a favourite Risen concept to be kept in mind at all times — simultaneously still a seed.

The Risen world often seems to be a world of quantum physics, where some thing can be another thing or things at the same time, in the same locale or in other dimensions. I say "seems" because I'm reporting from a position of perception, but not necessarily from beyond experential knowledge.

The ways in which I receive communications from the Risen, and often from Tim, usually reflect this quantum physics-ness from my sphere of experience. Metaphors, like the idea of the seed, seem to arise quite easily in my mind when suspended in such communicative states, and indeed reflect the mode of intercommunication that is primarily used by those who are Risen. Thus metaphors and other picturesque, energetic images will be found throughout their book, The Risen—Diaglogues of of Love, Grief, & Survival Beyond Death.

These images, which are interwoven using textual words, are energetic, intelligent, alive, and in constant flux. They interact with the mind. This is true of all mind-generated communications, images or otherwise. All senses, primal and subtle, are involved when mind engages with mind. A label I use for these communications is "infosphere" and anyone familiar with Robert Monroe's monumental out-of-body work may recognize his "ROTE" or Related Organized Thought Energy.

Another major common thread that has been woven throughout The Risen, and in many colours and textures, is the Risen insistence that all non-Risen have the innate, and often inactive, ability to communicate with any entity, Risen or otherwise, in the same way I and other mediumistic persons discern shared information. This is discussed in great detail in the chapter "Mundus Imaginalis—The Imaginal World." Once one has allowed the catalytic connection to be made regarding the reality of the imaginal — the catalyst being the heretofore hypersubtle feelings of spirit — one's former boundaries dissolve and the limitless of reality is activated from its latency and revealed, now subtle but finally discernable.

Regarding the earlier comment about my communication with Tim, which is sometimes metaphorical — and often so deeply personal that the picture that's worth a thousand words to me will be imperceptible to anyone else — we also communicate in other ways, and actually have access to more ways than would-be Risen communicators in higher-vibrating geographies. This is because we have similarly vibrating resonances with one another, as well as because Tim's (relatively) Risen "newness" continues to enable him to enter earthly mental geographies — and we are able to communicate mind-to-mind in a kind of telepathic word exchange, enhanced by feelings of the kind shared by lovers and intimate friends. The prime example that many of us on Earth can relate to is when we are able to sit quietly, in total silence, with an intimate partner, feeling perfectly safe, content, and at peace. Songs without words. This is how it often is with Tim and me. Sometimes communication is easy, sometimes not, and sometimes impossible, depending on many factors. However, one another's presence is an inescapable experience when we desire it. Being able to recognize one's own presence is the key to recognizing the presence of another.

Perhaps others will feel impressed to contribute their experiences here, methods, rhymes and reasons about their coming to recognize presence — something which appears to be quickly emerging in this early 21st Century, once available to only a few, isolated individuals, often controlled by "teachers" and various "schools," but now taking on its own quantum flame and spreading throughout the shared mind of earthly experience. Krishnamurti, my own guide and guardian, was one of the 20th Century heralds identifying the superstitious qualities of such teachers and schools, and advised the seeker to stop seeking, rest and be quiet, in order to recognize one's own presence, which he sometimes called "authority" — and from that place of rest — of choiceless awareness, as he put it — to let that self-authorship be the flame that is one's Self, revealing there to be no path at all — only, simply, one's Self — presence.