The geology of spirit.

[First posted 3/26/11]

Just for the heck of it, I re-scanned Boris's image at 300 dpi with certain enhancements, to see how it would appear here. (Sorry it's a little crooked.) Of course it depends on the resolution of one's computer screen, but keep in mind that this is a 3x5 card. Click on the image below to see closer details. Most of us will be able to then click again on the image to enlarge it even more. My computer has refined resolution, so I don't know how many can see the "geology" of the image, which appear (to me)  as complex ridges, whorls, miniature streams and valleys created by the precipitation of molecules of pigment. The biologist's loupe I use reveals much more nature.

[Keywords: precipitated art, boris pasternak, card, hoyt robinette ]

More on the Myths of Reincarnation.

“Wherever you go, there you are.”
~ Zen Buddhist Saying
“Do not adjust your screens. This is not a test.”
~ Zen Risen Saying

Just finishing the reading of our special friend, Anita Moorjani's new book from Hay House, Dying To Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing.

So very much of what she shares resonates with and validates an exceptional amount of what we also struggled to put into words, which, as some may know, are inadequate and even misleading when trying to explain the numinous to the phenomenal mind. We are especially happy that her experience joins with and validates what a very few others are finally beginning to realize: that what has been taught as "reincarnation" can be something else entirely! This idea was explored in great detail in the chapter, "The Pastime of Reincarnation" in The Risen. We offer a link to a pdf of that chapter for those so interested, while echoing Anita's suggestion that we suspend beliefs for even a little bit, to begin to experience the expansion that she had during the spiritual adventure of her NDE.

The Grand Tapestry

Transfiguration, by Alex Grey

One of our many favorite passages from The Risen:

In spite of our current self-imposed limitations, through imagination we are able to continuously find transformational ways to locate, engage, embrace, communicate, and commune with others—wherever, whenever, and however they may be. We are “beings in movement” and “becomings in transformation.” These transformational movements are the creative methods of interweaving of all things living—and remain aware that there is nothing that is not living. Note that “creative” is used here instead of “manifesting” for one of the very few times in this book. In this instance, creative means “fun,” or more succinctly, “to enjoy.” That is, to join with the drawing forth of joy from where all pleasure surges forth, and to permeate our life with that joy.
    Keeping the Risen concept of weaving in mind, what we have before us, and are integrated in, is a Supreme Tapestry. There appears to be a Very Grand Design which we all follow, either in awareness or not, co-creatively or not— “creatively” again meaning “with fun.” The Grand Design is a work of perfection intermingled with imperfection, solutions with problems, brilliance with faux pas, and stillness within movement. As we weave we are free to make it up as we go along in any way that pleases us, while simultaneously staying within the Grand Design as imagined by Higher Imaginals, of whom we are an inseparable part. The Higher Imaginals are many things, but for our purposes here it suffices to say that they are unimaginably advanced, evolved individuals—or Most High Selves of Authenticity. Because It is infinite in concept and execution, it’s not possible to stray from the Great Design—so it’s not possible to be judged for appearing to do so, or even for wanting to.
    Although provocative in an illustrative way, the idea of a tapestry is a limiting concept and can be misleading. An earthly tapestry is a two-dimensional representational projection onto a three-dimensional object, used to portray three- and four-dimensional worlds—the fourth dimension being time. With the mind’s eye, it is possible to expand this concept by seeing a tapestry as woven not in a flattened manner, but as interwoven from all directions and by all beings, simultaneously. Picture this happening as guided by some kind of Great Designer who is presently unknown to us from within our limited dimensional awareness. Proceed further by seeing the interweaving occurring within different kinds of time, which gives rise to movement, which is change. We begin to comprehend the idea of a living work of art, which is Life as we know it, and as we don’t know it. Lastly, imagine that we are each a Great-Designer-In-Progress.

From The Archives: We are not amuses.

[originally posted 2/24/06]

K.'s communication (in The Risen) is one, like most, that personally I need to re-read many times. It was often this way with his earthly writings for me as well. I don't know about other folks, but for me it's as if sometimes there's a barrier, or some kind of psychological Teflon that causes the part of my mind that's trying to comprehend the material to just slip off and I find myself looking out the window at the birdies or the clouds slowly skimming across the sky or realizing I'm sorta hungry or that I forgot to water the plant I don't really care about anyway or wondering if I have any popcorn and if I should make a list of other things I don't have and wondering if there's anything good on tv tonight. This kind of reaction (which is not a response) also often happens, it seems, with presented material as discerned through mediumship. I noticed this is the case, for example when I re-read the old Seth books (although Jane Roberts did not consider herself a medium, but a channeler, if anything.) After a certain amount of sliding off the material, my mind gives up and goes elsewhere. Sometimes it takes years for me to have reached a certain place in my psychospiritual development where I can take in, process and understand, perhaps even apply to my life, the material that was consistently evading my comprehension. It really is a matter of try, try again.

It helps me to understand, and remember, that this process of apprehension is organic, meaning it's a living process and a matter of making a connection between the organism which we are, and other organisms. We are each, in a very real way, an organ of a larger body — which is often mostly unorganized and in the process of becoming organized. When we reach out to others in mind and spirit, and even body, we are making the attempt to associate or join in some way, to become part of that larger body. This body, in turn is also an organ of another body. I refrain from qualifying this next body as "larger" or "greater" because those terms are misleading. A more appropriate phrase might be "more organized" — which also serves as a different way to indicate "more truth."

These distinctions of words and concepts was and is still of interest to the individualized mind-spirit once known as Krishnamurti, and hence to me as well, since he's been my guide and teacher since I was sparked and risen on this planet — and so still is, since I'm still here. Two such particular concepts, which Tim and I have discussed many times and many ways in The Risen, are creation and manifestation. Because these concepts are directly related to K.'s previous message about Reality and dream, we wish to very briefly revisit them. I tend to assume that everyone has read The Risen, or at least, already understand these concepts as we intend. But we all know what they say happens when one tries to assume something. ⁽¹⁾

Many, many authors and teachers, known and anonymous, embodied and elsewhere, use the word "creation" quite indiscriminately in such a way that we assume we can create. It's also carelessly switched and/or mingled with "creativity".

Simply, we cannot create. Creation, or All That Is, is all there is. Our sphere of availability — which is a body, which itself is an organ — is contained within a greater organized body — which is also an organ — which is contained within a greater organized body — which is also an organ — and so on, and on, and on . . . infinooty. All of this is now created. It's hard not to use the limiting past tense "all of this has already been created" — because all is present — all creation is now. But don't worry about when, or how. Don't worry at all. Instead, wonder about — and then wonder at— Who.

Who, the Original Source has gifted us, individually and collectively, with the ability to manifest unlimited aspects of creation. Creation is Reality, and It is malleable; flexible, impressionable, submissive, yielding, governable.⁽²⁾ We cause creation to manifest, but we cannot create creation, anymore than we can create our Self. Nor can we uncreate our Self. We can, of course, manifest and unmanifest our self.

On this level of materiality, as well as on the next few, including the Risen geographies, we manifest with mind. On our particular earthly level, we manifest primarily with thought, which is mostly random and chaotic and arises from unawareness. Regardless of whether or not we manifest with awareness, our manifestations are dreams; we are dreaming. This is not an undesirable but an exiting and fun thing to do, and for as long as we want. Of course, this implies waking up, and it is fairly easy to intuit that waking up is part of the process of our current existence. More and more people are waking up. Have you ever been in a dream and tried to wake up? It's usually not very easy, and often we have to be really scared in order to achieve it. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to now wake up without fear, and with clarity, joy and anticipation.

Our Self is a gift. We are our own gift. And what do we say when someone gives us something? "Thank you!" And it's ok, and desirable, to also shout "more!" We never stop saying it, because we never stop manifesting. Our manifesting brings great joy and pleasure to the Original Source — we are the conduits of joy, which nourishes the Source, ever amplifying It and expanding It. Because we are literally inseparable from It, we are also the same as It. So we simultaneously are thanking ourselves and bringing joy and pleasure to ourselves, all the while amplifying and expanding.


______________________
⁽¹⁾ I know what "they" say, but I also notice that the letters of assume can be rearranged to read amuses.
⁽²⁾ "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth." (Genesis, Chapter 1) Note it reads dominion, not domination. Also, here "subdue" is derived from the Indo-European deuk, "to lead" -- and a clearer concept to derive from deuk would be " to educate", indicating "to lead out" -- basically meaning to manifest.

From The Archives: For Do It Yourselfers

[First posted 7/12/2010]

Above Left: Artist rendering of calmodulin molecule depicting protein "dark energy."
Above Right: “Autumn Rhythm” by Jackson Pollock, 1950.


Sydney asks,
"Dear Tim and August,Does any particular practise and by this I mean the non-dual way of being confer any spiritual advantage when transforming to a 'Risen'?"

Dear Sydney ~

A trick question! Asking a question automatically begins the dualistic process of yes and no. If there was no question, there would be no need for an answer. There can't be yes without a no, or a no without a yes. Perhaps this is why a traditional zen response would be something that totally ignores the question, as if it doesn't exist, as if to say, "Do not leave the state of single mindedness in order to find out what it is; do not look into a mirror to see yet another you who is not you."

So perhaps much unlearning is necessary, not learning. Unlearning means letting go, giving up, surrendering — which all lead to rest. As Tim said after he awoke in a bed in his new geography, ". . . glorious, glorious peace . . ."

Seeking an advantage will also set up a false system of duality. This is the ego-mind seeking something better, best, more-than, which need not-so-good and less-than to exist.

After one has transitioned, one does not necessarily "rise" -- which is another way of saying, "become fully and consciously aware and awake." Upon a spirit's release from the body, if the ego-mind has "crystallized" so that it still brings echoes of its former terrestrial vibration, the newly-released spirit will take its manifestation instructions from those vibrations, which are usually to resist change, and even to try to return to some former state. This is neither rising nor rest. If we awaken now, while on the earth - by correcting the imbalance brought about by a dominating ego-mind - we will continue on in this awakened state — which we call "transmutation." If we are in this state when the body dies, this awakened transition is Rising.

How to correct the imbalance while embodied, to achieved Authentic Self realization? Serendipitously, friend Rob just sent us this quote of Ramesh from the archives of The Advaita Fellowship:

"The 'direct method': Destroy the ego by seeking its identity, does raise a valid question - who is asked to destroy the ego?

"Perhaps the explanation is that what is to be destroyed is not the ego itself but the malignant element in the ego... the sense of personal doership, volition. When the ego finally, totally realizes that it is not in charge of life, but merely represents the body as a separate entity, a separate, uniquely programmed instrument through which the Primal Energy functions and brings about whatever is to be brought about in the moment, according to a Cosmic Law - then the ego realizes its impotency and remains placid and inactive. The ego realizes its passive role as a mere witness of all that is happening in the moment.

That is self-realization.

If, any way, we are to learn, in The Risen it is suggested:

"It may seem strange that the ego-mind is one of physical life’s tools and not our enemy, but believing in an enemy creates and sustains an environment for it and strengthens the belief as well, which was spawned by the ego-mind in the first place. As Authentic Self, we have the legitimate authority and the real ability to impress beliefs upon our own ego-mind, not the other way around. Doing so will generate authentic feelings, and then consequential emotions of health or non-health, depending on the belief.

"In a way, the ego-mind is our child, originally designed to be useful, to learn to help, to be included, to be appreciated, to grow, and to be loved. To discipline it does not mean to punish it. A disciple is a learner who needs a gentle, loving teacher. When a student makes a mistake but insists that he hasn’t, a compassionate teacher would not accuse the student of being a liar. Instead she would simply and clearly ask for the student’s consciously aware attention and then suggest other perspectives and possibilities for consideration. The teacher might also gently remind the student, “We are individualized, conscious parts of the same Greater Whole, joined with all others as one, and we are also each and uniquely our own person.”

"In this way the learner is enabled to make personal decisions under guidance. Can the ego-mind be guided and transformed—to become the helping tool it seems to have been meant to be? Can it be cared for and nurtured to grow into a mature and useful citizen of Greater Mind, or will it be allowed to run our lives like a tyrant with willful and vindictive addictive urges? Can it come to see and accept that it is part of a Greater Design, and that its role will come to a natural conclusion in the way that a flowering bush comes to fruition, the fruit to be used as nourishment for a higher purpose?

"As consciously aware individuals we each must individually find the answers as Authentic Self. There is grace enough in our personal and shared universes to focus what Sri Nisargadatta describes as “affectionate awareness” (turiya) onto the ego-mind and transform it into a useful form of energy as part of our transformative Self-transition, or transmutation."

As can be seen, believing in an enemy, in an opposite or "other" begins the illusion of not-one, or dualism. The emphasis is on the individual; the answer is within each one, not in each other. This hearkens back to the previous post about race-consciousness beliefs, such as those that encourage an individual to believe that "humans are inherently social and therefore to be individual is less desirable than to be part of a community." It is the ego-mind that needs to be social in order to have "other" to compare itself to, and thus find and establish an "identity." An individual —Authentic Self — needs nothing to establish, for it simply and already is. Accepting this race belief will ensure that one will always be less-than-seeking-more-than. This is why the primary existential despair of our modern world is the prevailing feeling of meaninglessness; non-existence; hopelessness, or as Kierkegaard said it, "despair of spiritlessness; despair of encapsulation; despair of defiance." As Authentic Self, we are complete, and need add nothing more. Seeking to complete oneself by joining others sets up dualism and thus a feeling of longing for oneness again, in an endless cycle of insanity.

These existentialist ideas of the 19th and 20th centuries bring to mind another existentialist term, dasein, or being-in-the-world, and the process of daseinanalysis, or trying to see what is in one's experience and describe it as accurately as possible. Existentialism is a highly intellectualized lens through which to view the individual, and perhaps it can be seen that even trying to describe an experience is a removal from the experience, thus dualism.

From a Risen stance, I am the experience; and I am the lens. Vipassana is an ancient Middle Indo-Aryan word for a process of observation—observing “what is” from moment-to-moment—observing “what is” as it is, thus gaining a “panoramic view” of one’s life while immersed in all life. Dualism is of no consequence from within this total self-immersion.

We close for now with a quote used in The Risen — excerpts from the discourses of Shri S N Goenka and Sayagyi U BA Khin on Vipassana:

“As you experience it yourself you experience that the entire material world is nothing but vibration. We have to experience the ocean of infinite waves surging within, the river of inner sensations flowing within, the eternal dance of the countless vibrations within every atom of the body. We have to witness our continuously changing nature. All of this is happening at an extremely subtle level . . . As you experience the reality of matter to be vibration, you also start experiencing the reality of the mind: consciousness, perception, sensation and reaction. If you experience them properly with Vipassana, it will become clear how they work.”

Podast of August at Skeptico now available

An in-depth exploration and discussion with Alex Tsakiris about what Tim called "the pastime of reincarnation" from a few months back is now available as podcast and transcription. We thank Alex for what we found to be an interesting and invigorating experience.

For those who know and love The Risen, and who have expressed concern over Alex's seemingly negative and somewhat unreceptive stance in this podcast, and about the same energy expressed at his forum: don't worry.

We recommend listening to some of the other broadcasts August has done in the past, including one at Coast 2 Coast.

We thank those who listened and were inspired to obtain a copy of the book to see for themselves, as well as for their warm, validating letters of support because they are greatly enjoying it. Thanks especially to those who have reported quite astounding events of synchronicity that seem to have been triggered by their reading the book!

Many Rooms of Synchronicity

“It’s easy to have faith in the sun rising each day or in the seasons that come every year. We have a lifetime of experience that shows us these things happen consistently. And yet it’s quite another thing to have faith in something you can’t see with your own eyes—the invisible power and presence of God.

“How do you develop faith in something you can’t see? How can you put your future in the hands of a power that is invisible? The truth is that you do so every day. Electricity is invisible, and yet you have complete faith when you flip the light switch that the light will come on. Microwaves are invisible, yet you have faith when you place something in a microwave oven that it will be heated and cooked. Radio waves are invisible, and you have no problem using them to tune into your favorite radio program. In the twenty-first century, we are accustomed to having faith in invisible forces. A few hundred years ago, the powers we use and take for granted each day would have seemed like witchcraft.

“Love is invisible. Joy is invisible. Peace is invisible. And yet we know all three exist.

Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. God is always in your life, always present as the power you need to make your dreams come true. Have faith.   

— from Science of Mind Magazine, Daily Guide for January 10, 2010.

We recently shared some thoughts about synchronous events with a reader of The Risen. When we experience something that strikes as even the littlest bit of synchronicity, it’s really important to record these things. If we don’t, most likely in less than a year, more likely in just a few months, psychospiritual amnesia would erase it from our conscious memory fields. But because we’re strengthening the events on an astral-memory level, we’re also invigorating and strengthening certain spiritual senses, and building a foundation for further numinous events of communication. They may even eventually move into such manifestations that we will want to question our sanity at times, for the Risen's abilities to orchestrate events are  far beyond what we can even begin to imagine! Something I've uncovered about this is that this is a clue about how we ourselves can orchestrate our own lives while still on the earth. It's nothing new according to many  ancient texts, including the Bible, and I've found that the New Thought Movement in the U.S. seems to demonstrate a model for this kind of thing.    

Our reader then asks: “What do you mean about ‘how we ourselves can orchestrate our own lives while still on the earth’? Do you mean by watching the synchronicities in our lives? Or to somehow induce synchronicities?”   

What I mean is that we can and already do manifest how our lives appear on earth - every single event is an effect brought about by thought-as-causation. I'm sure you know of this in terms of quantum mechanics. What and how we think co-creates our experience of Reality. Some of the events seem so magical or unlikely that we label them as “synchronous” because we're unable to see the connections. It notes this in the Risen - see p. 126 of Mundus Imaginalis and some quotes from it below. One of our main goals could be to learn how to consciously direct - orchestrate - what we want to happen, rather than letting the ego-mind do it. 

I had  such a magical moment last night, watching a television series about a wealthy British family living in a beautiful estate in the early 1900's. One of the scenes opened up on their mansion, as seen from beneath a shaded tree at the edge of a field of sunny grasses and flowers. It brought me into a kind of reverie, or dream state, which then changed my rate of vibration; it began coinciding/merging with a vision of the same kind of estate Tim and I have where he is in the Risen geographies.  I could feel myself sitting beneath the tree, feeling the warm sun, smelling the grass, hearing the breezes, and having deep, deep emotional pleasure at knowing we dwelled in such a place, and that it was all ours. It was heaven, so to speak. I have been there many times.

And then at that exact moment that heaven felt its strongest, the word "AUGUST" dissolved in across the bottom of the picture on the TV. I knew it was meant to designate the month in which the scene was opening, but I also knew that it was meant for me. This sent my heart into what I can only describe as "rapture."

Those who have had such numinous experiences understand the significance and reality of this; most people would not allow themselves to unblock their minds and let true spiritual magic enter.  They would try to apply their ego-mind's rationale, and insist that I'm seeing something that's not there - but indeed, I'm seeing something that is there, with a new understanding and from a different, internal spiritual perspective. There are many rooms of synchronicity for each of us to explore, and meant for us only.

From The Risen – Chapter, Mundus Imaginalis:

  “Using this imaging faculty is often haphazard and clumsy at first for many who are newly Risen. With guidance and practice it becomes the main way to manifest Risen Reality—meaning, our life. On earth, art is said to imitate life. Here, art is life and so life is art. Imaging is how we use our Risen minds to realize—to make real—our environments and everything in them.          

  “When one’s mental processes are active and fluid, the environment will also reflect this by change and adjustment. This can get chaotic and confusing if you are emotionally unstable and unable to control your feelings, which are deepened and more intense when Risen.          

  “Being in a dark mental place will outwardly express as being in a dark physical Risen geography. The more positive the feelings are behind the thoughts, the more positive the outward expression, and the more light that is expressed in the environment. This is the same kind of process that occurs on earth but it’s so slowed down from the density of material reality that most people are generally unaware that they are seeing it as it is happening. Neither do they see how their thoughts and feelings are creating their reality, nor how the ego-mind misuses the sacred gift of their imagination. This dense slowness can generate less-than-positive feelings, but once you’re Risen so much of that simply drops away. If it doesn’t, there are Risen Healers who will present themselves to help you work with any unresolved emotions to which you’re clinging—which, by the way, takes an awful lot of effort to otherwise maintain."  

From The Archives: Riddles (and more riddles)

A new reader of The Risen recently shared with us something we'd like to share as well; it also brought to mind an older posting from March of 2010 (below).

Our new reader reports:

"I find (The Risen) resonates deeply with me - no doubt partly because I'm familiar with most of the references you quote. But the strangest thing is that I find there's a synchrony between what I'm reading at any given moment and what I'm feeling about current life issues from minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour.

"I put it down, and when I pick it up again it has an uncanny way of immediately tossing me a sentence/paragraph that contains an immediate answer to whatever was in my mind at that moment. There are other anomalies too . . . (to be possibly shared later.)

[First posted 3/9/10] As our book, The Risen, is slowly, carefully, gradually being discovered by folks from all over the globe, we've also been receiving emails from a few here and there, revealing an amazing wealth of diverse interests, ages and professions. Not a few are experts in their own fields and focus on various spiritual and even scientific subjects. It's no surprise to us that many are experiencing all kinds of reactions and responses to the Risen material, and many alike in their sometimes delight, sometimes confusion, but mostly curiosity and need for more. So of course, a rather astonishing number of fascinating questions, personal theories and tales of experience have been coming our way as well. Some of the writers display formidable scholarly knowledge of esoteric subjects and ancient texts, and seek to perhaps find a way to make The Risen fit within those paradigms, or at least, enhance them.

It's clear that the material is having its own shaking and moving effect on many who have found the book -- although some share that the book "found them." 

Regarding the many questions we've been receiving, we will share a recent response to one of the many truly genuine seekers, as it is reasonably applicable to most of the same nature. We are confident in saying that a significant number of the many complex things readers mention regarding "more," as part of their own special wish list, will be found in the book in some way or ways, often rendering any questions at this point premature or even unnecessary. Many report that a second reading renders far more riddles, mysteries, feelings, and even a few answers. The fair amount of email we get with many questions -- which is part of the process of raising consciousness and spiritual vibration -- and our act of passing the question back acknowledged, but as yet unanswered, provides the necessary terrestrial time and delay needed to go within and come back with one's own, authentic spiritual answer. We promise -- the answer, your answer, is within you. This is directly reflective of August's own process over the past 8 years in assisting Tim and the Risen in manifesting the book.

We replied in particular to one earthly group who strive to serve the greater good through their laudable efforts toward making spiritual information available to all:

"The 'workings' of the Risen Assembly are far, far beyond August's capabilities to bring into words, which is why a major part of the underlying structure of the book is to catalyze and bring readers into experiential line with their own latent abilities to go beyond the words. This will likely become apparent once you are into the material. It seems clear already that so very much of what you've written in this very email is the result of your own guides inspiring you to externalize certain concepts so as to allow you to recognize needed information woven into our book. As you will probably see, the term "orchestration" is a truly wonderful, powerful, and strange but astonishingly apt descriptor for this Grand Tapestry of which we are all a living part."

All that being said, keep those cards and letters coming.

From the Archives: [youcantseethis]

[First posted 2/6/11]

My attempt to convey a noumenous experience in the lingua of phenomena of what it's like when Tim and I are joined, via the spiritual bridges of love that we become and are, along with knowing that some — perhaps many — readers of The Risen find important parts of it difficult to understand, leads me to wonder if it's possible to convey, through indirect means, much of anything. It's quite clear that a book orchestrated by 1,500 non-terrestrial entities is not "Astral Spirituality 101"or "Mediumship for Dummies", and those who have been investigating such matters for many years have a much better time with it, such as Mike Tymn, who noted in his review of The Risen:

"Had I started reading this book 20 or so years ago (assuming it had been written and published then), when I was just beginning my serious metaphysical studies, I probably would not have gone beyond the first few chapters, as the material would have far exceeded my boggle threshold. I likely would have tossed the book aside as just so much fantasy.

"However, with those 20 years of metaphysical study behind me, I quickly became engrossed in the book. Not only were the "dialogues of love, grief, and survival" (the sub-title of the book) consistent with the most credible testimony relative to life after death that I have encountered elsewhere but the dialogues helped me make sense out of a number of things which I had previously struggled to grasp."

Perhaps it explains my earlier question about why mediums never say much about their own internal processes, and why others around them avoid asking. The answer, from an Authentic Self perspective, is that simulate selves are trained by the ego-mind toward such avoidance. To tread such paths is to open the channels that become a living bridge to other dimensions, thus proving immortality and frustrating death, and loosening the ego-mind's grasp on one's mind. It's often said in many different ways in The Risen that each of us is "the way": the bridge, the door, the path to other-dimensional geographies of existence. These are not metaphors, but actualities. Perhaps quantum mechanics will end up explaining it best to our earthly minds, although, as Niels Bohr said, "Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood a single word." Apparently, The Risen is not shocking enough!

Synchronistically, I came across this passage during my current re-reading of Maurice Nicoll's, Living Time and the Integration of Life. I'm not saying it will explain the actual noumenon, but it may enlighten a few about what I was trying to convey regarding my recent experience with Tim. I will let it stand by itself while ending this bit of blog:

"It is impossible for me to say that I know anybody, and it is equally impossible to say that anybody knows me. For while I see all your bodily movements and outward appearances so easily and have a hundred thousand visual impressions of you that do not exist in your mind, and have seen you as part of the landscape, part of the house, part of the street, and have a knowledge of you that you always wish to know about —what impression you make, how you look—yet I cannot see into you and do not know what you are, and can never know. And while I have this direct access to your visible side, to all your life as seen, you have direct access to your invisibility—and to your invisibility only you have this direct access, if you learn to use it. I and everyone else can see and hear you. The whole world might see and hear you. But only you can know yourself.

"Now to the reader all this may appear obvious, but I must assure him that it is not at all obvious. It is an extremely difficult thing to grasp and I will endeavour to explain why this is so. We do not grasp that we are invisible. We do not realise that we live in a world of invisible people. We do not understand that life, before all other definitions of it, is a drama of the visible and invisible. . . . We think that only the visible world has reality and structure and do not conceive the possibility that the psychological world, or inner world that we know as our thought, feeling and imagination, may have also a real structure and exist in its own 'space', although not that space that we are in touch with through our sense-organs.

" . . . I believe that we never understand anything about the 'invisible' world if we do not grasp our own invisibility first . . . we can never realise the existence of another person in any real way unless we realise our own existence. The realisation of one's own existence, as a real experience, is the realisation of one's essential invisibility." (pp. 3-5)