Friday, November 10, 2023

Risen Geographies and Dwelling Places




[First Posted 5/18/13]

Beau Lotto, a neuroscientist and founder of Lab of Misfits, gave a TedTalk in 2009 that used optical illusions to demonstrate how we perceive the world.  He investigates "how the human mind makes sense from the senseless." Underlying the fact that we can never truly see what's "out there" but only what's in our head, shaped by how our brain has learned to interpret various signals, are these ideas Beau offers:

"No one is an outside observer of nature ...each of us is defined by our ecology ... ecology is necessarily relative, historical and empirical."

These ideas come startlingly close in some ways to how one may begin to imagine how life is experienced as Risen; especially poignant for me is his demonstration as to how sights can be converted to sounds, using the example of a 6 year old's painting, converted to music. On earth, we have the physical body, acting as a filter for the incoming information from the Universe around us; the ego-mind, generally uncontrolled by Authentic Self and given free reign, makes judgmental choices for our emotional and psychological behavior, according to its own hidden agenda. Without the terrestrial body, which (usually) ends the ego-mind's dominance, our world is revealed to us on a very different level of perceived truth, indeed, many different levels.

Tim shares in The Risen:
"... light is also sound and therefore music is light. Each and every single unit of life is a light-filled tone and tone-filled light. Every thing vibrates and all movement produces light and sound. All universes are an ongoing symphony of infinite drama. Your life on earth and beyond it is a melody. This is less apparent on the earth due to its great density and lower vibration, which dulls and deadens the spirit, greatly lessening the connection every thing has with everything. It becomes more obvious on those planes beyond the Earth as we become more refined and of greater vibration.”

"Ecology" is highly resonant to the concept of "geography" which the Risen directed me to use in our book. It means not only our surroundings, but because we are inextricably immersed in it, it also means our worlds: the climate, the weather, the air, the light, the sounds, its history(ies), its feelings. One of my brothers is a wildlife technologiest (a fancy name for a park ranger) and he once explained to me about the ecology — or world – of a tree. We can see the tree, rising out of the ground, spreading its branches and leaves up and into the world around it, touching other trees, and their worlds, merging into a collective of worlds within worlds. Each tree is breathing, taking in elements through its roots and leaves, and then releasing others back into the air. Each tree gives off heat in the form of energy and reflective light. Every cell is alive with non-stop activity. Every tree gives harbor to many other life forms.

Beneath each tree, if one observes with patience, are other plants -- grasses and baby trees, fungi, each with its own ecology exactly like the Mother Tree above them, and all immersed in Mother's world, and merging into one another's. These worlds interpenetrate, interact, teach, learn, implant, extract, love. "Worlds within worlds", as the oft-repeated phrase in our book goes.

In the recent posting "Return to Summerland" I attempt to share what it's like being in a Risen geography while not yet Risen -- not easy! Here are some interesting excerpts from the book that Tim shares in his attempts to describe his own ecological experience:

The word ‘live’ is not quite correct in connection with the way dwelling spaces exist here—actually, ‘dwell’ works much better. And the word ‘time’ isn’t exactly right either. I don’t dwell there all the time—hardly ever, actually, for there is far too much beyond it. Infinooty! There are never-ending environments for me to explore or manifest and occupy for as long as I want. 
I see you are wondering what lies beyond this tiny apartment where 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. 
We are of the same Mind, and so wherever or whenever we are, Mind Is. There is no place or time Mind can’t be. If we move ‘outward,’ that movement can continue without ceasing, manifesting environments within which to dwell. The very movement of Mind is manifestation. If we move in a way that we desire to be ‘inward,’ the result is the same. If I desire to dwell in light or darkness, or seasons and weather, there are no limitations imposed upon my desires except those I place upon them. (1)
Of course I’m speaking of the positive, spiritually inspired powers of the individual use of Mind. To the extent that one’s thoughts, dreams and fantasies are able to manifest in ways that are beautiful and meaningful evidences the degree of spiritual evolution, of the self-love and self-esteem that enable and support the love and esteem of other individuals, and the level of understanding that Mind is a shared experience as well as an individual one. There are those on the earth, who, for whatever reasons unique to their experience, understanding, and individual evolution, are unable to manifest much more than a Risen tar-paper shack—if even that. While they might be able to fantasize about a sumptuous Hollywood mansion, more than likely the nature of that image is of the earth-bound, ego-mind’s desires and so could not in any real way be imaginally expressed in the higher astral realms.
For example, the nature of greed appears to manifest in the earthly realm as an energy that is able to acquire, accumulate, and manifest imagined wealth in all its forms of ego-mind desire. In the Risen Worlds, however, the nature of greed, having been individualized and nurtured through belief and habit on the earth, but now accepted into the infinite capacity of Authentic Self, is no longer a toy in the hands of the limited and now dissolved ego-mind. Instead, through the greater and unlimited power of the Higher Mind, the emptiness of greed is like dry air blowing over a parched landscape. And that is what most likely will manifest—landscapes of vast, empty expanses of dead and dying vegetation, unable to grow or revive from lack of the energy of a loving, serene spirit that is connected to Original Source, whence outpours all sustenance.
I see the greatest gift we have been given by Original Creator Source as the ability to change our mind. Many, many souls, upon coming to a stagnated state of mind, become trapped by their ignorance of their true nature, which is that the Mind of the Highest Self is also their own mind and is shared by all individualized minds. The illusion of ignorance further manifests as an illusion of fear, and thus seems to result in a trap or as ‘hell.’ Many of our spirit rescues here involve the answering of mental and emotional cries for help from souls imprisoned in the illusion of their fears. Others never seem to feel the need to ask for help, and some even knowingly resist it.
It’s greatly comforting and invigorating to know that Nature—that is, flowers, trees, gardens and forests, animals, birds, and people, are awaiting us when we leave this terrestrial experience and transition to the next.



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(1) Tim’s experiences sound very similar to the currently developing theory of biocentrism, which posits that life and biology are central to being, reality, and the cosmos — life creates the universe rather than the other way around.

6 Comments:

At Tue Nov 27, 01:52:00 PM 2012, Anonymous Tyler B. said...

I very much like this idea. I have recently been looking at biocentrism because of your mention of it in your book and have found it very intriguing, and very in line also with the philosophies that I myself have found intriguing as well, such as the philosophies of Sartre and Bergson, both philosophers that focus on the existence of the individual as opposed to any such "system" as proposed by philosophers like Hegel.

I also found it interesting in your book when you talk about such desert wastelands and even parking lots, vast parking lots, because I once had a dream that I was in a vast parking lot, and there was another guy in a suit with me, and he looked kind of like a Mormon missionary, but I think I remember being punched in the face, or I did the punching, I can't recall.

Sometimes I feel stagnated in a state of constant searching. I can never be comfortable in a state for too long, unless I'm reading my book about the Celtic mythology. I feel very much like they knew what was up. In many ways I have shared their beliefs before finding out they believed it, including the idea of a Happy - note Happy - Land of the Dead as opposed to a Sheol or Hades, as well as idea as not reincarnation (as a general rule), but more a transmigration, which is kind of what Tim has somewhat described in your book.

You may remember me from when I had e-mailed you before. I am very bad at responding. Bad me! But I very much enjoy reading your blog and check it about every day to see if there is a new article up or not. I've decided to start commenting, though, to show at least that you are being read!

 
At Wed Nov 28, 02:51:00 PM 2012, Blogger August Goforth said...

Hi Bad You! Good to hear from you, thanks for your diligence and for reading the blog. We will try to write more. August has great identification with Celtic mythology and the Sidhe.
The discomfort you mention is a pressure from the Universe to keep things constantly moving and flowing. Resistance is kinda futile, and prayer helps.

 
At Wed Dec 05, 11:19:00 AM 2012, Anonymous Tyler B. said...

You say that prayer helps. I read in one of your earlier blogs that you recommend a prayer towards Original Creator Source, or simply God, but I was wondering if I'd be able to be more spiritually specific with my spiritual devotions. As in, perhaps praying to the Goddesses Brigid or the Morrigan.

Do such, uhh, "entities" have a sort of independent existence? I know that in occult circles there is a belief by some people in the possible creation of egregores, where mythological entities have a sort of existence on their own on the "astral" levels due to the collective consciousness of humanity, though obviously they are not the powerful creators of humanity in that case. Apollo still doesn't drive the sun!

Or, perhaps Creator Source imposes no limits on how we might wish to perceive a divinity, expressing Itself in the form of a God or Goddess, and thus they might have a sort of personal existence in that way.

Of course, these are just ideas of mine. I don't really have a connection with the Otherworld, let alone the type that you have. It would simply be nice to know if I would be able to further connect with my cultural spirituality by connecting with the same types of Gods and Goddesses that they connected with instead of using a blanket term like "God" or "Original Creator Source". This isn't to say that I think such terms are stupid. I think Original Creator Source is an entirely appropriate name given the universality that Original Creator Source conveys, but to me they almost feel like stale terms.

What do you think?

 
At Thu Dec 06, 12:04:00 AM 2012, Blogger August Goforth said...

Yes.

 
At Sat May 18, 03:15:00 AM 2013, Anonymous Anonymous said...

August, hearing from you and Tim that animals and Nature are present in the next world is an incredible comfort to me. These are the most precious experiences and relationships in my life, and so when it's time for me to journey I will be ecstatic to be in a world I already love with all of my being. Thank you, I am going to go cry some very happy tears.

 
At Sun May 19, 10:46:00 PM 2013, Blogger ellede said...

Hi, August,

It's interesting to me that my memories of time at Home are very earthly. Apart from our ability to get from point A to point B in the blink of an eye, nothing in the environment around Louis and our family crosses the senses in the way Tim describes. I just asked him if it's that I'm unable to perceive, or recall, because of being a visitor rather than resident. It's simpler than that, as it turns out: Louis is comfortable in a world akin to what he knew (with modifications ... hot running water, f'rinst!) and doesn't, at this point in his life, desire something different. Comfort levels as well as changing one's mind (and he has done so much of that, developing as he has), might one say?

However the most important thing is that cats can still give one a fright. He was baking last night, I was tinkling some little phrase on the piano, and TomTom jumped up on the keyboard. You can imagine the noise that made.

Milord then appeared from the kitchen and said mock-reproachfully "You made me drop an egg!"

:D

 

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