Spirituality Guide

By: Seeker
escapism
Edward de Bono & others talk about Mind as a different thing to brain. A nice quote is ‘Minds are what Brains do’ & while we can MRI brains to see what parts get activated in a range of events, what we can’t seem to find is where the actual memories are stored.

But if memory is a construct held within a holographic field that is formed by the cellular activity of the brain, it opens up the field for a lot of new approaches to how we work.

The universe is huge and tiny, a complexity that has occupied the best minds for entire lives. But the universe is, at base, information. In this universe, the densest level of information is at the event horizon - and the event horizon is described by area, not volume ie. 2D not 3D.

So, while Science is important, to me so too is spirituality. Please, nobody respond with religious arguments or accusations. By spirituality I mean finding out about the part of us that doesn’t (so far) admit to investigation using the tools of science. Psychology is behavioural. Psychiatry is modifying behaviour, (usually with drugs) but if psychology had answers, we would be in a better society, we’d be able to tell which of our children are going to take a gun into a school, and the wholesale escapism of society into alcohol, drugs, religion and rage would be getting dealt with as it happens.

By: Seeker

It matters how we see things - different frequencies change what we see. It matters how we live our lives, the things we deem important & the things we abhor - it shapes the world we see.

This seems to me to be indicative of something about the universe - and a variety of science viewpoints seem to point the same way.

Biology has a problem with cells - ask the average Joe about cells & likely he will tell you that cells are run by DNA. Effectively, he is saying DNA makes cell decisions. This turns out not to be the case.

Cells react to outside stimuli. Normally it is a molecule or chemical that ‘provokes’ the cell membrane. If it is the ‘right’ one, the membrane reacts, either by passing the molecule inside or by causing a reaction through the membrane into the interior. This then causes the cell to go to work - cells produce & manipulate proteins & DNA is the ‘pattern’ from which the proteins are made.

That’s not the problem. The problem is ALL cells work this way. So, from where comes the initial impulse? If no cell ever actually initiates an action, what does?

Well, another thing affects cells - fields. But fields open up a whole new area to try to deal with - go check it out for yourself - suffice it to say here, some biologists are starting to think that the ’self’ is a field that exists outside the body. some of the evidence they look at is coming from the transplant areas. People are recording alterations to behaviour & thought when they get new parts.

By Seeker
We need to study and understand the cosmoi (my invented plural of cosmos) beacuse that is the purpose visited on us by the Creator - the original Consciousness. I think, looking at who we are, what turns us on (before society messes us over) & looking at Life around me, that the Game we are in is to learn, to turn experience into Knowledge, and either at end-of-life or at some point in the future, pass the Knowledge back to the reformed Originator.

But does the Christian, Jewish or Muslim (or other) God exist? I don’t think so. I’m agnostic but the gods I see described are pale wraiths with all-too-human frailties and a variety of psychological impediments - to me they are purely human inventions and knowledge of them (or the back-stories of them) have been turned into manipulative narratives to control population for the benefit of the few at the top.

Is there Intelligent Design? I think, ultimately, yes. But I think it was a result of initial conditions - the Multidimensional ‘I’ who began it all fragmented into smaller units to go explore Self. The Cosmos is being designed on the fly, so to speak, by the totality of Life, at all the varied dimensional levels that exist between us and the All.

So… can we mess it up? Oh yes, totally. There is nothing specific looking after Humans or the Earth. In my wilder speculations I wonder if the eventual makeup of God, the ‘personality of the Being that Life will become, will be decided by our decisions, by how we react & choose our paths in life. If we all turn into aggressive ‘kill all who don’t believe as I do’ types, will the Universal Being become something that needs to be put down like a rabid dog? Is that the message we keep getting from the mystics about who we should try to be?

By: Seeker
I think, in the beginning, from whatever cause, there came to be Consciousness. Looking at the world around me, the common factor I see is about learning. Bacteria learn, viruses learn, insects, fish, reptiles and mammals all learn. Humans have the best learning ability.

It seems to me that a new consciousness, without relatives, would first be aware of self, then perhaps, aware of not-self. But whether or not there is awareness of not-self, awareness is NOT the same as Knowledge. Knowledge is information that can be applied, that is the result of trying out ideas or testing the information. While Wisdom requires Awareness, Awareness is not Wisdom. Awareness plus Knowledge begets Wisdom.

So how does a lonely, individual Consciousness go about gaining Knowledge? Pretty much as we do. We look, we listen, we model and experiment to try out our concepts. We shape our minds as we go - using Edward de Bono’s concepts we begin with a slightly modified plain. Information ‘rains’ down on the plain, slowly forming terrain with shape.

The more information about a particular thing, the deeper the valley that forms. Sometimes we have a fixed idea & it dams up the rain, preventing us from achieving real knowledge on a subject. Then one day, a new realisation, sometimes totally unrelated, will dislodge the fixed idea & the dam burst. We call this ‘Epiphany’ & it is a sought after state of mind because of the euphoria it brings us.

I think Consciousness is THE Basic, the underlying reason for it all. From what I can understand about Quantum theory, Consciousness is a requirement of Reality - something collapses the probability potentials to establish a constant state. I think maybe something chooses the pattern of collapse. It seems to me this is why our Universe is so suited to us, why the values of the basics are so precisely tuned that this is a hospitable place.

By: Seeker
There is an advantage to seeking a more spiritual path for ourselves. It is an advantage the Religions cannot offer and one the Corporations and Governments cannot take from us – yet…

Over and again we have been told that to find our path in the spiritual world we must make a choice and then follow it. That it is a personal way, a private contact between us and the Creator. So, until they perfect the weapons of enforced mind-control, we can make our way forward in spite of all the ways they try to stop us.

You don’t have to watch the advertisements, you don’t have to consume exorbitant amounts of goods to have a ‘good’ life or keep up with those around. There is no requirement in Life that says everyone around you has to think of you as ‘one of us’ so you are actually free to do as you wish.

The condemnation of our fellows is one of the hardest things to overcome. It is difficult to live your life and not care about the opinions of others. It is one of the most powerful weapons in the hands of those who would control us. All they need do is show the general population that what we do is not ‘normal’ and those around us will put on pressure to try to get us back ‘into the fold’ that they are in.

It’s like a prison where the prisoners do the guard duty. Even when those walking the walls around us all can see the uselessness of the way we are going, when they will tell you how miserable their life is making them and the troubles they have on a daily basis, they will continue to enforce the pressure on you to conform to the ‘normal’ life.

It is hard to stand against such pressure, especially when the conformity urge has been enforced since we began school.

The good news is, you can begin your journey to finding yourself in ways that the outsiders cannot see until it is too late to prevent you gaining the strength, finding the wisdom and following the path to a better life.

By: Seeker
Why is it that even the parts of our lives that should draw our focus seem to be designed to ensnare us and keep us from higher things? Religion (big R) has taken the position in our lives that is meant to show us a different world. Our spiritual life, when found by individuals, seems to give new meaning to our lives and to provide regular doses of the finer moments we can experience, yet Religion seems set up to prevent most of us achieving such states of beingness.

Our society, once dedicated to the ideals of freedoms and rights, has steadily mown them down as we are presented with reasons for changing how we live. Slowly, over decades, we are directed away from the spiritual world and refocused on the purely physical.

Our goals are drawn from the physical world around us, even when we know without doubt that those same things are not making those who have them any happier. In fact a case can be made that achievement of the physical goals merely increases the need for more in the same way that regular use of a drug necessitates more of the substance to ensure the ongoing effects.

It is hard to accept that, with all the good people around us, with all the fights for our rights that have happened over the centuries, that here, now, in our age, total slavery seems possible. If they can stop us wanting spiritual things, they have no need for walls and guards. If they can keep us focused on wanting more goods, more comforts, less danger, while simultaneously withholding those things, we will entrap ourselves and finally stop seeking, or even seeing, a better world.

Something I wrote a while back. I hope you enjoy it…
I grew up in religion, a pentecostal one
I tried to join in as a child, I even had some fun
Believing bible solely, they claimed the only truth
But growing ever older, I found I need the proof

Pastor spoke of loving all, that love did show the way
Fill us with the holy spirit, save us now, they pray
But path laid down as total law, betrays a hardened soul
Pain ignored, passed on to God, just digs a deeper hole

I spent some years, looking round, trying to find The Way
Spent some time with Hubbard’s group, tried not to disobey
The tech was good, some people cared, but such a motley crew
Their path shows taint of human greed, they know not what they do

Buddhist mantra, Zen koan, Hindus and past lives
Whirling Dervish dancing trance, and Sikhs must have their knives
Yogis with their lotus style, all creeds seem to agree
They have the path, they know the way, they’ll sell it to you – free!

From each and all philosophies, most people take a share
Take just enough transcendent snuff, a godly mask to wear
But deep inside, where Primal swells, they’ve hardly changed at all
They justify the attitudes, they had before The Call

I look around me now and see, societal malaise
It’s not who’s saved or follows God, importance is ‘who pays?’
Lip service is the one you give, when actions words decry
When slaughtering the infidel, ‘Tis better thus,’ you sigh

It’s hard to claim the gift of love, when starving children die
When men and women give their lives, then in a gutter lie
Where bureaucratic servants rule, over humble Joe
Where partners shoot their spouses dead, instead of letting go

We all protest about the drugs, the kids held under fear
The sex assaults, the savage slap, the paedophilic leer
We bring on laws, and bureaus new, we donate to the cause
But never looking close enough, to see the social flaws

We view the past and blame we cast, for criminal mistake
And patch the wound, new by-law passed, a fix we think we make
We shed responsibility, it’s not his fault, we say
But he’s an adult, don’t you see, he chooses his own way

Lawmakers moan that things are hard, they make more laws to break
They claim it’s for the good of all, but they do fortunes make
We’re told to dream, to see beyond, to reach for shining star
But everything is structured so, we can’t reach very far

When dream are shattered, some do crash, on alcohol’s release
Or mainline drugs or seek the shroud, of ganja’s smoky peace
We punish all for copping out, for wanting to get high
But never do we alter cause, or focus on the ‘Why?’

When people’s path to higher light, is blocked whene’er they try
They seek release in varied ways, reach for ecstatic sky
It’s hard to blame them for their ways, when they feel life assail
When laws and bureaux, governments, continually fail

A druggy’s haze, a drunkard’s whirl, is not the choice of most
‘I ruined lives,’ and ‘I’m in jail,’ is not a man’s proud boast
We must stand back, evaluate, our terminal decline
From childhood through to adult time, a path we must refine

By: Seeker
In Australia we have the St John’s Ambulance organization which provides First Aid training. And yet, when you attend the training, they make it very clear the rather high risk you face if you use the training to save a life. If you try to use First Aid to save someone, and it fails, you can very easily wind up in court, charged with anything from assault to murder.

If someone has their life ruined by an assault, the resources of society swing into play to assist – the perpetrator! Token acknowledgment of the suffering of the victim is made, but massive resources will be used to ensure the accused gets fair treatment, that they get the minimum possible sentence and that everything is done to give them a chance to be shown as not guilty.

A variety of reports about our society have shown that the average person thinks their environment is worse than it is. Why? Because the media constantly focuses on the worst elements, and escalates the drama in even low-level situations to make things grab the attention.

It’s difficult to trace much of the negative things happening in our society, but when we do, a lot of them lead back to corporations and governments. The media is used not to inform but rather to misinform us. There is a science to using the media to make sure the story most people believe is the one the corporations and governments want us to accept as truth.

If you bother to research, it is extremely difficult to stay away from the idea that not only are there conspiracies surrounding us, but that they seem to stem from the same roots each time. It isn’t hard to make a case that even the term Conspiracy Theory is a Conspiracy Theory. Can you think of a better way to cover anything you don’t want known than to be able to label someone who finds out with a tag that ensures everyone thinks they are nutters?

By: Seeker

No. seriously, what gives with this place? It’s another of those things I question about the Judaic version of God. If He’s running things, why is it so hard for people to find the right path, to discover a life that will bring them to at least a little happiness?

I think it’s a copout to blame the people and say we choose this miserable way. The game has been rigged if so many fail to find the path. And before anyone brings up the ‘but if you accept Christ…’ idea, I’d point out that the Christian western countries have a high percentage of the most miserable people on Earth.

Think about it – if you take into account alcohol, drugs, psychiatry, and religion, how many people do you know who don’t have such an escape from Life? How many people do you know who qualify as happy. How many people do you see who spend a good portion of their time depressed, sad or angry? Do you know anyone who you would say are in full control of their life?

There are many people on this Earth who are full of goodness towards their fellows. Admittedly very few of them are our leaders or in government, but in times of trouble, when the floods are high, when the earthquake or fire tumbles our world around us, we can see the goodness in those around us.

The average person will, given half a chance, reach out a helping hand to those less fortunate. The rich don’t give a damn usually – it seems the more one has in possessions, the less one is willing to give away. But the average person has a heart and open hands – unless their heart gets trodden on and they are made to make a fist from an open hand.

By: Seeker
We are told that Light is the path for which we must strive, that Darkness is not the way to go. The path of Light is narrow and not easy; the path to the Dark is easy and, on the face, attractive to the senses. But when we look at the world around us, it is hard to imagine this is how things are meant to be.

It has become almost impossible to find a life in the western world that lets us release our hold on the physical, yet we are told by sages and mystics that this is the path. In older times, one could leave civilization and survive in the wilderness, yet now the wilderness is vanishing, the animals and plants that would allow physical existence are dwindling and there is precious little land you can live on without paying someone for the privilege.

The very ability to have control over our own lives seems to reduce day by day; between governments and corporations it seems we have less and less say in our own lives. Laws multiply to control us, it has become almost a crime to not have the latest and updated waste of Earth resources and we deliberately design our products to be thrown away as soon as possible so we can buy more.

Our water is now sold to us, our food is filled with poisons and the air is now going to be paid for in the form of carbon taxes. Whenever we begin to think about how our freedom is vanishing, there is a war, an invasion, an attack ro a threat to distract us and persuade us to let our governments pass laws to ‘protect’ us. Our personal responsibility over our own actions is taken from us as more laws are passed to forbid things which only an irresponsible delinquent child would have done in the past. We can’t walk the streets or even drive the roads without fear and we are regulated, recorded and video-taped in everything we do.

Is this how it was meant to be? Is this the experience we are to take back to the ALL?

By: Seeker
So what are we?

I don’t think humans are the lowest level of beingness – there are after all, animals and plants – but I also don’t close off the possibility that there are realms below this one of ours. If different vibrations can make different universes like different frequencies of light can show differing Milky Way views, then it’s possible there are lower vibration levels than ours.

But I think we are agents in a hierarchy of Beingness. We are here to experience and learn about the 3D world, to discover how it works and learn to master it. On a regular basis I think we ‘report back’ and deliver our results.

I also think that there are levels above us, between us and The ALL-ness that is the original Awareness.

Note I say ‘think’ and not ‘believe’? For me, believe means a level of certainty without real evidence. I prefer to use the word ‘think’ even in my thoughts to remind me I don’t actually have hard evidence and to ensure I don’t begin to think I have The Answers.

So, looking around, based on all I have learned and observed, I think there may be a number of levels above us, beings that perhaps we are agents of and who pick up our regular reports and who, over a longer ‘experience’ or life, collect a larger perspective and pass the knowledge up the line. Whether that passing along happens regularly or at the end of epochs or even if it is all awaiting some climactic merging of all Life, I don’t pretend to know.

But I am wondering if something has gone wrong with the system!

By: Seeker
To gain knowledge one must have experience. But to get experience, one needs to have a viewpoint. If an Awareness is all there is, it has nothing to view, it cannot experience and there is nothing to learn from. So the first action would seem to be to create Separation. If the first awareness is ‘I Am’ the second needs to be ‘and that is not I Am’

I make no pretence to understand the place in which the God-awareness found itself, but I think there had to be that moment when the realization of separation came, and then came the beginning of learning. It seems to me the best way to learn would be to make agents, little observers to go out and gather information and return it to the central awareness for compilation into an overall point of view.

Because knowledge takes experience, the agents need to have experiences in the environment in which they are existing so they can bring knowledge back. And because the central Being needs knowledge it does not already possess, the agents go out to learn with a less than complete knowledge base from which to start.

But the one thing it seems to me that they need is a similar awareness of self as that which first began the quest. The original God-awareness would need to send out little pieces of Self to do the exploration and learning. Those little pieces of self would return regularly and deliver the learning from each session back into the God-self where it could all be combined and added to the whole.

Over time, or perhaps by original plan, the agents need to delve deeper and deeper into the nitty-gritty of the God-environment. The first generations of agents might be limited to just one persona split, but then that one would need to also create sub-personas and so on, down into the lowest levels of the environment.

By: Seeker
So why do we learn? The following is how I see things…

Imagine a vast Beingness, coming to awareness from nothing, or from a state we can’t imagine. Surely the first awareness would be ‘I Am!’?

But awareness is not knowledge. We all have awareness even as a child. It is one of the first things to come to us, a Self. And the first thing we do, the thing that is hardwired into us, is to learn. We learn so we can survive, we observe those around us, we imitate and experiment and we try to copy what we see.

As we become more confident, more individual and knowledgeable, we begin to try things. We experiment with our environment and sometimes this is dangerous. That’s why species with caring parents tend to survive better than those who don’t have such care.

One of the precepts that come down to us from the earliest times, one that pervaded the Egyptian and other civilizations so completely it is obvious it was seen as extremely important, is the statement, ‘as above, so below’ – along with ‘ask and you shall receive’ and ‘Treat others as you would be treated’ it is probably the most common thread across all the societies, philosophies and religions that have existed.

So if ‘as above, so below’ is a truth, then as we are, so is God. So if God began as Awareness on an unimaginable scale, there is no reason to suppose S/He began with Knowledge as well. Knowledge takes experience and an Awareness just starting out would not have experience.

So what would God do?

A comment on a blog about Americans remembering brought this back to me; I thought it might help them to know that others around the world remember too, that the night (for Aussies) was one of disbelief and horror as the story unfolded. Whatever came after, that night stands in memory. - Seeker

I came home from the city, on a clear and cool Spring night
after a hard night’s drinking, I was seeking peace and quiet
I settled in with coffee cup, remote to TV link
Flicking through the programs, looking, cop show for me, I think

As I watched it pulled me in, to following the plot
Then ads cut in, annoyance rose, it happens such a lot
Pick up remote, a channel change, and there upon the screen
It’s obviously a movie, but not one that I’ve seen

Cityscape, sky-scraping towers, one of them on fire
A long way up, fifty floors, or maybe even higher
Disaster flick it was, I thought, or aliens invade
I wondered why in TV guide, no mention of it made

Then the local news presenter, female, blonde and cute
Appeared onscreen all serious, in tailored female suit
I didn’t hear her newsbreak flash, still a bit bemused
The movie ran behind her still, it left me quite confused

I finally listened to her words, and understanding came
It was happening in real life; we’d never be the same
I felt cold, all thought shut down, with growing horror now
The Trade Centre was burning, no-one knew just how

Smoke was pouring from the wall, through jagged gaping hole
I hadn’t felt such awesome fear, since time of Grassy Knoll
The world was changing, that I knew, was it World War 3?
Who would attack America, the land of Brave and Free?

Addicted to the footage, I couldn’t move at all
I daren’t miss a moment’s film, I didn’t think to call
I sat and heard presenters guess, they seemed less sure than I
With Towers in the background, they weren’t watching sky

With disbelieving eyes I saw, a plane came from out wide
It didn’t try to miss the tower, just smashed into the side
Time stood still, my mind did spin, replay or real life?
But two sites now belched smoke to sky, the US was in strife!

With goosebumps all across my skin, my mind was out of whack
Then Sandra Sully came back on, disaster at her back
Someone on scene had finally caught, the image I had seen
Their speculations focussed in, attack this must have been

I waited for the white contrails, arc’d through an azure sky
To show the escalating war, the how if not the why
The night remains a crystal blur, of muddy, vivid scenes
And frantic conversations, facts and might-have-beens

The towers fell, one by one, with awesome dusty roar
I knew the folk were dying there, in numbers by the score
With tears in eyes, numb disbelief, the news got even worse
There’s smoke above the White House, just starting to disperse

I felt the aching pain of allies, watching from the side
A great and mighty nation, brought down in its pride
No-one knew just where to strike, they simply knew they must
They pondered through scenarios, whom the States could trust

I listened as they heard the news, the Pentagon was hit
As more came in I had the thought, the Yanks are in deep shit
The urge came strong, it built up quick, it rampaged through my head
The CIA should find them all! Find them, kill them Dead!

When news came in a plane was down, they didn’t quite know why
With clairvoyant awareness, I saw folks prepared to die
They must have feared, but still they tried, just what they had to do
I thought in awe of courage raw, of heroes through and through

There are few times in one man’s life, before it’s really gone
He clearly sees the future change, as it’s going on
JFK, man on the Moon, in memory reside
But 911 showed terrorism, it’s time to stem the tide

By: Seeker
Look around you at the world. Try to leave behind your upbringing, your orthodox views as given in school or church, and just observe, either in real time or through memory of what you have experienced in life.

At what times are people at their brightest? When is it when we seem to shine brightest? Are there any common factors you can see in Life? Do humans share any basics with animals?

What do you find?

When I think about the times when I have been at my best, there are two types of times that come to mind. One is when I am helping others, my entire being focused on how I can find a way to improve things for them. The second is when I am learning, and the more challenging the things to be learned, the more exhilarating it is and sometimes the more drained I am when it is done.

And when I look around, I find the learning process to be a common thing among humans. Children are bright and eager because all is new for them; they become listless and apathetic when something prevents them experiencing new things or when they have learning forbidden to them. I see it as a crime in our society that so many children lose interest and ability in learning after they have some time in schools.

To me, the game that God has us playing here in this vast playing field we call a Universe is the Learning Game. We are here to discover and codify all we can about the Universe in which we play.