The Antidote

Convalescence: New Tools

Essay Eight

By

On The Beach

 

This is Essay Eight in my series ‘The Antidote’. All previous Essays may be found here.

 

At this point I am very hopeful all my readers will have taken the time and opportunity to connect consciously to Nature. It is my very great desire that everyone has this experience and thus discovers true joy and beauty during the time you are out from under the control of your Awake Mental Voice.

I do know this is a very difficult thing to accomplish. In fact, I know it is so difficult that some will probably not even try, being concerned more about possible disappointment rather than possible success. This is very understandable and is nothing to feel too bad about.

This simple thing I would like everyone to try is so far outside our normal comfort zone in experience and knowledge that it is very understandable to feel some reluctance to even try this experiment. However, I would still sincerely encourage you to make the attempt as the rewards are so very great.

And a Little Child Shall Lead Them

Remember being a very young child, before peer pressure and fears, especially fear of failure and looking stupid in front of your friends, became an issue? Remember when everything was done in joyous play, in innocent exploration? Those innocent times usually get choked off when we are about five years of age. Try to remember that little child within, the three- or four-year old who would explore life with fun and abandon. This is the playful ‘you’ I would like to see come forward to try this simple but oh so difficult thing of pushing the Awake Mental Voice away.

This little child is really closer to our non-physical nature than our adult physical self. This child could easily connect to a tree, and probably did many times. This little child is still there inside each of us; in fact, this playful child is really the larger Self, connected to our non-physical, non-local consciousness. This little ‘inner child’ is not yet under the control of the Awake Mental Voice.

The judgments and prohibitions and restrictions placed on us as adults are not yet developed in such a little child’s Awake Mental Voice. Use this ‘inner child’ to connect to Nature in any way possible, in order to draw this child out. This child probably saw things, heard things and felt things that were denied by parents and other adults, and so eventually, under the pressures of approval, that ability to see and feel the non-physical was set aside - but never really lost.

Gently, oh so gently, draw this child out and let this child connect to Nature. Be gentle in this process. As the adult of this child, carrying the weight and load of all the restrictions of the Awake Mental Voice, each of us has denied the reality of this child in us for most of our lives. Gently connect back to this child, allowing your Self to be led back into those simple joyous times to re-learn how to connect back to the larger Self.

But above all else, do not push, do not strive, do not become frustrated. Be very gentle. There is a lifetime of pain to overcome.

Where Do We Go from Here?

And now, you may ask: I have successfully connected to my larger self through this big oak tree in my back yard; but what do I do with this new condition in me?

The first and most important thing to do is to understand that each of us is certainly much more than simply a ‘meat computer’. There is something very mysterious about the kind of consciousness that has allowed us to connect to this tree, to feel this tree in a fundamental ‘tree sort of way’, and maybe even to talk to this tree. This new awareness of the Self being more than just something stuck inside one’s physical head looking out, is a very, very important thing to realize. It will eventually change almost everything we have previously thought about ourselves.

Practically, this connection to the oak tree shows that each of us must also have a non-physical awareness somewhere - otherwise how could we communicate with, share with, or feel this tree? The question to ask now is this: What is this other part of us, this part very much not inside our physical head, that was able to connect with the tree - and what can this part of us actually do for our physical Selves?

First, it is important to understand the ‘you’ that is thinking about this event, probably using the Awake Mental Voice to do the thinking, is actually a part of this non-physical consciousness - not the other way around. This physical ‘you’ which is the only part we have ever known about in this earthly life is a very tiny part of the larger non-local, non-physical aspect of our Self. The physical ‘you’ comes from this larger spiritual You.

This is what you probably never knew or experienced before. And believe me; this connection scares the hell out of the Awake Mental Voice. It will see its domination lessening, possibly even being lost with this connection to the larger spiritual You. And it will do everything it can to defend itself. However, in order for us to have an ongoing connection with our greater Self, this stripping away of the Awake Mental Voice must take place.

And this is how it should be. The Awake Mental Voice has no business being in control. This is an artifact, as I explained earlier. The combination of our physical awareness and our larger non-physical awareness can become more closely connected and more powerful. Our physical consciousness can begin to draw on the knowledge of the non-physical aspect of the larger Self. But the physical part of us will need to learn how to do this. I suspect few of us have any knowledge or skills in this area at all.

The first thing to know is that the larger non-physical Self will probably not use words to communicate. Words are hopelessly slow for the non-physical. Such beings will usually use a burst of gestalt information that seems like an almost overwhelming feeling, emotion or impression of ideas. So at first it will be important to learn to differentiate physical feelings and thoughts from this new in-bound source of information.

Everyone is different; but for me, my own physical emotions are much louder, much stronger, than the feelings that come from the non-physical. In fact, it is easy to overlook or dismiss the non-physical information at times because it will be in competition with your awake physical awareness and is simply drowned out by our loud ‘on-board’ mental voices.

My non-physical teachers told me to learn to listen for the small, quiet voice that seems to come in with a very subtle feeling that introduces it. It could be in the guise of a color, so to speak, or one that sets a tone or gives a kind of sound to this gestalt of information. I have learned over the years to differentiate different entities from each other and from my own non-physical consciousness - but I do have to admit it is not easy. It is just a fleeting feeling, and a very small feeling at that.

But - if such small rushes of feelings occur and we can learn to stop and pay attention to them, what we might find is this feeling and the small voice will blossom into a larger message of information. This information will usually be advice or help with problem-solving or encouragement to explore more options in what we might want to be doing physically.

Such voices will never tell us to do any one thing, as those choices are up to each of us. These ‘little voices’ often take the form of what we might call hunches, inspirations, intuitions or premonitions. We all have them frequently, but usually we dismiss them as not being real or important. We should learn to pay more and better attention to them. They are usually messages coming to us from our non-physical self or from our non-physical assistants.

A Last-Minute Reprieve

Here is a dramatic example: A few years ago my wife and I were set to take a Christmas vacation at a very exclusive beach resort in Thailand. I had bought and paid for the whole package and it looked wonderful. A bit more than a week in a private cabin on the beach.

I woke up the morning before we were to leave with a vague sense of unease. It was not from a dream, but just a nagging sense of dread, something being dreadfully wrong. I ignored the feeling and continued on my way getting ready for the trip. By 10 AM the sense of something being very wrong was too much to ignore any longer. I knew this was information coming into me from a non-physical source, so I took the time to carefully unfold the feeling and let it flow out into me. To my shock and surprise the only way I could interpret the message to me was to change our vacation plans and under no circumstances go to Thailand.

The message was clear and distinct and the feeling of disaster could not be avoided. But the message never told me in words to not go; it was just an overall feeling of disaster that I had to interpret. So I did something I could not believe. I listened to the small voice and bought tickets to Hong Kong instead, getting a small package tour that included the very last hotel room my travel agent could find in Kowloon. Of course she thought I was crazy because I was throwing more than $8,000 away for a $2,500 trip to a dump hotel in Hong Kong. But I could not go against the feeling inside me coming from this small voice. I had no idea what the issue might be, but I knew we could not go to Thailand.

So my wife and I went to Hong Kong for Christmas and had a wonderful time. We discovered that the streets are closed to auto traffic in Kowloon and a large part of the city becomes a huge street festival. We partied for two days with 250,000 of our new best Chinese friends.

We woke up late on the morning of 26 December more than a little hung over, but very happy with our little holiday. I turned on the TV only to catch the first reports of the tsunami hitting Phuket and the other beach areas of Thailand. We had been scheduled to be right on the beach in an area that in a matter of five minutes no longer existed. My wife and I just sat on the bed, watching this horror unfold, crying our eyes out with grief and relief.

My small voice had saved our lives.

Never in my life had I just walked away from $8,000; but in this case I knew I could not avoid that small voice telling me not to go to Phuket. I had learned too many times in the past to pay attention to that small voice. In this case, Phuket and all that happened there with the tsunami was not to be our personal drama.

At no time did the information coming in to me tell me what to do; it only made it very clear that something very wrong was going to happen on our trip to Thailand. I actually decided there was the possibility of a plane crash or something like that. I just knew we could not go.

If I were not so aware of my larger spiritual nature I would probably have ignored that small voice, not wanting to throw the money away, and we would have participated in the Phuket drama. Truly it was a real agony for me at first when I knew I was going to have to change our plans.

Learning to hear and feel that still, small voice inside and allowing that information to expand into our awareness so we can more fully capture its messages is something I cannot emphasize enough.

It is also possible to actually ‘feel’ body sensations that are a reflection of our larger non-physical self. These are not emotional feelings we have to be aware of, but very subtle body sensations. Our physical body is directly connected to our non-physical body and that non-physical consciousness can send signals to our physical body. We can learn to recognize these signals if we know what they might feel like.

One way to do this is to meditate, quiet your mind or do a bit of self-hypnosis, whatever you do to get more in touch with your non-physical self. Once in this state simply ask the question you want more information about. If you feel your physical body tensing up, especially in your abdominal muscles you can feel confident that your non-physical self does not like or agree with your question/issue. This is usually a negative signal sent from your non-physical self to your physical self. A very small physiological effect, like the effects a person might have in a lie detector test. These very small muscle sensations are something you can learn to sense.

To Second that Emotion

Another signaling system that can come to us is from our own physical emotions. Emotions are thoughts that become physical habits of a reflexive nature. A certain situation comes up and we experience an emotional feeling about it, perhaps even a strong feeling. Emotions are always signals something in our belief system has been ‘triggered’ and we should probably take the time to examine the reason for the feelings rather than simply going with them. What is the cause of this emotional trigger - and is it really a valid reason for the emotion?

This system of using emotional triggers as cues for self-examination is especially good for examining belief systems that have become personal habits. If we read something that causes a strong emotion it is wise to take a moment to examine that entire process, both the information and our reaction to this information. Is it a belief which is being challenged or confirmed? If so, on the basis of what data? Is the new data better and more real than whatever created the original belief system?

In both of these cases information is being passed to us from other areas of our being than from our Awake Mental Voice. Some conscious part of us is sending us an emotion. Our job is to learn to recognize this is happening and then to take the time to examine what this means.

This is part of what should be a natural set of observational skills. But these observations occur at a deep level and come from a set of experiences most people are taught to dismiss. Knowing now about our larger non-physical nature, we can no longer dismiss and deny these emotional observations. Now we can learn how to examine this information and incorporate these new facts into our actions.

In fact a whole new skill will be developed if we are really intent on connecting with our greater non-physical self. In other words we need to learn ‘how to think about how we are thinking’. Remember, in my view of the reality of the universe thoughts are really hard substance things imbued with energy and capable of creating reality. Taking the time to examine our thoughts will become an essential exercise if we really want to explore ourselves more fully.

I wish I could claim this phrase, but I think the spiritual philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti made it up first: ‘the proprioception of thought’. Proprioception is a term in neuroanatomy that describes a class of nerves that tell the brain what position our muscles are in. Krishnamurti used the word as a description of a process that each one of us should use all the time in examining our own thoughts to determine where they are and why.

Where did that thought come from, and why is it there inside me? This sounds silly in a way, to take the time to think about what, and to ask how and why we are thinking what we are thinking - but it is actually critical.

In our world, the word ‘Life’ is a noun; but ‘Life’ should be a verb, a word of action. Life is not about passively learning a lot of words; it is about learning how to use those words properly in action. But how do we do that if we don’t even know where our thinking consciousness is actually engaged at any time - but most importantly right now?

Thinking about thinking - and being concerned with where your thoughts are and where they came from - is actually the first real step toward being able to connect fully with our non-physical self. It is a critical bit of self-awareness that teaches us where we are now in our thinking and gives us clues as to how to get where we want to go. Most of us never take the time to question where our thoughts come from or why we are having them. It is very important to take the time to do this if we want to connect more fully with our non-physical aspect.

First, doing so will teach us how to be critical of our own thinking and thinking processes. Since we now know we are primarily consciousness in action we can see why it is important to be clearer about what our thoughts really are and where they came from.

Second, by thinking about our own thinking we can learn to more easily differentiate between our physical self and other aspects of us. This is very important if we really want to explore our non-physical nature. We want to be able to remain focused in the physical so we can use that focus to compare those thoughts and ideas to the other thoughts and ideas coming into us from the non-physical. This feature was the original idea behind the Awake Mental Voice. This allows the physical to fully appreciate the dramas of the physical and make them concrete experiences, as they should be.

These experiences then can be reviewed as memories, but to do this properly they need to be distinct memories, separate from all the other information flowing through from the non-physical. Just consider a really confusing dream and the sequence issues we might have with it. We need to learn how to clearly think about our physical thoughts and recognize them inside all the other information we will be experiencing.

Third, by becoming more discerning in our own thinking and thoughts and more connected to our deeper non-physical consciousness, we will be much less likely to pay any attention at all to the lies continually coming at us from other entities wanting to sell us things that are not at all in our best interest.

So learning to think about our thinking and how it got the way it is while also learning how to ‘hear’ and distinguish the new sources of information flowing into us from the non-physical we have now connected with will be the first issues we need to address. Getting these issues under more firm control will allow us to build on these new sources of information and experience. The most important attribute of these new tools will be to enhance our experience as a physical being.

In the next essay, I will talk about the fact all perception is subjective. There is nothing we individually experience which is not subjective to us and to our senses. This raises one other issue with the new tools we are developing and that is to have other like-minded people close to us so we can share our perceptions with them and maybe even mutually explore some parts of the universe together. This is really the only way to make some of these experiences become ‘objective’.

This collective sort of experience becomes most important when you really want to put thought into action and create something. Two or more very close people who know and trust their observational and interpretive skills need to work together in the process of carrying observations forth into intentions. I am not talking about giving anything up to anyone outside of you. That is the very bad idea of an outside enforced collectivism at work. I am talking about working together with mutual trust and care.

I’m sure some readers will already have had the thought these ‘new tools’ are actually not so new at all. Some might feel they have been using these tools all their lives. And that is the very great truth about our ever-present connection to our non-physical. It is always there, always on, always functioning. Without it, we do not function at all as a physical being.

The fact we do not recognize that these feelings coming into us, these premonitions, these synchronicities, these deja vu moments, are actually from another part of ourselves is just part of the whole package of conditioning that has been layered on top of our physical being in an attempt to separate us from this larger non-physical and non-local Self. This is the really powerful, competent and much more knowledgeable ‘You’ that exists just a bit separate from the physical, but to whom we are always connected - no matter what Modernity may have otherwise convinced us to believe.

 

On the Beach

25 August 2014

3:12 PM

Iba, Zambales, Philippines