I knew almost nothing about the (non-human) beings we share this universe with – till I spent time in a religious order (gccalliance.org). That’s where I was, from 1995 – 2012. About 100 people. God-centered. Highly (wonderfully) cooperative. An eco-village. All adults attend evening classes; much of which study is of The Urantia Book.
The U.B. is more than 2,000 pages long, and contains a great deal of information – for the people of this world (which the celestials refer to as “Urantia”. So, you see, the U.B. is rather like the little book in your glove compartment, which will have a title matching the car that you drive.)
I was at GCCA for 17 years; and, after a year or so, (because of all the study) I developed some comprehension of who our companions are. (from here, mostly invisible)
All humans benefit from the watch-care of a guardian angel; mostly these are seraphim. All orders of angels have a great deal in common with us lowly mortals: emotionally we are quite similar (except that angels are a bit baffled by human ‘fear’). Seraphim are smart, but are not omniscient, nor does your guardian seraphim indwell your mind (as your Thought Adjuster does – a pre-personal fragment of the Universal Father). Your guardian seraphim had to LEARN your language (prior to their assignment); so, if you want your guardian angel to be in on any of your prayers, you need to speak that prayer out loud. Seraphim are (quite) capable, but not infallible.
If I should fail to survive (as a soul. Most souls survive, but some do not.) – then my seraphic guardian would be adjudicated (to determine whether he was complicit in my failure. My Thought Adjuster would NOT be adjudicated. God does not make mistakes.)
[You may think I am telling you a lot; but I assure you, I am not. I just want to give you a glimpse of who else is around]
Also there are Midwayers. These are the closest to us, vibrationally. They are not celestials. Midwayers are the permanent inhabitants of the Earth / (Urantia). From their point of view, we live and die so quickly – we’re like grass. There happen to be 1111 Loyal Midwayers on this planet. (If you often see this number, it’s them). They are smarter than we are; and they’re better than we are. AND they have the ability to connect with a human mind. As angels are, midway creatures are normally invisible to human eyes. (They have helped me numerous times. And, I DID see one once, I’m certain.) It’s the Midwayer Commission that took action / went to work and got the Urantia Book to happen. No small feat.
I suspect that many of us have a ‘celestial support team’ (including a midwayer, and, of course, a seraphim)
I do not (really) know what beings have been working with me, bringing me along (even from a young age). But I now have done enough study (and have had some undeniable personal experiences) that I am stuck with believing that someone has (been giving me ideas, and/or teaching me).
As to whether it would be correct to say that I was ‘trained in a mystery school’ – I am uncertain (but it may be accurate / proper. That’s a semantical matter anyway.)
When I was walking home (from next door) one evening, when I was about 6, I stopped in the middle of the grape arbor and looked up toward my grandma & grandpa’s back porch. It was dark-dusk and the porch light was on. There was no one to be seen; but I knew that if there had been someone there on the porch, that I would (of course) have been able to see them ~ but that they would NOT have been able to see ME.
I did not really know what to DO with this realization, but it struck me as being quite interesting (and not unimportant). Perhaps this was an early ‘noticing’ that the direction of perception is INWARD (and that our ‘sight’ does not really go out from our eye, as it seems to)
While there is no way to be certain, I’m inclined to believe that that bit of thinking came from myself, from my own mind & curiosity.
But –
That time when I was sitting on the studio couch (on an evening, when I was about 12, in our dining room, in the house I grew up in, in Ohio) – reading the ‘Post Scripts’ in the center of a Saturday Evening Post magazine … and the thought suddenly came into my head – that “The issue as to whether or not God exists – will NEVER be proven by any argument” … I find myself unable to believe – that that thought came from ME !
It was completely (as they say) “out of the blue”. Someone (non-human) PUT that thought into my mind.
For MY part – I DID recognize the Truth of it. I knew it was true. (and perhaps that is not insignificant)
When I was quite young, say – from the age of 4 or 5 – I noticed that my root chakra would flare up (I could feel it clearly, in my groin. That is, at the very bottom of my abdomen, and midway between the front of my belly, and my back-side. At this age I did not know about chakras; but I WAS familiar with this sensation. It would happen when I would see someone (probably on TV) get hurt, or mistreated.
Anyway, I am confident there are beings around capable of noticing such a reaction in my etheric body, and realizing that I was compassionate, by nature.
When I was in the 9th grade, writing assignments (in English class) were common – weekly, I suppose, at least. The thing is – I doubt whether my fellow students suffered as much as I did, in the completion of these assignments.
Because – I always felt compelled to write something which was not only coherent, readable, and grammatically correct … it had to be true, as well. I had no real CHOICE in this matter. Shawnee School required that I function as a Writer … and my soul required that I function as a Philosopher (as well).
Painful as it was, I could not escape it. It’s who I am.
Those early writing assignments were always painful, never easy.
In my family of origin, I was the middle of three sons. About three years between me and each of my brothers. Dan’s the oldest, then me, then Jack.
I doubt whether I got more than the “normal” amount of abuse from my older brother (as families go). But I can tell you it was more than I would have liked. And, I am ashamed to say, Jack got it from both of us. By the time Jack was ready to go into high school, he sort of ‘got quiet’.
When I saw this, I felt sorry. Because I knew what it was from: the long unrelenting diet of mistreatment from two older brothers.
Maybe this ‘sibling hazing’ is a million years old. Maybe two million. Maybe more. Anyway, our mom (who grew up with a dozen siblings) called it “teasing”. It took me a decade or so to realize that this is a misnomer. It’s abuse. Cruelty.
We need to learn to tell the truth. To call things what they are.
Fortunately, when my brothers and I got to high school (approaching college) the sibling dynamic shifted. We then saw each other as a “scarce commodity”; we knew we’d be leaving the nest soon and going out into the big world.
Luckily – I was a senior in high school the same year that Jack was a freshman; so we got to spend this year together as true friends. This was a great blessing.
When Dan left high school, he went to GMI (General Motors Institute) in Flint, Michigan – an engineering school. When Jack graduated high school, he also went to GMI. And while there, he got to be good friends with Denny. They were both smart and decent; they drank beer together, rode motorcycles, and enjoyed their lives. After GMI, they went to Arizona State, in Tempe, for grad school (Business). Denny was a year ahead, but Jack joined him there.
A little ways into Jack’s first year there, they both died one night, from carbon monoxide poisoning. From a poorly vented gas, apartment heater. It had no stack (to help it draw the exhaust fumes. I went and saw it for myself; it was vented like a dryer) Also, the heater had to be pulled away (from the wall and the vent) in order to light it. They had gone skiing, and when they came home, they lit their heater. And I reckon they did not get it properly engaged with the vent when they pushed it back. Anyway, that night they both died in their sleep.
Denny’s girlfriend found them the next morning. She thought Denny was alive, as he was standing up, leaning (naked) against the bathroom wall, by the toilet. He had gotten up to pee. That’s the way she found him. (and, a year or so previous, she had lost her husband. So that was hard on her)
And this was a rough one for our family as well.
But Denny was an only child. (I knew him a bit, through Jack. Denny was good looking, intelligent, sweet. A really good person) He was everything to that family. They were just devastated when they lost him.
It was of some consolation to me, when we lost Jack, that I knew that (because of those 5 ½ years or so, that we had spent together as real friends) – he knew that I loved him. That I knew him, and appreciated him. That I enjoyed him.
It may seem that Jack’s life was short (he was 24). Too short. But I am unable to believe that his life was not valuable and meaningful. Maybe it was not a good death, but it had been a good life. I knew that. And (perhaps a bit later on) I knew I’d see him again.
We don’t know why we’re here. One day – we just show up. We don’t know how, or why. (and we still don’t know why). Our gifts are considerable and numerous. Not least among them – the people close to us. If we should fail to recognize these gifts and value them, that’s on us.
Whether I was brought up in some Mystery School (or not) I can tell you that I would (most likely) never have understood the nature of the Waking Dream without the (considerable) help that I got from members of my ‘Family’, who from here – seem to be invisible.
I wish to thank them. THEY know who they are.
Even if I don’t.
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I recently realized that I want to write up this (following) idea in a long version. In a book: Relaxed,
Beautiful (with numerous photos & paintings. Colorful) Uplifting, & (I hope) Enjoyable.
Maybe it could even be of use to people who have suffered greatly.
TED talks are 18 minutes (maximum). TEDx talks are usually shorter – 10, maybe 12 minutes.
I’m hoping to deliver this (below) talk on a TEDx stage. At the earliest opportunity. (hopefully within a year)
This (following) essay / talk is a consolidation of three previously published essays:
https://worldfamilytrading.com/the-great-illusion/?v=7516fd43adaa
https://worldfamilytrading.com/the-waking-state/?v=7516fd43adaa
https://worldfamilytrading.com/the-dream/?v=7516fd43adaa
and is also a (much shortened) version of a talk I put onto youtube, the trailer for which is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlfqsL3hTK0
And links for its six segments are:
1.a = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBqIyIlIb9E
1.b = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYLM3tXAkMc
1.c = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBWHbp08q9I
1.d = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsgBZ1Y47-w
1.e = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvWpgXNIpK8
1.f = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muRoPmS2q8E (Sailor’s Prayer)
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As I am thinking I may call the (future) book – “Mind-stuff”, I’ll call it that, here.
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The universe is not only queerer than we suppose,
it’s queerer than we can suppose.
– J.B.S. Haldane
In 1960, when I was 14, I entered high school – Shawnee High School, in northwest Ohio. And soon after that, I found I had also matriculated into a school I could not see. And though my instruction in this mystery school never occurred anywhere but in the brick-and-mortar school, I presumed that it was not part of the Shawnee School system. I found I was being instructed sometimes by teachers I could not see. There was never any homework. And my “instruction” was (always) in the form of having my attention directed – to some interaction happening in the classroom.
For example – (and this is the one that sticks with me) the teacher (the visible teacher) was conversing with a certain student. And during that interaction I could see the student become aware of a ‘blank spot’ in their Personal Paradigm (their understanding of reality); and they hastily filled in that hole with something handy. And I realized – that they did this because they felt uncomfortable with the HOLE in their world view (once they saw there was a blank).
And what I can tell you is that on the spot I vowed I would never do that. I did NOT want such an understanding in my mind. I would wait till I died, if I had to, before I would answer a question with just any old thing. I would WAIT till the answer came.
About 15 years later (when I was in my house in Wallingford, in Seattle) I was asked to do something (by a being, not a human being, but by someone I could not see. It may have been my teacher from high school. I do not know.)
This was not ‘in words’ exactly, but I understood it okay: I was being asked to work through the (human) free will – determinism paradox. (Do we humans actually have free will, or is that just an illusion? I reckon this is NOT a simple question to sort through) Anyway, I agreed to think on it.
I had thought about it before, but it had been some years prior; and I had no reason (of my own) to be thinking about it.
Well, after a couple weeks or so, I came to the realization I had considered this issue about as well as I could.
So I ‘handed in my work’. I didn’t write anything down, or say anything out loud. I reckoned that whoever had given me this task could handle the format I was offering.
Then I got the sense that whoever it was I was dealing with considered my thought-work to be satisfactory. I didn’t hear any applause, or anything; but that was the only time that I had the distinct sense that there was more than just one person there, on the other side of the veil.
A few days later, I was out in the driveway, when the idea came into my mind that – “Experience (here-and-now experience) has TWO components: an Outer (material) aspect, AND an Inner (non-material) aspect.”
Now this is nothing new; everybody knows this.
But ~ attached to this idea was a sense of Urgency. Intense urgency!
And since I KNEW that that sense of urgency had NOT come from me. (nor had I put that idea there either) ~ I found myself forced to the realization : that I had been auditioned, AND I had now been given an assignment.
I did not really know what I was supposed to DO with this assignment, but there was NO doubt in my mind that the assignment was real. Nor did the attached urgency ever go away.
It never occurred to me NOT to accept the assignment. (Nor did it occur to me that I should do library-type research) But in my heart, I gave myself to this project. Completely. I was about as True to this task, as a person could be. I never pushed it aside or avoided it. Despite the fact that I did NOT know how to proceed – (to understand whatever I was supposed to understand) and complete the assignment.
That fall (of 1976) I went back to college. I had gone to University of Idaho directly out of high school, on a football scholarship. But after three years there, (in the College of Letters & Sciences) had flunked out.
But this time (two decades later) I went to MIU (Maharishi International University) – a liberal arts school in southeast Iowa, where everybody – faculty, staff, students – does Transcendental Meditation. I had learned TM a year or two earlier. (and I still do this practice)
I found the environment at MIU to be about ideal for the ‘project’ I was ‘working on’; and the people were delightful.
Consciousness at MIU is regarded as Fundamental. The Basis of all disciplines, as well as the basis to the spiritual technique of Transcendental Meditation.
There were many opportunities for students to participate in (in-class) discussions. And quite often, these discussions were about consciousness. And whenever it seemed relevant, I would say something about the Two aspects of Experience (inner & outer).
There were about 200 students in my class; and I guess they sensed my passion for my “idea”, because students seemed to come up to me (usually in the dining hall) almost in a steady stream. To encourage me.
I felt as though I was being ‘fed under the table’.
Things went on like this for about a year and a half.
It was late in the fall semester of my sophomore year (1977) when I finally figured it out.
We were in a month-long Philosophy block. And one day we were shown a film-strip: A baby is seen sitting in his high chair, playing with some toy on the tray; and he inadvertently knocks it off the tray and it lands somewhere beyond his field of view. But he does NOT hunt for it.
Then
a little later: the same scene – he knocks a toy off the high-chair tray, and it lands where he cannot see it. But now – he HUNTS FOR IT.
THIS struck me as being really significant. Really important (though I did not know WHY). And, about two weeks later (which is often about how long it takes me to come to a new idea) I understood what was going on: we watch the inner and we learn to recognize it AS the outer.
~ I (basically) had completed my assignment. ~
Piaget (the father of developmental psychology) would say that the child learns to ascribe to objects the property of object permanence. But this description (while basically true) does NOT do justice to the Momentous Transformation that we (all) went through in the middle of our first year of life. Infant’s Consciousness deserves to be recognized as a major state of consciousness ( along with – dream state, sleep state, waking state).
What did we have to do in order to gain entrance into the Society of Doers? / into the Waking State?
We POSTULATED THE EXISTENCE OF THE WORLD! Audacious. Outrageous.
THIS (cognition) is what we had to have in order to be able to participate in the events of the world.
BEFORE our Great Transition (out of Infant’s Consciousness) we had already developed quite a few (small) cognitive categories: Mama, bed, floor, water, milk, food, music, binky, blanket. And many more.
But we needed a Wholistic one: Reality / the World.
All recognitions (really are) re – cognitions. We must formulate the original cognition FIRST.
THEN we can recognize that thing.
What happens when we see something?
Light comes into our eye (maybe we are looking at a maple tree). The image (upside-down and backwards) forms on our retina, signals get sent to the back of the brain, which works it up into (an accurate but) raw image, called the Percept. Which we do not see; but this gets sent (quickly) to the front of the brain (home to all our cognitive categories); and, on the basis of similarity, the percept ‘shakes loose’ whatever cognitive categories it is able to. And once these (recognitions) get coupled to the Percept – we (at last, consciously) ‘see’ the maple tree.
And – what are the REQUIREMENTS for Recognition? HOW similar must the percept be to the contents of the cognitive categories?
Let us suppose for a moment – that a 100% match (or 99%) was the requirement. Identicality (or nearly)
What would happen?
You’re a four-month-old baby, and your mother walks into the room you’re in. Will you recognize her?
Yes: IF the light is just right, if she is wearing what she always wears, if the expression on her face is the same as always. Mmm?
But that’s NOT the way the world is. If the requirements for Recognition were Completely Strict, we would never recognize ANYTHING. The world would appear brand new all the time. And such a version of consciousness would be useless.
Mmm? No good.
In order for our consciousness to be of use to us, (for it to WORK at ALL), the requirements for Recognition MUST be a bit sloppy!
This means that we are hard-wired for error. Misrecognitions, then, are bound to be common.
The first time I heard the Beattles’ song – ‘Yellow Submarine’, I thought they were saying “jealous of Marie” (not ‘yellow submarine’). I probably heard it like that for YEARS.
And that’s not because I’m stupid. It’s because I’m human. I’m making do with Standard Issue gear.
Generally though, our consciousness is pretty hi-fi. We can get into our car, and GO somewhere, and return (probably) without killing someone or ourselves. Pretty impressive.
Our waking state experience is basically a ‘mosaic of recognitions’. This show is handed to us by our consciousness and our brain & nervous system. Automatically.
Inside our mind there is a constant (automatic) ‘snow-storm’ of recognitions. All the time, when we’re awake.
But (besides recognizing the pieces: shoes, sister, broccoli, the road, headlights, turn signals) there are ALSO wholistic recognitions.
When we watch a movie, we know it isn’t real. And yet, we still manage (willingly) to experience it (at least to some extent) as though it were real.
And a similar thing can happen with a dream that we have at night, when we’re asleep. Sometimes we have a dream that seems absolutely real… such that, when we awake in the morning, we are astonished as we’re forced to the realization – that it was “just a dream”!
Well, the difference between a sleeping dream and the Waking State, is that the sleeping dream occurs IRRESPECTIVE of our surroundings; whereas the Waking State is a dream OF our (actual) surroundings. In real time.
THIS is what makes the world ‘visible’ to us.
There is (good) reason to believe that the World really DOES exist. (and, to a considerable extent – the WAY we see it)
But, in a strict sense, it’s not the WORLD itself that we see. Our own consciousness POSES as the world (to the best of its ability, which is Considerable). It’s a Dream. A creation IN and OF our own consciousness. A projection. That we continuously create. And live IN.
It’s altogether astonishing.
A tiger knows he is a tiger. What he does NOT know – is that he is (also) NOT a tiger. That part of him which thinks he is a tiger ~ that is NO tiger.
Nor does he realize that what he takes to be “the World” is really his Own Dream of it !
We say that we look OUT of a window. “I can’t see out through this windshield; there’s too much ice on it.”
We think that our sight goes OUT from our eye and “sees” our environment (the trees, the mountains, the traffic) OUT THERE where those things ARE.
THIS (the apparent ‘whereness‘ of everything) this is what makes our projection SO (inescapably) CONVINCING. Mmm?
Let us work with an example. Something HERE and NOW. Mmm?
How about the rim of the stage? the EDGE of the stage I’m standing on. You can all see it; and I can see it too. Okay?
Now, I dare say that we have NO disagreement as to WHERE this edge of the stage is.
But – it’s not the location of the stage that I want you to consider. It’s the location of the SEEING!
I want you to hold in your mind TWO QUESTIONS at the same time. And let us be honest with our answers.
Where does the SEEING seem to occur? AND Where does it actually occur?
Where do I SEEM to see the edge of the stage?
AND
Where do I actually see the edge of the stage?
(I’ll give you a little time – to arrive at the Truth of the matter)
Okay?
We SEEM to see the rim of the stage – right there, exactly WHERE IT IS.
But
We ACTUALLY see it inside our own minds, within our Brain-Space.
Is it not true?
You see – we imagine that our SIGHT goes OUT from our eye and (instantaneously) STRIKES the things in our environment: the road, the buildings, the trees, the mountains, the clouds, the stars.
But this does not happen.
Here’s the truth: that Thing (that Big Thing) we are completely accustomed to recognizing as “The World” – is actually our Projection. And we live IN it; we are a part of it.
Ever notice that everyone (in the world) thinks they’re RIGHT (all the time)?
Well, since we all think we see the world DIRECTLY (without our own consciousness mediating for us) we are left with the impression that we are (constantly) in direct contact with Reality.
We are all under constant pressure – to think we’re RIGHT. [because the illusion is constant. It never lets up.]
And this causes some problems, doesn’t it?
No one can escape these Fundamental Illusions. But, once we SEE them, we can ALLOW for them. Mmm?
But I do not consider this (understanding why everyone thinks they’re right) to be the Main Takeaway.
THAT should be: Astonishment, wonder, an elevated and enhanced appreciation for oneself, and for others (and even all the animals, since we ALL live in the world THROUGH the functioning of our Waking State of consciousness, which (unavoidably) operates on the BASIS of a fundamental misrecognition)
And, if THIS is true ~
All Creatures are miraculous.
There is abundant room for Spirituality.
We are Multidimensional Beings.
All of Life is Sacred.
We must NOT allow this planet to perish.
The Universe is Alive.
Rumi says – (and I offer you this as a “Commissioning”)
You should try to hear the name the Holy One has for things.
There is something in the phrase: “The Holy One taught him names.”
We name everything according to the number of legs it has;
The holy one names it according to what is inside.
Moses waved his stick; he thought it was a “rod.”
But inside its name was “dragonish snake.”
We thought the name of Umar meant: “agitator against priests”;
But in eternity his name is “the one who believes.”
No one knows our name until our last breath goes out.
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