88597570 Instant Enlightenment

Koda Instant Enlightenment

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Instant Enlightenment:Metaphysical Fast Food

By

Koda

A guide to understanding psychic phenomenathrough rational explanations and personal psychic experience

copyright 2004 by Koda. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or

otherwise, without written permission from the author, except where noted.

Cover art by the author.

ISBN: 1-4140-5893-4 (Paperback)ISBN: 1-4140-5894-2 (Dust Jacket)

This is the final pre-publication version, Feb. 11, 2004


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Table of Contents

[6] Closing Psychic Doors

[7] Introduction and Acknowledgements

[10] Visual Telepathy in Just Minutes (brief instructions)

[12] Chapter One: My Personal Metaphysical Experiences

Telepathy Becomes a Reality; Does God Exist?; Going Out of Body;Telepathic Staring Contests; Reading Minds; Jesus (or a good rock) Saves;Devine Intervention; The "Telepathy Exercise" Becomes the PsychicWindow Technique (two people transporting awareness to another timeand place); Ouija Boards; Multiple, Simultaneous Dreams; LearningTelekinesis (mind moving matter); Lucid Dreaming; Another OOBE; Déjàvu; Waking Visions; Reincarnation and "Energy Bolts."

[46] Chapter Two: Koda's Psychic Window Technique

Visual Telepathy and Visual Perception of "Reincarnational Selves"

[61] Chapter Three: Analyzing Reality

The theory of No Physical Physical Universe; Quantum Mechanics andString Theory; Multiple Dimensions; and Forth Dimensional Perception.

[78] Chapter Four: Reason, Religion and Beliefs

[85] Chapter Five: Manipulating Awareness

Levels of Consciousness; Meditation; Hypnosis; Concentration and Intent.


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[101] Chapter Six: Creating Reality

Seth, Abraham and others have been telling us we create our own reality,but can we really make that happen? Here's how to actually make itwork.

[124] Chapter Seven: Astrology, Predestination and Free Will

[128] Chapter Eight: Adventures in Dreamland

Dream Phenomena; Improving Dream Recall; 30 Days to LucidDreaming; and Shared Dreams.

[135] Chapter Nine: Psychic Sex and 20-Minute-Plus FemaleOrgasms

[142] Chapter Ten: Drug Use and Metaphysical Development

[156] Chapter Eleven: Psychic Party Games

(Visual Telepathy); Using Telekinesis to Move a Paper Wheel; PsychicTouch Dancing; Light as a Feather (The Lifting Game); DirectionalAttention; Psychometry; Manipulating the Pendulum; Perceiving Auras;Using Ouija Boards; and instructions for holding a séance.

[187] Chapter Twelve: Psychological Wisdom

Value Fulfillment; Values and Beliefs; Right and Wrong vs. "Good andBad;” Acknowledge and Release; Responsibility Implies Control; AllUnhappiness Requires Self Pity; All Needs Are Based Upon Wants;Every Extreme Implies the Opposite; Celebrate Your Issues; The GrandCosmic Joke; etc.

[215] Chapter Thirteen: Getting It Together

Indulgence and Self Discipline; The Power of Decisions; EliminatingAddictions; Yoga; Choosing a Career; etc.

[233] Chapter Fourteen: Social Enlightenment


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One Worldwide Socioeconomic System; The Means of ReachingAgreement; Constructing One-Building Cities; Eliminating Positions ofPower; The Personal Freedoms Protection Amendment; etc.

[255] Frozen Fog (a poem)

Appendix:

[257] Overview of Metaphysical, Occult and ParanormalPhenomena and Practices

A mini-encyclopedia of more than 120 listings describing the mostsignificant types of spiritual/psychic phenomena reported throughouthistory.

[315] More Info on the Internet


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Closing Psychic DoorsPlease read this before performing any of the psychic exercises in

this book.

All of us go around with “our walls up” to some extent. Weblock our emotions from being easily perceived by others, and blockthe emotions of others from overwhelming us, by putting up whatmost people refer to as emotional walls.

Another way of looking at this is in terms of “psychicshields.” There is a great deal of perception available to oursubconscious on psychic levels, which we normally block from ourawareness without giving it much thought. However, spending asignificant amount of time exercising psychic abilities can result in ashift in ones level of awareness. This shift of focus can cause one toperceive psychic information without any deliberate effort, acondition which can persist for some time after performing theexercises in this book. For most people this is experienced as a mild"natural high" and is quite pleasant. Such a state of being is one ofthe objectives of meditation. There are some, however, who maytune into undesired perceptions and would prefer not to remain opento perceiving subconscious information. It is important tounderstand that you can prevent that from happening.

The trick to stopping any undesirable psychic awareness is tosimply place all of your attention on the physical world around you.For example, my technique for returning from a lucid dream or outof body experience is to simply wiggle my toes. The attention on thephysical body draws one’s awareness back to it. Watching TV,balancing your checkbook, cooking dinner, dancing, exercising,gardening, or otherwise fully engaging your attention in physicalactivity will prevent any undesirable psychic awareness fromoccurring and restore your “psychic shields.”


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Introduction

We are all God.Understand that and you will be instantly enlightened.Chances are that even with the "big answer" you don't feel all

that enlightened right now. That's because knowledge is merelyinformation until it is perceived as a reality in your own experience.

Over the course of the last few decades I have left my body,"read minds" and performed telekinesis (mind moving matter). Ihave been fully “awake” while dreaming, experienced déjà vu,transported my consciousness to another time and place, and more.But I am not “enlightened” in the way most people think of thatterm. I am just some guy who has spent more than thirty years tryingto figure out how “God, Life, the Universe and all that psychicstuff” really operates. I have learned a lot, from reading andexperimenting, observing and pondering. But simply reading theinformation is not going to make you enlightened. One needs toexperience information as truth. This book is full of exercises andexperiments designed to provide you with personal experiencewhich can lead you to discover many previously unrecognized truthsabout life.

Anyone with an open mind can experience visual telepathy injust minutes, regardless of your belief or disbelief in “thingspsychic,” and the experience will blow you away. Essentiallyanyone can use telekinesis to spin a paper wheel in just seconds.Some of the other exercises in the “Psychic Party Games” sectioncan produce results almost as quickly, regardless of your naturallevel of psychic ability. The results happen because this stuff is real.It is just a matter of learning how to tune into the perceptions.

In my opinion, there is a rational explanation for everything,regardless of whether or not that explanation is known.Metaphysical phenomena has been mixed up with irrational


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religious dogma on the one hand, and plagued with fraud on theother. Religion asks us to accept explanations on faith alone, whileso called “scientific” debunkers invalidate all evidence bydemonstrating that some of it could be fraudulent. In spite of this,any objective truth is subject to the same principles of reason we useevery day. There is no need to accept anything on faith alone.Psychic phenomena is as real as your arm, and equally subject to thecritical analysis of science.

My efforts have been profoundly influenced by the Seth booksby Jane Roberts (1929--1984). Seth is a “multi-dimensionalpersonality energy essence no longer focused within physicalreality” who spoke through Jane, while her husband, Robert Butts,wrote down Seth’s dictation. About half a dozen books were writtenin this way, my favorites being the first two, Seth Speaks: TheEternal Validity of the Soul (1972) and The Nature of PersonalReality: A Seth Book (1974). Seth is often referred to in this presentwork.

The series of nine books by Carlos Castaneda (1925?--1998)have also been a significant influence on my way of thinking. Theseries begins with The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaki Way ofKnowledge (1968). Carlos was an anthropology student at UCLA in1960 when he encountered don Juan Matus, a Yaki Indian sorcerer.Don Juan spent the next ten years teaching Carlos a complex systemof metaphysical thinking said to be handed down over thousands ofyears from the ancient Toltec civilization of Central America. Inrecent years some controversy has been generated by the possibilitythat Castaneda may have fraudulently produced his work, but I findthe material consistent with my own experience as well as withSeth’s concept that we create our own reality.

I am also deeply indebted to The Encyclopedia of Occultismand Parapsychology, 4th Edition (1994) edited by J. GordonMelton, as a much valued source of historical reference.

I would like to thank Kristen Risbeck for proofreading themanuscript, along with the other people who always believed in medespite my unconventional ideas. These include my departedmother, who introduced me to astrology, and from the time I wasyoung continually told me I was her “special” child who would


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accomplish great things. I am also grateful for the sincere support ofAnnalisa Sand, Belinda Ray, Darren and Christina Weight, GregBlackett, my brother Allen, and above all, my father, who made itpossible for me to become the person I wanted to be.

Writing this book has taken more than four years, largelybecause I sometimes questioned my qualifications for writing it.There are times when I am fully aware of the spiritual nature of theUniverse and feel completely in tune with the flow of myexperience. At other times I have found myself stumbling throughlife feeling like the light at the end of the tunnel may turn out to bean oncoming train. I continually refine my understanding andwanted to include every new insight, but eventually realized Icouldn’t do that or this book would never be finished -- because myknowledge will constantly expand, which is true for all of us.

In the long run each individual must discover the truth onone’s own. The source of your knowledge must be your ownexperience. This book is designed to lead you to your ownconclusions.

If you have a willing partner around, you are just minutesaway from personally experiencing a form of psychic perception.


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Visual Telepathy in Just Minutes(more detailed information on this is presented later)

You and a friend sit a comfortable distance apart (2 or 3 feet)and look into each other's eye. You look at the other's right eyewhile they look at your left eye (or vice versa). With your thoughtsquieted, both of you attempt to expand the area of clear perceptionto include all of the other person's face. Blink your eyes wheneverthey need wetting, but not to regain a clear focus. Remain relaxed,pay attention to what you see and feel, and explain those perceptionsto the other person.

That's all you need to do to perform this exercise. Within aminute or two you will begin to notice "changes" in your visualperception. The other person's face may become blurry, darker orlighter, or otherwise begin to look different. After a moment thechanges become more dramatic, perhaps hallucinatory. (You canstop any unpleasant visual effects by blinking or looking away for amoment.) You are very likely to find yourself looking at the imageof an entirely different person, perhaps several persons, one after theother. (These may be images of that person in other incarnations.)You will also notice that any strong emotion you feel while doingthis exercise is simultaneously experienced by your partner.Essentially anyone can get these results with minimal effort.

These visual and emotional effects happen to both people atthe same time and occur with the same level of constantlyfluctuating intensity. Let me repeat that. The effects happen to bothpeople at the same time and with the same level of intensity. The twoexperiences are connected. They do not happen independently ofeach other. "Something" is linking both experiences on a psychiclevel. This is proof of psychic phenomenon (telepathy on a visuallevel) and essentially anyone can experience it personally. Theexperience is often shockingly dramatic. You will definitely know


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something "supernatural" is happening.It is possible to communicate specific information such as

colors or numbers using this technique (see the Psychic Windowchapter) but simply following the instructions above will producevisual effects that will amaze you. Once you have performed thisexercise there will be no doubt that psychic phenomena is a realityand that you are personally capable of such experience.

The next chapter describes how I discovered this techniqueand many other aspects of this magical universe we live in. Otherquick and easy exercises are also provided in the Psychic PartyGames chapter, including instructions for using telekinesis to spin apaper wheel, which will work for just about anyone.


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Chapter One:

My Personal Metaphysical Experiences

Like most people, I became interested in metaphysics when Iwas a teenager. That's generally when we first encounter stories of"real magic" and feel a pressing need to know just what is and isn'treal. This was back in the early 1970's when the hippie movementwas promoting peace and drugs as a path to social enlightenment,and I was first awakened by LSD. (The pros and cons of using drugsto assist metaphysical development are discussed later.)

My first "acid trip" didn't do much more than produce a few"special effects," such as the car I was riding in filling with smoke,and water pouring like liquid rainbows against the windows as wedrove through a car wash. And I laughed so hard and so long mycheeks and abdomen hurt all the next day. The second experiencehad a much more profound effect on my world view.

While listening to "acid rock" music with my eyes closed Isaw complicated, 3-dimensional patterns of neon-bright lightmoving in sync with the music. These patterns were so intricate andreal, so beyond my own ability to imagine, that I was convincedthey had been “programmed” by the musicians so everyone on"acid" (LSD) would perceive them. (It took months for me to learndifferently, but the experience lead me to develop a theoretical


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method for creating similar effects: Audio Animation: 3-D“pictures” or “sound shapes” you “see with your ears” in everydirection around you at once. You can create a crude Audio Imageby moving your hand in a wide circular pattern while continuallysnapping your fingers -- you will hear a circle. See my web site formore info.)

While under the influence of LSD I felt a connection withGod, that I was part of this huge thing that contained the world, theuniverse, everything, and it was called God. The world was nolonger solid and real to me, but some kind of "projection." I didn'tunderstand how this metaphysical universe worked, but theexperience opened my mind to the idea that there is more to realitythan meets the scientist.

I started talking with people about different religions,looking for answers, and heard some very strange tales. There wasone girl in the coffee shop where I hung out at the time, a strikinglybeautiful 19-year-old with long, dark brown hair, who told me aboutEastern religious monks involved in astral projection (now oftenreferred to as OOBE's, or Out Of Body Experience). Apparentlythese monks would have themselves locked up in a tiny room insome remote monastery for years at a time till they learned how tosend their conscious awareness out to visit any place they wanted to,including the “astral planes” -- other levels of existence wheredifferent kinds of beings lived. Some sort of "silver thread" wassupposed to trail out from their astral body to keep them connectedto their physical body, and if this thread was ever broken the monkswould supposedly die. That girl believed in a lot of crazy things,including mental telepathy; the idea that some people could readminds.

Many of the ideas she talked about were totally new to me,and I would have laughed them off as pure fantasy if the experienceof LSD hadn't shook me from the "waking sleep," the totallyignorant state most of us are in all the time where we take reality tobe as solid and real as it appears to be. I wanted to know if suchthings as telepathy and astral projection were really possible. Theonly way to know for sure was to try myself.


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The First Telepathy Experience

It wasn't long before a friend, Chuck, agreed to help meexperiment with telepathy. We were parked in the driveway at myfathers house in Chuck’s old, white Plymouth (with the big rear"wings" common on cars of the early 1960's). My father’s two acreyard in Salt Lake City had lots of tall trees and bushes everywhere,so we would often sit in the car with the music playing quietly onthe 8-track stereo without disturbing anyone. On this particularnight, around midnight, we were smoking hashish (a concentratedform of marijuana) discussing the spiritual effects of LSD and thestrange stories that girl had told me. We decided to attempt usingtelepathy to convey a letter of the alphabet, in spite of having noclue how to do it.

I chose a letter and began concentrating with my eyes closed.Chuck closed his eyes and tried to discern which letter I hadselected. He was very patient, waiting for some "clue" to indicatewhich letter it might be. He was extremely patient. Agonizinglypatient. After a few minutes passed I looked up to see if he had"spaced out" and forgotten what he was doing, but there he wasbobbing his head gently with a serious expression on his face,concentrating intently, so I went back to concentrating on the letter Iwas trying to send.

I could visualize the letter very clearly due to the"assistance" of the hash. I was altering my visual image of the letterby changing it's color, making it appear 3-D, rotating it, addingornate decorations to the edges, anything I could do to keep myattention focused only on that particular letter of the alphabet. Iglanced at Chuck again and he was still concentrating so I kept at it.Perhaps five minutes passed before I became so frustrated I thoughtI would burst. I stopped just short of smacking the dashboard withmy hand and screamed to myself mentally, “Get it through yourhead! The letter is –“

"R!!!" he yelled.Wow. He got it. I slumped back down in the seat shaking my

head in disbelief. Telepathy was a reality, not just some story peoplemade up. Not only that, but I could do it -- at least I could send. And


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if telepathy was real, all those other things like astral projectionmight be real as well. I was dumbfounded. Thirty seconds went bybefore Chuck asked, "That was the letter, right?" It wasn't till thenthat I realized he had actually shouted the letter without knowing forsure it was correct.

We tried to repeat the experience several times over the nexthour, but failed every time. Still, there was no doubt that we hadactually performed mental telepathy that first time, something I haveto attribute to my friend who concentrated with such doggeddetermination.

Answering the Question, "Does God Exist?”

Later that night I laid in bed pondering the experience oftelepathy and what it meant to live in a world where such thingswere possible. Is reality truly the sort of illusion it appears to bewhile on psychedelic drugs? Do monks actually leave their bodies?Is there really a God?

The question regarding the reality of God, or the lack of areal God, had been pressing on me for sometime. Before mypsychedelic experiences I assumed that people had invented the ideaof God in order to feel they had an answer to a question no onecould answer -- "where did the universe come from?" I felt that noone had a clue about the source of existence, and "God" was abandage used to hide from that truth. But for months had I wanted toknow for sure if there was a God or not. The question had becomean obsession. After the experience with telepathy earlier that night Ifelt I might be closer to discovering an answer I could trust. I hadlearned that telepathy was real simply by trying it. Perhaps I couldknow if there was a God or not simply by asking the question withthe same level of determination.

I laid on my bed and asked, "Does God exist?" I asked thequestion with all the determination I could gather. I was so focusedon the question, so sincere, I believed I might actually get ananswer. After a moment I noticed a feeling similar to becoming highon pot, only the feeling was centered around my head, a sense of"pressure" or "expansion" in a band around my temples. A faint


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while light began to gather near the foot of my bed and I felt atremendous sense of exhilaration and suspense. The light grewcontinually brighter and brighter and I was certain God himself wasabout to appear before my eyes.

But then the thought occurred to me that if someone reallydid appear before me, how would I know it was God and not someastral projecting monk pretending to be God? I realized that ifsomeone appeared, claiming to be God, even if he explained everyaspect of every detail of reality, I could not rationally be certain itwas actually God, even if it truly was God. I became convincedthere was no rational way to know if God exists, period. I finallyhad the answer to the question I had been obsessed about formonths. "I don't know," turned out to be a legitimate answer.*Having the long sought answer made me feel so euphoric I nearlyforgot about the glowing light at the foot of my bed, which wasslowly beginning to fade.

My next question was, "Is astral projection possible?" Myimmediate response was, "I don't know," and the obvious limitationsof that answer became clear. I didn't know if telepathy was real untilI tried it, and even though I didn't know how to go about doingtelepathy, it worked. To find out if astral projection was possible Isimply had to do the same thing, to try it.

(*Note: The above is not the "real" answer to the question ofthe existence of God.)

Astral Projection

As I laid on the bed looking at the acoustic ceiling tilesabove me, I could sense the light at the foot of the bed glowingbrightly again. I was having a "transcendental" experience, the kindof stuff we read about but which doesn't seem possible for us regularpeople. I stared at the ceiling and thought to myself, "Up."

My body started "vibrating." It felt as if a vibrating electricalcurrent were passing through me in slow waves, up from my toes tothe top of my head, then back down, over and over, faster and fasteruntil I heard a distinct "ripping" sound inside my head. It was like


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the sound of cloth being torn at the base of my skull, but I felt thesensation as well as heard it.

In that moment I experienced a "swooshing" sensation, likegoing up in and elevator when it stops suddenly and produces amomentary feeling of weightlessness. I hadn't closed my eyes, notthat I could remember anyway, but I suddenly became aware thatthe ceiling tiles were only a few inches in front of my face! I wasfloating outside of my body! I don't think I have ever felt moreexhilarated. In one night the world had become a truly magical placeand I was able to do these incredible things. I was thrilled beyonddescription.

I floated in the air letting my arms and legs dangle, enjoyingthe incredibly delightful freedom of weightlessness. I was looking atthe joints in the acoustic ceiling tiles, and could clearly see the fuzzylittle hairs of fibrous material on the corners where four tiles cametogether. My vision was crystal clear, in fact better than normal.

I hung suspended near the ceiling for perhaps ten to twelveseconds before I thought about turning around to look at my body onthe bed. I immediately decided that wouldn't be such a great ideabecause I didn't know how I would react to seeing my body when Iwasn't in it. After a moment I realized I didn't know how to turnaround anyway. Then I thought I should make a point ofremembering how I got out of my body so I could do it again, andrealized I didn't really know how I had gotten out. At that momentmy pleasant adventure turned into a life threatening nightmare as Irealized I didn't know how to get back in either.

Panic overwhelmed me. "Back," I said to myself, but nothinghappened. I started screaming mentally, "Back! Back! Back!" butstill it was just me and the ceiling tiles. Finally I started tellingmyself this was all a dream and it was impossible to leave one'sbody. I went into a rage of sorts about how this couldn't be real andfinally felt that "swooshing" sensation again, only this time it wassudden and hard. I actually felt myself drop from the ceiling andslam into my body with a sudden impact.

The force of reentry was so violent I sat up straightseemingly from the momentum. I gasped for air and flung my armsabout wildly, relieved to be back, but the relief soon turned to


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horror. My body was icy cold on the inside. It felt ghastly,unnatural, and at that moment I was convinced I had just entered mypreviously dead body.

Needless to say, it took a while before I again thought sohighly of the wonders of astral projection, about as long as it tookfor my body to regain it's normal temperature, which was roughly 20minutes. But once I recovered from the shock I was indeed quiteimpressed with the whole thing. I had performed mental telepathy,left my body and "solved" the question of the existence of God all inone evening. My ego was glowing profusely.

Telepathic Staring Contests

The next day, returning to the local coffee shop where all myyoung acquaintances hung out, I was quite excited to tell everyonewhat had happened. No one believed any of it. I sat there inembarrassed disbelief as my friends all made fun of me for comingup with such a tall tale and expecting them to fall for it. The more Iinsisted it was all true the more annoyed they became that I wouldn'tgive up my attempt to deceive them. I was young, felt insulted andvowed to get even with them.

It was probably about two weeks later when the nextsignificant event occurred. The coffee shop was a large, openbuilding with high ceilings and three walls covered by tall glasswindows. The orange booths had low seat backs and it was easy tosee everyone in the place. All of us kids used to play a sort of gamenow and then, getting into "staring contests." If two of us happenedto catch each other's glance we would sometimes stare each other inthe eye till one or the other would "lose" by blinking or changingfacial expression.

I was a serious guy at the time and quite good at it, buteveryone recognized one particular girl as the stare-down queen. Shewas a busty, attractive girl with a round face, black hair and large,dark eyes, probably about sixteen. I could hold out for five minutesat a time with her, but eventually, for no reason at all, I wouldsuddenly find myself cracking a huge grin and lose, every time.


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So it was a couple of weeks after my night of "transcendentalillumination" that I found myself in a staring contest with the stare-down queen. With nothing to do but stare and think, the idea cameto me that maybe I could think of something funny, project it to hertelepathically and cause her to laugh. I thought of a joke I hadrecently heard, concentrated on mentally delivering the punch line,and she immediately broke up laughing. I won! I beat the champ,someone no one could get to even crack a smile.

She demanded a rematch and this time most of the kids atsurrounding tables all watched to see what happened. I againthought of something funny and again she suddenly broke uplaughing. Yes! Success! Later the girl asked me how I had beatenher, and when I told her, she said she had always used the sametrick.

That cinched it for me. Telepathy was real. I knew I wasgood at sending, so the next step was figuring out how to receive.

Reading Minds

Again I was faced with the fact that I didn't know how toproceed, and again I used the same old method -- just try.

I don't know why I started looking into people's eyes whenattempting to "read their minds" but it seemed natural to make eyecontact when you want to communicate clearly with someone. Iwould simply look into the eye of one of my friends and say, "let mesee if I can read your mind." Then I would say whatever popped intomy head.

It became obvious that saying, "let me see if I can read youmind," caused most people to think something like, "There's no wayyou can read my mind." I could easily see that from their facialexpressions. So the first thing I often said was, "You're thinkingthere is no way I can read your mind." They'd snicker and say thatproves nothing, but I would force them to admit that I had indeedguessed what they were thinking. Next they would try to think ofsomething specific in order to make their thoughts a little lessobvious, and I'd say, "Now you are trying to come up withsomething specific to think about," which was almost always the


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case. Then, "You are beginning to think I might actually be able todo this because I have been right all along so far."

It was at this point that most people would actually getworried that I might know what they were thinking. The fear that Icould dig deep into their secrets would focus their attention verystrongly. "You are afraid that I might dig into your deep secrets,"would often send people into a sort of panic and they would radiatetheir thoughts so loudly I could actually begin to pick up specificdetails. In great fear, and needing to prove that I wasn't reading theirminds, they would finally focus on something very specific, andbecause my attention was so intently focused on them I almostalways knew what it was. "You're thinking about the slippers yourgrandmother keeps under her bed," is one example I rememberpicking up on.

If you can picture what it would be like to be in your lateteens and be subject to this kind of intense psychological pressure,you can imagine how terrifying the experience was to these kids.From out of nowhere some guy is doing the impossible right beforeyour eyes, digging deep into your mind as if it were an open book,exercising a power no one else had; a total invasion of one's entireidentity. These feelings of fear and helplessness would be broadcastso loudly that I would feel them just as intently. "Please! What did Iever do to you to deserve being invaded like this! Please get out ofmy mind! Please don't do this to me!" I'm telling you these werehideous feelings and I was being overwhelmed with them.

I'd smile and back off, saying, "See, I told you I could do it."My "victims" would acknowledge my achievement and run for thehills. I did this every day for about two weeks, getting better at it allthe time. My acquaintances would proudly introduce me to theirfriends as the "mind reader." I'd do my little trick, drive them intohelpless terror, and walk away thinking I was really superior to allthese dull-witted people. My ego was totally out of control, and Icertainly got even with all those people who had ridiculed me a fewweeks before.

But I was beginning to hate feeling the emotions of thepeople I was doing this to. Every time I did it I was left looking atsomeone begging for mercy, with me telepathically sharing the


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feeling of their intense suffering. It got to where I didn't want to do itso often, but worse, all my friends started avoiding me. Who wantsto hang around someone who can pry into your mind at will, whichis what they (inaccurately) believed I could do.

Within two weeks I didn't have a single acquaintance leftwho would talk to me. When I walked into the coffee shop,everyone who used to greet me warmly would turn their backs andtry to pretend they hadn't seen me. When I deliberately engagedsomeone in conversation they would find an excuse to leave as soonas possible -- being careful not to offend the guy that could readtheir mind and tell the whole world their dark secrets if he wantedto. I couldn't do that, but everyone believed I could. I felt like aleper.

I had no choice but to stop doing the telepathy thing if Iwanted to have any friends. I stopped doing it, and told everyone Ihad stopped, but it took about two months for people to stop fearingme and treat me like I was one of the crowd again. I haven't beenable to "read minds" in the same way since then.

Two years passed before I thought I would investigatetelepathy again. I remembered that as I watched someone's eyeswhile doing this stuff I would often see their face blur and distort,and once a girl had told me that my face was also distorting. Sowhen I started doing it again, this time with the intent to teach othershow to do it so my ego wouldn't end up killing me, I asked about thedistortions. Sure enough, everyone would see them at the same timeand with the same degree of intensity as I did. My "telepathyexercise" became based upon looking for these visual changes asindications that thoughts or emotions might be duplicated at thesame time.

There are a few points about all this that are important. First,most of my problems came from an ego that was completely out ofcontrol. If you don't keep your ego from letting you think you aresuperhuman you will soon find out how much you miss humanity.Another thing has to do with being able to pick up specificinformation so clearly. The methods I used forced people to placeintense emotional energy on their thoughts and focus on thosethoughts with great clarity. That makes it much easier for anyone to


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pick up the information. When you attempt to use telepathy youshould encourage people to focus on things that are both emotionaland pleasant. Ask people to think about the most rewarding momentin their life, for example, and see what kind of impressions you canget from that.

Jesus (or a good rock) Saves

After I had sworn off "reading minds" so I wouldn't bewithout friends, my thoughts eventually went back to the question ofthe existence of God. While I was convinced there was no rationalproof possible, one way or another, there must be a truth. God existsor God does not exist. "I don't know," ended up not being an answerafter all.

Again I found myself seeking a direct encounter with God, ifthere was a God, and that lead me to become a "Jesus freak" forabout two months. Jesus freaks were groups of mostly young peoplewho would get together to read from the bible and "freak out" inspontaneous sessions of "speaking in tongues." It was a popular,unstructured spiritual movement of the late sixties and earlyseventies. "Speaking in tongues" was the real goal of participating inthese groups, a condition where everyone would excite each otherinto a spiritual frenzy of sorts where you would allow yourself tostart babbling nonsense. Supposedly the constant stream of babblecoming out of your mouth was some other language, from past livesor existence in heaven or whatever. It was reported that people inthese groups actually spoke known languages which they werepreviously unfamiliar with. From my later research I discovered thisis true on some occasions, but although I found myself "speaking intongues" quite freely, I never understood a word of what I, or theothers, were saying.

But I did experience something valuable as a result of beingwith those people. For a time, on an intuitive level, I accepted astruth the existence of God and Jesus. Reason was not to be trusted toprovide all the answers, so I allowed myself to simply believe. Faithwas the key according to those people, and believe it or not, itworked.


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I accepted as fact that Jesus was always watching over me,and that I had a guardian angle who was with me all the time. Fortwo months solid I silently chanted, "Thank you Jesus. Thank youLord," day in and day out. It filled my mind at all times when Iwasn't doing something that required my attention otherwise. Italked to my guardian angel out loud when I was alone, and "felt"like I was actually communicating with a real but silent being. Mylife improved in truly remarkable ways.

Before I became involved with this stuff my girlfriend hadleft me, I was out of work and my old, '63 Chevrolet Nova wasblowing huge clouds of blue smoke, ready for the automobilegraveyard at any moment. I was constantly depressed and suicidal.Within two weeks of walking around with my robotic chantconstantly echoing in my mind, my girlfriend was back and I founda job I really liked, working in a pool hall where all my friends hungout.

One night after work, at about 2:00 AM, everyone left thepool hall to go home but my car wouldn't start. Before I could getanyone's attention the others had all driven off and left me alone inthe parking lot. I tried push-starting my car, rolling it down theslight grade and popping the clutch, but the strip mall parking lotwas under construction and the tires wouldn’t grip on the loose dirt.I ended up with a wheel in a pot hole, stuck permanently. The streetswere empty. Home was a three mile walk.

For a moment I doubted that Jesus was helping me, then Iremembered one has to have faith under any circumstances. I askedmy guardian angle to help me and chanted my "Thank you Jesus"thing all the more intently. Moments later a pick-up truck appearedfar down the road and pulled into the parking lot perhaps 150 yardsaway. I thought Jesus had saved me. But suddenly I felt a pressingurge to run toward the truck as fast as I could, so I started running.

The driver was drunk and had pulled over to relieve himself.He was already back in his truck and beginning to drive away whenI ran up to him out of breath. If I hadn't ran he would have been longgone, so right then I knew Jesus was helping me. I thought the driverwould be like an angel sent to help me, but instead he was a burly,grumpy, middle-aged man, drunk and impatient, perhaps fearful that


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I might have friends waiting in the dark to rob him. He didn't wantto help and began to drive off, but at the last minute agreed to push-start my car with his truck.

I knew beyond any doubt that my faith had saved me thatnight.

It wasn't long before everything in my life was justwonderful. My getting a job and having found God encouraged myfather to believe I had gained some responsibility, so he co-signedon a loan and I bought a two year-old, 1968 Pontiac GTO -- one ofthe fastest, nicest muscle cars of the day. I ended up getting moremoney from the loan than I needed to pay for the car, so my walletwas loaded with more cash than I ever had before. I was sitting ontop of the world, all because I had faith in Jesus.

Or was that really what happened? I was driving down theroad in my very nice car, talking to my guardian angle about thewhole situation, and it became clear to me that "help" had indeedintervened. That night when my car wouldn't start and I was "told"to run as fast as I could -- that was no ordinary event. My faith hadmade that possible. But there are hundreds of millions of peopleasking Jesus to help them everyday. No one, not even Jesus, hasenough time to look out for all those people. What had helped mewas my faith. It was faith that worked, not God or Jesus, and I couldget the very same results even if my faith was in something asordinary as an inanimate rock. I felt my guardian angel agreeingwith me.

What a relief. I could drop all this constant mental chantingand go back to having a normal life. It turned out that intuitioncouldn't prove the existence of God either, but I did learn that faithworks, faith in anything.

I had lots of money and a cool car, so I dumped mygirlfriend in order to chase all the cute babes who would think I washot stuff now. (I was eighteen and my ego was still out of control.) Ihad enough money to survive nicely for weeks, so I quit my job tohave fun for a while. Within a month I was broke, out of work, hadthis huge car payment, no girlfriend, and I was perhaps even moredepressed than ever before.


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I realized that it was a lot easier to have faith in some higherpower, who could do absolutely anything, than to believe that somerock was going to solve all my problems. I could no longer believein Jesus when I knew Jesus had nothing to do with it, and a rock isjust a rock. I envied my religious friends for their happy livesbecause they could still believe Jesus was helping them out, but Ialso felt they were completely missing the truth about what wasreally happening. I was miserable, but I knew the truth, that thepower comes from faith, not the object one has faith in.

Divine Intervention

Over the next two years, since I hadn't yet found a rock thatcould live up to my expectations, I became more and moredepressed. I was suicidal, and one day in late November I was savedfrom killing myself by what can only be called divine intervention.

My GTO had been repossessed and I was driving a '63Volkswagen van at the time. I had turned twenty-years-old a coupleof months earlier and some friends had given me a twelve-stringacoustic guitar for my birthday. I loved playing that guitar, though Icould only strum a few chords. I had held and lost twenty-onedifferent jobs in the previous three years, and the realization that weare all slaves to economic survival was completely unacceptable tome. I felt I would rather be dead than spend the rest of my life beingtold what to do with my time and energy by some employer whowas simply exploiting my efforts for his own selfish gain.

I went to a local park at about 11:00 PM and walked aroundtrying to decide if I should really kill myself or not. It was themiddle of November, dark and cold and I was bundled up, wearingthe guitar on a strap, but I could only play for about two minutes at atime before my hands would become too stiff from the cold. Iwalked through the shadowy pathways among the leafless trees,strumming two sad chords very slowly, first one (Am) then amoment later another (FM). As I concluded that I was indeed goingto kill myself that morning, I felt certain that anyone hearing thesound of those two chords would know, beyond any doubt, that Iwas about to die.


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As the sun began to rise I was sitting in the concretebleachers of a small baseball stadium, my back up against the wallsin a corner to stay out of the wind. I was waiting for my father to goto work so I could park my van in the garage, leave the motorrunning and be done with it thirty minutes later.

The sunrise that morning was amazing. I remember the first,streaking rays of the sun coming over the mountains, the way theyilluminated the clouds and suddenly flared on the chrome ladder ofthe new swimming pool, which had yet to be filled. The fluffyclouds blazed with color and I felt sad to be leaving such a beautifulworld, though I hated the cold, hated living in a world where theenvironment would kill you if you didn’t protect yourself from itwith heavy clothing.

As I walked toward my van in the parking lot, watching theleaves swirl across the ground and feeling a sadness no one canimagine till you know you are about to take your own life, I sawanother vehicle at the far side of the parking area. I had beenwalking through that park all night and it seemed impossible that Iwouldn't have noticed if another car had been there. And someonewas getting out of that car.

I had no desire to speak with another living being at thatmoment, but a young man was walking toward me, carryingsomething. I hurried to my van, hoping to get in and leave before hereached me, but he quickened his pace and caught up with me just asI reached the van. He was carrying a guitar case and smilingwarmly.

I tried to avoid conversation but he was very insistent in apleasant way. He pointed to my guitar and said he was also amusician, that he had been traveling around the country playing onsidewalks, in parks, restaurants and bars, and was making enoughmoney to keep going, enjoying his life. He opened his guitar caseand on the inside of the propped-up lid "spare change" had beenwritten with letters cut from various colors of felt cloth.

There was something unnatural about this guy. He hadappeared out of nowhere, saying he had been in the park all nightwhich I thought was impossible, and he just oozed happiness. Hissmile was friendly and warm and seemed to radiate a genuine,


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accepting love for life. And he kept emphasizing how happy he wasplaying guitar to make a living. Other than that he was just someaverage looking, dark haired guy who was interfering with myintense desire to be alone and go kill myself. I wasn't very friendlyto him, just tried to be polite, let him bug me for about ten minutesthen hurriedly got in my van, at which point he walked back to hiscar.

But as I sat in the van waiting for the motor to warm up,wondering if I had enough gas in the tank to do the job before it ranout, a burst of inspiration suddenly came to me. I loved music, andthat guy was truly happy playing his guitar and making a living at it.And he was totally free, definitely no one's slave. Bingo! A way tomake a living, a way to be happy. I'd be a musician. I'd write songsthat would truly move people, like the way I knew anyone wouldhave been moved by hearing just those two sad chords I had beenplaying all night. I'd not only make money at it but I'd be so good I'dbe rich and live the good life. A reason to live. I would stay alive!

I practiced playing guitar ten hours a day for the next sixmonths, then found part time work and continued playing five hoursa day for the next few years. I was totally dedicated.

It was a few days following that event before I really thoughtabout how amazing it was for someone to come up to me at thatprecise moment and tell me the only thing on Earth that could havekept me alive. The incredible beauty of that sunrise, the realizationabout how well I could communicate my feelings through twosimple chords, and then that guy appearing out of nowhere -- it alladded up to an "impossible" coincidence.

Was it a coincidence? Yes. But some coincidences aredeliberate and have their source on another plane of reality.

A very similar event happened about ten years later. Sincemy "magic rock" wasn't working and I still hated life, I had becomesuicidal again, had been thrown out of my father’s house (which Iwas always in and out of) and had driven to a deep gorge in the Utahdesert to decide whether or not to end it.

I drove to The Wedge overlook during the night. From theoverlook, which I had searched for in the past but had previously


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been unable to find, one can stand atop a cliff jutting out into a verydeep canyon. All around is barren sandstone with multiple hues ofreds, whites, pinks and browns. The river comes in from the west,which was to my right. Curving side canyons open up across theway to the south. To the east the small river runs out of the maingorge and winds back and forth, zigzagging between side canyons,stretching out nearly to the horizon.

This time I managed to find the place. I was carrying myguitar, playing those two sad chords again, and walked slowly ontothe point of rock jutting out into the canyon.

The Sun was just beginning to rise over the distant mountainrange. In the long canyon to the east the early morning lightreflected on the criss-crossing river like strips of a mirrored ribbon.The silver threads glimmered brightly under a thin shroud of mistfloating above the distant water. The colors in the clouds wereblazing with an intensity that defied the limitations of reality. Allaround me the ground was painted orange by the fire in the sky, andthe orange tint combined with the colors of the rocks. As the skychanged color, so did the colors all around me. It was as if thecanyon walls were animated, literally pulsating with life. Just as theSun cleared the eastern horizon, the full Moon, seemingly twice it'snormal size, touched the western horizon as it began to set. For abrief moment two large, glowing orbs where balanced perfectly onopposite horizons.

It was just too much for me to take. I wanted to be dead. Thissame sort of thing had happened to me years earlier, convinced meto stay alive, and I had suffered ever since. I felt as if some "higherpower" were trying to make it's message clear to me, and Idesperately wanted to know what to do. Should I live, or should Idie. What was the message in all this overwhelming splendor?

I looked down with a sigh of desperation, and there, carvedinto the sandstone, exactly in the center of the space between mytwo feet, was the word, "LIVE."

Of course, some real person must have carved those letters.There were a few names and dates scattered elsewhere on the rocks.But just imagine desperately asking a life and death question, with


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the world erupting all around you in spectacular surreal-ness, andthe answer suddenly appears carved in stone between your feet.

I gave in. I decided to live. The next two months were by farthe worst of my life, literally starving to death on the streets of LosAngeles.

What I want to point out here is that "divine intervention"does in fact occur, even to us "nonbelievers." If it didn't occur Icould have saved myself decades of pretty much hating life. Butconsidering my unbelievable ego, the powers that be must havewanted to make sure that ego was ground to a pulp before setting melose on the world with some real power. My "magic rock" and Iraise a toast to “the gods” for their sense of humor in the way theytricked me into torturing myself all these years.

The "Telepathy Exercise" BecomesThe Psychic Window Technique

In the summer of 1984 I was living with a girlfriend,Annalisa, in Los Angeles -- Burbank actually. My article on AudioAnimation had just been published in the largest recording industrytrade magazine and I believed the world was about to beat a path tomy door and make me fabulously rich. The girlfriend waited tablesand paid the bills while I negotiated in meetings with entertainmentindustry top dogs and venture capital groups. I had plenty of time toconcentrate on metaphysics, so I was reading constantly, meditatingand trying new experiments.

A friend of mine at the time, Gerald, was heavily involved inthe Kabala, the occult magical teachings being promoted by many"heavy metal" bands that were popular then. He was well versed inritual and could make a room shake with the sound of his voice,which was quite impressive.

We were sitting in a two-person booth at a coffee shop inBurbank doing my telepathy exercise for the first time together. As Istared into his eyes the visual distortions were going through theirregular fluctuations, but because my friend was so well practiced atconcentration we were able to become deeply immersed in theexperience. At one point I noticed the room around us growing


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darker and the sounds of the busy restaurant began to fade. Thedarkness became an inky blackness with only a pair of eyes stillvisible, then I noticed the blackness starting to "fizz" as if tinybubbles were popping. As the bubbles burst they revealed a totallydifferent scene behind them.

I was looking directly at a very pretty blond girl aboutnineteen-years-old. She was perhaps six feet away, facing slightlytoward my left as she sat in front of an old-fashion chest of drawerstopped with a large, ornate mirror. Her dress was bright yellow,laced up the front and had a white, ruffled collar. She was brushingher long blond hair with very slow strokes, looking rather absentminded, as if she were daydreaming about some hoped-for future.

To the left of the dresser was the closed bedroom door.Without knowing why, I was certain there was a hallway on theother side of the door. I knew that toward the right the hall lead tothe back door and the barn area, while on the left the hall openedinto the living room. On the other side of the hall from the bedroomwas the kitchen. I knew where all the pots and pans and lanternswere hung, that the road came in from west in front of the house andmost of the fields were in that direction. I knew everything about theplace as quickly as my mind could scan the area, including the“fact” that I was in a farm house in Southern California in the late1800s.

Suddenly the image became unstable and an incredible stateof confusion overwhelmed me. Blackness engulfed me and in aninstant I was back in the restaurant with my friend, who was panicstricken, his hands and feet flying about as he literally tried to get agrip on reality. His eyes were rolling and he was gasping for air ashe finally started to calm down, his hands gripping the side of thetable. The entire experience hadn't lasted more than about sixseconds, and to this day I wonder what we might have discovered ifwe had sustained it for even a minute or two.

After a moment we talked about what had happened. It was acomplete shock to me that his experience was perfectly identical tomine, seen from the exact same point of view. In order to be certainof our observations, we took turns describing the details. He would,for example, indicate that the young woman was wearing a yellow


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dress, and I would then point out the white collar, he'd say, "withruffles," and so on. He also verified the same information about thelocation of the barn, kitchen, etc.

We had perceived the same experience from the same pointof view. That was very surprising to me, since it seemed morelogical that with him looking at me in the restaurant, he should haveperceived things in the farm house from a position facing me. Astwo separate individuals we perceived an identical experience, rightdown to every thought, as if we were the same person. Until then Iwould not have considered such a thing possible.

It was at this point that I began referring to the "telepathyexercise" as the "psychic window technique," since it was obviousthat more than just telepathy was possible, that the exercise canproduce a "window" into other forms of psychic perception.

Ouija Boards

Later that evening we used a Ouija board to see if we couldget more information about what had actually happened. The"personality" we contacted (our first time using the board together)identified itself as Koda (yeah, that's where I borrowed the namefrom). When we asked what year the event had occurred in, theboard responded with apparent gibberish -- a stream of repeated Cs,Xs, Is, etc. Then we suddenly realized the letters were Romannumerals indicating the year 1883, which matched my originalimpression. The board continued, saying that my friend and I wereboth "thoughtforms" created by that girl. In other words, we wereboth future incarnations of that one person, alive at the same time.That's another condition I would have thought impossible, exceptSeth (mentioned in the introduction) describes what he calls"counterparts" as being multiple incarnations of the same"multidimensional self" alive at the same time. If that is actuallywhat was going on I can attest that you wouldn't necessarily know acounterpart if you encountered one, since I didn't really care muchfor this particular guy. He's nothing like me at all.

I haven't really had much experience with Ouija boards.They are operated by having more than one person (usually) place


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their fingertips on a "pointer" that slides across the board, the pointerspelling out words as it stops over the printed letters. The pointer(planchette) that comes with the commercial version of the game ismade of plastic, with little felt-tipped feet and a clear plastic windowyou look through to read the letter selected by the "discarnatepersonality" you supposedly contact. More serious occult types oftenuse a crystal bowl as a pointer. A woman I know well, and trust,once told me that during a session with a large group of people, thecrystal bowl had actually come off the board and moved up anddown her arm.

Multiple, Simultaneous Dreams

That summer in 1984 was quite exceptional for the amountof metaphysical development I experienced. One thing I shouldmention briefly is my experiencing three different dreams at more orless the same time, while simultaneously being conscious enough todescribe them to my girlfriend. She had come home while I wassleeping, at the precise moment I was experiencing a transition fromone dream to another. Somehow I was able to describe threedifferent dreams as they were occurring.

In one dream I was a toddler playing with small race cars ona plastic track I could bend into loops. In another I was a nineteenthcentury artist, working with an explorer and a deaf mute assistant,drawing pictures for an expedition in the Northwest Territories. Inthe third dream I was a woman traveling with another woman. Wehad driven a car to a parking lot in the mountains, parked at the footof a trail at the base of a steep rock cliff, and further up the traildiscovered a secret doorway into a cave filled with gold artifacts.

Back in the LA apartment, when my girlfriend entered theroom I began to tell her about the dreams, and as I described them toher, they continued happening. I was playing with the little plasticcars, then the explorer was standing in the back of the boat while thedeaf mute and I were attempting to pull the boat up onto the shore ofa large river or lake. The woman and I were deciding to grab all thegold we could carry and leave the cave, then the explorer fell off theback of the boat when it suddenly lurched forward, and my mother


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told me to move my race track out of her way. It seemed that thetrail to the cave may have been located in the same place where theexplorer had fallen in the water (much to the amusement of the muteand I). Then we couldn't find a way to open the door from inside thecave. Each of the dreams had missing gaps in them corresponding tothe amount of time I spent in the other dreams.

All this time I was describing the dreams to my girlfriend ina half-awake state of mind, so one can say that I was in fourdifferent "worlds" at more or less the same time, or at least in veryrapid succession.

Learning Telekinesis (mind moving matter)

Because I was so focused on metaphysics at that time, I felt Imight actually have a chance of succeeding to do telekinesis. (Mindmoving matter, also referred to as psychokinesis.) Like everythingelse I had achieved, I had no real way of knowing how to do it, but Iwas very heavily involved with the Seth books -- and the idea thatanything can be accomplished if you truly believe you canaccomplish it. (That's still the best advice I can give to anyonetoday.)

I sat alone at the counter in the same Burbank restaurantwhere my friend and I had transported our awareness to that farmhouse, and psyched myself up to move a spoon balanced on the rimof a water glass. The idea was that I would hold my finger tips nearthe end of the spoon handle, concentrate on a "magnetic-like" forceemanating from my fingers, and use that "magnetic-like" force togently nudge the spoon handle downwards. If I could get the spoonto rock up and down a tiny bit, I could continue to apply a slightforce during each downward motion and the growing momentumwould eventually cause the spoon to fall off the glass.

I tried that for about an hour with no success. But I was verydetermined. I had seen people on TV supposedly moving objectswith their minds, some of it clearly documented as having actuallyoccurred. There was one Russian woman, for example, who couldmake metal cylinders roll back and forth inside a clear plastic box. If


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that person could do it, anyone could. One just had to be verydetermined to succeed.

I put my hands together as if in prayer, nearly touching butnot quite, and tried to imagine a magnetic-like force between them.At first all I could feel was the heat radiating from each hand, butthen by moving my hands slightly apart and back together again,concentrating on feeling a force between them, I could actuallybegin to feel a push and pull quite strongly.

I had heard that every object in the universe has some sort ofenergy field around it, so when I placed my finger tips near thespoon handle again I concentrated on the idea that my fingers wereradiating a force that opposed the force in the spoon. If you haveever placed two magnets together so they pushed against each other,that is the feeling I was trying to generate.

I didn't want to move my hand up and down because thatcould create a "wind" that might move the spoon, so I moved myfinger tips first over the spoon handle, then off to the side. I didn'twant to "think" about what I was doing, because what I had readindicated that thoughts have to stop before such things are possible.So in my mind I thought of a "sound." Every time I wanted the forceto increase as I moved my finger tips over the spoon handle, Iimagined a sound like, "unnnn, unnnn, unnnn." Then I concentratedon being mentally aware of that sound without actually thinking it.

There was also something else going on that I only recentlyremembered. As I was concentrating I could feel a "band ofpressure" around my head, that sort of "expansive" feeling Imentioned in reference to my first out of body experience. I nowrecognize that particular sensation as a psychological indicator of aheightened state of awareness. I don't know if others also experienceit, or something like it, but it is often present when I do such things.These days I strive to attain a state of concentration where Iexperience that sensation before I attempt anything of this nature.

After two and a half hours of this, I finally noticed the spoonbeginning to move in a way I could be sure wasn't a result of the airconditioning, my breath, or the pressure of my elbow resting on thecounter top. I actually got the spoon to rock so much it eventuallyfell off the rim of the glass. I was ecstatic! But I was also very aware


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that the last thing I wanted to do was deceive myself that I hadperformed telekinesis if I actually hadn't. I continued practicing for atotal of five full hours, knocking the spoon off dozens of timesbefore I felt I knew what I was doing well enough to repeat it againin the future.

For the next two months I used telekinesis to knock a spoonoff a glass at least ten times a day just to make sure I wouldn't forgethow to do it. The reactions from people in restaurants rangedeverywhere from, "work of the devil," to, "Oh, that's no big deal.They teach that stuff at UCLA." (Of course, they have never taughtsuch a thing.) Dozens, perhaps hundreds of people saw me do thatlittle trick. The girlfriend used to get annoyed from the sound of thespoon falling onto the table at home.

It wasn’t long before my situation with the girlfriend endedup derailing my metaphysical efforts. When my quest to findfinancing for Audio Animation failed we went through a nasty breakup and I moved from LA back to my father's house in Salt LakeCity. Life was such hell for a few weeks that I hadn't beenpracticing, and when I returned my first effort to do it again was infront of a good friend, who was also the most "chained to reason"person I've ever met. The (plastic) glass I was using had a bit of aflattened ridge at the top of the rim, which prevented the spoon fromrocking freely. I was also in frazzles from the break up and movingeverything I owned across country, so I couldn't concentrate wellenough to do it. I tried again several times over the next few weeksbut failed every time, and finally gave up trying. I haven't tried thatparticular experiment again in years, but telekinesis is definitely areality.

(See the Psychic Party Games section for a simple methodanyone can use to perform telekinesis.)

Lucid Dreaming

A lucid dream is one where you are fully aware, with yournormal consciousness, of the fact you are dreaming. The out of bodyexperience described earlier occurred while I was fully awake the


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entire time, but my first lucid dream was initiated from the state ofawareness between waking and sleeping.

I was in my early twenties and had been attempting toinitiate a lucid dream every night for about three months. I had noreal clue how to do this but felt the intent should be enough to makeit happen. Finally one night as I was drifting off to sleep, doing myusual, "remember to have a lucid dream" mantra, I had fallen asleepbut was close enough to wakefulness to recognize that phrasehappening in my mind. I looked around me and realized I wasindeed dreaming, yet I felt as normal as ever.

I was standing on a dirt road near the top of a very gentleslope. All around me were fields of grain turning yellow in thebright sun. A monk in an orange robe was walking up the roadtoward me. He acted as if he knew me well and immediately toldme, "Today's lesson is learning to deal with fear."

He seemed irritated by my excited questions. "Do you knowme? Don't you realize we're dreaming?" He looked me overcarefully and said something like, "Oh, I see. You've brought yournormal awareness along this time." He shrugged off my pesteringquestions and led me to a group of buildings where several, verylarge, open tanks were buried in the ground. They were filled withwater, and in one tank the water was boiling fiercely. We walkedalong a wide wooden plank that stretched out over the boiling tank.The hot steam burned against the skin of my face when the breezeblew the vapors toward me.

"You are here to learn how to deal with fear," he said. "Lookinto the tank." I looked and saw another monk swimming about,smiling and waving at me in a friendly way. "You feel the heat andyour mind tells you that if you fall into the tank you will be boiledalive, but you also see that our friend is not harmed. You mustovercome your rational fears and jump into the boiling water."

I figured that since I was dreaming, nothing could hurt me,so I jumped in. The water was warm and comfortable. I looked up atthe monk on the plank above me who was shaking his head indisappointment. The next thing I knew I was completely dry,walking with him on the dirt road again, back toward the spot at the


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top of the knoll where we had first met. I asked him what I didwrong.

"You must be fully afraid, and yet go on," he said. "Theproblem was you were never afraid to begin with." I told him I knewthis was a dream and nothing could hurt me, so what was the pointof being afraid? As we reached the top of the low hill I noticed therewere railroad tracks crossing the road there. He pointed out acrossthe fields to a large diesel train rounding a curve in the track abouthalf a mile away.

"You must stand here on this track and allow the train tostrike you with all it's great force. You must allow yourself to befully afraid, but under no circumstances are you to jump out of thepath of the train."

He positioned me on the tracks facing the oncoming train,which was just a couple of blocks away now. I could feel the groundtrembling slightly beneath my feet, and felt the warmth of the sun onmy face and the gentle breeze moving my hair. This was so veryreal, but it was just a dream. I had to remind myself of that, and for amoment I was afraid it might not be a dream, that I would besmashed into a gooey spot on the front of the train if this wasn't adream after all. I looked at the monk, who was eyeing me carefully,and clearly recognized that I don't usually stand in fields in themiddle of nowhere with monks in orange robes after jumping into atank of boiling water without being harmed. I was dreaming allright.

The train blew it's ear piercing horn and the ground shook asthe mass of steel approached the crossing. Everything seemed totallyreal and my heart was pounding. The train raced toward me ataround 70 MPH, the weeds swirling in the wind on either side of theapproaching engine. I could see grease marks on the yellow paintand saw the face of the frightened conductor just as the train reachedthe road, shaking the ground hard now. The horn roared, hurting myears as I steadied myself for the impact -- two seconds, one second --

Nothing. The massive train was half an inch from my nosewhen it froze as still as a photograph.


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"What a rush!" I shouted to the monk next to me. He justshook his head as he held his chin, looking disappointed.

"You were not truly afraid," he said. "We will have to takethis up again some other time." He turned and began walking away.I followed after him like an excited puppy. "But I was afraid! Whatdid I do wrong? When will we do this again?"

"In about three years," he said almost half consciously."Three years!" I whined. "This was great! Let's do it again

tomorrow night!"But the scene before me began to lose it's cohesiveness and

blurred into the darkness of my room as I awakened. I waitedanxiously for those three years to pass, but much to mydisappointment a similar lucid dream never occurred.

Another OOBE

I suppose it's worth mentioning another related experiencethat happened at roughly the same time in my life. This wasattempting to have an out of body experience where I would projectmy awareness to a physical location nearby, a place I could return toin order to verify I had actually been there. I had selected a local, allnight restaurant I went to often. I thought that if I could get out ofbody I could go there, see which waitresses were working and whothe customers were, then after returning to my body I'd drive overand check for verification. On this particular evening I had beentalking about astral projection with a friend, and we had decided toboth try to go there at the same time.

I had been attempting to do something like this for a coupleof months every night as I went to bed. I suppose the discussionwith my friend that night made a difference, because as I was on theverge of falling asleep I suddenly felt myself "swoosh" up out of mybody, as if I had been pulled up by a giant rubber band. I felt myselfgo right through the ceiling, through the attic space and then stopjust above the trees over the house.

I was exhilarated. The view was incredible and I had thatwonderful weightless feeling. I didn't want to "wake up" suddenly soI immediately turned my attention to meeting my friend at the


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restaurant. I didn't know how to "move" though. So I thought abouthow I get there when driving, and suddenly I was floating over anintersection in the dark, about half a mile from my destination. NextI thought about the parking lot at the restaurant and was there after abrief moment of disorientation.

I was floating in front of the glass door to the building, abouttwo feet off the ground. I tried to push the door open but my handwent through it. Someone walked out and I used that opportunity to"swoosh" myself inside. (I didn’t realize that if my hand could gothrough the door, so could I.) I was now in front of the cash register,still about two feet off the ground. I willed myself to turn and look atthe clock I knew was on the wall to my left, but I couldn't move. Icouldn't rotate my field of vision to see who was at the counter orwho was working. I became very frustrated and angry at the wholepredicament because all I had to do is see who was there and I'dhave evidence I could investigate. But I was stuck like a stick in themud in front of the bottom part of a sign that read, "Please wait to beseated." My anger got the best of me and I suddenly woke up, mybody again leaping to a sitting position on the bed as I felt that hardslam back into it. (At least this time the body I returned to was warmas usual.)

Déjà vu

Déjà vu is a feeling, often a certainty, that we haveexperienced a presently occurring event on some previous occasion.It feels as if one knows exactly what is going to happen next, exactlywhat a particular person is going to say and what the reaction willbe. It's like watching a 3-dimensional scene in a movie that you'vealready seen. It happens to a lot of us at one time or another.

My most vivid encounter with this type of experience tookplace on two separate, but mysteriously connected occasions.

Part one occurred when I was in my early twenties. A goodfriend of mine, Steve, brought his soon to be wife, and I brought agirlfriend, on a camping trip to a large reservoir in the Uintamountains, a couple hundred miles east of Salt Lake City. The


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unusual occurrence began when we stopped at a lookout point totake in the view.

We had driven there in my 1968 GTO which was only a fewyears old at the time (I bought it back after it had been repossessed).While at the lookout point we had all gotten out of the car andwalked around, then ended up sitting in the car again, but withoutrespect to where we had been sitting while driving. I was in the frontpassenger seat, my friend Steve was in the driver's seat, and the twogirls had ended up in back. We were just sitting there talking whenSteve threw a small bit of wadded up paper out on the ground (anempty cigarette pack, I think.) I politely told him he shouldn't litter,particularly in such a nice, natural environment like that, andsuddenly his face went pale.

He started raving about how all this had happened before,about the girls being in the back seat and us being in the seats wherewe were. He was adamant about it. I mean he made such a big dealabout it half an hour passed before he'd let it go so we could be onour way again. None of the rest of us could detect anything unusual.

It was perhaps two years later when all of this became reallyweird again. Steve and I had gone out to the desert west of Salt Lakewith a girl I was just getting to know. We had driven most of thenight and had stopped at a watering hole for sheep called SimpsonSprings, on the edge of the Dougway Proving Grounds, a restrictedmilitary area containing many square miles of pretty much nothingbut empty desert. We had all taken a small amount of LSD earlier,which was wearing off as the sun began to rise.

Out of the desert we heard a loud, reverberating "boom"followed by a deep rumble. We all looked at each other to make surewe had actually heard it. Before we could say much about it weagain heard the same booming sound, and all of us got out of the car(my GTO).

Off to the north I saw a white puff of smoke burst from thedesert floor. I pointed it out just as another boom shook the air.Three dark spots were lined up perfectly beneath the disappearingmist of smoke. Suddenly another puff of white smoke appeared atthe end of the line of spots, making four dark spots now, and amoment later another boom rolled over us. We had feared something


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supernatural, but realized the army was firing artillery shells overthe mountain range into the test area.

We relaxed and went back to the car. I was sitting in thepassenger seat, Steve was in my driver's seat, and the girl hadclimbed into the back. Steve wadded up an empty cigarette pack andtossed it out the open door onto the ground -- and suddenly I knewall this had happened before. It was as if I were watching a replay ofa scene from another dimension of reality, but for the life of me Icouldn't remember when it had happened.

The other two blew off my amazement as insignificant, but Ibecame obsessed with wanting to know when it had happenedbefore. I just wouldn't let the subject drop. Finally I made the otherslisten to my explanation of the details, the seating positions, the literbeing thrown out, and finally Steve clicked on the event in the Uintamountains when it had been him doing the freaking out. It wasn'tuntil that moment that I remembered the earlier event. When werealized Steve had reacted so strongly to the first event without anyprior experience involved, and this time it was me freaking out, allof us were quite awed by this mystery we call life.

Waking Visions

About ten years ago I awoke from a dream where the imageof an “anti-gravity” (inertial propulsion) machine was displayedbefore me. It occurred after I had spent about a week seriouslypondering how centrifugal force might be used to propel aspacecraft. The image consisted of a series of golden balls movingin a beautifully complex circular motion. I didn’t pay much attentionto the image until I had gotten out of bed and walked across theroom and found the image was still there. It remained for severalminutes.

Reincarnation and "Energy Bolts"

Nearly all of the previous experiences happened to me manyyears ago, but this next story is quite recent.


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On January 3, 2001, I met a woman, Cheryl (not her realname) in a coffee shop and she became my wife six weeks later. Ourromance was fairly typical other than our habit of havingconversations of such intensity they lasted hours and left us bothexhausted. I had been a confirmed bachelor all my life and wouldhave stayed that way if "the gods" had not interfered.

One night about three weeks after we met we were layingnext to each other in bed, both of us on our left sides, her in front ofme. As we were about to fall asleep I noticed seeing "pre-dream"images and began describing them to her. I perceived myselfstanding inside a bare, white room near a window opening withoutglass. The walls were about two-feet thick and I had the impression Iwas in some sort of prison on a hill overlooking a valley. Two menapproached and stood outside the window opening, looking in. Onewas a tall man wearing an eighteenth century military uniformincluding a tall red hat. "It's French or Spanish," I told Cheryl."French," she said, speaking with a sense of authority. "The otherman," I continued, "is short, with curly, brown hair." The short mansneered at me, as if he were proud to have finally gotten me into histrap. Cheryl said she was seeing the same image and repeated thatthe men were French.

I began wondering if there might be some reincarnationalaspect to all this, and mentioned I had developed an impression overthe years that I might have been a blond girl in France at about thistime. The "prison" image faded as I told Cheryl about two, verybrief scenes from what might have been a life experienced then. Inone I am the blond girl, about eighteen, running joyfully free on thetop of a high hill overlooking a small ocean bay dotted with whitehouses near the shoreline. The other scene is that of a young Frenchgentleman strutting down a city sidewalk along a cobblestone street,carrying a black cane with a round, silver handle. For some reason Ifelt that the young man had been responsible for my death as theblond woman in that life.

"The cane has a gold handle," Cheryl said.I was laying on my left side, and suddenly the air a few feet

above me became "energized" with bluish light and a bolt ofincredible, lightning-like energy shot down into my right side, out


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through my stomach, sideways into Cheryl's back and out throughher stomach, disappearing about two-feet in front of her. Both of ushad our eyes closed and we both saw and felt that bolt of energy gothrough us. Both of us described it as being about two-inches indiameter and described it as taking the same path.

At the moment the "lightning bolt" went through me I had avery clear realization that scared the wits out of me. Cheryl had beenthe man in that other life who was responsible for my death as theblond woman. I recoiled away from her with a sense of utterrevulsion.

But Cheryl immediately said she had not been the man withthe cane -- that I had been him. She knew with absolute clarity thatshe had been married to me then. Confusion overwhelmed me.

We talked about it that night and again over the next fewweeks. In the course of our conversations we seemed to piecetogether a fairly detailed story of a life together in France during themid-to-late seventeen-hundreds, much of which I'm not sure I reallybelieve, in spite of coming up with parts of the story myself.

Cheryl insists I was a Marquis, part of the royal aristocracy,young, handsome, arrogant (figures) wealthy and politicallypowerful. She was younger than me, dark hair and eyes, beautiful --the spoiled daughter of a wealthy businessman.

To give you an idea of how we came up with thatinformation I will explain what occurred when I asked if sheremembered how we had met in that life. I had no idea how we hadmet when I asked her the question, but as soon as I asked it I saw amental image of a beautiful, dark-haired young woman wearing awet dress, walking out of a stream or lake.

She responded to my question by saying we met by a riverwhere she used to go to look at her horse. She said I had given herthe horse as a result of our first "wager," and that wagers wereinvolved the first time we met and were a continual part of ourrelationship. I asked her what the first wager was, and she told me itwas a deal where I would buy the horse for her if she would strip offher outer garments, walk out into the river up to her neck in only herthin under-dress, and let me have a good look at her -- but notouching, of course. We both knew the horse was black, and she


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asked me if I knew it's name. "Something like Silver Shadow," Isaid. She said it's name was Moonlight.

Cheryl's recollection of such details is much better thanmine, but you can see how we both contributed to putting piecestogether by asking the other for "verification."

In this way we assembled a story that seems to satisfy us asto what happened in that life, though I don't have the interest at thispoint to search out objective verification. It seems the two of uswere indulgent hedonists, and trying to keep her materially satisfiedover the course of our marriage led me to abuse my politicalposition. The scene we were observing before the energy bolt wentthrough us, of the French soldier and the short aristocrat, was at aprison just before I was executed by my political enemies. Theblond girl (perhaps myself as a "counterpart" in that life) appears tohave been a lower class mistress I had gotten pregnant. I hadpromised the world to her, but when the "wife" found out the girlwas pregnant she used her clout to send the girl back to England,where she may have taken her own life.

Or so goes the story as best as we can piece it together. Asfar as I can tell at this point it could all be nonsense.

There is one more point involving Cheryl I think I shouldinclude here. It has to do with what I call "interference from thegods" for lack of a better explanation. We were in the samerestaurant where we had met, and the moment I asked Cheryl tomarry me I "heard a voice" say, "Now everything will begin." Thatstartled the heck out of me because I had never "heard voices" likethat before. At the same moment Cheryl felt "an impression frombeyond herself" telling her that everything was fine.

Now when I say I "heard a voice" I don't mean I heard avoice in the way one normally does. It was "an impression thatconveys the sense of having heard a voice." I guess you could say itwas as much like actually hearing a voice as seeing images in adream are like seeing things in real life. I was aware that the "voice"was male and not my thought, but it didn't come from the roomaround me. Cheryl also pointed out something later which joggedmy memory -- a pyramid of grey energy, but missing the top, had


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settled around us just as we perceived our impression of voices. Ihave no explanation for any of this.

But don't think you are being left out of any wonderfullyromantic, cosmic influences if your relationships don't have all thesemetaphysical connections. Our relationship was hell. We ran off andgot married after six weeks, then split up two weeks later, and brokeup every two or three weeks after that for six months. Every time wewould break up it seemed "the gods" would push us back togetheragain. She lived fifty miles away so when someone "stole" her carshe had to live with me so she could get to work, and one time thespark plug blew out of her next car while it was parked in mydriveway. She stayed with me during the several days it took me tofix it. This sort of thing happened so many times we finally decidedto just stick it out a while. We managed to live together consistentlyfor about five months, until Valentines Day, 2002. We filed fordivorce and can't even speak to each other these days, though I stillsee her occasionally in the restaurant where I hang out. All this"cosmic" stuff is interesting, but that doesn't mean it's always fun.

In this chapter I have described my most significantmetaphysical experiences, but far more than this is possible. I highlyrecommend reviewing the “mini encyclopedia” of metaphysicalphenomena in the appendix in order to learn about the manyamazing phenomena that have been reported throughout history.Much of this book will attempt to explain how such things arepossible, and how to experience some of it yourself.


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Chapter Two:

Koda's Psychic Window Techniquevisual telepathy and the perception of “reincarnational selves”

If you have any doubts regarding the reality of psychicperception, the Psychic Window Technique (visual telepathyexercise) will eliminate them once and for all. This simple exerciseproduces visual "distortions" that happen to both participants at thesame time, and with the same level of constantly varying intensity.These visual changes are subjective perceptions, a form of personal,psychological experience which others are not capable of perceivingby using the physical senses alone. Yet this exercise enables you todescribe the subjective experience of another individual (alterationsin their visual perception) simply by describing your own experiencewhile performing the technique. This is proof of psychic perception,and essentially anyone can achieve convincing results in justminutes.

This sharing of subjective experience is not limited todescribing alterations in the visual perception of another individual.It is also possible to describe other subjective perceptions, such asemotional sensations, mental images, and with sufficient practice,


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even thoughts. And the visual changes are not always "distorted." Attimes the image of the person you are looking at can be replacedwith the clear perception of an entirely different individual, quitepossibly a previous incarnation of that person.

The exercise is extremely easy to perform. Two people sit acomfortable distance apart (two or three feet) facing each other.Each person looks at one of the other person's eyes, then attempts toexpand the area of clear perception to include all of the otherperson's face. That is essentially all one needs to do in order to causethe effects to happen. (More specific instructions are provided laterin this chapter.)

Before performing this exercise it is useful to make someobservations about the nature of our physical visual perception.Take a moment to glance around the room and notice that you cansee everything in the room quite clearly. Please do this now.

Next I would like you to look at any specific word near thetop of this page, then without taking your eyes off that word, attemptto read what the third to last word on this page is. Please do thisnow.

You can't tell what that word is without looking directly at it.Your visual perception, while looking at something a comfortablereading distance away, can only focus clearly on an area just overone-inch across. When looking across the room, depending on howlarge the room is, the area of clear visual perception may only beabout one-foot across.

When you looked around the room a moment ago and notedthat you could see everything quite clearly, you actually couldn't dothat. Our visual perception operates by relying on subconsciousmemories of our past experience. Our subconscious mind recognizesfamiliar shapes and objects and manufactures the impression ofclear perception, when in fact we do not see most of ourenvironment clearly at all.

The Psychic Window technique focuses upon what weactually see, rather than what we think we are supposed to see, andin doing so it provides a glimpse at the "reality behind reality."


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Other chapters in this book describe reality as an "illusion"or projection of consciousness, and while performing this exerciseyou confront perceptions that push the apparent truth of thosestatements right in your face. It can be a frightening experience forsome people, but there is no need to be afraid. The physical worldwill still be the same place it has always been, and these psychicperceptions have always been occurring in the past but have simplybeen ignored. Telepathy is as real as your arm, as this book. It issimply an aspect of reality that most people are unfamiliar with, inthe same way that we don't notice the radio waves which constantlysurround us. The phenomena is there, we simply aren't tuned into iton a conscious level.

So don't fear your perceptions when you first experience thevisual alterations this technique brings to your attention. You caninstantly stop these altered perceptions simply by looking away orblinking your eyes. Everything will go right back to normal, andeven if you were just intensely startled you might find yourselfwondering if you actually saw what you think you did. This isn'tsomething to be frightened of. It's actually quite exciting topersonally experience something of a psychic nature.

So there you are staring at the eye of another person andattempting to see their entire face as clearly as you see their eye. Ifyou are doing this properly all of your attention will be focusedupon your visual perception. Concentrating upon what you see willautomatically stop, or dramatically diminish, the thoughts you areaware of. It is important not to be distracted by your thoughts, but ifmost people deliberately attempt to stop thinking they instead focusnearly all of their attention upon thinking about not thinking. It is forthis reason that the emphasis should be concentrated upon what youare seeing.

I define telepathic awareness as a merger of consciousperception. In order for your awareness to merge with that ofanother then, the differences between your perceptions and theirsshould be reduced as much as possible. Theoretically, if there is nodifference between your subjective perception and that of anotheryou would experience being the same being. This has in facthappened to me on one occasion, as described in the first chapter,


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where a friend and I experienced looking at a blond girl in a farmhouse from an identical point of view, sharing every thought andperception for a few seconds. This is by no means a commonexperience while performing this exercise. It does, however, supportthe idea of a merger of consciousness being the basis of telepathicperception.

The structure of this exercise helps to reduce the perceptualdifferences between yourself and the person you are working with.Both individuals perceive an eye clearly and a face that is mostlyblurred. Both are involved in visual concentration, attempting to pullblurry, undifferentiated information into a recognizable image. Itsometimes helps to sit in exactly the same "non-defensive" position,but it is more important that both participants be comfortable andunconcerned with body distractions. Sitting in a non-defensiveposition means not folding your arms, crossing your legs orotherwise sitting in a way that "shields" you from direct emotionalcontact with your partner.

You'll get a better idea of the sense of merging awarenesswhen the visual changes begin to happen. These alterations inperception can occur almost immediately or could take as long astwo or three minutes to begin, depending upon how well eachperson concentrates fully upon their visual perception.

Those individuals with a very analytical approach to lifeoften have some difficulty stopping their thoughts. They activelyanalyze the experience while it happens, which slows it fromhappening. For those individuals I recommend simply letting theexperience happen, then analyze it later. The experience can beanalyzed to your hearts content once you are able to make it happenin the first place.

Other individuals experience dramatic changes within a fewseconds. These are people, mostly women, who approach life in anintuitive way. They are more focused upon their feelings than theirthoughts, and often make "gut level" decisions rather than relyingheavily upon reason. Surprisingly, those people with such excellent,natural psychic potential are often the most fearful of the experience.They are not so readily able to fall back on rationalizations and sofear losing their hold on reality.


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It is always disappointing to me to encounter someone withgreat natural ability who refuses to continue the exercise due to theirfear of the unknown. One woman told me of having numerousparanormal experiences she couldn't understand, and I tried toexplain how this exercise would help provide a rational frameworkfor such experience. Within seconds of beginning the exercise shedisappeared right before my eyes. I was thrilled to have discoveredsomeone with such tremendous psychic potential, but since I hadalso disappeared in front of her she became so terrified that fromthat moment on she made deliberate efforts to avoid me.

The point here is simply to remember that all this is justanother aspect of the world we live in. As such there is nothing tofear, and much to gain from learning more.

There are three main categories regarding the type of visualalterations which result from applying this technique. They are:blurs; hallucinations; and the perception of what appear to be otherpeople.

The blurry effects are the first thing you will encounter. Ofcourse, everything outside of the limited area of clear visualperception will initially be somewhat blurred, but you will have notrouble recognizing the face of your friend. After a moment,however, parts of the face may become darker while others maybecome brighter. There is a sort of slow motion in the way theseareas change. Individual parts of the face, say an eyebrow orcheekbone, may become suddenly clear. The entire face seems tochange, except for the eye you are looking at, which is to remain inclear focus at all times. You are trying to expand that area to includethe entire face, the object being to see the face as clearly as youpossibly can -- but without taking your eye off the eye of yourpartner.

The intensity of the blurred image will vary over time, withcertain areas of the image becoming quite clearly perceived, but atthe same time different. For example, the other eye may stand outsharply for a moment and be surrounded by dark shadows, while thecheekbone seems higher or lower than normal. It is of criticalimportance to point out when these changes occur, and how intensethey are relative to other changes. This is how you establish that


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"something" is connecting your individual subjective experiences.Without this psychic connection the changes would not happen toboth of you at the same time and with the same degree of intensity.

Hallucinations occur because the subconscious mind is stilltrying to construct a coherent image from the limited visual data it isreceiving. Subconsciously your brain might detect a high forehead,then a large nose and perhaps a long chin, then try to assemble allthese elements into a coherent, albeit frightening image, perhapsquite monstrous. Because this image is manufactured by yoursubconscious it can be perceived as clearly, say, as a chair appearswhen you glance around the room. Such a perception can scare thedaylights out of you.

But it is nothing but an image generated by yoursubconscious mind. It's totally harmless. Blink a few times or glanceto the side and it instantly goes away.

I encountered my first full blown, hideous, hallucinatoryimage early in my experimenting. A young girl I was doing the "eyething" with suddenly turned into a blurry but frightening monster.She broke off our stare and told me I had also appeared in amonstrous form to her. Both of us were equally terrified by theperception.

I have since learned that bit about subconscious imageconstruction, and have also realized that if I am perceiving such ahallucination, so is the person I am working with. Telepathyinvolves a merger of conscious perception, so if the effect isworking well enough to produce a hallucination, a similarlyunpleasant image, and the same unpleasant emotional reaction, willbe experienced by both people involved.

Here we find even more concrete evidence that this is a formof telepathy. Any strongly felt emotion experienced by one personwhile performing this exercise will also be experienced by the other.If you feel an unusually strong emotion, ask the other person if theyfelt the same thing. If your attention was fully focused upon theother person when the emotion occurs, you can be fairly certain theyalso felt it. You may sense the emotion originating in the body of theother person, in which case it is quite likely that the other personoriginated the thought which caused the emotional response. You


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might recognize the emotion within your own body as a feeling youinitiated, or you can sense the emotion in the space between youboth, meaning each of you originated the same feeling together.(These are general guidelines and may not always indicate whoinitiated a perceived emotion.) In all of these situations both peopleare aware of the same emotion occurring.

At this point in your experience you have to be very aware ofwhat I call "mental etiquette." Personal, subjective ideas becomeobjectively observed, and one needs to be especially courteous aboutwhat you allow your own attention to focus upon.

For example, because this exercise is an intimate activity, itis very common for sexual interest to be perceived. This doesn'tnecessarily mean the other person is sexually interested in you, butif the idea of sexual interest enters the arena it is felt by bothparticipants in most cases. It's a very touchy issue and needs to behandled gracefully when dealing with strangers or others with whomyou do not have an existing, intimate relationship.

It is possible to "probe" the other person in an effort todetermine if they are sexually interested in you. This is done simplyby concentrating on your sexual interest in the other person. Becauseboth of you have your attention so clearly focused on each other,what one feels can easily be felt by the other. The idea of sex willoccur "out of the blue" to the other person in this case, and the waythey react to that idea will be perceivable. The feeling will eithergrow stronger, a sense of distraction will occur as the person tries to"change the subject," or the other will break off the link becausethey find it unpleasant subconsciously.

At first this might seem like a fine tool for those involved inthe dating scene, since you can find out what you want to knowwithout having to be up front about it. Unfortunately, it is very easyto misinterpret the sensations, which can get you in a lot of trouble.And hitting a stranger with a sex vibe can turn them instantly intosomeone who will make it clear they have no interest in any sort ofintimacy with you, including continuing this exercise.

Another downside, if you happen to be a person who equatesintimacy solely with sex, is that any attempt to do this very intimateexercise with someone will almost always result in sexuality being


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brought into the situation. For example, a straight guy doing thispurely harmless experiment in psychic perception with a goodbuddy, might find himself uncomfortably aware of sexual ideas,which might cause your friend to think you were gay or something.A gay man might give a straight woman the wrong impression, etc.Anyway you look at it, if you are not very careful to avoid probingsomeone in an inappropriate way, they will walk away from theencounter with a very clear indication of your character. They maynot understand that they picked up the information psychically, butthey will none the less be certain of their opinion of you.

The third type of visual perception produced with thistechnique is the perception of other people. The experience alwaysstarts with the blurry effects which can then intensify intorecognizable images. If you begin to perceive unpleasanthallucinations, remember you can stop that by blinking your eyes toregain a clear focus, or by simply looking away for a moment. Atsome point, however, intense images become rather clearperceptions of entirely different people. This sort of perception is,essentially, within anyone's ability to experience.

You will know, without a doubt, when you perceive this sortof image. It feels the same way you would feel if you were talking toone person only to have someone entirely different instantly taketheir place. It feels like you are looking at an entirely differentperson, and it's the feeling, much more than the image, that willblow you away. It almost seems like you could carry on aconversation with the new "person" before you.

Whether or not an image like this is a previous incarnation ofthe person you sat down with, or just another creation of yoursubconscious mind, is something I haven't yet been able todetermine. All I know is what it feels like to perceive such an image,and believe me, it feels like a real person is there, someone entirelydifferent from who you sat down with. These other images can be ofa different gender, some have beards or hats or other suchcharacteristics. Such images are quite a mind blowing thing toexperience, and again, it is well within the ability of virtually anyoneto achieve these perceptions using this technique.


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Biofeedback Testing

Skin capacitance (electro-dermal response) changes whenemotions occur. It is one of the variables monitored by lie detectionmachines. If both participants performing this exercise actuallyexperience emotional reactions at the same time, and with the sameintensity, this can be proven by monitoring the electro-dermalresponse curves of both participants. The curves should show strongcorrelations while the subjects are performing the exercise.

Years ago I had an opportunity to test this theory usingbiofeedback equipment, though in this instance only one monitoringdevice was available. A subject was connected to the equipment viaelectrodes attached to her skin. The output of the electrodes wasdisplayed on a computer monitor as a constantly changing graphwith peaks and valleys. I sat across from the subject, with no wayfor me to see the monitor, and successfully described the timing andrelative height of these response curves. I did this simply by notingwhen I personally experienced an emotional sensation and howintense that sensation was relative to other such sensations.

In this case my substantial experience using the PsychicWindow technique enabled me to be successful, but it should beeven easier to prove the correlations in emotional experience byemploying two monitoring devices. The subjects would require verylimited experience with the technique and the results would not besubject to the discrepancies of verbal description. The resultinggraphs could be compared directly.

Detailed Instructions

NOTE: It helps to describe the nature of normal visualperception, as explained earlier, before performing this exercise withsomeone who is entirely unfamiliar with it. Remember to blink youreyes only when they need wetting, but not in order to regain anormal visual focus. If you wish to stop any perception fromprogressing you can do so by blinking your eyes or looking away fora moment. Relax. No effort beyond simple concentration is required.


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Part One: Initiating Visual Telepathy

1) The two participants should sit a comfortable distanceapart (two or three feet) facing each other. Sit in a "non-defensive"manner, without folding your arms or crossing your legs.

2) Focus your visual attention upon one of the other person'seyes. I have found it more effective to have "all the action" on oneside. That is, if you are looking at the other person's right eye, theyshould look at your left eye, or vice versa. This would mean theattention would be on your left (or right) rather than criss-cross fromleft to right. All the action happens on one side.

3) Attempt to expand the area of clear perception to includeall of the other person's face. Always seek to perceive the clearestimage possible.

4) Both participants should describe any alterations in theirvisual perception. This means pointing out when the visual changesoccur and how intense they are relative to other changes. If possible,describe the nature of the changes you see; variations in blurryeffects or increased detail, light or dark areas, etc.

Part Two: Merging Emotional Experience

Basically, emotional experience naturally merges whileperforming the above instructions. You will first notice this whenone person or the other reacts emotionally to strong changes in theirvisual perception. Any time you feel an emotion stand out, checkwith the other person to see if they felt something similar at thesame time. You can do this by asking if they had just felt an emotionsimilar to what you experienced. Within ten minutes of firstbeginning this exercise you should have plenty of evidencesupporting simultaneous emotional experience.

It is also possible to "communicate emotions" by having oneperson deliberately experience a predetermined emotion while theother simply remains open to any emotional experience that mayoccur. Remember to continue maintaining eye contact. The"receiver" should not venture a guess as to what emotion the other is


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feeling until he or she actually experiences a particular emotionquite strongly.

A variation of this part of the exercise is to concentrate upona physical sensation rather than an emotion. You can tighten up yourtoes and concentrate on that physical sensation, for example, whilethe other person mentally scans their own body, or yours, todetermine which sensation you are concentrating upon. It is notnecessary to produce a sensation deliberately, as you can simplyconcentrate upon any sensation already available, such as your feetupon the floor, arm upon a table, etc.

Part Three: Perception of "Other People"

No deliberate effort beyond the basic exercise is required toperceive images of "other people." They become perceivable simplyby concentrating upon seeing the clearest image possible. Again, itis the feeling of being with an entirely different person which makesthese perceptions so startling. Whether or not you are perceiving aprevious incarnation of the other person is not something I canobjectively verify at this time, but it sure feels like that may be thecase. It is as if we normally perceive only one of dozens of peoplewho are superimposed together, that this exercise seems to allow usto tune into these other people, who stare right back at us but can'tseem to talk.

All I can suggest is that you do the exercise, perceive suchimages, and draw your own conclusions.

Other Telepathy Exercises

Communicating Emotionally Charged Mental Images

Psychic perception operates in a manner that is quite alien tothe word symbolism of conscious thought. Most psychic perceptioncomes in the form of an "intuitive impression" which must bebroken down into words, feelings or images in order to beconsciously understood. For this reason, emotion is the easiest


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subjective experience to communicate on a conscious telepathiclevel, followed by images and then words.

The combination of emotion and mental imagery is"relatively" easy for the conscious mind to perceive telepathically. Itis much easier than perceiving word symbolism, for example, butstill requires a capacity for perceiving subtle mental impressions.Once you have experienced a fair degree of success with thepreceding exercises you will be ready to move on to communicatingmental images. You can do this with you eyes closed. You can evenachieve results with the other person being in a different room, oracross the world while in contact by phone or via text on theInternet.

It can help if the sender concentrates upon images associatedwith a strongly felt emotional experience in the past. The emotion isgenuine in this case and can be remembered rather than imagined,which enables greater ease in concentration. The receiver simplyclears all distractions from his or her mind and describes any visualimpressions that occur, while focusing complete attention upon thesender.

For example, a woman I once did this exercise withremembered feeling free and happy while riding down a windingcanyon road on the back of a motorcycle. The experience stood outin her life as a special moment when everything was wonderful andfun. I concentrated my attention on the woman and got the feeling ofmoving from side to side, being happy, wind in my hair, and theimage of a winding road came to mind. So I guessed that she wasthinking about driving a car along a winding road with the top down.

Sometimes you will get the impression of large areas ofdifferent colors. The top of your mental image may be all blue inthis case, which would indicate an outdoor image on a clear day. Ifthe blue is lower in the image it may be an ocean or a lake. Arectangular blotch may indicate a door or window. There may be adark spot somewhere that feels like a house or trees, and if you arepatient you should be able to separate which of the two it might be.It's not so much that you actually see an image, but the broad detailswill be received in vague impressions that are half felt and half seen.


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Again, you may not necessarily see an image, but willexperience an impression or feeling that implies an image. Theimage itself is not usually communicated directly, at least not in thebeginning of your practice. It is the emotion (intuition) associatedwith the image which produces the impression you later translateinto particular visual details.

Communicating Specific Information

From the preceding information it should be obvious that"mind reading" or actually perceiving the words that go throughsomeone else's mind is not the way telepathy usually works (thoughon rare occasions I have experienced this). The information almostalways arrives as an impression which must then be translated intowords.

I will try to clarify what this impression is like by asking youto pay close attention to what you experience, right now . . . Ready?. . .

How do you feel about cats?

If you were quick enough you may have caught yourselfpausing briefly while all your past experience regarding cats wassorted by your subconscious mind before being presented to yourawareness in a form that could be expressed in words. Youexperienced an overall "impression" of how you feel about cats.That impression or feeling contains a great deal of informationwhich could easily require several minutes of dialogue to expressverbally. I refer to this type of impression as an "intuitive package."

Before you begin to speak a sentence you perceive anintuitive package which contains all the information you wish toexpress. You begin speaking in spite of not knowing which wordsyou will use to complete that sentence. You may not know whichwords you will use, but you are very aware of the meaning youexpect to convey. It is that meaning, that intuitive package, which isperceived during telepathic communication. It must be translated in


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order to be expressed, but this is something you do every time youspeak.

If you wish to communicate specific informationtelepathically, be sure to remember the basic nature of telepathy.Emotions are easiest to communicate, followed by images and thenwords. ESP cards (Zener cards) contain images which can easily beassociated with different emotional states. A star shape "feels"different than wavy lines, for example. This emotional componentenables better results to be obtained when attempting tocommunicate the specific card via telepathy. Numbers or letters ofthe alphabet, on the other hand, have far less emotional associationand are much more difficult to communicate.

Visual Changes as Cues

When attempting to communicate something specific, itsometimes helps to maintain eye contact and look for changes inyour visual perception. These changes occur as subjectiveexperience begins to merge, so it stands to reason that when twopeople are thinking the same thing the visual changes would happen.Theoretically, if the sender is concentrating upon a particularnumber while the receiver slowly counts through a series ofnumbers, the changes would happen when the correct number isreached.

This is true only if there are no other distractions separatingthe subjective experience of the two participants. As mentioned,letters and numbers have very little emotional energy associatedwith them and as such are more difficult to communicate. Youshould attempt to communicate emotionally charged information ifpossible, particularly in the beginning. You might try selectingamong mental images of people known to both participants as thetarget, since there is generally some degree of emotion connectedwith the way we feel about particular individuals.

Colors are somewhat easier to communicate than purelyanalytical data. If you limit the choices to a specific set of colors,you can watch for the visual changes to occur while one personconcentrates on a given color and the other scans mentally and


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emotionally through the choices. Suggested colors are: red, orange,yellow, green, blue, purple, white and black. It helps if both peoplediscuss how they feel about each color prior to experimenting.

Another experiment involves regular playing cards. If youfirst guess the suit, then if it is a high (Jack - Ace) mid (6 -10) or low(2 –5) numbered card, then the actual card itself, it is much easierthan trying to guess the exact card right off the bat. Using thismethod I once correctly guessed four cards in a row.

The greatest difficulty in communicating specificinformation can result from the sender not actually concentratingupon the target. It is quite natural for someone to choose a specificcolor to "send" to the other person, then drift off to other thoughts.The target must be concentrated upon at all times while being thesender.

I should also point out that whenever someone stares at aparticular, stationary object for an extended period, visualperception will begin to distort. Doing this exercise in a mirror willalso produce similar, though generally less intense changes in theperceived image. When performing the exercise alone no telepathyis involved, since telepathy occurs only when more than oneindividual experiences similar perceptions at the same moment. Youcan do this visual exercise while looking at a photograph of a friendin order to “send a message” to that person, but in this case thephoto only serves as a way to focus your attention on that personand results may be uncertain.

The next chapter analyzes physical reality in an attempt toexplain why various forms of psychic perception are possible.


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Chapter Three:

Analyzing Reality

In this chapter the objective is to compare what we knowabout metaphysical phenomena to what we have been lead tobelieve by science, religion and our own common sense. Sincephenomena like telepathy, which you have hopefully experienced bynow, are a reality, then popular concepts regarding the nature ofexistence are in some respects in error. If our consciousness is solelya result of brain function then we should be forever locked inside theconfines of our heads, yet phenomena such as remote viewing andout of body experience disprove that idea. If time is a linear series ofconsecutive moments, as it normally appears to be, then déjà vu andprecognition would be unlikely to occur, yet they do. Religion tellsus that after death we live in another world called heaven, yet therewould be no place for heaven to exist if the physical universeoccupies all the space there is.

If reality operates differently than we have been lead tobelieve, then perhaps we can learn more about it by carefullyanalyzing the fundamental concepts we have taken for granted uptill now. What is the true nature of time, space and matter?


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The Theory of No Physical Physical Universe

Interpretations of the truth, as far as science is concerned,change as new evidence is acquired. Albert Einstein's theory ofrelativity "disproved" Newton's description of a mechanicaluniverse, yet Newton's laws still apply within the context of objectsmoving at velocities significantly slower than the speed of light.Any new description of the universe we might come up with toexplain metaphysical phenomena will likewise go beyond currentscientific reasoning, but at the same time what is known to be truewill remain true, within the context where such truths areobservable.

Both Einstein and Newton describe the same reality, butfrom different perspectives. One (simplified) way of looking at thisis that Newton deals with effects that are observable from astationary position, whereas relativity looks at effects involvingvelocities near the speed of light. Reality doesn't change, but when itis looked at from a different point of view, that same reality appearsto behave differently.

Consider a very simple observation anyone can make. If yougo outside and watch the sky, it is obvious that the Earth is in thecenter of the universe with the Sun, Moon, stars and planets allrevolving around the Earth once per day. That is an easily verifiableobservation. It is also completely inaccurate. If we change ourperspective, so that we can imagine the motion of the planets from apoint of view a few million miles from the Sun, we then see that theSun is the center around which the planets revolve.

Observable evidence is relative to the point of view of theobserver. The truth, on the other hand, remains the same regardlessof perspective. When we go outside and watch the sky with the newinformation in mind, our observations are not in conflict. It stillappears that the planets circle the Earth, but we are able to recognizethat this same observation would also be apparent if the Earth werespinning at one revolution per day.

Physical science operates on some basic premises whichmight turn out to be as "incorrect" as the idea that the Sun circles the


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Earth. The most basic of these is that physical matter occupies bothtime and space. From our point of view as physical creatures, thereality of time, space and matter seems very obvious.

In order for the above to be true, we must first assume thattime exists, one moment following another, the past leading to theunknown future. In the same way, we must assume that space exists,a physical area containing dimensions of height, width and depth.We must also assume that objects are made of matter, the matterbeing reduced to pure energy from the point of view of sub-atomicparticle physics, but from the perspective of our physical bodies,matter is real and solid and occupies physical space.

What we have just listed is not a series of facts, but ofassumptions. We can refer to this point of view where everythingseems solid as the "physical" world. It's the same sort of perspectivewe encounter when we observe the Sun circling the Earth.

Please consider the event I described where my friendsuddenly went bananas because he was sure he was experiencingdéjà vu (the situation where several of us had changed seatingarrangements in my car). Later it was me weirding-out believing ithad all happened before. In my experience, a similar event hadindeed occurred. But how do you explain my friend's reaction onthat first occasion? This is rather clear evidence that from someother perspective, time is not a series of moments leading from pastto future.

Consider the concept of reincarnation, which more people inthis world believe in than those who do not. Science doesn't believeor disbelieve, because when it comes to anything they can't neatlyexplain, science simply avoids asking the question. Reincarnationcould still exist if time were a series of consecutive moments, buthow do you explain a person alive now describing events thathappened hundreds of years ago when there is no possibility of theinformation being transmitted genetically?

On a more personal level, many of you using the PsychicWindow Technique (visual telepathy exercise) will see images ofother people superimposed over the face of the person you arelooking at. While it is true that some of the images seen while usingthe technique are simply hallucinatory, many of those images are


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very clearly human. They not only look like real people, but whileobserving these images you experience the "presence" of theseindividuals. It is as if you are actually looking at someone other thanwho you are doing the exercise with.

Seth once made an interesting comment while speakingthrough the body of Jane Roberts. He said that when hecommunicated with someone in her presence he saw all of thatperson's incarnated selves and probable selves at the same time, andhad to remember which of those personalities he was addressing.(The concept of probable selves will be explained in a moment.)During the experience of using the Psychic Window Technique thissame sort of perception can occur, where several different facialimages fade in and out of focus. Seth also insists that all time issimultaneous, that everything takes place in what he calls the"spacious present." Evidence clearly exists, then, that from adifferent perspective than our normal one, time may not be a linearphenomenon.

Time is in many ways a difficult concept to grasp. At onemoment your thumb is against the page, in another it is held off thepage. What is the "thing" we call time that separates these twoconditions?

I can't tell you, because I have no clue. What I can do isdemonstrate how time, space and matter may not exist in the way wethink they do.

My first memorable exposure to an abstract, mathematicalconcept was in an eighth-grade math class when I was introduced tothe idea of a mathematical point: a place in space that is infinitelysmall, such as the point where two invisible lines cross. That pointexists, but because it is infinitely small it can always be reduced tohalf of any supposed size assigned to it, again and again, forever.

How big is the center of a dime? One-hundredth of an inch?One millionth? Even if you were to say it is a billion times smallerthan one-billionth of an inch, you could always cut any dimensionyou specify in half, an infinite number of times. A mathematicalpoint is infinitely small. I have always found this to be a veryinteresting idea, that something can exist, such as the center of acoin, but be so small it can never be located.


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What happens if we apply the idea of "infinitely small" to theconcept of time? How long does the present moment exist before thenext moment occurs? How long is now?

We could say that now exists for a millionth of a second, orhalf that long, or half that long again, over and over forever. "Now"is an infinitely short duration of time.

Imagine ten separate moments of now. If we line them up ina series to create a length of time that is ten times longer than onepresent moment, how much time actually passes? The answer is thatwhen you add up two or more infinitely short periods of time, thetotal time that passes remains infinitely short in duration. All thepresent moments which have ever occurred add up to a total passageof time equal to one present moment.

Evidence for this being the way things are is demonstrated inthe fact that we never leave "now."

Move your thumb up, then move your thumb down. What isthat "thing" (other than space) which separates the two conditions?That "thing" is called time, but it all happens at once. It all happensnow.

Time is not a "thing" but an abstract concept. It is a way oforganizing perception.

Another interesting observation about time and ourperception involves gaps between the present moment and ourperception of that moment. This delayed perception is clearlyobvious when astronomers look at stars many light years away. If astar is 100 light years from the Earth, the light entering the telescopeleft the star 100 years earlier. It is quite possible that the star mayhave exploded and disappeared during those 100 years. Theastronomers are not actually looking at the star then, but simplyperceiving an image. It is very important to understand that whatthey perceive may in fact not actually exist in the moment it is beingperceived.

On a smaller scale the same thing applies to your perceptionof this page. The page exists in the present moment, but it takes lightabout 0.5 nanoseconds (one-half of one-billionth of a second) totravel from the page to your eye. After striking the rods and cones inyour eye the information must pass along the optic nerves to your


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brain, and then those signals must be translated into an image yourconscious awareness can perceive. Since the present moment isinfinitely short in duration, by the time we perceive anything we areno longer in the same present moment. Our physical senses neverprovide us with a picture of what is actually happening now, but arealways presenting us with the past, much like astronomers are notlooking at the present existence of a star but at the way the star onceappeared.

It seems that the past can be proven to exist, since it isobvious that things change from a previous (past) condition. We canmove our thumb and remember that it was in a different positionbefore we moved it. But we can not prove that the past exists.

If I set a burning candle on a table, can you prove how tall itwas five minutes ago? Can you take a ruller into the past and makethat observation? What about the future? Can you tell me the lengthof the candle five minutes from now? What if I blow out the candlebetween now and then?

We can not prove that either past or future exists because wecan never leave the present to make the necessary observations. Wenever experience any point in time other than now.

When trying to define the nature of three-dimensional space,we can apply the idea of infinite smallness to space in the same waywe applied it to time. If we line up ten mathematical points next toeach other in a row, and then measure the distance from the firstpoint to the last, the total space covered is the same amount of spaceoccupied by just one mathematical point. An infinite number ofinfinitely small points of space lined up in a row create a totaldistance equal to one infinitely small amount of space.

One might try to argue that even if infinitely small points ofspace can't be added to create a line, you can still take a pencil anddraw a line in what appears to be space. You can also watch anautomobile on a television screen, but that doesn't mean you candrive to work in that image. Both are illusions. Thumb up, thumbdown. What is the "thing" that separates the two conditions? Wethink in terms of two different locations in space, but it is impossiblefor an object to move though enough infinitely small points of spaceto ever change position.


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Space is not "out there" all around us as it appears to be. It isanother way of organizing perception.

Physicists might argue that time and space are "continuums,"structures that are continuous, without separate parts by which theycan be divided. If that were true then there would be no divisionbetween the past, present and future -- all time would besimultaneous. Likewise, all of space would be the same space,where all objects exist at once without being separated from oneanother.

So we return to that initial scientific assumption, that matteroccupies time and space. Anyway you look at it all time issimultaneous because we never leave the present moment, and inthat case, all matter must exist at once in the same space, which isphysically impossible -- unless physical reality is a "point of view"rather than solid matter in time and space.

It is all a “matter” of perspective. Time, space and matter allappear to be very real from the perspective of someone watching theSun circle the Earth, but from the perspective of the infinitely small,nothing is "real" or tangible in the way we think it is. Atoms arereduced to pure energy at the subatomic level -- nothing solid aboutit. From the perspective of someone who is infinitely large, theentire universe occurs inside an infinitely small point of space. Aninfinitely small space can not contain more than one object, and thatobject can not have characteristics that are not uniformly identical --there isn't enough space for anything to be different from anythingelse. From that perspective the entire universe can not possibly existas anything but an organization of perception.

Just because the Sun appears to circle the Earth that doesn'tmean it's the way things really are. We live in a universe of pureenergy, without physical dimension, where everything happens now.

According to these observations, that is the universe we livein. All of existence is no more solid than our idea of what weperceive. In such a universe it might be possible to experiencewhatever we can conceive. It becomes a matter of understandinghow our perception is organized.

The universe is infinitely large. If it is not infinitely largethen something else must lay beyond it, and that something else


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would have to be infinitely large or an infinity of “something elses”would have to exist in the space that goes forever beyond ouruniverse. On the other end of the spectrum our universe goes out ofsight into the infinitely small, which we can never run out of. Timestretches out into the infinite past and into the infinite future. Theconcept of infinity thus forms the boundaries of our universe. Ourphysical universe begins and ends in every way with an idea,infinity, and ideas are not physical. How can something existphysically if it turns out to be contained within nothing morephysical than an idea?

It has been argued that time began with the big bang, whensome microscopically small bit of super compressed energyexploded and formed into our constantly expanding universe. (Noone bothers to tell us where all this energy came from in the firstplace.) The theory is that time began with the big bang, that prior tothe big bang there was no motion in the universe, and that time doesnot exist if there are no objects in motion by which to perceive thepassing of time. To me, that is the same as saying time stops withinan empty box because nothing is moving inside it. However, I canobserve the contents of the box and perceive the passing of timeeven if I do not detect any objects in motion. If time doesn’t actuallyexist inside a closed box, then if you put a clock inside the box, theclock would not run. If it did run, then you would have to say thatthe phenomena of time is produced by the clock. That means anyonewho wants to have twice as much time on a busy day should simplybuy an extra watch. Time is not produced by objects in motion.

Some also argue that the physical universe has a shape,beyond which nothing exists, including space. This would mean thatif we launched a rocket from a planet on the edge of the universetoward the area where no more stars can be seen, the rocket wouldeither disappear, ceasing to exist, or it would bounce back off theedge of the universe because there would be no space out there forthe rocket to pass through. And that would still leave the question,“what is on the other side of the universe.” It is much more likelythat the rocket would simply continue moving through limitlessspace.


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The physical universe is bounded in every way by theconcept of infinity, by an idea which has no measurable, physicalproperties. The only way this makes sense is if the universe is notreally “physical” in the way it appears to be from our perspective.

The important point is simply to realize that we are notlimited by the constraints of physical laws, that this world weexperience is some kind of "projection of consciousness." The"illusion" of physical reality has a very definite structure, and whilewe are experiencing it from the perspective of someone livingwithin it, physical laws will normally apply. But knowing the worldis not really "solid" and "out there" gives us an opportunity toinvestigate our perceptions as the result of "idea construction," asSeth puts it.

One of the benefits of considering the world to consist ofsomething other than solid objects in time and space, is thepossibility of other worlds of experience such as "heaven." Scientistswho are religious insist the universe takes up all the space there is,yet many of them still believe a place called heaven exists. They justdon't know where or how such a dimension could be possible.Science neatly overlooks any conflicting evidence when it comes toquestions of a philosophical nature, using the excuse that sciencedoesn't deal with questions of ultimate beginnings or endings. Thenthey turn around and say everything started with the big bang, andpeople were once lizards. (If you think my ideas are "far out," tryunderstanding the loopholes science invents for itself.)

Quantum Mechanics and String Theory

There are currently four forces known by science to operatein the universe. The first is gravity, which holds our bodies to theEarth and all the stars and planets in their orbits. Theelectromagnetic force is responsible for electricity and magnetism.The weak atomic force holds electrons in their orbits around thenucleus of an atom, and atoms to each other. The strong atomicforce holds the protons and neutrons of the atomic nucleus together.

The “holly grail” of scientific understanding is the quest tofind a single theory which would unify all the forces in the universe


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into a single, coherent, mathematical description -- a formuladescribing a single force which would explain why all other forceswork in the way they do. Einstein spent the last half of his life insearch of this illusive answer.

Physicists studying subatomic particles use quantummechanics (a set of mathematical rules) to describe and predict thebehavior of matter at the subatomic level. A fundamentalcharacteristic of quantum mechanics is that it describes thesubatomic realm as being inherently chaotic. For example, quantumphysicists can predict the velocity of an electron as it orbits thenucleus of an atom, but not it’s position, or vice versa. The morethey can predict about one condition the less they can tell about theother. A similar sort of confusion exists with the nature of light,where photons behave as both a wave and a particle depending onhow they are observed.

In his quest to discover the theory of unification, Einsteinbasically ignored quantum mechanics in spite of its obvious use indescribing what goes on at subatomic levels. To Einstein, theuniverse appeared divinely elegant in nature, and he believed anyexplanation of its fundamental principle would be elegantly simple.

Physicists are presently capable of unifying three of the fourfundamental forces together, with gravity being the exception.However, some quantum physicists have postulated what they referto as “string theory” as a potential way of unifying all these forces.The theory envisions vibrating strings of pure energy, billions oftimes smaller than an atom, as the fundamental building blocks ofthe universe. Each string is identical in nature, but the way in whichit vibrates determines the type of subatomic particle it is perceivedto be when atoms are smashed together in huge particle accelerators.

String theory appears to work, at least in mathematical terms,but because there is no way to test the theory in a physicalexperiment, it remains a theory rather than a fact. String theory alsoposes some conditions that not all physicists are willing to accept.Most significantly are the necessity for multiple dimensions beyondour capacity to perceive (eleven dimensions are currently postulated)and the fact that when they apply the math in order to unify gravitywith the other forces, their calculations always result in infinity.


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Imagine that. Science has trouble accepting the mathematicsof string theory because it implies multiple dimensions and auniverse based upon infinity.

Multiple Dimensions in the Same Space

Allow me to demonstrate how multiple dimensions ofperception can exist within the same space.

If you take a close look at the cover of this book, you willnotice a large number of “cartoon-like” faces and other shapesarranged in vertical columns. Whether or not you noticed those facesearlier was influenced by many factors, including how patient orhurried you have felt, the amount of light available, if you have beenalone or distracted by others, etc. The reality of those images hasalways been there, but they may have gone unnoticed if yourattention was not tuned to perceive them. The reality you perceivedepends on how your attention is focused.

As you study the images you may notice that a small facecan also be perceived as being only a limited portion of a larger face.As your point of view expands to include a larger area, a totallydifferent “reality” becomes observable in the same location. In fact,several different “realities” or “dimensions” (images) can beperceived connected to, and a part of, other images. This isparticularly observable when you turn the book up-side-down andsee an entirely different set of images in the same area where youwere “certain” some other particular image existed. Both imagesexist, but that first image becomes difficult to perceive when thebook is up-side-down, when your point of view is altered. The image(reality) we perceive is totally dependent upon how we organize ourperception.

The title of that background cover art is “Infinite Images”(#1) because there are essentially an infinite number of imagesperceivable. By altering our point of view still further, by placingthe edge of a mirror against the cover, it is possible to recognizeeven more images in the spaces between the vertical columns wherethe other images were earlier perceived. In these areas the mirror canbe held either vertically or horizontally to produce new images, half


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of the image appearing in the mirror, where none were perceivablebefore.

Multiple dimensions of coherent, organized reality can existin the same manner. Just as the nose of one face can be viewed asthe chin of another, the physical objects we are familiar with couldturn out to be portions of other dimensions of perception. An atomcould be an entire solar system from some other perspective. Thisbook could be the window of a house in some other reality, or itcould be a vast plane covered by low hills where a minute of ourtime is experienced as an eon there. Our thoughts may be objects insome other dimensions, though it is likely that many realities existwithout the necessity for what we think of as objects. Thepossibilities are endless.

Where do dreams happen? All in your mind? Isn't that sayingdreams occur in a world where everything exists as organizations ofperception rather than as physical objects? Sounds like a world weare already familiar with, doesn't it? Carlos Castaneda (and others)report sharing dream experiences with other people? How can morethan one person experience something that isn't real? I canpersonally attest to the fact that when my friend and I "transportedour awareness" to that farm house we saw the same world there,witnessed the same events, and it was just as real to our perceptionas this moment is to you.

In fact I have to assume this moment is real to you, sincefrom the standpoint of someone writing this I can never be certainanyone will read it. Your reality is a hypothetical construction in myvery objective present moment. In your world there is moreevidence to support my existence than there is evidence in my worldto support yours. This book had to be written by someone, right? Itdidn't just appear in front of you all by itself, right?

Well, maybe. The next time I look at this page this sentencewill already be here. If I woke up tomorrow and found the bookcompletely finished, it would be done even if I had no memory ofwriting it. So what is actually the criteria of reality here? Memory.The way ideas are constructed that tell us what is real and what isn't.If I wake up tomorrow and remember writing this entire book, and


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find the information all typed up on my computer, it will be real,even if the words just magically appeared overnight. If you suddenlywoke up this very instant and found yourself laying in bed youwould have to assume that you had not actually been reading thisbook but had dreamed the entire experience you consider so realright now. It could happen. Similar events may have happened toyou before. Haven't you ever been surprised to wake up from adream that seemed totally real?

What I am trying to get at here is the importance of memoryand ideas in determining what is real from what isn't. If youremember something happening, then it is real to you, regardless ofwhether others believe you or not. I communicated a letter of thealphabet telepathically with a friend. The friend verified theexperience as being real. Later that night I left my body for the firsttime, but there were no witnesses. When I explained these events tomy friends at the coffee shop, none of them believed it happened. Itwasn't real to them.

Does something have to be witnessed to be real? Did youbrush your teeth this morning? Did it really happen if there were nowitnesses? If you believe it, it happened. If you believe you talkwith aliens from other planets, it happens. At least in your reality.

Seth tells us that we all live in our own reality, literally. Thatif you and I are in a room with a coffee table, there are two roomsand two coffee tables, and four people -- the two people in yourworld, and the two in my world. He says that objective reality is aresult of agreement, that there is an agreed upon "objective reality"existing as idea construction, and we manufacture our ownperceptions, our individual worlds, by tuning in to that informationin much the same way as a radio station is tuned in with a car radio.He goes on to say that there are virtually an infinite number ofobjective worlds we can tune into, a different world for everysignificant decision we contemplate. He refers to these worlds as“probable realities.” For example, if you seriously consideredmarrying someone, but didn’t, in another world you actually did. A"probable self" is the person who is aware of following a decisionwe pondered but did not choose to follow with our present


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awareness. To that person, your current awareness is the probableself.

Whether or not we actually do create our own worlds viaidea construction, or if probable realities are created as a result ofour decisions, is something neither you or I can be sure of withoutpersonal experience which convinces us one way or another. Imention the ideas here because they seem to be possible within auniverse that is not limited to the confines of time, space and matteras we normally perceive them to be.

What I would like to introduce next is a different way oflooking at reality which seems to explain how many forms ofpsychic perception might be possible. From the Sun circling theEarth, to the Earth circling the Sun, the next point of view takes usinto an entirely different dimension.

Forth-Dimensional Perception

We live in what appears to be a three-dimensional (3-D)world of physical space occupied by objects. These dimensions arerepresented as height, width and depth. Albert Einstein proposed aforth dimension which he referred to as space-time, meaning that notonly do all objects exist in the above three dimensions, but theseobjects exist in connection with a particular area of space as it existsat a particular point in time. Space and time can not be separatedbecause in order for space to exist, that space must exist at aparticular point in time. So it appears that from Einstein’s point ofview, space and time are interconnected in a forth dimension calledspace-time.

Right. I “thought” I understood all that, but I must also admitthat the idea of space-time seemed way too nebulous for me toactually grasp.

Joachim Wolf, in a paper describing what he calls “quantummetaphysics,” mentions a little book called Flatland which waspublished near the turn of the twentieth century by Edwin Abbott.The book humorously describes the experience of creatures havingonly two dimensions. Visualizing a 2-dimentional world finally


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enabled me to actually comprehend how a forth dimension can beconceptualized, at least to some degree.

Let’s start by imagining what perception would be like for atwo-dimensional (2-D) consciousness. A 2-D world would havewidth and depth, but no height. It would be like an infinitely thinpiece of paper. The creatures which inhabit such a world could haveshapes as complicated as an ink blot, but it is easier to think of themas circles on a piece of paper. No solid matter would exist therebecause their world is infinitely thin. Because there is absolutely noheight in a 2-D world, if two of these circles came together theycould pass right through each other.

Now imagine that we, on the outside of their universe, outhere in “3-D land,” were to pass a round ball downward throughtheir 2-D plane of existence. What they would perceive is aconstantly expanding circle. As the ball descended downwardthrough their flat world, the circle these creatures perceive wouldconstantly enlarge until the center of the ball had passed through. Asthe ball continued moving downward, the circle would continuallybecome smaller until it disappeared altogether.

Imagine how blown away such creatures would be if theywere suddenly able to perceive their world from a 3-D point of view.All the things they know would still exist, but some circles wouldalso be seen as only a small portion of spheres or cylinders, somesquares would be recognized as just one component of a cube, etc.Imagine how amazed these creatures would be to perceive shapes ascomplex as living trees, clouds, mountains and stars. The sameuniverse they have always known would suddenly be recognized asmerely a tiny slice of a far greater reality which had existed all thetime.

In the same way, space-time may exist as the next dimensionfor us, as the forth dimension. And I think I finally figured out howto conceptualize that forth dimension in a way that anyone, evenslow-to-get-it-me, can grasp. Forth dimensional awareness is theability to move conscious perception anywhere in space or time.

Maybe this isn’t what Einstein meant by space-time, but itgoes a very long way to explain how many forms of psychicperception could operate.


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It would not be necessary for a forth-dimensionalconsciousness (4-D) to travel through space in order to perceivedistant objects, or to travel through time to see things as they were,are, and will be. Perhaps it would be possible for a 4-D to perceiveall of time and all of space in one glance, but such perception isbeyond my ability to conceive. It seems more likely that 4-Dperception would simply be the ability to move through time andspace without limitations. This could explain perceptions such asprecognition, déjà vu, reincarnation, remote viewing, clairvoyance,Out Of Body Experience (OOBE), psychometry, and more.

Here is where logic can help us understand even more aboutforth dimensional perception. Because we exist as 3-D creatureswho can remember past events, we already possess consciousawareness at multiple points in time. All those points of existingawareness (our memories) are simultaneously available. In terms ofpast experience at least, our present consciousness is not stuck intime.

From the perspective of the forth dimension, we would notsimply remember a past event, but experience it as it occurred (i.e.,déjà vu). Our future experience would also be perceivable. Thisfuture experience would include the moment when webecame/become (same thing) aware of 4-D space-time perception.

In other words, we do not have to manufacture an awarenesscapable of perceiving in 4-D. That awareness already exists in theforth dimension, because from that point of view all time issimultaneously available. 4-D perception is inherent in all of us.That means psychic perception is inherent in all of us.

It would seem that what we need is some method ofawakening our already existing awareness of forth-dimensionalperception. Any drug that alters our perception of time and space isprobably causing physiological changes related to 4-D perception.Meditation and self hypnosis can be applied to reduce physicalperception and focus attention in other ways, thus becoming toolsfor exploring forth dimensional awareness, and beyond. Varioustechniques for using these tools are provided in this book.


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In my opinion, the single most valuable bit of knowledge youcan acquire in regards to developing metaphysical abilities isunderstanding that physical reality is not what it appears to be, that itis a form of "idea construction." Whatever you want to call it,physical reality is a manifestation of consciousness, a world withoutsolid matter or time or space. We live in an illusory world oforganized perception. The true reality is the yet unknown structurewhich organizes our perception. That structure produces what weperceive as physical existence, but the structure itself is not physical.It is "metaphysical," and can be manipulated by consciousness.Understand that one point and the world suddenly becomes amagical place where nearly anything is possible.

Perhaps the information in this chapter is simply too abstractfor you to believe. But ponder the impossibility of adding togetherinfinitely small points of time or space to create the sort of world wethink exists. Realize that the boundaries of our universe exist only asideas. Observe how physical matter appears to alter before your eyesduring the experience of visual telepathy. Consider your ability toperceive more than one dimension in the same space while lookingat the cover of this book. Remember waking up from dreams thatseem totally real. Understand that on a subatomic level matter doesnot exist as anything but pure energy -- nothing is solid evenaccording to science.

While I can't prove that anything I have said in this chapter istrue, I am not asking you to accept any of it on faith. I am simplypointing the way toward your own, personal evaluation of the natureof your experience. As your experience begins to include more andmore perceptions of a metaphysical nature, as a result of performingthe exercises in this book, I believe you will find the information inthis chapter to have a greater likelihood of reflecting the truth.


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Chapter Four:

Reason, Religion and Beliefs

My biggest complaint about religious and new agespiritualistic teachings is that they outline some grand scheme abouthow everything works and then expect us to accept it all on faith. Ifany one concept can be accepted as truth simply by choosing tobelieve it is true, then that would apply to any concept imaginable.Did you know that the gue on the bottom of my shoe is actually analien civilization where everyone looks like Elvis -- except onThursdays and Saturdays when these creatures travel to Washingtonand impersonate political leaders? Of course that can't be true, butwould it be true if you had faith that it was true? People have faith inideas that are just as ridiculous. For example, dying as a suicidebomber will send you straight to a heaven filled with dozens ofhorny virgins, taking poison will buy you a seat on the space crafthiding behind the comet, or what's good for big corporations is goodfor the people. Having faith or belief does not make something true.But as Fox Mulder likes to say, "The truth is out there." Objectivetruth exists independently of individual faith, belief or perception.The Sun appears to circle the Earth, and that appearance is


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objective, the same for everyone, regardless of what we believe isreally happening.

Remember what I said about information needing to beexperienced before it becomes true knowledge? Even then one cannot be certain that one's interpretation of such experience accuratelydescribes what the truth really is. The exercises throughout this bookare meant to provide you with personal experience of psychicphenomena and metaphysical realities. The experience is where thetruth is. Then again, however anyone chooses to describe suchexperience will always be a matter of interpretation.

If it seems I am being "overly conscientious" or nit-pickyabout these details, I hope you will come to realize the importanceof accurate communication when it comes to these matters. Forexample, if I ask you if you believe God exists, how would youreply? Would you say, "Yes, I am sure of it," or provide some other,equally definitive answer?

Whenever someone asks me if I believe in God, I first askthat person to define what they mean by the word "God." The wordmeans different things to different people. If you said, "Yes, I amcertain God exists," to one person, you would be saying you believesome really tall guy who needs a shave sits in a big chair tossinglightning bolts down upon sinners. To another you might be sayingyou believe Mother Earth or the Sun is the source of all life. Theword "God" has so many interpretations I generally prefer not to useit, though in some cases it is the easiest way to talk about the subjectin less than specific terms.

An atheist is someone who fully believes God does not exist.An agnostic is someone who does not feel they have enoughinformation to come to a conclusion about the question of God.There is no adequate term to describe someone who is aware of“spiritual reality” yet does not subscribe to religious definitions.

Seth provides us with the concept of All That Is as analternative to the idea of “God.” All That Is is just that, everything.If it can be imagined, and even if it can't, it's part of All That Is.Such an all-inclusive concept leaves little room formisinterpretation. It does differ from the standard Christian conceptof God in some respects, though it is possible to simply expand the


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Christian idea of God to include all that is without too muchdifficulty. Christians believe God is the source of everything,whereas All That Is implies that "God" is present in everything.

The following poem is an attempt to express my personalinterpretation of how and why All That Is may have come to be.

The Loneliness of God

Before the beginningThere was a total absence of everythingWhere even nothing did not existNor any thought or feeling whatever.

In this timeless, placeless placeHere and there are as much the same as they are different,Now and then a now where no one knows such things.

And then a mystery beyond the conception of God occurred --Something conscious knew there was nothing.

We call that consciousness GodAnd the first thing this consciousness knewWas that It was everythingIt was the totality of all the nothingness there was.

And so this consciousness conceived of somethingnessA place where nothingness could existWhich we now call spaceAnd within this space God recognized something that wasn't nothingFilling everything; It's own consciousness.

God is everything.God is utterly alone.

And when God realized with greater and greater clarityJust how alone It was


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It recognized It's awareness of aloneness had not always been thesame.It conceived that space was filled with time as well asconsciousness.

As the time passed God's awareness of aloneness grew steadilyAnd It desired, creating the concept of value,Something that was not Itself.

And so God divided Itself in order to experience OtherAnd gave Other a form, but Other knew It was GodAnd God was still alone with Itself.

Then God removed It's memory of being God from OtherAnd as Other, God experienced Other experiencing God.Through Other, God experienced not being alone.

But soon God noticed that Other longed to know it's sourceJust as God had longed to know OtherGod experienced empathy, and allowed Other to know itself as God.

Again God was utterly alone.

So God created a multitude of OthersAnd removed their memory of being GodAnd God felt their great joy when each of them became one withGodTill they all felt God's great loneliness.

The Others remember their paths and choose to return toseparatenessBecause they know they will always return to GodAnd share their joy at returning.

We are all God, struggling to overcome our forgetfulnessAfraid to return to the knowledgeThat God is the loneliest being there is.


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God is also the happiest being there is.As Seth says, "We are made of the stuff of God." If God is

everything, then there is a little piece of God in every flower, everypebble, every cell and atom in your body. Every thought you think issomething happening within God, and everywhere you look you seeGod expressing Itself in a multitude of ways, including as everyonewe meet. If God is really All That Is, then we are all God.

"God consciousness" or "total enlightenment" is a state ofbeing where an individual becomes aware of his or her connection toAll That Is -- by losing the sense of being an individual, or moreaccurately, by expanding one's concept of individuality to includeeverything else. "There are no divisions or separations between theSelf," says Seth.

My first glimpse of "god consciousness" occurred under theinfluence of LSD. I felt powerful beyond imagination and totallyinsignificant in the same breath. I felt that if I wanted to I couldcreate entire worlds simply by imagining them, while at the sametime I realized the totality of my present life was nothing more thana momentary flicker of thought for such a being. The devastatingfeeling of insignificance eventually gave way to an appreciation forthe amazing fact that individualism exists at all. Just to be alive in auniverse that seemed to be separate from me produced a feeling ofadventure and joy. Even a difficult life as a human being was betterthan being the only thing there is.

Every thought, every stubbed toe, every child's smile, everyhardship, all of life's most minute experiences are valuable beyondimagination to a being who knows no limits or individuality. At thesame time, to feel individual, cut off from the source of one's being,alone in a world full of uncaring people, struggling to survive -- thistoo can become a hell as devastating as the loneliness of beingeverything.

All That Is knows our situation. You are All That Is beingyou. You are not cut off from the power of your source. All That Isrejoices in your joy and shares the thrill of your adventures. We arefree to tap into that source and create the reality we desire simply by


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allowing the power to flow through us. Or so goes the theory, whichis discussed further in the chapter on creating reality.

If we employ the concept of All That Is as an alternative to“God,” it appears to answer some questions that otherwise seemincomprehensible. For example, God is supposed to be good, allknowing and all powerful. This means God has awareness of allhuman suffering, the power to end it, and the moral imperative to doso. Yet children are killed or maimed in wars or accidents andsometimes fall ill with fatal diseases. Such children could notpossibly have offended God to the point He would bring so muchsuffering upon them deliberately. Bad things happen to good people.If God is good, knows about the suffering in the world and has thepower to stop it, reason tells us He must stop it, but He doesn’t. Sucha concept of God is therefore irrational.

Let’s look at the same situation from the perspective of AllThat Is, throwing in some other conditions which that might entail.First, to All That Is, any experience is better than no experience. Theidea of probable realities means that in other dimensions ofexperience the bad things do not happen. Reincarnation means wehave other lives to work with, and when it comes down to it,hardships often result in personal growth which may not otherwiseoccur (though this doesn’t mean that suffering is always good for thesoul -- sometimes it is simply the price of ignorance). Consider whatyou have learned from your failures and difficult challenges, howthey have enabled you to become a better person, and you can seehow value can be gained from “undesirable” circumstances. (Theconcept of value fulfillment is central to understanding humanexperience and is discussed in detail in the “Psychological Wisdom”chapter.) Buddhism tells us, “One must know ugliness in order toappreciate beauty.” In other words, there is value in the experienceof limitations, especially in overcoming those limitations.

There are endless descriptions regarding how themetaphysical universe operates, each religion promoting it's ownversion, which is taken as fact by those who follow such teachings.It should be recognized that the average individual's choice ofreligion has far more to do with geographical location than anysincere investigation of the truth. Americans are mostly Christian,


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Saudi Arabians mostly Muslim, etc. Seth tells us that we create ourpersonal experience of reality according to our beliefs. If this is true,then any religious beliefs will be experienced as fact by those whohold them. In the search for “the one true church” the answer is thatone will do as well as another.

There is, however, a rational advantage to Seth's concept ofAll That Is, creating our own reality, and our having existence inmore than just this physical dimension. It resolves the “why doesn’tGod help?” question, explains why conflicting religious beliefsystems all produce “validating results” for their followers, impliesthat we have free will, and empowers us to overcome our challengeswithout the necessity for belief in a higher power which exists apartfrom us. We must remember, however, that just because these ideashave a rational advantage over conventional religious beliefs, thatdoesn’t mean this is how the universe actually operates. One mustexperience the truth in order to know it is real, and even then it issubject to interpretation.

OK. Here are a few of the ideas we’ve covered which seemto be pretty hard to argue against. There is an objective truthregardless of whether or not anyone knows what it is. Theperception of the truth is always subject to an individual'sinterpretation of the experience. All That Is exists because it iseverything that exists. All That Is either is, or includes, God, sinceGod must be part of all that is if God exists, and if God does notexist, All That Is definitely does and It can be defined as being God.

(Words can take you to some odd places, eh?)


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Chapter Five:

Manipulating Awareness

If we consider that from the perspective of the infinitelysmall, or infinitely large, that the physical universe can notfundamentally exist in the way it appears to us, the only explanationavailable is that physical reality is inherently illusionary in nature.The illusion is real, in that it has definite structure and operatesaccording to predictable patterns of cause and effect, but theunderlying structure responsible for our perceptions is not physical.This fundamental structure exists connected to, but beyond, ourthree-dimensional perception of experience. This leads us toconclude that our experience of reality is fundamentallyperceptional in nature. It stands to reason then, that if our consciousperception is in some way “manufacturing” our experience, then ourexperience can be manipulated by controlling our awareness.

This chapter provides an overview of various methods ofcontrolling awareness, including meditation, self hypnosis,concentration and intent. These tools can enable us to direct ourawareness to perceptions beyond those offered by our physicalsenses, and to manipulate the “metaphysical structure” in ways


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which alter our physical experience. It helps to have a generalunderstanding of these techniques prior to performing the manyexercises provided later in this book.

Levels of Consciousness

Modern psychological theory describes consciousness in termswe are all familiar with. Our normal, everyday awareness is referredto as ego consciousness. Beneath that is the subconscious, meaningareas of awareness that are easily accessible but are not part of ournormal awareness. This includes our breathing, sensations such astemperature and humidity, access to memory, etc. Beyond this is theunconscious, which includes psychological phenomena we areseldom aware of, such as control of our heartbeat and bodytemperature. The unconscious also contains our biological instinctsand deeply buried beliefs which affect our health, attitudes andbehavior.

Beyond these three easily observable levels of awareness weenter other levels of existence. Dream experience is unconscious toour normal self, except when we remember a dream event, in whichcase the awareness crosses through the subconscious into egoconsciousness. Our dreaming self has it’s own memories andseparate ways of organizing experience, and is in some ways aseparate personality from our physically aware self. Our “normal”self appears rather nebulous and “dreamlike” to the dreaming self.

If we exist after death and experience lives in otherincarnations, a step beyond the dreaming self we will find thepersonality which is aware of between life experience and ourprevious incarnations. We might call this our “forth dimensionalconsciousness.” Beyond that, according to Seth, is the personalityaware of all our experience in probable realities, including theprobable realities of all our incarnations. Further still are levels ofconsciousness containing “group souls” much like the collectiveconsciousness of a family or community. Beyond that is theawareness of all human experience, experience in other universes,and on and on until, theoretically, one experiences the awareness ofAll That Is.


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The names given to these levels of consciousness areessentially meaningless, and as Seth says, “There are no separationsor divisions between the Self.” Each level of consciousness blendsone into the other, and there may be levels of consciousness otherthan those described here, such as astral planes, animalconsciousness, etc. The different “levels” simply refer to theperception available to consciousness at any given moment, whichdepends upon how it is focused. In a way we could say that all thesedifferent levels are part of our unconscious, since we are notnormally conscious of them. However, perception which isunconscious at one moment can become conscious when it isfocused upon. We are conscious of our experience between liveswhen we are aware of those perceptions, etc.

If we think of the ego as the physically focused portion ofour awareness, including our conscious memories, beliefs andvalues; our soul would be the unconscious (to our ego) portions ofour identity which are responsible for our existence as egoawareness. We can consider the soul as being our essential self,while the ego is a collection of ideas which forms a personalitythrough which our soul experiences our present life here on Earth.

Learning to manipulate on these different levels ofconsciousness can be achieved though various forms of mindcontrol. Meditation is used primarily to gain control of our attentionby stopping the seemingly automatic generation of thoughts andother mental distractions. The ability to stop these “random”intrusions into our awareness is in some ways a prerequisite tomanipulating our attention, though it isn’t necessary to have totalmind control in order to perceive in specialized ways. Many people,for example, have clairvoyant ability because they are familiar withhow to tune their attention in just the right way to enable that sort ofperception, while at the same time their ability to concentrate maynot be any better than average. However, the ability to concentrate isa valuable asset in these endeavors, and meditation is a form ofconcentration. Once we learn to control the content of our awarenessit better enables us to direct our attention to perception andmanipulation on other levels of consciousness.


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Meditation

There are an endless number of meditation techniquesavailable, but essentially all of them can be reduced to one of twobasic types. The first involves emptying the mind of all physicallyoriented content. The second involves filling awareness with aparticular subject of concentration. In both cases the objective is togain control of conscious awareness.

It can be argued that our focus upon physical reality is aresult of our constant thinking, that we constantly create, or tuneinto, our physical experience by thinking about it. The object ofmeditation is to direct attention away from physical activity in orderto experience other forms of perception, though in some cases thetechniques involve saturating awareness with physical or mentalstimulation in order to achieve these ends.

Not Thinking

This, the simplest form of meditation, is also the mostdifficult. The object is to sit quietly and stop all thinking and allawareness of one’s physical experience. If you have ever attemptedto stop thinking for more than a few seconds you will be aware ofhow persistent our thinking can be. When we are able to stopthinking our attention then shifts to other physical perceptions, suchas the sounds around us, our breathing, sensations within our bodies,etc. Once we are able to turn our attention away from thesephysically oriented perceptions we naturally begin to experienceawareness of non-physical information.

It doesn’t matter if you sit or lay down to do this type ofmeditation, though there is a tendency to fall asleep if one is layingdown or relaxing in a comfortable chair. For this reason, mostpeople meditate while sitting on the floor in a cross-legged positionwith their back straight but relaxed. The hatha yoga “lotus” positioninvolves sitting with the legs crossed and the feet resting upon thethighs of the opposite leg. The back of the hands rest on or near theknees while the thumb gently holds the index finger, forming acircle with the thumb and finger. The leg position can be


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uncomfortable for beginners but eventually it assists in helping oneto sit up straight and relaxed. Choosing a specific sitting positionhelps to form an association of the position and the state of mind oneexperiences while meditating, so that after a time one begins toexperience the meditative state of mind immediately upon assumingthe position. (See NLP in the Psychological Wisdom chapter.)

It is possible to practice not thinking while performing manymundane tasks such as walking, doing dishes, driving, etc. Forexample, I will often turn off the stereo on long drives and see if Ican avoid thinking between mile markers along the highway, whichcan be an entertaining diversion. One should not do such an exerciseif your attention slips away from the task at hand, but for mostpeople that should not prove to be a problem.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is similar to not thinking with the exception thatrather than trying to avoid thinking altogether, one becomes acutelyaware of everything one can possibly be aware of. Thoughts areobserved rather than deliberately avoided or created. One attempts tobe acutely aware of everything, to notice every sound, smell,emotion, body sensation, movement of the breath within the body --everything. By dispersing awareness over the widest possiblespectrum of perceptions one eventually develops the acuitynecessary to perceive more subtle perceptions of a metaphysicalnature.

Mindfulness can also be performed while doing mundanetasks, and is particularly rewarding when hiking through naturalenvironments where it is possible to notice more colors, smells anddetails within the surroundings.

Candle Meditation

I often use a candle during meditation because it provides apleasant, non-distracting focal point of attention. One lights a singlecandle, places it a comfortable distance away and concentrates upon


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the image of the flame. It can be used with either of the abovemeditation techniques or as part of a concentration exercise.

I particularly enjoy the fact that after a few minutes oflooking closely at the flame, if one closes one’s eyes a “negativeimage” of the flame will appear as a bright, reddish spot. (Anegative image is produced by the continual stimulation of the rodsand cones within the eye, which creates a lingering perception ofcolor which is opposite to the color one was observing.) The redspot one observes with the eyes closed is the image of something“not physical” yet perceivable. It also helps one to notice other “notphysical” visual effects in the form of moving splotches of faintcolor, which often form into complex geometric patterns or shapes.These are normally, but faintly, perceivable surrounding thenegative image of the candle flame, and concentrating upon seeingthem can eventually bring them into greater clarity.

It is possible to perceive clairvoyant images while practicingmost forms of meditation if that is one’s intent.

Mantras and Mandalas

A mantra is any sound or phrase which is constantly repeatedduring meditation. “Thank you Jesus. Thank you Lord,” is anexample of a mantra. Hindu mysticism considers the tri-syllableAUM (or “OM”) to be the most powerful mantra due to the“vibration” it creates. Mantras are designed to flood one’s awarenesswith a single idea which eventually becomes meaningless,essentially creating a lack of physical perception because what oneperceives has no relevance. The absence of physical perceptionallows other, non-physical awareness to become perceivable. Insome cases a mantra may be used to focus attention upon a specificconcept or perception, i.e., in cases of ritual, or to focus upon adesired belief.

A Mandala is an image, usually a brightly colored geometricpattern or art object, which is concentrated upon in much the sameway as in mantra meditation, only in this case the concentration isupon visual perception rather than sound. Mandalas can beinteresting in that colorful patterns tend to produce emotional


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reactions, and different images can create different feelings duringthe meditation experience. It is also possible to use a mandala in amanner similar to candle concentration, in that after one has staredat a Mandela for a few minutes, closing one’s eyes will result in anegative image, a reverse image of all the colors involved. However,not all mandalas are designed with this feature in mind.

Concentration and Intent

Intent is silent. Silence is power.Psychic abilities operate at a "non-analytical" level of

consciousness. By this I mean that you do not "think" to makesomething happen, you simply intend for something to happen.Because these abilities operate in this way it is quite difficult toteach someone what to do to get results, but it is not impossible.

For example, say that someone has forgotten how to movetheir finger. What would you tell that person, what would you teachthem, that would enable them to regain the ability? How do youmove your finger?

Imagine that the nerves in your hand have been numbed byan anesthetic which prevents you from having any feeling in yourfingers, but does not interfere with your moving them. Imaginebeing in a pitch black room with no way of knowing if your fingersmove or not, and tell yourself what you do in order to extend yourindex finger.

If you actually ponder this question for a moment you mayrealize two important points. One is that words or thinking havenothing at all to do with making your fingers move. The other pointto be aware of is that more than simple intent is involved. Yourintent is what causes the movement to occur, but that intent isapplied in a very specific way. It is not the same intent that causesyour leg to move, for example.

Without actually moving any part of your body, imagine thedifference in what you would do to point your finger and to raiseyour leg. You will note that your attention is directed to a differentpart of the body. The feeling of being about to raise your leg feels"larger" than the feeling of being about to point your finger. In a


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way it seems to require more "effort" to move your leg, but theintent is not the effort. Effort is a physical sensation, a responsefrom the muscles, not from the intent alone. Intent is essentiallyeffortless, and that is a very important point to remember(particularly when performing telekinesis).

The exercise of psychic abilities does not require effort. Itdeals exclusively with how you focus your intent and direct yourattention. It works in much the same way as moving your finger, inthat subconscious activities are directed by conscious intent. Whenmoving your finger your intent initiates chemical reactions in thebrain that cause nerve cells to stimulate muscle response. Thephysical sensations you experience, including touch and visualperception, all reinforce how effective or not you were at achievingthe desired results. The same thing is true with psychic perception.You use your intent to initiate a particular ability and look forresulting input which indicates if your intent was successful.

The ability to point your finger was not something you wereborn knowing how to do. As infants, all of us had to learn thespecific way our intent must be focused in order to move eachindividual part of our body. We did not learn how to make thenerves trigger our muscular response, but simply how to focus theintent which would cause those responses to occur. As mentionedearlier, we do not know how we think. We begin speaking asentence without knowing which specific words we will use tocomplete it. What we do know is what we intend to communicate,and that intent is the only part of the thinking process we understandon a conscious level.

We are so accustomed to the way we intend the movement ofour bodies that most of the time we hardly place any of our attentionupon the activity. But if you move in a less familiar way, saystanding on one leg while holding the other behind you in one handwhile leaning forward, we once again encounter the need to focusour conscious attention in order to avoid falling. If we do thismaneuver five minutes every day for several weeks, however, thefamiliarity enables us to keep our balance with almost no consciousattention at all. I mention this in order to point out that as you


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practice using your psychic abilities, those abilities become easier toperform in the same way.

When we were babies learning to manipulate our physicalorganism, we had the advantage of immediate, obvious results tocompare against our intent. Psychic perception and manipulationinvolves far more subtle responses. We have to be very focused inthe use of our attention in order to perceive the results of our intent,at least until we become familiar with the activity. The intent mustalso be focused in just the right way in order to produce desiredresults, and in the beginning we are not quite sure how to do this.

The ability to concentrate then becomes of utmostimportance. Learning to perceive and manipulate on psychic levelsis directly related to your ability to concentrate.

Concentration Exercises

Concentration does not require effort. It does not requireforcing yourself to pay attention, but occurs naturally wheneverthere is a lack of distraction. All of us concentrate with amazingclarity under certain conditions, such as while watching a verydramatic scene in a movie or a tense moment during a footballgame. At those times we are totally absorbed in the activity at hand,so much so, for example, that we willingly suspend our awarenessthat a movie is just light flickering on a screen and sounds generatedby speaker systems. (Eventually you may realize that the worldaround you is just as illusionary.) Whether watching a movie orobserving the world around us, we become totally immersed in theillusion, and our concentration could not be more complete, normore effortless.

It is important to understand that concentration is simply theabsence of distraction, and under proper conditions excellentconcentration can be achieved with minimal effort, by anyone.

Unfortunately, the pressures of modern life often make itvery difficult for most people to concentrate effectively withoutconstant stimulation. The exercise of psychic abilities requires thecapacity to concentrate upon very subtle perceptions, and withoutthe intense input we are accustomed to such perceptions can easily


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escape our awareness. It is for this reason that learning toconcentrate more effectively should be a top priority.

Counting Backwards

You can test your ability to concentrate, and by furtherpractice improve your ability, by counting backwards from 99 tozero in a variety of ways, each a bit more challenging than the last.The object is simple. Just think the numbers in the proper orderwithout losing your place. Sit or lay down in a comfortable positionso you will not be distracted by any feelings of physical discomfort.You should move on to the next exercise only if you are successfulwith the preceding one.

Exercise #1:

To begin, simply count backwards from 99 to zero atwhatever feels like a quick, yet comfortable pace. This is probablyabout two numbers per second. Most people should be able to dothis within one or two attempts.

Exercise #2:

Breath in and out normally and count off one number witheach inhale, and another with each exhale.

Exercise #3:

Count off a number only with each exhale.

Exercise #4:

Breath very slowly and deeply, approximately five secondsfor each inhale, and five seconds for each exhale, counting off onenumber during each exhale. Do not be overly concerned withinsuring you spend exactly five seconds on each part of the breath,which could become too distracting. Just get a feel for the timing


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before you begin and remember to breath slowly and deeply atapproximately that rate.

It is rather unlikely that anyone without previous meditationexperience will succeed with exercise #4 on their first attempt,though there will, of course, be exceptions. The chances of yoursuccess in achieving results with the psychic exercises can beexpected to correlate with your ability to concentrate. So, if at anypoint you feel your psychic results are less than desired you canrepeat the exercises above, beginning with the level that first gaveyou some difficulty.

Memory Recall

If counting numbers seems too boring, you can try anotherexercise. This involves placing about twenty small items on a tableor tray, studying the items for two or three minutes, then cover thetray with a cloth and write down all the items you can remember. Itwill be necessary for someone else to select the items, however,since collecting them yourself will familiarize you with them evenbefore you take a few minutes to study them. If you can remembermore than half of the objects you will be doing quite well.

After you have become familiar with all the items, ask someto remove just one of them and see if you can determine which itemis missing.

A variation of this exercise is to walk into an unfamiliarroom, take a fairly quick glance around, then close your eyes andmake a mental list of all the items you can remember seeing there.Then compare this mental list with the actual items in the room andnote anything you may have missed. Doing these exercises willresult in the added benefit of improved visual memory, in that youcan develop a greater ability to remember things by recalling amental image.

Single Mindedness

This is a variation of the mindfulness meditation outlinedearlier. It is an excellent way to increase concentration, and can be


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performed while engaged in any activity. You simply focus yourattention on the task at hand as completely as possible. Give closeattention to every aspect of your present activity rather thanallowing your mind to wander to thoughts about other concerns.This is particularly useful if you work at a repetitive occupation likemanufacturing assembly, as it can make your day seem to pass morequickly. Regardless of what activity you are involved with, you willdo it better if you focus your full attention on the task at hand.

The Pebble Toss

Long ago, before I was seriously concerned aboutmetaphysics, the idea occurred to me that if a person were able totoss pebbles a distance of perhaps ten feet and hit a very small targetevery time, that person would be enlightened. I don't know if that istrue or not, but practicing this activity is an excellent andentertaining way to refine one's concentration. (Playing chess is alsoan entertaining way to improve concentration.)

Self Hypnosis

Hypnosis is a method of accessing what are normallyconsidered to be unconscious psychological, and sometimes evenphysiological, processes. For example, with hypnosis it is possibleto access hidden memories, anything from where you left your carkeys to what one did in a past life. The hypnotized subject can bemade to accept new beliefs as true facts and to behave accordingly,which includes everything from quitting smoking to petting a non-physical elephant on an entertainer’s stage. However, it is notpossible for a hypnotist to force a subject to do something againstthat person’s will if the subject is completely opposed to performingsuch actions.

Physiologically, if a deeply hypnotized subject is told that anice cube touched briefly upon their skin is actually a hot iron, ablister will rise. Hypnosis is also used as an alternative to surgery forbreast enlargement, among other things. It is possible that faith


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healing, including reported cases of sudden and complete recoveryfrom cancer, for example, could actually involve a form of hypnosis.(See the appendix for other examples.)

The mind is indeed a powerful thing.Hypnosis operates by altering beliefs at other levels of

consciousness, and it is possible for an individual to act as bothhypnotist and subject at the same time. Roughly ten to twentypercent of the population are considered good subjects for hypnosis,in that they readily follow the instructions of a hypnotist. It isunclear how many of us can perform self hypnosis effectively.

Self hypnosis requires an ability to concentrate withoutdistraction and a willingness to accept as fact whatever it is youchoose to tell yourself. On the other hand, acknowledged selfdeception will not produce the desired effects because consciousbeliefs will negate those you attempt to implant into yourunconscious.

In clinical hypnosis, the subject more or less accepts that thehypnotist possesses an authority and power capable of producing theintended effects. To be successful at self hypnosis, we must believewith equal conviction that the process being performed will producethe same, powerful results. First we must acknowledge that hypnosisis capable of producing the effects we desire, then we must believethe method we are applying will act as effectively as clinicalhypnosis.

In most cases (but not all) the subject must be in a physicallyrelaxed and emotionally calm state of mind in order for hypnosis tooperate. For this reason it is often helpful when performing selfhypnosis to begin with some form of relaxation exercise. This isgenerally followed by “guided imagery” in which one calmlydescribes a series of imagined events intended to produce a state ofheighten suggestibility. The desired conditions are then described asa reality which the subject (oneself) is fully prepared to accept astruth. Examples include, “I have no desire to smoke cigarettes,” or“I enjoy eating healthy foods and easily maintaining my idealweight.” Theoretically, another example could be, “I am a beautiful,healthy duck,” but some beliefs are easier to accept than others.


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Relaxation Exercise

Prior to beginning your self hypnosis routine, lay on a bed orcouch, or sit in a comfortable chair where it is possible to relaxcompletely with your head being supported. Take a deep breath,hold it for about five seconds, and exhale through your mouth forabout five seconds. Feel the stress leaving your body along with theexhaled breath. Do this a total of five times, then sit quietly and feelyour body relax into the cushions. After you have developed somedegree of experience with self hypnosis, this brief breathing exerciseshould produce sufficient relaxation to begin your guided imagery.In the beginning it will be helpful to continue with the followingsteps.

While remaining in your comfortable position, take a deepbreath, then gradually tighten every muscle in your body at the sametime. Hold the muscles as tight as you can (without strain) for aslong as you can do so without discomfort. Five to ten secondsshould be enough. Then exhale and relax completely, feeling thetension leaving your body. Mentally tell yourself that with eachgentle exhale of your relaxed breathing all the tension in your bodyis being sucked away through the cushions beneath you, and fromthere into the Earth below. (If it feels right to you, you can imaginethat the energy flowing into the Earth is returning to its source,where it helps the plants to grow, the same plants which we eat inorder to receive their energy, completing a cycle.) Relaxing in thisway for two or three minutes will produce a profound state ofrelaxation, and the technique is useful even without self hypnosis asa way to relieve stress.

Guided Imagery

Guided imagery is essentially visualized storytelling. Thekey factors are creating a sense of peace and security, of trust, andalso of movement away from everyday concerns. The object is todescribe visualizations which symbolically represent a movementinto deeper levels of consciousness. For example, this can besymbolically represented as moving up or down to various floors of


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a building in an elevator, each floor being a step further away formnormal consciousness. Another option could be floating in clouds,where the actions one is capable of imaginatively performing wouldrepresent different levels of awareness: Sitting in a cloud would beone level, jumping from one cloud to another would indicate thenext level, and flying among the clouds would represent still adeeper level.

A predetermined destination is eventually reached. It is atthis point that one acknowledges being in a hypnotized state wheresuggestions will be accepted as fact. If you are capable of acceptingwhat you tell yourself in this state without argument, the beliefs willbe firmly implanted into your unconscious and your behavior willrespond accordingly. You should know exactly how you will phraseyour suggestion to yourself prior to beginning the self hypnosisroutine. The messages you give to yourself should always be clear,direct and believable, so work carefully to find just the right way ofputting things into words before you begin.

One thing I like to do during self hypnosis is “test” myself tosee if I have reached the desired state. I do this while laying downwith my hands resting one atop the other over my abdomen, and tellmyself that a very large “magnet” is holding my hands in place. If Itry to raise my hands I will feel a countering force pulling downfrom below, and a force pushing down from above like a hugeweight. I consciously accept that I am in a state of hypnosis wherethe suggestions I have given myself will take precedence over mynormal perceptions, then I try to slowly raise my hands. It is anamazing feeling to discover that force holding one’s hands in placedespite rather deliberate efforts to raise them. Once I have “passedthe test” I am confident that the positive suggestions I give to myselfat that point will produce their desired results.

After you have given yourself the desired suggestions, it isnecessary to return to normal consciousness by reversing thevisualization process. For example, you would imaginatively returnto the elevator and go back to the original floor, passing quicklythrough each floor in between along the way. Once you havereturned to where you began, tell yourself to wake up feeling


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refreshed and energized -- then forget about the whole thing andtrust your subconscious to create the intended results.

If you do not go through this process of backtracking to thebeginning, but simply terminate the exercise from the hypnotizedstate, you will create confusion regarding which state ofconsciousness you are actually in. Your suggestions will lose theirpower to affect your subconscious desires, and you will havedifficulty separating desired suggestions from those which areundesired. In other words, it kind of screws with your head andleaves you feeling spacey and confused for a while, which isn’tmuch fun. It also makes it very difficult to use hypnosis successfullyin the future. So make sure you go back the way you came and allwill be well.


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Chapter Six:

Creating Reality

Since the publication of the Seth books in the early 1970’s,the idea that we create our own reality has become a standard part ofNew Age thinking. The basic idea is that we attract certain types ofevents and conditions into our experience as a result of our beliefs,expectations, thoughts and emotions. These “coincidental” eventslargely determine the overall quality of our experience.

I have personally applied myself diligently in this area fornearly 30 years. One could say that in some areas I have beenamazingly successful, but in others I have completely failed tocreate conditions I worked hard to achieve. I am quite certain thatwe do indeed create our own reality, that we have been doing sounconsciously all along. I will present convincing evidencesupporting that conclusion later in this chapter. Creating realitydeliberately, however, can be a more challenging endeavor.

As I began writing about this subject a "coincidence"occurred. A friend sent a cassette tape to me containing informationproduced by a group of non-physical entities called Abraham. This"group soul" communicates through a psychic medium named Ester


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Hicks, and over the years a huge quantity of books and recordingshave been produced. The Abraham-Hicks material is the clearest,easiest to apply information on the subject of deliberately creatingreality I have yet to encounter. A "free" audio CD ($5 shipping)explaining the basic information is, as of this writing, available atwww.abraham-hicks.com.

Ester and her husband Jerry Hicks encountered Abrahamsome years after reading the Seth books by Jane Roberts -- which isthe material I have been seeking to fully understand for years. Asmentioned in the introduction, Seth is the "multi-dimensionalpersonality energy essence no longer focused in physical reality"who spoke through Jane Roberts, while her husband, Robert Butts,took notes in a specialized form of shorthand. In this way Sethdictated a series of books beginning with Seth Speaks. Anyone trulyserious about understanding how metaphysical reality operates willeventually want to read that book, and at least the following one inthe series, The Nature of Personal Reality. The Abraham material iseasier for casual readers to grasp. Seth gets down to the finer details.

The basic creating reality principle is that we draw certainkinds of events or experiences into our lives which "resonate" withour thoughts, mental images and emotions. The combination ofthought and emotion creates what Abraham describes as a"vibration." Ideas "feel" a particular way. Sadness feels differentfrom happiness, and if you concentrate on those feelings you willnotice that sadness feels heavier and "slower." The quality of ourvibrations, and the mental images or ideas associated with thosevibrations, is said to determine the overall nature of "coincidental"future events we experience. In other words, we are directlyresponsible for whatever luck, opportunities and "chance"encounters we experience. These to a large extent determine theoverall quality of our lives – or so goes the theory.

Both Seth and Abraham express essentially the sameprinciples: like attracts like; thoughts held in the present createfuture experience; the stronger the emotion connected with thethought (or visual image) the sooner it materializes; we will notexperience anything we do not allow into our experience throughour beliefs or expectations; there are no coincidences; etc. These


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principles are said to operate in every level of existence (dreams,between lives, astral planes, etc.).

Abraham refers to this as the Law of Attraction, or likeattracts like. Seth goes so far as to describe "electromagnetic energyunits," smaller than subatomic particles, which are produced by ourconsciousness and drawn toward locations in the space around uscalled "coordination points." From there they form what we perceiveas physical mater in space and time.

Fortunately, it isn't necessary to understand or believe suchtheoretical conditions, since we have apparently been creating ourreality all along without the need to grasp such concepts.

Beliefs are ideas we consider to be true. Because we takethem as aspects of reality our beliefs resonate strongly on avibrational level. This is why Seth places a great deal of emphasison the importance of beliefs in regard to creating one's own reality.

There are three basic elements involved in deliberatelycreating reality. First is the thought, idea or visual image, whateverway it is you choose to represent desired events or conditions. Thisdetermines what it is you are creating. The second element is theemotional energy attached to the thought or idea. The more feelingyou put into an idea the sooner it materializes. In this case thethought and emotion are always connected.

The third element is expectation. You must expect or believean event or condition will actually materialize in order to make ithappen. This is the point where most of us run into trouble.

According to Abraham, the desired condition should beexpected as "the next logical step" in your experience. The desiredeffects can only occur, however, if the energy is not blocked ornegated with conflicting beliefs. If you concentrate upon wanting totake a vacation to some remote island paradise, for example, andpour your heart into imagining being there, then turn around andacknowledge your belief that it simply isn't something you canafford to do, then that belief will prevent the experience fromoccurring. When we attempt to visualize having the conditions wedesire, knowing full well that those conditions do not presentlyexist, under normal circumstances our efforts are immediatelynegated by conflicting beliefs.


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When we want something, we automatically focus on thebelief that we do not possess that which is wanted.

Although the Seth books provide exercises we can apply tohelp us alter our beliefs, beliefs can be incredibly difficult to changewithout first perceiving supporting evidence in our experience. Forexample, no matter how sincerely you try to believe you are a duckright now it is highly unlikely you will sprout feathers and fly to thenearest pond. The theory says that if you honestly believed youcould do that, completely, you could indeed become a duck. (CarlosCastaneda explains how he turned himself into a crow using similarmethods.) Most of us would be quite content to create more money,more free time, great love and excellent health. But if you believeyou aren't experiencing these desired conditions, then you can'tchange those conditions until you change the belief -- and, accordingto reason, you can't change the belief until your experience changes."Catch 22."

As long as we are convinced that the world is as solid andout there as it appears, we cannot get around reason telling us whatis and isn’t real.

If you think about the conditions most people would like toexperience in life, it becomes rather obvious that many of us don'thave the sort of life we wish we did. How often do we wish we hadmore money than we do, or better health or a better relationship? If"belief-land" actually works, shouldn't we be experiencing theseconditions if we think about them all the time?

The truth is most of us don't think about the conditions wewant all the time. Rather, we concentrate upon the lack of thoseconditions. The more worried we are about whether we can meet ourbills, for example, the more difficult meeting those bills seems tobecome. The trick would be to worry less about money in order to"create" more money coming into one's life. Oddly, many womenwill go shopping when money gets tight, perhaps due to an intuitiverecognition that not worrying about money is a good way to causeless financial stress. On the other hand, simply not being concernedwhen the money runs out is irrational and can lead to devastatingfinancial circumstances.


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It would seem there is no way around this problem ofconflicting beliefs, but there is. The technique is to place emotionalenergy on a desired event or condition in a way which doesn't cancelthat energy with opposing beliefs.

One way to do this is to have absolute faith, which isbasically the method taught by most organized religions. The powerof prayer can produce amazing results. I used a similar techniquesuccessfully during my "Jesus freak" period, when in just twomonths of constantly, mentally chanting, "Thank you Jesus. Thankyou Lord," everything I wanted at that time came into myexperience. The constant chanting prevented me from dwelling onmy negative expectations. It also turned me into a smiling, mentalrobot, and the religious dogma attached to the belief system provedto be too irrational and confusing to me. If faith in yourinterpretation of God will work for you, no problem. You can useyour belief in a higher power to go beyond the apparent limitationsof reason. Faith works. If you have it, use it! It is possible to "walkin the light," to feel in tune with spiritual power, even if the higherpower you believe in does not actually exist. I personally needsomething more rational than faith alone.

The Abraham-Hicks material suggests a simple, three-parttechnique which shifts the emphasis away from directly alteringbeliefs to changing our thoughts and emotions instead, which in turnalter our beliefs. First you write what it is you want on a sheet ofpaper, then below that write why you want it. On the back of thepage you then write why you believe you will have it.

Focusing on why you want something causes you to visualizewhat you desire with strong emotional energy. It also avoids thequestion of whether you can actually have that something, which(hopefully) never enters the picture at this point. After you haveclearly and emotionally imagined what you want, by asking whyyou want it, it is necessary to allow what you want into yourexperience. You have to let it in by expecting or honestly believingyou will experience it. The desired event or condition must seemlike "the next logical step." That is why it is necessary to write whyyou expect to get what you want on the back of the paper.


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There is a great deal of value in actually writing these things.If you review what you have written, every day, and contemplate thereasons why you expect to achieve the desired results, you becomemore alert to opportunities that may otherwise escape your notice.Reviewing and editing your lists daily helps clarify exactly what youare intending to create and helps you find practical solutions foreliminating any doubts. As you review why you believe you will getwhat you want, you define why getting it has become the nextlogical step. Once your awareness of the situation has brought youto this point, you're done. The belief is firmly in place and all doubtsare eliminated.

And the next most likely thing to happen is that a lot ofnegative crud will probably come your way. I have discoveredthough my own experience, and from observing others, thatwhenever we make a significant decision to change our way ofthinking, the universe will often test that decision. We experienceevents which cause us to compare our previous belief with the newbelief.

Say you decide it's time to break up with a lover. The nextmost likely thing to happen is that your romantic partner couldbecome very loving and pleasant to be with, or you might encountersomeone who recently went through a break-up and they aremiserable. Decide to quit your job and suddenly you hear that thebad economy is resulting in job cuts everywhere. That sort of thing.

This "belief testing" can lead to serious doubts, but if you areprepared for it you will see that it is actually great news. If youdecide to change your beliefs in a certain area, and soon things geteven worse in that area, then such experience becomes very clearevidence that thoughts and beliefs actually do affect reality. Justbecause you didn't get what you intended it does not alter the factthat changing your way of thinking caused a change in the area oflife you were thinking about. Just continue your exercises knowingyou are definitely affecting the area in question so better results canbe expected.

Another thing that can get in the way of deliberately creatingreality are our "reasons" for believing we do not deserve what wewant. I used to joke with my friends, telling them that if I succeeded


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in creating a sack full of money falling out of the sky, it would be abag of quarters the size of a truck and land on my head.

Many of us hold "hidden" or "invisible" beliefs that we aresomehow undeserving, or otherwise incapable, of experiencing theconditions we truly wish were a part of our lives. These beliefs arenot really hidden, since they cross our mind nearly every day, butthey often escape our notice because we accept them as normal,everyday facts. Many of us feel we don't deserve financial success,for example, because we feel like we aren't smart enough, that weare too lazy, that the world is against us, that we are destined to bepoor, that there is something wrong with having lots of money whileothers starve, etc. These kinds of ideas are woven into our own selfimage and feel so much a part of who we are that we don't realizethey are nothing but ideas. Blanket beliefs like these are simplythoughts, and they can be changed as easily as any other thought,but only if you believe you can change them.

In order to change limiting beliefs, simply look for evidencethat what you have believed isn't necessarily true. In terms offinancial success, for example, it is obvious that lots of"undeserving" people have tons of money, and those who work thehardest often seem to have less money. Ask yourself what valuethere is in holding negative beliefs in somehow being unworthy.There is no value in such beliefs. They won't make you more kind,compassionate or understanding. Being kind, etc., makes you thatway.

The challenge of resolving conflicting beliefs is afundamental part of human experience. All of us are engaged in thisactivity long before we understand the concept of deliberatelycreating reality. Questions regarding choice of career, religiousphilosophy and relationship goals are obvious situations where weanalyze our beliefs in order to make long term decisions. But thesame process is involved with all of our decision making, from howmuch to spend on a loaf of bread to what clothes to wear today.

Our decisions are based upon our beliefs about ourselves,our world, and the values we wish to express. When our beliefs arenot in conflict, decisions come easily. We buy a particular loaf ofbread without giving it much thought. When our beliefs are in


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conflict it seems no matter how hard we try we can't seem to makeprogress in that area. The weight won't come off or the good jobsimply won't materialize.

Consider the situation of a single woman who would like tobe involved in a romantic relationship. What she truly desires is tobe deeply in love with an attractive, intelligent, kind, successfulman, to experience "love like in the movies" and live happily everafter. But she is significantly overweight, has a small child whichsome men may consider an unwanted responsibility, and she doesn'ttrust most men in general because she feels they often lie. Shebelieves that due to her flaws, the sort of man she desires would notbe interested in someone like her, that if she did happen to meetsuch a man, she couldn't trust his motivations because no man ofsuch obvious quality would be willing to be involved with someoneas "imperfect" as herself.

These beliefs conflict with her desire to find "The One."Depending on when you ask her what she's looking for in terms ofrelationships, she might say she wants to fall in love and settledown, or she prefers "just dating," or isn't concerned withrelationships at all. The answers vary depending on which of herconflicting beliefs are most apparent to her at a given time.

Deliberately creating reality requires resolving conflictingbeliefs. It means deciding what you want, but making that decisionfrom the perspective of understanding that you can create any sort ofcondition you choose.

In regard to our lonely lady, the first thing she would do ischoose to find the "perfect" man for her. No one is without flaws,but it is possible to find true love if you believe it is. Being clearlyaware of her goal, she would then work to eliminate any beliefswhich conflict with her desire. Beliefs such as being unattractive andtherefore unworthy of true love must be discarded, one way oranother. One must believe one is worthy of the desired conditions.

If you have believed you can not find the kind of mate youdesire because you are overweight, ugly, poor, stupid or whatever,realize there are people in the world possessing those qualities, orworse, who are happily in love. Even if such ideas about oneselfreflect the truth in your present experience, more positive ideas will


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eventually be reflected in the same way once you change them. Ifyou are alone, start with throwing out the idea of not deserving love,which is obviously false since you could fall in love tomorrow if theright person came along.

All of us are worthy of the conditions we desire, because, asSeth tells us, no one is handing out worthiness certificates. Whatmatters is being the person we truly want to be, and if that requiresmaking some changes, we change, because we know that is what wetruly want for ourselves. Much of this book in intended to provideinsights which can help in the quest to be one's best self.

When it comes to areas like health, romance, experiencinggreater awareness, etc., consider the value of taking clear cut steps toresolve your conflicting beliefs. You can make a list of limitingbeliefs, then by reviewing the facts, seeking evidence to support thenew, desired beliefs, you can cross off many limiting ideas whichserve no value in your experience. Those discarded beliefs then needto be replaced with more positive ideas which you can honestlybelieve to be true.

If a person has a terminal illness, for example, it may seemthere is no way that altering one's beliefs can change the facts. Buttake a closer look at all the facts. There are vast numbers ofdocumented cases where people with fatal diseases have fullyrecovered via spontaneous healing. Sometimes this occurs atreligious meetings, through the "laying on of hands," after someonefalls in love, after changing their career, or for no apparent reason atall. It is likely that every single case of spontaneous healing involvesa sudden and complete change in the person's beliefs about thecondition of his or her body. Seth tells us that those who have faithin the modern medical system can be cured via it's procedures, whilethose who don't possess such a belief are more likely not to recover,or to trade one illness for another. The simple fact that spontaneoushealing is known to occur means that any person believing there isno hope whatsoever is in error. Such a belief does not represent thetrue facts. With that in mind it becomes possible to search for otherfacts supporting a belief in recovery, and when the facts (beliefs)indicate recovery is likely, recovery can be expected to occur.


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This doesn't mean that everyone with a fatal illness willrecover from it. All of us die eventually, and sometimes we chooseto do so through a chronic illness for reasons not apparent to ournormal consciousness. Any sudden, total recovery from a terminalillness also requires a sudden, total change in belief. Physical matteris altered in such cases, and under normal conditions most of us mayhave difficulty accepting such a radical change in our beliefs, thoughsuch cures happen quite often. Even if one falls short of grasping theability to cause "miraculous healing," in many cases a review ofmore positive facts can easily lead to a normal yet rapid recovery.

Long ago I chose to believe that I would deal with mychallenges in the outside world rather than through chronic physicalailments. Even when I thought all this creating reality stuff was abunch of bull I refused to mess with that belief. Some part of metruly believed I could remain relatively healthy so long as I didn'tdoubt that belief, and my general health has remained quite good inspite of a poor diet and lack of exercise over many of those years. Ithink most people have such areas in their belief systems where wesimply do not allow doubt to interfere.

While it is definitely possible to create amazingcircumstances simply by altering one's beliefs and expectations,taking responsible action is generally the most efficient way toproduce desired results. Whenever you ask yourself what the mostpractical behavior would be in a given situation, you see very clearlywhat your beliefs are in that area. Perhaps it is possible to start yourcar simply by believing it will start on command, but turning the keyin the ignition is what you already believe will work.

Acting responsibly means using the beliefs you have in waysthat you honestly expect will produce the results you intend. Peoplewho are rational, practical and objective, with no faith at all inanything spiritual, can sometimes create reality with amazingeffectiveness because they are so clearly aware of what they believewill or will not work. If you are ever confused regarding how to goabout improving a situation, you can always do the most logicalthing and know you are working directly with your existing beliefs.

Knowing we affect the conditions of our lives through ourthoughts and emotions is a great advantage, however. We do not


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have to accept current, limiting beliefs as our only reality. We canuse our imagination to believe we are capable of experiencing greatthings, and learn to expect wonderful "coincidences" to come ourway. As Seth tells us, "there are no coincidences."

Another challenge involves the attempt to believe we createour own reality while living in a world where "obvious" cause andeffect seems to be the only way things work. Resolving this apparentconflict requires personally observing evidence which convincesyou that we do indeed create our own reality. Those who are capableof "great faith" can side step this conflict long enough for their faithto produce the necessary evidence. Others can simply ignore"objective evidence" for a few minutes each day while they placeemotional energy on visualizing themselves experiencing desiredconditions. If this is done without making comparisons betweendesired beliefs and current conditions, the results will provide thenecessary evidence.

But you can’t spend a few minutes visualizing what youwant then go around thinking in negative terms for the rest of theday. If you are working toward creating desired results in aparticular area, it’s OK if you find yourself considering negativepossibilities that might occur. Being rational and objective meansyou don’t avoid unpleasant possibilities as if they could neverhappen. The trick is to pay close attention to how you end yourcontemplation of any particular subject. The last thought you thinkregarding any situation is generally the one reflecting what youhonestly believe. Make that last thought a positive one.

Using faith, or focusing more on emotion rather than directlychanging beliefs, may work wonderfully well for some people.Others may discover they simply can't believe this stuff withoutclear cut evidence that we have been creating our own reality allalong. The evidence is there if you look for it.

One experiment Seth suggests is to observe your experienceand then ask yourself what beliefs a person would need to hold inorder to create that reality. In other words, you reverse the creatingreality process by tracing your experience back to associated beliefs.You will almost certainly see that your beliefs and experience are incomplete agreement. Of course, what we think will happen doesn't


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always occur, but we rarely experience anything we don't believe ispossible. Reason itself is a process of forming beliefs by observingour experience, so even if this doesn't prove beliefs create reality,the correlation of belief and experience is nearly always there.

Another way to see how "coincidences" are created frombeliefs and expectations is to observe patterns in the experience ofothers. For example, some women seem to always end up with menwho beat them, some people consistently win when they gamble,and we all know people with really good or really bad luck. If youtalk to such people you will see that their attitudes are aligned withtheir experience. People with great luck are usually optimistic, whilethose with bad luck are pessimistic, etc.

Not long ago I experienced a "click" where all this creatingreality stuff finally became absolutely real to me. Undeniableevidence was achieved by observing the experience of a good friend,Greg. He has training as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)and always carries a "jump kit" the size of a back pack, filled withmedical supplies, in his car. Even if he borrows a car he will makesure he has the jump kit with him, which to me seems somewhatobsessive. "I'm a good person to have around in an emergency," hesays, which is a clear reflection of his belief.

Ask yourself how many times you have come upon an injuryaccident on the road before medical help arrived. I think I may haveencountered this situation one time, and others I have spoken withsay they have come across such accidents very rarely; either never,or perhaps one or two times during their entire lives. My friendseems to show up on the scene of an injury accident at least half adozen times a year! I realized this "coincidence" when he helped attwo auto accidents just a week apart.

Pure chance alone can not account for such experience. Asfar as I am concerned this is conclusive evidence that beliefs create"coincidences." If you can find similar evidence in your ownexperience or that of your friends you will realize that we are notvictims of circumstances thrust upon us by forces beyond ourcontrol. It's a wonderful feeling to finally understand the power ofour beliefs and expectations, even if one has yet to alter one'sexperience deliberately.


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Clarity of purpose brings about favorable coincidences. Youmay have noticed times in your past when you have becomeabsolutely determined to accomplish some particular goal, andobserved that the moment your intent became unwavering,resistance to your intent seemed to melt away. Sales peopleexperience this sort of condition quite often, as do most of us whenwe fully understand the absolute need to solve some problem we arefacing. If you search through your memory you should be able tofind several occasions when your clarity of purpose seemed to plowthrough previous obstacles like a bulldozer, because the obstacleswhich seemed so insurmountable simply disappeared. Suchexperiences are examples of how clearly focused intent (beliefs)combined with emotional energy can produce favorable"coincidences."

A Creating Reality Experiment

If your primary mode of transportation involves automobiles,here's an experiment you can try in order to practice creating aspecific type of "coincidence." It has to do with finding parkingplaces.

Whether or not you succeed in finding great places to parkyour car when you run errands is not a serious concern. It isn't goingto make your life wonderful if you succeed or create a disaster if youfail. Because of that, you don't risk anything but a potential blow toyour ego if you fail, yet this exercise could enable you to "turninformation into knowledge by perceiving it as a reality in your ownexperience." This experiment can make it possible for you acquirethe evidence needed in order to truly understand that you actually docreate your own reality. It is also a way to practice the stepsinvolved in creating reality in general.

First, ask yourself how often you have been able to parkwithin the first three parking spots in rows perpendicular to thebuilding when you go shopping, run errands, etc. My guess is it'sabout thirty percent of the time or less. It seems everyone wants topark as close to the building as possible, so those spaces are nearly


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always full. The experiment is to see if you can create one of thosespaces being available every time.

Let's review the steps involved in deliberately creatingreality. Step one is creating a goal. Step two is placing emotionalenergy on the idea of experiencing the desired event or condition.(Clarity of purpose infuses emotional energy into the idea ofaccomplishing your goal.) Step three is allowing the desired event orcondition into your experience by eliminating any conflictingbeliefs.

In this case the goal is to find one of the first three parkingspaces in any row available. You can do this even if you are only apassenger in a car. The goal is to experience success every time youare looking for a parking place.

We are not playing around here, we are out to create"coincidences" deliberately, to acquire evidence which could resultin the ability to dramatically change our lives for the better.Becoming totally determined to succeed at this experiment is thesecond step. It infuses your desire with emotional energy.

Step three is al lowing the desired conditions to beexperienced -- by eliminating conflicting beliefs. This isaccomplished by reviewing the facts while looking for evidence tosupport your desired belief. In this case we can observe that mostpeople want to park as close to the building as possible. That meanspeople are leaving those parking spaces more often than they leaveany others, so chances are good that you can arrive just aftersomeone else has made a desired parking space available.

Re-evaluating the "facts" can often eliminate what were onceconflicting beliefs, what were once the "facts" to you. This is anexample of "the power of positive thinking." Once you believe it islikely that the desired parking spaces will be open, it takes very littlefaith to believe you can consistently create a "coincidence" whereyou happen to arrive shortly after other shoppers have left the "mostoften made available parking spaces." Those parking spaces won'talways be available unless you believe they will be, so "faith" orbelief is necessary in order to get desired results every time, but youcan do it.


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If you decide to try this experiment, first spend a fewminutes firmly committing yourself to creating this reality. Becomevery determined to achieve success. Then each time you need to finda place to park, just as you approach a parking lot, remind yourselfthat you expect to find such the desired parking space available, andlook for one with that expectation in mind. You don't have to thinkabout this at all until you are about to look for a place to park. Keepin mind that you are not attempting to control the universe so thatyou get what you want. It is simply a matter of expecting aparticular "coincidence" to occur.

If you should pull into a parking lot and feel a twinge ofdoubt about finding the desired parking space, don't try to pretendyou didn't feel that doubt. Instead, use that doubt as a trigger to jumpone-hundred percent into the belief that you will find the desiredspace. For example. "Darn, it's crowded. To heck with that! I wantto amaze myself at how well this works!" Get "angry" with yourselffor having a momentary lapse, if necessary, and use that energy todemand that the space be there just like it should be. If you can keepup this sort of feeling for a few seconds that should be enough timeto find your desired parking place before the doubt can take over.

When I say get "angry" I really mean supremely determined.That sort of determination almost feels like anger in the moment it isfocused upon. A defensive lineman on a professional football teamcould feel this sort of determination as he charges forward to sackthe quarterback. Rather than let a moment of doubt undermine yourefforts, use that moment to inspire your faith for the few secondsyou really need it. (This same sort of determination can produceamazing results when applied to creating other conditions as well.)

I did this experiment for a period of two months and onlyfailed to find the intended parking space one time in about ninetyattempts. The failure occurred on a Saturday afternoon at WalMart,when my rational mind insisted that success would be impossible.The next Saturday I was more determined and the closest parkingspot to the door (other than the zillion handicapped spaces) wasopen.

One way of looking at situations like this is "control ispredictability." If you can predict that a condition will be the way


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you intend it to be, and the condition consistently aligns with yourprediction, it can be thought of as a form of control. Take forexample, turning on the tap at your sink. You perform an actionwhich you can predict to produce the desired result -- water flowingfrom the tap. The desired results occur consistently so one can thinkof this as having control. It is possible, however, that the watersupply may at times be shut off, when turning the tap does notproduce the desired result and no control exists.

The feeling of predictability is associated with the absence ofconflicting beliefs. When it comes to something like creatingparking spaces, reinforce your positive results with strong emotionalenergy, and downplay any negative results as simply failing to havethe proper focus at that time. But the goal is to find the desiredparking spaces every time, so be sure to take that into account ratherthan risk losing your objectivity by ignoring negative evidence.

Testing the Creating Reality Theory

I spent year after year trying to come up with a way to testwhether or not creating reality actually works. All I wanted wassome simple experiment anyone could do which would alwaysproduce the same results. As far as I can tell, no such test will everbe possible, and here's why.

Take the exercise above into consideration. You pull into aparking lot and "expect" to find the desired parking space. Thatword, "expect," is loaded. (It's meaning isn't constant.) Would aperson expect to find the desired parking space just as surely as onewould expect water to flow when turning on a tap? If that were true,there would be no need to test the creating reality theory, since youwould be just as certain of finding the parking space as you were ofgetting water from the tap. No one bothers to test whether theirbelief will enable them to wash their dishes. If, in this case, it justhappened that the space was not available, it would seem just as oddand just as understandable as water not flowing from the tap.Something must have gone wrong. The belief wasn't fully focusedupon, just as the water supply may have been shut off. Whether onefinds the parking space or not would make no difference.


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If you don't fully expect the desired parking space to beavailable, whether or not it shows up is irrelevant. Not fullyexpecting it to be there means you are not properly conducting theexperiment.

Not being able to test the creating reality theory caused meendless difficulties in my attempts to apply it. I am just nowrealizing that such a test is not necessary. If the proper conditionsare created even belief is not necessary. We have been creating ourreality all along without any need for conscious belief orcomplicated metaphysical theories. Most of us have also been doingso without direction or purpose, bouncing between desire andconflicting beliefs, sometimes making progress, sometimes fallingbackward into less desirable conditions when our negative beliefs orlack of responsibility gets the upper hand.

The parking space experiment is not a test then. It is achallenge. It is a way to see if one can hold the proper attitudes andachieve the intended results. If you find yourself pulling into adesired parking space every time, time after time, you will havelearned something invaluable which could enhance the quality ofyour life dramatically. If you don't get the expected results, it provesnothing. You could not be certain your intentions were not cloudedwith "invisible" conflicting beliefs.

Creative Visualization

The greatest challenge involved in the deliberate creation ofreality is dealing with that "catch 22" of conflicting beliefs. Tryingto believe you weigh 50 pounds less than you know you do, orattempting to convince yourself that you are fabulously rich whenyou can barely make your bills, simply won't work. You can not lieto yourself. Self deception always results in an eventualconfrontation with the truth and the time between now and then willonly be wasted. Looking for facts which support your desired belief,or acting in a purely practical manner in order to make use of yourexisting beliefs, will enable you to remain honest and change yourbeliefs accordingly.


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Creative visualization is another way of dealing withconflicting beliefs -- by side-stepping them entirely. This isaccomplished by placing emotional energy on a desired beliefwithout any attention being given to the current situation. Eventuallyit will become necessary to connect your present moment with thedesired conditions, but in the mean time "coincidental" opportunitieswill appear and change the apparent facts.

In terms of financial conditions, for example, let's say thatyou would like to hold a belief such as, "I have all the money I needand plenty more." You can repeat that phrase till all the cows in theworld come home but it won't do any good if you are certain it is nottrue for you. One possible approach is to create a belief that thedesired conditions are definitely true at some point in yourexperience, then concentrate on how you feel when that is true, butwithout separating now from then in your mind.

Creative visualization is an exercise where you mentally andemotionally imagine having the condition you desire. Abrahamsuggests spending fifteen to twenty minutes, three times a day,allowing your imagination to create what he calls a "virtual reality."While performing creative visualization, there should be absolutelyno effort to connect the imagined conditions with your presentcircumstances. Nor should you consider that you are pretending thedesired conditions exist. In my opinion, the best way to approachthis sort of exercise is to imagine that you are "psychicallyperceiving" a reality that actually exists in your "probable future."

According to Seth, any strongly imagined experiencebecomes a "probable reality." It exists, right now, in the "spaciouspresent," along with all other potential realities one can imagine.

The important thing here is capturing the feeling of what youimagine as being a reality rather than fantasy. It doesn't have to be areality in your present to be a reality in your future. If we assumethat Seth is correct, and probable realities do in fact exist, the act ofimagining is at the same time the act of creating and perceiving aprobable reality. In any case, the desired conditions are real, even ifthey only exist as real mental images and genuine feelings. The trickis to explore your desire while feeling that it has reality. That wayyou do not separate your imagined conditions from what you


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consider reality, even when you go back to a world where thoseconditions do not yet exist. Believing the conditions honestly exist,either in your future or in some imagined dimension, avoids theproblem of conflicting beliefs which otherwise negates all thecreative visualization you could possibly do. Just be careful not tocompare what you want with what you believe you have.

All of these "mental gymnastics" are simply meant to allowyou to visualize desired conditions with the feeling that they actuallyexist.

Let's apply this to the idea of creating long term financialprosperity. Visualize the home you will live in, the clothes you willwear, the things you will do, etc. Be detailed. Imagine you are inthat home and think about how you spend your days. Imagine whatyou might have for dinner, which friends you might entertain. Lookat the kitchen, the living room, the yard, the vehicles in your garage.Be as detailed as possible, believing these conditions actually existin your future. Then in your mind, believe you are peering into thatsomeday right now.

For ten to twenty minutes, two or three times a day, sit withyour eyes closed and picture yourself as you are then, with all thematerial possessions you honestly desire. Mentally describe thedesired condition with a variety of different phrases that feel naturaland comfortable, then stick with the phrase which feels best. “I loveliving in such a wonderful home,” is a possible phrase you mightuse. Repeat your selected phrase as you imaginatively poke about inall the nooks and crannies of your dream home. Do this not as a wayof imagining your future, but of perceiving conditions that actuallyexist, as if you were able to project your consciousness to anotherlocation, observing events happening now in the "spacious present."As you stroll around in your dream home, allow yourself to be"pleasantly surprised" by features that just pop into your mind. Thekitchen table may be glass rather than oak, or you may find a largetree in the yard which you hadn't expected. That sort of thing. Sethtells us, "Beliefs changed overnight can bring literally awesomeresults."


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If you should find yourself comparing the desired situationwith less desirable, present conditions, stop doing the exercise andstart over again later.

I certainly don't want to put a damper on anyone's ability tobelieve whatever they please, but should you find yourself havingdifficulty believing that amazingly ideal conditions are in your nearfuture, consider creating the best possible conditions you believe arelikely to occur within, say, thirty days. Being "realistic" meansworking with your present beliefs, and success on a small scale canprovide the evidence you may need to go for the whole banana. Thekey is to create what you honestly believe is possible. The fewerconflicting beliefs involved the greater your probability of success.

Any sort of specific condition can be created using creativevisualization. If you are overweight, perceive yourself at your idealweight. See yourself in new, well fitting clothes. Imagine how niceyou look, and how confident you feel, as you socialize with friendsand new acquaintances. Picture yourself standing proudly in front ofa mirror, "naked" with the "heavy clothing" of your excess fatremoved. Above all feel how happy you are to have achieved yourgoal, to feel confident and truly content with your appearance, andto have achieved all this so easily.

Of course it will be easy. Why create a reality where it isdifficult? As you perform your creative visualization exercises youwill not be comparing your desire with the present situation. Youwill mentally and emotionally experience the rewards you desire.This experience feels so nice and is so clearly appreciated that whenyou return to your daily activities you will be inspired to behave inways which will result in the imagined experience becoming yourpresent reality. Those wishing to lose weight will naturally becomeless hungry, develop appetites for less fattening foods and cravephysical activity. The desire to experience the imagined conditionswill produce a greater reward than indulging in behavior which doesnot lead to that reward. This happens naturally whenever anyonefirmly commits to achieving a new goal, unless they insist onbelieving the goal requires self sacrifice.

Not smoking is another example. Anyone who has a difficulttime quitting the habit does not want to be a non-smoker. Such


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people feel they "should" quit for a variety of reasons, but have notvisualized themselves being happy and content as non-smokers. Ifanyone truly believes they would be happier not smoking, theywould find it difficult to continue the habit. The same thing appliesto alcoholics, drug addicts and couch potatoes who spend most oftheir free time in front of a television. If such people truly believedthey would be happier if they changed their behavior, nothing couldstop them from changing it.

"How many psychotherapists does it take to change a lightbulb?" "Only one, but the light bulb must really want to change"(anonymous).

Remember that one must eliminate conflicting beliefs. Theseare not always "facts" which seem forced upon us from the realworld, but are sometimes deliberately accepted choices. Forexample, an overweight woman may place value in being fatbecause it prevents unwanted attention from men and causes lessjealousy from other women. Some men may value being overweightbecause it keeps them from being pushed around, etc. Alcoholics,drug addicts and couch potatoes may have a belief that theirbehavior is better than being bored with a life otherwise devoid ofreward. So long as one's problem feels like a solution, no amount ofeffort will cause the behavior to change. The real solution is torecognize that any sort of life one can imagine is actually possible.Imagine a better life, believe it is truly possible, then look for factswhich indicate it is within one's reach. When more positive beliefsare accepted, behavior will alter accordingly.

The best way to improve overall conditions is to concentrateon feeling pleasant, optimistic vibrations. It isn't necessary todeliberately visualize specific events or conditions in order to affect"coincidences." The visualizations occur naturally as one imagines ahappy future. Those with a strong belief in God can simply handtheir desire over to the higher power and trust that it will become areality. Abraham suggests that the ideal attitude to hold in regards tocreating reality is, "satisfaction with the way things are andeagerness for more." I can't imagine a better way to put it.

In order to be satisfied with the way things are, one mustappreciate the good things in one's experience. An attitude of


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gratitude is possible when one considers how much one values beinghealthy, having a place to live, food to eat, good friends, eyes thatsee, and much more. Let go of your petty resentments. More thananything else, a feeling of gratitude can create the proper conditionsfor experiencing even more to be grateful for. A feeling of deepsatisfaction with the way things are puts one's frame of reference ina positive place where expecting things to improve is not such a bigleap from one's present position. Appreciation creates pleasant,optimistic vibrations, and it is that state of being which draws morethings to appreciate into one's experience.

When coming from a place of true appreciation, it's simply amatter of imagining great things coming your way and having noconcern at all for when they will happen -- because conditions arequite OK as it is. When things do improve, you may not even noticebecause one is used to life being just fine anyway. Frustrations maystill develop, but they don't last as long if one remembers to payattention and take responsibility for one's thoughts.

Limiting, negative vibrations such as anger, guilt, blame,stress, etc., automatically prevent more desirable conditions frommanifesting in one's experience. Most negative vibrations require abelief in others having more control than you do, a belief in yourown lack of control or responsibility. If you honestly believe youcreate your own reality you would not entertain such thoughts.Vibrations such as joy, enthusiasm, comfort and love open oneselfto experiencing more pleasant future circumstances.

"Coincidences" often come in the form of chance encounterswith other people. Don't be afraid to create new connections if itappears some positive possibility could come from it. Look for waysyou and others can benefit each other mutually. Expand yournetwork of association. You never know when someone mightconnect you to someone else where mutual benefits can be achieved.Cultivate an attitude of gratitude, believe amazing "coincidences"are possible, be alert to notice them when they occur, and followthrough. That is really all there is to improving overall conditions inlife.

The creative visualization or "virtual reality" exercises willenable you to create specific conditions. If, like myself, you do well


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in some areas but seem to blow it in others, it means "invisible"conflicting beliefs still exist. These negative beliefs are not actuallyinvisible, but are considered so “matter of fact” that we do notrealized they are just ideas like any other. Experiencing difficulty increating reality simply means we have more to learn, and learning isessentially what physical life is all about.

As you go about your day, try to capture the feeling ofhaving what you desire. This can be done without comparing whatyou want with what you have, because a feeling is not the reality.You can feel like you have all the money you desire, for example,without having to spend any money. The feeling is just a sensation,not a statement of fact. Experiencing such a feeling, consistently,may be the best way to create the associated reality.

Seth tells us that we should not continuously look for results.When a desired belief is firmly in place, the results will certainlyfollow. Being prematurely concerned about seeing results will onlyundermine your intent by emphasizing conflicting evidence.

To fully understand the subject of creating your own realityit may be necessary to read the materials by Seth, Abraham orothers, but the information presented here should be enough to getyou started with some experiments, and results, of your own.Finding others who share an interest in these ideas can also be agreat help. Perhaps you can experiment with creating the presence ofsuch people in your life?

The next chapter deals with the apparent conflict between"predetermined life challenges" and the ability to deliberately alterconditions in the present.


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Chapter Seven:

Astrology, Predestination and Free Will

It would appear that fate, destiny, astrology and precognitivepsychic predictions are all concepts which directly conflict with theideas of free will and creating one’s own reality. For example, if theposition of the planets can be used to foretell a person’s future, thatfuture would be predestined, and all the creative visualization in theworld couldn’t change things.

I have been a non-professional astrologer for over thirty yearsso I have some experience regarding this apparent conflict. In myopinion, astrological influences do indeed exist, since I have donecountless astrological readings and have seen the evidencerepeatedly. Personality characteristics in particular are clearlyexpressed in a person’s natal chart. But it appears to me that whileastrology represents a rough guide describing challenges andopportunities, an individual’s beliefs will take priority. Thefollowing example will demonstrate this point.

There are some casino’s about 120 miles away from where Ilive, and for several years I had planned to go gambling when a verygood planetary alignment occurred. (For those who understand


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astrological terms, the main aspect was transiting Jupiter conjunctnatal Uranus in my second house.) Within five minutes of my arrivalI hit the highest jackpot possible ($400) on the 25-cent slot machineI was playing. While I was waiting for an attendant to pay me, I hitthe machine next to it for $70. I left that casino and shortly afterarriving at another I walked out still $50 more ahead. At that point Ibegan to doubt that such great luck could be expected to continue,and it didn’t. By the end of the night I went home with only $200more than I started with. But the astrology was right. I won.

I went back a few days later when the Moon and other planetswere in even more favorable positions. I was “creating parkingspaces” then, but when I pulled up to the building my “created”parking spot did not materialize. My attitude went into adisappointing tail spin. (That’s when I ended the parking spaceexperiment.) I lost the $200 I had won earlier. Astrology was not soright.

My interpretation of the situation is this. Over the course ofseveral years I had emotionally anticipated that I would win at aparticular time. Thus I “created the reality” of winning on that firstoccasion. If I had not been aware of the astrological influences,chances are I would have won then anyway, since astrology doesappear to work when such major planetary positions are aligned. Butmy doubt created an end to the luck that first time -- my presentlyheld beliefs displaced the astrological influence. This effect of beliefoverriding astrology was also involved during the second trip, whenastrology still indicated winning but I lost instead.

I believe the same situation applies in regard to precognitivepsychic predictions. A psychic could be in tune with energyassociated with probable future events, or might intuitively perceivethe beliefs held by a person and make predictions accordingly.When beliefs or expectations change, so does the “probable future”we then experience. This may explain why even the best psychicscan make mistakes.

Luck would appear to be a result of one’s attitudes and beliefs.While it seems that some people are simply “born lucky,” if youobserve the attitudes of such people you will almost certainlydiscover someone who is genuinely optimistic. It is possible that


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someone could have good luck in some areas while often appearinggrumpy and cynical, but such people are likely to have complicatedbelief systems. The outwardly presented attitude of pessimismwould need to be offset by a firm belief in things eventually workingout as desired. In a similar way, some people who always present anoptimistic front could be haunted by feelings of unworthiness, theconflicting beliefs then undermining all their sincere efforts.

The idea of fate or predestination, that some events orcircumstances are “pre-programmed” and must be experiencedregardless of our beliefs, is in conflict with the idea of creating one’sown reality. There does in fact seem to be evidence that some of thesignificant conditions we experience are “destined” to occur. Manypeople, for example, are convinced that “soul mates” exist, whichimplies that some lovers are “fated to meet.” There is also thepossibility that parents choose their children, and vice versa. A lifeof poverty or chronic illness could also be a condition we are “fated”to experience -- unless we change our own fate, that is.

The general belief among New Age types is that between liveswe create “sacred contracts” with ourselves and others in order toexperience certain conditions meant to help us grow and develop. Ifyou look back at the most significant relationships and conditionsyou have experienced in your past, you should see that many ofthese experiences were critical to the development of your presentpersonality. One can view this either as “predetermined conditions”or simply as chance events. If we create our own reality, suchconditions could not result from chance alone. But how can wecreate our own reality in the present if we are obligated toexperience certain conditions agreed upon before life?

The answer is found in the simultaneous nature of time whenviewed from a perspective other than that of physical beings. Allevents occur in the “spacious present” and that includes eventsbetween lives. The agreements formed between lives are beingformed now, so they can be altered now.

Our between life consciousness would be aware of our presentmoment because that consciousness is the larger personality whichexperiences all of our lifetimes. It has a broader perspective due toit’s greater realm of experience, and as a result can appreciate value


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in the experience of limitations, for example, which appear to ussimply as undesired hardships. Thus, between lives this portion ofour identity may choose to experience a variety of “undesirable”conditions in order to fulfill some larger sense of value.

Consider the idea of being totally selfish and gettingeverything one wants. If this goal is constantly experienced,happiness results. But so does the sense of boredom and isolation,which eventually results in the inability to derive happiness fromgaining all one desires without effort. Our between life self wouldbe aware that value is increased if one is not certain of achieving aparticular goal every time. It would desire the experience of achallenge, and so create limitations for the ego personality toovercome in order to derive greater happiness.

So when it comes to creating our own reality, we must beaware of the greater perspective involved. The limitations weexperience exist for very specific reasons, and if the desired resultsof those limitations can be achieved without suffering, our greaterself would have no qualms about allowing us to experience morerewarding lives. We are, after all, our greater self.

“The present is the point of power.” (Seth) We create our ownreality. All time is simultaneous. Between life agreements are beingformed now and can be altered now. By pondering the potentialvalue to be gained by experiencing our limitations, we can learn toovercome them by realizing the lessons they are meant to teach us.When the lesson is learned there is no longer any value incontinuing to experience the limitations. You are your greater self,and you can let yourself off the hook once you understand why youneeded the limitations in the first place.

So yes, it appears that “fate” or predestination exists, but wealso create our own reality. There is no conflict. We are personallyresponsible for the limitations we experience, and we can eliminatethem once we understand they no longer have value.

While all of this seems to make sense, whether or not it istrue is something you will need to decide on your own.


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Chapter Eight:

Adventures in Dreamland

All of us are accustomed to experiencing events as things thatare outside ourselves, that happen to us. The metaphysical universeis easier to understand as something which is a part of us, intimatelyconnected with our own sense of individual being. Dreams are anexample of this kind of experience. The exercises in this chapter willenable you to become more aware of your dream experience and togain some conscious control within your dreams. This providesdirect experience of events which are “non physical” in nature,which will in turn make it easier to grasp the larger, metaphysicalexplanations for how All That Is may really operate. Greater dreamawareness will also improve your intuitive abilities. All of us are familiar with the state of dreaming from our ownexperience. Most people consider dreams to be random mentalfantasies or imaginings, the result of a bored or sleeping mindtransforming thoughts and emotions into symbolic mental imageswhich have no objective reality. But dreams are a critical componentof human existence. Test subjects who are allowed to sleep, but notdream, begin to hallucinate and lose their sanity after a period of


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seven to eight days, which means we can survive longer withoutfood than without dream experience. It is difficult to overstate thesignificance of our dreams.

It is possible to remember our dreams in much greater detail(dream recall); to become fully "awake" while continuing toexperience a dream as we sleep (lucid dreaming); and to experiencethe same dream with other, physically alive people (double, orshared dreams). In this chapter we will concentrate on developingthose three activities, but first there are other dream relatedphenomenon worth mentioning.

From a metaphysical perspective, physical reality can bethought of as just one of an infinite number of dream realities.Theoretically, each of us actually travel through many of these otherdimensions as we sleep, but we generally forget the entireexperience, and its significance, immediately upon awakening.

From your own experience you can observe that theenvironments and individuals we encounter in dreams are just asreal as those we perceive physically, at least within the context ofthe reality where we encounter them. When our attention iswithdrawn from a dream experience it appears that the dream realityceases to exist, but the inability to perceive something doesn’t makeit unreal. It is also true that physical reality ceases to be perceivedwhile we are dreaming.

Some people experience events in dreams which later occur inphysical experience (precognitive dreams). Most of the time thesehappen spontaneously without any deliberate effort on the part ofthe dreamer, and many instances of déjà vu may simply be replaysof experiences which occurred in earlier dreams. (Seth tells us wefirst create our reality in dreams prior to experiencing eventsphysically.) It is possible to induce a precognitive dream by givingoneself a suggestion, such as, "I want to dream about how (a givensituation) works out," prior to falling asleep.

It is also possible to receive answers to questions in dreams. Ifyou simply ask a question with great clarity before falling asleep,the answer will likely be given in some form. Lost objects can befound using this method, where we dream of finding the object, orthe next morning we simply get a hunch about where to look.


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Sometimes dream events will express answers to questions insymbolic terms, or you could encounter someone in your dream whoprovides the answer.

The Castaneda books describe what he calls "the voice ofdreaming" or “the dreaming emissary” -- a voice which responds toquestions asked during lucid dreams. In this particular case it is thevoice of a personality from a different realm of reality which isreported to be accessible through dreams. According to Castaneda,that voice can never lie, but it has it’s own motivations and can bedeceptive. In Castaneda’s case, the voice of the dreaming emissaryalso became available in his normal, waking state. Should youencounter any difficulty with hearing “the voice of dreaming,”according to Castaneda, you can simply ask the voice to go awayuntil you ask it to return, and it will.

In less esoteric terms, it is useful to know that solutions toyour problems can often be discovered simply by asking that thesolutions be given in your dreams. This often occurs naturally,hence the phrase, "I’ll sleep on it."

Telepathy occurs constantly in dreams, which means it isimpossible to lie to those you encounter there, or for them to lie toyou. If you are having difficulties communicating with someone inyour physical experience, before falling asleep you can give yourselfthe suggestion that you will resolve the issue with that person in thedream state. It is possible that both of you will express your truefeelings in a dream and learn where you stand, even if neither of youhas any recollection of the event. Individuals who have passed on tothe next life can communicate with us in our dreams, though not alldream encounters with images of such people actually involve thatparticular person. Each of us often manufacture dream environmentsfor our own reasons.

Dream Recall

Many people believe they either don’t dream at all or do soonly occasionally. The following exercises will help you to realizeyou have been dreaming all along, and will enable you to gainconscious control over at least some of your dream experience.


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You can quickly improve your memory of dream experienceby performing two simple steps. The first is to give yourself thesuggestion, each night as you fall asleep, that you will rememberyour dreams. The second step is to write down the details of yourdreams immediately upon awakening. You will need to keep a penand notebook within easy reach of your bed.

At first you may have a bit of difficulty remembering yourdreams if you are not in the habit of doing so, but a little persistencewill produce excellent results. One must begin writing the instantyou realize you are awake. Even if you can’t remember anythingabout your dreams, pick up the notebook and try to remember. Ifyou simply can’t remember any dreams at all, make a note of that inyour dream journal. It shouldn’t take more than a few days beforeimages will appear and begin to spark your memory. It is veryimportant to begin writing the moment you awaken, before concernsof the day distract your attention. Allow some extra time in yourmorning schedule to make your notes.

If you follow these directions, within a month you shouldrecall so many dreams that writing them all down could becometime consuming.

It can be very valuable to give close attention to the way onedream shifts to become another, or to become one’s wakingexperience. In each case, the perception of one reality is beingreplaced by another. Anytime you find yourself beginning to wakefrom a dream, you can try to go back into the dream to continue theevents experienced there. If you are successful, the sounds of thephysical world around you will cease to be perceived as you literallymove from one world to another. You may even recall an earlierdream and be able to move between different dream worlds. Itstands to reason that with sufficient practice one may learn to movefrom the physical world into dream experience at will.

Another way to improve dream recall, and to benefit yourphysical and mental well being, is to sleep more than once a day.Seth suggests sleeping no more than five hours in one block, thentaking a nap as needed. By doing this one’s consciousness is notremoved from the body for such long periods of time. Moving inand out of dream experience more frequently enables your normal


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consciousness to become more familiar with the other state ofawareness. Mental alertness improves, and your body has moreenergy since it has not been laying dormant for such long periods.

30 Days to Lucid Dreaming

Once you are able to remember your dreams on a nightly basisyou can begin to attempt lucid dreaming.

As you fall asleep, rather than suggest that you will simplyremember your dreams, give yourself the suggestion that you willbecome fully aware, with your normal consciousness, whiledreaming. The other thing you will need to do is set an alarm towake you up in the middle of the night. When you hear the alarm,simply shut it off and go back to sleep, but as you do, repeat thesuggestion that you will become aware in your dreams. If you arevery serious about experiencing lucid dreams you can set the alarmto wake you every 90 minutes, which is the duration of normal REMsleep cycles. (REM, or Rapid Eye Movement, is a physicalphenomenon which occurs while an individual is dreaming -- theclosed eyes move rapidly as if they are watching something.)

When you first realize you are fully “awake” within a dreamthe excitement can sometimes cause you to wake up suddenly. Inorder to stabilize your awareness within the dream it helps to knowwhat you will do the moment you realize you are dreaming. TheCastaneda books are useful here. Don Juan instructs Carlos to lookfor his hands, because one’s hands will always be there. Thetechnique is to look briefly at your hands, then at any one object inyour dream environment, then look at your hands again, then at theobject, and so on. Once you are able to hold the image of your handsand one object in clear focus, add another object to the sequence ofwhat you focus your attention upon -– hands, object one, object two,hands, etc. Do this with additional objects until you are able to holdthe entire dream environment in clear focus.

It is very important to have a plan for what you will do themoment you realize you are experiencing a lucid dream, at leastinitially. Looking at your hands will focus your attention on aspecific action which will keep your attention on the fact you are


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dreaming. Images perceived in dreams have a tendency to distort orturn into other things, creating confusion which usually results inlosing lucidity and the experience turning into a normal dream. Onceyou have stabilized your dream environment you can do anythingyou please, and I mean anything. Whatever you think about willappear before you. You can fly, experience having an ideal body,travel to other planets, experience extravagant luxury, haveincredible sex with gorgeous people, anything at all. Eventually youwill wake up, or lose the lucidity and wander off into normal dreamexperience.

It’s hard to predict how long it might require before your firstlucid dream occurs. For some the experience might happen on yourfirst attempt, for others it could take months. The results, of course,have a lot to do with what you truly believe is most likely. Thirtydays seems like plenty of time for your subconscious to get the pointthat you are serious about this.

I have created some mp3 files to assist in inducing a luciddream, which are available at my website (kodasplace.com).Instructions are provided for assembling the short files so yourcomputer will play a unique tone after a long period of silence. Thetone acts much like the alarm, as a reminder to become aware of thefact you are dreaming, only without forcing you to wake fully inorder to shut off the alarm. The files can be burned to a CD if youprefer to use a CD player rather than leave your computer on allnight.

Double or Shared Dreams

It is possible to share the same dream experience with otherliving persons, though it is obvious that not all dreams involvingpeople you know are shared dreams. A general rule of thumb is thatif you encounter someone you know in a dream where you are lucid,and the other also acknowledges being aware that a dream isoccurring, it is likely that the experience will be a shared dream.Genuine encounters with people who have died can occur in luciddreams, but such experience in normal, non-lucid dreams may onlybe symbolic.


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The first step in creating a shared dream is to attain the luciddream state, which is necessary in order to express conscious controlwhile dreaming. Once you are aware of being lucid in a dream youcan contact a particular person simply by thinking about them. If theother person is also sleeping, he or she will either appear in yourdream landscape or you will find yourself in a landscape where theyalready are. At this point you can see the person, perhaps evencommunicate with them, but you will need to take an action in orderto insure your dream experiences become connected.

Castaneda suggests grasping the other person on the forearmjust below the elbow and giving a strong pull. If you use your righthand, you would grab your friend’s right forearm, then use your lefthand to position your friend’s right hand on your right forearm inthe same way, interlocking arms in the process. Once your right armis interlocked with the right arm of your friend, you pull, just hardenough to make the other person move to regain their balance. Fromthat point on each of you should remember the same dream events,which can be verified after awakening.

It is not necessary for both individuals involved to deliberatelyseek to achieve a shared dream, but it can help if both are aware ofthe interlocking arm procedure. If you have a friend who isinterested in attempting this sort of experience, first practiceinterlocking arms with them so you will both be familiar with how itis done. Then if someone grabs your arm in a dream you willquickly catch on to what is happening and experience lessdisorientation.

You can pull anyone at all into your dream, but commoncourtesy is even more important in other dimensions than it is innormal social situations.

Remember that any dream experience can be terminatedsimply by focusing your attention upon the fact you are laying inbed asleep. Wiggling your toes is one way to do this.


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Chapter Nine:

Psychic Sex and 20-Minute-Plus FemaleOrgasms

Some people believe sex and spiritualism are mutuallyexclusive, that you can't be spiritual if you indulge in sensuality. It'strue that any kind of indulgence can distract your attention fromspiritual development, but the same can be said for the distractionscaused by daily living. In my personal opinion, if your behaviordoes not harm other's, it's OK. That implies there is nothing "wrong"with sexual fulfillment, and masturbating for twenty minutes is nomore detracting from spiritual development than spending twentyminutes paying your monthly bills. Spiritual development issubstantially hindered if you spend most of your day thinking aboutsex, but this also applies if you spend your time concerned aboutmoney. Most of us are "guilty" of one or the other, or both, so itshouldn't be much of a surprise that metaphysical awareness is insuch short supply.

In this section I will speak in terms of heterosexualrelationships simply as matter of convenience.

The most intense spiritual state that many of us will ever


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achieve will be during the act of making love. One way ofdescribing spiritual awareness is that it occurs when an individual iscapable of perceiving that which is beyond oneself as being a part ofoneself. God consciousness occurs when an individual experiencesbeing All That Is. The expression of love, where the loved one isvalued as much as oneself, dissolves the apparent boundariesbetween self and other. When this expanded sense of being iscombined with physical sexual stimulation during love making, thestimulation acts as an energy source which powers the emotions ofboth partners. These emotions can include love, lust, bliss, joy,naughtiness, fun, and other delightful sensations. The ultimatesexual/spiritual experience occurs when physical sensations are attheir peak of pleasurable intensity. It is therefore highly desirable tomaintain this peak of physical sensual sensation for as long aspossible. For a woman, this means continuous orgasm. For a man itmeans being on the verge of orgasm indefinitely.

It is very helpful, but not absolutely necessary, to be in love inorder to achieve these physical sexual conditions. The deepest levelsof intimacy are involved, which means emotional walls must comedown completely. Dropping one’s walls requires that you haverespect and appreciation for your partner. The physical techniques Iam about to describe will produce the prolong states of peak sexualarousal just mentioned, but it is necessary to be completely aware ofyour partner’s state of arousal in order to maintain that conditionindefinitely. This means one must be in constant communicationwith one’s partner. Believe it or not, telepathic awareness is theeasiest way to maintain this communication. As mentioned earlier,telepathy is a merger of consciousness, and love brings down thewalls which separate us psychically and emotionally.

All of us are telepathically aware on subconscious levels. Thisis most noticeable during love making, when two people feel thesame emotion. It is not that you feel your own emotion and yourpartner feels something similar. Emotions produce psychic energywhich projects outward from the body. Our auras become filled withthis emotional energy, and while making love (as opposed to simplyhaving sex) the auras of both people merge together, becoming asingle emotional energy field. What one person feels, the other also


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feels, because the same emotional energy field is being perceived byboth partners.

I know this may all seem a little far out if you are unfamiliarwith metaphysical awareness, but I am not describing anything youhaven’t already experienced if you have ever been in love.Telepathic emotional communication exists, and it is simply amatter of becoming aware of your perception of it. The visualtelepathy exercise described in the Psychic Window chapter enablesyou to perceive telepathy operating on a visual level in just minutes.The Psychic Touch Dancing exercise in the Psychic Party Gamessection will further reinforce the way two people can be connectedon “other than normal” levels of awareness. It is highlyrecommended that you perform those two exercises just prior toworking with the techniques presented here. Combining all of thesetogether can produce an evening of truly wonderful intimacy.

Spiritual sex is all about stimulating energy on severaldifferent levels: physical, sexual, emotional and spiritual. Physicalenergy is experienced as sensation within the body. Sexual energydiffers from physical energy in that it radiates from the body in thesame way emotions do. The feeling experienced as “sexual arousal”is a form of sexual energy, and can almost be described as a “sexualemotion.” Two people can share the perception of sexual energytelepathically as the sexual energies merge into one energy field.

When love is involved our emotional walls, which we almostalways have in place, completely disappear. When these walls comedown sexual and emotional energy merges freely within thecombined aura of both participants, and spiritual or “psychic”energy begins to seek alignment. Each type of energy, from physicalto spiritual, is progressively more refined and subtle. The morerefined the energy is, the more detail it is capable of communicating.Ideally, all these energies form into a single unit where both peopleexperience the same perceptions, physically, sensually, emotionallyand even intellectually. All perceptions become one and the samefor both people. In practical terms, there is usually some variation inindividual perception, but the goal is to reduce the differences asmuch as possible.

Please keep in mind that what I am describing here is


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something that most people are already familiar with. All of thishappens to some extent whenever people make love. I am simplypointing out details which most people are not consciously aware of.By becoming more aware of the energies involved it becomespossible to control those energies more deliberately, enabling one toreach new heights of transcendent bliss.

OK, now we come to the specific details of how to go aboutmaking all this happen. Please forgive my clinical descriptions butthey are necessary.

First we start with generating sexual energy. This is bestaccomplished by creating “excited anticipation” of the sexualencounter to come. It means going without sexual release for as longas is necessary for both participants to feel very motivated sexually.In the mean time, over the course of perhaps two or three days, ithelps to flirt and tease, to stimulate modest degrees of sexual arousalin both partners. Any direct physical stimulation should be verybrief, only enough to stimulate the beginnings of arousal, thendiscontinued. Talk about how wonderful it would be to experiencecontinual orgasm, or otherwise place attention on the desire for sexin order to create brief periods of arousal. Do romantic things. Giveeach other massages or otherwise engage in intimate, not-quite-sexual behavior. Have fun creating the anticipation. And do not beconcerned with achieving results the first time. The ability toexperience continuous orgasm will take as long as it takes for bothpartners to get the hang of it. Simply enjoy the idea that suchconditions are possible and that you might actually be able toexperience them.

Once you are both extremely aroused, the next step isextended foreplay. Burn incense, light candles, put on someromantic music or otherwise create an atmosphere of “specialintimacy.” Physically, begin with very subtle stimulation. Forinstance, if you have long hair, drag it gently across the naked skinof your lover. Men should remember that women are generally twiceas sensitive to physical stimulation than they expect, and womenshould be aware that men generally need more physical stimulationthan they do themselves. Take your time and pay close attention tothe affect your actions are having upon your lover. Sex is


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communication. Communicate your responses to the stimulation youreceive so your lover can understand the results of his or her actions.All of one’s attention should be upon the other person and what youare feeling sensually and emotionally. Think less, feel more. Gentleforeplay should be continued until the desire for intercourse isintense in both partners. At no point during foreplay should eitherperson be brought to physical climax.

When intercourse begins it should be approached slowly, withattention to all of the subtle sensations one is capable of perceiving.Slow and steady is the rule. It can become difficult to refrain frommore aggressive action, but continuous female orgasm requiresgentle, steady stimulation of the clitoris. A circular motion repeatedapproximately once per second is generally ideal. The object is tobring the woman right to the edge of orgasm then apply this slow,steady stimulation. The woman must not “reach for” her orgasm, butshould instead allow her partner to “push her over the edge.” Whenthe orgasm begins to trickle in, the woman should focus herattention on all of her sensations, emotional and sensual, and expandher feelings into the space around her. Her partner must continue thesame, steady stimulation and “push” his emotional and sensualsensations into the woman’s energy. Feel the energies combine in asea of excited, and at the same time, relaxed, bliss.

The steady stimulation will produce “ripples” in the femaleorgasm, where the intensity gradually rises and falls. If both peopleare fully aware of their partner, each will know the current state ofthe other’s sexual excitement and more or less stimulation can beapplied as needed. The man must not allow himself to climax or theexperience will end at that time. In the beginning it can take a bit ofpractice to get the hang of things, and ultimately the woman mustcontrol of how much stimulation she receives, with her partnerprecisely in tune with her every movement. The woman needs toinsure that she receives just enough stimulation to keep the orgasmflowing steadily, but not so much stimulation that she exhausts all ofher sexual energy in a more powerful climax. Once both partners areaware of how much stimulation is required the process becomesrather automatic. This is similar to the way Psychic Touch Dancingworks, in that movement occurs with neither person actively


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controlling the movement.This peak experience can be maintained indefinitely, though it

is rare to go more than twenty or thirty minutes without becomingphysically exhausted. The emotional energy is a sublime experience,profoundly personal and yet shared. It is, indeed, a spiritual high.

Once this state of continual female orgasm is experienced, itbecomes difficult to feel satisfied with purely physical sex, thoughof course, essentially all sex is fun.

It may seem that the man is getting the short end of the stick inthat the woman experiences continual climax while he must preventhimself from climaxing at all. But that doesn’t express what isactually happening to the male in this situation. First, the man sharesthe same “energy field” as the woman, and thus shares all of hersensations, even physical sensations under ideal conditions, just asshe shares his. Secondly, the most intense sexual experience a mancan maintain is the peak sensitivity of the moment just prior toorgasm. This peak can be maintained during the continual femaleorgasm since the stimulation at that time is slow and gentle.

Many men may be unaware that the level of sexual excitementachieved just prior to climax can be maintained indefinitely. It isreasonably easy for a man’s partner to provide this experienceduring oral sex, as the penis swells noticeably just prior toejaculation, and if the stimulation is reduced or removed at thatpoint the man will not reach climax. Any man who has experiencedoral sex in this fashion, being held right on the edge for what seemslike eternity, will eagerly agree that it is the ultimate best that headcan get. For some couples, continual female orgasm and prolongedmale pre-orgasm can best be accomplished orally.

After reading this chapter on-line, a woman in France, Louisa,wrote to tell me that it is possible for a woman to initiate continualorgasm while positioned on top. Her advice is that a woman shouldpush (as in childbirth) while moving downward, and tighten whilemoving upward, repeatedly, in a relatively slow but steady pattern ofmovement. Push as the penis moves in, squeeze as it moves out. Shealso warns that a man can fail to achieve erection if too muchemphasis is placed upon “performing” well enough to achieve thisextraordinary level of sexual fulfillment.


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Great sex is full of spontaneity and too much concern abouttechnique can become an interference. So if things don’t seem to begoing as planned, just relax and have fun, knowing that one day youmay spontaneously catch on to how easy all this really is to do.

For those who may feel that this subject doesn’t belong in abook about developing metaphysical awareness, all I can say is thereis a good chance the information presented here could quite possiblyresult in the most profound spiritual experience of your life.


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Chapter Ten:

Drug Use and Metaphysical Development

There is no doubt about it. If you have never experienced anysort of psychic phenomena, profound intuitive insight, or other formof "non physical" perception, psychedelic drug use can help to opendoors you didn't know exist. Drug use can also pry lose your grip onreality, damage your health or even kill you. With the possibleexception of marijuana, any widely used street drug that can helpimprove your awareness can also mess you up big time.

The current laws against using "street drugs" only compoundthe problem by making it impossible to predict doses and quality.This is particularly true with LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide 25).Not only is LSD a controlled substance, but so is lysergic acid, oneof the key ingredients used in its manufacture. The result of thesegovernment controls is that "basement chemists" attempt toapproximate the real chemicals with other compounds, sometimesproducing very unhealthy substances. Real LSD hasn't been widelyavailable since the late 1970's though a few well connectedindividuals may still have access to it. Much of the stuff onegenerally finds on the streets these days isn't even close to real LSD,


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but instead gives you a lot of unpleasant side effects without theillumination one is seeking.

I am by no means an expert on drug use. My knowledgecomes from a modest degree of personal experience, and discussionswith people who have used the drugs I have always avoided. Longago I created a set of guidelines for myself to insure that I wouldnever end up abusing drugs rather than using them. The guidelinesare: 1) no needles; 2) nothing used habitually, i.e., on a regular basis(other than cigarettes); 3) no "hard drugs" more than five or sixtimes a year; and, 4) totally avoid highly addictive drugs known todo more harm than good. This includes heroin and meth. I havenever had any trouble sticking with these guidelines because it isobvious that going beyond these very reasonable limits could lead todisasters I have no desire to encounter.

For me, any drug that makes it difficult to function effectivelyin the real world is a hard drug. Alcohol can be a hard drug if youdrink to excess. LSD is definitely a hard drug, since it can bedifficult to function in the world if you can't find it! I also try to stayaway from any drugs that do not enhance my awareness in someway. Cocaine, and the large variety of "downers" and anti-depressants pumped out by pharmaceutical companies, simply alteryour mood without enhancing awareness. Such chemicals may havetheir appropriate time and place, but that doesn't include the questfor illumination.

Back in the '60's and '70's drug use was considered anadventure. These days it has become an escape. The quality of lifehas deteriorated dramatically for young people and the workingpoor, and to a lesser but significant extent for nearly everyone. Inthe U.S. the average family has to work twenty hours more per weekto maintain the same standard of living as in the 1970s, andminimum wage pays a third less than it costs to support survival.Perhaps this is why the U.S. government estimates that 78 millionAmericans have tried some form of illegal drug. It seems the worldwould be a better place if that many people were seekingenlightenment rather than escape.

The same God people worship in their churches placedpsychedelic drugs on this planet. In the U.S. the most well known of


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these are peyote and psychedelic mushrooms. I have neverexperienced the effects of peyote but Carlos Castaneda describeseffects that appear similar to the psychedelics I have used, mainlymushrooms and LSD. I have also used mescaline and MDMA(ecstasy) which are both synthetics. Mescaline is an attempt tosynthesize the active ingredient in the mescal (peyote) plant.MDMA is a compound based upon LSD where the goal was to limitstimulation as much as possible to only the "empathy receptors" inthe brain. The chemical was initially employed by marriagecounselors in an attempt to get couples to relate better to oneanother. Psychedelic sex is one of the most rewarding experiencesavailable to us mere mortals, though MDMA doesn’t really enhancesexual experience.

MDMA, by design, limits the amount of visual and intellectualstimulation otherwise found in LSD. For that reason it is notparticularly helpful in pursuing spiritual development exceptperhaps on the level of emotional awareness. (An acquaintance oncesuggested that if all the world leaders got together every other monthon ecstasy there would no longer be wars. I tend to agree.) Theexperience of synthetic mescaline is sort of half way betweenMDMA and LSD. It no longer appears to be widely used, as Ihaven’t heard anyone mention it for nearly twenty years.Psychedelic mushrooms grow wild in the Northwest of the U.S. andprobably come in a variety of types, though on the street the onlydistinguishing characteristics are whether they are wet, dried ordehydrated. Wet mushrooms taste awful and if you can get highbefore they make you puke consider yourself lucky. Driedmushrooms are the most common form and look like long, thin,shriveled-up mushrooms. They have a woody consistency and don'ttaste very good. One generally breaks them up into small piecesbefore washing them down with a glass of water. Dehydratedmushrooms are powered and often show up in large capsules, whichare easier to ingest. I think the typical dose is from one-half to awhole mushroom (one-sixteenth to one-eighth of an ounce dried) butit's been years since I've been around any of this stuff so I reallydon't know.

The effect of psychedelic mushrooms seems to be somewhat


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more noticeable in the body than in the mind, though it is quitepossible to experience strong visual effects. One's skin feels overlysensitive and yet dull at the same time -- a rather sensual depth isperceivable when you apply pressure with your hand to your body.Physical coordination is slowed, and from what I remember,walking feels somewhat similar to moving through water. I haven'tused mushrooms for the express purpose of assisting meditation butI am confident that it would produce significant results for mostpeople.

One very important point to realize about psychedelic drug useis that although it can open "psychic doors,” the ability to rememberthe realizations experienced becomes dramatically reduced. Whileyou might be able to "sneak into heaven through the back door" theamount of information you can bring back for later use is oftendisappointing.

You should also be aware of the psychological consequencesof experiencing psychedelic drugs. Your world view will be foreveraltered by such experiences if they are intense. One should considerhow your life will be affected if, for the duration of your psychedelicexperience, reality appears no more solid than a dream. Your first“trip” should be with a trusted friend, hopefully someone who hassome experience with psychedelic drugs, who can act as a sort ofbabysitter and keep you grounded. You need to remember not toattempt anything physically dangerous while under the influence --just because you are suddenly certain that you really can fly, if youwouldn't do something when you aren't high, don't try it when youare. Or if you think you can fly, just hover in the air above your bedto prove it rather than leap off some cliff.

All "mind expanding" drugs have one thing in common: theyenhance concentration while simultaneously reducing "mentalagility." While high on LSD, for example, one's attention canbecome totally absorbed by the most mundane subject matter. I'veseen people stare at the bark of a tree for an hour, completelyengrossed by the patterns found there and all the psychologicalimplications of observing a living being so alien to ourselves. At thesame time, that person could be holding a drink in their hand andstumble around for the next hour looking for it. Concentration is the


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absence of distraction, which is the goal of meditation and hypnosis.This ability to concentrate so completely is why psychedelic drugscan be so useful in efforts to expand awareness. But while on drugsthis level of concentration is forced upon you to varying degrees.The effort of walking to the kitchen can absorb so much of yourattention you may not remember why you went to the kitchen in thefirst place. I've been with people who can drive a car quite safelywhile high on LSD, but I know such a feat would be beyond myability and I definitely don't recommend it.

Drugs can indeed assist in developing awareness (the word"psychedelic" means "mind expanding"). But many drugs can bephysically dangerous to your health, and large or often repeateddoses of psychedelic drugs can more or less permanently interferewith your ability to relate to the physical world. (Pay attention here -this means too much can make you insane.) If you accept the ideathat we create our own reality, you will realize that the only reasonyou would need drugs to expand your awareness is because youbelieve you need them. Still, if you feel perpetually stuck in theperception of viewing the world as a physical rather than spiritualreality, a boost from nature's pharmacy might produce some spiritualprogress.

Marijuana

Marijuana (pot, grass, weed, smoke, refer, etc.) isn't really apsychedelic drug. It's more like alcohol in terms of how far fromnormal your perceptions are altered. But while alcohol acts to numbyour mental awareness, pot accentuates that awareness, or rather, itconcentrates your attention. Pot makes you lazy in a way. Somepeople like to smoke pot and do active things like ski or hike, but formost it is something that makes you want to relax and enjoywhatever happens to be going on.

Many first time users don't even realize they are high. Theyjust seem to have an irresistible urge to laugh a lot, and musicsounds more "interesting" and has a more dimensional quality to it.Then there is the dreaded aftereffect -- "the munches." When peoplebegin to come down from the pot high after an hour or two, they feel


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like eating -- a lot. Junk food is the usual flavor of choice.The active ingredient in marijuana is THC

(tetrahydrocannibinol). The difference between marijuana and thehemp plant is really nothing more than the level of THC. Hemp hasbeen used for centuries as the raw material for making rope,clothing, etc., but because the plant looks like marijuana, eventhough it has almost no THC, growing it has been prohibited in theU.S. for many years. Hashish (or "hash") is simply a concentratedform of marijuana. Turkish marijuana farmers used to send theirchildren out to run naked through the marijuana fields, allowing theoils and pollen from the plants to collect on their skin. The residuewould then be scraped off as a sticky paste, mixed with ground upmarijuana leaves and pressed into small "bricks" about a quarter-inch thick. Most of the THC in the plant is found in these oils, sohashish is very potent. One or two puffs is usually enough to knockyou on your butt.

Marijuana has several things going for it that make it superiorto alcohol as a recreational drug. While alcohol sometimes movespeople to violence and recklessness, marijuana does the opposite. Itcauses people to mellow out and relax. Another attribute ofmarijuana is that it's essentially impossible to "overdose" on it.People quickly realize when they have had enough and simply loseinterest in the idea of smoking any more. While smoking pot doesinterfere with physical reactions and attentiveness, it does not causethe sort of stupor alcohol produces. Ask anyone on a constructionproject if they would prefer a heavy equipment operator to be drunkor high on pot. Most construction workers have experienced bothand they will immediately tell you the drunk is far more to befeared. Pot is probably less harmful to the physical body thancigarettes (try smoking tobacco with the same deep inhalations potsmokers take) and there are medical applications such as stress reliefand reducing the effects of glaucoma.

Pot is cheap, as long as you don't do it as a regular habit. Aneighth of an ounce of high quality marijuana, about as much as threeor four tobacco cigarettes, costs between $20-$40. One or twodollars worth is enough for occasional users to get enough of a boostto assist meditation, and using it once or twice a month, an eighth of


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an ounce can easily last a year. Most pot smokers use it more often,however, some smoking an eighth-ounce or more every week inorder to stay high all day. The government estimates there are 30million people in the U.S. who are regular users.

Whatever you usually do as a form of meditation can beperformed after smoking pot, as long as your technique doesn'tinvolve too much memory intensive ritual.

LSD

LSD, referred to on the street as "acid," is not something toplay around with in a casual way. Back in the '70's when my friendsand I were young and dumb, we often played with it several times ayear. Back then it was simply entertainment, an adventure, one ofthe benefits of modern technology. We took the idea of "leavingreality" in stride, in the way you might consider a trip to Disneylanda "special adventure."

There is a world of difference between marijuana and LSD,and that statement can be taken literally. Real LSD, the stuffavailable in the "old days," can literally rip the world away fromyour perception and replace it with an entirely new, ever changingworld.

LSD stimulates the visual receptors in the brain more than anyother chemical I am aware of. If you can recall seeing blotches ofcolor when falling asleep at night with your eyes closed, you canimagine a vague impression of what it is like to see psychedelicvisual images. Like those blotches of color, psychedelic mentalimages constantly move, grow larger or smaller and fade in and outof your visual perception. If you can imagine them being neonbright, filled with intricate detail and moving in more than onedirection at the same time (that one is hard to imagine) you can getan idea of what LSD visuals are like. Attempts to recreate suchimagery appeared in "psychedelic" black-light (ultraviolet) posterscommon in the '60's and '70's.

Not everyone sees the same sort of images. Some people havereported watching animated, cartoon-like pictures with their eyesclosed, some perceived "other worlds," while still others saw only


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hallucinations in the real world around them. On low doses the wallsof a room may seem to “breath,” patterns become perceivable intextured surfaces such as carpeting, and objects in motion, such asthe movement of one’s hand, leave trailing images behind themreferred to as “tracers.” Some sort of hallucinatory imagery iscommon to everyone who becomes sufficiently high on LSD. Onhigher doses it is most common to perceive colorful patterns in yourperipheral vision while nothing in the real world holds still or retainsconsistent shape.

Because of these intense visual effects it is very difficult tomeditate under these conditions. While the ability to concentrate issupreme, one's attention often diverges from any predeterminedfocus to becoming totally absorbed in the imagery, which can bebeautiful and fascinating beyond description. Any idea oneconceives also becomes a river of total absorption. If you arefortunate enough to ask a meaningful question, such as, "What isGod?" your awareness can take you on an adventure of realizationbeyond words, where everything in the universe makes completesense. Trouble is, as soon as you come back to the real world (6 - 8hours later, usually) you can't formulate your perceptions intowords. Without the words to file in your memory the awarenesseventually fades and it becomes as if you never had the experienceto begin with. A similar effect occurs during normal sleep, when youoccasionally experience vivid dreams of profound insight, only toforget they ever occurred as time passes. Besides the risk to one'shealth and mental well-being, this loss of recall is another downsideto using psychedelics to gain awareness.

I once spent four hours at a typewriter while high on LSD withthe specific intent of writing down a comprehensible description ofwhat it is really like to experience that drug. My attention wouldremain focused long enough to type about half a sentence before Iwould "space out" and forget what I was doing. When I regained myfocus I would read what I had typed, then quickly finish the sentenceby writing the other half of the line with a pen. I wrote two pages ofmaterial which I continued to edit as the drug wore off, most of itmeaningless, finally reducing it all to one very concise statementthat accurately expressed what it means to experience LSD. That


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very profound statement was, "LSD can be used to escape reality."That makes about as much sense as, "we are all God." Mushrooms,peyote, mescaline and other psychedelics all produce similar effectsand have the same negative consequences.

Seth is of the opinion that natural psychedelics are lessharmful to the body than LSD, his reasoning being that humans haveco-existed with the natural plants for ages. He is also quite opposedto massive doses of LSD under clinical conditions, noting that suchexperiences totally destroy the ego, the new ego which then formsfearing for it's continued existence. I want to emphasize that hiscomments refer to massive, rather than moderate doses, and to theclinical therapies performed in the past where a psychologist wouldpurposely destroy a patient's ego and dictate new values to replacethe old. I agree with Seth that such "scientific" behavior is worsethan shock therapy.

Freaking Out

"Freaking out" is another potential downside of intensepsychedelic drug experience. This is a result of the way awarenessbecomes focused upon one particular theme and concentration is soabsolute it becomes difficult to escape to a different train of thought.Focusing on unpleasant concepts in such a fashion can produceunspeakable horrors. I'll relate one such personal experience.

I was about nineteen, walking down our long, dark drivewayin November with a "friend" who had an unusual bit of philosophyhe wanted to demonstrate. We were very high on LSD, and thephilosophical point he wanted to demonstrate was, "you can't knowthe highest high till you know the lowest low." That statement istotally bogus. If the guy had any real understanding he would haveshown me the highest high. Turns out he wanted to freak me out onpurpose for his own entertainment.

As we walked along the driveway in the cold night we werespeaking quietly in order to avoid waking anyone. This "fear" ofdisturbing others set the tone of the experience. There was a brightarc light on the street corner and it cast harsh shadows all around us.The leaves had fallen from the tall elm trees on either side and the


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hard light on the silvery bark contrasted with the blackness allaround us. Our footsteps echoed from the effect of the drug and eachbreath puffed out as a pale mist.

He moaned as if he were in pain. "Don't look into theshadows," he warned.

One's mind is very susceptible to suggestion while under theinfluence of LSD and his comment heightened my fear. Rememberwhat I said about having difficulty changing one's focus of attention.

"Shut up." I told him, quickening my pace.He groaned again. "Don't look into the shadows," he repeated.I reasoned that there was nothing in the shadows to be afraid

of, but still I didn't want to look. The night air felt thick around myhead and my neck became stiff. The driveway seemed to go onforever and I was very uncomfortable and just wanted to get out ofthere as quickly as I could.

Another ghastly groan and an almost helpless, "Don't look intothe shadows."

My fear became unbearable. My reasoning mind was veryclear, but the fear was overwhelming. I knew there was nothing inthe shadows but a lack of light, but some other part of me felt astaggering presence of evil. I knew I had to look just to calm myfears, but I also knew that if I did I might encounter an unimaginablehorror. I decided to compromise. I looked with my eyes but didn'tturn my head.

The tall elm trees were fifty feet away, and as I strained to turnmy eyes to the right, the bare branches were sweeping through theair as if a hurricane were blowing them. The trees were nearly one-hundred feet tall and the branches were sweeping down to theground then flinging themselves upwards into the black sky. Fromthe shadows beneath the leafless trees silver flames erupted in afireball, the flames becoming short, sliver lines with a loop in thecenter, each side of the loop moving up and down like wings. Theflapping lines poured out of the shadows like a flurry of batsswarming from a cave, and from them radiated the deepest, mostprofound feeling of pure evil that human consciousness is capable ofimagining.

The silver swarm gathered above me in the blackness and I


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found myself floating in the depths of outer space, alone, terrified.The evil horde moved off into the distance, almost disappearing, andI began to relax a bit, but then the cloud of terror came racingtoward me, the swarm of flapping lines intent on killing me. Theydove into my right eye and started to drag my soul out of my eyesocket. The physical sensation of pain was beyond unbearable.

"STOP!" I commanded in a firm voice. "This isn't real," I toldmyself. "I am not floating in space. I am standing on a drivewayhigh as a kite on LSD. This is all a hallucination."

I suddenly found myself standing on the driveway looking atmy "friend" who was giggling like a child, pleased with his littlejoke. My right eye hurt terribly from straining to look withoutturning my head. I marched myself straight to the telephone poleand spent the next hour looking at the arc light to keep the shadowsat bay till I came down enough to go home.

Flashbacks

Another potential problem with psychedelic drug use is“flashbacks,” momentary intrusions of psychedelic experience whilenot on drugs. A month after the previous event I was walking up thesame driveway at night, totally straight, and feeling like I had gainedsufficient control of myself again, I allowed myself to glance intothe shadows under the trees. Little silver flames started flickering inthe darkness. I clenched my jaw and walked hurriedly toward thehouse. As I approached the back door my own shadow was in frontof me, as usual, then a little sliver flame erupted in the center of it. Achill sent goose bumps up my spine as my entire shadow, all byitself, drifted to my left, moving to a position behind me. That wasimpossible. I was losing my mind. I ran into the house and ploppedmyself in front of the TV set and didn't take my eyes off it for twohours.

I hadn't dared to even smoke pot after freaking out in thedriveway, but after about three months I believed I had fullyrecovered and got high with friends, which I thought would be safeenough because they were real friends, not creeps like that first jerk.I was living in an apartment with a roommate and smoking a joint


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didn't bother me at all, till the rest of them all left and I was alonewhen I went to bed.

As I laid there trying to go to sleep, my bed started to rockgently back and forth from head to foot. Old box springs under amattresses will sometimes do that in response to regular breathing. Itried to just brush it off but the rocking grew more and more intense.Then I heard a faint growl and instantly pictured something like thecreature from the black lagoon lying under my bed, snarling as itshook the springs to torment me.

I sat up in the dark and listened carefully. Nothing. So I laidback down thinking I had imagined the whole thing. A moment laterthe bed started to rock once more, and again I heard the low,snarling growl. I knew I had to do something to stop this. I tried toforget it but the shaking became more pronounced and I couldclearly hear the growling. I knew I had to turn the light on and lookunder the bed, but if I did that I could only lose. If the "creature"was actually under there it would eat me alive. If it wasn't, I wouldhave just proven to myself I had actually thought a monster wasunder my bed and I'd be insane. I finally decided I'd rather be insanethan monster food, so I turned on the light, held my breath, andlooked under the bed.

Thank god I was just crazy.There are some valuable points to observe in all this. Perhaps

the most valuable lesson is the realization that there is no force ofevil that can harm you if you do not believe it can. When I said"stop" while my soul was being ripped out of my body, I completelyended the attack. When I described that experience to a friend someyears later he told me that those "flying lines" I had seen had beenmentioned in literature before, and were referred to as The Host ofHell. Perhaps those things were real in some dimension of existence,but in any case, simply refusing to participate was all it took tosecure my rescue.

Another valuable point: Don't do psychedelic drugs withpeople who aren't your real friends. You want to be with supportive,caring people, hopefully someone with enough experience usingpsychedelics to know how to get you back from a "bad trip."

One trick to remember is that you can get back from any bad


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trip, dream, out of body experience or whatever, simply by wigglingyour toes. These metaphysical experiences result from focusing yourattention on "non-ordinary" realms of perception, and if youconcentrate on your physical body, by concentrating on wigglingyour toes, for example, your attention will eventually be drawn toyour body and the world where it lives.

If you are with someone who is "freaking out" or"experiencing a bummer," you should never say anything negativeto them like, "Hey man, you're really on a bad one." The best thingto do is supply them with very ordinary things to take up theirattention. Remember the problem is caused by not being able todistract one's attention from the subject of concentration. Simplytouch the person gently on the shoulder and say something like,"Why don't we go get something to drink from the kitchen," or "doyou want to pick some music to play? What's your favorite band?"The gentle touch will bring someone back to this dimension, and assoon as you have their attention distract them with somethingphysical to occupy their awareness. Don't ask them about what theywere going through till after they have come down enough to dealwith it.

True paranormal frights like my experience with "the host ofhell" can cause fairly long term psychological instability. Once youunderstand the "cures" just mentioned it is much easier to regainyour composure if you happen across a bad trip, and you are morelikely to avoid such problems altogether. Flashbacks ceased to be aproblem for my friends and I once we understood they were causedby allowing non-physical perception to occur spontaneously, whichwe then simply refused to allow. The main problem involved inusing large doses of psychedelic drugs to enhance metaphysicalunderstanding is that your concentration is forced to focus upon thesubject matter at hand, and when facing the unknown, fear is often anatural focus of that attention.

If you do choose to use drugs to assist your metaphysicaldevelopment, I would suggest starting with marijuana. If you don'tuse it more than twice a month it's enough to give you a little boostwithout messing up your reality.

If you are looking for other-world adventures, take it slow.


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Start with small doses and don't mess with it more than once everycouple of months. If you choose to work your way up to largerdoses, be very disciplined about the whole thing. Never take morethan you need to push yourself into another dimension through anact of concentration, rather than being forced over that edge bybecoming too high. If you have children it is best if they are stayingwith someone else for the night. And be prepared to spend thefollowing day feeling mentally burned out and psychologically outof sorts. You won’t want to go to work the following day or beinvolved in any significant social activities.

Above all, don't mess with drugs at all if you don't have yourphysical survival well under control. Make sure you have anincome, a place to live and your bills paid. If you can't deal with theworld you live in, messing around in other dimensions will make itmuch more difficult to keep from starving. It also feels really goodto come back from such adventures and realize your life is undercontrol. It means you have more wisdom than self indulgence, andyour trips will be better as a result. In fact, the most predictableresult of every acid trip I experienced as a young person was that Iwould immediately go out and get a job if I didn’t have one, andotherwise act in ways to constructively improve the quality of mylife.

You can avoid nearly all the pitfalls of drug use simply bysticking with occasional marijuana use to assist metaphysicalexperimentation. And remember, you don’t need drugs to findenlightenment unless you believe you do.


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Chapter Eleven:

Psychic Party Games

Most of the exercises in this section have been publishedseparately in a small booklet called Koda’s Psychic Party Games.They have been grouped together because most produce resultsquickly and can performed by more than one person. This makes itpossible to experiment with friends in a party situation.

The detailed instructions for most of these exercises areproceeded by a brief description and followed by a review. Thismakes it easy to explain the instructions to others quickly. TheVisual Telepathy exercise is described in detail in chapter two, but asummary of the instructions is provided below.

Visual Telepathy

Summary of Instructions

1) Those wishing to participate form into pairs.2) The two people sit a comfortable distance apart, facing each


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other.3) Each person looks at one of their partner's eyes, then

attempts to expand the area of clear perception to include all of theother person's face. (If your partner looks at your left eye, youshould look at his or her right eye -- all the "action" should be onone side.)

4) Blink your eyes whenever they need wetting, but not toregain a normal focus. (You can stop any unpleasant visual effectssimply by blinking your eyes or looking away for a moment.)

5) Describe when visual changes occur and how intense theyare relative to other changes.

6) Describe any strongly felt emotion or physical sensationexperienced.

7) Verify that the visual changes and emotional sensations areduplicated by the other.

8) If you see an image of "another person" describe thatperson to your partner.


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Using Telekinesisto Move a Paper Wheel

Overview

A paper “wheel” is balanced on the point of a needle andcaused to rotate by placing your hand next to it. With practice thewheel can be moved from further away or deliberately made to spinin the opposite direction.


First you need to make at least one photocopy of this page soyou can cut out the wheel shown above. If you make the copy so the


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wheel is near the top of your sheet of paper, you can fold the paperin half below the bottom of the wheel and cut two wheels at thesame time. Cutting near the fold last will help keep the two paperstogether. Cut along the lines so you end up with a six-spoke wheel.The wheel can also be made with aluminum foil if you first make apaper template to use as a cutting guide.

Another option is to glue two or three narrow strips of papertogether to create a wheel with either four or six spokes. The stripsshould be about 1/4” wide and 2 1/2” long. The number of spokesdoesn’t seem to make much difference, though in theory, the greaterthe surface area the better. It can be difficult to get the wheel tobalance if the spokes are not spaced equally, which is why Irecommend cutting the wheel from a single sheet of paper.

Telekinesis refers to “movement at a distance” and it ispossible for anyone to cause movement of this paper wheel withouttouching it or affecting it with normally understood forces.

There is an energy field which permeates and surroundsevery living thing. This energy projects outward from our body andforms our aura, and has been referred to as “life force,” chi, prana,and other names. That energy is in motion. It circulates, and it canbe demonstrated to exist using this little wheel.

After you have made the wheel, you need to balance ithorizontally on top of a needle or straight pin. A pin can simply bepushed through a small piece of very thick paper, such as cardboardfood packaging, to act as a stand, or you can push a needle throughan eraser or other thick material so the point of the needle pointsstraight up. The spokes should be bent downward a bit so they droopslightly, which helps to keep the wheel balanced. If you lay thewheel on a paper towel or thin cloth, then carefully rotate the tip of apencil in the exact center of the wheel, you can create a smalldepression which can help the wheel to remain balanced. Thegraphite from the pencil also acts as a dry lubricant. First try usingthe wheel without making the tiny dent with the pencil and see howthat goes -- but be careful -- you don’t want to poke a hole throughthe wheel and have to start over.

Once the wheel is balanced on the pin, move the palm ofyour hand slowly toward the wheel. It can begin to spin with the


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hand several inches away, but slowly continue approaching thewheel until your curved hand is about half an inch or so to the sideof the wheel. It should begin to spin almost immediately. If youswitch hands, the wheel generally spins in the opposite direction.Another option is to cup both hands around the wheel with one handcloser to the wheel than the other. This usually causes the wheel tospin faster. Experiment with different hand positions to see whichworks better for you.

Be careful that your breath or other air movement doesn’taffect the wheel. If you have difficulty getting results, you can trycreating a wheel using aluminum foil, or place a tiny bit of clearplastic tape on the underside at the center of the wheel to reducefriction against the pin.

Neither aluminum or paper are affected by magnetism, butboth are affected by static electricity. If you run a plastic combthrough your hair then gradually move it closer to the wheel whilemoving the comb up and down, you will see that side of the wheelalso moves up and down. But the wheel will not spin because theenergy field is “static.” It doesn’t circulate as “bioelectric” fields do.It may appear that static electricity is the cause of the wheelspinning when you put your hand next to it, but that isn’t the case.

If you move the comb up and down a few inches from thewheel so that the wheel also moves up and down, then place yourother hand between the comb and the wheel, the wheel will stopmoving. Your hand blocks the electrostatic field. This indicates thatstatic electricity is not the force causing the wheel to spin. Staticelectricity is also discharged from the body by touching a metalobject, which you can do and still cause the wheel to spin. Nor willheat from your hand cause the spinning motion. If you place a warmobject next to the wheel, such as a hot cup of coffee, it will not spin.

Causing the wheel to spin simply by placing your hand nextto it is a form of telekinesis -- movement at a distance. The forcethat causes this movement responds to mental states. It is possible toincrease the speed of rotation, or to change the direction of spin,through mental concentration alone. It has been reported that somepeople can cause the wheel to spin from several feet away, or to spina wheel enclosed in a glass jar, which normally doesn’t occur.


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If you make several of these “energy wheels” prior to yourparty, everyone can experiment to see how well they can controlthem. Some people will naturally cause a clockwise spin with theirleft hand, while it will be counter-clockwise for others. Tryreversing the direction of spin using the same hand. You can alsoplace a wheel in the center of a table and have everyone place theirhands around the wheel at once in various ways, even with the handsjoined, just to see what happens.

(NOTE: See “energy wheels” in the appendix for more info.)


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Psychic Touch Dancing

Overview

Two people stand face to face with their palms lightlytouching, their hands moving together as if gliding along aninvisible wall between them -- with neither person controlling themovement.


I am not aware of the official name for this rather interestingform of movement. It was first shown to me by a woman who didnot describe any background information, but I have since heard thatit may be an aspect of tantric yoga. It is best suited for intimateoccasions between lovers, but can be performed by any twoindividuals.

Two people, preferably reasonably close in height, stand closetogether facing each other with their feet comfortably apart. Theyplace their hands very lightly palm to palm against the hands of theother person, palms and finger tips gently touching. One personagrees to start things off by moving his or her hands very slowly, asif sliding them gracefully against a pane of glass standing verticallybetween the two participants. The other person then attempts tofollow the hand movements of the first, all the while touching aslightly as possible against the hands of the other. One person leads,the other follows. Remember not to allow the hands to moveforward or back beyond the "invisible wall" between you.

After a time the leader stops leading, but does not mentionwhen this occurs. He or she simply begins to follow the movementof the other person's hands. If this exercise is performed properly,


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with slow gentle movements, the leader will find that when he or shestops leading the hands continue to move. Both people end upfollowing the movement of the other's hands, with neither personcontrolling the movement.

When this occurs the leader should point it out to the personwho started out as the follower, and invite the follower to take thelead at any time in order to demonstrate that the original leader isactually following at that point. It is a wonderful feeling when bothpeople realize neither of them is in control while the hands oftenmake great, sweeping gestures and otherwise unpredictablemovements.

If the hands stop moving for some reason, the leader againresumes leading the movement. Each person can alternate taking thelead, if desired.

If the two participants are familiar with the Visual Telepathyexercise, it can help to maintain eye contact while performing this"game," though doing so isn't necessary. Maintaining eye contact,with an awareness of the telepathic nature of emotional experience,can make this is a wonderfully intimate experience when performedwith a suitable partner.

Psychic Touch Dancing: Summary of Instructions

1) Two people stand close together, facing each other, feetcomfortably apart, holding their palms lightly against the palms ofthe other, finger tips gently touching.

2) One person leads by moving his or her hands against an"invisible wall" between them while the other follows with theirhands. (Don't allow the hands to go forward or back beyond the"wall.")

3) After a time the leader stops leading the movement and bothpeople end up with their hands moving while neither consciouslycontrols the movement. The leader should invite the follower to takethe lead at any time in order to prove he or she is no longer leading.

4) If the hands stop moving for some reason, a leader againresumes leading the movement.

5) Each person should alternate taking the lead, if desired.


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6) (optional) Maintain eye contact and awareness of thetelepathic nature of emotion.


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Light as a Feather(also called “The Lifting Game”)

Overview

This is a very old "game" that many people hear about asteenagers and you may have tried it before. It involves one personsitting in a chair while four people lift that person above their headsusing only the first two fingers of one hand. (It is possible for justtwo people to do the lifting, in which case they lift with two fingersof each hand.) The first time you experience this will blow yourmind, since it really seems like the person being lifted has becomealmost weightless.


Success requires the ability of everyone involved toconcentrate with absolute clarity and seriousness, but it is onlynecessary to maintain this level of concentration for a few secondsand most people are able to do this. The procedure uses a form ofritual to help focus each person's attention, and once the procedurehas begun it should not be interrupted for any reason unless you stopcompletely and start over.

The person to be lifted (it helps to start with the lightest personpresent) sits relaxed but upright in an armless chair or stool placedin the center of the room. To protect against physical injury theremust not be any obstructions around the chair and it should not beplaced directly under an overhead light fixture, ceiling fan, etc. Theseated person sits with his or her arms folded, knees together andfeet firmly on the floor. Throughout the entire experience the seatedperson must remain silent and concentrate on feeling "light as afeather, stiff as a board."


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The two or four people who are to do the lifting stand to eachside of the seated person. One person is selected to be the leader andat his or her signal everyone except the seated person says thephrase, "light as a feather, stiff as a board" four times before anymovement begins. After the phrase has been spoken four times, theleader places his or her right hand firmly on the head of the seatedperson while the phrase is repeated again. In a predeterminedsequence -- clockwise, for example -- each person standing placestheir right hand firmly (but not forcefully) on the person's head, onehand atop the other. This cycle is repeated with the left hand untileveryone has both hands on top of the seated person's head.

Each time a hand is being placed, everyone but the seatedperson repeats aloud the phrase, "Light as a feather, stiff as a board."Once all the hands have been placed on the head, the phrase isrepeated one time while no movement occurs. Then the hands areremoved one at a time from top to bottom, the phrase repeated eachtime a hand is removed. (You may want to practice this much beforedoing the entire procedure the first time.)

Immediately after all the hands have been removed, everyonebecomes absolutely silent. The subject in the chair holds his or herbody stiff, while the people standing slip their first two fingers underthe armpits and knees of the seated person and simply lift thatperson, in a very gentle manner, as high as possible, thenimmediately and carefully set the person back into the chair. If fourpeople are doing the lifting, which is best if that many are available,they do the lifting with the first and second fingers of their strongesthand. (Be sure to stand where you will be able to use your stronghand most comfortably.)

All the while, from the moment the hands are being placedupon the head, everyone must concentrate on the absolute certaintythat the person being lifted is "light as a feather." This is especiallyimportant for the one being lifted. As the last hand is removed thesudden loss of pressure against the head actually produces asensation of lightness for the seated person, and that sensationshould be concentrated upon and believed. Everyone must continueto concentrate on the idea that the person being lifted is very lightuntil that person is once again returned to the chair.


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Some serious warnings are necessary. If anyone laughs orotherwise breaks the concentration the leader should stop the eventimmediately and start over when everyone is once again in controlof themselves. The lifting motion should be gentle but steady andquick. If you lift too slowly it may break your concentration. If youlift too quickly the person can literally be thrown against the ceilingand come crashing down out of control. People have broken bonesdoing this! It's possible to break one's neck! If performed withseriousness and responsibility it is quite harmless, but if you don'ttrust all the people doing the lifting do not allow such persons toparticipate. And don't lose your concentration once you find yourselfalmost in shock at the surprising loss of apparent weight. Everyonemust understand that the subject must be returned gently and safelyto the chair before any break in the concentration is permitted. Afterthat you can all freak out about how amazing it is.

Once everyone who wants to be lifted has had the opportunity,but not before, you can attempt to lift someone without the benefitof the intense concentration. The difference will surprise you.

Light as a Feather: Summary of Instructions

1) Place an armless chair or stool in the center of a room,being sure there are no nearby obstructions and no overhead light orfan above the chair.

2) Select a leader to begin (and if necessary, terminate) theevent.

3) The person to be lifted sits relaxed but upright in the chair,arms folded, knees together and feet firmly on the floor.

4) Either two or four people stand near the chair, either one ortwo people on each side, depending on whether two or four aredoing the lifting.

5) The leader signals the group to begin saying the phrase,"light as a feather, stiff as a board," four times.

6) The phrase is repeated every time as each person, inclockwise (or counter-clockwise) order, places their right handfirmly (but not forcefully) upon the seated person's head.

7) Repeat this cycle with the left hand, till everyone has both


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hands on the person's head.8) Say the phrase one time while no hand movements occur.9) Remove the hands one at a time in reverse order, repeating

the phrase one time as each hand is removed, until all hands havebeen removed from the seated person's head. (You may want topractice this much one time before doing the entire procedure.)

10) Everyone becomes totally silent and the seated personstiffens his or her body.

11) Those standing hold their first and second fingers straightand together, then slip them under the arm pits and knees of theseated person, then lift the seated person gently but quickly overtheir heads -- then immediately, but gently, return the person to thechair.

Note: If four people are doing the lifting, they use only thefirst two fingers of one (their strongest) hand. Do not pause once theevent has begun. If anyone breaks the concentration, stopimmediately then start over.

BE CAREFUL! Take this game seriously so no one getshurt! (It should be obvious that this game should not be performed ifthe participants are under the influence of alcohol or drugs.)


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Directional Attention

Overview

In this game, one person in the group closes their eyes andfocuses his or her attention at a specific location in the room, whilethe rest of the guests attempt to perceive which target location isbeing concentrated upon.


The "sender" imagines two beams of energy going out fromhis or her body, one beam going out from the forehead and the otherfrom the solar plexus (area just below the chest). These two beamsare mentally directed to meet near the ceiling at one corner of theroom. The imagined beams form a triangle with the head and chestas the base and a corner of the ceiling as the furthest apex. The restof the group sits quietly and attempts to "feel" where those beamsare directed. After everyone acknowledges they have come to aconclusion, the group voices their opinions, then the "sender"informs everyone of the location he or she had been concentratingupon. (The sender can write down the target location prior tobeginning if verification is desired.) Each person in the group shouldhave at least one chance to be the sender.

The number of correct guesses can be scored. Statistical oddsindicate that if there are four possible targets, each person shouldcorrectly guess one time in four attempts. Anything better than this,over numerous attempts, is evidence of psychic perception.

If there is a reasonable degree of success among the group,this game can be further refined by having the sender concentrateupon particular objects or people within the room. As long as it is


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made very clear what the possible targets are, this game can beapplied to any group of possible targets.


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Psychometry(Perceiving psychic information contained in objects)

Overview

Five, small, identical blocks of wood are "charged" withemotional energy by holding each one in your hands whileconcentrating on a particular emotion. Later the blocks are circulatedamong your guests, with each person attempting to perceive whichblock is "charged" with each particular emotion.


Psychometry is the term used to describe the practice ofperceiving psychic impressions from various kinds of physicalobjects. These impressions often come in the form of emotions,images and/or sounds. It is possible to learn information about theorigin or manufacture of a given object, as well as pick upinformation regarding the people who have handled it. For example,many psychics will ask to hold a personal object before giving areading, such as a ring, necklace or keys, in order to augment anyinformation they may perceive directly. In general terms, theimpressions are the same as with any other type of intuitive psychicperception, only in this case the objects contain the information. Thepractitioner will see images or hear sounds, or simply experience a"feeling" (intuitive package) which contains information regardingthe creation or previous environment of the object.

Some objects contain psychically perceivable energy whichhas been placed into them deliberately. These are called "chargedobjects" and you will need to create a few of these beforehand if youare interested in playing this particular game.

First you need to acquire five identical pieces of wood. Any


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size and shape that can be easily handled will do, but I suggestpieces about five or six inches long and an inch wide, of anythickness you feel comfortable with. A wooden yardstick is a gooditem to start with since the cutting locations are already marked off.These "sticks" need to look and feel identical so you can not tellthem apart from each other. (If you start with a yardstick you willneed to sand off the painted markings after cutting. It is best not topaint the wood, but you can, after sanding, if you prefer.) You thenneed to label each piece with an identifying number near the end onone side (1-5). These numbers will correspond with one of fivedifferent emotions you will attempt to imprint on each stick. Anindex card or notebook should be used to maintain a record of theassociated emotion. If you are very serious about developing thisability you may prefer to use a notebook in order to document moredetailed information.

First select the five different emotions you intend to focusupon, then write them down next to the related number in yournotebook. Suggested emotions include love, lust, freedom,excitement, contentment, curiosity, longing, etc. You can select anyemotion you choose but try to make them as different from oneanother as possible. (Although it is very easy to "pick up" a feelingof hate or depression, you won't enjoy having to encounter negativeemotions later on so I recommend not dealing with such unpleasantfeelings.)

Charging the Objects

Select a block to be associated with a particular emotion, thenwhile holding it in your hands, focus all your attention onexperiencing that emotion. You should attempt to feel the emotionas strongly as you can while you imagine filling the stick with it,pushing the emotion from your chest and head into the object. If ithelps to focus on a particular mental image, then do so, and note thenature of the image in your notebook. Sometimes the best way tofocus on an emotion is to remember a time when you felt it clearlyand concentrate upon a particular image connected with that event.Perform this concentration technique with one emotion for between


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five and ten minutes. Then wait at least ten minutes for youremotions to clear before repeating the process with the next block.Follow this procedure until all five blocks have been "charged,"each with one of the five different emotions.

Some precaution should be taken to keep the sticks frommaking physical contact with each other. This is to prevent thepsychic energy of one stick from "contaminating" the others.Metaphysical literature suggests wrapping each block in a silkhandkerchief, but rolling them up, separated in the folds of a handtowel, should be sufficient.

In a party situation each guest will need a piece of paper towrite down their impressions. Everyone should be told what the fivetarget emotions are, then the five numbers should be listed in acolumn to the left on each participant’s paper. Each of your guests inturn will be given a block to work with, one block after the other. (Ifeveryone is sitting in a circle it is easy to pass each block to theperson next to you.) Then while holding the object in their hands forone or two minutes, each person should focus their completeattention on it while waiting for an emotion to come clearly to mind.The trick here is to clear the mind of any preconceptions and try to"feel" emotion coming from the wood rather than simply "guess"what the emotion might be. Also be on alert for any mental imagethat comes to mind.

After everyone has selected which emotion they believe isassociated with the block they are holding, they should write thename of that emotion on the paper to the right of the identifyingnumber of the block. Any mental image that came to mind can bewritten down to the right of the emotion. Once you have writtendown this information, pass the block to the next person. Repeat thisprocess until everyone has worked with all five objects beforechecking for results.

If you find yourself feeling the same emotion with more thanone block, go ahead and guess that emotion twice if necessary.Logic has nothing to do with this, and it's better to get four out offive than ignore a correct impression because it has already beenguessed previously. If you wish you can return to a previous objectto reevaluate your guess before making a final conclusion.


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Statistical odds tell us that in five attempts each person shouldsuccessfully choose only one of the five emotions correctly.Repeating the entire exercise five times would produce twenty-fiveattempts and odds alone would produce a total of five correctimpressions. Anything better than this is evidence of psychicperception.

After playing the game, you and/or your friends might want torepeat the "charging" procedure in order reduce incorrect emotionalenergy placed into the sticks due to missed guesses, and to saturatethe sticks with as much energy as possible. If your friends assistyou, have them concentrate on a specific image you want associatedwith each emotion. If a particular image is included every time itwill reinforce the "target" image you are hoping others will be ableto detect.

It can also be entertaining to have everyone place their keyrings together in a paper bag, then one person can draw out a keyring with their eyes closed and see if they can tell who it belongs towithout looking at it. Each person can do this in turn, mixing up thekey rings by shaking the bag each time before one key ring iswithdrawn.

You can also charge other objects, say by concentrating onfeelings of love while holding a small gift for a loved one.

Note: Psychometry, as described here, can be an excellent toolfor learning to develop clairvoyant ability, since once you arefamiliar with perceiving "impressions" from specific objects you caneasily switch to turning your attention to people, events, etc.

Psychometry: Summary of Instructions

1) Prepare "charged objects" by following steps (a) -- (e).a) Create five identical blocks of wood.b) Number one end of one side of each block (1 through5).c) Charge the five objects with one emotion each by"pushing" the emotion into the object from your headand chest for 5-10 minutes. (Wait 5-10 minutes before


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charging the next object.)d) Write down which emotion is associated with eachblock.e) Store the blocks by rolling them up in a silkhandkerchief or small towel.

2) The objects are distributed to the first five guests sitting in acircle, each guest having a pen and paper with the numbers 1-5listed in a column on the left.

3) Each guest attempts to feel which of the five, pre-selectedemotions are associated with the object they are holding (1-2minutes) then the object is passed to the next person.

4) The selected emotion is written next to the number of theobject, along with any visual image perceived.

5) After everyone has written their selections, the results arecompared.


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Manipulating the Pendulum

Overview and Instructions

A pendulum can be any item hanging from a string, such as aspool of thread tied so the thread won't unwind beyond a certainpoint. It is possible to ask questions of the subconscious and derivesimple yes or no answers based upon the way a pendulum swingswhen it is held by the string in one hand. The theory is that thesubconscious mind creates idiomatic (subconscious) musclecontractions which causes the pendulum to swing one way oranother. If you ask a question and the pendulum swings side to side,the answer is "no." If it swings forward and back, the answer is"yes." If it spins in a circle it means your question isn't beinganswered. (Another way of deriving answers is to considerclockwise motion a “yes,” counter-clockwise a “no” and any backand forth motion undetermined. Be sure to decide in advance howyou will interpret the motion of the pendulum.)

The Visual Telepathy exercise should prove quite clearly thattelepathy actually occurs. It stands to reason then, that if we are allaware of telepathy on subconscious levels, and a pendulum can beused to access subconscious information, we should be able totelepathically influence a pendulum being held by some otherperson.

In a party situation you can make pendulums for each of yourguests and let them experiment with asking their own questions, butit can also be fun if everyone is involved with just one personholding the pendulum. That person would sit with his or her feet flaton the floor, leaning forward with an elbow resting on one knee anda pendulum suspended from the hand of that arm. A string length of6 to 12 inches usually works best. The pendulum is stabilized in asteady position before each new experiment is begun.


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In one kind of experiment, everyone in the group is madeaware of some item of information which the person holding thependulum does not know, then a yes or no question is asked in orderto see if the pendulum provides the correct answer. This can be doneby having someone stand behind the person holding the pendulumwhile showing the group an item, then asking something like, "Am Iholding up a book?" If everyone takes this seriously the correctanswer should be provided.

It is also possible to ask questions that no one knows theanswer to, such as, "Is Debbie's next child going to be a boy?" If thewoman is already pregnant there is a definite answer "out theresomewhere" and such answers can be perceived subconsciously(psychically). The quality of the answers provided with this methodare dependent upon how well the person holding the pendulum canremain uninvolved consciously. Any question that can be answeredin a yes or no fashion can be asked, and with a good sense of humorthe questions can be quite entertaining.


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Perceiving Auras

Overview

Auras are energy fields that surround all living beings, andaccording to the literature they even exist around inanimate objects,which are said to have their own form of consciousness. Auras aremost easily perceived around higher forms of consciousness such aspeople and animals. This section describes simple techniques whichindividuals or groups can apply to gain awareness of these "glowingenergy fields" which surround and permeate the body.

Background Information and Detailed Instructions

Auras are described differently depending on which school ofthought a person subscribes to and how clear their "auric vision" is.Carlos Castaneda describes a "luminous egg-shape" composed offine, luminous fibers, the aura being as large as a person with theirarms outstretched. Christian literature describes a bright, oftenyellow "halo" around the heads of saints. The general descriptionprovided by New Age spiritualists is similar to Castaneda's "egg-shape" though with many variations in color, brightness and otherfeatures

Spiritualist literature describes three types of non-physical"bodies" associated with human organisms. The first is the ethericbody, which extends about two inches away from the surface of thephysical body. It is composed of fine filaments, usually grey. Theetheric aura is the easiest to perceive. It can even be felt with the tipsof the fingers if your awareness is sufficiently focused.

The second type is the aura most people have heard about, alarge, oblong sphere similar to Castaneda's egg-shape. Thedifference here is that spiritualist literature reports a great many


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colors and much activity within this aura. The colors are related tothe current physical and psychological condition of the person beingobserved. Dark splotches indicate areas of blocked energy and aregenerally associated with illness in a particular part of the body.(Illness is said to appear in the aura before the physical organism isaffected.) The colors reflect a person's mood or presentpsychological condition. "Green with envy" is a term that relates tothe aura. Red is associated with anger, i.e., "seeing red." Yellow isrelated to intellectual activity and blue with spirituality.

In speaking with a man who claimed to see auras, he addedthat the colors were never still, but were constantly in motion. Hesaid he could sometimes see energy bursts much like "lighteningbolts" or brief flashes of other colors.

The third type of aura is the astral body, a duplicate of thephysical form but made entirely of energy. This is the body weexperience in dreams and while projecting out of the body. It standsto reason that the form of this body may be different under thevarying conditions we experience in other dimensions.

Some individuals claim that they can manipulate the energy ofan aura in order to assist the healing process. They do this byconcentrating on feeling the aura as they pass their hands near aperson's body, adding their own energy to that of the patient torealign the flow of energy in the proper patterns. I have seen thissort of thing performed one time, where a friend was relieved of asevere headache after about ten minutes.

Fortunately, it is not particularly difficult to perceive theetheric aura, that area of energy which lays just outside the physicalbody. Success, however, requires a definite shift in your "level ofawareness." It is not something you can do while focused on yourphysical perception alone. But the shift required is quite minimal,and when you achieve this form of perception you will understandwhat it means to shift your level of awareness. This can be oftremendous value when you apply yourself to achieving perceptionor manipulation in more dramatic ways.

There are two ways to approach learning to perceive theetheric body. The first is to attempt to feel it with your fingertipswhile running your hands just above the body of a friend. You


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should hold your hands one or two inches away from their skin andpay attention to very subtle sensations in your fingertips. It will feelas if you are moving your fingers very slowly through lukewarmwater. If you actually experiment by moving your fingertips slowlythrough warm water you will notice just how subtle those sensationsare. With practice the sensations are more easily perceived and thereis an almost "sticky" feeling to it.

The etheric aura can also be perceived using your eyes. Thetrick here is in focusing your visual attention six to nine inchesbeyond the person's body while they stand against a blackbackground. This "out of focus" effect releases your visual attentionfrom it's customary lock on physical data, and the concentrationupon seeing something so subtle acts to slow or reduce yourthoughts. Thinking is a physical activity, just as seeing and hearingare. Psychic perception brings other, non-physical sensemechanisms into play and in order to engage these mechanisms onemust shift attention away from the purely physical. Reducinginterference from thoughts and other physical activity thereforeassists perception of non-physical information.

If you wish to practice this exercise alone you can do so byholding the tips of your fingers about two inches apart and lookingfor "something" to appear between them. If you sit in a dark roomwith a small light over your head or to the side, the rest of the roommay be dark enough to create the black background required. Areading light or candle can provide the proper lighting.

First hold your hands where they are comfortable, thefingertips an inch apart. Then move your hands back six to nineinches and focus your eyes between your fingertips. Then withoutchanging your focus, move your hands back to the first position. Itmay take several attempts before you can maintain your focus at themore distant position but within a few minutes you should be able todo this reasonably well.

With your hands in the first position and your finger tips aboutan inch apart, observe the blackness in the space between thefingers. You will begin to see a faint bit of light or color appearingbetween your fingertips. If there is a stringy or fibrous qualitystretching between your fingertips you are probably beginning to


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perceive the etheric aura. You can check this by moving your fingertips up and down relative to each other. If you are perceiving theaura the "stringy light" will stretch diagonally between your fingertips. It appears as a loose bundle of very faint, fibrous filaments ofdim, grayish light.

If instead you perceive a reddish glow around or next to yourfingers, it is most likely you are perceiving a "negative image"produced by visual stimulation of the rods and cones in your eyes.This is a less intense version of what happens when after looking ata bright light a splotch of color remains after you look away. Youmight try reducing the intensity of the light source if this unwantedeffect becomes distracting.

Whether you achieve results with this exercise right awaydepends entirely on your ability to shift levels of awareness. Peoplewho naturally approach life from an emotional or intuitive point ofview will achieve results more easily. Highly analytical persons willneed to pay closer attention to suspending their thoughts. It mighthelp if you focus on your emotions while simultaneouslyconcentrating on the visual aspects of this exercise.

Once you are able to perceive the etheric body you will befamiliar with how you focus your intent to make such perceptionpossible. Your mind is fairly still and you realize you are using youreyes in a different way. (It is actually possible to perceive auras withyour eyes closed, though you will still be "focusing" them in thesame way.) After you have succeeded in perceiving the etheric aura,you can perceive the larger aura by expanding your attention toinclude a larger field of view and simply waiting for the perceptionto become discernable.

One other aspect of the perception of auras is that some peopleperceive them directly on an intuitive level but can't see themvisually at all. They simply seem to "know" what is happening in theaura, and can describe the conditions almost as well as someonewho perceives them visually, though perhaps not in visual terms.Some people who do "energy work" or healing with their hands arein this category.


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Perceiving Auras: Summary of Instructions

Feeling the etheric aura –

1) One person lays on their back while the group attempts tofeel the etheric aura, a sensation like moving one's hands slowlythrough warm water, by moving their hands slowly one to twoinches above the laying person's body -- do not actually touch thebody.

Seeing the etheric aura –

1) Everyone sits in a comfortable position in a darkened roomwith a small light source above or to the side of the participants.(The object is for everyone to have their hands visible against ablack background.)

2) Hold the palms and fingertips about an inch apart and focusyour eyes 6 to 9 inches further back from your hands.

3) Look for the etheric aura to appear as a loose bundle ofgrayish "light fibers" in the darkness between your fingertips.

4) Move your fingertips up and down vertically to verify thatthe aura stretches between the fingertips.

5) Have one person (with tight fitting clothes) stand against ablack background. Everyone should focus their eyes 6 to 9 inchespast the body just off to one side. Look for the etheric aura to appearas a thin halo around the body.

Seeing the larger aura –

1) After performing step 5 above, with the person still standingagainst the black background, expand the area of visual perceptionto observe any light or color surrounding the entire body at adistance of up to two feet or more. The group should freely discusstheir perceptions to learn if the others are able to perceive the sameeffects.


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Using Ouija Boards

Overview and Instructions

Ouija boards are hard, flat surfaces printed with letters of thealphabet, numbers and symbols. You can find them in almost anystore that sells a large variety of board games. Generally, two ormore people place their hands very lightly on a "planchette" orpointing device which slides very easily across the surface.Questions are asked out loud and the pointer mysteriously slidesacross the board "all on it's own" to stop at letters or symbols oneafter another, spelling out answers in response to the questions.Often the person purported to be manipulating the movement of thepointer is someone who has crossed over to the next world.

Sometimes it is possible to receive very intelligent, oftenamazing information in this fashion. Other times the pointer refusesto move, or barely moves and turns out not to be worth the effort.Still other times the pointer will zip across the board so fast you canbarely manage to keep touching it. And there is no telling what sortof "character" you might encounter.

The best information comes when the movement of the pointeris reasonably fast and steady. A serious but lighthearted attitudegoes a long way toward deriving good results. It helps a lot to havesomeone who is not participating write down the letters and symbolsas they are indicated. Otherwise you must stop after every fewwords to write them down.

If the pointer refuses to move after several minutes, you canuse a method similar to Psychic Touch Dancing to get the pointermoving. This means one person agrees to move the pointerrandomly across the board while the others follow, and after amoment the “leader” stops moving the board deliberately. If thepointer continues to move he or she should indicate when deliberate


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movement was suspended. Other than doing this with everyone’sfull cooperation, no one should ever influence the boarddeliberately.

You should be prepared for the possibility of encountering apersonality who is foul and abusive. The attitudes of those operatingthe board has much to do with the type of personality that comesthrough, so remember to be serious but lighthearted. If youencounter abusive language or are otherwise offended, you canpolitely ask the "person" to step aside, take a brief break and thenresume. If this doesn't rid you of the "intruder" you will simply haveto put the board aside for another time.

It is important to be polite to your “guest” and say goodbye inan official way. It is also important to “clear” the energy of the spiritfrom yourself by imagining your aura filled with clear or white lightafter the board is put away. I know this sounds a little hokey, butspirits interact with us via our auras (you can sometimes feel thepresence of the spirit afterward) and this clearing process preventsthe spirit from hanging around uninvited.

It is very easy for people to influence the board eitherdeliberately or subconsciously, so there is no sure way to be certainof the source of the information. The spirit medium Jane Robertsoriginally encountered Seth, a source of amazingly intelligentinformation, via one of these boards, and it is possible you mightencounter your own "multidimensional self." But most important isthe information. If it helps you, the source isn't all that important,even if it is your own subconscious.


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Holding a Séance

Séances, or “home circles” as they were often called, becamewildly popular following the Rochester Rappings incident in 1848(see “Spiritualism” in the appendix). Within a few short yearsmillions of Americans were experiencing table tipping andcommunicating with spirits on a regular basis.

Basically, a séance consists of a group of people sitting in adarkened room (often pitch dark) with their hands on a table,everyone’s fingertips touching in order to form a circle of contact allaround the table. A wooden table works best, and sometimes thesitters hold hands rather than place the hands flat on the table. Theobject is to make contact with a discarnate spirit. If no one withskills as a medium is present, everyone sits in total darkness andtalks normally while simply waiting for something to happen.

A typical sequence of events begins with a sudden drop inroom temperature. Cool breezes are often felt upon the face andhands. Luminous lights may be seen, and eventually the table maybegin to vibrate or shake. The table may lift upwards at one end,which is where the term “table tipping” comes from. The table mayrise and fall in response to questions, bumping against the floor onceto indicate “yes” or twice to indicate “no.” Rapping sounds may beheard coming from the table, floor or walls, which respond toquestions in the same way.

It is very important not to break hand contact within thecircle. It is thought that the spirits draw their energy to communicatefrom the sitters, and breaking hand contact breaks the flow ofenergy. This use of energy in order to communicate may be whymany participants often report feeling physically tired after a séance.

It is possible to derive more complicated responses from thespirits by speaking letters of the alphabet in sequence, with thesound of a rap indicating a particular letter as it is spoken. Once the


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presence of a spirit has been indicated, it is often easier to light acandle, or turn on a dim red light, and communicate using a Ouijaboard. If raps are consistently heard, they can indicate letters byrunning one’s finger along a list of letters, such as those printed onthe Ouija board, the sound occurring when the selected letter isindicated.

It is important to create an atmosphere of positiveanticipation. Some skepticism is OK but the participants must beserious and not flippant, and anyone who might consider fakingparanormal effects “as a joke” should be excluded. Too much fear orseriousness can stop a phenomena from continuing, so everyoneshould remain calm and relaxed. An equal number of men andwomen are desirable and all those participating should be in goodhealth.

In the old days, there were generally one or more persons ata séance who acted as a medium, often going into trance to eitherspeak for the spirit contacted, or performing automatic writing.Many individuals first recognize their abilities to act as a mediumwhile participating in these home circles. The appendix containsdescriptions of many different phenomena reported to occur duringséances, including apports (materializations of small objects fromnearby), direct voice (voices heard coming from the floor orelsewhere), different smells such as those of perfumes or flowers,and the actual materialization of spirits.

It might be fun in a party situation to begin with some of theparty games just mentioned, then turn off the lights and form a circleto see what happens.


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Chapter Twelve:

Psychological Wisdom

This section of the book deals with what might best be referredto as basic wisdom. Some of it is purely practical information whichmay seem to have nothing to do with metaphysics, butenlightenment includes dealing effectively with the reality of everyday life. Understanding the basics of human nature is essential inunderstanding oneself, while an awareness that we are spiritualbeings in a spiritual (metaphysical) universe enables us to discoveropportunities that may otherwise escape our notice.

As Seth states in The Nature of Personal Reality, afundamental purpose of life is the experience of value fulfillment --to place value in the idea of experiencing certain events orconditions, and then experiencing those events or conditions. We aresingle-minded creatures in this regard, always pursuing that whichwe believe will fulfill our values. We strive to experience happiness,love, health, wealth, enlightenment, contentment, satisfaction,enjoyment, etc., and all of these conditions can be reduced to asingle psychological state of being: the experience of valuefulfillment.


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The Strawberry and the Astronaut

Imagine two people with very different value systems. Thefirst is a young man who in grade school makes a firm commitmentto become an astronaut and walk on the Moon. Because he places somuch value upon this potential future experience he makes greatsacrifices to achieve the goal. He takes science courses and stayshome studying while his friends get together to have fun. He joinsthe Air Force after graduating high school and enrolls in officertraining during college. He works and studies fourteen hours a day,exercises regularly to keep his body fit, becomes a pilot andvolunteers much of his almost non-existent free time to maximizehis flying hours so he can qualify for test pilot training. He continueshis education taking more than a full time class schedule for years,so that by the age of 24 he has his third doctorate degree and isaccepted into astronaut training. At 26 he is a candidate for a Moonmission but is not selected, which is a crushing emotional blow, buthis determination is unbending.

At 28 his goal is finally realized. He steps off the ladder of thelunar lander and feels the dust give way beneath his boot. The blueand white Earth floats above the crater-pitted horizon like a brightjewel in the star strewn blackness. His heart races with a rush ofsatisfaction. He has fulfilled his greatest value and couldn't behappier.

The other person in this story is an old woman who lives in asmall, rustic home in a valley between high mountains. She is awidow, alone, her children having moved to the city to make theirfortunes. It is the beginning of springtime after a long winter and shehas returned to her habit of taking her morning tea out on the porchto watch the sunrise.

One afternoon she goes into the nearby village and buys somestrawberry plants from an old friend who runs the garden nurserythere. She takes them home and plants them next to her porch, andevery morning while waiting for the kettle to boil she waters theplants and removes any weeds that may have sprouted. When thestrawberries begin to bud and grow she washes them gently and


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props them up off the ground with pebbles or small sticks. Oneparticular strawberry is much larger than the others. She knows itwill be the first to ripen so she watches it carefully. Finally shedetermines that on the following day, that particular strawberry willbe perfectly ripe.

In the chill morning she goes outside even before putting onthe water for her tea. She pulls the berry from it's stem and holds itup to watch the morning sunlight reflect on the glistening due. Thesunrise is beautifully serene with pastel colors warming the cloudsin quiet flame. She breaths in the fresh mountain air and takes ahuge bite of the strawberry. The tart, rich flavor explodes into hermouth. Her heart races with a rush of satisfaction. She has fulfilledher greatest value and couldn't be happier.

This story illustrates the nature of value fulfillment, and thepoint that it doesn't matter how challenging your goals are because ifthe intensity of the value is the same, the reward is the same.

Values and Beliefs

Where you place your values often determines whether youfind life rewarding or a hardship. It could be argued that the mainreason we are alive is to learn how value-fulfillment operates andwhich values are most conducive to rewarding experience. If there isa "better world" awaiting us after death, a world without excessivegreed, injustice, hate or violence, it would be necessary for thosewho occupy such a world to have attitudes (values) compatible withthat existence. In terms of physical life, happiness requires havingvalues which create a sense of harmony and satisfaction with ourexperience.

Our values are a result of our beliefs about ourselves and theworld around us. Initially, as children, we accept the beliefs andvalues held by our parents, then later in life we encounter othervalues and begin to pick and choose those we find most desirable.We also acquire many values without consciously realizing we aredoing so, and even those which we deliberately choose often turnout to produce detrimental results.

For example, a parent may value a spotless living environment


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and place great emphasis on never creating unnecessary clutter. Initself, placing value on good organization can be highly beneficial,but if the parent beats a child for making a mess, the child may learninstead to value a lack of discipline as an expression of personalpower. Our lives are filled with countless experiences which resultin a collection of beliefs and values which are often contradictory.That's why so many of us spend our lives striving to sort out thecontradictions and discover the values which produce the bestresults.

There are also those who are mentally too lazy to evaluate thequality of their accepted beliefs regarding what has value to them.They stumble through life continually repeating the same mistakes,either blaming others for their problems or feeling baffled as to whythings always seem to go wrong.

My experience tells me that just about all of us are "guilty" ofhanging on to beliefs we do not wish to question, often because wedo not realize the beliefs cause detrimental effects, or because webelieve changing our behavior would be too unpleasant. Andbecause we spend so much of our lives feeling unable to get beyondthe difficulties we encounter, it appears to us that no easy solution isavailable, but there is.

All of our behavior flows naturally out of our beliefs, sochanging behavior becomes easy when we change the beliefsassociated with the behavior in question. Solutions to long termproblems require recognizing where our beliefs do not reflect thetruth.

Much of the information in this section consists ofobservations designed to cut through limiting beliefs about yourselfand allow you to choose beliefs which empower you to fulfill yourdeepest values. As it has often been said, “the truth will set youfree.”

Self and Self Esteem

The first thing we have to do is free ourselves from limitingbeliefs about who we are. From the grand cosmic point of view, weare not our bodies, nor are we our beliefs about our bodies. We are


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not shy or confident, happy or sad, intelligent or stupid. We are notwhat we do for a living. We are not the things we perceive. We arenot our emotions. We are not our thoughts. We are individual pointsof consciousness which experience perception and make choices.

In more practical terms, you must realize that who you are iswho you have decided you are. If you believe you are confident, youare. If you believe you are worthless, you will act accordingly andexperience life from that point of view. Any belief you hold aboutyour individual self will be reflected in how you think, feel andreact. That means the quality of your experience is directly related toyour beliefs about the “quality” of your person.

Self esteem is a result of your judgment regarding your qualityas a human being. The only person capable of determining your selfesteem is yourself. As mentioned earlier, no one is handing outworthiness certificates, but all of us constantly decide how much selfesteem we have. For many of us, our level of self esteem fluctuatesconstantly depending on the situations we encounter at any giventime. While most of us have plenty of positive self esteem whenenjoying the company of friends, we can find ourselves feeling timidor insecure in other situations. Public speaking is an example wheremany people who normally feel confident can find themselvesfeeling nervous and insecure. A normally secure but “financiallychallenged” individual may feel uncomfortable among a group ofsophisticated, wealthy people, or someone may generally feel justfine about who they are until facing a disapproving parent, etc.

The degree of an individual’s positive self esteem is notconstant, then. It can change quickly and radically. That means youcan change your sense of self esteem at anytime, deliberately, tohave oodles of it simply by deciding to do so.

If you make that separation between who you are and whatyou perceive, you will no longer be forced to believe that you arethe way you may habitually feel about yourself. For example, let’stake a closer look at shyness. Shyness is a feeling. No one is shy,though many people feel shyness quite regularly. Those who thinkof themselves as being shy often feel very comfortable around lovedones, and at such times the shyness does not exist. Therefore thatperson is not shy, but rather has a tendency to feel shy under certain


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conditions. This clearly demonstrates that the person is separatefrom the emotion, that such characteristics are not constant, andtherefore what a person feels is not who the person is. There is adifference between feeling shy and being shy.

We are not our emotions. Our emotions change naturally allthe time, and we can choose how we want to feel without pretendingwe are changing who we are. “Phony people” are those whohonestly believe they are one way while trying to convince othersthey are some other way. No one likes to be around such a person.On the other hand, it is possible to choose to feel confident withoutbelieving it is a lie. Confidence is not a condition of being-ness, butan emotional attitude. It is a feeling. There is nothing phony aboutfeeling confident and full of healthy self esteem, to simply oozehappiness just because you feel like doing so. The more often oneexpresses a feeling of confidence and complete self acceptance, theeasier it becomes to express such feelings.

So please give that a try, right now. Let go of any “reasons”you might have to feel otherwise and let your heart crack a big, sillygrin. Imagine what it would feel like to have unlimited self esteem.“Pretend” you have it. Pretend you have all those qualities youthought you would need to have to feel that good about yourself.Imagine you have love, money, fame, attractiveness, all of that andmore. This is not an exercise in self deception, it is simply allowingyourself to have a feeling, a wonderful, happy, confident feeling. Letyourself have it, right now. There is no reason why you can’t feelgood like that for just one minute, and it feels great! So please, sit upstraight and tall and for thirty seconds clearly imagine what it feelslike to have a wonderful sense of confident, positive self esteem.Please do this now.

NLP (Neural Linguistic Programming)

If you are still feeling great right now, and still sitting upstraight and tall, tighten your dominate hand into a fist while holdingit to your side and mentally say, “Yes!” with genuine enthusiasm.Feel the wonderful, powerful emotion concentrated in your body,focus your attention on your hand and again think “Yes!” as you


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clench your fist.Feels great, doesn’t it?NLP, or Neural Linguistic Programming, involves the

relationship between emotion and physical body gestures. We are allfamiliar with the idea of “body language,” how our expressions,posture and gestures reflect our emotional state at any given time.NLP reverses that process, allowing us to control our emotional stateby controlling our body language.

In this next exercise, which I hope you will perform now,please sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor and rest yourelbows on your legs near your knees. Relax your back and let yourhead droop. While in this position, allow yourself to feel sad forabout 30 seconds. Just remember what it feels like when you arebummed out. Please do this now.

Feels crappy, huh?Sorry to take you there, but here comes the cool part.Now sit up straight and tall with your head held high, and try

to feel bummed out like you just did. Please do this now.

Can’t do it, can you? It’s very difficult to feel badly when youhave a great posture. The connection between physical expressionand emotion works both ways. If you didn’t realize the value of agood posture before I hope this makes the case for paying attentionin the future. A good posture can help you feel confident and selfassured, even when you may be under stress. If you imagine thatyou are being suspended from a string attached to the top of yourhead it’s possible to be fully relaxed without slumping, and it feelsgood.

Now, one more fun little experiment. Remember how greatyou felt a moment ago when you were enjoying that wonderfulsense of confidence and self esteem? Sit up straight, remember thedetails of that feeling and mentally say “Yes!” as you tighten upyour fist again. Please do this now.

OK, do it again. Feel it again. Tighten your fist again. “Yes!”Ah, that is a nice feeling, isn’t it?Associating a specific feeling with a specific physical gesture


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is called an “anchor” in NLP terms. We didn’t spend much timecreating that anchor earlier, so it may have been a bit difficult to pullback the feeling of profound self esteem, but if you spend some timecreating a positive feeling like that, and associate it with a physicalgesture and mental cue, the subconscious mind will instantlyprovide that feeling when you make the gesture in the future. Thiscan obviously be very useful. Closing your eyes and putting yourhands together as if in prayer will instantly produce a feeling ofcalmness for most people. Holding you fist near your shoulder, withyour arm muscles tight while leaning slightly forward, will mostlikely produce a feeling of aggression. These are examples of NLPanchors which occur naturally, and if you make those gestures youwill see how effectively they operate.

These experiments demonstrate how emotions can be changedvery quickly, and that you are not your emotions, because you are aconstant and your emotions are not.

Justifying One’s Existence

Comparing ourselves to others, or trying to live up to someoneelse’s standards, can lead to an endless degree of useless suffering.Seth points out that no one criticizes a squirrel for being what it is.Can you imagine a squirrel justifying it's existence by bragging thatit can carry 31 seeds in its mouth at one time, that its tail is bushier,or that it has climbed higher in the tree than the other squirrels? Doyou look at a squirrel scampering across the rocks and think it hasno right to act the way it does, to be what it is? You and everyoneelse have as much right to be here as a squirrel does, because we areall creatures of the Earth. Our behavior, right or wrong, is naturaland we do not need to justify our existence to anyone.

If you remember the story about the strawberry and theastronaut, you will recall that one person's values are just as valid asthose held by any other. It is simply useless to compare yourachievements to the accomplishments of others. It is, in fact, an actof self defeat to do so. The purpose of life is not to win incompetition, but to fulfill one’s sense of value. If you compareyourself to others you are forgetting that you alone are responsible


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for choosing the values which determine your happiness.

Acknowledge and Release

The following "serenity prayer" originated with the AlcoholicsAnonymous organization and is very popular among the 12-StepPrograms employed by different rehabilitation organizations. "Godgrant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, thecourage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know thedifference."

If you can't do anything to fix it, forget it.If you ask yourself if there is anything you can do to change a

situation and realize nothing can be done, or what can be done isn'tworth the effort, what good can be accomplished by dwelling uponthe issue? It only takes a moment to review a situation like this andask yourself what can be learned from it. Learn it, then drop it.Acknowledge and release.

“Hating someone is allowing a tyrant to live in your head rentfree” (anonymous). Long ago when I first heard this phrase Irealized how stupid it was to continue “giving power” to people Iblamed for hurting me in the past. When we hold resentmenttowards such people they continue to have power over the way wefeel long after they have left our experience. You can finally “win”in regards to such people by simply acknowledging that that part ofyour life is over and releasing your resentment. Life is much betterwhen hate is no longer part of your experience.

When one dwells upon some past event where nothing can bedone to change things, the power to deal with the situation remainsin the past -- where the power can not be used. You give your poweraway and feel like a victim. The same situation is involved whenyou feel that someone else has to change in order for things to bebetter. Reclaim your power. If you can't fix it, forget it.

Right and Wrong vs. "Good and Bad"

If it doesn't harm others, it's OK.If you don't harm others, you are OK.


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If you can honestly grasp the significance of the twostatements above, you can immediately free yourself from a ton ofunnecessary guilt. This definition of right and wrong applies to allsituations involving others.

All of us at one time or another have deliberately hurt others,emotionally and/or physically. It is part of the human experience.We generally do this as a form of reaction, to get even for othershaving hurt us. At some point, however, we realize that inflictingpain upon others is an inefficient form of value fulfillment because itperpetuates a cycle where those we hurt seek to hurt us in return. Ifharming others is part of our character, even if we manage to avoidthe pain of being attacked in some way, we end up being constantlyon the defensive, always looking over our shoulder or presenting adefensive wall to everyone we meet. Our interactions with othersbecome strained, we feel insecure. We don't trust others, who in turndon't trust who we are because they can tell there is somethinguneasy about us.

On the other hand, if you don't harm others deliberately youcan be assured you are a good person. You can respect yourself evenwith all your glaring imperfections. Parents spend decades teachingtheir children what they think of as the difference between right andwrong, but what they are actually teaching is morality, a subjectivevalue system dealing with what the parents, religion and localsociety consider “good and bad.” In some societies it is “wrong” fora woman to show her face in public or to be alone with a man who isnot a relative. Public nudity is “wrong” in some societies and anatural state of being in others. Something can not be right andwrong at the same time. The truth doesn’t change as a result ofwhere you happen to be standing on the planet.

Right and wrong can be defined as whether or not one'sbehavior harms others against their will. It's that simple. More harmthan good has been done by moral causes that promote standards ofbehavior which exceed this basic principle. Squirrels do not have tohold their tails just so to be accepted, and people do not have toconform to socially imposed limits if one's behavior does not forceothers to participate against their will.

To a large extent, commercial advertising, the entertainment


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media, government and religion are all responsible for makingpeople crazy. All of these institutions continually bombard us withdescriptions of expected behavior that few of us squirrels can, oreven desire, to emulate. If we don't have impressive possessions anda gorgeous body, or if we feel inclined toward personal behaviorthat does not conform to some artificially defined standard ofacceptance, we have trouble accepting who we are, we feel inferior,that something vague but serious is wrong with us. We develop“hang ups.”

Modern psychotherapy involves countless hours (and dollars)searching our past experience for the source of our psychologicalproblems. Save yourself some time and money. Be here now, in thepresent, and look through your past with one question in mind: Did Iharm others intentionally? Most of the problems you will discovercome from situations where others hurt you, so you are not to blame.All of those issues can simply be tossed out like the trash andforgotten. Acknowledge and release. In other situations you mayfeel guilty for hurting someone else. That brings us to anothercomment from Seth where he defines two types of guilt, natural andartificial. Natural guilt occurs before a person acts and has themessage, "don't do this." Artificial guilt occurs after an event whenyou are powerless to change things, and thus serves no purpose.

Responsibility Implies Control

You can not be held responsible for any situation you can notcontrol. Nor can you control anything without taking responsibilityfor the outcome.

Imagine you are standing on a street corner watching apreviously parked car which has slipped out of gear and is rollingrapidly down a hill. No one is in the car. You can not do anything tostop it from crashing into other cars parked on the roadway. Youmight be able to warn people to get out of the way but that is whereyour responsibility ends because that is the limit of your control.

When you look at issues in your past that distress you, ask ifyou had control. For example, many people can spend much of theirlives feeling guilty or victimized by sexual abuse experienced as a


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child. If you did not have control in such a situation you are notresponsible for it and can not be held accountable in any way. Anyguilt you may feel is therefore artificial and serves no purpose. Sodrop it. Get over it. Let it go. Acknowledge and release.

No one but you can control the way you feel if you takeresponsibility for your feelings. You are responsible for yourfeelings, therefore you are in control of them. Emotions which havebeen severely repressed may feel beyond your control when they aresuddenly expressed, but you can control your reaction to them byallowing them to happen when you choose to do so. If you ever findyourself experiencing an emotion which seems uncontrollable,momentarily remove yourself from the situation which brought iton, then deliberately seek to experience that feeling when you arealone. Acknowledge the emotion as a perception rather than part ofyour identity. As the feeling is experienced the energy of theemotion will exhaust itself and naturally transform into a differentfeeling. Once the energy has been depleted from the emotion it willno longer feel as if it is overwhelming. The feeling, along with anypast event which may have produced it, can simply beacknowledged as something you experienced and then released.Problem finished.

The more responsibility a person is able to take for theirpresent circumstances, the more control one has. Of course,overwhelming oneself with responsibility will simply result ineventual loss of control, but it is very important to takeresponsibility wherever it already exists.

Unpleasant social situations which may seem beyond one’scontrol can often be avoided by taking responsibility for whetheryou are involved in the first place. For example, it is often possibleto avoid violent situations simply by staying away from individualsand places prone to confrontation. Or should you see a violentsituation beginning to erupt you can simply “withdraw your energy”and refuse to participate. As a youth I realized I could “win” in asituation where I would normally have to fight, by “out thinking”the opponent, often by making someone laugh or pointing out thereisn’t any fun in beating up someone who won’t fight back. By takingresponsibility for whether or not I was going to fight I was able to


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control such situations well enough to avoid the problem.Whenever it appears one has no control, the way to gain

control is by recognizing where one has responsibility.

All Unhappiness Requires Self Pity

This is another, truly powerful insight if you are able to realizehow true it is. You can not change the past because you can notcontrol it from the present, and you can not control the desires andbehavior of others. All of our unhappiness comes from not acceptingthings as they truly are, from wishing and hoping but feelingpowerless to fulfill those desires (our chosen values). So we feelsorry for ourselves, helpless and/or victimized. We dive into selfindulgent self pity -- self inflicted pain. We indulge in self pitybecause it gives us a feeling of "artificial comfort." We sort of leanon our own shoulder, patting ourselves on the back like our own bestfriend and take comfort in feeling victimized. We get some sense ofsatisfaction out of it or we wouldn't do it.

But self pity feels awful when compared to anything likesimple contentment. Self pity hurts. It robs us of our sense ofpersonal power. It removes our feeling of responsibility, takes awayour control and turns us into victims. Self pity is totally self-defeating behavior and is the primary cause of all unhappiness. It is,in fact, the only cause of unhappiness.

No self pity equals no unhappiness.Self pity is like a shiny sliver hammer that we hold in our

hands and smack into our face. Indulging in self pity is just as stupidas smacking yourself in the face with a hammer and often hurts justas much. If you want to be happy, start by putting the hammer backon the table. Let go of it. Stop feeling sorry for yourself for just oneminute and you will see how much happier you are, instantly. Youwill also notice how much more powerful and in control you feel.That sense of power and control will not leave you as long as youdon't pick up the hammer again.

But you will pick it up, sooner or later. Self pity is a habit. It issocially acceptable in small doses, even encouraged by others whoin turn like to complain about how unfortunate their lives are. But


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self pity is like a warm, gooey tar pit, and although wiggling yourtoes in it can feel comforting, it is far too easy to slip in over yourhead and lose the power to be happy.

Staying away from self pity is a challenge that requiresresponsibility and awareness. It's easy not to smack yourself in theface with a hammer because you know with absolute certainty howmuch it will hurt, and it can be just as easy to stay away from selfpity if you realize it hurts you in a similar way. All one needs to dois clearly understand that all unhappiness is self inflicted, that itrequires giving up responsibility for the way we feel, and that weactually exercise our control when we choose to feel like a victim. Ifyou compare the feeling of simple contentment to the feeling of selfpity, there is no comparison. Thinking like a victim feels miserable,and all you need to do to be happy is put the hammer down.(Acknowledge and release.) The next time you are feeling unhappy,try not feeling sorry for yourself for just 30 seconds and you will beamazed at how much better you feel, instantly -- and even moreamazed at how easy it was to suddenly become happy.

I have always said that as long as you can at least fake a smile,you’re still doing OK. It’s when one can’t fake a smile that the selfpity hammer has gone too deep into one’s forehead and depressionbecomes an issue.

No One Does Anything They Truly Know to be Wrong

When I say no one does anything they know is wrong, yourfirst impression is probably that I must be wrong about that. Afterall, we have all done something, particularly as children, when weknew it was wrong to be doing it. It’s wrong to steal a piece ofcandy from a sibling, to stay out past the time we were supposed tobe home, etc. People often smoke when they are trying to quit andeat too much when they are on a diet. On a larger scale, peoplecommit violent crimes, rob banks, start wars, etc. Isn’t it obviousthat people do things they know to be wrong, all the time?

Nope.It is wrong for an adult to kick a five-year-old child in the

face, right? But say that child has a handgun and is shooting all his


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classmates on the school playground, and the only way for you tostop the shooting is to kick the kid in the face. Would it be wrong todo that? Of course not.

The key word here is know. If you know, for certain, beyondany doubt, that something is wrong, you simply can not do it. Forexample, could you smack yourself in the face with a real hammer?You could, but only if the reason or justification for doing soprevented you from concluding that doing so would be wrong. It isjust as impossible for a person on a diet to overeat as it is to cave inyour own face with a hammer -- if both activities are perceived withequal clarity as wrong behavior. There are no shades of grey when itcomes to whether or not something is wrong. It is either wrong or itis not wrong, and no one, under any circumstances, can dosomething if they are certain it is wrong to do it. This is one of themost basic instincts built into human consciousness and it can not beoverridden. The grey area in this regard is the reasoning involved indetermining whether a behavior is wrong or not.

If you truly understand that no one can do something theyknow to be wrong, that awareness makes it possible to understandwhy people do bad things. It isn’t wrong to them. Such peoplesimply don’t know better. Thieves understand that stealing isn’t agood thing as far as everyone else is concerned, but they justify whyit is OK for them to steal. The rest of us “know better” for a numberof different reasons. We want to keep what we have worked hard toacquire and know that others feel the same way. We know that if westeal from our friends we will soon have no friends, that if everyonesteals from everyone else there would soon be nothing left to stealbecause no one would make things, and we like to believe that weare capable of getting what we want through our own efforts. Formany people the only reason they don’t steal is fear of being caughtand punished.

Someone who steals, on the other hand, operates with adifferent set of beliefs. They may feel that the “system” exploitspeople by paying less than it costs to live even with a full time job,making it impossible to get the things they want without stealing.They may believe everyone is only out to benefit themselves in adog eat dog world, that the “smart” people simply take what they


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want, regardless of how it affects others. To a person who holdssuch beliefs, what they do isn’t wrong. It’s justified. It actuallyseems like the best thing to do. Such criminal behavior will cease toexist when it becomes impossible to find justifications that make itseem OK. Anyone who truly believes it is wrong to harm otherssimply will not harm others -- unless circumstances change to wherethey no longer hold that belief.

All Needs Are Based Upon Wants

If you don’t want to live, you don’t need to breathe.That pretty much eliminates any ideas you may have held

about being dependent. If you are dependent upon someone or something then you choose to be that way. You don’t have any needsunless you choose to have them. The want always comes first. Don’tlike your job? You don’t need it. You may have difficulty survivingwithout it, but you only need to work if you want to survive.Survival is a good thing. There are lots of good things worthwanting, but you should never feel that you have a need which isbeyond your control to eliminate.

Many people value the idea of being needed by someone in arelationship. The idea of need implies insecurity. People who likebeing needed by someone often feel insecure themselves and sharean equal need. It is far better to have deep appreciation for the otherperson being in one’s life. Appreciation does not restrict freedom inthe same way need does. Appreciation is not suffocating, nor does itimply insecurity. Appreciation implies respect, admiration andgratitude, which are elements of true love. As they say, “if you lovesomething, let it go.”

Relationships based upon mutual need (mutual insecurity)often deteriorate in quality over time. If one person feels the otherneeds them, it becomes easy to take that person for granted, to slipinto behaving in ways that demonstrate a lack of fairness andcourtesy, a lack of respect, which then causes resentments, breakdowns in communication, arguments and a deterioration in thequality of the relationship.

It’s OK to need someone, in the same way a particular tool is


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needed to do a particular job. We need the person we are involvedwith to be with us in order to have the relationship we want to havewith that person. But if we realize the need is based upon a want,and are secure enough to know we can get by just fine if our wantisn’t fulfilled, we are able to experience the relationship as anexpression of appreciation rather than need, as an expression of loverather than insecurity.

The Grand Cosmic Joke

It was prom night and you were going to be the envy of all theother girls 'cause the hot football star had asked you to the dance.You were almost finished getting dressed when his mother called totell you he was going to go with someone else and didn't have theheart to tell you sooner. CRASH! The world collapsed. There youare in tears with your make-up running down your face. You hadbragged to all your friends and now they would all laugh at you.You know you will never live it down for the rest of your entire life.It's the end. It's over. You wish you were dead.

Ten years later, what does it matter? Zip. Nothing. It is justanother example of childhood ignorance and stupid cruelty, longforgotten.

The same thing applies to your current experience. You couldsuddenly find yourself unemployed and on the verge of losingeverything you have work for all your life. You may be facing a truecrisis and believe there is no way you can come out of it OK.

You have survived every crisis you have ever experienced inyour entire life, so it is almost beyond doubt that you will survive thenext one. If you don't survive the next crisis you will be dead and thecrisis won't matter anyway.

That's the grand cosmic joke, and the joke is on us -- that wetake everything so seriously when in the long run nothing is moreimportant than anything else. Ten years from now whatever isstressing you out today will be long forgotten, so relax. No matterwhat the situation is you will get through it, just like you alwayshave before.


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True Confidence OccursWhen The Question Of Confidence Doesn’t Come Up

By now you should be able to see what it would feel like to bea truly confident person. It doesn't mean you are sure everything youattempt will be successful, it means you won't feel sorry for yourselfif you fail, and you won't be embarrassed by failure because youwon’t be overly concerned about how others will react. When youfind yourself in a situation that requires confidence you can forgetall the worry and stress associated with possible failure. You simplysucceed or fail - end of story. It adds up to, "Alright!" or, "Whoops!"and that's that. We move on.

Of course, we want to succeed, not fail, but success is not amatter of bravery and courage, it's just doing what needs to be doneand doing it right. Competence is the criteria that determinessuccess, and competence is an objective reality based uponknowledge and skill. Confidence, on the other hand, is an emotionalstate which occurs whenever you aren't concerned about thepossibility of blowing it.

The Importance of Honesty

While it would be wonderful if we could all be totally honestwith everyone, some people will not allow us to be completelyhonest because they will behave negatively toward us if theydisapprove of our behavior. “Honestly officer, it was just a glass ofwine with dinner.” To be completely honest at all times witheveryone can in fact be detrimental. Explaining that you truly hatethe dress your friend is wearing is often unnecessary and can causebad feelings which could be avoided with a bit of tact. There arelimits to how honest a person can and should be with others.

But honesty implies recognition and communication of thetruth. A relationship is communication, and you can easily assess thequality of your relationships by the degree of honesty each personfeels capable of expressing. Your best friends are those you are ableto be the most honest with, and as a result they are capable ofknowing your true self with the greatest clarity. Such friends deserve


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the benefits of courtesy and tactfulness as well as your honestopinions.

Problems arise whenever one feels compelled to be deceptive,particularly when such a condition becomes habitual. It can createconfusion in one’s own mind regarding what the truth really is. Italso generates a feeling of resentment toward the person you believeto be restricting your freedom, or a sense of guilt can develop if youbelieve you are actually in the wrong. In every case, the more onefeels the need to be deceptive, the greater the loss of self esteem.The inability to be honest with others also implies a lack of honestywithin oneself, since if you were truly honest with yourself youwould find ways to resolve any situation which causes suchproblems.

Being Willing To Be Wrong

Realizing you have been wrong is a blessing because therealization means you have changed your mind and are no longer inerror.

A lot of people act like know-it-alls and refuse to considerother opinions in a serious way. We've all met people like this. Theyare usually quite intelligent and pride themselves in having thoughtthings out carefully. But their inflated sense of self importance isdirectly connected to "being right" and the fear of being wrongcauses them to avoid any information that might disturb their pre-conceived conclusions. Religious zealots and social moralists oftenfall into this group. They fear that if an opinion they hold strongly isseen to be incorrect, then who they are will be seen as inferior. Theyhaven’t separated who they are from the ideas they happen to hold.People who refuse to reconsider the validity of their conclusionscease to learn and end up becoming what they so despise -- stupid.

The truth is we are not our opinions. We are individuals whocan accept or discard our opinions at will. If our ideas turn out to bewrong, we are not wrong -- the idea is simply incorrect.

There is nothing wrong with taking pride in one's knowledge.If you place value in knowing the right answers, then it must beobvious that holding rigidly to a point which may someday prove to


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be incorrect is defeating your purpose. If you are correct, then thereis nothing to lose by being willing to reconsider all the evidence,which will only verify the truth you already hold. If a reinvestigationof the facts results in proving your previous conclusion was in error,you win anyway. The object is to be aware of the truth, and thesooner you realize where you have made a mistake the sooner youstop being wrong.

You can not be certain you are correct if you are not willing todiscover that you may be wrong. Learning that your ideas have beenincorrect brings you closer to the truth. It's actually a very goodthing when it happens. If you are honest with yourself you willprobably agree that we are all wrong about something.

Every Extreme Implies The Opposite

What is behind the attitude of a know-it-all person? Fear ofbeing wrong. What is inside the aggressive person who refuses toshow any sign of confusion or weakness? Intense insecurity. Thosewho are violent fear they are weak. Inside the timid, self effacingperson is someone who considers oneself superior, holding backresentment toward those who seem confident and aggressively incontrol.

Wherever you find any sort of extreme in personal behavior,the opposite lurks in the background. This is very useful informationto keep in mind because it can quickly provide insight into thecharacter of the people you encounter.

Understanding that every extreme implies the opposite alsomakes it possible to understand your self much more effectively.Any extreme quality you find in yourself points directly to theopposite characteristic, which you have probably been avoiding.Getting a good, solid grip on the issues we avoid within ourselves isthe first step in resolving those issues. Ask yourself if you areextremely one way or the other about any particular issue orpersonality characteristic, and you will probably discover a “hidden”truth about yourself at the opposite end.


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Nothing About You Needs Defending

Some people are hard to communicate with because they havea perpetually defensive attitude. They always have their guard up,always respond as if someone is criticizing them, always feel as ifothers are out to deceive them or take undue advantage in some way.I have never known anyone, including myself, who wasn't "guilty"of this at one time or another. There is nothing wrong in choosing tobe that way, or with dragging a hundred pound shield around withyou everywhere you go, but the result is about the same. Beingdefensive won't stop anyone from attacking you, and lifting a heavyshield will exhaust you before any battle begins. Being defensiveisn't a particularly enjoyable way to live, for the defensive person orthe people who always have to peer around the heavy shield.

When you stop defending yourself you realize nothing neededdefending in the first place.

The solution is to figure out what it is you are afraid of andrealize it doesn't need defending. Are you afraid people will figureout you are sensitive and vulnerable? Anyone who knows that everyextreme implies the opposite will figure that out the moment theysee your defensiveness. So OK, they found out. Now what do youdo? Panic? Then what?

What happens is, nothing. You will respond in whatever wayis necessary regardless of whether or not you were defensivebeforehand. If you remember that you have survived every crisisyou have ever experienced you won't fear not surviving the nextone.

The phrase, "there is nothing to fear but fear itself," isn't truein all circumstances. Fear is a built-in biological response intendedto maximize our alertness in survival situations. It is wise to feardiving into an empty swimming pool because such a fear canprevent you from doing that and so keep you alive. But fearoccurring in non-survival situations is an artificial fear, much likeartificial guilt. Both of these artificial conditions invoke deep,instinctive responses which are completely inappropriate in purelypsychological situations.

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physical well-being is being threatened. If it isn't, all you are doingis holding up a very heavy shield to protect you from . . . nothing atall. That shield keeps people from relating to the real you, andprevents you from recognizing others as they really are. It weighsdown your experience in life with an artificial heaviness wheninstead you can feel light and truly free.

Anyone who has a problem with being defensive is in denialabout some flaw within their self. Otherwise they would simplyadmit the imperfection, say something like, “oh well,” and move on.Most of us can find things about ourselves we don't want everyoneand their dogs to know about, but there is a difference betweenmaintaining personal privacy and "hiding" from being recognized. Ifyou agree with the statement, "if it doesn't harm others it's OK," thatshould eliminate any artificial guilt and reduce the number of thingsyou feel defensive about. As for the rest, if one takes the time tothink about it, if you ask what it is you are defending, you will seethere is nothing that needs to be defended. It is a very liberatingfeeling when you realize this simple truth.

We do not have to justify our right to be who we are. As longas we don't intentionally harm others we are OK. When we stopdefending ourselves we experience self acceptance - true innerpeace. It is a beautiful, calm feeling, and it's very easy and simple toachieve and maintain. Just stop defending yourself and you willrealize what a waste of energy being defensive has always been,how it has harmed the overall quality of your experience in life, andhow valuable it is not to become defensive in the future.

About Unconditional Love and Being Judgmental

There is an apparent conflict between the concept ofunconditional love and the need to be aware that not everyone isworthy of trust. In the first place there is no unconditional love, atleast not in human experience. Love happens when someone isrecognized as being "special" relative to others. Otherwise we wouldfeel the same degree of love for everyone; for our children, parents,friends, lovers, crooked politicians, child molesters and tyrantscommitting genocide. It simply isn't possible to feel the same love


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for your child and the man who rapes and murders that child.In spite of this there is a soul inside everyone who is a portion

of God, of the Source, of All There Is. That soul exists in all of usand in greater terms it is good. From an enlightened perspective it ispossible to recognize this good soul in anyone, and you don't have tobe godlike to do so. A mother can love her newborn and see thatsame, innocent soul in the eyes of that child when grown to becomea heartless criminal. Sometimes you can see the good soul in theeyes of your lover when you are so angry you aren't speaking toeach other. The closest we can come to true unconditional love ashuman beings is to look for the good in all those we meet. Perhapssome all-knowing god is capable of truly unconditional love, but inreal life we must deal not only with a person's good soul, but alsowith their behavior.

We must judge the character of others in order to avoid beingharmed by unfair behavior, to insure our survival, to rewardbehavior we appreciate, etc. If we do not make character judgmentswe trust everyone equally and set ourselves up to be cheated andabused. Not making judgments becomes a personal fault in thatcase, and creates unnecessary suffering.

The important distinction here is what we judge. None of ushave the right to pass judgment on the soul of any individual,because it is very unlikely that we could criticize any soul if weperceived it with true clarity. But we are obligated by reason tojudge the behavior of those we interact with. The importantdistinction is that we do not judge people, but only their behavior.

There Is No Force of Evil

If God created everything, then God created what we perceiveas evil.

Everything in this universe is counter-balanced with anopposite: black and white, up and down, male and female, etc.Without what we consider to be bad we would not appreciate good.Without cold, wet, windy days we would be forever bored withwarm, sunny days. So what we consider “bad” often serves apurpose that enables us to value what we consider good. “Bad”


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things are therefore part of a greater good.But there is no devil out to destroy all that is good. There are

no inherently evil souls, only individuals who behave in evil ways.As mentioned in the section on drug use, I once encountered “thehost of hell” on a bad LSD trip, which at the time appeared to me asmore evil experienced all at once than this world has seen in it’sentire history. But if such evil were truly independent and powerfulin the way it appears to be, it would have been impossible for me toterminate the experience, which I did. I am a mere mortal, so howcould I have escaped such evil if it were the powerful, independentforce it appears to be? Evil ceases to exist the moment one no longerbelieves it has power.

We Are All Selfish and Always Will Be

When you give a gift to someone, contribute to the namelesshomeless, or otherwise do something nice for others, you do sobecause you place value in performing such actions. If you did notvalue being kind, you would not choose to be kind. Being“unselfish” therefore provides you with the fulfillment of a sense ofvalue. Value fulfillment is a reward, so you get something in returnfor your kindness. In other words, your kindness is motivated byselfishness, by your desire to get the feeling you want.

Just as none of us are capable of doing something we know tobe wrong, we are likewise incapable of performing a truly selflessact. Many of us have sacrificed, sometimes believing we are doingso against our will, but in every case we have chosen to fulfill someother value in the process. We have gone without comforts andfreedoms in order to provide for our children, but those who do notplace value in providing for their children do not do so. We maygive to our church or some charity at significant personal loss, yetwe would not give if we did not prefer the reward of giving over thereward of avoiding such loss.

This does not mean that kindness does not benefit others, sinceothers are often helped in the process. But kindness would not existif it did not also fulfill a selfish value, if it did not benefit the onebeing kind. An example of the truth of this is found in one’s


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response to providing help that is not appreciated. If the desire to beappreciated is part of the motivation to be kind, and the appreciationis not forthcoming, the desire to help goes away. Anonymous givingdoes not require recognized appreciation in return, but if you knewthat your gift was completely discarded, simply flushed down thetoilet or wrongly appropriated by corporate executives, chances areyou would not wish to give in the same way again.

When a person realizes the “selfishness” involved in beingkind, one avoids the sense of self righteousness and superiority thatcan come from “self sacrifice.” Kindness actually feels better whenyou realize you are giving to yourself as well as to others.

Fairness is a requirement, kindness is a gift.

Feelings Follow Thought

Feelings follow thoughtFirst you thinkAnd then you feelWhat kind of thought you’ve got

Although it can sometimes appear that your emotions come toyou “out of the blue,” feelings always occur in response to thought.The thoughts are not always articulated as mental words, but theintent or idea will exist prior to the experience of the correspondingemotion.

Emotions are a form of mental shorthand. As mentioned in thePsychic Window chapter, an “intuitive package” is a feeling whichcontains large amounts of information which must later be strungout into a series of words to be clearly expressed. Intuition can bedescribed as being half way between an emotion and a thought.Intuition contains more specific information than emotion usuallydoes, and has the quality of thought without the word symbolism.But emotions also contain information of a broader nature.

Our emotions express the overall “quality” or “correctness” ofthe thoughts or ideas which proceed them. Because of this, emotionscan be understood as a form of communication from the deeperportions of oneself.


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If you are alert to your emotional responses as you ponderpossible decisions, you will see this communication in action. Forexample, if someone where to suggest that you smack yourself inthe face with a hammer, you would probably experience a feelingtelling you that isn’t such a great idea. The feeling happens beforethe words form in your mind, but the feeling is in response to theprevious thought. Women are often more aware of thiscommunication from within than are men, though in general womenare less aware that their emotions are proceeded by thought. Theimportant point is to realize that this process operates in all of us,and by observing our emotions as we ponder potential decisions wecan trust them to help guide us. This implies more than simplyacting upon our emotions. It means recognizing the emotions, thenconcentrating upon them long enough to translate them into wordswhich make sense to our reason.

Celebrate Your Issues

We’ve all got them -- quirks, hang-ups or attitudes that seemto bother us relentlessly. Whether it is being overweight, shy,insecure, poor, unintelligent, ugly, lazy, addicted, socially boring,superior, inferior, the wrong race or gender, indulgent, sexuallyweird, dishonest, uncompromising or what-have-you, we all dealwith various personal issues over the course of our lives. Most ofour issues are temporary and cease to be a problem once we learnthe lessons they are meant to teach us, while others remain part ofour personality for many years.

The first step in resolving personal issues is realizing theyexist. All you have to do is ask yourself what topics or situationsmake you feel uncomfortable, and your issues will be quite clearlyperceivable. They feel like anchors holding us back from being ableto truly enjoy life, and we would all like to be done with them, onceand for all.

But our particular issues are there for a reason. The difficultieswe encounter in particular areas of life are a source of challenge andvalue fulfillment. Cows don’t have “issues.” All they need to do iseat, drink and mate, and they are content to be unconcerned about


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anything else. But human experience is filled with choices, and oneof the most important choices we make is determining what sort ofperson we want to be. We choose our values and then try to live upto them. In doing so we learn the pros and cons of our choices, learnthat conflicting beliefs are often involved, and resolving thoseconflicts becomes a challenge that gives meaning to our lives.Without them we would cease to grow and would have no empathyfor others whose issues are different.

Our particular issues define the nature of our personality andmake us who we are as individuals. If we had different issues wewould not be who we are. So embrace your issues. Celebrate themas key components of what makes you unique in the world, thespecial person that you are. Know that when you resolve yourcurrent issues new ones are likely to replace them, just as other newchallenges will open up before you. We must strive to resolve ourissues just as surely as cows must eat, but we can do it with joy andenthusiasm knowing how much we will grow in the process.

Success is Loving Life

To rise from your bed refreshed and energized, excited to seewhat wonders another day will bring to your experience -- That iswhat loving life is like. If you feel that good about your life you aresuccessful. It doesn’t get any better than that. How could it?

That’s success. There is no better definition of personalsuccess than to be loving your life, and you don’t have to have aperfect life to be living successfully, right now.

If I drop my silly justifications for self pity, and imaginewhat it feels like to be loving life, I get this terrific feeling comingover me. I can remember moments from earlier in my life,particularly as a child, when I felt wonderful, when I was trulyloving life at that moment. Remembering those feelings changes theway I feel now. By concentrating on the feeling of loving life, thefeeling becomes stronger. I feel successful, right now, because I amable to recall the feeling from my past.

If I then tell myself, “I do love my life,” I can experience thatfeeling fully in my present moment. I am not deceiving myself here.


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I simply say, “I love my life,” and look for supporting evidence. Ifyou throw away self pity for just a moment, the evidence will bethere. Evidence means it is the truth.

So here I am, as I write this, feeling much more successfulthan I did a moment earlier. I have changed my emotionsdeliberately. The fact that I love my life changes everything. I amable to love my life! What an incredible thrill!

I repeat: you don’t have to have a perfect life to be livingsuccessfully, right now. When you choose to love your life you cannot help but have an attitude of gratitude, which is the key todeliberately creating reality. It is simply impossible not to havegratitude when you love your life. You can’t love your life unlessyou choose to love it, and what is the greatest expression ofappreciation? Gratitude.

I love my life in this moment because I choose to love it, andbecause I see the evidence in my immediate environment (all I haveto be grateful for) it becomes and is the truth.

Choose to be successful, love your life, and you are.


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Chapter Thirteen:

Getting It Together

In this chapter I will explain how you can achieve just aboutanything you set your mind to accomplish, easily. The process issimple: Turn problems into challenges and only do what you want todo. Sounds pretty easy if it will work, right? It works.

Getting your "act" together is really a matter of decidingwhat you want. The hard part isn't the doing of something, but ofdeciding what you truly want to do. For example, there is no wayyou could get me up on the side of a thousand-foot cliff climbingtoward the top because I have absolutely no desire to do such aninsane thing, yet there are people who relish the thought of beingthere and make rock climbing a priority in their lives. What you dois unpleasant only if you don't want to do it. Anything you trulywant to do is a joy. Even if you presently believe your only optionsare undesirable it is possible to think your way out of thatpredicament. Getting it together is all about wanting to do whatmakes your life better.

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What you need to doTo do what you want to do

Indulgence, Discipline and Self Control

"For the lazy I can offer no hope." (Seth)I fought to find a way around that statement for decades, but

when it comes down to it I have to admit he is right. If you wantcontrol over the conditions of your life you have to take control ofyourself. That should be obvious. The trick is to learn how to do thateasily.

There is only one cause of laziness -- for whatever reason wedo not believe the reward will be worth the effort. We have nodifficulty climbing the hill if we know the view will be spectacular.We would wade through a sewer if we knew there is enough moneywaiting at the other end, and parents make personal sacrifices dailyin order to care for their children. At other times we may be sodepressed we can't force ourselves out of bed for any reason. It allcomes down to believing the reward will be worth the effort.Another way of looking at it is values dictate behavior.

If you were to make a list of all the behaviors you would liketo change, but have yet to make those changes, you would at thesame time be making a list of behaviors you don't want to change. Ifyou truly wanted to change a behavior the change would havealready been made. If the change hasn't been made, confusion stillexists. There is a conflict in your value system.

The cause of these conflicts is often a result of the differentvalue we place on immediate conditions as opposed to long termconditions. You may want to quit smoking, for example, but beunable to quit, simply because in the present the value you placeupon having a cigarette is greater than your long term value of notsmoking. Values held in the present always win. If you aren't clearabout what you truly want all you have to do is look at your presentbehavior. You are doing what you want to do. That's why you arestill doing it. Doing what you want to do is easy. When you changethe values you hold in the present, what you honestly want changes


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and behavioral changes follow automatically. That means anybehavior can be changed as easily as you can change your mind.

Knowing that it is impossible to do anything which youknow, for sure, to be wrong, can enable you to accomplish amazingfeats of "self discipline." Any desired behavioral change can beaccomplished effortlessly by tapping into the primal power whichprevents us from doing wrong behavior. For example, if you arecertain that it is wrong for you to smoke you will not be able tosmoke another cigarette, nor will you have any desire whatsoever todo so. The trick is to think things out so thoroughly and completelythere is no additional information which could later appear andcause a revision of your conclusion. That is where there real effortis: thinking things out.

Anyone who is successful at achieving a disciplinedbehavioral change actually goes through this process of concludingthat for them, the undesired behavior is wrong. If it is not wrong,then there is no reason to alter the previously existing behavior. It isnot just a matter of concluding that things would be "better" if thebehavior were changed. Making things "better" may be the initialvalue, but once a goal is accepted as a deliberate decision, itbecomes wrong to behave in ways which defeat the achievement ofthe goal.

The really good news is that none of us have to forceourselves to do anything we don't want to do. I spent years trying toforce myself to be self disciplined but could never keep thingstogether over the long run. The reason for such consistent failurewas a set of conflicting beliefs. On the one hand I wanted toexperience all the benefits of disciplined behavior, but on the other Ibelieved life should be enjoyable rather than a means of selfsacrifice. To me the idea of discipline was associated withpunishment, something one is forced to endure because of someearlier failure or lack of proper behavior. Self discipline became selfpunishment, self torture. The way to stop the torture was to stop thediscipline. I'm sure most of us have experienced this same sort ofconflict.

If you pause to think about positive behavioral changes youhave made in the past, you may remember times when such changes


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turned out to be much easier than you had imagined they would be.In many cases the initial effort is very, very difficult, but then thedetermination finally sets in and from that point on things becomeeasier, almost effortless. It isn't the determination that makes thingseasier, it is realizing that it would be wrong not to behave in the wayyou had decided to behave.

So you can forget about forcing yourself to make positivechanges in the way you do things. The whole idea of "force" is inconflict with desire (chosen values) and that's why self disciplinecan seem like such an undesirable way to do things.

Changing behavior requires being honest with oneself, andthat includes acknowledging the possibility that any present,indulgent behavior may actually provide more value fulfillment thanyou would experience by eliminating that behavior. Being"spiritual" does not preclude enjoying the pleasures of life -- quitethe opposite in fact. But if your pursuit of immediate gratificationcreates long term detrimental effects it becomes obvious that suchbehavior results in less pleasure overall. If one clearly understandsthat the goal is to experience the maximum amount of satisfaction inlife, then it becomes much easier to modify present values toachieve the most desirable long term results.

The way to achieve deliberate behavioral modification isthrough intelligent self control. Self control is not self sacrifice. It issimply acting deliberately. The way to apply self control to behaviormodification is to select one area to work on, look closely at the prosand cons involved (in both immediate and long terms), determinethe behavior which produces the most value fulfillment overall, thenbehave accordingly. This may seem far too simple to be effective inpractice, but if you examine your options in enough detail anybehavior becomes easy to modify.

Don Juan says, "A warrior thinks and thinks and thinks, butonce a decision is made he never looks back." I prefer to think thatany decision I make is open to modification if new information ispresented, but if you do your thinking well enough before making adecision there should be little chance the decision will later need tobe altered.


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Think about every aspect involved in changing a particularbehavior, including how your decision may affect others and howtheir reactions may affect you. Over the course of several days,make a list or sit quietly contemplating all the pros and cons. Bethorough, take absolutely everything into consideration you canpossibly imagine. Think about potential future conditions whereyour efforts to modify your behavior may become difficult tomaintain. Imagine that your will power may not be as great as youwould like it to be, and remember that will power is not necessary ifyou know what you want with enough clarity. Allow yourself not tomake the decision to change. If you decide to change, allow it to beOK if you falter in your commitment now and then -- if that is whatit takes to get you through. But realize the reason you want tomodify your behavior is to get the most reward possible, to be theperson you want to be.

Self control is doing what you deliberately choose to do,even if you deliberately choose to be an indulgent pig. Disciplineimplies evaluating how to get the greatest reward overall and usingself control to achieve those ends. Disciplined self control turns outto be the best way of maximizing self indulgence, since using thetwo together allows one to avoid negative consequences. Butdiscipline does not mean self sacrifice. It means knowing exactlywhat you truly want and doing what you choose to do to have it.

Do What Needs To Be Done

Survival is our first priority. You can not concentrate uponexpanding awareness and gaining more power over your life if youare constantly distracted by basic survival issues. Survive is the mostfundamental instinct in all living creatures, and if you are distractedby questions of basic survival they will take precedence over allother considerations.

Survival is so important that everyone has a very clear idearegarding what they should be doing to insure it happens. One mightbe filled with confusion, such as whether to go to school or whatsort of job to get, whether to trust a roommate to pay their end of thebills or if one should marry for financial security, etc. You may be


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unemployed and convinced there simply are no jobs available. Butyou can cut through all that instantly simply by acknowledging thatone must survive and choosing to do the obvious. The answer isalways there. Just do it. You can find more enjoyable solutions later.Evidence that some sort of solution is always available isdemonstrated by the fact you are still alive. You have always founda way to survive.

"Do what needs to be done" should, ideally, be applied toeverything in life. But once survival is no longer an issue everythingbecomes optional and clear cut decisions are no longer so obvious.

One of the most valuable bits of knowledge I possess is dothe smart thing rather than the easy thing. I believe it may be thekey to maturity, if used in moderation, of course.

When I am presented with an opportunity to do the smartthing rather than the easy thing, I ask myself if I feel inspired to dothe smart thing or not. If I do, I do it. If not, I don't. I am applyingmyself toward doing the smart thing as often as I can generate theinspiration to do so. The more smart things I do, the better I feel, butI don't beat myself up if I decide to take it easy for a while. Dealingwith "nasty chores," you know, the stuff you usually put off as longas possible, is an example of smart vs. easy. The more "undesirablechores" one does, the fewer of them one has left to deal with. Prettysoon there are only easy things left to do, and that is a nice feeling toexperience day after day.

Doing the smart thing is an example of taking responsibility,and responsibility implies control. Control equals power.

Becoming Organized

Take a look at your personal environment and ask yourself ifit reflects the person you want to be. Is your living space neat andorganized, or piled with debris? Most of the time, one's personalenvironment is a direct reflection of the current state of one's innerbeing. An exception is when someone may be obsessive aboutneatness or how others perceive them, when a tidy environment,perfect hair, etc., is simply an expression of their neurosis. Generally


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speaking, however, if your environment is a mess, so is your senseof inner organization.

A clean, organized environment provides a stable "home" forone's self esteem. Your personal environment is within your powerto control, and if you are not controlling the space you live in youare unlikely to have effective control of conditions in the largerworld around you. I'm not saying that everyone functions betterusing filing cabinets than with organized piles of paper, but the issueis gaining control of one's life, and control of one's environment is agood place to start.

Do you want more control of your life? Then begin by takingcontrol of the little, easy things you might generally let slide. Cleanup the mess in the kitchen, get the clothes put away, vacuum out thecar, etc. Then make a point to stay on top of things so you neverhave a big mess to deal with. If you spend a few minutes each daykeeping things tidy you will spare yourself an equal amount of timefeeling bad about having a mess to deal with. It may seem trivial todeal with such mundane things, particularly when your real interestis to make a million dollars or otherwise create an ideal life, but"every journey begins with the first step." Taking control of yourpersonal environment will reinforce your sense of positive selfesteem and enable you to feel like you are more in control ofyourself. It will prove that you have some power over the conditionsof your life.

Hatha Yoga and Maintaining Physical Health

Performing a daily routine of hatha (physical) yoga candefinitely improve the quality of one’s life. Hatha yoga is an Easternsystem of meditative stretching exercises, thousands of years old,which releases energy said to be trapped in our joints. The word"yoga" means "union," and these physical exercises unify our body,mind and emotions into an integrated, smoothly functioning system.

Properly performing these yoga exercises involvesconcentrating attention on what is occurring within the body whileholding oneself in various stretching positions. With one's attentionfully focused on the body, it is impossible to be concerned with


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unresolved issues in life. The stress associated with those issuesdisappears. Physical energy increases along with a sense of wellbeing, leaving one both energetic and emotionally calm. There isalso a sense of pride in having the discipline required to do theexercises daily, which provides a feeling of confidence and selfcontrol. Yoga exercises do not involve strain and the physical effortis minimal, so the practice is essentially pleasant, even sensual.

If you do nothing else to improve the quality of your life,hatha yoga is my recommendation for a good place to start. Twenty-Eight Day Yoga Exercise Plan by Richard Hittleman is perhaps thebest book for beginners, with hundreds of photos and step by stepinstructions.

Every time I break down and start doing yoga again my lifeimproves (due to the effects mentioned above). Any form ofphysical exercise is beneficial, but with most forms of exercise itdoesn't matter what one is doing mentally. People often watch TV orread a book while running on a treadmill, listen to music while theyjog, etc. This often ignores the benefits of integrating mind,emotions and body into a smoothly functioning unit.

All forms of yoga involve meditation (in this caseconcentration upon the body) and result in greater mental control.Feelings follow thought, so a calm mind results in emotionalstability, which produces a sense of confidence and the capacity forgreater awareness. Yoga eliminates nervous tension, develops poiseand balance and allows a person's natural beauty to flow outwardfrom within. The sense of having discipline, the often "luxurious"feeling of energy, and improved physical appearance encourage ahealthy self esteem, which is one of the most valuable beliefs onecan hold about oneself. And being physically fit dramaticallyreduces the odds of developing chronic illness. Yoga is also easyrather than strenuous, and I really like that word, "easy."

Taking care of one's mind, body and emotions creates astable platform from which other activities can be pursued, but itcertainly isn't necessary to exercise in order to develop psychicabilities or achieve other goals. Beliefs create reality. Yoga helps inthe ability to concentrate upon desired beliefs.


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As Seth says, “Health is the natural state of the body.” It willremain healthy so long as our beliefs do not interfere with thisnatural state of being.

Because our beliefs about our body determine how well itfunctions, it is possible to remain healthy regardless of diet orexercise. The body is capable of synthesizing the nutrients it needsfrom just about whatever junk you put into it. But it is easier tobelieve the body is healthy and perfectly fit if you do things whichreinforce that belief. Exercise, vitamins and a nutritious diet reducethe degree of "magical power" one must believe one possesses inorder to maximize physical fitness.

Establishing Routines

Don Juan made a big deal about how detrimental it was forCarlos Castaneda to have predictable routines. "A hunter discovershow to trap his prey by learning to predict their routines." I avoidedroutines as much as possible for some time, but then realized donJuan's recommendations were those of someone who didn't live inmodern society. In our fast paced world it is often necessary toperform some behaviors repeatedly on a daily basis. For example,we need to shower, shave, eat, dress, get the kids ready for school,do laundry, and dozens of other things repeatedly as we go about ourlives, and it makes sense to do these things in an efficient, routinefashion.

Establishing a daily routine, with variations for holidays,weekends, and "to heck with it" days, can enable us to do more inless time. If the routines are too rigid, we can become unhappy andfeel like our routines have more control over our lives than we do.The ideal balance is found by remembering that we only do what wewant to do.

We create our routines by recognizing the value ofperforming certain repetitive behaviors at times when doing themwill not interfere with our other activities. It's no fun to be invitedfor a night out when you have nothing to wear because you haven'tdone your laundry. If you want to do yoga or any of the manyexercises in this book, but don't deliberately make time to do such


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things, you may often find yourself going to bed without havingdone what you wanted to do. In general, the whole idea of having tolive with time consuming routines sucks, but when one sees they arethe best way to do what you want to do, then routines are seen tohave value.

So think about making a list of the activities you want to doon a daily and weekly basis and determine a time to do them. Justmake a list for tomorrow and see how it goes. Find out what workswell and what doesn't, then modify your list for the next day.Continue experimenting until you have a routine that enables you todo all the things you want to do in the most efficient mannerpossible. Remember all those activities are things you want to do, sodon't do them if you don't feel like it. But keep in mind that even"nasty chores" are things you want to do because not doing themcreates an even less desirable outcome. An efficient routine, if it isn'ttoo rigid, is the best way to exercise control of your self and yourimmediate environment.

The Reality of Laziness

I like to be lazy. I really enjoy being able to lay aroundindulging in simple pleasures. I like being lazy so much I have spentmost of my life finding ways to maximize my ability to spend aslittle time as possible doing things I "have to" do. One of my mostimportant goals was to avoid having to get up to an alarm clock, andnow that is something I hardly ever need to do. But there issomething I enjoy even more than being lazy, and that is feelingmotivated and inspired in my work, to get out of bed lookingforward to a happy, productive day, enjoying the knowledge that Iam living the life I truly want to live.

You are living the life you want to live. You may be able tofind a million things you wish were different about your life, but ifyou truly wanted those things you would be working to achievethem, and enjoying the work. It is extremely important to understandthat you have been choosing the life you have now all along. If youare physically out of shape but wish you had a healthy, fit, attractivebody, yet don't bother to exercise, then you choose not to have such


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a body. The same sort of thing applies to essentially every area ofyour life. Beliefs create reality. Responsibility implies control. Ifyou are not experiencing the conditions you desire then you are nottaking responsibility to insure that those conditions become a part ofyour life.

No one but you can determine how you should live your life.There is nothing wrong with being lazy, having addictions, beingdepressed, frustrated, etc. If you are experiencing such conditionsthen you are simply at the stage in your life where those things areproducing value fulfillment. If you are depressed, for example, youmay believe your emotional despair is the last condition on Earthyou would choose to experience, that you place no value in feelingthat way whatsoever. But if you didn't value the feeling, you wouldstop feeling it! When you change your values your experience willchange accordingly, and you will move on to the next stage of yourlife.

Being so fond of laziness, I have often thought of effort anddiscipline as "four letter words," things to avoid at all cost. But it allcomes down to how you interpret such things. Those who value"hard work" enjoy what is self torture to the lazy. The same hardworking person may equate laziness with boredom and avoidunstructured time at all costs. Any given activity is inherently just anactivity, and whether it is considered pleasant or unpleasant is apurely subjective interpretation. It is possible to fully enjoy anybehavior which you may have previously felt to be somethingunpleasant, and to no longer enjoy what was considered pleasant inthe past.

It all comes down to where you place your values. Whereyou place your values is entirely up to you. There are no good or badvalues, but there are some which lead to a happy, fulfilling lifebetter than others. Then again, who says you need to live a happy,fulfilling life? In the long run, "it's all good." But if you think youhave had enough of not living the life you "wish" you were living,it's time to place more value upon taking responsibility for yourconditions in order to control them.


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Choosing a Career and Achieving Goals

One of the most difficult and important questions we have toanswer as human beings in this society is deciding what career topursue for the majority of our lifetime. What do you believe you canachieve with your life? Maybe a decent nine-to-five job withbenefits and your own home? True love? What about owning aninter-planetary space vehicle manufacturing plant, being a moviestar or the next Christ or Mohammed? Any goal is possible if youbelieve it is (quack) and you are willing to do what it takes (get outthe glue and feathers).

If you are less than happy with some situation in life, it'stime to get serious about creating your reality in a direct andeffective way. The following information deals with choosing acareer and making it happen, but the same technique can be appliedto any area of life where you may be uncertain of your direction.Know that deliberate effort will be involved, but if you place enoughvalue on achieving a particular goal the process of achieving itbecomes a rewarding experience.

Four simple steps are involved: 1) Consider all the possiblegoals you might wish to accomplish, 2) find out what must be doneto reach these goals, 3) choose your goal, and 4) do what needs to bedone.

In terms of choosing a career, the first step requires making alist of all the careers and activities you might possibly enjoy,regardless of whether you believe you can actually accomplishthem. At this point in the process the object is to free yourselfentirely of any limiting beliefs. Be totally unrealistic, crazy out ofyou mind, joyously delirious and let your imagination fly. Do youlike music? Write it down. What about swimming? Combine the twoand put, "underwater violin player" on your list. Forget about listingthings in a neat, organized column. Scrawl words across the page,use a crayon if you'd like, fold papers into airplanes with "astronaut"or "waitress" written on the sides. Go nuts. Choose a career as Godif you want to. Think of any activity you enjoy, like bowling, havingsex, eating good food, anything at all. Write down knownoccupations that might interest you, such as being a computer


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programmer, photographer, writer, doctor, garbage man, musician,actor, accountant, real estate agent, dancer, drunk, anything at allyou can think of. Have fun with this until you have totally run out ofoccupations and activities that could possibly interest you.

Next, go through your lists with the idea in mind that eventhough the occupations may seem beyond your abilities or means,there may be a way to actually end up being successful in anythingyou truly desire to do. Who knows, there may be a resort in theCaribbean where you could actually get paid to entertain the boredand wealthy by playing a violin underwater. Narrow your pile ofcrazy possibilities down to things that would honestly interest you asa career, then combine these on a single sheet of paper. These don'thave to be actual jobs. You might write "photography" and "music"even though you don't know if you would prefer to be a musician ormusic critic, a photographer or magazine photo editor. Just list theactivities you think you would honestly enjoy.

Then look for correlations that might be combined. Musicand photography could be combined into "music video producer."Writer and scientist might be combined into "technical writer," oryou can combine photography and scientist into "documentary filmproducer." The object is to freely explore every possible activity youthink you might remotely be interested in doing, then reduce them toknown or possible occupations.

Next, list the five to ten most desirable occupations neatly ina vertical column on a clean sheet of paper. Try to list them in orderof the most desirable, but don't be too concerned with getting it justright at this point.

You will have before you a list that should contain somerather conventional occupations as well as some off the wall, funthings that could possibly turn into real sources of income. It is veryimportant that you don't simply dismiss the crazy things off hand,because these are probably areas where you could experience realjoy if you can find a way to achieve success doing them. At thisstage in the game we are dealing strictly in the realm of desire, notpracticality. Feel free to go back to your scribbled notes and add anyactivity that may have seemed too crazy but really seemed like itmight be fun. This is your career possibility wish list.


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Step two is doing some research to find out what is actuallyinvolved in achieving success in these areas. You can't really knowwhat you want to do until you understand what doing it involves.You are not likely to just "believe" your way into becoming anuclear scientist. Nor would you enjoy that occupation if you don'tlike mathematics or government bureaucracy. Number your list ofpossible career choices in order of what you believe to be the mostdesirable, then beginning with number one, investigate what isinvolved in achieving success in that occupation.

Some of the items can be scratched off immediately."President of the United States" is a real possibility for anyone, butthe effort involved with law school, political campaigning, buttkissing, etc., may for some be easily seen as not worth the trouble.Don't scratch something off simply because you don't feel you cando it, but because you don't really want to do it.

There are career information catalogs available at collegelibraries which contain job descriptions, requirements and currentsalary ranges. You can call people who do the sort of work you areinterested in and ask them about it, how to get started, etc. Basically,do everything you can to find out what is involved in any particularoccupation, then decide if you wish to keep that occupation on yourlist. By the time you have learned what is involved in preparing forand performing each occupation, you will naturally find that youhave narrowed things down to what you really want to do with yourlife. At this point you have completed step three, choosing what todo, and step four is simple: do it.

These same four steps can be applied in pretty much anysituation where you want to change your circumstances. Say, forexample, you want to find true love. Step one is imagine all thepossibilities (define the qualities in the lover you hope to find). Thenfigure out what you need to do (where would you locate such aperson and how would you approach them). Step three is chooseyour plan (to go to social places, place on-line personal ads orwhatever) and the last step is simply do what you planned to do.

If you are unsatisfied with your current occupation,remember that you do not have to limit your options to working forsomeone else. Consider ideas such as starting your own business,


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inventing something useful, creating a product or service peoplewould pay for, etc. You can brainstorm for ideas regardinginventions, etc. in the same way you listed possible occupations. Ifyou come up with an idea that inspires your motivation, find outwhat is required to develop the idea and turn it into money.

You might also consider meeting once a week with a groupof friends interested in brainstorming new ideas. Even if everyoneworks on completely different projects, meeting regularly in a groupcan help inspire new ideas and keep the motivation alive. Shortterm, low budget projects are often best to start out with, since youcan make things happen without becoming bogged down waiting forconditions to change.

The only way to be truly happy is to enjoy what you do withyour time. You may not enjoy washing cars for one dollar each, buthow would you feel about doing the same work for a thousanddollars each? It’s not what you do that matters as much as feelingthat the reward definitely justifies the effort.

In metaphysical terms, all time is simultaneous, and anycareer or other goal you experience in the future is alreadyhappening now in the “spacious present.” Your future experiencecontains knowledge of what you did to get there. By opening yourmind to the idea that the ideal occupation, lover, place of residence,etc., already exists in your future, you can create opportunitieswhere ideas originating in your future are able to influence yourdecisions now.

On Raising Children

I just wanted to point out a few observations about raisingchildren which can make the job a lot easier. First, children like toplease. They thrive on praise and positive encouragement. Youngchildren like attention, and they will accept any kind of attentionthey can get, but what they want most is positive attention.

If you give your attention to your children every time theyseek it, rather than ignoring them when they are interrupting, youcan stop such interruptions and bring more peace into everyone’slives. They will learn that because you give them attention every


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time they seek it, they can get that attention at will, and will not feelcompelled to always be seeking attention. When they interrupt, ifyou respond with a calm explanation of the fact they areinterrupting, and how that isn’t fair to others, they will graduallylearn that interrupting brings them negative attention. With eachcontinued interruption your disapproval of their behavior should bemade more clear. This is done by calmly repeating the samemessage, over and over, in greater and greater detail, until the childrealizes that by interrupting all they will get from doing so is arepeat of the same, longer and longer explanation. Not wanting toendure that they will cease to interrupt in an excessive way.

The long explanation is your most powerful behavioralmodification tool. When a child learns that the result of anyinappropriate behavior is going to be the long explanation, they willseek to avoid that experience. The explanation should always bedelivered with kindness and understanding so that it is not felt to bea form of punishment. The long explanation educates the childregarding why the behavior is inappropriate, which is usually a lackof fairness toward others, and this enables the child to predict theoutcome of his or her future actions. Eventually all it takes in manysituations is a disapproving look and children will straighten rightout because they know what’s coming next.

In the beginning this may seem like a great deal of effort. Infact, it will be a lot of effort. It may take two or three weeks for thekids to see that the pattern never alters, but once they know the longexplanation is coming they will act to avoid it. The initial effort willresult in your children learning to be respectful and fair with others,well behaved, and your job will become immeasurably easier.

Success requires that you are also fair with your children,since if they perceive a double standard they will not believe thelong explanation and will instead consider it punishment, ignoringyou and the lesson you seek to impart. It is important that you can betrusted, which means you must not make threats or promises youdon’t follow through on. It means you must strive to be as fair withyour children as you are with your friends.

If you reinforce good behavior with enthusiastic praise, andalways respond to negative behavior with calm but serious


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disapproval, that is all the “punishment” you will generally need toapply. In extreme cases you may need to force a small child to sit ina chair and hold still for up to five or ten minutes, while you sitnearby observing, threatening even longer “time out” if they won’thold still and be quiet. It requires patience, but once the results ofnegative behavior are consistently predictable, the negative behaviorwill essentially stop altogether.

The long explanation is a truly powerful tool.

Achieving the Seemingly Impossible

Regardless of what you set out to achieve in life, it is verylikely that you will occasionally encounter obstacles which seemimpossible to overcome. You may have all the necessary skills andpossess endless dedication and determination, yet continually findyourself unable to achieve real success in some area or to overcomea particular hurdle. The reason for this lack of progress is alwaysconflicting beliefs.

You will be able to recognize conflicting beliefs simply bylooking at what seems to be so impossible. For example, you mayneed a certain amount of money to do a particular thing and beconvinced there is no way to get the money. But that is only yourbelief at the moment. Regardless of how certain you may feel, if theright idea popped into your head, or the right coincidence were tooccur, you could be proven wrong. So the first thing to do is dropthe belief that success is not possible, because that belief isobviously inaccurate. You simply don’t know the solution -- yet. Letgo of your negative beliefs.

Next, focus on the belief that you will find a solution, oneway or another. It is quite possible that you may need to changeyour plan, since it lead you to an “impossible” situation and as aresult appears to be flawed in some way. But you don’t need toscrap the whole plan, just the part that creates the immediatedifficulty. In the example above, the plan requires acquiring money.You can find a way to get around needing the money, or simplychange the way you plan to get the money you need.


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One way to find solutions is to ask what you can do toachieve desired results quickly. Be here now. “The present is thepoint of power.” (Seth) Don’t let yourself get caught up inunnecessary, time consuming waiting. Focus on the belief that youwill find a solution. Focus, focus, focus. Be completely unconcernedwith outside conditions and develop a feeling of certain successinside you. That belief will work for you.

Then approach the problem in a practical way. Be open toany idea that pops into your experience. Be willing to change yourentire approach if necessary. And be willing to do what willobviously work. Real solutions are practical solutions, but theinspiration for them often comes from within.

Anytime you run into a dead end, just take a look at whatseems to be impossible and find some way of changing that belief.There is always a solution if you believe there is.


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Chapter Fourteen:

Social Enlightenment

Someday this world will live as oneAll this ignorance and greed will all be doneWhen someday comes and the old will teach their youthTo speak the same language, and seek the same truth

(from my song, Someday)

It is very difficult to feel content and spiritually enlightenedwhen we look around us and see homeless people in the streets,millions dying from disease, nations at war, genocide, starvation,government corruption, the destruction of rain forests, globalwarming, etc. We are watching the quality of life deteriorate for themasses worldwide. Individual liberties are constantly eroding, whilethe threat of terrorism, economic collapse, disease and otherpreventable disasters becomes more and more a part of even themost comfortable lives. Even if we personally remain unaffected, aseach of us gains more personal enlightenment we realize we can nottruly be happy while ignoring the suffering around us.

These negative conditions are a natural expression of


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humanity’s present state of enlightenment, and because we are onthis planet to learn, in greater terms it is good. Nor should weoverlook that fact that even with these terrible conditions occurringacross the globe, many of us live fulfilling, peaceful lives. Every daybillions of people are not raped or murdered. They get enough to eat,have shelter, employment and good health.

But we would not choose to live in an unenlightened world ifwe honestly believed we create our own reality. Since this is theworld we live in, we must apply ourselves to supporting those ideaswhich can bring greater peace, happiness and prosperity to all thepeople of the world. Not because we are kind and understandingindividuals, but because we personally, selfishly, want to live in abetter world. The ideas presented in this chapter may not appear tobe very “spiritual,” but they describe basic observations regardingthe means for creating an enlightened society in practical terms.

The most significant characteristic of an enlightened society isthat the same socioeconomic structure would be implementedworldwide.

As I write this in March, 2003, war has begun yet again inIraq. Terrorism will certainly follow, along with more wars intendedto prevent terrorism, which will spawn more terrorism and morewars. War has been part of human society as far back as history cantake us. It seems that war is part of human nature, that wars willcontinue to happen forever, but wars will cease to occur when theconditions which make them possible are eliminated.

War is a result of individual groups of people insisting thatother groups change in some way. These groups can be nations,races, religions or other organizations of individuals with commonideas. In all cases, war requires the division of populations intogroups.

There is nothing wrong with feeling connected to a particulargroup of like minded people or cultural heritage. There can be greatvalue in sharing experiences with others who appreciate similarideas and activities. The maintenance of various cultural expressionsalso provides for a diversity of experience which can be enjoyed byall. The problems arise when groups of people create artificialseparations from the rest of humanity.


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For example, when individuals of a particular race activelydevelop specialized language usage, custom handshakes, uniformstyles of dress, etc., they encourage “racism” by holding their groupseparate from everyone else. Whole nations enforce “accepted”styles of dress or appearance which separate them from othernations, i.e., some Muslim countries require men to have full beardsand women to cover their faces. The danger is greatest whengovernments enforce artificial and unnecessary cultural/religiousrestrictions. In this country, for example, it has been immoral for awoman to show her bare ankle, and people have been imprisoned forpublicly supporting the idea of free love -- to say nothing of burningwitches for practicing unpopular spiritual beliefs. At the same time itwas perfectly OK to own slaves and murder Native Americans.

An enlightened society involves recognizing and reinforcingthose things we have in common while simultaneously celebratingthe diversity of every individual. We must be able to communicatewith each other, which means sharing a common language inaddition to any native language we might speak. It is much moredifficult to kill someone if both sides can make the other aware ofwhy one is fighting in the first place. Conflicts can be resolvedbefore they happen if we can first agree upon a common method ofdiscerning the truth.

The creation of a single, worldwide socioeconomic system,having fair and reasonable principles which apply equally to everyhuman being on the planet, would eliminate wars between nationsbecause there would be no separate nations. Wars motivated bygreed and ideological differences can be prevented if the operatingprinciples of this single socioeconomic system benefited everyoneequally and left no legitimate justification for group conflict.

There are four primary principles which can serve as a basisfor an enlightened, worldwide socioeconomic system: Reason,Fairness, Opportunity and Freedom.

Real truth is objective. The means for discerning truth isreason. Reason -- one plus one -- is the same for everyone,everywhere on the planet. Beliefs and emotions do not share thiscommon factor. Reason then, is the only means of reachingagreement.


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Reason tells us that whenever more than one individual isinvolved in some situation, the only way to keep everyone happy isfor things to be fair. Fairness does not mean all things are the samefor everyone. We were not born with equal abilities and motivations.Some people can run faster or jump higher than others, and somewill want to work harder to achieve more. So fairness doesn’t meaneveryone must have the same things, but that no one is forced tohave less than someone else. In order for everyone to have the same,fair chance, opportunity must be incorporated into an enlightenedsocial system.

Cooperation is not possible if people are “forced tocooperate.” Force automatically generates resistance (every extremeimplies the opposite). Peace, therefore, is not possible withoutfreedom. Over the years there has been a gradual, but stillincomplete transition toward the recognition of the true limitspersonal freedom. That limit is reached when one’s personalbehavior forces others to participate against their will.

Reason, fairness, opportunity and freedom must, therefore, bethe fundamental principles of an enlightened, worldwidesocioeconomic system.

It may at first appear that these principles are incorporated intomodern democratic societies, which are obviously far from beingidyllic examples of civilization. In the United States, our mediaconstantly tell us we are the land of opportunity and freedom, butthe opportunity belongs mostly to those who are born into it, and thefreedom is restricted to behavior sanctioned as acceptable bygovernment. Greed and control have taken the place of opportunityand freedom.

In the U.S., more than ninety percent of the wealth is ownedby just ten percent of the population. This is the same as saying oneperson has nine apples and nine people are left to share one apple. Ifyou imagine ten people going to work somewhere, and at the end ofthe day one person walks away with nine apples, while everyoneelse is given just one-ninth of one apple, you can see how unfair ourcurrent economic system is. If the guy with nine apples were to takehome just eight instead, the standard of living for ninety percent ofthe population would double. Nine out of ten people would have


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twice their present income. This also means one’s current standardof living could be achieved while working half as many hours,enabling one person to support a family, or for two to work half asmany hours per week.

Ask yourself a question. Would you still do what you do for aliving if you didn’t need the money? If the answer is yes, then foryou, it would be possible to live in a world where money was notnecessary. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all have the things weneed and want and get rid of the monetary system altogether?Perhaps some day that may be possible, but I can not imagine ithappening in the foreseeable future. Too many of us work onlybecause we have to in order to survive and be comfortable.

Fairness means that those who work harder, or contribute inways which benefit more people, deserve to acquire greater rewards.Communism fails because it’s fundamental ethos is, “From eachaccording to their ability, to each according to their need.” In such asystem the greatest rewards vs. effort belongs to those with thefewest abilities and the greatest needs. It is necessary to rewardpeople according to their level of contribution, otherwise no one willwant to contribute.

This can be achieved without allowing greed to dominate byapplying reason and fairness. Items of basic necessity are thosewhich are necessary to reasonably comfortable survival, so the ideathat a few individuals should be allowed to make huge profits whileothers are forced to endure price gouging is unfair. Items of basicnecessity include food, clothing, housing, energy, communications,education, transportation, medical care, etc. Since everyone needsthese items, it would benefit everyone equally to create a systemwhere they were made available at the lowest possible cost. Thiswould extend to natural resources, which are part of the Earth andtherefore belong to everyone, including wildlife, equally. Naturalresources should be made available to all manufactures at the lowestpossible cost, while at the same time it is necessary to managenatural resources in ways which protect the environment.

On the other hand, items which are not necessary to“reasonably comfortable” survival should be marketed without pricerestrictions. The only exception to this is when a person would be


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forced to purchase something, i.e., repair parts needed in order tomaintain the usefulness of a previously purchased item. Pricegouging is a form of force, and force would not be part of anenlightened society for individuals who were not exerting forceupon others.

Taxation is another area where reason and fairness wouldchange how things are done. No social system can operate withoutfinancial resources, so taxes are necessary. In a fair society,everyone should be taxed equally. But taking the same amount ofmoney from rich and poor alike is not fair, because the rich wouldhardly notice what would be a devastating loss to the poor. Fairnesswould mean taking an equal percentage of income from everyone.The poor may feel the crunch of losing ten percent of their incomemore dramatically than the rich would, but the rich would befinancing more of the services taken advantage of by the poor. Forexample, the rich can send their kids to any school they choose forhigher education and losing ten percent of their income would not befelt as a devastating loss. The poor may feel the loss more directly,but free education means their kids can be educated with lessfinancial hardship than would otherwise be the case. When youcombine the benefits of being provided with basic necessities at thelowest possible costs, the poor would actually enjoy a betterstandard of living than they would if they were denied these serviceswhile not taxed at all. The rich would pay the same percentage oftheir income as the poor would, and still have more to spend thanthey would if they were taxed at a higher percentage of income thanthe poor, which is currently the case -- at least in theory. Loopholesenable the rich to avoid paying taxes almost entirely.

Taxation is presently used for both revenue and control, andtax loopholes make the system entirely unfair. “Sin taxes” are placedupon the sale of tobacco, alcohol, etc., as a way for government toenforce moral choices upon its “free” citizens. Taxes are also leviedupon particular items as a way of “hiding” how much taxes a personactually ends up paying. There are taxes on the sale of any item(sales tax), on services rendered, on property, gasoline, utilities,hotels stays, phone and internet access, to name just a few. It isimpossible to know how much we actually pay in taxes without


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laboriously adding up all one’s receipts, and this confusionregarding how much we are taxed is exactly what the governmentintended. The result is seeing, say, twenty percent of your incomewithheld from your pay check, while in fact the majority of us endup paying more like forty percent of our income in various taxes.These additional taxes take a far greater percentage of income fromthe poor than from the rich, which is entirely unfair. This isparticularly true with property taxes, where even after a lifetime ofpaying for a house, the government can take it away if retired peopleon fixed incomes become unable to pay the constantly increasingproperty taxes.

The solution is to create a single tax, upon income, with noloopholes whatsoever. The best way to implement this is an“exchange tax,” where the receiver pays a fixed percentage of theamount exchanged in any transaction.

An exchange tax differs from a sales tax in that it affectstransactions other than simply sales. Workers and others would paythe tax when they receive their income and would never have toconcern themselves with being taxed again on the same money. Norwould anyone have to file a tax return. An exchange tax would alsoapply to all transactions made by corporations and businesses, notjust their employees. There would be no deductions for “costsassociated with doing business,” including writing off jet planes,houses and automobiles. Loopholes associated with businesstaxation policies currently enable multi-million-dollar corporationsto pay no taxes whatsoever. When businesses pay an equalpercentage of their income in taxes along with everyone else theoverall tax rate would drop dramatically. Remember that if you arepresently paying twenty percent of your paycheck in payroll taxes,“hidden” taxes are doubling that. A true tax rate of twenty percentwould cut the average worker’s taxes in half. Twenty percent of allthe money that changes hands every day in this world is a whole lotof money.

But don’t expect “the authorities” to support such a change inthe tax system. For ten percent of the population the tax rates willsky rocket to the same percentage that everyone else would bepaying, which is far more than they have had to pay in the past. The


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people with nine apples will forecast doom and gloom for the entireworld if they are forced to be fair and have to get by with only eightapples. They will point out that you will lose the deduction forinterest paid on your home loan, hoping you will forget that you willend up paying even more in property taxes and twice as much in“hidden” taxes. The greedy will fight hard to keep the systemfavoring them, but fair is fair, and for ninety percent of thepopulation things will become far better when things are fair. Don’tforget that.

It is important to understand that no one deserves a free ride.Then again, it should be understood that when society became solarge it took away the right of individuals to live freely off the land,society incurred the debt of providing everyone with the opportunityto support themselves. Welfare and unemployment compensationshould be eliminated and replaced with guaranteed employment foranyone who wants it. People need items of basic necessity, andpeople can be provided with employment creating those things. Solong as a person can always find decent paying work there would beless justification for petty crime, and no need for bankruptcy, whichis unfair to the creditors who incur the loss. There should, however,be a reasonable limit on the percentage of income any creditors canforcibly withhold from a person in debt. Not long ago a man I knowfound half his weekly paycheck being withheld for child support,then the IRS took the other half for back taxes. It’s no surprise thathe quit his job and the creditors received nothing.

Everyone, other than the totally disabled, is capable ofcontributing to their own survival in some way. Those fewindividuals who are totally incapacitated would require medical carein medical institutions. They would not be considered “specialcases” exempt from the socioeconomic structure that applies toeveryone else, because free medical care should be provided toeveryone. Medical care is one of the basic necessities of life, asillustrated by the following.

Robbers in White Coats


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Consider the case of an American making minimum wage whohas a toothache and discovers he needs a root canal. At present, theaverage American dentist wants $500 for a root canal plus over $600for a crown in order to save the tooth. To save one tooth it will costanyone making minimum wage (currently $5.15/hr.) over 200 hoursto earn that much money, and the procedure will take the dentistabout 2 hours. Of course, at minimum wage no one can supportthemselves to begin with, so such people have no way to pay.

If this person doesn’t pay the money he will be in severe painand his appearance will be disfigured. The same conditions wouldapply if facing a hoodlum carrying a tire iron in a dark alley -- paythe money or else.

Not long ago someone I know had a heart attack, and a fewweeks later similar symptoms occurred so he went to the hospital.All they did was hook him up to a monitor for an hour then sent himhome $1,000 poorer.

An acquaintance recently cut through the tendon of his littlefinger. Because he has no medical insurance, the doctors refused toreattach the tendon unless $1,000 of the $5,000 for the two hour,outpatient operation was paid up front. Not having the money, heresigned himself to spending the rest of his life with a maimed hand.He also lost his job because he could no longer work as a result ofthe injury. Fortunately, in this particular case a relative came up withthe money for the operation, but not all of us are so lucky.

If you have a job which provides good medical insurance, praythat you don’t end up unemployed in an economy where similaremployment is simply unavailable, or pain and disfigurement, evendeath, may be options you also face. Tens of thousands ofAmericans die each year as a result of not having medical insurance.In the U.S. there are forty-four million people without medicalinsurance, and the absence of a national health care system whichregulates prices has turned medical professionals into millionaireextortionists. We are the only industrialized country without anational health care system, and the cost of medical care here hasrisen at ten times the rate of inflation for decades.

One analogy for this situation would be a bridge called Lifethat spans a bottomless chasm, where the bridge is often icy and the


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wind always blows. It is inevitable that all of us will at one time oranother be blown off the side of the bridge where we desperatelygrip the broken railing. Medical people are like robbers in whitecoats, who did nothing to put us in our precarious position, but walkthe length of the bridge carrying a rope they can use to help peopleback up to safety. But before they help you they ask how much yourlife is worth to you, because that is how much they will charge. It’sthe same question a robber with a gun would ask, but the robberonly takes what you have on you, while doctors and hospitals willtake everything you have spent your entire life earning.

It doesn’t have to be this way.From my encounters with pre-med students in college, I

realized they are not the smartest, brightest flowers of the bunch.They are just people like everyone else, cramming for examsbetween parties simply to pass the tests rather than to retain theinformation, with many of them studying medicine only to acquirethe wealth and status of being a doctor.

An enlightened social system would provide free education toanyone who wants it because education is a basic necessity. Ifpeople studying to work in critical professions were actually paid togo to school there would never be a shortage of qualifiedprofessionals willing to work for high but reasonable wages. Thoseindividuals who have a natural desire to work in healing professions,but presently can not afford the many years of required education,would be drawn into the field and the quality of service wouldactually improve. There would be sufficient staff in hospitals so thatemergency doctors would not be required to work thirty-six hourshifts and the shortage of nurses would disappear. The motivation ofthese individuals would not be to make millions of dollars, but toprovide quality healing services and make a very good living at it.At the same time the cost of health care to society would dropdramatically , perhaps as much as eighty percent once theunbelievable profits built into the cost of pharmaceutical drugs arealso removed.

Free health care would also enable people to take more pre-emptive health measures, such as having regular physical and dentalexams, while free education would allow people to take yoga or


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other exercise classes and learn more regarding alternative healthsystems. People would be healthier in general as a result, furtherreducing health care costs.

One-Building Cities

The construction of one-building cities, housing one-hundred-thousand people or more, would result in cost savings thatwould cut the cost of living in half for those fortunate enough to livein them. (Fair taxation and access to basic necessities at the lowestpossible cost would double your effective income, and living in aone-building city would double it again.) I am not talking aboutugly, over-crowded public housing units for the poor, but spacious,beautiful, and above all, efficient masterpieces of architecturalengineering.

Imagine a black pyramid a mile across at the base and half amile high. The outer walls are lined with (separated) residential andoffice spaces. The living spaces could have large, outdoor patios bigenough for a hot tub, dining table, lounge chairs and hanginggardens. These living spaces would be as large as an average home,without stairs, and no yard to keep up. The walls, ceilings and floorswould be soundproof and each unit can be configured to tasteregarding interior wall placement, with lots of storage spacebetween adjacent units, which further reduces sound transfer. Highspeed data networks would provide access to virtually unlimiteddigital entertainment and information, including interactive on-lineeducational programs (reducing the cost of education). Thiscommunication system would also enable individual participation ingovernment affairs. “Smart dumb-waiters” could deliver groceriesand other products directly to your residence, while everythinginside the building can be reached in just a few minutes via travelingwalkways, escalators, etc.

The pyramid would appear black because the walls would becovered with solar panels to assist in power generation to individualhousing units, so there would be no system-wide power blackouts.Wind, wave and other energy sources could supply electricity withno dependence on fossil fuels and their associated pollution. Since


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electricity can be used to separate the hydrogen and oxygen inwater, it seems possible that a motor could be constructed whichwould burn these chemicals (currently used as rocket fuel) whilepowering a generator that would produce more electricity thanneeded to separate the hydrogen and oxygen. In other words, itseems possible to construct a motor which runs on water andproduces harmless water vapor as exhaust. In any case, it is possible,right now, to generate sufficient energy from renewable resourcesand completely eliminate dependence on oil and coal.

Surrounding the building the nearby areas would contain parksand both community and private gardens, with farmland beyond.There are no roads in site, since no one needs a car, and a railroadtunnel would run under the building to a transportation hub somedistance away. Along the outside of the building at ground level, aswell as inside, would be shops and restaurants. Office space andlight manufacturing would make up much of the interior, which isalso open and spacious, with indoor gardens, natural light, and astadium large enough to seat half the population of the city at onetime.

Constructing one-building cities is not simply an exercise incommunity design. The main reason for them to exist is to improveefficiency, eliminate pollution and enhance the quality of life.

The cost of mass producing a private residence as part of sucha structure is far lower than that of a free-standing building.Plumbing, electrical and data transmission lines are much shorter,streets do not have to be dug up and resurfaced to make repairs,there is no roof to build, and the main structure can be built withautomated machinery designed specifically to “mass produce” thatproject. Using carbon nano-tubes as the primary constructionmaterial would enable the building to last a thousand years. Becausemost of the interior space is not exposed to the outside, heating andair conditioning costs would be dramatically reduced. And mostimportantly, cars would be eliminated.

Consider the reality of our civilization being so dependentupon automobiles. Besides the billions of dollars spent every year onroads that scar the environment, everyone who drives a car has todeal with drunk drivers on the road, speed traps, traffic tickets,


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dangerous weather conditions, auto insurance, automobile repaircosts, fuel costs, etc. Forty-thousand deaths and five-million autorelated injuries occur in the U.S. each year. Many of those injuredsuffer brain or spinal cord injuries which result in tragic, permanentdisabilities. Automobiles result in tens of billions per year ininsurance claims, cause seventy percent of water pollution, andabout half of our air pollution. If we were to start all over fromscratch, is this the way you would design things to be?

Constructing one-building cities and eliminating automobileswould save enough in construction, maintenance and insurance coststo double the standard of living for the residents. With everythingyou could want just minutes away, it could also be a great place tolive.

Freedom and Justice

Laws governing individual behavior should be so simple andeasy to understand they can be written on a single piece of paper inlarge type. “Do not force others to participate against their will,” isessentially the only law necessary as far as individuals areconcerned. Business, on the other hand, needs to be regulated inorder to prevent exploitation and maintain public safety.

True personal freedom means an individual is the owner his orher own body and can do with it as one pleases. Personal freedommeans private sexual behavior can not be regulated, nor cangovernment regulate which substances one chooses to ingest. The“war against drugs” is a battle which can never be won becauseindividuals will never accept that government has the right to restrictprivate, individual choices. Illegal drug distribution makes up eight-percent of the worlds economy -- a larger industry than automobilemanufacture worldwide -- and entire countries are ripped apart bycorruption and violence financed by drug profits.

The solution is to grant individuals the freedom theyinherently possess as the owners of their own bodies -- to makethem responsible for the consequences of their own decisions. Ifsociety made honest information available regarding the pros andcons of using street drugs, rather than flooding the uninformed with


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biased propaganda which is largely ignored, individuals would beable to make informed choices. If drugs were not illegal priceswould fall closer to the cost of production, which is minimal, andthere would no longer be huge profits to finance the violence, whichwould then cease to exist. With current wages for unskilled workersbeing less than the cost of survival, combined with the opportunityto make huge profits by selling drugs, many young people in ourinner cities can see no way of succeeding in life through legitimatemeans. In other words, our present socioeconomic policies and thewar on drugs causes gang violence and poverty.

Of the two-million people in American prisons nearly half arethere on non-violent drug charges, one-sixth for marijuana alone.Due to our drug laws the U.S. has the highest percentage of itspopulation in prison of any industrialized nation. One out of everythirty-seven adults now alive in the US have been, or are, in prison.This does not include those who have only been in local jails.Government refusal to grant individuals true personal freedomcauses children to be torn from families, careers to be lost, andpersonal property acquired over a lifetime of hard work to beconfiscated -- all in the name of “goodness.”

Freedom does not mean “only those behaviors approved bygovernment.” Freedom means doing as you please so long as you donot force others to participate in your behavior. There is no otherway to define personal freedom in a fair society.

In terms of real crimes, there will always be those who refuseto play by the rules and will treat others unfairly. There are twomain ideas to consider when attempting to decide how to deal withsuch people. The first is remembering that no one will do anythingwhich they are certain is wrong. A basic education regarding theconcept of fairness, and a society that is fair with its people, will doa great deal to reduce real crime. This is sort of “the longexplanation” given to adults -- over and over if necessary. Theability to earn a comfortable living with minimal effort will also doa great deal to reduce crime. The second point regarding fairness isthat if an individual refuses to be fair, society can refuse to be fair inreturn. Every opportunity should be provided to enable an individualto see the error of his or her ways, but if the laws are fair and real


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opportunity is available, and someone repeatedly refuses to be fairtoward others, they should simply be removed from all interactionwith society and its benefits, with no attempt to provide comfortsbeyond healthy survival, i.e., solitary confinement.

Putting like-minded (criminal) people together where theyassociate with others who think the same way is truly stupid. It onlyserves to reinforce the kind of ideas that got those people intotrouble in the first place. When it comes to those who simply refuseto be fair with others after numerous opportunities to learndifferently, it would be equally “fair,” and much cheaper, to simplykill such people and be done with it. However, it is better for societyto pay the financial costs of a lifetime of incarceration than tounjustly kill a single innocent person with capital punishment.

Eliminating War

War is the most unfair of all human acts. Innocent people arekilled, maimed or deprived of material possessions as a result ofwar. Families are ripped apart and the suffering lasts long after thefighting has ceased. The consequences of a nuclear war are horriblebeyond imagination. The only thing more insane than a nuclear waris continuing to prepare ourselves to have one.

Both sides in a war feel their actions are justified andnecessary. But wars are not created by nations. They are created byindividuals, the leaders of those nations. There is nothing morenoble about dropping a bomb on a tank containing several soldiersthan having a sniper shoot the leader of an opposing country andpreventing the war entirely.

When one considers the enormous cost of expendable militaryhardware such as bombs and cruise missiles, it seems that droppingnew cars, hot tubs and big screen TVs on the opposing forces woulddo more to end the war, and at less expense. If the money currentlyspent on military operations were instead spent providing jobs,education and infra structure, on supplying the opposing force with abetter life, wars could be avoided.

Wars are usually fought by one nation against another, or byone religion against another. In other words, wars are caused by


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groups promoting different interpretations of right and wrong, orgood and bad. If one group believes it is wrong for a few individualsto profit from the exploitation of natural resources while the vastmajority suffer, and another group believes the opposite, there willbe war. If one group believes it is wrong for women to have equalrights, for individuals to enjoy financial and social freedoms, or thata particular religion should control government, and another groupbelieves the opposite, there will be war.

The good intent of the American people is so sincere that weallow our young military people to die in defense of “freedom” inother countries, and for most of us we can not grasp why anyonewould want to harm our county in any way. It is incomprehensibleto the average American why the United States government is hatedby so much of the world. Most of us never consider the possibilitythat it is because the U.S. constantly seeks to manipulate foreigneconomies in ways which benefit the few at the expense of themasses, that we actively seek to impose our morality and form ofgovernment on other nations, and that we are not fair with our ownpeople, let alone toward those in other parts of the world. We are farfrom being the only unfair country, but we are the most aggressivein promoting our policies overseas.

On the other hand, corruption and repression are so extreme inother parts of the world that many people seek to come here. Andthere is the problem of religious morality in other nations creatingunopposed propaganda which encourages people to take up arms inorder to enforce their morality upon all others. The same principle of“moral necessity” we apply to imprison pot smokers is used byothers to encourage suicide bombers.

The most effective weapon in any confrontation iscommunication -- getting both sides to see things the same way, andthat means both sides agreeing to be fair. War is not possible wherefairness exists. War is a result of unfairness, where each side isconvinced, by it’s leadership, that the other side is being unfair. Theunfairness often exists, on both sides. Open communication betweenopposing populations would eventually eliminate war because allpeople are able to recognize reason and fairness when they see it.(Though it can take some time to sink in.) Because the Internet


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enables free expression between individuals across the globe, it isthe single most valuable tool for peace in the world today.

As Seth tells us, “War will end when all young men refuse togo to war.” There is nothing fair or reasonable about forcing a manto kill other men, so drafting people into military service is worsethan slavery. When enlightened definitions of reason and fairnessare communicated worldwide, and considered absolute necessitiesby the population of the world, all young men will refuse to go towar. The sooner positions of power are eliminated the sooner thiscan come about. Decisions should be made by a consensus of allthose citizens who understand the issue at hand.

Democracy via an Informed Population

True democracy is a situation where each person has onevote and the majority rules. Another name for democracy is “mobrule,” and angry mobs are not prone to investigating all the facts.True democracy also creates a situation where a completelyuninformed person has as much power to affect society as the wisestindividual on Earth. Most current “democratic” societies operate byempowering the population to elect individuals who will representtheir views in the making of laws. These individuals, however, arenot capable of representing everyone, so once in office they aretrusted to use their own judgment. This often leads to corruption andabuse of power.

An alternative is an informed population, where all those whocan demonstrate awareness of the details of a particular case areallowed to vote on the final decisions. In other words, decisionsaffecting others would be made by an “informed population.” Thereshould be an interactive communication system where anyonewilling to study the issue at hand would be able to observe all thefacts and contribute opinions, as well as vote.

If you don’t believe corruption is a significant problem inevery country, consider what has happened to the global monetarysystem. To make this explanation easier to understand, imagine theworld has a population of only one-hundred people, and each ofthese people have one dollar. Twenty years later the population has


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doubled to two-hundred people. That means there would only behalf as much money per person in circulation, or fifty cents each.The money would increase in value because there would be less ofit to go around. That means wages and prices would have to drop byhalf.

In our present society, instead of money gaining value as thepopulation increases, it loses value. Inflation causes prices to doubleover and over again. Everyone has to spend twice as much money tobuy the same things. But that is impossible because there should beless money to go around due to the increased population.

Where did the extra trillions of dollars come from? It wascreated out of thin air. The monetary system of the entire world hasbeen corrupted.

Corruption is also created when government officials purchaseproducts and services from private manufacturers. These contractsoften go to those companies who provide favors or bribes to theofficials involved. Government should work toward manufacturingall the products it requires and providing its own services, ratherthan outsourcing from private companies.

In the U.S. the gap between rich and poor has doubled everyten years for the last thirty years, and is now even worse than duringthe great depression of the 1930s. Minimum wage, relative to thecost of living, is a third less than it was in 1973. “Free trade” hasresulted in the loss of a three-million U.S. jobs in the last three-and-a-half years alone. Manufacturing is shipped off to third worldcountries where employees are paid one-tenth as much to work insweat shop conditions and are denied employee benefits, and hightech jobs are increasingly being shipped overseas as Americancompanies interact with foreign employees via the Internet. Theresult? Millions of Americans with healthcare and mortgages havelost everything.

When I was young I believed the world was a mess because noone had been smart enough to come up with effective solutions. So Ispent years working towards finding those solutions. Later I realizedthat the solutions were fairly obvious to a lot of people, but they hadnot been implemented because those in power make deliberateefforts to keep the population in ignorance. Those who benefit


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unfairly from the way things are actively use the power of theirenormous wealth and political influence to keep things as they are,and to make us believe we live in the best society possible.

Definitions of political left and right have been distorted inorder to make right wing politics seem less repressive than theyreally are. On the right are people who believe it is correct andjustified to force others to behave in particular ways. Examplesinclude imprisoning people for using street drugs, having orperforming abortions, viewing movies with “indecent” sexualcontent, etc. The opposite of this is not the liberal left as it is today.The opposite of right wing political thinking is using the same kindof force in the opposite way. It would be to force people to haveabortions in order to reduce the population problem, to viewpornographic materials to get over sexual hang ups, to use streetdrugs to gain enlightenment, etc. True left wing politics does notexist because there is no attempt to force others to participate in leftwing thinking. What is considered left today is actually dead center.

So long as we are convinced we could one day have nineapples, we will be satisfied with one-ninth of an apple, and that is allthat ninety-percent of us will ever get. We are constantly told thatwe have the opportunity to acquire great wealth if we are decent,hard working people, so when we find ourselves living on the streetswe think it’s because we are somehow inferior. We accept potentialunemployment and the loss of all we have worked to acquire as anunfortunate but unavoidable reality.

We are relentlessly bombarded with advertising convincing uswe need more things. This results in a lifetime of servitude workingto line the pockets of the already wealthy so we can pay for a homeand modest lifestyle. A lifetime of slavery to our never ending debtis the American way. It is becoming the way of the entire world,because we are all blindly led to believe that there is no better way.

Those who derive profit and power from the existing politicalsystems either ignore or suppress opposing views. For example,many millions of people worldwide protested the 2003 war in Iraqprior to it beginning, while those in power acted as they pleasedbecause they had the power to do so. In spite of this the propagandahas convinced us that government by representatives is the best


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political system possible. We believe we live in a democracy, thateach of us has an equal voice, but when was the last time youchanged a law?

There is no voice for opposing positions because the wealthyown the media. The capitalist government controls media licensing,and capitalist companies pay the advertising costs which are themedias profit. When is the last time you watched an Americantelevision program proclaiming the virtues of socialism, forexample?

The idea that competition is good, that it inspires innovationand results in lower prices, has been ground into us from themoment we entered school as children. But competition meanssurvival of the fittest. For example, large corporations with endlessfinancial resources open chains of huge mega stores, buyingproducts at reduced prices due to volume discounts and undercuttingprices of all the smaller stores in the area. The small businesses can’tcompete and go out of business, but that’s OK because we pay lowerprices. Then the mega stores raise prices because there is no longerany competition. We lose. But still we act as if competition is good.

The solution is not competition, but cooperation. How wellcan a team work if the members are all competing against eachanother? Humans are social creatures and we all interact with eachother. Like it or not we are a team, and we need to stop competingwith one another. Cooperation doesn’t mean communism, socialism,or any other kind of -ism. It means being fair. The world is a messbecause reason is not applied to insure fairness, which includesopportunity and freedom.

Fully describing the way an enlightened society would operatecould easily fill an entire book, and would be significantly enhancedif the best minds in the world contributed. What I have attemptedhere is to provide a brief description of some basic conceptsinvolved in making this world the best place we are capable ofcreating as a society.

To review the main ideas:There should be a single socioeconomic system worldwide.The fundamental principles of this system should involve the


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equal application of reason, fairness, opportunity and freedom.There should be a single form of taxation, an “exchange tax”

paid by the receiver in every transaction, with no loopholes and atthe same percentage for everyone. This would reduce taxes by halffor ninety percent of the U.S. population.

The construction of one-building cities and the elimination ofautomobiles would double the average person’s standard of living.

Items of basic necessity and natural resources should be madeavailable at the lowest possible cost by eliminating profits associatedwith private enterprise. Private enterprise should be allowed tocompete in all other areas. Education and health care should be freeto all.

Welfare and unemployment benefits should be eliminated andreplaced with guaranteed employment.

Positions of power should be replaced by an informedpopulation.

Criminal rehabilitation should involve education andprogressively longer periods of solitary confinement, with no capitalpunishment.

There is one thing we can all do politically to begin improvingthe world -- which actually has a chance of succeeding because itdoesn’t prevent most of those in political power from exercisingtheir greed. That is to legalize freedom by supporting the PersonalFreedoms Protection Amendment:

“Behavior expressed in the pursuit of happiness, which doesnot force others to participate against their will, is an unalienableright of the American people.”

This amendment would release nearly a million non-violentpeople from U.S. prisons, cut off the financing of most organizedcrime, reduce much of the corruption in drug producing countries,dramatically reduce gang violence on our streets, and rid us all ofmuch artificial guilt. It would save tens of billions of dollars nowspent every year on prisons and the doomed-to-failure war on drugs.That money could be used to educate and employ those leavingprison. And I wouldn’t be too concerned about it turning kids intodrug addicts – it’s easier for a kid to buy street drugs now than to get


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alcohol.A similar law could be implemented in many countries around

the world, and we could at least begin the process of bringingreason, fairness, opportunity and freedom to all humanity. Thenecessary changes won’t be easy, but that doesn’t mean they can’tbe accomplished.

Social enlightenment is not simply a matter of bringingspiritual awareness to the masses. The political and economicsystem we live within must be capable of nourishing individualspiritual development. Our beliefs about the society we live in helpto form the society we experience, and we should all begin bybelieving there is hope.

To bring enlightenment to the world is to create anenvironment where our own, personal, spiritual development can benurtured in an atmosphere of peace, tolerance and prosperity for all.Be selfish. Choose to live in such a world for your own benefit.

One man can not change the world alone,but one idea, shared by enough people,will have already changed the world.


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Frozen Fog

Cold descends shimmering yet unseen,spilling from the dark vault of spacebehind a guise of cascading mistswirling into fog beneath the towering waterfall.Within this wilderness of listless mistOnly the shadows of trees are moving.

The sound of hissing behind my backis the campfire sinkingfurther into the snow; I think.The fire warms my naked flesh,the flamelight and smoke a thin towersupporting a pale, flickering domeof emptinessinside the dense purity of surrounding grey.

The sputtering light projects my shadow,cross-legged, into the creeping driftof the dome's fog wall.Since twilight I have sat as a spirit in a statuestudying the fog's spinning, halting motiondeep within my shadow's breathing.After three days of fastingI may be approaching delirium,or perhaps the fire's heat has failedto warm the shadow,but within it, now,the fog has frozen still.

Crystallized mists


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hang like spider spun lacewithin the rigid body of the shadow-form,and a dull gleam ebbs and flowsacross the angular forehead and chin,framing the darkness where there would be eyes.The shoulders and arms drapelike icy rain fallingbetween canyons of cloud,and from the deeper dark of the shrouded heartI sense the presenceof an ancient warrior.

I blink slowly, afraidthe breeze blown by my lashesor the pause in my silencemay break the delicatefabric of the frozen form.

But there are no words of illumination,no gestures, no signs,none of the insightI had come here hoping to find.There is only the living stillnessof a warrior's sternness.

Cautiously, I reach outand firelight blazes in the crystal eyesfor a moment,but I am left alone,my hand grasping a skyfull of falling snow.


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Appendix:

Overview of Metaphysical,Occult and Paranormal Phenomena and

Practices

There are a great number of events and conditions whichtraditional science can not explain in terms of previously acceptedscientific conclusions. Many of these involve perceptions ormanipulations of a “non-physical” nature and are often referred to asparanormal phenomena, falling within the study of parapsychology.The prefix “para” is the root of “parallel” and means “next to” or“along side.” Paranormal would refer to that which is not normal butis in some way related to normal.

I have some difficulty with the term “paranormal” largelybecause it is considered a part of psychology rather than physicalscience. That which is “not normal” in psychological terms includessome rather unpleasant behavior having nothing to do withenlightenment and greater awareness.

“Occult” means hidden, not revealed, or secret. It is oftenused in reference to paranormal or supernatural phenomena. Butthere is a difference between something which is hidden and thatwhich simply isn’t understood. Psychic perception, for example, isnot hidden, but has yet to be adequately explained in generalscientific terms.

I prefer the term “metaphysical,” or “that which is beyondthe physical,” because, in my opinion, such phenomena is actuallypart of physical nature -- yet goes beyond our normal understandingof physical cause and effect. If we experience anything as physicalcreatures, it follows that such experience is physical in nature, andshould therefore be the subject of physical science. But even


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“metaphysics” falls short of being an adequate term because it isconsidered to be a branch of philosophy rather than physics. Itwould appear that none of these terms are adequate, so for thepresent, one will work as well as another. Perhaps one day sciencewill eventually discover methods of measuring the coherentstructures of “non-physical” phenomena and entirely new terms willbe applied.

Whatever you choose to call it, this chapter providesdescriptions of strange and/or interesting stuff reported to happenout there in “boofland.” I‘m sure much of this stuff is actually true,while some of it may not be true, and I can’t say that I always knowthe difference. The information is provided in order to betterdescribe the potentials of human awareness, and may be of someassistance in our efforts to determine fact from fiction.

Items are listed alphabetically. Terms in bold type aredescribed elsewhere in this section. An asterisk (*) indicates thephenomena is also described in other sections of this book.

*****

Acupuncture and Acupressure

Acupuncture originated in China more than five-thousandyears ago. It is a form of therapy which involves inserting needlesinto the body at key locations and leaving them there for variouslengths of time. These points on the body are said to affect the flowof ch’i energy, and the needles are used to manipulate this energy asa means of restoring or maintaining the health of the body.Acupuncture can be used to facilitate anesthesia during operations,and small metal balls or staples placed in the ear lobe are said toassist individuals in losing weight, not smoking, etc., by rubbing theembedded object to reduce cravings.

Acupuncture first appeared in the West in France in 1928 butbecame more popular in the 1970s after the U.S. established friendlyrelations with China and the National Institute of Health sponsored aresearch conference on the subject.


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Acupressure is similar to acupuncture, but rather thanpenetrating the skin with needles, pressure is applied at key pointson the body, sometimes in conjunction with massage.

Akashic Records

Every thought, emotion, and event which has ever occurredis said to be imprinted in an unknown way, perhaps on some astralplane, where it can be perceived by gifted psychics. This “cosmicwarehouse” of information is referred to as the Akashic Records.

(If time is in fact simultaneous and all events are happeningnow in the “spacious present,” the same information would beperceivable if such a record of human experience did not actuallyexist. Rather than the information existing as some sort of record, allhuman experiences could be perceived directly by psychicallytuning in to the events as they occur.)

Alchemy

Modern chemistry evolved from efforts to transmute basermaterials into gold and silver during the medieval period in Europeand the Middle East. Alchemists of the time combined bothrudimentary science and philosophy in this quest. Their knowledgeoriginated with the ancient Egyptians, who used quicksilver(mercury) to separate gold and silver from ore, and associated thisprocess with the power of the god Osiris. When the Arabsconquered Egypt in the seventh century this knowledge eventuallyfound its way to Spain and then spread throughout Europe, whereeventually, even Sir Isaac Newton, the father of modern physics,practiced alchemical research in the 1600s.

Prior to Newton’s time there were essentially no advances inalchemy for nearly 1,000 years, largely due to the repressive natureof the Catholic Church, which would not tolerate any use of magic(witchcraft) or any philosophy which opposed Catholic religiousteachings. The Gnostic philosophy of the alchemists was intendedto perfect the soul in the process of changing lead into gold. Thebelief was that such a feat could only be accomplished by an


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individual who had transmuted himself into a higher quality being inthe same way.

There are only a few reports of alchemists being successfulin changing lead into gold. The key ingredient required was the“philosophers stone,” which is usually described as a powder. Thereare numerous reports of a Scottish man named Alexander Seton whoturned any metal given him into gold using a black powder, andeven extreme torture did not succeed in making him divulge itssecret. Most scholars who accept that gold was ever made in thismanner attribute the results to the spiritual abilities of thepractitioner, which corresponds to the belief that the philosophersstone also granted long life.

Apports

Physical objects materialized at séances. These includeeverything from jewels and flowers to living animals. They areusually physical objects from the nearby environment but have beenreported to have come from all over the globe. In many cases theymaterialize near the ceiling and drop to the table, but have alsomaterialized in the cupped hands of the medium. Materializedobjects include sun flowers over six feet tall and other objects toolarge to have been fraudulently concealed. In the 1880s, physicalmedium Elizabeth d’Esperance regularly produced apports ofobjects requested by the sitters, including ferns matching the leafpatterns of drawings she was shown. In one case, a mediumsuccessfully materialized two marked objects that had been placedin the coffin of a child buried a few days before. Few reports ofapports have been investigated since the 1920s.

ASCID(Altered States of Consciousness Induction Device)

Developed by Robert Masters and Jean Houston ofthe Foundation for Mind Research. It consists of a metal swing theoccupant stands in while blindfolded and wearing ear plugs. Theslightest movement exaggerates the motion of the device producing


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altered states of consciousness involving hallucinatory visions, oftenwithin twenty minutes.

Astral Body, Astral World and Astral Projection

According to Theosophical theory, the astral body is anexact duplicate of the physical body but composed of finer matter. Itis the body used in dreams, after death experience and Out Of BodyExperiences (OOBEs). It is said to be the part of us whichexperiences all passions, desires and emotions, and communicatesthese to the physical nervous system. The concept of the astral bodyoriginated with Hindu mysticism but is also mentioned in earlyWestern literature.

The term “astral body” and the “aura” are in some respectsmanifestations of the same thing, since the astral body is reportedlyperceived as the aura on different planes of the astral world. Theastral body is said to be composed of seven layers of progressivelyfiner energy, more and more subtle toward the inside. Each of theselayers of energy correspond to perception and manipulation withinseven different planes or spheres within the astral world. Theseventh plane is described as the realm of physical desire and thesecond plane the fulfillment of spiritual ideals. The first plane is theMental level and constitutes an entirely new universe of perception.

Astral projection involves the projection of consciousawareness outside of the physical body, or Out Of BodyExperience.

Astrology

Astrology is a method of making predictions or observationsbased upon the positions of the stars, the planets, and the anglesbetween them. Stars have relatively fixed positions and form abackground of constellations (groups of stars) across which theplanets appear to travel. In Western astrology there are twelveconstellations (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, etc.,) located along the zodiac(the part of the sky crossed by the Sun, Moon and planets). Eachconstellation (or sign) is associated with various meanings, as are


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each of the planets. The angles between the planets also havevarious meanings. The most common astrology chart consists acircular map of the sky, divided into twelve pie-shaped sectionscalled houses, with the Earth in the center. A natal chart is oneshowing the sky as it appeared at the time and place of anindividual’s birth. A horary chart is created for a specific time andplace such as the creation of a new business enterprise, wedding, orthe asking of a particular question. Interpretations regardingpersonality traits; current, past and future conditions; etc., arederived by combining the various meanings of the signs, houses,planets and angles between the planets.

Many different methods of creating and interpretingastrological information have been developed over the centuries indifferent parts of the world. The precise origin of astrology isunknown, but it appears to have developed independently in bothChina and Mesopotamia, and was widely used in India from earlytimes. As early as 600 B.C.E.* the Chaldeans, living in what is nowIraq, were able to accurately predict eclipses, and the time of thesolar year (within twenty-six minutes). Astrology was used inancient Egypt, and went in and out of favor in both the Greek andRoman empires.

*Note: “B.C.E.” is an abbreviation for “Before CommonEra,” our current method of dating years which begins with the birthof Jesus Christ.

Auras*

This refers to emanations of light around living beings whichare perceived via clairvoyance. They are described differently byvarious schools of thought, but also have some generally acceptedcharacteristics. They are most often perceived near the head as a sortof halo, but adepts can see them surrounding the entire body. Aurasare colorful, the colors being brighter and having more subtleties ofshading than physically perceived color. These colors are associatedwith personality characteristics, health conditions and emotionalstates. Auras are animated, in that the colors are complex and inconstant motion.


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Theosophy describes the following symbolic associations ofcolor and emotional states: Rose, pure affection; bright red, anger;dark red, sensuality; yellow, intellectual activity; orange, selfishnessor pride and ambition; brown, greed; blue, devotion, from obsessionto intense spirituality; green indicates placing oneself in the positionof another, from envy and jealousy to sympathy and empathy,depending on the shade; purple indicates psychic ability and powerarising out of knowledge.

Automatic Writing

This is a process where an individual writes withoutconscious control. It can be a form of mediumship where theinformation originates from an non-physical being, a method oftapping into subconscious information, or simply an exercise in selfdelusion.

Automatic writing is the most common form of mediumshipand implies an alteration in consciousness away from the normalwaking state. This can be anything from a condition similar todaydreaming, to a full trance. Some individuals have been able towrite fluently in languages they were previously unfamiliar with(xenoglossic script) and lost items have been found using automaticwriting as a method of accessing forgotten memories. In some casesit has been reported that “an invisible hand” has grasped thesubject’s arm and forced it move while the subject was fullyconscious and unable to stop the movement. Most often the materialis nearly incoherent and very little information is conveyedconsidering the number of words written.

In the 1850s Abby Warner, a young orphaned girl who couldonly read printed letters, was known to write with both hands ondifferent subjects at the same time. Chico Xavier (pronouncedsheeko shaveer) a famous Brazilian Spiritist and author of over 150books, produced automatic writing containing scientific conceptsbeyond the medium’s understanding, implying a spiritual sourcesince the information could not have come from the subconscious.

Biofeedback


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EEG is an acronym for “electroencephalographic” deviceswhich measure electromagnetic energy through electrodes attachedto the skin. When placed around the head it is possible to monitorbrainwave activity. Brainwaves are bioelectric impulses whichfluctuate in association with a subject’s state of consciousawareness. These impulses occur in cycles which are slower whensleeping and faster when fully awake and mentally active. Beta (14-50 cycles per second) refers to our normal, everyday state ofawareness. Alpha (8-13 cps) is associated with relaxation, lightmeditation and dream states. Theta (4-7 cps) occurs during deepmeditation, sleep and dreams. Delta (0.5-3.5 cps) is associated withdeep, dreamless sleep.

Biofeedback equipment can enable an individual to monitorbrainwave activity while meditating or practicing self hypnosis. Inthese cases the frequency of the practitioner’s brainwaves are mostoften displayed as an audible tone and/or flashing light. As thebrainwave frequency decreases the tone will descend in pitch or thelights will flash more slowly. This assists in the ability to discernwhich methods of concentration produce the slowest brainwaves andthe associated states of consciousness.

Biofeedback devices range in price from under twentydollars for simple, battery operated tone generators, to hundreds ofdollars for more sophisticated devices, some of which employ lightsand tones which are programmed to gradually slow in order toinduce the desired state of awareness. Biofeedback can be used tomonitor such things as skin temperature and heart rate and thusassist in learning to control these otherwise autonomic responses.Biofeedback has been shown to be particularly effective in the reliefof migraine headaches, and even the inexpensive devices can bequite effective for those new to meditation and self hypnosis.

Biorhythms

The idea that we experience predictable cycles of emotional,physical and mental capacity was popularized in the 1970s. Thetheory states that we experience peaks and valleys of emotional


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wellbeing every 28 days; mental abilities peak every 33 days; andphysical energy peaks every 23 days. The peaks are associated witha corresponding low halfway through each cycle. It is thereforepossible to begin with an individual’s birth date and create a graphof three rising and falling lines over time. The subject would beexpected to do best in each area when the peaks occurred, and tohave greater difficulties when any of these factors were at a lowpoint.

The theory was tested in the 1970s by comparing theperformance of athletes with their biorhythm charts, and no suchcorrelations were found. To date there is no significant evidence insupport of the biorhythm theories.

Channeling

This is a currently popular term for a process where anindividual conveys information from a spirit, usually while in a stateof trance. The individuals who do this are referred to as “spiritualmediums” or “channels.” Those who specialize in putting people intouch with their deceased relatives or friends are generally referredto as mediums, while channels communicate primarily with certainspiritual entities in order convey information of a philosophicalnature. Some individuals can do both.

Channeling first appeared in the late 1800s and a variety ofspiritualist books have been produced though channels since then.Channeling was made popular by Jane Roberts (1929-1984) whobegan speaking for the entity Seth in 1963. She produced a series ofsome 20 volumes including non-Seth material, some of it claimed tobe from psychologists William James and Carl G. Jung. Since the1980s many new channels have gained popularity, including EstherHicks (Abraham), Jach Pursel (Lazaris), Alan Vaughan (Li Sung)and J. Z. Knight (Ramtha).

In some cases it is unclear whether the spiritual personalitiesbeing channeled are separate entities or expressions of the channel’ssubconscious or higher spiritual self. Some who have consciouslycreated a “fictitious” personality to be channeled have producedparanormal phenomena. During the mid-1800s many persons


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channeled the spirits of American Indians who spoke in brokenEnglish but were unable to communicate in native Indian dialects.

John Edward is a medium who began to host his owntelevision show, Crossing Over, in the late 1990s, and regularlydemonstrates knowledge of the personal lives of strangers said to begiven to him by their deceased loved ones. In some cases the livingpersons are not aware of the information until it is verified later.

Ch’i

Chinese term for an energy within the body which can becontrolled via meditation and breathing exercises. Similar to theJapanese ki and Hindu yoga term prana. Ch’i can be manipulatedwith acupuncture and acupressure. In Asian systems of martial arts,ch’i energy is focused at specific points in the body through theforce of will to increase strength.

Clairvoyance and Clairaudience

Clairvoyance means “clear seeing.” It is the term used todescribe psychic impressions perceived as visual imagery in themind of a psychic. It is the most common form of psychicperception other than “direct knowing” or what is commonlyreferred to as intuition. Clairvoyance can be classified in fourdifferent subgroups. (1) seeing physical objects in the directenvironment which is otherwise hidden, such as reading a letterinside a sealed envelope, (2) seeing things at a distance happening inthe present, often referred to as remote vision, (3) seeing futureevents (precognition) or past events, and (4) seeing spirits or otherdimensions of experience. Clairvoyant perception does not employuse of the physical eyes, and the first three types have beendemonstrated to be a reality on countless occasions. The forth typeis by its very nature difficult to verify.

Clairaudience means “clear hearing” and refers primarily tohearing non-physical voices. Some mediums communicate with thedead using this type of perception, while others simply become achannel where the non-physical entity is allowed to speak using the


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medium’s physical body. Psychotic individuals also hear voices,though it is unclear whether these are always products of thepatient’s subconscious or if they may on occasion originate withoutside entities.

Crystals, Crystal Gazing and Crystal Healing

Crystals are stone objects which have smooth planes as aresult of the chemical nature of the minerals composing theirstructure. The individual molecules have flat sides and these stackup to form smooth planes. Common examples are diamond andquartz. Quartz crystals have some unique properties, in that if anelectrical current is applied to them they will vibrate at a veryconsistent rate, and if caused to vibrate via mechanical stimulationthey will produce an electric current. For this reason they have beenused in the manufacture of timepieces, computers and lasers.

Some people believe certain crystals have “magical”properties and they have been used in rainmaking ceremonies byAustralian aborigines and other cultures. Carlos Castaneda reportedthe use of finger-shaped quartz crystals as “power objects” used inwarfare by ancient Toltec indians, where they would be thrown at anadversary and “magically” return to the warrior who threw them.

Crystal gazing is a form of divination where the practitionershifts levels of consciousness (through self hypnosis) in order toperceive clairvoyant images in a smoothly polished globe or oval,usually about four inches in diameter. Historically these globes weremade from crystal or precious stone, but the same technique can beapplied using glass spheres. The Hindus have employed small poolsof black ink in a teacup since early times to produce similar results.

The idea of using crystals for healing purposes stems largelyfrom the psychic readings of Edgar Cayce, who described this useby the people of Atlantis, a mythical civilization believed by someto have sunk into the ocean. In the late 1970s psychic channel FrankAlper published three volumes of material describing the supposedhealing effects of crystals. This was followed by a number of otherbooks on the subject, but the lack of scientific evidence supporting


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the claims has resulted in a decline in popularity of crystal healingmethods.

Debunking the Debunkers

Much of the cause of a lack of credibility for psychicphenomena by science is due to emotional bias and mental lazinessexpressed by many debunkers of paranormal phenomena. Foremostamong these is “The Amazing (James) Randi,” who routinely claimsto have successfully uncovered fraud by rigging experiments whichprove nothing.

For example, in one of his television programs he presenteda group of about twenty high school students with what wassupposed to be a document describing their personal, astrologicalpersonality profile. Nearly all of the students said that it matchedtheir personality quite well. Later it was revealed that all of themhad received the same document which was not produced usingastrology. Randi then claimed that astrology was a fraud.

The document was a description of common personalitycharacteristics, so it would obviously apply to most individuals. Atno point in this demonstration was astrology applied at all. How is itpossible to disprove a theory when the theory is not applied in thetest?

A more effective experiment would be to have five of thebest astrologers available collectively review 100 differentbirthdates of mature adults (rather than naive students) to find thosemost astrologically different, then from those the astrologers wouldcreate personality profiles for twenty different individuals. Half ofthe participants would be provided with their correct profile and halfwith a profile belonging to someone else. If those receiving correctprofiles did not claim their profile matched more often then thosereceiving the incorrect profile, then astrology would have, in thisone experiment, been shown to have no significance.

Perhaps it is time to debunk the debunkers, who in manycases are as irrational as they believe the believers to be.

Déjà vu*


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This is a French term referring to the feeling that one haspreviously experienced a currently happening event. It means“already seen” and is sometimes associated with déjà entendu(already heard). Most people report having experienced déjà vu toone extent or another at some point in their lives. In some cases thismay simply be a result of associating a present event with a similarpast experience, which psychologists refer to as “postidentifyingparamnisia.” In other cases no previous associations are present (seechapter one). Déjà vu is sometimes associated with precognition, theawareness of a future event prior to its occurrence.

Direct Voice

Spirit voices heard to come from various places in a roomwith no means of physical production, usually in the presence of amedium, but sometimes heard in poltergeist situations. The voicesrange in volume from whispers to overwhelming loudness whichcan be heard from more than 100 yards away. During theSpiritualist period (1850s-1920s) direct voice phenomena wereoften produced with the aid of a “trumpet,” a cardboard or thin metaltube larger at one end than the other. The trumpet was often paintedwith luminous paint and would sometimes be seen floating about thedarkened séance room while a spirit spoke through it. Sometimes themouth of the medium would be filled with water to prevent fraud. Inone experiment a sensitive microphone was placed in a sealed,soundproof box and the direct voice was then amplified and heardcoming from an attached speaker. In more recent times direct voicephenomena have been recorded electronically.

Divination

Methods of deriving knowledge of the unknown or future bysigns or omens. Divination has been practiced in every culture sinceprehistoric times, usually by an elite class of priests or shamans,often with the assistance of consciousness influencing drugs. Thereare more than seventy well defined methods of divining the future,


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including astrology, crystal gazing, tea leaves, palmistry, Ouijaboards, tarot cards, dowsing, predicting events from the flight ofbirds, etc. It is remarkable that the many of the same methods ofdivination were known to all the primitive peoples of the Americas.Astrology has been used in every part of the world since the time ofancient Egypt, often in combination with other methods ofdivination.

Dream Phenomena*

Dreams were considered a second life by the ancients, amuch more active life since consciousness was not limited by thebody. Writings from early Egypt and Babylon outline steps bywhich wise men could divine their future from visions experiencedduring sleep. This would be an example of precognitive dreaming.Finding lost objects by first locating them in a dream could benothing more than memory recall, or could be an example ofclairvoyant dreaming if the dreamer had no awareness of thelocation of the object prior to it being lost. In this instance it is alsopossible that telepathic dreaming might be involved, where thedreamer may be interpreting impressions from another person in thepresent. Two or more individuals experiencing the same dream atthe same time is called double or shared dreaming. Being fullyaware with one’s normal consciousness while in a dreamenvironment is called lucid dreaming. If the body is asleep but the“dreamer” is aware of traveling in the physical world, it is referredto as Out Of Body Experience (OOBE) or astral projection.

Many authors, scientists and others have experiencedcreative dreaming, where the text of a novel, mathematical problem,etc. would be first resolved in a dream. In a similar way, somecreative people have experienced waking visions where a creativeidea or solution to a problem appears while fully conscious. Forexample, Nikola Tesla experienced waking visions where completedetails of electrical apparatus were displayed before him. (Asmentioned earlier, I personally awoke from a dream where I saw theimage of an inertial propulsion device which persisted after waking.)


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There is some confusion regarding the terms used to describethese various dream phenomena, since they have altered over thecenturies, but these are generally those most currently in use.

Drug Use

Many primitive peoples have used psychedelic drugs as partof religious practices. The use of cannabis (marijuana) is cited inChinese literature as early as 2737 B.C.E. and was used in Indiabefore 800 B.C.E. Other drugs used since antiquity, often for thepurpose of divination, include soma by the Hindus, peyotl (peyote)by ancients in what is now Mexico, hashish by the Arabs, and opiumby the Malays and Chinese.

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide 25) was discoveredaccidentally in 1943 by the Swiss researcher Dr. Albert Hoffman. Itwas popularized in western youth culture by Dr. Timothy Learyduring the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Electronic Voice Phenomena

Voices of the dead impressed upon normal tape recordings,usually very faint but discernable within the background noise.Konstantin Raudive made more than 100,000 recordings before hisdeath in 1974, and the phenomena has been duplicated by a numberof other researchers.

Ectoplasm

During the late 1800s and early 1900s there were manycredible reports of mediums producing a strange substance fromtheir bodies during séances (A séance usually consists a group ofpeople sitting in a circle in a darkened room while a trance mediumcommunicates with the dead.) This strange, living substance iscalled ectoplasm, and exudes from the body of the medium in avariety of forms. It can come from the pores in the skin as thin,wispy threads, exude from the mouth or other body orifices andform into physical materializations such as the body of a


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disincarnate spirit, a hand, etc. The color is usually grey or white butcan also be black, is usually cold to the touch, sometimes sticky andsoft, but can also be as firm as a rubber eraser. The body of themedium, who often sits behind a curtain in a special closet, canshrivel in size and entire limbs can disappear, only to regain normalproportions afterward. If the medium is exposed to sudden lightwhile producing the phenomena he or she will generally recoil inpain as the ectoplasm snaps back into their body like a rubber band,often resulting in physical bruises. Measurements indicate that spiritmediums have lost as much as half their weight while secretingectoplasmic manifestations.

During the 1920s many of those reporting to be legitimatemediums were debunked as frauds who were simply performingstage magic. Harry Houdini, a famous stage magician of the timewith a serious interest in contacting his dead mother, wroteextensively about those who were faking ectoplasm. Since WorldWar Two there has been little or no evidence supporting theexistence of ectoplasm.

Energy Wheels

Items similar to the paper wheel described in the PsychicParty Games section. The phrase “energy wheel” is apparently aregistered trademark of Gerald Loe, author of The Gift of Healing. Afour spoke wheel is described in the book, Mind Machines You CanBuild by G. Harry Stien.

The Egely Wheel is a patented commercial product inventedDr. George Egely, formerly an employee of the Atomic EnergyResearch Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It is anelectronic device employing a thin metal wheel with dozens ofnotches along the edge. The electronic components do not influencethe movement of the wheel but provide accurate indications of thespeed of rotation. Prices vary but are generally well over $100.00. Aversion of the device is also available which will record theinformation.

ESP


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This term was popularized by psychic researcher J. B. Rhinein his book Extrasensory Perception published in 1934. It refers toall forms of awareness received outside of the physical senses. Dr.Rhine was one of the most influential and pioneering researchers inthe field of psychic research and derived conclusive evidence for theexistence of telepathy and other forms of psychic awareness. Hepioneered the use of “ESP cards” (Zener cards, developed by KarlZener) a pack of 25 cards, each card showing one of 5 basic symbolsused in testing for testing telepathic ability, which are still in usetoday.

Ether

It was theorized in the late 1800s that “something” filled allof space and allowed for the propagation of electromagnetic waves.This “something” was called ether and supposedly had a density10,000 times greater than water and a pressure of 750 tons persquare inch. The theory was disproved by Albert A. Michelson andE.W. Morely near the beginning of the twentieth century, resultingin the First Noble prize to be received by Americans.

Eyeless Sight

The ability of blind persons to distinguish colors or evenread printed material through sense perception other than eyesighthas been documented and tested since the 1920s. When theperception involves the use of touch it is referred to as dermal-optical perception. Seeing at a distance is called paroptic perception,and can be stimulated using hypnosis to encourage “seeing throughthe cheeks” or other sensitive skin areas. (The most recent referenceto the phenomena I have been able to find is from the 1960s so it isunclear whether eyeless sight can be proven to exist. However, afriend has told me that his nearly blind father is sometimes able tosee clearly when first awakening from sleep, only to lose the abilitythe moment he realizes he is awake.)


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Fairies

The existence of nature spirits and other beings of asupernatural nature has been reported in the historical literature ofall continents. We are most familiar with fairies as described in thefolklore of the British Isles and Europe. They are reported to live inan underground world or some other magical dimension. Fairies aresaid to be beautiful creatures of smaller stature than humans, whoare often helpful but can become mischievous when offended. Manypoltergeist effects, such as banging doors, pans falling off shelves,rapping sounds, etc., have at times been attributed to fairies. Inbetter moods they have been reported to help plants and flowers togrow, to sweep floors and perform miracles such as curing birthdefects.

While it is likely that different sorts of beings exist in otherdimensions which somehow interact with our own, the existence offairies as they have been described has yet to be demonstrated asfact.

Fire Walking

The ability to walk barefoot through hot coals without painor physical damage to the feet has been demonstrated throughouthistory. In most cases this test is performed in order to proveinnocence or spiritual faith.

There are two explanations which seem to account for whythis is possible. One is that the belief in safety, held in the mind ofthe participant, produces a condition where the physical effects ofthe heat are not experienced by the body. It has been reported thatthe medium D.D. Holmes was able to hold a burning coal in hishands and blow upon it till it was white hot without being burned.The other explanation includes the fact that moisture on the skincreates a vapor barrier which reduces heat transfer, as well as the ashof a burning coal supplying a layer of insulation. Fire walkers moveswiftly and only take a few steps through the hot coals, though onoccasion people are severely burned. It is most likely that a


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combination of both physical insulation and mental focus areinvolved in successful fire walking.

Geller, Uri

One of the most famous proponents of ESP phenomena.Geller was born in Israel in 1946 and at a young age demonstratedthe ability to stop and start clocks from a distance, as well asdemonstrating telepathic ability. In 1972 at the Stanford ResearchInstitute in California, he demonstrated metal bending withoutapplying physical pressure (now often referred to as the “Gellereffect”). He also correctly guessed the contents of sealed cans andthe numbers on dice shaken in a closed box.

When he appeared on U.S. television talk shows in the early1970s he encouraged viewers at home to try spoon bending andseveral people reported success. After his television appearance inJapan in 1974, thousands of Japanese children manifestedparanormal powers. Twelve of these were investigated by a team of15 researchers headed by Shigemi Sasaki, a psychology professor atDenki Tsushin University. One twelve-year-old, Jun Sekiguchi,demonstrated amazing ability at spoon bending and could rechargedead batteries by holding them in his hand.

In 1983 it was revealed that James Randi had organizedaccomplices who faked metal bending experiments in order todiscredit the parapsychologists investigating the phenomena. WhenRandi accused Geller of fakery, Geller filed a multi-million dollarlawsuit for defamation, and lost.

Illusionists are capable of faking metal bending, but somethings Geller can do which they can’t include: Bending metalobjects without holding them (the wedding ring of rocket researcherWerher von Braun was bent in his closed hand); break metal withouthaving touched it; create changes in the crystal structure of the metalat the point of the break (this can not be done with any methodknown to science); cause objects to continue to bend after settingthem down; enable others to cause metal objects to bend, and more.

At the height of his fame in the mid-seventies, Uri Gellerdisappeared from public view for ten years. He is said to have


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become a multi-millionaire, largely from royalties received fromusing his ability to locate oil and mineral deposits by holding hishand over maps and later visiting the sites. As of this writing, fromlooking at his website (www.uri-geller.com) it appears that he hastotally sold out to commercially exploiting his fame.

Gnosticism

From the Greek “gnosis” or “to know.” A religion associatedwith several different groups of the first century who combinedJewish, occult and pagan ideas. They performed magic rituals andfashioned charms and amulets, and were considered heretics by theCatholic Church, which persecuted them. Much of their philosophydied out but was revived by the popularity of Theosophy and laterthe New Age movement.

Healing, Psychic

Psychic healing comes in a variety of forms, which cangenerally be thought of as methods whereby a practitioner assists apatient in more efficient use of their own, natural healing processes.

Autoscopy is a situation where a hypnotized subject iscapable of diagnosing their own disease. A related phenomenoninvolves the hypnotized subject being asked to provide instructionsfor the cure of their own illness. These processes were popularamong “hypnotists” in the 1800s but are now rarely encountered.Crystal gazing, automatic writing, and psychometry (holdingsome object belonging to the patient) have also been used todiagnose illness.

Medical clairvoyants operate in two general ways. Some seethe body as transparent and can locate the specific area of disease.Others perceive the aura and make their assessments due to colorsbeing affected by the illness.

The most well know psychic healer was Edgar Cayce, whodiagnosed and prescribed treatments for thousands of patients whilein a self-induced trance.


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Absent Healing occurs when the patient is at a distance fromthe healer. These days the most common example of this is groupprayer.

Reports of spectacular healings come from many sources,including Christian, mystic, occult and metaphysical groups. Insome cases destroyed tissue has been perfectly healed. There arealso numerous cases throughout history where miraculous cureshave been associated with places or artifacts.

The growth of plants can be accelerated by gifted personswho do no more than hold containers of water used to water theplants. Ordinary individuals who are in the habit of talking to theirhouseplants are known to stimulate faster development.

Psychic surgery, popular in the Philippines and Brazil,appears in two forms. One is where the practitioner mimes the act ofsurgery. The other is where the healer appears to perform the realoperation using either bare hands or primitive instruments. The latermethod has become a subject of controversy due to fraud andattempts to discredit any real phenomena by deliberately faking aprocedure (the Randi effect). Faking a procedure can not account forthe fact that real cures have resulted from such healing methods.

Faith healing differs from psychic healing in that faith, theindividual’s trusting relationship with God, is seen as the operationalcomponent. It is more properly referred to as Divine healing. This ismost often performed by “laying on hands” in the name of the Lord.Evangelist healing movements became popular in the United Statesbeginning with tent revivals in the 1920s, until “the Randi effect”was brought to bear on unscrupulous practitioners in the 1970s,discrediting not only the frauds but the actual healers.

It has long been acknowledged that the “placebo effect” hasresulted in many healings from real illnesses, i.e., someone taking asugar pill but told it was real medicine has recovered as well asothers taking the medicine. (James Randi could use this fact todiscredit the entire medical profession.) The placebo effect does notdisprove that Devine Intervention is responsible for some cases ofspontaneous healing, but it does prove that psychological factorsalone can cause healings to occur.


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Healing by touch or the laying on of hands has beendocumented in Egyptian sculptures and is scattered throughout theNew Testament of the Bible. Saints were known to cure suchailments as blindness, deafness, leprosy and even raise the dead. Thekings of Europe, beginning with Edward the Confessor of Englandand Phillip 1 of France, were known to heal diseases of the throatwith a touch of their hand.

Finbarr Nolan, born in 1952, is a healer in Ireland who hascured many thousands of people with his touch, and only his touch.There is no ritual or faith involved as he also cures animals andinfants. In a test conducted in Florida, a doctor introduced Mr.Nolan only as an observing physician who touched ten patientsconsidered incurable three times a week for two weeks. Six of themexperienced sixty to one-hundred percent recovery.

W. T. Parish was a spiritual healer for seventeen years beforehis death in 1946. During that time he received more than 500,000letters of thanks from grateful patients, many of whom had beenpronounced incurable.

In 1977 the General Medical Council in England alloweddoctors to refer patients to spiritual healers.

Houdini, Harry

Famous twentieth-century stage magician and escape artistwho made a second career of exposing “fraud” in the Spiritualistcommunity. In 1922 he sat on a panel investigating the medium“Margery” for the Scientific American magazine. Unable to explainthe phenomena witnessed at the first two sessions, he then designedand built a wooden cage to prevent the medium from manipulatingobjects in the dark. He would not allow the séance to occur in redlight (which would make movements partially visible) and refusedto let the other investigators examine the cage. It was found to havea removable ceiling when Houdini was caught trying to climb intoit. He was also caught slipping a two-foot long, folding ruler into thebox, all in an attempt to discredit the medium.

He died believing hypnosis was a fraud.


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Hundredth Monkey Effect

In his 1979 book, Lifetide, author Lyall Watson described aninteresting phenomena involving the potato washing behavior ofmonkeys on small Japanese islands in the 1950s. Japaneseresearchers were providing the monkeys with yams, and one afteranother they learned to wash the sand off the yams before eatingthem. Reportedly, after the hundredth monkey learned this behavior,the activity instantly spread to monkeys on other isolated islands.This introduced the idea that whenever an undetermined, criticalmass of people accepted a new idea, such as the need for worldpeace, that idea would suddenly be expressed by the majority ofpeople in the world.

The Skeptical Inquirer has since reported that thoseindividuals conducting the feeding of the monkeys did not observeany such phenomena occurring.

While there may be no validation of the hundredth monkeyeffect, one should not overlook a similar behavior observable inhumans -- mob rule. It is obvious that when a large enough groupwithin a population promotes a particular idea, that idea oftenspreads to the masses.

Hypnotism*

Hypnosis produces an altered state of consciousness which ischaracterized by a lack of continuous alpha waves. Othercharacteristics of this state include extreme suggestibility andintense focus upon a single stimulus, where the subject feels at onewith the stimulus. In the form of trance-like states of various names,hypnosis has been known throughout history in nearly all parts ofthe world. Self hypnosis refers to a subject experiencing this statewithout the aid of an outside practitioner.

Hypnotism was known as “animal magnetism” in the late1700s, and was considered to result from a flow of “magnetic fluid”which could be directed to specific parts of the body in order toproduce medical cures. Actual magnets were part of the process,


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particularly in the work of Frantz Anton Mesmer in France, fromwhose name the term “mesmerism” was coined.

Alexander Bertrand was the first to propose that magneticfluid had nothing to do with the cures, which he considered a resultof the suggestibility involved with the somnambulic (trance-like)state. James Braid coined the term “hypnosis” in 1841. Until theapplication of chloroform and ether, hypnosis was used widely as ananesthetic in operations, where even limbs could be removedwithout pain.

Hypnotism bypasses higher mental functioning and allowsthe operator to direct many actions of the subject. These effectsinclude anesthesia, inducing hallucinations, fulfillment ofposthypnotic suggestions and control of muscles not normally undervoluntary control. Psycho-physiological effects include patientsdeveloping skin burns when touched with an ice cube after beingtold it was a hot iron, and the creation of stigmata (Christ-likewounds).

During the period of animal magnetism, paranormal(psychic) perceptions, speaking in tongues and poltergeist effects(movement at a distance, rapping sounds, etc.) were often associatedwith hypnotic trances. More recently, telepathy experimentsemploying hypnotized subjects have been shown to produce the bestoverall results. Hypnotic regression has been used to recall forgottenmemories, and beginning in the 1950s many practitioners haveinvestigated possible past life experience with this technique.

I Ching

“The Book of Changes.” Also known as the book of Y-Kim,ten chapters written in the year 3468 B.C.E. by Chinese EmperorFo-Hi. In modern times the I Ching is primarily used as a system offortune telling where two sets of three solid or broken lines(trigrams) are drawn one atop the other, depending upon how yarosticks or coins fall when cast. The two trigrams combine to formsixty-four possible hexagrams, each with a particular divinatorymeaning.


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Kabala

Also spelled Kabbalah or Cabala, or in other variations. Theword means “doctrines received from tradition” and is reportedlyhanded down from the early Hebrews and Jews. It involves acomplex explanation of the nature of the universe in Christian termsand was held mostly secret until discovered by serious magicians(not stage performers) of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn inthe 1900s. The most public of these magicians was AleisterCrowley. Practitioners believe there is an inherent power in specificnames and numbers and use elaborate rituals to perform magic ofvarious types. The Kabala was made popular for a brief time amongfans of heavy metal cult bands in the1980s.

Karma

The idea that all actions have consequences. In Easternreligious philosophy all of ones actions produce consequenceswhich must eventually be experienced in a succession of lives untilthe individual can escape from the wheel of reincarnation. Harmfulactions produce harmful consequences, while good actions producegood consequences. The popular phrase, “what goes around, comesaround,” is an expression of karmic thinking.

Kirlian Photography

Also known as electrophotography. A photographic processwhere biological objects placed upon an electrically chargedphotographic plate appear to be emanating an aura. The process wasdeveloped in 1958 by two Russian scientists, Semyon Davidovichand his wife, Valentina Kirlian. Interesting effects include producingphotos of the outline of a complete leaf in spite of part of the leafbeing removed prior to taking the picture, and the hands of a yogishowing huge increases in the intensity of the “coronal discharge”around his hands while meditating as opposed to when notmeditating.


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Close examination revealed a lack of proper controls in earlyexperiments and little has been mentioned about the process sincethe 1980s.

Kundalini

Described by ancient Hindu religious teachings as a latentforce responsible for sexual energy which can be stimulated to riseupward from the groin through six nerve centers (charkas) along thespine to the head, where the energy produces the experience ofspiritual illumination. The techniques involved include hatha yoga,breathing exercises and spiritual practice.

Levitation

The raising of physical objects, especially humans, into theair without any visible means. This feat is well documented fromancient times as being performed by shamans of primitive cultures,Eastern mystics and Christian saints, including Jesus walking uponthe water.

In his book, Levitation (1928) Oliver Leroy reports that of1,400 Christian saints, 200 experienced this phenomena, often infront of crowds during religious services. St. Joseph of Copertino iscredited with 70 experiences of levitation, sometimes floating nearthe tops of trees. Nuns and patrons of religious services have beenreported to float high above the ground in a sate of religious ecstasy,sometimes taking aloft several persons attempting to hold themdown.

The most famous levitation event in comparatively recenttimes was performed by spirit medium D. D. Home and occurred onDecember 13, 1868 in London. Three credible witnesses confirmedthat Mr. Home floated out one window and back in another, eightyfeet above the street below.

Hindu yoga teachings state that anyone capable ofawakening the Anahara (heart) charka can “walk in the air.” In the1970s Transcendental Meditation centers began teaching a six-month course in levitation promoted by Maharishi Masesh Yogi. His


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followers refused to permit photographs on the grounds that yogisare not allow to take pride in such accomplishments because it couldimpede further development.

There are many photographs of people levitating, includingthe Enfield Poltergeist case of 1977, where one of the childreninvolved was photographed in levitation during the investigation.There are also photos of mediums levitating prior to the 1950s.Since photographs can be faked they are not always consideredreliable evidence.

Most of those reporting to experience levitation say they feellighter than air, though some report a magnetic-like force pushingupward from below or the sensation of hands lifting them. Often thechairs the people are sitting in rise as well. Time aloft averages lessthan five minutes, though more than two hours have been reportedon some occasions.

Lucid Dreaming*

A “lucid” dream is one where the dreamer is aware of thedream with normal consciousness, or “feeling wide awake” whilecontinuing to be immersed in dream experience. The term wascoined in 1913 by Frederick van Eeden and made popular by thebook Lucid Dreams by Celia E. Green (1968). Prior to then this stateof awareness was referred to as “dreaming true.”

Lucid dreaming differs from Out of Body Experience inthat the latter involves awareness of being outside the body butwithin the physical world (or within the astral planes).

Keith M. T. Hearn at the University of Liverpool hasconducted tests where a sleeping, dreaming subject cancommunicate with the outside world by deliberating signaling witheye movements monitored by polygraph equipment (ocularsignaling). The tests were designed to investigate possible ESP onthe part of the dreamer.

Magic


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Referring to the ability to cause change by mysteriousmeans, magic has been around since prehistory. From cavemencutting off fingers to ward off disease (seen in hand paintings oncave walls) to a friend showing you a good card trick, it’s all calledmagic. There are two types of magic, however. One is the type usedby modern stage magicians who are more properly referred to as“illusionists” who simply create the illusion of supernatural powers.The other type of magic involves manipulation of metaphysicalforces and is usually accompanied by ritual.

Ritual magic can be divided into two classificationsdepending upon the practitioner’s belief as to the source of themagical power. Some shamanistic cultures believe a great reservoirof magical force exists in the universe which can be tapped into inorder to create magical effects. Others perform their rituals in orderto seek the power of disincarnate entities.

Harry Houdini was an illusionist who actively sought todebunk all claims of “real magic.” Many other professional stagemagicians in the early nineteen hundreds investigated paranormalphenomena and were convinced such phenomena actually occurred.

Mantra*

A mantra is a word or combination of words or syllableswhich is sometimes repeated as an aid to meditation. Hindu mysticsbelieve the world was formed from divine vibration, and repeatingcertain sounds can affect mental, emotional and physical states ofthe practitioner.

Materialization

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of documented casesreported by critical observers where spirit mediums have caused theappearance of ghost-like forms during séances. These occurredmostly between the 1860s and 1920s, with the phenomena firstappearing in the United States. The materializations often appearedas the particular spirit being channeled by the medium, though othermanifestations include loved ones of the sitters, flowers, objects like


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cloth, steel and precious jewels, and animals of various kinds,usually deceased pets.

In most cases, the materializations occurred in darkenedrooms where a group of people would sit in a circle while themedium went into trance while sitting inside a curtained,freestanding cabinet. Often, fine filaments of ectoplasm would flowout through the skin of the medium, or thick strands would exudefrom his or her body openings, from there forming into the shapebeing materialized. This process often took ten to fifteen minutes tocomplete, and the materializations would last up to two hours. Thesematerialized shapes generally looked and felt to the touch like thereal thing. Spirits could hold the hands of the sitters, carry onintelligent conversations or otherwise engage in normal physicalactivities such as eating.

Often the materializations were incomplete, such as only ahead and one arm appearing, or the body would not be visible belowthe waist. The dematerialization process usually occurred over aperiod of several minutes, and many people reported effects such asa spirit’s hand dissolving as it was being tightly gripped. Most oftenthe spirits left by dissolving into the floor.

Very few instances of spiritual materialization have beenreported since the 1920s, when nearly all of the most publicizedmediums were accused of fraud, the only exception being D. D.Home (1833-1886). The evidence reported prior to that time,however, leads me to believe materialization did in fact occur. InSeth Speaks, Robert Butts reports that on one occasion Seth alteredthe hand of Jane Roberts and turned it into a strange claw-likeappendage, which Mr. Butts was able to feel and attest to it’s reality.If the universe consists of “idea construction” then such phenomenacould easily be possible.

Matter Moving Through Matter

Numerous instances of matter passing through matter werereported during the spiritualist period. Solid iron rings, and woodenrings of different types of wood, were joined together. A commondemonstration involved one person holding both hands of a medium


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and either iron rings or wooden chairs suddenly being found to behanging from the arms of the participants. In January, 1868, thirty-two people signed an affidavit stating they had witnessed a solidiron ring, seven inches smaller in circumference than the head of anineteen-year-old medium, “actually and unmistakably appeararound his neck.”

Meditation*

See Chapter Five: Manipulating Awareness

Medium

A medium is an individual who is able to tune intointelligent, non-physical perceptions and act as a channel ofcommunication between the physical and non-physical worlds,sometimes being controlled by a non-physical entity while in a stateof trance. “Sensitives” and “psychics” are not controlled in this way,but otherwise the terms are in some ways interchangeable. Amedium may act as a channel of communication by performingautomatic writing or allowing the spirit to speak directly using hisor her body. In other cases, the medium remains fully conscious andsimply communicates impressions received from the “other side.”These impressions most often come in the form of images orintuitive feelings.

Physical mediums are capable of creating physicalphenomena such as rapping sounds, moving matter through matter,levitation, producing materializations from ectoplasm, etc. Theywere popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s (the Spiritualistperiod) but are rare today. Perhaps the greatest physical medium wasBrazilian born Carlos Mirabelli (1889-1951). He is reported to haveproduced automatic writing in more than 30 languages, materializedup to twelve spirits at one time (as well as many objects) performedlevitation, etc. What makes his achievements stand above the rest isthat most of the time they took place in the full light of day or inwell lighted rooms.


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The most famous mental medium of the Spiritualist periodwas Leonora Piper (1859-1950) who was the subject of intenseinvestigation by the Society for Psychical Research for severaldecades. The philosopher William James and other criticalinvestigators were convinced of survival of the spirit after deathafter ruling out telepathy as a means by which Mrs. Piper may havederived her information.

Transfiguring mediums, which are rare, are those whosephysical features alter during trance to those of the deceased personspeaking through him or her.

Mesmerism

A system of healing originally referred to as “animalmagnetism” developed in 1776 by Austrian born Frantz AntonMesmer (1733-1815). It proposed a new physical force affecting theplanets and living beings, a sort of fluid magnetism. Patients wouldbe tied together in a circle around a large tub containing water,magnets and other objects, with iron rods protruding from holes inthe top. Touching the iron rods to affected areas in the patientsbodies would cause them to react strongly, sometimes by screaming,crying, vomiting, etc., which often affected a cure. Mesmer wasinvestigated by a committee headed by Benjamin Franklin, whichfound no evidence of animal magnetism, and suggested that thecures were a result of the patient’s imaginations. Later investigatorsnoted that some patients would fall asleep while being wide awake amoment before, thus discovering the state of somnambulism.

As the idea of magnetic fluid was becoming slowlydiscarded, Tardy de Montravel proposed that “transposition of thesenses” could be made to occur. Many of his somnambulic subjectscould walk through town with their eyes tightly closed. Other formsof psychic awareness, including accurate medical diagnosis andmethods of treatment, were also discovered to occur during suchtrances, and an abundance of new mediums appeared. The mostuseful affect of mesmerism was as an anesthetic during operations.In 1841 James Braid announced his discovery of hypnotism anddemonstrated that he could produce all the affects of mesmerism


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without the use of a magnet. The introduction of chloroform andeither in 1846-47 resulted in hypnosis losing favor with the medicalcommunity and becoming a tool of psychologists like SigmondFreud and Carl Jung, as well as being employed by those in theSpiritualist movement.

Mysticism

The practice of seeking a direct spiritual union with God.Mystics throughout the ages have reported the experience of beingone with the Supreme Being. Many Christian saints were mystics,though mystics can be found in nearly any religion and among thosewho are not affiliated with any organized spiritual system.

In Western culture this goal of experiencing a directencounter with God was established as part of the philosophy ofNeoplatonism by Platonius of Alexandria in 233. Neoplatonismattempted to combine the ancient Greek philosophy of Plato withpopular (Gnostic) Roman beliefs of the time. This philosophyinvolved the total rejection of human pleasures in order to avoid anydistraction from the goal of God consciousness, which was a rareevent in the lives of even the most diligent practitioners. Over theyears this philosophy was modified by two major groups in differentways. The Catholic Church used it as a way of encouragingadherence to strict codes of moral behavior. Others had encounterswith beings at various levels beneath God, such as angles anddemons, and what was left of the divine quest of Platonius becamethe foundations of ritual magic in the Middle Ages.

Necromancy

Divination by means of spirits of the dead. To the Greeks itmeant a decent into Hades in order to consult with the dead. In latertimes practitioners of black magic have performed rituals intendedto bring demons into the physical realm.

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Newspaper tests attempted to rule out telepathy as a sourceof information reported to come from the spirit world. A trancemedium would be asked to describe the locations of specific wordswhich would appear in the newspaper the following day. Book testsinvolved a similar process, where a medium would describe thecontent of a specific page in a particular, closed book.

Numerology

A system of assigning numbers to the letters in a person’sname and/or birth date, where the numbers are reduced to a singledigit in most cases. The resulting number is associated withpersonality traits said to reflect the person’s character, in much thesame way as astrological Sun signs indicate a general personalitytype.

Occult

That which is hidden. Refers primarily to phenomena andmethods which are hidden from the uninitiated, includingparanormal and supernatural events and processes. The term is oftenused in a derogatory manner to indicate unpopular areas ofparanormal study.

Ouija Board*

Device used for communicating with spirits, consisting of apointing device and a board inscribed with letters and symbols,currently marketed as a “game.” Usually operated by two peoplewho place their hands on the pointing device, which slides acrossthe board to spell out words and phrases from supposed discarnatespirits. The name is derived from the French word “oui” and theGerman “ja,” both meaning “yes.” A similar device was reported tobe used by Pythagoras around 540 B.C.E.

Out of Body Experience (OBE or OOBE)


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The belief that the normal consciousness of an individual canleave the physical body and return has been documented since thetime of the ancient Hindus and Egyptians. The experience is alsoreferred to as astral projection. The traveler can visit distant placesor perceive other dimensions of experience, and some report beingconnected to the body by a thin cord which can snap the travelerback in the event of distress. OOBEs are sometimes confused withwhat is called remote viewing or traveling clairvoyance, but inthese cases the “traveler” is usually awake and conscious in thephysical body, while OOBEs occur during sleep or trance states.

Palmistry

Also known as cheiromancy, the art of describing characterand life events by analyzing the shape and features of the hands. Theshape of the hands and fingers refers to broad character traits, whilethe lines refer to specific areas of personality and events. Thepractice was known by the Brahmins of India and to Aristotle, whopresented information on the subject to Alexander the Great. In themiddle ages the practice was associated with the gypsies, and waspopularized in the English speaking world around 1900 by Cheiro.

Parapsychology

Parapsychology, extrasensory perception (ESP) and psi areterms popularized by researcher J. B. Rhine at Duke University, whosought to bring statistical analysis into the field of paranormalresearch in the middle of the twentieth century. Initially,parapsychology dealt only with those phenomena which could beevaluated statistically, such as telepathy and telekinesis, but the termhas evolved to include most areas of psychical research. Thefamiliar pack of twenty-five ESP cards containing five groups offive symbols -- star, circle, square, cross and waves, was designedby Karl Zener, a colleague of J. B. Rhine at Duke University.

Pendulums*


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A means of deriving answers to yes or no questions byobserving the movement of a pendulum suspended from the hand.Depending upon the method used by the practitioner, “yes” can beindicated by a forward and back movement while “no” is indicatedby movement from side to side, or a clockwise spin can indicate“yes” while counterclockwise indicates “no.” (See radiesthesia inthis section, as well as the Psychic Party Games chapter.)

Perfumes

Various scents and smells have been reported to occur inconjunction with the spiritual activity of mediums. They include thesmell of orange blossoms, freshly cut hay, flowers of various types,musk, and fragrances previously unknown but very pleasing,sometimes referred to as the “fragrance of sanctity.” In some casesfoul odors have been perceived.

“Philip”

In 1972 a group of researchers associated with the TorontoSociety for Psychical Research in Canada began an experiment inwhich they created an “artificial ghost” in hopes of testing if thephenomena experienced at séances could be duplicated without theassistance of real spirits. After more than a year they finallysucceeded in perceiving raps in answer to yes and no questions, andsome table levitation. The possibility that these effects wereproduced by genuine spirits can not be ruled out.

Plant Consciousness

Plants possess an ability to respond to human emotion. Forexample, devices have been created whereby an operator can cause adoor to be unlocked by concentrating on an emotion in the presenceof a plant which has been connected to electroencephalograph(EEG) machine. The plant triggers the EEG to produce an electricaloutput which then causes an electrical relay to power an electriclocking mechanism. In The Secret Life of Plants the author describes


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an experiment where a man pulls one of several plants out of its potand beats it severely. Later a group of people walk by the otherplants and when the perpetrator of the crime walks by the plantstrigger a response from the connected EEG machine.

“Plastics”

Psychically produced imprints or molds of faces, hands, etc.The medium Eusapia Palladino produced imprints of her

face and hands in both clay and putty while being physicallyrestrained across the room.

The first casts made with melted paraffin wax were obtainedby William Denton in 1875 while working in public halls with themedium Mary M. Hardy. A thin layer of wax is melted on thesurface of a bucket of hot water. A spirit placing a hand in thisbucket will create a thin layer of wax on the surface of the hand. Thehand is then placed in a bucket of cold water which solidifies thewax. Repeatedly dipping the hand in one bucket then the other willbuild up a thicker layer of wax. This mold is very delicate and mustbe filled with plaster of Paris immediately in order to retain itsshape. Molds of human hands can not be created up to the wrist orwith fingers bent because the mold will be destroyed upon removingthe hand. Paraffin molds of spirit hands have been created beyondthe wrist and even with two hands entwined.

Poltergeist

Unexplained noises, rappings, movements and otherdisturbances are referred to as poltergeist effects. They aredocumented as far back as 856 B.C.E. and occur all over the world.“Poltergeist” is German for “rattling ghost.” Phenomena includefragile items being broken, objects moving or flying through the air,doors repeatedly slammed, water taps turning on, chairs beingstacked, etc. They are often associated with particular people andwill sometimes move to new locations when the target personmoves. Unlike other spiritual phenomena which usually occurs atnight, these types of affects often occur during daylight. Some


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poltergeists are friendly and in some cases have been reported toperform domestic chores (see Fairies).

Power Spots

It has been suggested that there are physical locations on theplanet where metaphysical energies are focused more strongly andspiritual activities produce better or faster results when performed inthese places. Seth describes “coordination points” in the nearbyspace around us where thoughts are propelled to form as physicalmatter, and main coordination points of a similar nature whichconnect all systems of reality. The Castaneda books refer to donJuan’s description of power places, usually natural formations ofcircular rock, where sorcery skills are enhanced. Other supposedpower spots include the Great Pyramid in Egypt, Stonehenge inEngland, areas near Sedona Arizona, and elsewhere.

Prayer

In Western cultures prayer is a means of communicationbetween the individual and the divine. The primary components ofsuch prayer are: adoration, gratitude, supplication and sometimesconfession of sin and/or intercession on behalf of others. In mostcases prayer involves a request for assistance. Prayer is often aninstrument of faith healing.

A notable demonstration of the power of prayer occurredduring the mid-1800s. George Bristol operated charitableinstitutions assisting hundreds of children for more than fifty yearswhile never asking anyone for money or allowing others to ask onhis behalf. During that time the children never missed a regularlyscheduled meal. He attributed his success to secret prayers. Thedonors described feeling an irresistible urge to donate a particularsum of money on a specific date, which just happened to be theexact amount Mr. Bristol was in need of at that time.

In non-religious terms prayer can be considered a means offocusing upon a desired belief while feeling certain that the desiredresults will be created in one’s experience.


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Predestination

The idea that all future actions are fated to occur and no freewill exists. Philosophers have argued both sides of this debate forcenturies with no apparent possibility of resolving the issue. (Myadmittedly biased opinion is that if predestination exists, it should bepossible to design a machine which can accurately predict where acoin thrown against a rough stone wall will land on the ground,every time. Until such a machine exists, or even a theory is devisedregarding how one might operate, I can see no evidence supportingthe idea that all events are predestined.)

Pre-Existence

Many people assume that if there is life after death then theremay also be a form of existence prior to physical birth. Those whosubscribe to a belief in reincarnation obviously accept this concept,and conceive of a between life world from which the soul movesback and forth between lifetimes. Others believe the soul is createdduring the period between conception and birth.

Premonition, Prediction and Prophecy

A premonition is an impression regarding a potential futureevent, generally vague and often experienced as a warning, thoughsome premonitions can be of beneficial occurrences. Predictions areimpressions of future events which generally contain more specificinformation, such as places or dates. Prophecy deals withpremonitions or predictions concerning large groups of people orcountries.

Six weeks before his assassination, Abraham Lincolndreamed of a procession of mourners filing through the WhiteHouse with himself in the casket. A young girl in Greenland told hermother she dreamed of her schoolhouse being covered by somethingblack, and later that day the school was destroyed when black rockfrom a mining operation slid down a hillside, killing the girl and


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many other children. Thousands of accurate premonitions have beendocumented.

Psi

Psi is the name of a Greek letter used in parapsychology toindicate something related to psychic phenomena. For example,“psi-hitting” indicates a positive result in ESP testing, “psi-missing”indicates negative results, and “psi-inhibiting” denotes a conditionwhere extreme skepticism can negatively affect efforts to produceparanormal effects.

Psychic Force

Sometimes referred to as “Odic force.” A theoreticalexplanation attempting to account for the mechanism of manypsychic phenomena, in particular, the physical materializations ofmediums and sensations of sitters during séances. This force is saidto be responsible for actions performed at a distance (telekinesis),the production of sounds such as rappings and music, and theformation of spiritual materializations.

The joining of hands is said to produce a means by which thepsychic force circulates through the circle becoming stronger overtime. The force is noticed by the sitters in several forms, including atingling in the palms and tips of the fingers, the sensation of anenergy current in the body, and sometimes a feeling like spider webstouching one’s face. The energy is said to be drawn from the vitalenergy of each person in the circle, and many sitters have reportedfeeling physically drained after a séance. The mediums oftenexperience extreme contortions of the body at the moment ofproducing materialization effects and some are left physicallyexhausted afterward. Other mediums experience no apparent loss ofenergy.

Psychokinesis


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Term proposed by J. B. Rhine at Duke University in the1930s in reference to the movement of objects at a distance bymental power, meant to replace the earlier term “telekinesis.”“Psycho” is a prefix referring to “mind.” Psychokinesis, or “PK,”includes all phenomena associated with movement resulting frommental action alone, including its affect upon objects in motion (i.e.,falling dice), plants, healing, metal bending, and the behavior ofanimals. “Tele” refers to “distance” and does not depend upon “aforce emanating from the mind.” Since the actual cause ofmovement without a physical force is not known, I prefer to use theterm telekinesis in reference to the movement of objects at adistance.

Psychometry*

Term coined by scientist Joseph Rhodes Buchanan in 1842to describe the phenomenon of a person being able to describe pastevents associated with a physical object by holding the object inone’s hands. Common items used for this purpose are pieces ofjewelry or other objects of significance to a particular person. Thephenomena has no doubt been around since ancient times.Theoretically, every event is permanently imprinted in some mannerso that it is never lost (see Akashic Records) and objects can containthis information in regards to any environment where the objectshave been.

Events of a highly charged emotional nature are most easilyperceived by those sensitive to psychometric impressions. Acharged object is one in which emotional energy or mental imageshave been deliberately placed. (See the Psychic Party Gameschapter.)

Some physical locations may be imprinted in a similarmanner by intense emotional experience occurring there. This maybe related to some cases of poltergeist phenomena associated withhaunted houses, but sometimes the phenomena follows a particularperson to a new location. There are at least two reported cases wherecrowds of people have witnessed battles being continually recreatedby armies of apparitions over a period of several days. Two months


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after the Battle of Edge Hill, fought in England on October 22, 1664,the king, Charles I, sent a commission to investigate. They reportedwitnessing an aerial reenactment of the battle on two occasions. Asimilar event occurred in 1686 near Lanark, where over the courseof several days many people gathered to watch a battle scenecontinually replay itself. It is interesting that approximately two-thirds of the crowd were able to perceive the event while others didnot.

Many people have experienced a feeling of unrest in certainlocations, which may have something to do with this psychicimprinting of emotional energy upon the location.

Pyramid Energy

It has been claimed that the shape of the Great Pyramid atGiza acts as a collector of energy similar to that produced throughspiritual healing. For this reason the location of the Great Pyramid isconsidered a power spot by those who subscribe to such beliefs. Inthe late 1920s, Antoine Bovis, a French radiesthetist, claimed thatorganic substances such as meat and eggs could be mummified byplacing them in a cardboard model of the pyramid. A patent for apyramid razor blade sharpener was taken out by Czech radioengineer Karl Drbal. The idea of pyramid energy was very popularin the 1970s, but to date there has been no detailed scientificinvestigation into the claims.

Radiesthesia

A more sophisticated study of dowsing and pendulum effectsassuming some sort of radiation is responsible for the movements.Pendulums are used to locate missing objects or persons, thediagnosis of disease, and even locating minerals or water by holdingthe pendulum over maps.

Ramtha


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Spirit guide or control of J. Z. Knight. Ramtha first appearedto her at her home in Tacoma, Washington, in 1977. Ramtha claimsto have found enlightenment thirty-five thousand years ago duringthe time of Lemuria and has returned to Earth to teach us that we areall gods capable of creating anything we wish. The material becamevery popular during the peak of the New Age movement in the1980s. Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment is located on a ranch inrural Washington.

Raps

Sounds, usually percussive in nature, created without visibleor known means. Raps or knocking sounds are considered the mostprimitive form of spirit communication and are often among the firstsigns of materialization during a séance. Yes or no questions canbe answered with single or double raps, and letters of the alphabetcan be communicated by a number of raps corresponding with eachletter. A pencil can be moved along a series of letters and the letterindicated when a rap occurs. Rapping sounds can be as subtle aspinpoints tapping on glass, as loud as explosions, and everything inbetween. Generally the sounds have the character of the surface theyare generated upon, i.e., a “knock” on wood or a “clang” on a metalbox. The vibrations can be felt in the material being affected, and inthe case of flexible materials the effect can also be seen. Forexample, a sheet of paper held in the air can be seen to shakedramatically when a rap occurs upon its surface. Raps can also befelt directly on the face and hands.

Although it is easily possible to fake the production of mostspirit rappings, they have been reported to occur as early as 858 andreports of raps upon the flesh of investigating scientists are clearevidence for the existence of the phenomenon.

Reiki

Healing method incorporating the use of a universal lifeenergy called ki, which is similar if not the same as the Hindu pranaand other descriptions of a life force. Derived from early Buddhist


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sutras by Mikao Usui, a Christian minister in Japan, in the late1880s.

REM (Rapid Eye Movement)

Period during dreaming sleep when closed eyes moverapidly as though watching events taking place with the physicaleyes.

Remote Viewing

Term coined in the 1970s by Ingo Swann, a full timescientific subject and parapsychology researcher for nineteen years,to describe the process of describing events taking place at remotelocations while fully conscious. Mr. Swann described a ring ofasteroids around the planet Jupiter on April 27, 1973, which werenot believed to exist at the time but were scientifically verified in1979.

Reincarnation

The process where an individual soul is reborn in a repeatedsuccession of physical lives, which can include animal life. Theconcept appeared simultaneously around 600 B.C.E. in India and theMediterranean basin. In the West, the idea was postulated by Platoand later denounced by the Catholic church. In Hinduismreincarnation was tied to the concept of karma, where an individualis forced to endure countless lifetimes until one escapes from theworld of illusion through the practice of good karma and returns tothe divine source.

Seth describes reincarnation as a voluntary but necessaryprocess where one returns to Earth experience for enjoyment andpersonal development.

Rhine, Joseph Banks (1895 – 1980)


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Preeminent twentieth century researcher in the field ofparapsychology who brought scientific and popular attention to thesubject with the publication of Extrasensory Perception in 1934.Coined the phrases “ESP,” “parapsychology” and others.

Runes

Ancient alphabet used on stone inscriptions found inScandinavian countries. Runes carved in stone or ceramics havebeen used as a form a divination similar to the Chinese system of IChing.

Séance*

A séance, or “home circle,” consists of a group of peoplesitting together with the intention of creating paranormal phenomenaor communicating with disincarnate spirits. In general, the groupinvolves a medium and up to eight or nine people who sit in a dimlylit or completely darkened room. The participants hold hands, orplace their hands on a table with the fingertips touching. The handsmust remain connected throughout the séance. Everyone talkscasually or sings in order to create a comfortable, relaxedatmosphere, then the medium invokes communication with spiritualentities. During the Spiritualist period the medium was often seatedin a cabinet with a heavy curtain across the front.

The first noticeable effect is often a drop in temperature orthe feeling of a cool breeze blowing across the face and hands.Luminous lights may be seen moving about the room, or the soundof raps may be heard. The table or other furniture in the room maymove. If raps are heard, it is possible to derive answers to yes or noquestions by the number of raps. One rap means “yes,” two indicate“no,” or some other arrangement can be devised.

The medium may or may not go into a trance, but in cases ofchanneling a trance state usually occurs and the disincarnate spiritspeaks using the body of the medium. Questions can be asked, andanswers given. It is also possible to request specific types ofphenomena. Levitation of people and objects can occur, as well as


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materializations of spirits, ectoplasm and physical objects such asflowers and jewels.

Physical phenomena are often proceeded by vibrations orshaking of the table, then of the entire room. Objects move as ifunder intelligent control rather than at random, so items can fall intoan outstretched hand, or slide upwards across a slope. Ropes can beknotted or untied. People can be touched by invisible hands, andsometimes the hands can be seen. Coherent text can be typed byspirits on typewriters. Musical instruments can be played, or thesound of music can be heard with no physical means available.Drawings and paintings can be created, and clay sculpted,telekinetically. Objects can disappear. Even heavy pianos have liftedup and floated across the room. Fine threads, possibly pulled fromthe etheric aura, have often been associated with telekineticmovement, and many sitters have reported a sensation like spiderwebs felt on the face and hands.

Mediums exposed to sudden light often experience pain andsometimes bruising of the body, so a red light is sometimes usedwhen a light is necessary.

Sensitive

Individual with psychic ability, differing from a medium orchannel in that they do not communicate with the dead.

Sensory Depravation

Technique for developing spiritual awareness by reducingperception of the physical world. This includes everything frommeditation in a quiet atmosphere with subdued lighting, to sensorydepravation tanks, where an individual is enclosed in a soundproof,light tight tank filled with salt water heated to body temperature.Many individuals using these tanks report vivid hallucinations andthe experience of bizarre fantasies.

Seth


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Trance personality of Jane Roberts, mentioned often in thisbook.

Sex Magic

The use of sexual energy in rituals designed to producemagical effects.

Shaman

Spiritual leader or “medicine man” of primitive tribalcommunities, whose main techniques often include healing rituals,prophecy , and communication with the dead. Displays ofparanormal phenomena are common among shamans. They passtheir secret knowledge from generation to generation verbally, andhave been found from ancient times nearly everywhere on theplanet.

Slate Writing

Popular form of direct writing used in séances near the turnof the twentieth century. A medium and a sitter position themselvesat opposite ends of a small table and hold the corners of a smallwriting slate under the table. A piece of chalk is placed between thetable and the slate. A spirit entity writes messages on the slate andsignals completion of the message by creating three loud raps. Thephenomena has been largely discredited due to the ease with whichit can be fraudulently produced.

Somnambulism

From the Latin “somnus” (sleep) and “ambulare” (to walk).Refers to various stages of semi-consciousness from sleep walkingto deep trance where the subject is consciously unaware of his or herphysical environment. Subconscious faculties take the place ofconscious control, and all physical perception, including taste, smelland sensation of pain can be completely blocked. The state is


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characterized by the eyes looking upward and inward, and can occurspontaneously or be initiated via hypnosis or through deliberateeffort of the subject, as in trance states achieved by mediums.

The state was first discovered by the Marquis Chastenet dePuysegur in 1784 in connection with mesmerism and animalmagnetism, but the term is no longer in use by psychologists.

Spells

Spells are words or incantations intended to produce magicalaffects. The casting of spells has been practiced since ancientEgyptian times and is still in use in non-industrialized societies.Spells are used to protect the practitioner from evil, to causesomeone to fall in love, to place a curse upon an enemy, totransform oneself into different person, animal or object, etc. Itcould be said that the universe was created via a spell, according tothe first words in the bible. “In the beginning there was the Word,and the Word was God.” Spells are used in modern Wicca,practitioners of neo-pagan witchcraft, primarily for the improvementin the lives of themselves, their friends and family.

Spirit Photography

In 1862, William H. Mumler took a photograph of a Bostondoctor and discovered a second image on the plate which the doctoridentified as his cousin who had died twelve years earlier. This wasjust the first of many spirit photographs taken by Mr. Mumler.Similar photos were taken by other photographers of the period andwere considered by many to be objective proof of survival ofpersonality after death. Around 1930 investigators reported theycould not locate any spirit photographs which may not have beenproduced by fraud and the phenomena was more or less forgotten. Inrecent years a few individuals have demonstrated the ability toimpress an image directly onto film through psychic means (psychicphotography).

Spiritualism and Spiritism


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Spiritualism is a social-religious movement of the late 1800swhich began in New York and spread into Europe and SouthAmerica. It was initiated in 1848 when raps were heard to occur inthe presence of the Fox sisters, Margaretta (15) and Kate (12) in ahouse in Rochester, New York. The raps communicated informationwhich was later verified. Trance communications, table tipping,materializations and other effects occurred as many of those whowitnessed the phenomenon realized they had similar abilities. Homecircles sprung up throughout the Northeast and by 1855 more thantwo million people had converted to Spiritualism.

The fundamental principle of Spiritualism is that the soulsurvives physical death and can communicate with the livingthrough spiritual mediums. It was the first “scientific” religion,relying on objective evidence rather than faith in an attempt to unifyspiritual reality with scientific thought. Spiritualists deny theexistence of devils, any sort of final judgment, and believe that onlythe soul, not the physical body, will be resurrected. The basicphilosophy was derived via spirit communications from discarnatepersonalities operating through mediums and is in many wayssimilar to Hindu descriptions of the metaphysical universe,including various planes or spheres of existence.

Spiritism evolved from observations of nearly every type ofmetaphysical phenomena being associated with the somnambulisticstate produced via mesmerism and animal magnetism (hypnosis). Itis an off-shoot of Spiritualism and began in France as a result of thewritings of Allan Kardec. The main difference is that Spiritismincludes mandatory reincarnation as a fundamental principle ofhuman existence. The religion currently has over four millionmembers in Brazil.

Stigmata

Some individuals, most often Christian mystics, displayphysical wounds resembling the wounds of Christ upon the cross.Stigmatic wounds can include punctures of the hands and feet,bruises on the chest and side, and bleeding from the eyes and


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forehead. In many cases these appear on a Friday and disappear onthe following Sunday like clockwork for years. Some Christianmystics who displayed these marks were exhumed from the graveafter many years and their bodies were found intact withoutevidence of significant decomposition. In modern times it has beenshown that hypnosis can produce these same kinds of physicalwounds upon the body.

Surgery, Psychic

(See Healing, Psychic.)

Synchronicity

Term proposed by Carl Jung to indicate a condition whereevents are connected without relationship to cause and effect. Forexample, astrological positions can indicate certain events withoutbeing the cause of such events.

Table Turning

Also known as table tipping, the oldest known method ofestablishing communication with spirit entities. A group of peoplecircling a table place their finger tips on the surface and the tablerotates, tips, bangs against the floor, etc., in response to questionsposed by the group. Letters of the alphabet can be called out and thetable will respond to indicate particular letters which result in thespelling of sentences.

The phenomenon was first reported by Tertullian in thesecond century. After the Rochester Rappings in 1948 table turningbecame an epidemic in the US and later in Europe. Great effortswere undertaken by scientists to indicate that the effects were not aresult of spirit communications, while clergy denounced the activityas demonic.

The advantage of table tipping is that it can be performed byany group of people without a medium involved. The process begins


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when the sitters in a darkened room place their finger tips upon thetable and wait for results. The effects generally begin with steadilyincreasing vibrations or quivering movements of the table, whichappears to act as a reservoir of energy which grows stronger overtime. The table can then rotate, tilt and levitate completely off thefloor. Rapping sounds are often perceived in the table andsurrounding area. Tables so massive that all those sitting could notlift them have been known to levitate.

Talisman

A small object generally worn around the neck withsupernatural powers intended to bring power or benefits to theowner, as opposed to an amulet, which is intended to ward off evil.Talismans were common in both ancient Egypt and Babylon. Theygenerally consist of words and symbols engraved upon metal duringritual ceremonies.

Tantric Yoga

A Hindu system of concentrating the sexual energyassociated with the female, usually characterized as kundalinienergy. While ascetic forms of yoga expose denial of the things ofthe world, tantra uses those things as a tool of spiritual development.

Taoism

Ancient Chinese religion based upon the teaching of Lao Tzuwho lived from 605 B.C.E. to 505 B.C.E. Tao means “the way” or“the right path,” and the goal is to balance yin and yang, to unifythe apparent opposites of physical experience.

Tarot

(Pronounced “tare-row.”) A pack of 78 cards used forpurposes of divination. There is some question whether theyoriginated with the ancient Egyptians or European Gypsies. The


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cards have been around since the 1300s in Europe but have onlybeen used for fortune telling since the mid-1800s. The most popularare the Waite-Smith deck, released in 1910 by Arthur Edward Waiteand drawn by Pamela Coleman-Smith. The Thoth deck wasdesigned by Aleister Crowley and painted by Freda Harris in 1938but not published as a deck until 1969. Both Waite and Crowleywere associated with the secret magical practices of the Order of theGolden Dawn.

Telekinesis*

The moving of material objects at a distance withoutobservable force, also referred to as psychokinesis or PK.

Telepathy*

Term coined by F. W. H. Myers in 1882 and defined as “thetransmission of thought independently of the recognized channels ofsense.” I believe it might be better described as “simultaneoussynchronicity of the subjective perceptions of more than oneindividual,” or a merger of conscious perception. Telepathy has beendocumented to occur among animals and between animals andhumans. In laboratory tests conducted by J. B. Rhine using Zenercards, over some twenty-thousand trials, results indicated thepositive existence of telepathy. However, science has not whollyaccepted telepathy as a reality due to the inability to demonstratepositive results every time. (The visual telepathy exercise describedin this book is capable of producing results every time.)

Teleportation

There are numerous reports of mediums and others beingtransported out of sealed rooms and sometimes across greatdistances. The bible refers to such situations as Habakkuk beingcarried from Judea to Babylon to bring food to Daniel in the lionsden, then being carried back to Judea through the air. On June 3,1871, the medium Agnes Guppy-Volckman was transported 3 miles


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still wearing house clothes and slippers to land on the table at aséance. The July 1930 journal Psychic Research reports how SouthAmerican medium Carlos Mirabelli was transported ninetykilometers and then called by phone fifteen minutes later withwitnesses to verify his location. Carlos Castaneda reports beingtransported several miles to a shopping area in Mexico as a result ofa forceful push by his mentor don Juan. Many mediums beingtransported out of sealed rooms were found nearby, often asleep orstill in trance.

Theosophy

Greek term for a philosophical-religious system whichclaims absolute knowledge of the nature of the deity. Not to beconfused with the teachings of the Theosophical Society establishedin New York in 1875.

Third Eye

A center of concentration during meditation in orientalreligious systems. It has been said that any individual is capable offocusing attention at the center of the forehead between the eyesuntil a sort of screen appears at the front of the brain. In yogaphilosophy it is known as the ajna chakra or “center of command.”Opening the third eye is usually considered a prerequisite toactivation of the other charkas.

Thoughtforms

Thoughtforms are mental images which become perceivablein the physical world. Examples include situations where peoplemomentarily see an object which had been previously removed fromthe location where it is perceived. Some thoughtforms of peoplehave been reported to materialize as apparitions. Thoughtforms havebeen projected onto photographic plates. They are often perceived inhypnotic states. In 1921 professor Koenig of Berlin hypnotized apeasant woman in a Paris hospital. It was suggested that she


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perceive a particular image on a plain sheet of paper. Twenty sheetswere used, each being associated with a different image and markeddiscretely on the back, then the sheets were presented to the womanalong with five blank sheets added later. She correctly described theimages on all twenty marked sheets but could see no image on thefive substitutes.

Tongues, Speaking in

Incoherent vocalizations which sound like language, but arenot intelligible, resulting from a state of religious frenzy. A commonexperience in Pentecostalism. Also referred to as glossolaria. This isvery different from xenoglossia , which is the speaking orunderstanding of a foreign language one is unfamiliar with.

Touches, Psychic

Physical sensations often reported by sitters at séances.These range from a noticeable drop in temperature, to all sorts ofsensations upon the skin, including everything from soft touches andkisses to slaps and punches.

Trance

An altered state of consciousness similar to sleep but wherethe subject is aware or capable of acting with intelligence. Examplesinclude hypnosis, shamanistic practices, automatic writing andtrance mediumship. Mediums describe the process of entering thetrance state in a variety of ways. Some begin with a dreamy feelingflowed by dizziness, others feel a numbness coming over their mindor a sensation like cold water flowing down their back. Mostmediums are completely unconscious during the period of trance, orfeel very removed and do not remember the events which take place.

Individuals in trance are often impervious to pain. The firstsurgery of a patient in mesmeric trance was a breast canceroperation in France in April, 1829, followed by a tooth extraction in


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1836. In 1842 a leg was amputated above the knee in England, allwithout any pain being experienced by the patient.

Transcendental Meditation (TM)

A Hindu meditation technique made popular in the Westduring the 1960s by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi with public support bythe Beatles, Jane Fonda and other celebrities. The techniqueinvolves assigning each student a secret mantra (short phrase) whichis meditated upon for a short period each day.

Transfiguration

The process by which a medium takes on the physicalcharacteristics of the control personality. In 1931 William J. Erwoodreported that the face of a Mrs. Bullock changed into at least fiftydifferent persons over the course of ninety minutes, “as if beingmolded from one form to another by some master worker ofplastics.” Alan Kardec, founder of French Spiritism, described a girlof fifteen who could change into the stature, mass and weight ofdeceased persons. “Mass hallucination” is always a possibleexplanation for such perceptions, of which there are few reports inmodern times.

UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects)

Although some writers have suggested that UFOs have beenaround since ancient history, the first printed reports of UFOsoccurred in the early 1800s. In chronological sequence, they werefirst referred to as airships, foo fighters, ghost rockets, flyingsaucers, then unidentified flying objects.

There are two primary explanations regarding the nature ofUFOs. The first is that they are physical machines from otherplanets in the universe. The other is that they originate from adifferent plane of existence and enter our world by slowing downtheir rate of molecular vibration. Depending on who you ask, the


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intelligent beings operating these machines are either seeking todestroy the human race or are here to help us in beneficial ways.

The U.S. Air Force created Project Blue Book in 1952 toinvestigate the many sightings reported since 1947, concluding withthe Crandon Report in 1969 that the phenomena was non-existentand further investigation pointless. However, NorthwesternUniversity astronomer J. Allen Hynek pointed out that fully one-third of the cases in the Condon Report were listed as unsolved.Populations of entire cites have witnessed UFOs appearing in thesky, sometimes with repeated appearances over a period of days.Since the 1950s thousands of people have reported being abductedby aliens and subjected to medical experiments. In spite ofthousands of photographs and video recordings no physical evidenceof an alien spacecraft is reported to exist.

Visions

The visual perception of supernatural persons, objects andscenes has been reported throughout history in all cultures. Theywere commonplace in primitive societies and in medieval Europe,but occurred less frequently in educated cultures such as among theearly Greeks and Romans. Visions can be either spontaneous orinduced. Many Christian saints experienced visions frequently. Theyogis and fakirs of India induce mystical visions through practicesof self denial, while Native Americans and other shamanisticcultures pursued “vision quests” through fasting and the use ofpsychedelic plants. In more recent times artists and inventors havereported the perception of visions. Most notably, Nikola Tesla sawcomplete visions of electrical devices he invented, and the artistRaphael painted a portrait of the Madonna when she appeared tohim in a vision.

Visions can include touch, taste, smell and other senseperceptions, and are often experienced by alcoholics, psychotics andthose using mind altering drugs as vivid hallucinations. Theperception of apparitions by groups of people, and the performanceof some miracles, has sometimes been described as masshallucinations.


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Voices, Paranormal

Many individuals throughout history have reported hearingvoices which do not originate from a physical being. Some, such asthose reported by Joan of Arc, are of a prophetic nature and predictthe outcome of future events. Psychotic individuals often hearvoices in the same way they see visions. Some paranormal voicesare objective, in that they are heard by a number of different people,such as in direct voice communications at a séance where voicesare heard coming from a “trumpet” made of cardboard or lightmetal.

Witchcraft

Initially, witchcraft was simply the practice of pagan beliefs.The idea of Satanic witchcraft was more or less invented by theCatholic Church in the 1200s, who sought to gain more control ofthe population of Europe who were increasingly following the paganpractices of pre-Christian Rome. At first the Inquisition left thepagans (non-believers) alone and concentrated upon heretics (thosewho argued against church doctrine). But on December 5, 1484,newly ordained Pope Innocent VIII made witchcraft an act of heresyby classifying witchcraft as the practice of acts against the church.They invented the idea that witches worshiped Satan and performedCatholic rituals backwards in direct opposition to the teachings ofCatholicism, and as such were not non-believers but heretics.Confessions were obtained through torture and those accused ofwitchcraft were burned at the stake. This practice continued throughthe late 1700s.

Modern witchcraft originated in the 1940s as a result of thework of Gerald Gardner (1884-1964) who created the Wiccamovement. Wicca is a neopagan religion only loosely connectedwith earlier forms of witchcraft. Wicca professes a belief in theMother Goddess, nature spirits and the casting of spells (usually forone’s own well being or that of one’s friends). They are natureworshipers. The religion is totally decentralized and various


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branches have developed. Some operate in groups of ten or twentypersons forming a coven headed by a priestess, who hold meetingsin the nude, though many practice in solitary.

Xenoglossy

Speaking in a coherent language unknown to the speaker.This differs from speaking in tongues, which is an incoherent formof vocal expression generally associated with Pentecostal religiousexperience. Many reports of xenoglossy have been reported sincemedieval times, when it was considered an indication of beingpossessed by a demon.

Since the 1850s many mediums have spoken (or written) inas many as thirty previously unlearned languages, including ancientEgyptian and dialects of Chinese known only to a few scholars. Theexistence of a primeval language, spoken by angels and inherent inall beings, has been reported to exist by numerous mediums. Onecharacteristic of this language is that every letter is said to be adescriptive element of each word. It is through this universallanguage that all communication in other dimensions is said to bepossible, though there is no concrete evidence that such a languageexists.

Yin and Yang

The Chinese concept of the dual principles or unifiedopposites in nature. Yin signifies earth and the feminine, passive,yielding forces; while yang represents heaven and the masculine,positive, active forces. They are represented by the symbol of acircle divided by an “S” with one side light and the other dark. Yinand yang are basic to the teachings of Taoism.

Yoga

Yoga is a general term for various spiritual disciplinesassociated with Hinduism. The word can be defined as “union” orthe unification of the individual with the divine. The Yoga Sutras


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(200 B.C.E.) describe a system of special stages: ethical restraintsand moral observations; physical postures; breathing exercises;sense withdrawal; concentration; meditation; and various degrees ofsuperconsciousness.

There are a number of different forms of yoga which are allinterconnected to the others, with the practitioner emphasizing themethod most compatible with one’s temperament. Hatha yoga is themost popular in the West and consists of different physicalstretching positions (asanas) intended to maximize physical healthand the unification of mind, body and spirit. Mantra yoga focusesupon the repetition of sound vibration, with the idea that theuniverse evolved from sound and spiritual awareness can be gainedfrom repeating certain sounds such as OM (or AUM). Karma yogaemphasizes altruistic actions intended to purify the soul by releasingit from petty desires. Juana Yoga is the path of knowledge, scienceand wisdom, involving fine discriminations, study and reflection,resulting in the development of intuition. Bhakti Yoga is the path oflove and devotion, where love is centered upon a familiar form ofGod, saint or some great task in life. Tantric yoga focuses uponconverting sexual energy into kundalini (vital) energy, and there areother yoga practices involving breath and meditation.

Zen

A special branch of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizingintolerable pressure at all levels, mental, physical and emotional,intended to cumulate in a sudden flash of satori or transcendentenlightenment. One element of the teachings are the use of koans,short statements or questions of an imponderable nature such as,“What is the sound of one hand clapping?”


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