30/11/2019 Ancient Answers To Climate Change: Reconnecting with the planet through new eyes from our ancestorsRead NowThe planet and with it human life are in crisis. We are living at a time of intense environmental changes that appear to be happening much faster than our ability to adapt. Many of us are still in denial, others are fatalistic, while others still think the current crisis is the precursor to a profound transformation of humanity. Whatever the future may hold, this is a time that is calling us to take real responsibility for our actions in the present, and challenges us all to grow as human beings. There need to be changes to the way we show up in the world, in particular the level of consciousness we bring to our interaction with the planet and all its life forms. Our CO2 emissions are just a small part of the picture. The changes to our footprint in the world actually need to be much more systemic and profound than that, because the balance of the ecosystem is much finer and more tender than simply a question of carbon in the atmosphere. Indigenous people have warned of an environmental crisis ever since they first saw how the European colonisers interacted with the natural world. The indigenous perspective is highly localised, identifying complex minutia in the local environmental system rather than at a global level. But this network of localised expertise traverses (or at least once traversed) the entire planet. On innumerable localised occasions indigenous people have pleaded that certain trees not be chopped down, certain rocks not be moved, a certain mountain not be mined, or certain swamps or waterholes not be disturbed. Each time they warned that if those things happen, the system would be out of balance and negative consequences such as sickness, drought or catastrophe would follow. And each time Europeans dismissed these concerns as superstitions, and proceeded as they wished. In my work with Australian Aboriginal People I have lost count of the times I have been taken to places and told things like: “there used to be an important waterhole here, but it’s all dried up now”, “there used to be a sacred tree here but they chopped it down to build a house”, “there used to be an ancestral rock but they used it as road base”, and so on. And this is just one person working with a few groups of indigenous people in Australia. Across the world these kind of events have happened literally thousands of times. Again and again the pleas for protection have been ignored. For hundreds of years. And much longer if we count the same kinds of actions occurring in Europe since the Roman Empire imposed Christianity on the tribal groups of that continent. And it continues to this day, either without any attention paid at all to the indigenous voice, or more recently in some countries after a scientific study establishes that the “environmental impact” feared by the indigenous people could be mitigated. But such environmental impact assessments are always looking at a very narrow picture, not the bigger system with which waterhole X, tree Y or rock Z are connected. And in any event, the indigenous people aren’t simply talking about “environmental impacts”. They are talking about impacts on the delicate multidimensional (ie energetic and spiritual) ecosystem of the planet. So indigenous people have been telling us for a long time that our actions will have major repercussions, and yet today, despite clear evidence that we are living amidst such repercussions, we refuse to examine the connection to our actions. As such we can’t even start to consider whether what we are dealing with in terms of climate change could in fact be one of these repercussions. So what can the vast majority of us, who have become disconnected from the intimate relationship with our immediate environment and its fine energetic subtleties and interrelationships do to restore the balance? There are many ways in which we can reconnect, re-learn and become more at home in our environment. This includes learning about our local ecosystem. Do we even know the trees and animals that surround us, those that are ancestral and those that are introduced? Do we know where our rain water goes, what creeks and brooks surround us and how they are related? Do we know how the lay of the land was before roads and houses were put on top of it? These are all questions that can improve our awareness and thus relationship with our environment. But they are still far from the depth of connection indigenous people have with the land. One way to get closer to that, even if we are living in fully urban environments, is to re-learn how to tune into the energetic nature of the world. Indigenous people have long known that all of life is energetic. All plants, animals and different locations in our environment have their own energies that connect them with each other and with us. This is an ancient understanding, that we have lost and now need re-acquire and incorporate into our new, modern perspective. To develop our awareness of these subtle energetic connections we need to start by becoming familiar with our own energy body. There are many ways to do this, be it Tai Chi, Qui Gong or a range of mindfulness practices focused on connecting with our own energy meridians and points (“chakras”). Once we can feel our own energy, we can extend our awareness to the energies of the plants and animals around us. Then we can take it to the next level by connecting with the non-physical consciousnesses that surround us, including in the natural world. When we do this we will discover that it is not only the physical world that is in trouble, but that in fact there is a lot of suffering and illness among the extraphysical inhabitants of our planet. Healing this is intimately linked to us healing the planet. So learning about how we can use our energies to support and heal sick extraphysical consciousnesses has never been more important. It is one of many small but incredibly significant contributions every one of us can make to healing our planet and ensuring a viable future for humanity. Relating to non-physical consciousness used to be common practice among indigenous communities, but has been marginalised and ridiculed, first by Christianity and then by science. Yet it is an important aspect of our humanity and a crucial piece in our collective and planetary healing. And this is great news, because it is something we can all learn, which means every one of us can make an empowered contribution to this healing and to addressing the environmental crisis we are facing.
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19/11/2019 Accessing altered states of consciousness through psilocybin mushrooms: an experiential accountRead NowIntroduction I had some hesitation publishing this account because I feel ambiguously about the use of drugs to explore our consciousness. On the one hand I do not want to advocate the use of drugs as tools for the exploration, let alone the evolution of consciousness. On the other, I do not want to be too critical of substances that do have the potential to greatly enhance a person’s connection with themselves and with the world around them, including especially the natural world. I firmly believe that the world crisis we are currently living in requires a dramatic shift of consciousness to be addressed, and if projectiogenic drugs can accelerate such a shift then their conscious and responsible use should not be discouraged. Although I consider the experience I describe below, facilitated by psilocybin mushrooms, to have been paradigm expanding in a fundamentally healing way, I am wary of the use of such drugs as a core tool for spiritual development as advocated for example by Timothy Leary or envisaged by Aldous Huxley. I know that many people have had deeply and positively life altering experiences with psilocybin and similar projectiogenic drugs, i.e. drugs that induce projections of consciousness. But I also know of people who have been traumatised by the use of these substances and lived for years with intense psychological and energetic struggles as a result. In other cases, the impact is less dramatic but occurs over time. This is when initially positive experiences encourage ongoing, repeated use of these drugs. There may never be a “bad trip” or traumatic experience, but there occurs a gradual numbing of the senses, as something that had the potential to awaken us to a deeper understanding of life ends up cutting us off from the very reality it had originally opened up to us. From a multidimensional perspective of life, substances like psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca, iboga and so on, do indeed “open the doors of perception” as Aldous Huxley put it. They all have the potential to give us glimpses of the multi-layered, interconnected dimensions of life, teeming with intelligence and purpose. Such glimpses can fill us with extasy, a certainty of our creative potential, an inner knowing of our connection with all of life, and from that a sense of meaning and purpose for our existence. These are fundamental needs and it can be profoundly uplifting to experience them as being met. We can be filled with compassion and deep empathy for the life we now truly appreciate and feel connected to. After all, disconnection from life is one of the primary dis-eases of our era and the source of so much personal, societal and planetary suffering. But we all have the potential to access those very same states through other means. Through the use of breathing techniques, energy work and different forms of meditation. And from an energetic perspective, accessing them that way is much less likely to cause long term difficulties. Because rather than deplete and overextend our energetic system, which ultimately is the foundation for altered states of consciousness, long term energy work builds up our energetic system so that we can gradually contact expansive states of consciousness more and more consistently and in a way that allows their integration with our everyday life, rather than being limited to occasional peak experiences. In the end, I decided to share the experience, because it contained a number of elements that gave me experiential insights about the nature of our multidimensional reality that I think are relevant to our understanding of the nature of consciousness. The account is based on notes I made in 1996, the day after ingesting psychedelic mushrooms with a friend in Germany. We had picked the mushrooms in a field, briefly boiled them in water and then drunk a cup each. We had no understanding of measures and I have no idea of the dose that we consumed that day, but it did not seem like an excessive amount. After consuming the tea we left the house and went into a near-by field At the time I was already deeply immersed in meditation practices and through them regularly experienced altered states of consciousness without any use of drugs. I believe that predisposed me to the profound experience induced by the mushrooms. The experience Ten minutes after drinking the mushroom tea the physical effects are undeniable. My stomach is feeling slightly upset and I can feel intense tingling around my pituitary gland, as if it is being stimulated. The air seems to become active as I begin to perceive "energies". My friend and I sit down in a field with the intention of looking at the moon. There is a lunar eclipse tonight that we want to watch, but that event was quickly overtaken in significance by the unfolding experience induced by the mushrooms. I feel detached from my body, which seems to me like an external attachment. Then I stop perceiving either of us as physical beings. We are simply two floating voices in space, very wise ancient beings. Suddenly I am back in the body awareness and am surprised to see how small my friend’s body is compared to the eternity which is all around us and of which we are a part. The sky appears like a domed screen in one of the old style 3D cinemas. The actual sky is invisible to me. It simply provides the screen for the show of dimensions that is unfolding before my eyes. I am in complete awe as I look into infinity! I take my body away to do a pee and need to check repeatedly that everything is working as it should and that I am not peeing my pants, as I am highly disassociated from the body. I feel like I am walking my body around like a puppet. A walking guest house, moving through the grass, through other beings and other dimensions that are all present at different frequencies in the same space where I am walking. A light sometimes red sometimes white seems to shine from behind me, alternating from either side, and I feel as if I am part of an experiment. I feel an "alien" presence, black, mechanic, beyond time, beyond good or bad, ultimately powerful. I am briefly scared. We walk around and I experience that my friend and I are very old, walking in a mystical country where all the creatures ever mentioned in myth live. After a while we decide to go inside. As we approach the house I wonder how the magnitude that I am part of can possibly fit inside, but I still enter. Once inside I lie down on my bed with my eyes closed giving myself over to the experience. I see myself as if cut down the middle, observe the functioning of every cell, the breath descending down the windpipe. I die and experience the body decomposing underground and being re-absorbed by the plants. It feels beautiful, my body as part of this cycle of life. Again I am surprised that "everything" we had outside fits into the room, all that infinity. But it is all here and it is all energy. The body and my thoughts are all energy and fully interwoven. I look at my friend and her face is covered in flowers. I, Kim, die, disappear, dissolve, but I am still here and freer than ever. I recall spending much of this time grinning from ear to ear. My friend described it as a mad grin. At some point there was some sadness at the thought that all this will end with the drugs - so many dimensions, infinity, I will no longer see them. Eventually I fall asleep. The following day I am ravenous. I interpret this as indicating that a lot of energy was burned during that experience and so my body craves food to replenish it. It may also reflect a desire by the physical body to reassert its importance after being so completely relegated during the experience, where it had become this weird apparatus that I needed to manage. In that state life was unfolding at another level, well removed from the body. Reflections As stated in the introduction, I interpret the perceptions I had during the experience as relating to an objective reality. The experience itself was of course subjective, in the sense that another person taking the same drugs (my friend in this case) did not perceive the world in the same way as I did during our “trip”. The psychological filters and state of the energetic system of the experimenter will have a significant impact on the way the experience unfolds. But as I interpret what occurred, both of us were perceiving different slices of a complex, multidimensional reality. So from a multidimensional, i.e. multi-frequency or multi-vibratory perspective, the fact that our perceptions were subjective does not mean that the objects of my perception were created by my mind. Rather it means that the psilocybin affected my energetic system in such a way, that my perceptions were temporarily tuned to a multitude of frequencies we do not normally register. The drug had shifted my consciousness from the physical body, its usual point of focus during the waking state, to my more subtle extraphysical bodies, which meant my perceptions included and on brief occasions were confined to, the energetic frequencies of those bodies. The effect of these drugs to shift consciousness in this way, is why they are appropriately called projectiogens, i.e. substances that induce projections of consciousness from the physical to other dimensions of existence. Such projections or shifts of consciousness require energy; the kind of energy referred to as chi / qui in Asian cultures and as bioenergy in conscientiology. Expansions of consciousness in the mentalsoma often involve the intense energetic rush described as a kundalini experience. The less dramatic shift of awareness to our psychosoma are often accompanied by vibrational sensations referred to as the vibrational state. In ways we do not yet understand, projectiogenic drugs like psilocybin seem to alter our energetic system and thereby shift our consciousness very rapidly from its usual focus on the physical dimension, to our more subtle bodies of manifestation. The activation of the pineal gland early on after consuming the mushrooms is indicative of the so-called kundalini energy. I have elsewhere written about a mentalsomatic projection and cosmic consciousness experience I enjoyed without the use of drugs. That also involved intense activation of the pineal gland. Parts of this mushroom induced experience also took place in the mentalsoma. This included the experience of being a disembodied ancient being and the perception of an indescribable infinity to existence with which I and my friend (and all living beings) were intrinsically connected. These are classic mentalsomatic experiences. At other times the awareness seemed to shift back to the psychosoma, such as when I was moving my body about and probably also the visionary experience of seeing and feeling my body die, disintegrate and being reabsorbed by a tree. A vision that brought with it a deep sense of peace regarding my mortality as I felt myself truly a part of the cycle of life. At all times, though, my perception was firmly resting outside of the physical body, which seemed like a mere appendage. As such the materialist suggestion that the body creates consciousness seems completely implausible. The intensity with which these drugs can propel us beyond our body to me is both the beauty and the danger of such experience. It was beautiful and uplifting to know myself so clearly as a timeless being beyond the confines of this life. This has not been my only experience of this nature, and paradoxically each time this sense further motivates and inspire me to make the most out of the very life it seems to be transcending. With the transcendence of the ego-identity comes the inner knowing that there is a deep purpose to everybody’s existence and that my and everybody else’s ego-identity are precious expressions of life. This means, this kind of expansion has filled me with a feeling of responsibility towards myself and this life. And from that perspective I can understand why some people are advocating the conscious use of these projectiogens – to help us reconnect with ourselves and the world and inspire us to express our purpose. On the other hand, for some time after the experience I was very tempted to repeat it. I longed to recreate the dissolution of the ego and return to that state of transcendent bliss. I have seen this urge in other experimenters. I feel lucky that part of me knew that such an attempt would have been unsuccessful and that the desire was motivated by a wish to escape the more challenging aspects of my life, my inner pains and unresolved psychological issues. Whether achieved through meditation or the use of drugs, transcendent experience always carry the risk of alienating us from our current life and leading us down the spiritual by-pass route. In other words, they can simply end up as yet another form of escapism, albeit disguised as a meritorious spiritual endeavour and truth seeking. Transcendence is only one side to the evolutionary coin. The other is to address our unresolved psychological material. By doing both we will truly grow as multidimensional beings, with our feet firmly planted on the ground while keeping the mentalsoma connected to the cosmos.
The key to both is energy. It is through bringing energy into our body and our emotional body that we start integrating our traumas and hidden emotional content and it is through energy that we access the cosmic consciousness expansions of the mentalsoma. Projectiogenic drugs, used respectfully and in the right frame of mind and energy, may play a role in our healing and in giving us a glimpse of our wider reality. But to integrate ourselves, psychologically and holosomatically, we need to bring energy gradually and consistently under our own steam, using tools such as breath-work, movement-based practices, deep psychological inquiry and developing a conscious relationship with our energy body. 14/10/2019 Non-violent communication, intrusion and knowing ourselves through frustrating interactionsRead NowWhatever our spiritual or personal growth philosophy, it is likely to include a striving to deepen our emotional stability and equanimity. Meditation can be a powerful tool for us to find sources of inner peace while we are by ourselves. And it can be quite tempting to assume the blissful states we experience in meditation reflect our true advancement and state of equanimity. But one of the great benefits of this multidimensional school we call life is that it comes with a diversity of people to really assist us in our growth. And there seem to be at least two kinds of people one can readily count on to help us measure our true emotional balance. Close family members and call centre staff. Ok the second is somewhat tongue in cheek, but there is something about the impersonal yet dependent relationship we often have with call centre staff, and the experiences of being on hold for long periods of time and being passed from person to person, that can be especially triggering. This article was inspired by just such a recent call centre experience, which gave me the opportunity to draw on two concepts I value greatly: non-violent communication and an understanding of energetic intrusion. Non-violent communication As long as we are subject to involuntary thought processes and emotional upheavals, we are limited in our capacity to serve others and likely to have impacts on ourselves and on those around us that we would prefer not to have. Most of us will know the feelings of deep regret after lashing out or being spiteful because we were in a place of anger or hurt (the two are usually intertwined). Establishing emotional stability is a tricky business, because we cannot do it by simply willing our emotions to change. Emotions need to be experienced and understood. That seems to be the only way in which we can transform them and get to a place where we can be both fully present to them and maintain a sense of peace. There are different ways to befriend and become familiar with our emotions. For me the most effective tool to achieve this has been the framework of Non-Violent Communication (NVC) as developed by Marshal Rosenberg. You can access extensive resources and training in NVC for free online (for example a full course on youtube here and numerous texts and reference sheets here). NVC is a very comprehensive framework, and here I only give you a glimpse of some key concepts that help me understand, honour and care for my emotions. In a nutshell, NVC is focused on helping us make the connection between our needs and our emotions. NVC is based on the assumption that all human beings, regardless of our cultural, economic or gender background, have certain universal needs. This includes primary needs like, food, water and shelter. But it also includes needs that we may not think of straight away, because many of us have adapted to life without those needs being fully met. They are nonetheless fundamental needs such as connection, appreciation, recognition, affection, creativity, being truly seen, love and purpose. There is a direct connection between our emotions and our needs, because when our needs are met, we are likely to feel positive and pleasant emotions. We may feel alive, content, expansive, relaxed, peaceful or even ecstatic. But when our needs are not met, we will experience different emotions. Unmet needs may cause us to feel furious, exasperated, hurt, anxious, apathetic, sad and so on. Recognising the connection between needs and feelings is very empowering. It allows us to take full responsibility for our feelings. Rather than blaming someone else for “making us angry”, we can take ownership of our anger and understand that we are feeling angry because a particular need of ours has not been met. That way, rather than finding ourselves subject to our emotions, we can start to understand them as a guiding system to our needs. Because of the way we have been raised, having to fit into a system that imposes external expectations on us from a very young age, many of us are quite cut off from our needs, certainly our deeper ones. In different ways, both males and females in the western world are socialised not to have or express needs. With boys the focus is often on being self-sufficient and strong, i.e. do not to express any needs. With girls the focus tends to be more on taking care of others rather than themselves, but the effect is largely the same: we lose sight of our own fundamental needs and may even develop feelings of shame, guilt and internalised anger for having them. Once we start listening to our emotions, they can remind us. For example, I might feel frustrated and alone because I really need support. I am angry and resentful because I need respect. I am feeling hurt and sad, because my needs for connection and nurturing are not being met and so on. Making this link can have a profound impact on our relationship with our emotions. It can help us understand and accept them and also empower us to take care of our needs more consciously. Once we realise that we are able to take care of our needs, we start to understand that we are also in charge of the emotions we experience. By honouring our needs, we will naturally experience many more uplifting emotions than heavy and difficult ones. And by realising that any behaviours of others that trigger us are also reflections of them seeking to meet their own needs, we can develop greater empathy. We do not need to necessarily express anything. The simple fact of us feeling genuine empathy for the other person may alter the way they show up and it certainly will alter the way we respond to life. Needs and emotions are a universal feature of the human experience, so we may as well take conscious charge of them! As we develop our emotional awareness, we may find that we feel at peace most of the time. Work issues no longer trigger us the way they used to, nor does being stuck in traffic, someone cutting into the line at the shops, or misplacing our glasses. In each of those cases we may notice feelings of frustration, anger, impatience and so on. But once we become proficient at unpacking the needs that are not being met in that moment, including expressing and honouring those needs, purely in our mind and potentially without talking to another person, that process of self-care and self-acknowledgement alone can assist us come back to feelings of equanimity and balance. Of course, if feelings of frustration, boredom and so on persist and are recurring, for example in a dissatisfying job or relationship, then there comes a time when we do not just want to acknowledge our unmet needs but take deliberate action to meet them and make change. I wanted to share the practical application of this model through a recent call centre experience, where I spent an hour on the phone with a customer service representative for my phone company. The experience generated strong feelings of frustration, because we seemingly could not understand each other. Using the NVC framework: my needs were for mutual communication, understanding and ease, and these not being met led to feelings of frustration and eventually exasperation. In doing so this interaction provided a beautiful learning opportunity about the relationship between self-responsibility and intrusion from external energies. Attending to any energies attached to us from other persons So far, I have spoken about emotional self-care and this is very important, because taking such care is what puts us in the driver’s seat of our inner experience. But despite all its richness, NVC does not take account of the multidimensional nature of life and the way we can energetically impact each other across time and space. In conscientiology, the concept of one person’s negative energies (thoughts and emotions) impacting another is called intrusion. In other words, intrusion happens when we are subject to pathological energies from another, or when our pathological energies impact on others. These interactions can occur between us and other physical persons or extraphysical persons and often there is a combination. For example, if a person emits resentful or even hateful thoughts and emotions towards another, it is quite likely that they have extraphysical company who are echoing their sentiments and adding to them, possibly even attaching themselves to the target of these emotional energies and harassing them through hostile energies. Where such extraphysical consciousnesses are involved, we are often completely unaware of the cause of our sudden mood shift or perpetual and unshakable yet quite irrational feelings of, e.g. anger, self-loathing, or depression. We will all have experienced intrusion at some point, both from other physical people and from extraphysical ones. A very tangible example I have seen far too often in my own life is what I call a chain reaction of anger. For example, I lose my temper with my oldest child (because I did not attend to my needs properly), he then takes it out on his younger sister mirroring any anger he just experienced, and she then does the same on the youngest one. When a parent is angry with their child it can induce feelings of guilt and shame in the child. These are very unpleasant feelings to hold and it is natural to try and find a way to “pass them on”. Taking those emotions out on someone else is of course not a healthy way to manage our unpleasant feelings, but it seems quite instinctive and we can see it all around us. This is a very direct and common-place example of intrusion where any observer could see the emotional energy impacting the other person. From a multidimensional point of view, it becomes more complicated, because one person’s feelings of shame, anger or frustration can also impact another even if there is no direct physical expression of them. Simply by two people connecting, even if their surface conversation is amicable, energetically we can still be influenced by each other’s subconscious or repressed feelings of resentment, frustration and so on, especially if we carry the seeds for those same feelings, which most of us do. In such as case we may leave the interaction feeling a strange sense of resentment that was not there before and we may direct it at some other issue in our life quite unrelated to the person we just met and completely unaware that our own inner feelings were just stirred up by the other person’s energy. Now imagine the same thing happening when the trigger is an extraphysical person we cannot see and do not even know is there. Intrusion is a big topic that I will discuss in a dedicated post, but hopefully you get the general idea. In this case, my conversation with the call centre person was courteous but we were both clearly getting frustrated, and while I expressed my frustration (i.e. I told her clearly and calmly that I was getting frustrated and would like to speak with someone else) she professionally masked her feelings with customer service “politeness” and ever increasing determination to “assist me”. After I left the conversation, without her being able to resolve the issue, I felt like I could still feel her resentment and anger at me. But of course, I had to be cautious because maybe I was feeling my own feelings and projecting them onto her. One of the risks of introducing the concept of intrusion into our universe is that we can end up blaming any unpleasant emotion and experience on others. Yes, intrusion is a reality, but the key entry point is always our own inner world. The initial cause for our anger, frustration or grief is found within ourselves. Intrusion then comes in and exploits that trait to amplify and possibly prolong our experience of pain. But to know that it is present and that we are not just projecting on the world, we need to first become really clear about our own inner experience. Putting it all together
In this case, this involved first getting really clear about what needs were not being met in my interaction with the call centre lady and what emotions that triggered in me. There were a number of things that frustrated and exasperated me. She did not understand my request, despite repeated attempts to explain my situation. Sometimes she seemed to understand my request, repeating verbatim what I had just told her, but then added other elements that had nothing to do with what I had said, which was confusing. When I eventually asked her to put me through to another person, she did not respond to that request at first, trying to simply keep going as if I had not said anything. After I insisted repeatedly, she told me that I would have to wait at least an hour on the line, which left me feeling both daunted at that prospect and resentful at not being helped. It seemed to me that in her mind she had something at stake to complete this transaction, which made her invest a lot of dogged energy to keep going, even though it cannot have been easy for her either as I expressed my dissatisfaction increasingly clearly. After the call I felt tense and irritated. So as not to indulge in complaining or negative thoughts about the person I had just dealt with, I needed to take care of myself first. I recognised my unmet needs which included ease, understanding and support. Doing so allowed me to empathise with my feelings and once I did that they quickly calmed down. At that point I became aware of additional thoughts and emotions that were present in my psychosphere, but did not feel like mine. Our psychosphere is the wider energetic field we emit and with which we interact with those around us in subtle ways all the time. If we become sensitive to it we can feel non-physical consciousnesses in our environment as well as the thoughts and emotions of others through that part of our energetic physiology. It is hard to describe what it is like to feel something in the psychosphere, but it was like there were a set of repetitive thoughts and emotions running 10 or 20 centimetres away from my head, as if I could vaguely hear and feel another person right next to me. There was a “high pitched” quality to them that did not seem familiar and a really strong feeling of resentment and even rage. Having taken care of my own feelings, I now felt I could trust my perceptions and knew that these thoughts and emotions were not actually mine, but in some way coming from the person I had just dealt with. If I had not taken care of myself, this emotional energy could have become mixed up with and amplified my own frustration, and possibly even set me on track to think very negative thoughts about a person I had never actually met, or possibly lead me to take this amplified frustration, and a rage that wasn’t mine to begin with, out on someone else. But because I had become clear, I could now empathise with her needs, which I assumed to include competency, recognition and control. Instead of thinking resentful and negative thoughts about her, I could send her appreciation for helping me, not with the comparatively minor task of organising my phone plan, but the much more profound step of gaining greater clarity on the many subtle ways in which we interact and about my own traits that provide potential avenues for intrusion. Once we open up to the concept of intrusion, there is a risk of demonising anybody who “intrudes” us with their negative energies, when actually those are great learning opportunities for us about boundary setting and self-care. This experience inspired the trivocabular megathosene: Others Bring Clarity Preliminary Comments This article is more academic than most of the other fare on this blog. It previously appeared in 2005 in the Journal of Conscientiology, Vol.7 No.27:203-221, and it follows formatting conventions I used there. I have decided to reproduce it here to make it more widely accessible for a few reasons. One is that I regularly encounter questions about rainmaking and this usefully sums up my understanding on the matter. The other is that humanity's impact on the weather is becoming an ever more urgent issue. Addressing physical pollution is clearly a priority in this regard, but the importance of addressing our mental pollution cannot be underestimated. Our relationship with nature begins in our thoughts and emotions, and real life actions flow from them. The idea that we can control the weather with our energies, which are directed by our mind and intention, introduces a degree of consciousness and deliberateness that is largely lacking in our present society when it comes to the weather and climate. Despite all the ways western "civilisation" has domesticated nature, we feel as if we are at the mercy of the weather, while those in denial of climate change claim that our actions have no consequence. This is in stark contrast with indigenous approaches, where it is absolutely assumed that human actions have repercussions on the world around us and that humans can control the environment through conscious actions. As this article documents, those beliefs have been mocked by Europeans ever since colonisation began and there are plenty of people who still mock them. As I argue in this paper, although advanced in the name of science, such dogmatic ridicule is actually a completely anti-scientific approach. I would suggest that this is the point in history where we need to examine indigenous approaches again with fresh eyes and consider whether we can learn anything from them for the way we relate to and engage with the environment. Introduction Reality. In the 1940s, the Italian anthropologist Ernesto De Martino (1997) used the ethnographic literature to show that the “impossibility” of certain phenomena, such as telepathy and precognition, arises from preconceptions, not facts. Rainmaking is a case in point. Your underlying view of reality will determine whether you consider it possible for human consciousness to cause rain. Science. For mainstream scientific discourse, the idea that humans could make rain by force of will and, for example, singing and dancing is absurd. For most indigenous societies it is a given (cf. Berndt & Berndt, 1964, p.252). Record. Rainmaking ceremonies have been recorded across Aboriginal Australia (McCarthy, 1953). The quality and format of their descriptions varies widely. In many cases, recorders did not actually observe the ceremony, but were told how it should be done and what should happen. On other occasions, they attended the ceremony, but do not mention the outcome. Open Mind. Almost all reporters make some comments, which indicate that they did not approach the subject with an open mind, like the following:
Success. The evidence I have considered shows that not all rainmaking ceremonies are successful, but many accounts by anthropologists and other observers do speak of rain falling shortly after a ceremony (Berndt, 1947, p.365; Berndt & Berndt, 1944, p.133; Duerr, 1985, pp. 287- 288; Goddard, 1932; Hercus, 1977, pp. 69-71; Horne & Aiston, 1924, p.120; Reid, 1930; Strehlow, 1971, pp.434-436; White, 1979, p.99). Choice. Even when it rains, however, we have no choice but to adopt explanations of “coincidence” or “deceit” as long as we believe it impossible for human consciousness to act upon the weather. Analysis. The premises of the consciential paradigm enable us to accept the possibility that consciousness can affect the weather and consequently allow a functional analysis of Aboriginal ceremonies. Relevance. The relevance of such analysis goes beyond the explanation of a specific practice. Rainmaking is only one of numerous practices that arise within societies that prioritise multidimensionality. Such societies seek to manipulate the physical dimension through the power of consciousness in many areas of life; they are fundamentally multidimensional societies. Anthropological explanations Parrots. It is an accepted scientific principle to draw on research and conclusions of others. That can be reasonable, as there is no point in continuously reinventing the wheel. It becomes a problem when it leads to the parroting of badly obtained research results or prejudiced opinions. Heresy. The fact that a statement increases in authority with each repetition is observed in both popular (media) and scientific discourse. Repeating statements can lead to creating and re-affirming a consensus reality until stating a contrary view becomes an act of heresy that provokes ridicule or abuse. This is very relevant to the multidimensional study of consciousness, because such study is based on premises that have long, repeatedly and vehemently been declared impossible by the dominant scientific discourses. Working with those principles thus becomes an heretic act in the eyes of the wider scientific community. Anthropologists. Most anthropological studies of rainmaking suffer that crippling effect. With very few exceptions, they consider rainmaking an impossibility and because of that premise they do not spend any time looking at how it may work. Their premise itself is never questioned, because that would be heretical. Explanations. As a result, anthropologists have either not tried to explain successful rain making at all or they have chosen one of two explanations: 1. Perception. 2. Chance. Perception. The “perception” explanation is that the rainmaker is a particularly perceptive person who is aware of minute environmental changes which show him or her that rain is likely to fall in the near future. According to this argument, rain is only “made” when the signs of nature, perceived exclusively by the rain-maker, show that it is imminent. Culture. Researchers have commented on the remarkable, culturally encouraged, perceptiveness of Aboriginal people (e.g. Poirier, 1996, pp.189-190). There is no doubt that Aboriginal people who have grown up in the bush are more capable of foretelling future weather by environmental signs than most white people would be. Heightened perception and knowledge of nature is a general characteristic of traditional Aboriginal people. It is precisely for that reason that the perceptiveness argument is flawed. Signs. Both women and men, young and old are capable of seeing signs in nature, for example those that indicate the availability of natural resources (Rose, 1997). It is fair to assume that many traditional Aboriginal people will be able to notice signs of pending rain, not just the specialised rainmakers. Special. Consequently, it would not make sense for rainmakers to be accorded special status for making something everybody knew was coming anyway. Community. In societies where rainmaking ceremonies are complex communal processes, this argument lacks further logic. For example, in Howitt’s description of rainmaking among the Dieri (Howitt, 1996, pp.394-396) first the “great council” determines that it is time for such a ceremony, because of long lasting drought. Messengers are then sent out to the scattered camps to gather everybody together for a communal ceremony. Other authors also describe careful consultation (Berndt, 1947, p.361; Rose, 1997, p.4) and extensive ceremonies involving hundreds of people (Tonkinson, 1972; White, 1979). Clearly people are going to this extent because they believe it is effective, not because they know that it is about to rain anyway. Trickster. Some try to overcome this by suggesting that the deviant, yet perceptive, rainmaker is tricking the wider community. This idea implies a naivety that is not supported by the facts. The earlier argument about culturally practiced perceptiveness is relevant again. In addition, there are many Dreaming stories involving a trickster, who in one way or another fools another individual, or the entire community. This invites the proposition that people are quite aware of the possibility of being conned and would be capable to keep an eye out for it. Chance. Mainly amateur reporters use another argument, even less satisfying than perception. Comfortable in their “scientific” knowledge that one could never make rain by chanting and dancing, they simply dismiss any successful occasion they may observe as a stroke of luck. Exception. The following view of the anthropologist Long is still an exception: In spite of many observations of such phenomena by anti-psi anthropologists, even they cannot find failures in rainmaking to equal the successes. Hence, contrary to what is known about atmospheric causation, one is inclined to accept that rainmaking (and stopping) is successfully practiced and has a very high survival value. (Long, 1977, p.384) The Social context of rainmaking Terminology. Anthropology classifies rain making together with other ritual activities as imitative or sympathetic magic (Frazer, 1996; Tonkinson, 1972, p.67). These terms refer to ritual actions that in some form imitate or incorporate the characteristics of that which they seek to influence. Outcome. Sympathetic magic can be divided into two different forms according to the desired outcome. Increase or maintenance ceremonies are usually social activities concerning the well-being and economic obligations of the wider group. Witchcraft or sorcery is usually an anti-social activity aiming at the well being of one particular person to the detriment of other people. Responsibility. In Aboriginal Australia, different groups of intraphysical consciousnesses within a given society are responsible for different species in the natural environment. Usually this responsibility will arise from the totem of the intraphysical consciousness. Totems. In many societies, a totem is obtained by birth or conception at a particular place, or by inheritance. Totems are usually a species of flora or fauna; more importantly they relate to one or more Dreaming ancestors, i.e. extraphysical consciousness. Inter-dependence. Traditionally, individuals and their totem were inter-dependent: humans might have physical or psychological features relating to those of their totem (paragenetics) and special obligations for their totem. Increase ceremonies. For example, humans of the kangaroo totem will be charged with ensuring a sufficient supply of kangaroos by regularly attending to the kangaroo increase ceremonies. In most societies, people with the primary responsibility for rainmaking would have rain as their totem, or one of the ancestral beings associated with making rain, often a serpent referred to in English as the “rainbow serpent” (Poirier, 1997; Tonkinson, 1972). Censure. Should a certain species be scarce one year, others may censure those of that totem for failing in their duties. Rainmakers may be censured for the absence of rain, but also if there is a surplus leading to destructive floods (Trezise, 1985). Witchcraft. Detailed ethnographic accounts of Aboriginal Australia are replete with references to sorcery, usually malign and with the aim of killing or mentally disturbing another intraphysical consciousness. Most of these practices are secretive and involve one individual or a group focusing intensely negative energies at another individual, who is “sung” or “pointed” (e.g. Elkin, 1994, p.40; Howitt, 1996, pp.359-378; Peile, 1997, pp.137-139; Warner, 1937, pp.194-210). Revenge. People could make or withhold rain, and produce storms or lightening in revenge to kill or harm others (e.g. Hercus & Koch, 1996; Tonkinson, 1972, pp.115-116). While it could be used for negative, individualistic purposes, more commonly it was a beneficial activity, only done at socially recognised times and by the appropriate people. Networks. Even where rainmaking ceremonies were not communal events, but confined to a few specialised rainmakers, these did not operate in a social vacuum. They were part of regional networks and their abilities and role were recognised far beyond their immediate group. Rainmaking was not a frivolous activity. Influencing the weather Psychokinesis. Parapsychologists have satisfied themselves that human consciousness can produce small effects on intraphysical events (psychokinesis). Most experiments have focused on the ability of the human consciousness to influence random number generators or dice. Reviewing the available data on these experiments, Radin (1997, p.144) concludes that there is evidence that consciousness can act upon physical systems through the force of will. Systems. Weather is a substantially larger system than a number generator or dice. It is influenced by a complex interplay of evaporation, forests, geography (geo-energies), lunar energies, pollution, solar energies, volcanic activity, winds and many other factors. Extraphysical consciousness. Crucial to this discussion is the hypothesis that, as well as many physical variables, extraphysical consciousnesses play a role in regulating the weather on this planet. Climate. The weather is not the same as the climate. The climate of an area is determined by the composite of its weather over a prolonged period. A day’s weather is a building block for the macro-system of climate. The climate is a much greater system to change than the weather. Wishing. Radin cites a study by Nelson that compared the weather at Princeton University on graduation days with those of six surrounding towns. The theory was that the thousands of people coming to Princeton that day would be wishing for good weather. The study “revealed that on average, over thirty years, there was indeed less rain around graduation days than a few days before and after graduation, with odds of nearly twenty to one against chance. An identical analysis for the average rainfall in six surrounding towns showed no such effect.” (Radin, 1997, p.172; cf. Nelson, 1997) Sunday. A less detailed study, based on the same assumption, in this case that people would wish for good weather on Sundays, found a similar suggestion. “According to newspaper records, there were 211 days when the sun did not appear by afternoon press-time at St Petersburg, Florida, from 1910 through 1957. Only eleven of these days were Sundays.” (Cox, 1962, pp.172-173). Field-consciousness. Radin uses the term field-consciousness to describe the effect of larger numbers of intraphysical consciousnesses focusing on the same event. Conscientiology would speak of a group-holothosene. The field-consciousness Radin describes is often produced unconsciously, as in the many individuals wishing for good weather. Discipline. Aboriginal rainmakers are mentally and energetically well-trained. Meditative and projective techniques were part of their culture as were other forms of mental discipline. Intention. It is the hypothesis of this author that consciously focused intent of only a few such individuals is more likely to influence the weather than the idle wishes of a larger population desiring a sunny Sunday. The structural elements of the ceremonies Essentials. In spite of the great variety of rainmaking ceremonies across Australia (McCarthy, 1953), there are recurring essential elements. They may not all occur in every ceremony, but they stand out in the literature surveyed. Those elements are now analysed from a bioenergetic, holosomatic and multidimensional perspective. Composite. While presented here in isolation for the sake of analysis, in the ceremonies the elements come together as a composite whole, creating an atmosphere of purposeful, highly charged thosenes, sometimes over several days of intent ceremonial activity. Arm Movements to direct clouds Example. “Then a bundle of emu-feathers tied together ... is thrust out towards a cloud and drawn (or waved) slowly back towards the operator. This is repeated many times (when another cloud is selected for a similar operation ...) to bring all the clouds together, then “big fella rain tumble down”. (Reid, 1930; cf. also Cherbury, 1932; Mathew & Anau, 1991) Auric coupling. The intraphysical consciousness (the rainmaker) is consciously promoting an auric coupling [i.e. a connection] between the hydro-energies of the clouds and his own bioenergies and using his energies as a lever, to will the movement of the clouds. Control. Consciousness can control energies and as we develop our holochakra and our ability to perceive and focus on energies beyond the soma, we can consciously extend our sphere of influence; for better or for worse. Extraphysical assistance and projections Projective account. The following is the account of a projection to produce rain, recorded by the anthropologist Ronald Berndt among Wiradjuri people in western New South Wales. It is interesting to note the distinctly cultural elements of the projective experience as well as the universal elements such as the silver cord (maulwar cord), the importance of controlling emotions and the temporal incongruence: As informants stressed, it took a very clever doctor to go unharmed through the dangers which accompanied a journey to the world behind the sky, where the water-bags were kept. When it was necessary, and only then, a discussion would be held between the tribal elders, headmen and doctors as to the advisability of obtaining rain. A doctor would be chosen, and a particular time named when he would undertake his skyward journey. On the auspicious night, he would “sing” all the inmates of the camp, so that they would sleep soundly, and not hear any noise that he might make or cause. He would then sit away from the camp and “sing” the clouds down so that they were about fifty to sixty feet from the ground; so near were they that “the noise of birds and ducks could be heard.” He would then sing out his ‘maulwa(r) cord and send it vertically up towards the clouds; it “would be just like putting a pole up”. He would lie on his back, his head upon his chest, with legs held up above the ground; in this way, watching the cord he would “sing” himself up. As the cord moved upwards past the clouds, it lifted the doctor who was suspended “like a spider.” Coming to Wantangga’ngura he let his cord gradually return to his body and standing upright looked around. He could see the darkness of the night sky, and all the stars, which were the various Ancestral Beings who had in the past climbed up here; being so close to them he could see their human form, whereas from the earth they appeared merely as points of light of varying brilliance. But he did not look long, since he was still outside the place in which the water-bags were kept; this place was called ‘Pali:ma, and was in the Wantangga’ngura country. To pass into Palima, the doctor had to go through a fissure, through which the Ancestral Beings had passed when they left the earth. This fissure or cleft was termed ‘mupara:m (...), and its two walls were continually moving around; this was demonstrated by the informant who used the open palms of both hands, placed them together, and rubbed them in a circular manner. The revolving of the ‘mupara:m left a small aperture which was revealed at intervals; it was through this latter that the doctor had to pass. ... Watching the revolving ‘mupara:m till an aperture appeared, the doctor entered and found himself in Palima, a country much the same as the earth, having also a sky above it. As he walked to and fro, looking around for the hut in which were stored the water-bags that had been sent up by the Eaglehawk, two Ancestral Men called Ngintu-Ngintu and Kunapapa ran up. Both carried clubs. The former began to call out a volley of questions, endeavouring to discover why the doctor had made this journey and entered the ‘mupara:m; but the “clever man” would not answer his questions, since otherwise he would be thrust out of Palima. Before Ngintu-Ngintu and Kunapapa were near, the doctor stopped walking – they must not see him doing this for if they did they would kill him at once. Coming up close to the “clever man”, who now sat down, they began to corroboree. They would dance and sing in the most humorous way, their intention being to make their onlooker smile, laugh or talk; should he do any of these things they would kill him. They danced with their legs well apart; their very long penes waved from side to side, and with the motion of the dance became erect and moved up and down; the doctor did not even twitch his lips. Then with their hands they made as if to poke out his eyes, but the other did not flicker an eyelid. They stared at him, coming close up and looking into his eyes; but still he did not blink or smile. After a while, Ngintu-Ngintu and Kunapapa became tired of receiving no response on the part of the doctor and sat down to one side. Then some women came up and began to corroboree in front of the doctor. They danced in an erotic manner, shuffling along with legs apart and knees bent; as they came close up to the “clever man”, they assumed an inviting posture and acted in other erotic ways. The doctor, however, still remained immobile; if he had been affected by, or if he had made any movement towards the women, he would have been killed. At last the women joined Ngintu-Ngintu and his companion and began to talk amongst themselves, each asking the other what could be done with the doctor. While they were thus engaged the latter “sang” away all of them except Ngintu-Ngintu, who was too powerful to be disposed of in this manner. Then taking out of his small skin bag a ‘nginbaran (emu anus-feathers tied in a bunch) he threw it into the distance and began to sing. The singing created from the bunch of feathers an emu; as the bird became visible the doctor called out to Ngintu-Ngintu ... : “There goes an emu”. Ngintu-Ngintu who was a keen hunter, gathered his spears together and rushed in the direction of his hut, in order to get his dog. While he got his dog, which went after the emu, the doctor sprang up and darted across to the hut in which the water bags were stored. Once there he speared one of the water-bags; as the water spurted out the doctor ran over to the ‘mupara:m in order to escape. However, Ngintu-Ngintu and his dog, who had found out that the emu created by the doctor was not of material substance, saw him running, and saw the water from the bag flowing to the fissure. The dog rushed over to the doctor, and snapped at him urged on by Ngintu-Ngintu. But the clever man reached the mupara:m unharmed; he escaped through it, and just as the dog put his head through it he “sang” the mupara:m closed (i.e. he stopped it revolving). When “he got well out of sight of the dog he sang the mupara:m loose (i.e. open)”. As it opened the water gushed out; because it had been kept in the skin bag since ‘ngerka:nbu times, the water was “stinking” and bad. When the doctor got the water “on this side” (i.e. out of Palima), he “sang” all the clouds up; into these poured the water, to be sieved and purified into clear water, to come down as rain either at once or a little later on. He then “sang” out his cord, and “climbed” down towards the same place from which he had gone up. The next morning he would say to the others: “See it is raining now”, or “It will rain soon”. His actual journey was said to have taken no more than a few seconds (Berndt, 1947, pp.361-363). Implicit. Aboriginal people often imply the importance of extraphysical consciousnesses in rain making by statements that claim that the success or failure of a ceremony depends on the co- operation of certain Dreaming ancestors. Extraphysical consciousness. Although it is not possible here to illustrate the role of extraphysical consciousnesses in weather phenomena, I do accept Vieira’s theory that they play some role in all natural phenomena (Vieira, personal comment during the course “Sensibilização Energetica”, Foz de Iguaçu, 1997). Evocation Imitation. Ceremonial participants will imitate the calls and actions of creatures related to water, such as ducks, fish, frogs, pelicans, swans and others. Such acts serve to focus the mind of the participants and evoke the atmosphere during which such creatures are usually encountered. Ceremonies. Feathers are a key ingredient to many ceremonies, being one of the few traditional items for creating “costumes” or for general adornment. Using the feathers of water birds may serve to establish an energetic link with those creatures, and by implication their moist habitat. Human Blood Sacrifice. Many agricultural societies sacrifice the lives (soma) of animal and even human intraphysical consciousnesses in their rituals, in the belief that this will please the Gods and make them grant a desired physical outcome, for example rainfall. It is possible that there were extraphysical consciousnesses associated with those rituals who would indeed see that the wishes of the intraphysical sacrificers were fulfilled. Pathology. The actions of the intraphysical and extraphysical consciousnesses in such cases are pathological to the extreme. Sacrifice of that kind is a social institution based on energetic vampirism of the life energy of the intraphysical victims. While it may bring immediate results during one intraphysical life, it leads to multi-existential stigmas and groupkarmic interprison. Bloodletting. Human blood is used in many Aboriginal ceremonies, but neither human nor sub-human animal is killed. The individual sacrifices from him or herself. Usually men will tie their upper arms tightly with a ligature and open a vein in their lower arm. The blood is collected in vessels or applied directly to the bodies of other ceremonial participants. It is drunk or sprinkled on objects and is used as a glue to attach feathers, wood shavings or other forms of decoration. Power. From the Aboriginal perspective blood has various powers. Its external application or consumption is thought to energise. It is also considered to feed the Dreaming ancestors. From a bioenergetic perspective, a person’s blood is a very strong carrier of their holothosenic imprint. From a multidimensional perspective, blood can be a food for tropospheric extraphysical consciousnesses and its density may facilitate inter-dimensional psychokinetic (PK) phenomena. “Rain stones” and pearl shells Shells. Throughout the Australian Western Desert pearl shells traded from the north-west of the country are used in rain ceremonies (Berndt & Berndt, 1944; Mountford, 1962, p.138). A part of the shell is ground into liquid, blood or spittle, which is then either ingested or spat out in various directions. Ocean. The connection between the shell and water, in this case the ocean, is obvious. Rain Stones. In other parts of the country, clear crystals are used in a similar way. A certain area along the Birdsville track in northeastern South Australia used to be called “rain country” because it is prolifically covered in gypsum, the “rain-stone”. Moisture. One researcher notes that his Aboriginal informants “observed the water-absorber mineral gypsum, and, on perceiving moisture induced changes or deliberately moistening the gypsum to promote such changes, crushed the mineral to free the water spirit.” (Kimber, 1997, p.8) Amplification. Crystals form a part of many “magical” practices among indigenous and non- indigenous people, possibly for their capacity to amplify the bioenergies of the intraphysical consciousness manipulating them. Red ochre Energise. Ochre is an essential ingredient to almost every ritual practice among Aboriginal people. It is applied to the body and ceremonial objects and is thought to energise. Often, red ochre is considered the metamorphosed blood of Dreaming ancestors. Grounding. From the bioenergetic perspective, the geoenergies of the ochre would arguably ground the individual applying it. Songs and Chants Words. The power of words is used in most indigenous societies. In Aboriginal Australia there are songs for many ends. People speak of having been “sung” to describe the acts of sorcerers who sing harmful songs to hurt their victim. Healing also occurs through song. There are songs for every “sacred site” and through singing them the places are energised and “come to life”. There are songs for increase ceremonies, to attract a desired lover and to influence the behaviour of humans and other animals. There are songs to make rain and songs to cause drought. (e.g. Hume, 2002, p.94; Martin 1988, p.26, Strehlow, 1971) Rules. Because of their power, songs are transmitted according to strict social rules. Composers. Ceremonial songs are never considered the product of human composition. They are thought to be ancient, from the Dreaming and composed by the Dreaming ancestors. Songs are either handed down across intraphysical generations or are the result of revelations during projections in which intraphysical consciousnesses are given the songs by the extraphysical consciousnesses “from the Dreaming” (Poirier, 1996; Strehlow, 1971, p.260). Repetition. Arguably, their repeated use over millennia has increased the bioenergetic charge of the words and actions in the same way as that of objects is increased through repeated use (psychometry). Effects. That words and songs should have physical effects of the magnitude contemplated by Aboriginal traditions is not supported by conventional science. From a multidimensional perspective the source of their power could lie in:
Objects Tjurunga. Engraved stones and pieces of wood were used as ceremonial objects throughout Aboriginal Australia. Among the Arrernte speaking people of central Australia they are called tjurunga, and anthropologists often use that term generically. Individual. Different ceremonies and different places in the landscape have their own individual objects, only brought from hiding at the appropriate time. Like the songs, these objects are considered the product, or even the embodiment, of the Dreaming ancestors (extraphysical consciousness). Attention. During ceremonies, these objects are subject to close attention; they are handed from person to person with each individual consciously exchanging energies with the object. People will meditate on the objects and sing the appropriate ceremonial songs while contemplating them. Reinforce. Like songs, the objects seem to function as a connector to extraphysical dimensions, and a way of tapping into an old and powerful source of consciential energies that has been reinforced over generations. These energies are channelled towards specific purposes according to the designated function of the ceremony with which the tjurunga is associated. Water Water. Most ceremonies involve sprinkling, splashing or diving into water. In some cases, participants spit. The sympathetic element is obvious; participants are seeking to replicate rainfall to attract or induce the real thing. Summary. To summarise, a rainmaking ceremony is composed of a set of energetic, physical and mental actions designed to fully focus the consciential energies of the participating intra- and extraphysical consciousnesses. In some cases, the rainmakers use the more direct method of conscious projections to influence the weather from the extraphysical dimensions. Serene. The Homo Sapiens Serenisimus does not require a ceremony to influence the weather. He or she does it directly through his or her holosoma. (Vieira, 1994). Conclusion Deficiency. This study is deficient in that it is only based on theory, not practice. I have not personally attempted to make rain while writing this article. I have, however, witnessed an Aboriginal man sing a rain song and this lead to unexpected torrential rainfalls less than 12 hours afterwards, and I know of numerous similar stories from other fieldworkers. Experiment. It is tempting to suggest an experiment whereby groups of people gather and, after going through the standard mobilization of energies, spend 10 or 20 minutes focussing their group-energies on the desire to produce rain. Such experiments may be inappropriate, however, due to the magnitude of the system being manipulated. Disaster. Physical rainmaking experiments (cloud seeding) in western England, for example, are linked to disastrous floods that killed 35 people in 1952 (BBC News, 13.01.2003). Once rain begins to fall, it is not easily stopped. Timing. This may be why Aboriginal people were cautious in making rain and preferred to do it during the appropriate time, i.e. when rain was naturally expected. Rain would only be made on other occasions after careful deliberation. Superiority. It should be pointed out that this article does not assert that traditional Aboriginal society was somehow superior to our own, simply because of its active working with multidimensionality. Pathology. Just as the pathologies in our society are highlighted by the headlines dominating our media, so the pathologies of Aboriginal society are highlighted through the recurrent theme of malign sorcery and fear based social control. Cosmoethics. 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VIEIRA, Waldo; 700 Experimentos da Conscientiologia; Instituto Internacional de Projeciologia e Conscienciologia, Rio de Janeiro; 1994. 8/9/2019 You are a consciousness having a physical experience - a personal out-of-body accountRead NowThe following account is of an experience I had more than 20 years ago, but its profound impact on my sense of self has resonated throughout my life since. You may have heard it said that we are not really human beings having spiritual experiences, that we are not really “going out of the body” in an OBE, but really that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. From that perspective this human life is one long "in-body-experience" of a consciousness whose real home is beyond the physical dimension. The projection of consciousness I describe below made this idea very tangible for me. I truly came to experience my real self as something much vaster and expansive than the personality of my current life. At the same time I came away with a strong sense of the importance of not alienating myself from my current physical life by focusing too much on what I consider my real multidimensional identity. Even if I do not fully understand the purpose of my current life in the scheme of the vastness of existence that I glimpsed, I was given the understanding that the best thing I could do for my own evolution was to live a strongly integrated physical life. After all, that is why we are here. Embodying our consciousness in every aspect of our physical life is a task that can prove to be much more challenging than the pursuit of transcendent states. It is certainly a task that has challenged me ever since, as there always seem to be more areas of life to integrate and it is precisely these challenges that seem to make our lives such amazing opportunities for learning and growth. Background To help with understanding the below account, I briefly give an outline of the way I have come to conceptualise our various out-of-body states. The picture below shows the different bodies we, as consciousnesses, use. Of course there is the physical body, which is our densest “vehicle of manifestation”, and consciousness uses it to manifest itself in this physical dimension. When we fall asleep, we normally separate ourselves from the physical body in a more subtle vehicle, designed for more subtle dimensions. This subtle body is known as the astral body, the spirit body, or in conscientiology as the psychosoma or emotional body. It looks pretty much like a replica of the physical body, although this appears to be more a result of our psychological conditioning rather than a fundamental quality of the psychosoma. In fact, the psychosoma is highly suggestible to our thoughts and emotions, and we are in theory able to completely change its appearance. But for the most part we go with what we are familiar with, shaping it from our subconscious according to our self-image. Beyond the psychoma is the mentalsoma, or mental body. This body is very subtle, and basically formless. It still seems to consist of some kind of energy, but it does not share many other attributes that we normally associate with a “body”. As far as we know, consciousness is beyond the mentalsoma again. So the mentalsoma is another vehicle just like the physical body and the psychosoma. But because the mentalsoma is that much more subtle and that much closer to consciousness it gives us uniquely transcendental experiences. Projections in the mentalsoma are considerably rarer than in the psychosoma, and often accompanied by profound experiences described by terms such as cosmic consciousness, oneness, god experience and so on. This is the kind of experience I share here. What made this experience especially compelling for me, were the very tangible energetic phenomena that accompanied it and truly set it apart from other projections I have had. The projective experience itself was profound, but also extremely subtle. So the energetic phenomena provided personal corroboration that something out of the ordinary had truly happened. The following text is as I wrote it down at the time with a few clarifying comments in brackets. Pre-projective period
I was taking the second stage of a course in projective techniques at the IIPC’s office in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro. The course took place over four consecutive days from May 11-14, 1998. Ever since the course began I had noticed a difference in my nocturnal perceptions, with more lucid projective experiences. During the course itself, although I had had a sense of having been projected, so far I had not had any experiences I could recall. The last lesson was the technique of projecting with the mentalsoma. There had been three or four students in each of the previous classes but today I was alone with the instructor. (This seemed significant to me, because it felt I was getting special attention, not just from the physical instructor, but more importantly from the extraphysical team of helpers supporting the course) I did not have any expectations and felt calm although with many thoughts relating to my daily life running through my mind. These continued even during the energetic exercises preceding the technique (Basic Mobilization of Energies, which consists of various mental exercises to move our energy (Chi or Qui) throughout our energetic body) . During the absorption of energies, the final exercise before starting the technique itself, I felt a lot of activity in the two superior chakras (frontal and crown) which seemed to form one single chakra, situated more or less half-way between the two. The inside of my head appeared to heat up from the inside out, starting from the pineal gland until the heat focussed itself on this midway point between the chakras. So far I had been sitting and now as I lay down this part of my body remained active. After being talked through the psycho-physiological relaxation (a deep muscle relaxation technique), I put all my attention into this energetic process, knowing (intuitively) that it was the “entrance” to the mentalsoma. Projective period There was no sense of “take off” whatsoever. It merely felt as if the body disappeared and instead, I found myself in a vast space, or rather it was I who was vastly spacious, expanded. This occurred without any great sense of ecstasy or even the feeling that this experience was in any way special. It simply felt like a change of environment or better of perception. I felt as if I was looking at my intraphysical life from the outside. From here I saw that all the hazards of life, and all those events which we might call “intrusions” are nothing other than energetic phenomena. This realization made me feel very calm. I wondered how they managed to appear so “real”. I understood that I was not the person who was having the projection of the mentalsoma, but rather a mentalsoma who was having the experience of being an intraphysical being. In an inversion of the usual perception which sees the ‘I’ going from the intraphysical to engage in extraphysical experiences I saw that in relation to the infinity of the mentalsoma any experiences of the personality with which I was currently identifying myself were merely ephemeral phenomena. I attempted to understand how the intraphysical experiences of the intraphysical consciousness related to this timeless state of the mentalsoma, i.e. what is the meaning of life?, without succeeding, but also not really caring too much about the answer. Post-projective period I had no awareness of any interiorization and no sense of the time that might have passed. When my perception returned to the soma it was rigid, the hands were cold, and balls of hot energy were pulsating at the base of my spine as well as at the top of the head. Now the crown chakra was distinctly active. I spent another ten minutes or so lying there without moving until the instructor gave the command to return to intraphysicality (as the projection time was scheduled for 60 minutes, the whole experience would have lasted about 45 minutes). My mouth was dry and my body felt at the same time rigid and subtle. The experience had energetic impacts which lasted at least for the subsequent two weeks during which I felt my holochakra expanded and my mind much calmer than usual. It was easy to reestablish an energetic connection with the recently experienced projection and this caused an increase of my intraphysical vibrations. Gradually this faded. Observations The experience gave me some insights into a problem I had pondered for a while. Why don’t we manage to live more from the perspective of the time-less mentalsoma during our day-to-day life? One possible explanation might be the great difference between its reality and our intraphysical needs. The perception of the mentalsoma, when pure or naked, without the interference of denser energies, is so far removed from the needs of our day to day that bringing it into our life would have to be learnt slowly. Put differently, the intraphysical consciousness must be trained to know its own reality without alienating itself from itself, i.e. causing mental imbalances. When healthily balanced however, experiences of the mentalsoma can have profoundly curative and life enhancing capacities as they allow the intraphysical consciousness to act in knowledge of its actual extraphysical origin, thus providing a source of inner freedom and happiness. (I have previously published this account on the IAC blog as well as in my book. I know when I first wrote it I felt it's revelatory impact spoke for itself. Reading it now, it actually seems very low key and probably a bit obscure if you have not had a similar experience. But if you have I'd love for you to share in the comments how it came about and how it impacted your life, and of course if you have any questions about it I'd also love those.) Do you have the sense or inner knowing that you are in this life for a purpose beyond making a living, raising a family or even becoming an economic success? Do you feel strongly that connecting your physical existence with life beyond the physical is an important part of why you are here? Have you got a strong drive to help others around you, or even tackle some of the world’s big challenges? Does multidimensionality seem natural to you, e.g. the concept that you’ve been here before or that you will experience life after death just seem naturally plausible? Have you had spontaneous psychic phenomena, such as finding yourself traveling outside of your body or seeing spirits as a child? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions there is a fairly good chance that you have prepared yourself specifically for your life purpose before you were born, i.e. in your last intermissive period between physical lives. If we made a plan for this current life, surely it is the highest priority for us to remember what that was. We are after all here to live into our own life, not that of a society that is still largely constrained by excessive materialism. Nor are we obliged to follow the path of our biological family, for even though they will be people with whom we are connected by strong karmic bonds, they may not necessarily share the same evolutionary priorities during this current existence. If we have come here with an existential programme it is paramount that we connect deeply with ourselves and live this life from the inside out, creating it from the depth of our consciousness rather than external social expectations. Because if we have prepared ourselves for this current life, then the answers to what it is we have come here to create, heal and accomplish are all inside of us. Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Tathiana Mota, author of the book Intermissive Course: have you prepared yourself for the challenges of human life for my podcast (I will be posting a link here once the episode is up). In her book, which is about to be released in English, Tathiana addresses in detail 10 markers or personal characteristics that can show us that we are likely to have completed an intermissive course before our last birth. These markers were originally proposed by Vieira in his 700 Conscientiology Experiments (available as a free download here). They consist of the ten attributes listed below. As you read through them, ask yourself honestly and frankly whether they apply to you and if so to what extent and depth. For example, with regard to 2 "certainty of your immortality", one person may feel quite strongly that they are immortal, but still carry some doubt and fears, for another it is an absolute certainty, while a third feels completely overwhelmed by the question and has no confidence of their existence beyond this life. This evaluation is only for you, there is no one to impress, so be honest with yourself especially around your fears and uncertainties. Therein lies the key to growth. 01. Self-confidence. Internal absence of mortifying doubts during adulthood. 02. Self-awareness. Certainty of your immortality, an awareness of eternal life, inside of yourself, in your personal essence. 03. Prioritisation. A deep-rooted aspiration to take full advantage of the current existence, searching for discernment, general knowledge and greater self-awareness. 04. Seriexis. Natural, intimate acceptance of the theory of seriexis (series of existences, i.e. living many physical lives) as a fact, incorporated into day-to-day existence. 05. Hyperacuity. Experience of enlightening inspirations (innate ideas) about your destiny, personal career (existential task) or human life (seriexis). 06. Self-motivation. Spontaneous self-motivation to research and execute assistential, or beneficial, parapsychic, energetic practices. 07. Parapsychism. Sporadic, yet convincing and pacifying, parapsychic and animistic self-perceptions. 08. Proexis. Indefinite, yet persistent, intuitions about some important existential task (proexis) to be realised or that is rapidly developing. 09. Self-retrocognitions. Logical, coherent, definitive and enriching self-retrocognitions. Unhealthy retrocognitions reflect the catalogue of our self-omissions. 10. Omni-interaction. Personal and self-aware identification of the cosmos, life and order in the universe, which exists under the permanent control of evolved consciexes. (adapted from Vieira 2018:604) According to Vieira, if you can say a confident yes to at least 5 of these characteristics you are likely to have participated in an intermissive course prior to your most recent birth, which in turn means that you have a more complex life project. If this does not describe you, that does not mean that you do not have a life project or existential programme or that you have not prepared yourself for this life. Just like here in the physical dimension, so in the extraphysical dimensions there are many educational opportunities and pathways. If you do not intend to become a brain surgeon in this life, you will not be taking the required, highly specialised courses qualifying you for that profession. In the same way, if your life here is unlikely to involve the complexities of multidimensional assistance, or the introduction of new and uplifting ideas and innovations, you do not need to prepare yourself to that extent and are unlikely to have completed the kind of preparation referred to by the term intermissive course. But whatever your position with regard to multidimensionality or the level to which you have prepared yourself, we all benefit from stopping and tuning into ourselves to connect with our reason for being in this life. Because really what else are we here for? Imagine leaving this life only to discover that you forgot everything you had on your to do list … and perhaps discover that in fact you crossed off a whole bunch of things you specifically had on your “not-to-do-list”! The frustration levels would be high, and can in fact lead to all out depression, post-mortem, also known as extraphysical melancholy. Fortunately, we do not need to wait to die to work out we are headed that way, as the presence of such emotions in our life can already be an alarm signal that we missing our own to-do list. So let’s take some practical steps to pre-empt reaching that point.
An important tool is to develop the practice of listening to our inner voice. In our interview, Tathiana shared how in her case there was a voice present from childhood that gave her the sense that she was looking for people, places and activities that she somehow remembered. She did not really understand the source of this sense until later, but it kept her alert and open to something “unknown”, and when she eventually saw it, she recognised it. In my book I share a similar sense of being on the look-out for someone without understanding why or who. For many of us, the circumstances and pressures of life can obscure our own inner voice, and much like in Peter Pan as we "grow up" we loose touch with our purpose. Meditation and other mindfulness practices can certainly help us connect with ourselves. But if we really want to connect with our existential purpose and task, it is even more powerful if we focus specifically on that question with intent: why am I here? Tathiana shared two techniques we can adopt to that end. Both involve spending some time alone, free from distractions, including your phone, internet and so on, so you can really tune into your self. Exercise 1 – allow one hour in a space where you will not be disturbed. Just yourself with pen and paper. Start with a body or breath focused meditation or the basic movement of energies if you know that technique. This helps you center yourself and go deeper into your own reality. When you feel yourself truly present ask yourself this question – when you were a child of anywhere between 6-10 years old, what did you imagine you would do with your life? Whatever comes up write it down, without editing or second guessing. Then see if you can connect with something more or get more detail about the idea. What we are working with here is the fact that, despite the limitations we may have had in our maturity as children, we were still much closer to our intermissive period and not as conditioned by the social expectations and often very limiting beliefs that surround us at school and society generally. You are likely to connect with one or more ideas, and if there is any kind of charge or excitement about them you know they are important for you. Exercise 2 – allow three hours in a space where you will not be disturbed. Again just yourself with pen and paper and start with a body or breath focused meditation or the basic movement of energies if you know that technique. This helps you center yourself and go deeper into your own reality. When you feel yourself truly present write at the top of a piece of paper “Intermissive Course” and then reflect on your skills or talents, your weaknesses, and your character or temperament, honestly and from the heart. Write down what you find. To dig into your temperament you can ask yourself different questions like: How do I show up around honesty? Around commitment? Around determination? Around integrity? And any other area you identify as part of your character. You need to be specific, writing examples for each item, so for example if you consider yourself focused and determined, write a number of examples how that shows up in your life. If you think you are skilled at negotiating, how does that show up. If you think you have a weakness of being inconsistent, how does that manifest and what is the cost in your life? This is just for us so be very honest to make sure you are not deceiving yourself, but also compassionate. Pause between each question to do some meditation or energy work and then move to the next area of inquiry. You are allocating three hours to break through psychological defences such as idealizing yourself, getting bored to think about yourself and so on. As you go deeper you will have extraphysical assistance by helpers who are keen to support you with your self-research and success in this life. As you immerse yourself they may trigger memories of your intermissive course or help you connect with your deepest desires and creative ambitions. In the final hour you may gain a lot of insights even about how to execute your life plan. If you have a shot at either of those exercises, I'd love to hear from you. I have previously written about the benefits of contemplating life after death: it helps us prepare us for our inevitable future, it brings awareness to our true nature, and it can be a great motivator to make sure we live the best life we can, because we realise that death is always just around the corner. In this post I want to focus on the actual act of dying. I deliberately use the word “act”, because dying is often framed as something that happens to us, when actually it can be a conscious action seeing us step deliberately into the next chapter of our existence. I was inspired to write this when listening to an interview with William Buhlman for the Path 11 podcast. It is a few years old now, but I only just discovered it and the information is still just as current now as it was then. Buhlman is one of today’s foremost experiential OBE researchers and someone whose work I have been following since the 1990s when he published his first book Adventures Beyond the Body. In his podcast interview he spoke passionately about the need to develop better processes for the way we die, i.e. the way we embark on our final projection from this dimension back to the extraphysical dimension. As a society we do not have much understanding of what that process involves. Death is still a taboo subject and generally treated as the worst thing that could happen to us, even though it will happen to us all. Our fear of death seems to be due to the high degree of uncertainty and confusion about what it involves: do we cease to exist, are there heaven and hell, will we be punished, will we ever see our loved ones again, and many similar doubts plague us. As a result, it is not surprising that we struggle in supporting our dying to take that journey with consciousness. As a seasoned explorer of non-physical dimensions, Buhlman has no doubts about how life after death will look. He brings that confidence to his suggestions about how to assist those who are going through the process. He takes his cue from Tibetan Buddhist culture, where a dying person is surrounded by monks chanting specific incantations to help them in a conscious and positive transition. For Buddhists, death is a very important opportunity that can determine the quality of the subsequent experiences of the person undergoing the process. If they are unconscious, they may be subject to their own fears or other base instincts and easily manipulated by intrusive extraphysical consciousnesses. If, however, a person is conscious and guided through the appropriate chants, Buddhists believe they can reach enlightenment as they enter the extraphysical dimension. I do not subscribe to the Buddhist notion of enlightenment, but I still think it captures something very important. I interpret this suggestion as a reference to the “dying” person regaining their full lucidity and enjoying full extraphysical awareness, a state that would seem like “enlightenment” when compared to the limited intraphysical state of consciousness most of us experience. Buhlman’s work on projections of consciousness always strongly emphasises the importance and power of awareness. This is the same focus he advocates should be central to our support for dying persons. The presence of chanting monks at our death beds is impractical for most of us. Instead we now have the capacity to create our own soundtracks that we can use to focus our awareness during the final moments. In his interview, Buhlman proposed creating audio material with positive affirmations, such as “consciousness now” or “awareness now”, but anything really that speaks to you personally and inspires you to stay focused and present. The idea is that the sense of hearing is the last sense we lose and that these kinds of messages will thus be the last thing we hear as we transition, which includes a period after we are “clinically dead” but extraphysically may still be attached to or close to the body until our consciousness has completed the process.
Hearing of the Buddhist monks chanting made me think of the Australian Aboriginal practice of singing around the body of the recently deceased, with the intention of helping their spirit return to their ancestral land. Like in Tibetan Buddhism, there is the assumption that the person will hear the songs. This assumption is well founded, because many Aboriginal people are able to see and sense their extraphysical relatives, and as such know that they are in fact present and able to perceive what is happening. In fact, while it may be scientifically accurate to note that the auditory sense is the last to cease as we withdraw from the physical dimension, the funeral chants of both Tibetan Buddhists and Aboriginal people do not rely solely on the dying person's auditory sense, but also on the fact that the songs are perceived across dimensions. In my understanding, they are seen as interdimensionally active, i.e. human song has real and tangible repercussions in the subtle energetic dimensions through energetic frequencies we do not yet fully understand. While we may not be able to easily replicate that aspect of these ancient mortuary practices, bringing consciousness to the process is already a huge step. It is a step that can have deep positive effects not just for the person transitioning, but also for those staying in the intraphysical dimension. Dying well, with consciousness and dignity, can be one of the greatest final gifts we can give our loved ones. Even if we have good multidimensional awareness, losing someone we love can be a painful experience. Grief is a natural response to such loss, even if we know we will be seeing the person again eventually. But imagine how much it would help to see the person going through the process with grace, dignity and awareness. Imagine being able to model to your children and grandchildren that death is nothing to be afraid of, but instead presents another aspect of life to which to bring consciousness and empowerment. It can transform what is a challenging time into an opportunity for connection and growth for all. For that reason alone, thinking and talking about death is not morbid, as is so often said when the subject is raised. On the contrary, it is life affirming and empowering because to be able to do die consciously requires spending time with death long before we actually arrive there, so that when we do we are solidly grounded in our own consciousness and the reality that awaits us. One of the big challenges to a coherent discussion and universal understanding of consciousness is that we have such a wide diversity of experiences and very little “objective data”. Nobody has yet created a device that lets us objectively see and experience life after death or talk to consciousnesses without physical bodies ("dead people"), and at this point there is no way for most of us to access memories from our past lives. And so we find ourselves in a situation where people have such different experiential backgrounds that it is difficult for them to have meaningful dialogues. Some people have experiences that leave them in no doubt that they will survive physical death, or have lived before. They are sure that they are communicating with “dead people" and that they have left their physical body in their psychosomatic (astral body). On the other hand, there are people who have had no experience to make them even question that there is anything beyond physical live. They are utterly convinced that this physical dimension and this particular life is all there is, and that people who are talking about their near-death-experiences or mediumship experiences are either deluded or even lying. And the fact that there are no objective measures for most of the experiences that relate to the non-physical manifestation of consciousness means that dishonesty and deceit can not be ruled out. If you take the disbelief principle seriously – don’t believe in anything, have your own experiences – then extreme scepticism of those who have not experienced themselves as separate from the physical body is a perfectly legitimate attitude. I once worked with a man who had been clinically dead on 3 occasions, each time through a different traumatic accident. He recalled nothing at all from any of his periods of physical “death” and so for him the matters was clear: there is nothing after death! He had after all experienced it. This is a logical conclusion to come to. Of course, if we start thinking about things more deeply, we realise that just because we are not aware of experiencing something it does not mean nothing happened. Science tells us that we all dream, yet some people do not recall any dreams ever, while others can fill pages of detail with their dreams. So even if we do not recall dreams, we are inclined to accept that we must dream because science tells us that our brain measurements show this. Just as scientific research that brought us an understanding of the universality of dreams, there are also studies that mean we do not need to rely solely on our own personal experiences to become open to the possibility of non-physical consciousness. I readily admit that I am biased, as my ideas of the non-physical nature of consciousness are a result of my own experiences first and external study second. And I acknowledge that this will influence the way in which I read and interpret data. But to me the work of researchers like Charles Tart (The End of Materialism) and Victor Zammit (A Lawyer presents the evidence for the afterlife) is objectively compelling. While coming from quite different backgrounds (Tart is a psychologist and Zammit a lawyer) they both have forensic skills that they apply to compiling the data of many other researchers to strongly make the case that this data points to non-physical consciousness. One of the areas of research they both comment on in their books is the evidence for the fact that we have lived more than one life. In terms of mainstream research, this subject matter was originally studied in detail by Ian Stevenson, and upon his retirement by Jim Tucker, both psychiatrists. Cumulatively their work is now in the sixth decade and they have documented thousands of cases by children who remember being another person in a previous life. As part of their research, Stevenson and Tucker interview the child, parents and other significant people who witnessed the child recall his or her past life to get as much detail about their memories as possible. Then Stevenson and Tucker seek to verify the recalled information through research. In some cases, the child’s last life is so recent that the people they recall from it are still alive and able to corroborate details of the child’s account. Stevenson and Tucker's research also considers the fact that many of the children had unusual abilities, illnesses, phobias and philias which could not be explained by the environment or their heredity, but rational explanations for them could be found when the previous life was taken into consideration. Because of the compelling nature of the data there are many summary accounts of it online and I do not intend to reproduce them here, but if you have not already seen the data I encourage you to have a look at the links below, or even go all out and read Tucker’s Life before Life: Children’s Memories of previous lives. John Cleese Interviews Dr. Jim Tucker re: DOPS Research into Children's Past Life Memories https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Aoew3jKMb4 6 Extraordinary Cases Of Kids Who Remember Their Past Lives https://www.collective-evolution.com/2016/05/05/6-extraordinary-cases-of-kids-who-remember-their-past-lives/ The fact is though, that most of us do not recall our past lives, or if we do the memories are much more diffuse than those of the young children studied by Stevenson and Tucker. For most of us there are no specific names and actual street addresses. Instead we have inexplicable feelings, bodily sensations, movie like dreams, déjà vu experiences and moments of strange familiarity with people and places we have not encountered before. All of these experiences are much more readily dismissed as indicators of past lives on the basis of psychological explanations, than those of the children in the studies. And yet, much like the scientific studies into our dream lives, the implication of the studies by Stevenson and Tucker is precisely that we should not be dismissing our subtle and ambiguous experiences. If we follow the science, it invites the interpretation that past lives may be a significant part of what it means to be a consciousness in human form. If we are at least open to that possibility, it broadens our interpretive range by which we can understand the various subtle experiences and sensations I mentioned. And if we are not aware even of those experiences, a psychology based on the genuine acceptance of the possibility of past lives would still open entirely new avenues for understanding not only our individual character traits, but also our family and relationship dynamics. Because once we start to realise that we’ve all been here before, we can’t help but consider whether we have a shared history with those around us and how that may be affecting our relationships in the present. What if we are here to work things out with our family, our colleagues, our friends and neighbours and above all with ourselves? What if every encounter is an opportunity to rewrite old scripts and bring at least some more balance to any given relationship? What if we can come to understand that many of our natural tendencies, life experiences and circumstances have a basis in a past we have forgotten? And if we know that we will be coming back, how may that motivate us to think ahead in this life time, as well as relax a bit into the greater spaciousness we now have? This kind of awareness can open new avenues of understanding and acceptance, as well as a more expansive sense of being involved in a larger project of communal healing and reconciliation. 18/12/2018 Providing energetic assistance to the dead - excerpt from Multidimensional Evolution: Personal Explorations of ConsciousnessRead NowLast week I learned that my book Multidimensional Evolution has just come out in Romanian. This is entirely thanks to a Romanian reader who so appreciated the book that she approached a local publisher, who in turn organized the translation and publication. To me this felt especially synchronicitous as one of the psychic phenomena I discuss in the book occurred in Romania. To celebrate the publication of the Romanian edition I here reproduce the relevant extract from the book. The passage describes experiences we can have when providing energetic assistance to others. The particular experience I had in Romania occurred before I had a good understanding of what might happen. It was especially striking for two reasons. First, because of the intensity of the sensations I had coming from the other consciousness, in this case a person who had been violently killed. And second because I actually heard some words in Romanian, a language I do not speak, that I was able to look up and establish as meaningful and related to the experiences. As such this was one of the few experiences I have had that came with something akin to objective evidence and this greatly assisted me at that early stage of learning about multidimensional reality. I hope you enjoy the excerpt. I first had the experience of providing assistance to extraphysical consciousnesses when applying the B-ing meditation I had learnt at Shanti Loka. For two or three years after learning it, I would practice it every day, usually in the mornings. I would either sit in a chair or lie on my bed and go through my different body parts, and then I would hold my awareness of the whole body for a long time before “letting go”. In practicing this technique, I experienced many strange sensations, some of which I already described earlier. But there is one particular sensation I have not yet described in detail. This was the feeling of “being” another person. It could include unfamiliar thoughts running through my head, feelings that just did not seem like mine and sometimes whole scenarios involving relationships with other people and particular life events, none of which had any meaning for me. One of the most intense of these experiences happened while I was travelling in western Romania. I was applying the meditation on my bed in a tiny mountain village when the most intense feeling came over me. I could tell that the person I was sensing was a young man. There was a lot of fear and guilt, and I could tell that he (although it felt more like “me” at the time) had been beaten to death by a group of men because he had raped a young girl. The words, “baci eu” were etched into my mind. A couple of days later, I had the opportunity to check a dictionary and discovered that “baci eu” meant “shepherd I”, both a clue as to the identity of the young man and a comforting indication to my ever questioning mind that the experience was something real. Even though I did not fully understand the process at that point, it was very clear to me on this occasion that I had in some way assisted a “dead” man in releasing old energies. Waldo Vieira has developed both a description and a technical approach relating to this kind of assistance. He refers to the energetic exchange that happens in such instances as a process of sympathetic assimilation and deassimilation of energies that allows one consciousness to take on and transmute the thosenic [thoughts+sentiments+energies] blockages or baggage of another. In this case, this consciousness had been holding on to his energetic body after his violent and fearful death. In practical terms, maintaining his energetic body after his physical body had been deactivated would have meant that he was in a state of highly restricted lucidity, essentially caught in the unpleasant sensations of his last life. The kind of consciousnesses people commonly perceive as “ghosts” or the ones depicted in numerous TV shows as not having entirely “passed over” are examples of people who are still holding on to the dense energetic body from their last physical lifetime. My contribution in Romania was to donate the dense semi-physical energy of my energetic body, which the extraphysical helpers used to liberate this consciousness from his now redundant energosoma, thereby allowing him to move on. For me, and no doubt for many others who practice meditation or energy techniques, this assistance happened spontaneously. I had not deliberately set out to achieve this result, nor did I even understand the process at the time. Conscientiology, however, has developed a technical process of assistance that draws on this dynamic. It is called the Personal Energetic Task, or Penta for short, and it involves a daily commitment to exteriorize energies for 50 minutes for the benefit of other consciousnesses, both intraphysical and extraphysical ones. Just as with my experience in Romania, the energetic exteriorization that occurs during Penta is not driven solely by the intention of the intraphysical practitioner. Instead, the physical person becomes part of a team of extraphysical helpers who specialize in the kind of assistance delivered through Penta, and who guide and manage the process. It is through a practice like Penta that we establish the extraphysical office I mentioned when I described some of the assistance I believe Leia was doing. Over time, our regular energetic exteriorizations will allow the helpers to create such an “office” where they can attend to ill extraphysical and projected intraphysical consciousnesses beyond the brief periods of the actual Penta sessions themselves. The intraphysical consciousness functions primarily as a channel or conductor for the subtle energies of extraphysical specialists. The dense energies carried by the physical human’s energosoma act as a conduit for the extraphysical helpers so that it can provide assistance to other intra- and extraphysical consciousnesses with dense energies. The process described above, of helping people to shed the dense energies of the energosoma after they have gone through the death of the physical body, is one of the direct applications of Penta. As I have already explained, people often instinctively hold on to these energies, largely for psychological reasons such as physical attachments or fear and ignorance about life beyond matter. In the extraphysical dimension, the energetic body is very dense and carries many of the thosenic patterns of the past life. This means that if people carry them around after deactivating their soma, they will continue to feel largely like they did while still in the physical body. In a healthy death, we will shed those energies not long after we shed the physical body and by doing so free ourselves from the restrictions of physical life. We will not be transformed into somebody completely different, but we will enjoy mental and emotional freedom beyond our common human experience, and we will be able to gain greater awareness of our true nature as a multidimensional consciousness. If we hold on to the energies, on the other hand, they will keep us emotionally and mentally stuck in the most intense experiences of our past lives. The shepherd in Romania had been in that situation. The reason I felt his emotions and perceived his memories so directly was because my energies were used to help strip him of his own so that he could move on. For more information on the Penta practice check out my other blog post here. And of course feel free to ask questions or post comments.
Most religious traditions have some version of a practice that seeks to generate positive thoughts and energies for the benefit of others. Whether it is praying for people, chanting mantras, dedicating your meditation to the enlightenment of all sentient beings or leaving offerings to the ancestors for their support, all these practices are based on the shared belief that through our intentions, our silent words, our mental focus or certain actions we can either directly benefit others through spiritual means, or invoke spiritual beings (angels, deities, saints, spirits, the Ancestors etc.) to assist people in need. Some devote their life to such practices, retreating from human society to monasteries or remote sanctuaries to spend much of their time praying or meditating for the world. How does this work? If our perspective is purely materialistic, it is easy to be cynical of these practices, or at best see them as psychological support tools. From a multidimensional perspective, we can understand that they have the potential to work, because we know that the energetic frequencies and thought patterns we generate can alter the subtle energy fields connecting all physical and extraphysical beings on this planet and can have tangible repercussions in the material world. In other words, such practices can work, because we are not separated from each other by time and space, but energetically intertwined. When these practices work best, it is because our focus and intentions make us the intraphysical part of a team composed otherwise of extraphysical consciousnesses. Even if it seems that we are simply sitting alone in a room meditating, the harmonious, “curative” energies we are generating are being used by extraphysical helpers to assist others, who may be intraphysical or extraphysical, near or far. To understand this more clearly we can look at the Personal Energetic Task (PENTA) developed in conscientiology as a technical practice of energetic and spiritual assistance. A person who practices PENTA commits to spending around one hour every day donating energies for the benefit of others. This is ideally done at a regular time in a private space. Physically the practitioner seems to be alone, but actually he or she is surrounded by extraphysical helpers, some of whom channel subtle beneficial and healing energy through the practitioner while others draw on the densified field of energy this creates to attend to physical, projected and extraphysical consciousnesses. Why do the helpers channel energies through the practitioner? The energies emanated by consciousness are on a scale, from dense to subtle depending on the level of thoughts and emotions emanated by each consciousness. Helpers, by definition, have highly developed levels of ethics and compassion and emanate powerful but subtle energies. Because it is difficult for these subtle energies to impact directly on a dense, intrusive or mentally stuck consciousness, the human contributor to PENTA serves as a kind of energetic “densifier”. Their positive assistential intention allows the helpers to connect with and channel their energy through the intraphysical contributor, who contributes the dense energies of the physical body and the energetic body. This then permits the helper's energies to make a meaningful contribution to the dense energies of ill extraphysical and physical consciousnesses who they could not otherwise reach. What kind of contribution does this make? One of the most tangible impacts this work can have, is to assist those who have not shed their energetic body after death to do so. When a person does not shed this energetic body, they remain essentially stuck close to the physical dimension (for a description of the energetic body or energosoma and its relationship to our other bodies you can read this article). This usually happens as the result of extreme attachment to physical life, and it becomes a vicious cycle, because those energies then make it harder to move on. Sometimes the PENTA practitioner may feel the sensations of a consciousness shedding their obsolete energetic body during a session, and perceive their powerful feelings of liberation and relief, and the ability to finally move ahead to a much clearer and purposeful extraphysical life. Another important contribution is the pacification of disturbed thoughts and emotions experienced by both physical and extraphysical consciousnesses, leading to greater clarity, inner harmony and thereby the ability to move ahead in life (physical or extraphysical) with positivity and optimism. Importantly, by assisting the most disturbed and stuck individuals, PENTA contributes to “clearing the multidimensional air”, reducing pathological influences from the extraphysical dimensions, and creating a channel for curative and beneficial energies to flow into this dimension. Once we understand the relationship between negative thoughts and emotions and physical illnesses and accidents we begin to understand that the contributions of practices like PENTA can be far reaching. What do we get from PENTA? PENTA is a practice to provide to others what they need, not what they want. It is not a positive affirmation practice in which we focus our energies on some desired outcome arising from our limited ego consciousness, nor are we seeking extraphysical assistance to achieve desired material gains for ourselves or others. The mindset of the PENTA practitioner is to align themselves with the most harmonious evolutionary current for all involved and trust that the helpers will act from fully aware multidimensional discernment appropriately in each given case. For example, there may be two individuals with similarly life-threatening health issues. The instinct for many would be to wish for their speedy recovery. But in fact, for one of the two the best outcome for their evolutionary journey may be coming to terms with their death and being able to leave this life in a state of peace, feeling optimistic about what is to come next. For the other, a full recovery and additional time in this life may be the ideal outcome. Most of us are not in a position to assess such nuances, but once we understand that they exist we can become more impartial in the donation of our energy, which in turn allows us to become more aligned with the helpers. Once we become established in our PENTA practice, our assistance is not confined to the 40-60 minutes of daily donation. Helpers will work with us and draw on our energy 24/7 to provide multidimensional assistance wherever we go and of course this means that we too benefit from their ongoing assistance. This planet is going to be dealing with a lot of suffering and dense energies for quite some time yet and we need all the help we can get. If you feel in any way drawn to becoming part of the multidimensional network of assistance, then PENTA may just be the practice for you. I’d encourage you to find out more about it and work out whether it suits you by having a look at Waldo Vieira’s PENTA Manual which you can download for free here. And of course feel free to ask any questions on this blog. |
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AuthorKim McCaul is an anthropologist with a long term interest in understanding consciousness and personal transformation.
About this blogThis blog is about my interests in consciousness, energy, evolution and personal growth. My understanding of consciousness is strongly influenced by the discipline of conscientiology and I have a deep interest in exploring the relationship between culture and consciousness.
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