SPIRIT SCIENCE 1 - 15 FULL MOVIE SERIES 2012

You may not 'believe' much of what you see in this series of videos, but regardless, please watch this with an open mind. Your goal is to believe it all. Truth seekers must not allow OPINIONS to halt their progress along the path to enlightenment (afterall, are they even your opinions?)... If there is something you feel uncomfortable about, then your goal should be to have a DIRECT EXPERIENCE of that thing (I'll talk about the importance of direct experience later). The absolute truth is that once you have a direct experience of a thing, your opinions about it will change. Beware, however. Hesitation in having a direct experience of a thing that makes you uncomfortable does not come from your authentic self and must be ignored.

Enjoy!

THE COSMIC GIGGLE

SHED THE ORNAMENTS! YOU'RE NOT A CHRISTMAS TREE!

What does it mean to be an individual? Does it mean we have a personality that is distinct from others? Does it mean we like or dislike things in ways other human beings don't? Does it mean we are separate from others because our 'individuality' means we're 'different' from others? Is it as important as they say to express our 'individuality'; to, in essence, show others how we differ from them? Or perhaps it's to indicate to others whose thoughts about WHO THEY ARE  (expressed as their 'individuality') might be similar to our thoughts about WHO WE ARE (expressed as our 'individuality'), which, in my humble opinion, nullifies the definition of being an individual...

So we're told we should EXPRESS ourselves as individuals. There's nothing 'wrong' with that at all. Besides, in the context of self-discovery, nothing is defined as 'wrong'. There may be habits, misunderstandings, and perceptions that we would like to alter, but to impose empty and false notions of RIGHT and WRONG or GOOD and BAD is making something out of nothing. These notions are ones that we should learn to recognize (as they come to the forefront of our minds) and simply allow to come and go without worry or attention being paid beyond encouraging them to continue along the conveyor-belt of thoughts, so-to-speak.

How do we often choose to identify ourselves as individuals in today's society? By getting a tattoo, by dressing sporty and hip or professional and conservative, by getting our nails or hair styled in a specific way, by wearing various items of jewelery or timepieces, by whitening our teeth, by getting a tan, driving a certain style of car etc.; all the decisions we make about how to project to the world, how we FEEL about and perceive ourselves as well as how we believe displaying a certain number, color, shape, and size of a particular material or combination of materials will be perceived by others.

The reasons we acquire, possess and display material objects is firstly because we can (i.e. we exist at a time and in a place and with circumstances that put us in a position whereby we have access to and are able to afford to buy X, Y or Z) and also because we CHOOSE to (no d'uh, lol). But, most importantly, it is a mechanism for our own safety and protection. In addition, in this capitalist world we live in, for advancement purposes. In many cases, the right combination of adornment can make the difference between SUCCESS and FAILURE (two more words to recognize, deflate and let go, btw). The problem is we're building a lie (or one upon another) about who we really are. This lie or series of lies then becomes our truth. We may not directly lie to others, but we've created a lie that we now believe about ourselves that, itself, becomes the lie that's told to others.

Sure, you're more successful than you might otherwise have been. So you tell yourself. Sure, it feels so good to show off the new ornament you picked up to replace the old one. Of course you 'needed' the designer brand. You 'deserve' to 'treat yourself'. Even if it's something you tell yourself you WANTED... The point is you found a way to get what you wanted and are now displaying it for all to see. Don't you see what you've created? A facade. A front. A lie... Trust me, you'll eventually get to the point you can't stand this 'self' any longer...

Now, all you want to do is to find out who is behind the curtain you've drawn across the real you, who is under the veils, who is under all the layers of LIES you've told and believe about who you really are. Year after year since innocence was lost, since you felt the only way to keep yourSELF safe in this hostile and dangerous world was to hide behind a mask that you now find impossible to remove and has now become like a walled prison.

These things do not define you, are not you and have no place in who you really are. The process begins with removing all of it. First, by removing it from your body to an out of sight location such as a storage box and then by putting it somewhere out of sight like the attic or a storage facility (that you will one day empty of it's contents and stop wasting money on). I know it will feel weird at first to walk around not adorned with your pretty stuff, but hopefully a sense of freedom will creep in as well, as if the weight of feeling like you need to project a false self is slowly being lifted. Beyond this, once you've been able to go out in public for a while and not feel judged, you might even consider giving away some of that booty to someone less fortunate.

It's this process of pairing down that will create a tremendous feeling of levity to the point that it will snowball to all areas of your life. If you can give up wearing the diamond encrusted jewels, you may end up giving up all sorts of things. Removing layer after layer of masks will soon become your habit, so what's to say removing habit after habit can't be as simple.

Personally, by the time I had really gotten underway in the destruction of my facade, not only had I removed cool sunglasses, watches worth thousands, gold rings, necklaces, earrings, and more from my body, but I proceeded to give it all away in bags that I would hand to people in passing. I gave away dozens of suits, shirts, shoes, jackets and piles of other expensive items that I threw in the trunk of my car and simply opened in less fortunate areas of town. I gave away my set of golf clubs and took a box filled with high end sports gear to a school in an underprivileged neighborhood. The giving up extended to cigarettes and alcohol, cable television and movies, sports and competition and even sex.

Now, I'm not suggesting what you might think I might be suggesting... (or am i, lol?) that the answer to all your problems is by permanently quitting everything that you enjoy, everything that defines you, everything that makes you an individual. But what I am saying is that perhaps you are under the mistaken impression that these things you have acquired (both habits and material things) have become someone you believe is who you Truly are. 

The only way to uncover that true you from the prison you've created, is by removing this false self and it's associated masks. You don't need to give up these things all at once or for any significant length of time, as in the case of habits, to feel the sheer weight lifted from not being burdened by all this stuff or these urges. The surprising thing to come from getting rid of all of it is what replaces the habits or fills up the space (in you, with you if that makes sense) that was created when everything was removed. New habits and interests will emerge as well as ways of thinking you never though possible, seeing things you never saw before, and more.

The main thing to remember is that this is all you. It's on you to do it and it's you who shall reap the rewards from what you have sewn which will extend to everything and everyone. The water may have become a bit cloudy and turbulent over the years, but our task from this point forward is to make it crystal clear and still like the surface of a mirror.

Your Homework: Without having showered and wearing no hat to cover bed-head, go to a public place wearing what you normally wear at home behind closed doors; weather it's throwing a jacket over a pair of pj's to grab milk at the store or wearing those grubby, smelly work clothes for a walk through the mall. Notice how many or how few people point and laugh at you or even care. The advanced part of this exercise involves not brushing your teeth or putting on deodorant (c'mon, smell it up right!) before going out; again noticing just how few people care what you look like or even smell like... 

PS If you care about your 'social standing' or your 'reputation' being affected by doing these exercises, then this is not the blog for you nor the right time for you to be on this particular path.

TO TRULY KNOW THYSELF IS DIVINE

What is it to know oneself? Can we truly ever know ourselves on the most deepest of levels in this hustle and bustle world? How can it be maintained? Is it possible to achieve enlightenment growing up and existing within the Matrix we inhabit? How is it possible when we are immersed in a paradigm that is seemingly the opposite of spirituality, the opposite of loving kindness and compassion. 

I would submit, my friends, that it is possible to achieve a heightened state of clarity, i.e. enlightenment within an urban environment, but that it is a fickle achievement subject to numerous pitfalls for one not fully committed to it's attainment. For, in order to maintain such a pristine state of awareness from moment to moment would require one to become a Master of focused concentration, not easily distracted by the wants and needs of this world nor swayed by the various emotions we're subject to each day.

Living in an enlightened state from moment to moment does not require one to rid oneself of naturally occurring thoughts, feelings and emotions. So from this moment forward, stop guilting yourself for feeling feelings or thinking thoughts. They are natural. It's the ACTIONS we choose to take that are destructive. The challenge for anyone from a Monk to a Manager or a Priest to a Painter is to become a Master at PACIFYING those naturally occurring processes all the time. 

I can think all I want about how I'd like to punch someone in the face, but until I actually act on it, it's simply a passing thing without substance that I can choose to bring into the material world or not. In the hands of someone with the clarity of self awareness, those thoughts, feelings and emotions are simply understood as naturally appearing and disappearing and are allowed to come and go without disturbing one's balance.

The only question one must pose oneself when deciding to embark on a journey of self-discovery is this:

Am I committed to a path that only leads in one direction?

The path of which I am referring does not involve 'quitting' anything, for how can one quit something that simply no longer has a place in one's life? It does not involve setting goals, for the path itself is the goal. It won't make you sexier or smarter or funnier and it certainly won't get you that new car, girl, guy, jewelery, house, or whatever else you've been drooling over. In fact, none of the THINGS sitting in your closet, garage, storage locker etc. that you've been accumulating for whatever reason over the years are coming on the journey. Because this journey is one of DEVOLVING, if you will. Of pairing down, of trimming the fat (literally), and of opening the window to let a little fresh air in.

If the thought that you will end up with nothing of material value in your possession with only the promise of the immaterial makes you cringe, then perhaps the time is not right to embark on such a perilous quest. As an example, a friend of mine once suggested I read a book by a well-known modern day spiritual guru to many, Eckhart Tolle. Although I've now read many of his writings, at first glance, even the word 'God' caused me to close the book immediately. I just wasn't ready for years after that...

One must first come to understand that in order for people to define something indefinable, a word must be used so that all are in agreement based on how each of us defines the feeling we get when we say it or think it. A feeling is like a relationship. None but the subject can truly define how something invisible and intangible affects them. So the WORD God is also, in and of itself, indefinable by none but the definer. IT is simply an idea, an allegory, a metaphor or what-have-you. (Maybe we should change God's name every once in a while so people don't become attached to it...) Anyhow, the specifics of that word will be discussed more another time. 

Okay, so... Ask yourself if you're ready. Nobody needs to know but you... If you are, then let's proceed, shall we?

First things first. Let me ask you this. How do you feel about God? Don't tell me. I know your first impulse was to tell me in words how you feel, but don't tell me. Don't even direct your answer at me. I asked you how you feel about God, not to tell me how you feel about God. So take a moment...take two, in fact, and really think about...oops sorry, my mistake...take a moment or two to really FEEL how you feel about God.... Wanna know a secret? That's your connection to God... And that's all you need to know, oops...feel.

Bruce Lee said it best in one of his films, "Don't think, feeeel."

Your homework assignment: Leave your phone at home and go for a walk alone to a safe place. Sit and listen to as many different sounds as you can without adding any judgement to them. Even if you hear a sound that would normally cause a reaction i.e. loud motorcycles, construction, vocal babies etc., try practicing observing things in their basics rather than with added emotion and judgement. 

For an added boost to this exercise, try switching to a focus on your breathing (don't worry, we're not getting into breathing exercises...yet ;0) and notice what different sounds you hear or how many sounds you now become aware of. 

Oh, and although it might sound silly suggesting closing your eyes is advanced, but you'd be surprised how difficult it can be to try sitting in a public park or city street with your eyes closed for any length of time without feeling like you'll be robbed. A very uneasy feeling comes over us in a very short period of time that both prevents us from relaxing and closing our eyes for too long. This might seem minor, but know that any resistance to this process must be looked at from this point forward as ego based. When they refer to interacting with the drug and not the person in cases of addiction, this is that situation when it comes to uncovering your true self. The child who wants it's blankie is what restricts your spiritual emergence. 

ACCEPT there is resistance to change that comes from a part of us we can't explain and move on... I really dislike corporations for stealing great sayings, but it's so true. The only way for you to make change is to just do it. Btw, I didn't mention the corporation on purpose and didn't cap their slogan, but if you instantly knew who I was referring to and saw a logo in your mind's eye (you know, that place in our head where we see the mind movies), then you've come to the right place... 

See you next time.

THE SYMPTOMS OF SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

If you've experienced these symptoms as a result of a spiritual awakening this video will ring with truth. If you haven't experienced this yet, keep creating the circumstances for your own awakening, embrace these symptoms and allow the change to happen. As I've mentioned before, what follows your Satori is a number of complete changes, some feel good, some bad, some confusing, very confusing such as experiencing flashes of light and movement, psychic awareness, numeric alignment and repetition such as seeing 11, 111, 1111 (like myself) or other numerical patterns on a regular basis and the like.

There will be significant upheaval in your life following such an awakening, so prepare yourself for a decrease in the number friends and family that stand by the new enlightened you. You'll come to understand it. 

Prepare yourself for the signs described in the video below. As with anything, these stages will pass and lead to a new level of understanding. You will feel so happy, you will feel so sad. You will feel so flat and depressed, you will feel nihilistic (as if nothing matters anymore) and you will consider suicide. Don't give up. Once that passes, you will once again gain a new level of spiritual understanding. 

Remember, the awakening is you coming out of the depths like hitting the top of the roller-coaster from below. You can see everything for miles, but the ride is just beginning. There will be twists and turns, highs and lows from here, but once it's over you'll be so thankful for having gone through it. Please enjoy the video:

GIVING IT ALL AWAY

"The true philosopher, the student of the Esoteric Wisdom, entirely loses sight of personalities, dogmatic beliefs and special religions. Moreover, Esoteric philosophy reconciles all religions, strips every one of its outward, human garments, and shows the root of each to be identical with that of every other great religion." - Madame Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, 1888

In a follow-up to my post about American Nomads I thought I'd post a link to this movie. It's called 'Into the Wild'. It came out in 2007 and was directed by Sean Penn. It's based on the true story of a young man who decided to leave it all behind and eventually found his way to Alaska. Great movie!

When I first began to see the world with fresh eyes, it was (and continues to a lesser extent now 4 yrs later) an awesome time in my life. I don't know how else to say it. For a good two years afterward, I felt that each time I walked out the door, I was struck with a sense of awe and wonder at what I saw. Colors, lots of colors. That's the first thing I saw and still do. Plants, flowers, animals, people. Not people watching in the 'Starbucks' sense, but seeing people for the spirit an intention that drives them. I could see to the core of what drives us with unimaginable clarity. Just like when you turn the heater on in your car and slowly watch the frost melt away from the windshield to the point that you can clearly see and understand there's a depth in the world you had never seen.

Along with a blinding clarity and an understanding of things I previously could not even comprehend came a list of numerous changes that suddenly occurred. One of those changes was an increase in energy and recovery time. I felt like the source of the energy of the entire universe was coming from my center. I'll talk about how that has continued to effect my life later, including losing 40 pounds to the most stable my weight has ever been. 

I wanted, however, to first say that the change I talk about was not a new sense of WILL POWER; it wasn't creating a new 'game-plan' for my life or 'motivating' myself or finding a new diet plan. It was a new understanding, a new way of thinking and perceiving the world. As a result, different circumstances were naturally produced from the thoughts in my head. 

It also meant that what I had been addicted to because of my previous way of thinking (which attracted those circumstances to support that world) no longer had the same hold on me. Whatever addictions I had, whatever habits I couldn't control, I now saw deflated like the air leaving a balloon. None of those addictions had any power over me any longer. NONE OF THEM. Addictions to salt and sugar, to fast food, to alcohol, to cigarettes, to sex, to power and control, to 'things' like cars and clothing, jewelery, watches, colognes, sunglasses, etc., etc. In short, I became every marketing and advertising firm's biggest nightmare...

My new intention, my newly rediscovered connection with the true will of the universal creative force was no longer connected to the circumstances needed to support life in the matrix. At the very moment of awakening, I was literally bombarded with images of Neo from 'The Matrix' when he sits up in the incubation pod and looks around. Every moment of that scene played in my head over and over in a loop combined with an overwhelming sense of growing relief as if I had been given a reprieve from execution as I was being led to the gallows.

Suddenly and all the trappings of the type-A life I had been immersed in fell away or were easily overcome. I looked at my former self like someone I used to know. Like an ex-husband or wife. You understand they weren't good for you at a particular time in your development, (but served a purpose for that time none-the-less) and you know that even though they are still out there somewhere, they no longer server that purpose and no longer have a hold over you. You understand now.

Unfortunately, at the same time I was hit with a feeling I never truly felt before and it bothered me to the point of tears. Of course, now that I was in touch with the source of all my feelings and emotions, a leaf falling from a tree made me cry, but this was particularly hard to see for the first time ever at 42. 

I had always professed to being a compassionate person, a nice guy. But now that my eyes were open, I suddenly saw what I had never seen before. I'm not just talking about the suffering of homeless, abused children, starving and oppressed, but the suffering of us all. It suddenly became clear to me that we are ALL the source of our ills. To suddenly understand that WE are the crazy influence that begets all that follows in this world is a sobering realization, but definitely one circumstance that is inherent in the world of the awakened. 

Don't worry, my friend, if you'd like me to let you know where you are on the compassion meter, let me say this. Regardless of how compassionate you may 'feel', toward something or someone, unless you act immediately on those impulses and without self-awareness, you've still got a ways to go. The good news is this is what our spiritual practice is for. The better news is that acting immediately on compassionate impulses is one of the circumstances inherent in the world of the enlightened. So if it doesn't come to you as a result of a spiritual awakening, you can certainly practice it which will eventually lead you to the light inside.

Once I perceived my earthly experience differently, my primary impulse for a while was to rid myself of all the 'stuff' I had accumulated in my lifelong shopping spree that had resulted not only in my living space being crammed with useless junk, but a full storage locker of crap that I dragged around with me everywhere I moved. 

I began to give things away at a rapid rate, $500 watches, boxes of accessories, boxes of sporting equipment that I donated to schools in depressed areas of the city, clothing to shelters, friends, and acquaintances. I used to drive around with my car full of crap and open the back to allow street people to rummage through my leather jackets, shoes and boots, hats, gloves, blankets, sleeping bags and so much more that I was keeping to myself while others suffered. 

I looked into the eyes of people I'd previously ignored, I touched the people I was led to believe were 'untouchables' with a clear understanding of their existence and our connection to each other. The divisions I had placed between myself and everything/everyone were now gone just like the walls I had placed between myself and the creator. What was now seen could not be unseen.

Four years later, I'm clearly aware of the impulses in this world that trigger responses; the causes that produce certain effects so-to-speak. When we live without the circumstances of the former world controlling us, we are able to clearly see when one of those impulses arises. We are now able to see the forest for the trees and we can immediately pacify the impulse before it has a chance to get a foot-hold and become a habit/addiction. It simply goes back to being the thing it was before we gave it meaning.

I would recommend to anyone on a spiritual journey, whether or not you're currently living an awakened existence, to make an inventory of the 'things' you've accumulated and either drag around wherever you go or seldom see (if ever) while you pay for a storage facility.

You don't have to give it all away, my friend, but perhaps consider lightening the load of the things you tell yourself you need in your life...

REALITY MINING

Collecting and analyzing your cell phone GPS data may take on a whole new purpose in our lives very shortly. Imagine having a God's Eye View of the world, much like Google Earth, street level maps etc., but being able to see where you've been throughout your days. Not only will it track your movement, but would analyze levels of activity, where you've been in relation to others, what your likelihood of stress, disease and other lifestyle issues based on where you go and what you do. Think of it like tracking your heart rate, but now being able to see so many more things, even the things we're so brainwashed to do, we're unaware of it. 

Imagine seeing right in front of you a map of your movements in relation to others; seeing the habitual patterns we've become so used to we don't even consider what it's doing to you. By analyzing your data in relation to others, you'll be able to see your likelihood of having an accident based on your movements through high accident zones, your likelihood of getting heart disease based on where you go and your particular patterns in relation to others who have the same habitual patterns. Forget tracking your caloric intake. This will track your walking vs. driving, the amount of energy expended based on tracked speed, elevation etc. and make recommendations to you on how you can make changes to your lifestyle to avoid or reduce your percentage of self harm, at the same time increasing your chances of running into that elusive business contact. It will track how often you eat out, where you eat out including the kind of food served at the restaurants you visited and give you a picture of the person you are health-wise and socially.

Having said that, is this really the way to find out who you are? Do we need cell phones, internet, electronics etc. to do our thinking for us? Or is it possible to do our own reality mining in the moment when a choice is presented to us? Are we complicating something that is actually best in a simplistic form? Are we making a mountain out of a mole-hill? Perhaps in an ever-increasing world of electronic gadgets, the only way to find out who we really are and what our chances of getting hurt or dying are is to rely on that technology or at least use it in conjunction with our brains. I'm not completely sold, especially now that I see the world with fresh eyes. Of course I never thought I would see Monks with cell phones and iPads or clergy wringing their hands like a teenage girl at getting a smoking deal on a tablet on eBay. One's religious experience is not the same when the priest's cell phone goes off during Sunday mass.

But I NEED my cell phone! It's my life! Without it I'd be lost!... There's your answer, my friend. You're an addict. But, what if there's an EMERGENCY!... There's your answer as well my fearful, brainwashed companion. But WHAT IF, WHAT IF, WHAT IF!... If the thought of something not being available to you creates a sense of panic in you, then there's your answer my friend. And all you needed to do was slow down long enough to allow the answer that's right inside of you to materialize. We'll touch on the voice (or voices) inside another time...

Any question you ask yourself with focus and sincerity will be answered by some part of you. You ask yourself questions all the time in fact. Should you keep wearing the same clothing until it wears out instead of continually feeding a desire to be something and look some way, should you choose to see the homeless person or keep walking, should you choose to be a positive influence in this world or keep taking and taking, should you continue to spend $5 a day on special coffee brewed by a coffee 'expert'... the list goes on. 

Our lives are the way they are because of the choices we make in every moment and the thoughts we think. Why does this happen to me!? We shake our fists in the air. The answer is simple. You made it happen. Why is this life so hard!? Again, simple. You made it hard. The real hard part is first slowing down and paying attention to something other than you in order to see it, in order to be available when the answer to your question comes, then acting on it as long as it's good for you and others. Right now, it's mostly good for you at the expense of others. The next most difficult part is to tell the TRUTH to yourself and others. Obviously, that's not working for you since you've been led here (led by whom?). We'll talk more about these crucial steps, SLOWING DOWN and TELLING THE TRUTH in laying the foundation of awakening in future posts. 

The purpose of this post is to ask you to consider the extent to which you may be controlled by your dependency on your electronics (tv, internet, cell phone etc.) and everything that goes with them as well as who's doing the controlling. What do I mean by everything that goes with them? This is the first opportunity to tell the truth, to actually take the time to avoid the excuses of what you NEED to happily exist in this world and to act on it in order for the circumstances of real change to occur. I'm sure any of us can create a long list of reasons why we NEED one thing or another in order for us to be able to function. But at what point do these little 'conveniences' start to have a negative impact on us (the definition of negative being something that takes us away from lasting joy and a connection to the Light Inside)? So once the list is made, then we can begin to start paring down those unnecessary things from our lives. Simplifying or as I like to call it, DEVOLVING.

So perhaps it's time to start your own reality mining; to start paying attention to your own habitual patterns; the things you tell yourself you need to be happy, the things you need to support the other things you've piled onto this mortal experience. You're the only one who can honestly analyze the choices you make and the way you perceive the experiences you have in each moment.

May the right circumstances always be present for joy to emerge...

GIVING IT ALL UP

Above is a clip from a BBC4 documentary called 'American Nomads'. It's about all the folks who have given it all up to live life on the open road. Whether it's the retired, the affluent, the poor, abused, the enlightened, anarchists, gutter punks, old, young, sane or crazy (we'll touch on labels later). This is the perfect example of the melting pot of who we are as a whole. Whether you're riding the rails or in a modern day RV wagon-train, all these people have decided to give it all up. No bills, no commitments, no responsibilities. Under nobody's control, but their own. Above is just a short clip, but I would more than recommend checking out the entire show. There are more than 1 million people out there who have decided to go off-grid and are much happier as a result. Would you be?

One of the first urges one has when their eyes have been opened is to leave it all behind. Obviously, based on the above documentary, many have already done so. But it's not just the one's who have all their ducks in a row so-to-speak. Living without a home, car, stuff, financial or other responsibilities may seem like a dream, especially when the show you're watching is set in a gloriously sunny locale and many of the folks out there seem to have found the same joy we see on the faces of tribes who've been untouched by our society's ills. But this documentary also shows the abused, downtrodden, and addicted are literally fighting for their survival out there.

Now that you see the world differently should you give it all up? Should you leave it all behind and take to the highways and byways? Sure, why not. But don't ever come back. Why? Because everything you've left behind will still be waiting for you when you return. I'm not just talking about things either. The very circumstances that trigger the automatic responses in you remain as well, waiting to be called to the surface. 

You can surround yourself with all the circumstances in the world that trigger a calm, peaceful response in you, but without dealing with the underlying source of anger, jealousy, hatred, etc., the automatic responses to those circumstances will still be triggered. Just like the circumstances necessary for the flame to materialize, when those circumstances are present they naturally produce the flame. The flame is still here, but may not yet have the circumstances in place to allow it to materialize. Neither does anger in a place where the circumstances that trigger anger don't exist.

The point is we must first deal with the underlying cause of the effect of anger, jealousy, etc. before we can think about 'leaving it all behind.' So if all those negative emotions are still here just waiting to resurface upon our return from living in a cave in India, then what hope do we have to rid ourselves of them? None my friend, none... Say what mofo!? Doesn't enlightenment mean being free from the bonds of negative emotions and actions? Kind-of. It means being free of the influence those inherent emotions have over us to make us unconscious. Yep, unfortunately you still need to live with them. But now that you've experienced this new-found clarity, you are more aware those emotions exist and have power over you. 

You now have the opportunity through clarity to see the triggers and understand they cause an automatic response. You can now learn through practice (hence, the term spiritual practice) to PACIFY them as they arise. Just like earning a black-belt in martial arts helped give me the clarity to understand the journey was just beginning, an enlightening moment is a window into what can be a lasting way of being. Just don't muck up this opportunity by burying part of yourself alive until you dig it up at some later date. 

Besides, there's no reason you can't walk out the front door on a Friday with a backpack of supplies and find somewhere to camp alone for the weekend... In fact, I have friends in their 30's who spend half the year in a converted bus on the beach in Florida and half the year in the big city and are perfectly happy. No one but you says your life needs to be a certain way. You are the creator of this experience. You are the ultimate cause of the effects of your life. The balance is your to maintain.

Every Journey of a Thousand Miles begins with a First Step - Lao Tzu, The Tao.

EMBRACE THE STAGES LEADING TO LASTING JOY

When I was a kid I was fascinated by the martial arts. Plus, I grew up in the era of Chuck Norris, Arnold, and Jean Claude. Bruce Lee was still alive and I had the poster of him in the yellow jumpsuit with the double nunchucks from 'Enter the Dragon'. Dojo's everywhere were full to the brim and the movie of the day was the first 'Karate Kid'. I read a book called 'Wisdom from the Ninja Village' (or something close to that) by a Westerner who went to live in the mountains and became a ninja. For some reason I had never associated the violent side of things like Ninjas. When you're a kid violence and death is just a part of the game. We would run around the woods near my childhood home, swinging from the branches, running through the bushes hunting each other, yelling, "Bang, bang! I got you!" "No, I saw you first! Timeout! No fair!" Even when you're a kid taking martial arts classes, they're not associated with hurting or killing. It's like playtime. Running, jumping, rolling, cartwheels, punching the air and yelling, "Keeeyaapp!" The goal of teaching children martial arts is to introduce the idea of self-discipline and structure in a fun way, combined with core principles such as fairness, kindness and good will. One seldom knows from the start that the ultimate goal of every martial art is a connection with the self and one's place in nature...essentially, the search for enlightenment and non-violence (inwardly or outwardly).

Since I was a child, my main goal had been getting my black belt. I spend countless hours working toward that goal (years in fact). The understanding that martial arts is also associated with violence and death grew as I got older and I embraced my board-breaking, weapon-wielding, fists of fury. I had mastered the double nunchucks I had seen in the Bruce Lee movies, I could do the splits, I could do the flips, I was even attacked by three guys once and defended myself in a combination of moves Bruce, Jean-Claude, and Chuck would have been proud of. 

So after all those years of blood, sweat and tears I finally got my black belt. After all those years of training to achieve what I thought was the pinnacle of those efforts, what did I realize with my shiny black belt in hand? I realized I was still essentially the same person. I wasn't fending off bad guys coming from all sides, tough-guys weren't running away from me at a glance, and women weren't swooning at my feet. It was kind of a let-down. What it did, however, was make me realize the goal I had set was a false marker. Because once I got there, like a mirage on the desert floor, it was gone.

It's kind of like that with a spiritual journey. You set your goal of living a spiritual life. You go to the gym, oops, I mean your place of worship, on a regular basis (of course, going to the gym is in no way related to going to church). You perfect your skills at defending your spirit from evil intentions, you practice the art of 'Goodness and Light' in order to banish the darkness. Some even tell you that you need to kill your ego or at least engage in a form of divine battle to save your soul. If all the circumstances are in place you will achieve the first step (beyond the initial decision to embark on the journey in the first place). This is a moment of supreme clarity. It's a blindingly joyful experience. You don't need anyone to tell you what it is. You'll know it when it comes my friend. In Japanese it's referred to as Satori. Here's the Wiki definition of Satori:

Satori (悟り^?) (Chinese: 悟; pinyin: wù; Korean 오; Vietnamese ngộ) is a Japanese Buddhist term for enlightenment that literally means "understanding". In the Zen Buddhist tradition, satori refers to a flash of sudden awareness, or individual enlightenment, and is considered a "first step" or embarkation toward nirvana. Satori is typically juxtaposed with the related term kensho, which translates as "seeing one's nature". Kensho experiences tend to be briefer glimpses, while satori is considered to be a deeper spiritual experience.

My own 'Satori' occurred almost seven years from the moment I decided to embark on a spiritual path and a year after I pulled the plug on my father and watched him die in front of me (making death very real for the first time). Once I hit that moment in time; after all the blood sweat and tears (sound familiar?) I thought, "This is it! I've arrived!" That was close to four years ago... 

When I look back at the video I posted of Jim Carrey, I can see the same thing. He's experienced a sudden and unexpected flash of understanding. The dark clouds momentarily parted allowing a glimpse into the blinding light of clarity. The good news is your life will never be the same again...the bad news is your life will never be the same again. Now here's where a choice MUST be made as you see the house of cards you've worked so hard to build slowly start to crumble. All the lies you told to yourself and others, all the family and friends who begin to label you as a nut, seeing the veil of lies and manipulation that's been perpetrated against you by you, seeing the path of destruction you've left behind in your selfish wake all those years before come flooding back to you. You're now face to face with something very real in your fantasy world. Listen to what Jim says as he appears stunned by his new-found revelations. He describes discovering something monumental adding that since that moment he's been desperately trying to get back to it. That's perfectly normal. So is placing all your faith in a guru whom you mistakenly think can lead you back to whatever it was and make it stick this time. What? Now that you're 'ready' you can handle the big secret? Okay, here it is...you should sit... The big secret is there is no secret...

Like any major achievement, black-belt or spiritual there are different stages involved. Each stage must be celebrated, accepted and understood. The decision to embark on the journey, the satori moment, the pious times, the guru search, discovering the guru in you, learning to understand and pacify the ego, the search for the like-minded, coming to terms with the real world vs. the REAL world, seeking out and accepting the path others have taken (whatever their faith), among other stages. Each one has it's own set of circumstances that you need to come to an understanding of before you can move on.

Even Eckhart Tolle in his book 'The Power of Now' talks about spending 10 years after his moment of realization sitting on park benches wrestling with the stages that followed his moment of clarity. Speaking of which, that book is on my all-time favorites list and I would highly recommend it. Just don't make Mr. Tolle your guru. Remember, he's simply one of those signposts along your path. Think of him as one of those people who hands you water from the side of the road in a marathon.

I'm going to say this once. Spirituality, the spiritual path, the search for enlightenment, your quest to find the light within etc. is FREE!! You should NEVER, NEVER, NEVER pay anyone to guide you in this quest and they should never, EVER accept a monetary reward for doing their duty. Shame on them all...

Also, one of the stages you'll go through is expressing your new-found way to the world. If you are moved by the Buddha and his own journey, that doesn't mean filling your mansion with Buddhist artwork or adorning yourself with crystal prayer beads, exotic jewels and clothing. It means you've discovered the timeless connection you share with countless others over many eons who have sought the same destination and walked the path before you... both living and dead my friend, both the living and the dead. And if you want to get back home, you need to get there in the most simple, silent, and peaceful way...alone. Don't be afraid my friend. They're all still here with you...all-ways and forever.

Oddly enough, one of the first things that popped into my head upon the moment of my own paradigm shift, was the movie 'The Matrix' (the first one). Make no mistake. It is the story of enlightenment. You could say it's a blueprint for what this life is. It's also combined with one of the stages I wrote about earlier following Satori. That is the absolute clear understanding of having been lied to, manipulated, and brainwashed your whole life and the firm knowledge that remaining in that world goes against the specific set of circumstances needed to keep from getting sucked back into that life, (but now under the guise of leading a life connected to the light inside). Are you Neo who takes the Red Pill or the character of Cypher who wants to remain in the Matrix with no memory of the real world? Fortunately, in this case, there is no going back once you've had a glimpse of the light inside. You can't have your cake and eat it too so please don't be a hypocrite. It's the greatest lie you can tell now that you know the truth.

Seek the light, but understand and accept the stages that follow.

POWERFUL SPEECHES

I've attached a few speeches below that I've found on the tube. I was affected by them.Was I permanently changed as a result of watching them? Perhaps, but what they did do was remind me of the purpose and intention of my journey. It reminded my spirit and kept me on course. For anything that taps into your emotions is tapping into your spirit. The constant reminder of the spiritual life and one's commitment to living a joyful existence is, in my opinion, the single most important choice a person can make from moment to moment.

When I embraced the type-A lifestyle, I surrounded myself with reminders of that life. I kept that intention alive perfectly well and had certainly gotten good at justifying the choices I made that kept that life going. I was an expert at cultivating that life by filling it with whatever perpetuated it. All my party people on speed-dial including the dealer, going to the big games to see and be seen, hanging at the bar till all hours, MMA fan, owned two guns, paranoid of the other guys including the 'terrorists', coffee and energy drinks, high fat, high sugar, high salt diet, fast food, fast woman, fast cars. Even seeing one of those supercars (you know, one of those 2 million dollar ones the playas own) would elicit a flood of emotions, excitement, jealousy, inadequacy...I wanted one and might have given a limb for one if given the choice.

The point is we all have a choice. Let me be more specific. In every moment we have an opportunity to steer our lives in one direction or another by the choices we make. We can choose to remind ourselves that we're creating good in every moment and surround ourselves with nothing but good and emitting nothing but good from within ourselves to every thing out there. Or not. The choice is yours. 

So please watch these videos and if they light a spark of feeling differently than you're used to, maybe choose to go with it, and then choose to go with it more, and remind yourself some more, and before you know it, it's who you are.


THE GREATEST SPEECH EVER MADE - Charlie Chaplin

THE GIRL WHO SILENCED THE WORLD FOR 5 MINUTES

SPEECH FROM THE MOVIE 'NETWORK' AS SEEN IN THE MOVIE 'ZEITGEIST'

THE SHIFTED PARADIGM

I once read a story in a John Grey book (the guy who wrote the Mars/Venus series of books) that illustrated the paradigm shift. He wrote of a man on a train who was trying to get home after a long, hard day at the office. On the train with him was a man with three children. The businessman was sitting across from the man who was doing nothing while his children were jumping on the seats, running around the train, laughing and playing. All the businessman wanted was to take a quiet train home to his family after his stressful workday. The man across from him, however, was doing nothing to stop his children from creating a disturbance. The businessman finally had enough after biting his tongue for too long. Angry, he leaned over to the man and said, "Hey buddy, can you control your kids? They're bothering everyone on the train." The man looked up at him in a daze and said, "I'm so sorry, we just came from the hospital. Their mother just passed away. I was wondering how to tell them and didn't want to ruin their playful mood." In an instant, the businessman's demeanor changed. His selfish, angry thoughts and feelings shifted in an instant to focus on another. He literally saw the world differently in that moment.

Enlightenment is simply seeing the world differently. I suppose that's easy to say. Like telling a lifetime smoker to just 'Butt-Out', but that's the best way to see things in my opinion...in the simplest way possible. In fact, there are many stories of people who've simply quit smoking too. They've become enlightened in the world of smokers in which they once lived. Their child or other loved one said something that triggered the shift, they had a health scare that made them think there was a different way to live life, they lost a loved one from smoking related causes...etc., etc.

Anyone at anytime can undergo a paradigm shift. That doesn't necessarily mean it will last however. You can pop your head out of the water to take a breath while drowning, but if you can't swim, you're still a goner. Everything exists as a result of a specific set of circumstances. Without all the elements in place, a thing would not exist. Does a flame light without the exact elements and circumstances in place for it to do so? A paradigm shift is a spark. For lasting joy to occur, other elements need to be in place too.

Since my own shift, my own massive breath of air that saved me from drowning, I have sought out others who have experienced a sudden and unexpected change in the way they see reality. It's my sincere hope that we all continue to cultivate these newly sewn seeds of love, compassion and understanding. Here's a video of one such shift in someone you may recognize:

IS THIS ALL ONE BIG HOLOGRAM?

The Universe as a Hologram
Author unknown
Does Objective Reality Exist, or is the Universe a Phantasm?

In 1982 a remarkable event took place. At the University of Paris a research team led by physicist Alain Aspect performed what may turn out to be one of the most important experiments of the 20th century. You did not hear about it on the evening news. In fact, unless you are in the habit of reading scientific journals you probably have never even heard Aspect's name, though there are some who believe his discovery may change the face of science.

Aspect and his team discovered that under certain circumstances subatomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them. It doesn't matter whether they are 10 feet or 10 billion miles apart.

Somehow each particle always seems to know what the other is doing. The problem with this feat is that it violates Einstein's long-held tenet that no communication can travel faster than the speed of light. Since traveling faster than the speed of light is tantamount to breaking the time barrier, this daunting prospect has caused some physicists to try to come up with elaborate ways to explain away Aspect's findings. But it has inspired others to offer even more radical explanations.

University of London physicist David Bohm, for example, believes Aspect's findings imply that objective reality does not exist, that despite its apparent solidity the universe is at heart a phantasm, a gigantic and splendidly detailed hologram.

To understand why Bohm makes this startling assertion, one must first understand a little about holograms. A hologram is a three- dimensional photograph made with the aid of a laser. To make a hologram, the object to be photographed is first bathed in the light of a laser beam. Then a second laser beam is bounced off the reflected light of the first and the resulting interference pattern (the area where the two laser beams commingle) is captured on film. When the film is developed, it looks like a meaningless swirl of light and dark lines. But as soon as the developed film is illuminated by another laser beam, a three-dimensional image of the original object appears. The three-dimensionality of such images is not the only remarkable characteristic of holograms. If a hologram of a rose is cut in half and then illuminated by a laser, each half will still be found to contain the entire image of the rose. Indeed, even if the halves are divided again, each snippet of film will always be found to contain a smaller but intact version of the original image. Unlike normal photographs, every part of a hologram contains all the information possessed by the whole. The "whole in every part" nature of a hologram provides us with an entirely new way of understanding organization and order. For most of its history, Western science has labored under the bias that the best way to understand a physical phenomenon, whether a frog or an atom, is to dissect it and study its respective parts.

A hologram teaches us that some things in the universe may not lend themselves to this approach. If we try to take apart something constructed holographically, we will not get the pieces of which it is made, we will only get smaller wholes. This insight suggested to Bohm another way of understanding Aspect's discovery. Bohm believes the reason subatomic particles are able to remain in contact with one another regardless of the distance separating them is not because they are sending some sort of mysterious signal back and forth, but because their separateness is an illusion. He argues that at some deeper level of reality such particles are not individual entities, but are actually extensions of the same fundamental something.

To enable people to better visualize what he means, Bohm offers the following illustration. Imagine an aquarium containing a fish. Imagine also that you are unable to see the aquarium directly and your knowledge about it and what it contains comes from two television cameras, one directed at the aquarium's front and the other directed at its side. As you stare at the two television monitors, you might assume that the fish on each of the screens are separate entities. After all, because the cameras are set at different angles, each of the images will be slightly different. But as you continue to watch the two fish, you will eventually become aware that there is a certain relationship between them. When one turns, the other also makes a slightly different but corresponding turn; when one faces the front, the other always faces toward the side. If you remain unaware of the full scope of the situation, you might even conclude that the fish must be instantaneously communicating with one another, but this is clearly not the case.

This, says Bohm, is precisely what is going on between the subatomic particles in Aspect's experiment. According to Bohm, the apparent faster-than-light connection between subatomic particles is really telling us that there is a deeper level of reality we are not privy to, a more complex dimension beyond our own that is analogous to the aquarium. And, he adds, we view objects such as subatomic particles as separate from one another because we are seeing only a portion of their reality.

Such particles are not separate "parts", but facets of a deeper and more underlying unity that is ultimately as holographic and indivisible as the previously mentioned rose. And since everything in physical reality is comprised of these "eidolons", the universe is itself a projection, a hologram.

In addition to its phantomlike nature, such a universe would possess other rather startling features. If the apparent separateness of subatomic particles is illusory, it means that at a deeper level of reality all things in the universe are infinitely interconnected. The electrons in a carbon atom in the human brain are connected to the subatomic particles that comprise every salmon that swims, every heart that beats, and every star that shimmers in the sky. Everything interpenetrates everything, and although human nature may seek to categorize and pigeonhole and subdivide, the various phenomena of the universe, all apportionments are of necessity artificial and all of nature is ultimately a seamless web.

In a holographic universe, even time and space could no longer be viewed as fundamentals. Because concepts such as location break down in a universe in which nothing is truly separate from anything else, time and three-dimensional space, like the images of the fish on the TV monitors, would also have to be viewed as projections of this deeper order. At its deeper level reality is a sort of superhologram in which the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously. This suggests that given the proper tools it might even be possible to someday reach into the superholographic level of reality and pluck out scenes from the long-forgotten past. What else the superhologram contains is an open-ended question. Allowing, for the sake of argument, that the superhologram is the matrix that has given birth to everything in our universe, at the very least it contains every subatomic particle that has been or will be -- every configuration of matter and energy that is possible, from snowflakes to quasars, from blue whales to gamma rays. It must be seen as a sort of cosmic storehouse of "All That Is."

Although Bohm concedes that we have no way of knowing what else might lie hidden in the superhologram, he does venture to say that we have no reason to assume it does not contain more. Or as he puts it, perhaps the superholographic level of reality is a "mere stage" beyond which lies "an infinity of further development". Bohm is not the only researcher who has found evidence that the universe is a hologram. Working independently in the field of brain research, Standford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram has also become persuaded of the holographic nature of reality.

Pribram was drawn to the holographic model by the puzzle of how and where memories are stored in the brain. For decades numerous studies have shown that rather than being confined to a specific location, memories are dispersed throughout the brain.

In a series of landmark experiments in the 1920s, brain scientist Karl Lashley found that no matter what portion of a rat's brain he removed he was unable to eradicate its memory of how to perform complex tasks it had learned prior to surgery. The only problem was that no one was able to come up with a mechanism that might explain this curious "whole in every part" nature of memory storage. Then in the 1960s Pribram encountered the concept of holography and realized he had found the explanation brain scientists had been looking for. Pribram believes memories are encoded not in neurons, or small groupings of neurons, but in patterns of nerve impulses that crisscross the entire brain in the same way that patterns of laser light interference crisscross the entire area of a piece of film containing a holographic image. In other words, Pribram believes the brain is itself a hologram. Pribram's theory also explains how the human brain can store so many memories in so little space. It has been estimated that the human brain has the capacity to memorize something on the order of 10 billion bits of information during the average human lifetime (or roughly the same amount of information contained in five sets of the Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Similarly, it has been discovered that in addition to their other capabilities, holograms possess an astounding capacity for information storage--simply by changing the angle at which the two lasers strike a piece of photographic film, it is possible to record many different images on the same surface. It has been demonstrated that one cubic centimeter of film can hold as many as 10 billion bits of information. Our uncanny ability to quickly retrieve whatever information we need from the enormous store of our memories becomes more understandable if the brain functions according to holographic principles. If a friend asks you to tell him what comes to mind when he says the word "zebra", you do not have to clumsily sort back through some gigantic and cerebral alphabetic file to arrive at an answer. Instead, associations like "striped", "horselike", and "animal native to Africa" all pop into your head instantly. Indeed, one of the most amazing things about the human thinking process is that every piece of information seems instantly cross- correlated with every other piece of information--another feature intrinsic to the hologram. Because every portion of a hologram is infinitely interconnected with every other portion, it is perhaps nature's supreme example of a cross-correlated system.

 

The storage of memory is not the only neurophysiological puzzle that becomes more tractable in light of Pribram's holographic model of the brain. Another is how the brain is able to translate the avalanche of frequencies it receives via the senses (light frequencies, sound frequencies, and so on) into the concrete world of our perceptions. Encoding and decoding frequencies is precisely what a hologram does best. Just as a hologram functions as a sort of lens, a translating device able to convert an apparently meaningless blur of frequencies into a coherent image, Pribram believes the brain also comprises a lens and uses holographic principles to mathematically convert the frequencies it receives through the senses into the inner world of our perceptions. An impressive body of evidence suggests that the brain uses holographic principles to perform its operations. Pribram's theory, in fact, has gained increasing support among neurophysiologists.

Argentinian-Italian researcher Hugo Zucarelli recently extended the holographic model into the world of acoustic phenomena. Puzzled by the fact that humans can locate the source of sounds without moving their heads, even if they only possess hearing in one ear, Zucarelli discovered that holographic principles can explain this ability. Zucarelli has also developed the technology of holophonic sound, a recording technique able to reproduce acoustic situations with an almost uncanny realism.

Pribram's belief that our brains mathematically construct "hard" reality by relying on input from a frequency domain has also received a good deal of experimental support. It has been found that each of our senses is sensitive to a much broader range of frequencies than was previously suspected. Researchers have discovered, for instance, that our visual systems are sensitive to sound frequencies, that our sense of smell is in part dependent on what are now called "osmic frequencies", and that even the cells in our bodies are sensitive to a broad range of frequencies. Such findings suggest that it is only in the holographic domain of consciousness that such frequencies are sorted out and divided up into conventional perceptions. But the most mind-boggling aspect of Pribram's holographic model of the brain is what happens when it is put together with Bohm's theory. For if the concreteness of the world is but a secondary reality and what is "there" is actually a holographic blur of frequencies, and if the brain is also a hologram and only selects some of the frequencies out of this blur and mathematically transforms them into sensory perceptions, what becomes of objective reality?

 

Put quite simply, it ceases to exist. As the religions of the East have long upheld, the material world is Maya, an illusion, and although we may think we are physical beings moving through a physical world, this too is an illusion.

We are really "receivers" floating through a kaleidoscopic sea of frequency, and what we extract from this sea and transmogrify into physical reality is but one channel from many extracted out of the superhologram. This striking new picture of reality, the synthesis of Bohm and Pribram's views, has come to be called the holographic paradigm, and although many scientists have greeted it with skepticism, it has galvanized others. A small but growing group of researchers believe it may be the most accurate model of reality science has arrived at thus far. More than that, some believe it may solve some mysteries that have never before been explainable by science and even establish the paranormal as a part of nature.

Numerous researchers, including Bohm and Pribram, have noted that many para-psychological phenomena become much more understandable in terms of the holographic paradigm. In a universe in which individual brains are actually indivisible portions of the greater hologram and everything is infinitely interconnected, telepathy may merely be the accessing of the holographic level. It is obviously much easier to understand how information can travel from the mind of individual 'A' to that of individual 'B' at a far distance point and helps to understand a number of unsolved puzzles in psychology. In particular, Grof feels the holographic paradigm offers a model for understanding many of the baffling phenomena experienced by individuals during altered states of consciousness.

In the 1950s, while conducting research into the beliefs of LSD as a psychotherapeutic tool, Grof had one female patient who suddenly became convinced she had assumed the identity of a female of a species of prehistoric reptile. During the course of her hallucination, she not only gave a richly detailed description of what it felt like to be encapsuled in such a form, but noted that the portion of the male of the species's anatomy was a patch of colored scales on the side of its head. What was startling to Grof was that although the woman had no prior knowledge about such things, a conversation with a zoologist later confirmed that in certain species of reptiles colored areas on the head do indeed play an important role as triggers of sexual arousal. The woman's experience was not unique. During the course of his research, Grof encountered examples of patients regressing and identifying with virtually every species on the evolutionary tree (research findings which helped influence the man-into-ape scene in the movie Altered States). Moreover, he found that such experiences frequently contained obscure zoological details which turned out to be accurate. Regressions into the animal kingdom were not the only puzzling psychological phenomena Grof encountered. He also had patients who appeared to tap into some sort of collective or racial unconscious. Individuals with little or no education suddenly gave detailed descriptions of Zoroastrian funerary practices and scenes from Hindu mythology. In other categories of experience, individuals gave persuasive accounts of out-of-body journeys, of precognitive glimpses of the future, of regressions into apparent past-life incarnations.

In later research, Grof found the same range of phenomena manifested in therapy sessions which did not involve the use of drugs. Because the common element in such experiences appeared to be the transcending of an individual's consciousness beyond the usual boundaries of ego and/or limitations of space and time, Grof called such manifestations "transpersonal experiences", and in the late '60s he helped found a branch of psychology called "transpersonal psychology" devoted entirely to their study. Although Grof's newly founded Association of Transpersonal Psychology garnered a rapidly growing group of like-minded professionals and has become a respected branch of psychology, for years neither Grof or any of his colleagues were able to offer a mechanism for explaining the bizarre psychological phenomena they were witnessing. But that has changed with the advent of the holographic paradigm. As Grof recently noted, if the mind is actually part of a continuum, a labyrinth that is connected not only to every other mind that exists or has existed, but to every atom, organism, and region in the vastness of space and time itself, the fact that it is able to occasionally make forays into the labyrinth and have transpersonal experiences no longer seems so strange.

The holographic prardigm also has implications for so-called hard sciences like biology. Keith Floyd, a psychologist at Virginia Intermont College, has pointed out that if the concreteness of reality is but a holographic illusion, it would no longer be true to say the brain produces consciousness. Rather, it is consciousness that creates the appearance of the brain -- as well as the body and everything else around us we interpret as physical. Such a turnabout in the way we view biological structures has caused researchers to point out that medicine and our understanding of the healing process could also be transformed by the holographic paradigm. If the apparent physical structure of the body is but a holographic projection of consciousness, it becomes clear that each of us is much more responsible for our health than current medical wisdom allows. What we now view as miraculous remissions of disease may actually be due to changes in consciousness which in turn effect changes in the hologram of the body.

Similarly, controversial new healing techniques such as visualization may work so well because in the holographic domain of thought images are ultimately as real as "reality". Even visions and experiences involving "non-ordinary" reality become explainable under the holographic paradigm. In his book "Gifts of Unknown Things," biologist Lyall Watson discribes his encounter with an Indonesian shaman woman who, by performing a ritual dance, was able to make an entire grove of trees instantly vanish into thin air. Watson relates that as he and another astonished onlooker continued to watch the woman, she caused the trees to reappear, then "click" off again and on again several times in succession. Although current scientific understanding is incapable of explaining such events, experiences like this become more tenable if "hard" reality is only a holographic projection. Perhaps we agree on what is "there" or "not there" because what we call consensus reality is formulated and ratified at the level of the human unconscious at which all minds are infinitely interconnected.

If this is true, it is the most profound implication of the holographic paradigm of all, for it means that experiences such as Watson's are not commonplace only because we have not programmed our minds with the beliefs that would make them so. In a holographic universe there are no limits to the extent to which we can alter the fabric of reality. What we perceive as reality is only a canvas waiting for us to draw upon it any picture we want. Anything is possible, from bending spoons with the power of the mind to the phantasmagoric events experienced by Castaneda during his encounters with the Yaqui brujo don Juan, for magic is our birthright, no more or less miraculous than our ability to compute the reality we want when we are in our dreams. Indeed, even our most fundamental notions about reality become suspect, for in a holographic universe, as Pribram has pointed out, even random events would have to be seen as based on holographic principles and therefore determined. Synchronicities or meaningful coincidences suddenly makes sense, and everything in reality would have to be seen as a metaphor, for even the most haphazard events would express some underlying symmetry. Whether Bohm and Pribram's holographic paradigm becomes accepted in science or dies an ignoble death remains to be seen, but it is safe to say that it has already had an influence on the thinking of many scientists. And even if it is found that the holographic model does not provide the best explanation for the instantaneous communications that seem to be passing back and forth between subatomic particles, at the very least, as noted by Basil Hiley, a physicist at Birbeck College in London, Aspect's findings "indicate that we must be prepared to consider radically new views of reality".