Exploring the Mindful Way — Tom Butler

Date: Various Type: Book

ITC EVP Consciousness Afterlife Spirit Communication Research Mediumship Parapsychology ATransC Tom Butler

the I Ching (Yi King), the Chinese oracle book. I hope you’ll like my interpretaon. “Words which inspired me: Tree on a mountain, bride, wild geese, shore, cliﬀ, dry plateau, cloudy heights.” I thank Anne for allowing the use of her work for this book cover. 1. Back Cover Immortal Self-Centric Mindfulness The most important understanding seekers of spiritual maturity must come to is the diﬀerence between lucidity and hyperlucidity. Lucidity is the degree to which we are able to clearly sense informaon from our mostly unconscious mind. Hyperlucidity is a term used in the Implicit Cosmology for a complex of behaviors movated by the belief we are lucid when we are actually only sensing what we have been taught to expect. The second most important understanding is that lucidity is the seeker’s objecve, but that it is achieved in small steps. The only real conscious inﬂuence we have on our mostly unconscious mind is the expression of intenon. This means that we must learn to consciously examine what we think is true. Mind changes only slowly, and so, the seeker’s objecve is to habitually express the intenon to align percepon with the actual nature of reality. In the ﬁrst book, Your Immortal Self, the process of consciously seeking greater lucidity is referred to as the Mindful Way. Many people pracce mindfulness simply to improve personal wellbeing. A few step onto the Mindful Way to seek greater understanding of their immortal nature and the nature of the reality they inhabit.

Even fewer remain as wayshowers for those who seek greater lucidity. The fact of our immortality is explained in Your Immortal Self. This book, Exploring the Mindful Way, includes twenty-one essays explaining some of the more important concepts encountered on the Mindful Way. While you will beneﬁt from ﬁrst reading Your Immortal Self, there are suﬃcient explanaons in this book to make it a stand-alone text. Will you be a wayshower? Acknowledgments Admiedly, this book is all about reality according to Tom Butler. Should you disagree with what I have said, your disagreement is with me. However, much of what I think is true is anchored on what I have learned in the study of transcommunicaon with Lisa, so if you like the book, thank her. Lisa has also been the move force for our work in this ﬁeld. This is important, because I think there are contribuons in this book and Your Immortal Self (1) that will eventually further general understanding of our nature and the nature of reality. Had she not persisted in the study of EVP, I might have focused my interests on easier subjects such as invenng perpetual moon. As I said in Your Immortal Self, the paranormalist community provided the background inﬂuence which gave me reason to compose this work in the ﬁrst place. Every me someone made a faith-based comment as if it were fact, I hurried back to my computer to worked on this book. Content Exploring the Mindful Way Exploring the Mindful

Way Publisher Use License About the Cover Back Cover Acknowledgments Content Introducon to This Book Test Your Teacher Important Inﬂuences Mechanics Possible Errors References and Alternave Sources Essay 1 Condional Free Will About This Essay Introducon Anatomy of a Life Field Determinisc Inﬂuences Finding Free Will A Talisman Essay 2 The Mindful Way About This Essay Purpose Mindfulness Teachers What We Do Now Maers Worldview Personal Reality, Local Reality and the Greater Reality Suspended Judgment Self-Determinaon The Mindful Way Essay 3 Prime Imperave About This Essay Abstract Introducon Point of View for This Essay Our Etheric Nature Natural Law Organizing Principles Understanding Purpose as Prime Imperave Essay 4 Immortal Self-Centric Perspecve About This Essay Introducon Perspecve Our Body is a Complete Organism Our Body as Avatar Survival of Body Mind Personal Style and Astrology Balance Irraonal Behavior Degrading Avatar Relaonship May I Introduce Myself? Essay 5 Ethics as a Personal Code for Mindfulness About This Essay Introducon Morality Versus Ethics First Ethical Consideraon Ethical Treatment of Human Research Subject A Useful Code of Ethics Ethical Conduct is a Lifelong Learning Experience Essay 6 Paranormalist Community About This Essay The Paranormalist Community A Divided Community A Community Divided Cannot Stand Culvang a Common Culture Essay 7 Clarity of Communicaon About This Essay Introducon People Have a Style of Learning. Selecve Understanding Selecve Aenon A mismatch of agenda impairs communicaon. Worldview changes in small increments Discussion Essay 8 How We Think About This Essay Introducon Terms How We Think First Sight Theory

Implicaons of Unconscious Preprocessing of Thought Lucidity Hyperlucidity Discussion Essay 9 Consensus Building in the Paranormalist Community About This Essay Introducon A Fractured Community Importance of Sharing Ideas Spiritual Anatomy Understanding is Relave Cooperave Community Jusﬁed Belief without understanding is Faith Summary Essay 10 Skepc About This Essay Abstract Introducon Skepcism and Sciensm Tells of a Skepc Comparing the View of Science with the View of Skepcs Organized Harm to Society A Case Study: Government Acng on Skepcal Views A Case Study: Skepcal Control of the Media Healthy Skepcism Skepcal About Skepcs Essay 11 Pseudoscience About This Essay Introducon Fact of Paranormal Phenomena is the Issue The Scienﬁc Method Inappropriate Science Pseudoscience Alternave Terms for Pseudoscience Sciensm Relave Sciensm Community Response Essay 12 Concerns with Wikipedia About This Essay General Treatment of Subjects Wikipedia Eding Rules Who Can Edit Arcles The Skepcal Community Personal Aacks Why This Is Important What can be Done? Navigaon Guide for Wikipedia Conclusion Essay 13 Arrogance of Scienﬁc Authority About This Essay Background Science in the Paranormalist Community Human Research Subject Libel and Slander Opinion About Arrogance of Scienﬁc Authority From My Experience Update Essay 14 Open Leer to Paranormalists About This Essay Introducon About This Leer The Paranormalist Community Theories of Reality Experiencing Phenomena What You Need to Know About Science Qualiﬁed to Pracce Science Pseudoscience Science and the Paranormalist Community Blind People and an Elephant Concluding Comments Comments from the Media Essay 15 Let’s Talk About God About This Essay Introducon Building a

Cosmology Implicit Cosmology As Above, So Below Unconscious Percepon Personal Reality Self-Organizing Reality God and Gods Essay 16 What is it Like on the Other Side About This Essay Introducon Old Models of Reality Transion Next Venue for Learning Moving On Essay 17 The Hermes Concepts About This Essay Introducon Who Was Hermes? Paraphrasing the Emerald Tablet The Foundaon Concepts Associated with Hermes The Three Aspects of a Teacher Important Metaphysical Concepts Aributed to Hermes The Seven Organizing Principles of the Kybalion My Introducon to the Hermec Concepts Reseng the Old Concepts Essay 18 The Razor’s Edge About This Essay Introducon Origin of the Upanishads Katha Upanishad Universal Message Essay 19 Progression, Teaching and Community About This Essay Spirituality Cooperaon Friends as Teachers Selﬂess People A Vision About Collecves First a Student, Then a Teacher The Nature of Understanding The Process of Gaining Understanding We Exist to Learn The Prime Imperave as a Spiritual Obligaon The Transion Experience Self-Realizaon Essay 20 Law of Silence About This Essay Introducon Suspended Judgment It Takes a Community Praccing the Law of Silence Community Essay 21 Informed Regret About This Essay Introducon As it Happened for Me My Learned Point of View References and Alternave Sources Introduction to This Book Published 1994 Published 2016 Your Immortal Self: Exploring The Mindful Way (1) is my second version of a guidebook to the other side. The ﬁrst was Handbook of Metaphysics. (2) Both were wrien in response to an urge to gather and present informaon which

might help all of us on our journey to spiritual maturity. Handbook of Metaphysics was my ﬁrst book. It was intended to provide the kind of foundaon informaon I felt people needed to understand their paranormal experiences. It was wrien before the Internet, and as it turned out, I did not have the necessary experience to realize the publisher was not giving me the kind of guidance needed by new authors. Consequently, there are structural errors I would not make today. The Handbook is useful in a basic way, but it is out of date as compared to Your Immortal Self. Even though a few copies of the book are sll available from the publisher (no proﬁt to me), I do not recommend that you take me to read it. As a conservave paranormalist, I am probably one of the most pragmac people you will meet. This translates into an almost obsessive desire to focus on the more objecve aspects of these phenomena. This should be important to you because I am asking you to accept the possibility of survival as a fact, and not as a belief. You need to trust me well enough to at least tentavely accept the validity of the concepts I present. Doing so will help open your mind to the more abstract concepts. If survival is a fact, the implicaons of survival are aconable. By that, I mean that understanding our spiritual nature should suggest acons we can take to beer align our thinking

to be more in agreement with our immortal self. Your Immortal Self begins with an explanaon why the Survival Hypothesis needs to be considered when evaluang evidence related to all things paranormal. That argument is in Discourse 1: Trans-Survival Hypothesis. Discourse 2: Introducon to the Implicit Cosmology provides a detailed disclosure of the implicaons of survival. It is followed by many discourses that explain important elements of the cosmology, such as Discourse 2: Organizing Principles of Formaon, Discourse 6: Etheric Fields and Discourse 7: Life Fields. Essay 2: The Mindful Way in this book is based on Discourse 11. Essay 4: Immortal Self-Centric Perspecve is based on Discourse 8. Essay 19: Progression, Teaching and Community is based on Discourse 12. Your Immortal Self, Secon II: Community is concerned with the paranormalist community in which we must study phenomena related to our psychic ability and survival. For the same reason, this book, Exploring the Mindful Way, includes essays wrien in an immortal self-centric context about paranormalist community issues. Community is the habitat which we must experience to gain understanding. As such, it is important that we have at least a passing acquaintance with its nature. Your Immortal Self, Secon III: Transcommunicaon is concerned with some of the phenomena related to communicaon across the veil. I highly recommend Secon III: Transcommunicaon if you wish to learn how to work with survival-related phenomena. To do so, you will need to read Your Immortal Self, as Exploring the Mindful Way has lile speciﬁcally about

transcommunicaon. It is useful, though, to understand the nature of your immortal self to underpin your study of transcommunicaon. This enre book is wrien from the perspecve of the Trans-Survival Hypothesis with close aenon to the immortal self-centric perspecve. Each essay is complete in itself. I have aempted to follow the way of a teacher by arranging them as concepts, experiences and eﬀect. Test Your Teacher An important concept in the ancient wisdom schools is the idea that seekers most ask to be taught. However, having found a likely teacher, seekers are expected to test their teacher before agreeing to be a student. In the ancient wisdom schools, seekers oen study under the same teacher for many years. The relaonship should not be taken lightly. There is also the queson of the foundaon concepts taught by the school. What is the point of view taught in the school? For instance, in contemporary terms, does the teacher follow the Normalist school of thought in thinking there is no such thing as paranormal phenomena? In those terms, I am a Dualist and accept the evidence that we are immortal self. See: “A Divided Community“ in Essay 6: Paranormalist Community. When reading an arcle about anything important to you, it is always good to examine the author’s credenals. This is especially true for paranormalist subjects because there are so many people with a view of the nature of reality that is simply not supported by the evidence. Sadly, many people in our community

are happy to assert opinions under cloak of their unrelated academic authority, apparently without caring about the ethical implicaons of not telling their readers what they actually think is true. For instance, the parapsychological journals rounely include research reports wrien from the perspecve of anomalisc psychology, but rather than disclosing they are aempts to debunk phenomena, the arcles appear to be honest exploraons of how people experience the phenomena. There is even a recent book about EVP that includes material strongly reminiscent of the an-survival wring of anomalisc psychology. Anomalisc psychology is the study of unusual human experiences with the intenon to prove they have a non-paranormal explanaon. (58) Beyond advanced training in their speciﬁc subject, doctorates are supposed to be trained in crical thinking, technical wring, research design and advanced use of libraries. As a four-year engineering graduate, I was trained in the same, but did not have some of the advanced technical courses, nor did I undergo the rigorous coaching for theses wring. Even though my engineering degree is probably more technically rigorous than required for an advanced degree in psychology or philosophy, you should expect a Ph.D. in one of those ﬁelds to be beer trained in crical thinking, a most important skill for paranormalists. If you do not have a college degree, it is reasonable for me to expect that you are not as well trained in crical thinking, research design or praccal report wring. Certainly, I know my skills fall short of many Ph.Ds. I

have encountered. This is not to say a person without a college degree is inferior, it is just a fact of life that all of us must consider. The same must be said about the subject area in which a person is academically trained. My degree in electronics included considerable training in physics and some in chemistry. I am close to a master’s degree in math, but there is no way I can or should claim academic authority held by a Ph.D. in physics or chemistry. By the same token, I have ﬁy or so years studying various aspects of metaphysics. Of course, I read books … hundreds, it seems! In 1992, I turned that reading for personal improvement into research for the Handbook of Metaphysics. (2) Interspersed with my reading, hands-on pracce and wring has been numerous total emersion courses such as those oﬀered by The Monroe Instute, (3) The Silva Method (4) and Delphi University (5). It has been my belief that the best way to understand a system of thought is to immerse myself in that system for a me. That has resulted in mul-year experiences in systems such as BOTA, (6) Eckankar (7) and even ordinaon in Spiritualism. (8) Lisa and I have been the Directors of the ATransC since 2000. As directors, we have been directly involved in research, study, producon of phenomena and sing with praconers, including hosng sessions with some of the most acve physical mediums of our me. The enrety of my

experience has been from the crical eye of an engineer. Lisa and I consider ourselves amongst the most pragmac people you will meet in this community. While this has turned out to be a handicap, considering that popularity is part of leadership, it should give you assurance that we are going to base our comments on the most objecve view available. Important Inluences Many of the ideas explored in Your Immortal Self came from some of the situaons I oen encounter in day-to-day living. For instance, the skepc’s complaint that we have no theory explaining survival phenomena parcularly informed my eﬀorts with the Implicit Cosmology. It was from my days as a Wikipedia editor that I learned the depth of the skepc’s faith in orthodox science. Of course, I have been inﬂuenced by parapsychological research. As you would see in Essay 13: Arrogance of Scienﬁc Authority and Essay 14: Open Leer to Paranormalists in the book, my study of that research and interacon with parapsychologists has also informed my dissasfacon with the way transcommunicaon praconers have been treated. Some theories have had an important inﬂuence on my point of view. You will see that I am parcularly impressed with Rupert Sheldrake‘s work on morphogenec ﬁelds and James Carpenter‘s work on percepon. The study of psi phenomena by parapsychologists has established an important foundaon for discussing survival. But don’t be too impressed. Psi-to- survival phenomena is a lile like the way gravity is to rocketry. Rocketry is all about thrust and

payload, of which gravity is only one factor, albeit a major one. All mental funconing involves psi funconing, but the study we are interested in is the relaonship between conscious self and mostly unconscious mind. As James Carpenter proposes in First Sight Theory, the real study is in how the mind process informaon. Exisng metaphysics and ancient wisdoms have shaped New Age thought. Of course, religions have an inﬂuence, but they were ﬁrst inﬂuenced by the same ancient wisdoms and philosophy, which was eventually corrupted in response to the need for social engineering. The principles governing our nature believed to be taught by Hermes, probably 6,000 years ago in Egypt, are essenally the same as those we seek to understand today. The Tarot is a relavely modern interpretaon of those ancient wisdoms. And, in fact, combined with contemporary understanding, the Major Arcana of the Tarot represent an important tool for personal progression. More contemporary developments are leading to the rediscovery of the ancient wisdoms; however, it is the more contemporary view I present in my wring. With that said, I ﬁnd it useful to point out how our current understanding tends to verify some of the concepts of ancient wisdom. Transcommunicaon phenomena have been the most important inﬂuence on my wring. They are also the most objecve. Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) provides a means of tesng trans-etheric inﬂuences. Survival is a trans-etheric experience. Thinking is a trans-etheric process. All of these are psi funconing, but it is the transformaon of

psi inﬂuence to physical objecvity that provides important hints about our immortal nature. The beer part of my life has been in pursuit of understanding about my own nature. This has given me insight into what needs to be done to increase lucidity, to have a sense of the variety of phenomena, to eﬀecvely product phenomena and to recognize the confusion of false posives. It is diﬃcult to assess the degree to which I have gained lucidity. For me, clear sensing of the etheric is more an emergent knowing then voices or pictures. Aer so many years of gradual development, it is probably no longer possible for me to know what it is like not to have this clarity. As a person trained to solve problems in my work as an engineer, I have always begun with a mental exercise. This means it is also diﬃcult to disnguish the knowing of simple problem solving and the knowing that comes from my friends on the other side. Is there really a diﬀerence? Much of my wring begins with that sense of knowing. While I am not so vain as to think I am a channel for discarnate geniuses, I am also not so arrogant as to claim I did this on my own. All of us work as a community. Your Immortal Self and this book are designed to help you make that a conscious collaboraon. Mechanics Each essay in this book was originally wrien as my eﬀort to understand an

aspect of the Mindful Way. Wring an essay about a subject I am trying to understand helps me focus. I speak of the need for parcipaon in a cooperave community for personal progression. In a way, wring an essay serves as my cooperave community. (Perhaps with a lile help from my friends on the other side.) The result of this approach to essay wring is that each easy is a standalone document. My theme is always “How can this subject be understood in terms of the Trans-Survival Hypothesis?” As such, most essays share more or less the same foundaon concepts. That means, when they are compiled into a book, the supporng concepts are oen repeated. I am saying all of this to explain that you will ﬁnd parts of each essay that seem familiar. When you do, resist skimming past those parts. Each explanaon of the concepts is tailored to show how they apply to the topic. In this way, I hope to help you understand the concepts you need for progression by showing how they apply to real-life subjects. Some of the essays, such as Essay 2: The Mindful Way, are taken directly from Your Immortal Self, but typically with a lile updang. You will ﬁnd many of these essays on EthericStudies.org but those may be out of date. If you noce the year the essay was originally wrien, you can guess that my understanding has evolved. The version for this book has been evolved and some integraon with

the other essays has been done to clarify communicaon. Possible Errors You will ﬁnd mechanical, grammacal, and possibly, logical disconnuies in this book. We spent nearly ﬁve $5,000 having Your Immortal Self proofread and copyedited. Even so, since it was ﬁrst published, I have found enough mistakes to feel the need to reissue the book. Yet, it is likely more errors remain. Proceeds from sales of Your Immortal Self are being used to pay for the inial cost of publishing, including prooﬁng. At the rate the book is selling, it will probably never pay for those costs. Yes, I am wring to a very small audience, but the cost simply does not warrant the beneﬁt of a slightly improved product, so I am the proofreader. I was once told by an English teacher that, based on my entrance exams, I should not be in college. Perhaps he had a point. The logical review of my work is even more diﬃcult. Academically trained metaphysicians will probably not care for my self-taught approach. From my experience with parapsychologists, few have the necessary background to logically review the Implicit Cosmology. Possibly, this is one of those “Write it and help will come” situaons. Because of this lack of peer veng, it is wise for you to focus more on the usefulness of the message than on the metaphysics. As I somemes do on the website, I am asking for input from you, should you see problems in structure that need to be ﬁxed.

The website contact tool is available for your suggesons, comments and quesons. Depending on interest, the Idea Exchange will be available, as well. You will see in the essays that I consider collaboraon essenal for our progressions. References and Alternative Sources The more you know about the subject, the beer prepared you will be to apply them to your daily living. It is up to you to do the work. That is why so many alternave sources are listed in the References. I do not necessarily endorse the supporng material. The references are provided to give you access to further background, or in some cases, more detailed explanaons. Consider the References a study guide. The book is available as an eBook and a paperback. I have not included as many internal links in the eBook version as I did in Your Immortal Self, but sll, the eBook version is designed to make study a lile easier. You may also want to keep the Glossary of Terms (9) open on your computer. It is at ethericstudies.org/glossary-of-terms/ under the Glossary Tab. Alternavely, a more current version is at the back of Your Immortal Self. Because of the standalone nature of each essay, you need not have read Your Immortal Self. When I would normally refer to Your Immortal Self, I have usually been able to refer to another essay for the more detailed explanaon I intend. With that said, this is a companion book to Your Immortal Self. I do recommend that

you read both. It is my pracce to include sidebars containing informaon that should be helpful but break the ﬂow of the argument. Sidebars do not work well in small-format books or eBooks, so such comments are set aside with a diﬀerent color and oﬀset like this. Essay 1 Conditional Free Will 2017 About This Essay Whether or not we have free will has always been a concern in my work with metaphysics. A cornerstone of the cosmologies I work with is the idea that we are creators and that we create by imposing our intended order. But, what if what we express is not what we intend? The queson became increasingly present in my daily acvies as I began the inial layout of this book. The way I respond to such perturbaons in my life is to write an essay. It is during the process of composing my thoughts to write, that I am able to access the scraps of memory related to the subject at hand. At my age, there are a lot of scraps and the ruminang can take days. The way I put it, my study of the Hermec Wisdoms has taught me to learn everything I can about everything. This is not so much a study as it is mental taking note for future reference. Evidence for the Trans-Survival Hypothesis (10) is evidence of our etheric anatomy and that is evidence of the concept of intended order. As you will see in this essay, our

ability to express intended order is impaired by environmental inﬂuences which include physical, biological, social and spiritual principles. Essay 2: The Mindful Way was going to be the ﬁrst in this book, but by the me I ﬁnished Condional Free Will, it seemed best to make that essay ﬁrst. Condional Free Will essay explains the best reason ever for you to step onto the Mindful Way. Also, the detailed explanaon of your spiritual anatomy will help you understand the rest of the book. Introduction The assumpon that we have free will is part of the foundaon on which we build our sense of self. Free will is usually characterized as the ability to decide for ourselves what to do next or how to react to informaon. Other ways of saying free will include self-determinaon and freedom of choice. While most of us assume we have free will, it turns out that many philosophers and sciensts think we might not. Here is a brief overview of contending theories (a more detailed discussion of these inﬂuences is provided under Determinisc Inﬂuences (below): Determinism In philosophy, the idea that the operaon of reality is determinisc means our choices are possibly predetermined. Determinism is something of an umbrella term for a number of determinisc inﬂuences. (11) In terms of human behavior, it means that our present is determined by our past. Determinisc inﬂuences include our genes, prior experiences, social dynamics and cultural inﬂuences. In physical processes, it means that a process is bound by

natural principles. Nature-Nurture Is a person’s temperament predominantly the product of social, environmental inﬂuences such as growing up in an academically inclined family versus one more focused on sports (Nurture)? Or, is a person’s temperament something that is set at birth; perhaps carried in our genes (Nature)? Also see Spiritual Insncts, below. Nature’s Habit The blueprint for the way biological organisms are formed, a process known as morphogenesis, has considerable momentum. That is, organisms change over me but do not abruptly change. An instance of a species formed today is virtually the same as that born yesterday. Rupert Sheldrake referred to this blueprint as Nature’s Habit. Human insncts are a behavior version of Nature’s Habit which tends to determine how an organism will behave. Just as with morphogenec momentum, behavior also has momentum so that our human body has essenally the same guiding insncts as all humans. These insncts tend to dominate our behavior at birth and are only moderated by reason as we gain in raonal maturity. God’s Will A widely held view is the religious one in which our fate is thought to be predesned as God’s will. This would seem to argue that whatever happens to us is not our fault but is our fate. This appears to be the ulmate surrender of self-determinaon, in which our only responsibility is to be a righteous believer. Predetermined by Agreement This seems like a New Age theory, but it is actually very similar to God’s will, in that our

acons are possibly predetermined by trans-etheric inﬂuences beyond our control once we enter into a lifeme. The idea is that, before we were born, we entered into an agreement with one or more other personalies to facilitate speciﬁc life experiences. This might be an agreement to be a mate, but there is no reason it cannot be an agreement to kill a person. In this view, people killed in a war would have agreed prior to being born to experience a violent death. This follows the argument that we must have a speciﬁc kind of experience to gain a speciﬁc kind of understanding. If this concept is true, we may be both the benefactor of the agreement and the supporng actor. This would suggest that we have free will prior to agreeing on an acon but are determiniscally guided for the life of the contract. Some argue that we might decide not to parcipate in the agreement when it is me to fulﬁll the contract. If so, that would be an expression of free will, but a violaon of a prior agreement. There is also the likelihood that we would not have the presence of mind to consciously decide our behavior. Spiritual Insncts If we accept the evidence of our immortality, then God’s will and pre- lifeme agreements are not out of the queson. As I will explain below, we may have entered into this lifeme, this venue for learning, to gain understanding about some aspect of reality. Our free

will is how we decide to respond to insncts we inherit from our local source. I refer to them as spiritual insncts to disnguish them from our human’s insncts. It seems prey clear that our free will is limited to some extent by determinisc inﬂuences. If I jump oﬀ of a cliﬀ, the natural principle of gravity assures I cannot change my mind. Being born a man predicts diﬀerent acons in life than being born a woman. Human insncts dominate our behavior, especially if we do not learn to manage them. There is lile doubt that some of us are very diﬀerent than others in our family, but the inﬂuence of family and culture determines who we are if we do not consciously act to make it otherwise. Anatomy of a Life Field This essay is wrien from the point of view that we are immortal personalies temporarily entangled with a human for this lifeme—a person. That is the essence of the Trans-Survival Hypothesis (10) which I explain in detail in Your Immortal Self. (1) The model describing our life ﬁeld is included in the Implicit Cosmology, (12) which is based on implicaons of survival, current understanding and theory derived from our work with transcommunicaon. For the explanaons oﬀered in this essay to make sense, it is important that you are familiar with that model. As such, it is brieﬂy explained here. Please note the meaning of implicaon. As I use it, implicaon means the consequences of what has been

stated must be true for the original statement to be true. If we are immortal self, the implicaons that must be considered include the idea that we are not our human body, we are a person for a reason and we are likely inﬂuenced in some way by our human. If we do not accept those consequences, we cannot raonally accept the idea that we are immortal. A ﬁeld is deﬁned here as a set of elements with related characteriscs which are bound into a system by a common inﬂuence. In this model, life ﬁelds are the basic building blocks of reality. (13) A hypothecal Source life ﬁeld is the top ﬁeld in a hierarchy of nested ﬁelds. (14) Thus, the Source life ﬁeld is the body of reality. This follows the same model proposed by Rupert Sheldrake in the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon (15) In that, the morphic ﬁeld organizing a human organism is proposed as the top ﬁeld for all of the sub- ﬁelds represenng the various components of the body. In eﬀect, our life ﬁeld is a sub-life ﬁeld of Source and exist in Source’s ﬁeld of inﬂuence as an aspect of Source. A Source life ﬁeld and our relaonship with it is not important to a discussion about free will, except to establish a boundary for this model. The important elements of this boundary include: • Our real home is described here as the etheric, which appears to be a form of conceptual space. • Reality

consists of life ﬁeld and the expressions of life ﬁelds. • All is thought. Expression follows the Creave Process: Aenon on an imagined outcome to produce an intended order. • Fields of inﬂuence are the conceptual equivalent of physical objects. As such, the Source life ﬁeld is reality. • Everything in the Source life ﬁeld (everything in reality) is within the Source scope of inﬂuence. • Everywhere is here. Parapsychologists refer to this as nonlocality; however, it is more correct to say that everywhere is local. To understand the limits of our free will, it is necessary to understand how our mind processes informaon. That means understanding the anatomy of our life ﬁeld. But before I explain, it is necessary to clarify that I am not a psychologist, nor am I trained in any of the mind sciences. The model I use has been developed from black box analysis based on known and hypothecal input and output signals of an imaginary container represenng our life ﬁeld. Engineers use the same approach for designing electronic circuits. The result is a set of funconal areas inside the container which will respond to known inputs to produce known outputs. Done right, the resulng funconal areas of the model can be used to predict previously unnoced signals. People who are well informed about current thought concerning how our mind works will probably not recognize or accept this model. I suppose one of the reasons for this is that few people actually trained in the

subject are willing to include survival or transcommunicaon assumpons in its design. Just be clear that this is a useful tool for understanding the concepts I wish to discuss and not one that is likely to show up in academic literature. The Life Field Complex Diagram (above) represents the model which has resulted from black box analysis of our etheric anatomy. It is based on the assumpon that the Trans-Survival Hypothesis is mostly correct, (10) that the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon is essenally correct (15) and First Sight Theory is a reasonable model for our thought processes. (16) Supporng informaon includes the way we think transcommunicaon works and current parapsychological research results concerning psi funconing. As shown in the diagram, the major funconal areas of our life ﬁeld are: Intelligent Core Personality, which is our immortal aspect and source of our purpose. This is our I am this. It is this aspect with which we seek to become more consciously integrated. Aenon Complex Our mostly unconscious mind which represents the memory, percepon and expression processes. Conscious Self Our conscious perspecve as I think I am this. Conscious self is a traveling perspecve which, during a lifeme, seems to rest in the head of our human avatar. However, when sleeping or in an altered state, our perspecve is disassociated from our body and free to roam etheric space. This freedom is limited by the Principle of Perceptual Agreement, which itself, is governed by Worldview. (17) In this model, processes such as

expression and percepon are referenced in a very fundamental form. It is up to you to extrapolate how they apply to any one circumstance. The essays I write are intended to explain ideas that seem to be important for following the Mindful Way, such as Essay 17: The Hermes Concepts, Essay 3: Prime Imperave, Essay 9: Consensus Building in the Paranormalist Community and Essay 5: Ethics as a Personal Code for Mindfulness. Environmental Signals Our mind is an etheric thing. Our body is physical. Well, at least we assign physicality to all of the informaon that comes to us via its senses. Given this physical-etheric diﬀerence, there must be some kind of conversion of informaon from physical to etheric. It seems reasonable to speculate that our human brain is where that conversion occurs. The eﬀect is that all of our body senses must be converted to etheric signals. In turn, all of our physical expressions such as speech or moon are converted by the brain from etheric to physical commands. Environmental informaon consists of signals from your body and psi signals from the etheric. Here, signal is used in the sense of expressed informaon, more as a gestalt-like thoughorm than a stream of informaon. James Carpenter posited that everything in reality expresses a psi signal and that all of our expressions are accompanied by a psi or psychokinec signal impressed into the etheric. (17) (18) His Personalness Corollary [#1] and Weighng and Signing Corollary [#6] describe how we tend to

pay aenon to or ignore informaon, depending on its importance and our interest. As you read this explanaon, keep in mind that what you think of as who you are is not your body. You are not in your head. You are a nonphysical personality entangled with your body in an avatar relaonship for this lifeme. That means you are aware of the book or computer screen you are reading as informaon sensed by your body’s eyes and converted into a psi signal which you, as an etheric personality, are able to access. Put a diﬀerent way, your body is connuously sending sensed informaon as bioelectrical impulses passed from your ﬁve senses to your brain. We think it is in the brain that the informaon those signals carry is converted into nonphysical psi signals which can be used by your nonphysical mind to develop a picture of the physical world that you visualize as being inhabited by your body. As I will explain below, how those signals are presented to your conscious awareness is decided by your worldview funconal area which represents what you have been taught. Thus, you create the world you think your body is in based on what you have been taught. Catalyst for Sentience Our mind is in etheric space where concepts are things in a similar way that objects are things in the physical. To model mind, it is necessary to idenfy inﬂuences, funcons and states as concepts. The most important state is aenon because,

without it, the mind funcons would be dormant. Think of the aenon state as a precondion for senence. Funconally, it does lile more than act as a sort of integrang catalyc inﬂuence which we would characterize as the life force. I include it here for completeness to bound the percepon-expression funcons. Intenon is in the model as two forms. It is an inﬂuence which we consciously express toward mind. It is also a catalyst for the percepon and expression processes. It represents the intenon to perceive or express. The catalyst concept may seem to add unnecessary complexity, but not including it would leave a huge hole in the model. Once you have digested the model, you will see that these elements might point toward important realizaons. Perception Noce that the Percepon Funconal Area in the Aenon Complex is closely associated with the Visualizaon Funconal Area and that both are in the Intenon Funconal Area. They are part of the Perceptual Loop discussed below. As well as I can tell, all of our thoughts, acons and percepons occur in response to an environmental signal; either current as in seeing or smelling something, or historical as in considering an old insult. When we are triggered to react, the intenon to do so is lile more than an impulse. That impulse to react iniates a process that begins with the Visualizaon Funcon. The Visualizaon Funcon creates a characterizaon of the environmental signal based on Worldview and submits the result to the Perceptual Loop.

Visualizaon is probably a gestalt-like thoughorm form of characterizaon, rather than a single picture. The environmental signal might be from the body’s ﬁve senses or a psi signal from either side of the veil. Physical objects exist as they are perceived by a person (conscious self-avatar). The visualizaon precedes the objecve experience. The characterizaon formed by the Visualizaon Funconal Area is compared with the contents of Worldview to determine if it is familiar. This might be a many-tries process as the characterizaon is adjusted to closer agree with Worldview. If suﬃcient agreement is found, the characterizaon is submied to the Percepon Funconal Area. An acon in response to the environmental signal is generated as a psi signal (perhaps psychokinec) and possibly as a signal to the brain to change the body in some way. A signal is also sent to conscious self to produce conscious awareness of the signal. Again, this is awareness of what has come out of the Perceptual Loop and not necessarily a true representaon of the actual signal. Attention Limiter The Aenon Limiter acts as a ﬁlter to screen out environmental informaon that is of no interest to us. Environmental signals include informaon from our etheric personality (core intelligence), other personalies such as those in our collecve, loved ones and friends on the other side. Signals from our body’s physical senses are also ﬁltered by the Aenon Limiter. Our control of this ﬁlter is limited to the extent we are able to control the Perceptual Loop

to control the contents of Worldview (lucidity). The Reject outcome of the Perceptual Loop discussed below, is a signal to the Aenon Limiter to ignore such informaon in the future. In science ﬁcon, a common issue is how telepaths are able to funcon if they are bombarded with telepathic signals from everyone. This funconal area answers that worry. In principle, we are able to sense virtually every signal in reality, but our previously expressed threshold of interest protects us. The challenge is in seng that threshold. Our human insncts have it set to detect threats, food and opportunies for mang. Do our spiritual insncts have it set to detect opportunies for greater understanding? Worldview Worldview is like a database which is populated by our human’s insncts and what we have been taught by our family, teachers, religions, media and experiences. It presumably includes a degree of understanding inherited from our collecve and a sense of speciﬁc purpose inherited from our core intelligence (personality), which is described here as spiritual insnct. Worldview is the most inﬂuenal aspect of our life ﬁeld. It is Nature’s Habit for our life ﬁled as described in the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon (15) and the yardsck by which environmental informaon is measured. Worldview has considerable momentum, in that once a decision is made, once informaon is integrated into Worldview, it is very diﬃcult to change. Expect that it must be changed in small increments. Also, expect that everything we consciously perceive is decided by how it

is characterized based on Worldview. Perceptual Loop and Worldview We know that our mostly unconscious mind has a mechanism to accept or ignore some informaon, decide what will be allowed into our worldview, what will be presented to our conscious mind and how that presented informaon is characterized. We are prey sure this is also true of what we express into the environment and the signals sent to our body. This mechanism is modeled in the Implicit Cosmology as the Perceptual Loop. Informaon that passes through the Aenon Limiter next enters the Perceptual Loop. The Perceptual Loop process begins with an aempt to characterize the informaon (visualize) based on what is in Worldview. The informaon comes as a gestalt-like thoughorm and must be characterized based on familiar informaon. An important point to keep in mind while modeling our mind is that we create the present based on the past. The inial characterizaon is then compared with the contents of Worldview. The visualized form is not yet submied to conscious self as percepon or sent into the environment as expression. The process of visualizaon and then comparison with Worldview is probably a very rapid, iterave one resulng in many tries. Each try would produce a slight modiﬁcaon of the original input so that aer many tries, the visualized version may have dried quite a bit from the intended input. This process is a lile like when a repair person needs a specialty tool that is not present, and so looks in

the toolbox for something that will work in its place. The Perceptual Loop produces a visualizaon of reality that is already in memory and that matches at least some of the characteriscs found in the incoming gestalt thoughorm. That informaon is visualized and held up to Worldview in an “Is this what you mean” manner. It is the “Yes, that will have to do” result that is sent to conscious awareness. Thus, the more we know, the more tools we have in the toolbox, the beer our percepon might agree with actual reality. There are probably many extenuang consideraons involved in the comparison. For instance, was the original input accompanied by a sense of urgency? Did the signal come from a friend? Was it an ordinary signal from the body? The three primary states expected to come from the Perceptual Loop are: Reject If no agreement is found between what is in worldview (familiar) and what is visualized, the environmental informaon is simply rejected as if it never passed the Aenon Limiter. That Reject outcome is probably fed back to the Aenon Limiter as a modiﬁcaon of the ﬁlter. Condional Accept A second possible outcome of the Perceptual Loop Agree decision is “Yes.” However, the incoming informaon is probably in the form of a thoughorm which is not a format we are able to consciously experience. The perceptual process produces a version of that informaon based on more familiar symbols represented in Worldview. Thus. if there is some amount of

agreement between sensed informaon and Worldview, a characterizaon of the informaon is oﬀered to conscious awareness. This is an important point. What we become aware of is not the raw informaon we sensed. It is a characterizaon of it that is in suﬃcient agreement with memory to be considered familiar. We consciously experience a version of the informaon, a result described in mental mediumship as a colored message. This argues that any informaon access is potenally colored by cultural contaminaon. This is especially true of transcommunicaon. This colored result is especially inﬂuenced by expectaon. We are more apt to experience what we expect. Conversely, we are less apt to experience informaon if we have previously expressed disbelief in the subject. The Perceptual Loop is used for expression as well. What we intend to express into the environment, say speaking to a friend or a command to the body to pick something up, is colored by Worldview. In terms of the psi signals we send to the environment, our worldview is doing the speaking. All we do is express the intenon. If we intend to be forgiving of an oﬀending person, the signal that person receives may well be a drop-dead message instead, if that is how we previously informed our worldview. Even if our spoken message is loving, the psi signal we send to the person’s Aenon Complex may be that drop- dead message if we feel that way but have forced a kinder spoken response. Ambiguous Accept The sensed

informaon may be ambiguous, meaning that it seems familiar but is not speciﬁcally deﬁned in Worldview. In this case, it has the potenal of being integrated into Worldview and submied to conscious percepon as a modiﬁed version of familiar informaon, but now updated with the new inﬂuence. It is this output of the Perceptual Loop on which we have conscious inﬂuence. By consciously intending to see things as they are, consciously quesoning percepon and avoiding making an Accept- Reject (believe or not) decision, we are able to encourage the Perceptual Loop to be more accepng of sensed informaon as it is, rather than as it compares to Worldview. This is the enabling concept of the Mindful Way as I speak of it in my wring, and which I explain in great detail in Your Immortal Self: Exploring the Mindful Way. (1) Be aware that training the percepon-expression processes to respond as you intend is a small change-at-a-me process that should be developed as a lifestyle. Expression When we decide to speak, act or even when we think about something, we iniate a perceptual process to visualize what we want to say or do. The diﬀerence between a fantasy and an expression is the intenon to make it so. As it is modeled here, the creave process is aenon on an imagined outcome to produce an intended order. (19) Expression then, is a process consisng of intenon iniang the visualizaon of what is intended, perceiving that visualized outcome and then intending

to express it into reality. This process is moderated throughout by the Perceptual Loop just as if it were sensed informaon. As such, expression is the outward inﬂuence of percepon. We tend to think, do, speak and feel based on Worldview. This is central to the idea that we create our reality, and we do so, based on what we know, which is contained in Worldview. The idea is that we cannot express what we cannot visualize. And the visualizaon process is based on what we have been taught. Lucidity To be lucid means to have clear percepon of our usually unconscious mind. More to the point, it means being able to consciously sense environmental informaon as it was intended and not as it is colored by the perceptual processes. It is arguable that none of us are completely lucid, so we speak in terms of degrees of lucidity. As a praccal maer, the average person has virtually zero lucidity, and always senses the world as he or she has been taught. In that regard, the average person’s personal reality is essenally the same as all the others in the community. The assumpon here is that the community has a local sense of actual reality which is usually not helpful for a person seeking spiritual maturity. Our personal reality is deﬁned by our worldview. The process of aligning our personal reality with the actual nature of reality begins when we realize that there is a diﬀerence and consciously seek to

change. The intenon to change is expressed to the Perceptual Loop as increased curiosity, consciously turning aenon toward things that seem real, examining consequences of beliefs and quesoning every acon. Deterministic Inluences Determinism is an argument that must be considered in three parts. For physical systems, it assumes that naturally occurring principles in nature determine the behavior of physical processes. For the behavior of biological systems, it assumes that behavior is inherited by way of a genec predisposion. Assuming the Survival Hypothesis is allowed, the third part is a set of inﬂuences emanang from our etheric (nonphysical) aspect. Physical Principles For the purpose of this essay, the rules governing operaon of the physical world can be generalized by saying that the behavior of everything is constrained in some way by rules which are thought to apply to all of the physical universe. For instance, an important fundamental relaonship in electrical circuits is known by Ohm’s Law, which states that voltage (V) is equal to the to the current I (I) mes the resistance (R): V = I × R. This relaonship should be equally valid on the other side of the galaxy. I use the Mandelbrot Set to demonstrate how a simple equaon can represent an inﬁnitely complex aspect of reality. The set consists of all the numbers from -2.0 to +1.0 on the real axis and -1.5 to +1.5 on the imaginary axis. Using the simple equaon: Z n+1 = Zn 2 + C, where Z0 = C the

plot shown below is produced by calculang each point a predetermined number of mes, using the result as the beginning value of C for the next cycle. If the result approaches inﬁnity, the point is assigned black on the plot. Otherwise, it is typically assigned a color or intensity based on the size of the resulng value. There is a more detailed explanaon in Your Immortal Self, and an earlier version in “The Cosmology of Imaginary Space” Discourse on EthericStudies.org. (20) The top ﬁgure, somemes known as The Apple Man, is a fractal, meaning that it is repeated many mes in the plot, but at diﬀerent scales; by selecng beginning points of increasingly small values (for instance Real Number: -1.165, Imaginary Number: -0.288). Inset A in the Navigang Within the Mandelbrot Set Diagram (below), is an enlargement of the area marked Inset A at the boom of the larger ﬁgure. Inset B shows part of Inset A for which the plot has been further telescoped. In it, you can just begin to make out a miniature version of the Apple Man fractal. There is an inﬁnite number of such fractals that become visible as the formula is used as a telescope to calculate points with ever small coordinates. The message is that the complexity of the physical world is organized by relavely simple rules. The same can be said of the greater reality, but with a diﬀerent sort of rules. Genetic Predisposition This is an area for which I have

lile training. The idea is that each of our cells contains 23 chromosomes, each containing hundreds or thousands of genes, which in turn, contain our DNA. All the characteriscs of the body are dictated by the DNA within the genes. In the determinisc models, it is argued that our personality is also coded into our genes. The research is prey clear that the blueprint for our physical body is in our genes. It is also logical to think that much of our temperament is inﬂuenced by our body, its abilies and diﬀerences in appearance from the norm. However, it is not so deﬁnite that our temperament is determined by our genes, and evoluon does not seem to completely explain how the characteriscs of a species change over me. Nature’s Habit Rupert Sheldrake developed the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon as a possible explanaon for how morphogenesis is controlled. (15) Morphogenesis is the process in which a cell is diﬀerenated into another cell. Remembering that an organism begins as a single cell, all included cells have the same genes. How a cell knows to divide into a skin cell or bone cell, for instance, is one of the mysteries of nature that has yet to be reasonably well modeled using mainstream science. Formave Causaon holds that morphogenesis is managed by way of ﬁelds which represent each element of an organism. A human body has a ﬁeld, as does its skin, bones and cells, each kind with its aendant ﬁeld. The ﬁeld is

deﬁned by a set of instrucons which orchestrates the formaon and acvity of its part of the organism. This is a nested hierarchy of ﬁelds model. The instrucons are based on what Sheldrake referred to as Nature’s Habit. In other words, the aendant morphic ﬁelds (aka morphogenec ﬁelds) cause their part of the organism to form and funcon by way of morphic resonance based on how that part has always been formed. This theory does allow for gradual changes based on successful, creave soluon to environmental challenges which may be inherited by the morphogenec memory of the species. In the Implicit Cosmology, each instance of a species is expected to be a complete life ﬁled as a member of a collecve represenng that species. If the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon is correct, the collecve would share a single intelligent core containing the body image (memory and Nature’s Habit). That is, if there are a billion instances of a variety of dog, then their collecve consists of a billion top dog ﬁelds integrated by one intelligent core. The idea of a shared intelligent core is proposed to account for the mystery of what guides morphogenesis, to provide a means of transming evoluonary changes to all the species and to agree with the model used in the Implicit Cosmology to explain survival phenomena. All members of a species biologically share the same genec code, but we do see variaons in temperament amongst members of a species. As I understand it, the Hypothesis

of Formave Causaon’s provision for inheritance of insncts does not account for diﬀerences in temperament. Diﬀerences in temperament remains an open queson. The Implicit Cosmology was designed to model a person as a life ﬁeld (who we really are) entangled with another life ﬁeld (our human avatar). There is nothing in the model forbidding it to be applied to a diﬀerent animal, such as a dog or bird. In that case, the diﬀerence in temperament in animals can be explained using the Implicit Cosmology. In the concept of transmigraon (related to reincarnaon), through many life cycles, a soul is born into increasingly complex avatars unl it ﬁnally joins with a human. The idea that we might have once been a plant, bug or dog does not set well with most of us. But, most of us who accept survival, also accept that we will eventually ﬁnd ourselves in a diﬀerent venue for learning … not necessarily on earth, and therefore, not necessarily as a human. That is lile diﬀerent than transmigrang from a bug to a human. I do not know, and the subject is a lile outside of this cosmology; however, be aware that our animal friends may well have been us at one me or could be next me around. Human Instincts The human brain can be considered in two parts: forebrain and brain stem. According to “Brain Structures and Their Funcons,” the brain stem: “is responsible for basic vital life funcons such as breathing, heartbeat and blood

pressure. Sciensts say that this is the ‘simplest’ part of human brains because animals’ enre brains, such as reples (who appear early on the evoluonary scale) resemble our brain stem.” (21) The forebrain supports raonal thought, so an assumpon in the Implicit Cosmology is that the brain stem has evolved to support survival of the human body and the forebrain has evolved to support the entangled personality. In this view, it is reasonable to expect that, like other animals, humans would get along prey well without an entangled personality. Human insncts are a behavioral version of Nature’s Habit. They become part of our worldview and dominate our behavior at birth. We spend the majority of our life trying to manage them, our success in which is somemes known as raonal maturity. A brief Internet survey did not produce a useful list of insncts. It is prey clear that they all relate to the urge to perpetuate the species. The challenge is to disnguish between our human’s insncts and our spiritual insncts. For instance, curiosity is somemes included in lists for human insncts. Curiosity about the habitat is useful for survival, but it also contributes to gaining understanding through experience. Mimicking play is an important trait for survival and procreaon, as it teaches adult skills such as child care, hunng and protecng the family. We see that a playful atude is common amongst our trans- communicators, so play may be a fundamental insnct. Spiritual Instincts The assumpons for my comments about

spiritual insncts are that we are immortal personality entangled with a human avatar as a person. Also, that we enter into a lifeme for the purpose of gaining understanding about the nature of reality as it is expressed in this venue. Further, that each of us is a member of a collecve of other personalies with which we share our understanding, and in turn beneﬁt from the collecve understanding. (you and I are not necessarily in the same collecve) These assumpons are detailed and jusﬁed in Your Immortal Self. (1) We may be in this lifeme for secondary purposes, such as helping a member of our collecve have a speciﬁc experience. But in every experience rests an opportunity to gain understanding. I posit here that each of us has an insnct to gain understanding through experience that came with us into this lifeme and will follow us into whatever new venue we ﬁnd ourselves in aer this lifeme. See Essay 3: Prime Imperave. When we are mindfully seeking to understand the nature of our experiences, we are going with the ﬂow of our insncts. Life is easier in a spiritual sense. This is the path toward free will … at least freer will; certainly self-determinaon. When we remain steeped in our human insncts, we are resisng our urge to gain understanding. Spiritually, life is harder. This is the path dictated by circumstance and our human’s survival insncts. The idea that we have insncts that are concerned with more than simple

human existence is addressed in the Katha Upanishad [1-III-4 through 1-III-8]. In it, the teacher explains to the seeker the importance of discernment in life’s experiences with an eye toward understanding may avoid the necessity of future lifemes. (22) See Essay 18: The Razor’s Edge. Natural Law The physical science view of determinism is that principles are a natural result of fundamental forces such as gravity, atomic-level inﬂuence and constants such as the natural rate of decay or the rate at which a ﬁeld loses strength as one moves away from the source. Biological processes also evolve out of these fundamental principles. That is the physical view held by mainstream science. The metaphysical view of principles governing the operaon of reality is known by many as the Principles of Natural Law. Taking the metaphysical point of view makes sense if you accept the premise that reality is enrely thought, and we create the physical with our mind. Before you discount this mental point of view, remember that it is an overly simple way of saying that we are immortal beings and that the physical is an aspect of the greater reality, which we and other immortal beings express according to our collecve consciousness. This is the natural consequence of our survival beyond this lifeme. One of the most important rules I follow in metaphysics is that magic is not allowed. I make a disncon between the personality of which I am an aspect created to experience the physical, and personalies

that hold the physical venue for learning in their imaginaon. The idea is that many personalies use the physical as a school, but that there are others in charge of running the school. Every indicaon is that these school enes did not imagine the physical as it is today but did so as an evoluon of trial and error. Reality is very eﬃcient, and everywhere we look, complex evolves from simple. If that is true, the best way to create the physical I can think of is to begin with a handful of simple principles and let them do the creave work. Natural Law can be thought of as riding above the physical principles. They are concerned with the relaonship of a person (personality entangled with a human) with the etheric. Think of them as something of a roadmap for the operaon of a person. The degree to which a person understands and is able to live in accordance with the principles is a measure of the person’s progression. The principles are thought to be everywhere the same. (23) Historical View My ﬁrst aempt to develop a cosmology included the concept that Source expressed the experienal aspect of itself from which we evolved, and a formave aspect represenng a parallel nested hierarchy of personalies. (2) I was inﬂuenced by the idea of nature spirits apparently involved in formaon, care and evoluon of the various aspects of reality. The concept is so deeply embedded in New Age thought that it is

diﬃcult to ignore. The Implicit Cosmology does not speciﬁcally call for a hierarchy of formave aspects of Source. It does include the idea that the various venues, such as the physical, are imagined and maintained by probably many personalies. However, I also argue that the life ﬁeld concept is the fundamental building block and organizing principles are the formave rules for the creave process. What diﬀerenates a personality into a venue builder as opposed to an experiencer remains a detail to be worked out. It is clear that we are all creators, and it is our spiritual urges that guide us in our experiences. Perhaps we will spend a while holding a venue in our mind. Perhaps we are doing that now. Certainly, we create venues for our lile me to try out ideas. We are both experiencers and the formave aspects represented by nature spirits in lore, as our acons are constrained by organizing principles. Spiritualism The Naonal Spiritualist Associaon of Churches (NSAC) deﬁnes Natural Law as an “ascertained working sequence or constant order among the phenomena of nature.” (8) That constant order is considered the expression of Inﬁnite Intelligence (non-anthropomorphic god, Source, Nature). The NSAC has a statement of understanding known as the Declaraon of Principles.(24) Principles 1, 2, 3 and 7 are relevant to this discussion: 1. We believe in Inﬁnite Intelligence. 2. We believe that the phenomena of Nature, both physical and spiritual, are the expression of Inﬁnite Intelligence. 3. We aﬃrm that a correct understanding

of such expression and living in accordance therewith, constute true religion. 7. We aﬃrm the moral responsibility of individuals and that we make our own happiness or unhappiness as we obey or disobey Nature’s physical and spiritual laws. Hermetic Teaching Natural Law is also an important part of the Hermec systems of thought. The more commonly cited principles are from The Divine Pymander of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus. (25) Hermes was thought to have lived in Egypt 6,000 years ago. Many believe he represents the source of important concepts concerning the operaon of reality. From The Kybalion: (26) 1. The Principle of Mentalism. The all is mind; The universe is mental. 2. The Principle of Correspondence. As above, so below; as below, so above. 3. The Principle of Vibraon. Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates. 4. The Principle of Polarity. Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are idencal in nature, but diﬀerent in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled. 5. The Principle of Rhythm. Everything ﬂows, out and in; everything has its des; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the le; rhythm compensates. 6. The Principle of Cause and Eﬀect. Every Cause has its eﬀect; every eﬀect has its cause; everything happens according to Law; chance is but a name for Law

not recognized; there are many planes of causaon, but nothing escapes the Law. 7. The Principle of Gender. Gender is in everything; everything has its masculine and feminine principles; Gender manifests on all planes. I discuss these in more detail in Essay 17: The Hermes Concepts. Implicit Cosmology While developing the Implicit Cosmology (12) as it is implied by the Trans- Survival Hypothesis, I found certain concepts were involved throughout. It was evident that they are foundaon concepts on which reality is formed. Thus, I deﬁned thirty-eight Organizing Principles. (27) As it turns out, only a few resembled the usual Natural Laws which evolve out of the Hermec teaching. (28) The principles are in three degrees of granularity so that concepts like Collecve and Field are associated under Reality, concepts such as Aracon and Life Field are associated with Formaon and concepts such as Aenon and Transion are related to Personality. Do not be overly concerned with the names of these. A diﬀerent model might describe diﬀerent terms because of diﬀerent granularity or perspecve. The underlying principles would be the same for every version of a reality model even though the nomenclature might be diﬀerent. Organizing Principles are acve agents, rather than immutable laws. In principle, each life ﬁeld is a creang intelligence and the principles regulate the creave process. (19) They might be able to be superseded or ignored but they are always present and do exert an inﬂuence. That inﬂuence becomes more important when aenon is turned toward

an applicable characterisc. For instance, the Field Organizing Principle simply represents a fundamental characterisc of how reality self- organizes. Things exist as ﬁelds. However, life ﬁeld as a formave agent does not come into play as a concept unl purpose is considered. The inﬂuence of Organizing Principles is always present and becomes a factor as we turn our aenon toward a visualized ﬁeld with the intenon to express it into the environment. That is just a speciﬁc way of saying that a concept becomes a factor when a person intends to apply it in some way. Creaon of intended order will be much more diﬃcult if the visualizaon and intenon are inconsistent with organizing principles governing a concept. The idea of immutable laws is a tradional part of systems of thought that seek to incorporate the Hermec Principles. As I model Organizing Principles, they are expressions of Source’s understanding of itself. The model also holds that we are aspects of Source that exist to sasfy its curiosity about itself. If this is true, as we gain understanding about the nature of reality, and return that to Source, presumably, Source will learn a more complete self-image of itself. That would potenally result in changes in the underlying principles. As such, if Source is sll learning, then Organizing Principles are evolving. Here are a few examples from “Discourse 3: Organizing Principles” taken from Your Immortal Self: (27) (Early versions of these are at ethericstudies.org/organizing-principles/.) In the category of Reality Hierarchy: A hierarchical

relaonship exists between Source, aspects of Source and subsequent expressions of those aspects. Prime Imperave: Aspect personalies inherit purpose from their source. In the category of Formaon Aspectaon: The inﬂuence of intenon on an imagined result expresses aspects of reality which are a subset of personality’s personal reality Perceptual Agreement: Personality must be in perceptual agreement with the aspect of reality with which it will associate. In the category of Personality Personal Reality: Percepon of reality deﬁnes personal reality. Self-Determinaon: Personality’s behavior is limited only by the Organizing Principles. Worldview: Worldview is a learned response moderated by understanding. Retro Familiar Storytelling This is something of an undocumented concept. As a Sunday Society Meeng Medium, I must always be alert for new ways my mind will fool me. I deﬁne the retro familiar concept as Modiﬁcaon of an inial memory or percepon based on secondary feedback from the environment. In mediumship, this is seen when the medium elaborates on the message based on the sier’s feedback. For instance, the medium might say “I see a big tree.” The sier might respond with “I like to read under a big tree.” In Retro Familiar Storytelling, the feedback from the sier might produce a response from the medium as “Yes, I see that. You like the warmth from the sun.” This is coloring based on informaon that was not in the originally sensed message but that seems like it was in retrospect. Any modiﬁcaon of how a person senses memory, a psi signal

or visualizaon based on feedback from the environment should be considered a form of storytelling that possibly colors the original sense beyond its inial meaning. This eﬀect is probably best seen as a sloppy mental habit that can be managed through mindfulness. The retro-familiar response is a form of hyperlucidity. (29) It should be considered a problem for free will because the response provides posive feedback to the perceptual processes, possibly indicang an erroneous belief is correct. To be clear, this concept does not indicate that the person is faking in the sense of “Yes, I meant to say that.” Because current awareness is being presented to conscious self in real me, the Perceptual Loop can too easily link the sier’s feedback with the medium’s sense of the message. This may also be related to how false memories are formed. Finding Free Will The Tower Key 16 of the Tarot as illustrated by Dr. Paul Foster Case (30) Meaning: Breaking up of old mental structures to make way for greater clarity; Culminaon of understanding leads to realizaon and possibility of further understanding; Relates to the Dark Night of Soul and the Dawn that follows. (176) As a praccal maer, our freedom to make informed decisions about our life is a funcon of how well we understand the processes which limit free will, and the success we have in managing those inﬂuences. In pracce, we are prey much on automac (no free will) unl we know to take control. We then

have increasing free will as we gain understanding. Here, I use the Organizing Principle of Understanding from the Implicit Cosmology which is deﬁned as Percepon of reality as it is and not as it is believed to be, with emphasis on underlying principles. (12) (27) There is something of a threshold of acquired understanding about our personal nature, beyond which we begin to recognize the need to deliberately seek greater understanding. It is crossing that threshold which I describe as stepping onto the Mindful Way. Unl we have taken that most important step, our free will remains more illusion than fact. Paradoxically, the less free will we have, the less aware we are of our lack of free will. Consequently, it is unlikely a person will cross that mindfulness threshold without some form of outside inﬂuence. That is typically in the form of a personal crisis brought on by a growing realizaon that accepted truths are not so true aer all. This is a concept that has been understood by spiritual teachers since the me of Hermes. Consider The Tower, Key 16 of the Tarot. I use the Case deck as taught by the Builders of the Adytum: To this Key is aributed the stage of spiritual unfoldment called Awakening, because it represents the ﬂash of clear vision which reveals to the searcher the true nature of his being which has previously been hidden from him because of the bondage of his consciousness. (30) Personal Responsibility Of course, each of

us must be responsible for our acons. Well, at least we must be accountable, else our society could not be based on the rule of law. But, is it possible to have personal responsibility for our acons if we do not have conscious control over our percepon? Perhaps the highest expression of personal responsibility is the sacriﬁce of ourselves for a perceived higher purpose. I read somewhere that our insnct for survival is hierarchical. Many of us will ﬁght to survive, but readily sacriﬁce ourselves for our family. However, we will sacriﬁce ourselves for our country at the expense of our family. The United States depends on an all-volunteer military, which means we depend on cizens willing to sacriﬁce their life for the good of our country. This paradox is pointed out by David Ropeik in his arcle The Greatest Threat of All: Human Insncts Overwhelm Reason: (31) You woke up each day last year and went about your business as any human does, compelled by deep and ancient insncts to do the things necessary to get yourself safely to bed at night. And later: We are compelled from the deepest level of our genes and survival insncts to taking more from the system than it can provide and put back in more waste than it can handle, and no amount of human brain power outwit the natural insncts that are driving us 150 miles an hour toward a cliﬀ. And last: Dangerous, because the belief that our intellect can

provide the tools and enlightened leadership that will ride to the rescue, arrogantly denies the inescapable truth that we are sll mostly insncve animals, each of us compelled by deep subconscious urges to do what we can as individuals to survive today; and the day aer that, and everybody else, are just not as much of a concern. Ropeik was addressing how being controlled by insncts allow us to ignore greater, less obvious threats to our survival. This is the problem of our human’s insncve response to cultural inﬂuences (Worldview) versus our conscious self’s mindful examinaon of our acons. Personal responsibility cannot be executed without examinaon of our every acon from the perspecve of understanding of Natural Law. Without that understanding, and realizaon that our mostly unconscious mind only lets us be aware of what we have previously believed to be true, our free will is an illusion. Taking Control of Free Will The assumpon of this essay is that we entered into this lifeme with a purpose, but because entanglement with our human is so complete, most of us have lost sight of that purpose. Probably for all of us, the dominance of our human’s insncts has overshadowed the fact that our body is a faithful servant and not our actual self. A common theme in New Age literature is that transcendent spiritual teachers deliberately enter into a lifeme to help those of us who are sll in the physical. They do so knowing the risk that they might

lose control of their spiritual maturity by succumbing to the belief that they are their body. The physical is a compelling temptress to whom we willingly surrender our self-determinaon. Consider what has been explained in this essay, seeking to take conscious control of your thought processes is perhaps the most important step you can take to gain spiritual maturity. Essay 9: Consensus Building in the Paranormalist Community, includes quite a lot about taking control of the thought process. Also, understanding the Life Field Complex model discussed above gives you the necessary tools for relang what you have learned to other situaons. The most important thing to remember is that taking control is a deliberate, lifelong process. Done right, it will become a way of life that moves your current body-centric perspecve to an etheric, immortal self- centric perspecve. A Talisman A few years ago, the phrase, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” became stuck in my mind. From me-to-me, I worry it like a dog worries a rock. It came to me when a jacked-up pickup came past me way too fast, way too noisy and so high that, in a collision, the average compact would roll under the bumper. The truck may have been legal, but it was not compable with civil society. In a word, the owner was ansocial; thumbing his nose at the right thing to do. The truck was a rolling example of “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” As I wrote

this essay, I tried to think of a touchstone or talisman of sorts that would help us know when we are not expressing free will. I think the answer is this phrase. Ask yourself, “Should I do this?” This is not a queson if it is the right thing to do because that is a moral queson enrely dependent on social norms. It is an ethical queson that is dependent on spiritual insncts. Is it something that a mindful person would do? References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 2 The Mindful Way 2014 About This Essay You may know mindfulness as a form of meditave stress reducon. It has evolved from Hinduism, and later from Buddhism. It is taught as a way of living in the now by being aware of our feelings, senses and the world around us as calm parcipants, rather than hassled vicms of daily living. The ﬁrst menon I can ﬁnd of mindfulness is in the Katha Upanishad, Verse III, Line 8. This 3,000 to 4,000 years-old text is discussed in Essay 18: The Razor’s Edge. I have included the most pernent lines here: (22) 1-III-3. Know the Self to be the master of the chariot, and the body to be the chariot. Know the intellect to be the charioteer, and the mind to be the reins. 1-III-4. The senses they speak of as the horses; the objects within their view, the way. When the Self is yoked with the

mind and the senses, the wise call It the enjoyer. 1-III-5. But whoso is devoid of discriminaon and is possessed of a mind ever uncollected - his senses are uncontrollable like the vicious horses of a driver. 1-III-6. But whoso is discriminave and possessed of a mind ever collected - his senses are controllable like the good horses of a driver. 1-III-7. But whoso is devoid of a discriminang intellect, possessed of an unrestrained mind [unmindful*] and is ever impure, does not aain that goal, but goes to samsara. 1-III-8. But whoso is possessed of a discriminang intellect and a restrained mind [mindful*], and is ever pure, aains that goal from which he is not born again. 1-III-9. But the man who has a discriminang intellect as his driver, and a controlled-mind as the reins, reaches the end of the path - that supreme state of Vishnu *I have added [unmindful] and [mindful], as that is the terminology used in some of the other translaons. In terms of the Implicit Cosmology, these lines say that we are in an avatar relaonship with our body. Becoming aware of this presents a path to spiritual maturity. Without that realizaon, we will not gain that most important realizaon. The Katha Upanishad preceded Hinduism, which adapted the concepts to the Yoga Tradion as mindfulness. However, one of the relevant root terms from the Buddhist line of development means remembering, as in “Remember the Buddha.” This is a reminder that ancient wisdoms can take on

diﬀerent meaning through translaon from language to language. Today, most versions of mindfulness are reformaed ancient wisdom directed toward techniques for improving quality of life. In fact, that is exactly how it is intended here. The value I wish to add is to explain these concepts from an immortal self point of view, rather than the usual point of view that we are our body. From the perspecve of immortal self, the way we experience our world as explained by current science and lessons learned from the study of transcommunicaon, we know the study of mindfulness needs to include a focus on how to manage percepon. This begins with understanding the role Worldview plays in forming our personal reality. My assumpon is that aligning Worldview with the actual nature of reality may well improve quality of life. That alignment is an important part of the Mindful Way. A common reacon people have to my wring about mindfulness is irritaon that I am trying to make mindfulness something it is not. This complaint usually comes without the person reading the essay or knowing the history of mindfulness. The term emerged into my way of thinking as I looked for a way to describe how our study of EVP had evolved into the study of transcommunicaon, and how that evolved into a search for understanding about how we, as experiencers, are aﬀected by these phenomena. Last Issue #129: Spring 2014 ATransC NewsJournal The Spring 2014 ATransC NewsJournal (32) was our last issue.

The ﬁrst version of The Mindful Way essay was included as my eﬀort to explain the so what of our study. I have since dedicated myself to ﬁnding other ways of explaining the main point we have learned from transcommunicaon. That is, what we do now maers for the rest of our existence. My challenge is to ﬁnd a way to convey to you the urgency I feel about the need for us to understand the implicaons of our existence. From my experience as a life-long seeker, mindfulness is the most important tool available for us to manage percepon. Our percepon, what we consciously experience, is a funcon of Worldview, and that is really just a database of memory and insncts. Since the only conscious inﬂuence we have on Worldview is the expression of intenon, mindfulness is just a way of saying that we learn to be aware of the intenon we are expressing to our mostly unconscious mind. Improving awareness can be generalized as improving lucidity. For us who are in a lifeme, stepping onto the Mindful Way is the raonal response to the realizaon that we are immortal. It is for that reason this essay was included in Your Immortal Self. The other essays from that book which are included here are Essay 4: Immortal Self-Centric Perspecve and Essay 19: Progression, Teaching and Community. To be clear, while I am suggesng that you adopt a mindfulness approach to seeking spiritual maturity, I am not licensed or qualiﬁed to

advise you to do so as a therapy or remedy. Any path that takes you in that direcon can be expected to provide the side beneﬁt of a more agreeable life, but my intenon here is to shine a light on a way for you to gain spiritual maturity. Purpose The phenomena of transcommunicaon appear to have a purpose beyond the reassurance it oﬀers to loved ones. Aer examining mediumisc messages from the other side and revelaons brought by past teachers, it is easy to imagine that our etheric communicators are trying to teach us about the reality of our immortality by showing us they exist. This essay is wrien as an exploraon of the idea that the EVP messages in our recorders, or the paranormal images we ﬁnd in our photographs, are a new way of telling us that we are part of a larger community. Perhaps it is up to us to understand what that means. Mindfulness The terms mindfulness and mindful living have become catchphrases for right living, but not in a pretenous way or in an aempt to tell us what to do. People speak of mindfulness almost in a reverent tone, as if the concept relates more to God than to daily living. Always, it is used to oﬀer guidance in how to improve our life, how to be all that we can be. Discussions about the phenomena of transcommunicaon are usually about technique and quality of examples. Who is talking may be discussed, especially

if the informaon seems to come from a loved one, but the queson of connuous life seldom comes up. While in fact, considered from the perspecve of our immortal self, transcommunicaon may actually be all about our immortality. If this is true, then learning to live mindfully may be the most important ability we can learn. It is noteworthy that, in a typical Spiritualist meeng, mediumship is demonstrated as a spirit greeng, rather than a comprehensive message. The spirit greengs are demonstrated to show the truth of our connuous life. Teachers With proper controls, Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC) can be a rich source of informaon about the other side. For instance, we have learned from EVP that we should expect a life review during our transion. We know they can see us, and we know our communicators somemes get together with friends on the other side. We also know that there are changes in their ability or need to communicate so that some do not report in for years and some make contact right away, but aer a while, seem to move on. Mediumistally acquired informaon, somemes referred to as channeled material, must be considered with reservaon because we know cultural inﬂuences can color messages. Even so, consistency amongst communicators seems to add credibility to some messages. (33) The fabled Hermes of ancient Egypt connues to be an important teacher of mindfulness. The only document credited to Hermes that seems reliable is The Emerald Tablet. (28) In Line 2, he speaks

of The One Thing, which represents the expression of Source as the organizing principles involved in The Great Work of the Hermec tradion. (34) 2. And as all things are from only One Thing, by will of the one God, so all things have their origin in this One Power, by adaptaon to their individual purposes. The One Power is the Creave Process (19) by which reality is adapted to sasfy imagined purpose. The Creave Process is aenon on an imagined outcome to produce an intended order. The Great Work is all about the path followed by seekers to gain understanding. The lessons involved in this are virtually the same as those brought by many more contemporary teachers. The message is that a person beneﬁts from learning to live in accordance with the true nature of reality. Jesus is another important wayshower. A review of teachings aributed to Jesus, as found in Aramaic-to-English translaons, shows that he taught that our I Am presence exists in the greater reality and that our transion out of this lifeme is toward our I Am presence: “Where that I Am really is, there you already are, and you can be, consciously” (from Luke 24:38-49). The “…and you can be, consciously” part is a direct reference to lucidity. See the Lucidity secon in Essay 8: How We Think Jesus also taught the unity of humankind, that one person’s acons reﬂect on all people. (35) A transcript of Hans Bender‘s words as conveyed by Kai Mügge

during a séance can be read on the ATransC website (atransc.org/hans-benders-message/). (36) To paraphrase, Bender explained that we are not alone and that how we view the other side has a lot to do with how we experienced it during our transion. He said that what we are doing here aﬀects the other side and that we can project negavity into the greater reality which can cause problems for others. Jane Roberts‘ Seth material (37) appears to be a reliable source of informaon about the other side. (33) Three important instrucons from Seth are: • People create their own reality. • People exist in more than one aspect of reality at once. • The only wrong act is to violate oneself or other life. The common message from all of these sources is: • Who we really are, our I am this personality, always exists in the greater reality. • We are able to connect with our etheric aspect through right thinking. • How we think now, aﬀects us and others now and beyond this lifeme. • It is for us to learn to live in accordance with the true nature of reality. This understanding is not based on one person or one organizaon teaching religious doctrine. Think of it as the handbook for right living given to us by our friends on the other side. What We Do Now Matters With close examinaon of ITC messages, a paern begins to emerge that tells us much about the person. While

the messages appear to be paranormal, it has been noted by many researchers that diﬀerent praconers are apt to record rather diﬀerent kinds of messages from the same situaon. To illustrate, Lisa and another person went into a dark room of a reportedly haunted building and recorded for EVP. Lisa is a pragmac, levelheaded witness and recorded EVP containing useful informaon. The other person delighted in being scared and expected scary EVP, and in fact, she recorded scary EVP. In both cases, the messages were clearly paranormal, but their character tended to agree with the praconer’s temperament and Worldview. As it turns out, it appears people’s expectaons are projected onto their experiences. This has been noted in what has become known as the Sheep-Goat Eﬀect. In that, people who are more psi-sensive (psychic) tend to have more paranormal experiences. In his book, First Sight: ESP and Parapsychology in Everyday Life, (38) James Carpenter explained a hypothesis, based on evidence currently being presented in parapsychology, which holds that people are always informed about the world via their natural psychic sensing. Further, he argues that people are constantly psychokinecally inﬂuencing their world. What all of this means is that we also see with our inner senses (ﬁrst sight) and always have some inﬂuence on our world with our intenon, which is based on what we think is true. Worldview Engineers design models for systems they are trying to understand. One way to develop a model is to ﬁguravely put the subject in

an imaginary black box with the known inputs and outputs clearly deﬁned. The trick is then to think of what would have to happen inside of the box in response to the inputs to produce the outputs. Not knowing for sure what is inside the box, engineers usually solve the problem by theorizing a model with funconal areas inside the box. I refer to a model as a theorecal set of funconal areas deﬁned to produce the eﬀect proposed by a hypothesis. As in black box analysis, the model need not be factually correct, but it must funconally produce the intended results. In terms of the etheric, a model is a thought exercise. Researchers have found that people imagine what they are experiencing, and the informaon for that imagining comes from the Worldview database. If the incoming informaon agrees with the database, then it will actually be experienced by the person. If it does not match the database, then it will either be changed to agree with the database and experienced in that changed form or outright rejected. Refer to the Funconal Areas for Percepon and Expression Diagram (below). The way we express ourselves involves the same processes. Something causes us to react, and however that inial smulus is translated by Worldview, an imagined reacon is developed. At that point, it is just a fantasy, but if we intend to act, then, what is visualized is expressed in some way. The rest of the story is that, with that intenon

to act, we begin to psychokinecally inﬂuence the world. (16) Using this model, it becomes evident that Worldview plays an important part in our lives. By all indicaons, we are born with a more-or- less empty Worldview database populated only with our human’s insncts. It appears reasonable to argue that we do begin with a degree of understanding so that one might say that a child is an old soul if born with more than average understanding about the world. It also seems reasonable to say that the average person’s worldview is full of what has been taught by teachers, parents, clergy and the media. Much of that is simply local custom or popular wisdom. Personal Reality, Local Reality and the Greater Reality Of course, there is only one actual reality, but there are diﬀerences in the way people experience that one reality. This is all about the individual person, so it is important to understand that each of us has a local reality which is that part of the greater reality which we are aware of, and more importantly, to which we pay aenon. Our hometown is part of our local reality, but there are likely parts of it we are acvely aware of and other parts that only provide background for the sense of town. Our neighbor will have a slightly diﬀerent local reality and someone living in another country will hardly be aware of most of what we think of as real. The greater reality just is.

It does not have the capacity to be posive or negave. The same can be said of local reality: it just is. How we perceive our local reality is rather diﬀerent. For instance, where we live just is, but it has characteriscs such as good, bad, warm or uninving, depending on how we think of it. Our personal reality is how we perceive our local reality; what we think of it. Right or wrong, as far as we are concerned, our personal reality is the real reality and that is determined by our worldview– what we have been taught but biased by whatever understanding we have achieved. In the Mindful Way, we learn to examine our worldview to see if what we believe is true makes sense. The idea is to align personal reality with local reality; the true nature of reality and not what we have been taught to think is true. Suspended Judgment Rethinking what we believe to be true may seem paradoxical. If we believe something to be true, how can we tell if we should change our mind or even examine the belief? In praccal applicaon, the Mindful Way is a life- long process, a path to be followed one-step at a me, so how does one begin in the middle of a lifeme? An eﬀecve way to begin mindful living is to make a conscious decision to have an open mind. We do this by taking conscious control of the process our mind uses to

consider new informaon. The Funconal Areas for Percepon and Expression Diagram above represents a model for how a person experiences informaon from the environment. We visualize what we are experiencing in a very fast, mostly subconscious reacon to informaon from our environment. This visualizaon is based on what we have been taught, which is in our worldview. If the incoming informaon agrees with what we expect, say a friend on the phone or the door opening when we turn the handle, then it will be experienced. If it does not agree with what we visualize, it may not be noced, as if we are blind to it. An important characterisc of this comparison between what we expect and what we encounter is that a close agreement will likely result in percepon of the informaon as well as feedback that can modify Worldview with an ambiguous maybe. In other words, we learn. As what we learn begins to consistently agree with reality, it becomes understanding. While we are told that Worldview shapes our ﬁrst aer- death experiences, it appears that it is this understanding that persists beyond this lifeme. The idea is to learn to monitor the decision that comes out of that comparison. The idea of suspended judgment is that we seek to just experience and not decide if we accept it or not. People tend to automacally reject things they do not understand. With suspended judgment, the decision to accept or reject is not made without allowing me to

consider the experience in the context of more informaon. Self-Determination We have to decide … everything. If not what we experience, then we must at least decide how to react. Self-determinaon also means that we create our world. Again, not necessarily the brick and mortar places and things we live in, for we live in a collecvely visualized venue for learning. For sure, we decide how to react to these things. Two people might have essenally the same experience, but each will remember it in a diﬀerent way. A person who is in the habit of thinking things always go wrong will likely remember it as a bad experience; however, a person who is generally opmisc about life is likely to remember it as a good experience or at least as a learning experience. It is all about atude and that is a learned thing. Here too, suspended judgment can help. Whatever we think the world is like, we can learn to consciously intercept that “Oh, it’s awful” response with either a “wait and see” or an “it has a good side” response. You may be thinking that this is idealisc, but it works. Once it becomes a habit to intercept those internal decisions, there is more room for alternave explanaons for what we experience. An awful reacon tends to stop further consideraon of alternave explanaons. We are always psychically interacng with your environment. How we think of incoming informaon also has a lot to do with how that informaon

connues to develop. It is likely that a posive or at least neutral response will encourage a more beneﬁcial eﬀect in our environment. It is helpful to know when interacng with others if they are fundamentally afraid of the world. From what we learn about a person through normal interacon, we can ask, “Do they think they live in a friendly world or a scary world?” Self-determinaon is always colored by how we feel about the fundamental nature of our world. Fear of our world can become a basic part of our decision making without our realizing. For instance, owning a gun is a fear reacon. Belief in original sin is a fear reacon. Our human is very afraid of the unknown, and that fear will color our thoughts about situaons in which there are many unknowns, such as the dark and social commitments. Aggressiveness is oen a fear reacon. The Mindful Way This is an abbreviated discussion about the Mindful Way. The main message is that what we do now will follow us for the rest of our existence–here and hereaer. The more our personal reality agrees with the actual nature of reality, the more progress we will make in our evoluon toward a spiritually mature personality; understanding begets understanding. The key is to stop and think before we react. To paraphrase Jane Roberts‘ Seth, perhaps the only sin is to impose our will on others. We must learn to stop and think about how our acons aﬀect others.

We are cizens of our community, the world … and the greater reality. We psychically interact with it so that our feelings about another person in some way aﬀect that person. The only right we have is to decide what we think of our world and how we will react to what we decide. We are the only judge as to how well we are doing and that is not based on what we have been taught but on understanding we have gathered during our existence. In an ideal world, people would just naturally be mindful of how they are doing as cizens. Laws to enforce behavior considered common decency today would be unnecessary because people would be mindful of how their acons might aﬀect others. Of course, we do not live in an ideal world, but that is the point. We are also a society of people whose personal reality is very diﬀerent than the actual nature of reality. The ideal of the Mindful Way is to evolve a society of people who understand they are part of a community. References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 3 Prime Imperative 2014 About This Essay In speaking of our spiritual aspect, we depend on many concepts that may be true as a maer of popular wisdom, but that might not actually be true. For example, I speak of our spiritual progression as if it is a factual characterisc of who we are. But, I am

assuming we are expected to progress in the sense of increasing spiritual maturity. The idea comes as a consequence of the assumed eﬃciency of nature and our assumed immortality, which in turn comes as a consequence of the assumpon that we will survive beyond this physical lifeme for a reason. But is it true? From whence come our spiritual insncts? Many of the essays I write begin as an eﬀort to address a nagging sense that I am making assumpons for which I have not established a reasonably raonal foundaon. The idea that we have spiritual insncts is such an assumpon. This essay is my eﬀort to establish that raonal foundaon. The etheric aspect of reality is, by deﬁnion, nonphysical. Anything nonphysical is conceptual, and sll today, necessarily theorecal. Consequently, any raonal argument I make about the etheric is based on theories proven by theories. This is not an acceptable, logical argument. However, it can be argued that each theory inherits validity if all of the related theories are considered … and are at least marginally supported by the evidence. In fact, much of what we know about our physical world is based on credibility inherited from a few objecve observaons. The resulng principles work very well. The proof for survival I presented in Your Immortal Self (1) is based on consideraon of many forms of trans-etheric phenomena. For instance, Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) are well-established as actual phenomena. (39) It is reasonably well established through forensic-quality analysis (40) and

abundant anecdotal evidence that EVP are a form of trans-etheric inﬂuence. It is not as well established that they are iniated by discarnate personalies, but the discarnate origin of EVP inherits validity from other theories, especially those supporng mindfulness and content analysis of the Seth Material. (33) In this essay, I have aempted to develop a logical argument to say that we exist for the purpose of gaining understanding about the nature of reality. I also argue that we have a spiritual insnct or urge to gain understanding that tends to inﬂuence our every acon. The ideas of purpose and spiritual insncts are foundaon concepts in the New Age and Spiritualist communies. Perhaps one of the most inﬂuenal books for me was Robert Ardrey‘s 1961 African Genesis. (41) I did not realize it at the me, but looking back, I can see that Ardrey became something of a role model for me. His process involved watching animals in their natural habitat, and so, it was from him that I learned about the naturalist approach to science. His observaons of how animals behaved in their natural habitat were interesng, but it quickly became clear that they translate into human insncts. For example, I learned from him about the way birds establish a pecking order. This behavior extends to other animals in the wild, and certainly to humans. Ardrey caused quite a controversy when he claimed that animals are natural killers. Probably the only line I remember from the original Star Trek

television series was Captain Kirk saying, “Yes, we are killers. But we can choose not to kill today.” In that one line, is acknowledgment that we have human insncts which drive us, but we also have a raonal aspect which is able to moderate those insncts. That, with the conscious decision to moderate our behavior, is a good explanaon of mindfulness. The work I have done in the study of transcommunicaon and survival has been largely that of a naturalist observing the phenomena in its natural habitat. As it should be for any good naturalist, these observaons have evolved into a theory about their nature. Another lesson learned from Ardrey is his concept of Territorial Imperave. He proposed that humans have evolved an insnct to take and hold territory. The important idea I have taken from this is that others also think humans are driven to possess. Again, it is not the territory part I am geng at. It is that our human has survival insncts which govern its every acon. It also has an overriding urge to be the top human in all circumstances to further the objecve of those insncts. From the perspecve of this essay, the territorial imperave can be thought of as a pinnacle insnct. Our human’s foundaon insncts are concerned with survival of the species, and most parcularly, survival of our human’s gene pool. Territory represents a master urge intended to enable realizaon of those foundaon insncts. Our immortal self’s pinnacle insnct can be seen

as the urge to gain understanding about our local reality. The foundaon spiritual insncts it enables include teaching, learning, cooperaon and tesng. The stronger the community, the more able we are to fulﬁll the objecve of our spiritual insncts. Abstract The foundaon assumpon of this essay is that a person is an etheric personality entangled with a human body for a lifeme. And, that a person enters into a lifeme to gain understanding about the nature of reality through daily living experiences. It is argued here that part of gaining maturity is learning to manage the inﬂuence of human insncts while responding to the urge inherited from our etheric nature to turn toward parcular experiences. Understanding is seen as the objecve. Curiosity is seen as the perspecve. Mindfulness is seen as a way of life. Introduction If we are more than our body, if we are spirit beings only temporarily entangled with a human body during a lifeme as a person, it seems reasonable to think we are a person for a purpose. It is also reasonable to think this purpose relates to who we are as immortal personalies, rather than a purpose related to our human and just this lifeme. Our ﬁrst purpose is to live a good life, wherever it takes us and whatever we do for a living. It is through life experiences that we have opportunity to gain understanding. In support of our ﬁrst purpose, our second purpose is to turn toward those experiences that challenge

us so that we might gain understanding. Point of View for This Essay The point of view taken in this essay is that our real home is in the greater reality, which I refer to here as the etheric. The supporng concepts are concerned with our collecve, but in order to have a beginning and end to who we are, I say that reality is the body of Source. In Spiritualism, this is Inﬁnite Intelligence. This is also the omnipresence aspect of the biblical God but not the omniscience or omnipotence aspects. We are an aspect of Source. Well, we are more likely an aspect of a personality that is many rounds of aspectaon removed from Source. To be consistent with the way we imagine things, each aspect likely produced many aspects of itself. Thus, probably the best way to look at our relaonship with Source is to think of Source’s life ﬁeld as a nested hierarchy of life ﬁelds. Think of those nested groups as collecves. The collecve we are part of is formed of many aspects of a single local source. I think that, someday, we will once again become one with our local source, just as it will eventually become one with its local source. Think of a local source as the nexus personality for a collecve. This is not a personality to be worshiped. It is to be respected as the source of our purpose for being. I will get to that purpose in a moment.

A useful way of thinking of a nexus personality and its collecve is to remember the mental process you follow to decide about something. Suppose you are thinking about going shopping. The ﬁrst step is to visualize what you are shopping for and where. You might imagine yourself being there and looking at the merchandise; perhaps trying on something. Perhaps you will realize the price and forget the who thing. When we imagine a place in our mind, in which we imagine ourselves, we create a venue for learning and an aspect of ourselves to experience the venue. We give that lile me a purpose to experience (shop) and the self-determinaon to thereby gain understanding (cost). The imagined venue is an aspect or subset of our sense of reality and our lile me is a subset of who we are as we imagine ourselves. Now here is the important part. The imagined venue is in our life ﬁeld. It will forever be part of our reality as a memory and we will remember that lile me experience forever. All of the experience will have become part of our sense of reality. All of this will be in the form of understanding which will ever so slightly modify our understanding of reality. Our venue for learning is the physical universe. It appears to be an imagined aspect of reality that is shared by many nexus personalies, so that you may well be in a diﬀerent collecve than your neighbor. Certainly, your

nexus personality will have a lile diﬀerent reason for expressing you into a lifeme. All of us have the shared purpose of gaining understanding, but probably for diﬀerent aspects of this venue or from diﬀerent perspecves. We are inﬂuenced by the insncts of our human body. But we begin with diﬀerent circumstances and with a diﬀerent degree of prior understanding inherited from our nexus personality. So, while we share the need to assure survival of the human species, we diﬀer in how we approach life and how well equipped we are to ﬁnd meaning in daily experiences. Cooperative Collective I once had a waking vision of the face of a clock. It was suspended in the air, face-up, but lted toward me a lile so that I could see that there were many black specks scurrying about on the white surface. My impression was that they were lile sck people like those I might draw in a hurry. The space between three and four o’clock was an open hole and a few sck people had apparently fallen through. The people on the face of the clock were somehow helping the people who had fallen through the hole. As the hour hand made a complete circuit, the ones in the hole came to the surface and a few of the others jumped into the hole. My sense was that the sck people were all part of a collecve of personalies, a soul group if you want, and they were doing all

they could to help their fellows who had entered into a lifeme, symbolized by falling through the hole. I knew that they were helping one another to progress by gaining understanding, and that none of them would be able to move on unl all had made suﬃcient progress. The hour hand represented a lifeme. Probably not all of them, but many of my helpers, friends, and guides, both on the other side and in the physical, are part of my collecve. I am never very far from them, and just as I am a student, in turn, I am teacher, for we must all move as one. Immortal Self Your ﬁrst reacon about what I have said so far might be that you do not want to return to your nexus personality if it means you will disappear like your lile mes more or less disappear in your memory. I have thought about this a lot. As I understand the metaphysics, a good way to think of your relaonship with your nexus personality and your collecve … and ulmately with Source … is as a chorus. Your nexus personality is the chorus. Individual personalies in your collecve are the members of the chorus. During a lifeme, you step out before the chorus and sing a solo. You are backed by the harmonizing sounds of the other members. When you have ﬁnished your solo, you step back to join the chorus. At no me has your conscious self become anything less.

Rather, your presence is made greater by the chorus. There is nothing in the metaphysics I have studied indicang we will lose our sense of individuality. Our Etheric Nature To understand our purpose, we must ﬁrst understand our nature. Popular Wisdom Religious leaders tend to consider perpetuang the species and assuring supremacy of their religion as sacred work of God. For them, survival is a maer of going to a heaven of one kind or another to receive their just rewards. In mainstream science, the theory of evoluon holds that organisms undergo random mutaons. (42) Survival of the mutaons depends on how useful they are to the survival of the species. There is no intenon involved in the theory of evoluon, just chance. In a real sense, mainstream science is religious about what it accepts as truth. When it comes to agreement between mainstream and survival- based philosophy, experience has taught us that it is not a maer of having enough quality evidence, but rather, it is a maer of honest examinaon of exisng evidence. So, the ﬁrst idea we need to consider is that, what is taught by religions and mainstream science, is biased toward faith-based beliefs; faith in the Bible or faith in science. Life Fields as the Basic Building Block of Reality As shown in the diagram below, a ﬁeld can be thought of as a number of elements bound together by a common inﬂuence acng as a nexus. In a life ﬁeld, an intelligent core acts

as the nexus for the ﬁeld and is ulmately who we really are. I refer to this intelligent core as personality. From the perspecve of conscious self, personality is normally an unconscious presence that maintains our form and purpose. It funcons as our higher self or soul. Conscious self is the experiencing aspect of a life ﬁeld. Our conscious self is also who we think we are and represents our perspecve of reality. Between personality and conscious self is our mostly unconscious mind. Mind is like a computer that considers inputs from the environment and makes decisions about how to react depending on how that informaon compares to what is in the database called Worldview. As we enter into a lifeme, our worldview is populated with human insncts inherited from the human’s body mind. Also, at birth, Worldview includes what can be thought of as spiritual insncts and a degree of understanding inherited from personality. As we gain in maturity during this lifeme, we learn to manage our human’s insncts, but in the process, our worldview is populated with cultural wisdom and what we learn from friends, schools, religions and the media. Most people live a life dictated by their human’s insncts as they are moderated by cultural wisdom. Some, however, turn toward a more mindful way. It is in the nature of the Mindful Way that we see evidence that we have a purpose beyond simple survival of the species. The consequences of duality and survival are that our

human must be an independent life form. If it is, then it must have its own core intelligence. (15) The diﬀerence, I think is that our human is part of a collecve with a shared Worldview. That is, our body’s life ﬁeld is like ours but with many conscious selves in the form of instances of that species, rather than the single conscious self we experience. The argument for this is a complex one, of which I have aempted to make sense in Your Immortal Self. (1) As it is modeled in the Implicit Cosmology (12), every instance of life is a life ﬁeld with a Worldview funcon. Consequently, I speculate that each life ﬁelds represenng a physical organism has a Worldview. But focus on the diﬀerence between an etheric life form (in the psi ﬁeld) and aspects of reality to which we assign physicality (the physical). The physical organism is thought to be organized by a group consciousness thoughorm. Thus, a memory common to the physical species organizes the morphogenesis of the organism. That is, Nature’s Habit, (15) is shared across all instances of the species as a common body memory. There seems not enough informaon to speculate about what this means in terms of a physical organism’s senence beyond inherited insncts and genec coding. I speculate that our human undergoes a return, so to speak, to its common body memory, and that behavior of each instance of the species is enrely insnctual or genecally coded if it is

not funconing as an avatar. A consequence of this model is that your pet may well be an avatar for a personality in much the same way your human funcons as your avatar. I hesitate to speculate beyond that because it is too easy to get into the subject of Hinduism‘s transmigraon of souls, which is beyond the scope of this essay. The Mindful Way Our mostly unconscious mind is our receiver of informaon. The best theory I have seen for this is that everything in reality produces a psi signal. (38) Our mind receives these psi signals but ignores all but those which are important to our body’s wellbeing, and which are either directed to us or in which we have intended an interest. The body’s ﬁve senses must be translated into psi signals, presumably in the brain. A consequence of what our body senses being processed by mind is that it can as easily ignore what we physically sense as it can ignore informaon from other minds. Mind has a set of funconal areas which, in eﬀect, asks Worldview if it recognizes the informaon. This queson and answer may occur many mes in sequence unl mind either decides to ignore the informaon, modify it into a form which agrees with Worldview or modify Worldview to recognize the informaon in future encounters. The result of this “Do you recognize this?” process is sent to conscious self, so that what we actually experience is a version of the original informaon

based on Worldview. This tends to produce conscious percepon that conforms with cultural expectaon. I refer to this as cultural contaminaon because it is a hinderance to lucidity. The only inﬂuence we have on mind is the expression of our intenon. In mindfulness, we learn to intend to experience reality as it is, rather than how we are taught to believe it is. The idea is that we do not necessarily know the actual nature of reality because of cultural contaminaon. In eﬀect, we live in a personal reality which is a version of actual reality. Through mindfulness, we evolve our percepon toward the actual nature of reality by habitually quesoning the implicaons of our percepon. Worldview has considerable momentum so that it tends to only change in small increments. First Sight Theory (38) teaches us that we can inﬂuence Worldview by intending certain behaviors. This tends to cause mind to turn toward one kind of informaon and away from others. By examining our every assumpon with quesons such as “Does this make sense?” or “How will this aﬀect others?” while intending that we do no harm or intending that we see things as they are, we can begin the long process of aligning our personal reality with the actual nature of reality. Natural Law Natural Law is deﬁned by the Naonal Spiritualist Associaon of Churches (NSAC) as an “Ascertained working sequence or constant order among the phenomena of nature.” They explain: “Natural laws are simple statements of the orderly

working of the universe and all that is in it. They represent the constant outward expression of what we can expect to happen in any given situaon.” (8) Inﬁnite Intelligence is the Spiritualist equivalent of Source spoken of in this essay and the book, Your Immortal Self. It is understood that Natural Law is an aspect of Inﬁnite Intelligence. As it is in the NSAC Declaraon of Principles, (24) it is also understood that the goal of a Spiritualist is to learn to recognize and understand the principles and learn to live in accordance with their dictates. We have self-determinaon, but it is inﬂuenced by Natural Law. This philosophy is embodied in four of the nine principles of the Declaraon of Principles: 1. We believe in Inﬁnite Intelligence. 2. We believe that the phenomena of Nature, both physical and spiritual, are the expression of Inﬁnite Intelligence. 3. We aﬃrm that a correct understanding of such expression and living in accordance therewith, constute true religion. And 7. We aﬃrm the moral responsibility of individuals and that we make our own happiness or unhappiness as we obey or disobey Nature’s physical and spiritual laws. Organizing Principles The Implicit Cosmology, described in Your Immortal Self, has been developed from the implicaons of survival. It includes thirty-eight Organizing Principles.(27) There was no aempt to adhere to known natural laws which came to us by way of the Hermec Teachings(28) and are from the human perspecve. Organizing Principles became evident during the design of the

Implicit Cosmology and are from an etheric personality perspecve. The concept that there are organizing principles is noted as one of the eight Organizing Principles related to formaon of reality. It is deﬁned as Reality operates according to a body of Organizing Principles which are inherent from Source’s creave expression. From the supporng text: Source is modeled here in the sense of from whence it came rather than as a father god. Since reality is Source’s life ﬁeld, everything in reality is governed by the same rules of behavior governing Source and its expressions. Given the existence of Source and Organizing Principles, a logical argument could be composed to describe how the whole of reality might self-organize. Curiosity For the purpose of this discussion, the most important organizing principle is Curiosity deﬁned as Curiosity is the source of aenon. It is proposed in the Implicit Cosmology (12) that our curiosity is inherited from Source which is seen as self-aware and curious about its nature. The Ancipaon Corollary of First Sight Theory, (38) which essenally states that mind seeks to ancipate events, provides reasonably good support for this idea of a personality having a natural tendency to seek to understand its environment in order to ancipate changes. In mindfulness, we express curiosity with the intenon to understand how experiences align with what we think is true and what we actually experience. The key concepts here are intended, which is a conscious inﬂuence on mind, and understand, which is comprehension of the

relaonship between expression and percepon. Understanding Thus far in this essay, I have argued that we are spiritual beings temporarily entangled with a human during this lifeme and that we are part of a collecve of personalies who cooperate to gain understand which is intended to sasfy the curiosity of our nexus (top) personality. If this argument is reasonably correct, then the reason for our existence is to seek understanding. Understanding in this sense is characterized as comprehending the principles of Natural Law or Organizing Principles. That is, our purpose is to come to understand the fundamental rules by which reality operates … and their consequences. In the ancient wisdom schools, students are oen referred to as seekers. Seeking involves the process of intending to ﬁnd understanding in experience. But more important, seekers look for experiences that will help them understand speciﬁc aspects of reality. You may be familiar with the idea of iniaons. Seekers undergo iniaons intended to establish that they have gained speciﬁc understanding. During an iniaon, seekers are challenged to answer quesons about subjects that are unrelated to what they were taught. The expected answer requires suﬃcient understanding about what they were taught. In this way, understanding is seen as a universal knowing that is independent of the experiences which taught the understanding. Understanding is Relative Understanding is relave. By that, I mean that awareness of an underlying principle oen leads to recognion that even more fundamental principles are involved. For instance, borrowing something from a friend

brings the responsibility to assure its safe return. You might think the understanding to be gained is the nature of responsibility. It is, but as we proceed, it may become clear that it is also that borrowing obligates us to oﬀer a favor in return, so obligaon is a new understanding. There are many possible concepts to understand that come from the inial decision to borrow something but underlying all of them is the important concept of cooperave communies. I deﬁne the Cooperave Communies Organizing Principle as “An eﬀort to express understanding is necessary for progression. Collecves are inherently cooperave communies. A person is aracted to communies of like-minded people cooperang to facilitate progression.” The cooperave community concept applies to many kinds of interacon amongst people. Understanding one should enable you to apply it to others. Purpose as Prime Imperative Religion prey much began with the message that our purpose is to follow the path of the Great Work, which is to understand “The One Thing” as it is addressed in the Emerald Tablet. The Emerald Tablet (28) is widely believed to be one of the few surviving documents from the Hermec Teaching thought to have been set forth some 6,000 years ago in Egypt. The text is very esoteric if you are not familiar with metaphysical concept. I have taken the liberty of paraphrasing it in Essay 17: Hermes Concepts. (28) The paraphrase is included here. (Line numbers in parentheses are from Essay 17.) Here, Hermes as talking to

his students in conversaonal terms. Lesson Name: The Truly Great Work a. I can tell you as your teacher that your thoughts and your deeds are directly related so that your thoughts aﬀect your expression, and your percepon of that expression aﬀects your thoughts. (Line 1) b. Reality is both singular as Source and the expression of Source according to its intenon. This expression of intenon represents ordering principles which govern the adaptaon of reality to individual purpose. The world you live in is an aspect of the greater reality as it is expressed by way of the Creave Process. (Line 2) c. The Creave Process requires the visualizaon of the imagined purpose with the intenon to make it so. (Line 3 and 4) d. You, the person as an etheric personality entangled with a physical body, are the creator in this lesson. (Line 5) e. And so, the creave inﬂuence produces all things in reality. The Creave Process ﬁnds expression through the informed intenon of the person. (Line 6) f. It is necessary to learn to disnguish between that which is part of actual reality as expression moderated by organizing principles and that which is perceived as real, but which is actually illusion. (Line 7) g. Increased understanding of the actual nature of reality is contributed by the student to the collecve of personalies in the greater reality, and thus merged, becomes available to the student as more profound understanding. (Line 8) h. As such, you will ﬁnd that

understanding leads to clear sensing which enables a person to experience reality as it is, rather than as you have been taught. (Line 10 and 11) i. Your increased understanding achieved through the Great Work may lead you to beer living and increased stature in your community. (Line 9) j. Thus, I have told you how the world has been created. But be mindful that these truths are not evident to those who have not stepped onto this path of learning. (Line 12) k. As the teacher of this hidden way, I represent the three parts of a teacher. That is, I represent the understanding of the One Thing and The Great Work, I am an example of how you may integrate this understanding into daily life and in me you can see the possibilies of living this path. I am three mes accomplished: as a teacher, role model and a cizen. (Line 13) l. And now you understand the Truly Great Work. (Line 14) It would be easy to translate the One Thing of the Emerald Tablet to mean god, but the Hermec Teaching is about one god and many aspects of that god. Those aspects are the organizing principles which govern the operaon of reality. Those principles are modeled as the expression of Source. In that sense, the One Thing is Source (God). What I like to refer to as The Prime Imperave (23) is described in Line 6. Gaining understanding means learning to see reality as it

is, rather than as we are taught. References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 4 Immortal Self-Centric Perspective 2014 About This Essay In his book Far Journeys, Robert Monroe described some of the lessons he had been taught while astral traveling. In one, he described two etheric tourists who came on a tour near the Earth Plane. Tourist AA decided he wanted to enter into a lifeme to see what it was like in the physical. Tourist BB was worried for him and advised against such folly. His fear was that AA would enter into a lifeme and soon forget who he was. (43) AA did enter into a lifeme, and as BB feared, soon forget he was an etheric being only temporarily entangled with a human for a lifeme. As BB worried about AA and remained near to help as he could, AA entered into lifeme aer lifeme, slipping ever further into the illusion of physical life. As the story goes, there came a me in which AA began to remember his true nature and began the gradual process of regaining memory of his actual self. Aer many lifemes more, he ﬁnally completely remembered his etheric nature and was able to escape the Earth Plane. Ascended masters volunteering to enter into a lifeme in order to help humankind is an oen-repeated concept. The idea is that even the spiritually advanced personality risks succumbing to the illusion of thinking they are their body and forget

their spiritual nature. Think of it. We are born into a body in which human insncts dominate. The brain is not fully formed, and therefore is not able to fully funcon as a transmier-receiver for mind. Parents treat the person as if it is the body. By the me the baby is suﬃciently developed for the conscious self to begin exerng an inﬂuence, the experiencer aspect of the entangled personality (conscious self) is already convinced it is the body. The cycle only changes when the person ﬁnally achieves the presence of mind to queson beliefs and its human’s insnctual behavior. It is then that something like mindfulness becomes a viable tool to gain further understanding. The rest depends on the availability of teachers, a cooperave community and the person’s determinaon to gain understanding. This essay is inspired by my observaons of the way people struggle to remain on the Mindful Way. Even aer deciding to live mindfully, the illusion of being the body oen biases lessons learned to cast everything in a body-centric perspecve. The intenon of this essay is to convince you to stop and reconsider your perspecve as part of your daily mindful behavior. When you ask yourself if what you are sensing is real, also ask yourself if you are sensing it from your human’s perspecve or your immortal self’s perspecve. Learning to maintain an immortal self-centric perspecve is an essenal tool for progression. It is for that reason this was included in Your Immortal Self as

Discourse 8. The other essays from that book are Essay 2: The Mindful Way and Essay 19: Progression, Teaching and Community. Introduction This discourse is about our nonphysical nature: our conscious mind, memories, and that mostly unconscious part of our mind we somemes meet in our dreams. It is for you to decide, but it has been my experience that our happiness and progression depend on our informed life choices. If the Implicit Cosmology (12) is reasonably correct, it must be understood that what we do in this lifeme will aﬀect the rest of our eternity. This subject is important because understanding the more universal nature of who we are will have an important inﬂuence on how we understand the implicaons of our life experiences. Put a diﬀerent way, we have been taught from birth that the limits of our word are what we can see, smell, taste, feel and hear. In fact, our physical senses only mark the limits of our human body’s physical world. Sciensts who are willing to at least consider the nonphysical nature of mind tell us that even informaon from our ﬁve senses must be translated into the same psi form before their informaon can be considered. This means that our real sensory funcons are beer related to our core personality than to our physical body. If this is true, then we have spent a good part of our lifeme totally misunderstanding what real actually means. That is a prey shaky foundaon on which to

make life-changing decisions. The soluon, of course, is to change our perspecve through educaon. Perspective The perspecve from which a queson is considered has a lot to do with how it is answered. Our normal perspecve is that of being our human body. We look at the world through our human’s eyes from the perspecve of within our human’s head. This is natural. We have had that perspecve since birth. However, if we are immortal personalies temporarily hosted by our physical body, the more correct perspecve is to say “This is my human, but my true self is not physical. I am not my body.” We might say that the usual perspecve is body-centric but that the more correct perspecve is immortal self-centric. Here, personality is used to indicate the intelligent core of the complex of inﬂuences and funconal areas that composes our whole self. In this view, personality is the immortal intelligent core while the human body is an avatar-host for personality’s conscious self. Our Body is a Complete Organism As an organism that has evolved on this planet, our physical body is probably fully funconal without our entanglement. It is proposed in the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon (15) that the morphogenec development of physical organisms, such as our body, is organized by a morphic ﬁeld which supports the body image and the necessary rules for its development (known as morphogenesis). Morphic ﬁelds are life ﬁelds but are described in terms of a physical organism. They include funconal areas

for Worldview (memory, Nature’s Habit), percepon, levels of consciousness and a means of expression. As such, the human body life ﬁeld is essenally the same as our personality life ﬁeld. By that, I mean that our worldview is directly comparable with Nature’s Habit. The one major diﬀerence appears to be that our insnct is to gain understanding through experience and our body’s insnct appears primarily to survive in the physical world. The message is that, during our physical lifeme, we share Worldview and many of our perceptual and expressive abilies with our human. However, as shown in the Life Field Complex with Avatar Diagram, the morphic ﬁeld for our avatar also has a funconal area represenng Nature’s Habit. The Body Image funconal area is comparable to our personality’s intelligent core. Our Body as Avatar Based on current understanding, our human body has a consciousness which is not completely suppressed during a lifeme. In fact, the relaonship, is at least to some extent, a symbioc one in which our daily choices are oen greatly inﬂuenced by our human. A person gains in maturity by learning to cooperate with the body consciousness while remaining true to the ideals of balance and progression toward greater understanding. It helps to understand how to disnguish between our body’s insncts and our understanding. To do this, it is necessary for a person to recognize the diﬀerence between the inherited urge to understand and the body’s insnctual urge to survive and perpetuate its kind. It is also

a challenge to disnguish between the beliefs that are taught by our local culture and the actual nature of reality as it is understood when those beliefs are superseded by understanding. This can best be accomplished when we are aware that we are not our body. Avatar In Hinduism, an avatar (from Sanskrit for descent) is characterized as a deliberate descent of a deity to Earth. The term can be translated into English as incarnaon. A person is an immortal self entangled with a human in an avatar relaonship. In the avatar relaonship, the personality remains associated with the etheric aspect of reality, but its perspecve is the personality’s conscious self, as it thinks it is the physical body. In trying to understand this relaonship, the most important thing to remember is that we do not know much about how humans might behave if they did not have an entangled personality. While it is necessary to make a few assumpons for informed speculaon, the underlying rule should be that humans are life forms which deserve respect and good care as hosts that enable our existence in the physical. The relaonship between etheric personality and the human avatar is shown in the Life Field Complex with Avatar Diagram. Noce in the diagram that the Aenon Complex (middle) is shared by the etheric personality (upper-le) and the complex represenng the human body consciousness (upper-right). The actual human body is in the box marked Avatar (lower-right). This relaonship is discussed below. Cooperation Between

Personality and Avatar At the me of personality’s entanglement with its human avatar, its Worldview is populated with a subset of understanding and the urge to gain further understanding. All of this is inherited from a source personality. As is shown in the Life Field Complex with Avatar Diagram above, the conscious self and its human avatar share Worldview. This shared memory is the main point of this discussion, because beginning at birth, the dominant conscious self must learn to manage the human inﬂuence, even as it learns to adapt to its local reality. An example of the human inﬂuence’s persistence is demonstrated by the way we frequently hear in transcommunicaon that newly transioned communicators sll idenfy with their physical bodies. Some communicators even report something like a geng well period as they become accustomed to healthy mind and body. This suggests that people remain under the inﬂuence of the human body image well into transion. Understanding the avatar relaonship can help us live a producve life from the perspecve of following inherited urges from personality (spiritual insncts) while managing our body’s insncts. The challenge is in learning how to disnguish which are our body’s issues and which are real to our personality. Essay 2: The Mindful Way addresses this. Each avatar relaonship begins with a blend of personality and human body traits. One way to make an informed guess as to what those traits are is to look for those that we were born with that inﬂuence our behavior

today. If the avatar hypothesis is correct, then the human part of our worldview should be memory, beliefs and insncts related to survival. Understanding and inclinaons inherited from our etheric personality should be related to increasing understanding or progression of personality. For instance, responding to peer pressure would support herd or tribal safety but it would also tend to restrict learning. In a similar way, compulsive behavior would seem to suggest human insncts while habitual curiosity would seem to support learning (spiritual insncts). While proofreading this essay, I had an interacon on Facebook with a fellow who was convinced Hillary Clinton tried to steal the 2015 elecon from Bernie Sanders. He clearly had considerable anger about it. There was no possibility of a raonal discussion. Polical acvism that is not balanced with an open mind is a likely place to ﬁnd human insncts overriding spiritual insncts. Acvely campaigning for the beerment of society is good and important. I submit doing so is evidence of the inﬂuence of immortal self. However, for any side of the discussion, the inﬂuence of hindbrain survival insncts become evident when acvism turns to belief in absolutes. Tribalism is a bright red ﬂag when it comes to polical ideologies. It is a form of herd behavior that manifests as dogged loyalty to a parcular ideology. This behavior seems only possible if human insncts are in full control of the member of the tribe. Survival of Body Mind It is diﬃcult to say that the human exists

just as an avatar for etheric personalies, and then to say that all life forms have a personality. The collecve model probably applies for all life forms, but is there a diﬀerence in the character of consciousness? We know that animals exhibit self- conscious behavior, clearly indicang that they are more than simply a collecve mind, but is there a diﬀerence in purpose? The physical organism body consciousness is modeled in the Implicit Cosmology as being part of a collecve, as well. The diﬀerence is that it is more of a group consciousness as described in the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon. (15) In that model, a morphic ﬁeld has access to a worldview- like database that is a collecon of Nature’s Habits for that family of closely related organisms. For the human, it represents how the human body has evolved since its origin. This is an area that needs much more consideraon. It is important to know that there is nothing in the Trans-Survival Hypothesis that argues it only applies to people. How it might apply to a loving pet is beyond my speculaon at this me; however, there is nothing in the cosmology that says other animals cannot be avatars for immortal self. Personal Style and Astrology Just as people are born le or right-handed, people are born with basic personality traits that tend to inﬂuence their behavior. Personal styles are cataloged and studied in psychology as a means of understanding human behavior. (44) They have also been adapted

to teach salespeople how to relate to customers. In 1981, David Merrill and Roger Reid published a book reporng their study of corporate personnel interacons which became something of an industry standard. (45) They noted four main personal styles: Analycal: Thinking, thorough, disciplined Amiable: Supporve, paent, diplomac Driver: Independent, decisive, determined Expressive: Good communicator, enthusiasc, imaginave Each basic style is typically further divided so that a person might be seen as a Driver-Analycal or a Driver-Expressive. The point of these styles is that people likely begin dealing with a situaon from the perspecve of one of these styles. The queson is whether or not this inclinaon is inherited from personality or from avatar. The idea of astrology is that people’s behavior is inﬂuenced by the astrological condions at the me of their birth. A year is divided into twelve signs based on the ancient zodiac and each indicates a diﬀerent set of personality traits. The Personal Styles Diagram shows a suggested relaonship between astrological signs and the four personal styles. It is important to note that personal styles and astrology are not being recommended here. They are used to demonstrate that we tend to display personality characteriscs that are evident at a very young age and which tend to shape our lives. There appears to be general agreement between the systems; however, the personal styles are more oen described in terms of informaon acquision or community, while the astrological signs tend to emphasize the same sort of characteriscs usually associated

with insncts. For instance, an Aries, who is a person born between March 21 and April 20, is described as (amongst other qualies) impulsive, physical and driven. Aries is related to a Driver in the Personal Styles Diagram, and a Driver is described in terms like independent, decisive and determined. A Capricorn (December 23 to January 20) is described as (amongst other qualies) insncve, over-reacng and moody. A Capricorn compares to an Analycal who is described in terms of thinking, thorough and disciplined. Since there is so lile known about this from the immortal self-centric view, it must be le for us to take the iniave to study and self-analyze. The interpretaon of astrological signs and personal styles oﬀered here is just an opinion, and your experience may be diﬀerent. Again, these are examples indicang the kind of cues you would look for if you conduct a self-appraisal. Balance Noce the center circle in the Personal Styles Diagram labeled Balance. As you come to beer understand yourself and your avatar, and therefore gain in maturity, you will ﬁnd yourself converging on the middle way. One of the most important secret lessons taught by ancient wisdom schools is that balance is the middle way toward maturity. This does not mean a balanced person would never express extreme behavior, only that such a person would consciously do so, taccally for a purpose, and then return to the center without aachment for the outcome of his or her acons. See the Essay 2:

The Mindful Way. Irrational Behavior Do you have a pet, perhaps a dog or cat? If so, you may have noced a lot of behavior that seems to be irraonal. For instance, your pet might be fearful of an unexpected object in the backyard, or it might be unreasonably afraid of men, especially strangers. Sure, you would think it is just behaving like an animal. Animals oen seem irraonal. That is one of the disnguishing characteriscs between humans and animals. But what if you have irraonal behaviors? Are you afraid of the dark? Do you go out of your way to avoid strangers? Is it diﬃcult to communicate with people of the opposite sex? Are these behaviors raonal? Do you have reasons for them which are more than just an excuse? Everyone has fears that might be more exaggerated than circumstances would seem to require. The usual way of dealing with them is to talk the person out of the fear, either by appealing to logic or by showing that there is no need for fear, in eﬀect, to wear out the fear response. In the body-centric view, we naturally appeal to the raonal mind, which is that part of us that is supposed to be logical, thinking and learning. However, in the immortal self-centric view, it can be seen that the human animal is the source of irraonal fear. Because of the entangled avatar relaonship, the human insncts are part of the shared Worldview, which is in turn, the

governing factor of the Perceptual Loop of a life ﬁeld’s Aenon Complex. As such, too oen, the strongest and ﬁrst response to an external inﬂuence is the human animal’s ﬁght or ﬂight reacon. See the “Perceptual Loop and Worldview“ in Essay 1: Condional Free Will. It is natural that a young person will more oen respond to circumstance from the human’s insncts, but over me, it is expected that the person will more oen have a raonal response. That is the idea of maturity. Even so, people are plagued all of their lives with an unrecognized human inﬂuence. So long as they think with a body-centric point of view, it will be natural for them to seek to suppress the animal response, rather than understand the necessity to more directly manage the Perceptual Loop through mindfulness. A beer model for therapy might be to learn how to appeal to the animal in us, rather than the raonal personality. We need a human whisperer more than we need a psychologist. Degrading Avatar Relationship There would be circumstances in which personality is forced to withdraw from the human avatar. Of course, physical death of the human is the usual reason, but personality might also withdraw if the body is physically healthy but is otherwise no longer able to support the expression of conscious self. The inability of the brain to connue funconing as a physical-to- etheric transducer in cases of senility would be such a situaon. This would not necessarily be a

forced withdrawal, but there may be lile reason for personality to connue the avatar relaonship if personality’s intenon to gain understanding through experience in the physical can no longer be supported. Personality’s withdrawal from the human may be temporary, as is seen in the case of physical injury to the brain or coma. The reports of a persona with advanced senility who becomes temporarily lucid is another example that might be explained by temporary voluntary withdrawal. Keep in mind that this model recognizes that the human is a complete life form. As is illustrated in the Life Field Complex with Avatar Diagram (above), the Body Mind funconal area includes human insncts which are ﬁltered in the Aenon Complex before presentaon to conscious percepon of the organism. In the event the personality disengages from the human, the human’s percepon would no longer be moderated by the expression of intenon informed by personality. A human that has experienced a lifeme entangled with personality would not be well equipped to connue funconing as a person without the raonal inﬂuence of conscious self. At the same me, the Worldview funcon shared during entanglement would connue to be part of the human’s percepon and expression processes. The missing inﬂuence would be intenon expressed by conscious self. Extrapolang what I know about human behavior, and relang that to the Implicit Cosmology, I would expect to see the human-minus conscious self to physically appear the same, but to exhibit changes in behavior which should be predictable from

the model. Worldview is memory, and the Perceptual Loop in the Aenon Complex is moderated by intenon. Without raonal intenon informed by personality, the percepon-expression process would tend to present stream-of-consciousness thoughts to the human’s conscious state. This would look like waking expression of the kind of mostly random dream imagery we experience in light sleep. (46) The human’s insncts would no longer have the raonal inﬂuence of conscious self, and would therefore, have greater inﬂuence on the percepon-expression process. This would manifest as more animal-like responses and a tendency to ﬁxate on or obsess about otherwise trivial things in the environment. This would likely include rapid, swings of emoon from passive happiness to aggressive behavior. Terminal lucidity is a term used to describe how people near the beginning of their transion, and who suﬀers from demena, suddenly become coherent. They are able to say goodbye to their loved ones before their physical death. If the entangled personality has disengaged from the human, terminal lucidity may be explainable by personality’s return for the transion. Other unusual terminal behavior might also be explained by examining the personality-avatar relaonship. May I Introduce Myself? With these consideraons, then, how should we think of ourselves? How do we think with an immortal self-centric perspecve? Each of us will have diﬀerent takes on this but there are general points that should be considered. To begin, try thinking of yourself as two people. For instance, I am Tom Butler. Butler is the family name of my

body, and it serves to give you a sense of its lineage. Perhaps we can call my body Mr. Butler. Tom is a good name for my personality in this lifeme, so a proper introducon might be “Hi, I am Tom, and this is Mr. Butler.” Mr. Butler was born in May, and according to astrology, should be stubborn, think habitat is very important and have a strong dependence on tacle sense. When compared to characteriscs of other signs, this is prey accurate. According to the avatar model, these characteriscs should provide hints about the nature of Mr. Butler. My astrological chart always seemed to indicate more what I need to overcome than what drives me, but I also fall into the Analycal-Expressive side of the personal styles chart, which is where I feel comfortable. Again, according to the avatar model, these characteriscs should provide hints about Tom’s nature. References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 5 Ethics as a Personal Code for Mindfulness 2014 About This Essay Right behavior has always been a focus for us as directors of the Associaon TransCommunicaon. We are also ordained Spiritualists, for which we are mindful of the need to represent Spiritualism in good light. Most importantly, we have accepted the evidence that we are immortal selves and what we do now will have an inﬂuence on the rest of our existence. It is because of our immortality that we pay so much aenon to Natural Law and

the implicaons of our acons. Being in my sevenes, many of the people I have known have made their transion. Some of my past relaonships have not ended in the best light, yet I know that the fact they are possibly no longer in the physical does not mean I no longer need to worry about the consequences of my acons. There will come a me in which I will want to honestly examine my acons. The fewer such mes I need to face, the beer, so I am trying to learn to be nice. Being nice may be a learned response, but most of the lessons we are taught in school about being nice are seriously contaminated by cultural norms. For instance, it was acceptable for me to light up a cigaree aer dinner … sll at the dinner table … even in a restaurant. Remember those days? So, being nice is a relave atude. Ethics are not. Even though people will try to explain ethics in terms of social norms, ethics are a bedrock concept which must be based on our immortality. Seth is a good teacher for this. When I was subming the Handbook of Metaphysics (2) manuscript to various publishers, one told me that he had 600 channeled books in his cue waing to be reviewed. Anyone with a lile me on their hands can write a philosophical dissertaon and call it channeled. Most I have examined show they are fatally ﬂawed by cultural contaminaon. The

words aributed to Seth tend to rise above local norms. I also like Jane Roberts‘ Seth Material (47) because at least one study indicates the informaon aributed to Seth does, indeed, come from a personality other than Jane or her husband. There is reason to accept its validity as originang from a discarnate personality. (33) Besides that, it is diﬃcult to ﬁnd metaphysical lessons that ring so true. We must consider our teachers wherever we ﬁnd them. For this essay, the most important advice we have received from Seth is that we should not violate others. I like to paraphrase that as “I must not impose my will on others.” As a litmus test, I ask if my acons interfere with another person’s self-determinaon. My bedrock ethics begins there. All else come for that litmus test. Here are a few praccal applicaons of the Thou Shalt Not Violate Clause: • Loud noises can evoke all kinds of reacons in involuntary listeners. Making a person anxious or angry with loud music or aggressive acons is both a violaon and can cause strong reacons. As a praccal maer, the violator depends on the vicm’s respect for the rule of law to prevent an aggressive response. Alternavely, the vicm may simply be too fearful of retaliaon to speak up. Else, there might be mayhem. • It is ﬁne to select your friends and associates but check your reasons. If you avoid someone because of what you have been taught or because they are

diﬀerent, it is possible you are being prejudiced. Prejudicial acons are a form of imposing your will on others. Also, they potenally deprive us of opportunies for greater understanding. • Behavior that is inmidang to others may be an imposion of your will on them. For instance, a man in typical ridding leathers and club logo on his back, passed us on a large, loud motorcycle. He had a pistol strapped to his leg. My ﬁrst reacon was concern that the man was not safe to be around. His every acon seemed designed to impress his will on people around him. Not to menon that he is likely the last sort of person we want to see packing a device only intended to kill. • The Academic-Layperson Paron is a self-imposed separaon by people with an advanced degree from people without an advanced degree. Again, it is ﬁne to prefer to be around peers, but science is a service to humanity, to a great degree paid for by the public through grants and the funding of universies. Ignoring the obligaon of science is a blatant violaon of cizens’ trust in the form of intellectual prejudice. The violaon is in the form of the abdicaon of duty implied by tle. You can probably ﬁnd similar examples from your experiences. The point is that we oen unconsciously violate others by acng without examining how our acon aﬀects others. That is the opposite of mindfulness. This essay began as my eﬀort to understand

whether or not I was out of line for thinking a supposed scienst had violated a research subject. Essay 13: Arrogance of Scienﬁc Authority was the ﬁrst wring to come of my study. As I considered wring Essay 14: Open Leer to Paranormalists, it occurred to me that a code of ethics had important potenal for our spiritual seeking. As you read this short essay, imagine yourself as a Seth trying to explain the importance of seeking spiritual maturity to an interested but uninformed audience. How would you word the message? Use those words to help yourself see the importance of ethics to your spiritual maturity. The Pledge Introduction The Naonal Spiritualist Associaon of Churches (NSAC) Declaraon of Principles funcons as an outline for a personal ethics code based on the understanding that our “… existence and personal identy connue aer the change called death” (Principle 4). When it comes to ethics in daily living, the personal responsibility described in Principle 7 sets the tone for the highest standard of right living. It reads: “We aﬃrm the moral responsibility of individuals and that we make our own happiness or unhappiness as we obey or disobey Nature’s physical and spiritual laws.” (See nsac.org under the Spiritualism Tab for more on this) (8) The simplest understanding to come from Principle 7 is ﬁrst that we are responsible for our acons. And second, we beneﬁt from understanding and living in accordance with the principles governing the operaon of Nature. But how do we

do the work to understand those organizing principles? The Mindful Way represents techniques intended to help a person learn to be present in everyday life. The idea is to become aware of our acons by habitually quesoning what we do and why. Mindfulness is a powerful way of coming to understand Natural Law and teaches our unconscious mind to replace belief in our worldview with beneﬁcial understanding. It is our worldview that informs our mostly automac responses to daily living. (48) Morality Versus Ethics Virtually all of the deﬁnions of morality and ethics I have found are based on a body-centric perspecve with no consideraon of our immortality. To make my point, I have taken something of a backdoor approach by including reference to two diﬀerent philosophical essays: Morality “The Deﬁnion of Morality” by Bernard and Joshua Gert provides an excellent discussion of morality and ethics. The authors suggest that one of two dominant perspecves on morality might be taken by theorist: (49) 1. Descripvely to refer to certain codes of conduct put forward by a society or a group (such as a religion), or accepted by an individual for her own behavior, or 2. Normavely to refer to a code of conduct that, given speciﬁed condions, would be put forward by all raonal persons. The authors propose that: “If one uses ‘morality’ in its descripve sense, (Perspecve 1) and therefore uses it to refer to codes of conduct actually put forward by disnct groups or sociees, one will almost

certainly deny that there is a universal morality that applies to all human beings.” They explain that: “Those who use ‘morality’ normavely (Perspecve 2) hold that morality is (or would be) the code that meets the following condion: all raonal persons, under certain speciﬁed condions, would endorse it.” And later in the essay, “... “virtually all hold that ‘morality’ refers to a code of conduct that applies to all who can understand it and can govern their behavior by it, …” Ethics “Aristotle’s Ethics” by Richard Kraut includes this overview of Aristotle’s point of view about ethics in the Preamble to the essay. In part: (50) Aristotle follows Socrates and Plato in taking the virtues to be central to a well-lived life. Like Plato, he regards the ethical virtues (jusce, courage, temperance and so on) as complex raonal, emoonal and social skills.… What we need, in order to live well, is a proper appreciaon of the way in which such goods as friendship, pleasure, virtue, honor and wealth ﬁt together as a whole. In order to apply that general understanding to parcular cases, we must acquire, through proper upbringing and habits, the ability to see, on each occasion, which course of acon is best supported by reasons. Therefore, praccal wisdom, as he conceives it, cannot be acquired solely by learning general rules. We must also acquire, through pracce, those deliberave, emoonal and social skills that enable us to put our general understanding of well-being into pracce in ways that are

suitable to each occasion. Consider this about Aristotle’s philosophy from the perspecve of our immortality and the idea of a cooperave community. Kraut concludes his essay with: (Based on Aristotle’s wring) … Human beings cannot achieve happiness, or even something that approximates happiness, unless they live in communies that foster good habits and provide the basic equipment of a well-lived life. The study of the human good has therefore led to two conclusions: The best life is not to be found in the pracce of polics. But the wellbeing of whole communies depends on the willingness of some to lead a second-best life—a life devoted to the study and pracce of the art of polics, and to the expression of those qualies of thought and passion that exhibit our raonal self- mastery. Both terms have very similar meaning, but in praccal use by contemporary society, morality is most oen deﬁned in terms of what the organizaon expects of its members. This could be a religious moral code, a corporate code of conduct or an instuonal one such as the expected behavior of college students. Even when a code includes references to ethics, the code virtually always requires compliance with social norms which are typically described in terms of morality. The point of view suggested by the Trans-Survival Hypothesis (10) is that we are immortal self and must not be governed solely by cultural (local) norms. If we succumb to behaving according to what is socially right, rather than what is

spiritually right, we eﬀecvely abdicate our responsibility to seek spiritual maturity. The more universal meaning of right and wrong is expressed in terms of ethical behavior. Ethical also has less burden of meaning from religions and is used less for social engineering. Thus, the deﬁnions I use here are: Morality is deﬁned here as a disncon between right and wrong based on local standards of behavior. Ethics is deﬁned here as a disncon between right and wrong; based on the organizing principles governing reality. Learning to recognize and understand the universal principles that moderate the organizaon of reality is an important part of the Mindful Way. It is easy enough to ignore those principles in the short term but learning to habitually live in agreement with them is the path of least resistance toward spiritual maturity. First Ethical Consideration Useful guidance in ethical conduct came from Jane Roberts‘ Seth in regard to how a person should interact with others. The advice is simply that “Thou shalt not violate….” (47) Seth went on to explain what he intended by violate: An outright lie may or may not be a violaon. A sex act may or may not be a violaon. A scienﬁc expedion may or may not be a violaon. Not going to church on Sunday is not a violaon. Having normal aggressive thoughts is not a violaon. Doing violence to your body, or another’s, is a violaon. Doing violence to the spirit of another is a violaon, but again, because

you are conscious beings the interpretaons are yours. Swearing is not a violaon. If you believe that it is then in your mind it becomes one. Killing another human being is a violaon. Killing while protecng your own body from death at the hands of another through immediate contact is a violaon. Whether or not any jusﬁcaon seems apparent, the violaon exists. Seth explained that there are ways to deal with situaons that do not involve killing. He also suggested that: You would not be in such a hypothecal situaon to begin with unless violent thoughts of your own, faced or unfaced, had aracted it to you. As for the Golden Rule, in Jane Roberts’ The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, Session 852, Seth says: When you are discussing the nature of good and bad, you are on tricky ground indeed, for many—or most—of man’s atrocies to man have been commied in misguided pursuit of “the good.” Ethical Treatment of Human Research Subject The Belmont Report published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gives us another measure of ethics. (51) It appears to be the golden standard for research ethics involving a human subject. The major points from the Belmont Report are that researchers must respect the person, do no harm (beneﬁcence) and provide due beneﬁts (jusce). These three points provide guidance in how to deﬁne basic ethical principles. I discuss the queson of ethics in research in more detail in Essay13: Arrogance of Scienﬁc

Authority. A Useful Code of Ethics Here is a suggeson for a personal code of ethics. It should be useful for anyone in any part of society. The idea is to stay with a foundaon ethical concept for Tier 1 that sets the tone for the code. Seth’s Do not violate is an excellent foundaon concept. Tier 2 is concerned with reasonably basic principles which complement or further deﬁne Do not violate. These should be intuively obvious in the context of your personal progression. Tier 3 is concerned with how Tier 1 and 2 are expressed. Expressions include phrases intended to provide guidance for how to live by the Organizing Principles. Catchy phrases are useful here, as they make it easier to remember the principles. You will likely want to add Principles and Expressions as you become used to working with the code. Be careful not to overcomplicate it, though. It is important that you can remember the elements so as to apply them as warranted. Ethical Conduct is a Lifelong Learning Experience Learning to live by a personal ethical code oen means realigning our unconscious mind away from our human avatar’s survival insncts and cultural dogma with which we have been condioned over the years. Such a change in consciousness takes me and aenon that comes through experience. Remember that your conscious expression is ﬁrst formed in your mostly unconscious mind. That means you have relavely lile control of your ﬁrst response to situaons. The control you do have

is before the event by consistently intending to act in a mindful way. A feedback expression to yourself aer the event expressing how to be more mindful in a speciﬁc way helps to reinforce your intended behavior message to your mind. Yes, talk to yourself. The process of managing expectaons of those with whom you share me, in friendship or service, provides opportunies to exercise mindfulness. Unspoken quesons and concerns can quickly cast a shadow over a relaonship. An Expression for the Principle of Kindness might be “Cizenship means cooperaon” or “How will my acons aﬀect me and others?” In pracce, these translate into making sure people know what to expect from you. Above all, think of a personal code of ethics as a lifelong way of learning. It is unlikely any of us are able to always live up to the ideas represented by a code of ethics. The most important thing is to set our intenon to apply the code to our every acon. References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 6 Paranormalist Community 2014 About This Essay As explained in Essay 9: Consensus Building in the Paranormalist Community Paranormalists are deﬁned here as people who experience, study or have a more than casual interest in psychic ability (psi funconing, remote viewing, healing intenon), healing intenon (bioﬁeld healing, distant healing, healing prayer) and the phenomena related to survival of consciousness (mediumship, visual and audible ITC, haunngs). Although individual paranormalists may not accept survival,

or even psi phenomena, all are concerned with study or applicaon of the phenomena. The acons of one member of our community reﬂects on all of us. We all share a need for useful models describing the phenomena and theories as to their nature. The Blind Men Describing an Elephant parable applies to the paranormalist community in that each sub-community of interest has a part of the answer but is unlikely to have the correct answer without collaboraon with the others. Our eﬀorts as directors of the ATransC to collaborate with other organizaons has been only marginally successful. As it turned out, each exisng organizaon had a diﬀerent focus. There was, and remains, a serious problem of founder’s syndrome in which opinion leaders tend to emphasize local pride rather than community support. It also seemed that some saw us as a threat. We have never been a threat, as we have never wanted the ATransC to be an umbrella organizaon. Organizaons based on a more academically trained membership are a diﬀerent story. While such groups as the Parapsychological Associaon, (52) the Society for Psychical Research (53) and the Rhine Research Center (54) have diﬀerent origins, they oen share resources. People with an advanced degree are typically culturally condioned to collaborate and support what they see as their peer community. Someday, I hope to see them turn that human resource to support of the larger community. It may help you understand this essay if you understand how I model the paranormalist

community. It is composed of several subcommunies of interest, primary of which are: • Local ghost hunng clubs – These are oen inspired by the popular ghost hunng programs on television. From my experience, they are typically local clubs that organize meengs and local ghost hunts, more for sport than science, but they provide a great introducon to things paranormal. • Pop culture-like general interest groups – Usually supports a wide range of phenomena. In some cases, as with the ghost hunng clubs, member parcipaon rather than science is the primary objecve. From my experience, an underlying vision of their founders is to be the dominant organizaon; baseless claims of being scienﬁc are common. • Specialty groups – The ATransC began as the American Associaon of Electronic Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP). Even with the current broader focus on all kinds of transcommunicaon, the ATransC is sll best described as an example of a specialty group. Groups speciﬁcally focused on near-death and out of body experiences are other examples. • Cizen-scienst groups – There are a few organizaons that seek to further understanding of one or more aspect of the paranormal while including both academically trained people and laypeople. Below, I menon the ASCS as an example. The cizen scienst concept has a rather diﬀerent meaning in the paranormalist community. In most cases, people trained to conduct proper research are either subversive debunkers or too poorly informed to properly apply the scienﬁc method. That has le laypeople to fend for themselves when

it comes to developing raonal models and pracces. I refer to those who try as cizen sciensts. • Parapsychological groups speciﬁcally for Ph.Ds. – These are professional associaons that only incidentally include laypeople. Collaboraon amongst similar parapsychological groups is common. From my experience, claims to be scienﬁc are oen only parally true, and the science is oen inappropriate for the subject and may include false claims of objecvity. The Academy for Spiritual and Consciousness Studies (ASCS) (55) has been the most supporve of our community’s general interest as a cizen scienst group. Struggling to survive, the ASCS is faced with the proverbial three-door challenge. By the me this book is published, the ASCS may have morphed into another group requiring a Ph.D. for full membership, a more progressive version of its current model or it may have faded away. The point I want to make here is that the paranormalist community is actually rather small with few people inclined to lead. It is very diﬃcult for an individual to ﬁnd and follow the mindful way without the support of a community which includes wayshowers, seekers and skepcs. So, if you ﬁnd a group with which you are comfortable, make an eﬀort to support it by being involved. Interact to learn. You are an important resource for our community. Examine the group you are in or intend to support. Most are beneﬁcial to the community, but organizaons that take a silver-bullet approach to collecng feel-good imaginary examples, rather than objecvely evidenal

results, do more harm than good for the community. Test your teacher! Your support without examinaon will do lile for your personal progression or the greater good. The Paranormalist Community Think of a community as a collecon of people who share an interest in one or more ideas. If you have more than a passing interest in the ideas related to the paranormal, then you are automacally a member of what I refer to as the Paranormalist Community. For sure, dogmac skepcs have an interest in these phenomena, but all who outright reject things paranormal are so far oﬀ the raonal chart that their negave-only approach must be ignored if we are to make progress. However, with that said, more moderate skepcs in our community who claim to study these phenomena, but who are really trying to prove they are delusion, need to be heard. It is by others quesoning what we think is true that we become aware of the need to queson those truths for ourselves. Else, we become complacent in a bubble of circular evidence. My focus here is on we who have an aﬃrmave interest in these phenomena. We must all deal with the same facts and the same misconcepons. And even though some of us reject the Survival Hypothesis, we are like the fabled blind men trying to describe an elephant with touch alone. If we do not work together as a community, it is likely we will not learn the actual nature of these

phenomena. Probably the most important unifying idea for the Paranormalist Community is the existence of a subtle ﬁeld that permeates reality. This is referred to by parapsychologists as the psi ﬁeld. A second unifying idea is that it is possible to access informaon by way of the psi ﬁeld. This can be thought of as psi-sensing or being psychic. (16) A third unifying idea is that a person is able to aﬀect objects of reality by way of the inﬂuence of intenon on the psi ﬁeld. This faculty is known in parapsychology as psychokinesis (16) There is considerable discussion about whether mind is a product of brain or if it is independent of brain. The idea that mind is a product of brain but is able to interface with the psi ﬁeld is generalized as the Super- Psi Hypothesis. (56) Increasingly, this group is working under the banner of Exceponal Experiences Psychology. (57) The idea that mind is independent of brain, and therefore existed before this lifeme and will exist in a senent form aer this lifeme, is usually generalized as the Survival Hypothesis. (56) It is good to acknowledge that there is a group of people working as parapsychologists under the banner of Anomalisc Psychology who seek to prove reports of paranormal phenomena are not real, but only the imaginaon of the experiencer. Let us refer to their point of view as the Physical Hypothesis. (58) A Divided Community While everyone in this community is a paranormalist, there is

lile agreement about how to explain paranormal phenomena, and so, there are divisions in our community. The most obvious division is the mind-body debate. That is, is mind a product of brain or is it separate with brain funconing as a transmier-receiver for physical senses and motor controls? From the paranormalist perspecve, brain and mind being separate would seem to require that mind survives death of the brain as a sll-living personality. Informaon thought to be coming from discarnate loved ones via mediumship and Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC) would be coming from them as they now exist in a diﬀerent environment. As noted, this idea is generally modeled as the Survival Hypothesis. (56) If mind is a product of brain, then there is no survival. The informaon thought to be coming from discarnate loved ones would necessarily be coming from memories of them held by sll living people or from the residual memory of loved ones theorized to remain in the psi ﬁeld (aka Akashic or life records). As noted, the idea of the informaon via mediumship and ITC coming only from survived energy or living memory is generally modeled as the Super-Psi Hypothesis. (56) The community is divided by what I refer to as the Academic-Layperson Paron. When it comes to understanding things paranormal, on one side of this paron are people who seek to understand these phenomena, usually without a Ph.D.-level educaon, funconing as cizen sciensts. On the other side of the paron are academically trained people, always Ph.Ds.,

who have claimed the scienﬁc high ground under the banner of parapsychology. Parapsychology has three primary points of view: The Physical Hypothesis point of view holds that paranormal phenomena are delusion, fraud or are mundane, mistaken as paranormal. In this view, the necessary science-based supporng mechanisms for paranormalist phenomena are not established, and therefore any reference to them must be pseudoscience. This is being addressed these days as Anomalisc Psychology. (58) In this, consciousness is considered a product of the brain and ceases to exist when the brain dies. For conversaonal convenience, I refer to this point of view as Normalist. The Super-Psi Hypothesis point of view is the Physical Hypothesis modiﬁed with the contenon that the physical universe is permeated by a psi ﬁeld. (56) From this point of view, if not mundane, delusion or fraud, anomalously accessed informaon is produced via psychic access to residual memory or the mind of sll living people. This is beginning to be addressed as Exceponal Experiences Psychology. (57) In this, consciousness is either a product of the brain or a psi ﬁeld phenomenon originang from the brain. For conversaonal convenience, I refer to this point of view as Psi+ Normalist. The Survival Hypothesis represents the point of view that we are immortal self temporarily entangled with a human for this lifeme, that our conscious self existed before this lifeme and will connue to exist in a senent, self-aware form aer this lifeme. (10) For conversaonal convenience, I refer to this point of

view as Dualists. For my personal study, I refer to the study of survival as Etheric Studies. (59) A Community Divided Cannot Stand Roy Stemman wrote an excellent essay about how Spiritualism is contracng while the skepcal community is becoming beer and beer organized. In Skepcism: The New Religion, he noted that organizaons such as the James Randi Foundaon have developed a uniﬁed message and are producing abundant literature aimed at casng all thing paranormal as pseudoscience, and therefore, a danger to society. (60) The skepcal message is having the desired eﬀect because some governments, including the US Government, have adopted the skepc point of view, even to the extent of quong skepcal literature to support policies concerning funds allocaon for research grants. The skepcal community maintains a list of experts in the skepcal point of view who are available for interviews. Their experts need not be experts in a parcular science, only in the talking points about how things paranormal are illusion and paranormalists are either ignorant, delusional or frauds. In comparison, the paranormalist community has no such focus. Because one parapsychologist with a Ph.D. probably looks like the other experts, we shudder to think what supposed experts in our ﬁeld might say to the media. There are no talking points that many of us have discussed and on which we agree. Consequently, even if the person is conceptually correct, it is probable the person’s version will be misleading and technically ﬂawed. Also, because of the super-psi - survival

divide, there are too few widely respected people in our community to legimately represent the survival perspecve. It is common during an interview with a specialist in one aspect of paranormalist phenomena to be asked about other phenomena about which he or she has lile experience. The response typically leans toward the skepcal perspecve. From the mainstream perspecve, there is lile disncon between ghost hunng by a club and serious research by qualiﬁed, informed praconers. All of us are culturally condioned to trust what a Ph.D. has to say over anything a layperson might say. Thus, it is all too common for a Ph.D. to speak with great authority about phenomena for which he or she has lile understanding, under the cloak of parapsychology. We have had more than a few parapsychologists pronounce with great authority that EVP are probably caused by stray radio signals. Yet, we have never had a conversaon with them or had our work cited. Without a well-considered public face, the paranormalist community will always look like ghost hunng television programs and meaningless noise passed oﬀ as Electronic Voice Phenomena. People remember the most outlandish and the silliest. Skepticism is Relative Each of us is potenally a skepc. As a rule, the least deviaon from mainstream thought is skepcal of the greater deviaon, so that a psychologist studying remote viewing will tend to be skepcal of anything to do with survival. In the same way, a person who accepts the evidence of mental mediumship may be

skepcal of the evidence for physical mediumship. Of course, there is such a thing as healthy skepcism, but the term skepc has been taken over by the zealous, faith-based skepcs who pracce a form of sciensm. While we seldom actually refer to our fellow paranormalists as skepcs, the fact remains that some rather well-studied phenomena have been denounced without examinaon by people who should know beer because of their study of less controversial phenomena. Behind the facade of academic authority too oen lurks sciensm, even in our community. Gerhard Mayer reported in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research that, based on a recent opinion survey of parapsychologists in Germany: (61) The proporon of responses that disagreed with the statement ‘Aer the physical body dies some part of the person survives’ was much lower in the more internaonal PA (14%) than in the GfA (36%) and WGFP (44%) samples. A third of the PA respondents instead displayed an undecided atude (compared to 8% among the WGFP and 6% among the GfA). PA = Parapsychological Associaon; GfA = Gesellscha Für Anomalisck; WGFP = Wissenschaliche Gesellscha zur Förderung der Parapsycholodies. A beer term for crical thinking is discernment which promotes suspended judgment unl more is known. This change of perspecve from skepcism, even veiled skepcism, to the suspended judgment of discernment, is perhaps one our ﬁrst lessons in community building. Cultivating a Common Culture Here I argue that the physical is an aspect of the etheric. If that is true, it

must be argued that the psi and survival-related phenomena we experience share the etheric as a common aribute. That is the same as saying that all physical experiences share the physical as a common aribute. If we tried to study gravity without considering the aributes of mass and momentum, for instance, we would always come up with theories that only addressed part of the equaon. It is probably true that those theories would be wrong. That is exactly what is occurring in parapsychology. Some parapsychologists (Normalists) strive to prove all phenomena are physical. Others (Psi+ Normalists) try to show that some may be physical, but many have a subtle-energy aribute they call psi. A very few honestly seek to show that survival-related phenomena are actual evidence of survival. We are very much like the ﬁve blind men trying to describe an elephant. From my experience, it is not possible to study transcommunicaon without ﬁnding an alternave form of space to act as a propagaon medium for thought. The psi ﬁeld sasﬁes that requirement. Except for the hand-waving Psi+ Normalists must do to explain how informaon is somehow stored in the psi ﬁeld, the Super-Psi Hypothesis is technically part of the Survival Hypothesis. When a Normalist researches exceponal experiences, while deliberately and admiedly ignoring evidence provided via transcommunicaon, the result must always be wrong in the same way the blind man deciding an elephant as a snake is wrong. Where to Begin? The Survival hypothesis is based on the premise that

we are immortal self temporarily in this lifeme to gain understanding. To explain that point of view, it is necessary to include consideraon of virtually all paranormalist phenomena. Thus, the Dualist deﬁnions for these phenomena are a useful place to begin developing a common culture. Dualist Concepts Common to the Larger Community One need not believe in survival to beneﬁt from the more important implicaon of survival. The lessons learned listed here are prey high-level, but the conceptual models that suggest their validity apply to the human condion in general, as well as the metaphysics related to the psi ﬁeld. Mindfulness: The possibility that we survive beyond this lifeme oﬀers profound implicaons for how we might live this lifeme to the fullest. The most immediate implicaon is that what we do now maers now, and if we do survive, certainly hereaer. This translates into a need for mindful living that beneﬁts anyone, paranormalist or not, by teaching good cizenship and ethical values for life. Living as if life maers: We connue to exist, if not actually, at least through our legacy. Memory is modeled by Psi+ Normalists as a simple thoughorm of residual energy. Memory is modeled by Dualists as Worldview as it is part of and informs a senent life form. Either way, we connue to have a presence in the psi ﬁeld that can be sensed by others. With only slight modiﬁcaon, the metaphysics of how that might be can be applied to both Super-Psi and Survival. The

consequences of our acons during this lifeme unavoidably aﬀect our community now and represent our legacy on which we can have substanal inﬂuence even aer we are gone or transioned. Personal responsibility: Personal responsibility means learning to live as a good cizen of the greater reality, but more important, it means learning to make our connued existence as meaningful as possible. The idea of personal responsibility is important to the enre paranormalist community, because even if our view is that only memory survives, the unifying idea that we are all connected via the psi ﬁeld means that our acons aﬀect the larger community on both sides of the veil. Spirituality A good cizen of the paranormalist community is one who seeks to be a contribung part of the community, rather than an accidental bystander. An excellent deﬁnion of spirituality is oﬀered by Deepak Chopra in his Huﬃngton Post blog: (62) Spirituality is the experience of that domain of awareness where we experience our universality. This domain of awareness is a core consciousness that is beyond our mind, intellect and ego. In religious tradions, this core consciousness is referred to as the soul which is part of a collecve soul or collecve consciousness, which in turn is part of a more universal domain of consciousness referred to in religions as God. Spirituality is about being aware that we are an important part of a universal community, what we do maers here and hereaer and that our every acon aﬀects the rest

of reality. Yes, most of us are accustomed to thinking of the kind of spirituality tradional religions seek to evoke, but the kind of spirituality I am thinking about is the kind that, when personally realized, leads to greater understanding and the desire to be a good cizen of the collecve (the community on both sides of the veil). If you are familiar with the idea of mindfulness, you will understand that mindfulness is a roadmap to beer living. Spirituality can be thought of as an eventual product of mindfulness done right. The characteriscs of a spiritual person and a mindful person converge on agreement with the actual nature of reality. Discernment A favorite saying of mine is that you should “Believe what you wish but understand the implicaons of what you believe.” Being mindful of what is in your worldview determines the world you live in. See James Carpenter‘s First Sight Theory (16) (18) There has been a lot of discussion about how our expectaons tend to determine what we experience. For instance, the Sheep-Goat Eﬀect, so named in 1942 by Professor Gertrude Schmeidler, implies that people who allow for the possibility of new ideas (believers or sheep) are more likely to experience new ideas. (63) The inverse of this can be seen in the concept of incredulity blindness, a term I use to describe how some people are inexplicably unable to see or hear examples of paranormal phenomena (goats). In research sponsored by the ATransC and conducted by

Mark Leary, Ph.D., listeners were more apt to hear what was expected in ambiguous sound streams when told what to expect. (64) In pracce, it is known that the mostly unconscious mind colors what is transferred to conscious percepon based on Worldview and expectaon. (16) If percepon is the dominant factor in how we experience phenomena. Discernment is the key to seeing phenomena as it really is. That is a skill all of us can learn. Our mostly unconscious mind processes informaon with the intenon of characterizing it based on familiar references. Once a decision is made, it is very diﬃcult to change our mind. Thus, learning to intenonally postpone making an agree or disagree decision unl more informaon is available helps keep the mind open to new ideas. It also helps avoid making the wrong agree or disagree decision. See Essay 1: Condional Free Will for more informaon about how we think. Cooperation Read Deepak Chopra‘s deﬁnion of spirituality again. Especially noce the way he uses the term, collecve. Universality, collecve soul, collecve consciousness and universal domain are all terms that describe interconnectedness amongst people. A common factor in transcommunicaon is the implicaon and somemes outright admission that the communicator is a group consciousness which presents a representave personality to facilitate our body-centric comprehension. Much of what is brought to us via deep trance channel, even our dreams, is the hint that we are part of a collecve of personalies. While we experience a lifeme with a body-centric focus,

our etheric personality, which is the intelligent core of who we are, is cooperang with fellow personalies to assure our connued educaon. This idea of being an etheric personality, temporarily entangled with our avatar body to gain understanding, is admiedly more hypothesis than objecvely known. The one persistent message in this concept that you will likely recognize is that we are ulmately a collecve under one source. The way that manifests in praccal terms can be seen in how people mature, ﬁrst as students and then as teachers. Many of us have the compulsion to share lessons learned. For instance, the reason for wring essays like this is speciﬁcally to promote cooperaon in the community. People like me write them in the spirit of “those who have come before pausing to help us achieve even greater understanding.” The idea of a collecve of like-minded people cooperang to promote further understanding involves the idea of rapport which is the link of aenon/intenon that develops between two people as they share ideas. (65) A community is formed by a sense of rapport which integrates many people and only marginally related ideas into a community of common interest. In such a community, educaonal resources, standards and a common voice to speak to mainstream society can evolve. But only if we cooperate. References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 7 Clarity of Communication 2014 About This Essay It is likely that all of us have had the experience of

explaining something to others, only to have them later indicate that they heard something very diﬀerent. This is especially a problem when discussing conceptual ideas. Ideas such as words have meaning, and the power of words, are common themes in my wring. The reason I keep wring about clearly communicang ideas and saying what we mean is that parcipaon in discussions on the Internet has brought me face-to-face with the reality that I am a poor communicator. It is surprising to me that my focus has recently changed from explaining the need to clearly express ideas to the need to pay aenon to what is said. As I try and try to be clear, I see that my listeners and readers are not doing a very good job of hearing what I am saying. One might say they are inconvincible. There is support for this! In recent years, I have noced arcles in the popular science media about how we do not directly experience our environment. (66) (67) (68) Instead, our mostly unconscious mind senses the informaon and only lets our conscious mind know what it thinks about the informaon based on memory. As I explained in Essay 1: Condional Free Will, this is not some New Age wisul thinking. It is emerging mainstream understanding that has profound implicaons for the paranormalist community. This essay represents one of my ﬁrst eﬀorts to turn the perspecve from teaching the need to be careful what we say to teaching the need to

be careful how we listen. Yes, it remains important to clearly state the informaon, but clarity of communicaon represents a two-way exchange. It began as something of a rant that was to be tled Inconvincible, but aer a few rewrites, I calmed down enough to change the perspecve from complaining to honest quesoning. Introduction What our audience hears us say is too oen diﬀerent from what we intend. Probably all of us have had the experience of explaining something, say giving instrucons about how to do something, and then seeing the person do it wrong. “Why?” you might ask of the person. “I thought you said to.…” is likely the answer. The ability to communicate an abstract concept is essenal for anyone wishing to share ideas about the paranormal. And, as it happens, virtually every idea about the paranormal is abstract. Lacking a common vocabulary, the words we use are oen laden with unintended meaning. What does spirit mean? Is spiritual healing just pung a hand on someone’s forehead and praying out loud to God? Are dead people demons if they talk to you? Is that person crazy for hearing dead people or just a witch? How we answer quesons like these depend on our listener’s upbringing. A person who has spent most of a lifeme cloistered in a very orthodox religious family will likely hear words like spirit diﬀerently than a person raised in a Spiritualist household. A technical metaphysician will answer diﬀerently than a causal seeker. On the

other hand, a casual seeker will likely be confused by a metaphysician’s answer. While I am no expert in communicang abstract ideas, I do have experience in communicang complex ones. From my experience, the art of communicaon is all about understanding that: 1. People have a style of learning. 2. What people read or are told is diﬀerent from what they understand, and understanding is always based on their worldview. 3. People pay aenon to, or ignore ideas, depending on how the informaon is delivered, their interest and learning style. 4. A mismatch of agenda impairs communicaon. 5. Worldview changes in small increments; learning hardly ever occurs in great leaps. The two messages I would like you to take away from this essay is that sharing informaon means understanding your audience and your audience’s percepon requires their aenon. It is especially important for mediums, healers and society leaders to be mindful of how their words are received. For instance, mental mediums speak under the cloak of authority as if they are holy people speaking in the name of the dead. Like it or not, that authority is unconsciously aributed to them by many in their audience. The result is that mediums have extraordinary responsibility to manage their comments so as to avoid unintended implicaons and exaggerated expectaons. Here, it is important to picture yourself outside of the paranormalist community. Most paranormalists will know what you intend because they have direct experience. We are insiders, but people in mainstream society do

not know what you intend and only hear your words in the context of their experience. For that reason, it is safest to assume members of your audience are literalists who will hold you to the literal meaning of every word. People Have a Style of Learning. Just as people are born le or right-handed, people are born with basic traits that tend to inﬂuence their behavior. Using the avatar model for a person, our entangled self brings a personal style in the form of prior understanding and inherited urges, but the human body also inﬂuences our decision-making because of the more dominant human insncts. Personal Style Personal styles are cataloged and studied in psychology as a means of understanding human behavior and have been adapted to teach salespeople how to relate to customers. A useful categorizaon is shown in the Personal Styles diagram below. (45) They are: Analycal: Thinking, thorough, disciplined; always a student of the subject Amiable: Supporve, paent, diplomac, healer and caregiver Driver: Independent, decisive, determined; always thinking about the next step Expressive: Good communicator, enthusiasc, imaginave; oen the opinion seer Each basic style is typically further divided so that a person might be seen as a Driver-Analycal or a Drive-Expressive. The point of these styles is that people likely begin dealing with a situaon from the perspecve of one of these styles. Styles are probably associated with your intelligent core (I Am This) as opposed to your conscious self (I think I am this). Astrology Astrology

is based on the assumpon that behavior is inﬂuenced by the posion of the stars and planets at the me of the human’s birth. Astrological inﬂuences are probably associated with your human’s body, as opposed to your immortal self. Astrology and styles are not being recommended here. I am using them to demonstrate that we display personality characteriscs that are evident at a very young age and which tend to shape our lives and how we relate to others. Of course, the secret wisdom of the diagram is that, by praccing the middle way, we can move toward speciﬁc behaviors as appropriate, but return to balance without aachment to the outcome of our acons. By the way, in the context of personal progression, detachment is a term used to indicate an openness to unexpected outcomes. For instance, consider only being oﬀered a sedan when you were hoping to have a sports car. If your actual objecve was to have a safe, dependable car, you succeeded in aracng one to you. Perhaps rejecng the sedan would be a poor decision. It is a judgment call to be made at the moment, but one to be made from the mindful perspecve. Being open for possibilies somemes means following the surprising way. Being aached mean not being open, thus possibly missing important learning opportunies. Our friends on the other side are always seeking to help us. Being aached to an outcome is a form of resistance to that change. So What? A person

with a Driver personal style, for example, tends to be impaent with people who are slow geng to the point. While they are important to have around if you want to get things done, they tend to scare Amiables. Expressives help to keep Drivers on track and Analycals help to keep Drivers on the right track. For a second example, Amiables connect a community with its purpose as its feeling, sensing aspect; however, that inﬂuence must be balanced by the other three aspects for the community to thrive. The Internet brings people together according to their interests, but there is usually no way to separate people by learning styles. As such, it is common to see all four styles represented in any one thread, oen to the dismay of the person who started it. This diversity is important but can be damaging if communicators do not act accordingly. Selective Understanding What people read or are told is diﬀerent from what they understand, and understanding is always based on their worldview. It is becoming increasingly evident to psychologists that we unconsciously process what we sense and only become aware of the results of that processing. The translaon from what is heard, felt or seen is based on our worldview. Worldview represents personal reality. It is like a database that is ﬁlled by our parents, teachers, local culture and the media. (29) A hint as to the rules for this unconscious processing of informaon— what I refer to as the Perceptual Loop—can

be seen in a person’s personal style, as described above. The Perceptual Loop is an unconscious process that compares a possible understanding of incoming informaon with what is in Worldview. As modeled, the result of this iterave, streaming process is: Accept which is presented to conscious self in a form Worldview understands. Reject which results in the informaon being ignored. Condional acceptance which changes Worldview and presents new understanding to conscious self. This is the ambiguous maybe result we seek in learning new concepts. See Essay 1: Condional Free Will and Essay 8: How We Think for a more complete explanaon. So What? If the listener is accustomed to hearing about the subject from the perspecve of, say a strong religious upbringing, then a statement such as “I heard from my loved one last night” may well be heard more in terms of possession. The person may hear the words correctly, but the words will likely be understood from the person’s personal point of view (Worldview). The founder of a system of thought I was once involved in was a technical metaphysician and his way of explaining things agreed with my way of learning. He made his transion and the man who took his place spoke about the same ideas in more feeling terms. One phrase I remember from the new leader is “The Golden Heart.” Well, okay, I have no idea what that means. That was the beginning of the end for my me with that group. In the

Golden Heart example, I literally have nothing in my worldview to help me visualize what that means. My personal style leans toward Analycal with emphasis on Expressive and all I am sure of is that Golden heart does not register with me. The point here is that we unconsciously color what we experience to make the experience more familiar. Somemes this may result in our listeners understanding the message in a very diﬀerent way than what was intended or maybe even not registering the informaon at all. Selective Attention People pay aenon to or ignore ideas, depending on how the informaon is delivered, their interest and learning style. This is a consequence of Item 2 and is referred to as Switching by James Carpenter in his proposed First Sight Theory. (38) In that theory, percepon is modeled as an unconscious streaming process in that it produces a ﬂow of impressions to the conscious mind (awareness) as informaon is received. It is important to note the incremental nature of how awareness comes to us. A connuing process such as someone talking or informaon from reading a sentence, emerges into the conscious mind as a gradual coming to understand. If the reader is a Driver and the informaon is wrien by an Amiable, the Driver’s aenon will likely switch between trying to absorb the message and wondering why the person didn’t get to the point faster. For instance, it is diﬃcult for a Driver-Analycal to sit through a video to access informaon.

For them, video presentaons just take too much me to get to the point. In fact, a ﬁve-minute video seldom conveys more informaon than can be wrien in a few paragraphs, so unless some animated or reality segment is required, an Analycal and certainly a Driver will probably not sit through a video. There is also the danger that some people will resent the perceived waste of me. The same can be said for explanatory arcles. Magazines intended for popular consumpon oen begin arcles with a too long “It was a sunny day and I admired the person’s home as I drove up…” kind of dialogue. If an arcle is a reasonably technical discussion about immunology, for instance, why would the reader be interested in where the immunology expert lives or if the sun was shining? So What? Your audience will listen to you with rapt aenon but take a close look at their eyes. Are they glazed over? Be aware of your purpose and get to the point. In technical wring, a good introducon, or beer, a good abstract may be your only chance to communicate your point. Video may be easier for you, but a few wrien paragraphs might result in beer communicaon. Presenng a video without some kind of wrien brief may be a lost opportunity to communicate. Also, think about what you want from your communicaon. Do you expect your target audience to refer back to parts of your presentaon? Would you like your work to

be cited as a reference in an essay? Imagine your audience as you write. Controlling Switching Another implicaon of switching is that we are condional about what we focus on and therefore what we experience. During conversaons, we likely, rapidly move our aenon from what we are supposed to be experiencing to whatever we are planning … maybe lunch. It is important to be mindful of this because it has a lot to do with our ability to learn. If developing mediumship skills, for instance, the ability to suppress switching will greatly enhance lucidity. While switching is an unconscious process, it is driven by Worldview and that can be changed over me like changing a habit. Intenon is a funcon of conscious self. As we intend to focus our aenon, we signal to our unconscious perceptual processes what is important to us, but it takes me to develop that habit. A mismatch of agenda impairs communication. This is all about point of view. An example is what I have experienced when trying to explain to a skepc editor why the Rupert Sheldrake arcle in Wikipedia is biased. The skepc’s agenda was to make Sheldrake look like a fool, and saying he is a biologist would indicate he is qualiﬁed to discuss morphogenesis interfered with that objecve. My objecve was to have the arcle describe the man in a balanced manner. No maer what was actually said, the outcome was already determined by the skepc’s agenda and the overwhelming number of

skepcs backing him. Thomas Harris told us in his book I’m OK-You’re OK that real communicaon between two people could only occur if both are in an okay place in life. (69) This is also true of agendas. What are the two pares trying to get out of the exchange? Mismatch of agendas tend to produce the phenomena of skepcism. The less what we say agrees with what our listener is expecng from us, the more likely our listener is to reject our words. The result is a skepcal response that emerges into our listener’s conscious awareness. Everyone is potenally a skepc. It depends on how well Worldviews match. See Essay 10: Skepc. People always have tells that give them away if only we are paying aenon. For instance, it is possible to ancipate people who might righteously aack others, based on their history. The recent aack by several parapsychologists on one of our mediums is an example of a totally irraonal response instead of the true and expected levelheaded report indicang that phenomena had been witnessed under stringently controlled condions. The irraonal aack tells us the aackers may be threatened by the possibility survival might be proven by the praconer they were studying. See Essay13: Arrogance of Scienﬁc Authority The invesgators had substanal access to the medium during an extended series of séances. The medium later told me he understood that the invesgator’s agenda was to understand the physical phenomena. Because phenomena were produced despite the stringent controls and

distracons, he believed they would produce a posive report. Yet, the invesgators wrote reports demonstrang their probably unconscious agenda. In wring the arcles, the authors mostly ignored data collected via the prearranged protocol, and instead, focused on innuendo and hearsay from outside of the protocol to support what if explanaons that were not evident in the data. In eﬀect, if not a conscious one, their agenda was to debunk. This was predicted, as the lead invesgator had telegraphed his real agenda about survival concepts on numerous occasions prior to the study. (70) So What? An interesng story portrays a group of friends sing around a kitchen table, deciding if it is me to drive into town for lunch. During the exchange, there is a lot of “well, okay” kind of comments, rather than “Okay! Let’s go!” comments. At the end of the story, it turned out that none of them really wanted to go, but because they had previously agreed, they felt obligated. In that story, all had the same but unspoken agenda not to go into town. They did not clearly express their posion and mistook the posion of the others. This story was designed for corporate employee training in oﬃce communicaon. The moral of the story is to make a conscious eﬀort to let others know what you are thinking. Try to pause the conversaon long enough for you to think about what is happening. Being honest (candid) about your objecves will greatly facilitate communicaon. Conversely, be mindful

of the people with whom you are communicang. I know skepcs have an “If mainstream science does not say it is so, then it cannot be” agenda in everything they say and do concerning what they see as pseudoscience. If you have read much of my wring, you will know that my agenda is to teach about survival. When you read my wring, and if you are aware of this, then you will know to look for hints of the underlying purpose of what I say. Most of us intend to say what we mean but we oen have unconscious drivers that shape our selecon of words. Take a moment and consider whether you are understanding what is being said and what you are saying. A pause can make a huge diﬀerence. If you have been traveling the Mindful Way for a while, it is reasonable to think you have developed a sense of how your audience is responding. This may be especially true of conversaons before they begin, as people tend to telegraph their agenda in the opening. If you have a sense that the person has an agenda to which he or she is strongly aached, ﬁnd a way to gracefully avoid the conversaon. Being a teacher takes many forms, of which outright teaching is only one. I have ignored my own advice on this many mes, as I seek to live up to my self-declared responsibility to teach. I have mostly stopped agreeing to examine examples because

my response virtually always pisses oﬀ the person. It is in supposedly good deeds of trying to explain oponal ways of thinking of a person’s experience that I too oen get a response like: “Yes, I know you are supposed to be the expert, but I have to disagree with you.” That is typically followed by a long, passive-aggressive response. If the person exhibits such a degree of naivety, or worse, delusion, change the subject. It is a fool’s errand to think you can teach a person who clearly has the agenda to prove beliefs which are contrary to your understanding. Trying and failing tends to sow seeds of self-doubt. Worldview changes in small increments Learning hardly ever occurs in great leaps. This is an organizing principle for persuasive expression. Based on First Sight Theory (38) and on the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon, (15) Worldview resists change, but does accept small changes if they are an evoluon of exisng belief or understanding. In praccal applicaon, we tend to readily experience something if it agrees with our worldview. Remember, this is an unconscious process based on our prior condioning, so if the experience is not recognized by Worldview, it might be outright rejected in the unconscious process. This means it will not be consciously experienced. If it is possible for the perceptual process to imagine how the experience might agree with prior condioning, that maybe outcome can evolve Worldview to accommodate that slight diﬀerence. It is the maybe outcome of the

perceptual process that results in learning. It is the rejecon of informaon that does not agree with Worldview that leads to skepcism and a breakdown in communicaon. My eﬀort to explain the Implicit Cosmology is a good example. (12) Many parts of the cosmology are likely new to you. Because of this, you will likely reject it if you try to absorb it all at once. To facilitate your understanding of it, I incorporate the concepts in my essays. For instance, you may have noced that I oen speak of a person as an immortal self entangled with a human in an avatar relaonship. As I read my audience, I expect that the idea of an avatar relaonship will make sense and will not be outwardly rejected. So What? An interesng aspect of early alien abducon reports was the frequency in which rabbits were involved in the accounts. The ability of the perceptual process to imagine an alternave percepon of an experience, to make it agree with Worldview, is thought to result in substuons in our percepon, such as rabbits for lile gray aliens. This is a cause of what Spiritualist refers to as coloring. Coloring is usually an unconscious, honest process but somemes a conscious one. An interesng example of cultural contaminaon that applies here is how descripons of the reported abductors changed from rabbits to the big-eyed gray hominoids commonly reported today. In 1987, Whitely Strieber published Communion: A True Story by Whitley Strieber, (71) which portrayed a

typical gray extraterrestrial. Today, close encounters with aliens can be expected to include the now standard alien descripon which agrees with the Communion book cover. That kind of cultural contaminaon must be considered when evaluang the usefulness of any report based on percepon. The streaming dream experience looks a lot like our unconscious mind aempng to ﬁnd a story for sensed informaon that our worldview will accept. This ability of our mind to tell us a story emerges into our conscious awareness as understanding that is possibly only like but not the same as what was intended. This is also a factor in what is somemes referred to as storytelling, in which a person tries to make a supposed paranormal example or mediumisc message make sense by concocng a plausible explanaon. A creave story can bring meaning where there is none intended. If you are training to be a mental medium, be aware that what you sense via psi funconing is possibly translated by your perceptual processes into your personal symbols based on your point of view. Incremental learning is involved, so for me, it has been a lifelong process of learning to recognize how my unconscious perceptual processes present mediumiscally sensed informaon to my conscious awareness. Automac wring, pendulum work, even physical phenomena of the séance room is subject to this translaon of original intent into the medium’s or an interested observer’s understanding. Here, it is important to note that the medium works with the sier and both contribute

to percepon. This co-creaon of experiences appears to be a factor in all forms of trans-etheric inﬂuence. What I refer to as the Intenon Channel is the link of inﬂuence between conscious awareness as source of intenon and our mostly unconscious as servant of intenon. In deep-trance mediumship, the Intenon Channel between the medium’s conscious and unconscious awareness appears to be idled in some way so that the external communicang personality is more able to express its intenon on the medium’s perceptual processes. This transfer of the source of intenonality appears to be necessary for clear lucidity in mediumship which produces uncolored message and phenomena. As a ﬁnal note, it is apparent that many of us are able to spontaneously enter into a relavely deep trance and remain funconal. This usually occurs without our realizing the change in state. For instance, when we pause to remember something, we momentarily suspend many of our mental processes in order to increase lucidity. This translates as clearer access to the mostly unconscious perceptual processes. Acknowledging to ourselves that we are likely funconing trance mediums is one way to increase roune lucidity. Discussion This essay began as a contemplaon about why I am uncomfortable exchanging comments in social media. On the Internet, what we say through our wring is all we are to others. Others seldom tell us they do not understand what we say. They do not see our smile or always understand if we are kidding. This is especially true if there

are unexpected cultural implicaons aached to our words. The Internet is a most powerful tool for community building. But to use this tool, it is important to be mindful of the underlying dynamics that shape how our words are understood. This is doubly true of serving others via mediumship. Try to listen to what you say from the perspecve of mainstream society. Many people believe in some things paranormal such as ghosts and heaven, but they subscribe to what mainstream sciensts teach them. Part of what they are taught is to be suspicious of what the mainstream does not understand. Especially, pay close aenon to the thoughts that came to you while reading this essay. I have encountered substanal resistance to the idea that we only indirectly sense our world, and that what we do consciously sense is colored by our expectaons based on memory. If you are a Spiritualist, or if you have read a lot of Spiritualist literature, you will have been taught a very diﬀerent point of view about how you interface with your communicators and the world. As a Cerﬁed Spiritualist Teacher, I say with the utmost desire you to objecvely understand that what you have been taught is likely out of date. It is for you, only, to make sense of the more contemporary science. I say only because your usual teachers may also be struggling to adopt a more raonal point of view. References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book.

Essay 8 How We Think 2014 About This Essay Perhaps you have heard the phrase “For those who have eyes to see.” The idea is not that some people have a special set of eyes. It means that some people have developed the ability to noce things about their environment that others tend to ignore. This is an especially important concept when it comes to the Mindful Way. The earliest reference to the idea I have found comes from Hermes, Line 12 of the Emerald Tablet:(28) 12. So the world was created. Hence were all the wonderful adaptaons of the One Thing manifested; but the arrangements that follow this great mysc path are hidden. The One Thing is the organizing principles expressed by Source. In Line 2 of the lesson, Hermes speaks of the One Power, which is modeled as the Creave Process (19) in the Implicit Cosmology. (12) The Creave Process is a person’s aenon on an imagined outcome to produce an intended order. Hermes was explaining that all of reality was formed by way of natural, knowable principles. An important concept here is the need for the seeker to gain suﬃcient understanding to perceive the secret wisdom of Nature. The phrase “…the arrangements that follow this great mysc path are hidden” can be understood as “This great mysc path is hidden except for those who have eyes to see.” Hermes was telling his listeners that they needed to understand what he had just told them if they were

to understand the One Thing in order to perform the Great Work. Also see Essay 17: The Herec Concepts. For a more contemporary reference, famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung told us that “Synchronicity is an ever-present reality for those who have eyes to see.” Essay 19: Progression, Teaching and Community. Here are the implicaons of the principles as I understand them: 1. The secret of lucidity: Recognize and learn to live in balance with the organizing principles of reality. Our purpose in this lifeme is to gain understanding about the nature of our world. Doing so can be described as gaining spiritual maturity. 2. The urge to seek understanding: Our immortal self has an insnct to acvely seek understanding. Even though we make some progress simply by living, ignoring the urge to acvely seek understanding can be a source of frustraon, a sort of restlessness that brings dissasfacon with our life if we are not responding to the urge. See Essay 3: Prime Imperave. 3. Learn to be a seeker: There are many diﬀerent ways to gain understanding. Certainly, the ancient wisdom schools are a tried and proven way, but they are diﬃcult and can take a lifeme to achieve mastery. Simply deciding to do so, and then consciously seeking understanding, is a way, but my experience is that self- guided ways are uncertain. The best way I know to consciously seek understanding is to know how we think, and then learn to integrate that into our daily living. That

is what I describe in my wring as the Mindful Way. The Mindful Way sll takes a lifeme, as cultural contaminaon is a never-ending inﬂuence, but progress gets easier as mindfulness becomes equally never-ending. See Essay 2: The Mindful Way. Finding a teacher, a guru, if you wish, was about the only way to learn about the nature of reality in ancient mes. Today, there are many would be gurus oﬀering to teach, but I hesitate to recommend a single one … including myself. The single teacher as the only way to gain access to knowledge can now be replaced with selecve reading of informaon accessible via the Internet. That is one of the reasons I write so much about community. Today, the Mindful Way can be based on the community as teacher and suﬃcient discernment of the seeker to disnguish objecve understanding from fantasy. 4. Limited imaginaon limits experience: An organizing principle I have found useful is the Principle of Perceptual Agreement deﬁned as Personality must be in perceptual agreement with the aspect of reality with which it will associate. (27) Percepon is based on understanding. That is, our access to actual reality is limited by our ability to perceive reality as it is and not as we have been taught. That depends on the correct alignment of our worldview with the actual nature of reality. When our human is no longer able to sustain us in the physical, we will transion to a new venue for learning; however,

we will only be able to enter one which we are able to visualize. Otherwise, our worldview will discard the new venue as being outside of our sense of reality. You and I cannot share the same heaven unless we are in perceptual agreement with the nature of that heaven. See Essay 16: What is it Like on the Other Side. 5. Understanding is the gatekeeper of future experiences: To further explain the idea of Number 4, we live in a personal reality deﬁned by our worldview. That personal reality is a subset of the actual nature of reality. You cannot experience my personal reality unless you and I agree about the nature of reality (perceptual agreement). Your degree of spiritual maturity, which is the extent to which your personal reality agrees with actual reality, has a direct inﬂuence on your moment-to-moment experiences and connues to inﬂuence your experiences as you transion out of this lifeme. Put another way; if you are spiritually immature now, you will sll be spiritually immature when you are out of this lifeme. Dying does not make you more mature, only more aware of your immaturity. From my study, I have learned that the way one develops the eyes to see is by developing a more lucid awareness of mostly unconscious mind. Doing so is an expected result of habitual mindfulness. Another important saying is You have to do the work! The best way I know of to do the work is to learn to

follow the Mindful Way. That begins with learning how we think. Introduction Emerging understanding of how we think is shedding important light on how we might seek to improve ourselves, our psi funconing and our relaonship with the community. As it turns out, the body-centric perspecve of I think I am this is simply not supported by current research. New thought is leading to a more dynamic perspecve in which consciousness is seen as a product of aenon and expression as a funcon of intenon. These are etheric rather than physical in nature, suggesng that understanding the immortal self-centric perspecve might show how to consciously access the true I am this nature of who we really are. This essay provides an introducon to this new thought. First, it is important that you understand that even though I use a few psychological and parapsychological terms, I am neither psychologist nor parapsychologist. As an engineer, I tend to maintain a pragmac approach to modeling and oen focus on diﬀerent concepts than you might expect from people trained in psychology, so please don’t tell your parapsychologist friends that “Tom said so.” Terms Most of the terms I use are intended as they are commonly used, but there are a few for which a more obscure deﬁnion is intended. A full glossary of the terms I use for these essays can be found at ethericstudies.org/glossary-of-terms/. Refer to Essay 1: Condional Free Will, for an overview of the model I use for mind. A more

thorough explanaon is included in Your Immortal Self. (1) A brief descripon of each funconal area is included in this essay. Although I repeat these explanaons in many of the essays, I tend to describe them a lile diﬀerently each me and the diﬀerent approach might help you understand. About Spirit-Related Terms Here, I am careful to avoid religious connotaon, but some terms common to religion are too useful to ignore. Spirit: Saying that someone is in spirit is the same as saying they are in the etheric. If you are religious, it is the same as saying in heaven. Considering the Implicit Cosmology and the anatomy of a life ﬁeld explained in Essay 1: Condional Free Will, I refer to a discarnate enty (somemes, a ghost) as a personality, etheric personality or immortal self rather than a spirit. The self-aware aspect of immortal self is referred to here as conscious self. Conscious self represents your conscious perspecve of reality; the experiencer as a traveling perspecve. Think video camera in a drone. Nature spirit: The formave personalies somemes referred to as devas are also somemes referred to as nature spirits. Considering the anatomy of a life ﬁeld discussion in Essay 1: Condional Free Will as a building block of reality, it is probably beer to think of nature spirits as just like you and me, but with diﬀerent intenon and from diﬀerent collecves. As such, I prefer to address their funcon rather than thinking of them as a special form

of personality. Spiritual: Spiritual relates to the high ideals oen associated with being very religious. In my wring, spiritual is intended in a more objecve sense emphasizing understanding rather than believing. Thus, I say spiritual maturity, meaning the development of understanding about the nature of reality. Spirituality: Spirituality is the point of view associated with seeking to gain spiritual maturity. It is also a state of spiritual maturity but is relave to how lucid a person has become and the degree to which that lucidity has manifest as compassionate behavior. Personality Personality is the immortal part of who we are; our intelligent core. In this model, there is personality, unconscious self and conscious self. When entangled with an avatar, there is also the avatar’s body consciousness. I generalize our etheric nature with the term, immortal self. Lucidity is further explained below in this essay. It is seen as the degree to which we are able to sense actual reality, which is the same as saying how well we are able to consciously manage our Perceptual Loop which is modeled as the percepon and expression generator of our mind. That means that part of who we are which is normally thought of as unconscious mind is beer described as mostly unconscious. As we gain in spiritual maturity, it becomes more accessible to our conscious self. I refer to who we are while in a lifeme as a person which is immortal self entangled with a human in an avatar relaonship for

this lifeme. When we are a person, our conscious self normally has a body-centric perspecve as if seeing the world through the eyes of the human. Of course, the reason for gaining spiritual maturity is to develop an immortal self-centric perspecve. Just to be sure we are on the same page, centric is used here in the sense of our perspecve or where we think our real self exists. We naturally assume a body-centric perspecve when we enter a lifeme. The objecve is to change that perspecve to that of immortal self in the greater reality (immortal self-centric) while being able to operate as a person (body-centric). Worldview A thoughorm (etheric ﬁeld) that funcons as a database or repository of memory and human and spiritual insncts. It holds our beliefs and understanding which represents (determines) the nature of our personal reality. This model assumes we are born with only a degree of conceptual understanding and an urge to gain further understanding, both inherited from our personality. See Essay 3: Prime Imperave. As shown in the Funconal Areas for Percepon Diagram, Worldview represents the standard by which the output of the Perceptual Loop is determined. In eﬀect, it determines what the conscious self is able to consciously experience. Worldview is funconally situated between the Aenon Complex and Personality. Even though Personality represents the life ﬁeld’s intelligent core, its ability to experience the physical is limited by Worldview. In an avatar relaonship (a lifeme), Worldview is populated with the body’s insncts as

well. The avatar inﬂuence appears to be dominant in the ﬁrst few years of a lifeme. Part of the process of maturing toward adulthood is the increasing inﬂuence of inherited spiritual insncts and prior understanding of percepon. Perception and Expression Percepon produces external expression. The output of the Perceptual Loop may be conscious awareness of something, a decision to act or an ideoplasc formaon (expression) of our perceived reality. Basically, Expression represents unconscious thought coming to conscious awareness based on how it is perceived in the Perceptual Loop. In a way, it is the etheric-to-physical interface. Expression is the funcon by which we make the world as our personal reality. The Ideo- preﬁx means idea or image. Ideoplasc is used here to mean the nature of objects formed in the creave process as a mind-to-object expression. In this model, the world we witness through our human’s eyes is described as an ideoplasc expression. In the Implicit Cosmology, all of our expressions are thoughorms. We assign physicality to some of them and dream-like qualies to others. The expression and expression processes are the same in the Aenon Complex (mind). The diﬀerence is in conscious self’s intenon. In either case, the Aenon Complex submits the visualized result to conscious self in the manner of “This is what I said” or “This is what I hear.” Attention Limiter Both psi and physical informaon sensed from the environment are ﬁltered, depending on whether or not it is of interest to us. We are presumably

immersed in a huge amount of psi and physical smuli and this process helps to enable the Perceptual Loop to focus on more important input. In terms of digital data, think of this as the router interface: if the Aenon Complex is not speciﬁcally addressed by the environmental signal, the signal is ignored. Perceptual Loop A process in which smuli are translated into awareness … or rejected. This is a streaming process in which: • Ignore: Informaon from the environment is visualized, compared to Worldview, and if there is no recognion, it is rejected, and the conscious self does not become aware of the informaon. • Try again: The informaon is visualized, compared to Worldview, and if familiar, it may be modiﬁed for repeated visualizaon. The visualized image will likely pass through the loop several mes to be modiﬁed to agree with Worldview or rejected. • Accept: If it is a good match with Worldview (personal sense of what is real), it is accepted and sent to the percepon funcon and will be consciously experienced. • Maybe: If the Perceptual Loop produces a maybe or ambiguous result, it is accepted and sent to the percepon funcon and allowed to change Worldview. It is important in cosmology to idenfy a mechanism by which evoluon may occur. Rupert Sheldrake‘s Hypothesis of Formave Causaon includes provisions for creave soluons to evolve Nature’s Habit. (15) In the Implicit Cosmology, an ambiguous result of the Perceptual Loop evolves Worldview. Thus, we can see that a

small change or a lile newness is more apt to cause learning than will a dramac change. Attention Complex As a funconal area of the Implicit Cosmology model, the Aenon Complex represents the mostly unconscious mind. Personality has individual awareness which is limited to its etheric environment and what is available from its collecve. It also accesses Worldview. This informaon access is also limited by what it can comprehend (perceptual agreement limited by Worldview). Conscious self is our outward sense of I think I am this and I live in this world. Conscious self’s access to personality, its collecve and other personalies is via the Aenon Complex. Conversely, our core intelligence’s (personality as I am this) access to conscious self, its collecve and other personalies is via the Aenon Complex. Thus, the Aenon Complex, as mostly unconscious mind, is the gateway to the rest of reality for our life ﬁeld. Attention Aenon is a state of existence which is fundamental to life. It is an automac process in a similar way that the physical body has autonomic processes controlling such funcons as breathing. Both personality and avatar share this funconal area. An important disncon to note is that aenon is part of what makes us senent. Thus, it is necessary for percepon or expression to exist. Besides being necessary for the existence of life in the life ﬁeld, aenon is also part of the inﬂuence conscious self has on the Aenon Complex (mostly unconscious mind). The only inﬂuence conscious self

has on the percepon and expression processes is the inﬂuence of intenon. That is enabled, ﬁrst by aenon on the process, and then by the intenon to make it so. Aenon on an intended outcome with the intenon to make it so is the creave process which must be iniated by conscious self, but the actual visualizaon of what is intended is developed in the Aenon Complex. The result is that we might wish to do something, but the nature of that something is limited by our ability to visualize it, which is limited by Worldview. How We Think It is a prey bold statement to say, “this is how we think,” but whether or not this model is technically correct, it is a very useful one for understanding our etheric nature and how we experience our physical and etheric environment. Learning to integrate this model into our daily thinking gives us important tools for improving our intuive sense and helps us place our feet more ﬁrmly on the Mindful Way. The Funconal Areas for Percepon Diagram provides a block diagram of how we think based on the most current science I can ﬁnd. All of the funconal areas are in the etheric and are beer thought of as nonphysical ﬁelds which are bound by aenon into a system. As such, the Aenon Complex represents our mostly unconscious mind. Here are a few of the consequences posed by the diagram: • Mind is nonphysical and exists in the etheric aspect

of reality. In the etheric, everywhere is here, so that an apparent change in locaon is actually just a change in percepon (change of perspecve). • Conscious self is also nonphysical. When in an avatar relaonship with a human body, everything we know about our body’s physical world comes to us by way of our body’s ﬁve senses. I speculate that the informaon stream is transformed from bioelectric to psi in the brain. Sll as a streaming signal, the psi form of that informaon is ﬁrst processed by our mostly unconscious mind via the perceptual Loop, as informed by worldview. That means signals from our body are processed in more or less instantaneous sample. In that way, we develop awareness of the signal probably a moment aer it is sensed by the body. The resulng percepon of the signal becomes part of worldview as memory and is sent to our conscious self as conscious awareness in a streaming fashion. Conscious reacon to those signals is again translated by mostly unconscious mind. While this may produce a streaming output for the body, it appears that the results of our reacon will also be a gestalt thoughorm; a whole thought with meaning, intenon and purpose, all as they are moderated by worldview. The thoughorm appears to be expressed into the etheric environment. The process is modeled this way because we know it can be sensed by other personalies. If the response is a physical acon, it must be transformed from the psi

form to a bio-electric signal in the brain. Thus, the brain acts as the etheric-physical interface to operate the body. • Our Aenon Complex receives informaon from other personalies via thoughorms developed in their Aenon Complex and according to their worldview. In the case of remote viewing, for instance, we see what other conscious selves are registering as physical in their perceptual process. Our Perceptual Loop appears able to merge informaon about the physical environment experienced by other personalies that have been received from their entangled body. Each personality has learned to assign physicality to signals they have been taught to think of as physical. The result for each of us currently in a lifeme is the percepon of a physical world and our interacon with it. To be clear, we do not see the remote physical scene because it only exists as an ideoplasc construct of other conscious selves. The way we psychically sense a scene is to sense the expression products produced in the Aenon Complex of the people who are both aware of the scene and whose worldview is reasonably in agreement with ours. • Since the Perceptual Loop is a streaming process, environmental informaon is connuously sampled so that we experience an evolving percepon as more informaon becomes available. In dreams, this may explain stream-of-thought dreams in which one moment suggests the next but does not always produce a logical experience. First Sight Theory (Use discernment here. I am explaining this theory as I understand Carpenter’s

explanaon.) James Carpenter has proposed an important hypothesis he refers to as First Sight Theory. (16) (38) He explains that people ﬁrst sense the world psychically. As he puts it: “What if ESP is like subliminal percepon? What if psychokinesis is like unconsciously but psychologically meaningful expressive behaviors?” He answers these quesons by proposing two proposions based on the assumpon that: (paraphrasing) everything and everyone, every acon in the past, now or in the future, perturbs the subtle energy space that connects all of us. Carpenter argues that research indicates people psychically sense these changes in psi space just as they physically sense changes in physical space. By “research indicates” I am saying that Carpenter based his theory on meta-analysis and personal research concerning hundreds of research reports—both mainstream and parapsychological. According to Carpenter, if that is true, then: (sll paraphrasing) First, people sense their environment psychically as well as with their physical senses. Second, people process this informaon unconsciously, and it is the conclusion of this processing that they become aware of and react to … not what has been psychically or physically sensed or unconsciously considered. A person might psychically sense someone near or far, a person’s acons and apparently their thoughts when they are expressed as intenon. Note 1: In this theory, the expression of intenon is what produces a change in psi space which can be sensed by others. Simply thinking of something does not appear to produce informaon which is detectable by others. Note 2:

The result of the unconscious perceptual process is described as formang of “experience and acon.” This is the percepon funconal area in the Funconal Areas of Percepon diagram (above). In this context, the person does not directly experience informaon from the environment. Instead, the person becomes aware of the informaon aer it is formaed in a way that agrees with Worldview. Carpenter proposes thirteen corollaries which amount to a decision tree deﬁning the Perceptual Loop in the above Percepon Diagram. I will spare you the list here, but it may be useful for you to read the Percepon Essay at ethericstudies.org/percepon/. (18) Also refer back to Essay 1: Condional Free Will. The diagrams here are intended to reﬂect the essence of Carpenter’s theory, but as modiﬁed based on other parapsychological literature and lessons learned from transcommunicaon (physical, mental, trance- channel forms of mediumship and Instrumental TransCommunicaon which includes EVP). The concepts are presented as the Implicit Cosmology (12). The applicaon of these concepts is described in Essay 2: The Mindful Way. Implications of Unconscious Preprocessing of Thought If the above informaon is reasonably correct, then our conscious self which is the I think I am this part of who we are, and what we sense around us, are the product of unconscious processes of which we have only indirect control. This means that we sense a lot more about our environment than that sensed with our ﬁve physical senses. In fact, we are likely psi-sensing smuli much before our physical

sensing. Paying Attention If we do not care about something, if it is uninteresng, then it will likely be unconsciously ignored. Of course, our body is constantly watching for survival-related input, so anything potenally scary, good to eat, sexual or related to territory will be ﬁrst unconsciously reacted to, and if persistent, will enter conscious awareness. For instance, adrenalin may ﬂow in our system some me before we become consciously aware of a looming threat. An assumpon of this model is that we are born with an urge to gain understanding. (23) In eﬀect, that is a spiritual insnct; however, contrary to body insncts which compel the human to act, it appears we must consciously decide to respond to the urge to gain understanding. It may be possible to live a lifeme without responding to our spiritual urges. However, it has been my experience that ignoring them can result in a sort of restlessness as if our friends in spirit somemes coax us to pay aenon. See Essay 3: Prime Imperave. This is not a maer of self-determinaon (free will). It is a maer of ﬁnally gaining suﬃcient presence of mind to realize there is a need. Yes, we are urged to act in small ways, but seldom in a way that leads to conscious pursuit of spiritual maturity. One way we can take conscious control of our progression is by learning to pay aenon to our world with the intenon of gaining understanding. It is the expression of intenon

that counts. In the ancient wisdom of the Cabala, the Great Work consists of transmung the relavely immature mind (lead), into a more mature mind (gold). (30) One of the techniques for teaching this is to teach the seeker to learn as much as possible about everything. Learn to pay aenon! Here, I should add the wisdom of detachment. It is important to be interested in what is happening around us while not being aached to the outcome. Be open to unexpected possibilies. This translates as suspended judgment when witnessing things paranormal. Avoid expecng immediate understanding. The mind will try to shape what is being observed into something familiar, so not needing immediate understanding teaches the unconscious mind to allow what is observed to unfold naturally. The same goes for creang an intended reality. Seek an outcome but remain open to unexpected results. I need to emphasize here that our mostly unconscious mind is a world-class storyteller. Always be aware that what we are consciously thinking is a product of what we already know. This means that what we think we correctly understand about an unfamiliar situaon may actually be a fabricated understanding based on similar but not the same references. On a personal note, too oen when people bring a report of something paranormal to me, they become angry with me if I do not agree that it is paranormal. It appears they are already set in their mind that it is paranormal and has a speciﬁc meaning. That

is a form of aachment and prejudgment that defeats learning. It also makes teacher disappear. Worldview Can Be Taught Like a mental database, our worldview is ﬁlled by family, teachers, schools, church, and probably most importantly, the media. A red ﬂag concept of the Mindful Way is that we share this worldview with our human avatar. At birth, it is mostly the insncts of our human that governs our behavior. Maturing means learning to moderate the inﬂuence of these insncts with understanding. Sll, there are adults who are mostly controlled by their avatar. It takes a community because we are not born already understanding how to become a good cizen. It is taught. It is common to know people who are ostensibly like-minded, but who report rather diﬀerent experiences from a shared event. This is mostly because of diﬀerent Worldviews, so that for example, a person with a strong orthodox religious upbringing tends to experience or interpret phenomena with religious overtones while a Spiritualist is more apt to see the same phenomena in terms of interacon with their friends on the other side. Some people see spirits everywhere while others see Natural Law at work. Interesngly, none of these points of view are necessarily incorrect, as each is based on a combinaon of good sense and belief. If we normalize them by translang them into fundamental concepts, it is oen evident that the beliefs are based on the same concepts, only with rather diﬀerent aribuon. For instance, if we let

Jesus be a wayshower instead of a savior and let God be the reality ﬁeld rather than a father sing in judgment, the common characteriscs become more evident. Angels, guides, loved ones, inner teachers and devic enes all present themselves to our unconscious in much the same way. How they emerge into our conscious mind is determined by how we have been taught to look for them. Temperament Since ancient mes, observers of human behavior have noted that people tend to ﬁt into personality types or styles of behavior that govern how they interact with the world. This concept is explained in the People Have a Style of Learning Secon of Essay 7: Clarity of Communicaons. Lucidity Working with Worldview, the Perceptual Loop acts as a ﬁlter to restrict what part of the raw psi input becomes available to the conscious self. Learning to manage this process is important in developing a clear channel between conscious self and etheric personality. A person who demonstrates psychic ability is seen as one who is able to sense more of the Perceptual Loop process than the average person. This ability is referred to as lucidity. The threshold between unconscious and conscious awareness is referred to as liminal. According to Carpenter‘s last two First Sight Theory corollaries: (16) (38) Extracng from Carpenter’s explanaon of the Inadvertency and Frustraon Corollary: Informaon gathered via psi is not available to conscious experience but does contribute to the formaon of conscious experience by the arousal of ancipatory networks

of ideas and feelings (assuming that they are heavily weighted, aﬀorded slow switching and approached with the intenon of assimilaon). Because of this arousal, their acon can be glimpsed consciously only by observing thoughts, feelings and behaviors that are inadvertent; that is, not intenonal and not obviously caused by any current experiences. Someone who has become skillful in interpreng them is thought of as relavely psychic. Extracng from Carpenter’s explanaon of the Liminality Corollary: The arousal of ancipatory networks of ideas and feelings resulng from unconscious psi informaon may be considered liminal ones, in terms of the boundary between conscious and unconscious thought. Habitual interest in liminal experiences facilitates expression of psi processes (openness), leading to unconscious reference to psi material (and other streams of unconscious material). A more posive, open, secure state of mind will tend to facilitate reference to a broader spectrum of contextual, potenally liminal experience. In other words, habitually paying aenon to subtle informaon emerging from your unconscious can lead to more direct awareness of what has been psychically sensed from psi space. This means that a person wishing to develop psychic ability should learn to focus on inner thoughts, think what is sensed is potenally useful and expect more informaon. It is important to note here that no disncon is made between mediumship and psychic funconing. From the perspecve of percepon, the mechanism of transcommunicaon is the same and only the aribuon is diﬀerent. That is the theory. Instead of seeking a meditave state of

no mental chaer, every thought should be invited and at least brieﬂy examined with interest (contemplaon). I like the meditaon in which I mentally stand at the opening of a vast cave. The world full of light and solidity is before me, while fragments of thoughts ﬂier toward me out of the cave as if they are buerﬂies. I turn to face them, and as each thought comes, I brieﬂy aempt to make sense of it, before sending it back into the cave. I mentally follow the thoughts that are especially interesng, deep into the cave, seeking to understand their source. It is the source I am most interested in, and as I seek to visualize that from the temperament side and not the astrological side, I intend that my unconscious mind will learn what is important and what is not, based on reason and not on habit. Informaon from our friends on the other side comes to us via a mind- to-mind exchange by way of our Aenon Complex. As illustrated in the Lucidity Diagram below, informaon from the etheric is sll ﬁltered by Worldview, but that ﬁltering is moderated by understanding so that greater understanding results in greater lucidity. Ideally, the experiencer (conscious self) learns to sense the diﬀerence between that which is cultural contaminaon and that which is from the environment. For me, it is oen the surprise factor that hints of something outside of my musing. Hyperlucidity Hyperlucidity is marked by the tendency to ﬁnd phenomena

everywhere despite considerable tesmony to the contrary by peers. The concept is adapted from occasional reports of odd behavior exhibited by some people when they visit an emoonally charged place (Paris Syndrome, Jerusalem Syndrome) or experience great beauty (Stendhal Syndrome). (72) (73) In the Hyperlucidity Diagram, the experiencer (conscious self) imagines what is being perceived to be from transcommunicators while in fact, it is just from the physical environment or internal mental musing guided by cultural teaching. The key to understanding hyperlucidity is to look for hints of magical thinking. If a person thinks ability comes upon them as if as a gi, rather than by way of study and pracce, then an observer should ﬁrst look for the objecve evidence. If that is available, the next queson concerns the validity of that evidence. Can it be independently experienced? This concept provides a possible explanaon for the abundance of not so evidenal evidence displayed on the Internet. From personal experience, I know that mental mediums can be very evidenal, but it takes pracce to learn to disnguish between mental preconcepon and thought emerging from personality. One of my favorite talks given in our Spiritualist Society was by Steve Crow, tled You have to do the work. A person tending toward hyperlucidity is typically one who ﬁrst comes to these phenomena as an expert. This is a diﬃcult concept because there may be a tendency to use it as an argument against the existence of transcommunicaon. Instead, hyperlucidity should be looked

at as an enthusiasc approach to the study of things paranormal that is not balanced by discernment and educaon about the subject. As a behavior, it will eventually moderate as the person become beer informed. I know I tend to harp on this but forgive. Hyperlucidity appears to be the greatest roadblock to gaining understanding you will encounter on the Mindful Way. Hyperlucidity is a pervasive syndrome that inﬂicts most people new to serious consideraon of paranormal phenomena. Hyperlucidity oen shows up in the form of pronouncements of truth based on unsubstanated, assumed truths. The eﬀect is to reject the oﬀer of alternave thought from others in the community. When I say that a cooperave community requires a candid exchange of informaon, I am saying that personal pet theories must be held in abeyance in order to consider new ideas. Candid responses are those that reveal honest consideraon. Discernment means recognizing the inﬂuence of our inner judge when it poses as all-knowing. Discussion This essay rather brieﬂy covers a lot of material. While much of it may be new to you, even contrary to what you have learned, it is supported by quite a lot of solid research by many very knowledgeable people. Psi ﬁeld, psi funconing and ﬁrst sight are concepts that may well iniate a global mind change. It is for you to decide if you are willing to join the early adopters on the path of mindfulness in the pursuit of greater lucidity. The way is not

easy, but reward comes early. The Way of Progression Through community comes knowledge Through teaching comes understanding It takes a collecve Take advantage of opportunies to discuss these concepts. Doing so helps their integraon into your worldview. What you have to say is important because sharing your unique perspecve, observaons and experiences will help the rest of us. References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 9 Consensus Building in the Paranormalist Community 2017 About This Essay In Essay 1: Condional Free Will, I tried to explain the limits of our ability to say what we intend. When I speak, I intend to speak the truth, but in actuality, I am only able to speak the truth as I understand it. We are all the same in that regard; however, I am willing to argue that I am more able to speak the truth than the average person. The reason is that I have spent much of this lifeme trying to learn how to see the truth … Nature as her actual self. This is something you can do, as well. When I write an essay, my movaon is usually to explore a concept that has been more frequently coming to my aenon than usual. This essay is a good example. I had been shown one example too many for why I am not doing a good job of explaining myself. One good example is my failure to organize an ethics panel. Five or six opinion

seers in our community had agreed to parcipate, but when it came down to actually doing the work to get things started, none were to be found. They wanted to be part of it, so I must assume I failed in some way to movate them into acon. I blame myself because such disappointments are common with my bright ideas. Another example is the many hours I might spend explaining the Implicit Cosmology to people, only to ﬁnd months later that their acons argue that they did not believe or understand a word of it. The crowning disappointment has been the public response to Your Immortal Self. (1) The book was not intended to make money, but sales are the only metric I have to tell how well it is received. I do watch to see if people comment about it or list it in recommended reading. It did show up on a couple of lists but fell oﬀ one in weeks. I sent it out to a few people I considered important opinion seers in our community; however, despite kind words, I have the sense they did not actually read the work. Two did give me excellent reviews, which probably accounts for those who have purchased it. The most telling, and important comment I received was that the book was inmidang. Others complained that it is too long or too complex. These comments are important to me and help me understand the need to learn how to more eﬀecvely

communicate. While new, when compared to, say momentum or osmoses, the concepts are not all that confusing. It is just that I do not stop explaining unl I have addressed all of the variables. There are a lot of variable you can expect to encounter when trying to apply the concepts, so yes, the story is probably too long. This book was to be around 250 pages, but here it is at nearly 390. So, I did it again. And despite my eﬀorts to be more reader-friendly, it will likely be seen as inmidang. The moral of my lile story is that our community needs people who can convey these concepts in more reader-friendly ways. It is by that skill that we will see a useful consensus about the nature of our reality develop. This essay began with the tle of Inconvincible, in the sense that some people cannot be convinced about new ideas. But, every me I started the essay, it quickly degenerated into a rant. The same thing happened with Essay 14: Open Leer to Paranormalists. All of my aempts turned into complaining. I realized this and began again, only for the wring to dri into another rant. Being me is frustrang somemes. I suppose we can all say that. The soluon is not easily found when I am busy being frustrated. Somemes I wake up in the morning with insights about whatever I am working on at the me. The change in approach for the essay usually

begins then. It sll took me many restarts, but with each, the perspecve gradually changed from me complaining, to more construcve observaons with possibly aconable suggesons. This is where I explain that I have help wring these essays. Well, yes, I clearly do, but the trick is learning to listen to that help. My objecve is to trust the urge I sense to write this or that in the same way, I trust advice from an old friend … with the understanding that it is me who must accept responsibility for what I write. This is to say that this essay began as a rant but ended up, I think, as a useful guide for working as a cooperave community. If you like it, thank my friend Mr. Writer. If you do not, then let me know in what way and I will try to make it more useful. Introduction Longme observers of the paranormalist community may have noced considerable change in the community over the years, but with lile apparent progress in understanding the nature of these phenomena. All of us are in the same boat, Paranormal. In a very real sense, we are dependent on one another, as sciensts need praconers to produce examples for study and praconers need sciensts for guidance in how to work with them. If progress requires cooperaon amongst cizens of the community, how can cooperaon be improved? In my view, the answer has everything to do with how we mentally process informaon and

the nature of our spiritual insncts. Shared Perception of Reality If our purpose is to gain understanding about the nature of reality, and if there is one actual reality, it seems clear that each of us is converging on the same understanding. If this is true, our diﬀerences are ulmately temporary. I say we are converging on the same understanding because it appears that understanding, itself, is a relave concept. An experience might be new to us and our understanding of it only slight, but that understanding becomes more precise as we have other, similar experiences. And so, it might be true that none of us are completely right in our opinion because our understanding is not complete. Even so, it is arguable that some of us see reality with greater lucidity than do others. If so, the sages were right all along in saying that the truth is evident for those who have eyes to see. In the end, it comes down to the simple truth that the present is created from the past. That is, unless we have developed the presence of mind to examine the validity of what we perceive, with the intenon to beer align our understanding with the actual nature of reality, our percepon will be enrely based on memory of past experiences. You may know this presence of mind as mindfulness and the path we must travel to gain it as the Mindful Way. See Essay 2: The Mindful Way. This is a good

place to discuss karma. Karma is commonly described in New Age circles as a system of merits we earn through good deeds and demerits we must work oﬀ by making amends. Karma is said to follow us from one lifeme to another. As it is described in the Katha Upanishad, (74) karma is of our physical nature, as opposed to our spiritual nature. The term is used in the sense spiritual lessons we are intended to learn in a lifeme. I see a close comparison between the karma of Hinduism and Buddhism to the Prime Imperave I discuss in Essay 3: Prime Imperave. In both systems of thought, we are born into this lifeme with the urge to gain understanding about a speciﬁc aspect of reality. Seeking the lessons is our purpose for exisng. As I understand the Upanishads, a karma is one of those bits of understanding we are intended to gain in this lifeme. So, you can see, karma can be paraphrased as imperfect understanding about the nature of reality that is intended to be resolved in this lifeme. It translates in praccal terms as the beer you understand reality, the less diﬃcult the remaining lessons (karma). Community As I will explain in Spiritual Anatomy, below in this essay, one of the more important tools for the Mindful Way is the cooperave community. Parcipaon in a community enables self-evaluaon. The process of composing what to say helps us organize our thoughts. An honest response from others in the

community helps us develop an idea of how sensible our understanding has become. An underlying assumpon of a cooperave community is that its members return candid responses. They need not agree, or even be raonal, but they do need to be candid by speaking up about why they agree or disagree and their quesons. It is when people do not return honest feedback that the cooperave community fails. Paranormalists and Paranormalist Seekers Paranormalists are deﬁned here as people who experience, study or have a more than casual interest in psychic ability (psi funconing, remote viewing, healing intenon), healing intenon (bioﬁeld healing, distant healing, healing prayer) and the phenomena related to survival of consciousness (mediumship, visual and audible Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC), haunngs). However, being a paranormalist does not mean a person is consciously seeking to gain understanding. For instance, to a casual observer, ghost hunng clubs appear to be more like sporng sociees than study groups. As you read this essay, keep in mind that I am addressing it to paranormalists in general, but when it comes to quesons of increasing understanding, I am speciﬁcally direcng my comments to seekers. Here, a seeker is one who consciously responds to the urge to gain understanding about the nature of reality. (23) As an aside to the skepcs amongst us, being a paranormalist does not mean all paranormalists think these phenomena are actually paranormal. In fact, skepc-ism is relave so that the further a concept is from mainstream thought, the more likely it

will be rejected by a person who studies these phenomena. For instance, anomalisc psychologists (58) reject psi and survival phenomena, while exceponal experiences psychologists (57) may accept psi but reject survival phenomena. The cohesiveness of a community is based on its member’s common understanding of the concepts which deﬁne it. Greater agreement in understanding tends to aract improved understanding, while decreasing agreement tends to disperse the binding inﬂuence. In eﬀect, unlimited freedom of opinion with lile or no collaboraon produces a chaoc environment which tend to defeat eﬀorts to develop a cohesive foundaon of understanding. In this sense, the paranormalist community is fast becoming a failed community. Even as more is understood as sound theory, we have less and less general agreement about the nature of the related phenomena. Belief rather than objecve understanding, proﬁteering and pet theories dominate. It seems that everyone has become their own expert, learned leadership is oen an-psi, but predominantly an-survival. Roadblocks to Idea Sharing As I have said, establishing the consensus necessary for community norms requires members of the community to be candid about expressing their point of view and open to the possibility of seeing other people’s point of view. Consensus building is typically an ongoing process as opinions converge toward a common view. If a common view is not found, the community can be expected to splinter as people who do agree, self- organize into sub-communies of interests. This appears to be our current state. A Fractured Community The old blind men

trying to describe an elephant parable applies here. From it, we learn that a coherent explanaon of the phenomena may only be possible if all the sub-communies of interest work together. As it is today, some sub-communies disagree with the others to the point of acvely aempng to debunk their view of the phenomena. The dominant sub-communies are: 1. Parapsychology: Academically trained, usually with doctorates, concerned with theorizing and conducng research, primarily considering the human nature-based response to phenomena, especially psi ﬁeld-related phenomena. Oen, research is designed to explain why people believe in these phenomena rather than to develop metaphysical models. 2. Cizen Sciensts: People who are involved in the study of these phenomena on the layperson side of the Academic-Layperson Paron. These include haunngs invesgaon as opposed to ghost hunng. Occasionally apply well-considered, protocol-based invesgaon of mediumship and ITC. More an emphasis on survival phenomena. 3. Mediumisc Praconers: People who apply techniques to induce transcommunicaon, such as mental and physical mediumship, automac wring and ITC. Healing intenon is included here. Usually an assumpon of survival, but also presumably psi-only praconers such as remote viewing and healing intenon 4. Hobbyists: This community of interest is primarily composed of ghost hunters. There are hundreds of ghost hunter clubs which are usually operated as social clubs with haunted place invesgaons as oungs. They usually employ quite a lot of technology to collect evidence, including recording for EVP. 5. Seekers: People who are interested in understanding these phenomena as it relates to their

true nature and relaonship with reality. Such concepts as mindfulness, personal improvement and human potenal apply to this community of interest. These sub-groups tend to be interdependent so that parapsychology depends on the other groups for access to phenomena, and the other groups depend on parapsychology for learned guidance about the nature of the phenomena and possibly how to work with them. This happens to some extent; however, my observaon has been that all ﬁve groups mostly ignore the others. They have developed their own stories about the nature of these phenomena; oen many diﬀerent stories within a group. Thus, each group tends to insulate itself from the others. The eﬀect of this is self-review which leads to a possible bubble of baseless beliefs used as the standard within the group to peer review new thought. This internal consensus tends to be a roadblock for the development of a global consensus. The eﬀect is more like the various belief systems developing into a sort of contemporary form of religions compeng for the ownership of actual truth. As we have found amongst orthodox religions, belief-based compeon for truth assures that no global consensus will form without individual acceptance of the need for change. A common story is necessary for progress to be made in our understanding. Lacking it, the paranormalist community is rapidly contracng into isolated subgroups. For the most part, the way is le for superson and sciensm to overshadow objecve study of these phenomena. My objecve here is to

understand the dynamics of this dispersal and seek ways to ﬁnd a common story. The obstacles I see, those behaviors I think are at the center of this failure to communicate, include: 1. People tend to be protecve of their examples of phenomena Sharing examples of phenomena is an important part of social media for paranormalist. On the surface, sharing is an eﬀecve way to teach one another about the nature of the phenomena and encourage further aempts to collect more examples. However, many shared examples are simply not paranormal. Some are arfacts of whatever technology was used. Many of these technologies are poorly understood and most of us do not know the many ways the technology might fool us. For instance, photographic latency can produce ghost lights and bright objects and parculates can produce orbs which are oen described as evidence of ghosts. A witness may not think the example is evidenal, but it has become something of a social norm to praise the example, perhaps to support the person’s emoonal need for validaon or the witness not wanng to be shunned as a doubter. The witness, failing to be candid about the example, eﬀecvely reinforces the exhibitor’s erroneous belief. No learning occurs and community understanding about the actual nature of the phenomena is further devolved into belief and away from objecve thinking. While praising an example that probably is not paranormal may seem like a kind gesture, it is more likely the witness does not wish to argue

with the exhibitor. We have had so many angry responses to our reports that examples are probably mundane, that now, we hardly ever agree to examine examples from the public. Our perspecve on this is explained at the top of the ATransC.org website front page: When encountering an extraordinary event, seek ﬁrst to ﬁnd commonalies with other extraordinary events and known science before assuming something new. Always error on the side of the mundane. 2. Delusion Delusion is deﬁned as belief in something despite evidence to the contrary. This may be a touchy subject, and certainly, I am not qualiﬁed to speak of it in academic terms. While not intended here as a derogatory comment about a person’s sanity, it is intended as a red ﬂag for experiencers and witnesses. This human condion is described in the Implicit Cosmology (12) as hyperlucidity and is considered a form of erroneous percepon that is self-correcng with educaon. See Hyperlucidity in Essay 8: How We Think. There are a number of common forms of delusion we encounter that make discussing examples diﬃcult. Typically, it is the result of naturally occurring perceptual arfacts that become obvious when how we think is understood. In one form, it is natural for the mind to aempt to ﬁnd meaning in ambiguous sounds. This usually occurs when a person is distracted or hypnagogic (not fully awake). For instance, always wanng to be the judge, our mind will try to hear the mostly unnoced hum of a motor as

a distant conversaon, radio staon or music … a familiar sound. Sounds other than the motor’s hum cannot be recorded, making recording a good test. This auditory arfact can be reported in audio recording when the experiencer thinks there are countless EVP, oen evil, in a recording. Yet, others do not hear the same. We conducted a study in which online listeners were asked what they heard in soundtracks we speciﬁcally explain had no speech. A surprising percentage of people insisted there were spoken words present. (75) Regreully, it is necessary for paranormalists to make themselves aware of the potenal for delusional experiences when experiencing phenomena or witnessing examples. We are all subject to delusional episodes, but it is important to recognize that some people should avoid working with anything paranormal because of a tendency toward erroneous percepon. 3. Pet theories When we assumed leadership of the ATransC in 2000, a frequently expressed theory was that the only real EVP were those found in the subsonic region of the audio spectrum. Later, some people insisted the only real EVP were in the ultrasonic region. Reversing the audio track to ﬁnd EVP was popular back then, and some insisted that the only real EVP were those found by reversing the soundtrack. Over the years, it has become evident that the unseen communicators will speak where we are listening. To our knowledge, none of those theories were tested under controlled condions. None have stood the test of further experience. Prior religious training

can cause people to believe their unseen communicators are stuck or earthbound. The same can be said about the way religious beliefs can lead to fear of encountering demons, possible possession and the danger of evil spirits. We know that percepon is inﬂuenced by prior belief, which I refer to as cultural contaminaon. Because of this, the proofs oﬀered by these theorists are suspect. Such faith-based beliefs can make these phenomena unnecessarily scary for the average experiencer and help to defeat our community’s forward progress. The idea of a pet theory also comes up in the form of “Spirit told me.” We see evidence of spiritualism in this argument, and even though we are both ordained Spiritualists, cerﬁed Naonal Spiritualist Teachers and cerﬁed mediums with the Naonal Spiritualist Associaon of Churches (nsac.org), there seems to be no way that we can convince such seers that they likely colored the message from spirit to agree with their worldview. It needs to be noted that a pet theory is something of a gi in the sense that it cannot exist unless the theorist has been able to see beyond the dogma of our community. However, a theory cannot move us forward unless people are willing to challenge it by asking why. It also cannot move us forward if the theorist is unable to explain it, or unwilling to engage in extended, candid discussions about its merit. Just as a person manufacturing an ITC device has the ethical responsibility to conduct studies to

establish that the device works and to document how arfacts occur, so does a theorist have the responsibility to establish a foundaon of evidence and supporng precedence. The usual reacon when we queson a pet theory is anger. Again, this is a form of being protecve of one’s phenomena. We have also noted a degree of arrogance in theorists as if our degree or experience does not warrant consideraon of our input. A theorist telling a witness his theory is right (period!), thus ending the conversaon, is perhaps the most common way learned discourse is defeated in our community. The andote is for the conversaon to connue with a well-considered “Yah, but” or “Consider it this way.” I am potenally guilty of this “My theory is beer than yours” syndrome. Knowing the potenal of this problem, I spend a great deal of me examining my models and trying to normalize other models so as to compare apples to apples. 4. The Silver Bullet Syndrome Transform EVP are the original form of transcommunicaon and remains the form best understood by way of pracce and research. They appear to form under the inﬂuence of intended order on chaoc audio noise. The problem is that transform EVP can be a diﬃcult means of contacng the other side. Not everyone is successful and only a relave few collect clearly understandable examples. On the other hand, opportunisc forms of EVP are supposedly found in the output audio stream of radio-sweep, EVPmaker and most technologies that

use detected changes in environmental energy to select from a pre-recorded speech database. The resulng sound stream consists of bits of speech, some of which are supposed to be arranged to produce the phenomenal message. The bits of sound are in every output. All that remains is for the praconer to ﬁgure out how to make the resulng babble seem like a message. In pracce, we see that the majority of people trying EVP are willing to force those bits of sound into expected meaning, whether or not it is actually present. The result is that opportunisc techniques have become so popular that they have prey much pushed the old fashion and harder to use transform technique into obscurity. In fact, much of what is being reported as EVP today is probably not EVP. Aer considerable study and honest aempts to see how opportunisc technique might produce EVP, (64) (76) (77) (78) we have ﬁnally oﬃcially set it aside as a technique that causes too many false posives to be of use. Our policy now is to explain to people that, for teaching or research, we no longer consider supposed EVP produced by opportunisc techniques, including ghost or spirit boxes and some of the new apps. We rounely suggest that we would be happy to revisit this policy if someone presented us with meaningful research supporng opportunisc techniques. The people who should be conducng such research are those selling the equipment. As it appears, the proﬁt move menoned next in

Item 5 appears to be the reason the vendors work so hard to convince people the equipment works. Again, the tendency of people to be protecve of their examples of phenomena appear to be the problem. People who openly discount examples, no maer which phenomenon, are likely to receive an angry response, or be shunned as a non-believer. From my perspecve, the transform-opportunisc EVP divide has had a devastang eﬀect on the forward progress of our community. At root is a widely shared belief in something that has lile or no objecve support. 5. A proﬁt move Some people have developed a theory to explain some or all of these phenomena. While many are only movated to prove they are right, it seems the most aggressive are those who have wrien a book, and now beneﬁt from the book being right. We see this in a number of opinion seers in our community, as they have found an audience to agree with their views and now seek to proﬁt with books and website adversing revenue. The people promong opportunisc EVP tend to be making money by geng people to purchase the equipment. This is also a potenal problem when people promote an event to pay the rent. We have aended a few excellent mediumship demonstraons held at private venues, even hosted a few, but some we aended bordered on decepon. We have been kicked out of a séance facility in France because we were too negave, according to the sponsors.

In fact, we were challenging the promoters for disingenuous representaon of the phenomena. It would have been unethical had we not. The proﬁt move usually consists of a person trying to sell a book. But many researchers depend on donors to fund their university department or at least a project. An interesng new development is academics seeking funding under false pretenses; perhaps ostensibly to study survival phenomena while intending to debunk it, or seeking funding to develop old, failed ideas as if they are newly invented. People should be paid for their work. Lisa and I originally sold signed copies of the book we wrote for the Associaon, but ﬁnally stopped because of the personal cost and me. Without a lile proﬁt move, service to the community has a limited lifespan for many of us. From my experience, a mental medium stands spiritually naked before a client. I for one have found the experience uncomfortable beyond my willingness to serve. The years people spend developing ability … in this lifeme or others, warrants reasonable reimbursement, else they should not be expected to be available to serve without the same sort of scheduling and remuneraon one would expect for a professional such as an aorney or medical doctor. A similar situaon exists with EVP praconers. Not everyone is able to successfully record for EVP and only a few we know of are able to contact speciﬁc people with any conﬁdence. Like mental mediumship, there is always a risk that the praconer

must report a failed aempt. It also takes considerable me and eﬀort to properly examine the recordings and compassionately deal with the sier. Thinking someone should do these things for free is the same as thinking a therapist should work for free. A belief-based assumpon used to jusfy many accusaons of fraud is that mediumship ability is a God-given gi that should be used in service to others for free. To be clear, psi sensing of any form is a characterisc of life. It is not a gi to be taken away because someone thinks it is being abused. It is an ability which can be developed and is applied according to the person’s worldview. 6. Academic-Layperson Paron. Parapsychologists typically hold a Ph.D. and operate under the cloak of that authority. Members of the other communies of interest typically do not have an advanced degree, or if they do, do not operate under its authority. The expected social order is that people with an advanced degree provide learned guidance to people who are not as well informed about their specialty. We have observed, and personally experienced, a tendency of parapsychologist Ph.Ds. to avoid discussing theory with laypeople. Instead, much of the parapsychological literature consists of one- sided studies that, with the author’s apparent assumpon of witness delusion or ignorance, too oen discount reported phenomena. Given the lack of informed discourse amongst the laypeople of our community, it is easy to understand how the Academic- Layperson Paron came about. However, almost

every eﬀort we have made to bridge that divide has failed. When a sub-community is closed to discourse with the other sub-communies … all trying to describe the same elephant … the greater community either fails or ﬁnds a way to compensate for the missing input. That appears to be happening now as the parapsychological community becomes less relevant in the objecve study of transcommunicaon and survival. Importance of Sharing Ideas Two realizaons began to emerge as I studied these phenomena and sought to explain the related concepts to others. The most important is that the phenomena are a symptom and not the end objecve. This is important so let me say it a diﬀerent way. EVP, for instance, is a tool with which we can study our spiritual nature and the nature of the greater reality, which is our true home. Yes, having an EVP example containing the voice of a loved one is reassuring, but that should not obscure the fact that our dead loved one is not dead at all, only transioned to a diﬀerent aspect of reality. If we miss that point, then all else is just cultural pabulum. If the implicaons of these phenomena are as we think, they are profound. They suggest that living a full life means seeking to understand the greater reality and living in accordance with its organizing principles. I describe this realizaon in terms of mindfulness and explaining the implicaons of this realizaon has become the underlying theme of all

I do these days. You may have other ways of describing this way of knowing. The important point is that the underlying concepts amongst the diﬀerent ways of visualizing this idea must be the same if they are real. It is the common underlying concepts for which we must ﬁnd a consensus. The second realizaon is that explaining the ﬁrst realizaon is more diﬃcult than I expected. My wife Lisa and I have developed many ways to bring these phenomena to the public. Of the 129 issues of the newsleer published by Associaon TransCommunicaon, Lisa and I published the last 54 between 2000 and 2014. We esmate each issue has been read by some 1000 people. The website rounely receives 700 to 900 unique visitors a day. The book we wrote, There is No Death and There are No Dead, (79) has made the associaon more than $34,000, which means nearly 7,000 people have read the book. Over the years, I have personally answered thousands of quesons from website visitors. Yet, there is lile evidence in the paranormalist community that we have existed. It is probably human nature to gather all the informaon about a subject of interest and synthesize a personal point of view that does not normally highlight any one source. Assuming that is true, it is reasonable to think our contribuon to the community has been considered and merged with all the rest. The problem I see, however, is that much of the belief popularly held by

members of our community appears to contradict what we have wrien. If we have had an eﬀect, it is a very subtle one. Again, this apparent diﬃculty in geng ideas out to the public is not unique to us, but it is a problem that must be resolved if we are to see understanding about these phenomena progress. So, the queson is, how do the opinion seers amongst us help us develop stories about these phenomena that are both objecvely meaningful and realiscally useful? I do not have an answer, but the following point to consider might help in our eﬀorts to collaborate with others. Spiritual Anatomy To understand ourselves and others, we must ﬁrst understand our spiritual anatomy. (80) By spiritual anatomy, I mean who we are as immortal beings and the funconal areas involved in developing unconscious and conscious percepon. This is important because, considering the more objecve theories of today, we can see that it is probable we experience the world as we were taught, rather than experiencing its actual nature. See Anatomy of a Life Field in Essay 1: Condional Free Will. This secon provides a brief overview of the factors which appear to determine how we form opinions. All of it is discussed in more detail in Your Immortal Self: Exploring the Mindful Way. (1) (Also see ethericstudies.org/concepts/.) If you have read other essays by me, you will know that some of this material is oen repeated; however, I tend to tailor explanaons for the

subject, so please take the me to read the version presented here. Anatomy of a Life Field in Essay 1: Condional Free Will, also has a comprehensive introducon to these concepts. Objective Thinking For the sake of discussion, it is necessary to make a disncon between that which seems to be less in alignment with actual reality and that which appears to be more in alignment. The American Associaon of Electronic Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP) was founded in 1982 by Sarah Estep to Provide objecve evidence that we survive death in an individual conscious state. When we assumed leadership of the AA-EVP in 2000, we were determined to maintain a focus on the objecve aspect of Sarah’s goal. The Associaon is now the ATransC, and a review of the ATransC.org website will show that we have tried to remain objecve to this day. At the boom of each page of ATransC.org is a link to the Our Pledge to You page, on which we say: We pledge to do all we can to provide the most accurate and up-to- date informaon about all things etheric. While we do not know what will be seen as true in the future, we will aempt to idenfy what on this website is supported by empirical evidence, what is speculaon and what is common knowledge. The pledge is important because we have found that an objecve point of view is essenal to ethical disclosure of informaon about the nature of reality. Otherwise, our audience has

reason to think our work is based on belief. As it is used here, Objecve is intended as understanding based on empirical evidence supported by sound theory and undistorted by emoon or personal bias. Considering our goal, our Pledge and the need to support those in need of assurance, it is important that we strive to provide only the most ethical and reasonable explanaons about these phenomena. Of course, I have been way oﬀ in the past about some concepts. For instance, we were very supporve of some audio and visual ITC techniques in the past, but which I would hesitate to support today. Naturally, our understanding is also evolving. That is why I have learned to provide references and links to addional informaon in my wring. This is not to say the addional informaon is correct. It is to say that the more you know about the subject, the beer prepared you are to decide for yourself. It is for you to do the work of exploring the references and links. Rational Personal Responsibility When I say that the present is decided by the past, I am referring to the concept that our worldview is the ﬁlter for our percepon. Our worldview is a mostly unconscious database populated with memory, cultural training and spiritual insncts inherited from our personality (Core Intelligence) and the collecve of personalies with whom we share a common source. Since we share Worldview with our human, our human’s insncts are also involved. If we do

not stop and think about our acons, Worldview prey much determines how we perceive our world. Rupert Sheldrake referred to this as Nature’s Habit. (15) This is another way of saying that we do what we have always done unless we make a conscious eﬀort to change. Making that eﬀort is the essence of mindfulness, and what I think of as raonal personal responsibility. Not making the eﬀort is a deﬁnion of the average person. For instance, I argue in my Irraonal Nature of Gun Ownership Musing on EthericStudies.org that owning a gun is more a surrender to our human survival insncts than it is the expression of a raonal mind. (81) The idea of raonal personal responsibility is nicely summarized as the ﬁrst item in the Ethical Expression Column of the Possible Mindfulness Personal Code of Ethics Table (below): Just because you can, does not mean you should. (82) Communies are developed by people cooperang to support a common set of ideals. Cooperave communies are torn apart by people disregarding such ideals in favor of personal wants. Personal Responsibility as a Process The Essay 1: Condional Freewill includes a discussion about the implicaon of mostly unconscious processing of percepon on our ability to personally account for our acons. Our ability to assure that what we say and do what we intend is limited by our lucidity. Here, lucidity is used to mean the extent to which we are able to sense the actual nature of environmental informaon before it

is colored by Worldview. Greater lucidity means greater ability to be responsible for our acons; personal responsibility or self-determinaon. This is in contrast to hyperlucidity, which is a useful term for the problem of thinking we are sensing clearly, while in fact, we are only seeing a story created by our worldview. The most important points for you to consider when evaluang your next acon is that the environmental informaon you just received into your mind, possibly a biological-to-psi signal from your body’s ﬁve senses or a psi signal from a friend in spirit, will have been changed from its original form before entering into your conscious awareness. The determining factors for what you ﬁnally sense is what is in your worldview and the intenon you previously expressed to your mostly unconscious mind. Your worldview is shared by your human body and your spiritual self. That means what you were taught in school, what you learned from that horror movie last night and what your body thinks it is supposed to do to maintain its place in the pecking order or to assure connuity of its kind, are all factors in forming the informaon that comes to your conscious mind each moment of your life. The one conscious inﬂuence you have on your mind’s coloring of informaon is the expression of intenon to experience things as they actually are. The day you realize the need for this conscious inﬂuence on your mind is the day you step onto the Mindful

Way. It is how you take control of your self-determinaon. Expression of intenon is a lifestyle behavior, so if you are just beginning, give your mental processes a while to respond. As an aside, pay close aenon to the statement, realizing the need. You can think to yourself, “Of course, I realize the need,” but that is not the same as fully comprehending the need as an aconable idea. One of my ﬁrst talks to a Spiritualist group was about the winning atude. In it, I explored the diﬀerence between gamblers who want to win but do not and those who seem to win all the me. Both people are the same except the winners have learned to change the desire to win into an atude that winning is expected. Realizing the need is like that. The percepon and expression processes of the Aenon Complex represent the creave process. The creave process can be deﬁned as aenon on an imagined outcome to produce an intended order. It is decisively inﬂuenced by your prior training, so that the created outcome will always be modiﬁed to agree with Worldview. If you were raised to doubt the existence of a greater reality, and to believe that your body is who you are, simply wanng to gain spiritual maturity will not be enough. It is necessary to teach your worldview to accept the necessary concepts. Again, that is the Mindful Way. Understanding is Relative One of the organizing concepts for Personality is the Principle

of Understanding: Percepon of reality as it is and not as it is believed to be, with emphasis on underlying principles. Experience becomes understanding as a person aligns personal reality with local reality. A fundamental concept in the Implicit Cosmology is that personality exists to experience reality, gain understanding from that experience and return that understanding to the Collecve. Understanding is seen as being a quality of personality and is, therefore, the quality determining perceptual agreement. Extent of understanding is a measure of progression. Note that local reality is a special instance of actual reality. Actual reality is as it is moderated by organizing principles which are perceived by Source (expressed by Source). Local reality is the expression of actual reality as it is understood by those personalies said to be collecvely imagining physical reality to create a venue for learning. Based on the Principle of Perceptual Agreement, percepon of personal reality converges on local reality as it is visualized by those who maintain this venue. Thus, it can be said that “Experience becomes understanding as a person aligns personal reality with local reality.” (Principle of Perceptual Agreement: Personality must be in perceptual agreement with the aspect of reality with which it will associate.) (27) The Nature of Understanding A disncon is made in the Implicit Cosmology between informaon, knowledge and understanding: Informaon Informaon can be compared to raw data. In the context of mind, it is sensory input from the environment brought by the physical senses and countless psi

signals. As it is received, informaon is undiﬀerenated and is only sensible when organized into some context. Think of the bits and pieces of informaon coming to us every moment as data points which must eventually be integrated into a sensible image. Much of what people think they know is just informaon. Knowledge When informaon is considered, and the related concepts are understood, the resulng comprehension is considered knowledge. To be knowledgeable about something is to comprehend related concepts so that they can be reasonably well visualized. This is the key to the nature of knowledge. It must be comprehensible enough to be visualized as a concept. Here, visualize is used in the general sense of being imaged in some way in the mind. That might be suﬃcient recognion of an odor to name its source or formulaon of many seemingly unrelated concepts into a form that can be described to others. Once again, consider the old story of blind men examining an elephant: if each man represents a concept (leg, tail and such), then knowledge would be the ability of the men as a group to be able to describe an elephant. Knowledge is a combinaon of informaon, understanding concepts and comprehension of a global sense of meaning. Understanding In the Implicit Cosmology, percepon is modeled as the outcome of a process that begins with encountering informaon that is external to the mind. We, as etheric mind and physical body, are immersed in a multude of environmental signals. All

come to us as a psi signal, some from the body’s physical senses, the rest from other personalies in the etheric. These signals are processed in our Aenon Complex where they are ﬁltered according to our interest. Only some reach our conscious awareness, but always as they have been translated by Worldview. (29) (Refer to the Lucidity Diagram, above) The degree to which understanding agrees with reality is also a funcon of our worldview. For instance, if we have been taught to be prejudiced about something, and we retain that prejudice, we will have that prejudice reinforced by the tone of the informaon coming to our conscious awareness. Unless we have become aware of the need to examine that percepon, we will likely take what emerges from the unconscious percepon process without queson. Here, mindfulness as a conscious eﬀort to see things as they are intended becomes important in helping us see the world as it is, rather than as we are taught to think it is. I want to stress this point. Something is not true because we think it is true. Take, for instance, a person who has been raised in a family that is prejudiced toward minority farm workers. When he sees several in a ﬁeld tending a crop, he likely sees inferior people doing only work for which they are capable. He thinks this is true because that is his honest percepon … because that is what he has been taught to think is true and

not what he has come to understand by examining the evidence. However, it is also possible the workers are doing the limited work they have been able to ﬁnd. It is enrely possible some of them are working their way through college. Others may be the parents of his children’s future boss. IQ does not maer much when the infrastructure of society is not working for you. Many who have considered alternave theories about reality ﬁrst think of their own story about reality. What they think is true dominates what they have yet to learn, and so, it is easy to discard the new idea with the assumpon that current understanding is superior. Whatever you think is correct, you are probably out of date, and therefore, incorrect. Take the me to rethink your assumpons. Doing so is a most important step on the mindful way. Understanding is not an absolute. As is shown in the Limits of Understanding Diagram (above), correct percepon (understanding) is typically limited on ﬁrst exposure to a concept. As a mindful person seeks to beer understand the concept, understanding approaches (converges on but does not reach) percepon that agrees with reality. This is an obvious eﬀect when, say, a new principle in science is introduced, but it is less obvious when the process of overcoming prejudices learned in youth and fears foisted upon the avatar relaonship by human insncts are considered. As we move through a lifeme from youth to old age, things held to be

true populate our worldview and tend to reinforce future percepon. A conscious eﬀort is required to break this cycle. Perhaps even more distressing is that we carry these false truths into transion from this lifeme. The result can be a complex, reportedly emoonally painful period of geng well while Worldview is beer aligned with reality. To emphasize the point of these paragraphs: • We experience what we expect to experience. • How well what we experience agrees with the actual nature of reality depends on the degree to which our understanding agrees with reality. • Our understanding is held in Worldview. • We can only manage our worldview with the habitual, conscious expression of the intenon to see reality as it is, rather than as we have been taught. • If the people with whom we are trying to build a consensus do not understand this point … more importantly, if they are not praccing mindfulness, it is unlikely we will ﬁnd common ground for agreement, only mutual beneﬁt for compromise. Cooperative Community The Cooperave Community Organizing Principle is deﬁned in the Implicit Cosmology as an eﬀort to express understanding is necessary for progression. A person is aracted to communies of like-minded people cooperang to facilitate progression. (27) Communies of like-minded people help to sasfy our human’s social need. They can be considered cooperave communies if they enable members to express ideas and receive meaningful feedback. The act of ordering thoughts before speaking helps us beer understand our point. Learning

how others respond helps establish a sense of reasonableness. Without purposeful consideraon of what we think about something, it is diﬃcult for us to transform informaon into understanding. It appears to be understanding that we take with us beyond this lifeme. A saying I like based on the Cooperave Community Organizing Principle is: The Way of Progression Through community comes knowledge Through teaching comes understanding It takes a collecve In a cooperave community, it is the responsibility of the individual to take the iniave to either comment or respond based on point of view. Being correct is not the idea. It is the preparaon to express an idea that is so powerful. In this way, the speaker is both student and teacher. As an old adage goes, our lot is to learn, and having learned, our lot is to teach. Each member of a cooperave community ﬁlls both the role of seeker and that of teacher, simply by interacng with other members of the community. An important point of this is that the listener does not need to be convinced by the speaker. Much of my current understanding has come from aempts to explain the reasonableness of paranormalist thought to other Wikipedia editors; a challenge at which I completely failed. The real value comes from composing our thoughts into sensible expressions of what we think is true, and the candid response from our listener. This process fails when the listener does not provide a candid response. Wikipedia editors are very

candid. Making a Cooperative Community Work A person automacally becomes a member of a community by having the same or similar interests as held by other members of the community. A cooperave community, which is typically a subset of such a community, develops when members of the greater community begin to share ideas and give considered feedback to other member’s ideas. On a global scale, paranormalists are in the same community, but not all paranormalists are open to the exchange of ideas. The test is if people make meaningful comments about things related to the subject at hand and if others respond in a considered fashion. Communicaon does not begin if people lurk in silence or only oﬀer ﬂippant remarks. Words have consequences. An oand, poorly considered remark brings lile value in promong understanding amongst other members. Perhaps more important is that the harm ill-considered comments do to both the exchange of ideas and the speaker’s worldview is substanal. For ﬂippant speakers, it sends a reinforcing signal of intenon to their unconscious mental processes, telling it to accept cultural contaminaon without review. Assuming the person you are talking with does intend to be like- minded, there are points to consider when sharing ideas that might improve chances of reaching mutual understanding. A few points to consider are suggested below. Just use them as guides, as every situaon is unique. Social Media As it turns out, social media does not support very eﬀecve cooperave communies. Yes, anyone can voice their opinion,

but it is more of a talking at one another kind of exchange. From my experience, most people who comment, do so in not very well considered statements that invite lile conversaon. A good deal of the me, I cannot ﬁgure out their point, the comments are so brief or obscure. Interesngly, it can be argued that social media works as a mechanism for suppressing considered discussion. Is this creang a generaon of people who are no longer able to form a meaningful consensus? Discussion boards have their shortcoming, but an important feature is easy parcipaon in a thoughul discussion. A second beneﬁt of discussion boards over Facebook-like websites is that the discussion remains for a me so that others can learn. This is why the ATransC Idea Exchange has been maintained. (atransc.org/forum/) Please feel free to take advantage of its capability. Access to the Idea Exchange is free, but we now require members to use their real name. Using a pseudonym is a lot like wearing a mask. If you have read the Lord of the Flies, (83) you will understand my point when I say that part of personal progression is having the courage of our convicons. It is also important to speak as our real name if we ever hope to become an opinion seer. Building our reputaon as a thoughul person requires name recognion. Tell Me Three Times A quote I remember from many years ago, I think from a Nave American Shaman, addresses our diﬃculty

in comprehending informaon. I remember it as: Tell me three mes; once for my head, once for my heart and once for my spirit. The telling is not simple repeon. Here, telling the head is an analycal explanaon. Telling the heart is explaining why it maers to the person. Telling the spirit is an appeal to the underlying moral and ethical meaning of existence. Trice-telling can be paraphrased here as recognion that a conversaon with a person is really a conversaon with his or her mostly unconscious mind. As a funconal area for thought, the mind has considerable resistance to change. It must be changed in small increments, and depending on how the person learns, the conversaon must be addressed to the person’s learning style if it is to get past the Aenon Limiter. (Review the Aenon Limiter poron of Essay 1: Condional Free Will.) A change of mind becomes most diﬃcult when the listener’s mostly unconscious mind has made a decision. The result of the decision likely becomes part of Worldview to be used to measuring the acceptability of the next bit of informaon. A possible way to avoid this self-imposed listener roadblock is to avoid speaking in absolutes. Ambiguous informaon is more apt to be accepted so long as it is not evasive. This may be why some people learn best via storytelling in which the point is part of the storyline. Learning Styles The way people approach learning has a lot to do with the way they

do best in conversaon. I am a good example. Watching a video to ﬁnd out what a presenter said is the worst possible way for me to learn. The informaon-per-second delivery rate of video is very low compared to me scanning the abstract and reading the concluding remarks in a PDF ﬁle. Considering the Personal Styles Model in Essay 7: Clarity of Communicaon (Analycal, Amiable, Drive, Expressive), it is reasonable to argue that a quarter of our populaon has the same impaence with slow delivery of informaon. Conversely, an amiable personality might ﬁnd a video more humanizing, and therefore, beer for comprehension. A soluon I have oen looked for when being referred to a video is if the author has included a brief wrien synopsis on the same page as the video. My wring style is technical but detailed. From conversaons with others, I gather it is a diﬃcult style for reader comprehension. When seeking to develop a consensus of understanding about something, it is important that others in the discussion explain how they understand the point, but in terms that makes beer sense for them. A successful cooperave community is one that has acve representaves of all learning styles. Temperament You may remember that a basic queson in psychology is whether temperament is inherited from a family member (nature) or learned while a child (nurture). Considering Sheldrake’s Hypothesis of Formave Causaon, (15) temperament can be at least parally modeled as Nature’s Habit established by preceding generaons (nature). A reﬁnement

of Sheldrake’s hypothesis oﬀered in the Trans-Survival Hypothesis (10) is that the entangled personality contributes the urge to gain understanding to a person’s temperament, while the human insncts contribute the urge to assure survival of the species. Formave Causaon and the Trans-Survival Hypothesis leans understanding of the nature-nurture queson toward nature, but cultural contaminaon has a more contemporary inﬂuence on temperament that cannot be ignored. What we are taught introduces a strong, oen repeated inﬂuence on our temperament, but that is biased by the nature side of the equaon. We translate cultural inﬂuences (nurture) according to our nature. With that in mind, it makes sense to deﬁne temperament as a predisposion to understand experiences. And, a person’s temperament is based on previous understanding inherited from Source, personality and the personality’s and human’s collecves, as it is modiﬁed by intended understanding. If a life ﬁeld is not entangled with a personality, its temperament is likely inherited from its collecve. A person’s point of view is how a person expresses Worldview as it is biased by temperament. For instance, a person with a strong Driver temperament might hear “Be responsible for your family” from cultural upbringing as a command to keep family members away from worldly inﬂuences at all cost. A community may teach its cizens to be deeply afraid of demons, but if the temperament of a member of that society is to queson authority, it may be natural for that person to turn that fearfulness into curiosity as to why

demons are fearful. Upon discovering there is nothing to fear, the person’s temperament might help to modify Worldview’s inﬂuence, perming the person to be more accepng of the unknown. Villager-Explorer Effect This is more commonly known as the Sheep-Goat Eﬀect, but I do not much like being called a sheep. In 1942, Professor Gertrude Schmeidler idenﬁed a correlaon between people scoring high on a belief in the paranormal survey with their psi funconing scores. Conversely, a poor belief score correlated with a lower than chance psi funcon score. She referred to this as the Sheep-Goat Eﬀect with believers as the sheep. (63) As noted, for my self-esteem, I am referring to the believers as explorers because of their willingness to explore new ideas. Conversely, I am referring to disbelievers as villagers because of the more conservave atude of people who follow cultural norms and depend on maintaining the status quo. This concept implies that people who allow for the possibility of new ideas are more likely to consciously experience new ideas. The inverse of this can be seen in the concept of incredulity blindness, a useful term to describe how some people are inexplicably unable to see or hear examples of paranormal phenomena. Discourse 10: “Perceptual Agreement” in Your Immortal Self (1) addresses this concept in detail. (Or, see ethericstudies.org/perceptual-agreement/) (17) Suspended Judgment If you are following this progression for how we relate to our world, you will noce that there are many factors conspiring to inﬂuence the way we

experience life, most of which are beyond our direct control. As a general statement, insncts must be recognized, acknowledged and managed; once learned, beliefs are diﬃcult to change, but incremental change is possible. The only real inﬂuence we have on our temperament is the conscious expression of intenon to be diﬀerent. An old Zen Buddhist saying is, “Before enlightenment chop wood–carry water, aer enlightenment chop wood–carry water” This might be paraphrased as “Queson for understanding; aer understanding, queson again.” The most powerful technique I know for remembering to queson is to habitually pracce suspended judgment. Even if a person is skepcal, suspended judgment as an openness to the possibility of the unknown oﬀers far more opportunies to experience phenomena. The Aenon Complex which supports percepon is designed to make an agree or disagree decision about what is real and what is not. Once a decision is made, it becomes part of Worldview, and is, therefore, diﬃcult to change. The perceptual processes in our mostly unconscious mind are also designed to characterize what is real in terms familiar to the person. In this same model, intenon expressed by the conscious self is the means by which the perceptual process can be evolved. As such, following the Villager-Explorer Eﬀect, the intenon to withhold judgment about experiences enables more experiences. Discourse 9: Percepon and Expression in Your Immortal Self (1) addresses this concept in detail. (Or, see: ethericstudies.org/percepon/) (18) Knowing Enough to Judge My engineering training has taught me to beware of absolutes.

In engineering, there are always tolerances of accuracy which must be acknowledged and possible unknowns for which preparaon must be made. Even in metaphysics, I might weave a good explanaon, but it is always with the awareness that this is what I understand today. Saying I know for sure potenally closes the door to further understanding. An example that comes up way too oen is the way people pronounce that someone is a fraud. Saying someone is a fraud is potenally a personal violaon (Seth: “Do not violate”) and potenally threaten that person’s wellbeing. Yet, in fact, none of us know enough to say for sure how transcommunicaon might manifest. At best, all we can do is seek beer controls. Consider the situaons in which a physical medium has been caught moving about the dark room during a séance. Of course, this appears to be clear evidence of fraud. However, I have on many occasions, witnessed convincing demonstraons of maer-through-maer during séances. For instance, a plasc strap binding the medium’s arm to the chair or an apport. I understand how deep a physical medium’s trance can be. There is nothing in what we know today that says the medium’s controlling personality cannot release the medium from the binding straps, move the medium about like a trance puppet and then return the medium to the chair and reaach the straps; all without the medium’s awareness. We have seen the eﬀects of this too many mes to think fraud is possible. There

are just too many siers trying to sense every movement … even in total darkness. Unless such possibilies have been accounted for, no one has the intellectual or moral authority to make accusaons of fraud. The best remedy I know is to have siers maintain physical contact with the medium while the lights are out. It might also be helpful to have a candid discussion with siers and medium aer the medium has recovered from the séance. Then, it would be appropriate for siers to ask the medium why he or she seemed to be walking about. It is a fair queson. Without the availability of our praconers to demonstrate these phenomena, the rest of us might never have the opportunity to witness proof of our immortality, make contact with a loved one or even learn the necessary skills for ourselves. Without them, research would be impossible. Aacking them as frauds when too lile is known for us to say for sure, only serves our debunkers. Justiied Over the years I have studied metaphysics, I have found no evidence of evil or demons. For sure, I have encountered people behaving badly, but in every case which I have had the opportunity to examine, the person has in some way, felt jusﬁed in his or her acons. This is an important perspecve to have when considering why people behave as they do. There is lile sense in simply concluding they are wrong. The need is ﬁrst for us to examine the

sensibility of our point of view, and then seek to understand the other person’s movaon. To be sure, this is not a turn the other cheek philosophy. I am not speaking of how to act with someone who poses potenal harm. Even though a person may feel jusﬁed in threatening acons, it is sll necessary for us to react defensively. A person wishing to carry a concealed weapon, for instance, is a person with a fearful personality. We have every reason to avoid them, whether they are jusﬁed or not. My focus is on the frequently expressed fear of evil we encounter amongst paranormalists. Above all else, remember that it is not what happens to us, but how we react to what happens to us. If we can understand why a person behaves or thinks as they do, we are well underway to understand how to deal with the situaon. Essay 1: Condional Freewill is an aempt to idenfy the characteriscs of free will, what of it is real and what is predetermined. The essay also includes a reasonably well-detailed examinaon of how we think, which should help you integrate what is in this essay. It is important to have a clear sense of the evil concept. I say evil, and I can almost see my listener’s mind go straight to divine evil, as in demons and the Devil. The secondary reacon is that there is no defense against such evil: we must surrender to our fate, so it is

beer never to aract evil in the ﬁrst place. Learn to consider the usual meaning of the words you use. Consider the thoughts your words will trigger in your listener’s mind. I am not making a disncon that does not exist when I say there is no evil, only people behaving badly. I am trying to communicate understanding by avoiding triggering a faith-based response. As a praccal maer, people behaving badly are people making conscious decisions for which they feel jusﬁed. Evil people implies puppets of God who are unable to be any other way. A fundamental concept in metaphysics is that we have self- determinaon. If so, being a God puppet is a violaon of self- determinaon. Belief without understanding is Faith Here is something of a case study. A person contacted me wanng someone to examine a message she found in her cell phone voice mail. The girl told me she thought it might be from her transioned boyfriend. She explained that she had called the telephone number shown for the recording, but the person there knew nothing of the call. (By implicaon, the call was, therefore, paranormal.) Because my responses so oen anger requesters, it is my pracce these days not to examine evidence; however, she was insistent, and I agreed. Here is where I usually get in trouble. If the person wants to believe something is said in the recording, then I know enough not to get involved. But, I assume people ask us to examine

their example because they truly want to know what is said. The moo for the ATransC website includes the phrase “objecve evidence that we survive.” That means we aempt to base our examinaon of examples on objecve evidence, rather than belief. This includes resisng the Phantom Voices Syndrome. (75) The short audio consisted of a young male’s voice which was interrupted so that one heard fragments of voice (about 10%) separated by longer periods of quiet (about 90%). I could make out a low-volume swishing sound in most of the quiet segments. Even with ten or so tries, I was unable to make out what was being said. I reported as much to the girl. True to form, she was very indignant and scolded me, saying “I thought you were a believer.” If you listen closely to a radio-sweep sound ﬁle, you will somemes noce a repeated, low volume swishing sound in the quieter segments. That is the sound of the sweep locking on to one staon aer another in quick succession. In areas in which there are few radio staons, the sweep will have many quiet segments with the occasional fragment of voice or music. The sweep is typically a few seconds long, so a person speaking on one staon with no voice or music on the others, will produce exactly what I heard in the girl’s example. In a subsequent email, I suggested that the girl might have been spoofed. I was trying to warn her to use

extra discernment. Instead, she said that others heard her name and that the voice had made a crypc statement which she could not understand. (That, by the way, should have been her ﬁrst hint that the ﬁle should be discarded.) Feeling reasonably sure the recording was not paranormal, I did a lile research about how a telephone number can be spoofed. As it turns out, there are apps one can use that do just that. It is apparently easy and free to put a message in someone’s voice mailbox which appears to have come from a diﬀerent telephone number. Receiving an “I did not make that call” when she called the number to ask, proves nothing. Objective or Belief The possibly spoofed call illustrates an important problem for cooperave communies. There need not be agreement in any one exchange, but there does need to be raonal feedback. Remember I said that we are converging on the same understanding? The intenon to gain objecve understanding is the key characterisc of a paranormalist seeker. As one myself, for me, a like-minded person is one who is also a paranormalist seeker. If a person prefers more of a belief or faith-based point of view, a like- minded person might be one who prefers the llaon of being spooked by the unknown. For instance, the ATransC is not a place to ﬁnd belief- oriented people. I say this because we have suspected one of the reasons for diminishing membership in the ATransC has been

our determinaon to remain objecve. It is apparently a lot more fun if people can just enjoy spooky examples, rather than trying to learn if they are only an arfact of the technology. When you consider with whom you might share your interest in things paranormal, and assuming you wish to seek objecve understanding rather than belief, make sure who you chose is interested in the same approach. The ATransC is no longer a membership organizaon. Parcipaon is via correspondence, the website, parcipaon in research/studies, signing up for the Occasional Update Email and discussions in the Idea Exchange. Summary This essay evolved from my growing frustraon about how easily people turn away from an objecve perspecve and toward a belief-based view of their world. At the same me, some people seem to avoid situaons that might help them beer understand their world. In a real sense, no maer what, some people are simply not able to or do not wish to be convinced about ideas that contradict their beliefs. The fact is that we know enough these days to follow an objecve way of progression. The book for which this book is a companion, Your Immortal Self, (1) includes a model designed to help people understand the nature of transcommunicaon. I am a reporter and do not claim to be the inventor of the model, but since I have found that it applies to so many diﬀerent forms of phenomena, it seems reasonable for me to think that it has

lasng merit. Even though it has not been reasonably veed by others, I feel comfortable sharing guidance about these phenomena which is based on the model and personal experience. It is arguable that the paranormalist community is in contracon. (60) Rather than well-informed seekers, we see mostly debunkers or people who prefer explanaons based on quantum myscism or religious doctrine. In a very real sense, sincere paranormalist seekers are a very small minority. As a minority, our ability to study these phenomena is not assured. (84) Keep in mind that skepcs have deﬁned pseudoscience as a danger to society and have gained wide acceptance in the idea that these phenomena are pseudoscience. Some parts of the US Federal Government agree. (85) We are all born with the urge to gain spiritual understanding. I suggest that the more we respond to that urge, the happier we can be. In the long view of our immortality, resistance is self-destrucve. In the end, it is an individual responsibility, but if you want to just believe, do the rest of us a favor by telling us up front so that we can stay out of your way. Consensus building requires the desire to ﬁnd common understanding. References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 10 Skeptic 2016 About This Essay This essay is probably something of a surprise, in that the essays thus far have been all about concepts, mind and implicaons of the way we think. This essay is

decidedly about our community rather than concepts. I write about community issues because the dominant factor in how well we can research, study and pracce working with these phenomena is the cooperave nature of the paranormalist community. Imagine yourself at the very farthest reaches of thought where survival is studied. From that rariﬁed space, imagine yourself facing toward the center of society where mainstream science is king. Everyone between you and the center is likely skepcal of your study. Most parapsychologists studying psi phenomena do not accept survival as even a possibility. Yet, those who stand closer to the center studying mental aberraons are skepcal of psi phenomena and probably disdain those who think survival is possible. Skepcism favors the status quo established by the dominant mainstream segments of society. People with a Ph.D. tend to think of those without a Ph.D. as the intellectual unwashed. Just about every parapsychologist has wrien about the problem of skepcs who try to debunk anything paranormal. This essay was wrien quite a while ago as my eﬀort to make sense of the way Wikipedia has been dominated by skepcs. As you will see in Essay 13: Arrogance of Scienﬁc Authority and Essay 14: Open Leer to Paranormalists, the ethical shortcoming and an-survival prejudices of many parapsychologists have inspired more confrontaonal essays by me. There are two kinds of skepc. The obvious skepcs are found amongst Wikipedia editors and mainstream sciensts. They believe in the status quo of knowledge as it is taught in

most universies and by most sciensts. Organized skepcism has been eﬀecve in making it diﬃcult for seekers to gain spiritual progression. They scare away young, would be parapsychologists and the funding necessary for proper research. However, the obvious skepcs are not really the problem. The problem skepcs are those who live amongst us. They are the Trojan Horse skepcs of our community. As is discussed in “Skepcism is Relave“ of Essay 6: Paranormalist Community, a surprisingly high percentage of paranormalists discount any possibility of survival. Certainly, more parapsychologists accept the possibility of psi phenomena. Many amongst those who do, also accept a form of survival somemes referred to as residual memory. (See: “A Divided Community“ in Essay 6: Paranormalist Community.) The Trojan Horse skepcs also mislead our less well-informed seekers by posing as experts who are trying to help us understand these phenomena. With that said, I suspect one of the reasons we have such an everyone is an expert community is that, while seekers may not know the science, many trust their sense of truth more than scienﬁc guidance. We may not know why people are wrong when they tell us the phenomena we experience is illusion, but for sure we know they are not right. The lack of respected leadership has produced a vacuum of learned guidance necessary for a healthy cooperave community. So, while this and some of the following essays are more about community than metaphysical concepts, it is important that you are aware of the

issues. Let them guide your seeking. Most of all, remember that it is the community that provides the informaon which populates your worldview. Abstract Perhaps the most important trait for anyone involved in the study of froner subjects is the ability to maintain an open mind while praccing discernment. This atude is somemes referred to as skepcism; however, when a person is skepcal of something without raonal reason, that person is known as a skepc. Skepcism in itself is a healthy atude so long as it is accompanied by open- minded invesgaon. Rather than praccing discernment, skepcs acvely campaign to teach the public to see such new thought as a danger to society. As is already occurring in some governments, including the USA, this viliﬁcaon of froner subjects has the potenal to cause a social and governmental reacon that could at the least prevent further study and possibly provoke acon harmful to people studying these subjects. Because of this, it is no longer realisc to ignore skepcs or their eﬀorts. Introduction The word skepc is based on a Greek term meaning thoughul. According to TheFreeDiconary.com, a skepc is: 1. One who insncvely or habitually doubts, quesons, or disagrees with asserons or generally accepted conclusions. 2. One inclined to skepcism in religious maers. From the Etheric Studies perspecve, people who describe themselves as skepcs have the common interest of suppressing any idea or concept they believe is not supported by mainstream science. This perspecve works for parapsychologists, as well. If you

read their literature, you will see that they tend to obsess about being seen by mainstream thinkers as praccing good science. That mainstream envy is probably one of the reasons parapsychologists are so quick to denounce survival related phenomena. A number of friends have urged me to use pseudoskepc, as in false skepc, to idenfy people I describe here; however, the mainstream people causing all the trouble are found with Internet searches for skepc, and for the most part, remain invisible if searched for with pseudoskepc. (86) Because my intenon is to inform our community about the problems skepcs are causing, I feel it is necessary to call them what they call themselves. The term has been co-opted by habitual detractors. Healthy skepcs, people who open-mindedly queson to learn and understand or to assure the speaker knows what he or she is talking about, will need to ﬁnd a beer term for themselves. Perhaps discerning. It seems that virtually every parapsychologist and psychical researcher has wrien arcles complaining about skepcs. It is common to ﬁnd laypeople in our community complaining about being beliled for believing what the skepcs consider nonsense. The moo for my personal website, EthericStudies.org, is: “Believe what you wish but understand the implicaons what you believe.” To understand the implicaons of what you believe, it is important to examine how you develop your assumpons about the world around you. The Point of View essay on EthericStudies.org addresses the relaonship between what we come into this lifeme with,

how we approach new learning situaons and how we develop our point of view. (87) In this essay, I have addressed what skepcism is and what skepcs are from the point of view of the Implicit Cosmology. (12) Skepticism and Scientism Contrary to the objecves of healthy skepcism, skepcs tend to condemn the exploraon of new ideas, thereby protecng the status quo. Their oen-stated posion is that something cannot be if it is not explicitly supported by exisng, mainstream science. That is a form of Sciensm which means the ideological belief that science—mainstream science—is the only authority on the nature of reality. In his essay, “Sagan and Sciensm,” Greg Koukl deﬁned sciensm thus: Sciensm states this: only that which can be proved by science is true. Science can only prove things about the physical world; therefore if it doesn’t prove something about the nonphysical world, which it’s really not equipped to do, then the only raonal belief is that only physical things exist and non-physical things like the mind or the soul don’t exist. That is the doctrine of sciensm…. (Paragraph 15) (88) Tells of a Skeptic Skepcs aempt to show the unacceptability of an idea by beliling it and associang it with obviously silly ideas, rather than relying on facts, evidence and sound logic to prove their point. They describe the idea and people associated with it in terms that would usually cause a ﬁght if spoken face-to-face. As I explain in the secon below about Wilhelm Reich, you

should consider skepcs more than just a nuisance. They seem to assume that if believers are seen as second-class cizens by the mainstream public, they will not enjoy the protecon of social norms aﬀorded mainstream cizens. So, if you read something that calls someone a whacko, fraud or describes a pracce as fraudulent or woo-woo, you can know that the material was wrien by a skepc. Their intenon is clearly to ﬁnd a way to make your subject go away. Name-calling is especially true of skepcs who focus on alternave or complementary health pracces. They commonly refer to these with the derogatory term of quackery and praconers as quacks. Of course, any such pracce that is not speciﬁcally approved by the government is considered pseudoscience, and even some that are approved such as chiropracc feel the wrath of those who think complementary is just another word for fraud. Without research to support their accusaons, skepcs seldom add knowledge to the subjects they aack. They are only able to destroy knowledge. Here, the Lan term, a priori has special meaning. They rounely make statements about subjects for which they have no knowledge other than that their peer group is against it. In this context, the term means without prior knowledge and is used to say that the person is judging without having become informed about the subject. The praccal result of this book burning mentality is that new ideas are suppressed and examinaon of new ideas by academically trained researchers has

become probable professional suicide. Comparing the View of Science with the View of Skeptics Wikipedia editor Ludwigs2 expressed one of the beer descripons of the skepc view: Science and skepcism are enrely diﬀerent projects; they share the word skepcism, but it has diﬀerent meanings for each group. For a scienst, skepcism means (roughly) “I choose not to have any beliefs about a subject in the absence of evidence.” It’s a philosophically conservave posion designed to keep people from making a priori asserons about the world (except those dictated by logic or math). For skepcs, by contrast, skepcism means (roughly) “I choose to believe that non-convenonal ideas are wrong unl they have met some burden of evidence.” This is an ideological posion designed to advocate against certain kinds of viewpoints. See how these diﬀer on (for example) acupuncture: Looking at something like acupuncture scienﬁcally one would be forced to admit that there really isn’t much evidence either way —there is no scienﬁc reason to recommend its use, but no obvious reason to say that it’s wrong, either. That is, acupuncture is morally neutral, like drinking tea with honey and lemon when you have a cold. Looking at something like acupuncture as a skepc one would ﬁnd oneself saying that acupuncture hasn’t met the needed burden of evidence, and so acupuncture is wrong—and this will lead to ideological claims that people who take acupuncture are stupid, that people who do acupuncture are charlatans, and etc. That is acupuncture is morally bere, like

selling sugar pills as a cure for cancer. Sciensts and skepcs overlap in the asseron that one should use pracces that have been borne out by systemac experience. But that’s where the similarity ends: skepcs go on to make moral judgments about pracces that science can never make, and to engage in advocacy with respect to those moral claims. Consider the vast range of skepcal literature, almost none of which contains any actual research (aside from literature reviews of other people’s published work), and which is almost enrely dedicated to crical declamaons against one or another quesonable acvity. Skepcism is (frankly) scienﬁc punditry, and while I won’t deny its value in that consumer advocate sort of way, one needs to be cauous with it as an intellectual enterprise.” Organized Harm to Society Paranormalists represent a small and mostly unorganized community. The skepcal community, on the other hand, is relavely well organized and fast growing. In Skepcism: The New Religion, Roy Stemman notes that Spiritualism’s public outreach is contracng while the skepcal community is becoming more organized and much more eﬀecve in inﬂuencing the media. (60) A search of the Internet for skepc will produce dozens of pages full of skepcal websites. The Associaon TransCommunicaon website (ATransC.org) and Etheric Studies (EthericStudies.org), which contains my personal wring, are clearly homegrown. By comparison, many of the skepcal websites are slick, professionally designed and maintained, and I am sure, well-funded. It is clear that paranormalists are losing the ﬁght to gain public respect and

support. That should be a concern if you enjoy the right to publicly study these subjects. Some governments, including the US Government, have adopted the viewpoints espoused by organized skepcal groups and rounely label the study of paranormal phenomena as pseudoscience and cite harm to the best interest of the public caused by belief in pseudoscience. In many such claims, supporng references are skepcal sources, which in turn cite these government reports for support of their viewpoint. This is, in actuality, a form of circular referencing in which truth is invented as a means of vilifying ideas that do not agree with the prevailing scienﬁc ideologies. A Case Study: Government Acting on Skeptical Views I am not well informed about how governments have acted against people who have been accused of acvity deemed by skepcs as pseudoscience. Please be sure to examine this for yourself. The ﬁrst point I would make is that the study of froner subjects is not protected by the law. Once it is socially okay to say that, what we study contradicts science and may be harmful to the public, it becomes possible for governments and organizaons to make examples of individuals by suppressing their freedom. We have seen this reenacted many mes in our history with everything from witch burning to internment during the Second World War. Wilhelm Reich is a more recent example. The short story about Reich is that he was put in jail in 1956 for making claims about a hypothecal form

of subtle energy deemed by skepcs to be unsupported by accepted science. He also developed devices that might put the energy to work and claimed he could heal people of some diseases with the energy. In fact, he was jailed because he ignored the government charges (Food and Drug Administraon (FDA)), and apparently because his partner transported some of their experimental material across state lines against government orders. That act was treated as criminal contempt of court. From the Wilhelm Reich Museum website (84): While Reich appealed his sentence, the government carried out the destrucon of orgone accumulators and literature. In Maine, several boxes of literature were burned, and accumulators and accumulator materials either destroyed or dismantled. In New York City, on August 23, 1956, the FDA supervised the burning of several tons of Reich’s publicaons in one of the city’s garbage incinerators, …. This destrucon of literature constutes one of the most heinous examples of censorship in United States history. Reich died of heart failure while in prison, and I understand his research partner commied suicide shortly thereaer. Reviewing What is Orgone Energy? by Charles R. Kelley, Ph.D. will give you a sense of the nature of this subtle energy which Reich called Orgone. (89) You will also see that Reich’s discovery is likely just one of many rediscoveries of the same energy. Today, it is being studied as psi or bioﬁeld. Because of its apparent eﬀect on living ssue, the inﬂuence intenonality has on this energy to heal

a person is a primary means of studying the energy (see An Unusual Form of Radiaon has a Reproducible Eﬀect in the Laboratory by Robert A. Charman (90)). It also appears that meditaon and group intenon can reduce the randomness of random event generators. This eﬀect may be the result of a change in the bioﬁeld and may also help explain how EVP are formed. Be aware that, like the psi ﬁeld, Orgone is not a proper energy as energy is deﬁned in mainstream physics. It appears to be more correct to refer to it as an etheric ﬁeld which is inﬂuenced by intenonality, rather than such physical characteriscs as gravity and diﬀerence of electrical potenal. It is evidently not propagated as an electromagnec ﬁeld. Rather than vibraon, it exhibits the characterisc of potenal to manifest as an aspect of reality; a conceptual thing to which we may aribute physicality. A Case Study: Skeptical Control of the Media It is obvious from a simple search of the Internet that the skepcs dominate the media when it comes to public outreach about froner subjects. Yes, there are thousands of ghost hunng club websites and websites promong the many forms of complementary medicine, but if you look for substanve support for the concepts, you run into a wall of skepcal websites supported by skepc clubs, universies and mainstream science organizaons. One of the most dominant of the skepc’s media is Wikipedia. An arcle in Wikipedia is the ﬁrst result for many search

subjects. If you are surprised to hear that Wikipedia is counted at the top of the skepc’s media, I recommend that you take some me to read the Talk Page associated with your favorite froner subject on Wikipedia. There is usually an ongoing discussion amongst editors about the struggle to balance the point of view of the arcle–a cardinal rule of the online encyclopedia. The problem is that the rules favor the majority group of editors, which are skepcs and nearly all of the editors who seek a true balance have been permanently blocked from eding or simply run oﬀ. Subject-maer specialists are not allowed to edit subjects in which they may have a conﬂict of interest. See Essay 12: Concerns with Wikipedia for more on this. The associated arcle Talk Pages is oen a baleground in which naive new editors are aacked and eventually driven oﬀ by the dominang skepcal editors. An example is the biography of a living person for Rupert Sheldrake, (91) an arcle I am banned from eding for life. Especially, look at the Archive Pages (upper-right corner of the Talk Page). Being sensive to prying eyes of the public, the skepcs quickly archive embarrassing exchanges to make them harder to ﬁnd. In a nutshell, a group of determined people hiding behind screen names have managed to gain control of what is thought by the public to be a respected online encyclopedia. Rather than wring the arcles as “This is what the subject is about, and

here are the various viewpoints about the subject,” arcles about what they call fringe subjects are wrien in a tone that subtly gives the sense that the subject is nonsense and a danger to society. The arcles may have a lot of informaon, but it is always couched in terms of believers, proponents and how it is pseudoscience or quackery. The Internet has given skepcs considerably more access to the public so that people with strong opinions and too much me on their hands can substanally inﬂuence the opinions of many people. A lile me spent reviewing the Internaonal Skepcs Forum (92) might shock you as to the strong opinions against froner subjects spoken by ill-informed people hiding behind ﬁcous screen names. Healthy Skepticism There is a balance between a priori skepcism and open-minded gullibility. Some claims are not reasonable, even for froner subjects. Many reported experiences are clearly delusion or the ordinary mistaken as unusual. Every bump in the night is not a ghost and not every instance of improved health is because of healing intenon. Oen, the diﬀerence between a report of a genuine paranormal experience and an ordinary one mistaken as paranormal is educaon of the witness. On the other hand, some of these reported experiences are not explained by current principles of science and may point to new understanding of nature. It is not reasonable to accept some of the extreme explanaons without substanang research, but it is also not reasonable to discount the reports because

they are not currently part of known science. “Understand the implicaons of what you believe,” from my moo, is based on the idea that we should pracce crical thinking leading to discernment. That means we take the me to examine the evidence before adopng a condional opinion. I say condional opinion because the rest of the story is that whatever is decided should be rounely reexamined to see if it sll makes sense. If possible, the opinion should be tested. If the opinion cannot be reasonably based on evidence and good understanding of involved technology, then we should remain undecided. If there is not suﬃcient informaon to arrive at an informed opinion, no opinion is the only answer. To do otherwise is to base the opinion on faith derived from popular wisdom, superson and/or the opinion of others who may be acng on an undisclosed agenda. The idea of suspended judgment is based on the understanding that our mostly unconscious mind tends to quickly integrate a decision into Worldview. The mindful approach to new ideas is to resist deciding unl more informaon is available. A discerning person is one who does not assume he or she has all of the informaon necessary to decide. A fair poron of academia believes all major principles in nature have been discovered and that all we are doing now is ﬁlling in the details. That is to say that there is only the physical universe … period! Anything outside of that, such as a

psi ﬁeld, etheric personality and survival of personality aer bodily death, is not included in these major principles of nature and therefore cannot be. As an a priori assumpon, this is Sciensm at its worst. Each of us has a responsibility to pracce discernment about what we believe. At the same me, anyone who makes a claim about these phenomena has the responsibility to clearly disnguish between what can be experimentally proven and what is believed as a maer of faith. Essay 11: Pseudoscience is a discussion about what these terms mean. In essence, if study is not based on ideas developed from a clearly stated hypothesis (theory about the subject) following a predeﬁned protocol (methodology of how to conduct the study) with the intenon of publishing a report that will be veed by subject-maer specialists, then resulng opinions cannot be claimed as experimentally proven. Fruits of the study can be described as an ongoing study but be careful not to claim science unless reasonably well-considered methodologies have been applied. And publicaon has been aempted. A second, equally important consideraon when claiming science is the qualiﬁcaons of the people who conduct the research. Evan a person with a doctorate in parapsychology must establish credibility to study the parcular subject. An example is a person trained as a psychologist conducng research concerning transcommunicaon. If it is about how a person experiences the phenomena, then the researcher should be considered qualiﬁed. If it is about how the phenomena are formed, then there

is no reason to assume the person is any more qualiﬁed than an experienced paranormal ﬁeld invesgator who is able to put together and report on a sound protocol based on a well-conceived research queson. Our ﬁeld is especially vulnerable to skepcal aacks based on qualiﬁcaons of our specialists because it is so roune for rered professors to publish reports under cloak of academic authority about things paranormal about which they have no real training. Their peers are clearly not willing to police their pracces, so it is up to the rest of us to make our concerns heard. Your point of view need not be based on your research alone. EthericStudies.org and ATransC.org represent eﬀorts to provide a growing body of material you can refer to. There are other associaon journals and judicious use of Internet material can help you develop a supportable statement about your understanding of these phenomena. Be careful of the Trojan Horse Eﬀect, however. As noted above, skepcs are somemes members of organizaons that are involved in paranormal research. In some cases, these organizaons eﬀecvely funcon as debunkers for some concepts, especially survival related phenomena. There is a hierarchy of approval for concepts, so that while the mainstream objects to things paranormal, many paranormal organizaons (or at least members of these organizaons) regard the idea of survived personality as pure nonsense. Use discernment. Skeptical About Skeptics On the other side of the debate are people who are genuinely open- minded skepcs. The Skepcal About Skepcs

website is a good example. (93) From the website: Pseudoskepcs Revealed Many self-proclaimed skepcs are commied to upholding the authority of established science by maintaining convenonal taboos. They are intolerant of those who transgress the boundaries of scienﬁc orthodoxy. These self-appointed gatekeepers of the dominant paradigm proudly call themselves skepcs, but reveal themselves as fundamentalists who dismiss any evidence that challenges their belief system. Skepcal About Skepcs examines the ill-informed aacks leveled by these pseudoskepcs. With arcles by well-known sciensts and thinkers, we reveal their faulty criques and the underhanded methods they employ. We highlight controversies in speciﬁc ﬁelds of research and shine a light on prominent skepcs and skepcal organizaons. We are pro-science, and we are in favor of open-minded inquiry. Each of us is a representave of our ﬁeld. The skepcs have inﬂuence because they are zealous, not because they are right but mostly because we do not represent ourselves in a defensible way. Yes, there is sll the problem that things paranormal are outside of known and therefore acceptable science, but that can never be addressed so long as the skepcs are able to make their ridicule of us so believable by using our own words and acons. It is for us to show the world they are wrong. References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 11 Pseudoscience 2014 About This Essay The Glossary of Terms on EthericStudies.org, (9) was wrien to support the Implicit Cosmology. In it, concepts are deﬁned as

fundamental ideas; root thoughorms from which systems of thought can be derived. As fundamental elements of thought, they might be considered a building block of reality, but more importantly, concepts are the building block of understanding. Comprehension of concepts is fundamental to understanding the nature of reality. The pseudoscience concept was brought to me by skepcs in Wikipedia. Before that, I assumed the term was a reference to really silly ideas such as proofs that the earth is ﬂat. But then I was schooled by the dominant group of editors in Wikipedia. They are usually prey smart people, but they are also typically adherents of Sciensm. If their mainstream science god has not acknowledged the possibility of something, then it cannot be. Anyone claiming that it can is comming sacrilege in the form of pseudoscience … false science. As I have said, the reason I am no longer allowed to edit the Rupert Sheldrake biography arcle (91) in Wikipedia is that I promoted his ideas as actually worth considering. The outcome of the Paranormal (94) and Pseudoscience (95) Arbitraon Cases is now understood to mean thou shalt not speak of pseudoscience as if it is real science. Doing so can get you permanently blocked from eding Wikipedia if you get in the way of a skepc editor. As a lesson in human nature and the way people develop their personal reality, Wikipedia has given me a most valuable educaon. This essay is just one of the resulng studies I have

used to develop my perspecve on the nature of reality. This essay is included in this book because it addresses an important part of the environment in which we must seek understanding. In fact, an accusaon of pseudoscience is potenally a means by which mainstream crics might be able to deny us of the ability to openly study these phenomena. Merriam-Webster Dictionary Deinition of Pseudoscience: A system of theories, assumpons, and methods erroneously regarded as scienﬁc. pseu-do-sci-en-f-ic, an adjecve Skeptic’s Deinition: A belief or process which masquerades as science in an aempt to claim a legimacy which it would not otherwise be able to achieve on its own terms; it is oen known as fringe- or alternave science. The most important of its defects is usually the lack of the carefully controlled and thoughully interpreted experiments which provide the foundaon of the natural sciences and which contribute to their advancement. (Stephen Lower, Chem1 Virtual Textbook) (96) US Government: Pseudoscience has been deﬁned as “claims presented so that they appear [to be] scienﬁc even though they lack supporng evidence and plausibility” (Shermer (97) 1997, p. 33). In contrast, science is “a set of methods designed to describe and interpret observed and inferred phenomena, past or present, and aimed at building a testable body of knowledge open to rejecon or conﬁrmaon” (Shermer (97) 1997, p. 17). Science and Engineering Indicators 2006 Naonal Science Board. (85) Please note that Michael Shermer is an opinion seer for the skepc community. In a praccal way,

the Skepc’s and US Government deﬁnions are from the same opinion seer. The fact that skepcs want to make pseudoscience illegal to protect the country, and that the government echoes the skepc’s posion, should give paranormalists reason for concern that their freedom to study these subjects might be in jeopardy. Practical Deinition: A derogatory term coined by skepcs to label subjects with which they disagree. This disagreement is seldom based on the presence of bad science, but rather because, in the skepc’s view, the subject is not supported by orthodox science. This term is virtually always used in conjuncon with eﬀorts to convince an audience to dislike, mistrust or even fear the subject. Use of the term is oen indicave of sciensm. (Tom Butler See Essay 10: Skepc) Scientism The belief that science, the scienﬁc method and work product is the only way to validate reality. In praccal terms, sciensm holds that, if something is not recognized by mainstream science, it is not real and is, therefore, impossible. When people under the cloak of authority of science advise the public about any subject without ﬁrst becoming informed about its nature, for instance calling the subject pseudoscience, they are eﬀecvely praccing sciensm. (Tom Butler) Introduction March 2014, I was noﬁed by a Wikipedia Administrator that (in part): The following sancon now applies to you: Topic banned from Rupert Sheldrake in accordance with the terms at WP:TBAN You have been sanconed per this arbitraon enforcement request This sancon is imposed in my

capacity as an uninvolved administrator under the authority of the Arbitraon Commiee’s decision at Wikipedia:Requests for arbitraon/Pseudoscience#Final decision and, if applicable, the procedure described at Wikipedia:Arbitraon Commiee/Discreonary sancons. This sancon has been recorded in the log of sancons for that decision. If the sancon includes a ban, please read the banning policy to ensure you understand what this means. If you do not comply with this sancon, you may be blocked for an extended period, by way of enforcement of this sancon—and you may also be made subject to further sancons. (98) In eﬀect, I was banned forever from arguing that the work of Rupert Sheldrake was valid science; not pseudoscience. The complaint was stated in terms of “Downplaying rejecon by the scienﬁc community” and “Further fringe promoon, rewording beliefs into ‘hypothesis’” It was brought to the sancons enforcement court by User:Second Quanzaon, with the conclusion that “This editor has been problemac over a prolonged period in the topic area of pseudoscience and fringe science.” My “prolonged period in the topic area of pseudoscience and fringe science” began in 2006 with my aempts to balance the Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) page. (99) Second Quanzaon is a pseudonym, which means I was charged in Wikipedia court by a pseudoperson. (humor) The complaint notes that “User:76.107.171.90 did much of the legwork for the diﬀs” (evidence). This editor is only idenﬁed with his IP address because the person has not bothered to establish even a screen name. It is in red because the

editor has not added text to his/her personal page. Implications It is well-known that eding the arcles about paranormal subjects in Wikipedia has been taken over by skepcs. While I was acvely trying to balance the arcles, I witnessed virtually all of the moderate editors driven oﬀ, banned for life, or like me, followed by skepc trolls wanng to revert my every edit. (Yes, Troll is an oﬃcial Wikipedia term.) Consider the impact Wikipedia has on the general public. It is an important opinion seer, and typically the ﬁrst result in searches for most subjects. The skepc community is much beer organized than the paranormalist community, and with the percepon of mainstream truth, it has the ear of many governments, including the US Government. (60) The objecve of the skepc community is to eliminate claims of truth that do not comply with established mainstream science. The term they use for such fringe subjects is pseudoscience. They literally want to make paranormal subjects illegal. Fact of Paranormal Phenomena is the Issue For nearly 60 years, people around the world have recorded EVP. Careful, well-educated people have devised ways to test EVP in an eﬀort to determine what causes the phenomenal voices. In many cases, good science has been conducted, leading to peer reviewed reports that reinforce the one important fact that no known physical principle has been found to explain the existence of EVP. If a physical explanaon cannot be found, then it is sensible to look for nonphysical explanaons. In

a diﬀerent forum, researchers have discovered that it is possible to inﬂuence the environment at a distance with intenonality. Substanal research has been conducted on what is commonly referred to as psi funconing. Psi funconing is a term used to denote mental inﬂuence on a hypothecal psi ﬁeld which is thought to permeate the physical. Since current instruments of science do not directly detect the psi ﬁeld, it is studied by detecng how it aﬀects physical or biological processes, or by examining the validity of apparent psi (psychic) informaon access. For instance, random event generators are known to become less random when near a group of meditang people. (100) Similar changes have been detected during successful remote viewing sessions. (101) If a physical explanaon cannot be found to explain these eﬀects, then it is sensible to look for nonphysical explanaons. By all reasonable standards, the scienﬁc method is oen followed in these studies, making the pseudoscience accusaon technically baseless. Apparently, the real reason for the pseudoscience branding is that skepcs, acng as apologists for science, believe that mainstream science does not allow for the existence of these phenomena, and therefore, they cannot be real. The net result has been that the possible beneﬁt to humankind brought by these and similar phenomena has only parally developed. If the skepcs prove successful, the beneﬁt will never manifest. This arcle about pseudoscience addresses this issue and explores ways our community might respond. The Scientiic Method Science is basically the organized inquiry into the

nature of reality. In its simplest form, it is observaon of nature leading to a hypothesis describing what is observed. This, in turn, leads to predicons about the behavior of what has been observed. For science to be pracced, these predicons must be able to be tested, and test results must be able to be used to modify the hypotheses so that it can beer describe the behavior of nature. Anyone can conduct science; however, three very important elements are considered necessary if real science is to be conducted. The most important is that there must be a well-considered protocol describing how the predicons are to be tested. This protocol should be designed to assure that unnoced arfacts of the experimental process do not contaminate the results or lead to misleading conclusions. The protocol must also allow for the collecon of results that might conﬁrm or disprove the theory. The second element is development of a research report and some form of media for publicaon that allows for veng of the report by a community of subject-maer specialists. Conducng science requires that qualiﬁed people are able to review the results and agree that the hypothesis has been tested and the results have been analyzed to produce a reasonable conclusion. Here, reasonable will generally be determined by best pracces for that ﬁeld of study. For instance, trans-etheric inﬂuences are experienced or detected diﬀerently than are physical phenomena such as apples falling from a tree. It may be unreasonable to arrive at

a ﬁrm conclusion about the meaning of an EVP and there should be many more indeterminate results in etheric studies than there are in physics. The third element is a history of prior research. This is a body of knowledge developed over me which will help to provide a foundaon for development and evoluon of the hypotheses. In principle, science is conducted in a connuum so that the present inherits some characteriscs of the past and contributes to the future. Prior art is very important in Science. In mainstream society, the pracce of science is conducted by a well- established community supported by universies and professional organizaons. It is funded by an established network of government and private funding. The community has evolved a culture of professionalism and peer pressure with many, oen acve lay-supporters. Inappropriate Science As a froner ﬁeld of study, the number of people studying paranormal phenomena is relavely small. It has only been recently that some of the New Age and religious beliefs have given way to research-based understanding. The net result is that the scienﬁc history is very short, and the number of studies for any single aspect may be small if there are any at all. Studying the eﬀecveness of alternave medicine is probably best done using the same techniques used for mainstream medical studies. But in some froner subject, the usual methodology of mainstream science may be inappropriate. The etheric is hypothesized to be a mostly conceptual environment in which intenon may be

an equivalent to force in the physical. Any protocol that does not consider our current inability to shield from psi inﬂuences is simply inappropriate. Stascal analysis has its place, but one should remember that some phenomena are very rare. Yes, a Class A example can be dependably recorded by a conﬁdent praconer given enough sessions, but stascal analysis can be expected to reject the rare Class A example simply because it is considered a stascal outlier. (77) Another example of possibly inappropriate science is the approach to tesng experimental repeatability. This is discussed in my crique of two failure to replicate-kinds of arcles published by the Journal of Scienﬁc Exploraon. (102) The study’s protocol called for the use of untrained college students as praconers. Recording EVP is repeatable to a point, but like many mundane pracces, it is very diﬃcult to conduct research if one does not have a skilled praconer. The conclusion that the protocol had eﬀecvely tested the subject is not supported by best pracces. While it is ﬁne for a layperson to conduct studies of paranormal phenomena, it is inappropriate to report the results as good science if the person is not trained in an applicable discipline. For instance, EVP needs to be studied from an electronic technology (physics) perspecve ﬁrst and perceptual (psychology) second. A degree in psychology alone is not suﬃcient unless the study is restricted to quesons of percepon. A common reason for the accusaon of bad science is the idea that only successful

results might be reported while unsuccessful results remain unreported in a ﬁle drawer. However, as a point of order, the ﬁle drawer eﬀect cannot apply to research if it is conducted by a person who is working out of his or her discipline. Research that fails this test should not pass peer review. Pseudoscience Pseudoscience is a term adopted by skepcs to describe everything that does not conform to their sense of proper science. It is a very eﬀecve term because one of the main characteriscs listed for pseudoscience is that people who pracce pseudoscience will naturally argue that they conduct real science, thus conﬁrming the predicon. To be clear, there are ﬁelds of study to which these characteriscs apply. The problem is that skepcs likely do not know enough about the ﬁelds to simply write them oﬀ with a derogatory name. At the very most, one must consider that a quesonable ﬁeld is possibly emergent science, but remains theorecal, awaing beer research. For instance, I have studied transcommunicaon for many years and sll do not think I know enough to say any parcular theory is wrong. Radio-sweep is a good example. I have come out against using it for EVP because it makes no metaphysical sense and produces too many false- posives to be praccal for use by people new to the ﬁeld. Sll, I am open to the idea that proper studies might produce informaon that changes my mind. I am not wise enough to think otherwise. Commonly

Cited Characteristics of Pseudoscience Having an easy name for the subject of conversaon is useful for communicang ideas. Except in rare confrontaon, skepcs only talk about the study of paranormal phenomena from the perspecve of explaining the subject to the public. They write arcles for the public, their websites and magazines are targeted for the public or other skepcs and they have conferences to promote their point of view to the public. As you read this essay, keep in mind that the term is about things paranormal, but its use is directed by the skepcs to the general public as a warning sign, so that: “This is what pseudoscience means and beware that it describes this subject.” The skepc’s message is that pseudoscience is dangerous and harmful to the greater good of our country. Once a subject is established as pseudoscience, it is a small step to make it illegal. We have a taste of this with the way the Federal Government jailed Wilhelm Reich and burned his books. (84) See Wilhelm Reich in Essay 10: Skepc. Lisng characteriscs is a common approach used by skepcs to explain how to recognize pseudoscience. As you might expect, they include everything skepcs don’t like about all things paranormal. Below, I used a list that begins with dogmac because that is a characterisc I have most oen noted amongst paranormalists. While you may encounter these characteriscs amongst paranormalists, it is important to note that there are reasons for this that are apparently not

considered by the skepcs. As you read this list, try to ﬁrst view the characterisc from the perspecve of a doubter and then from the perspecve of an advocate. The characterisc oen listed as pseudoscience by skepcs include: (103) Dogmac; ignores contradicng facts Here, contradictory facts are taken from mainstream theory. The reason they are ignored by paranormalist is that the so-called facts tend to ignore the possibility of a psi ﬁeld and survival. An informed paranormalist will know that they are being told an untrue story. Dogmac comes in when we are told that psi is pseudoscience and we say it is not. It is like saying you are dogmac for denying that you are purple. Paraphrasing from the paranormalist’s point of view: Frustrated, seeking beer guidance from learned sciensts. Subject to conﬁrmaon-bias by selecvely reporng evidence and research results Conﬁrmaon bias can be understood as the tendency of a person to think evidence supports beliefs, even though it may not. It also implies that a person will only report experiences that support beliefs. In terms of First Sight Theory, (16) (38) (Page 23) conﬁrmaon bias would relate to Corollary 8: Bidireconality: (paraphrasing) In this summave process, the person may turn toward informaon (signed posively) to include it in the construcon of experience, aﬀect or acon, or turn away from informaon (signed negavely) and exclude it. This is a mostly unconscious process which helps to determine experiences of which we will become consciously aware. In other words, if we

have previously established an interest in things paranormal, we are more apt to noce things possibly paranormal. Read Essay 14: Open Leer to Paranormalists. In it, I describe how some parapsychologists deliberately ignore studies related to survival, apparently to strengthen their original assumpons. This would be a clear case of conﬁrmaon bias. In science, the tendency to report only supporng research is referred to as the ﬁle drawer eﬀect, as if research that does not support the theory is hidden in a ﬁle drawer. An alternave version of the ﬁle drawer eﬀect is the rejecon of reports the journal judges do not agree with, thus converging the ﬁeld toward a status quo. (104) In parapsychology, Exceponal Experiences Psychology seeks to idenfy ways in which people who believe in things paranormal tend to report experiences deﬁned by the researchers as ordinary experiences. Such explanaons should probably be ignored if they do not consider the Bidireconality Corollary. Lisa’s avatar is a video-loop ITC image from our early studies. You should see a woman demurely looking toward her le shoulder. She wears a dress with a V-neck collar and possibly a ﬂowered hat. In a ﬁeen-second video loop Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC) session, I record around 450 video frames (like single pictures), but only keep ﬁeen or so and only ﬁnd six or seven keepers which I save and somemes report as examples. You can argue that this selecon of only the feature-producing frames is selecve reporng. The same sort of selecon happens in

EVP as we listen to many minutes of EVP before ﬁnding a Class A or B uerance … if we do at all. Meanwhile, we usually hear many more Class C, which we ignore. The fact is, we are looking for an eﬀect which is produced by applying a theory. We predict an average rate of occurrence of the examples, and so, the presence of an example supports the theory. You can apply the same test and demonstrate this for yourself. Fewer than expected features may indicate the equipment was not set up correctly but may also be due to the nave ability of the praconer. And so, looking at it from the paranormalist’s point of view, repeatability is based on having a qualiﬁed praconer correctly applying a procedure. Validaon is based on agreement with a set of previously known characteriscs. We would paraphrase this point as: A praconer reports examples which agree with previously known characteriscs and ignores all else while seeking a reason for the rate of occurrence of the examples. Hypotheses cannot be tested This argument may be true of some of the global quesons such as the existence of a ﬁrst cause, but the real subject skepcs are trying to make go away concern psi and survival phenomena. Paranormalist researchers are not saying that there is some godly intervenon which cannot be tested. They are saying that “If we do this, this happens.” That is a very testable hypothesis. For instance, if a video loop is

set up in a certain, repeatable way, a resulng recording will oen contain human faces that are detected by others without prompng. Where those faces come from, and why, are separate issues. People speculate, and in some cases, that speculaon can be tested. From the paranormalist’s point of view, this is beer stated as: Inability to aract more and beer-funded researchers has hampered examinaon of theory. No evoluon in understanding or theory This is a typical problem of froner subjects, in that there is such a small populaon of people actually studying the phenomena. In fact, understanding does evolve depending on the me people are able to study the subject and available funding. Consider the number of people involved, funding and mainstream popularity of such science projects as the Large Hadron Collider and the Hubble telescope. All of the people studying psi and survival phenomena would probably not match the number of people on the human resource recruing staﬀ for either project. The funding and number of sciensts have a direct eﬀect on the progress in a ﬁeld. Compared with mainstream science, there is hardly any noceable progress. But there is progress. We have all the ATransC NewsJournals on ATransC.org. If you examine the ﬁrst few and last few, you will see some progress in understanding. Then read Your Immortal Self or examine the Concepts secon of EthericStudies.org. We are making considerable progress in survival research, and much of that is only because of the progress made in psi studies.

Take me to read A Model for EVP at ATransC.org/model-for-evp/. (105) That essay includes a solid, testable model for the nature of EVP that did not exist just a few years ago. From the paranormalist point of view, this can be stated as: An observer informed about available resources in the ﬁeld will note progress in theory and understanding. An appeal to recognized authority is used to support claims There are two sides to this. In terms of major ideas such as quantum mechanics, psi phenomena behave a lile as if they may be governed by quantum principles. This is a hypothecal link. Yet, it is becoming increasingly popular to claim some aspect of a favorite phenomenon is governed by quantum principles. Skepcs somemes refer to this appeal to authority as Quantum Myscism. With that said, as we study these phenomena, it is important that we ﬁrst aempt to apply known physical principles. It is expected that some will apply, but experience has shown that none explain the core characteriscs indicang a psi ﬁeld or survival. Researchers aempt to incorporate those that do seem to apply into their models. For instance, I speculate that stochasc ampliﬁcaon is involved in the expression of intended order. That, at least, gives me something to test. Right or wrong, trying to apply exisng theory is not proof of pseudoscience. It is proof of inadequate educaon or lack of resources to test a related hypothesis. In some cases, referencing exisng authories indicates that the researcher

has conducted the necessary literature surveys to determine if exisng work applies. A paranormalist might paraphrase this point with: Researchers are expected to recognize and test the applicability of known physical principles. Metaphorical/analogy driven thinking When a person reports an experience for which there seems to be no normal explanaon, it is natural to look about for alternave explanaons. When the person ﬁnds that others have a similar experience and the community of experiencers generally agree that the experience is paranormal, then it is human for the experiencer to begin thinking the experience is also paranormal. It is also normal to compare the strangeness of possibly paranormal experiences to the strangeness of quantum phenomena. For instance, the apparent nonlocality of quantum entanglement is comparable to the apparent nonlocality of psi funconing. The two may exhibit this characterisc for very diﬀerent reasons, but researchers would be remiss if they did not at least aempt to integrate the two models. Experiencer’s acceptance of a belief-based explanaon is likely what the skepcs are referring to. However, lacking learned guidance from science, it is natural for experiencers to develop a belief-based explanaon for paranormal experiences. Metaphors are useful as a tool for understanding experiences and sharing ideas but are not intended to be science. In the end, it is up to the sciensts in the community to provide construcve guidance. This characterisc might beer be stated as: Observers of the paranormalist community must be suﬃciently informed to disnguish between experiencer’s belief and researcher’s theorecal

understanding. Anecdotes as evidence It is true that, as with the early naturalists in mainstream science, paranormalist ﬁeld research oen involves observing and reporng on what was observed. This is especially true today for the study of survival-related phenomena. However, psi funconing studies have been conducted under very controlled condions and managed following scienﬁc methodologies. The paranormalist might say: Assumpon of ignorance is the ﬁrst tell of a skepc. Lack of explicit mechanisms My early educaon did not include the theory of Connental Dri. That came later as a mechanism for it was ﬁnally accepted. Looking back, many really good geologists were convinced of the theory before that. As I look at it now, their theory was seen as a hypothesis looking for a proper model. That was seen as good science. Early eﬀorts to explain some paranormal phenomena were actually eﬀorts to develop a reasonable hypothesis. It has been only recently that useful models have begun to emerge. The Trans-Survival Hypothesis and resulng Implicit Cosmology are my eﬀorts to deﬁne such a model. (10) (12) The reason paranormalists prefer terms such as froner science or emergent science is that they recognize the study is very new and that it is unreasonable to expect it to come into being with a full-ﬂedged model. Skepc’s expectaon that it should is further sign of their determinaon to protect the status quo, rather than to embrace new ideas. A paranormalist would counter with: Insistence on recognion of a mechanism before research has been

conducted indicates poor understanding of science. Special pleading (elusive evidence) EVP have typical characteriscs which make them diﬃcult to understand. My studies indicate an average 25% correct word recognion of Class A examples by inexperienced listeners. (39) Anyone can expect to replicate the process of collecng an EVP, but Class A examples are relavely rare, and experience is somemes necessary to collect one. As in most human endeavors, there appears to be a natural distribuon of ability to record EVP, so that the combinaon of rarity and limits in natural ability makes it diﬃcult for a casual observer to test the hypothesis. (102) Trans-etheric inﬂuences can be described as a conceptual inﬂuence causing an objecve eﬀect. A major problem in the study of paranormal phenomena is that this inﬂuence appears to depend on the observer as a conduit, and cultural beliefs appear to inﬂuence the manifestaon of the eﬀect. Thus, we see Worldview play a large role in the way these eﬀects manifest. In this way, we see that a person who accepts the possibility of paranormal phenomena is more apt to experience them. To the uninformed, aempts to explain these limitaons can appear to be special pleading; however, the ability to experience the phenomena can be taught to a willing person with objecve results. In that way, the argument would appear to a lazy invesgator as special pleading. A beer way to approach this characterisc would be to say: Invesgators should expect to do the work to become properly

informed about the nature of the phenomena to be invesgated. Conspiracy theory I was oen assured by skepc Wikipedia editors that there was no conspiracy by science to suppress our study. This is a good example of the tyranny of the majority. They can think they are doing us a favor by protecng us from delusion. In a real sense, each person seems to assume that people further out on the froner of thought is wrong. With that belief comes an apparent cultural norm that it is okay to ignore the more froner person’s argument. Even in the paranormalist community, the majority of parapsychologists do not accept survival hypothesis while a smaller number do not even accept the psi hypothesis. Feedback I have received on Essay 14: Open Leer to Paranormalists makes it clear that many people think I am paranoid. This bothers me, but it is diﬃcult to ignore the evidence. But which is it? Am I paranoid, or are people misinformed who think I am simply ignoring the facts? This is one of those me will tell situaons. I cannot prove something to people who refuse to consider the evidence. Conversely, it is illogical to think we who study these phenomena are going to simply give up because of lack of informed validaon. I am conﬁdent that the accumulaon of evidence and emerging understanding in mainstream science about how we think will change the discussion from condemnaon of us by the mainstream to quesons from people eager to

learn more. If not now, soon, for many of us are diligently working to make it happen. Will you help? I would answer this one with: Mainstream and froner sciensts are expected to do a beer job of explaining the implicaons of their assumpons to the public. Concept is described for the public rather than sciensts I write for the public but am mindful that academics might one day measure what I say. There are expectaons sciensts have that can only be met by other sciensts. For instance, academics depends on their work being cited for credibility. In turn, more credibility results in more citaons. In a real sense, that is how scienﬁc truth is established. I am aware of no similar system of collaboraon amongst paranormalist laypeople. Without a doctorate, it is unlikely any of my work will be cited. So, while I aempt to be a good technical writer, I have no delusion of credibility amongst the paranormalists holding a Ph.D. Being ignored by academics is depressing, but not as depressing as knowing that the kind of shunning I experience from some Ph.Ds. is exactly the kind of shunning they experience from mainstream sciensts. The resulng inability for parapsychologists to access research funding hurts all of our community. Parapsychologists appear to be very aware of this accusaon from mainstream sciensts and respond by overcompensang with ultra- scienﬁc wring styles full of stascal analysis and obscure terminology. This approach has not accomplished its intended objecve but has made it

diﬃcult for laypeople to follow their work. When there is overcompensaon, wring for sciensts tends to defeat the purpose of wring. The obvious answer is for all of us who are in this community to work together. I, for one, have exhausted my ideas for making that happen. See Essay 14: Open Leer to Paranormalists I can think of no good counter statement for this, as many of us are, indeed, guilty of direcng our work toward the greater community. Alternative Terms for Pseudoscience Other than pseudoscience, skepcs will somemes refer to science they disagree with as junk science. This is oen used in polical and legal context to brand science as spurious and is commonly claimed by the skepcal community to be a form of fraud, or at the very least, ignorance. A second common derogave term is pathological science, which is a reference to science which involves barely detectable phenomena that are then reported as being carefully studied. It is interesng that this term is an example of circular referencing. Irving Langmuir coined the term. (106) He has the 1932 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and probably ran into a good deal of bad science. According to Langmuir, symptoms of pathological science are: 1. The maximum eﬀect that is observed is produced by a causave agent of barely detectable intensity, and the magnitude of the eﬀect is substanally independent of the intensity of the cause. 2. The eﬀect is of a magnitude that remains close to the limit of

detectability. Or, many measurements are necessary because of the very low stascal signiﬁcance of the results. 3. Claims of great accuracy. 4. Fantasc theories contrary to experience. 5. Cricisms are met by ad hoc excuses thought up on the spur of the moment. 6. Rao of supporters to crics rises up to somewhere near 50% and then falls gradually to oblivion. These characteriscs are very similar to other such lists that can be found around the Internet and rather similar to the one above for pseudoscience. Scientism If skepcs are associated with an ideology which amounts to a faith-based view, it would be sciensm, (88) which is the ideological belief that science —mainstream science—is the only authority on the nature of reality. It is helpful to understand this. When confronted by skepcs, it is important to determine if they are concerned with the validity of your point of view because they have sincere quesons or simply refuse to consider your proposion because it is contrary to their worldview. If it is the later, then you may as well change the subject. It has been my experience that skepcs might be evasive about the reason for their interest. They will feign interest but disagree with you in the end no maer what you say. There have been mes I have ﬁnished a conversaon with a person, thinking I succeeded in making my point, only to learn in later days that the person was faking agreement and lacked the intellectual integrity to

say as much at the me. More likely, the person felt no need to engage with someone who was on the wrong side of the academic-layperson paron. Relative Scientism A surprisingly common form of sciensm in the paranormalist community shows up in the bait-and-switch study. Rather than thinking mainstream science has all the answers, it is a modiﬁed form of sciensm in which mainstream science as it is enhanced by a favored theory has all of the answers. To study paranormal phenomena under controlled condions, it is necessary to have competent praconers. In most examples I have seen of this form of sciensm, the researcher ulmately does not accept the possibility of the phenomena, and so, seeks to use reportedly successful praconers to prove their point. Of course, it is necessary to mislead praconers into thinking the researcher has the praconer’s best interest in mind. Community Response If you are acvely seeking understanding about possible survival of personality beyond physical death (transion), trans-etheric communicaon (transcommunicaon including audio ITC (EVP) and visual ITC), reported haunngs phenomena (trans-etheric inﬂuences) and the nature of subtle energy involved in such human abilies as remote viewing and healing intenon (psi funconing), then you are a member of the paranormalist community. Take a lile me to search the Internet to ﬁnd our community. If you search for skepc, you will ﬁnd page aer page of lisngs for pro-skepcal websites. That community is clearly branded. In comparison, the paranormalist community has no such clear identy. For every

apparently serious study group such as the Parapsychological Associaon, there are hundreds of groups talking about ghosts or trying to sell classes, and lately, selling ghost hunng hardware. The objecve is lost in the cluer of the fantasy. Did you know that the religion known as Spiritualism is more properly a member of this community than it is a religion? Did you know that parapsychology includes Ph.Ds. with interest ranging from an-psi ﬁeld and an-survival phenomena to just a few who consider survival a possibility? Which amongst paranormalists groups, found with Internet searches, pracce objecve examinaon and which base their understanding on belief? If you cannot tell, don’t expect mainstream society to know. Our ﬁrst task is to learn how to look like a community. We can begin to do that by learning to talk with a common vocabulary; one that does not feed the monster skepc or make what we think is true sound like religious dogma. But before we begin, it is important that we know who we are. Take a very close look at the way skepcs, and now the US Government, use pseudoscience in their literature. Pay aenon to the fact that I was blocked from defending a parapsychologist in Wikipedia because the skepcs were able to argue that I was supporng pseudoscience. It did not maer what I said, just that I was openly in favor of something they have successfully idenﬁed as pseudoscience. Note also that they are the ones who deﬁned the term.

Our freedom to study these phenomena is not assured. It is arguable that the primary movaon to aack us is not for the good of the country, but in defense of the skepc’s religion … either sciensm or one of the main religions. It may be illogical for them to aack us, but then, belief- based thought is seldom logical. References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 12 Concerns with Wikipedia 2014 About This Essay What would you do if you wanted to learn about your etheric nature but there were no books available and no Internet? That was about how it was when I was growing up. About the only books available to me were religious text and science ﬁcon. As the years went on, a few more books became available. Many of them were useful, but some were outright misleading. Looking back, it was the dominance of channeled material that culvated my pragmac approach to metaphysics. Virtually all of the channels and their unseen teachers eventually turned toward doom and gloom. Anyone with a good imaginaon could weave a story based on popular wisdom and claim it was from a higher spirit. If you believe the channeled material, humanity has been catastrophically destroyed a thousand mes by now. Is that a window on our collecve worldview? We are sll today, suﬀering under the legacy of Friedrich Jürgenson published examples of EVP. As a historical ﬁgure, it is important that he helped introduce the

world to EVP. But, his experimental work was very early in the development of techniques and theory and has lile educaonal and no technical value today. Yet, skepcs rounely use his really poor-quality examples as proof that we are all delusional. (107) (108) Judging by some of the people who sll think he is the top authority in this ﬁeld, the skepcs are right about at least some of us. My point is that informaon is our most important tool for self- educaon. Today, we have more informaon than ever, but we have no real way of telling what of it is useful and what is misleading. We can’t trust our learned parapsychologists because so many are trying to prove we are delusional. We can’t trust the books we read or the thousands of paranormalist websites. Some are excellent, but some are not. Anyone can slap together a website or book and self-publish … many do. In eﬀect, Wikipedia is one of those websites. It has been created by a collecve Joe Editor who selecvely quotes and freely translates sources according to its mainstream point of view. Some kind of consorum created to establish standards in published material might help, but that is essenally what Wikipedia was supposed to be. Now, we see with the introducon of the Society for Psychical Research‘s Psi Encyclopedia that, when a respected parapsychological organizaon tries to standardize truth, they are almost as prejudiced toward survival as Wikipedia. (109) Your best bet is to inform

yourself so that you at least have a sense of the path you wish to follow; its nature and basic tenets. You must be informed enough to be able to vet a teacher … and then ﬁnd one to vet. The value of teachers is that a good one can help you navigate the thicket of the sense and nonsense in the informaon world we have today. None of us self-proclaimed teachers know it all. Some of us are clearly on the wrong path for you. Even if we are on a good path, our approach may not suit your learning style. Even the ancient teachers advised that we ﬁnd a teacher in order to gain understanding. The advice stands today. Just as we need to have others act as our witness panel for phenomena we produce, so do we need a witness panel to give us a sanity check on the ideas we express based on our understanding. If you do not have a teacher, ﬁnd an online group, discussion board or local society and ask quesons with an open mind. This essay was wrien to warn others about the danger of misinformaon posed by Wikipedia. The real lesson is in how the online encyclopedia was able to become such a potent tool for disinformaon. That lesson is all about personal responsibility, cooperave communies and the way of a teacher. Above all, know your detractors, as they oen see more clearly than your supporters. General Wikipedia is hugely important

as a means of documenng society and making that knowledgebase available to anyone with access to the Internet. For the most part, it has been successful. The point of this arcle is that Wikipedia has become a means for special interest groups to exert undue inﬂuence on public opinion. This is most obvious for subjects that are not part of mainstream thought, what is referred to here as a Froner Subject: The study, pracce or experience of a phenomenon which has not been academically established as an accepted part of mainstream culture. The reason this is important is that a search of the Internet for almost any subject presents a Wikipedia arcle as ﬁrst or nearly ﬁrst choice. Cizens, and especially children, will oen learn about a subject from Wikipedia ﬁrst, and that means they may learn from a small group of editors pushing their parcular view of the subject. Treatment of Subjects Wikipedia rules governing the content of arcles are intended to assure a balanced disclosure of each subject in the detached style of tradional encyclopedias. Because the volunteer editors are seldom subject maer experts, everything in arcles must be referenced. Consequently, the main rules used to control the tone of an arcle concerns the acceptability of the informaon source and neutral point of view of wording in the arcle. Original research is not allowed and material from froner subjects journals is virtually not acceptable. The problem is that it is the dominant group of editors that decides what

is acceptable and that determine how a subject is characterized. Because of the rules, material in Wikipedia arcles is at least second hand and oen based on very outdated material. Because books are believed to be more authoritave than websites, they are preferred as references. Because it oen takes years to publish a book, it is common to ﬁnd book references that have long-since been outdated by new research published in journals and on websites. More importantly, references are oen used that are unavailable to the reader, making it nearly impossible to verify that the included informaon is actually supported by the reference. Too oen, it is not. Original research means that what must be used is an arcle wrien by someone else about that research, other than the researcher. Small or non-mainstream publicaons are considered fringe, (110) and are therefore easily discounted by an editor determined not to allow its use. In most froner subjects, there are only small publicaons because of the immaturity of the ﬁeld. Mainstream publicaons will not venture to publish a posive report about a nonmainstream subject. Also, book publishers will not invest the resources to publish a book intended as a serious research report unless there is a large audience. All of this means that collaboraon in froner subjects is accomplished via newsleers, self- published books and websites. The most current research informaon is too oen on the same search engine page as hobbyists speculang about the subject from the point of view of

“how it helped me today,” rather than if it has any validity in fact. Wikipedia Editing Rules Wikipedia has rules governing the interacon of editors such as the need to assume good faith and the need to be civil toward other editors. There are also procedural rules, such as how oen and why an editor might change another person’s edits. Perhaps most important are the rules governing what may be included in arcles. For instance, Arcles are required to be wrien from a neutral point of view, and everything in arcles must be based on veriﬁable references. The references themselves must not be out of the mainstream or self-serving to the author, and so there is also a conﬂict of interest rule. An editor’s failure to follow the rules is usually addressed by other editors, but if that does not work, then it is possible to bring an editor before a tribunal that has the power to ban an editor from making further contribuons. Who Can Edit Articles The policy of Wikipedia, or at least the dominant culture’s policy, is that subject maer experts are discouraged from eding arcles within their area of experse. In fact, it is common for subject maer experts to be so abused that they soon stop aempng to contribute content. One of the Wikipedia founders, Larry Sanger, has even wrien the arcle, Why Wikipedia Must Jeson Its An-Elism, (111) explaining the pialls of editors not using their real name (no accountability) and not being knowledgeable

about the subjects they edit. His response was to begin Cizendium, (112) which is intended to be a kinder and more dependable online encyclopedia. In fact, anyone can edit Wikipedia arcles because anyone can register under an assumed name. However, if an editor is found out as a person who might in some way beneﬁt from what is said in an arcle, that person is considered to have a conﬂict of interest and is strongly discouraged from eding associated arcles. This is an important rule because, in the case of froner subjects, virtually all the people who are knowledgeable about the subject are the same people who are leading study groups, have websites, have or might write a book or give talks on the subject. The Skeptical Community By special interest groups, I am referring to the members of Wikiproject:Raonal Skepcism (113) and those who are sympathec to them. Based on my encounters with this group, they appear to be mostly James Randi (114) and Robert Carroll (115) adherents. People involved with froner subjects oen document their dismay at how unreasonably closed the skepcal community is to new thought and how ruthless its adherents are in their eﬀorts to make sure the general public understands that the froner subject is impossible, and therefore, cannot be. People believing such things are branded as delusional or possibly fraudulent. This tradion of pathological skepcism is now an integral part of Wikipedia. This is a problem for all of us because the online encyclopedia

has given skepcs inordinate access to students of the world looking for material to write a term paper. The skepcal theme is that anything that is not explicitly deﬁned by mainstream science must not be shown in Wikipedia to have any form of possibility. Review of any arcle in Wikipedia will show that the subject is carefully characterized as fringe (116) and pseudoscience (117). It is essenal to remember that the skepcal community believes that it is execung the will of mainstream science to protect the community from being deceived. They edit from this perspecve even though they seldom actually know anything about the subject. The inescapable conclusion is that the most aggressive skepcs have adopted a faith-based viewpoint and their argument is an emoonal one cloaked with the authority of science. Personal Attacks It is common for skepc editors to denounce anyone who studies froner subjects as morons, idiots, deluded, or even more libelous, charlatans and frauds. There are administrave-level editors and procedures to request help from such abuse, but in many instances, complaints are answered by a barrage of comments agreeing with the original insult and adding many more disparaging words to the list. In the end, it is an inescapable conclusion that Wikipedia intends to maintain a civil work environment but is unable to apply exisng rules to protect editors from other editors. The common term is poisoned atmosphere. Why This Is Important Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) is a good example of why you should be concerned

about the inﬂuence of Wikipedia. The Associaon TransCommunicaon (ATransC) has gathered substanal informaon from members and the general public about the characteriscs of EVP, including the circumstances under which they tend to occur, their typical characteriscs and consideraons about how to record, locate and listen to them. The voices of EVP somemes appear to be spoken by deceased people or at least include things they might say, in their voice and in response to speciﬁc quesons. The ATransC has conducted well-organized studies and funded research by academically trained sciensts. Careful analysis of this anecdotal and experimental data seems to indicate that no known physical principle accounts for their existence. (118) If you look through the ATransC NewsJournal Archive on ATransC.org, (32) you will see that over the years, other groups and individuals have also conducted excellent work. Alexander MacRae (119) is an important example, as is Keith Clark, (120) Sonia Rinaldi (121) and Anabela Cardoso. Anabela is one of the few remaining people publishing a journal dedicated to Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC) (itcjournal.org). By any raonal standard, EVP are a form of paranormal phenomena which clearly requires further invesgaon. If they are paranormal, the least beneﬁt is that they represent an experimental tool with which other forms of apparent psi phenomena can be studied in controlled condions. The most important possible beneﬁt of studying EVP is what they might tell us about our etheric nature and the well-being of our discarnate loved ones. But having been branded a pseudoscience by skepcs,

mainstream society is cauoned to think of EVP as simply ordinary experiences mistaken as paranormal; at best illusion or fraud. (99) With skepc’s success in branding EVP a pseudoscience, and their success in convincing governments that pseudoscience is a danger to society, funding for EVP research is virtually nonexistent compared to that available for mainstream subjects. Research funded is ulmately determined by the popular wisdom of mainstream culture. That opinion is shaped by mainstream science and opinion seers, such as the late Carl Sagan and presumably authoritave sources of informaon such as Wikipedia. Abdicaon of responsibility in the scienﬁc community: In society, the responsibility of sciensts is to explain Nature. If members of the scienﬁc community ignore aspects of Nature being experienced by the cizens, the scienﬁc community is eﬀecvely abdicang its responsibility. Conversely, it is intellectually arrogant for sciensts to ridicule laypeople who take it upon themselves to seek explanaons for the experiences. It is also unethical for sciensts to then comment on the work done by laypeople without becoming familiar with protocols used and what has been learned. Peer pressure and popular wisdom are other important factors. Sciensts dare not associate themselves with a subject that is characterized as fringe or pseudoscience for fear of ruining their career. History will surely show that the skepcal community is delaying discovery of many new ideas because of the peer pressure they bring to mainstream science. Froner subjects will not be studied by mainstream science unl opinion seers become more accepng

of new ideas. When the public demands to know more, funding will follow, and sciensts will follow the funding. The Internet provides extraordinary access to the public making it possible for a determined, but minority group of people to have extraordinary inﬂuence on what people believe. It is not realisc to think that private websites can be controlled, but Wikipedia is publicly funded and aﬀords public access to virtually everything that is wrien in its pages. What can be Done? The best way for paranormalists to counter Wikipedia is to tell our story in a levelheaded manner. Whatever your subject, learn to talk about it in terms that a person new to the subject will understand. Giving talks, wring arcles and being on talk shows give opportunies to learn what works and what does not. Much of the cricism of the froner subjects is due to the failure of people who study them to communicate what they are and why they are important. Maintain the point of view that the subject is an observed phenomenon and that there is a need to study what it is. Avoid a single conclusion by clearly explaining the working hypothesis that best explains the evidence at this me and always try to leave the discussion open for alternave explanaons. Do not appear to be determined to prove anything. Let the evidence determine the next step. Establish a presence on the Internet with an informave website. It need not be slick or even prey so

long as it conveys a sense that you are level-headed and that you know what you are talking about. Keep it current. If there is empirical evidence for some parts of what you want to say, then clearly explain that. If parts of it are based on assumpon or belief, then clearly explain those parts and clearly disnguish the two. Make the diﬀerence between demonstrably objecve and theorecal assumpon clear if you wish to be seen as a researcher with integrity. Probably most important is that the arcles that others might link to for citaons are stable. Credible arcles that can be referenced in other work have become an important replacement for scholarly books in froner subjects. Mainstream sciensts live and die with citaons of their work by others. It is a way that researchers can gain a sense of how credible the person’s work is seen to be by others. We in the paranormalist community are no diﬀerent. If you refer to an idea posed by another, include some kind of a reference so that your readers can ﬁnd the source and learn more. Links are very useful for quick access. It is the cizenship thing to do in a cooperave community. Seek crique and feedback from friends, or even beer, from webmasters related to other froner subjects. Mainstream science has a system of sociees, universies and publicaons that enable collaboraon and archiving of the knowledgebase. This is missing for most froner subjects, so it is important to establish

a culture of cooperaon amongst interested people. This essay is about an issue that is common to all froner subjects and it is not necessary for us to have common subject maer interests for this issue to be addressed. Write an arcle about your subject that is suitable for an encyclopedia and include it on the website. For all of its faults, Wikipedia is a good place to see what formats work best. The arcle you would write is not to prove your point in any way. It should be a clear explanaon of what your subject is without too much emphasis on proving your point. Let your reader decide. Perhaps people outside your circle of experts should help dra the arcle because it needs to be a serious “What I would like to see in Wikipedia” arcle that is wrien from a neutral point of view with good, solid references. The good should be shown with the bad. Seek and include viable alternave explanaons. This arcle may also make an excellent white paper to be used as a handout at conferences. Place this link logo on your website and help others become informed about Wikipedia. (ethericstudies.org/concerns-with-wikipedia/) Alternavely, write an arcle yourself warning people about Wikipedia. You can also use this logo to link to the Concerns with Wikipedia arcle on EthericStudies.org. It is worth nong that the content of ethericstudies.org is copyright free (Creave Commons (122)), and available for you to use as you see ﬁt with appropriate aribuon.

But remember, the more links there are to a web page, the higher it will be in the search engines and the more people will read it. This is all about public educaon, so oen include links to other paranormalist pages on your website or wring to help counter Wikipedia’s inﬂuence. We do not recommend that anyone becomes an editor at Wikipedia. Unl the environment has become more civil, we feel that the anger you will certainly come to know will do more harm than good. If you do want to contribute to an online encyclopedia, we recommend the Paranormal Subgroup of Cizendium (112) (en.cizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Paranormal_Subgroup). Wherever you edit online, always use your real name. Reading the essay about the Lord of the Flies (83) will tell you why we feel Wikipedia is able to sustain such a gangland-like atmosphere amongst editors. Navigation Guide for Wikipedia The most important thing anyone can do to help aract serious research is to become personally educated about this ﬁeld of study and how people react to it. What are the arguments used to discount the work? Insight into this can be found by reading the Talk Page associated with Arcle Pages in Wikipedia--in eﬀect, by looking behind the curtain. Always look at the archives listed on the Talk page, as the skepc editors seek to hide bad things. Read the History of both the arcle and talk pages. For instance, on the History page for the Rupert Sheldrake Arcle, (91) you can see in

Archive 19 (123) that I was trying to talk the skepc editors out of calling Sheldrake’s work pseudoscience. But on 5 March 2014, the skepcs were able to permanently ban me from eding the Rupert Sheldrake arcle because I was promong pseudoscience. (See the ban noce at User_talk:Tom_Butler. (98) and read Wikipedia Under Threat on Rupert Sheldrake’s website. (124) A very important point is that the skepcal community has even managed to establish an arcle category of pseudoscience. (125) The term is usually used to reduce the credibility of froner subjects and is generally considered a derogatory term. Likely your subject is on the list or will soon be added. Qualifying terms or phrases that imply unscienﬁc thinking or pracces are rounely used to suggest through innuendo that the subject is not credible. Something as subtle as relang a subject to religious or spiritual subjects eﬀecvely changes a froner subject from an eﬀort to apply good science to understand something, to a belief system that is not to be taken seriously. Editors are supposed to sign their posts in the discussion pages. By clicking on the editor’s name at the end of the post, for instance, ScienceApologist (Talk) (now signing as 9SGjOSfyHJaQVsEmy9NS … I will call him User:SA), you will go to the editor’s personal page. Every editor has one, and it is considered oﬀ-limits for others to post anything there. You will ﬁrst see that User:SA does not much like what he prefers to as fringe subject or believers,

and that he is dedicated to protecng the status quo as he understands it to be deﬁned by mainstream science. User:SA has apparently received his Ph.D. and is now a teacher, so as 9SGjOSfyHJaQVsEmy9NS, he appears to be trying to look more professional on his personal page. However, take a look at one of his old personal pages as ScienceApologist. That is the User:SA I dealt with. (126) If you click on the (Talk) aer the editor’s name, you will go directly to its discussion page. It is there that Administrators (Admins) alert editors about formal complaints, warnings and advice. It is educaonal to see who is commenng there and why. As an aside, consider the inﬂuence User:SA has had on Wikipedia, and by extension, on Wikipedia readers. He has been instrumental in the skepc’s takeover of Wikipedia. As a young astronomy student, there is virtually zero reason to think he knows more than the average person about things paranormal. Yet, he has pronounced over and over again about the pseudoscience nature of all things paranormal … oen in very demeaning terms. You can thank the rules of Wikipedia for his success, and the silence of other paranormalists as a few lonely editors like me failed to stop the skepc takeover. One more point. User:SA is likely teaching young people under cloak of academic authority the same sciensm he pracces. There is a virtual labyrinth of administrave and policy pages in Wikipedia. One sure way to navigate the maze is

to follow comments from interesng editors. For instance, an editor might make a complaint about incivility at Wikipedia:Wikiquee Alerts. Someone will warn another about civility with, “You have violated WP:CIVIL,” which is a link to the Wikipedia:Civility Page containing the policy. (Please note that the policy is also edited and has been occasionally diluted by editors wanng to be allowed more leeway in how rude they are to others. Another good place to look is the Request for Arbitraon Pages. Two important ones are Paranormal (94) and Marnphi-ScienceApologist (User:SA). (127) Both have several associated pages for evidence and such, and although painful to read, they oﬀer an important lesson for all of us. There are others, such as the Incident noce board (116) and the Arbitraon enforcement board. Conclusion It is important to keep in mind that Wikipedia is not the evil empire, it is a very important tool that needs a few changes to keep it from being a plaorm for social engineering. It really is not realisc to say that one person is at fault for the harmful social engineering a few skepcs are able to accomplish with its content. Looking behind the curtain, it is evident that the skepcal community of Wikipedia is out of control, and that as long as people can insult people with impunity and ignore consensus and balanced reporng, it is essenal that the public be told that the online encyclopedia cannot be trusted as a knowledge base. References and Alternave Sources Listed

at the end of the book. Essay 13 Arrogance of Scientiic Authority 2015 About This Essay In the ancient past, the public only heard rumors of esoteric schools in which wise men taught about the wonders of hidden realies and magical pracces. The reason they call them esoteric schools is that they were secret. They taught hidden wisdom. The wise men were masters of the occult. The schools were hidden from the public for several important reasons. They were not about religion or faith. The lessons were taught as a form of natural science. A sequence of lessons and iniaons was designed to transmute the seeker from a common, dull-sensed cizen to a master of the natural principles of nature. You will recognize this as the transming of lead into gold, as taught in the Hermec Wisdom Schools. Even today, most people do not understand the diﬀerence between belief and understanding. Religions are all about completely trusng the priest and accepng faith-based dogma. The wisdom schools were all about understanding the nature of reality as it pertained to personal wisdom. In wisdom schools, seekers are intended to test their teachers. The problem is that esoteric teachings and religious subjects are essenally the same. A wisdom school lesson about our relaonship with the inﬁnite sounds a lot like a church lesson in our relaonship with God. Thus, there was a conﬂict of authority between the priests and the wisdom masters, and resulng clash posed a danger to the unaﬃliated wisdom schools.

The Law of Silence applies here as well. Imagine that you had a most wonderful experience while on vacaon, about which you eagerly tell your co-workers. If they rejoice with you, the sharing reinforces the joy of your experience. If they prey much ignore your story while telling you about their work, their reacon tends to subtract from your joy. See Essay 20: Law of Silence. Fun vacaons are relavely objecve, so imagine you had a life- changing experience while in deep meditaon. That is a most conceptual experience. The inﬂuence of the memory can be tenuous and easily dissipated with doubt. Telling others about such an experience is risky because, if they do not react in a reinforcing way, it is likely the warm memory will quickly fade. Doubt is a most insidious enemy of conceptual lessons. The third reason for secrecy is the most applicable to our work today. Seekers are on a diﬃcult path that frequently tests their determinaon to gain understanding. It is so much easier to have a beer and enjoy the Sunday game. Like a very young athlete training for the Olympics. Seeking requires dedicaon and sacriﬁce. Unlike the athlete, a seeker must be mindful throughout life. Remember the Zen Buddhist saying, “Before enlightenment chop wood–carry water, aer enlightenment chop wood–carry water.” One must do the work to learn. One must do the work to test. One must do the work to understand. Understanding is relave and its pursuit if forever. For the average

cizen, seekers must seem like peculiar people with strange ideas about life. It is easy for people to feel a degree of jealousy if they learn of the seeker’s objecves. Aer all, the seeker is working to become an enlightened being while the average observer is not. Secrecy is a praccal maer of self-preservaon. It protects the school from the church, it helps protect the fragile emerging understanding of the seeker and it protects the seeker from local jealousy. I think mostly with the inﬂuence of the Internet, the veil is being lied from the secret wisdom schools. From my experience, this is not a good thing for the seeker, but it is very good for potenal seekers who wish to ﬁnd a path to personal enlightenment. Our task as a community is to learn how to help potenal seekers while protecng our ability to seek. As a praccal maer, the paranormalist community is teetering between a return to secrecy and even further disclosure. The determining factor is the ability and willingness of the paranormalist community to protect its seekers and praconers. On the one side of the scale is a New Age-like community future in which paranormalists seek to sell to paranormalists and everyone believes whatever feels good. Such populist behavior is no threat to mainstream society. Accusing cizens of that community of praccing pseudoscience would be silly because such shallow beliefs are not likely to be mistaken as science. The other side of the scale is as it

has been in the past. Religions would dominate the teaching of the nature of reality, secret wisdom schools would disappear into the shadows, and a gray zone of counter-culture ghost hunters would ﬂourish somewhere between. Parapsychologists are the determining factor. They are divided by mainstream skepc posing as open-minded parapsychologists, psi phenomena advocates suﬀering from mainstream envy and a few who seriously consider survival. The average paranormalist seeks to understand these phenomena for personal reasons. They may simply be fascinated by the unknown, perhaps they seek to know their transioned loved one is okay or perhaps they fear death and are looking for reassurance. Many are in it for the social scene of ghost hunters. Whatever the reason, paranormalists depend on sciensts to tell them the true nature of their interest. Are the phenomena real? If so, how do we work with them? What about them is veriﬁed and what is just popular wisdom. None of us want to be delusional. As I discuss in Essay 14: Open Leer to Paranormalists, our parapsychologists are mostly interested in furthering their personal beliefs. While they depend on the rest of us as experiencers, and praconers, they tend to mislead us to gain our cooperaon so that they can prove we are delusional. In doing so, they are driving our serious seekers back into the shadows. This essay is about the way one team of parapsychologists have aacked their physical medium, research subject. I have become outspoken about the abuse of our praconers

because it has so obviously interfered with my eﬀorts on behalf of the ATransC. It is easy for me as a praconer to imagine being treated the same way. There is no reason you cannot be treated the same way. The problem goes beyond this oﬀending team of parapsychologists, making me think it is a cultural byproduct of the Academic-Layperson Paron. The way it is organized, the parapsychological community encourages its people to produce study reports about subjects for which they have no training. It is common to read anomalisc psychology reports in the journals that are about how believers foolishly aribute paranormality to mundane things based on gotcha-like studies. The average paranormalist is not well-informed about the more detailed aspect of these phenomena. This is not a cricism. All of us are seekers at one stage or another of our educaon. But, parapsychologists’ cricism tends to drive serious praconers and seekers into the shadows. I hear them saying “I will not share my understanding with people who might doubt my experiences, rather than help me beer understand them.” This essay was wrien because of my disgust about how a good man was so unfairly and needlessly aacked by people who are supposed to know beer. The simple fact is that the researchers do not know enough about physical mediumship to be so judgmental. It is recognion of that lack of understanding which is supposed to be guiding their research. Having read books and sat in séances does not make

one suﬃciently knowledgeable to make eye-witness ﬁeld study reports as experts. That alone is intellectually unethical. None of us know enough about these phenomena to say all the ways it will or will not manifest. Possibly excepng a few theories, such as the Implicit Cosmology, we lack the necessary models on which we might base our characterizaon of these phenomena. We are prey much sll in the naturalist phase of this emerging science. It is tradion in Spiritualism that mediumship is in service to the individual and only publicly demonstrated to the public as a means of showing our immortality. The Felix Experimental Group is a development circle that demonstrates to the public as a service. The medium has accepted direcon from his etheric helpers to devote himself to public demonstraon of an ability that has taken many years to develop. If he wanted to earn a decent living, he would need to ﬁnd a real job. If we wish to connue having the opportunity to witness such demonstraons, it is necessary that we ﬁnd ways to protect our praconers, lest they protect themselves by once again retreang into the shadows. An aside about retreang into the shadows. As I proofread this book, there is increasing pressure on the government here in the USA to ﬁgure out a way to keep guns away from mentally ill people. While that is a good idea, one of the measures being discussed for how to recognize mentally ill people is if they hear

voices. Hearing voices is one way to describe mental mediumship. For all of us who seek to develop our mediumship ability, it is a good idea to ﬁnd a way to clearly disnguish ourselves from mentally ill people. I am not qualiﬁed to make suggesons for this. For myself, I will speak in terms of depending on external veriﬁcaon of sensed informaon as a way to know it is objecve. Suggesons are welcome. I will try to generate a discussion about this on the ATransC Idea Exchange. Background With an invitaon from the Felix Experimental Group (FEG) circle leader, Stephen Braude assembled a team to study the phenomena demonstrated by the FEG medium. The team included Michael Nahm and Peter Mulacz. Aer the mul-year study, it is my understanding that Braude was about to publish a generally posive report conﬁrming the mediumship phenomena, but then Nahm indicated he would submit his own report detailing his suspicions of fraud. As I understand from Braude, he rewrote his report to agree with Nahm’s and both were published in the Journal of Scienﬁc Exploraon, issue 28-2, Summer 2014. (128) (129) My essay on EthericStudies.org, Debunking Survival Under Cover of False Academic Authority, (70) also includes a brief discussion of the original aack. Here are the links to the two arcles that began what I think of as an unethical aack on a research subject. • A brief of the two arcles can be found on history buﬀ and strong Braude supporter, Carlos Alvarado‘s

blog under Quesons about the Physical Phenomena of the Felix Circle. (130) • Braude holds a doctorate in philosophy and apparently specializes in the philosophy of science. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Scienﬁc Exploraon, a Society for Scienﬁc Exploraon publicaon. His arcle, “Invesgaons of the Felix Experimental Group: 2010–2013,” can be read on Academia.edu. (It is free to become a member of Academia.edu) (128) • Nahm holds a doctorate in biology with a specialty of Forest Science. His arcle is “The Development and Phenomena of a Circle for Physical Mediumship.” (129) The suspicions expressed by Nahm involve his belief that, in the early years of his work, the medium used several tricks to fake phenomena. I stress here that Nahm based his suspicions on a number of sources, which from my experience in sing with the medium, depend on circumstanal evidence that could as easily be interpreted in other ways. For his part, Braude took the mediums recence to respond to direct quesons about the accusaons as an implicit admission of guilt. It is important to note that, even though the medium speaks prey good English, it is his second language. We oen confused him during conversaons with our American references. Braude’s supposed gotcha occurred during a Skype call in which he confronted the medium. I expect the medium hesitated to digest what he was being asked … a sure sign of guilt, according to Braude. Apparently, there were no indicaons of trickery in any of the séances

on which the research team was supposed to base their study. The medium did produce phenomena and it was witnessed under at least some level of invesgator control (reportedly including an invasive cavity search for cheesecloth). I asked Braude why he had not included tests for Nahm’s suspicions in the protocol, to which he replied something to the eﬀect that “Things come up.” So, in eﬀect, the team has ignored their ﬁndings and focused on Nahm’s suspicions. Very scienﬁc indeed! Aer the publicaon of the original report, both Braude and Nahm repeated their accusaons in every speaking forum they could ﬁnd. For instance, “Fall of the House of Felix” by team member Peter Mulacz (Ph.D. psychology) is the leading arcle in the Spring 2015 Society for Psychical Research Paranormal Review magazine. (131) (132) The issue also includes arcles about Stefan Braude (Ph.D. philosophy) and one by Michael Nahm (Ph.D. biology). The issue is generally negave toward the Felix Experimental Group’s (FEG) medium while celebrang the Myers Memorial Medal the SPR has given Braude for his “contribuon to the subject of Psychical Research.” Here, I will say that I have sat with the medium at least seven mes in three venues. We (ATransC) hosted him for demonstraons on two, mul- session occasions. For the ﬁve or so sessions we hosted, I had complete control of the room and inspected it before each session. Siers were searched, and I inspected the medium’s near-naked body before each séance. Aer those strip inspecons and

my watching him drink a liter of colored juice, I escorted him to the séance room. There, he was constantly under the control of two experienced siers. They held his hands and arms, somemes making contact with one another to assure everyone was doing their job. I inspected the room aer each session. In each séance I witnessed, phenomena were displayed which could not be explained in mundane terms; some in prey good red-light eliminaon. As an engineer, I am trained to look for how things work. Braude is trained in philosophy, Nahm in biology and Mulacz in psychology. Trickery of the kind claimed by Nahm requires devices and sleight of hand. The training best suited for detecng fraud is more in how things work than how people think. As such, I will argue that, skill for skill, my training is more to the point for judging the authencity of the physical phenomena. My objecve here is not to say that I am a beer observer or more knowledgeable about how the phenomena are formed. As a cerﬁed medium and healer, and experienced ITC praconer, I have produced some of the phenomena myself. Aer more than ﬁeen years examining thousands of examples of photographic and audio evidence of the paranormal, I have come to understand how even expert witnesses can be confused by photographs in poor light. Our mind is not trained to process some of the phenomena of darkroom séances such as impossible lights and unexpected faces in ectoplasm.

I have wrien before about the perceptual process. For many, the only valid perspecve is suspended judgment. Certainly, deciding there is fraud based on very unusual witness condions and then acng on that decision to ruin a person’s reputaon is not the best approach to understanding. Certainly, no raonal observer would think of such behavior as scienﬁc. Science in the Paranormalist Community It took me a long me to ﬁgure out why I have been so indignant about how the three parapsychologists have treated the FEG medium. The common factor of our community is our interest in paranormal phenomena. As is true of society in general, either directly or via our opinion seers, we all look to our sciensts for guidance. It is that guidance that is becoming a problem for the paranormalist community. In Your Immortal Self, I begin the secon on science by stang: “Hands down the most disrupve inﬂuence for the paranormalist community is science.” (1) Consider these points: • Three professional/academic organizaons we have all come to trust are the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), (53) the Parapsychological Associaon (PA) (52) and the Society for Scienﬁc Exploraon (SSE). (133) They are ostensibly seeking to understand all paranormal phenomena … and presumably report their ﬁndings to the community so that we might beer understand and work with these phenomena. That is how science is supposed to work. • In fact, all three organizaons focus on understanding psi phenomena and/or understanding why people believe in it (aka delusional).

With the excepon of mental mediumship, survival- related phenomena are seldom studied. Yes, reincarnaon, near- death and out-of-body experiences are studied, but those groups are prey insular and play only a small part in the paranormalist community. • Parapsychologists are obsessive about proof and have seemingly turned inward to bale skepcs rather than reaching out to the paranormalist community. Even without bad behavior such as the subject of this essay, we (ATransC) have determined that there is no sense in looking to parapsychology for our science. • The SSE has been especially hard on transcommunicaon by publishing failure to replicate-types of research reports wrien by a clearly unqualiﬁed doctorate in psychology. (102) Braude is the chief editor for the peer reviewed SSE journal. Peer review is in secret, and Braude has been … unfriendly toward comments about arcles from the non-doctorate community. • The slanderous arcles about the FEG medium were poorly considered, and in most communies, such treatment of the research subject would be considered unethical. (134) Nahm’s arcle is a study in pure what if, could be and might be. There is no way it could be construed as a research report. Neither arcle should have passed peer review unless Braude abused his authority to demand that they be accepted. • Now the SPR has allowed Braude and Nahm’s unchallenged comments in their Paranormal Review, which is intended for a more general audience. In fact, the SPR has recently given Braude the Myers Memorial Medal. • The researchers

obtained grants money to conduct the research from the Parapsychological Associaon (PA). Also, the PA cooperates with the SPR, making all three of our more important organizaons solidly on the wrong side of our best interest. As we watch, the parapsychological community has, in eﬀect, circled the wagons in support of Braude and his team. • The SPR has included an arcle tled “Felix Experimental Group” by Braude in their new Psi Encyclopedia. That is an online informaon source intended as an outreach to the public, meaning we must assume Braude’s repeated accusaons about the FEG medium in his contribuon are oﬃcial SPR policy. (135) Human Research Subject Take a lile me to look over the Research Ethics guidelines published by the University of Washington School of Medicine. (134) It is loosely based on the Belmont Report published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (51) The Belmont Report appears to be the golden standard for research ethics. Major points from the report that apply to this essay are: Respect for persons: “To show lack of respect for an autonomous agent is to repudiate that person’s considered judgments, to deny an individual the freedom to act on those considered judgments, or to withhold informaon necessary to make a considered judgment when there are no compelling reasons to do so.” It is clear from conversaons with the medium prior, during and immediately aer the study that he had an expectaon of fair reporng of the data. The medium was

excited! There was no expectaon that possible informaon outside of the protocol would be used. In research, the protocol is all there is. Part of the funding process for research is review of ethics-related porons of the research protocol. This does not appear to be the case for parapsychology. Beneﬁcence: “Persons are treated in an ethical manner not only by respecng their decisions and protecng them from harm, but also by making eﬀorts to secure their well-being.” The research team operated under the cloak of scienﬁc authority. This is at least one point psychologist Mulacz should have understood. While the medium is clearly more knowledgeable about the phenomena than the researchers, he and his circle members have been culturally trained to respect perceived scienﬁc authority. The medium and his circle opened their home to the invesgators with the expectaon of fair treatment. As such, the invesgators had a moral obligaon to protect their research subject. Jusce: “Who ought to receive the beneﬁts of research and bear its burdens? This is a queson of jusce, in the sense of ‘fairness in distribuon’ or ‘what is deserved.’ An injusce occurs when some beneﬁt to which a person is entled is denied without good reason or when some burden is imposed unduly.” To be clear, the medium is not making a fortune by causing himself, his wife and his circle to take their me for the séances the invesgators requested. In fact, most people would not give so freely of their me. The

medium also risked a lot by agreeing to be the test subject. It took him years of great personal cost to develop his ability. Each session demands that he pay a high penalty in physical eﬀort. There are very few physical mediums able to demonstrate even the basic phenomena. For a scienst seeking to win the approval of his academic community, the FEG medium represented a once-in-a-lifeme opportunity. At the same me, the resulng research reports have cast a shadow over the medium’s reputaon. The resulng costs to the medium are incalculable. Libel and Slander According to The Free Diconary by Farlex: Collecvely known as defamaon, libel and slander are civil wrongs that harm a reputaon; decrease respect, regard, or conﬁdence; or induce disparaging, hosle, or disagreeable opinions or feelings against an individual or enty. The injury to one’s good name or reputaon is aﬀected through wrien or spoken words or visual images. (136) From the abstract of Braude’s report: “…Regreably, recent indicaons of fraud (explored also by Michael Nahm in this issue) have tarnished the case as a whole. …” (128) From Nahm’s report Abstract: “…and explain why I ﬁnally arrived at the conclusion that considerable parts of the phenomena were produced by fraudulent means.” (129) The last statement in of Mulacz’s arcle: “Where there is conscious and deliberate fraud it is absurd to speculate whether some of the ostensible phenomena might perhaps be genuinely paranormal (although the desire of some disappointed observers ‘to save what can be saved’

is psychologically understandable) and it is a waste of resources—me as well as money—to connue invesgaons of such pseudo-mediums. From my observaons, I conclude that (the medium)’s ‘physical mediumship’ is a deliberate decepon from beginning to end.” (132) These accusaons of fraud are made under cover of academic authority. That gives their word considerably more weight than if they were spoken by a person hiding behind a screen name on a discussion board. So not only are the accusaons of fraud hurul and unnecessarily damaging to the medium and our community, they are spoken by people others are culturally condioned to believe without queson. That undue authority makes their words especially harmful. If you read the reports that provide a context for the above quotes, you will see that they spring from accusaons made by Nahm concerning suspicions related to séances that were conducted years before the actual study began. There is no evidence based on scienﬁc inquiry provided by the supposed sciensts to support the accusaons. Certainly, no eﬀort is made to account for the apparent phenomena produced during the study, making it clear that discreding the medium is of a higher priority than discovery of possibly new principles of nature. Opinion About Arrogance of Scientiic Authority Here are my concerns: • As with many parapsychologists, it seems that the three invesgators come to the subject more as a hobby than as qualiﬁed observers. Braude is a philosophy major and Nahm is a biologist. Both are clearly unfamiliar with

the methodologies of science. In the context of studying mediumship phenomena, they have no more standing than the average, well-educated observer and certainly no standing as doctorates in the ﬁeld of mediumisc phenomena. • Some of their comments are naive. Braude has a history of assuming authority that he does not have. For instance, he has wrien at length about how Rupert Sheldrake, a cellular biologist, is wrong about his theories concerning cellular morphogenesis. (137) In that, and his comments about séance phenomena, he clearly lacks understanding about the metaphysics. • One of Nahm’s accusaons is that the medium purchased Halloween cobweb with the intenon of faking ectoplasm during a séance. This is one of those circumstanal situaons that all of us need to be aware of. Having been accused of regurgitang cheesecloth or the fake cobweb, it is natural that the medium experimented to see if those materials made convincing ectoplasm. In fact, they do not; never did! Any even halfway decent observer would see that the medium’s ectoplasm is not so contrived. We have never found residue of the ectoplasm in the room aer seances. The large quanty of colored liquid the medium drinks just before going into the séance room cabinet would stain cheesecloth or Halloween cobweb. The body juices should also make the regurgitated material smell of bile. I have had the ectoplasm touch my face, yet there was no odor, it was very wet, but then it was gone. • The parapsychological community is standing

behind the three researchers by enabling the widest possible distribuon of their libelous arcles. The Academic-Layperson Paron problem is encountered in a lot of ways, but the most damning is the atude doctorates—qualiﬁed parapsychologists and academic hobbyists alike—have toward the layperson praconer. This is further illustrated in the next point. In the “They eat their own, don’t they” department, the negave eﬀect of the cricism is prey well summed up by one post on the Spiritualismlink.com concerning the original arcles: “Another one bites the dust...” • Mulacz conveys a sense of disdain for the medium, FEG and Braude in his comments ending with: “Aending such séances at home circles has but lile value; scienﬁc séances must occur under laboratory condions where the invesgators are in control.” (132) This is an expression of academic arrogance, as he clearly thinks the medium should submit to every demand made by the invesgators. In the model I have been working with, collecng examples of trans-etheric phenomena involves a parcular and extraordinary mindset and/or the presence of a contact ﬁeld which can enable trans-etheric inﬂuences. Much of the acvity in a physical séance is a process of developing such a contact ﬁeld to which the siers must contribute. Too sharp of a focus on the process or the distracon of external controls are known to defeat this process. (138) The medium expressed too me great relief that he was able to produce any phenomena at all for the researchers. • Like it or not, parapsychologists

are bound to layperson praconers by virtue of what they study. But they seldom behave as if they are, choosing instead to treat those they depend on for the producon of phenomena as inconvenient lab rats. In fact, most parapsychologists, and speciﬁcally the three researchers discussed here, behave as if they are not at all part of our community. • Having spent me as an editor in Wikipedia, I know it will be just a maer of me before these arcles are used to jusfy negave comments in paranormal arcles. Even as parapsychologists rail against skepcs, they give the skepcs ammunion to demonstrate the social danger of belief in the paranormal. Again, I need to stress that this is all my opinion. Obviously, the doctorates who govern the parapsychological organizaons think the arcles they publish represent good science. If you agree with my assessment that the pseudo-researchers eﬀecvely threw the FEG medium under the bus, then you should also be very cauous about possible dealings with the supposed sciensts who might wish to study your work. Establishing a research capability as part of an organizaon dedicated to supporng mediums, such as the Forever Family Foundaon (139) is probably the only way to assure that our phenomena are studied by people who actually understand the metaphysics. As it stands now, the Academic-Layperson Paron assures that cooperaon is a one-way street. While I trust the FEG medium, I have not personally witnessed some of the séances Nahm referred to as instances of

possible cheang. The concern I have is that the three invesgators had the moral obligaon in the researcher-test subject relaonship and in the parapsychologist- paranormal community relaonship, to sck to their protocol. As far as I can tell, every instance of possible fraud they have complained about falls into the category of maybe so, but no hard evidence … certainly no evidence during execuon of the protocol. From My Experience 2010, my wife Lisa and I aended a séance in the FEG medium’s home, (140) I believe well before the supposed trickery Nahm complains about. There were a number of phenomena demonstrated that were beyond the reasonable scope of trickery. For instance, raps on the wall directly behind my head, almost instantly followed by others on the ceiling, all well away from the medium. In the dark, with no one aware of my intenon, I dared the communicators to place the rapidly moving spirit light in the palm of my hand. A moment later, the light hit the palm of my hand. A) Illustraon of luminous plate with simulaon of hand responding request to show an “OK” sign. B) Same plate illustrang relave size of other simulated hands that we saw. At another me, I dared the communicators to make an OK sign with the spirit hand that was occluding a luminous plate on the ﬂoor. Moments later, I saw the hand momentarily form the universal OK sign. Cameo Faces in Ectoplasm: FEG Medium Kai Mügge separang ectoplasm to reveal

three cameo-like faces. The image below shows the three faces in closeup. Reportedly, all three were recognized by siers. The séance was amongst friends and there was lile done to assure no trickery, but there was also good light from me to me that enabled reasonably careful observaon. As an engineer, I was almost manically looking for alternave explanaons for the astounding phenomena demonstrated that day. I cannot speak to all of his demonstraons, but then and in many subsequent séances in which I did have complete access for inspecons, I have no raonal reason to think the medium is other than genuine. By the way, the spirit light, hand and raps were moving about far out of reach of the medium or any likely tricky device postulated by Nahm. There was a lot of ectoplasm and a hand did form which rose up a lile and seemed to wave about. Good red light, two observers holding the cabinet curtain open sat very close to him and the rest of us were trying to see … everything. String to hold the ectoplasmic hand up, and make it move about as it did, would have been quickly detected. As always, the ectoplasm came and went without residue, smell or even a hint of trickery, save the cloth-like appearance. In later séances, the cameo-like faces that formed in the ectoplasm were much like historical examples I have seen in the literature. Cameo Faces in Ectoplasm (above) shows the FEG medium holding ectoplasm

during a séance. We did not aend that séance, but the cameo-like faces shown in the photograph are similar to other faces we witnessed. In one of those seances, I clearly recognized Hans Bender as one face. A member of our local Spiritualist Society recognized a loved one. The faces appeared to be formed as a precipitated simulaon of a face, rather than as a photograph and had a three-dimensional quality. There is quite a lot of precedence in Instrumental TransCommunicaon for such features. When the medium stood and circled the room in red light with a handful of ectoplasm, I could see that the substance was dripping water. When he came to me, he unceremoniously ﬂopped the ectoplasm against my forehead. It made my head very wet. Yet, when I inspected the unpainted plywood panel we had placed under his chair to cover the rough brick ﬂoor, there was no hint of moisture residue from where the ectoplasm had been. By the way, at another me, the substance glowed bioluminescent green as it came out of his mouth! I do not know if the medium has tried ways of cheang. He is constantly looking for ways to assure siers that there is no fraud, so it is possible he has tried to cheat to learn how to guard against it. I would! The glaring double standard here is that parapsychologists discount many examples of our phenomena because there were no scienﬁc controls when the examples were collected. At the

same me, I am sure no one actually trained in the use of the scienﬁc method would propose a ﬁnding in science based on the level of evidence being used to smear the FEG medium. How was an arcle smearing the medium’s good name, based on lame theories, innuendo and magical thinking, published in what is supposed to be a peer reviewed science journal? Perhaps the answer is that that part of our community is just a toy for rered professors. From the perspecve of a director of an organizaon “Founded in 1982 by Sarah Estep to Provide Objecve Evidence That We Survive Death in an Individual Conscious State” I believe the treatment received at the hand of these supposed sciensts has set our work back in ways we are sll learning. Beyond the grief imposed on the medium, the most damning of all of this is that there are so few people speaking out to make sure this will not happen again. Certainly, the parapsychological community seems just ﬁne with the treatment. Update Instances in which the parapsychological team has publicly aacked the FEG medium: Coast-To-Coast: February 22, 2016 - From the Coast-To-Coast AM website. (141) An example of connuing public accusaon well beyond any research or scienﬁc value: Braude was able to invesgate the German physical medium Kai Muegge of the Felix Circle under somewhat controlled condions, and searched his body before the videotaped experiment. During the séance, there were some table levitaons, and Kai produced large quanes

of ectoplasm from his mouth, in a seemingly unexplained manner. Yet, Braude learned later that there was conclusive evidence that Kai had cheated at some other seances he hadn’t supervised. “Even so, just because a medium uses decepon on occasion, it doesn’t mean they don’t have genuine abilies,” Braude pointed out, adding that “these so-called ‘mixed mediums’ someme use trickery out of convenience or necessity when they make their living from producing spirit contacts. Journal of Scienﬁc Exploraon, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 5–9, 2016: (142) Follow-Up Invesgaon of the Felix Circle by Stephen Braude in which he essenally rehashes previous reports. Remembering that Braude is Chief Editor of the Journal, I note with much dismay, the arrogant conclusion of his editorial in the same issue “For reasons I discuss, it seems unlikely that Kai will again submit himself to examinaon by me or any other careful researcher. It appears, instead, that he would prefer to connue shoong himself in the foot.” Further Comments about Kai Mügge‘s Alleged Mediumship and Recent Developments by Michael Nahm in which he endlessly elaborates on his accusaons. These are sll based mostly on an “it seems to be” kind of aack. (143) Psi Encyclopedia owned by the Society for Psychical Research This new online encyclopedia is supposed to provide true informaon to the public to counter Wikipedia. However, they asked Stephen Braude to write the mediumship arcle. He simply wrote more of the same to connue his eﬀorts to defame the FEG medium. Not

only must we contend with the very biased arcle about paranormal subjects in Wikipedia, but we must also deal with aacks from the SPR. (135) References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 14 Open Letter to Paranormalists 2017 About This Essay The full tle of this essay is Open Leer to Paranormalists: Limits of science, trust and responsibility. Wring it was a most diﬃcult task. As I learned more about ITC, my wring has become more focused on community, ethics and mindfulness. While the phenomena are paramount in showing us the way, they are just that, a beacon shining a light on truths revealed to us in every generaon from Hermes of ancient Egypt to our contemporary theorists. It is telling that I am not cing contemporary teachers. I feel one has yet to emerge in our community. But, I know what the new teachers will say. Each will in some way tell you that the one lesson you are to learn is that you are immortal self experiencing this lifeme to gain understanding. Virtually all of the phenomena we study, especially communicaon from our transioned loved ones, exists to show us the reality of that one thing. The fact of our immortality is in itself a simple lesson. But as they say, the devil is in the detail. There are implicaons brought by the fact of our immortality, and those have consequences. The Implicit Cosmology (12) is my version of the nature of those

implicaons and consequences. The new teachers will have diﬀerent, probably more easily understood cosmologies. I know it is important to speak to the heart in these maers, rather than just the brain. Speaking to the heart is something for which I am not parcularly well equipped. But, their cosmologies will undoubtedly look a lot like the Implicit Cosmology. It is a good place to begin while you await a teacher. Knowing that I think this way, can you see why I might be concerned about supposed sciensts aacking our praconers without due science? In doing so, they put our emerging understanding at risk. Essay 13: Arrogance of Scienﬁc Authority explains one of my complaints. That was a diﬃcult essay to write because I used it to call out parapsychologists by name. Doing so puts me even further on the fringe of our community, certainly outcast from parapsychology. However, while highlighng conﬂicts within our community is divisive, saying nothing is the greater oﬀense. This essay began as an open leer to parapsychologists. My point was that, to mislead the rest of the community, even to the point of condoning unethical treatment of research subjects, is an abuse of academic authority. My intenon was to post grievances, in response to which they might reconsider their ways. One grievance is that the oﬀending researchers focused their report on unproven accusaons about behavior rumored to have occurred before execuon of the research protocol. Rather than challenging the report on grounds of bad science, the

parapsychological community gave the researchers every opportunity to publicly repeat their accusaons. They even invited the team leader to repeat the claim in the Society for Psychical Research‘s (53) new Psi Encyclopedia. (109) I spell out other grievances in the essay. My sense is that the oﬀenses are only possible because of the Academic-Layperson Paron. If the self- superior academically trained people feel above those of us who simply produce the phenomena, it becomes permissible amongst their ranks to treat us as they wish. Without an outcry from the greater paranormalist community over such abuse, there is no penalty for such treatment and no likelihood of change. As you might think, every aempt I made to write this essay turned into a rant, which served no good for any of us. Finally, I began composing it in terms of a warning to other praconers. In eﬀect, I have given up on parapsychology. The message to you now is to beware of the Trojan Horse researcher and make darn sure your claims of paranormal phenomena are raonal and well-supported. Keep Essay 13 in mind as you read this essay. Learning about these phenomena is important because of the light it shines on the Mindful Way. A good percentage of the parapsychological community will seek ways to prove you are … well, to prove you are delusional, if nothing else works, so be informed. Introduction Science is good. The science pracced by parapsychologists is not necessarily good. Much of it is done

to prove paranormalists are delusional. You and I know that to prove we are delusional, they must ignore or falsely represent our evidence. Sciensts are supposed to be our friends. Some are, but the majority consider the average paranormalist inferior in many ways … as second- class cizens that are not as smart, as well educated and as wise as people with a Ph.D. Most people calling themselves paranormalists are rered from unrelated careers and are using the study of paranormal phenomena as a hobby. They are likely less informed about the actual nature of these phenomena than you, the praconers and experiencers. If you come away from reading this with nothing else, I pray that you remember these points. If you want to see these phenomena properly studied, if you want informed sciensts to help you understand your experiences, if you want to see this ﬁeld of study evolve into a well- understood science, then it is important that you know who to trust, who to believe and with whom it is safe to trust your phenomena. It is important that you encourage the pretenders to go away so that real sciensts will feel free to help. It is most important that you speak up! About This Letter While many of us look forward to the day a scienst will want to study our work, few of us realize the potenal problems that can come from being studied. In simple terms, science is great; sciensts are not always so

great. It is for you to be aware of the diﬀerences, because many of those who have not been aware of the diﬀerence, have regreed ever volunteering to be research subjects. To understand the science of paranormal phenomena, it is necessary to understand the phenomena. You may not agree with the model I use for this leer but take me to think about it. If I did the work correctly, the model should be reasonably close to reality, if not in detail, at least in principle. The model is based on currently understood mainstream and parapsychological science. Unlike more widely accepted models, it is greatly informed by lessons learned from mediumship and Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC), especially Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP). It will evolve over me, but for now, I am scking with it because I need a target of sorts toward which I can develop arguments and collect supporng data. I suggest you also pick a story about which you can learn to talk. The Paranormalist Community In the context of this leer, paranormalist are people who experience, study or have a more than casual interest in psychic ability (psi funconing, remote viewing, healing intenon), healing intenon (bioﬁeld healing, distant healing, healing prayer) and the phenomena related to survival of consciousness (mediumship, visual and audible ITC, haunngs). The paranormalist community is actually several communies of interest that are in the same boat, so to speak, because they all seek to understand the same phenomena but with diﬀerent intenons. A useful

way to think of the paranormalist community is as an aggregate of communies of interest such as ghost hunters, experiencers seeking understanding of oen disturbing experiences, grief management, invesgators and academics working as parapsychologists. Theories of Reality Because it is important that you are clear about who believes what, the three dominant theories designed to explain the nature of reality are provided here. This is taken from the book, Your Immortal Self: (1) The Physical Universe Hypothesis • All that exists is the physical universe. • The universe has evolved from a singularity into what it is today. • Life has evolved on earth into what it is today. • Mind has evolved as a product of brain which is a product of evoluon. • Memory is an arfact of mind. • When the brain dies, mind and memory cease to exist. • People have ﬁve senses: smell, sight, hearing, touch and taste. To simplify conversaon, people who think the Physical Universe Hypothesis is correct are described here as Normalists. Parapsychologists who lean toward the Physical Universe Hypothesis oen work under the banner of Anomalisc Psychology, (58) which holds that reported paranormal experiences are actually ordinary-world experiences mistaken as paranormal. In eﬀect, these parapsychologists are paranormal phenomena debunkers determined to ﬁnd a normal explanaon for all psi and survival-related phenomena. They try to do so by ignoring exisng research seemingly supporng the existence of a psi ﬁeld and survival. The Super-Psi Hypothesis • All that exists is the physical universe.

• The universe may have evolved from a singularity into what it is today. • An as yet unidenﬁed form of space called psi (psi ﬁeld) permeates all of physical reality. • Life has evolved on earth into what it is today. • Mind exists in the psi ﬁeld and connues beyond death of the brain as diﬀerenated, residual energy. • Brain is a transmier/receiver for mind. • Thought, memory and emoons are retained in the psi ﬁeld. • People experience reality via ﬁve bodily senses that are informed by impressions from the psi ﬁeld. People who think the Super-Psi Hypothesis is correct are described here as Psi+ Normalists. Parapsychologists who lean toward the Super-Psi Hypothesis are increasingly working under the banner of Exceponal Experiences Psychology, (57) which holds that reported paranormal experiences may be ordinary-world experiences mistaken as paranormal but may also be evidence of psi. In eﬀect, these parapsychologists are survival phenomena debunkers determined to ﬁnd a normal or psi explanaon for all psi and survival-related phenomena. The Survival Hypothesis • There is a greater reality of which the physical universe is an aspect. • An as yet unidenﬁed form of space called psi permeates all of reality. • The psi ﬁeld is an aspect of the greater reality. • Mind, with its thoughts, memories and emoons, has evolved in the greater reality and connues to exist beyond death of the brain. • For a lifeme, mind and brain are entangled to produce a physical- etheric link: a

person. • During a lifeme, mind is expressed as consciousness (I think I am this) and a mostly unconscious etheric personality (I am this). • Mostly unconscious mind is informed by the person’s ﬁve physical senses and psi signatures from the environment. • Mostly unconscious mind expresses to conscious self an understanding of the environment as it is informed by Worldview (memory, experience, human and personality insncts). People who think the Survival Hypothesis is correct are described here as Dualists. Some Psi+ Normalists accept that mind is diﬀerent from body. The disncon is that Dualists think mind preceded body and connues aer the body in a senent form. Psi+ Normalists think mind is a product of body and senence ceases when the body dies. For them, all evidence of survival is just evidence of survived memory. Experiencing Phenomena It is true that paranormalists, mainly experiencers and praconers, are occasionally guilty of making claims that simply do not make sense when the larger ﬁeld of study is considered. From my experience, it is clear that this reporng error can be corrected with beer training. Here are a few points that are true or as good as true, and which will help you speak intelligently about the phenomena: 1. We, or an interested observer, provide the channel through which paranormal phenomena are produced. The avatar model (80) seems to best describe what we know about our etheric-physical nature. The idea is that a person is the conscious self of an immortal etheric

personality which becomes entangled with a human body at the moment of the human’s birth. The conscious self experiences a lifeme from the perspecve of the human. Personality and body consciousness share the mostly unconscious mental processes, including Worldview. At ﬁrst, conscious self is mostly inﬂuenced by the human’s insncts, but with maturity, gains control as it acquires new understanding. In this model, it is the understanding that is returned to the immortal, intelligent core. There is an extensive explanaon of this model in Your Immortal Self, (1) and early essays under the Concepts tab of EthericStudies.org. Here, I will explain that all the funconal areas in the Life Field with Avatar Diagram, except the human body itself, are etheric. If you take a lile me to contemplate the implicaons of this point, I think you will see that conscious self has experiences, and by convenon, assigns physicality to experiences encountered from the avatar perspecve. In a very real sense, we create our world. It only exists as our mostly unconscious perceptual processes assign meaning to sensed environmental psi signals. Those psi signals come from our loved ones, our collecve of fellow personalies, thoughorms, our body’s self-image and our physical body’s ﬁve physical senses. A model that is useful and may as well be correct is that a person is necessary for a psi inﬂuence to manifest in the physical. Put diﬀerently, we, or an interested observer, provide the channel for trans-etheric inﬂuences such as EVP, remote viewing, precipitaon and

haunng phenomena. This is especially meaningful in view of the next item. 2. All mental acvity is psi funconing. If Item 1 is correct, we need to think of such phenomena as mental mediumship, remote viewing and precipitaon as essenally the same process, just with diﬀerent intent. If we are not our body, then we should think that we are our mind. The greater reality (etheric) is a conceptual environment, meaning that, instead of physical objects, it is made of ﬁelds of inﬂuence. The ﬁeld of inﬂuence of our life ﬁeld is anything we turn our aenon to such as a loved one or work. From the parapsychological perspecve, our life ﬁeld, decision process and inﬂuence are all psi. 3. What we experience is always modiﬁed in our unconscious mind before we become aware of the informaon. Always! Our experience in the ATransC has shown that a person tends to record EVP that tend to conﬁrm unconsciously held beliefs. It is important to note that informaon in the psi signal which is the kernel for EVP formaon is understood to be real. But since etheric space is conceptual, psi informaon is necessarily conceptual as well and must be embodied into objecve form. It is how that inial conceptual signal, say from a discarnate loved one, is embodied through our mental channel that determines the content of the message. For instance, Lisa and another person recorded for EVP in the same dark, reportedly haunted place. As a pragmac researcher, Lisa is

neither afraid of the dark nor does she believe in demons. She recorded helpful informaon and names. The other person, who liked being afraid, recorded mostly scary EVP such as “Get out!” and “I hate you.” (Again, it is important to note that the phenomena are real. It is just that the intended meaning can be changed by Worldview as they are manifest into the physical.) In a similar example, a Korean television crew came to our home to make a segment on EVP for their Korean audience. The reporter and crew became very excited during the on-camera playback of an EVP recording session. We had no idea why unl they explained that we had recorded an appropriate response in their language. In that case, we believe the message had come through the trans-etheric channel provided by one of the Korean crew, and it was in that person’s language as expected since it passed through his worldview. Mainstream and parapsychological research is showing that our mostly unconscious mind acts as a ﬁlter to present only informaon to our conscious self that conforms to our expectaons held in Worldview. (38) (66) (67)We will somemes not even noce informaon if it is something for which we have lile interest because it will be discarded by our mind. This science is sll evolving, and these points are only indicators. The message to us is that what we experience tends to agree with what we believe. We tend to more oen have possibly genuine

paranormal experience if we believe in the paranormal. Conversely, if we do not believe in the paranormal, we might not even noce such experiences. 4. Cultural expectaons tend to contaminate percepon and subsequent eﬀects. One of the ways to recognize that a person’s worldview is involved in formaon of physical phenomena is if the result sounds like something the person would normally say. For instance, if many individuals in a group of haunngs invesgators are recording for EVP, the resulng messages can be expected to be couched in terms which are consistent with the way the individual praconers think of the world. As such, more religious praconers will tend to record more religiously inﬂuenced messages while people who believe in etheric staons will tend to record more references to those staons. We must also be mindful of erroneous percepon. I refer to the complex of ways in which we become delusional about paranormal phenomena as hyperlucidity.(29) Lucidity is used here to indicate the degree to which conscious self has become aware of mostly unconscious mind. That is the objecve of mindfulness. Hyperlucidity is used here to idenfy situaons in which the person thinks they are very lucid, but are in fact, fooling themselves by imagining they are aware of their unconscious mind. This can become evident when people mistakenly think they are hearing words from discarnate loved ones in EVP when there is only noise. (75) 5. Some of the experiences you think are paranormal can be explained in ordinary

terms. My experience is with Buck Fever: It is true that many a cow standing in front of a tree has been mistaken as a buck. Research has shown that people who believe in paranormal phenomena are more apt to think a picture is paranormal then those who do not believe. This is true of all forms of phenomena. It does not mean there are no paranormal phenomena, only that some of us are not as discerning as we need to be. This tendency to error on the side of paranormal is used by Anomalisc Psychologists to prove that all reported phenomena are errors in percepon. Since established evidence of the existence of things paranormal is deliberately ignored, it can be diﬃcult to know when reading Anomalisc Psychology research reports that the intenon is to debunk rather than to understand. 6. Etheric space is nonlocal, meaning that everywhere is here. Parapsychologists argue that the psi ﬁeld is nonlocal, meaning that a psi inﬂuence is experienced everywhere at the same me. To my knowledge, parapsychologists retain the understanding that there is physical distance. The diﬀerence is important. This item makes essenally the same argument, except to say that a psi inﬂuence is experienced everywhere at the same me because everywhere is the same place. There is no distance in the etheric. The eﬀect is that people in a diﬀerent part of the physical world are in the same part of etheric space. When we record an EVP, the etheric personality producing

the voice can be anywhere relave to our physical locaon. We can be in San Francisco, speaking over the phone with a person in New York while both of us are operang a recorder. Either one of us can provide the channel for an EVP on either recorder … at the same instant. The EVP could be iniated by the thoughts of anyone living or dead, anywhere in physical or etheric space. It is who we intend to contact that determines who we contact. The same goes for haunted locaons. The evidence thus far is that an EVP apparently iniated by a personality associated with a place does not mean that the personality is in the physical space. It only means we, or an interested observer, have provided a channel for a message from the intended personality. This can also be said for faces in visual ITC phenomena. For instance, a face in a photographed orb only means that light, probably reﬂected from dust, produced suﬃciently chaoc noise for transform phenomena to occur. Sll in the ﬂesh or not, the personality iniang the face is in etheric space in which everywhere is here. To make this clear, current understanding is that we contact the local ghost because we expect to. We see this eﬀect when a mental medium brings informaon from a loved one. When this happens, there is no reason to think the loved one has rushed to the scene to make contact. 7. Time is a praccal necessity.

Process is sequenal because the nature of the next event in a process is dependent on the nature of the preceding event. Each event is a concept which is created by the thinker/observer. I cannot argue if me exists, but I can argue that me may as well exist. In the Implicit Cosmology, (12) there is a delay in percepon between recepon of a psi signal and presentaon to conscious mind. Sensing a psi signal can produce a physiological change before the person becomes conscious of the event. In psi research showing the presenment eﬀect, the apparent precognion of the nature of the next picture in a study is possibly explained as the person responding to this psi signal before the informaon comes to conscious awareness. (1443) Processes are modeled in the Implicit Cosmology as related ﬁelds which change in character as the process develops. Since these are psi signals and people are normally unconsciously aware of such signals, developing potenal events will also be sensed by people. Many possible events might never develop into an actual event and potenal events might merge as the moment for the event comes closer. If this model is correct, precognion might actually be the sensing of these potenal events. That would help explain why some predicons never come to pass. 8. Physical principles might resemble paranormal phenomena, but not necessarily account for those phenomena. Electromagnesm, vibraon, spaal direcon, physical energy, holography and quantum mechanics are oen used to describe, even explain paranormal phenomena.

Using these physical world concepts is convenient as an analogy to describe phenomena, but it is important not to assume they actually explain phenomena. Making this mistake, especially references to energy and electromagnesm, has caused many researchers to invesgate dead-end research quesons. Etheric space is conceptual in nature, and the principles, forces and processes of physical space are considered objecve. (We assign the characterisc of physicality to things we consider objecve.) At best, they are a derivave of a psi inﬂuence. To my knowledge, the only etheric to physical inﬂuence that has objecve support is the eﬀect of stochasc ampliﬁcaon on small signals. Even there, the causave relaonship has only been marginally empirically established. Many of these points are the consequence of duality. If we are not our body, the implied consequence of our mind not being our body is that there must be a ﬂow of informaon from our mostly unconscious mind to our conscious self. Put another way, if we accept that we existed before this lifeme and will connue to exist aer, then we must also accept the idea that our intelligence creates our awareness (conscious self), but that our awareness is only a part of who we really are. Our usual perspecve is from inside of our head and looking at the world via our body’s eyes (body-centric). Think of that perspecve as a video camera for our mind. When we sleep, that video camera is aimed at other aspects of our personal reality (more immortal

self-centric). In the end, we are not our body. We are in an avatar relaonship with our body. To speak intelligently about the phenomena, it is necessary to understand that there are some well-established … if not facts, at least points which are arguably true, given the evidence. The most common red ﬂag comment I hear is “We will never know for sure.” The reason we study these phenomena is because we think it is possible to know for sure. The study is producing understanding that, if not truth, may as well be truth, as it provides a solid foundaon for further study. What You Need to Know About Science The natural order of things in a mature society is mutually beneﬁcial exchange of informed guidance from sciensts to the general public in return for ﬁnancial support of higher educaon and research. The public is condioned to trust sciensts without queson. In turn, sciensts are trained to follow the scienﬁc method, ethically and truthfully. They are also expected to assure useful informaon about research is made available to the public. (Here, I emphasize useful.) A hypothesis is a statement of theory. For instance: Objects have an invisible force that aracts other objects. Corollaries of the hypothesis explore the so what of the hypothesis, for instance: The earth (object 1) has gravity (invisible force) that aracts objects (object 2). Research quesons are designed to test the corollary, for instance: Will an object fall to the ground? Once the queson has been

established, a series of events must take place for the work to be respected as actual scienﬁc research: 1. A literature review should be conducted, and subject maer specialists consulted to determine what is already known about the queson. For paranormalist interested in survival-related phenomena, a review of the literature must include published studies about survival subjects such as EVP. A point I will make here is that much of the lay-literature is not considered in a proper literature review because it is neither peer reviewed nor produced by a Ph.D. 2. Assumpons should be stated which lead to the development of a step-by-step test procedure (the protocol). The protocol is designed to direct acons intended to test the assumpons related to the queson. 3. The protocol should be closely followed while the results are recorded. Deviaons from the protocol may possibly discredit the research. 4. Concluding remarks should be limited to ﬁndings resulng from following the protocol. 5. For the work to be considered research, a ﬁnal report must be readied for peer review with the intenon that it will eventually be published in a respected journal. At the least, it must be made available for others to review in the literature. Research reports should include a brief discussion of the literature and prior study supporng protocol design. This should include the foundaon theory and important contending theories. The conclusions should also address if and how well research results support the foundaon theory. This is where the contending theories

should be considered with an explanaon as to whether they are supported by the study, and if so, in what way. Paranormalists may be academics, but most are laypeople, meaning they do not have an advanced college degree. Lay- paranormalists seldom have access to the library systems used by Ph.Ds. It has been my experience that few laypeople have access to parapsychological journals. (We subscribe to four journals at the cost of about $400 a year. Even so, I am not allowed full membership because I do not have a Ph.D.) To be available to the larger community, research reports should be wrien in terms understandable to a wide audience and made accessible via an Internet search. The report may be published behind a paywall. If so, to fulﬁll the scienst-public support social contract, the essence of the report should be accessible to the public at no charge, and via a commonly used access method. 6. Based on research results, the hypothesis is reviewed for possible redeﬁnion, probably leading to a new and improved research queson. The scienﬁc method is really a system involving people, instuons and media. In simplisc terms, sciensts develop and test theory, the results of which are passed to engineers who produce usable products for the public based on that research. The scienﬁc method must be adapted to each situaon, but the common factor must be the intenon to organize ﬁndings into an understandable form for the intended audience and making that informaon available to the

public. In mainstream society, the populaon of sciensts is great enough that it is reasonable for sciensts to write just for other sciensts without wring a version of the report for public reading. But in fact, they are failing an implicit contract requiring them to ﬁnd a way to communicate with the public. In many areas, media reporters acng as science writers have assumed the role of disseminang research results to the public. However, the paranormalist community is relavely small, and while some of us have assumed the science writer role, an eﬀecve path of communicaon between sciensts and lay people has not yet developed. A ﬁnal point about proper science concerns ethical treatment of research subjects. I address this later in this leer. Qualiied to Practice Science It is understood that sciensts hold a Ph.D. in the ﬁeld to which they apply the scienﬁc method. Yes, anyone can conduct science, but the system is designed to ﬁlter out all but academically trained people. I hold a BSEE and it is acceptable for me to say that I study a subject but saying that I am researching a subject is not technically acceptable. The culture only allows people without a Ph.D. to be cizen sciensts, presumably in service to a Ph.D. Mainstream culture is that well organized. For Normalists, a degree in psychology is assumed to be suﬃcient to study paranormal phenomena because the study is seen as actually a study of mental problems. If you are a Psi+ Normalist,

then a degree in psychology may apply to some study. For instance, a person’s point of view appears to have a lot to do with whether a person experiences phenomena, and if so, in what way. If the nature of psi phenomena is being considered, a degree in physics might be most appropriate. There is also a need for substanal understanding of the applicable technology. For instance, an experiment to determine if psi produces an objecve eﬀect is a queson of physical principles, psi interacon with the test equipment and the nature of the psi ﬁeld. A psychologist is no more qualiﬁed to study those than is a plumber. EVP has a physical eﬀect but appears to have a mental component. It is thought to be related to survived personality, which itself, requires an unidenﬁed form of space in which to survive. In the case of instrumental forms of transcommunicaon such as EVP, both a psychology and a physical science degree is needed. In every case, an understanding of currently popular cosmologies is essenal. Of course, studying EVP without understanding the idiosyncrasies of the audio devices is simply naive. If a psychologist is involved in research of transcommunicaon, the way people develop percepon and the way people respond to cultural inﬂuences must be considered as two diﬀerent factors. It may be that a Cognive Psychology specialty is required. The queson of who is qualiﬁed to study what is fundamental to the issues addressed in this leer. In fact, I cannot

name a Ph.D. in our community that I know to be qualiﬁed to study EVP without a muldisciplinary team. For the study of EVP, a rered professor of psychology, biology or philosophy has lile academic standing. Yes, the rered professor may have superior reasoning skills and a good understanding of the scienﬁc method. But, without well-qualiﬁed praconers, technologists and metaphysicians on the team, research results must be reported in terms of a hobby or a personal study. According to the preferences of the academic community, such qualiﬁcaons alone are certainly not suﬃcient for research. The reason this is important is that parapsychologists are rather obsessive about conducng research that is seen as good science by mainstream sciensts. Two of the problems they avoid are known as the File Drawer Eﬀect and Selecve Reporng. To avoid these, all research should be candidly reported. My contenon is that anyone working outside of their area of experse is not conducng science and the ﬁle drawer problem does not apply. In fact, their work should never pass peer review if it is reported as science. General Rules for Qualiications Most parapsychologists seem to assume a Ph.D. in any subject is all that is required to study paranormal phenomena. In fact, more speciﬁc skill sets are required to study them under cloak of academic authority, that is, as a person trained in college to study the parcular subject. In every case, an understanding of contemporary metaphysics and an understanding of the methods of working with

the phenomena is essenal. Here is a summary of qualiﬁcaons I think are necessary if researchers are to have the authority to speak under cloak of a Ph.D.: Type A: Physical Trans-Etheric Inﬂuence: The study of phenomena that involves an eﬀect anyone might physically witness. This class includes such phenomena as Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC) (both visual and audio (EVP)), apparions if witnessed by many, phantom lights, movement of objects, direct voice and healing intenon. This does not include apparent phenomena that require direct human involvement to manifest such as movement of a planchee, mental mediumship and automac wring. Expected Qualiﬁcaons: Requires understanding of cognive psychology, physics, applicable technology and prior art for that form of phenomena. Type B: Mental Trans-Etheric Inﬂuence: The study of phenomena that is only experienced by one person, or that must be reported by one person for others to be aware of the nature of the event. This includes mental mediumship, any physical manifestaon that requires physical contact or interpretaon of the praconer such as Ouija Board-like devices, automac wring, mental mediumship and remote viewing, near-death and out of body experiences. Expected Qualiﬁcaons: Requires understanding of prior art for that form of phenomena. It is a psychological study if veriﬁable informaon is not produced. It is a psychological and applicable technology study if veriﬁable informaon is reported. Data mining is oen required to establish veriﬁability of informaon. Study of Paranormal Phenomena with Instruments Whether or not the study involves a physical eﬀect, if instruments are used,

it is necessary for the study team to include a person who is knowledgeable about electronics and trained in ITC studies. The need for this comes from the study of EVP. Transform EVP is believed to be formed via stochasc ampliﬁcaon in a nonlinear, acve region of a device. This means that any electronic instrument with such a component is apt to be inﬂuenced by psi. At the same me, the instrument may only be able to display that inﬂuence as an unrelated change according to its design. An example is a magnec ﬁeld detector which is designed to report changes in the magnec environment of the detector as a change in magnec ﬁeld. A psi inﬂuence on the detector would display as a change in magnesm, when in fact, there might not have been a change in magnesm, but just the inﬂuence of intenon on the detector. A person versed in the technology and the phenomena should be able to idenfy this possible ambiguity. A second aspect of this is precedence. Most of the literature for many of these phenomena is in the form of anecdotal reports. While a Ph.D. might not ﬁnd applicable informaon in a proper literature review, a well- informed praconer should know that there is no precedence for changes in magnec ﬁeld in response to psi inﬂuence. While this does not mean there is none, an instrument signaling such a change should raise a red ﬂag for researchers. Citizen Scientists as Naturalists In mainstream society,

cizen sciensts are thought of as people who help Ph.D. sciensts conducng research. For instance, linking a home personal computer to a network so that a central computer can use available compung me from each linked computer to conduct data analysis, or so that the volunteer can help examine photographs. As I have observed, research in the paranormalist community is not so well funded or organized, and there is lile acvity for cizen sciensts. Yes, a person does act as a cizen scienst when volunteering to take a survey. However, being a test subject for psi funcon tests such as guessing next events is not being a cizen scienst. It is being a test subject. Expected ethical conduct, I oen discuss, apply. When a praconer volunteers to be part of a study, as the FEG medium did, it is as a human test subject and not as a cizen scienst. As discussed in Essay 6: Paranormalist Community, people who seek to further understanding of one or more aspect of the paranormal can be thought of as cizen sciensts. The methodology may even be the same as used by trained sciensts, but because they either do not hold a Ph.D. or have one in an unrelated discipline, it is best if they do not claim science. This is especially true if their ﬁnal report is not published in a peer reviewed journal. From my experience, the most common methodology used by cizen sciensts is observaonal studies typical of the naturalist‘s approach

to science. The major element of this include: • Educaon – Aer intenon to gain understanding, the ﬁrst characterisc disnguishing an accidental witness and a naturalist is educaon. Simply witnessing phenomena does not further our understanding. Of the many unexplained events in our life, few, if any, have a nonphysical origin. Being informed means being knowledgeable about how phenomena have occurred in the past, current theories explaining them, idiosyncrasies of human cognion and the ways in which naturally occurring arfacts might seem to be paranormal. • Observaons – Record keeping based on observaon of the phenomena as it occurs in usually uncontrolled ﬁeld condions, as opposed to more controlled laboratory condions. This is typically in the form of ﬁrst-person accounts, such as accumulang observaon records from haunngs invesgaons or séances. • Modeling – This is an important step in any form of ﬁeld studies. The naturalist should be aware of exisng models (theories, hypotheses) and be able to relate ﬁeld observaons in best-ﬁt comparisons. In other words, does what has been observed agree with commonly held theories about what the experience represents? If diﬀerent, in what way? This comparison may be to the naturalist’s own models or to popular wisdom. • Reporng – Communicaon skills are vital for anyone seriously studying phenomena of any form. A milestone-triggered, periodic report should be submied to one of the layperson-oriented publicaons, posted on a website or included in a formal report on academia.edu or similar. The process is not complete unl the public

has been informed. The protocol in the naturalist methodology is the observaon of events as they unfold, analysis and reporng. If it is your intenon to conduct a study involving induced phenomena following a speciﬁc protocol, the methodology described in What You Need to Know About Science of this essay would apply. Develop the habit of documenng experience (perhaps journaling) and take advantage of opportunies to discuss observaons and theories in an informed way. The value of any scienﬁc methodology is not in the degree held by the researcher, but how well informed the person has become and how eﬀecve the person is in communicang acquired understanding. This is true no maer your level of educaon. Pseudoscience The study of the phenomena we are interested in is branded by skepcs and the mainstream academic community as pseudoscience, meaning false science. They argue that the existence of paranormal phenomena is not supported by known physical principles. Thus, arguing that such phenomena are being scienﬁcally studied leads the average observer to think there is more to science than is possible. Belief in pseudoscience is said to be a danger to society because it promotes science illiteracy. Such belief is thought to diminish the ability of cizens to disnguish between good science and bad science, as measured by mainstream academia. Studying the phenomena can cost a mainstream scienst his or her career. Perhaps that is why it is mostly rered professors who are brave enough to study these phenomena. To be sure, it

has historically been professional suicide for an academic to be associated with paranormal phenomena. We all should acknowledge that possible sacriﬁce. As a mirror of mainstream science, skepc Wikipedia editors have managed to make the online encyclopedia’s oﬃcial policy that pseudoscience is a danger to society. The arbitraon cases that set the classiﬁcaon standard for Pseudoscience, Fringe and Paranormal can be accessed via the “Wikipedia Arbitraon” Essay ethericstudies.org/wikipedia-arbitraon/). (145) As I experienced, it is now possible for skepc editors to cause an editor to be banned for claiming a paranormal subject is not pseudoscience. An example is how I was banned from eding the Rupert Sheldrake arcle in Wikipedia. (98) The idea that the study of paranormal phenomena is pseudoscience, and that pseudoscience is a danger to society, has made it more acceptable for the Federal Government to acvely suppress unpopular science. (85) The Federal Government has already adopted the skepc’s lead and oﬃcially maintains that belief in pseudoscience is a hazard to the public welfare. This is important to all of us because it demonstrates that our ability to work with and study these phenomena is not guaranteed. The case of Wilhelm Reich is a good example of what can happen when skepcs apply pressure on the government to act against someone promong pseudoscience. (84) The short story is that Reich was put in jail for making claims about subtle energy which were deemed by the skepcs to be unsupportable and therefore pseudoscience. He also developed devices that might

put the energy to work and claimed he could heal people of some diseases with the energy. In fact, the actual jail me was because he ignored the charges, and apparently, his partner transported some of their material across state lines, which was seen as criminal contempt of court. The following is from the Wilhelm Reich Museum website: While Reich appealed his sentence, the government carried out the destrucon of orgone accumulators and literature. In Maine, several boxes of literature were burned, and accumulators and accumulator materials either destroyed or dismantled. In New York City, on August 23, 1956, the FDA supervised the burning of several tons of Reich’s publicaons in one of the city’s garbage incinerators…. This destrucon of literature constutes one of the most heinous examples of censorship in United States history. (84) Reich died of heart failure while in prison, and I understand his research partner commied suicide shortly thereaer. The only real protecon we have from skepcs and skepc-promoted suppression of our study is proper applicaon of the scienﬁc method. Assumed belief without raonal reason is why pseudoscience is seen as a public danger. In the view of mainstream culture, raonal explanaons about the nature of reality must only come from sciensts. The point I will make below is that our parapsychologists are actually defeang our eﬀorts to develop raonal explanaons about the nature of psi and survival- related phenomena. Science and the Paranormalist Community Most paranormalists see parapsychologists as our sciensts. Yet, as I have

explained here, parapsychologists are not a homogenous group diligently working to help us understand the nature of the phenomena we experience. In fact, most are actually an-paranormal or at least an- survival. It should also be obvious that I speak as a Dualist. Your Immortal Self is essenally a book about survival, the nature of survival, available proof, and how it aﬀects our life. This leer also applies to you if you consider yourself a Psi+ Normalist, as our best science indicates that the media, by which etheric concepts interface with the physical world, is psi, the psi ﬁeld and the way in which a person expresses intenon. But old habits are hard to break. Aer most of a lifeme learning to see the world as a person, which is an etheric personality entangled with a human body, it is almost impossible for people to imagine anything else. But consider this, if we are a nonphysical mind ﬁrst and a human body second, then the proper way to interact with reality is from the perspecve of that nonphysical mind. To be true to Psi+ Normalist or Dualist understanding, our point of view must be as an immortal self-centric and not as a person or body-centric. Practicing Science It is common to see paranormalist organizaons announce that they are a scienﬁc organizaon or that they plan to conduct research. Of the several dozen mes I have seen this, to my knowledge, not one has actually done so. It is fair to

say some have conducted studies, but most have only made a record of what was done without the expected protocol designed with controls. Conducng science can be a lot of work. The parapsychological organizaons are lile help. They won’t even let people have full membership in their organizaons unless they have a doctorate and a recommendaon from a current member. The literature is mostly not available to non-academics and the literature that is, is too oen wrien in terms intended for other academics familiar with the terminology of stascal analysis. The Academic-Layperson Paron I describe below might help make sense of the fact that many of these subjects must be studied by laypeople because our academic friends will not, at least not with good science. It is ulmately up to us, but we need to be beer informed to do so. Academic-Layperson Partition Besides division by interests, the paranormalist community is divided by what I refer to as the Academic-Layperson Paron. The paron has been created by those who claim intellectual authority based on their college degree and their subsequent reluctance to collaborate with people they (apparently) perceive to be of lesser intellect. The eﬀect is that people who are trained in the scienﬁc method too oen try to conduct research without collaborang with people who are able to produce the phenomena and who have personal experience. Trojan Horse Science Paranormalists are all in the same boat. Parapsychologists seek credibility, probably all of us want to understand these phenomena and

the urge to commune with spirit is strong in anyone who has realized they might be more than their physical body. Like the blind men and the elephant parable I explain below, the elephant-paranormal is not to be described by examining just one part. At the same me, we live in that proverbial glass house. The rest of society is watching us. They think we may be crazy. Anything any one of us does to support that belief casts doubt on all of us. While you might think what you do concerning things paranormal is your business alone, it is not. If it is public, it is all of our business. That is why it is so important that you are able to recognize the diﬀerence between a parapsychologist who wants to help you understand and one that wants to prove you are delusional. That is also why I think it is a good idea to stop calling them parapsychologists. Call them what they are, Anomalisc Psychologist (Normalists), Exceponal Experience Psychologist (Psi+ Normalists) or survival researcher (Dualist). Aer all, if survival is real, any discipline based on psychology is probably not the right ﬁeld of study … when pracced by itself. I have come to think of people, organizaons and websites, that represent themselves as pro-paranormal, even pro-survival, as Trojan Horses when they turn out to be an-paranormal or an-survival. The parapsychological journals are full of such Trojan Horse arcles. An-psi or survival researchers rounely aract the cooperaon of praconers

and witnesses by seeming to be pro-paranormal. You may ﬁnd it distasteful to call out Trojan Horses. I do. So, consider opening a discussion about them on a discussion board such as the ATransC Idea Exchange at atransc.org/forum/. At least there, you can get a second opinion and perhaps work with others to ﬁnd a way to neutralize bad players without making a public spectacle or without leaving the problem for the next person to become a vicm. Good Science … Bad Science Yes, I am obsessing about this, but I want to make sure I only need to write this essay once. Consider all the theories Good science means considering all contending theories; at least the major ones. We are concerned with “is it normal mistaken as paranormal?” and “If it is paranormal, is it evidence of survival?” If good research indicates a reported EVP is not paranormal, it is necessary to either report an indeterminate outcome or explain with good science and logic why it is not. Saying a reported EVP, which has been collected in a light/sound/EMF shielded chamber and correctly heard by several uncoached listeners, is just illusion or stray radio waves is only acceptable if a mechanism for radio signals to enter a shielded compartment is idenﬁed. Else, it is not science. Witness reports are not science Anyone can sit in on a séance or witness a paranormal event and tell others about it. Doing so is not being a scienst. It is only being

a witness. A walkabout in a reportedly haunted house does not make science. Reporng about it does not make science. In ﬁeld studies, good science means having a protocol deﬁning what will be done in the walkabout. There should be proper controls such as control recorders and cameras. If there is a walkabout, the space should be locked down. Following the protocol should produce a detailed report which considers the collected data and explore alternave explanaons. At a minimum, a survey of historical documents, resident quesonnaires and a record of environmental condions are required. And then it is science only if the report is submied to a review of subject maer specialists and made available to the public in an easily accessible way. If part of the credibility is the fact that the report has been reviewed by subject-maer specialists (peers), the specialists need to be idenﬁed along with the qualiﬁcaons that make them a specialist for that review. In my opinion, that is veng, rather than peer review. This is an important point. Reports about walkabouts or séances for the popular press or blogs is good and useful, but not if it is expressed as science. A Ph.D. sing in on a few séances and wring a ﬁrst-person account is not science. This is especially true if it is done under cloak of academic authority. Be the adult Please don’t take this the wrong way. It is good to have fun with things paranormal. If you are not reverent

toward your neighbors now, don’t be reverent toward them on the other side. Have fun, but you sll have to do the work. Sloppy work signals sloppy thinking. You will noce that Ph.Ds. try to act academic. They play the part of the learned ones, even if it is in a fake it unl you convince everyone sort of way. That is actually a good way to be because it fosters exactly that behavior in the actors and those around them. Mature behavior can be characterized as being pragmac, discerning, praccing suspended judgment and mindfulness. Learn the meaning of these terms and seek to make them your own. See the Glossary at ethericstudies.org/glossary-of-terms/. Peer review The claim made by the parapsychological organizaons, that they publish peer reviewed journals, is misleading. My apologies to certain editors, but secret peer review is just a way for good ol’ boys and girls to give a wink and nod to poorly conceived arcles. I have seen too many arcles wrien by people who are not trained or even well informed about the subject published in supposedly peer reviewed journals. It is bad enough that such arcles are wrien under inappropriate cloak of authority. It compounds the oﬀense when the arcles are supposed to have been judged by qualiﬁed peers who are judging under inappropriate cloak of authority. Don’t make that mistake. If you are presenng an arcle as a study or research report, make sure you ask people outside of your circle of inﬂuence

to look over the work beforehand. Find a friend willing to irritate you. Remember that there is a diﬀerence between a review of the quality of communicaon and a review of content source. Quality of communicaon, such as grammar and clarity of meaning, requires no disclosure of reviewer qualiﬁcaons. Claims of content source, how they were formed and whether they are trans-etheric inﬂuences, do require review. Claiming an arcle about the communicaon is peer reviewed is saying that you are not the only one making the point. Peer review gives the arcle addional intellectual authority, and in eﬀect, the reviewers are co-claimants. As such, their qualiﬁcaons are nearly as important as yours and need to be disclosed. Note my comments above about veng in Witness reports are not science. Ethics Mainstream science conducng research involving living test subjects are obliged to have some kind of ethics board overview. The Parapsychological Associaon (146) has published a good ethics guideline which addresses the need to inform human test subject about the study. Under the subheading of Treatment of Parcipants, it is wrien that “Parcipants should be treated with respect, concern for their welfare, and recognion of their own needs which are being subserved by parcipaon in a study.” As with peer review, the parapsychological organizaons have not shown the willingness to oversee ethical pracces of its members. As a professional organizaon, membership should include submission to such oversight. That they are not, suggests unethical treatment of research subjects, and misinformaon about the

actual objecve of studies, is a systemic problem. This leaves us with the need to manage the ethical consideraons ourselves before we agree to be a test subject. If a Normalist or a Psi+ Normalist asks you to parcipate as a praconer in a research project or study, make sure you have a wrien agreement signed by the scienst and witnessed by a friend. It is best that you ask someone outside of your circle of inﬂuence to review the agreement. The agreement should include the research queson, how the quesons will be tested (protocol) and how the results will be reported. An eﬀort to form a Praconer Advocacy Panel for the purpose of represenng the lay-person community to the academic community is stalled due to lack of interest. The ATransC is willing to support this eﬀort, should there be more interest. (147) Of course, you expect to be treated fairly and with respect, but your most important concern should be how the conclusions are wrien. Remember I said that Anomalisc Psychologists deliberately ignore evidence of paranormal phenomena. To make their point, they must ﬁnd ways to conduct research with praconers that will show the praconer is delusional or cheang. From experience, there is a good possibility that, even if you produce phenomena under controlled condions, the resulng report will be wrien to suggest that you did not or in some way may have been cheang. For instance, there might be ten words acknowledging the phenomena and a hundred words

explaining it away. In one example, a recent study of séances resulted in an aggressive, public character assassinaon of the praconer based on rumors of prior bad acts, even though phenomena were recorded. The only protecon you have against such treatment is group support, witnesses and a line item in the contract clearly stang that you have ﬁnal approval of the report, or at the very least, that the report will only include reference to the actual data collected during the protocol. See Essay 13: Arrogance of Scienﬁc Authority. The golden standard for research ethics is The Belmont Report. (51) The main points of the report are: Respect for persons: “To show lack of respect for an autonomous agent is to repudiate that person’s considered judgments, to deny an individual the freedom to act on those considered judgments, or to withhold informaon necessary to make a considered judgment, when there are no compelling reasons to do so.” Beneﬁcence: “Persons are treated in an ethical manner not only by respecng their decisions and protecng them from harm, but also by making eﬀorts to secure their well-being.” Jusce: “Who ought to receive the beneﬁts of research and bear its burdens? This is a queson of jusce, in the sense of ‘fairness in distribuon’ or ‘what is deserved.’ An injusce occurs when some beneﬁt to which a person is entled is denied without good reason or when some burden is imposed unduly.” Praconers also have ethical responsibilies. When making a public comment about

another paranormalist (any person, really), it is important to remember that the consequences of the comments may have ethical and legal consequences. In Essay 5: Ethics as a Personal Code for Mindfulness, I have recommended a personal code of ethics to help develop mindfulness. It is the least we can do as cizens of this community. Personal responsibility is an issue in the paranormalist community. I have witnessed too many people and organizaons relentlessly aack individual praconers because they queson the truthfulness of the demonstrated phenomena. In fact, the accusaons were based on what I have come to think of as the trapdoor defense. In that, people who do not know enough about the phenomena, the situaon or the metaphysics, make accusaons such as “There must have been a trap door” about what is demonstrably valid phenomena. I have seen one Spiritualist group join into a sort of accusaon feeding frenzy against a well-known medium, a grief management group aack another medium without proof and academics discount phenomena based on supposion. Blind People and an Elephant Do you remember the Blind Men and an Elephant Parable? In it, blind men were tasked with describing an elephant based on the body part near which they stood. As you might expect, the elephant was variously described as a tree, wall, spear, even a snake. The point of the parable is that one cannot know what is being studied by only studying a part. In a very praccal sense, Normalists, Psi+ Normalists and

Dualists are as blind people examining the elephant-paranormal. Errors resulng from this lack of collaboraon are exasperated by the Academic-Layperson Paron. It is further compounded by the tendency of laypeople to assume academics have subject maer understanding that does not exist. Concluding Comments This is a long leer, but I think you will see that we can all beneﬁt by being aware of the many consideraons listed here. It is mostly about science, but there is much here about our community and culture. It is ulmately about cizenship. There is probably no source of informaon for how many paranormalists this leer applies to. For discussion, if there are 10,000 paranormalists, maybe twenty will read all of this leer. If you think this informaon is useful, consider menoning it to your friends. Comments from the Media The Skepc’s Boot website has posted a prey comprehensive review of this leer tled: “Science is not the enemy: A Response to ‘Limits of science, trust and responsibility.’” (148) It has a derisive tone but is useful for learning an alternave point of view. Much of what author Brian Cox has to say reﬂects the mainstream’s self-image, and some such as his denial that Anomalisc Psychology deliberately ignores the possibility of psi or survival, are simply knee-jerk denials. The author of “What is Anomalisc Psychology?” (58) deﬁnes paranormal as: “Alleged phenomena that cannot be accounted for in terms of convenonal scienﬁc theories.” He explains that “Anomalisc psychology may be deﬁned as the study of extraordinary

phenomena of behavior and experience, including (but not restricted to) those which are oen labeled ‘paranormal.’ It is directed towards understanding bizarre experiences that many people have without assuming a priori that there is anything paranormal involved. It entails aempng to explain paranormal and related beliefs and ostensibly paranormal experiences in terms of known psychological and physical factors.” The only way these phenomena can be explained “… in terms of known psychological and physical factors” is to discount, perhaps even ignore contemporary research. It is like proving the earth is ﬂat while ignoring evidence of the ever-receding horizon. References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. “ Essay 15 Let’s Talk About God 2016 About This Essay The saying, Old habits are hard to break, is especially true when it comes to our self-identy. For instance, it is common to hear Spiritualist say that we are spirit having a physical experience. Yet, few behave as if it is true. From my experience, the hardest habit of all to change is to stop thinking like a person and begin thinking as an immortal personality. From years of trying to communicate these ideas to others, I know part of the problem is that we are taught from birth to think of ourselves as our body. Our cultural indoctrinaon begins soon aer birth with local beliefs and religious dogma. Virtually every aspect of our early training is colored by belief in our relaonship with God, death and morality. According to

religions, God lives in heaven. When we die, we hopefully go to heaven. Even though the idea of Etheric Studies is to develop an objecve, evidence-based understanding of the nature of reality, it shares many of the same words used in religious dogma. The dominant cultural references are religious. If listeners are not prepared to change their mental references, they will always hear terms like death to mean going to heaven or hell. Immortal personality is likely understood as forever in heaven. The intenonally generic term of Source will be ﬁrst understood as a father god unless the listener is mindful to look for the diﬀerence. Religious training is a life-long experience while most paranormalists come to etheric studies later in life. That usually means that the ﬁrst thing a person thinks of when god is menoned, is the religious God and all of the associated dogma. It works the other way, as well. Atheists reject the god concept, so it is natural for them to turn away from any talk of a metaphysical ﬁrst cause or Source. Even though they are probably in agreement with the Implicit Cosmology, it is likely they do not get past the subject line. The fact that cultural training tends to bias how people hear and understand the terms I use is why I so oen restate or rephrase my point. Your Immortal Self (1) even has a comprehensive glossary of terms. The glossary is also available on EthericStudies.org. (9) I intenonally repeat explanaons

of concepts I think are essenal for you to understand the nature of your immortal self. To be clear, your mostly unconscious expectaon of what I am trying to say is dominated by your cultural training. Even the way you allow paranormal experiences to unfold around you is dominated by prior training. If you do not consciously seek to become a more open-minded experiencer, you will ﬁnish this lifeme and go well into the rest of your eternity thinking what your church has told you is true. Of the ideas most diﬃcult to stop thinking about in religious terms, the god concept is probably the most diﬃcult. I am not a religious person, and I go to extremes to avoid taking any of the metaphysical concepts I work with on faith. So, the ﬁrst promise I can make to you is that there is nothing in this book I am asking you to believe as a maer of faith. People say my wring is too complex. If it is, it is because I write to be speciﬁc and to show what is reasonably established as actual and what remains to be proven. Explaining what I think is actual reality is complicated by what I think you have been taught to think is true. To say a concept is faith-based, is to say there is lile or no objecve evidence that can be experienced by others without prompng. It can only be real as a maer of faith or belief in

the supposion that it is actual. Since we fool ourselves into thinking the world is as we have been taught, objecve evidence is not enough. There is also a need for experimental support which produces a raonal, testable hypothesis. The Implicit Cosmology, (12) which is explained in Your Immortal Self, has many explanaons that depend on the validity of the Trans-Survival Hypothesis. That, in turn, is extensively supported in the book with evidence based on mainstream and parapsychological research and theory derived from the way Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC) and other survival-oriented phenomena are experienced. I cannot prove Source (God) exists, the only reason I write about it is to bound the scope of the hypothesis and to model a consistent cosmology. The Source concept is based on the life ﬁled concept. If we can say that our thinking mechanism works in a parcular way, and that instances of life are quanvely diﬀerent but qualitavely the same, it becomes reasonable to think of life as a building block of reality. At the same me, the expressions of life would be the stuﬀ of which our experienal world is made. We have good science indicang how we think. The same can be said for the existence of a subtle ﬁeld of inﬂuence permeang the physical known as the psi ﬁeld. The only real queson that needs to be answered in order for us to reasonably speculate about Source is whether there is a purpose that uniﬁes us. If a common purpose for

our existence can be idenﬁed, that would be the inﬂuence that binds reality into a single thoughorm. We could reasonable model reality as the expression of that unifying purpose. If not, then it is enough to say the Source or God concept is just a logical mechanism which is useful for establishing the limits of the Implicit Cosmology. The Source concept would otherwise have no real signiﬁcance. With all of this said, I wrote this essay as an eﬀort to turn your aenon away from belief in a religious God and more toward understanding a more pragmac, evidenal Source. As an aside, I should say that belief in God gives us something greater than ourselves to turn to in mes of emoonal need. If you are an aspect of a purposeful Source, it is reasonable to think achieving that purpose is important to all life. When you pray for help. Pray to your loved ones and your collecve, your teachers and guides on the other side. You are never alone. By praying for help, you give your friends on the other side permission to help you as you proceed to make it happen. Introduction This essay introduces a metaphysical model for God that sasﬁes current understanding of the nature of reality based on parapsychological and survival research with emphasis on the evidence of transcommunicaon. It is common to hear people speak of God, usually in grand terms such as “God is the all-knowing yet unknowable punisher of the wicked and

benign provider to the deserving.” The usual proof of this god is “Look around. How else could all of this be possible?” Spiritualists speak of God as a ubiquitous presence and the source of Natural Law. The Naonal Spiritualist Society of Churches (NSAC), with which I am aﬃliated, rejects the father god characterizaon. But, individually, Spiritualists tend to stay with the old ways, characterizing God as a benefactor and giver of laws. For many people, the need to look to a higher source is stronger than the desire to maintain a raonal world perspecve. A person may not believe in God but sll look to a divine inﬂuence to make sense of life. We are good at compartmentalizing our need for divinity from our need for raonality. Informed Perception of God If God is a father god living in some distant part of reality like the mythological gods of Mount Olympus, then perhaps God will remain unknowable. However, ancient wisdom schools, especially Hermec Tradions, tend to be knowledge-based, rather than faith-based. The assumpon that reality, and by extension, God is knowable, is the foundaon assumpon of systems teaching the concept of Natural Law. So, let’s talk about what we know, beginning with three assumpons: 1. God is the source of reality: The Source life ﬁeld is the reality ﬁeld. 2. God is expressed as order in reality: This is Natural Law or Organizing Principles. 3. God is knowable: This is fundamental in the Prime Imperave concept and seeking progression. See

Essay 3: Prime Imperave 4. Each instance of life is an aspect of God: Aspectaon is deﬁned in the Implicit Cosmology as “The creave process of intenon acng on an imagined result produces aspects of reality which are a subset of personality’s personal reality.” Consider The Creave Process, (19) and Life Fields. (13) Taken as a logical argument, these assumpons imply a conclusion which might be worded as: Therefore: By knowing about ourselves, we can know about God. Building a Cosmology A cosmology is a model of reality based on the metaphysical study of the nature of reality. A useful tool for developing a cosmology is black box analysis. The technique is oen used for reverse engineering a competor’s device when only the purpose, input and output are known. The result is supposed to be a device, process, technique … something that will sasfy the input and output to fulﬁll the same purpose. Black box analysis is also a way to develop a metaphysical cosmology that may not be actually correct but is funconally correct and useful for further study. The theory presented here has evolved from such a study. It is important to note that the funconal areas in the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram are not necessarily accurate representaons of reality. Psychologists probably will not recognize them or agree that they are useful representaons. However, as a praccal maer, they provide a useful guide for personal development. Foundation Concepts A number of concepts need to be

part of this study. It is important that you understand and are comfortable with them, so please feel free to use the contact tool at the boom of every page of EthericStudies.org and ATransC.org if you would like a beer explanaon, have quesons or suggesons: • Reality is referred to here as the etheric, as opposed to the physical which is referred to as an aspect of the etheric. The psi ﬁeld described in parapsychology is referred to by me in this cosmology as the etheric. The confusion comes from the fact that psi ﬁeld researchers speak of it as an aspect of the physical which is a body-centric perspecve. From the perspecve of immortal self, one must use the immortal self-centric explanaon for the psi ﬁeld. That is, that it is actually a local manifestaon of the etheric. It is an aspect of reality, sensed signals of which we assign physicality. Trying to retain old references for clarity of communicaon, I do oen say psi ﬁeld rather than etheric. • A person is an immortal self entangled with a human in an avatar relaonship. The Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram below illustrates many of these points. (13) • Our natural habitat is the etheric. This includes our personality (who we really are, Core Intelligence as I am this), mostly unconscious mind, percepon and expression processes and conscious self (I think I am this). Our natural perspecve is etheric- centric. As a person, our conscious self experiences reality

from the perspecve of the human body. That is body-centric. • Conscious self’s percepon is normally dominated by Worldview. Worldview is populated with a combinaon of human insncts, inherited urge to learn, inherited and acquired understanding from immortal self and beliefs acquired during the current lifeme (cultural contaminaon). • Sensed informaon from the human body is transformed via the brain into etheric form. The brain transforms bioelectric signals from the body’s ﬁve senses into psi signals mostly unconscious mind in the etheric is able to process. Once it is in etheric form, the physically sensed informaon is processed in the percepon and expression funconal areas of our mostly unconscious mind (This is the External Inﬂuence signal shown in the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram below). Informaon from the body and other etheric personalies is processed in the same way. The meaning of that informaon is assigned based on Worldview. Informaon intended to control the body is transformed from etheric to physical form in the brain. • The Prime Imperave. We inherit an urge to gain understanding about the nature of reality. As such, we enter into a lifeme to experience reality as it is expressed in the physical. It is this acquired understanding we retain aer transioning out of a lifeme. Understanding determines percepon, and therefore, the aspects of reality we are able to access. See Essay 3: Prime Imperave. • Life ﬁelds are the basic building block of reality. As objects of reality, ﬁelds consist of related

elements which are aracted to an intelligent core (common or shared inﬂuence). Reality consists of life ﬁelds and expressions of life ﬁelds. (13) • All life ﬁelds have the same basic characteriscs, but express them to a diﬀerent degree, depending on percepon. The basic funconal characteriscs include are illustrated in the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram. The behavioral characteriscs of life ﬁelds include: Purpose movated: Spiritual insnct to gain understanding which is ulmately integrated with the collecve understanding of other life ﬁelds. Percepon: Selecvely sensing to environmental signals. Expression: Selecvely responding to environmental signals. Curiosity: Urge to seek experiences that oﬀer opportunies to gain speciﬁc understanding. Collecve cooperaon: Shared inﬂuence on percepon to create opportunies for speciﬁc understanding. • Source is the Core Intelligence of reality. Source (God for this discussion) is the top Life ﬁeld, and therefore, is the reality ﬁeld from which the Prime Imperave is expressed. In the cosmology, life ﬁelds are arranged as a hierarchy of nested ﬁelds. Funconal areas of each instance of a life ﬁeld are more or less expressed. For instance, compare human life ﬁeld to cell life ﬁeld. (149) Implicit Cosmology The Implicit Cosmology (12) represents my eﬀort to model what we think we know about reality, our immortal self and our relaonship to reality. The funconal areas in the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram provide an overview of the cosmology. Our perspecve is always the Conscious Self funconal area. The Aenon Complex is our mostly unconscious mind

and Personality funconal area is our higher self and that which is immortal. The Intelligent Core is the autonomic system of our life ﬁeld in the same way its body consciousness is the autonomic system for our human body (avatar). Think of the Conscious Self funconal area as a traveling perspecve which is the experiencer part of who we are. It represents our etheric eyes and ears and typically thinks it is our physical body during the waking state. When free of our body during sleep or meditaon, it is the experiencer of our inner consciousness. Always, what it experiences is moderated by the Aenon Complex, speciﬁcally the contents of Worldview, which acts as our inner judge. As Above, So Below Another assumpon is that reality is homogenous, in that knowing the nature of one part indicates the nature of the rest. Hermes is said to have taught this fundamental concept around 6,000 years ago via the Emerald Tablet. (28) The ﬁrst two lines of the Emerald Tablet read: 1. It is true and no lie, certain and to be depended upon, that which is above is as that which is below; and that which is below is as that which is above, for the performance of the one truly great work. 2. And as all things are from only one thing, by will of the one God, so all things have their origin in this one power, by adaptaon to their individual purposes. The Great Work is the process

of transmung a faith-based Worldview into one that is in accordance with the actual nature of reality. Of course, the One Thing is God in the form of expressed organizing principles, purpose and understanding. It is important to note that, while Hermes has told us all things are of God, he also said that each individual has been diﬀerenated as a unique aspect of God. This echoes the concept of life as a fractal in which God is the top fractal. Morphic Fields In the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon proposed by Rupert Sheldrake, (15) formaon of a living organism is managed via what he refers to as a morphic ﬁeld. The ﬁeld is nonphysical. and formaon is based on what he refers to as Nature’s Habit. In a physical organism, the ﬁelds are arranged in a hierarchy of nested ﬁelds, meaning that there is a top ﬁeld (Intelligent core is body consciousness) and many dependent ﬁelds such as skin, bones, organs and cells. There is a many-to-one relaonship (nested) so that for instance, many cell morphic ﬁelds would be associated with the skin morphic ﬁeld. The Sierpinski Triangle is an example of fractals in which the triangular shape is the fractal, each smaller triangle is a fractal of the top triangle. Speaking in terms of cosmology, morphic ﬁelds are related to the etheric as opposed to the physical. To work, they need the same funconal areas shown in the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram. Nature’s Habit is like

the Worldview funconal area. The ability to evolve Nature’s Habit is in the Perceptual Loop. External expression in the diagram represents the organizing inﬂuence a morphic ﬁeld has on the physical processes of organism formaon. Sheldrake’s Hypothesis of Formave Causaon is by no means established science. In fact, it tends to be an updated variaon of Lamarckian Evoluon (150) which competed for a me with Darwinian Evoluon but then was discarded for lack of a recognize physical mechanism for transming change to the next generaon. The diﬀerence is that Sheldrake has given a mechanism for inheritance that makes sense considering current understanding of the etheric. There is some analycal support for the inheritance of acquired traits, (151) but the real interest for this discussion is how Sheldrake applies Nature’s Habit. Expression by a life ﬁeld and a morphic ﬁeld must follow the same principles. If morphic ﬁelds are validated as the building block of organic life, the same principles and research should apply to life ﬁelds. And, of course, Hermes told us so in line one of the Emerald Tablet. Unconscious Perception Who we are, is not who we think we are. (152) As the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram shows, the Aenon Complex is a mostly unconscious part of our mind. We become consciously aware of the output of the Perceptual Loop. And so, what we become consciously aware of is based on our worldview. (66) (67) (68) The importance of unconscious percepon is that we use

the same mechanisms that organize cell formaon to develop an objecve image of our physical world. This is an emerging realizaon of mainstream science (67) and you can expect to hear a lot more about it in the future. Source as a Life Field Considering what has been presented here, reality can be modeled as a hierarchy of nested life ﬁelds. Source is the top life ﬁeld, and as such, it is also the reality ﬁeld. In eﬀect, everything in reality is in Source’s life ﬁeld by way of the thread of entanglement between ﬁrst cause and subsequent aspectaons. This inﬂuence of entanglement is a funcon of intenon, aenon and imagined outcomes. A morphic ﬁeld is modeled so that the organism it inﬂuences is in the ﬁeld. This is because the morphic ﬁeld imposes an inﬂuence on the biological process. In the ﬁeld means within the ﬁeld of inﬂuence expressed by the morphic ﬁeld or life ﬁeld. Since the etheric is conceptual space in which everywhere is here, this is a conceptual In the ﬁeld and not something like a physical envelope around the organism. This hypothecal model is important to explain that God (Source) is the reality ﬁeld. Consider how we express our personal reality. What we imagine remains associated with us by way of a link of aenon. What we expect to express via our creave process remains in our inﬂuence ﬁeld. It is in eﬀect, in our ﬁeld of inﬂuence, just as we are in God’s ﬁeld

of inﬂuence (reality ﬁeld). Personal Reality Key to this discussion is the idea that we make our world. We have a personal reality based on what we believe to be true (Worldview). Since we only become consciously aware of what our mostly unconscious perceptual processes present to our conscious self, we literally experience objecve reality as it is biased by our beliefs. This is becoming established science. (66) (67) (68) We manage our sense of reality by learning to change Worldview. One way to accomplish this is via mindful living. (48) In eﬀect, that is what we do while learning to understand the nature of our local reality. If life ﬁelds are in Source’s reality, then it is arguable that Source also has a personal reality and is seeking to align it with its actual nature. As such, God is sll learning. Self-Organizing Reality An important indicaon about the nature of God (Source) is that the Organizing Principles (Natural Law) enable reality to self-organize without an all-knowing god. If a cosmology begins with a senent personality that is given the funconal aributes of a life ﬁeld, then all else follows without much intervenon. Noce in the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram that there is an Intenon Channel between conscious self and the Aenon Complex. That is the one conscious inﬂuence we have on our unconscious perceptual processes. If Source is given the aribute of curiosity about its own nature, it is arguable that it will aempt to visualize

itself and its environment as a means of sasfying that curiosity. Using ourselves as a model, our curiosity about something naturally iniates a mental exercise in which we imagine various aspects of it as it might relate to us. A useful exercise is to imagine what it would be like to own a new sports car. It is likely that we would imagine a situaon in which we would be driving the car. If we really want to know what it is like, we would give that lile me self-determinaon. When we have explored the situaon, our lile me would return understanding of the experience to our worldview. Such imaginings are usually only a moment in duraon in our mostly unconscious mind and only the sense of the experience emerges into conscious awareness. However, the exercise will become part of our personal reality if we focus our aenon on the queson and allow our conscious exploraon to run its course. In terms of cosmology, the process of creang lile me and the situaon we want our lile me to explore is referred to here as aspectaon and the process is diﬀerenaon. It is our intenon that gives the imagined lile me purpose and aenon which determines the duraon of the exercise. In this model, the physical aspect of reality is such an imagining done by creators of our venue for learning (local source). It is shared by many personalies via their collecve of aspects. The idea of a shared venue

for learning is useful to explain the many references in religion to personalies holding the physical aspect of reality in their mind (angels, devas, nature spirits) and we who experience lifemes in the physical. As it is modeled in the Implicit Cosmology, (12) many personalies are using the physical venue to gain understanding about speciﬁc aspect of Source’s nature. Their imaginings produce many aspect personalies which remain entangled with them so that they are the top life ﬁeld for the collecve of their imagined personalies. I am part of such a collecve. You may be part of the same collecve (Soulmate?), but more likely part of another. Examples of Self-Organization The funconal areas of Life Fields naturally occur in response to the inﬂuence of curiosity (intenon and percepon) and the state of understanding (Worldview). This assumpon is based on the expectaon that such funconal areas are necessary to produce known response paerns. An organizing principle that naturally results from our perceptual processes is Perceptual Agreement which can be stated as: Personality must be in perceptual agreement with the aspect of reality with which it will associate. The implicaon is that we are not able to experience parts of reality which do not agree with our expectaons (personal reality). There is no need for an ethereal being to say we cannot go to heaven. If our worldview will not allow our sensing of heaven to emerge to conscious self from the Perceptual Loop, we will simply not be able to experience

that aspect of reality. A second organizing principle is Cooperave Communies which may be stated as: An eﬀort to express understanding is necessary for progression. This can be understood in simpler terms as: Personalies are aracted to communies of like-minded people cooperang to facilitate personal progression. The conscious decision to express an idea by one person must be coupled with the conscious intenon to understand by others in the community. A connuing exchange of ideas can aﬀect Worldview in the same way as a Maybe outcome of the Perceptual Loop. (A Maybe outcome can change Worldview). A more pragmac way to express the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you is to say Teach me as I teach you. The objecve of a lifeme is to gain understanding. As it is modeled, the collecve may not fulﬁll its inial purpose unl the intended understanding has been gained by every member of the collecve. Cooperave communies are a natural response to that imperave. See Essay 3: Prime Imperave. God and Gods In a sense, people speak as if there is an impersonal ubiquitous god of Natural Law and a personal god of our reason for being. We ﬁnd meaning in communion with our loved ones and enjoy the comfort of knowing we have guides dedicated to our progression. Our inner space is populated with loved ones and guides, … somemes with nature spirits of one character or another. Always implicit in our sense of inner

community is the understanding that there are ethereal beings at the edge of our awareness; present but acng through our more accessible loved ones and guides. It is to those implied gods that I believe we direct our prayers; perhaps not as the deliberate act of a metaphysician, but the insncve act of respect for those whom we sense care if we progress in our understanding. In this cosmology, these ethereal beings are the top life ﬁeld of our collecve. Just as we have many lile me aspects of ourselves populang our imagined inner worlds, created by us to experience an imagined situaon, so we are lile mes for these beings. It is those pinnacle life ﬁelds who must wait unl we gain suﬃcient perceptual agreement to return our treasure of understanding so that they may have the perceptual awareness to move on toward their source. As I have come to understand order, it is through this progression that Source will eventually come to understand its nature. As expressions of Source, we are part of its nature. References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 16 What is it Like on the Other Side 2014 About This Essay This essay is put together with bits and pieces of informaon about the other side I have gathered over the years. That informaon has been updated and organized here based on the Implicit Cosmology. That means it is based on the most current informaon I have been able

to ﬁnd about the other side. To be sure, I am not an authority on dying. I am also not well studied in near-death or out-of-body experiences. Of course, I have spent quite a lot of me in trance and have had a few noteworthy out-of-body experiences. But, as I explain in the essay, I think that is not the same as the mind-state we experience during transion. We say that we die when our human avatar is no longer able to support us in this lifeme. When that happens, and our worldview is free of our human’s insncts, we move on to a diﬀerent aspect of reality. It is a given that we will die someday. Nothing more than that is certain. That is one of the reasons they refer to the separaon between our awake life and the aspect of reality beyond death as the veil. The veil earns its name from the phrase, “Veil of forgeulness.” The idea is that we existed before this lifeme and memory of that prior existence becomes obscure at birth and quickly fades in our infancy. The veil is also a factor as we change from the disassociated mental states of sleep and trance back to an awake state. The veil represents the diﬀerence in percepon between raw environmental informaon coming to mostly unconscious mind and that which is presented to conscious self. In eﬀect, we expect to experience things in physical terms. That expectaon is something our immortal self must learn

when ﬁrst becoming entangled with its human. This might explain why some infants seem to remember their pre-birth existence. As we learn on the Mindful Way to assume more control over Worldview, the veil is expected to thin. We gain in lucidity. The fear of death is part of our psyche. It colors much of our thinking about aging. In fact, a loved one’s transion and the sense of growing old are two of the primary reasons people take up a personal study of these phenomena. This essay is as much wrien to explain what is known as it is to help people feel more comfortable with the idea of their inevitable transion. This essay is wrien in terms of our exit from this lifeme as a journey, rather than an event. I refer to this journey as transion. Separaon from our human is an event. Our process of going out of this lifeme and into another venue for learning is ended, we think, with something like a mini-transion as we exit the in-between and enter into the new experience. In-between is something of a place for rest and recuperaon as we digest what we have learned and decide what we will seek to learn in a new venue. As a maer of speaking, we die out of that place of rest. It appears to be the way we move from perspecve to perspecve. Introduction This essay began as a response to a queson from a website visitor about the

nature of the other side. I answered the queson from the perspecve of the actual nature of reality, as opposed to the popular wisdom commonly held by many modern seekers. The diﬀerence is a point of view in which I am always striving for objecve understanding of the actual nature of reality, as opposed to one accepng the ancient wisdoms and modern channeled material which is unavoidably colored by the ancient wisdoms. The answer given the website visitor was wrien before I began formulang the Implicit Cosmology. (12) So naturally, it has undergone a number of revisions as I aligned it with my current understanding. Old Beliefs Versus New Understanding I began answering the queson by explaining why the usual sources for informaon are not widely accepted by researchers who seek an objecve view of reality. Having studied these concepts since the early 1950s, I can say that the old truths based on ancient wisdoms and channeled guidance are slowly giving way to more contemporary understanding based on well- considered research and beer-informed models. Most of what we are told about the other side is conveyed to us via a medium. That is, a physical person has made contact with an etheric personality and has in some way conveyed informaon from the etheric to the physical. Having a person in the path of communicaon is seen as a problem because research is showing that the beliefs of the medium are more involved in the message than popular wisdom would have

us believe. In mediumship, what they call coloring is the medium’s own worldview contaminang the informaon coming from the etheric communicator. This is a known problem, and because of it, mediumisc messages are almost always taken with considerable reservaon by researchers seeking objecve evidence. (153) For instance, mediums who are very religious might color a message originang as “I am part of your group” to be delivered as “I am God.” People who are fond of conspiracy theories might color a message that originated as “Change is a natural part of growth” to be delivered as “beware of change in your life.” Careful reading of the Trans-Survival Hypothesis (10) will show that we think all transcommunicaon must pass through the worldview of a physical person. That is because, based on emerging mainstream and parapsychological research, all informaon ﬁrst comes to our mostly unconscious mind where it is ﬁltered according to Worldview before being presented to conscious awareness. See Essay 1: Condional Free Will for a brief explanaon of the Implicit Cosmology. The ﬁltering process based on Worldview is where the coloring occurs. For most of us, it is beyond conscious control. The only way we can control it is by managing what is allowed into Worldview beforehand. That is accomplished by habitually having the intenon to examine our thoughts while trying to understand their consequences. I refer to developing this habit as the Mindful Way. Lucidity is the conscious awareness of our perceptual and expressive processes. It ranges from unquesoning

acceptance of what we have been taught and its implicaons to spontaneous examinaon and understanding of our worldview. The mostly unconscious mind is somemes referred to as the judge because it decides what it thinks about sensed informaon before, and if, it is passed to conscious self. in involuntary coloring, the medium has lile control over what emerges into awareness each moment. The eﬀect of mostly unconscious cultural contaminaon can be minimized through habitually intending to sense reality as it is, rather than as the medium has been taught. That is described here as the Mindful Way. Another form of coloring might best be described as proﬁling. The medium’s message is developed around visual and behavioral cues from the sier. Developing a message around quesons and answers is a form of proﬁling. The form of coloring that is usually very obvious and is certainly unethical is the “Spirit tells me you should …” kind of message somemes referred to as social engineering. The medium’s competence as a clear channel is determined by how well he or she is able to manage coloring by developing lucidity and adhering to a well-considered personal code of ethics. Old Models of Reality As you can tell from my other essays, ﬁnding ancient wisdoms that seem to agree with our more contemporary models is especially interesng for me. As it turns out, what I tell you about mindfulness has been revealed to humanity many mes over the millennia. However, ancient translators tended to hide the

lessons in local religious beliefs or the social engineering preferred by the priesthood. From the Handbook of Metaphysics: The hierarchical cosmology as described in the Hermec Qabalah (as if a layer cake) works in conversaon as a means of indicang here and relavely not here as one moves into other aspects of reality. (81) It is understandable that there would be some cultural contaminaon. For people who think they are their body, the nature of reality must be explained from that body-centric perspecve. We stand on the ground and look up to heaven. We understand concepts like vibraon and density. It seems obvious that humans are above animals who are above plants and minerals. But then, gods must always be above humans. Some humans are more spiritually advanced than others, so they must exist above the rest of us but not all the way to the gods. Probably as an early aempt to explain concepts such as progression and spiritual maturity, ancient teachers developed cosmologies based on something of a layer-cake model. The models are not necessarily wrong from the human perspecve, but they tend to cloud the ancient messages when considered from our actual etheric nature. If you should ever aempt to explain a metaphysical concept using the perspecve of the Implicit Cosmology, you will learn that modern people sll ﬁnd it diﬃcult to comprehend reality from the perspecve of their immortal self. They might understand they are not their body but remain unable to shi their perspecve. It

has taken me years and remains a journey not yet ﬁnished. My ﬁrst eﬀort to develop a model of reality was with the Handbook of Metaphysics (2) published by Christopher Publishing House in 1994. The book included a discussion about several of the more popular cosmologies. The Handbook of Metaphysics was published. But, it was my ﬁrst eﬀort and I did not understand publisher and author roles. The publisher took my manuscript and went right to publishing without any copyeding. It was not widely distributed and is now out of date. Unl I ﬁnd me to produce a second edion, it remains a rarity on the market, but otherwise just a tle. I have also studied mediumship and the informaon we receive via mediumship, both (mostly) conscious and deep trance. This study has included aending many classes and connued eﬀorts to develop my mediumisc ability. While I am convinced some informaon brought via mediumship is meaningful, I am painfully aware of the problem of coloring. This applies to all forms of informaon access that involves our mostly unconscious-to-conscious self as the channel. The most common response I receive when trying to explain elements of the Implicit Cosmology are based on the other person’s strong convicons that the layer-cake model is correct. For instance: “… the astral- ethereal body is a substanve second body.” Or, “ … It is not an illusionary construct; it’s a very real body ….” “Very real body” is a direct rejecon of the suggeson that we

experience reality as an ideoplasc construct based on Worldview. It is true that the body is experienced as being very real, but the speaker is ignoring what is being learned about our perceptual process and how it is guided by what we have been taught. Ideoplasc: The Ideo- preﬁx means idea or image. Ideoplasc is used here to mean the nature of objects formed in the creave process as mind to object expression. Ideoplasy means the process of formaon. The term was coined by Max Vorworm. While ectoplasmic forms in the séance room are ideoplasc, according to the Implicit Cosmology, all of the physical is an idioplasmic creaon of minds. The old models have some value, but they need to be reconsidered with emerging understanding about the nature of mind. A typical error is thinking being more or less spiritual is being of higher or lower vibraon. That too easily leads the person to think of reality as diﬀerent frequencies of electromagnec radiaon. The next step is to assume transcommunicaon must be a maer of changing electromagnec vibraon. None of these models stand up to controlled study or logical consequences of the nonphysical concept. Thinking in these terms has sent many metaphysicians and experimenters down blind alleys. Transition Death or dying is a meaningful term when we think of ourselves as our physical body. However, we are not our physical body. Our body is just our host and avatar for this lifeme. When our avatar is no longer able to

support us in this lifeme, we begin a process of transion out of this lifeme that is thought to eventually take us to a new venue for learning. Think of our conscious self as a video camera. The lens of the camera is our human’s eyes when our body is awake, and our perspecve is associated with it. It is normal for us to dissociate from our body. Daydreaming is a light form of dissociaon. A light trance is a form of dissociaon. We momentarily dissociate when we access informaon from our memory. Sleep is a more complete dissociaon. However, while the body lives, we connue to share Worldview, so that our stream of consciousness is always colored by our human’s insncts. As we understand the process, when we die, this dissociaon becomes complete and permanent. It appears the diﬀerence between a deep dissociave state and death is the release from the inﬂuence of our human insncts. This release begins the transion process and also marks the ﬁrst me we have been without the burden of human insncts since birth. Beginning Transition We think all of us experience a short period of shock when we physically die, followed by a period of geng well. That is thought to be followed by a period of adjustment and ﬁnally, a second transion into a new venue for learning. The new venue could be in the physical, but it could as well be in some other imagined world. During the inial shock of

transion, we think it is relavely easy for the enty to remain perceptually close and communicate with people in the physical. Keep in mind that this is not physically close. Think of yourself as the center of reality. In fact, think of yourself as the Axis Mundi spoken of in many systems of thought. Axis Mundi is a reference to the center of the world or connecon between heaven and earth. We are that. Being perceptually close means that we are able to clearly visualize our physical life as it was. By doing so, in eﬀect, we are able to be there. The early phase of transion seems to be when we are apt to experience the tunnel some people report in near-death experiences. I am not qualiﬁed to speak of the near-death experience; however, I believe the Implicit Cosmology is rather diﬀerent from what most theorecians have considered, so I am going to speculate. The Implicit Cosmology predicts the inﬂuence of our human’s mind is separated from our worldview at the beginning of transion. That sudden freedom from controlling insncts must be expected to produce a period of confusion. Since Worldview is thought to be the primary factor forming our percepon of reality, the percepon of passing through a tunnel may possibly be a resulng perceptual arfact. Our human insncts cause us to always be aware of our surroundings. Let us call that awareness, peripheral aenon. When we are free of that urge to see everything, we are, probably

for the ﬁrst me in the lifeme, able to truly focus our aenon. It may be that we experience this new focus literally as tunnel vision. This would only last while the Aenon Complex of our mind adjusts its perceptual processes. Refer to the Basic Funconal Areas of Percepon Diagram. Even though our natural habitat is the etheric, we spend a lifeme being convinced we are our body. We create our physical environment according to what we have learned. Based on reports from recently transioned people, we will connue to create a version of our body during the transion period, and probably a version of our familiar world. Those of us who have been condioned to think of the next world as a brighter, more colorful and magical place, are also condioned to ﬁnd their new world to be that way. In eﬀect, that has become as real a New Ager’s heaven as that promised by religions. Imagine the shock of suddenly ﬁnding that we are no longer in our lifeme but are sll in a body. Old rules would seem not to apply as we realized our intenon was so inﬂuenal that we could actually imagine ourselves somewhere and be there. In me, we would discover that our body was no longer crippled with age. We would feel young and strong again, and so, ﬁnd that our body was also once again young and strong. From the reports, we think memory of our physical life remains strong as a

visualized reality. As with our body, at ﬁrst, we probably connue to create physical reality more or less as we remember. During that me, we are more able to impress our inﬂuence on the physical and our thoughts on people close to us. Our ability to inﬂuence the physical is a funcon of how well we can mentally associate ourselves with it. As we come to realize we are no longer part of that old reality, our percepon will begin to shi toward our new situaon. If for some reason, we do not allow ourselves to turn toward the new situaon, it is possible we will remain perceptually close to the physical. It may be this refusal to accept change that causes some personalies to seem earthbound, possibly even to produce haunng-like eﬀects in the physical. As a device in the novel, Two Worlds, One Heart, (154) I used the idea that it was possible to move between alternate mestreams by changing the person’s perspecve to agree with the intended reality. As a modern Californian, me shiing to join a pre-colonial Nave American society was accomplished by remembering or clearly visualizing what it is to be immersed in that perspecve. Guidance An important experience reported by near-death experiencers is the presence of loved ones and guides. Again, I am not qualiﬁed to speak with any authority about near-death experiences; however, the Implicit Cosmology does provide a lile guidance. The way we experience the perceptual presence of a loved one or

interested personality is subject to what we have been taught to expect. While sll more associated with the physical, we expect to experience the presence of a person as a physical person. As a mental medium, I am occasionally aware of the presence of other people’s discarnate loved ones. I am even somemes able to describe them and their mannerisms. Sll, there are mes when I only sense their aenon on me and the intended receiver of the message. I am never sure, but I think it is by following the sensed personality’s thread of aenon that I discover for whom the message is intended. On days in which my lucidity is not clear, my delivery becomes “I have a message for someone in this part of the room.” In Spiritualism, this is bad form for a medium. Part of the demonstraon of mediumship in Spiritualism is supposed to be the ability to know who the message is for. I should be calling out the intended sier. For instance, “Jeﬀ, may I come to you?” So, as a praccal maer, I know etheric personalies are at least occasionally close to us. This is not a “Move over; you are standing on your uncle” kind of thing. The personality comes perceptually close by turning its aenon to us in the same way that we can see a loved one in our mind’s eye by thinking of them. We have quite a lot of friends on the other side. The ones I

think are arguably true include: Our collecve In the Implicit Cosmology, each of us is an aspect of a local creator personality, even as it is an aspect of another, and so on, as one looks toward Source. We are all direct or indirect aspects of Source. When we create an aspect of ourselves to experience an imagined situaon, that aspect and aendant memory of the experience remains with us. Think of the aspects you have created as a collecve of personalies sharing you as their source. In the same sense, you are part of a collecve. Think of where those aspects exist. They are not out there somewhere in space. They are where you are, in your life ﬁeld. Everywhere is here. According to this model, aspects are created to gain understanding about some part of reality. In principle, the source personality has not gained the understanding it seeks unl the collecve of personalies it created have gained the poron of that understanding for which they were created. In the end, they are all one mind just as your aspects are all one mind … as they are held in our worldview. The guide we have been taught to look for on the other side is likely part of our collecve. Members of our collecve are vested in your success and can be expected to help you cross. See Cooperave Collecve in Essay 3: Prime Imperave. Loved ones People in the physical with whom we have a close relaonship

are apt to become more present for us when we enter into the etheric. This is equally true of close acquaintances such as workmates and fellow military. These friends come to us when we think of them now, not in a physical sense, but perceptually near. In Essay 5: Ethics as a Personal Code for Mindfulness, I began an example code of ethics with advice from the channeled enty known as Seth who advised: Do not violate. Common guidance for seeking help from our friends on the other side is that we must ask them. They cannot impose their help on us. There are also praccal limits to the kind of help we can be given. For instance, they are not going to help us impose our will on someone or interfere with a lesson our core intelligence seeks. The point is that they will be present to help as they can, should we be open to the help. Teachers This is an interesng concept. In the Implicit Cosmology, (12) the Cooperave Communies Organizing Principle is deﬁned as An eﬀort to express understanding is necessary for progression. (27) The urge to teach is part of a cycle of seeking understanding. A seeker learns to integrate informaon into a logical form of knowledge, but it does not become understanding unl the seeker is able to express it in a meaningful form. Teaching others is a means by which the seeker is able to consolidate understanding. For the student, being taught is

the ﬁrst step toward understanding. While you read this book, I am your teacher. In eﬀect, you have asked for help by taking the me to read and I have agreed to provide that help as I am able by having wrien the book. The urge to teach appears to be with each of us. Even aer so many years trying to communicate these ideas, I sll have no idea what movates me. It remains an itch I can only scratch by teaching. We know that some personalies purposely remain perceptually close to the physical so as to be beer able to provide guidance. The control personalies known to help physical mediums are one example. Channeled enes are another. Jane Roberts‘ Seth, (47) for instance. Following the Implicit Cosmology, we will have aracted a teacher personality if we have consciously expressed the intenon to gain understanding. Presumably, the same intended understanding might be gained from many diﬀerent kinds of experiences, such as baseball or hunng. Thus, it is reasonable to think a great warrior personality might aract a warrior-like personality as an etheric teacher. If we have a conscious relaonship with such a teacher, it is reasonable that we would be greeted by that teacher when we make our transion. Devic personalies This is a complex concept. Our culture is inﬂuenced by nature spirit myths, which when deeply integrated into our worldview, eﬀecvely makes their inﬂuence real. As such, they may as well be real, and as thoughorms, probably are

amongst our friends on the other side. My early eﬀorts to develop a cosmology included a source at the top of two parallel hierarchies of personalies. One hierarchy represented experiencers such as you and me. The other represented formave personalies generally known as devas, but also known as angels and nature spirits. The idea was that reality needed personalies who were not so concerned with gaining understanding as they were in helping others to have experiences to gain understanding. The lord of the physical plane was actually a formave personality in that cosmology. One source for that thinking came from the work of Paul Twitchell. (155) He taught about a personality named Kal Niranjan who is said to be the lord of the lower planes. Kal is also known as the Devil because he is thought to be the instrument of our lessons, many of which can be learned via painful experiences. In the Trimur concept of Hinduism, the cosmic funcons of creaon, maintenance, and destrucon are personiﬁed by Brahma the creator, Vishnu the maintainer or preserver and Shiva the destroyer or transformer. Kal Niranjan relates to the Shiva aspect, seemingly the destroyer or Devil, but actually the transformer or teacher. In terms of the Bible, devic personalies are angels. In other systems, they are nature spirits. Every aspect of life is said to have a devic personality assigned to help in the life funcons. For instance, the elementals of Western mythology and New Age lore. As I evolved the

Implicit Cosmology, it became clear that reality is self-regulated, so that the formave funcon is an integral part of every life ﬁeld, as what I refer to as a core intelligence. For our human avatar, this is the body mind funcon which maintains the body image used for the ongoing formaon of every cell. For our immortal self, it is associated with our etheric personality, which is the intelligence (I am this) for which we are conscious self (I think I am this). We, as immortal self, create thoughorms based on our beliefs held in Worldview. It is possible, even likely that, when we begin transion and are free of the blinding inﬂuence of our human body vision, we will become aware of the thoughorms we have created. For instance, if we are very involved in systems of thought based on gardening with nature spirits, we can expect to encounter nature spirits in our new reality. In the same way, a strong belief in Jesus will likely produce a Jesus thoughorm during your transion. I expect Tinkerbell will show up for me, as I so much wanted her to be real when I was a child. The boom line is that we have learned to personify characteriscs of nature which we then experience as thoughorms. The angels we encounter during transion will be our loved ones and members of our collecve. Our local creator personality, who is the life ﬁeld for our collecve, might be experienced as an Archangel or

Deva. Very spiritually mature personalies remaining close as teachers might be sensed as ethereal beings. It all has a lot to do with how we have been taught. Perception Adjustment A geng well period is thought to be needed for the newly discarnate personality as they change their percepon of what is real (at least more real). The transion process allows the personality to realize that old handicaps no longer apply. For instance, many of the reports we have heard include the expression of happiness in no longer needing a wheelchair or no longer being in pain. We think this is also when we undergo a self-evaluaon of our past lifeme. The self-evaluaon is that dreaded judgment we are always warned about, but instead of our being judged by some authority on high, it is a personal process in which we sense how our acons aﬀected others. During the series of 4Cell EVP Demonstraons, (156) a queson posed by Terry Dulin was “What were some of your misconcepons about death and/or life on the other side?” The response recorded by Vicki Talbo was her son Braden saying “Regrets.” The message is one of the conﬁrmaons we have encountered indicang we undergo a life review. And, since it is from the perspecve of those with whom we interacted, it has the potenal to bring regrets for our acons during the physical lifeme. In the context of this 4Cell session, it was understood by Vicki that Braden was reluctant to answer because

he felt it would pain her to know that she would have to face her life-deeds, good and not so good. This is apparently true for all of us. Memory of our physical lifeme fades as we become accustomed to our new surroundings. As we have noted, our etheric communicators somemes behave as if they are living in a world much as they experienced in the physical. This is true even to the extent that they might refer to a heavenly grandma’s house at which members of the family in the etheric gather for a family dinner. Note that Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC) messages are probably colored by the expectaons of the praconer. In fact, the message about grandma’s house might begin as a thoughorm represenng something like “We are aware of each other and remain close in love.” It is the assumpon of a person around the holidays that there would be a family gathering, and so it manifests in the ITC. The messages we receive from loved ones are oen collected close to the me of transion. It is not clear how soon we begin to move perceptually away from our old lifeme. We are told that our natural form is as a luminous being exisng in a landscape easily inﬂuenced by our thoughts, and that ulmately, we are pure thought. I expect that we do not realize that aspect of our nature unl we have gained great maturity, but it is likely that communicaon across the veil decreases

as the person turns aenon toward future opportunies to gain understanding. As suggested by the Implicit Cosmology, the longer we are away from our physical form, the weaker the link to our physical form becomes in our worldview. The Perceptual Agreement Organizing Principle is deﬁned as Personality must be in perceptual agreement with the aspect of reality with which it will associate. (27) If this principle accurately describes the inﬂuence of percepon, it suggests that we cannot go to parts of reality that we cannot imagine. It also suggests that personalies who have not been directly associated with the physical for many cycles of their existence will likely have diﬃculty coming close to us. We will either experience them as a luminous being or by way of a representave. (Remember that close and go to are diﬀerences of percepon in the etheric, not diﬀerences of distance.) Purpose My assumpons about why we experience a lifeme are explained in Essay 1: Condional Free Will, and especially in Essay 3: Prime Imperave. The idea is that we exist to gain understanding about speciﬁc aspects of the nature of reality and our relaonship with it. This purpose manifests as an urge to have life experiences that might provide opportunies to gain bits of that understanding. Reality is complex, and understanding is seldom absolute. Since our ability to perceive reality depends on our current understanding, clear percepon requiring many opportunies to converge on understanding the actual nature of reality. We do not gain this

understanding by ourselves. Members of our collecve share the same urge to gain understanding, but of slightly diﬀerent aspect of reality. We are prey sure that, during our transion, we in some way compare our current understanding with the intended. This is possibly done with the cooperaon of our collecve. Next Venue for Learning In the Implicit Cosmology, the urge to gain understanding is modeled as a basic characterisc of a life ﬁeld inherited from Source. That means we appear to exist as Source’s eﬀort to understand itself. As we respond to the urge to understand our parcular aspect of reality, we become perceptually more in agreement with Source. In that way, we are moving closer to Source, or are returning, as it is somemes stated in other systems of thought. In the Implicit Cosmology, the physical universe is modeled as an aspect of reality created by many personalies cooperang to hold the physical in their imaginaon as a collecve thoughorm. In this model, each creator personality has issued many aspects of itself into the physical to experience and gain understanding. Together, we aspects populate the physical, and by interacng with each other and the physical, provide one another with unique learning opportunies. While the interacon may seem severe such as an “I will kill you this me and you kill me next” kind of cooperaon, it may also be an “I will be your mother this me and you be mine next” relaonship. It depends on the kind of

experience that will provide the kind of understanding we seek. If you think about it, a gardener and a naon’s president can potenally gain the same understanding about the nature of kindness. Remember that what happens to us is not as important as how we react to what happens to us. It is our ability to ﬁnd new understanding in experiences that is so important to our spiritual progression. Self-Governing An important point is that there are no enforcement oﬃcers on the other side making sure we do what we should. We are self-governing. By that, I mean that we are only able to experience what we can imagine and that is based on Worldview. That is why we tend to create what we already know. It is also what limits the aspects of reality with which we are able to interact. Moving On This essay provides a simplisc view of transion. Certainly, there are a lot of details that will make your personal experience diﬀerent from everyone else’s. However, this essay is generally accurate within the context of the Implicit Cosmology and reasonably reﬂects commonly reported near-death experiences. The major diﬀerences between what you have been taught and what is explained here is the Implicit Cosmology. That, in turn, has been developed based on a foundaon of current research and experience from various forms of transcommunicaon. If you do not accept the view posed in this essay, it might be good for you to review the evidence and be

sure what you think is true is not just based on habit or faith. It is ﬁne to develop your own cosmology, but if you do, be sure to explore the implicaons of your assumpons. The ﬁnal assumpon is that at some point in the process of reviewing what you understand, the need for addional opportunies to gain further understanding will become apparent. Working with other members of your collecve, it is expected that you will select a new venue for learning. It may be in the physical, on earth or another planet, but it might also be in an enrely diﬀerent, nonphysical aspect of reality. The reason I have wrien this book, and Your Immortal Self, is that I know you have complete control over your desny, if only you understood the principles. Mindfulness is your tool for assuring a producve and enjoyable transion. We can believe what we wish but it is important that we understand the implicaons of what we believe. The more our worldview is in accord with the actual nature of reality, the more successful we will have been in this lifeme. What we do maers, here and hereaer. References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 17 The Hermes Concepts 2014 About This Essay Consider the conversaons you have with your friends and acquaintances about things paranormal. Would you say that at least some of your friends are well-informed about the more abstract concept such as the diﬀerence between a

concept and a thoughorm? My experience has been that few people have learned enough about these phenomena to independently form a point of view. Virtually everyone I know base their understanding on popular wisdom. When I try to understand their logical basis, it seems channeled material, preachers, television and friends are their source. Okay, so that is our culture. Their beliefs exemplify thinking I consider a form of cultural contaminaon in which the ill-informed lead the even less informed. People are generally happy with their beliefs and I can think of their misconcepons as an entry-level understanding of a most complex and abstract subject; a good place from which to begin their journey of self-discovery. As I remember, I billed the Handbook of Metaphysics (2) as a plain English introducon to the concepts intended to provide a framework of understanding. The idea was that, if my readers were beer informed about the basics, they would be beer prepared to understand new ideas. In a praccal sense, that is the underlying intenon of Your Immortal Self (1) and this book. Here, I am speaking of modern people who have access to prey good educaon and countless online sources of informaon. Do you think people living 6,000 years ago would have more objecve understanding? Would I ﬁnd a beer conversaon back then? Think of the study of ancient text as a sort of metaphysical archaeology. The reason I am so fascinated with lessons aributed to Hermes and the Katha Upanishad is that

they contain bits and pieces of informaon that are as abstract and profound as some of the material being discovered today. Sure, I can use the ancient material to say that, even back then, others thought the same way. That is one of the things I do. But my real fascinaon, and the real message to you is the queson about the source of that informaon. In this essay, and also Essay 18: The Razor’s Edge, are references to metaphysical concepts that are not widely understood today. Think of it! Ideas, such as the ancient teacher’s version of the creave process appear to have fully matured before becoming part of the ancient teaching we see. Remembering that our subject is all about the other side and communicaon across the veil, it seems reasonable to argue that our friends on the other side were as acve back then are they are today. Perhaps even more so, judging by the sophiscaon of some of the concepts in the ancient text. While we marvel at the fact that our ancestors knew some of these concepts, also wonder about how they learned. One of the proofs of the reality of the other side may be the evidence that there was transcommunicaon 6,000 years ago. Introduction Western metaphysical thought is greatly inﬂuenced by a wayshower known as Hermes, who is thought to have lived in Egypt some 6,000 years ago. The concepts aributed to him represent the foundaon for most of Western religion and philosophy.

However, intervening cultures have transformed Hermes the truth giver into more of an ideal which represents the greatest good associated with the desire to gain self-realizaon. This essay is concerned with some of the metaphysical concepts thought to have been introduced by Hermes as they might be understood from the perspecve of the contemporary paranormalist community. New understanding of how our mostly unconscious perceptual process produces conscious awareness is emerging in both mainstreams psychology and parapsychology. There is also a growing foundaon of informaon indicang the nature of our immortality, our relaonship with our physical body and the nature of the greater reality (etheric). A basic assumpon of this essay is that this new understanding provides a conceptual check on the ancient Hermec teaching. This normalizaon of the ancient concepts with contemporary thought may help us beer understand the original intent of teachings aributed to Hermes. (12) As you read this essay, keep in mind that my comments are based on a cosmology which is implied by my take on current understanding I have found amongst researchers in the paranormalist community. Much of this cosmology has not been veed, and so, it is important that you are mindful that the explanaons here are condional. It has yet to be seen if our greater community will embrace the cosmology. There is a lot of “It is not that way, it is this way,” in this essay. The main reason is that emergent understanding is very diﬀerent from what you might consider

tradional metaphysics. Who Was Hermes? The Egypans had a god named Thoth which was considered the mind of God as a teacher, source of wring, healing, art and music. (157) Many contemporary accounts describe Thoth and Hermes as the same person but it is more likely Thoth was an aspect of God, or ideal, while Hermes was probably an inﬂuenal priest. As discussed below, based on the diagram typically associated with Thoth, the Thoth-Hermes character was a man who expressed the essence of Thoth. Thoth Image from: Biblioteca Pleyades Italia/Italy - EU Of the many opinions about the reason an ibis is associated with Thoth, I like Edward Malkowski‘s interpretaon because of the overall pragmac view he takes with the history. (25) From his arcle: For the ancient Egypans, Ba animated a living person, whereas Ka was the energy emanang from that person. Although not an exact analogy, the Ka and the Ba are what tradional Western thought might refer as spirit and soul. Another important aspect of Egypan belief represented immortality, the ankh, depicted as the crested ibis. and … the meaning of a speciﬁc neter [Egypan for god] was communicated in a visually symbolic manner. When a human was depicted with an animal head, this signiﬁed the principle as it occurs in man. If the whole animal was depicted it was a reference to a principle in general. Alternavely, a human head depicted on an animal represented that principle as it relates to the divine essence within mankind,

not any person in parcular, but the archetypal; as the immortal Ba is represented by a human-faced bird. Amongst many tles, Thoth was considered the heart and tongue of the Sun God Ra and the means by which Ra’s will was translated into speech. He also had the tle of “Three mes great, great.” The Greeks thought Thoth and Hermes were the same, and thus gave Hermes-Thoth the tle of Trismegistus (Greek for Hermes the thrice-greatest). The Romans referred to him as the god Mercury (Mercurius ter Maximus in Lan). The Upanishads are a set of Sanskrit text thought to have been wrien 3,000-to-4,000 years ago. They are based on oral tradion about truths given to seekers by the gods. Some historians speculate that the oral tradion that preceded the Upanishads may have originated in Egypt some 2,000 years earlier, during the me of Hermes. As explained in Essay 18: The Razor’s Edge, it seems reasonable to speculate that the metaphysical concepts were spread by ancient traders across the Middle East and into the Indus Valley in what is Pakistan today, where the Upanishads are thought to have been wrien. Some historians argue that Greek philosophers in the ﬁrst millennium BC aributed their philosophical work to a famous person to increase the apparent importance of the work. If this is true, then it is safe to say that nearly all of the text aributed to Hermes was actually wrien by more contemporary philosophers. A second confusing factor is that scholars

of subsequent cultures have translated work aributed to Hermes from the perspecve of their current beliefs. It is this babble of Hermec aribuon that one ﬁnds on the Internet today. Thoth was considered the patron of scribes and the god of magic, healing and wisdom. It seems reasonable to argue that a man named Hermes, as a high priest of very early Egypt, was exalted as the spokesman for Thoth. In a praccal view, there were probably many such priests over the centuries around the me associated with Hermes. For this reason, it may be most sensible to think of the Hermeca as the product of an early system of thought based on metaphysical concepts evolved from even earlier mes. Emerald Tablet Because of what it includes, of all of the Hermeca, the Emerald Tablet is the one document I think may reasonably reﬂect the ancient teaching aributed to Hermes. It comes to us as it has been translated via a line of diﬀerent cultures with diﬀerent cultural references. Mindful of this, I have studied the text from the perspecve of contemporary metaphysics. My thought is that, if I can make sense of the Emerald Tablet from a contemporary point of view, perhaps the ancient text will inherit a degree of new credibility. There are as many diﬀerent versions of the Emerald Tablet’s origin as there are people wring on the subject. The most sensible consensus seems to be that the original version has been lost and the source for

currently available translaons is a Sumerian clay tablet containing Cuneiform script. Some people claim the work was magically impressed onto a piece of emerald stone, but it is probable the name comes from the color of the original clay tablet. Early Egypans used a form of glaze with which they covered the clay. It is known as blue-green Egypan faience or Egypan paste which is a sintered-quartz ceramic. As I understand the history, this technique was reserved for the most important arfacts. Considering the content of the tablet, it was probably tled something like The Truly Great Work. There are a number of diﬀerent translaons of the Emerald Tablet. I prefer the version translated from the Lan of Ficinus by Kircher, and into English by Dr. John Everard. It was ﬁrst published in 1650. Even the translaons aributed to Everard have slight diﬀerences. The one I use here is the ﬁrst I encountered in 1990 during my early studies. The translaon is provided here in Italics. Each part is followed by how I understand the Tablet based on contemporary metaphysics. The Emerald Tablet by Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus This is a lesson taught by a master to his iniates. It is concerned with the process of gaining progression (spiritual maturity). 1. It is true and no lie, certain and to be depended upon, that which is above is as that which is below; and that which is below is as that which is above, for the performance of the one truly

great work. This principle signiﬁes that everything exisng in the physical aspect of reality has its correspondence in the greater reality. Perhaps a clearer explanaon of this principle is that everything in the physical (below) has been expressed from the etheric (above). In turn, that which has been expressed has an inﬂuence on the expresser (and other personalies). A number of important lessons can come from this. There is direct correlaon between eﬀect (below or physical) and expression of intenon (above or etheric). Be mindful of your intenon (below to above) as it is can produce eﬀects (above to below) which may or may not be what you envisioned. The second lesson from this is what many people refer to as the Principle of Connuity. Reality exists as an unbroken thread of percepon and expression from the intelligent core of Source to our conscious self and personal reality. As such, it is reasonable to extrapolate the nature of the greater reality from our local sense of reality (personal reality). For quantum principles enthusiasts, the connuity of reality from our immortal self to Source is thought to be by way of a hierarchy of personalies. I refer to that as a nested hierarchy because there is a many-to-one relaonship between a personality and aspects it has created in an eﬀort to gain its intended understanding. This is also a quantum-like arrangement because it is stepwise, rather than one connuous ﬂow of creaon. However, it is also a fractal-like arrangement in that

Source is the top fractal and each aspect of Source (you and me) is a sub-fractal of the Source fractal. 2. And as all things are from only One Thing, by will of the one God, so all things have their origin in this one power, by adaptaon to their individual purposes. Reality is the expression of Source (God) and is governed by organizing principles which emanate from the intenon of Source. The combinaon of the expression of reality (the etheric) and the reason for that expression as organizing principles represent The One Thing. We are being told that Source has created all things from Itself. The One Power is the Creave Process by which reality is adapted by individual aspects of Source to sasfy imagined purpose. The Creave Process is aenon on an imagined outcome to produce an intended order. This process is limited by the ordering principles emanang from Source. As such, the One Thing is reality and organizing principles as the expression of Source, and the One Power is the Creave Process by which the One Thing is adapted. 3. That only One Thing has the sun for its father, the moon for its mother. Sun is creave inﬂuence. Moon is recepve Self (immortal personality). The three aspects of creaon are within each of us as aenon (the Sun) on a visualized outcome (the Moon) with the intenon (wind—Line 4) to make it so. 4. The wind carries it in its wings. The third part of the

Creave Process (adaptaon) is intenon. It seems reasonable that the wind is the intenon to make it so. 5. But its nurse is a spiritual Earth. Here, I think Earth is a reference to self (immortal self entangled with a human body in an avatar relaonship; aka a person). We are the ones who are performing the Great Work, as we live in the physical (earth). Thus far, Hermes has told us that we are empowered to gain progression by the very structure of reality, and through the organizing principles given to us by Source. The etheric is diﬀerenated into new form through a person’s inﬂuence based on the Creave Process. 6. That only One Thing is the true father of all things in the universe. Its power is integrang or perfecng aer it has been united to a spiritualized Earth. Again, the only One Thing is Source’s expression of organizing principles governing the behavior of reality, which undiﬀerenated, is Source’s life ﬁeld; the reality ﬁeld. Reality can be modeled as life ﬁelds and the expression of life ﬁelds. Thus, the organizing principles are the Father of all things. This emanaon from Source is perfected or changed as it is diﬀerenated by Self. We, as Self in the physical represents the Earth in this lesson. It is through increasing understanding that we perfect reality. 7. Thou shalt separate the Earth from the ﬁre, the subtle from the gross, by means of a gentle heat, and with great ingenuity. In most

esoteric schools of thought today, ﬁre is the intuive aspect and earth is the empirical, objecve aspect. To be consistent, subtle would be unconscious percepon of reality as it is diﬀerenated through the Creave Process. Gross would be reality as it is perceived as the product of the perceptual processes. Heat would be focused or directed intenon and ingenuity is an excellent descripon of the kind of work required to learn how to think beyond cultural inﬂuences to follow the Mindful Way. If this understanding is correct, Hermes is explaining the need to become aware of the diﬀerence between what is consciously perceived and the existence of a conceptual reality which underlies experience. This can be described as the diﬀerence between the etheric personality (immortal personality as I am this) and the person (conscious self as I think I am this). 8. It ascends from Earth to heaven, and descends again to Earth. Thereby it receives the power of the superiors and the inferiors. “It” is based on the One Thing as reality and the one power as the Creave Process. But here, “it” is the product of the Creave Process which is correct understanding of reality. That is the ulmate objecve of the Great Work. Some people believe that this is a direct reference to the Kundalini and the seven Chakras. (The sixth and seventh Chakras are somemes referred to as the Superior Chakras.) However, that is clearly a local system of thought. The concept of earth as the

physical person is consistently used in the Emerald Tablet. Also, the issue at hand is the Great Work. The Great Work is a way turned toward understanding (progression or spiritual maturity). To follow this path, we are told to change our awareness from body-centric to an immortal self-centric perspecve. Understanding is relave so that something understood tends to shine new light on that something, thus oﬀering potenal new understanding. Since a lifeme is a transient experience, acquision of understanding appears to be for the beneﬁt of the greater community or collecve of personalies. Thus, we have access to understanding from the collecve even as we contribute new understanding to the collecve. 9. By this process thou wilt partake of life, love, and light, and the honors of the whole world; therefore, let all obscurity ﬂee before thee. Hermes has idenﬁed our purpose in life and has described the process with which we can pursue that purpose. Now he is telling us that by living the life while consciously seeking understanding, we will align ourselves with the true nature of reality (Organizing Principles or Natural Law). Near the end of this lesson (Line 13), Hermes idenﬁes himself as an example of what living in accordance with the true nature of reality means. That is, teacher, expression of the principles in daily living and the potenal eﬀect of living in that way manifest as a (spiritually) successful person. In eﬀect then, he is telling us that we too can be happy and

respected cizens. 10. This is the strongest of all forces, overcoming every subtle and penetrang every solid thing. Hermes connues to refer to the etheric and principles from Source that permeates all of reality from the ﬁnest (undiﬀerenated etheric) to every aspect of the physical. 11. With this thou wilt be able to master all things and transmute all that is ﬁne and all that is coarse. The Great Work described in the Cabala is the process of changing the young, immature Self into a Master of the principles governing the operaon of reality. In the terminology of the Cabala, achieving God-Realizaon is described as a transmutaon. While the process of transmung the base metal of lead into a higher quality gold is a subject of earnest research in alchemy, it is oen used as an analogy for the process of transmung the ignorant seeker into a spiritually mature master. The process is achieved through adaptaon of the organizing principles into all of the objects of reality. 12. So the world was created. Hence were all the wonderful adaptaons of the One Thing manifested; but the arrangements that follow this great mysc path are hidden. Again, the One Thing is diﬀerenaon of reality by way of the Creave Process. The Creave Process is a person’s intenon acng on an imagined outcome to make it so. Diﬀerenaon is bound by organizing principles. Hermes was explaining that all of reality was formed by way of the same principles he explained in the

previous lines. An important concept here is “For those who have eyes to see.” The way described in this lesson is hidden to those who have not followed this path. 13. For this reason, I am called Hermes Trismegistus--one in essence but three in total aspect. In this Trinity are concealed the three parts of the wisdom of the whole world. See The Three Aspects of a Teacher, below. 14. What I have to tell is now completed concerning the operaon of the Sun. And so, Hermes has told his students the secret of creaon, their purpose in this lifeme, and by doing so, has pointed them toward the Mindful Way of life. Compare the advice of the Emerald Tablet with the Creave Process Discourse in Secon I of Your Immortal Self. (1) An early version is at ethericstudies.org/creave-process/. Paraphrasing the Emerald Tablet Visualize Hermes giving his students a roune lesson. Lesson Name: The Truly Great Work a. I can tell you as your teacher that your thoughts and your deeds are directly related so that your thoughts aﬀect your expression, and your percepon of that expression aﬀects your thoughts. (Line 1) b. Reality is both singular as Source and complex as the expression of Source according to Its intenon. This expression of intenon represents ordering principles which govern the adaptaon of reality to individual purpose. The world you live in is an aspect of the greater reality as it is expressed by way of the Creave Process. (Line 2)

c. The Creave Process requires the visualizaon of the imagined purpose with the intenon to make it so. (Line 3 and 4) d. You, the person as an etheric personality entangled with a physical body, are the creator in this lesson. (Line 5) e. Thus, the creave inﬂuence produces all things in reality. The Creave Process ﬁnds expression through the informed intenon of the person. (Line 6) f. It is necessary to learn to disnguish between that which is part of actual reality as expression moderated by organizing principles and that which is perceived as real, but which is actually illusion. (Line 7) g. Increased understanding of the actual nature of reality is contributed by the student to the collecve of personalies in the greater reality, and thus merged, becomes available to the student as more profound understanding. (Line 8) h. As such, you will ﬁnd that understanding leads to clear sensing which enables a person to experience reality as it is, rather than as you have been taught. (Line 10 and 11) i. Your increased understanding achieved through the Great Work may lead you to beer living and increased contentment. (Line 9) j. Thus, I have told you how the world has been created. But be mindful that these truths are not evident to those who have not stepped onto this way of learning. (Line 12) k. As the teacher of this hidden way, I represent the three parts of a teacher. That is, I represent the understanding of

the One Thing and The Great Work, I am an example of how you may integrate this understanding into daily life, and in me, you can see the possibilies of living this path. I am three mes accomplished: as a teacher, role model and cizen. (Line 13) l. And now you understand the Truly Great Work. (Line 14) The Foundation Concepts Associated with Hermes Your Immortal Self (1) includes a model of reality in which a number of organizing principles are used to deﬁne the fundamental nature of reality. In some systems of thought, these principles would be described as Natural Law; however, the ones listed in the book are rather diﬀerent from what you may have learned. An older version of the Organizing Principles can be found on the Etheric Studies website. (27) An important evoluon in how we can study the early introducon of metaphysical concepts is the ability to say that, based on contemporary research, certain concepts have become reasonably well established. This is not to say that we are now 100% correct, only that we have entered into an age in which the concepts can be objecvely and repeatedly examined. Perhaps the one reason I have persisted in wring about these concepts as long as I have is my sense of revelaon contemporary transcommunicaon oﬀers. Somemes, I think of this me in our evoluon as a people as the dawning of an age of understanding through mindfulness. With this consideraon, it is not too much of

a stretch to argue that an ancient society might believe in one god but describe that one god in terms of how people relate to its characteriscs. This is done today with Natural Law as people aempt to describe reality by way of its characteriscs. It is also noteworthy that arcles about prehistoric Egypt are derived from Greek translaons. I am not a language expert, but I know it can be shown that much of the metaphysical importance of the Aramaic language used by Jesus was lost by way of the Greek translaons. (35) It is probable that similar loss in metaphysical meaning has occurred in the translaon from Egypan to Greek. A useful technique for understanding other people’s point of view is to normalize their concepts in more fundamental terms, and then to compare those with more familiar models. Doing that with what I can discover about the me of Hermes, and before the gods of ancient Egypt, it seems clear the Egypans accepted the idea of one god with many aspects. Support for the idea that the Egypans had one god with many aspects is the early Egypan name for god. The writers of the Internet Sacred Text Archive tell us: To the great and supreme power which made the earth, the heavens, the sea, the sky, men and women, animals, birds, and creeping things, all that is and all that shall be, the Egypans gave the name Neter. (158) According to Edward Malkowski: (159) From a modern

Western perspecve, their [the Egypan’s] religion has been billed as primive and polytheisc, and appears as a mythological menagerie of gods. Nothing could be further from the truth. The source of this misunderstanding stems from the Egypan word neter being translated into Greek as ‘god,’ which later took on the Westernised meaning of deity. The true meaning of neter was to describe an aspect of deity, not a deity to be worshipped. In essence, neters referred to principles of nature in a praccal scienﬁc way. The Three Aspects of a Teacher The Emerald Tablet gives us a good test of this perspecve. One of the keys to who Hermes was is the assigned name, Hermes Trismegistus (Greek for Hermes the thrice-greatest). This tle is found in the Emerald Tablet in which Hermes tells his students: 13. For this reason, I am called Hermes Trismegistus–one in essence but three in total aspect. In this Trinity are concealed the three parts of the wisdom of the whole world. It is likely that there are mulple meanings in this line. The trinity is important throughout the Hermec Wisdom, such as posive, negave, neutral, and body, mind, spirit. The concept of balance permeates the teaching. However, there is a more deeply hidden aspect of the trinity concept. Understanding of, and ability to properly manage the trinity of imaginaon, intenon and aenon is the foundaon of “the wisdom of the whole world.” This is the Creave Process. The Greeks translated three-me great as Trismegistus. When

considered with Line 12, the phrase, “For this reason,” makes it clear that the “three parts of the wisdom of the world” is a direct reference to the three aspects of all teachers. That is, a teacher represents the lesson to be taught (imaginaon), appears to the student as an example of what it is to understand the lesson (intenon) and demonstrates the value of the lesson through applicaon of the lesson in life (aenon). 12. So the world was created. Hence were all the wonderful adaptaons of the One Thing manifested; but the arrangements that follow this great mysc path are hidden. These three aspects are also demonstrated by the way Jesus presented himself in the Bible: John 14.6: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. In this line, Jesus is showing himself to his followers as the three aspects of the teacher: follow me that I am the path; follow me as the Spirit of Truth; and, follow me as I have lived. See Metaphysical View of John 14 essay at EthericStudies.org/metaphysical-view-john-14/. (160) The Hermetica as Revealed Information? It is a fair bet that scholars specializing in ancient civilizaons are not likely to be students of metaphysics, and even less likely to be familiar with the concepts as they are informed by understanding gained via transcommunicaon. An Internet search for informaon about Hermes, pre-history religions and migraon of religious thought will produce a

wide variety of scholarly and special interest commentary but lile agreement. A good example of this disagreement is the origin of why Hermes is called Hermes Trismegistus. The ﬁrst hint is that all of the English translaons of the Emerald Tablet I have read use Trismegistus, which is a name given him by the Greeks much aer his lifeme. I would expect the original text was more like “… I am called Hermes Trice Great–one in essence but three in total aspect.” Did the Greeks understand the cultural signiﬁcance of whatever Egypan term represented Hermes in his me? According to Edward Malkowski (above), they probably did not in the same way they missed the meaning of neter. Important Metaphysical Concepts Attributed to Hermes Hermes is associated with astrology, alchemy and magic by way of the Hermec philosophy which has come to be aributed to him. As noted above, part of the problem is that there is so much cultural contaminaon that aribuon of any speciﬁc concept is intellectually risky. It is more probable that astrology, alchemy and magic are much later invenons based on then-current understanding of concepts aributed to Hermes. The major concepts thought to have been introduced by Hermes include: • One God: There is one God, which is comparable to Source or Inﬁnite Intelligence. • Avatar Relaonship: The concept of man as a chariot with spirit as its driver comes to us from the Upanishads. (161) It is consistent with Line 7 and 8 of the Emerald

Tablet in which a person, understanding and purpose are treated in terms of the two aspects of the gross and the subtle. See Line 1-III-3. in The Story in Essay 18: The Razor’s Edge. • Progression: The purpose of gaining understanding about the self and reality. This is described in the Emerald Tablet as the Great Work. • Creave Process: The Emerald Tablet is all about the major elements of the Creave Process. • Three Aspects of a Teacher: This is actually a commandment of sorts. I have always maintained that “Our lot is to learn, and having learned, our lot is to teach.” This would appear to be a consequence of progression as described in the status of Hermes as being thrice-great. As noted below, it is also mirrored in the Tarot. See Essay 3: Prime Imperave. • Organizing Principles: Hermes opens the Emerald Tablet with “… that which is above is as that which is below; and that which is below is as that which is above…,” which has become known as the Hermec Law of Correspondence. The One Thing of Line 2 is the expression of Source. It is described in Line 6 as “That only One Thing is the true father of all things in the universe.” Although not speciﬁcally stated, organizing principles are implicit in the concept of “…by adaptaon to their individual purposes” as stated in the last part of Line 2. It is important to note here that Natural Law, as it is

taught today, is a much more contemporary invenon. Cabala (oen spelled Kabbalah, which is Hebrew meaning to receive or to accept) emerged out of Jewish myscism around the 12th-century. It is a technical form of metaphysics that involves many interrelated, oen secret concepts. There are many organizing principles (Natural Law to some) described in the Divine Pymander which is tradionally aributed to the wring of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus. (25) Considering this, it is interesng that virtually all of the Internet websites discussing Hermes and the principles only address the seven proposed in The Kybalion. The Seven Organizing Principles of the Kybalion Seven principles said to deﬁne the nature of reality have become the standard version of Natural Law. They probably became popular from the 1908 booklet tled The Kybalion by Three Iniates. (26) It should be noted that these are described from a physical or body-centric perspecve. There are certainly more commonly cited principles aributed to ancient teaching from other sources, but it is only these seven I have found directly aributed to Hermec teaching. In keeping with my eﬀort to normalize the Hermeca with more contemporary thought, I have added a suggested, more current understanding for each. 1. The Principle of Mentalism. The all is mind; The universe is mental. This can be taken literally. In terms of the way we have been taught to disnguish mental from physical, the expression of reality from Source (God) is a thought. Emergent understanding from mainstream science indicates that we create our

world as a thought exercise. This is supported in psi ﬁeld studies. Reality is mental. We assign physical meaning to aspects of it, such as our body. Be careful not to be distracted by the cultural references for the thought concept. From the physical perspecve, we as our body are solid and real while our thoughts are intangible and not real. But our physical perspecve is only for this lifeme and restricted to our local culture. In fact, we are immortal, and our real perspecve is that of your immortal self. From that more correct perspecve, our body is a thought. 2. The Principle of Correspondence. As above, so below; as below, so above. This principle signiﬁes that everything exisng in the physical aspect of reality has its correspondence in the greater reality. Perhaps a clearer explanaon of this principle is that everything in the physical (below) has been expressed from the etheric (above). In turn, that which has been expressed has an inﬂuence on the expresser (and other personalies). It is reasonable to think of reality as a collecve thought, of which, our immortal aspect is one of the thinkers. A number of important lessons can come from this. There is direct correlaon between eﬀect (below or physical) and expression of intenon (above or etheric). We should be mindful of our intenon (below to above) as it is can produce eﬀects (above to below) which may or may not be what we envisioned. A second lesson from this is

what many people refer to as the Principle of Connuity. Reality exists as an unbroken thread of percepon and expression from the intelligent core of Source to our conscious self and personal reality. As such, it is reasonable to extrapolate the nature of the greater reality from our local sense of reality (personal reality). It is also reasonable to think this unbroken thread of percepon and expression represents successive changes in understanding. In terms of understanding as the foundaon of percepon, reality is quanzed. The connuity of reality is step-wise as one moves from relavely lile percepon of the actual nature of reality to more correct percepon. But understanding is seen as relave, so that percepon produces the potenal for new understanding. 3. The Principle of Vibraon. Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates. This principle is oen understood as the closer one gets to God, the ﬁner the vibraon one must experience. However, our contemporary understanding is that vibraon is a physical concept that has no evident, direct equivalent in the etheric. In fact, in the Emerald Tablet, Hermes uses “subtle from the gross” to indicate a diﬀerence between etheric and physical. A more useful measure is relave understanding. In the Implicit Cosmology, (2) progression (perceptually toward Source) is achieved by gaining understanding. Understanding goes toward aligning Worldview with the actual nature of reality. It is Worldview that determines percepon. As such, perceptual agreement becomes a determining factor for what a person can experience in reality. Stated as the Organizing

Principle of Perceptual Agreement: Personality must be in perceptual agreement with the aspect of reality with which it will associate. 4. The Principle of Polarity. Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are idencal in nature, but diﬀerent in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled. The Principle of Polarity is good advice and appears to be true in a praccal sense as a physical principle, but it tends to lose meaning in the etheric. A life ﬁeld is a singularity and its expression are not polar. Balance does exist as a beneﬁcial behavior, but polar extremes and balance do not appear to be factors in the percepon and expression funconal areas of mind. 5. The Principle of Rhythm. Everything ﬂows, out and in; everything has its des; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the le; rhythm compensates. As with Principle 4, this is good advice for operang in the physical when rhythm is understood as regular, periodic cycles. The annual cycle of seasons, for instance, is a regular periodic cycle; however, the seasons are an arfact of what may not be a universally usual alignment of our planet’s axis with its orbit around the sun. There is no apparent support for the concept in terms of the etheric. The principle does appear

to have meaning in the sense of a process. An example is the process of birth, youth, maturity, and death as we see in the cycle of the seasons. The disncon is important. We see the process of gaining understanding typically experienced as a cycle, but not a regular periodic cycle. The iniaon experience in ancient wisdom schools, for instance. The rhythm in queson is a cycle of gaining informaon, living with that informaon as it becomes personal knowledge, and then a change in state of that knowledge to understanding. That cycle of learning is somemes referred to as the Dark Night of Soul (162) when the cycle includes a period of mental anguish as the seeker integrates new understanding into Worldview. The governing inﬂuence for the behavior of processes in the etheric appears to be the Perceptual Agreement Organizing Principle. Some people relate the Principle of Rhythm to the Principle of Cycles, and that to the Principle of Reciprocity. My comments apply to all three perspecves, but also see my comments below for the Principle of Cause and Eﬀect. 6. The Principle of Cause and Eﬀect. Every Cause has its eﬀect; every eﬀect has its cause; everything happens according to Law; chance is but a name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causaon, but nothing escapes the Law. This is a complex principle. It is a well-established physical principle, but its etheric counterpart is a lile less deﬁnive. As noted above, the concept of reciprocity is

beer related to cause and eﬀect than to cycles or rhythm. The associated concept of reciprocity is mutual inﬂuence. While we think of force in the physical, we think in terms of inﬂuence in the etheric. There does not appear to be a direct one-to-one exchange of inﬂuence, but rather the expression of inﬂuence which changes percepon. That is, my thinking of you causes my percepon of you to change in some way. There is a cause and eﬀect, but it is not equal and opposite as we think of it in the physical. 7. The Principle of Gender. Gender is in everything; everything has its masculine and feminine principles; Gender manifests on all planes. Current versions of the Hermeca is full of reference to male and female aspects. But it does not ﬁt well with my current understanding unless I rephrase the concept. So, instead of male and female, think in terms of two aspects of the Creave Process. (163) This might be beer understood as the process of formaon in which potenal (female) is expressed through intenon (male). This is consistent with Line 3 of the Emerald Tablet. My Introduction to the Hermetic Concepts Of course, I intended to be the ﬁrst man on the moon, but it was in my teens that science clubs began to give way to curiosity about the nature of reality. Many of the science ﬁcon books I had been reading had a strong metaphysical, magical sense that was complemented by such movies

as The Wizard of Oz and my speculaon about what it was really like over the rainbow. The Rosicrucian‘s “Thoughts have Wings” (163) adversements in the science magazines I read in my teens was suﬃciently encing for me to join and begin receiving their weekly discourses. The Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) (6) gave me much-needed diversion from college study with a two-year course in the Tarot. They use the Tarot as a tool for teaching courses in the Ageless Wisdom of Sacred Tarot and Cabala. (164) Their deck is a version of the 1910 Rider-Waite deck modiﬁed by Paul Foster Case. The term Cabala is derived from the Hebrew root to receive, to accept and represents a system of thought based on the earliest teaching aributed to Hermes. As previously noted, the teachings have been considerably altered in later cultures up to its more or less formal establishment in the Middle Ages, beginning probably with the seventh century. The Tarot One ﬁnal point of reference to help you understand the importance of Hermes’ contribuon to (my) contemporary thought is the Tarot. While it is based on the Hermeca, it is so by way of centuries of reinterpretaon and must be considered with discernment. Its value though, is that it embraces the spirit of the Great Work and much more that has been learned about human nature since the me of Hermes. The Tarot is thought to be based on playing cards which have been adapted for use as a

means of fortune telling. Occult versions of the cards began to show up in the 1300s.The Case deck I use consists of 78 cards with 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana cards. Arcana from the Lan arcānum means secret, or as it is used in the Tarot, specialized knowledge which is unknown to or misunderstood by the average person. While the Tarot is most commonly used for divinaon, in their occult use, the 22 Major Arcana, somemes referred to as 22 Keys (keys to secret wisdom), represent the path to self-realizaon. Each card represents a step along the path beginning with Key 0, The Fool, which represents the person both at the beginning of the cycle of educaon as, … well, as a fool, and at the end of the cycle following key 21 as the now enlightened, … well, sll a fool because the cycle is never-ending. Important to my point about the evoluon of the Hermec concept is that the keys can be arranged in three rows of seven with Key 0 set above. The ﬁrst row represents powers or potencies, those in the middle row represent laws or agencies and those in the boom row represent condions or eﬀects. For instance, Key 1, The Magician, (self-conscious phase of mental acvity, intenon) represents the potenal which works through the agency symbolized by Key 8, Strength, (authority over primal nature) to modify the condions or eﬀects typiﬁed by Key 15, The Devil, (erroneous belief in limitaons). (165) Each

row represents a progression from relavely lile self-awareness toward greater understanding. Every element has been designed to have signiﬁcance in that progression, even down to the colors. The male and female ﬁgures typically represent an aspect of a person (percepon and expression, not sex) and water always represents the essence of mind. As an example of the secret meanings encoded into the keys, the Fool’s bag contains the same tools represenng self-conscious phases of mental acvity the Magician is working with on the table of Key 1. As the beginning of the cycle, the Fool is unaware of the tools, but then must have them out to see and feel in Key 1. However, aer Key 21, the Fool represents the completed cycle and no longer needs to have the tools out to be able to work with them. He is master of them no maer where they are. Note also the comparison between the three rows in the tableau and the three aspects of a teacher discussed earlier in this essay. The ﬁrst row, powers or potencies, can be compared to fundamental organizing principles as the ﬁrst aspect of the teacher. The second row, laws or agencies, can be compared to the applicaon of the principles taught by the teacher as the second aspect. The third row, condions or eﬀects of the principles as they are applied, can be compared to the result of living in accordance with the principles of nature as the third aspect of the teacher.

Know me as I express the principle, as I live the principles and as I beneﬁted from living the principles. Resetting the Old Concepts My ﬁrst aempt to develop a metaphysical cosmology was the Handbook of Metaphysics. (2) It provides a good overview which can be useful to the reader as context for understanding new metaphysical ideas. I tried very hard to normalize the many diﬀerent perspecves as a single view but found much disagreement amongst the various schools of thought. Even more problemac was the fact that so many systems of thought seemed to have originated from just a few original sources, themselves primive from a contemporary perspecve. As I have discussed above, the problem of cultural contaminaon makes it necessary for us to ﬁnd a new, contemporary anchor on which to reset the old teachings. I have a great deal of respect for the Hermeca and the Tarot, but it is now me to refresh our perspecve. The new book, Your Immortal Self, (1) is what I believe to be a useful reset of the old concepts. It is also a leap forward from what we thought was true when I wrote the Handbook. The take away I hope you will gain from this essay is that the ideas of our immortality and the need for our pursuit of understanding are fundamental lessons that have been given to us by our friends on the other side since the earliest days of civilizaon. These lessons have been refreshed many

mes by important wayshowers of all of the world’s religions. There is a reason for this which we will all do well to head References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 18 The Razor’s Edge 2016 About This Essay Lisa and I became involved in Eckankar (7) while we lived in Sacramento and before Lisa read Sarah Estep‘s book about Electronic Voice Phenomena, Voices of Eternity. (166) For me, it was the technical approach to metaphysics taught by Eckankar founder, Paul Twitchell that I found useful. 1234 We moved away from Eckankar when we relocated to Kansas City, and our three years with them did not make me an authority on their beliefs. The reason I even menon the group is that Twitchell had a background in Eastern religions and brought many of their concepts into Eckankar. The foundaon concept is that, as soul, we are co-workers with God, and that it is for us to understand Its nature as the “Light and Sound of God.” There are magical ideas in Eckankar. At least back then, I argued that you have not lived unl you have sung the Hu with over 5,000 other Eckists at one of their conferences. Suddenly coming upon lucid awareness of an inner teacher during an experience referred to by Hindus and Eckists as the Darshan is reason enough for years of study and meditaon. I have had experiences that seem at least similar to the Darshan. While they were a

lile unnerving at the me, I will say the eﬀect has remained with me. There was no lightning strike of understanding. What came was the spontaneous shock of a rumbling sound and a subtle vibraon throughout my body as if I was about to have an out-of-body experience. I was in a disassociated state each me. Rather than the desired enlightenment, from the experiences came a subtle certainty that I was on the right path, and that I really was a luminous being. I suppose it is that sort of realizaon I needed to enlighten my most stubborn perceptual processes. In a vivid dream during my Eckankar days, I remember crouching down near a lile boy who was with his mother in a grocery store. He was standing with his hand on a shopping cart … for security from an encroaching stranger, I suppose. I sang the Hu to him, and as I did, I was able to see the sound waves radiate from my mouth. As they did, they turned to shimmering light. It was from that dream that I realized we are all wayshowers, like it or not, for the beerment or the detriment of our fellow seekers. The sound of our expression becomes the light of our fellow’s understanding. This, in a similar fashion as the Great Work as described in Essay 3: Prime Imperave. I said the experiences spontaneously came to me, but it is important to note that, as with any system of study in

which we become deeply involved, that very involvement has the potenal over me to condion the mind to produce a desired response. The experiences were spontaneous in that I did not consciously trigger them, but they were predictable in that I set out to acquire that relevant understanding. You can do the same. Another magical concept was the Dark Night of Soul. In that, it is thought to be common for a person to undergo a period of personal crisis just before passing through an iniaon into greater understanding. None of these ideas are unique to Eckankar, but they ﬁt in well with their lessons. The Razor’s Edge concept represents a way of thinking about what I refer to as the Mindful Way. There was even a movie made using it as the theme. An important point to remember about the Razor’s Edge concept is that, like balancing a pencil by its pointy end, it is easier to fall oﬀ of that narrow way than to remain. Those who remain are special, indeed! Introduction The Razor’s Edge refers to one of the ancient wisdoms concerned with the development of spiritual maturity. You may remember that there is a book tled The Razor’s Edge, and later, at least two movies based on the book. (167) The story is about a person’s journey to India to seek the transcendent meaning of life. The phrase is found in the ancient Hindu Vedic Sanskrit text called the Katha Upanishad. The over 200 Upanishads describe

the nature of ulmate reality and the path to gain spiritual maturity. They are thought to have been wrien 3,000-to-4,000 years ago and are based on oral tradion about truths given to seekers by the gods. There is also some evidence that Buddhism may have adopted concepts credited to the same origin. Origin of the Upanishads Upanishad is from Sanskrit, probably originally as Upaniṣad. Katha can be understood as story or legend and Upanishad refers to sing down near something, presumably a teacher. The Upanishad originated from oral tradion that likely predates the usual 1,800-2,000 BCE stated for the origin of the wrien form. Some historians speculate that the oral tradion may have originated in Egypt some 6,000 years ago, during the me of Hermes. It is thought that the metaphysical concepts were spread by ancient traders across the Middle East and into the Indus Valley in what is Pakistan today. Existence of essenally the same important concepts in many diﬀerent cultures provides hints about how they may have evolved. If a parcular concept such as mind-body duality was taught in ancient Egypt, then it is not parcularly unexpected to see it also taught in Hinduism and Chrisanity. Katha Upanishad The Katha Upanishad is told as a story about a boy, his father and the god of death. It is concerned with the nature of God as Source, individual seeking of greater understanding and the relaonship between Self and the human body. As with any text wrien in ancient mes,

Katha Upanishad has been translated by a number of modern scholars. This has resulted in many diﬀerent versions. Because of this, it is necessary to focus on the underlying meaning, rather than taking them in a literal sense. Invocation It is common, when seeking personal understanding with the help of our unseen friends, to speak a prayer designed to align teacher, student and helper’s intenon. Middle East from Egypt to Indus Valley in Pakistan. (Google Maps) According to Swami Krishnananda (74), every Upanishad lesson between a teacher and student begins and ends with an invocaon of peace called the Shan Mantra. As Swami Krishnananda’s invocaon is translated: May we both be protected. May both of us be taken care of properly. May we study together. May our teaching and learning be resplendent. May there be no misunderstanding between us. May there be no discord of any kind. May there be peace, may there be peace, may there be peace. According to Swami Krishnananda, “It means that there should be proper aunement of spirit between the Guru and disciple before they begin the study, for only then will the teaching be fruiul.” He also explains the three repeons of “may there be peace,” as “We have three kinds of troubles called tapatraya (internally, physical ones), externally from outside beings and from above given by the gods.” The Story As I understand the translaons, Katha Upanishad begins with Gautama’s sacriﬁce of all his worldly possessions to the gods, expecng good favor in

return. Nachiketa noces that his father’s sacriﬁce is insincere because the possessions were only those which were worn out. He asked his father, “I too am yours, to which god will you oﬀer me?” Gautama‘s terse response was, “I give you to Yama (the god of death).” Nachiketa went to Yama’s home but Yama was away and Nachiketa had to wait. Yama returned aer three days and expressed regret that Nachiketa had to wait so long. He told Nachiketa, “You have waited three days so ask three favors of me.” Nachiketa asked for peace for his father and to learn the Sacred Fire Sacriﬁce. Yama agreed. For his third request, Nachiketa asked to learn the mystery of what comes aer death. Yama pleaded with him to ask something else. Nachiketa insisted, so Yama tested the boy by oﬀering him wealth instead of the secret. The boy chose the path of spiritual understanding over the path of material possessions. This pleased Yama, and so he agreed to tell the boy about what came aer death. Yama explained that the key to understanding what comes aer death is to understand that self, which is within each person, is inseparable from the Supreme Spirit, the vital force in the universe. In this regard, Part 1-II of Katha Upanishad is concerned with the need for a person to realize the importance of consciously deciding to seek understanding. Brahman is a Sanskrit word for Supreme Spirit or creave principle present in everything. The part of

the story concerned with The Razor’s Edge is here and a brief discussion about the lesson is provided aer. The material quoted here is from the Vedanta Spiritual Library:(22) 1-III-3. Know the Self to be the master of the chariot, and the body to be the chariot. Know the intellect to be the charioteer, and the mind to be the reins. 1-III-4. The senses they speak of as the horses; the objects within their view, the way. When the Self is yoked with the mind and the senses, the wise call It the enjoyer. 1-III-5. But whoso is devoid of discriminaon and is possessed of a mind ever uncollected - his senses are uncontrollable like the vicious horses of a driver. 1-III-6. But whoso is discriminave and possessed of a mind ever collected - his senses are controllable like the good horses of a driver. 1-III-7. But whoso is devoid of a discriminang intellect, possessed of an unrestrained mind [unmindful] and is ever impure, does not aain that goal, but goes to samsara. Samsara is Hindu for the cycle of death and rebirth as life is bound to the material world. 1-III-8. But whoso is possessed of a discriminang intellect and a restrained mind [mindful], and is ever pure, aains that goal from which he is not born again. 1-III-9. But the man who has a discriminang intellect as his driver, and a controlled-mind as the reins, reaches the end of the path - that supreme state of Vishnu. Supreme

state of Vishnu refers to self-realizaon or self-knowledge. 1-III-10. The sensory objects are subtler than the senses, and subtler than the sensory objects is mind. But intellect is subtler than mind and subtler than intellect is Mahat (the Hiranyagarbha). Mahat refers to the origin or Source of creaon. Hiranyagarbha can be understood as the golden egg, where gold means objects of fulﬁlment and joy. 1-III-11. The un-manifested (Avyakta) is subtler than Mahat and subtler than the un-manifested is Purusha. There is nothing subtler than Purusha. That is the end, that is the supreme goal. The universe itself is a person, though without the limitaons and prejudices of our human personality. This is what the science of Yoga calls the Purusha. The Purusha, meaning a person or conscious being, is a Sanskrit term for the Cosmic Being behind the universe, the spirit within all things. The enre universe is a manifestaon of the Cosmic Person. This Cosmic Person endows every creature with personhood or a sense of self, not only humans but also animals and ulmately all of nature. (168) This agrees with the Implicit Cosmology. 1-III-12. This Self hidden in all beings does not shine. But by seers of subtle and pointed intellect capable of perceiving subtle objects, It is seen. 1-III-13. Let the wise man merge speech in his mind, merge that (mind) into the intelligent self and the intelligent self into the Mahat. (Let him then) merge the Mahat into the peaceful Self. 1-III-14. Arise, awake, and learn

by approaching the exalted ones, for that path is sharp as a razor’s edge, impassable, and hard to go by, say the wise. 1-III-15. By knowing that which is soundless, touchless, formless, un- decaying, so also tasteless, eternal, odourless, beginningless, endless, subtler than Mahat and constant, man is liberated from the jaws of death. A Hindu Teacher’s Translation According to Gupta, (169) Yama’s explanaon is a succinct descripon of Hindu metaphysics, and focuses on the following points: • Yama said [in Line 1-II] there are the two life paths: pleasant/aracve and good/transcendental. ○ Pleasant/aracve, which is the path of material pleasures that tempts humans, leads to death. ○ Good/transcendental, which is the path of spiritual bliss, leads to immortality. ○ By a process of detached thinking, the clear minded choose the path of immortality and the muddle-headed fall for the path of pleasure and eventual pain and death. • The sound Om! is the syllable of the Supreme Spirit • The self is the same as the omnipresent Supreme Spirit. Smaller than the smallest and larger than the largest, the self is formless and all-pervading. • The goal of the wise is to know this self. • The self is like a rider; the horses are the senses, which self guides through the maze of desires. • Aer death, it is the self that remains; the self is immortal. • Mere reading of the scriptures or intellectual learning cannot lead to the realizaon of self. • One must discriminate the

self from the body, which is the seat of desire. • Inability to realize Brahman results in one being enmeshed in the cycle of rebirths. • Realizaon of the self leads to liberaon from the cycle of life and death Universal Message Preparing this essay has been an adventure for me. What I refer to as the Trans-Survival Hypothesis (10) and the resulng Implicit Cosmology (12) explain a model of reality which I believe represents current science and understanding gleaned from transcommunicaon. It is excing to me that the Katha Upanishad very closely agrees with that cosmology. While I had considered the Hermec teaching and John 14 of the Bible, I had never looked at Hindu philosophy, mainly because of its convoluted terminology. Aer reading the Katha Upanishad, I took a close look at my prior understanding that religion was thought to have begun in the Hindus Valley as it evolved from Arian philosophy. Now I see that the philosophy contained in the Upanishads probably originated millennia earlier, in Egypt as the same source aributed to Hermes. Here is a brief translaon of the Katha Upanishad in terms of the Implicit Cosmology: 1-III-3 describes the avatar model used to describe the relaonship between mind and body. In this model, mind is described in three parts: personality is the normally unconscious core intelligence which provides purpose; mind is the normally unconscious funconal areas supporng percepon and expression; and, Self is the conscious aspect of who we are. In this model, the

intellect is conscious self’s expression of intenon which can be thought of as one of two steering inﬂuences on normally unconscious mind. The second steering inﬂuence on mind is the urge or spiritual insnct to gain understanding expressed by personality. See Essay 3: Prime Imperave. What the world looks like to self is managed in mostly unconscious mind as Worldview, which is populated by cultural inﬂuences, prior understanding gain by the self/personality life ﬁeld and human insncts. Worldview represents Self’s personal reality: Self’s percepon of the world emerges into conscious awareness from the normally unconscious mind process which considers and translates environmental inﬂuences based on Worldview. 1-III-5 and 1-III-6 refer to the conscious inﬂuence of discerning intenon on normally unconscious mind. This is one of the foundaon concepts in the Mindful Way. 1-III-7 and 1-III-8 refer to the results of consciously applying accumulang understanding to discerning acons. This is another foundaon concept in the Mindful Way. 1-III-9: Supreme State of Vishnu refers to self-realizaon or self- knowledge. This line tells us that mindfulness and conscious seeking may lead to the form of understanding we think of in contemporary terms as spiritual maturity. 1-III-10 and 1-III-11 describe the characteriscs of Source. This is the all is one concept of a universal Inﬁnite Intelligence, rather than a human- like god. Source manifests in the following ways: 1 In the avatar model, which is also described by the chariot analogy of the Upanishad, that which is sensed is transformed into subtle informaon able

to be processed by the even more subtle mind. 2. The personality/mind/self complex or life ﬁeld is subtle and not seen with the physical senses. 3. Personality, as the core intelligence of the life ﬁeld, is that which is immortal, and which is subtler than mind. (Here I would argue that the life ﬁeld integrates personality, mind and conscious self. In this way, personality is the source of purpose, conscious self is the experiencing aspect of personality and mind is judge as the funconal aspect of experiencing.) 4. Mahat refers to the origin or source of creaon, which is even more subtle than its aspects represented by the life ﬁeld. 5. Source is seen as inﬁnitely present (all is one, Mahat), inﬁnite possibilies with the potenal to manifest reality (Avyakta) and the intelligent core of reality (Purusha). 1-III-12 and 1-III-13 advise that the Self is in all things. An important cosmological point is that Source is the reality ﬁeld and the life ﬁeld of a person is an instance of the Source life ﬁeld. As such, all things are either an aspect of Source or the expression of an aspect. The potenal to create and Source, as the universal presence, is in each of us. These lines tell us that those who have learned to sense the subtle characteriscs of reality can sense the presence of self/Source in all things. We are advised to integrate this understanding into our worldview so as to align our percepon and expression with the

actual nature of Source. 1-III-14 and 1-III-15 Advise that we should ﬁnd a teacher and consciously step onto the path toward greater understanding. The path is a narrow way in that it is far from the excesses seen on either extreme. It is also a diﬃcult way because it is so easy for the seeker to turn toward misconcepon and illusion. Finally, we are told that it is through correct understanding that we may step oﬀ of the wheel of reincarnaon to move further toward universal understanding. (More likely, we will ﬁnd ourselves with new and even more interesng challenges to understand.) References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 19 Progression, Teaching and Community 2014 The Way of Progression Through community comes knowledge Through teaching comes understanding It takes a collecve About This Essay This essay is Discourse 12 of Your Immortal Self. (1) I included it here as a reminder about several of the reasons you exist. The point is that you are part of a larger community. While we may not have a physical-world or societal reason to cooperate with our fellow persons, we do have an implied imperave to help others gain spiritual maturity. By doing so, we enable them to assist in our progression. The Way of Progression is one of those thoughts that was stuck in my head one morning. I know it sounds kind of silly but take some me to consider the words. To teach, it is necessary

to order our thoughts. In doing so, we gain a lile understanding about that which we will teach. It does not work in front of a mirror. You need to interact with others to learn. Spirituality It is in our spirituality that we ﬁnd our true meaning: who we really are and our purpose for existence. One of the best explanaons for the meaning of spirituality I have read is oﬀered by Deepak Chopra in his Huﬃngton Post blog: (62) Spirituality is the experience of that domain of awareness where we experience our universality. This domain of awareness is a core consciousness that is beyond our mind, intellect and ego. In religious tradions, this core consciousness is referred to as the soul which is part of a collecve soul or collecve consciousness, which in turn is part of a more universal domain of consciousness referred to in religions as God. Since we are an aspect of Source, in the Implicit Cosmology, “our universality” is the fact that our entanglement with Source makes us a cizen of the Source life ﬁeld (reality, reality ﬁeld). “Soul” is described as etheric personality which is who we really are, our immortal I am this. This is the “core consciousness” of Chopra’s deﬁnion. The “collecve Soul” in Chopra’s deﬁnion is referred to as the collecve in the Implicit Cosmology, and it is modeled as the multude of personalies related to this realm of reality. The “universal domain of consciousness” is modeled as the multude of

aspect which inherit their existence and purpose from Source. God then is Source, Inﬁnite Intelligence, the One, or whatever name you use for the ﬁrst cause of reality in which we are all one. This is the “domain of awareness.” Spirituality, then, is our sense of this connectedness from the perspecve of our conscious self (I think I am this). In the Implicit Cosmology, life is modeled as the building block of reality, and expressions of life are the venues for experiencing the nature of Source. We express the world around us, usually as a collecve view because we share this venue with others. There are likely many realms similar to ours, each with many venues for learning. Together, they could be understood as “universal consciousness.” This may be Jesus‘ “many mansions” from John 14:2. Reality is modeled as a nested hierarchy of personalies so that the ﬁrst round of aspectaon is Source’s eﬀort to understand its nature. Our personality is an aspect of other personalies, probably many rounds removed from Source, which are further exploring Source’s queson: who am I and what is my nature? These assumpons are made to provide a beginning point for the model in much the same way the Big Bang is modeled as the beginning for the physical universe in physical sciences. The importance of the Implicit Cosmology is in the relaonship of our I am this personality which is our unconscious core intelligence with our human avatar and our conscious self as I

think I am this. Spirituality, then, is our sense of this connectedness from the perspecve of our conscious self (I think I am this). Cooperation Achieving understanding is not a solitary process. Just as our collecve partners cooperate to help us while we are in this lifeme, so are we expected to help others who are in this lifeme with us. This does not mean we are our brother’s keeper, but it does mean that we are unavoidably part of our brother’s experiences. The part we play is our life experience, and so, we are unavoidably linked in the greater community and especially in our local community. Friends as Teachers With few excepons, I have looked to a teacher to show me the way. I don’t mean this in a myscal sense; it is just that I have managed to have someone I trust show me how to do extraordinary things before venturing out on my own. For instance, Lisa introduced me to Electronic Voice Phenomena; a mutual friend taught us how to mine for gold; a work friend introduced me to the Tarot. Another showed me how to navigate the Sacramental Delta waters at night. They did not just say, “Here it is.” They took me through everything I needed to know to get started. It was always a natural sharing. Selless People There is value in contemplang the meaning of the selﬂess concept. Diconary.com deﬁnes selﬂess as “Having lile or no concern for oneself, especially with regard to

fame, posion, money, etc.; unselﬁsh.” There are many ways in which selﬂessness is expressed: the family that takes in a foster child, a person who stops to help an animal, individuals who feed the poor and inspire selﬂessness in others, or the acvists who dedicate themselves to a cause which probably should be important to everyone. What causes people to be selﬂess? In some obscure way, there may be an evoluonary beneﬁt. Evoluonists argue that there is a selﬂess gene which induces people to selﬂess acts. If they do not survive, their selﬂessness tends to beneﬁt their family which would by inheritance also have the selﬂess gene. In that way, they argue, selﬂessness helps survival of the gene by helping the survival of family. (170). While the selﬂess gene theory sounds reasonable, it is based on prey tenuous evidence. When viewed from the perspecve of human as avatar, the concept of cooperaon amongst personalies seeking mutual progression is perhaps a more reasonable concept. The Prime Imperave would seem to result in an urge in every personality to help others, because by doing so, they are helping themselves and their collecve. Ulmately, one could argue that selﬂess people are those who respond to the urge to answer Source’s queson. From a religious perspecve, “God desires that I do this.” See Essay 3: Prime Imperave. A Vision About Collectives Just minutes aer a meditaon session at the Monroe Instute (171), I had the waking vision of the face of a clock. It

was suspended in the air, face- up, but lted toward me a lile so that I could see that there were many black specks scurrying about on the white surface. My impression was that they were lile sck people like those I would draw in a hurry. The space between three and four o’clock was an open hole and a few sck people had apparently fallen through. The people on the face of the clock were somehow helping the people who had fallen through the hole. As the hour hand made a complete circuit, the ones in the hole came to the surface and a few of the others jumped into the hole. My sense was that the sck people were all part of a collecve of personalies, a soul group if you want, and they were doing all they could to help their fellows who had entered into a lifeme, symbolized by falling through the hole. I knew that they were helping one another progress by gaining in understanding and that none of them would be able to move on unl all had made suﬃcient progress. The hour hand represented a lifeme. Probably not all of them, but many of my helpers, friends, and guides, both on the other side and in the physical, are part of my collecve. I am never very far from them, and just as I am a student, in turn, I am teacher, for we must all move as one. First a Student, Then

a Teacher You have probably heard the phrase, “Our lot is to learn and having learned, our lot is to teach.” The student becoming the teacher is the natural order of life. Civilizaon survives because lessons learned by elders are passed on to the children. We cannot be around other people, especially children, without inﬂuencing them in some way as accidental role models. However, in modern society, educaon is le to schools and hired teachers. There is a business of educang our young, leaving lile more than role model duty to elders. Yet there are many examples in which individuals have taken the me to preserve knowledge for others. The Internet has countless websites in which informaon for the sake of informaon is available at no charge. Looking past all of those commercial sites, one can ﬁnd that there are many ordinary people who have spent me developing a personal website just to share what he or she has learned. An important point of this essay is that many of these people probably know they will not receive a thank-you. Yes, there is a human compulsion to leave a legacy for the next generaon, but virtually all of these websites will vanish when the server fees are not paid. So discounng legacy, the most probable reason is that people build them out of the desire to help others. Consider the model oﬀered by the ancient wisdom schools. There is typically a path one must follow to gain masterhood. The ﬁrst

step on the path is for an individual to seek understanding by deliberately asking for a teacher. What follows is a series of lessons, tests and iniaons as the seeker progresses from neophyte to iniate and ﬁnally to teacher and master. The lessons provide the seeker with pernent informaon. Tests are intended to determine if the seeker has assimilated the informaon in a way that can be expressed in novel ways. If so, then the seeker has demonstrated that the informaon has been assimilated as knowledge. But here is the important part. During the iniaon, the seeker is asked quesons which may only indirectly relate to the lessons. If the seeker is able to provide reasonable answers that indicate understanding, then the seeker will be passed to the next level. A selﬂess response to the urge to teach is diﬃcult to ignore; however, the student is drawn to the lessons with usually only vague reasons for pursuing understanding. It is this teacher-seeker relaonship I wish to address here. The Nature of Understanding There is a disncon between informaon, knowledge and understanding: Information Informaon can be compared to raw data. In the context of mind, it is sensory input from the environment brought by the physical senses and countless psi signals. As it is received, informaon is undiﬀerenated and is only sensible when organized into some context. In a praccal sense, much of what you have read in this essay thus far is just informaon. Think of the bits and pieces

of informaon as data points which must eventually be integrated into a sensible concept. Much of what people think they know is just informaon. Knowledge When informaon is considered, and the related concepts are understood, the resulng comprehension is considered knowledge. To be knowledgeable about something is to comprehend related concepts so that they can be reasonably well visualized. This is the key to the nature of knowledge. It must be comprehensible enough to be visualized as a concept. Here, visualize is used in the general sense of being imaged in some way in the mind. That might be suﬃcient recognion of an odor to name its source or formulaon of many seemingly unrelated concepts into a form that can be described to others. For instance, consider the old story of blind men examining an elephant: if each man represents a concept (leg, tail and such), then knowledge would be the ability of the men as a group to be able to describe an elephant. Knowledge is a combinaon of informaon, understanding concepts and comprehension of a global sense of meaning. Understanding In the Implicit Cosmology, percepon is modeled as the outcome of a process that begins with encountering informaon that is external to the mind. We, as etheric mind and physical body, are immersed in an array of environmental signals. Some are physically sensed by the body, but most are psychically sensed. All of these signals are processed in our Aenon Complex where they are ﬁrst ﬁltered according to

whether or not we are interested. (38) The degree to which understanding agrees with reality is also a funcon of our worldview. For instance, if we have been taught to be prejudiced about something, and we retain that prejudice, we will have that prejudice reinforced by the tone of the informaon coming to our conscious awareness. Unless we have become aware of the need to examine that percepon, we will likely take what emerges from the unconscious percepon process without queson. Here, the exercises of mindfulness as a conscious eﬀort to see things as they are intended become important in helping us see the world as it is, rather than as we are taught to think it is. Understanding is not an absolute. As is shown in the Limits of Understanding Diagram, correct percepon (understanding) is typically limited upon ﬁrst exposure to a concept. As a mindful person seeks to beer understand the concept, understanding approaches percepon that agrees with reality. This is an obvious eﬀect when, say, a new principle in science is introduced, but less obvious is the process of overcoming prejudices learned in youth and fears foisted upon the avatar relaonship by human insncts. As a person moves through a lifeme from youth to old age, things held to be true populate Worldview and tend to reinforce future percepon. A conscious eﬀort is usually required to break this cycle. Perhaps even more distressing, a person carries these truths into transion from this lifeme. The result can be

a complex, reportedly emoonally painful period of geng well while Worldview is beer aligned with reality. The Process of Gaining Understanding As a person gains in understanding via the accumulated lessons of many lifemes (our own and/or those shared by other personalies in the collecve), the person begins to understand the need for more mindfulness and the desirability of having a worldview that is in agreement with reality. A magical thing happens when a person begins to consciously seek understanding. You may have heard the phrase: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” A similar saying was oﬀered by psychologist Carl Jung: “Synchronicity is an ever-present reality for those who have eyes to see.” “For those who have eyes to see” is also a saying used in the Bible and secret wisdom schools. In fact, the whole idea of the occult or secret wisdom is not so much the secret but the need for the seeker to have suﬃcient understanding to recognize the lessons. An example is the concept of polarity: Everything has an opposite. The seeker is expected to realize that the middle way is the hidden knowledge to be derived from such concepts. In pracce, this realizaon translates as perceptual understanding based on Worldview which is in alignment with reality. At least one reason mindfulness works is that consciously seeking understanding eﬀecvely tells the unconscious part of mind to pay aenon to external informaon that might help, rather than ignoring it as irrelevant. In many ways,

the mostly unconscious mind is an obedient servant that shields us from a world that does not support what we think is true. Quesoning assumed truths moves the horizon of conscious self deeper into the unconscious process. Worldview eﬀecvely prevents us from experiencing or believing anything that is not in agreement with our worldview. That is how it shapes our personal reality, even when it conﬂicts with actual reality. It is also how a person can obsessively believe something even though the facts seem overwhelmingly to the contrary. Change must come incrementally. That is, if incoming informaon is clearly not acceptable to Worldview, it is ignored. However, informaon that is reasonably similar to what is in Worldview will somemes be accepted via the Maybe outcome of the Perceptual Loop. The Maybe outcome is consciously experienced and incrementally changes Worldview. In that way, progression in understanding is a gradual thing. Engineers will recognize the curve in the Limits of Understanding Diagram as a naturally occurring rate of change found in many physical processes. Change is usually evoluonary and seldom catastrophic. We Exist to Learn Given the concepts described above, it is arguable that each of us is here to gain understanding. However, there is an old saying that “When you’re up to your neck in alligators, it’s easy to forget you came to drain the swamp.” While we are in this lifeme and immersed in daily living, it is easy to forget why we came. In a praccal sense, there are

few signs to remind us of our Prime Imperave. (See Essay 3: Prime Imperave. Progression may seem to be a solitary path. Perhaps that is why they call such paths personal improvement. In fact, the old saying that we are all connected is more truth than platude, and the path we may seem to be walking alone is more a march of the multude of personalies who await our progression while doing what they can to assist us. We who are seeking understanding are a community, a collecve of like-minded people that exists in the physical as personality entangled avatars and in the etheric as immortal beings. It is worth repeang the opening understanding: The Way of Progression Through community comes knowledge Through teaching comes understanding It takes a collecve The Prime Imperative as a Spiritual Obligation While we all share an urge to gain understanding, in a very real sense, we have a sort of spiritual obligaon to respond to that urge. While it may seem to be a sacriﬁce to teach or help others learn, every such eﬀort is rewarded with new understanding and resulng progression that likely would not be possible otherwise. It is much too complex of a concept to say that each of us needs to serve in some way in the physical. As I have noted above, there are many ways we teach. Perhaps the majority of us are too early on the path to be more than inspiraon to others. However, if we

have reached a point in our evoluon at which we are accustomed to self-evaluaon, it is me to begin ﬁnding ways to serve by teaching. In a very real sense, progression can go only so far without teaching and that requires a community. The Transition Experience As I understand it, all of us experience a short period of disorientaon as we begin the process of transion out of this lifeme. The ﬁrst milestone of transion appears to be the oen-reported period of geng well. That is thought to be followed by a period of self-assessment and ﬁnally the compleon of transion as we enter into a new venue for learning. The new venue could be in the physical, but it could as well be in some other aspect of reality. Personal reality is a product of Worldview, and we take Worldview with us into transion. That is probably why, during the inial shock of transion, it seems to be relavely easy for a personality to remain perceptually close to familiar surroundings. It is during this me that most communicaon with people in the physical seems to occur. A common report is the deparng visit to say goodbye to a good friend. The geng well period is needed to allow the personality me to realize that old handicaps no longer apply. This may also be when we undergo a self-evaluaon of our just ﬁnished lifeme. This is that dreaded judgment we are warned about. However, instead of our being judged by

some authority on high, it is a personal process in which we sense how our acons aﬀected others from the perspecve of those whom we aﬀected. Perhaps it is from this self-evaluaon that we determine our future lessons. The period of adjustment apparently begins as the sense that we are in a world very much as we experienced in the physical; again, clinging to the familiar. However, if we expect a heaven from the religious point of view, we will likely ﬁnd ourselves in that heaven. As we understand it, over me, we ﬁnd that these are only constructs of our worldview, which itself is slowly realigned to beer agree with the greater reality. As we understand the process, we are born into a venue for learning at the end of this transion (a new lifeme), with a point of view, a degree of maturity in our understanding of the nature of reality gained from past experiences and an urge to learn speciﬁc lessons. We are not all-wise when not in a lifeme. Instead, we have an imperave to learn and a degree of perceptual maturity which helps to form our point of view. It is this maturity and resulng point of view which determine what aspect of reality we can be in agreement with. In eﬀect, the greater our understanding, the wider range of venues and opportunies for learning we have available to our personality. To emphasize this point, the relaonship between personality, Aenon Complex and conscious self remains

during transion. The only real diﬀerence is that the human inﬂuence is no longer as strong. Part of transion may well be the process of sorng through Worldview to ﬂush out that human inﬂuence. Meanwhile, to put it in the vernacular, if a person was an idiot in life, he or she is likely going to be an idiot in transion. An important point is that there are no enforcement oﬃcers making sure we do what we should. We are self-governing. Our understanding manifests as percepon and that determines what aspects of reality we can visit (Principle of Agreement). It appears that transcommunicaon is possible during transion, but once a personality transions into a new venue of learning, it appears that all communicaon into the physical stops unless it is assisted by other, more mature personalies. See Essay 16: What is it Like on the Other Side Self-Realization This essay can be summarized as Understanding Self-Realizaon. The reason to study metaphysics is not just to map reality. It involves a process of discovery intended to help us learn how to gain personal understanding so as to fulﬁll our purpose. It is okay to ignore the details if you ﬁnd the guidance. Here, I do not mean purpose in a myscal sense. An acorn fulﬁlls its purpose by growing into an oak tree. If the acorn tries to be a willow, it will likely end up being a prey sad-looking oak tree. Metaphysics tells us that our purpose is to align

our personal reality with the actual nature of reality. If we ignore that Prime Imperave, we will likely end up being less than we could be. There is no need for me to explain this point. As you live your life as a person, you must surely see the beneﬁts of living in accordance with organizing principles and the resulng discomfort if you do not. Fulﬁlling your purpose may or may not be the same as what society considers being successful. Mainstream society is dominated by people trying to be willows. Only a few are suﬃciently self-aware to recognize there is a purpose that underlies the dynamics of our society. It is for you to live in this society as a useful cizen without allowing its less aware point of view contaminate your worldview. Remember that it is not what happens to you. It is how you react to what happens to you. References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 20 Law of Silence 2017 About This Essay As seekers, we live in a rather diﬀerent world than our friends and family who are not on the Mindful Way. Paying more aenon to our thoughts produces greater sensivity to community dynamics and a diﬀerent way of thinking that is oen misunderstood by our friends. Knowing the teacher must be asked, it can be painful to remain quiet when we know people around us are expressing belief in baseless cultural wisdom. A praccal consequence of increased

spiritual maturity is oen uncomfortable awareness of the actual nature of our world. Yet, we must remain a part of the world in order to connue our development; perhaps to be of service along the way. You may noce that I address many of these issues in my wring. While some are the focus of an essay, most are embedded in those essays as part of my explanaon of the main point. My objecve is to explain every aspect of the metaphysics, as I understand the concepts in the context of the Implicit Cosmology. (10) If I were to design a college course on the subject, tests would be in the form of asking you to describe your understanding of these incidental concepts. The Law of Silence is one such incidental concept. I wrote this essay while I was acvely supporng The Otherside Press Magazine. (172) The magazine was a startup publicaon of the American Society for Standards in Mediumship & Psychical Invesgaon (ASSMPI). (173) Most of the essays I wrote for the magazine were slanted toward the need for and beneﬁts of a cooperave community. Personal progression is facilitated by parcipaon in one. Law of Silence was wrien to guide people toward eﬀecve communicaon. Understanding the dynamics of communicaon is fundamental to parcipaon in a cooperave community. I believe the reason so many people tend to be lurkers, rather than acve parcipants is that they have spoken when it was best to remain quiet and were somehow discouraged from

further aempts to communicate. Of course, I am not a psychologist, so this is only based on my observaons and personal experience. Many argue that the Bible includes reference to the Law of Silence, but from my reading, it is used in the Bible in the form of “Thou shalt not speak…” in the context of not speaking untruths or out of turn. For instance, in 1 Timothy 2:11 states: “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjecon.” And, in 1 Timothy 2:12 “But I suﬀer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” My ﬁrst real encountered with the Law of Silence came from the teaching of Paul Twitchell, founder of Eckankar. (25) As a technical metaphysician, Twitchell’s lectures were able to help me make sense of this rather abstract concept. It took me many years and a lot of weird conversaons to realize I see the world rather diﬀerently than others. For instance, I remember being excited about how I could actually see the pecking order described by Ardrey in his book, African Genesis, (41) as it was demonstrated when a ﬂock of birds made claim to a fence. Try as I did, none of the people I told about it showed any interest. I saw the same sort of dynamic when a recently divorced friend tried to explain his grief to others. He inevitably went away with a sense of empness, as his friends failed to respond

as he expected. I spent a lot of me with him as we talked it out. In the end, the message was that he needed to look elsewhere for sympathec ears. It was about then that the book, I’m OK - You’re OK (69) came out. That was one of the more useful self-help books of the me, and it gave me a way of telling others that there was a logical ﬂow of communicaon. The Law of Silence is a tool which can help you be a more eﬀecve communicator in any venue. It is a more eﬀecve tool when considered in the context of your immortal self. Introduction The Law of Silence can be deﬁned as Sharing important informaon with someone who does not respond as well as expected can dissipate the sense of the importance of the informaon. This does not amount to a law so much as it is a cauonary wisdom, but it is a foundaon concept for the secrecy oen required by ancient wisdom schools and advice to be at least considered by everyone. Secrecy has been part of the ancient wisdom schools since the early days of civilizaon. There were a number of reasons for secrecy that involved the nature of the schools and local society. Of those, the wisdom of keeping our own counsel remains important today. However, paradoxically, personal progression is greatly facilitated by mastering meaningful communicaon of ideas. So, which is it? Should we not share our thoughts about these

concepts or should we openly talk about them? The answer is that somemes it is best to remain silent, but somemes it is more important to speak out. Understanding three aspects of communicaon will help to resolve this paradox. Suspended Judgment The Principle of Suspended Judgment is described in the Implicit Cosmology as Increased understanding may come from unexpected or unwanted outcomes of expression. (27) As we mature into adults, Worldview, what we unconsciously think is true about the world, is mostly populated with cultural beliefs. These beliefs are too oen local prejudices and baseless lore that, if acted on, may lead us into a less than beneﬁcial way of living. From this perspecve, the purpose of life can be described as a quest to align Worldview with the actual nature of reality. That is, to replace beliefs with correct understanding. A good way to take control of our unconscious mental processes is the Mindful Way. (48) By consciously making the pracce of suspended judgment a habitual part of our relaonship with our environment, it is possible to train our unconscious perceptual process to avoid premature decisions and thereby gain understanding that might not come if we simply accepted our ﬁrst impressions. Suspended judgment involves avoiding good-bad, agree-disagree, believe-disbelieve decisions about experiences so as to allow me, somemes months or years, for more informaon to develop. It is important to be responsible for our acons, including seeking to accomplish speciﬁc tasks. The idea is that realizing something other than an

intended result does not mean failure. Instead, the unexpected result oﬀers an opportunity to reevaluate the assumpons on which the acons were based. Suspended Judgment can be considered a more contemporary expression of the Law of Detachment. Deepak Chopra provides a good descripon of the Law of Detachment: (174) In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty, in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is the prison of past condioning. And in our willingness to step into the unknown, the ﬁeld of all possibilies, we surrender ourselves to the creave mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe. The idea of the Law of Detachment is that being set on a parcular result of some eﬀort will blind us from seeing the potenal beneﬁts of alternave results. There is a problem of literal interpretaon, though. Virtually everything in society tells us to become engaged, making the idea of being detached from the outcome of our acons seem like we do not care. We can resolve this in our mind by making a disncon between detachment and objecve. If we set out to achieve a ﬁnal objecve, our aachment might be in achieving that objecve but not how we achieve it. For instance, if our objecve is to have aﬀordable transportaon, programming for a sports car might miss the point. When a really nice sedan becomes available, the Law of Detachment tells us that we should take it. Alternavely, it might be wiser to

decide not to buy a car if we live and work in a large city. Deciding that would meet our objecve. The principle of suspended judgment supports a more general perspecve. Our unconscious mental processes are hard-wired to make decisions. That means there is an accept, reject or narrowly deﬁned condional accept decision for everything we do, sense or visualize. Consciously deciding to replace a reject outcome with a wait and see response teaches the unconscious mind to be more lenient in the condional accept decision. This has the potenal to make the content of Worldview more accessible to evoluon toward greater understanding. The second beneﬁt of suspended judgment can be found in how the mostly unconscious mind decides to ignore some environmental informaon based on our prior interests. In fact, there must be countless signals coming to our mind, yet only a few are presented to our conscious awareness. Our expression of intenon helps to direct this ﬁltering process, but mind learns very slowly, so it takes me. By habitually maintaining the atude of suspended judgment, we create more ambiguity in our interests, thus making the door for what gets through the ﬁlter open a lile wider. The eﬀect is that we become more aware of many events in our environment we would otherwise ignore. Paranormal experiences fall into that category because we have been taught from birth that they do not exist. Perceptual Agreement The Principle of Perceptual Agreement is described as Personality must be in perceptual agreement

with the aspect of reality with which it will associate. (18) This principle provides a mechanism by which order can be imposed on a system without many complex rules liming behavior. Rather than some ethereal being telling us what we can and cannot do, or where we can go in heaven, this principle assures that we will gravitate toward aspects of reality which we are best able to understand. The praccal consequence is that freedom of access to the greater reality is increased by gaining understanding which is in accordance with the actual nature of reality. The self-liming aspect based on understanding appears to be made praccal by the Maybe state of the Perceptual Loop shown in the Funconal Areas of Percepon Diagram (above). New understanding occurs when the new input is diﬀerent but reasonably close to prior understanding. When it is, the new input is allowed into Worldview, albeit aer it is visualized by our Perceptual Loop based on prior understanding held in Worldview. In this model, in response to the inherited urge to gain understanding, personality turns toward that which is familiar but with a preference for new experiences. Put a diﬀerent way, without the intervenon of conscious intenon to habitually see actual reality, the perceptual processes tend to turn us toward the familiar. There is a requirement in Rupert Sheldrake‘s Hypothesis of Formave Causaon (15) for Nature’s Habit to be evolved under the inﬂuence of creave soluons to environmental problems. The Maybe soluon in the Perceptual Loop

provides this mechanism. For our discussion, a consequence of this principle is that communicaon between two people is best when they are in perceptual agreement. That is, when their worldview leads them to see the world more or less the same way. This agreement need not be complete, but communicaon improves as the diﬀerences decrease. When describing an important, personal experience to others, it is more likely they will understand if they have a similar worldview or percepon of reality. For Those Who Have Eyes to See As it happened, most of our mental processes are unconscious. (16) (67) (68)As the arbiter of our mostly unconscious perceptual process, (18) our worldview determines what we become consciously aware of and the atude we will have toward that emerging awareness. You have probably heard the phrase, “For those who have eyes to see.” It can be found in the Bible and in modern philosophy. For instance, Carl Jung told us that “Synchronicity is an ever-present reality for those who have eyes to see.” The phrase, eyes to see, is another way of saying perceptual agreement. In its simplest form, if we are not familiar with a concept, then we may not understand references to it. This becomes important to the Law of Silence when abstract concepts or emoon-laden informaon is involved. If our audience does not have relevant informaon in Worldview because of lack of relevant experience or due to inaenon, then communicaon is impaired, and the person will likely not respond

as expected. This disconnect in understanding is the source of such unfortunate responses as inaenonal blindness or incredulity blindness. It Takes a Community Some of you will be familiar with the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This sage wisdom is in the literature of just about every religion and is one of the ﬁrst lessons most of us learned as a child. I am in my sevenes now, and for the life of me, I have never been able to see the praccal logic of the saying. Sure, I understand the idea that being kind to others will encourage them to be kind to me, but it doesn’t really work that way. I needn’t go into the dynamics of prejudice and cultural fallacy. The point is prey obvious. The urge to assure survival of our gene pool is so deeply embedded in our thinking that every acon is based, ﬁrst on a spontaneous insnctual response and then on what we have been taught is real. For all of us, our every acon is determined by our worldview. My acon can only slightly modify another person’s worldview. The cure is mindfulness, (48) but one must come to that without being forced. Habitually examining our every acon is the only way I know to override the inﬂuence of insncts and cultural training. If one steps onto that path of mindful reeducaon, in me, this examinaon becomes automac to produce a more understanding reacon to

the world. Under that condion, the Golden Rule makes sense. Even though the literal interpretaon of the Golden Rule seems to be only wishful thinking, the underlying esoteric lesson it conveys is one of the most important wisdoms paving our way to spiritual maturity. Three of the organizing principles in the Implicit Cosmology, (12) Cooperave Communies (below), Rapport (below) and Perceptual Agreement (above) support this conjecture: Cooperative Communities The Cooperave Community Principle is deﬁned as Personalies are aracted to communies of like-minded people cooperang to facilitate progression. (27) In eﬀect, we inherit a sort of Prime Imperave from our local source to gain understanding about the nature of reality. Understanding is relave but converges on a sense of the actual nature of reality as a person progresses. In the spiritual sense of “what is our purpose,” progression is accomplished by learning through experience. See Essay 3: Prime Imperave. Note the disncon between collecves and communies. A Collecve is deﬁned as Personalies related by a shared source tend to cooperate to favor the progression of mutually entangled individuals. Members of a collecve are bound together by their common source. There is evidence that many personalies cooperate in the etheric as part of a collecve to fulﬁll the intenon of their common source. In the physical, we are aracted to communies of like-minded people for mutual cooperaon toward gaining understanding. Cooperave communies likely support people from diﬀerent collecves with rather diﬀerent inherited objecves. The intenon to gain understanding is a common factor.

Cooperaon is facilitated by rapport which is established between personalies as they interact in the community. As an old adage goes, “Our lot is to learn, and having learned, our lot is to teach.” Each member of a cooperave community ﬁlls both the role of seeker and teacher simply by interacng with other members of the community. Rapport Rapport can be deﬁned as Personalies are interconnected by links of cooperaon (inﬂuence) forming a matrix of relaonships (cooperang community). One person’s awareness of another personality produces a link of inﬂuence between the two life ﬁelds. The nature and intensity of this link is a funcon of one or both personality’s visualizaon, aenon and intenon. The nature of this link of rapport also depends on the clarity (intensity) of awareness and the reason for the awareness. These links are dynamic and are thought to facilitate cooperaon. Perceptual Agreement is a moderang factor for rapport. Presumably, the more two people agree on the nature of reality, the stronger the link of rapport. This is something that can wax and wane from moment-to- moment, as one or the other party is more or less at ease. This idea is well- characterized by the book, I’m OK - You’re OK. (69) The links of rapport, coupled with the Principle of Perceptual Agreement, would serve to integrate reality toward a single thought. Using the chorus model, that would look like a super chorus of individual singers singing the same song. This super-unity, I think, is the

objecve of our existence. It also explains why Hans Bender, (36) speaking through the FEG medium, was so determined about how our acons in the physical are disrupng the greater community in the etheric. The Three Aspects of a Teacher The teacher-student relaonship is inherent in the Cooperave Community Principle. It seems reasonable to imagine that a long past wayshower might have told his students something to the eﬀect of: “As you seek so do you teach, as you parcipate in the great work.” In keeping with the habit of secrecy, such a profundity would have been deliberately made obscure. Thus, most of these lessons had a public version. The seeker-teacher relaonship is all about cooperaon, and that might have been popularized as the Golden Rule. The Emerald Tablet aributed to Hermes (28) is an example of hidden knowledge that might have preceded the Golden Rule. Of the fourteen lines, Line 12 and 13 are arguably teaching the importance of cooperaon. 12. So the world was created. Hence were all the wonderful adaptaons of the one thing manifested; but the arrangements that follow this great mysc path are hidden. The One Thing is the organizing principles acng on the etheric, which is Source as the reality ﬁeld. Hermes is explaining that everything in reality was formed by way of the same principles he has explained in the previous lines. An important concept here is “For those who have eyes to see.” The way described in this lesson is hidden to

those who have not followed this path. 13. For this reason I am called Hermes Trismegistus--one in essence but three in total aspect. In this Trinity are concealed the three parts of the wisdom of the whole world. It is likely that there are mulple meanings in this line. The trinity concept is important throughout the Hermec Wisdom. For instance, posive, negave and neutral, and body, mind and spirit. However, there is a more deeply hidden aspect of the trinity concept. Understanding of, and ability to properly manage the trinity of imaginaon, aenon and intenon is the foundaon of “the wisdom of the whole world.” See the Funconal Areas of Percepon Diagram (above). Trismegistus was the honorary name given to a person who had achieved mastery over himself and the principles, and who has integrated them into a way of life to live a good life. When considered with Line 12, the phrase, “For this reason,” makes it clear that the “three parts of the wisdom of the world” is a direct reference to the three aspects of all teachers. That is, a teacher represents the lesson to be taught, appears to the student as an example of what it is to understand the lesson and demonstrates the value of the lesson through applicaon of the lesson in life. These three aspects are demonstrated by the way Jesus presented himself in the Bible: John 14.6: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man

cometh unto the Father, but by me.” In this line, Jesus has told his disciples that he personiﬁes the path that they must follow to return to God. He is showing himself to his followers as the three aspects of the teacher: follow me that I am the path; follow me as the Spirit of Truth; and, follow me as I have lived. With these consideraons, I believe the Golden Rule can be understood as a much-simpliﬁed expression of the concepts related to community, cooperaon and rapport: Teach others as they teach you. These principles and the three aspects of a teacher are fundamental enablers for our personal progression. The challenge is to balance the wisdom of silence with the advice that we should be wayshowers for others. Practicing the Law of Silence Keep your own counsel is excellent advice, especially for people who are new to a path of learning; however, it is also excellent advice to ﬁnd others with whom to safely discuss important informaon. The task is in knowing when to share and when to remain silent. There are obvious cues for when to refrain from sharing important informaon. For instance, a conservave Chrisan is predictably oﬀended by metaphysical subjects that might seem to conﬂict with popular understanding of biblical teaching. A discussion of the sancty of all life would not be a good subject in a gun shop or at a Second Amendment meeng unless you are looking for a ﬁght. Sharing news of family problems

with someone who has no useful references to understand your stress will likely not produce a supporve response. In the same way, sharing your excitement about having learned a very conceptual lesson about life, with someone who is not yet ready for self-improvement, is likely to drain away your enthusiasm as you try in vain to explain your excitement. The key to when to share is in understanding perceptual agreement. Make sure your listener is at least reasonably close to you in Worldview. At the same me, be mindful that you are always a teacher. We seldom experience grand awakenings. Instead, we learn in small increments. Be paent with the uniniated people around you. If you think you understand a lile something about the world that might be of help to your friend’s progression, it is important that you share what you know. However, do so in increments that will be understandable. The rest of that story is that you should not be aached to the outcome of the telling. People seldom react as we expect, so be open to whatever your friend’s reacon might be. Because people learn in small increments, they are more likely to understand in the future if you expose them to the concept now. If you are not prepared to accept a “So what” response, keep your counsel. Community The most important thing you can do is to ﬁnd a community of like-minded people and culvate a culture of sharing and mutual support. It is

by cooperang in a community that you will fulﬁll your urge to gain understanding. It should be prey clear by now that I have an extensive background in what I like to refer to as Etheric Studies. I do not consider myself an expert; however, unlike most people around me, I have thought longer and harder about many of the concepts related to progression than others in the community. While I try to remain open to new ideas and unexpected improvements in my understanding, like everyone else, my worldview has considerable momentum. It is diﬃcult for me to see past that which I think I have come to understand. This is important to you in that encountering a very knowledgeable person in a presumably cooperave community comes with special cauons. Learn to speak with others as if you have a queson you wish them to answer. Don’t assume they have superior knowledge. Just be aware that your next important lesson might come from a stranger’s oand comment or even an apparently wrong comment about the nature of reality. Contemplate a lot on what it means to have an open mind. Everything has a message for you, should you know how to look. Especially know that people like me have become so accustomed to teaching that it is diﬃcult for us to stop and listen. Oh, and looking back, I realize that somemes I say the strangest things. One can only hope that there is an unexpected message in what I

say for someone. References and Alternave Sources Listed at the end of the book. Essay 21 Informed Regret 2017 About This Essay I close this book with a warning of sorts. You may have noced that some of our most brilliant people turn their aenon to philosophical musing in their later years. It is probably true that we all would, given the right situaons in life. Perhaps it is necessary for us to have lived a lifeme in order to become suﬃciently self-aware to realize that we might have been much happier had we taken a diﬀerent, perhaps more spiritual path in life. It is a truism that all of the ﬁnancial gain in the world will not keep us from transion or that moment in which we must realize the implicaons of our acons toward others. We think it is also a truism that what we do now maers here and hereaer. It is not that being good lets us into heaven. It is that the more aware we are of the actual nature of reality, the more aware we can expect to be during our transion. By extension, that means the more we are able to inﬂuence our next learning experiences. I have to admit that this is all speculaon. However, having a pragmac temperament, I would not say these things if I did not see reasonable support for their validity. So, this essay is a reminder that it is me to begin following the Mindful Way. Lucidity

is not something we decide to have. It is developed over many years as a lifestyle. Do yourself and the rest of us a most important service by turning your intenon toward understanding. You will be glad you did. Abstract In the song, If I Were Brave, singer Jana Stanﬁeld (175) answers the queson, “What would I do today, if I were brave?” with, “If I were brave, I’d walk the razor’s edge.” If I were brave is a reference to learning to follow our spiritual insncts. The Razor’s edge represents the path we follow while obeying those insncts. The Implicit Cosmology (12) posits that we inherit a spiritual urge to gain understanding about the nature of reality. (23) (See: Essay 3: Prime Imperave) This urge is as compelling as our human’s survival insncts, but as a praccal maer, it is the human insncts which drive much of our thinking. In pracce, we must come to the realizaon that there is a need to consciously seek progression, as our insncts urge. Even though we are oen reminded of the need to follow our spiritual insncts, most of us who do, come to this realizaon late in life. This essay focuses on the concept of informed regret. The original tle was “I Could Have Had a V8.” The intenon of this essay is to help you decide before there is need for regret. Introduction Remember the adversement: “I Could Have Had a V8”? The idea is that you already knew about

the good-for-you wonders of the V8® brand drink, but without thinking, you had something else to drink like a less nutrious soda pop. Consider the sense of regret the phrase is intended to evoke. Focus on the feeling that comes from realizing you have made the wrong decision. Perhaps you just realized you should have bought the blue car, rather than the red one you were driving when you got a speeding cket. Perhaps you realized that you just said something mean to a friend that can never be taken back. Try to enter into that consciousness for a moment. It is a sense of lost opportunity. A foolish, perhaps unthinking decision that cannot be undone. Yet, there is the promise to yourself that, next me, you will remember to have a V8! This is about the emergent feeling that can be found at the edge of your conscious awareness. In contemplaon, look between your unconscious and conscious awareness; the region in which your lucidity is developing. That is where, in your mind, those urges to act ﬁrst emerge. Here, I wish to evoke that sense of lost opportunity in your spiritual life. Assume for a moment that you have lived your life thus far without stepping onto a path of deliberate spiritual progression. Sure, you have taken a few courses and read a lot of books about things spiritual, but if you have not consciously decided to follow a parcular way of learning, perhaps you are really just dabbling.

Everything changes when (if) that moment comes in which you realize that you really are an immortal being. As the implicaons of that realizaon sink in, it must become evident that seeking is for your immortal self, and not just to improve this lifeme. The ulmate meaning must come that what you do now maers the rest of your eternity. As it Happened for Me Other than the promise of Santa Clause and those taletale elves my mother claimed were always watching me, my ﬁrst real brush with a formal system of thought came when my mother made me aend Sunday School. The church’s preacher lived in the house next to ours. My brush with faith abruptly ended when I saw his wife run out of the house, only to have him grab her and literally kick her back in. Faith quickly gave way to science when I talked my kindergarten teacher into reading books to me on astronomy. It seemed important to know about astronomy if I was to be the ﬁrst person on the moon. It took me decades to realize that, in many disciplines, science is just another form of faith. Over me, my sense of world order changed to be the convergence of scienﬁc theory with engineering principles. Science became learned speculaon for me while engineering became clever applicaon of science. In 1987, Lisa introduced me to Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP). Then in 2000, we assumed leadership of the Associaon TransCommunicaon (ATransC) and I became deeply

involved with the study of the survival hypothesis. While I mingled my engineering career with the study of metaphysics, my focus was always on the praccal aspects of human potenal. Think of it as personal improvement, which is a body-centric pursuit. Even though I studied telepathy, out-of-body travel and such, it never really occurred to me that I was an immortal being only temporarily enjoying the human condion. I was told that very thing by many teachers, but I was told otherwise in hundreds of diﬀerent ways. Informaon about my immortality had lile eﬀect on my sense of world order. We published 57 quarterly ATransC NewsJournals through the Spring of 2014. As we developed arcles for them, the realizaon dawned on me that EVP are not just interesng phenomena like ghosts and Astral projecon. They represent a kind of revelaon about our immortality. I think Essay 2: The Mindful Way that I wrote for that last NewsJournal was my “I could have had a V8” moment. I was 71 by then and becoming aware of my physical mortality. Rather than looking for ways to increase my potenal as a human, I should have been seeking ways to improve my lucidity by consciously purging lazy beliefs. I had been told, but the warnings were abstracons that had lile eﬀect on my sense of order unl I realized that the voices in EVP could only have been iniated by immortal personalies. The original tle of The Mindful Way essay in the last

ATransC NewsJournal was actually Mindfulness. I changed the tle as it became evident that my wring was about a system of thought. Humankind Has Been Told Many Times Here, I want to give you a few references which will help you understand the diﬀerence between dabbling along the seeker’s path and purposefully traveling the Mindful Way. The Katha Upanishad is a 4,000 years old ancient Hindu Vedic Sanskrit text which tells how the God of Death explained the nature of life to a seeker. Swami Krishnananda tells us that the God of Death explained that there are two paths in life from which we must choose: The Good and the Pleasant. (74) below is, ﬁrst, Panoli‘s Sanskrit-to-English translaon of lines 1-11-1 and 1-11-2 of the Katha Upanishad, followed by the Swami’s explanaon: The Panoli Translaon: Diﬀerent is (that which is) preferable; and diﬀerent, indeed, is the pleasurable. These two, serving diﬀerent purposes, blind man. Good accrues to him who, of these two, chooses the preferable. He who chooses the pleasurable falls from the goal. 1- 11-1 Katha Upanishad (22) Swami’s paraphrase: “There are two things in this world, and people pursue either this or that. These two may be regarded as the path of the pleasant, and the path of the good. Most people choose the former, and not the good. The pleasant is pleasing, but passing, and ends in pain. It is diﬀerent from the good. But while the good need not necessarily be pleasant, the pleasant is not

good.” Swami’s explanaon: Both come to a person, and we are free to choose. But we choose the nsel because it gliers. An experience seems to be pleasant because of the reacon of our nerves. A condion that is brought about as a result of a reacon is passing, and not being. Lack of discriminaon is the reason for choosing pleasure; confusion of mind causes a wrong choice. When you grope in darkness, you fall into the pit, but you know it only aer the fall. Similarly, the senseworld is darkness, and sense- objects come to ruin you, but the misguided mind cannot understand this. “Good comes to a person who chooses the good. But he who chooses the pleasant falls short of his aim.” The Panoli Translaon: The preferable and the pleasurable approach man. The intelligent one examines both and separates them. Yea, the intelligent one prefers the preferable to the pleasurable, (whereas) the ignorant one selects the pleasurable for the sake of yoga (aainment of that which is not already possessed) and kshema (the preservaon of that which is already in possession). 1-11-2 Katha Upanishad (22) Swami’s paraphrase: “The dull-wied person chooses the pleasant: he wants to pass the day somehow. He does not know where or how the good is. The hero who is endowed with the power of discriminaon, chooses the ulmate good.” Swami’s explanaon: When the pleasant and good come to us, they come together, in a mixed form, so that you cannot understand them.

The best example for this is the world itself: you can use it as a passage to eternity, or for your pleasure. Yama (God of death) tested Nachiketas (The Seeker in this Upanishad) in the same way as this world tests us. Temptaons come every day, in everything we see. We are caught in them because we are unable to disnguish between right and wrong. We do not know what will happen tomorrow. But our ignorance is so dark that we expect more pleasure, forgeng that death may come any moment. Death is the best teacher; there is not a beer one: Understanding dawns by meditaon on death. Suppose death comes to you in ﬁve minutes. Suppose you know it. What will you do? Will you act as you act now? You will act diﬀerently. It is true that we may die any moment. Yet, we do not think of it. Who prevents us from choosing the good? It is lack of understanding, which hides the defecve side and shows only the pleasant aspects. The Razor’s Edge The second stanza of If I Were Brave by Jana Stanﬁeld, (175) has the words: If I were brave, I’d walk the razor’s edge, where fools and dreamers dare to tread. And never lose faith, even when losing my way. What step would I take … today, if I were brave? What would I do today, if I were brave? The razor’s edge is a phrase also found in the Katha Upanishad. Arise,

awake, and learn by approaching the exalted ones, for that path is sharp as a razor’s edge, impassable, and hard to go by, say the wise. 1-III-14 Katha Upanishad (27) As I learned from Paul Twitchell‘s lectures, (155) spiritual seeking requires courage. The best illustraon I can give is the ﬁrst me a person experiences what Twitchell referred to as Darshan, a Sanskrit term (darśana) related to coming in sight of a deity or a holy person. Darshan somemes produces a similarly traumac sense as that when a person undergoes a diﬃcult exit during what is somemes referred to as an out- of-body or Astral projecon experience. Some people simply move into that dissociated awareness, but for some, it is like pulling a cork from a wine bole. It can be very fearful when a person suddenly enters into such a dissociated state for the ﬁrst me. An important funcon of a teacher is to prepare the seeker for this, because if the experiencer’s mostly unconscious mind goes into the “Stranger! Danger!” mode, it may be diﬃcult for the student to be open to future experiences. It is possible that a fearful response can cut of further development for this lifeme. Another example of the dangers of seeking is how diﬃcult it is to remain on the path while managing our human’s insnctual responses to life’s situaons. It is said that, even an advanced personality that has chosen to enter into a lifeme for some purpose, is apt to slide

into ignorance of the Mindful Way because of the appealing nature of the physical world. The Mindful Way is traveled moment-by-moment. Every acon, every decision has the potenal of moving us further from understanding. As we progress, our judgment becomes more in tune with the Mindful Way, but it takes me and there is always the unexpected challenge which might distract us from the way. What Would You Do? Taking the queson of “What would I do today, if I were brave?” in the context of the ﬁrst stanza of the song, the answer is that, if I were brave, I would be a seeker. Here, I deﬁne a seeker as one who realizes the need to consciously seek spiritual maturity. In the context of the Katha Upanishad, this means to wisely select the spiritual way, rather than seeking fame and wealth. In the context of our current reality, it means to learn to habitually live this lifeme while turning toward opportunies to gain understanding, seeking understanding in all experiences while allowing that understanding to inﬂuence our choices. In ancient mes, taking the Mindful Way may have demanded making a choice between seeking material success and spiritual progression. Our consciousness has changed since then, and we seem more able to ﬁnd progression without rejecng a prosperous way of life. In our me, this means living the life in a mindful way … wherever life takes us. While I might judge other people’s acons from a raonal living or good cizenship

perspecve, I am not prepared to judge those acons from the perspecve of spiritual seeking. It is clear that we somemes need diﬃcult experiences to gain important understanding. As Twitchell oen noted, a wealthy businessman might well be a spiritual master, as might be the janitor serving his building. The measure of the good choice rather than the choice of pleasure, as discussed in the Katha Upanishad, is not material versus spiritual. It is probably best described as an ethical one. See Essay 5: Ethics as a Personal Code for Mindfulness. From my experience, by seeking to follow a personal code of ethics, I ﬁnd myself also turning toward a more spiritual perspecve in my daily living. Mine begins with Seth’s “Do not violate,” which is elaborated on with such ethical principles as respect and judgment. Those are expressed as such ideas as “just because I can, doesn’t mean I should” and “I will not impose my will on others.” Develop such a code for yourself and then apply it to every aspect of whatever you do in life, be it living in a cave or seeking success in the corporate world. This is at least one version of that V8 drink you can have, should you decide to consciously seek spiritual maturity. My Learned Point of View Your mindful way will not look like mine. You live in a diﬀerent personal reality and have had diﬀerent experiences which are leading to future experiences which are diﬀerent from my future

experiences. Even so, I can act as a role model for you in the spirit of teach me as I teach you. Here is an overview of the way I have come to deal with my world. You can think of this as what to do or what not to do, depending on how you view my example. I should preface this by saying I began dabbling with seeking in my teens but did not begin seriously considering the reality of my immortality unl I was in my early fores. By now, I do have a good sense of the wisdom of lucidity but have not learned to integrate it so that I can consider myself anything like an adept. I am a role model because of my book learning more than because of my wisdom and spiritual maturity. A Pragmatic Point of View Part of wring Your Immortal Self, (1) was ﬁnding a way to explain the implicaons of survival. The most important consequence of survival is that our mind is not in our body. We are an etheric life form which has joined in an entangled relaonship with a human body to experience the physical aspect of reality. This has been a gradual realizaon for me. It has taken many years to even parally integrate the implicaons into my view of reality. To become entangled with our human avatar, we are born into this lifeme. Because we share Worldview with our human, our ﬁrst few years are spent

populang Worldview with learned things from our family community and the media … and learning to cope with our human’s insncts. The result is that we naturally develop a body-centric perspecve of reality. We think we are our body, and for most people, we think our body’s urges are our urges. For many of us, our senior years brings the realizaon that there is more to us than our body. Even fewer of us consciously become a seeker of greater understanding about our etheric nature. When this happened, the process of changing point of view from body-centric (we are our body) to an immortal self-centric perspecve can begin. The ﬁrst lesson of the immortal self-centric perspecve is that our conscious self is our experiencer and our mostly unconscious mind is our judge. We always experience reality from the perspecve of our experiencer as a video camera-like perspecve. This is true when we are awake and when we are disassociated as in meditaon, dream or delirium. I say that our mind is mostly unconscious mind because, as judge, it includes our percepon and expression funcons. The judge uses Worldview as a standard to decide if our conscious self will experience incoming informaon. (16) It also colors how we experience that informaon by changing it into a familiar form. The result is that we, as conscious self, tend to experience reality as we think it is supposed to be, based on experience … what we have been taught. Worldview only changes in

small increments. The one inﬂuence we have on it is our conscious intenon to understand the implicaons of what we think is true. Part of learning to experience reality as it is, rather than as we have been taught, is the long process of examining everything we think. Is it true? Does it make sense? Do we understand the implicaons of what we think is true? Do we agree with those implicaons? When we believe something, it is important that we also believe the implicaons. What are the consequences of our beliefs; of our acons? If we are persistent in quesoning our beliefs, in me, we develop a clear sense of reality that is more in agreement with its actual nature. The more this is true, the greater our lucidity. That is how we begin to see further into the mysteries of reality. We do not become enlightened beings by wishing it so. We do so by doing the work. We accept responsibility for what we believe to be true and work very hard to align our beliefs with the actual nature of reality. That is the way of the seeker. My Advice Live your life by engaging with it, rather than avoiding potenally stressful experiences just because they might get your blood pressure up. We are here to gain understanding about the nature of reality through experience. Some of the most important understanding comes from the most challenging experiences. Think as an immortal self, not as a person living

in fear of death. Being killed is not the worst thing that can happen to us. At least intend to get a good night’s sleep without cluering it with a lucid dreaming to do list. For me, lucid dreaming is a lot of work for lile gain. I can make beer progress simply by paying aenon to life and habitually contemplang daily experiences. Any understanding you think you gain from lucid dreaming is apt to be just your worldview oﬀering bits of memory to answer your requests … telling you a likely story. There is no way of knowing if your conclusions are the right ones. For me, dream interpretaon is a game of stump the chump. Never forget the inﬂuence of cultural contaminaon on your experiences. Experience through your senses and not through those of your teacher. Observe the inﬂuence of cultural contaminaon on the thinking of your friends and opinion seers. Be pragmac. Belief is the safe harbor for those who wish to abdicate their self-determinaon. It is not necessary to be sure about the choices you make. There may be many ways to the same end. All you can do is pick the way which seems best and try it out. Living is all about tesng what you think is right. That means a good life is one in which a person seeks understanding without precondions of right and wrong, correct or incorrect. It is not a the last one with all of the toys wins kind

of life. Accept that stuﬀ happens. If, in retrospect, you made the wrong choice, admit it, clean up the mess and look for the lessons as you move on. Bad mistakes are the stuﬀ of great life lessons. The implicaon of pragmasm is that it is good to unburden ourselves of those keep in case they are useful fragments of our life. Our consciousness changes as we gain in understanding. Relics tend to hold us back. Pragmasm means making useful decisions and moving on. You are a creator. Take responsibility for your creaons. It is true that we live in a shared venue for learning, but we are ulmately the creator of our reality by the way we react to our circumstances as vicm or student. It is not about what happens to us, but how we react to what happens to us. Resist being aached to a parcular outcome of your creave eﬀorts. Do this by focusing on the basic intent rather than a parcular soluon. Meditaon is important, but as a tool, not as a haven. Undertake a course of acon in which you decide to develop a channel to a deep meditave state, whatever that means for you. The Monroe Instute Hemi Sync is a good approach for that. (3) The more familiar that deep state of mental relaxaon is to your mind, the more useful it will be as a tool. We are all deep-trance mediums. By that, I mean in those moments in which you

pause to think of something, you slip into that deep trance state … and then so quickly back that you do not noce you were disassociated. The more familiar the path to that deep state, the beer access to your collecve, friends and teachers on the other side. The alpha frequencies of mind are your working meditave level of awareness. Seek to make that part of your waking awareness. Learn to think from the perspecve of an immortal being temporarily entangled with your human during this lifeme. This is important! Think about what it means. We experience the world based on informaon that has been translated by our worldview. This is not a New Age idea. It is solid science that will likely serve your seeking beer than any way of meditaon. Also, remember that your worldview includes your human’s insncts. Strong emoons such as obsession, fear, anger and envy are your human’s reacon. As you learn to understand this, you will ﬁnd ways to enter into one of these emoonal states as needed, but then as quickly return to balance with relavely lile discontent. Be mindful of the potenally negave inﬂuence of cultural contaminaon. The ﬁrst secret wisdom of the ancient way is balance. The second is that the teacher is also the student. The hidden way is the narrow way which requires suspended judgment to tame the inner judge. Judgment is easy and swi, but once a decision is made, it requires much eﬀort to undo. There is

no magic, only the inﬂuence of organizing principles. Learn to recognize the fundamental principles governing the operaon of reality and to use them in your life. (27) The ability to spout baseless belief appears as wisdom to the uninformed. Increasing lucidity means increasingly seeing actual reality. Hyperlucidity is thinking we see actual reality, when in fact, we only see what we have been taught to see. The reason I warn away from gaining wisdom through lucid dreaming, meditaon and the help of mediums is that the informaon must come ﬁrst to our mostly unconscious mental percepon which wants to color it in familiar terms. Thus, the narrow way is followed by tesng everything, thereby teaching our perceptual processes to be less judgmental. Learning to test percepon quickly leads us to more pragmac sources of understanding. Your mediums, teachers and friends probably do not realize this. Learn to understand the concept of coloring in mediumship. Learn to pracce suspended judgment. It is important to learn from those who have come before. But, while using that informaon to further your understanding, resist taking it as truth or rejecng it as false. Civilizaon is based on the teacher- student relaonship. Assuming you know more than your teacher denies you of opportunies to learn. As we are told in the Katha Upanishad, ﬁnd trusted teachers. Of course, there is always more, but these are some of the lessons I have learned. This does not mean I have learned to follow them, but part of

Panoli, Vidyavachaspa V. Translator. “Katha Upanishad.” Vedanta Spiritual Library. 1234 celextel.org/upanishads/krishna_yajur_veda/katha.html. 23. Butler, Tom. “Prime Imperave.” Etheric Studies. 2017. ethericstudies.org/prime-imperave/. 24. “About Spiritualism.” Etheric Studies. 2018. ethericstudies.org/about-spiritualism/. 25. Trismegistus, Hermes Mercurius. “The Divine Pymander of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus.” Internet Sacred Text Archive. sacred- texts.com/eso/pym/index.htm. 26. Iniates, Three. “The Kybalion.” Marja de Vries. marjadevries.nl/universeleween/kybalion.pdf. Also see kybalion.org/. 27. Butler, Tom. “Organizing Principles.” Etheric Studies. 2015. ethericstudies.org/organizing-principles/. 28. Butler, Tom. “The Hermes Concepts.” Etheric Studies. 2016. ethericstudies.org/hermes-concepts/. 29. Butler, Tom. “How We Think.” Etheric Studies. 2014. ethericstudies.org/how-we-think/. 30. “Highlights of Tarot.” B.O.T.A. bota.org/botaineurope/en/tarot/. 31. Ropeik, David. “The Greatest Threat of All: Human Insncts Overwhelm Reason.” Psychology Today. 2015. psychologytoday.com/blog/how-risky-is-it-really/201501/the- greatest-threat-all-human-insncts-overwhelm-reason. 32. Butler, Tom and Lisa. “ATransC 33-1 NewsJournal.” Associaon TransCommunicaon. 2017. atransc.org/wp- content/uploads/2016/10/33-1-Spring-2014-ATransC- NewsJournal.pdf. 33. Cunningham, Paul F. “The Content-Source Problem in Modern Mediumship Research.” Rivier University, Department of Psychology. The Journal of Parapsychology, 76(2), 295-319., 2012. rivier.edu/faculty/pcunningham/Publicaons/CunninghamJP_Fall- 2012-Vol-76-(2)-295-319.pdf. 34. Waite, Arthur Edward. The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. 1911. 35. Grimes, Roberta A. “How Gospel Analysis Can Be Combined with Aerlife Evidence and Tradional Science to Help Us Beer Understand Consciousness.” Proceedings, The Academy for Spiritual And Consciousness Studies, Inc. 2013. 36. Butler, Tom and Lisa. “Hans Bender’s Message at Reno Séances.” Associaon TransCommunicaon. 2013. atransc.org/hans-benders- message/. 37. Jane Roberts Learning Center. sethlearningcenter.org/. 38. Carpenter, James C, Ph.D. First Sight: ESP and Parapsychology in Everyday Life. Rowman & Lileﬁeld. 2012. ISBN 978-1-4422-1392-0 (ebook). ﬁrstsightbook.com. 39. Butler, Tom. “EVP Online Listening Trials.” Associaon TransCommunicaon. 2008. atransc.org/evp-online-listening- trials/. 40. Gullà, Daniele. “Computer–Based Analysis

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