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Walk This Way
For every aspect of physicality in our world, there is an essence of spirituality causing it to be there. Since we currently live within the physical world, we are interacting with it on a near full-time basis. However, what we rarely discover are the spiritual foundations that anchor the physical world into existence. Our mind governs the interpretation of the spiritual world; however, spirituality usually plays a secondary role within our lives and is often completely ignored. This very low level of mental commitment explains why we do not ordinarily see, hear or feel the spiritual world. Our mind does exactly what it is told and that often means concentrating on exactly what we believe is more significant. The truth of the matter is that entire kingdoms of spirituality are breathing life into the world around us but we are unable to even recognize their existence.
Chaudhary, Sufian (2013-01-12), World of Archangels
In case you’re new to this conversation, we’ve been talking about what is seen (heard, felt, etc.) and what is not seen, what we allow and what we block from our awareness, AND whether or not what is NOT seen is worth our attention at all. We haven’t really addressed the latter yet. Do you believe there is more than what we ordinarily perceive and, most importantly, does it matter? That’s the real question, isn’t it? If it doesn’t matter, it makes no difference whether we perceive it or not, or even if it exists.
Last time we took a look at the invisible American Holocaust, the genocidal attempt to exterminate the earlier inhabitants of this hemisphere. And we also saw how this can affect our willingness to grasp whether or not there may be other intelligent life in the vastness of a virtually infinite universe.
To summarize: our human history shows that when we meet new people and we have a technological edge we tend to kill them rather than play well (see “Trivia,” below.1) This, in turn, leaves us with few options other than to slip into denial about the possibility of visitation from other, more technologically advanced visitors; and anyone who can get here, from there, is more technologically advanced.
Back to the question at hand: does it matter whether we actually perceive what is in front of us?
Let me pose a hypothetical –
If you find yourself in a room with a cobra, would you rather be in there with the lights on… or in there with the lights off?
– Marsh (Circa 2003)
It’s a choice; and not choosing, well, that’s a choice too.
Now a hypothesis: We are spirit manifesting a body NOT a body with a spirit.
At first this may seem like an insignificant distinction; so what if we are a spirit with a body or body with a spirit? It’s all the same, isn’t it? No, not really. If you don’t get that right away… give it some time. It’s been a useful parable for me.
Briefly, so that we may continue, this could be likened to being the driver of a car heading up the Big Sur coast (whether a Ferrari or an old VW Beetle – it doesn’t matter.) The car is useful for accessing the view and the adventure…but the car cannot HAVE the adventure or appreciate the view. We are grateful for the car, yet the real enjoyment and experience is for the occupant. When the ride is over and the car parked, with no inhabitant, what use is there in talking to the car? An uninhabited car is (hopefully) inert. Even though its driver may be nowhere to be seen; I assure you, they are around…somewhere.
This leads me to believe that the drivers and passengers of cars are actually of greater value (in our human perspective) than any car, no matter how expensive, robust, beautiful or even necessary. So, by analogy, the “driver” of the body and personality (our vehicle) is the primary agent.
I’ve had numerous experiences to subjectively validate this assertion (spirit in body not body with a spirit) and here I’ll share a funny one.
One evening, while having dinner with friends, I was offered a mind altering fumar, apparently branded as “Train Wreck.” I was assured that this was one of the best of its sort and was urged to give it a spin. I thanked my friends and ‘just said no,’ taking a pass on what had become for me a rare opportunity. Michele, my wife, assured them that indeed, I was not much fun when high; which quelled the subject for a while. Eventually we left the restaurant and walked our friends to their car which was in a nearby, three story, cement parking garage. As we arrived they broke out the ‘Wreck’ and for the 4th or 5th time that evening offered me a wee taste of this blarney. ‘Oh WTF’, I thought, the evening’s over, I don’t have enough time to make a complete ass of myself and it might be interesting to sample the current state of the art (oh yes I was, once upon a time, quite the connoisseur.) After the first toke I should have been forewarned when that slight taste of greed and impatience kicked in. Though it felt like quite a bit of time had passed since that first inhalation (yes, I did inhale) there was, actually, hardly any lapse until I began to perseverate on getting ‘just one more toke…and who was hogging it, anyway?’ Sadly the second toke did come around… and yes, I took it. Big Mistake… sort of.
Almost immediately I could no longer identify my surroundings… though I could recognize the people I was with, even if they were behaving strangely…”Oh right,” I thought, “I remember how this goes.” Finally, Michele notices that indeed her prophecy had come to pass; I was no longer my gregarious self, and so she offered to drive us home. As she walked away toward our car and I stepped forward something unusual happened;
Dr. Strange
something crystalline and clear. “I” ‘stepped out’, away from the car, but my body did not. In the blink of an eye, Elvis had left the building. My body fell to the ground – dead weight…absolutely emptied of me. Michele reports that my head hit the cement and bounced (methinks perhaps a bit exaggerated – though I was not in it, so I can’t say much better than she.) I was marveling at this moment, thinking it to be so much like what was portrayed in the “Dr. Strange” comics I loved in my youth. I’d just ‘stepped’ right out of my body! Then I saw and felt a woman across the parking lot, with her shopping bag and heard her say “Is he alright? Does he need to go to a hospital?” alarm in her voice. Immediately I thought, “What!? Hospital!? Oh, HELL no!’ And with that I snapped back, as if by a giant rubber band, into “my” body, which (again, by rubber band) sat straight up in a gravity defying single movement… and then I began to laugh uproariously; I was truly amused and elated. NEVER had I experienced such a lucid OBE in which I’d actually turned to see my body, over there, as clearly as I was seeing everyone else standing, freaking out and looking at it (‘my body’) too. There I stood, laughing and clear as a bell, inside; and not a scratch, not a lump, nor even the hint of a bruise. We continued home and I thanked Michele for transporting me so safely and gingerly back to home base. Thank you, honey.
But things have never been the same since. Nothing changed rapidly. In fact before this I’d had a lifetime of strange and interesting experiences… been out of my body before too, and would again…but I’d never looked back and taken the opportunity to SEE my body when I was out on a spacewalk. This, for me, made all the difference in the world. Oh, yes.(See Recommended Podcast, below2).
Now normally I might have said, “Who are you going to believe, science or your lying eyes?” because I know the eye (like any of our 5 basic senses) can play tricks on us -so why not let reason (read: habit) prevail. But in this case, I did not see it with my “Lying” eyes. I saw it with far better eyes. It was with the certainty of twins separated at birth meeting for the first time…they JUST KNOW. You’ve probably had a comparable experience yourself.
WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW CAN’T HURT YOU
Does anybody really believe this anymore? We act as though we do, but does anyone really still believe this Prayer of Denial? Taking into account some of the creation stories (the Judeo-Christian Eden story, for example) and the onus place on knowledge, I can appreciate the will to devolve to easier happier times.) However, it seems we are well committed to the path of knowledge and might just as well push on to the other side, rather than swim for home2. Toward that end, one last proposition…
PAYING ATTENTION AND FINER DISTINCTIONS WILL PAY-OFF
Just simply paying attention will win you kudos from the Source of All Things. Yes, that alone, will garner a response. And that’s a good thing. I make of point of saying that IS a good thing because I know that some of us (myself included, from time to time) are shy and don’t necessarily see anything good in showing up on the universal radar. Fly in undercover we think (don’t even say it…speaking is too loud and may cause me to show up on that radar.) Sometimes we may feel that the best way to stay out of view is to deny that there could be anyone here but … well, ‘me.’ At other times things may seem very Us and Them. 
But frankly, all that’s just your mind messing with you. Loosen your grip on duality for just a moment and it’s easy to see, “They” are a lot like “Us.” We are all very much alike and yet unique; very different in some ways. I am that too.
You can only see these distinctions by paying attention. We will only see these better by paying attention to what we do not already see. Where to look? For some it may be by listening, a little more closely outside self and a little further inside, for some perhaps by asking oneself, “How do I even feel about what I am reading here?” For another perhaps by asking (no one in particular) sincerely – “What more is there for me to see/hear/feel/know, now?” and then waiting for and expecting an answer. The trick to any of these is – sincerity, which is akin to love and imbues your inquiry with profound energy. If you undertake this halfheartedly you will receive a very tiny, quiet, and hard to hear answer…but if you are willing to take a leap, as my friend, Haiku Kwon, says “Life’s a Risk…and I’m All In,” you will be pleasantly surprised.
1Today’s Trivia: The (Native) American Holocaust (as discussed in our last blog) is not the only one of its sort that you may not have known about. The term “genocide” was coined to describe the mass killing of the Armenians in modern day Turkey in 1915. An estimated 1 to 2 million were killed, wiping out much of the Armenian people’s heritage and history.
From did-you-kno.tumblr.com
Today’s Factoid: Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service, 816 F.Supp. 432 (W.D.Tex., 1993), is a legal case that resulted from a raid by the United States Secret Service on the Austin headquarters of Steve Jackson Games in 1990. Along with Operation Sundevil, the Steve Jackson Raid was one of a series of independent[1] law-enforcement operations that were influential in the foundation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Steve Jackson Games was raided on March 1, 1990 because Loyd Blankenship, who was writing the role playing game supplement GURPS Cyberpunk for the company, was a target of a crackdown. Blankenship, known in hacking circles as The Mentor, was a former member of the Legion of Doom hacker group. He had run a Bulletin board system (BBS) from his home called The Phoenix Project, which had helped distribute the popular underground ezine Phrack. In 1989 it published the contents of a text file, stolen from BellSouth, containing information about the E911 emergency response system. The file only contained administrative contact information, and Bell South later had to admit in court that they sold copies to the public for $13. However, the government agents feared that the stolen document could be used to teach crackers how to compromise the E911 system (a claim that is disputed because of the non-technical nature of the document), and Bell South claimed that the dissemination of the data caused thousands of dollars in monetary damages.
In 1993, Steve Jackson Games vs. The Secret Service finally came to trial. Steve Jackson Games was represented by the Austin firm of George, Donaldson & Ford. The lead counsel was Pete Kennedy. Steve Jackson Games won two out of the three counts. Steve Jackson Games was awarded $50,000 in damages and $250,000 in attorney’s fees. The third count dealing with interception of e-mail was overturned in October 1994 by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The judge also reprimanded the Secret Service, calling their warrant preparation “sloppy”, suggesting that they needed “better education” regarding relevant statutes, and finding that they had no basis to suspect Steve Jackson Games of any wrongdoing.
Although the Steve Jackson Games raid was not a part of Operation Sundevil, this law enforcement effort, which spanned two years, has a tarnished image owing to a lack of successful prosecutions and questionable procedures.
See also: Bruce Sterling‘s book The Hacker Crackdown (ISBN 0-553-56370-X) for a detailed account of these events.
2Today’s Recommended podcast: Stroke of Insight – Don’t Miss This One!
Today’s Recommended Website: Tiny Buddha
Today’s Closing Number: 9
Project Etheldore 