Raising Spiritual Awareness

Taken from the Spiritual Wisdom newsletter, March 2007

For centuries, scientific or rational thought has coexisted, sometimes uneasily, with spiritual or metaphysical thought. Science regards as valid only that which can be perceived with the human senses or measured with instrumentation, but metaphysical thought revolves around the idea of an invisible, immeasurable spirit.

As a writer and someone exposed to public scrutiny, I have sometimes been frustrated by the inability to explain myself adequately to rationalists or realists many of them family members, friends, or coworkers or to counter their arguments when they demand proof of the claims that consciousness is spiritual (nonphysical) and not biologically based. To those of us who have been spiritually awakened, such an idea is ludicrous. But I have been realizing more and more that for many practical people, the assertion that consciousness is some etheric, immeasurable nothingness is equally absurd. I understand now that their objections are perfectly reasonable and legitimate, and that understanding has helped me to better reach them with my spiritual message.

How do you raise awareness of those who just dont get it yet? How do you convince someone that his or her basic nature is something immeasurable and invisible?

In a nutshell, the fundamental dilemma in consciousness raising is that a person who believes he or she is a body simply cannot conceive of themselves as a spirit.

The scientific method, and common sense, tells us Ill believe it when I see it. This immediately invalidates spirituality, for a spirit cannot be seen or measured! I have found that when people get into trouble in their personal lives, a turning away from their spiritual side is at the root of their problems. Moreover, the mischief-makers on our planet are always those who do not know who they are. Some of the major players in our own government (United States) simply do not have a clue about their spiritual side. However, the idea that a human being is fundamentally spiritual is very scary to these people! Thats because such a person views a spirit as blind, deaf and dumb. Think about it. To those who do not understand that a Native State being perceives far more broadly and brilliantly than an incarnated human, such an existence must be terrifying, for a spirit has no eyes to see, nor ears to hear, or sense of smell or taste. For these people, death (and spirituality) is a horror to be avoided at all costs!

Underlying all fears and negative emotion is the idea that death is a truncating or snuffing out of perception and awareness.

I have found that the most effective way to introduce spiritual concepts is to begin with the idea of life after death. This idea has become generally accepted throughout society. After all, Christianity teaches us that Christ ascended into heaven after his physical body passed away. Eastern religions teach us about incarnation and reincarnation. The concept of life after death reaches deep inside even the most hardened skeptic, for it expresses the fundamental truth of our divine and immortal nature. It immediately shortcircuits mental machinery and pushes the Truth Button!

Why do people believe in the biological basis for consciousness anyway? Essentially, it has to do with the incarnation process and the relationship of the spirit and the physical body.

Focusing

Incarnation is the focusing of awareness into a physical container. Actually, every cell in the body is conscious; the spirit and the physical container exist in a symbiotic relationship. The consciousness of the incarnated spirit and the consciousness of the body must be tuned to each other, and to the vibrational frequencies of the earth environment.

The human senses filter and interpret the universal bandwidth into narrow ranges: 4 x 10^14 Hz to 7.5 x 10^14 Hz for the human eye, 20 to 20,000 Hz for the human ear, etc. The human body, by design, limits and intensifies experience. Imagine a vortex of energy, like water flowing into a bathtub drain. Around the vortex theres a lot of water serenely lying there, doing nothing, but the energy that goes into the vortex moves very rapidly, becoming funneled into a very small area.

The human body is like that vortex of energy: the incarnation process itself focuses a broad, nonphysical consciousness into an ittybitty human body!

In my experience, the human spirit, when first coming in contact with the body, needs a lot of time to adjust to it. If you have ever bought a nice looking but tight fitting pair of shoes, you know that you have to break them in a bit before you feel comfortable wearing them! Its no different for a spirit and a body.

The baby spends a lot of time out of the body, entering and exiting and getting used to its new home. After about three years or so, the newly arrived spirit begins to perceive using the bodys senses full time (most of us do not have clear memories before the age of three; this is not because our brains were not fully developed, but because the experiences we had out of the body are not recallable).

Why does it get harder and harder to exit the body as time goes on?

Well, for one thing, the intent of the incarnating spirit is to have a physical experience. The intent is to associate ones self fully with the body and perceive the world primarily through its physical senses.

Moreover, it is often a lot harder to get out of something than it is to get in! The guy who takes off work to go golfing, ignoring an important client, finds it much easier to hit the links than to extricate himself from all of the inevitable complications.

Thirdly, one simply gets used to using the human senses; like a crutch, we become dependent upon our faithful interpreters to automatically filter our experience. We can no longer even imagine what it is like to perceive outside the body.

And the main reason is that it feels good to be in a healthy human body. The body becomes more and more attractive to the incarnating spirit as it matures, strengthens, and grows.

In short, the body is designed to funnel and limit perception and awareness into narrow ranges. As we become immersed in a physical experience, our spiritual sensors, like a muscle that is not exercised, atrophy.

Chaos Theory and Spirituality

For many people there is little incentive for spiritual growth. People are used to hearing expressions like when you die, youre dead. Beliefs are powerful things and serve to guide thought and action. Childhood imprints are also very powerful; if parents believe that spiritual knowledge is irrelevant, the childs own beliefs will form around these ideas. Once a vibrational proclivity becomes established, it entrains thought, belief, and action toward it. That is what has been occurring on earth for the past 5,000 years! Even the silliest ideas, once entrenched, become very difficult to move off of (like the idea that fighting a war on terrorism will somehow reduce the probability of terrorism).

We are approaching the end of a planetary cycle. With a population of over 6 billion, the consciousness of the human race is approaching critical mass. We have, for a short time, a unique window of opportunity to change the current paradigm of thought on our planet.

In chaos theory, a physical system can oscillate too far in one direction or the other, reaching a chaotic state where it will react unpredictably.

In such cases, nobody has a clue about what the system will look like after it settles down. Biological mutation may be a result of chaotic oscillation. Sensitivity to initial conditions, or the socalled Butterfly Effect where the flapping of the wings of a butterfly in Brazil may eventually effect weather patterns halfway around the world has gained more and more acceptance. (For a graphic explanation of how systems can diverge widely depending upon initial conditions, see the Afterword). It states the principle that in chaotic systems which occur often in nature, weather being an example individual actions, no matter how small, may have a profound effect on the system as a whole. This tells us that spiritually aware persons may have important effects on the future direction of the human race. But in order for that to happen, we must not hide our light. We must take every opportunity to share our spiritual knowledge and wisdom.

I believe that the consciousness of the human race is approaching just such a chaotic state.

It is no longer possible to sit on the fence and dither. Each one of us is being forced to make a choice: Do we simply accept that the basic nature of humankind is savage and barbaric, and that peace is merely an interval between wars? Do we accept the status quo, with hierarchical societies that concentrate power at the top and the masses struggling and disempowered? Or do we rise above the primitive, lizard brain mentality and create societies and personal lives based on the idea of abundance and prosperity for all?

Many people who have chosen to ignore their spiritual side are having great difficulty at present, and some in positions of power, in their fear of the coming changes, are causing great difficulty. People fear the spiritual primarily because it reminds them of their own mortality. For persons who believe in the biological basis for consciousness, death is the ultimate horror, for it means the complete snuffing out of their own self awareness.

Such a primordial fear even though false leads to a profound inner anxiety and a mad scramble to accumulate wealth, resources, and power.

In consciousness raising, we have to be aware of these factors, and also be aware that vibrationally, there may be a wide gap between where we are and the where the person we are speaking to is. We have to understand that people have legitimate reasons for being frightened, or disinterested, even if it is obvious to us that our friend or family member or coworker is in need of spiritual awakening!

It is the job of spiritually awakened persons never to neglect an opportunity to raise consciousness. I dont mean bothering and haranguing people you think need fixing up, but noticing genuine opportunities to gently step in and offer your knowledge and wisdom on spiritual subjects.

Tips

Tips in talking with people about spiritual matters:

  • Accept where the person is at, and that that place is perfectly OK. If you are trying to fix somebody, you wont be able to raise their awareness.

  • Understand that a person can only be aware within his or her vibrational range. It is critical to be aware of the scale of emotion/vibration and bring them along slowly but surely. Remember that emotions are the key to where a person is vibrationally; people will always find arguments to match their emotional tone.

  • Reach the person emotionally first. Talk to them and get a feel for where theyre at. Remember that they wouldnt even be talking to you if there was not already a vibrational connection. Only after an emotional/ vibrational bond has been established, can you use facts to persuade. Truth is not data. For each and every human being on earth, the Truth with a capital T is that he or she is an immortal spirit. That truth is something that must be felt.

  • Remember that people have legitimate reasons for being frightened or disinterested in spiritual matters.

  • If you dont know where to start, begin consciousness raising by bringing up the idea of life after death. I dont know of any topic that more accurately and immediately determines a persons spiritual awareness, for it instantly hits the Truth Button.

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Afterword

The Grebogi equation ( x t+1 = 1.9 - x2t ) xt (spoken as "x of t") is the value of x at time t, and x t+1is the value of x at some interval (day, year, ...) later. Look what happens when the initial value of xt is 0.5:

graph of grebogi equation

Now look what happens when you change xt from 0.5 to 0.5000000000001, difference of 1 in 10 trillion: after about the 50th iteration, the system behaves much differently:

graph of grebogi equation

The red lines are what happens when xt is changed ever so slightly. You can see that the system looks much different after only 50 time periods!

What this shows is that it is impossible to predict what will happen when a system changes even slightly. It is important to realize that the future can look much different than the past even if the outlook is bleak right now if we will only work to change the system in the present!

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Reference: Chaos in Discrete Systems, Josep Sardanys Cayuela ICREA - Complex Systems Lab http://complex.upf.es/~josep/Chaos.html

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