[My friend Robert Bruce (author of Astral Dynamics) sent me this and it seemed too long for just a comment, so I decided to make it a post, sort of like a guest appearance on a TV show. :)]
G’day Frank!
Your email gave me much food for thought, and tied in with a recent realization of mine, which follows on below. Feel free to share or deface this as you please.
March 9 /07 Realization:
There is no single truth. There is no ultimate truth. There is only relative truth. This is undeniable if you examine the evidence.
No truth is superior to another. All truth contains some truth, conceived and phrased by the source in the most effective way to communicate itself to the recipient, given what it has to work with.
The truth varies according to the belief system and programming of the person receiving or passing on the truth.
The source is the ultimate truth and the source is pure consciousness.
We are all a part of the source. We are all an expression of the source. We are all a part of one another, and of all things. Nothing is separate from us.
(By programming, I mean all the programming we pick up from birth, from our families and role models and all the social programming and beliefs we pick up along the way. This programming gives us a mixture of perceptions from a wide source, telling us ‘how things are’ and ‘how we should feel’ and even ‘how we should vote’.)
The source seeks to help all aspects of consciousness to evolve, because the source seeks to evolve. The source and we are all one. The source seeks to answer all questions and fulfil all dreams, because the source also seeks answers and fulfilment.
Because of this, when we seek the truth and are capable of perceiving it in some way, the truth will always be entirely relative to our beliefs and programming.
The truth will always be shaped for and by our belief systems, to fit out beliefs, so it will be heard. The language of truth is always customised. The source seeks to communicate with us using a langauage shaped so that we will understand and accept what is given.
Analogy and metaphor are essential aspects of communication. Feelings and images are the language of the soul, and of the source. Without these, communications would be dry and void of meaning.
So, if the source communicates with a carpenter, it speaks of the trees and the wood. If the source speaks to a fisherman, it speaks of the waves and the fish. If it speaks to a tree it speaks of the seasons and the soils. If it speaks to a holy person, it speaks from the holy book and the beliefs that the holy person holds near and dear.
Therefore, the beliefs and programming we hold within us are crucial to the level of truth that we are capable of perceiving. The source knows this and therefore all truth given to us is in a shape we can perceive and understand.
Therefore, the truth to a christian will be shaped in biblical terms that a christian would understand and ‘relate’ to and accept. A buddist’s truth would be shaped to fit buddist beliefs. A hunter gatherer tribesperson’s truth would be shaped to fit more pagan beliefs.
This is a part of what I received that evening in Albany. This is why my ‘catch basket’ treatise is so important. See the story on this link.
http://www.astraldynamics.com/tutorials/?BoardID=4&BulletinID=218
The interesting thing about this experience is that the first thing the voice did was to explain and instruct me on how to cleanse my belief system and programming, and how to create a new one based on personal experience. I think this is because my great burning question at the time concerned why popular newage spiritual beliefs had led me to so many dead ends in my quest for knowledge about ‘how things really worked’. I was living with a huge amount of contradictory evidence and experience. So this communication makes a lot of sense.
As well as our beliefs, our intelligence, knowledge and life experiences are important shapers of our own relative truth. We provide the source with the language and level of understanding with which to shape and communicate the truth to us, and sometimes through us.
Sometimes what we receive will go against out beliefs in some way, or it will confront us. This can be troubling, but if we are troubled this indicates that we have not rejected it out of hand. So, seeds of truth that may go beyond our normal capacity to accept and understand will also often be planted. But there are limits, and the source will not give us truth that we will immediately reject. What would be the point. I think this happens because many of us quest for more accurate truth. This is in our nature. And the source is of course always trying to get more accurate truth through to us. And so it goes…
Creativity is also a component in the reception of the truth, because it is through creativity and inspiration that the source communicates with us most strongly. And if we are not open or capable of receiving some ideas, the source will often communicate these through other people to us, and through dreams and visions and etc. This is a part of what I call ‘Bee Following’ which is how mystics allow themselves to be guided, by following their noses and signs and omens, and other people. There is a state of flow that can occur when this connection with the source peaks.
The source of creativity knows no bounds, but its form and expression are limited by relative truth, and what it has to work with. This is like how the creative expression of an artist is limited by the tools that are availble to work with. Give an artist a pencil, paints, video camera, computer, piano, etc, and the source of creativity will do its best with what it has to work with.
Again, if the truth is given to a child, it will be phrased within the understanding of that child. We do the same when we teach children. If the truth is given to a priest, it will be phrased within the understanding of that priest.
This means that everyone is right. Everyone’s truth is true to them, if they truly believe in it. And on some level, these do contain aspects of truth.
The trick, therefore, to mine the world for more accurate and interesting truth, is to see through the veils of belief systems and personal programming and extract the essence.
This makes undeniable sense.
The truth is relative, after all.
And this is my truth…………
Robert Bruce
I like Lilly’s comment after doing sensory deprivation experiements for NASA: “You do not believe something because it is true; it is true because you believe it.”