TGU on “doing a Copernicus”

November 16, 2006

Rita and I were talking about a book I have just finished reading called Inside, by Joseph Califano. It interested me intensely because it was the only memoir I could remember that kept front and center his spiritual life even while recounting his making his way to the inside as lawyer, political appointee, power broker, etc. What is stranger is that he is not a member of the club – i.e. he is not an ex-Catholic – but very much a present-tense Catholic, Jesuit educated (which means taught to think) and still very serious about his faith. He appears to be neither a believe-it-because-you-are-told-to-believe-it kind of guy nor a cynic or rebel. A man very comfortable in his Catholicism and very comfortable in his liberal Democrat social compassion (with a track record to prove it) and very comfortable in his insider status.

In talking to Rita about it, I wondered if I could talk to him Upstairs. I won’t try to recreate the cascade of thoughts that followed, but here’s what I wound up with. If we can talk to

– undefined others Upstairs, including those who have never been in bodies and those who have been but are not presently; and to

– identified others such as Mr. Lincoln or Joseph or whomever, not presently in the body, and to

– past or future aspects of ourselves (which blurs the line from the previous category), and to

– others in bodies (commonly called telepathy), then

maybe we’re seeing the whole thing wrong because of the distortion in perspective caused by our being in bodies and suffering from the illusions of separation in time and space. Maybe things we are labeling with different labels are actually the same thing seen differently. Maybe telepathy, precognition, channeling etc. are all the same thing.

If we are all one thing, and if we are able to overcome the mental barriers that tell us that we are not, then perhaps in fact there are no barriers between us and anybody or anything else except the ones we erect or go along with.

Okay, friends, do you have something to say about all this?

If you were to trace your progress over the past 17 years since you first began to contact us – or you could go farther back, but you would find it harder to trace – you would see the steps one by one you have taken, each of which has done two things: broadened your view, and cemented your understanding of how you used to see things. The latter is important if you are to continue to understand those who are not where you are now. Sometimes in life one learns and, in learning, forgets what it is like not to know. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it is a little like brushing away your tracks as you take each new step. You couldn’t easily retrace your steps, and others couldn’t easily follow in your steps.

Your personal myth is that your life is about learning these things so that others can use your example as an encouragement rather than as a crutch. Of course such a myth has as a silent component the idea that you are also observing the process of learning, as you see how little you know or can know, and contrast it with others who claim to know more and sometimes do and sometimes do not.

How long have you had in mind your exposition that you sometimes call Doing a Copernicus? Longer than you remember. You will remember that you had it already firmly in mind in November, 2001 when you attended the Prophets Conference in Florida. This is not an incidental, but a central, insight to be developed. Some will need no more than the suggestion; others will need a little illustrating and analogizing. Others of course will not agree regardless if God were swearing that you were right.

Everything you are learning comes down to the same central insight: Human beings are not what they think they are. They are not independent of each other. They are not independent of the other side. They are not independent of the pasts and futures that exist even beyond their lifespans.

Everything else is merely exposition and example.

That sounds like an end. Is that all you wish to say?

We smile. Better answers from better questions. But this we will add. This is a subject that will well repay attempts to sketch it out – literally, sketch it out – for the effort of translating into right-brain-accessible drawing what starts out as left-brain-accessible words is well worth while and will bring you a little farther along. Not you singular, you understand. You plural. Anyone interested.

All right. My thanks as always.