Monday, January 1, 2022
6:45 a.m. So I am dreaming about Egypt, and within the dream I hear a sound like one of those gentle alarm clocks, or a very subdued telephone ring pattern. I have already come awake a couple of times, but I am feeling lazy and I want to go on dreaming, but the quiet sound persists. So I open my eyes and look at the clock, to see how long until six, and it’s already 6:25. Not that the time matters, but it’s a bit later than I thought it was. So they set an alarm for me! Funny. In the past, they’ve been more intrusive. More than once I have abruptly awakened because someone rang the doorbell – only of course no one had rung anything, and nothing had sounded. I’m glad they don’t do that anymore. This way is much less jarring.
Boy, you guys, I have read that the work-from-home economy is troubled by this sweatshop attitude by employers who don’t recognize a distinction between personal time and company time. You’re lucky I don’t have anybody to report you to.
To be serious – as we recognize that you are not being serious – we have no objection to your taking a day off whenever you wish to do so, nor would we consider that we have a right to override your will with ours. We entirely agree that no one has the right to tell you, “You must do this or that,” merely because you are in a body and they are not. Only, how would you know? This moves into the question of distant influencing, as experienced in 3D.
I take it that isn’t what you woke me up to discuss, though.
No, though no great loss if the discussion goes that way. Your switches.
Yes. Focus. Receptivity. Clarity. Presence. Oddly, I had to use the acronym to remember them. I may be still more asleep than it seems.
You went to bed thinking of Egypt, deliberately calling to mind scenes from the archaeology documentary.
“Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb,” yes.
You thought to feel your way into your connection.
I thought it was a possibility, yes. None of what I had seen was out of my own imagination, obviously, and I had my own memories of my few days in Egypt, nearly three years ago. I thought, maybe feeling into these might facilitate communication.
Yet it did not occur to you to ask Joseph the Egyptian.
No, it didn’t. Odd, that. Nor any other little tricks I have picked up (and mostly laid aside and forgotten) over the years. Should I have done so?
The broader question, of which this is a specific example, is, “How does one broaden the channel to “other lives” as one way of expanding one’s consciousness?
Yes, I can see that. If you have an answer, I know I won’t be the only one interested.
Conceptually, it is simple (although, as we have said, simple isn’t always easy): Intend it. It is a slight oversimplification to say that in life, intent is all, but only slight. The persistent removal of emotional or mental obstacles to such communication will bring you where you want to go to. However, you do not want to go there unprepared. What would you do if a given strand brought you to someone who also (via other aspects of himself or herself) connected to Hitler, say, or Stalin, or some other political monster? It is well to have your limits set before such eventuality.
So I see a couple lists of bullet points here: (1) factors in removing obstacles, (2) factors in self-defense, or at least self-definition. Which is a little like saying, open, but close.
It is more a matter of saying, do not fear, but do not be a dope either. Trust God, but tie your camel. As you move into new territory, you cannot know the new rules of thumb, but it ought to be obvious that there will be some.
Yes, I suppose so. I have a tendency to think an absolute can prevail. Silly, in a world of polarities.
This would repay thought, too (though not now): Why would you think that the non-3D is immune from polarity, given that non-3D and 3D are integrally connected? It is true that polarity will not express in non-3D in the same way it expresses in 3D, but that is not the same thing as defining it out of existence. As we say, a thought for another time. For the moment, let us remain in rules of thumb, which implies sketching the prevailing conditions, as you got. And – if only to satisfy people’s restlessness for useable tools – first a list of factors in removing internal obstacles to greater communication, as you requested.
- Emotional obstacles
- Fear of what you might discover about yourself. That is, things you are careful not to know about who and what you are in this current 3D life. Secrets you are keeping from yourself because they would be too painful to face.
- Fear of the undefined. How do you know what may be out there, ready to pounce? If you open up to other lives, may you meet more than you can cope with? Not an unreasonable fear, as we have said, but still, an obstacle, which can be removed by preparation.
- Clinging to current self-definition. This is somewhere between an emotional and a mental obstacle; it fears change it cannot control in advance.
- Mental obstacles
- Again, clinging to current self-definition. The fear is the emotional component; the mental component is a need to categorize, to fit oneself in a familiar niche.
- Inability to let go of expectations, or to allow the mind to wander freely, regardless of probability or seemliness. This is a manifestation of the need to control, and it is the opposite of the spirit of exploration.
- A form of rigidity that is hard to describe. It prefers structure to fluidity, even at the expense of limitation. Nothing wrong with this tendency in its proper place, but exploration is not the proper place.
I get that these lists could be expanded, but that this is the nub of it.
Pursue these far enough, and as others become evident, you will know how to deal with them. But knowing that these obstacles may exist within you, and examining yourself to see, will bring you far, if you do the work.
I notice, looking back, that I expected a list of factors in removing obstacles, and you provided a list of what the obstacles were.
Is not your list implied in ours? Once you know what the problem is, your own intent will lead you.
Okay, I see that. And factors in self-defense?
It isn’t exactly self-defense, and thinking of it in those terms will bring undesirable mental associations. It is merely a matter of setting your limits.
And the distinction between the two is –?
Self-defense implies a threat, at least potentially. Setting limits implies walling off certain types of phenomena out of your choice. It is one thing to say, “I wish to banish demons,” and another thing (though they may sound similar) to say, “I allow only manifestations at my own level or higher,” or, better, “I am open to all constructive energies for constructive communication.” You understand, this isn’t a formula, it is an indication.
I do.
You cannot define out of existence the forces and energies you dislike or fear or condemn. The universe contains everything, not just the things you approve of. But you can intend to come across things that will aid your growth rather than things that will impede it.
Even there, “things that aid our growth” won’t always tickle.
No. it is a matter of preference, always. Do you want comfort or adventure?
Call this, “Broadening the channel”?
As good a title as any.
Okay. Thanks as always. You may expect to hear from the NLRB, however.
❤️