Thursday, January 6, 2022
6:20 a.m. I may have forgotten to mention the impact on me of a statement I heard on the Saqqara film about the religious beliefs of the old Egyptians. The archaeologist was speaking of their idea of immortality, and the role that mummification played in it, and said that they believed that this, their “first life,” was only a preparation for their eternal life. And it struck me, this is what I was hoping to be able to say (in modern context, of course) if C. T. Merriman figured out how to say it and teach it in a successor course at the CTMI, if I could write one more novel, to follow Dark Fire.
And looking back a few days, I realize that if the guys had not gotten me up Monday morning with their alarm trick, I might not have been able to transcribe and send before losing power. So I guess I may forgive them. 😊
Speaking of the guys, I wonder if we can talk about Egypt, and their idea of the afterlife, and the material you have been giving us here.
Delightful idea.
And yours, right?
There is no ownership of ideas, though they may be freely suggested from one source or another as they arise. Your switches, remember.
Yes. Focus, receptiveness, clarity, presence. I meant to say a word or two about selective settings, but why don’t you do it, and we can move on to Egypt from there.
Yes, good idea. And we can discuss geography and strand-memory, as well.
If you wish to be entirely “here, now,” setting your four switches to maximum is a visualization that expresses your intent, and this helps you into that state of awareness. But you don’t always want to be in that state. If you did, why would you have the ability to not be? Sometimes, as you intuited, it is better not to be focused. And why? Because presence and focus center on the 3D mind, the ego level of your total self, and sometimes you don’t want to be the one in the driver’s seat. Sometimes you want to be the passenger, taking note of the scenery, or concentrating on subjective impressions. In such case, dialing back focus and presence may be quite appropriate.
Bob Monroe did that in effect when he decided to let “total self” drive, and suddenly instead of being stuck in local traffic, he was on the interstate.
Yes. Different visualization, but same process.
I get that there could be other combinations, too, but I haven’t thought them through.
Simple enough.
- Focus, receptivity, presence without clarity may help you with first glimmers. New territory rarely comes with clarity; perhaps it is asking too much to demand that it do so.
- Focus, receptivity, clarity without presence is, in essence, some variant of a trance state; an altered state with a purpose.
- Focus, clarity, presence without receptivity might be considered to be an equivalent of Focus 12, suitable to careful consideration of a given subject from various angles.
Receptivity, clarity, presence without focus?
You should know! That’s where you spend an immense amount of time.
It is?
We’re laughing, not just smiling. Yes, it is. It is being open for business without having an agenda.
And combinations of two and two?
Not now. Work them out, if it interest you. Our interest was to not let you get the idea that the four qualities were always to be maximized, nor to always work in sync.
So, geography and strand memory, before we get to the main event?
Physically carrying your body to Egypt was necessary to enable non-mental, non-abstract influences to rattle down the ages, so to speak. Physical presence – particularly on a desert, forever swept clean by the winds, unchanging in the way the sea is unchanging – sets up memories through the flesh rather than merely through ideas or intent or even emotion. You don’t remember any given moment, nor do you necessarily remember anything at all of “another life” there (though, you might; we say merely that you don’t necessarily). But your body experiences a gestalt, and the memory of a gestalt may be as strong as the memory of a scent. It isn’t a conceptual type of memory; it is much more basic and unformed than that, but for that reason all the more accessible and sometimes tangible.
This is why we visit sacred spots? Power spots?
It can be why. It is one reason to do so, but don’t let the idea form that travel is any kind of panacea. It is one potential aid to awareness.
All right. So let’s talk about the idea the ancient Egyptians had about mummification and the afterlife. I get the feeling that what we’re about to hear isn’t exactly the party line in Egyptology.
Nor in any of the sciences. But maybe you and we know things the archaeologists and anthropologists etc. do not know, or have not considered in context.
Fire away. We can call this “Switches, travel, and Egypt.”
No need to clutch at that idea. But no harm either.
Egyptian beliefs are somewhat baffling to you in your times only because you do not have the key that makes sense of them. Even John Anthony West, who understood them in one way, via the work of [René] Schwaller de Lubicz, did not have this particular bit of information, but you do. You have put it together: Monroe experiences; psychological reading (Jung particularly); magical lore via the fiction of Joan Grant and Dion Fortune; religious opinion, etc.
I have put it together, and not put it together. I have gathered the pieces, but haven’t assembled them.
Here is your assembly: The reality the Egyptians faced was not different from what you face. What differs is your understanding of it.
The key is that they too recognized that every 3D life is a unique new growth. Everything that can stem from your life begins with the life you lead in 3D, and there is no other way to commence an immortal life. Your 3D life is indeed a “first life.” After its completion, comes eternal life or dissolution, as we have discussed at length elsewhere. Dissolution is not punishment, but is recognition of the insufficiency of the result of that life. It doesn’t cohere without 3D conditions to hold it together, because the mind during its time did not bring the elements into a functioning unit. You know all this.
Now, why would the Egyptians think it necessary to preserve the body by mummification? Why would they surround it in the tomb with as many of its accustomed things, and pictures of its life, and statues, as that person’s circumstances made possible? Why was it important that families and servants (who were many times considered a part of the family) accompany the deceased in the tomb? It is an easy answer – and a stupid one – to write it all off as superstition.
No, I get it – though it only came to me the other day, watching that film again. All that served as reminder of who they were. They were reference points for the non-3D mind that had been contained in that 3D life. The mummies, the tombs, the accompanying objects, were there to preserve the memories of a specific life, so that that life’s “spirit,” its mentality, should not get lost when free of the body. For the body is orientation, fully as much as it is confinement or even, sometimes, prison.
Yes, and this is a good beginning. You may think, “Oh, it’s a shame we wasted time on other things, or we could have gotten farther into this.” But in fact that isn’t so. Taking this a small step at a time will maximize your chances of accepting and integrating it, for we are going to run into some immense prejudices, even more than when you have discussed Jesus or have taken Western religious teaching seriously. So, slow and steady wins the race, or at least maximizes your changes.
This whole ride gets continually more amazing. I think you have been quite patient, to spend so much time gradually clearing up half-understandings. When I say “Our thanks as always,” it isn’t just a formula. I mean it. Till next time.