What do you bring out in other people? Part 1

In spiritual circles there is this idea that we bring out in other people reflects something within ourselves. Is this true? 

What I have seen, is that I basically have two selves that can come out. One of these selves has several sub-personalities, while the other is an integrated whole. The one with sub-personalities acts more or less like a robot. It has certain scripts which it functions from. If you know this self, you will be able to predict what I will do, say and how I will react to the circumstances that I’m facing. The other self will, as long as I remain in it, be able to make authentic, free choices, say genuine, heart-felt things and respond freely, to the best of its ability, to every given situation.

Now, I’m beginning to notice that others have these two modes as well. They might not be conscious of it, but they do. And I’m not sure about this, but I believe that some may be much more in tune with this higher self than I am and yet not know that they have these two sides.

What I’m also beginning to notice, is that people tend to respond to each other from the same level as you interact with them. This means that if I am acting in a mindless way, other people tend to do the same. This in turn leads to social interactions that look like they are taking place between free people, but that are little more than mechanical actions and reactions from pre-determined scripts.

Einstein and the beggar

Einstein was no more valuable than any simple beggar. We are all eternal souls, equal in the eyes of God. It’s just our egos and their erroneous judgments that say differently. In the end, we hurt ourselves the most by believing these falsities, since they ALL contribute to making us blind to the truth of what actually is. That we are all one, all beloved children of God and that we are all equally loved by God. Separation hurts all. But the one it hurts the most, is the one that keeps it up by judging.

An attempt at making sense of what's going on in the world as humbly as I'm capable of Part 3

If you want a good foundation for understanding what I'm talking about here, please read my posts: Identity and selective perception 1 and 2 and A way that smart people reach conclusions based on faulty premises.

Don’t you think that it’s a little weird that we just seem to be hit by one global crisis after the other?  As if something is not quite right with what we see or read in the news? Do you get a feeling of unreality when you look at the state of the world? Perhaps this feeling of unreality is something more than just your mind playing tricks on you?

I don’t intend to go into much evidence when it comes to the politics of the current situation in this series. Others have done that much better than I ever can. Towards the end of this post, I will however provide some information if you want to check out alternative voices that talk about what is going on.

What I want to talk about is the spiritual perspective. And at the core, I absolutely believe that what is going on right now is a spiritual matter. In the next post I will go into more detail about this. Here I will just say that this is not something that happens within a small, fringe group of New Agers and/or tin foil hats. All over the world, people are reporting that they are going through spiritual awakenings. I am going through one. The big problem is that the evidence that we are receiving is of a personal kind. This means that from the perspective of the current paradigm, there is no way to prove that what we experience is real, since modern values tell us to disregard anything that cannot be proven objectively, even if reality at its core is a subjective experience. Let me repeat that: Reality at its core is a subjective experience. We only have access to our subjective interpretation of our sense data. Please don’t just brush this off as this is very important. This means that we don’t have direct access to the “objective” world that is given such primacy as far as knowledge is concerned today. There is no easy way around this. But this is the condition that we find ourselves in.

I will talk more about this in the next post.

Now, if you are looking for more political information that doesn’t follow the mainstream narrative, Russell Brand has made several good analyses on YouTube and Sky News Australia is pretty good also. I’ve made a couple of attempts at making sense of the political situation as well. The best ones are the following: Voldemort part 2 and 3 and The calling part 12.

The voice of God and the truth barometer

We always have access to the voice of God through our thoughts. The difficulty is to separate it from all of the other noise. 

What I’m about to talk about here, should not be regarded as an infallible method for getting in touch with the voice of God. There are other factors here, such as expectations and purely physical emotions.

Many people, including myself, feel pleasant shivers along their spine when something rings true to them. I have also felt the same shivers, but much stronger, when I’ve felt the presence of God. So, may I suggest that maybe we feel these shivers whenever God communicates something to us? Because really, if God communicates with us all the time, which he does, how could it be otherwise?

As I said, there are other factors to consider though. I would say that this falls under the realm of intuition. The main issues, I would say, are expectations and wishes. Do I expect the shivers to come? Do I wish for them to do so? If so, then, as always when it comes to intuition, I may have interference.

I don’t know exactly why things work this way. But something that I am beginning to notice, is that in order for things to work smoothly on the spiritual level, I have to not as much do things, as get out of the way. I have to stop interfering and let God work through me. But it’s easier said than done, when I have cultivated the habit of letting my mind struggle with everything for almost forty years.

A way that smart people reach conclusions based on faulty premises

One of my most fundamental insights into the conditions that we live under, is that with regards to most situations, events and phenomenon, we only have access to our own distorted perceptions, of a very limited amount of the total input that pertains to the situation, event or phenomenon. 

With this in mind, I want to talk about a curious observation that I’ve made, especially among people that are generally regarded as pretty smart. Namely that they often tend to dismiss claims as untrue, because from where they currently stand, they cannot see how said claims could possibly be true. 

Let’s take something that I hear over and over again with regards to “conspiracy theories”. Namely that for certain conspiracies to be true, too many people have to be in on it and there is just no way that no one would blow the whistle. Or that those conspiring would never be able to get along and therefore the conspiracy would fall apart due to internal power struggles. 

Here I want to ask some important questions, aimed at expanding the information-processing perspective. Because so much is dependent on what perspective we take and what questions we ask ourselves.

I’m not saying that what I just said cannot be used to invalidate certain conspiracy theories. Perhaps these are even waterproof arguments against every conspiracy theory that exists and ever has existed. But do you really know this? What do you base such knowledge on? Do you know that there is no possible way to organize a cover-up in such a way, that only a handful of people know what is really going on, even though a large mass of people have to be involved in the totality of the conspiracy? Do you know for a fact that no one has tried to blow the whistle? Can you for example know that all people have basically the same psychology, which would make the cooperation required for the cover-ups impossible? Do you know that there are no ways around such obstacles? Do you even know that everyone that runs the world are humans?

The last question was meant to provoke. But how do you really know? That something sounds too far out to be true has never been a guarantee that it is false. Why do we assume that we know so much more about the world today, than we did 2000 years ago? Hasn’t the whole of human history been one discovery after another, of how little we know about the world and existence itself?

I don’t think that Occam’s razor was meant to be used to discard any alternative explanation to the most obvious one. Especially when we lack firm criteria to determine which explanation is the most obvious one. Is it the one that the majority believes? The one spouted by the mass media and the public figures that function within the establishment? How and why is it so? Do you feel that the people that you put your trust in have earned your trust?

Smile

    Ramana Maharshi                                                    Ram Dass

I’ve noticed that many spiritual teachers have this peculiar way of smiling. It’s a smile that not just shows, but radiates peace, joy, contentment, liberation and a love for life. I’m talking of for example Ramana Maharshi and Ram Dass.

You may scoff at these people, saying that all they have accomplished, is to turn a blind eye to the harshness, coldness and meaninglessness of reality. 

I believe that the truth is just the opposite. That these people have seen through the suffering that, on the surface, seems to be an inevitable part of the human condition, if not today, then tomorrow. I believe that the key here, is to see that there is a difference between pain and suffering.

Ram Dass spent the last twenty years of his life with the right side of his body paralyzed and his speech impaired after a stroke. And yet, he seemed happier than ever. Because the life that he had lived prior to the stroke, had taught him to separate the actual situation from his reaction/response to it. To him, the stroke was just another reason not to identify with the body and mind. 

I usually don’t smile the way that these people smiled. If I became partially paralyzed, I would probably be devastated. Because I am not able to see life with nearly as much clarity as Maharshi or Ram Dass. But I’ve had my moments when I’ve felt this same smile in my face. This would, without exception, be the short moments when I’ve felt really close to God. At these moments, I’ve enjoyed every breath with gratitude for just being alive. I’ve felt unconditional love for everyone that I’ve interacted with and for humanity and the whole of creation. 

At these moments, I’ve felt first that I would always stay in that same state. Because it would be insane to want to go back to where I was before. Then I’ve started to fear losing what I’ve found. Then the grasping and holding on have followed. And inevitably, I’ve found myself back in my “normal” reality with its petty worries, concerns and annoyances. 

But just knowing that there is another state available, one that is independent of my every-day experiences, infinitely more real than the physical reality, takes the edge off of my pain. It seems a little less real every day. Even if I still get caught up in my negative emotions frequently, there is more distance to them. When the storms come, there is a part of me that just observes them. They become less and less intense. They last shorter and shorter periods. Over time, I become less and less attached to my external circumstances. I smile in joy, peace and gratitude for the wonderful gift that life is a little more often.

An attempt at making sense of what's going on in the world as humbly as I'm capable of Part 2

If you want a good foundation for understanding what I'm talking about here, please read my posts: Identity and selective perception 1 and 2 and A way that smart people reach conclusions based on faulty premises.

I wish to draw your attention to something that I know some have noticed, but that most commentators seem to miss. Namely what has happened to us. I will make a whole post on this. To understand what I’m talking about here, you need to understand a fundamental insight. Namely that attention is everything. Depending on what we pay attention to, we will get a completely different life and reality. So, what do you think will happen, if we are not even conscious of what we are paying attention to, in a world with unlimited access to distractions 24 hours a day? We of course have our smart phones, we have games, tv-series, pornography, sensationalist journalism etc. Doctors prescribe psychotropic drugs that make us more absent and numb our senses, often because of problems caused partially by our inability to focus. We are constantly under stress and pressured to always be accessible. Furthermore, social media is replacing human interactions and make us focus more on our appearances than our actual selves. 

It is in general pretty clear that our culture is destroying us mentally and emotionally. And it’s not as if there is no psychological research available that can tell us this. Coupled with this, we have a huge control system in place, that to a large extent is capable of running itself through advanced algorithms.

There is however a way out of this. We need to: Seek God first. Meditate. Pray. Practice mindfulness. Start looking at ourselves and our choices with as much honesty as possible. Bring as much awareness into our lives as possible. Don’t be afraid of looking at that which is shameful and painful. It’s going to be there whether we choose to look at it or not. Be honest with ourselves with regard to our habits, with as little judgment as possible. Start making conscious choices, instead of just letting life happen. Change will not come from us changing the political system. Change will come when we start taking responsibility for ourselves and our lives.

An attempt at making sense of what's going on in the world as humbly as I'm capable of Part 1

If you want a good foundation for understanding what I'm talking about here, please read my posts: Identity and selective perception 1 and 2 and A way that smart people reach conclusions based on faulty premises.

There is something strange going on in the world, within me and within many other people. That much I can be certain of. Things are not what we are being told by the establishment. And whatever else may be true, I’m certainly not the only one seeing this. Whatever else may be true about this, there seems to be a double awakening going on. One that pertains to who we are and our spiritual natures and one that pertains to the state of the world. 

This is what I believe that I can say for sure. But here the certainty ends. There are many theories about what is going on, on both the inside and the outside. And I wish that I could be as certain as many people claim that they are. But I am not. If you’re seeing and experiencing what is happening and identify as “spiritual but not religious” you might call it the Ascension Process. If you lean towards Christianity, you might believe that what we are seeing is the End Times. In this, two things are for sure: The strange experiences that me and many others are having, are connected with what is going on in the world. And what is going on in the world right now are not just random events happening by accident.

Identity and selective perception Part 2

I believe that once we realize beyond any doubt, that life and the world is more than matter and what we can perceive with the five senses, we need to accept the limbo that we inevitably will find ourselves in when we realize that our current way of perceiving the world will not lead us to the truth. And we need to do this without grasping for whatever new branches that are extended to us. Otherwise, we will just go from one confused view of the world to another, while once again convincing ourselves that we are standing on firm ground. 

This is so important now that consensus reality is falling apart. Otherwise, we will replace the faulty consensus reality with our own, equally faulty, individual reality, or the reality of some fringe group. And in all likelihood, we will sooner or later go out and try to convince others of this reality. 

What has helped me in this confusion, is my absolute knowing that God exists and has a personal interest in us. This belief makes me confident that the truth about what is going on will sooner or later be revealed. Because we are way past the point where what is going on can be written off as mere coincidences, human folly, random greed and power hunger. The world is about to change radically.

Maybe it’s something completely new. Maybe one of the “truths” out there will be proven to be the correct one. Or maybe it will be a mixture of the “truths” available. 

In short: Be careful what you believe and always question why you believe what you believe. Be cautious of the impulse to create an identity around your beliefs and try to be conscious of the fact that your identity always distorts your perception. And if you haven’t done so, a first step might be to ask yourself what your identity looks like, especially in relation to your current worldview.

Identity and selective perception Part 1

The content of this post can be summed up as follows: Our identity shapes how we filter and process information.

This post will be the foundation of much of what I am going to talk about, as I’m trying to make sense of the world.

Let’s start with an example that is a hot topic these days: The term “conspiracy theory” will mean two completely different things to a person who sees him/herself as a down to earth voice of reason that sees through nonsense, and someone who sees him/herself as a truthsayer who sees through the lies of the establishment. And depending on our identity, we will handle information related to the label completely differently.

I gladly confess that I belong more to the latter category and I in no way believe that I’m exempt from these biases (even though I think, for the sake of humility, it’s probably a good thing to stay away from the label “truthsayer”). What makes me believe that I at least have truth a little more on my side than the down-to-earth guy, is that I know for an absolute fact that the world is much more than we can perceive with our five senses. And no debating in the world is going to change this fact. 

So, this is the situation we find ourselves in: We only have access to a limited amount of input regarding a certain situation or phenomenon. We seldom have access to anything that even comes close to resembling the whole picture. And our identity, rather than cold objective reason, plays a huge part in what input we choose to discard and what we take to heart.

Other factors that play huge parts in what we take in, that have no relevance to what is actually true, are how things are being said, what emotional state we are in when the information is presented to us, in what context it is presented, in relation to what other information it is presented and how present we are while we perceive it. To name a few things. But let’s stick to identity here. 

People will also be uncomfortable when we act contrary to our identity, which adds a social aspect to it, where it’s not only us, but the people around us, that help keep us fixed to a certain way of being, which includes how we filter and process information. 

As long as we primarily use our intellects to try and make sense of the world, we will be subject to these limitations.

I don’t know an easy way out of this. The best solution I can come up with, is to cultivate other faculties that we can use to make sense of the world. These would be faculties of perception such as intuition and the ability to sense energies, so that we can get a feel for the energy behind for example a statement. But the danger here, is that we are so used to using our intellects to comprehend the world, that the other faculties are very poorly developed. But this can be changed by practice.

So while developing these faculties, we need to be careful not to fall prey to the temptation of adopting an equally false worldview, when we have been given sufficient reasons to discard the worldview of the majority. Which we will, once we start to question it, while letting go of the idea that reality has to be more or less the way we perceive it, together with fear of ridicule that comes from believing things that many would consider as crazy. When we understand beyond any reasonable doubt, that “down to earth” is the real madness.