Intuitive Review of Strieber's "The Key" (3) Darkness & Light

This is the third part of my extended intuitive review of Whitley Strieber’s The Key. Click here for Part 1, click here for Part 2. I will cover quite a few different ideas in this blog post, and the next, which will be the final one in the series.

Although this is my first official intuitive review, I have previously done many intuitive readings of people’s Soul Issues and karma - mostly face to face, but many others by long distance. It’s part of what I do as an intuitive. Readers might be interested to know that I have previously done a similar intuitive reading of Julien Assange of Wikileaks fame, who came out looking slightly less rosy!

I realise readers might not want to read the discussion of every point, so below I have placed the points into subheadings for ease of reading.

There is no “supernatural”

The Master of the Key says that there is no such thing as the supernatural.

…only the natural world exists, some parts of which we understand and some parts of which we don’t. (location 256)

I believe that this is spot on. The labels “supernatural” and “paranormal’ simply highlight the misunderstandings of contemporary science and the limitations of current scientific culture and method. They are a reflection of the limitations of the mechanistic paradigm which dominates not only mainstream science but the way ordinary people in modern cultures have been programmed to see the world.

Consciousness is electromagnetic

One significant claim by the Strieber’s Master of the Key is that conscious energy is essentially electromagnetic in nature. This is interesting because there is the discrepancy that according to experimentation in parapsychology and much common human experience, psi (whatever it is) appears to be non-local, transversing space and time. Conversely, electromagnetism is confined to conventional space-time, as are all the four known forces of nature (gravity, and the strong and weak forces being the others).

Yet I have also seen from many of my own visions and direct intuitions that electromagnetic fields greatly affect the human energy field. For example, if I use a laptop and physically sit it on my lap, it has a significant effect on my energy field. This effect is extremely hard to communicate in writing, and I cannot explain it in scientifically sensible terminology, because such terminology does not exist. What I can say is that there is a kind of “charging” of the consciousness field which opens it up to non-local psychic influences. For me, this involves an increased sense of disembodiment, or consciousness beginning to split off from the physical body. This in turn makes one susceptible to the energy projections of other people’s minds, and from entities in other astral planes. This is why I avoid extended exposure (especially physical contact) to electrical devices.

I have also mentioned how, in out of body experiences, the etheric body is attracted to electricity. So there is definitely a strong connection between the human consciousness field and electromagnetic fields.

The importance of developing a relationship with the radiant body

The Master of the Key calls the soul the “radiant body”, and says it is “formed of conscious energy”. He says that it can be manipulated. The Master adds that that “a relationship must be formed with it if one is to really engage with it” (location 328). Again, this is consistent with my own understanding and work with the human energy field. Your energy field can be very easily manipulated by others via their unconscious projections (they do this unconsciously). Spiritual entities can do the same, and this includes “dead” relatives and friends. In fact this is happening all the time without most people knowing it, because the psyches of human beings are intimately entangled with the minds around and beyond them (mostly via emotional bonds and co-dependencies). Perhaps I should mention that you too are also manipulating the consciousness fields of others, again unconsciously. So you are not merely a victim!

The Master tells Strieber that “the undiscovered country can become your backyard”, and Strieber then adds that this will change “our world in very fundamental ways if it happened”. Strieber writes that for humanity it’s as if two halves of a single brain have been split. I must say that I absolutely concur with all of this. Humanity exists in a state of severe dissociation from the body and spirit, and in turn from the spiritual realms. Part of my work has been to try to get people to realise this, and empower them with processes which can help them connect with Spirit. I agree with The Master and Strieber’s belief that this process of spiritual reconnection is vital if humanity is to survive the present crisis in its cultural and spiritual evolution. I outline simple ways to this in my book Discover Your Soul Template.

Pivotal times

One message that Strieber and The Master consistently repeat is that these are absolutely pivotal times, and that there is a need for a change of vision. Strieber writes that the Master’s teachings:

…come at an opportune time, because the human world and human civilisation face a profound bankruptcy of vision that is sorely in need of renewal. We have done all we can with our ideas of reality as they exist now. If there is to be another step taken in the human journey, a step upward, new visions are essential. (17%)

The phrase that really hits home is “a profound bankruptcy of vision”. This is an accurate description of where we now sit in our history. In my daily life here in Hong Kong I move amongst people who are barely present in their bodies, let alone connected to Spirit. For Hong Kongers there is nothing, absolutely nothing in the twenty odd years of their public education (to university graduation level) that assists in their becoming conscious of any deeper world beyond work, distraction, entertainment and acquisition of wealth. This is a situation that we find throughout the modern world, and it is indeed a bankrupt system. Hong Kong is in many ways an exaggerated caricature of the modern developed world.

The most incredible thing is that people are so blinded by the illusion that they cannot see it. The world is in desperate need of teachers who can communicate spiritual knowledge. Even more, it is in need of cultures and societal systems which permit those teachers to be heard.

Soul blindness and the body

As the Master of the Key says:

There is a much larger world behind your backs. It is the world to which man is blind. Man is soul-blind and God-blind. (19%)

“To gain access to the powers of conscious energy, you must evolve a relationship with it.” (20%)

I couldn’t have put it better myself. However, it is very important that human beings understand that the way to connect with Spirit is not by discarding the body and focusing on something “beyond”. Instead we need to be still, be present, and to develop a strong connection with our bodies and, somewhat ironically, the five senses. The Master appears to understand this, when he tells Whitley Strieber that the way to connect with the radiant body is to pay attention to the immediate perceptual field, to sensory feedback. He refers to “the imprinting of essence with experience” (which requires) “effort and attention”, including “paying attention to physical sensation/energetic sensation.” (21%)

Being awake to oneself and one’s surroundings increases the intensity of the impressions so that they are present in the nervous system. In this context, being awake means being aware of one’s own self while at the same time absorbing impressions from the outside. (21%)

This is precisely true. By bringing attention to what one is in relationship with in the immediate environment and in the present moment, the mind is brought into still presence. The connection with Spirit follows.

It is these kinds of practical truths which lead me to conclude that the content of The Key is not simply creative fiction. The book either describes a genuine encounter with a wise entity, or at the very least represents a channeling of genuinely advanced spiritual consciousness.

Surrender to God within

At one point Strieber asks the Master “How can we change?”, to which the Master responds “Surrender to God.” Again this is true. Releasing the ego’s illusion of control is an absolutely vital part of spiritual awareness.

Strieber then asks the Master why people don’t surrender. He is told:

“Self-will, the illusion that you can act and must act on your own behalf, prevents you from entering the will of God. And the God of which I speak is not a distant being off in some heaven. You yourself are the distant being you seek. (24%)

This is also my understanding. The belief that God and enlightenment are distant in space or time prevents the actualisation of enlightenment.

The Master emphasises that we have a very small sense of ourselves, as the identity we carry in our everyday lives. This prevents us from seeing the full immensity of what we really are. Again, this I sense is true.

Finally in relation to the idea of surrender, the Master highlights one of the great paradoxes of the human journey.

If physical beings don’t struggle, you die. So you cannot surrender. If you continue to struggle against nature, you will die. But if you don’t struggle, you will die. This is tragedy of the word in physical form, and is the essential human problem. This is the problem you must solve, if you are to avoid going extinct. (47%)

This point is relevant for many people in the world who are trapped in dark spaces, physically or metaphysically. Despite the requirement of surrender, intelligent action and even the need to fight are required in certain circumstances. The key is knowing how to bring the right energy to the fight, so that one is not lost in the energy of conflict, rage and blame. In my own life I was born into immense darkness in my energetic environment. I have had to fight hard for my spiritual freedom, and I still have to fight. Learning that aforementioned right relationship with the warrior within is a key part of my journey. I know spiritual teachers who have told me to simply surrender, but their circumstances are quite different from mine. This is something I am still learning about.

Death

The Master’s account of the death process precisely mirrors what I have perceived as an intuitive. The Master also says that the dead cling to the “immediate surroundings of their lives, clinging to what they can of their memories, attempting to preserve their lives…” (22%). This is precisely what I have perceived.

The Master states quite plainly that death does not immediately elevate one into glorious Heaven. He writes that “You die into your expectations” (23%), and that “sin” follows us into the afterlife. As I have written elsewhere on this blog, this is precisely in line with what I have witnessed about the dead. (42%)

Fascinatingly, the Master says about the deceased:

After a time, you will not need instruments to detect them, once you become attuned to their presence around you. But don’t expect them to offer you endless wisdom. Many of the dead who wait in the world have less than you do, by a very great deal. But not all. Some are exceedingly rich, and can report to you even about the true past and the logical future, and can share themselves with you in ways that you can hardly imagine now. (39%)

I concur with the essence of this. Just because one drops dead does not suddenly make one the fountain of all spiritual wisdom. So, for we embodied humans, the information received from “the other side” has to be assessed for its value.

Once what I call Integrated Intelligence is developed, you can become aware of the influence of the departed upon everyday consciousness. Teaching this innate human intuitive intelligence is a big part of what I do. It is possible to call upon the dead to communicate knowledge to them. I do this regularly with some of my own deceased relatives, usually to try to prevent their attempts to seek power and control over my own psyche, which is a game the dead love to play with the living. Communicating compassion and forgiveness is also very important.

The darkness and the light

Strieber asks the Master to name some of the demonic leaders of the world. His response is a wise one.

Find the demon in your own heart, then I will betray the demon rulers of your world to you. Remember that the devil also serves me. Without evil, you could not taste of the good. (45%)

Much of my own work has been with the shadow side of myself, and encouraging others to befriend their own dark side. There is no light without bringing forth the darkness. This does not mean to focus unnecessary attention on it. What we focus upon expands. But we do need to befriend the demon in ourselves, as The Master suggests.

Okay, that’s enough for today. Feel free to discuss any of these points below. I will answer any questions I feel qualified to answer.

Marcus

Intuitive Review of Strieber's "The Key" (2): Are the Aliens Here? And Why?

In my last post I gave my intuitive overview of how Whitley Strieber’s psyche has influenced the knowledge presented in his book The Key. Now I am going to turn to some of the specific knowledge claims in the book. When I decided to do this review of The Key, I thought I’d write just a thousand words or so. Well, it turns out that there are so many fascinating ideas and concepts in the book, that this little project has become much bigger. I did plan to write about the specific truth claims in the book in a single post, but I am now breaking it up into several posts. Nobody reads blog posts over a thousand words, so that’s why I am doing this. I know that some of Whitley Strieber’s fans will read at least some of these posts, as Whitley has kindly placed a link on his own site leading to my previous post. 

There are lots of ideas in The Key that I am not going to write about, and mostly those are the things that I don’t have direct experience with, nor sufficient knowledge of. In this post I am going to deal with a single passage from the book which is rich with important information. In the posts that follow, I will probably discuss several ideas at a time. Now let’s take a look at the relevant passage.

At one point in his encounter with The Master of the Key, Whitley Strieber is told that:

The body of man is being altered so that the barrier that presently prevents you from knowing one another‘s thoughts will fall. You are being put under pressure in order to increase the speed of your evolution. An attempt is being made to induce an evolutionary leap. Only desperation will do this. There will come a time when your planet is dying and you are dying, and you will see these aliens all around you. But they will not help you, no matter how hard you beg… Their inaction, however, is their help… they do it out of compassion, for without it you will not succeed in the mission of this age, which is to open the elemental body to ecstasy. Mankind, over the next two thousand years, is destined either to go extinct or ascend. The elemental body will become transparent to the radiant body, which will shine with the light of God. (37% on Kindle version)

I find this passage to be a fascinating one, and I have some reasons to think that part or all of it may be true. Before you read on, do consider that there may be multiple "alien" and etheric influences on humanity at this time in our history, and I make no claims to know about all of them.

Firstly, I have little doubt that there are “alien” influences upon the human collective mind at this time. I have had my own close encounter of the second kind (sightings) with UFOs, as I have written elsewhere, when I witnessed two completely different kinds of UFOs within an hour of each other on a single night, on the East coast of Australia in 1993. Perhaps the most amazing part of that story was that a clairvoyant friend of mine had told me to go out at 2.00 am that night because there would be UFOs about – and she was right! The first UFO was a large ball of glowing white light, while the second was a formation of read circles which flew right over my head, in a “V” formation. This experience was what really kicked off my interest in exploring the frontiers of human intelligence.

I have also had numerous experiences with what appear to be “alien” forms of life in the etheric realms. I have written about a few of these here and there on my blog, and in my book Extraordinary Mind.

Perhaps the most notable experience occurred during sleep, when I was taken out of my body in late 1999, while living in Taiwan. Not long after going to bed I found myself being extracted from my body on what appeared to be some kind of energetic beam (which I wrote about here). This was somewhat unsettling to say the least, but I used my intuition to sense whether the event was benign or hostile. I sensed that it was OK, so I let go and allowed things to take their natural course. I was then transported into a “room” where I found myself lying down on a table, with about five figures standing over me, performing some kind of procedure on my body. In this etheric state, they looked to be Asian men, but I don’t think this was their literal form. I think this is just the way my psyche represented them. I asked them what they were doing, and I was told that they were reversing the polarity of the atoms in my body. I relaxed and lost all awareness, to awaken later in my bed.

At the time I was going through a type of rebirthing process, and my sense was that these “alien” intelligences were assisting me. However I cannot say whether they were spiritual beings (as in spirit guides) or beings from another dimension or planet. But I chose to trust them on that occasion, based on pure gut feeling. If I had not trusted them, I would have pulled away from the experience. Also during this time I became aware one night that someone, or something was operating on my brain as I slept. Again, my intuitive sense that I was being helped to adjust to a new vibration of reality, or literally helping me to develop my intuitive abilities. Of course some skeptics might suggest that I should ask for my money back, given what I now write in my books and on this blog.

Perhaps these are the same beings who Whitley Strieber has experienced meeting in his abduction experiences. I don’t know.

What I have written seems to contradict The Master’s claim that we will not be helped by them, but I suspect we are referring to different contexts. The Master’s take on being helped is perfectly consistent with my understanding of the way Spirit works (and there is good reason to lump all these encounters under the term “Spirit”, although this is something that is open to questioning). Generally, they will not intervene in specific events, except on special occasions. They are more likely to lead you into a challenging situation than to then try to rescue you from it. It’s a bit like the mother bird pushing the newborn out of the nest. Its fly or die. I understand perfectly the confusion and anger at this seeming cold indifference, but I also understand that it is for the highest good of our spiritual evolution. We can seek spiritual guidance through prayer and meditation, and will often be given information. But rarely will we be told precisely what we should do or how to do it. We are given hints, and we have to develop our innate intelligence and wisdom well enough to find solutions to the problems we have created.

The final part of the passage above, where it talks about the coming “transparency of the elemental body”, also makes sense to me. Presently humanity walks in darkness, blind to its radiant self. We turn away from ourselves and create “the shadow”, by hiding from our light. We lie to ourselves and deceive ourselves almost completely. The way to become “transparent” is to turn ourselves inside out, to expose ourselves completely to the light, to the truth. It is guilt and shame, and the trapped pain of the emotional body that prevent this opening. At another level, societal and cultural mass delusion, along with government and organisational cover ups, work against the opening to truth. Most people are too busy fiddling with gadgets and making money to look within, or listen to Spirit.

There is a bit of an irony here, isn’t there? When Whitley Strieber transcribed the passage above he didn’t think there’d be a guy peering into his soul a few years later and writing it up on his blog as if he was indeed transparent!

Yet the truth is that most of us are not ready to be transparent. It is too much for the ego to handle all in one go. How would you feel if you walked into a room and everybody there could see right into your soul and know everything about you? I have been there and done that. There are people on this Earth that can see straight into the soul, and they taught me how to do the same. You might think that this would be cool, but let me tell you the reality of what happens when you are surrounded by people like this. The ego becomes terrified, because it is placed under pressure to reveal itself fully. But the real problem is that transparency exposes pain. Once the delusions of the ego fall, one is left without a game to play to attempt to avoid feeling one’s trapped emotional trauma. A great deal of the thinking that we do in life is actually an attempt by the ego to control pain, and stop it from rising through the body. Once the games are exposed, the ego tends to panic. Because the pain is simply too much to deal with in one go, the ego attempts to create dramas with others as distractions – blame and guilt trips, control and power games – to avoid feeling. This effectively creates chaos in the energy field of the individual, and it stirs up enormous amounts of dark energy. Chaos reigns.

So, we have to take baby steps towards the light. I can say this with absolute authority because I have probably done more work with the human shadow than all but a handful of people on the planet. I can tell you that it is demanding work which requires great courage and commitment. If spiritual and “alien” forces were to make themselves known today and bring forth the transparency that the Light of God necessitates, we would self destruct. I suspect that this is why the work they do is slow and subtle. Nonetheless, the Master of the Key suggests that we are being given the hurry up. We cannot afford to get lost in distractions.

In my next post (click here) I will look at several other claims from Whitley Strieber’s The Key, including life after death, the nature of God, and the relationship between light and darkness. 

Marcus

The Intuitive Book Review: Whitley Strieber's "The Key" (1)

 Marcus T Anthony's new web site and blog can be found at: www.mind-futures.com.

A few week’s ago Trish MacGregor wrote an excellent book review of Whitley Strieber’s book The Key on Trish and Rob MacGregor’s Synchrosecret’s blog. The book sounded fascinating, so I went straight to Amazon and downloaded a copy to my Kindle.

This post and the following one will comprise the first of my intuitive book reviews (see here for an overview of the process I employ). This review is quite long, so I am posting it in several posts. Part 1 is an overview of the book and an intuitive reading of the author and book. Parts 2 and 3 will address specific truth claims of the book. Part 4 addresses some limitations of the text as welling as drawing final conclusions.

In these reviews I am going to go beyond standard book reviews, which outline a book’s contents, analyse contents and evaluate its worth. With these intuitive reviews, I will add my intuitive insight into the book and writer’s psyche.

Although this is my first official intuitive review, I have previously done many intuitive readings of people’s Soul Issues and karma, mostly face to face, but many have also been long distance. It’s part of the work I do as an intuitive. Readers might be interested to know that I have previously posted a similar intuitive reading on Julien Assange of wikileaks fame, who came out looking slightly less rosy than Whitley Strieber does!

Almost any creative work will have implicit information contained within its “energy”, and part of this review will involve tapping into that energy. Many years ago I learned how to channel the human psyche and consciousness fields in general when I worked with a group of like-minded spiritual adventurers in New Zealand.

General overview

The Key is a fascinating and eminently readable book written in lively and personable style. Strieber is not afraid to share some of his own fears, weaknesses and confusions. He develops an intimate relationship with the reader, and it almost seems as if we are eavesdropping in on his very strange experience with the man he calls The Master of the Key.

The Key details the story of how, at two-thirty in the morning of June 6, 1998, Strieber was awakened by somebody knocking on his hotel room door. An unknown old man enters the room. At first Strieber thinks he might be a slightly deranged fan, and tries to get rid of him. But eventually, as the old fellow begins to talk, Strieber realises that the stranger has some very important things to say. The author then begins to transcribe notes onto a pad. The stranger stays for a period of half an hour (but perhaps as long as two hours – the time is uncertain to Strieber). Somewhere in between the stranger says his name is Michael, and that he is Canadian, but Strieber eventually comes to consider that, although human, he is not human in the ordinary sense, but some kind of spiritual messenger.

The bulk of the relatively short book comprises the narrative of what happened that night. The Master has a clear agenda in revealing the information to Strieber. This is to help free mankind from its delusions. The stranger forecasts a grim future for mankind and the Earth if it cannot do this. The essence of the message is that the Earth is dying, and that humankind will soon be extinct if it does not acknowledge what is happening and rediscover its spiritual roots.

All this probably sounds just as “loony” as Strieber’s other books, such as Communion, where the author recounts alien abduction experiences. However, as an intuitive myself, quite a lot of the information in the book resonates with what I have seen and experienced intuitively. For this reason I believe that the book is well worth reading. However it should be read in the context of the overall consciousness field which is part of Strieber’s psyche.        

Before I detail specific truth claims within the book, let me address this.

My intuitive reading of the book and author

Any channeled or prophetic work will inevitably contain elements of the beliefs and energies of the channeller or prophet. What aspects of Whitley Strieber influence this work? Before I proceed with this, let me emphasise that I have never met Whitley Strieber, and this is the first book of his I have read in full. I skimmed through his book Communion many years ago, but did not actually read it in depth. I have visited his web site one time a few days ago, and left before reading anything. So, I actually know very little about him.

Using complete transparent enlightenment as a 100% gauge mark, what level of consciousness does The Key resonate at? What follows are my intuitive readings, and I am not asking you to accept them without question. They are not infallible by any means. Consider them to be reflections put to you. Energy readings are a crude and simple measure, but useful in getting a general overall sense of where a work or creator is coming from.

You can use your own intuitive system to sense whether you think my readings are correct. If you are interested in the intuitive process I use to come up with these figures, you can find them in my book Discover Your Soul Template.

The Key resonates at a consciousness level of between 30-40%. The Master’s level of consciousness is about 60%, which is very high, considering that humanity’s average level is around 2-3%. These figures in themselves suggest the work presents information capable of moving humanity forward.

Of course Whitley’s Strieber’s level of consciousness, and the Soul Issues which he possesses, influence the knowledge contained within the book. I am not going to give a specific reading of Strieber’s consciousness level here. I do not feel this is quite the right thing to do. All I will say is that it is considerably higher than average.

Let me turn in more detail to Strieber. What follows might appear negative, but this is the same for any reading of Soul Issues. If I were to detail my Soul Issues here it would also appear "negative". Do not make the mistake of judging these as bad or wrong. We all have Soul Issues, or we wouldn't be on this planet. They represent the delusions that stand between us and God.

Whitley Strieber is essentially doing his best to serve humanity. I do not sense any great drive for power and control, which are the egoic drives which are a magnet for dark energy. In short, he’s one of the good guys. At the end of my last post, Simon Buckland posted a link to a New Age author, Arthur Ray, who allowed his energy to be possessed by darker motives. I wrote about the unfortunate case of Ray on on my old blog. The contamination of a spiritual teacher’s energy field by dark energy is not at all uncommon. Much of the New Age movement is affected by such energy, as are many religious teachers and religious leaders across the world.

The Soul Issues of Whitley Strieber that have affected the writing of The Key include a strong sense of personal guilt, mistrust of humanity, a certain personal pessimism, and strong Christian influences. Whitley Strieber, like many people, has not quite fully accepted himself, and at a certain level sees himself as “bad” and inadequate. There is the strong idea of “sin” and needing to atone for wrongdoings. There is the essential view that humanity is bad, fallen from Grace.

These are very common human psycho-spiritual motifs, especially in the Judeo-Christian world. Streieber carries within himself a strong judgment, frustration and anger at humanity. He is angry at God for allowing the world to become the way it is. This shows itself as a kind of spiritual frustration at the Creator and ‘his’ universe: “Why can’t it all just be simpler?” He wants to know the answers to the big questions at the level of mind (as do we all), but is not quite sure how to bridge the gap between his mind and the mind of God. This reflects a widespread human dilemma. There is a sense of despair and depression at the hopelessness of it all.

Strieber is also questioning why he has been ‘chosen’ to do this kind of work. Part of his soul purpose is to be a medium for this kind of spiritual information, and he has been chosen because it is a good fit for his karmic issues. The idea of rejection - and being made the pariah or outcast - are strong themes in his karma. His task at a spiritual level is to perceive the current delusions of humanity without judgment and anger. In short, to forgive humanity.

One strong karmic idea for Strieber is that of “chains”: being strongly constrained and not allowed freedom. Again, this is an archetypal human soul issue (and one of the strong narratives that runs through my own karma). Interestingly, one fascinating insight provided by the Master of the Key is that “The new man will live in ecstasy, even though he lives in chains.” (at the 25% mark of the kindle edition – I have no page numbers). This suggests that it is not necessary to resolve all Soul Issues in order for a person reach full spiritual realisation. I am not quite sure what to make if this, but it is well worth reflecting on.

All these unresolved Soul Issues of Strieber influence the book and give it a slightly pessimistic feel. In a sense Strieber’s worldview contaminates the message of the Master, rendering his message in imperfect form for the reader. What this means for you as the reader, is that you need to allow yourself a space to sense when these energies are coming through the text, influencing what is written, and perhaps influencing you – for the act of reading a book opens one to the consciousness field of that book and its author.

As one prime example, a common theme in the Key is that the world is dying, and that the human race is in strong danger of becoming extinct.  How much of this is a projection of Strieber’s own fear and pessimism?

Having said this, unfortunately many of my own recent intuitions suggest that Strieber may be on the right track. Strieber says that humanity is being placed under pressure by spiritual forces in order to accelerate its spiritual evolution. There is the suggestion that the dark forces at work in the world are actually helpful in the greater picture. This is an understanding that I share. Yet those same dark forces could also destroy us.

In Part 2 of this review  (click here), I will address some of the specific truth claims contained within The Key, in particular the question of whether the aliens are really here. Click here for Part 3. And you can read the fourth and final part here.

Peering Into the Heart of the Creator

Years ago I read Wayne Dyer’s Book You’ll See it When You Believe It. I found the book very exciting, because it basically argued that you can create the life of your dreams if you just believe it enough. I read it several times and began to apply many of its principles to my life. I tried really hard. Honest! But much of what I applied simply did not work. Clearly, there was something in the philosophy, or my approach to it, that was not right.

The basic theme of Dyer’s book is no doubt familiar to many who read this blog. The same law of attraction philosophy is the premise of many New Age texts, the most famous recent addition being The Secret.

There are many other self-help books out there from all range of genera, many selling ideas and philosophies that seem appealing, fascinating or incredible. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to look inside the mind of the writer to see whether he or she was being honest, or alternatively dishonest or simply deluded. What if the writer was being deceived by his own greed, wishful thinking or misunderstanding? What if he was unconsciously being influenced by shadow spiritual forces? Wouldn’t it be fantastic to be able to see these things even as you examined the material?

Well, it is actually possible to know this information. Anyone who has learned to channel conscious energy can do it. I can do it. I am not claiming omniscience. It’s an imperfect process. But it is relatively simple to read the consciousness field of other human beings once you have developed your spiritual intuition, or your integrated intelligence.  I will not detail the process here, but those with a desire to learn the skills yourself can find the relevant details in my book Discover Your Soul Template.

The post which follows this one (about Whitley Streiber’s book The Key), is going to be my first intuitive review. In these reviews I am going to go beyond the standard review of a book, movie or other creative work. Standard reviews outline the contents and themes, analyse the contents and evaluate the project in general. With my intuitive reviews, I will add my intuitive insight into the project and the creator’s psyche. Almost all creative work has implicit information contained within its “energy”. What I am going to do is make the hidden “messages” clear.

Let me be more specific about the implicit information. It contains two aspects:

The implicit field of information: The first facet that influences those of us reading, watching/looking at or listening to a project (book, movie, documentary, song, piece of art etc.) is the implicit information level. You can think of this information as the unconscious mind of the creator imprinting itself upon the work. The implicit field has a potential to influence your mind and psyche. You can connect with it and “channel” it, even though you don’t realise it.

The creator’s psyche: The second vitally important aspect of the text (and the intuitive review) is the mind of the creator. Every mind has unconscious forces affecting it. This includes not just the subconscious beliefs and attitudes of the creator’s individual min, but also incorporates the consciousness fields which are affecting that person at the time of creation, and even after the time of creation (because a person examining the work later may tap into the consciousness field surrounding the person as it exists in the present).

For me there is an ethical dilemma when doing an intuitive review. The standard content and analysis part of the intuitive review is relatively straight forward. But when I get to the part where I communicate information about the deeper mind of the writer or creator, there is the problem of how much I should “reveal.” It is somewhat of a violation of a person’s privacy to be “exposing” them on a public forum. What should I make public, and what should I keep “secret”? My decision in each case will be based on my motive for doing these intuitive reviews, which is primarily to make explicit the consciousness of the work and its value to those examining it and wishing to apply its knowledge and understandings. I have no desire to judge or condemn anyone. We all have a shadow side, including me.

There is always a danger that people of a lesser level of spiritual maturity will use information like this to attack and condemn the creator (however this is true even with a standard critical review). Let me give you a real life example. About a decade ago when I first began using the internet, I joined an online group called Spiritual Teachers. It was a forum for spiritual practitioners to share their insights and knowledge. At one point I wrote about the how important it is for spiritual practitioners to acknowledge their shadow side: the darkness within, and to assume responsibility for it. To clarify my point, I wrote a post where I demonstrated how to channel one’s shadow energy, wherein I channeled my shadow projections towards women. Basically, I just wrote a stream of consciousness post where I let all the judgments and projections towards women out. I did this with the intention of simply showing people it was not necessary to be afraid of the psyche. It has no power over you if you just let it have a voice and befriend it. Can you guess the reaction I got? Well, one female spiritual teacher launched into a major attack, beginning, “Now that we know that you hate women…” One other male spiritual teacher, who said he had been a spiritual teacher for 30 years, wrote a public plea to other forum members and moderators, requesting that I be banned from the site. He said that I was mentally ill, and needed psychiatric help! (I received a savage psychic walloping from him, as his psychic projections were fierce).

My point is that a significant portion of the current human population are simply not spiritually mature enough to gaze upon the shadow without going into drama and projection. They do this because they are afraid to acknowledge their own shadow, deny it, and attack those who threaten to expose them. Given this, I shall be selective in what I write about the authors and creators in my intuitive reviews, sticking mostly to what is strictly necessary, and what is “safe”. Of course, I may relax this rule for the odd scumbag who I believe needs a good public humiliation! Fortunately that is not required in the case of Whitley Streiber. Although an imperfect medium, he is a man with a decent human conscience, as you shall see in my next blog.

Marcus

Is There Life After Death, & Other Questions Answered (1)

So I’m not Jesus Christ, but I have spent a couple of decades in often intense intuitive practice. As I outline in my book Discover Your Soul Template, I learned an enormous amount from the processes taught to me by a spiritual group in New Zealand, going back over a decade now. What I can do that many intuitives cannot is feel and read consciousness fields at a profound level. I am also a natural clairvoyant, and from the moment I began to mediate about twenty years ago I found I had dreams and visions which often emerged from spiritual sources. I had little religious upbringing, and I had no knowledge or awareness of my intuitive abilities, nor any belief in psychic phenomena till I was about 26 years old. So I had very little spiritual baggage to jettison. I was not a Catholic, a Buddhist, a Muslim or a New Ager. I was just me. In fact I was an avowed atheist and empiricist before I began to meditate. But circumstances soon forced me to change my mind.

So, from my humble first person perspective, what metaphysical and spiritual claims are true, and what are hocus pocus? Here I am going to share a few things I have seen first hand over the years. My stance is that any spiritual concept that is shown to be wrong or limited has to be described as just that. I have come to reject quite a few concepts over the years, even ones that I once “believed” in.

What I share here is not based on reading or research, but on direct perception. I have done a lot of reading and research, but direct perception is the best form of knowledge when it comes to these things. I’ll share some things in this post, and some in the next post. The post will be too long if I put them all together.

I’m not saying I have the final word on any of these things. This is just what I have seen, and the conclusions I have drawn from what I have seen.

Needless to say, any or all of the following truth claims has the potential to offend, and to contradict your belief structures. If you find yourself getting angry at what I write, that’s not necessarily bad. Feel free to add your own insights in the comments section, or ask questions or challenge anything.

Basically, I will qualify each statement according to degrees of certainty.

True/False = there is no question that this is correct/incorrect, and I have perceived it too many times for there to be any doubt.

True/False Beyond Reasonable Doubt = the direct evidence is so overwhelming that you can pretty much clock it up as true.

Probably true/false = this appears to be the case/not the case, but it is not quite in the realm of definite

Maybe true = I have had some experiences which suggest this, but I am uncertain

So here we go... 

1) Mind extends beyond the brain. True

I still find it almost incredible that this most obvious fact is still denied in mainstream science and education (I have to remind myself that science is still in its infancy). The mind exists in a sea of information, entangled with other minds and consciousness fields. The brain mediates consciousness, but does not generate it. I am not sure how consciousness expresses itself without the brain (see point 2), since the brain so clearly has an enormous effect on the way consciousness expresses itself. It seems likely to me that the etheric body (see point 7) has an etheric brain, and that this etheric brain survives death. But this may not be the full explanation.

2) There is life after death. True Beyond Reasonable Doubt

I have had numerous instances of communication with relatives who have passed on. Sometimes they come to me and say things. Other times I find my mind and theirs entangled, because of some unresolved issues between us. Or often I just see them in a dream or a vision, and this is usually because there is some relevance in the connection for me. For example, one time I simply witnessed a deceased male relative of mine in a state of extreme emotional distress. He was basically experiencing extreme guilt at having sexually molested two female relatives of mine. He told me their names. Later one of those female relatives made claims about sexual abuse – but she would not name the person. Other encounters are more casual. Much of the time the dead are attempting to seek power or control over the living, where the minds remain entangled with the living, which is true in almost every case. However keep in mind that this is precisely the same as when they were “alive.” Nothing changes in this respect. People still play games with each other at a psychic level. 

(These paragraphs added in light of Gary's comment, below). The reason I list life after death as "true beyond reasonable doubt" rather than "true" is that it might be that these energy fields which I experience are left over from the lives of the people involved, and now exist independently of those people. However I have to say this does not appear to be the case to me, especially where there are power plays involved - where they are attempting to manipulate and control me or others who are energetically connected to me.

I have also had many interactions with spiritual entities. It seems to me that the physical universe we experience everyday is just one small aspect of the universe, and one small aspect of who we are. It seems likely to me that upon death we gravitate to some other level of this "cosmos".

The final aspect that adds more weight to the idea of life after death, is my having seen and felt aspects of my past lives. Again, those perceptions and experiences might really be something else - like unconsciously "channeling" other people's consciousness fields, or collectives of consciousness. I'll write a bit more about that in part 2 of this topic, in about a week or so.

3) When you die you go to Heaven. False

The experiences I mentioned in the previous point lead me to conclude that when you die your mind is not transformed or elevated into a new level of consciousness. It may well be true that departed souls are greeted by “the light” and spiritual guides soon after death. However the dead retain their scars and psychological issues. These are recorded in the Soul Template. The essence of life after death is that your mind plays out dramas, and attracts to itself situations which reflect its belief structures, and the overall “vibration” of its resonance. So a mind full of fear and self-loathing will recreate an afterlife where it will experience persecution and denial. A more “enlightened” mind will attract more joyful experience. The idea of Heaven is a politically motivated concept put forward, mostly by mono-theistic religions. If you are good, you go to paradise. I prefer Leonard Jacobson's take on Heaven. Heaven is right here and now, when you mind exists in still presence, and is not cluttered up with past memories and projected futures. Gary Weber (see his comment below) would probably agree with this. Interestingly, Leonard believes in an afterlife and reincarnation, whereas Gary does not.

4) People can see the future. True

I have had too many premonitions over the years to see this as anything but certain. The only question for me is whether I am seeing the one set future, or a possible future which could be changed. For example, before the recent cricket world cup I had a vision that the Australian cricket team would be eliminated from the tournament at the quarter-final stage (Australia had won the previous three World Cups, and were undefeated for 12 years). A month later they were eliminated in the quarter-finals, as I’d seen.

The question then is, can we see into the future deliberately. I believe that in a general sense we can. This can be done through light trance state, and through strong intuitive feelings. Again, I write about these techniques in Discover Your Soul Template. However, the information gleaned is often general, fuzzy and cryptic. In other words it is not a simple case of "ask and you shall receive."

5) People can read each other’s minds. True

… with some qualification. It is possible for a person to read another’s emotional energy and attitudes, and the psychic projections of the ego can be read. I have seen many people do this, and just quietly I am pretty good at this myself. Jessica, who ran the spiritual group in New Zealand, was terrifyingly good at this. She could basically see straight through you. The first time I ever met her, I had had a disturbing vision while meditating that morning. In the vision I found myself looking down at my hands, and they were covered in blood. Later that day when I met Jessica, the first thing she said to me, before she even said hello was “I can see your hands covered in blood.” I am not making this up.

Mind reading can be learned. It is an innate human ability because the capacity for empathy is wired into our brains (mirror neurons), and our minds are not confined to our brains.I have seen many people develop this skill to a high level. 


Now call the boys in white coats and take me away :-)

6)  The "soul" can travel out of the body. True

… again, with some qualification. The mind is not localised to the body, so some apparent out of body experiences do not actually involve the etheric body leaving the physical body. They are actually the mind perceiving information at a distance (ESP). Other out of body experiences involve the etheric body detaching and moving out into the world, or alternatively, into another astral dimension. I have had both kinds of out of body experiences. One time I found myself traveling out of my body, and riding along some power lines above a road (for some reason the etheric body is attracted to electricity). But I have also traveled out of the body into black, empty voids.

I do not consider out of body experiences to be desirable. They are typically caused by a dissociation between mind and body, and a subconscious desire to escape this world.

7)  There is an etheric body. True

I have not played around with this too much (I don’t see the point), but I have had several experiences where I have been able to manipulate the etheric body. This has occurred in the hypnogogic state between waking and sleeping, and independent of my will (or at least started out independent of my will). Basically, the etheric body is a subtle body double, and looks just like your actual body under normal circumstances. For example, sometimes I am able to move my etheric arms out in front of my chest, even though my physical arms are still by my side.  When I touch my etheric fingers together, I can feel them just like my real fingers. So they are connected to the nervous system somehow. I have also often had the bizarre experience of finding the etheric body of someone else lying beside me as I sleep. One time I awoke in the middle of the night to find my older brothers etheric hands resting on my chest. I grabbed them, got out of bed, threw them out the door and closed it. Another time an etheric baby attached itself to my back as I was sleeping on my stomach. I reached around with my etheric hands and touched it. It felt very real. I then told it that it could not stay, and it went away. To this day I don’t know if the baby was living or deceased.

In part 2 of this topic (which will be written about a week from now) I will comment about UFOs, alien life, demonic possession, past lives, ghosts and the end of the world. Not all of these iarequite as clear cut as the vitally important things that I have written about today, but each is significant in its own way.

Marcus

Are You a Food Retard?

Marcus T Anthony's new web site and blog can be found at: www.mind-futures.com.

It’s time to get serious.

Human beings have designed spacecraft to send people to the moon. We have developed an internet which makes our species potentially far more intelligent than our ancestors of a century ago could ever have imagined (I didn’t write wiser!). We have harnessed the power of the atom.

What then, is the next great cognitive frontier? Our next immense challenge is to answer one of the great unsolved puzzles of the age:

How do you eat food?

Now, I am well educated and have a PhD from The University of the Sunshine Coast, which is the most prestigious university within several kilometers of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. So, after a couple of decades of intensive research on the subject, I have developed a very sophisticated answer to the question, which can be broken down into the following steps. All you have to do is answer the following questions.

1)      Am I hungry?                yes/no

2)     Is it healthy?                  yes/no

If you answered yes to the two questions, put the food into your mouth and start munching. This may seem rather obvious, but my groundbreaking research (are the Nobel Prize people reading this?) indicates that the process is breaking down at step one. Yes, the question “How do I eat food” appears to be beyond the comprehension of vast masses of people on the planet today. In fact we are becoming food retarded. Sorry, that should be “gastronomically challenged”.

My research uncovered some astounding facts. People are eating way more than they used to, even as they are becoming more sedentary.

Then they get fat. 

On my last trip to the US (a decade ago, admittedly), I was almost fined while walking on the street for not indicating when I tried to overtake a sidewalk pedestrian in front of me. I got off by pointing out that there was no “wide load” warning on the “bumper” before me.

Research shows that Americans consume about 2,375 calories per day, which is nearly one-third more than they did thirty years ago. The reason why people are eating more and getting really fat is because they are eating more times per day, and snacking is the main culprit. Over the past three decades Americans have gone from consuming 3.8 snacks and meals per day to 4.9, on average. Further, the average portion size has also increased, by about 12 percent. The amount of time between snacks and meals has shrunk substantially since 1977, while the amount of calories consumed from snacks has risen dramatically.

In short people are eating more, and especially more often.

Barry Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill blames food advertising and other marketing.

"It's all about making people think they want to have something in their hands all the time," he says. "Why are we snacking all the time and munching all the time? [Food] is there, it's available all the time, it's tasty. It's not very healthy, but it's tasty. It's sweet, it's salty, it's fatty—it's all the things we love." 

Christopher Gardner, PhD, the director of nutrition studies at Stanford University's Prevention Research Center, in Palo Alto, Calif., says that “frequent—and often mindless—snacking has come to seem normal.”        

Yes,  “mindless” is the operative word. And therein lies the essence of the problem. It is, I believe, one of the major problems of the modern day, and something that is absolutely vital to the development of sustainable human futures.

We are losing our connection with our bodies and with the present moment. Culture is becoming more and more disembodied. As I have long argued, an intimate connection with the body is absolutely vital to healthy psycho-spiritual well being. When we are connected to the body we ground ourselves in presence. Modern culture and education is exacerbating the dissociation of mind and body.

What does this mean for our eating habits? Just go back to my two step guide to healthy eating, above. If you are not hungry, don’t eat. Remember the master’s response, in the old Buddhist tale? The student goes to the master and asks him what the secret of enlightenment is. The master says:

“When hungry eat, when tired sleep.”

The simplicity of all this is distorted, of course, by dissociation, and the games that the ego plays as it attempts to maintain control over us. We often use eating and drinking to suppress emotions. A genuinely mindful approach to eating would see the person bringing the mind into presence before the fork is lifted, whereupon the emotions would be directly addressed, and we could be more honest about whether we are really hungry.

However, the problem then becomes the realisation that most of us are carrying around masses of unprocessed emotional energy: fear, grief, sadness, anger and so on. So we eat, drink and fiddle with gadgets to distract us from what lies within. Addictions and disorders are the result.

If you develop your Integrated Intelligence, your body will start to tell you what it needs, and warn you when there are dietary problems. I have had numerous dreams, visions and intuitive prompts where my body has told me quite bluntly what it needs. Once I bought some apples at an organic market. I ate one or two during the day, and that evening as I was about to go to sleep a voice from nowhere suddenly said: “Thanks for the organic apples.” It was my body talking, quite literally. I also realised a long time ago that I had a problem with gluten, when I had repetitive dreams of coughing up horrible, sticky glue.

I don’t eat if I’m not hungry. This means that as I have gotten older I often don’t eat much at all. I often eat very little for dinner, usually settling for a light salad. My body simply doesn’t need a lot of food in the evening. In contrast, I see some of my friends here in Hong Kong stuffing food into them when we go out for a drink on weekend evenings. Many of them are quite a few kilograms overweight. Personally, I almost never eat food when drinking alcohol. While a few drinks do not seem to do me too much harm, my body simply abhors mixing food and alcohol. So when some of my “mates” stop in at the kebab shop at midnight on the way home, I usually simply drink water.

Personally, I don't there's nothing wrong with enjoying less healthy food and drink in moderation.  I often drink alcohol on weekends, eat chocolate and ice cream here and there, and love a good pizza. But my body will let me know when that is becoming unbalanced, and causing problems.

The result is that my body weight has not changed much as I have gotten older, and my body fat level and clothes sizes have not changed. In fact my weight has declined slightly, mostly because I don’t work out at the gym as intensely as I used to (at 45 years of age, I don’t see the point in trying to impress the babes).

All of us are different, and each person’s diet and food choices will vary according to culture and personal preferences in taste. I’m not suggesting you eat what I eat. I’m suggesting you listen to your body, and give it what it needs. Mindful eating, if widely adopted, would do much to alleviate the obesity epidemic.