Michael Tymn writes:

In her 1946 book, You are Psychic, Sophia Williams, whose direct-voice mediumship is described by researcher Hamlin Garland in his book The Mystery of the Buried Crosses (available from White Crow Books), wrote that it took her four years of sitting quietly each day while learning the art of relaxation and complete detachment before she began to develop as a medium. Williams went on to explain that the first spirit voice coming through her mediumship was weak and difficult to understand, but the voices became clearer as she continued to sit in silence. She added that the voices came through in many different languages. She stressed the need to achieve absolute relaxation as a first step and then sit in a state of expectancy with the mind cleared of all conscious thoughts and memories. “Conscious thought must be avoided – consciously trying not to think is thinking,” she pointed out.

the many shape-shifting images of the Needy Ego have one thing in common

As the Ego rides through the psyche in its desultory ways, jumping from one image to the next, we eventually sense that all cinematographic representations have one common element: they all feature some aspect of “otherness,” some version of “me against them,” some scheme to avoid feeling "less" by getting "more." The kaleidoscopic array will portray persons and things as relating to:

Fear, an expectation of becoming or having "less"

Anger, an opportunity for ego-repair after being made to feel "less"

Scheming Revenge, plans to feel “more” by making someone else "less"

Sexual conquest, taking one's pleasure from, exploiting, another, which is an attempt to cover personal pain, a feeling of "less"

Depression, a defeated outlook without hope of “more”

Boredom, a mask to pretend we aren’t afraid of becoming "less"

Cultish subservience, a cowering surrendering of autonomy to a superior power, which is an attempt to become "more" via some external force

Terror, an open acknowledgment of “I will soon have nothing”

In all these, the Ego casts itself as either victim or perpetrator in a drama of “getting more” or “having less.”

Why were we created this way? As discussed in other articles, as per the testimony of Spirit Guides, the Ego is a temporary developmental stage meant to sharpen our sense of personhood.

It’s part of the individuation process. The recurrent insistence on “otherness” in all that the Ego does, while not pretty, furthers the long-term goal of making us autonomous individuals.

the purpose of the brain is to filter out, from universal consciousness, anything not correlating with the body’s perspective; in this ‘step-down transformer’ process, separate egos, with separate personal identities, emerge

Dr. Bernardo Kastrup, PhD philosophy, PhD computer science, for many years worked at CERN, the large hadron collider in Geneva.

“… the function of the brain is to localize consciousness, pinning it to the space-time reference point implied by the physical body. In doing so, the brain modulates conscious perception in accordance with the perspective of the body.

a brain that filters implies the existence of unbound mind, a universal consciousness

"When not subject to this localization and modulation mechanism, mind is unbound: it entails consciousness of all there is across space, time, and perhaps beyond. Therefore, by localizing mind, the brain also ‘filters out’ of consciousness anything that is not correlated with the body’s perspective… like a radio receiver selecting [a particular station], among the variety [with] all other stations being filtered out and never reaching the consciousness of the listener…

"[T]he filter hypothesis implies that consciousness, in its unfiltered state, is unbound. As such, consciousness must be fundamentally unitary and non-individualized, for separateness and individualization entail boundaries.

Editor’s note: Father Benson from the afterlife speaks of a being, formerly mortal, five billion years old, so advanced as to enjoy awareness of all life-forms in the universe; in this, we see the future of the ‘unfiltered’ mind. Read More on the “500 hundred tape-recorded messages from the other side” page.

the filtering brain creates the illusion of separateness, of disconnected personal egos

"The emergence of multiple, separate and different conscious perspectives or egos, is a consequence of the filtering and localization process: different egos, entailing different perspectives on space-time, retain awareness of different subsets of all potential subjective experiences, the rest being filtered out. It is the difference across subsets that give each ego its idiosyncratic vantage point, personal history, and sense of personal identity.

Editor’s note: A brain designed to filter, and reduce to a trickle, experience does not substantively support a theory of reincarnation which exalts much experience. We do not come to this planet to gain experience, as such, but to individualize, to transform one’s tiny sub-set of universal consciousness into a personal ego. With this, we become ready for what comes next in the afterlife, even if we are not yet “good” persons, which can be accomplished later, but only after one becomes a person in one’s own right. Read More on this need for individualization.

"The subjective experiences that are filtered out become the so-called ‘unconscious’ mind of the respective ego. Since each ego allows in only an infinitesimally small part of all potential experiences … the ‘unconscious’ minds of different egos will differ only minimally… As such, the filter hypothesis, unlike materialism, predicts the existence of a ‘collective unconscious’; a shared repository of potential experiences that far transcends mere genetic predispositions of a species…

the likely origin of the mystical experience

"[A]nd most importantly, the filter hypothesis predicts that one can have experiences that do not correlate with one’s brain states. Since here the brain is seen merely as a mechanism for filtering out experience … when this [filtering] mechanism is interfered with so as to be partially or temporarily deactivated, one’s subjective experience could delocalize, expand beyond the body in time and space, and perhaps even beyond time and space [giving rise to what is called the mystical experience]…”

READ MORE of Dr. Kastrup's work on the “quantum mechanics” page

the vice of the virtuous

In my own case, I find at times that this self-reading of “getting worse” is linked to a heightened sense of one’s own dark side. It becomes uncomfortably too real.

And I would say that, especially if one comes from a conservative background, the reality of the “heart of darkness” can make one feel extremely disoriented.

Elsewhere I have spoken of “unearned guilt” and this too begins to oppress one’s spirit. Anomalously, one can even begin to react or to see oneself, virtually, as a criminal, which is very unpleasant. I came to understand that all this confusion is part of the “long dark night of the soul.”

But why should we be required to enter this detour into a personal hell, seeing the darkness, up close – sometimes, the “madness maddened” -- within one’s own deeper person? Why can’t we simply say, “I want to emphasize positive things in my spirit, focus only on good things, and ignore and suppress the darkness within?”

The answer here is complicated. Many, in fact, do allow this form of repression. But, at what cost, and to what effect? I have come to see that true spirituality will be founded upon a perception of both the light and the dark in one’s person – which is the universal condition of humanity; no exceptions.

It’s become clear to me that, without seeing both sides, one becomes neurotic and will enter that self-delusionary world of “I thank thee Lord that I am not like other men.”

When this happens, there can be no authentic compassion for the down-trodden, service efforts become tainted with pride, one will unwarrantedly judge oneself to be “above” and “better,” and now, at best, polished manners will conceal a contempt for the weak, a cloaked, “If you were as good as I am then you wouldn’t be in this trouble.” Many have trouble believing that, with sufficient provocation, or cultural conditioning, or substantial duress, one might commit any crime of history.

And in this gross illusion of "I am better, I am chosen", a new form of evil rises in the world, and we become useless in terms of authentically representing the love of God. Some have called this hidden cancer, “the vice of the virtuous.”

 

Sting, Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot 

 

 

When the Compass Spins Between Heaven and Hell, When Your Secrets are All Found Out... Let your Soul be your Pilot, it will Guide you well...