[Consciousness] [1REED] Shall We Live in our Imaginations?

[Henry Reed]

Yesterday in the news was a piece about “virtual religion.” On the
internet site, “second life” someone had set up a church for people to
attend vicariously and virtually by having their “avatars” (or alter
ego that exists in cyber-space) attend and participate in the online
service. One man, whose avatar looked like Puss’n’Boots, commented that
in the virtual church he felt accepted in a way more profound than in
actual churches. The piece reminded me that one of the trends that
might have to do with what’s upcoming regarding the transformation of
consciousness is that we come to live in our minds more than in our
bodies. The future of consciousness, to put it bluntly, may lie in out
of body awareness or lucid dreaming. In many ways, electronics have
supported advances in virtual reality. Here’s one way virtual reality
may relate to the future of consciousness, using the noboundaries
paradigm of transformation: Both virtual reality, near-death studies,
and mediumship dissolve the boundary of what is “real.” There are some
other trends that seem to be pushing for us living in virtual
reality.Coming from another perspective entirely, Terrence McKenna,
prime spokesperson for the implications of psychedelic reality,
predicted years ago that the transformation of consciousness would
involve a basic shift in perspective. Whereas now we take the data of
our senses to provide us with our connection to reality—physical
reality is what we recognize—while we relegate the imagination to a
secondary, sub-standard reality. In the coming transformation, McKenna
proposes, this situation will be reversed. We will come to live in our
imagination, he says, while our physical bodies will be in the
subliminal background. Lest we consider this proposition too wild, too
“psychedelic,” consider this quote from Teilhard de Chardin, in The
Future of Man: “The more I think about this mystery [how the world will
end], the more it appears to me, in my dreams, as a ‘turning about’ of
consciousness—as an eruption of interior life—as an ecstasy. There is
no need to track our brains to understand how the material vastness of
the universe will ever be able to disappear. Spirit has only to be
reversed, to move into a different zone, for the whole shape of the
world immediately to be changed.”I’m gathering other tidbits from
writers that echo this surprising theme. It could be a part of a
doomsday scenario, when the planet’s surface would be uninhabitable, so
everyone is below ground on life support, living their lives in their
imagination. Stephan Hawkins shows how productive such a life can be.
The other fantasy, not involving doomsday so much as simply advances on
the planet that remove most of our physical challenges, putting us in a
spot where we experience all through a form of dreaming rather than
physical participation.I’m gathering up book titles to present to the
many folks who have volunteered to create book summaries to form our
manual for our consciousness conference. Even if you are not
volunteering to create a book summary, I’d still like to hear from you
regarding suggestions for books to summarize. To be a good book for
summary, the book should1) be on topic. For example, a book on near
death experiences could be useful if the author draws inferences from
the experiences regarding the direction of the evolution of
consciousness. A book on near death that simply attempts to show us
that there is life after death doesn’t seem that related to our
theme.2) Be by a reputable author. Reputable doesn’t necessarily mean
academic/scholarly. Though scholarly books have the advantage of the
author having searched the past for relevant material so as not to
re-invent the wheel, intuitional or channeled books can provide genuine
inspiration. It’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, especially
when it comes to “channeled” material. One measure I use is how popular
is the channel, has that channel inspired others to take up related
investigations. Cayce, Seth, Hand Clow, Course in Miracles, Steiner,
and others I can’t think of right now.I would appreciate your
suggestions. The book list I’m compiling for those who have volunteered
include Pinchbeck’s 2012, Fred Wolf on the new consciousness, a Jungian
book on The Return of the Goddess, Tarnas on Cosmos and Psyche, Goswami
on the Self-Aware Universe. One challenge in selecting these books is
to make a decision as to whether the book is primarily bringing up new
evidence for an ancient view (Goswami’s thesis that consciousness is
primary to matter is an old idea) is whether or not the book makes
arguments for why our consciousness may be trending toward having that
ancient view be in full conscious, lived awareness, rather than
remaining as a background fact available only to the mystically
inclined.Another interesting issue has to do with what I would call
fore-runners. For example, I think that the “co-dependent” syndrome is
part of a forward action by a group of people who are struggling with
something we may all have to struggle with later: How do you
distinguish your own thoughts, feelings and needs from those of people
around you? It would seem that these folks are anticipating our loss of
psychic boundaries. As another example, there is the question of
childhood autism. While we may recognize the work on “Indigo children”
as relevant to our topic, suggesting that the evolution has already
begun and new consciousness is entering via the children, what about
autistic children? There has been some suggestions here and there that
autism may have some hints about what is coming down the road regarding
shifts in consciousness. I’ve found that the challenge in pursuing this
with those who claim to be autistic is that they may have trouble
putting into words their ideas on this question in a way that will
speak to us. I’m hoping to get some good, useable information on this
aspect of the trends in consciousness.I’ve added to the website,
www.henryreed.com/indiana some new links, related to book summaries and
essays already in hand that could be relevant to our theme.I look
forward to any of your suggestions.Sincerely,Henry Reed

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Posted By Henry Reed to 1REED at 5/22/2007 12:36:00 PM
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