Music seems as much the vibration or pulse that is felt as it is the lack of what lies opposite that pulse.  That which is, is reflected by that which it is not.  A musical note is a vibration.  But it can also be described as all that is absent from the vibration.  This is why we label and structure stuff in our minds.  Our definitions of what something is, is as much a definition of that which it is not.  All of these events occur simultaneously.  The push without is as much a vacuum action within.

Musical Keys such as A-Major or C-Minor are as much a definition or description of what notes (vibrations) are there just as much as a definition of what notes are not there.  The particular effect of the musical key is usually understood by us as a result of what is there rather than what is not there.

Psychology is sometimes a study of what is not there, or at least not recognized as being there, or even what is hidden.  Magick and meditation are concerned with exposing what is not recognized as being there, of seeing things hidden, and of seeing things askew or askance from what they appear to be.  Both fields of study deal with the unknown.

The unknown is precisely that—unknown, primarily because we see around it, in front of it, behind it, to the side of it, but never for what it is…a vacuum.  Describe an abyss, will you?  By what it is?  Impossible.  Create a label or in this case a name, a word to describe it, and even that is only a definition whose very comprehension is reliant upon our understanding of what cannot possibly be…something that by its very nature of existence does not exist!

Such is the paradox of existence.  What a grand show it all is.  Simultaneously enthralling and infuriatingly impossible to comprehend unless one tries to stop understanding it in the first place.  In order to comprehend something greater than oneself, one must emulate that thing first, imitate it, and then one will in time become that thing.

To understand God, it seems one has to let go of all human-level understanding.  How else could it be, really?  God created us humans.  In the classic sci-fi plot, how can a robot understand or be more like its human creator without emulating the human all the while forsaking its robot tendencies?  Such it is with the relationship between Human and God.  In order to be like something, one must stop being like its opposite.  In order to experience Oneness of Divinity, one must cease all Separate activity as an ordinary human.

In my experience, I have realized that one must forget oneself, totally give up control of oneself, and let go in order to come closer to God, to understand God.  One must cease to be completely so one can fully unite with God in Enlightenment.  Stated another way, one must empty oneself of oneself before God can come and fill you up.  Empty your cup of filth so it can be filled with Divinity.  Forsake your pride, your ego, your identity.  Only then will you come to realize your True Self.

The process has also been understood as facing emptiness, facing the Abyss.  Facing the Abyss causes tremendous fear to erupt in the Soul.  By going beyond this initial feeling of fear, by holding on to Love which is the essence of God, can one attain Enlightenment.

“When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.”—Friedrich Nietzsche

Intuition seems the opposite of Thought and Thinking.  With intuition, one does not have to think about what to do.  All one need do is to listen to the dictates of intuition and follow instructions, as the case may be.  Intuition is an inner knowing, as opposed to thinking which is often a simple juxtaposing one external ‘reality’ or ‘fact’ against another to see what clues they can yield about some underlying truth we are trying to discover.  Thinking comes from observations made externally.  Intuition comes from an internal source.

According to a modern yogi, one should always follow the dictates of Intuition because that is where the Truth is found.  All advice for life can be found thru it.  All decision-making should be done by consulting intuition as the source of guidance.

It has been said that Thought itself is THE problem.  The Soul’s desire for experience is the forerunner of thought, and thought results in life (beginning on the subtle planes of existence).  Any form of life whatsoever is existence apart and away from the absolute experience of Oneness of God.

For a long time I have endorsed the harsh mind-set that life is a mistake of sorts, an affront to God.  If anything it certainly seems to be an affront to one’s own Soul to seek an existence away from that which provides said existence in the first place.

According to one perspective from the world of yoga, life is meant to be just entertainment or play.  In ancient terms it is called ‘lila’ which means God’s sport or God’s play.  Even so, doesn’t playtime always end at some point and we go back home?

When thought stops, existence stops.  Life stops.  Yoga teaches that it is thought and breath that keep us here.  Anything that excites our interest (desire) on any level keeps us here.

If I didn’t know any better, I would venture forth the simplistic notion that when we are bored (for lack of a better word) with life and existence then we return to God, back to Oneness and leave the suffering madness of incarnation behind.

Doing one thing engenders another thing to happen.  Stated another way, every action results in a reaction.  This is a simple law of the universe first published publicly by Isaac Newton.  Every time you do some thing, it has an effect in some other way.  Change one thing and change the whole thing.  There is no escape from this universal rule.

Let’s look at allopathic medicine for examples.

Simply stated, if a chemical or drug is introduced to the body, a reaction will result.  If a pain killer is introduced, the patient will experience less pain.  If the patient is suffering from an infection and an antibiotic is introduced, the infection will dissipate.  If a patient is suffering from emotional or psychological trouble and an antidepressant is introduced, the melancholy will be lessened or possibly cease.

All well and good, right?  Nothing morally objectionable, right?  All things being equal, I would agree.  However…

Keeping the above examples in mind, I have a question.

Can anyone in the world tell me why ingesting a chemical that changes or alters consciousness is somehow wrong’?  Somehow ‘morally objectionable’?

Stated another way, can anyone tell me why so-called ‘illegal’ drugs are supposedly so bad?

How is it that altering one’s consciousness thru chemicals is worse than altering one’s physical health?  I think the word ‘health’ is the key, especially as pertains to the above example dealing with depression.  In that example it is obvious to most people since the patient’s emotional or psychological health is in jeopardy, there is no objection to helping the patient heal with a chemical that can help the body or brain revert back to a more balanced state of health.

Now keeping that in mind, how is it that altering one’s consciousness with drugs or entheogens so bad?  After all, doesn’t everyone know that it is possible for the consciousness itself to be sick or unbalanced?  The short answer?  NO!  Not everyone knows that it is possible for one’s consciousness to be in poor health.  Not everyone is aware of their own consciousness.

And that is the central underlying problem with our nation’s attitude towards the list of currently ‘illegal drugs’—people are overwhelming and appallingly ignorant to the mere possibility that their inner consciousness itself is just as vulnerable to illness as their body, and by comparison may be as sick or even sicker than their bodies have ever been.

So if you wish to ‘self-medicate’ to expand and heal your consciousness, then do so.  After all, it is YOUR consciousness that is in question.  No one on earth has the right to keep you from changing, altering & expanding your consciousness because it is yours.  Meditation expands consciousness if applied consistently, yet nowhere is meditation ‘illegal’.  Then so be it also with drugs and entheogens.

Use them to expand your mind if you wish, or don’t.

In deep meditation or even while high on certain entheogens (marijuana, mushrooms, salvia, i.e., natural ‘drugs’), one is able to see deeply into the truth of oneself.  Strange truths can come from such experiences.

When I imitate death thru deep yoga practice, I always return from the experience with more intelligence and wisdom.

While sleeping one night I became acutely aware that I was dreaming not because I was experiencing the dream, but rather because I consciously watched myself sleeping.

Once in meditation I realized that all beings are manifestations of My Self and that I am just an opening of sorts into which I project myself to view the rest of myself thru the senses there manifested in those beings, each identified with its own unique ‘name’ (read vibration or frequency).  The truth is that All Beings are these openings or portals into the Self.

Becoming of higher consciousness is akin to spreading your soul at nearer and nearer the speed of light which allows instant access to the whole universe thru consciousness, the brain.

Meeting a being of higher consciousness is like learning to understand that there is something beyond your current level of exploratory ability due to the fact that your soul cannot yet traverse the universe at the speed of light.

The universe is like a physical computer.  Magick sigils of spirits and angels and beings and ancient star names, etc. are ways of accessing the information manifested in the quantum field of the 3D space-time universe.  In other words the wisdom or info you seek is located somewhere in the universe, and the magickal name of the spirit is key with which you may use to contact, interact and/or otherwise communicate with that intelligent being.

Sex with someone is just like interaction of any ol’ sort, except on a very deep and trusting level of total communication, interaction, and trust.  There are no restrictions to such interaction with humans, as long as both parties want to interact.

A true spiritual Teacher does not teach unless asked by the student, unless there is a consciously chosen connection made.  Coming into contact with an such an Adept is like having a real live Source in front of you because that Soul is in fact in touch with the Source, meaning their Soul can travel the speed of light and therefore the whole universe in no-time at all.  This allows them to use their access to the Soul’s Light to illuminate the darkness in your Soul, to help you to look at yourself, teaching you to spread your Soul at the speed of light so you can realize the Truth that you (just like the teacher) are also the Source itself manifesting in the physical level.

A relationship with a Teacher is the most intimate one that there is.  It is like the most intimate sexual relationship you can ever have, but even more so.  The bond is one of absolute total trust.  There is no faltering for such does not exist.

Sexual relationships are really just a mechanism by which the Eternal Soul of God which has been divided to come back together again.  And the experience is one of Total Joy in the gift of sending each other towards the Truth found in the moment of orgasm (which is just like death).

Being as their souls can travel at the speed of light, Adepts are eternal in that they have ‘access’ to the entire Universe at once, making them time travelers (not limited to time) because they have collapsed time to zero (as in a mathematical equation) and can travel at light speed since they realize they are light itself.  As per Einstein’s equations, anything that travels at the speed of light will experience a severe time distortion in relation to everything else around them.  Adepts are not limited to time and are therefore eternal because they realize this mathematical function as a fact embodied within themselves.

While still on the subject of time, a simple explanation why some yogis can live for so long (hundreds of years) is that they simply do not pay attention to time.  It is not a matter of just ‘not believing’ in time.  They simply realize time as an illusion and manifest this realization in their physical bodies to such an extant that they live 2 or 3 or more times longer than the rest of humanity.

What is the connection between a large planet’s attractive gravitational fields and the magnetic vibration that attracts students to teachers?  It is Love, but what form does it take?  Is gravity a form of love, as Peniel’s teacher suggested?  It would seem so.  Whatsoever you are attracted to determines what you gravitate towards.  If you love the earth, then you are attracted to it and so you are held by its gravity.  If you love the Infinite God, then God’s ‘gravity’ attracts you and you go there.  Love, gravity, gravitate—all related.

When meditating deeply, I am able to see the overall dream quality of what we call ‘reality’.  What we experience with our senses seems so tenuous at best, so easily dropped like a bad habit…which I think may be an appropriate description of life itself—a habit we do not shake off until death, and even then most refuse to break the habit resulting in reincarnation for the soul.

With successively deeper and deeper meditations, the soul slowly comes to realize that reality is anything but real, if for no other reason than that deep meditation enables one to stop the chatter coming in from the senses, leaving only empty consciousness to experience.  With repeated practice meditation enables one to simply shut off the experience of life itself.  Meditation enables one to realize that there is no apparently separate self, no ‘I’ or ‘me’.  But rather one sees that there is only one Big Self that is experiencing Itself thru an apparently endless number of ‘little selves’ that seem to both real and separated from that Big Thing that created everything.  But the truth is there is no separation.  It is an illusion, a dream.  The Soul must wake up and realize such if it wants even a chance to return Home.

All Human Beings must eventually end their belief in the illusion that illusive reality is real but is in fact illusion.

I watched a little bit of a film today featuring a live performance of Johnny Cash at San Quentin this evening.  It was a bit disturbing to my soul.  It made me wonder about the need for prisons.

I think that perhaps the biggest problem in the world is a lack of compassion, a lack of love.  I wonder if there is any way at all to help all those out there who are suffering in such desperate ways as those people in prison.  As I watched the film I listened to the inmates talking about the ‘crimes’ they committed and I think that some of them were literally possessed by demons at the time they did what they did.  I mention crimes in quotes because I can’t help but wonder what a crime it is to be born into a situation that offers you absolutely no alternative but to do those things the rest of us call crimes.  Who is the criminal here?  The inmate?  Or the societal and cultural mores that put limits on every little thing in life and then make it illegal to transcend those arbitrary limits that never existed in the first place?

Perhaps the English occultist Aleister Crowley was right when he wrote…“The only sin is restriction.”

It seems every time we put a limit on ourselves, we sin against the endless possibilities that are inherent in God’s Kingdom.  Restrict God?  Who could be so bold, so brazen, so arrogant, so stupid,…so evil?  Can there be anything more evil than a person who puts a limit on everyone else?  Is there any more demonic activity in the world?  Again, who is the criminal here?  Where did the ‘crime’ start anyway?  Certainly not with the so-called criminal.

In my opinion, the real criminals in the world are the ones who have no imagination, no ability to let themselves soar.  The real criminals are the ones who perceive a lack of freedom in themselves and then seek to thrust that restriction on everyone else just to make themselves feel comfortable by creating a world full of restricted souls—just like themselves.  Authoritarian Controllers.  Professional Limiters of every natural God-given freedom.

Maybe, just maybe those pathetic jackasses are the real criminals of the world.

The reason that technology never works for long and always eventually fails despite the best engineering can be best explained like this—it is a reminder from God that what we experience here in the 3D universe is not the ‘end all, be all’ of existence.  Things fail and nothing lasts forever in order to remind us that only God is eternal, and the world with all its grandeur and attractiveness, is simply not ‘all there is’ in existence—there is something more, something beyond what our 5 pathetic senses tell us is real.

The fact is so-called 3d reality is anything but real.  It is, from the scientific perspective, mostly empty space.  From the spiritual perspective, it is just a manifested dream of consciousness.

I suppose one could say that since our waking reality is a dream, then the reason nothing lasts forever and is always in a state of decay and failure even from the very moment of its inception is precisely because it is all a dream—and dreams do not last forever.  Just as our nightly dreams last only a short time and are gone, so are our very lives and the world we live in—transitory.

I can scarcely think of nothing more horrible than to be stuck in a dream that has no end.  Any yet that is what life is for most people, if for no other reason than that they are unaware that they are dreaming in the first place.  Imagine a dream that is entertaining, ensnaring, fun, but totally fruitless, pointless, and from which there is no escape.  That is life lived unconsciously.  That is the sad state of affairs for most of the population.

The only way to escape the dream-trap is to realize it is a dream and also to realize that it is you yourself who is creating this dream-trap in the first place.  When you don’t know that you are dreaming then you naturally think (or more accurately—believe) that what you experience and see is real, absolutely real.  But when you realize that you are dreaming, then you know for certain that the dream cannot hurt you in any way because of the very fact that it is a dream.  Since when can dreams harm us, unless we allow it to do so out of our own unconsciousness, our ignorance and stupidity?

When the dreamer experiences Enlightenment, he awakens from his illusive ‘belief’ in the reality of the dream and knows without a doubt that it is all just a dream and such knowledge grants total control of his dream experience.

We laugh at anything (if in the right context) because laughing is a signal that what we are looking at/experiencing is an affront to God—further proof that we do not really belong here.  Just one way of looking at it again.  It is the same reason we cry too, what we experience is not really the way things should be, or the way It should be.

Life seems one great comedy/drama for our amusement and entertainment.  As long as we don’t invest ourselves emotionally to any of what we experience, we have no need to reincarnate.  Be neutral.  Have no attachments to anything.  In this way one becomes free from the fate of forced reincarnation.

“Only the bleeding heart returns.”—ancient teaching of the Children of the Law of One (CLO) quoted by Jon Peniel in his book The Lost Teachings of Atlantis.

Only in the movement of the heart’s energy caused by attachments to anything at all in existence can we be roused to return to incarnation.  Only when nothing at all can overwhelm our free will to choose transcending all that we experience can we return to God permanently.

After taking in all the accounts and stories and scriptural reports on the subject, it is obvious that the dream of a Utopian paradise cannot ever exist on Earth.

Within Dualistic physical manifestation, evil must exist along side of good.  Briefly, if you want to exist in the 3D universe, then you have no choice but to contend with the polar extremes of good and evil.  And that is the end of it.

The closest we can get to a physical Utopia on Earth is for every single person on earth to resist doing evil.  There is no other way.  And it doesn’t seem to be happening right away from the looks of it.  And even if everyone did so, keep in mind that all of life’s little problems would still be there.  It would just be a more peaceful and pleasant experience.  That’s it.

According to all accounts and scriptures and reports, Utopia only can exist in a subtle plane of existence, meaning somewhere in an Astral Plane where the dualities are much more unified, if not totally unified as one.  According to the few advanced yogis who ever had anything to say about it, such places really do exist, but again…they are not physical places, but exist on a subtle plane.

And the only way to get there is to attain God Consciousness while alive on earth,…and then die.

So deal with that.

As I have come to understand it, it is impossible to change the world outright.  The best one can do is to do one’s Will to the best of one’s ability, in essence offering one’s work to the world as it were, for voluntary “consumption”.  There is nothing else one can do, as far as I am currently aware.

The crux of the problem is a question.  What is the world?

The answer came to me one night.  As per the ancient teachings, the world is a dream.  It is a dream of God, of which we are all part in our own little way.  Everyone is dreaming collectively the world that we experience together.  And since Free Will is one of the main Principles by which the universe operates, everyone is allowed (ideally) to live their own life, to dream their own dream the way they want to.  Any violation of this principle results in the hell we see around us on a daily basis.

But if Free Will was respected and all allowed to do as they Will, the world would certainly become something more like the Utopia dreamed of so long ago.  If all did what they were meant to do instead of trying to change others to their way of thinking by force (a violation of free will) then the dream we call the world would slowly begin to change all by itself.

If all were allowed to dream their own dream with no interference, then the world would change by itself with no especial effort by anyone hell-bent on forcing the world to change by forcing others to do their bidding.

If all of us who are dreaming the world would dream our own little dream in the form of our work for the world and offer it to (instead of forcing it on) others, then the world (which is just our dream) would change by itself because all involved would be allowed to pick and choose whose ideas they wish to consume, ingest and assimilate to help create their own life, their own dream in exactly the manner which is best for them to accomplish their Dharma (dutiful work) for the world.  In this way and only in this way can anyone effectively change the world in the only proper way that does not incur karma against oneself.

Only by offering your work to the world with no expectation that anyone at all will benefit by it or worse, “come around” to your way of thinking, can you possibly “change the world” without intentionally trying to do so.

The world is a collective dream.  And since all must be allowed to dream without interference, all one can do is to dream your own dream into the world before your experience of the dream ends in death.

The world is a dream.  Would you want someone telling you what to dream every night?  Of course not.  That would be akin to having a never-ending nightmare from which you could not escape because someone out there wants to force their version of what is an acceptable dream on you.

And yet I ask you…isn’t that unpleasant scenario just described exactly what we have on earth right now?  Is it not a nightmare?  Isn’t nearly everyone on earth being told what to do, what to think, how to behave, i.e., what to dream on a constant basis?  Isn’t the media (television, radio, newspapers, magazines, culture, peer pressure, etc.) being used against us all on a daily basis?  Are we not being told how to dream and what to dream at all times?

The world is a dream.  At this point in history the dream is a nightmare because the whole world is being told what to dream, which is a grand violation of Free Will.

The world is a creation of our own imagination.  Our imaginations are being used against us on a daily basis to create a nightmare world that benefits only a few, namely those who are telling us what to dream which creates the nightmare around us.  These few, whoever they are, are “changing the world” according to their ideas, their selfish desires.

Now I ask you.  Do you still want to forcibly “change the world”?

My advice?  Change yourself.  Be kind.  Don’t force anyone to do anything…ever.  Don’t try to change anyone or tell them what to do.  Be yourself.  Do the work that excites you the most.  Do it for the benefit of the world.

And be happy that you are living the right kind of life God intends for you.  And go to your death with peace of mind.

Art imitates life.  Life imitates art.

Which is it?  What is the answer to this debate?  Being that this universe is polar in manifestation, the answer is both and neither.  As usual, I find that most polarized issues are resolved somewhere in the middle ground.

Artists whether they realize it or not, shape the world.  But my definition of ‘artist’ is a broader one than is common.  For the sake of this essay, artist must be defined as anyone who receives a completely new vision of something and diligently pursues it to manifestation, come what may.  The medium they choose is of no significance.

No matter how you look at it, artists are the only people who ever bring change the world, for better or worse.  Someone who comes up with a helpful invention is an artist by this definition.  But then again a dictator hell-bent for world domination is also an artist by this definition.  After all, the dictator is also following a vision to manifestation just like the benign inventor.  Obviously we must use our Free Will to choose carefully from among the ideas and visions we receive those we wish to pursue and manifest.

Even the practice of Magick has been called an art by the likes of Aleister Crowley and Dion Fortune.  The practice of magick is truly an art because it precisely follows the definition we have provided here.  Magicians are perhaps the greatest artists of all because their ideas and visions concern the conscious itself and self-chosen creation of their very selves as well as the work they wish to do for the world, to enhance the world and hopefully leave it a better place upon their death.  No except spiritual artists works with the inner and outer art quite like the practitioners of Magick, Indian Yogis, Tibetan Lamas, Muslim Sufis, Aborigine Shamans of all continents, etc.

It is the manifested visions and ideas of great dreamers that have any effect on the world.  Their creations and artistic offerings irrevocably change the world.  In this way, life imitates art.  When their art is offered to all, it changes the world to make it more like the vision in the artist’s imagination.

When art imitates life, it seems to me to be little more than a lack of inner vision on the part of the artist.  The artist is not really attempting to change anything but rather is collecting and then offering a snapshot of life for consumption.  It seems to me that this kind of artist is more of a trumpeter calling attention to something that the rest of society may not see or doesn’t want to see.  In my mind this person is less an ‘artist’ and more of an investigative reporter or an historian.

I don’t particularly like this kind of ‘art’ as one of its debatable results is that it often tends to just perpetuate exactly what the artist is reporting on by virtue of the fact that most people would experience the artwork that reinforces what they already know or suspect is out there, or else it introduces them to something completely new which forever implants a seed in their mind that what the artwork is representing is accurate and/or the ‘end all be all’ on the subject.  Sad to say, but such is the reaction of the ordinary human mind of the average person when exposed to this ‘snapshot art’.

It is a rare work of ‘art imitating life’ that truly changes anything, again owing to the general disposition of the average human being who must be practically dragged kicking and screaming into a new world thru the artistic offering of the first sort (life imitating art).

Generally speaking from a Free Will perspective however, the ‘art imitating life’ type of work is the only one that allows the human being to truly choose their next action.  As it is art of a historical or commentary type, one can experience the art and then choose whether or not to let the art have an effect upon the consciousness.

The “life imitating art” variety does not really offer much of a choice, if any.  This is because of the very nature of this type of art is one of causing change upon us all whether we want it or not.  The inventor’s art may be so revolutionary as to totally replace the technology it is meant to merely compliment or augment, the result being the unintentional total demise of the old technology which may still be very useful in some applications.  The old technology may then fall away from the collective human memory, which could be to our detriment at some point in the future when that old technology would prove useful.  Or in the case of the dictator, his vision is forced upon the public whether they want it or not (sometimes at the threat of death).  In either example, the underlying commonality is the absence of free will choice.

Of course, seen from this perspective, I am also an artist of this second sort (much to my dismay).  The fact is that what you are reading here is my own investigative artwork, a snapshot of life, my own creative offering for your mind to consume and digest according to your own level of understanding.  I am offering to you my own perspective on some small part of life.