The Higher Self and transcendent experience, including OBEs

[soleil]

Posted by TraineeHuman (here)
I’d like some of you readers to tell me more.

But my one caution is that when that stillness becomes strong in you, initially and for maybe quite a few years there will be huge resistance from your ego, from your outer self. That resistance will rear its head every time your HS really descends into your physical body. That’s not likely to happen yet for a long time, unless you're already at that point. But your ego will even resist and envy the fact that you are learning to communicate with another, even now, even if you're a total beginner. The biggest gun your ego usually has is to make you feel weak – maybe disinterested, or lacking in confidence, or lazy, or chronically tired. I had to warn you, so now you’ve been warned, my friends. Yes, there is certainly light at the end of that tunnel.

Posted by TraineeHuman (here)
We all need to learn to get in touch with our intuition. As I understand it, listening to our intuition usually comes down to listening to some voice usually quite deep inside us. I've already gone on about how we listen to false voices inside us, coming from family members who influenced us in our childhood , and so on.

But once you learn to "feel" or "hear" the very alive stillness or silence that is your HS, you become much better at distinguishing the "voice" of that stillness from all the other voices.

hi TH, this IS something i have been working on. my inner silence. i've been able to distinguish my ego/rage (i'm in sales for work + my mama is drama, so i do fight with these parts of myself daily), feelings of depression, feelings of anxiety in solar plexus area, worries, etc. all of them. and daily in the daily grind new ones appear, and so i do my daily meditation while out doing my job, or walking around, or dealing with my daughter. so many thoughts appear, but i am able to gently move them and appreciate them, and let them go.

BUT ive also noticed something. my HS doesnt talk to me like my thoughts do. i dont know if my ego knows this, but when its HS, its like an 'idea' or 'epiphany' or a small 'gut instinct', or 'intuition' or 'real strong or really small feeling to do x,y,z" - whatever it is, i've been trying to listen and catch these, because they are just ideas, they are not being forced on me, so i know they must be HS.

right now my HS is sporadic (as are the moments i have to myself to have inner silence), but i'm learning on the daily communication like in #24. so i wanted to share this with you(as you keep asking ), so there is my feedback on doing #24 in my daily grind,

and thank you as i'm happy to learn a new next step now to add to our communication and HS descension (in addition to doing OBE, which hasnt happened lately).

[TraineeHuman]

Posted by teradactyl (here)
hi TH, this IS something i have been working on. my inner silence. i've been able to distinguish my ego/rage (i'm in sales for work + my mama is drama, so i do fight with these parts of myself daily), feelings of depression, feelings of anxiety in solar plexus area, worries, etc. all of them. and daily in the daily grind new ones appear, and so i do my daily meditation while out doing my job, or walking around, or dealing with my daughter. so many thoughts appear, but i am able to gently move them and appreciate them, and let them go.

That's great, teradactyl. If you're feeling all those things, that means you're being aware, you're watching yourself. And being able to master the thoughts and emotions like that is meditation-in-action, which beginners at meditation are usually unable to do. But you're definitely well past any "beginner" kind of stage there.

BUT ive also noticed something. my HS doesnt talk to me like my thoughts do. i dont know if my ego knows this, but when its HS, its like an 'idea' or 'epiphany' or a small 'gut instinct', or 'intuition' or 'real strong or really small feeling to do x,y,z" - whatever it is, i've been trying to listen and catch these, because they are just ideas, they are not being forced on me, so i know they must be HS.

Exactly.

right now my HS is sporadic (as are the moments i have to myself to have inner silence), but i'm learning on the daily communication like in #24. so i wanted to share this with you(as you keep asking ), so there is my feedback on doing #24 in my daily grind,

and thank you as i'm happy to learn a new next step now to add to our communication and HS descension (in addition to doing OBE, which hasnt happened lately).

I’m particularly interested in people noticing what the positive features are of that stillness that, as I’ve been saying, is the beginning of the HS’s “voice”. Maybe you can try and see if you can notice a positive feature. But it’s great that you’re continually doing work on yourself and on your consciousness. And by my standards, you’re obviously making progress.

I’m very impressed that you’re feeling so much in your solar plexus. That’s where the ego has its headquarters, because it’s the area where the biggest number of major nerves in the body all come together. And when the ego feels its existence is seriously being challenged, it always withdraws its energies into the solar plexus area. Once it does that, it’s dug itself in, so to speak, and considers itself under siege. You may feel considerable pain or discomfort there as a result. It takes some people many years of serious meditation to get to that point, so I know you’ve done very well, but of course there’s still more work ahead.

[soleil]

Posted by TraineeHuman (here)
I’m very impressed that you’re feeling so much in your solar plexus. That’s where the ego has its headquarters, because it’s the area where the biggest number of major nerves in the body all come together. And when the ego feels its existence is seriously being challenged, it always withdraws its energies into the solar plexus area. Once it does that, it’s dug itself in, so to speak, and considers itself under siege. You may feel considerable pain or discomfort there as a result. It takes some people many years of serious meditation to get to that point, so I know you’ve done very well, but of course there’s still more work ahead.

my solar plexus was initially the cause for major depression in my life - which i learned to control or move past before i even "awakened" as the saying here goes. actually the past month and a half (literally from feb 23rd to about march 23-24) i had a massive bulge and pain and sharp pains and muscle tightening/tightness, it was horrible. i was worried all month long and terrified, i was fearing the usual thinking "oh no, i cant be pregnant" (fyi, i wasnt/i am not, and my HS kept telling me that i wasnt, and i knew i wasnt, but i kept feeling this feeling and pain and therefore the worry remained all month).

anyways, this totally makes sense now that i think of it. my ego has retreated since i blew up huge after learning that i surely was NOT; and also i am finally standing (so to speak) in a spot where i know i can trust my body feelings (i am pretty strong at bodily feelings and knowing what is going on in my body, physically, not referring to chakra-ey here) and my intuition so im already a step ahead of the ego.

also, what i do/had started doing when the feeling in my solar plexus arises (it is a tingle in my whole stomach area, and a bad butterfly feeling all over the middle. i place my left hand there, with my fingers tight together, not fingers splayed out and keep it there as i lay down. i just find that my left hand works better than my right (+ or - i do not know these details yet). anyways, it makes that feeling go away.

am i on to something by doing this?

is this a grounding? helping me in a deeper way on this specific area?

please let me know where else i can go from here, as there is lots of work left to go/do. i look forward to keep/continuing to work on my inner awareness and silence.

[TraineeHuman]

teradactyl, I still think it's great that you have been concentrating for so long on healing your solar plexus, because that is the seat of your ego, no matter what stage you were or are at. I would still see all you have been through with your solar plexus as being closely connected to seriously working on your ego throughout that time.

I'm sure you've been using the left palm to heal yourself. Of course, healing works both physically and psychologically. The chakras in the palms of the hands are the natural "direction-setters" for where a person wants healing energy to go. Initially, one tends to take energy in better through the left hand or foot, though with experience you can learn to use the right side hand also.

I'll try to answer your other issue in my next post. But it's important to just keep going the way you have been. Many of the most successful people in all sorts of fields say they were the ones who never gave up, over years.

[TraineeHuman]

Posted by teradactyl (here)
please let me know where else i can go from here, as there is lots of work left to go/do. i look forward to keep/continuing to work on my inner awareness and silence.

One thing you need to do – like everybody else -- is to keep working on your ego, your baggage. That is a very long task, but the ego creates big distortions to a person’s perceptions, and keeps sending them off into wrong directions. Also it usually creates drama or excitement or boredom (the opposite) so much that the HS’s take on things can’t get through.

The Zen Patriarch Shunryu Suzuki began a book by saying that to control a wild horse you have to give it a large paddock to run around in, even though you do fence it in with strong fencing. He was of course talking about the ego.

Also, the way to overcome the ego is to give it acceptance like it was a troubled child, but also to gradually become able to pay less and less attention to its outbursts, and not let it get you flustered (one day). You definitely seem to be doing well on that front.

Another necessary activity for transcending the ego is psychotherapy or self-enquiry. This involves determinedly seeking the real truth about why you are the way you are, and what lies behind that. Not giving up that seeking. Here you have the opportunity to take nonjudgmentalism to a new level, that of facing your demons, and everything that’s too painful for you but you don’t even know it is. This takes years to do at least. If you can even begin to get reliable information from your HS, as you evidently are, the HS can be a huge help by pointing you towards the truth about yourself.

You’ll know when you’ve made great progress in your self-enquiry because fewer things or people will have the capacity to “push your buttons”. Eventually you need to be able to not take it personally when a customer insults you for no rational reason, and to honestly enjoy doing all the work you have to neverendingly do at home and at work. Ideally nothing needs to be able to bother you any more, eventually. I’ve found that I became able to remember more and more of what really happened in my life, particularly in my childhood and early childhood. The ego gets its dark strength out of the emotional scars we experienced. At the time we got any of those scars, it was too painful to face what was happening, so we dulled ourselves and blocked out almost all memory of the incident. I seem to have recovered the memory of everything major that really happened in my early childhood and childhood, starting right from year zero.

Fortunately, the older a person gets the more emotionally mature and stable they get. So, the natural process of life does slowly heal a person of some of their buttons. But if they haven’t pursued psychotherapy/self-enquiry passionately for many years as one of the most important things in their lives, relying on the process of growing older sure won’t get them there.

So, one task is to gradually reduce the interference coming from the ego. The other task is to get more and more in touch with your HS. It will then tell you more and more what you should do. As I’ve mentioned, one thing that greatly helps at the beginning is learning to make the stillness be a part of you. People often seem to learn this through practicing meditation. I appreciate you don’t seem to have a minute to scratch yourself. But I would suggest arranging with your partner that you will have twenty minutes every evening of alone-time, where you will not be disturbed by anything. You can use that time to briefly reflect on the day (and congratulate yourself on all the wins you had) and to practice silent meditation.

[TraineeHuman]

Posted by kintun (here)
Hi!
Reading your last posts TH, I thought I could share a couple of experiences I had some years ago:
My cousin (psychologist, with great experience in hypnosis and past lives) was trying to hypnotize me to remember some strange time loss in my life. The thing is that I only got very very relaxed and saw nothing but blackness. And I felt this wonderful feeling of being nothing, just like energy or air, if you could call it that way and the sensation of expansion and fulfillness was amazing!! It felt as if I was an idea, a feeling, I don't know how to explain it really. ..but I could expand and fill space, and embrace it too all at the same time. It felt so different than being human....I had no limits o boundaries, no up or down, no inside or outside...I don't know how to put it in words....
Would you say this was something like 6D??

It can be hard to tell which higher dimension you were in, kintun, unless you could tell at the time you experienced it. Certainly that experience would have been probably in anywhere between 6D and 10D.

Once one gets even to 6D there are intentionality or “multiple world” complications, as I mentioned in post #241. The higher the dimension, the more involvement you have on the spot in shaping the very reality you experience. As Jake has mentioned, this is beyond the capabilities of science to handle, though the principles of abstract art might have quite a lot in common with how the worlds of 6D and 7D work. I’ve seen Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles a number of times, and each time I saw a different painting. The painting itself was incomplete, and it virtually forced the eye and the imagination to make up on the spot how to complete it, almost like some kaleidoscope packed full with optical illusions.

Another problem is that the mind tries to “record”, or “make copies of”, all memories into a 3D form, or, at “worst”, 5D. How memory works is a strange thing. The HS (ourselves in 6D and higher) is not interested at all in getting attached or be anything but totally fresh every moment. It doesn’t want any photo album of memories to cling to. It’s too busy with being fully alive and dynamic (even though it’s in great peace); in being the subject rather than the object (or in being something even beyond that).

As best as I understand it, what the HS does in the case of a lucid dream or OBE is it “photographs” “pictures” or “scenes” of itself, and then gives those “photos” to the memory. The ego desperately wants all “photos” of any time the person is in an aware state. This is because the ego would desperately like to be like the HS but, just like all forms of AI not “inhabited” by an HS, it never can be.

It would take too long for me to explain how come the ego can do this when strictly speaking the ego doesn’t exist. “The ego” is just a kind of metaphor for a certain complex mechanical process. (More explanation would involve my giving a type of lecture in metaphysics. Metaphysics, incidentally, is the branch of philosophy determines what sort of thing really exists, what is, what can be. As anyone expert in history or in the foundations of academic study can tell you, to this day the initial foundational issues of any new area of theoretical study are debated and largely decided in a definitive way by professional philosophers. For example, Paul Davies in the new field of cosmology.)

[soleil]

Posted by TraineeHuman (here)

Posted by teradactyl (here)
please let me know where else i can go from here, as there is lots of work left to go/do. i look forward to keep/continuing to work on my inner awareness and silence.

One thing you need to do – like everybody else -- is to keep working on your ego, your baggage. That is a very long task, but the ego creates big distortions to a person’s perceptions, and keeps sending them off into wrong directions. Also it usually creates drama or excitement or boredom (the opposite) so much that the HS’s take on things can’t get through.

The Zen Patriarch Shunryu Suzuki began a book by saying that to control a wild horse you have to give it a large paddock to run around in, even though you do fence it in with strong fencing. He was of course talking about the ego.

Also, the way to overcome the ego is to give it acceptance like it was a troubled child, but also to gradually become able to pay less and less attention to its outbursts, and not let it get you flustered (one day). You definitely seem to be doing well on that front.

Another necessary activity for transcending the ego is psychotherapy or self-enquiry. This involves determinedly seeking the real truth about why you are the way you are, and what lies behind that. Not giving up that seeking. Here you have the opportunity to take nonjudgmentalism to a new level, that of facing your demons, and everything that’s too painful for you but you don’t even know it is. This takes years to do at least. If you can even begin to get reliable information from your HS, as you evidently are, the HS can be a huge help by pointing you towards the truth about yourself.

You’ll know when you’ve made great progress in your self-enquiry because fewer things or people will have the capacity to “push your buttons”. Eventually you need to be able to not take it personally when a customer insults you for no rational reason, and to honestly enjoy doing all the work you have to neverendingly do at home and at work. Ideally nothing needs to be able to bother you any more, eventually. I’ve found that I became able to remember more and more of what really happened in my life, particularly in my childhood and early childhood. The ego gets its dark strength out of the emotional scars we experienced. At the time we got any of those scars, it was too painful to face what was happening, so we dulled ourselves and blocked out almost all memory of the incident. I seem to have recovered the memory of everything major that really happened in my early childhood and childhood, starting right from year zero.

Fortunately, the older a person gets the more emotionally mature and stable they get. So, the natural process of life does slowly heal a person of some of their buttons. But if they haven’t pursued psychotherapy/self-enquiry passionately for many years as one of the most important things in their lives, relying on the process of growing older sure won’t get them there.

So, one task is to gradually reduce the interference coming from the ego. The other task is to get more and more in touch with your HS. It will then tell you more and more what you should do. As I’ve mentioned, one thing that greatly helps at the beginning is learning to make the stillness be a part of you. People often seem to learn this through practicing meditation. I appreciate you don’t seem to have a minute to scratch yourself. But I would suggest arranging with your partner that you will have twenty minutes every evening of alone-time, where you will not be disturbed by anything. You can use that time to briefly reflect on the day (and congratulate yourself on all the wins you had) and to practice silent meditation.

hi TH, everything you just said has been part of where my intuition has been guiding me this past year. for the past 2-3 yrs, i've been working on speaking less(which was a big pet peeve about myself) and listening more/hearing more/be here now.

this in itself, was the opening of a door i never knew existed. and still this feeling is before of learning about higherself's (which was literally around late 2012); i was raised to believe in some god that supposidly existed according to the catholics in my family.

anyways, while speaking less, and listening more and not socializing with many people at work and friends that ive long needed to let go of -ive been able to be with my family, be in nature, meditate, and also listen to my inner self, to reflect and understand why i do the things i do & why i say the things i say. i also worked on letting go of my parents/ancestors paradigms as they are not mine and also figuring out which ones are mine which are more a natural part of my personality.

figuring out what habits were mine and what werent wasnt easy. however following my intuition to figure this out was easy. what inspirational thoughts would lead me to deducing and breaking emotions/feelings down. i feel as though i am deconstructing my ego.

i think.

[OOO]

Hi teradactyl,

This has nothing to do with OBEs, but I want to say that I really admire your openess and courage.
From my perspective it takes courage to admit ones shortcomings to oneself and even more so to do it publicly.

Wishing you well.

[soleil]

Posted by OOO (here)
Hi teradactyl,

This has nothing to do with OBEs, but I want to say that I really admire your openess and courage.
From my perspective it takes courage to admit ones shortcomings to oneself and even more so to do it publicly.

Wishing you well.

thanks 000, i try to keep it real i also dont really think of them as short comings. ....everyone has them...and mine, are less "messed up" than most people i know.

[Finefeather]

Posted by teradactyl (here)
figuring out what habits were mine and what werent wasnt easy. however following my intuition to figure this out was easy. what inspirational thoughts would lead me to deducing and breaking emotions/feelings down. i feel as though i am deconstructing my ego.

Hi teradactyl
This little statement of yours is very interesting.
We should try to avoid seeing our 'bad' habits as something foreign to us...as if it did not belong to us...these are just qualities in us which we need to address at some stage of our life. If we think of these 'bad' qualities as some outside entity we start to bring in thoughts of being possessed by some unwanted influence. Now whilst this is possible, it is usually not the case...and the old ego...in it's efforts to present itself as blame free and squeaky clean...wants to pretend it is from some outside entity, when in fact it is right inside your head. Knowing that it is just our own old habits and thoughts makes it easier for us to deal with...there is no fear factor only inner secrets to deal with and come to terms with.
I like your phrase "deconstructing my ego" it gives the impression of something better to be built in the future or something new to take it's place...which is the Higher Self or Soul, or Solar Angel as I prefer to call it.

This Solar Angel/HS possession or influence in our lives is the most important step we can take in the journey towards true self discovery and I must thank TraineeHuman for this wonderfully presented thread.

Love
Ray

[soleil]

Posted by Finefeather (here)

Posted by teradactyl (here)
figuring out what habits were mine and what werent wasnt easy. however following my intuition to figure this out was easy. what inspirational thoughts would lead me to deducing and breaking emotions/feelings down. i feel as though i am deconstructing my ego.

Hi teradactyl
This little statement of yours is very interesting.
We should try to avoid seeing our 'bad' habits as something foreign to us...as if it did not belong to us...these are just qualities in us which we need to address at some stage of our life. If we think of these 'bad' qualities as some outside entity we start to bring in thoughts of being possessed by some unwanted influence. Now whilst this is possible, it is usually not the case...and the old ego...in it's efforts to present itself as blame free and squeaky clean...wants to pretend it is from some outside entity, when in fact it is right inside your head. Knowing that it is just our own old habits and thoughts makes it easier for us to deal with...there is no fear factor only inner secrets to deal with and come to terms with.
I like your phrase "deconstructing my ego" it gives the impression of something better to be built in the future or something new to take it's place...which is the Higher Self or Soul, or Solar Angel as I prefer to call it.

This Solar Angel/HS possession or influence in our lives is the most important step we can take in the journey towards true self discovery and I must thank TraineeHuman for this wonderfully presented thread.

Love
Ray

does it make sense to say that i feel as though i was the product of my upbringing - as i didnt know better. i was quite sheltered, and i ended up moving out at 18(grade 12) - working 2 jobs etc for quite some time. i didnt have time to self reflect let alone find myself. i do believe there were things i did (as in my personal nuances, or daily habits) because thats how i saw them being done and i didnt try to do anything differently. but i have been able to change the things i did (whatever they were) to a new way that suits me. i think this is all that i mean when i say habits that werent mine.
on another note, i have a whole wack load of habits that ARE mine that are less easy to wade through.
i hope, finefeather, that this explains a bit better, i hope i am not under any illusions here. i do appreciate your feedback as i appreciate TH's.

[Finefeather]

Posted by teradactyl (here)
on another note, i have a whole wack load of habits that ARE mine that are less easy to wade through.
....... i hope i am not under any illusions here.

Dear teradactyl
I think you are probably doing better that you think...because you have already identified the 'problem'. Illusion is only present whilst we do not see our failings and shortcomings...once identified, illusion is gone and the work can begin.
Take care
Ray

[OOO]

Posted by teradactyl (here)

Posted by OOO (here)
Hi teradactyl,

This has nothing to do with OBEs, but I want to say that I really admire your openess and courage.
From my perspective it takes courage to admit ones shortcomings to oneself and even more so to do it publicly.

Wishing you well.

thanks 000, i try to keep it real i also dont really think of them as short comings. ....everyone has them...and mine, are less "messed up" than most people i know.

Wordage...always gets sticky...how about it takes guts to be honest with oneself!!

[TraineeHuman]

teradcatyl, I take it you're saying you appreciate there’s still much more to go in deconstructing your ego, in spite of your strong courage and willingness to be honest with yourself (which is hugely helpful to anyone in this). So, I guess you appreciate that anyone who has largely achieved genuine freedom from being controlled by their ego (in the sense spiritual traditions talk about that term, i.e. not egotism but personality) and who can listen to their HS won’t then need anyone else’s advice or any suggestions. Their HS then answers most of their questions. And they then live largely in freedom from all unhappiness, all the time. And that until that time, you just have to keep on going further with the deconstructing.

Most of what goes on in a person’s psyche goes on subconsciously. That makes truly knowing oneself a much tougher and more deceptive and longer task than it would seem. All adolescents try to rebel against their parents and reject what they see as their parents’ ways of looking at the world. This continues for at least a decade or two after adolescence. I'd like to suggest such rejection certainly doesn’t amount to freedom from the ego at all. It is very common at that stage to strongly resist behaving or ever being similar to one’s parents. And the stronger the resistance, the stronger the extreme subconscious attachment to the parents and their ways and personalities, and the greater the subconscious copying of that elephant in the room, in ways that are invisible to the individual on a conscious level. The identity built by such resistance is all ego, and is not its absence at all. So, that also needs to be deconstructed.

[AwakeInADream]

I like the term 'deconstructing the ego' too, and I like to think that what we are doing is to wipe the slate clean of everything that isn't really us, so that we can completely re-build the personality to more closely resemble the higher self so that it will serve us better for a time (a quick fix ). The real endgame though is to become the higher self for real, to merge fully with the true self, and I think that the false personality has to die altogether to achieve this.

I suspect that the process of becoming the higher self completely, is something that may take aeons of time, and that I'm nowhere near ready for a full merger just yet, but I do wonder if it is possible for me to do so in this lifetime. I've spent a lot of time contemplating this lately, and observing in meditation which part is not me (the thinking etc), and which is HS. I've also made a mantra of 'I am the Higher Self'.

I wonder TH, when you strip yourself down of all thinking in all of it's subtleties, who is the observer that is left?

Does the silence and peace of HS go even deeper than this observer? (I get the feeling that it does)

Thanks TH! for the adaption of the 30 second meditation exercise, it gives me the real sense that the HS is there at all times, if often unnoticed, and focuses my attention on the more subtle and abstract forces at play within me so that I realize that there is always something happening, and never nothing.

Teradactyl! Keep up the good work! Your progress is extremely beneficial to everyone reading this thread. I thank you too for this thread, because TH started it in response to you, so your searching for the true self has put many others on this path too (I'd never even considered the HS before I read this thread).

[TraineeHuman]

Posted by AwakeInADream (here)
I like the term 'deconstructing the ego' too, and I like to think that what we are doing is to wipe the slate clean of everything that isn't really us, so that we can completely re-build the personality to more closely resemble the higher self so that it will serve us better for a time (a quick fix ). The real endgame though is to become the higher self for real...

I suspect that the process of becoming the higher self completely, is something that may take aeons of time, and that I'm nowhere near ready for a full merger just yet, but I do wonder if it is possible for me to do so in this lifetime. I've spent a lot of time contemplating this lately, and observing in meditation which part is not me (the thinking etc), and which is HS. I've also made a mantra of 'I am the Higher Self'.

I wonder TH, when you strip yourself down of all thinking in all of it's subtleties, who is the observer that is left?

Does the silence and peace of HS go even deeper than this observer? (I get the feeling that it does)

It doesn’t have to take eons, at all. It’s not a matter of becoming your HS, but of becoming united with it most of the time. I have come across quite a few people who seem to have done it, within one lifetime apparently.

But I don’t know if anyone’s done it without directly experiencing Source first. Or maybe they have done it at an earlier point, but then Source puts them on fire, so to speak, and they can see that it’s so. The first time a person experiences Source, they can’t do it without going through complete death, not physically but in their heart and mind. So yes, that’s a wiping clean of the slate in some sense, and a rebirth. Each subsequent encounter with Source is a type of rebirth also. But the death is primarily a death of the outer self's control -- because after such a "death" you pick yourself up and most of the old personality is still there. What's changed is that it's now under the HS's control, and has become much less important.

When you experience Source directly you have been bitten by infinity, and from then on you know with greater certainty than anything else that somehow you are infinitely vast, infinitely wide. You carry the taste of it with you all the time. As Blake wrote: “To see a world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wildflower, to hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.” People sometimes use the term “enlightenment” for the first experience of Source. Others reserve that term for some deeper level of merging with Source. It’s certainly possible to lose or misdirect some of the impact of that initial experience. That’s why the meditation traditions insist that more experiences of Source are necessary, and their impact needs to be integrated ultimately with all aspects of one’s everyday life.

But the experience of Source just comes kind of organically if you truly go deeply into peace and just go deeper and deeper. I never had any teacher to answer any of my questions on my way to first fully experiencing Source (via formlessness and the HS). Not one question. I just went deeper and deeper into meditation. Well, I guess some nature spirits must have been giving me information, but never in words or concepts. Also some old trees. I just went deeper and deeper and deeper because, kind of like teradactyl, I felt I deserved to know and experience it. And I wanted the taste of reality in my life.

Yes, you do go beyond the level of “observer”, but I’d prefer it if people discovered that for themselves, through experience.

Actually, one thing I’m currently involved with is that the HS needs to go through an “enlightenment” process analogous to what the self has gone through. I don’t know how to explain this to someone who isn’t already experiencing that journey. But I have met others who were on it. In a nutshell, everything you went through at the level of self, your HS now needs to go through, but at its level. The HS has plenty of limitations to overcome also.

In the meanwhile, get to know HS better and start to learn to become a lot more powerful by bringing down its power, when it’s there. That power is small bikkies compared to what Source brings, but you have to start somewhere.

Also, I’d like to suggest very frequently practicing the “feeling the aliveness in you” exercise which I mentioned and discussed in post #114 and other posts around there.

[AwakeInADream]

Thanks TH! I've often wondered, 'What does the higher self get out of all this?' and 'Why should my progress matter to him?', but now I know that he and me, are growing together (in both senses LOL), and that he is me, so I am in fact living two different lives at the same time, at two different stages of development, which (almost paradoxically) rely on each other. Weird huh?....Life really is stranger than fiction, and words just won't do for any of this.

I'm going to fully commit myself to merging with HS in this lifetime, maybe it's the merging with Source thing that takes aeons? I've had just one taste of Source in this lifetime, and merging with THAT! seems impossible to me at this stage in my development (and frightening). It's odd how death from one perspective(ego,personality, etc.), is life from another (HS, Source)... I realized in meditation the other day, how in my physical death, I wouldn't be losing anything that matters. I felt.....easy about it. I'm so glad that there is a place I can visit at any time where fear doesn't exist.

[TraineeHuman]

Posted by AwakeInADream (here)
merging with HS in this lifetime, maybe it's the merging with Source thing that takes aeons? I've had just one taste of Source in this lifetime, and merging with THAT! seems impossible to me at this stage in my development (and frightening). It's odd how death from one perspective(ego,personality, etc.), is life from another (HS, Source)...

That doesn't have to take eons, either. It's possible in one lifetime. I'm a little surprised, Awake, because you say you've already experienced Source directly once. Whatever a "self" is, the Higher Self is just a self but at a higher level. So, isn't it plausible that whatever it takes for the lower self to experience being united with Source, the same applies for the HS to do so, only at whatever higher level the HS operates at.

I happen to know that there is a third possible stage. This is where the HS, having achieved basic union with Source, descends fully into the physical. This is a matter of having become "divine", to then become "humanly divine". That's the ultimate challenge.

Once the HS has learnt how to stay in union with Source, the person may then choose to merge fully into Source. Sometimes this has been described as being like a drop of water merging with the ocean. But really, what it means is that the person then becomes in a sense as big as the whole of Source -- the person doesn't lose anything, but shares in everything that is Source's.

Such a merging with Source is possible after the second of these three "mountains" has been climbed. But it seems greatly preferable for the person to hang around as an individual until they've descended to the "top" of that third mountain.

[Finefeather]

Posted by TraineeHuman (here)

Posted by AwakeInADream (here)
merging with HS in this lifetime, maybe it's the merging with Source thing that takes aeons? I've had just one taste of Source in this lifetime, and merging with THAT! seems impossible to me at this stage in my development (and frightening). It's odd how death from one perspective(ego,personality, etc.), is life from another (HS, Source)...

That doesn't have to take eons, either. It's possible in one lifetime. I'm a little surprised, Awake, because you say you've already experienced Source directly once. Whatever a "self" is, the Higher Self is just a self but at a higher level. So, isn't it plausible that whatever it takes for the lower self to experience being united with Source, the same applies for the HS to do so, only at whatever higher level the HS operates at.

I happen to know that there is a third possible stage. This is where the HS, having achieved basic union with Source, descends fully into the physical. This is a matter of having become "divine", to then become "humanly divine". That's the ultimate challenge.

Once the HS has learnt how to stay in union with Source, the person may then choose to merge fully into Source. Sometimes this has been described as being like a drop of water merging with the ocean. But really, what it means is that the person then becomes in a sense as big as the whole of Source -- the person doesn't lose anything, but shares in everything that is Source's.

Such a merging with Source is possible after the second of these three "mountains" has been climbed. But it seems greatly preferable for the person to hang around as an individual until they've descended to the "top" of that third mountain.

This is such a good post and is exactly what happened to me at age 27. I often describe it as sort of peeling off of the layers of blindness and the more you are able to comprehend the steps and experiences you needed to go through to reach this point. You see your whole past life in front of you, like an open book, to examine and see how you got to where you are. You immediately also realize just how simple it all could have been if you just had followed the big glaring answers, which were staring you in the face all the time. When this happened to me...and for a long while thereafter I spend many moment walking around with a smile on my face...as if I won the lottery People used to ask me what I was so happy about and I remember one girl kept asking me if there was something wrong with her because I was always grinning when I spoke to her

Today...40 years on...I live my life with not one single day going by where I am not involved in some way with giving others some information about this exciting stage in our lives...there is nothing that takes place that seems to shock you or puzzle you...all the answers just flood into your mind like you have known them all your life. I see and talk with many different people and their problems seem to me like a walk in the park...yet they are under such stress and their lives are often a complete mess. When I give them the simple answer, they cannot believe it could be that simple and start imagining and building all sort of new problems around them...almost as if they want to remain in this state for ever. Of course today I recognize and know it is just the little ego who is running their lives.

I have developed a technique, which I use in counselling, where I let people in trouble regress and forward themselves, using the problem they have, I ask them to answer questions about their perceived problems and each answer they give I pose another question and so on, until they often suddenly just start to realize that they are the ones who are creating the consequences which are making their lives such hell.

I often give people the analogy of the thing we call the Higher Self by comparing it to an expert who is trying to answer a question but is been constantly interrupted by the silly old know it all student.

It takes courage and effort to silence the ego...a new day dawns when you achieve this and your life becomes constructive and a joy to experience. There are many things you may have to come to terms with...like admitting all your old faults and apologizing to yourself and others for often been such a jerk...but you know I have never come across a person who does not admire someone who admits and takes ownership of their own life...and the beauty is...it is never too late to do it.
I have met and experienced people on their deathbed who just want to tell those around them all the 'bad' things they have done and how sorry they are that they did not admit and realize this before. Why does this happen...because the Higher Self is often in command in the last few moments of our life...why not open to it now?

Thanks again for a great thread
My love to all
RAy

[TraineeHuman]

Let’s suppose you get significant communications from your HS, but not all the time. As I know some of you do – while some, of course, have already progressed beyond this point. Also, it’s possible to make this work even if you’re a complete beginner, if you really want it. What can you do to make these communications occur more frequently? Ultimately, at such a stage, as far as I know, all you can do is to make the commitment to accept the HS’s (or, if you like, the divine’s) influence solely, in your life. And not the influence of any lower forces.

As Eram has said, it’s really a surrender to the HS. It needs to be a very willing surrender. The individual needs to have already at least glimpsed the power and the liberation that the higher “energies” bring into one’s life.

It needs to be a commitment to depend completely on the HS for its inner help and guidance. So, it’s a strong intention. That of course entails continually not giving your support to the ego, so it's a new life in some ways.

As Eram particularly has explained so well, it’s like dealing with a child. You understand why the child feels frustrated at not having that lollipop, but you still don’t capitulate to what the child wants – unless the child happens to want something that’s reasonable, or good, or constructive to her or his development. And you let the child know that you love them anyway, and that it’s perfectly OK for the child to express his or her desires and impulses to you.

Ultimately, the decision to make this commitment to the HS is a subtle one. You simply can’t force yourself into it if your heart isn’t totally there.

The surrender of all the things where your ego has been in control doesn’t guarantee that the HS will always be there at any time, with answers to every need you have, or every question you have. The HS can give or not give, but folks, basically it’s all you’ve got. You don’t let the HS’s failure to answer every time put you off. Not at all. You’ll still know when you have a real flow of communication going with your HS. You’ll feel the glow inside of you.

Ultimately, it’s simple to do. But you must be willing to keep nothing for the ego and its desires (and still find a way to be always kind to yourself).

Becoming very simple, in a wise way. Nothing beats that, in my experience.