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Hi, Everyone, This thread has come about because I get asked a lot of questions on various threads. In an effort not to hijack people's threads, I'm just going to ask folks to put any questions you may have here. For those of you who may not have read any of my stuff on here, and for those who have, here's a VERY brief bio. (Dear GOD I hate talking about myself in the third person! But here we are!): Infolad1 is a professional Illustrator, writer, and designer, with 39 years of experience on that end of things. On the esoteric end of life, for the past 27 years, Infolad1 has practiced Theurgy, Neidan, Meditation, Waigong, Qigong, Neigong, Neidan, Shen Gong, Tao Gong (and has been a fan of the original Gong Show for years ), Ancient Egyptian Cultivation, Taoist Cultivation, a dash of Mahayana Buddhism Kabbalah, Yoga, Pranayama, Laya Yoga, Yang Style Tai Chi Quan, Chen Style Tai Chi Quan, Baguazhang aka Bagua Quan, Bagua Zhang, Pakua Chang, Pa-Kua Chang, Pa Kua Chang, Iron Body Nei-Gong, Iron Crotch Nei-Gong, and...Okay, that's enough now. Jeez! I also do extensive research and comment on Information Theory, Simulation Theory, History, Pop Culture, Comics, TV, Film, Anime, Animation, EDM, Science and Technology in general, AI, Health and Wellness, Life Extension, Longevity, Bootstrapping/Startup Culture, The so-called "Paranormal", and other "Weird S#@%". So this thread will be the question depot for all of these things. If it's anything personal, just message me. I'll answer them as soon as I can. My life, like everyone on here, is super busy these days, and getting busier. I'm here to help If I can. Cheers!

Last week a random video popped up on my YouTube feed about ESP and it was interesting in the sense that the person (Russel Targ) both has an extensive career as a laser engineer and ESP researcher for the government. The most important part of his book is that he tries to put into math the theory of non locality of spacetime and in doing so explains the possibility of ESP and other phenomena many of us have experienced in our lives or hear from other people. Not to mention old Buddhist explain a similar fashion. I wonder if there is more theories out there that try to use science to prove the "super natural" (I hate that word because not is outside of nature).

Been reading about people who shift reality or jump dimension. and what you people think about it and its possibility? Some may jump into different reality than here with slight changes, some with big changes, some to past and others to totally different realm. I know it can be understood from a perspective of escapism and avoidance of what is to a different reality where the problem is not there.... but again they end up having to face it in the other reality maybe. but why not do it maybe for fun rather than fear ? and how does it fit in the energy, tao and all that puzzle of the universe ?

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23631510-200-consciously-quantum-how-you-make-everything-real/?cmpid=EMP|NSNS|2017-1110-GLOBAL-NovWk2_Youniverse|button&utm_medium=EMP&utm_source=NSNS&utm_campaign=NovWk2_Youniverse&utm_content=button&cmpid Consciously quantum: How you make everything real The idea that we create reality seems absurd. But an audacious new take on quantum theory suggests the fundamental laws of nature emerge from our own experiences

I dabble in programming and game design as a hobby. So now I'm making a game that uses explicit sex (not sugar coating it) as a way to convey a certain idea. From my point of view, I feel like we live our daily lives separated. In simple terms, there is the observer and what is observed. In this elemental duality of the world that we perceive we try to more than understand what we see, to be that what we perceive, this being the ultimate form of understanding of reality. And for that to occur one has to somehow merge with reality (whatever that really means). To merge with everything, like in an orgy. Hence sexuality.And why coming up with sex in this context? And not say tao, nirvana, ego death, samadhi or simply love? Because by saying everything is love, is to most probably fail the intended message. People relate to love as only a positive thing. Therefore a way to bias the message, missing the duality altogether. On the other hand, sex comes from our most primitive form, hardwired biology we should not ignore, coming from the very fountain of the infinitesimal. Because saying "I f*ck you", has at the same time a derogatory meaning as well as a nice meaning. Hence the unifying of the perceived duality.By making a game where I present characters that are the forces of Nature anthropomorphized, I try to show this concept. Battling but making love, make love but battle. And from that struggle, the world we perceive comes to be.

"Find that fire inside you." The popular modern term to incite motivation and enthusiasm in an individual. To find one's fire is to seek one's goals with determination and straightforwardness that cowers to no obstacle. A mighty forest born of ages long past cannot withstand a spark that ignites a fire, how could one's obstacles or enemies possibly contend? Ah, but however strong and everlasting the fire inside may burn, the inevitable reality comes to pass. Fire may only exist as long as there is fuel to sustain it. The "fire inside" one's motivation, the drive factor, is impossible to attain without fuel. The fuel for one's fire can be described in many ways, and thought of in different forms. Let us begin to forgo the illusions and be more straightforward. Fire is fueled by the ego. Fueled by the self. Whatever myriad form it may take is irrelevant, because determination, hate, sorrow, humiliation, shame, anger, and other forms of ego motivated emotions will always supply a finite amount of fuel for one's fire. An individual feels a response, then a burst of flame. But a raging fire will always settle into kindling. For those who seek motivation, fuel, who often delve with fire, I offer my favorite chapter of the Tao Te Ching: Chapter 15 The ancient masters were subtle, mysterious, profound, responsive. The depth of their knowledge is unfathomable. Because it is unfathomable, All we can do is describe their appearance. Watchful, like men crossing a winter stream. Alert, like men aware of danger. Courteous, like visiting guests. Yielding, like ice about to melt. Simple, like uncarved blocks of wood. Hollow, like caves. Opaque, like muddy pools. Who can wait quietly while the mud settles? Who can remain still until the moment of action? Observers of the Tao do not seek fulfilment. Not seeking fulfillment, they are not swayed by desire for change. This may not be my preferred translation, however it does help convey a truth. The fire inside is but an illusion. The ego is not the way, and one's inner self knows this reality. But let us ask, what can stop the water from falling? Is there a possibility for one man to cease a waterfall? Can a river's rapid course be diverted by the rocks that reside in its bed? Water has no emotion, as it yields to all things. A Taoist favorite among imagery, nevertheless, it is for a reason. If you are an individual in need of motivation, then observe water. Yield and go with the flow of events. When the times comes for you to crash like the massive waves of the ocean in a storm, then you will do so effortlessly. When morning comes and the water is calm and undisturbed, you will return as nature intended. There is no emotion, only the Tao.

This audio and others can be downloaded here: https://archive.org/details/AVADHUTAGITAENGLISHsingleFile An alternate reading here: http://www.inner-quest.org/Avadhuta.htm

Lately, I discovered that my meditation was actually hacked by a mind function that conceptualizes and creates an image of an experience and faked my experience of reality. an example: the experience or state of no-thoughts, at first it was a genuine experience and it felt really nice, during meditation. but after a while i discovered that, during my practices in the past months, I wasn't actually in that state that I started with and i was actually in a thought of no-thoughts. In other words, I was living in a conceptualized image of what i experienced first time i started the practice and the mind automated the process by attracting my awareness into it. which got me question a lot of my experiences, and ask you in this thread: How is it possible to identify whether the experience, state or the feeling we are having is a result of reality and not a fake, mind made image? When i say between myself, i forgive that person for what he did or give love to a person or deep inside pain, how to know whether it is coming from a real feeling, and not from a conceptualized dry image of forgiveness or love? Maybe it is by looking for the intention behind it? In buddhism, they say, you should approach pain with equanimity, and not with aversion, because aversion=resistance= persistence, but wouldn't you try to be in equanimity in order to heal (get rid) of pain which is by itself aversion but in an indirect way? or when you try to allow things to be as itis, but you are allowing it to be as it is, because you want to get rid of that pain (which is not allowing). Thank you,

We normally use the terms Existence and Life very casually. What do they mean actually? What factors determine existence or life. I would like your ideas on this. I would also like to have an in depth analysis into this topic of discussion.

Reality - what is it? We all likely have at least some concept in our mind about what 'reality' is, even if we might not be able to articulate well this concept or concepts that we hold about 'reality'. So what is reality actually? Is there 'really' even such a clear cut thing? It seems to me that 'in reality', it is not an easy topic at all to address, all things considered. A dictionary definition of the word reality will probably give something along these lines: re·al·i·ty rēˈalədē/ noun noun: reality 1. the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them. 2. the state or quality of having existence or substance. Also, for consideration, I don't think anyone can deny that wacking your thumb with a heavy steel hammer will probably do some damage to your thumb, and will probably hurt a lot unless you have some paralysis in that area, whether a person 'believes' or not in the reality of heavy steel hammers and their properties. Generally though when referring to reality, at least in a modern Western view, a widely held view is that it is something that can be *physically* confirmed to 'exist' whether people may believe in it or not, but there is maybe some room in there to at least allow that some 'things' might possibly be real which are not physically observable or physically confirm-able. In modern physics, I believe there are theories of other dimensions beyond what we consider to be the three physical dimensions and time. However, I don't think the concept of reality necessarily needs to be limited to the concept of dimensions. If a person has some sort of an experience that has a noticeable impact on them to any degree, then does that experience hold 'reality' no matter what the nature of the experience was? For example, a person can have a dream or vision of some sort and potentially be very noticeably influenced by the dream or vision to some degree or other. If something does not hold any 'reality', then how could it influence a person in any way? The clear lines of what 'reality' is may begin to break down a little bit if viewed in this way. A dream or vision may not at all be part of 'consensus reality' in any way, but it can still potentially have strong impact on the individual having the experience. Another example is a given person may focus on something or some activity that is important to them and which has a lot of influence or meaning for them personally, and which can potentially elicit strong change in that person, but which to someone else seems pointless and meaningless and empty. So, what then is 'reality'? Even within the concept of 'consensus reality' there can be seeming 'cracks' that appear from time to time if a person is paying attention, so even the concept of 'consensus reality' is maybe not so clear cut as we might like to think. Related to this, it seems to me that as long as we are inside a particular 'reality bubble' of some type or other, whether we are talking about 'physical reality' or something on a smaller scale, it can seem very 'real' and consistent; but, if a person pays close attention, they may sometimes notice things occurring that just don't quite fit the 'mold'. A bit of a 'crack' may have formed on the surface of the reality 'bubble', at least momentarily. I believe all people have built-in mental 'protection mechanisms' that help us to block out or dismiss these inconsistencies which we may encounter from time to time, which helps us maintain a more stable sense of 'reality', but we can learn to bypass or at least reduce the influence of these mental 'protection mechanisms' with observation and intent. Certain types of 'cultivation' practices may focus on or make use of similar observation approaches to help us observe or temporarily bypass or reduce the influence of some of our mental filters. Such approaches can potentially help us to see that 'reality' is possibly not what we may think it is. The question may then begin to arise in a person's mind, if reality is not exactly what we think it is, then what is reality? Is there really even some clear cut 'thing' out there called reality? Personally, I don't think the question can be easily answered, if it can even be answered satisfactorily at all in logical or rational terms, so I am not really expecting answers to such questions. Really I am just expressing some of my own current thoughts and ideas and personal observations on the matter here for consideration, in case anyone might be interested. :-) Some notable thoughts by some others on the matter: Descartes said to the effect, "I think, therefore I am." Robin Williams said, "Reality. What a concept!" Popeye said, "I am what I am." I think these are all views equally worthy of consideration as well, and much more aptly said.

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Each of us wants to live in the world as long as possible in a healthy body. It's clear. But not everyone thinks about the fact that our three-dimensional vision of space narrows his consciousness in the narrow confines of the cycle time. Time in which we are counting, lived each year of life is our main "enemy", which sums up the inexorable course of life. What it is and how to contact our consciousness and time? Why do people with the same date of the birth in the passport on the appearance look different? One is younger than his years, another is older. There do not exist passport each of us has a biological clock. It turns out that the time for each of us - it is a personal factor. And aging depends on it. The time – is personality each of us. Our inner world, feelings, emotions, everything that we experience in life it is the main component that can support our organism. A consciousness? How it affects the length of our lives? Directly to the growth of consciousness we open the boundaries of time, motion, and it duration. As our personal perception of life begins to expand the boundaries of space, we merge with the flow in the realization of a strong emotion, absorb more information from the environment and begin to expand more chances in life which for us is a carrier between his inner world and external world. We become part of something of a more united and eternal. The border of time erased and goes out of fear. With the growing consciousness of cooling towers time. It means, what is time? This segment of graded consciousness. The time is personally, it towers with increasing consciousness. And our survival depends directly on the level of awareness and perception of themselves in the reality. And to artificially prolong life is impossible if you do not see them as a unified energy space wave flux. http://knowledge-thought.com/about

The world we see is completely internal. It's a simulation created by the brain from the sensory stimulation it receives. So the "external" reality that we live in does not look, sound, smell, taste, or feel like anything. It's a field of information. Does this mean that we live in the matrix?

Recently some things were said in a recent thread of mine that really threw me for a loop. I was all set to reply, then decided not to. Now I am trying to work it out, work through it. I thought I would share what I have so far and see what happens from there. Theory Everything I experience is exactly the way I believe it to be. Points - Source does not speak through anyone unless I believe it does. Most likely what I will hear will be my own fears and doubts reflected back at me. - Source does not warn through circumstances or people. Things happen or do not happen, people say things or not, and it is only my belief and perception that causes me to take these as a warning. Warnings are given by humans primarily out of fear, out of a desire motivated by fear (usually disguised as caring or love) to change behavior. That is conditional love, based on the idea that I will be happy or feel better if... Source doesn't issue warnings. Source does not criticize, judge or love conditionally. - It is only because I believe and/or desire at some level that I need to be directed, guided or warned that I receive guidance, direction and warning. I receive these exactly the way I believe they will be received. If I believe it will come from others, then that is from where it will come. If I believe it will come from my gut, heart or intuition, then that is from where it will come. - There are no rules by which the Universe operates. Everything is based on belief (subjective?) Gravity only works because people believe in it. People used to believe the world was flat. How many ships were lost at sea or wrecked beyond what humanity collectively believe to be the edges of the world? More than now certainly, can argue technology, but probably less ships were lost or wrecked before the collectively believed edge of the world. - Source is abundance, constantly and consistently. You believe you will receive direction and guidance from others, that you need it, so you get direction and guidance from others. You believe Source warns you through circumstances or people, so things will happen and people will say things that you will interpret to be a warning. Deep down you are looking for a reason not to do something, a way out, that is what you are asking about, and that is what you get. You get whatever you ask for, whether you want it or not (Abraham.) - What it boils down to is that you are on your own, to create your life experience, whether you are aware of it or not, whether you consciously create or unconsciously react. Whatever you believe to be true will be true for you. Whatever it is you are really asking for, whatever is at the root of any request, that is what Source constantly and consistently provides. The way your life is experienced is completely and totally up to you. - The only way the beliefs of others can affect you is if you buy into them and believe them yourself. You are only ever bound only by your own beliefs, as long as you choose to be so bound. Example When I see a tree branch or trunk at night all I can see with my physical eyes is a flat black line. Yet to me it seems rounded. Why is that? There are no graduations or anything that would lead the eye. When I see it as rounded, I am not seeing it as it is to my physical sight. I am seeing what I expect, based on what I know or remember, that branches and trunks are round. That means what I see is through what I believe, expect, know or remember, not through my eyes. What I see is what I believe or expect to see, based on what I know or remember, imposed on what is. In the same way I do not interact with "reality" directly. I interact with what I believe and expect "reality" to be, based on what I know or remember. "Reality" tells me that I can not walk on water. I know this because when I enter water I always sink. But water can kill someone jumping into it from a great height. To them instead of merely sinking into it they slam into a surface very much like concrete. If I have studied physics I can spout a bunch of stuff that tells why this is. But when the filters of what I believe and expect are stripped away, I see that the water has in it the potential to be solid (ice) semi-solid (the physical body) or non-solid (air.) It has the potential of many different states within it. If I knew how to access those states on a moment-by-moment basis, I could create solid water under my feet that I could walk on. However as long as I believe and expect the water to be experienced as a liquid I would sink into the moment I step onto it, that is what water will be. I do not experience the water as it is. I experience my belief and expectations about the water, based on what I know or remember. When I attempt to walk on water, I am not really interacting with the water at all, only my beliefs and expectations about it! Thoughts When someone said something in that thread I mentioned and it threw me for a loop, I entered into a time of depression. Because if I am solely responsible for my life and my experience of the world, then there are no rules that, once finally discovered, figured out and understood, I can create the life I wish to experience. I thought I had to uncover the truth about reality, to unlock that mystery, because once I knew the rules, I would know exactly the process of creating my own life. But if there are no rules, if I am, consciously aware of it or not, creating my life and my experience of the world on a moment-by-moment basis, well that just seemed too big. Too much. Too difficult. Too hard. It overwhelmed me. But I am coming back out of it now. Because as heavy as it sounded initially, there is hope in it. If there are no rules, if my life and experience in the world is nothing more than what I believe it will be, if nobody's beliefs can affect me the slightest unless I let them, if I am in full control, then I can create the life I want to experience right now. There is nothing stopping me. I now understand one way to do this, how to get into that feeling place of whatever desire I wish to manifest. Of course this will only work if I believe it will, assuming the conclusions I have drawn are valid. I just acknowledge my action reality, what appears to be reality right now, what I am experiencing in this moment. Then I choose my emotive reality, what I choose to feel right now, in this moment. I just have to choose what feels good. I do not think, or maybe do not believe, that the change will be instantaneous. If I were to go to the lake with the action reality of sinking if I attempted to walk on water and the emotive reality of how amazing it would feel to walk on its surface, I would probably still sink. It would seem to prove all the science that says humans can't walk on water. But my guess I would sink because somewhere in me, at some level, I believe and expect I will. Until I have no such beliefs or expectations I can not walk on water. Even when such beliefs and expectations are thrown out, if I were walking around on a violent sea, they may come back, and down I would go. So for now at least walking on water is probably not something I can do. But I can do smaller things, take smaller steps, practicing this theory, and see where it leads. It is one way to allow Source to manifest into my life experience the things I desire. For now I will make this my practice and see what happens.

This is something I wanted to share from my blog. The original post is here: http://adifferentpath.blog.com/2014/04/13/apparent-reality-vs-reality/ I am reading Adyashanti’s “Falling Into Grace” and at first this text was really speaking to me. But then the author started talking about “accepting what is” and how some things are “immovable and unchangeable.” I disagree, 100%, with this belief. I can easily demonstrate why. All around me are walls and windows. Someone like Adyashanti may say that the reality is that these objects are solid. You can’t go through a closed window or a wall. That is reality. But this is a false statement. There is another reality, that the windows and the walls are made of particles and space. That these particles vibrate at a certain frequency, and this is the same frequency my physical form vibrates at. As a result my hand won’t go through a wall because of this vibration. But there is also yet another reality, that I can affect my body with my mind, so if I could affect the vibrational rate of my body, then I could, theoretically, walk right through a wall or a closed window. All these “realities” are really only “apparent realities.” Accepting the “reality” of the solidity of closed windows and walls is not really accepting reality. It is accepting a belief about reality. That such things are solid. In truth nothing is immovable or unchangeable, or else it would be perfect. Another author said it best, something along the lines of, “It is only real if it never changes.” I think it is as foolish to accept an unwanted apparent reality as it would be to fight against it. In fighting what appears to be real we are, in essence, giving it power over us. We are making it more real for us. But in accepting it as real we give it the same power. We never challenge it. By letting things be as they are we are essentially saying that is is OK for these things to be the way they are, when maybe it is not OK. If we are going to accept, admit and allow we should accept, admit and allow everything, including when something is not OK. A Buddhist monk who sits there as someone prepares to shoot them or cut them in half with a sword because that is the reality of the situation is foolish. They are not giving value to either their life or the life of the one about to perpetuate the act, as every action has a consequence, and murder has a consequence in the life of someone who commits it. The monk should defend themselves or run off. Because it is only an apparent reality that they are about to be killed. As they aren’t dead yet, it is not real. They have just as much chance to escape, or win their freedom, as they do of being killed. The apparent reality in our American cities is that here are many homeless people. It is foolish for us to simply accept that and say, “Oh well, that’s just how things are.” No, the truth is that this is how you believe things are, and how other people in society believe things are, but this is not the reality, only a collective belief in an apparent reality. Going out there to feed and clothe the homeless also enforces the apparent reality of homelessness. Because the energy of service draws more service to it, so in truth you create more homelessness by serving the homeless. Also fighting against homeless, trying to remove them from the streets, will only give the apparent reality of homelessness more power. I think what we have to do here, in this example, is accept the apparent reality of homeless, but not in any way invests belief energy into this state. We acknowledge it appears to be real, that homeless people have come into our sphere of awareness. Then I think the next step is to look inside ourselves. What is being reflected to us outside is showing us something wrong inside, inside each of us individually and inside society collectively. Addressing whatever it is that is allowing homelessness to appear is how to address the issue of homelessness. Our beliefs about apparent reality that we actually believe are reality, our beliefs about society, our beliefs about the individual’s place in society – these are where the issue of homelessness has been given birth, and until we address this, no matter how much we serve the homeless or throw them off our street homelessness will continue to appear. It points to a flaw in society itself. Exactly as sap coming from a sawn limb points to an injury in the tree, or blood coming form a wound points to an injury in the body. In the case of our Buddhist monk, an even better tactic of non-resistance is to not even resist the bullet or sword blade! Really! The only way a bullet can pierce or a sword blade can cut is because of our beliefs in what bullets and sword blades can do. These beliefs are reflected in our bodies. We believe the bullet can hurt us, we believe the sword blade can hurt us, so these things can hurt us. But remember, this us apparent reality. It seems to be enforced by all we know about the world around us. But it is not true reality. In truth the monk can make his body non-resistant to bullets and blades, so that both would simply pass through, leaving them unaffected. It only requires mental training of the ability to use one’s mind to change the vibrational state of the body. Monks are already most of the way there. They have exceptional mental clarity. In some cases they have exceptional body control. This is just the next step in the natural progress of their training. It is not about defying reality. It is about defying apparent reality. This is done without any kind of seeking, including the seeking of control, and any kind of struggling. You accept what appears to be real, but you also know, with every fiber of your being, that it is only apparently real, that it is not necessarily what is truly real. You become non-resistant to apparent reality, but in this acceptance and non-resistance you still challenge it. You test it. You ask, is this really real, or is it only apparently real? Do I really know for sure that I can’t walk through this wall or allow the blade to go through me? You can’t honestly say you know this for sure. You can’t honestly say that you have learned everything you need to learn to walk through a wall or allow a blade to pass through you. You can’t honestly say you know everything you need to know. You can’t honestly say you have tried everything there is to try. You can’t honestly say you are no longer investing belief energy into apparent reality somewhere. You may still have deeply ingrained beliefs about apparent reality from society, your family or your culture. An example is needed here, and we will use the Bible, which may be a fable, or may be false, but for now we will assume that all accounts are true and that there is hidden ,meaning we may not have uncovered yet. Jesus stepped out of a boat and onto the surface of lake or sea, during a storm. He walked on water! The apparent reality is that water is not solid, that you will sink, and when one of his disciples tried it, they started to sink. For a moment they stood on the water as they forgot apparent reality, seeing Jesus out there, walking around, but then their beliefs about apparent reality, literally, began to sink in! But Jesus invested no energy in apparent reality. He did not fight the water or the waves. He probably did not fight opposing beliefs. He probably accepted everything, allowed everything, but invested no energy at all into apparent reality. So he stepped out and walked on water. If Jesus could walk on water, we can too. We can walk through walls and let blades pass through us. We simply have to invest our belief energy into knowing, having faith, we can, rather than in the apparent reality that we can’t. Everything Jesus did, everything Buddha did, we can do, and more, without exception. We are limited only by our beliefs. Our thoughts do affect reality, but not directly. First we have a thought, then we choose to believe in that thought or not, then if we have chosen to believe in it the thought it affects our perception of reality. Jesus probably had a thought such as, “water is not solid, you can’t walk on that, everyone knows that!” but he chose not to believe in it. He chose another thought, probably something like, “Through my father I can do anything, even walk on water.” He believed that thought and stepped out, knowing that the water was a surface he could walk on, and as a result he was able to walk on water. It was not a miracle. It was just a different thought, belief and perception. A teacher like Adyashanti seems to be saying, unless I am misunderstanding him, that we are powerless. That there are things we can’t change, that we can’t control. I say that is absolute bullshit. I say that seeking to control and change things will lead to suffering, same as any seeking, and in that aspect he is correct. I say that accepting apparent reality (and it is all apparent reality at this stage, because it is always changing, all the time) is as foolish as struggling against it. Both approaches give apparent reality power, and take it away from you. I say that you are not powerless, that you can control and change things. But you don’t do it through seeking or struggle. You change things by seeing them as they appear to be, as they present themselves to you, and then simply choosing not to invest your energy there anymore. Whatever the truth, you have an energy in you that is the same energy in everyone else and the whole of creation. You can interact with that energy using your thoughts, solidify that energy using your beliefs, and through your perception experience that energy in any way you wish. Here is an even simpler, parting example… Someone comes up to you and spits in your face. You have a thought about this experience. From these thoughts you choose what to believe and that determines your response. If in your culture it is an honor to be spat upon, you have a though that this is an honor, and you smile and say thank you. If you are a descendent of Irish settlers in South Bronx you have a thought that this asshole is insulting you, and you punch him into next week. If you smile at all it’s to show all your teeth in a threatening gesture. If you are a Buddhist Monk you will probably have the same thought as the Irishman, but will still smile lovingly at the person who spat on you. In this example, whatever you chose to do, you had a choice of action. Thoughts came, you chose which ones to grab onto and then you choose to invest energy into the corresponding belief. That belief, in turn, had a direct effect on your perception of reality. You chose to be honored, insulted, or to simply accept it as what is. You determine what is real for you, which is in fact only an apparent reality. This is your power,, to choose what beliefs you will put energy into, and this will directly affect your experience of apparent reality through your perception of it.

Came across an article and movie on the "Magic Mountain". There's a mass quality of peeps interested in "Occult Knowledge or magic", especially within Western tradition. Which relies heavily upon a multi-layered network of corresponding intra-systemic symbols, as a mnemonic system that 'trains' young sponge-like minds throughout adult life-the imaginative faculties heightens the vision of the soul consciousness that peers directly into the divine astral in order to 'transcend' the normal plane of consciousness. Eastern tradition of zen- and yoga practices take the opposite approach by stripping away attachments of the train mind and by stilling the imaginary faculties of mind. To rise beyond-before- below the highs of spiritual occult knowledge takes strength to let go of collecting. Is a deeper conditionings and keep the mind attaining more information in cycles of madness-rabbit hole-pull-push. Sitting and not thinking is never going to become a practice by the masses. Mind is trained and controlled through reputitious collecting for excitement and nervousness. Don't get me wrong, there is a richness within the occult secret knowledge, only if you can read it with an open mind. And, these stories and symbols that can easily be manipulated toward the opposite means, to blind and bind-to blame and praise modes. You, can actually manipulate yourself, thinking someone is actually doing something to you. Once empty consciousness takes hold of the attitude within the belief of an inner-outer play with the imaginary symbolism, it's revealed with a heavy hand that awareness becomes deeply awake of it's play. Reality-One Life with it's surreal beauty-image imagination can be violently symbolic with regards to attachments and trying to attain it's limited content. Collective consciousness as a Planet were educated at a young age to recognize the duality of words, mathematical numbers, symbols to take as; TRUTH and to belief that were these limitless entities within memory-reality tunnels of content of the subconscious, this is false. An Elementary System, a trial if you will to know how words and images play with each other and then eventually cancel each other out. It takes a fool to acknowledge, this. It takes failure to become success. It takes courage-strength-compassion-understanding to walk this pathless empty path, where in actuality there truly is no path! It's the path of the thinking mind that thinks within things, that eventually you can see through this elementary system is coming and going, and continues to do, so! ~Regardie~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Regardie