dkistner
12-09-1999, 04:35 AM
I brought this over from the Contextuality thread, where we've been discussing many interesting things all mixed up together. Someone suggested that what may be needed to go into higher consciousness is to go out of one's mind. <BR> <BR>Now, this is a subject near and dear to my heart. For me, it definitely involves going out of one's mind--if by "mind" we mean waking-state linear/rational consciousness--tuning into the wisdom of the body or bodymind, as others here have suggested, wherein lies the potential and ever-unfoldingness of the whole universe. <BR> <BR>I think "tuning in" is a good way to say it, because listening to the bodymind requires getting into a certain harmonic vibration and having faith that it's going to be okay. This vibration at lower levels is apprehended as sound (perhaps humming or voices); at higher levels, it is apprehended as visual representations (e.g., color, dream images, plants, animals), etc. <BR> <BR>All sorts of things can start coming up into our consciousness when we're tuned in to the bodymind. It's kind of like spending a day in a multimedia library with no idea going into it what you are looking for. Oh, what you might meet up with in your explorations! (Kind of like what we do on the Internet, too, when just exploring.) <BR> <BR>Reference was made (by arkroc, I think) to the Akashic records stored in our bodies. I think of this information as DNA-encoded. Recently I learned something I'd forgotten about DNA: it's the same stuff in all living things. It's the same DNA! It may be strung together differently, according to the genetic inheritance of the particular lifeform examined, but it's the same stuff. (Jeremy Narby's book, "The Cosmic Serpent," goes into the implications of this in detail, and it's an interesting read.) <BR> <BR>I think what happens when we "go out of our minds" is that we are able to tap into this information, which presents itself to us in audiovisual/kinesthetic holograms, if you will, of what's "out there/in here." The in-the-moment potential and manifestion of the implicate universe are encoded in our DNA; we and it are one. <BR> <BR>I think this is why shamanic journeys can be so incredibly vivid for those who have the courage to be "crazy" enough to embrace realities that lie outside of the purely rational/consensual. Shamans tell us that "otherworld" experiences are as real as this-world experiences, if not more so, and they mean it. They are not speaking figuratively. Their rational minds do not say, "This is just made up. It is not real." Whatever our rational/linear/herd mind--yes, herd mind--denies the existence of is unavailable to us. <BR> <BR>There's so much more to reality than the common denominator of what we are able to agree on. But the pressures not to be "crazy"--not to "lose touch with reality" or "go out of our minds"--are intense. I think that's why so many of us struggle with mind chatter we can't turn off. A part of us is terrified of knowing and experiencing the richness of what we already deeply, profoundly know. <BR> <BR>Diane