The Malleable Light

I have been reading Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now and in doing so I have learned some new things and reinforced others. While riding my bike today I was putting Tolle’s words into action and became intensely aware of the unconscious state that everyone was in while driving, walking in out of stores, etc. Even fellow cyclists were somewhere else while they listened to their mp3 players.

I tried my best not to analyze the thoughts that entered my mind during the ride. My goal was to stay present and to simply observe everything around me including myself and my own thoughts and emotions without becoming attached to any of it. It was a riding meditation.

Several thoughts ran through my mind as I rode. I thought to myself: “Why aren’t people talking to one another?”, “Why aren’t they acknowledging each others existence?”, “Where are these people going in such a hurry?”, “What will they do once they get there?”, and “What happens after they do whatever it is that had them in such a hurry?”. Maybe they will start the entire cycle over again? It all seemed so surreal to me when I was in the now. The roar of the cars seemed be more like chaos and I could actually feel the insanity of the peoples uncontrolled thoughts dragging me into unconsciousness.

When I arrived back home I turned my analytical mind back on to process what I had experienced on a physical level. People in general didn’t seem to be aware of the present, anymore more so than when they are sleeping. They seemed to be walking and driving around in a sleep state. Consciousness manifested for the experience but the experience never happening because their minds were focused on the nonexistent future and past.

I thought back to my childhood for the specific purpose of trying to understand this unconscious state they were in. Before I started school, time meant nothing to me. I didn’t think about the past or the future, only the present. I still learned new things and functioned in society much like I do now only I was closer to the source of life as a child, the root consciousness that I feel we all come from and are still connected too. I rarely see a child that’s stressed out or on blood pressure medicines. Children are generally joyful and compassionate for others and live in the moment. What a wonderful idea.

This brings me to me new year’s resolution. Starting now I resolve to be more like a child and to live more in the present, only drawing from the past and the future when absolutely necessary while living this physical life that is trapped in time and space.

The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly—you usually dont use it at all. It uses you. — Eckhart Tolle

David Mathis Books & Media, Meditation, Miscellaneous Consciousness, Eckhart Tolle, Life, Now, The Power of Now, Thought Provoking, Thoughts, Time

Today I visited Auditorium Shores here in Austin so that my daughter could play in  the orchestrated water fountains that they have there out by the pond. I had been thinking about existence after responding to Dean’s intro post on here earlier and found myself thinking about the past.

When I lived out in the country in Georgia I would often sit outside on the porch at night and stare off into the night sky and I could literally see the Milky Way galaxy spanning from horizon to horizon.  Back then I always sensed that the stars were aware of me and I them and that we shared a connection to each other.  When I looked at the clouds today I got that same feeling of being connected to the sky. It was as if the clouds were speaking to me on some fundamental level that really can’t be communicated at this time.

This used to puzzle and confuse me but as I have gotten older I have realized that things are not what they seem and that perhaps consciousness is not isolated to living animate objects only. It’s only been very recent that I actually considered the possibility that I am both locally conscious and universally conscious at the same time which would explain the connection I felt with the stars at night.

I hope you find the photograph that I took above to be as breathtaking as I did. It’s  a shame I didn’t have equipment to capture those starry nights that provoked so many deep thoughts.

David Mathis Miscellaneous Awakening, Consciousness, Life, Thought Provoking, Thoughts

Hi there,

Thank you David for inviting me to join in on this site. Thanks also to Emmy and Renate.

I’ve found The Malleable Light a splendid tool for maintaining my motivation on Astral Travel & Lucid Dreaming and I’m excited about joining the team .

My spiritual interest has always been present even as a small child. I did loose focus for a while as a teenager but rediscovered the search in my early twenties. I would call myself highly philisophical and desire to further understand what we are doing here on this planet Earth, and for that reason I also desire to further understand what it actually means to be alive and aware. This world we live in seems governed by an Intellegence and I desire to understand it and our role in it.

I first encountered Lucid Dreaming in about 1998 giving me a resonable depth of experience on this topic.

I am a virgo sun sign, turn 32 this month and am a mature age university student in my final year of a Naturopathic degree. Interests outside of meditation, AP, LD etc are sport (all types), health (hence the naturopathy) and music.

I may at times post experiences of Lucid Dreams or Astral experiences but find experiences from my everyday life and insights I gain through life totally relevant and worthy of mention on this site. When my insight feels deep and effects me profoundly, either energetically or spiritually, I shall post these experiences here also.

Please do not take what I say as Truth, however what I post here will be my Truth as I perceive it at the time. I am human and am simply offering my opinion and experience.

Thanks again to David & I hope you enjoy reading what I have to offer.

Peace be with you,

Dean

Dean Keune Site News Belief Systems, Consciousness, Life, Thoughts

I really don’t search for these things, they just show up most of the time. The same friend that subtly mentioned astral projection to me over a ten year span suggested that I watch a movie called Chapel of Sacred Mirrors.

The movie is about the progress of the soul as depicted through the art work and narration of an artist by the name of Alex Grey who I had remarkably never heard of.

He starts out by reviewing the human anatomy and then moves on to energy systems and how they merge together with the physical. He explores first incarnation, birth, life, spiritual enlightenment, death, the place after we die before we are reborn and then reincarnation.

Below I have selected a painting from the later part of the movie. His painting here describes a point in our progress where we see past our constricted egos and consider not only our collective consciousness on this planet but our cosmic consciousness and interconnectedness with the vast galactic web.

This movie is a great example of how the universe can speak through the physical when a person has a passion for what they do and they open their mind to their inner self. The artwork is breathtaking, inspiring and insightful. This is another movie that I highly recommend.

You will find a link to the DVD under my recommended products or the movie can be watched on google by clicking here.

David Mathis Books & Media Art, Astral Projection, Awakening, Belief, Belief System, Belief Systems, Belief Systems, Chakra, Consciousness, death, Evolution, Life, Past Life, Reincarnation, Religion, Soul, Thought Provoking

This will be a short post inspired by a three hour philisophical discussion, in which a man of strong religious beliefs who I have great respect for tried to sway me into his belief system. We discussed “The Ultimate Truth”, and how religions or the lack of religion fit into the search for it. I will not disclose which religion or who I discussed this with, as it is not relevant to this blog entry.

When I was younger, one of my favorite movies was “Hell in the Pacific”, which tells the story of two men, one American and one Japanese, marooned on a small uninhabited island in the Pacific. They survive by accepting their differences and working together, despite the fact that their two countries are at war. At the end of the movie, after calling a truce, a magazine brings their conversation back to religion and war and therefore ending the truce and they begin fighting again. Minutes later a bomb lands on them and blows them to pieces. Last night’s discussion reminded me of this movie.

Our main disagreement stemmed from a hypothetical person who chooses a predefined organized religious path versus one who simply chooses his own path and how this choice will ultimately lead to “The Ultimate Truth”. The one thing that we both agreed on, is that neither of our beliefs or paths made sense to the other.

My current observation is that there may or may not be an “Ultimate Truth”; however, my logical but currently limited human brain tells me that there most likely is. What doesn’t make sense about all of this is when a person expects his religion to make sense to others and tries to force it on them. Based on the information I have collected, no one knows what the “Ultimate Truth” is or even if it exists. There are various religions of various popularity, spread across virtually every culture, all attempting to discover “The Ultimate Truth.”

My personal belief is that Earth and humans are a VERY small part of the overall picture, and confining oneself to one physical world, or even worse, to one religion, will limit one who chooses to do so. Be happy if you have found your path, even if it is a limiting path. It’s fine to share your discoveries with others, but realize that not everyone will be or will want to be on that same path and all paths may “Ultimately” lead to the same truth in one form or another.

It seems that the truth gets lost in interpretation, or perhaps the truth IS the interpretations which exist in religious silos. It’s possible that the “Ultimate Truth” lies in the absence of any interpretation. I think that the key here is to respect others for what they believe even if it doesn’t make sense to you, because it’s very likely that what you believe doesn’t make sense to them either, and that’s ok.

David Mathis Belief Systems, Books & Media Belief, Belief System, Belief Systems, Belief Systems, Hell in the Pacific, Life, Thought Provoking, Truth

I’ve been frequenting the Astral Pulse forums for about 20 days now and I have read at least that many ways for achieving the altered state of consciousness called an OBE.  The techniques are important, but if you look at each technique, it seems that the key to success boils down to one single thing, which is not falling asleep, at least mentally.  This seems very foreign to me and takes extreme focus to pull it off.

I have been asking myself why I require so much intense focus to change the way in which I fall asleep, and the answer is more obvious than you might think. When you consider that it took your entire life to learn how to fall asleep you will then suddenly realize that it may take the entire remainder of your life to change that habit, well maybe not that long, but it will take time.

This is not just restricted to the world of out of body experiences and transformations of consciousness. The reason I noticed this was not OBE related at all. I have recently switched to the Chrome web browser and love it, however I can’t stop clicking on the IE icon. I have spent the last 3 days clicking on the wrong icon and then literally a fraction of a second later kicking myself for clicking it.

That’s why when we want to change old habits, our most important path is being awake to our experience. We need to pay attention to what we are doing and notice every little thing. We must realize that if it takes days to reverse a habit of clicking a simple computer icon, that it may take weeks, months and possibly years to change our sleeping habits. These habits are hard coded and must be rewritten.

The irony here is that when we break these habits we realize that the waking life that we have been experienceing was nothing but dream itself. It’s only through breaking these habits that we can set our spirits free and experience life rather than being stuck in patterns of inertia.

David Mathis Progress Astral Projection, Astral Projection Techniques, Habits, Life, Techniques, Thought Provoking