Alternate Presents And Multiple Focus

Let us begin with the normal waking consciousness that you know. But one step away from this is another level of consciousness into which you all slip without knowing. We will call it “A-l.” It is adjacent to your normal consciousness, separated from it very slightly; and yet in it very definite effects can appear that are not present in your usual state.

At this level many abilities may be used, and the present moment can be experienced in many different fashions, using as a basis the physical data with which you are already familiar. In your normal state you see the body. In A-l your consciousness can enter the body of another, and heal it. You can in the same manner perceive the state of your own Physical image. You can, according to your abilities, manipulate matter from the inside consciously, with lucidity and alertness.

A-l may be used as a side platform, so to speak, from which you can view physical events from a clearer standpoint. Using it you are released momentarily from bodily pressures, and with that freedom, you can move to relieve them. Problems that seem beyond solution can often, though not always, be solved. Suggestions given are much more effective. It is easier to form images, and they have a greater mobility. A-l is a sidestep away, therefore, and yet an important one.

Now it can be used as the first of a series of steps, leading to “deeper” states of consciousness. It can also be used as the first of a series of adjacent steps. Each of the deeper layers of consciousness can also be used as first steps leading to other adjacent levels. A-l is simple to enter. When you listen to music that you like, when you are indulging in an enjoyable quiet pursuit, you can sense the different feeling. It may be accompanied by your own characteristic physical clues. You may tap your fingers in a certain way. There may be a particular gesture. You may stare or look dreamily to the left or right.

Any such physical clues can help you differentiate between this state of consciousness and the usual predominating one. You have only to recognize it, learn to hold it, and then proceed to experiment in its use. As a rule, it is still physically oriented, in that the abilities are usually directed toward the inner perception and manipulation of matter or physical environment. You can therefore perceive the present

moment from a variety of unique standpoints not usually available.

You can perceive the moment’s reality as it exists for your intestine, or your hand; and experience, with practice, the present inner peace and commotion that exist simultaneously within your physical body. This brings a great appreciation and wonder, a sense of unity with the living corporeal material of which you are physically composed. With practice you can become as intuitively aware of your internal physical environment, as [of ] your external physical environment.

With greater practice, the contents of your own mind will become as readily available. You will see your thoughts as clearly as your inner organs. In this case you may perceive them symbolically through symbols you will recognize, seeing jumbled thoughts for example as weeds, which you can then simply discard.

You can request that the thought content of your mind be translated into an intense image, symbolically representing individual thoughts and the overall mental landscape, then take out what you do not like and replace it with more positive images. This does not mean that this inner landscape must always be completely sunny, but it does mean that it should be well balanced.

A dark and largely brooding inner landscape should alert you, so that you begin immediately to change it. None of these accomplishments are beyond my readers, though anyone may find any one given feat more difficult than another. You must also realize that I am speaking in practical terms. You can correct a physical condition for example, in the manner just given. If so, however, by examining the inner landscape of thoughts, you would find the source here that initially brought about the physical ailment.

Feelings can be examined in the same way. They will appear differently, with much greater mobility. Thoughts, for example, may appear as stationary structures, as flowers or trees, houses or landscapes. Feelings will appear more often in the changing mobility of water, wind, weather, skies and changing color. Any physical ailment, then, can be perceived in this state by looking inward into the body and discovering it; then by changing what you see you may find yourself entering your body or another’s as a very small miniature, or as a point of light, or simply without any substance, yet aware of the inner body environment.

You change what needs to be changed in whatever way occurs to you, then - by directing the body’s energy in that direction, by entering the flesh and bringing certain portions together that need this adjustment, by manipulating areas of the spine. Then from this adjacent platform of A-l consciousness, you perceive the mental thought patterns of yourself or the other person in whatever way you find characteristic of you.

You may perceive the thought patterns as quickly flashing sentences or words that are usually seen within your mind or within the other mind, or as black letters that form words. Or you may hear the words and thoughts being expressed, or you may see the earlier mentioned “landscape” in which the thoughts symbolically form into a picture.

This will show you how the thoughts brought about the physical malady, and which ones were involved. The same thing should then be done with the feeling pattern. This

may be perceived as bursts of dark or light colors in motion, or simply one particular emotion of great force may be felt. If it is very strong, one emotion may be felt in many such guises. In the case of both thoughts and emotions, with great confidence you pluck out those that are connected with the malady. In such a manner you have made adjustments on three levels.

A-l may be used also as a great framework for creativity, concentration, study, refreshment, rest and meditation. You may evolve your own image of this state to help you, imagining it as a room or a pleasant landscape or platform. Spontaneously, you will find your own symbol for this state.

This state may be used also as a step to the next state of consciousness, leading to a deeper trance condition; still relating however to the reality system that you understand.

Or it may be used as a step leading to an adjacent level of consciousness; two steps away, therefore, on the same level from normal reality. In this case it will lead you not into a deeper examination and perception of the present moment, but instead into an awareness and recognition of what I will call alternate present moments.

You will be taking steps aside from the present that you know. This leads to explorations mentioned earlier in this book, into probabilities. This state can be extremely advantageous when you are trying to solve problems having to do with future arrangements, decisions that will affect the future, and any matters, in fact, in which important decisions for the future must be made. In this state you are able to try out various alternative decisions and some probable results, not imaginatively but in quite practical terms.

These probabilities are realities, regardless of which decision you make. Say, for example, that you have three choices and it is imperative that you select one. Using this state, you take the first choice. The alternative present is the moment in which you make that choice. Having made it the present is changed, and quite clearly you perceive exactly the way it is changed and what actions and events will flow from the change into the future that belongs to that particular alternate present.

You do the same with each of the other choices, all from the framework of that state of consciousness. The methods in each case are the same. You make the decision. You then become aware in whatever way you choose of the physical effects within your body. You enter the body as you did in the way I gave earlier for healing. With great sensitivity you are able to see what physical effect the decision will have - whether the state of the body remains the same, whether there is a great sense of health within it, or the incipient beginning of great difficulties.

In like manner you explore the mental and feeling aspects, then you turn your attention “outward,” toward the environment that results from this alternate present. Mentally, events will appear to you. You may experience these strongly, or merely view them. They may become so vivid that you momentarily forget yourself, but if you maintain your contact with this level of consciousness, this will happen seldom. As a rule you are very aware of what you are doing.

According to the situation, you can do the same thing to find out the effect of this

decision on others specifically. You then return to normal consciousness, going through the A -I state that you used as a preliminary. After a period of rest, return and make the second decision, and again the third, following through in the same manner. Then in your normal state of consciousness, of course, you make the decision that you want from the information and experience that you have received.

The names make little difference. For simplicity’s sake call this level of consciousness A-l-a.

There is an A-l-b, you see, still adjacent to this one, and still starting off from an alternate present that can be used for many other purposes.

It is not as easy for the ordinary individual to enter, and it deals with group presents, with mass probabilities, racial matters, the movement of civilization. It is one that would be most beneficial to politicians and statesmen, and it also can be used to probe into probable pasts as well. Here it would be of benefit in learning of old ruins for exam- ple, and vanished civilizations, but only if the specific probable past were probed in which these existed.

The next adjacent level now would be A-l-c, which is an extension of the one just given, in which there is greater freedom of action, mobility and experience. Here to some extent there is some participation in the events perceived. There is no need to go deeply into any of these beyond this point, because ordinarily you will not be involved with them, and they lead into realities that have little reference to your own. They are states of consciousness too divorced, and under usual circumstances, this is as far as your present consciousness is able to go in that particular direction.

The first state, A-l-a, is the most practical and the easiest for you, but often you must still have a good feeling for the A-l level before you are willing to take that next adjacent step. It allows for great expansion, however, within its limitations. Using it, you can discover for example what would have happened if “I did this or the other.” Remember, these are all adjacent levels, going out horizontally.

Directly beneath A-l, now, you will have A-2, which is a slightly deeper state, using the analogy of up and down direction. It is less physically oriented than A-l. You still have excellent lucidity and awareness. This state can be used to explore the past in your terms of reference, within the probable system that you know.

Reincarnational pasts are known to you here, and if some personal malady cannot be solved from A-l, you may have to go to A-2 discovering that it originated from another existence. This state is distinguished by a slower breathing pattern and, unless other directions are given, by a somewhat lowered temperature and longer alpha waves; a slower frequency.

There is still relation to environment, however, and awareness of it. This may be purposely blocked off for greater efficiency, but it is not necessary. In many cases the eyes may be open, for example, though it may be easier to close them. Here sensitivity is quickened. Without necessarily following the methods given in A-l, the mental, physical and feeling aspects of past personalities will appear.

They may be perceived in various ways according to the characteristics of the individual who is in this state. This can be used to discover the origin of an idea in the

past, or to find anything that has been lost there, as long as it is within your probability system.

Directly beneath this is A-3. You have an extension, again, here dealing with mass issues - movements of land, the history of your planet as you know it, the knowledge of the races that inhabited it, the history of the animals, the layers of gas and coal, and of the various ages that swept across the planet and changed it.

A-4 brings you to a level that is beneath matter formations, a level in which ideas and concepts can be perceived, although their representations do not appear in the present physical reality that you know.

From this layer many of the deepest inspirations come. These ideas and concepts, having their own electromagnetic identity, nevertheless appear as “the symbolic landscape” at this level of consciousness. This is difficult to explain. The thoughts do not appear as pseudoimages for example, or assume any pseudomaterialization, yet they are felt vividly, perceived and picked up by portions of the brain - those seemingly unused portions for which science has found no answer.

These ideas and concepts obviously came from consciousness. However, they represent incipient latent developments that may or may not occur in physical reality. They may or may not be perceived by any given individual. The characteristic interest and abilities of the personality involved will have much to do with his recognition of the realities within this layer of consciousness.

The material available, however, represents building blocks for many probable systems. It is an open area into which many other dimensions have access. It often becomes available in sleep states. Complete innovations, world-shattering inventions - these all lie waiting, so to speak, in this huge reservoir. Strong personal “conversions” are often effected from this level.

Now any individual can pass through these levels and remain relatively untouched and unaware, can travel through them unperceiving. The overall intentions and characteristics of the personality will determine the quality of perception and understanding. The material mentioned is available in each of the levels of consciousness given, but it must be sought out, either through conscious desire or strong unconscious desire. If it is not, then the gifts available and the potentials simply remain unused and unclaimed.

The states of consciousness merge also one into the other, and it is obvious that I am using the terms of depth to make the discussion easier. Starting with the ego or waking consciousness as the outer self focused toward exterior reality, these states are broad, more like plains to be explored. Each one, therefore, opens in great adjacent areas also, and there are many “paths” to be taken according to your interest and desire.

As your ordinary waking state perceives an entire universe of physical data, so each of these other states of consciousness perceive realities as complicated, varied, and vivid. It is for this reason that it is so difficult to explain the experiences possible within any given one.

A-5 opens up a dimension in which the vital consciousness of any personality can at least theoretically be contacted. This involves communicating not only with past

personalities in your terms, but future ones. It is a level of consciousness very seldom reached. It is not, for example, the layer used by most mediums. It is a meeting ground in which personalities from any time or place or probable system can communicate with each other in clear terms understood by all.

Since past, present, and future do not exist, this is a level of crystal clear communication of consciousness. Those involved have an excellent knowledge of their own backgrounds and histories, of course, but in this state possess also a much larger perspective, in which private and historical backgrounds are seen as a portion of a greater perceivable whole.

At this level, messages literally flash through the centuries from one great man or woman to another. The future speaks to the past. The great artists have always been able to communicate at this level and while living literally operated at this level of consciousness a good deal of the time. Only the most exterior portions of their personalities bowed to the dictates of historical period.

For those who reach this state and utilize it, communication is clearest. It must be understood that this communication works in both ways. Leonardo da Vinci knew of Picasso, for example. There are great men and women who go unknown. Their contemporaries ignore them.

Their achievements may be misunderstood or physically lost, but at this level of consciousness they share in these communications, and at another level of existence their achievements are recognized.

I do not mean to imply, however, that only the great share in this communication of consciousness. A great simplicity is necessary, and out of this, many of the most lowly in men’s terms also share in these communications. There is an unending conversation going on throughout the universe, and a most meaningful one. Those from both your past and your future have a hand in your present world, and at this level the problems that have been met and will be encountered are being discussed. This is the heart of communication. It is most usually encountered either in a protected deep level of sleep or in a sudden spontaneous trance state. Great energy is generated.

The information received in any of these states of consciousness must be interpreted for the normal waking consciousness, if any physical memory is to be maintained.

In many cases memory remains unconscious as far as waking self is concerned, but the experiences themselves can completely change the structure of an individual life. Disastrous courses can be averted through such inner communications and illuminations, whether or not the ego is aware of them.

The experiences at these various levels may be interpreted symbolically. They may appear in the form of fantasy, fiction, or art work, without the conscious self realizing their origin. Now at any of these various stages of consciousness, other phenomena may also be perceived - thought forms for example, energy manifestations, projections from the personal subconscious, and projections from the collective unconscious. Any or all of these may take symbolic form, and may appear beneficial or threatening according to the attitude of the personality involved. They should be regarded as quite natural phenomena, often neutral in intent.

Often they are incipient forms given activity by the personality who encounters them. The nature of their activity, therefore, will be projected outward from the personality onto the relatively passive materialization. The person encountering these has only to turn his attention away to “deactivate” the phenomenon. This does not mean that the phenomenon is not real. Its nature is simply of a different kind and degree.

It has some energy of its own, but needs additional energy from a perceiver for any interrelationship to take place. If such a materi aliz ation appears threatening, then simply wish it peace and withdraw your attention from it. It draws its main activating energy from your focusing, and according to the intensity and nature of your focus. You must not take the root assumptions of physical existence with you as you journey through these levels of consciousness. Divest yourself of as many of them as possible, for they can cause you to misinterpret your experiences.

There are other layers of awareness beneath this one, but here there is a much greater tendency for one to merge into the other. In the next level, for example, communication is possible with various kinds of consciousness that have never been physically manifested, in your terms - personalities who do not have a physical reality in either your present or future, yet who are connected with your system of reality both as guardians and custodians.

Almost all experiences from this level will be symbolically represented, for otherwise they would have no meaning to you. The experiences will all have to do in one way or another with nonphysical life, noncorporeal consciousness and forms, and the independence of consciousness from matter. These experiences will always be supportive. Out-of-body experiences will often be involved here, in which the pro- jectionist finds himself in an unearthly environment or one of great beauty and grandeur.

The “stuff of the environment will have its origin in the mind of the projectionist, being symbolic of his idea, for example, of life after death. A Speaker or Speakers will appear in whatever guise will be most acceptable to the projectionist, whether it be the guise of a god, an angel or a disciple. This is the most characteristic kind of experience from this level.

According to the abilities and understanding of the projectionist, however, more thorough messages can be given, and it may be quite obvious that the Speakers are indeed only symbols of greater identities. Some will be able to understand the communications more clearly. The true nature of the nonphysical Speakers may then be made known.

Deeper projections into that environment may then be possible. In this state also great vistas of historic pasts and futures may be seen. All of these levels of consciousness are filled with the tapestry of various communications that can be followed through according to the purpose of the personality involved.

Molecular structures send out their own messages, and unless you are tuned in to perceive them, they may be interpreted as static or meaningless noise. Any one of these levels of consciousness can be covered in a twinkling, and no notice taken of it; or, at least theoretically, you could spend a lifetime exploring any given level.

You may have several quite valid experiences in level four for example, without any awareness of the first three. The stages are there for those who know what they are and how to use them. Many quite spontaneously find their own way. The other adjacent levels on the horizontal line, now, involve you in various alternate realities, each one a greater distance from your own. Many of these involve systems in which life and death as you know it does not occur, where time is felt as weight; systems in which the root assumptions are so different from your own that you would only accept any experiences as fantasy.

For this reason, you are much less apt to travel in those directions. In some there are built-in impediments. Even projection from your universe into a universe of antimatter is most difficult, for example. The electromagnetic makeup even of your thoughts would be adversely affected, and yet theoretically this is possible from one of these adjacent levels of consciousness.

Often you visit such areas of consciousness in the dream state where you fall into them spontaneously, remembering in the morning a fantastic dream. Consciousness must use all of its parts and activities, even as the body must. When you are sleeping, therefore, your consciousness turns itself in many of these directions, often perceiving, willy-nilly, bits and pieces of reality that are available to it at its different stages. This also happens beneath your normal physical focus to some extent, even as you go about your waking activities. The alternate presents of which I spoke are not simply alternate methods of perceiving one objective present. There are many alternate presents, with you focused only in one of them.

When you let your attention waver, however, you may often fall into a state in which you momentarily perceive glimpses of another alternate present. The whole self, the soul, knows of its reality in all such systems, and you, as a part of it, are working toward the same state of self-awareness and development.

When you are proficient you will not be swept willy-nilly into other stages of consciousness as you sleep, but will be able to understand and direct these activities. Consciousness is an attribute of the soul, a tool that can be turned in many directions. You are not your consciousness. It is something that belongs to you and to the soul. You are learning to use it. To the extent that you understand and utilize the various aspects of consciousness, you will learn to understand your own reality, and the conscious self will truly become conscious.

You will be able to perceive physical reality because you want to, knowing it to be one of many realities. You will not be forced to perceive it alone, out of ignorance.

The various levels of consciousness discussed here may appear to be very divorced from ordinary waking ones. The divisions are quite arbitrary. These various stages all represent different attributes and directions inherent within your own soul; clues and hints of them, shadows and reflections appear even in the consciousness that you know. Even normal waking consciousness, then, is not innocent of all other traces of existence, or devoid of other kinds of awareness. It is only because you usually use your waking consciousness in limited ways that you do not encounter these clues with any regularity.

They are always present. Following them can give you some idea of those other directions, and those other levels of which we have spoken. Often, for example, seemingly unrelated symbols or images may rise into your mind. Usually you ignore them. If instead you acknowledge them and turn your attention to them, you can follow them to several other layers, at least, for example, A-l and A-2, with ease.

The symbols or images may change as you do so, so that you perceive little similarity between, say, the initial image and the next one. The connection may be highly intuitional, however, associative, and creative. Often a few moments’ reflection afterward will allow you to see why the one image merged into the other. A single image may suddenly open up into an entire mental landscape, but you will know none of this if you do not acknowledge the first clues that are just beneath present awareness, and almost transparent if you are only willing to look.

Alternate focus is merely a state in which you turn your consciousness in other than its habitual direction, in order to perceive quite legitimate realities that exist simultaneously with your own. You must alter your perception to perceive any reality that is not geared practically toward material form. This is something like looking out of the comer of your eye or mind, rather than straight ahead.

Using alternate focus, with practice it is possible to perceive the different physical formations that have filled any given area of space, or that will fill it in your terms. In some dream states you may visit a particular location and then perceive the location as it was, say, three centuries ago and five years hence, and never understand what the dream meant. It seems to you that space can be filled only by a given item at a time, that one must be removed to. make room for another.

Instead you only perceive in this fashion. In alternate focus you can dispense with the root assumptions that usually guard, direct, and limit your perception. You are able to step aside from the moment as you know it, and return to it and find it there. Consciousness only pretends to bow to the idea of time. At other levels it enjoys playing with such concepts and perceiving great unity from events that occur outside of a time context - mixing, for example, events from various centuries, finding harmony and points of contact by examining both historical and private environments, plucking them out of the time framework.

Again, you even do this in your sleep. If you do not do it in the waking state, it is because you have held your consciousness in too tight a rein.

As mentioned somewhat earlier in this book, while your normal waking consciousness seems continual to you, and you are aware usually of no blank spots, nevertheless it has great fluctuations. To a large extent it has memory only of itself and its own perceptions. In normal consciousness, then, it seems as if there are no real other kinds of consciousness, no other areas or levels. When it encounters “blank spots” and “returns,” it blots out awareness that the moment of nonfunction occurred.

It forgets the stumble. It cannot be aware of alternate kinds of consciousness while being itself, unless methods are taken that allow it to recover from this amnesia.

It plays hopscotch in and out of reality. It is gone sometimes and you are not aware of it. On such occasions your attention is focused elsewhere, in what you might call

mini-dreams or hallucinations, or associative and intuitive processes of thought that go quite beyond normal focus.

In these lapses you are perceiving other kinds of reality - with other than normal waking consciousness. When you return, you lose the thread. Normal waking consciousness pretends there was never any break. This happens with some regularity, and to varying degrees, from fifteen to fifty times an hour, according to your activities.

At various times many people do catch themselves, the experience being so vivid that it leaps the gap, so to speak, with perception so intense that even normal waking consciousness is made aware of it. These intervals are quite necessary to physical consciousness. They are woven through the fabric of your awareness so cleverly and so intimately that they color your psychic and feeling atmosphere.

Normal waking consciousness weaves in and out of this infinite supportive webwork. Your inner experience is so intricate that verbally it almost impossible to describe. Normal waking consciousness, while having memory of itself, obviously does not retain all memory all of the time. It is said that memory of past events drops back into the subconscious. It is still intensely alive, and by alive I mean living and active, although you do not focus upon it.

Inner portions of your personality also have memory of all of your dreams. These exist simultaneously, and suspended, so to speak, like lights over a dark city, illuminating various portions of the psyche. These memory systems are all interconnected. Now in the same way you have your memory of past lives, all quite complete and all operating in the entire memory system.

In periods of conscious “blank spots” or certain fluctuations, these memory systems are often perceived. As a rule the conscious mind with its own memory system will not accept them. When a personality realizes that such other realities exist and that other experiences with consciousness are possible, then he activates certain potentials within himself. These alter electromagnetic connections both within the mind, the brain, and even the perceptive mechanisms. They bring together reservoirs of energy and set up pathways of activity, allowing the conscious mind to increase its degree of sensitivity to such data. The conscious mind is set free of itself. To a large measure it undergoes a metamorphosis, taking on greater functions. It is able to perceive, little by little, some of the content before closed to it. It need no longer perceive the momentary “blank spots” fearfully, as evidence of nonexistence.

The fluctuations mentioned earlier are often quite minute, yet highly significant. The conscious mind knows well of its own fluctuating state. When once it is led to face this, it finds not chaos, or worse, nonexistence, but the source of its own abilities and strength. The personality then begins to use its own potential.

Periods of reverie and creative moments of consciousness both represent excellent entryways into these other areas. In the usual creative state of consciousness, the regular waking consciousness is suddenly supported by energy from these other areas. Waking consciousness alone does not give you the creative state. Indeed, normal waking consciousness can be as afraid of creative states as it is of blank states, for it can feel that the I is being thrust aside, can feel the upthrust of energy that it may not

understand.

It is precisely in the low points of fluctuation that such experiences originate, for normal consciousness is momentarily at a weak state an in a period of rest. The whole physical organism undergoes such normal fluctuations, again, that are usually quite unnoticed. These periods also fluctuate, following rhythms that have to do with the characteristic personality. In some the waves of motion are comparatively long and slow, the valleys within being sloped; with others, the reverse is true.

With some, the lapses are more noticeable, outside of the norm. If the situation is not understood, then the personality may find it difficult to relate to physical events. If he is able to perceive the other areas of consciousness, he may find himself in still more difficulty - not realizing that both systems of reality are valid

The fluctuations also follow seasonal changes. Events from any given layer of consciousness are reflected in all other areas, each being actualized according to the characteristics of the given layer. As one dream is like a stone thrown into the pool of dream consciousness, so any act appears in this pool also in its own guise. Alternate focus allows you to perceive the many manifestations of any given act, the true multidimensional reality of a given thought. It enriches the normal consciousness.

You are active in these other layers whether or not you are aware of it. You learn not only in physical life and in the dream state, but in these interior existences of which you have no memory. Creative abilities of a specific nature, or healing abilities, are often trained in this fashion, only then emerging into physical actuality.

Your future thoughts and acts are as real in these dimensions as if they had already occurred, and as much a part of your development. You are formed not only by your past but by your future, and by alternate existences. These great interactions are only a part of the framework of your soul. You can, therefore, change present reality as you understand it from any of these other layers of consciousness.

Any one of these various layers of consciousness can be used as the normal acting consciousness, reality being viewed from that specific standpoint.

Physical reality is therefore glimpsed by other kinds of personalities in other systems, from their own unique viewpoint. Peering at it from this angle, so to speak, you would not recognize it as your own home system. From some of these viewpoints, your physical matter has little or no permanency, while to others your own thoughts have a shape and form, perceived by observers but not by yourselves.

In traveling through the states of consciousness, these other personalities would try to attain some focus and perceive your environment, trying to make sense of data with which they are largely unacquainted. Since many of them are unaware of your idea of time, they would find it difficult to understand that you perceive events with intervals between, and would not perceive the inner organization that you thrust upon your normal environment. Yours is obviously a probable system to other fields also touched by the field of probabilities.

As these systems are adjacent to yours, so is yours adjacent; alternate focus allows personalities from other realities to perceive your own, then, as it can theoretically at least allow you a glimpse into their existence.