Becoming Trans Sensory

1
The Big Bang, Emergence of the Senses, and Evolution
Everything in this universe boils down to organization: how things are

arranged. When matter first arose, it slowly organized itself into nebulae,
galaxies, stars, planets, asteroids, and comets. Biological life arose not so much
from its ingredients (e.g., carbon, iron, and oxygen) but rather, from the way that
the building blocks of life are put together. If the elements of physical life were
all that mattered, then all biological life would look the same. Food preparation
is the same story in different format. It is not just the ingredients that make a
gourmet meal but rather, the way that the ingredients are combined. Chefs are
experts at mixing food ingredients in the right portions, at the right
temperatures, and for the right duration. Likewise, the greatest writers are
masters at marrying the right words in the right groupings. Perfumers are gifted
with knowing which musks and bases to combine in what proportions.
Composers are geniuses at joining the most fitting notes in the most perfect
timing. Painters know how to blend the right dyes and oils on canvass. The
advance of products from the plow and blade, to the hut and chair, to the car and
computer is due to inventors learning to combine and recombine the elements of
Beyond Our Six Senses & Above Our Lower Instincts 2
Becoming Trans-sensory/Galarza
the periodic table. And what a wonder it is when anything gets arranged in a
new way. Artists and inventors help to make human evolution possible through
their re-creations.
Whether cosmic, biological, spiritual, or social, evolution can be defined as
the reorganization of something. This can be gas in outer space,
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), social arrangements, or how we manage our
personal lives. Art and invention can be defined the same way: as the
rearrangement of something. Looked at from this perspective, evolution, art,
and creation are different facets of the same coin.
The evolution of consciousness is, by and large, the reorganization of
thoughts, emotions, and behavior. This rearrangement is occurring inside many
human beings. At this cusp of human history, the emergence of trans-sensory
consciousness is involving not just the “five” senses as traditionally understood
but also, how we use—and thus, rewire—our brains. That is why this book has
“Six Senses” as part of its title, for the book considers the human brain to be a
sixth physical sense.
This chapter’s overview of trans-sensory beingness includes thought
patterns (e.g., the cerebral cortex) and the actions that ensue from our habits of
thought. The main themes of this chapter are cosmic, biological, spiritual, and
social evolution—in that order because each preceding form of evolution leads to
the next form of evolution. Another theme below is some paradoxes of
evolution. All of these themes are included in this introductory chapter because
the dawn of trans-sensory perception (going beyond the so-called five senses)
and of trans-sensory consciousness (going beyond the sixth sense of the human
brain) is occurring within an evolutionary framework.
Cosmic Evolution
The four forces of nature—electromagnetism, gravity, and the strong and

weak nuclear forces—were united before the big bang. That colossal explosion
separated that force into four forces. According to The 72 Names of God, the big
bang created “a point of space” and marked “the birth of time.”1 Stars and
galaxies then came into being and evolved. In stellar cores, simpler elements
were cooked into heavier elements. With the death (explosion) of the more
massive stars, the heavier elements got scattered through space. The more
complex elements made possible the emergence of complex life on earth. As Carl
Sagan, the renowned astronomer, says in the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
series Cosmos, “We are star stuff.”2 From the beginning, the physical universe
has been getting more complex. But as John Hagelin, a quantum physicist,
lectured at the University of Washington, this “superficially complex” universe
remains simple at the root. Unity at the quantum (subatomic) level is the name
of that simplicity, Hagelin said.3
Biological Evolution
In the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the omnipotent Q
(John de Lancie) takes Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to a primordial
earth. Q squats near some rocks, prepares to put his hand in a green-yellowish
pond, and says:
1
Yehuda Berg, The 72 Names of God: Technology for the Soul, (New York: Kabbalah Publishing, 2003), p.
20.
2
This is from episode 9 of Cosmos, titled, “The Lives of the Stars.” Cosmos originally aired on the Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS) from September to December 1980.
3
The November 7, 2005 lecture was titled, “Consciousness, Creativity and the Brain.” It was broadcast on
University of Washington Television (UWTV) on October 21, 2006.
Right here, life is about to form on this planet for the very first time. A
group of amino acids are about to combine to form the first proteins, the
building blocks of what you call life. Everything you know, your entire
civilization, it all begins right here, in this little pond of goo.4
A similar goo was where the first single-celled organisms emerged on earth. For
over 3 billion years, biological life remained single-celled. Only in the last 1.5
billion years did biological life become multicelled—and only in the past 500
million years did life take to the land from the ocean. The earth, by contrast, is
over 4.5 billion years old.
In A Natural History of the Senses, naturalist Diane Ackerman describes
the emergence of our first sense. She writes:
Smell was the first of our senses, and it was so successful that in time
the small lump of olfactory tissue atop the nerve cord grew into a brain.
Our cerebral hemispheres were originally buds from the olfactory stalks.
We think because we smelled.5
The emergence of each physical sense was the emergence of new types of
awareness. With the advent of smell, multicelled organisms became conscious of
the smellable. The other bio-logical senses (logical in a biological way) made
primitive life aware of the environment as follows:
1) The skin made life aware of the touchable

2) The tongue made life aware of the tasteable
4
This quote is from “All Good Things…,” the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-
1994). The two-part episode originally aired in syndication on May 21, 1994 (Season 7, episodes 25 and
26).
5
Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses, (New York: Vintage Books, 1991), p. 20.
3) Ears made life aware of the hearable

4) Eyes made life aware of the visible
With the emergence of touch, taste, sound, and sight, primitive life evolved into
higher forms. Why? Because each new sense required more brain complexity.
What distinguishes us humans from lower animals is not our emotions, for lower
animals have feelings, too.6 Rather, the cerebral cortex is what sets us apart from
lower animals—and our manual ability to make tools, write, and build.7 As Carl
Sagan narrates in an episode of Cosmos, “Civilization is a product of the cerebral
cortex.”8
Biological evolution, however, is not constant, as biologists once thought.
Instead, physical life stays in a steady state. This plateau can last, in theory, for
billions of years. Suddenly, something changes in the physical environment.
Life-forms from the no-change phase evolve quickly to a new steady state or go
extinct. Hence, biological evolution—and spiritual and social evolution—
happens not by continuous change but rather, by jerks.
The Hopi Indians of Arizona see biological evolution as a progression of
cycles. As Matthew Mooncloud, a transcriber of Native American prophecy,
writes in a booklet:
They [the elders] say there was the cycle of the Spirit, the cycle of the
mineral, the cycle of the plant, the cycle of the animal, and out of which
we are evolving into the cycle of the Human Being. It is said that we are
now coming out of that time when we have investigated ourselves,
learned what it is to be like an animal on this earth. They say that as we
6
This is from episode 11 of Cosmos, titled, “The Persistence of Memory.” Cosmos originally aired on PBS
in the fall of 1980.
7
Ibid.
8
Ibid.
enter the cycle of the human, the highest and greatest powers that we
have will be released to us.9
This is, perhaps, the best grand view of biological evolution as has occurred on
planet Earth.
Physical Evolution
If museum exhibits are any guide, then our ancestors—the so-called

cavemen—were physically unattractive. Anatomically modern humans are
average looking. At the level of the individual, physical beauty is not necessarily
a mark of spiritual evolution, for many physically attractive people are pompous,
callous, and even violent. I, however, wonder if at the level of a species, spiritual
evolution correlates with more physical beauty for members of that species. In
other words, as we humans evolve spiritually, are we destined to look more than
merely “average?” Also, as individuals become more autonomous from cultural
conditioning, will fewer of us have those twins (clones?) that exist elsewhere in
this world?
Our “Hidden” Senses
Crying, breathing, laughing, sneezing, yawning, gagging, hiccupping,

thinking, and feeling physical sensations inside the human body arose in the
context of biological survival. These verbs are “senses” in that—like with the
9
Matthew Mooncloud, “Native American Prophecies,” p. 2. Pamphlet compiled by Steve Morrison and
Four Worlds.
“five” senses—we experience physical life through such actions. Most of us,
however, remain unaware of our “hidden” senses, or we suppress them. Look at
babies, for instance. They wail when sad. Most adults don’t cry when sad.
Babies breathe from their tummies. Most adults breathe from their upper
windpipes. Babies live aware of their surroundings. Most adults live in their
heads, yet are unaware of 90 percent of their thoughts. We have a hard time
holding on to thoughts—not to mention, holding our breaths—for long. During
meditation, we keep getting distracted. The irony is that we are addicted to
thoughts and to breathing but don’t focus on either of these sensory experiences.
Buddhism calls the mind a sixth sense for no small reason.10 The major
spiritual traditions also deem the breath the sense from which all life springs.
Thought monitoring, focused breathing, and the freedom to cry and laugh are
ways of bringing us back to awareness of these neglected senses.
Spiritual Evolution
I wonder how, millions of years ago, the first hominids found out that
they had Spirits and souls. How did protohumans discover the existence of
nonmaterial realms? With what methods? With what teachings? From whom?
Tens of thousands of years ago, how did the first shamans learn to chant, go into
a trance, retrieve lost spirits, cure the sick, meditate, and see, hear, touch, taste,
and smell the nonphysical universe? If they were the first, who taught them? If
hominid settlements were far and scattered, how did knowledge of, say, life after
death travel throughout the globe? Did shamans, berdaches, and sorcerers learn
metaphysics on their own? How?
10
Rob Nairn, Living, Dreaming, Dying: Practical Wisdom from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, (Boston:
Shambhala, 2004), p. 35.
In the movie Back to the Future (1985), Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown
(Christopher Lloyd) buckles Einstein, his blondish Tibetan terrier, into a silver
coupé that Doc has converted to a time machine. At the vacant parking lot of a
mall, Doc sends the dog into the invisible at 1:19 a.m. “Einstein has become the
world’s first time traveler,” Doc yawps at his friend Marty McFly (Michael J.
Fox). The grayish Deloreon reappears and screeches to a halt. Doc says, “… he
[Einstein] is completely unaware that anything happened.”
Like Einstein—the blondish Tibetan terrier—most of us smell, taste, touch,
hear, and see unaware of anything beyond our biological senses. Einstein had no
idea that he had traveled one minute into the future. Likewise, most of us go
through human life “completely unaware” of what is really going on.
The theme of unawareness resurfaces in films like Revenge of the Stepford
Wives (TV; 1980). In that movie, housewives do chores on behalf of their
husbands. Four times a day, a recurring siren instructs the housewives to take a
zombifying pill. The women in that flick are the perfect automatons. They exist
to slave for their husbands. Other than the reporter (Sharon Gless) who
infiltrates the town, the women of Stepford lack autonomy, lack awareness of
what is happening, and have no sense of Self. By Self, I mean the higher Self.
This part of them would have an agenda that is independent of what their
husbands want. Said another way, the Stepford wives have no sentience
(consciousness of themselves as spiritual beings).
Similarly, most of us slave for a global economy. This system demands
laborers who will work nonstop for as little pay as possible—and buy for as high
a price as possible. Of course, adherence to various systems has been the norm
throughout human history. Zombies, however, don’t see themselves as zombies.
On the contrary, they see themselves as acting freely (e.g., being a “good”
housewife in Revenge of the Stepford Wives). Tragedies like 911 and Katrina
force us out of our zombielike routine—if only for a few days. In the aftermath,
we examine questions that don’t appear in everyday life.
Something fundamental is changing in human consciousness. Ordinary
people in the postmodern world are awakening to truths that go beyond the
sensory concerns of biological survival. These truths are trans-sensory, meaning
that they relate to realms beyond the physical. Hence, this book will use the
word trans. Trans-sensory humans use more of their physical senses, then go
beyond the form of what such senses perceive. Sensory people, on the other
hand, barely notice the sights and sounds of waking life—let alone, the touches,
tastes, and smells that they encounter. Rather, sensory people rush from one
activity to another like sleepwalkers. Trans-sensory humans, by contrast, see
and truly see, hear and truly hear (listen), taste and truly taste, smell and truly
smell, and touch or feel a touch and truly feel. Trans-sensory humans also pay
attention to touch inside their bodies, for touch is the most highly developed of
our biological senses. After a meal, for instance, trans-sensory people enjoy the
food massage in their bellies. When they have sex, trans-sensory humans savor
the experience—instead of rushing through it. When they breathe, trans-sensory
people monitor their breath—certainly not every second, but several times each
day. When using the so-called five senses, trans-sensory people see the content
more than the form, and see the substance behind the image. That substance,
that content, is what trans-sensory humans “see” with nonphysical eyes.
Trans-sensory awareness involves more things that can be lumped into a
single book. Some of the major elements of trans-sensory consciousness are,
however:
1) Living in the now

2) An “eye” and an “ear” for physical details
3) Awareness of cause/effect—at both the physical and nonphysical level

4) Awareness of karma
5) Seeing nonrandomness in ordinary events (e.g., there are no
coincidences)
6) Seeing the Real significance behind everyday events and interactions
7) Awareness of paradox
8) Awareness of the illusory nature of things
9) Awareness of energy dynamics (e.g., auras, chakras, meridians, and
the effects of exposure to the energies of others)
10) Inner focus (e.g., regular monitoring of one’s thoughts, emotions,
and breath)
11) Knowledge of one’s subconscious (e.g., needs, wants, and tendencies)
12) Self-knowledge (e.g., Who am I?)
13) Strong sense of a spiritual Self—independent of what the system
demands
Humans with the above attributes have always existed, of course. The
masses, however, have lived in the dark. Historically, for example, most people
have lacked a sense of individuality. Consequently, the hordes have followed
leaders, dogmas, and practices blindly. Like automatons, humans have
submitted to pharaohs, popes, monarchs, czars, politicians, bosses, and CEOs.
Elites exist because the multitude surrenders its human—and ultimately,
spiritual—power to them. On the other hand, spiritually advanced cultures like
that of Native Americans have been reduced to rubble. Trans-sensory
consciousness is nonetheless emerging on a mass scale.
Paradoxically, evolution does not operate by the majority. When
biological eyes appeared, for example, they didn’t abruptly pop up everywhere.
In fact, most physical life-forms continued to exist without being able to see.
Only a minority developed the ability to see. Because seeing was more adaptive
than not seeing, the seeing minority survived to become the majority. Similarly,
most humans are not becoming trans-sensory and trans-instinctual—just a
minority in the First World. Why? Because most of humanity continues to be
stuck in a survival mode of “living.” As Jeremy Rifkin, an economist, writes in
The Age of Access:
… 65 percent of the human population today have never made a single

telephone call and 40 percent have no access to electricity. There are more
telephone lines in Manhattan than in all of sub-Saharan Africa.11
Consider Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs, shown below:
12
Only humans above the first two tiers can afford to evolve to higher states of
consciousness.
11
Jeremy Rifkin, The Age of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism, Where All of Life Is a Paid-for
Experience, (New York: J.P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2000), p. 229.
12
This pyramid comes from “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. The URL
of the article is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs.
Look again at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs. I have concluded

that most spirits who incarnate in the Third World—spirits like dirt-poor
peasants in rural China—are in their first incarnation or two into human form.
Therefore, like all beginners, these spirits start at the bottom of the barrel. This is
consistent with overpopulation. For clarity, I distinguish between soul and
spirit. A soul is the mother ship, while a spirit is a shuttle from the mother ship.
The spirit—not the greater whole of the soul—is what incarnates. More “new”
souls are spouting chunks of themselves (spirits) to incarnate now than
thousands of years ago.13 Obversely, most spirits who have incarnated in the
First World—although still unevolved by Buddha standards—have been
incarnating into human form for thousands of years. Hence, such spirits
incarnate in more “evolved” parts of the world. The First World is where the
struggle for human survival—so prevalent in the Third World—is starting to be
left behind. I stress starting, for economic survival still dominates the Western
psyche. Nevertheless, with the basics of human survival taken care of in much of
the post-industrial world, trans-sensory and trans-instinctual beingness is
emerging here.
The minority-to-majority principle extends beyond life as we know it. For
instance, the earth’s magnetic field flips from one pole to the other every 250,000
years or so. One would think that the field just shifts when it is ready. The most
recent cycle is showing, however, that the magnetic field begins to shift at the
edges of the planet. In time, the middle latitudes join in. The emergence of
trans-sensory awareness is operating much like this—from the minority to the
majority, from the outside to the inside. As the Bible says, “The meek shall
13
Michael Newton, a hypnotist, touches on the same point in Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life
between Lives, (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2001).
inherit the earth.”14 Since most people are anything but meek, the meek
represents a minority.
How often I wonder why evolution, both physical and nonphysical, is
such a painstakingly slow process. For billions of years, life on earth remained
single-celled. Only in the past half-billion years has life leapt from the ocean to
dry ground. Over the past 4 million years, hominids have fought and killed one
another. Violence and stupidity have stayed with us all that time. Even with
humans threatening all life on earth, most of us still don’t see the need to
overcome our lower instincts—tendencies like the need to keep multiplying
without restraint. Often, it takes a lifetime—if not lifetimes—to learn the
simplest lessons. How much misery would be avoided if evolution were faster.
The turtle speed of evolution—biological, spiritual, and social—may
explain why earth is the only planet with biological life in this galaxy. If
evolution means billions of years of pain and suffering—until life evolves
enough to outgrow misery—then imagine a universe teeming with biological
life. Hell would be everywhere, not just confined to a “pale, blue dot.”15 On
Mars, for example, there were no crusades, no Spanish Inquisition, no World
War I, no World War II, no European Holocaust, and no Vietnam War. On
Venus, there is no cancer or diabetes, and our “sister planet” has no rats in
tenements, no slums, and not a single “life” of quiet desperation. Of course,
physical life—including “intelligent” life—ought to exist in some pockets of this
universe. After all, the material universe is a big place, not to mention that an
infinite number of parallel and alternate universes exist. But life as we know it
seems to be rarer than once thought in this galaxy. For example, of some 220
extrasolar planets (planets orbiting other suns) that astronomers have
14
Loosely translated, this is from Matthew 5:5 in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.
15
This phrase is borrowed from Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, (New
York: Random House, Inc., 1994).
discovered, all but one are either too close to their parent stars (and too hot for
biological life) or too far from their parent suns (and too cold for biological life).16
I never understood the contradiction between infinite space and only one planet
with physical life-forms. Now, I understand.
Surely, the tendency of habits to lodge themselves into us is a major
reason for our staying stuck. Why are beliefs—the seeds of our actions—so hard
to change? They are hard to change because, in the words of author Alan
Ebenstein, the true test of a theory is its ability to predict.17 A belief/theory is
supported by what one sees, hears, feels, tastes, and smells. Beliefs do much to
create one’s sensory experiences and emotional states. (One’s archetypes
contribute, too). If you think, for example, that people are cruel, then you will
find a world teeming with cruel people. Supported by evidence, day in and day
out, this belief/theory is now able to predict. It becomes a law of one’s universe.
As we all know, laws are inviolable. Laws leave no room for exceptions. Jump
off the roof of a 50-story building, and you will always land as tomato paste. If
someone tells you to change your beliefs about cruel—or kind—people being
everywhere, you will refuse. This is because to accept a contrary worldview
would mean to discount piles of evidence that, for years, if not decades, have
supported your theory-turned-into-law. We fear the consequences of violating
the laws of any universe, regardless of whether those laws reflect Truth or falsity.
Only when a person takes a leap of faith is he or she willing to look into different
types of evidence. This requires motivation or enough desperation. For
example, one’s universe is falling apart. Looking for the new evidence takes
time, in turn. This means that one will have to keep one’s faith, for the old
16
See unnamed author, “Found 20 Light Years Away: The New Earth,” Daily Mail: 24 Hours a Day,
Science and Technology, April 28, 2007. Article at
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=450467&in_page_id=1965.
17
Author of Hayek’s Journey: The Mind of Friedrich Hayek, Alan Ebenstein spoke to an audience of the
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN) on July 31, 2006.
evidence will continue to spring up like jack-in-the-box. Before the 1600s, for
instance, astronomers thought that only six planets existed. That is what
telescopic observations revealed. It was faith in another possibility that led to
further observations, to more powerful telescopes, and to the discovery of
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto—plus their moons. Without such faith, astronomers
wouldn’t have bothered to look.
Everyone is a fanatic in some area, and fanaticism isn’t just about religion.
There are sports fans, exercise addicts, and health enthusiasts—to name a few.
Nothing, of course, is wrong with sports, exercise, or wholesome foods. We,
however, have a tendency to take things to excess. One night, for example, a
fortyish man grumped about how most Americans have no will when it comes to
giving up meat, fat, salt, and sweets. Like a priest to a parishioner, he lectured a
young man at the locker room of the center where I exercised in Florida.
Another day, a guy lectured me about how overweight I was. “You must not be
doing something right,” he said. The wiry man barraged me with a list of do-eat
and don’t-eat foods. Toward the end of his tirade, he told me to read some
health book—one of the many bibles of the postmodern age. I told him that I
was doing the best I can. The words went in one ear and out the other. I thought
to myself, Gee, thanks! I feel much better now!
Another example of fanaticism gone haywire is archaeologists,
anthropologists, and paleoanthropologists. Many of them refuse to talk to one
another because they disagree about whether Homo sapiens and Neanderthals
were the same or different species. Some of these fossil scientists have come
close to blows over this issue—and these are professionals. Laws are inflexible.
They breed fanaticism and intolerance. Worst of all, our subjective views hinder
our spiritual evolution.
Like different plants and animals are adapted to different ecosystems,

different incarnations into diverse earthly environments are supposed to
transform each Spirit/soul into “different types of plants and animals.” That
way, each Spirit/soul becomes adapted to just about every realm and state. This
is why spiritual—not just biological—evolution is such a frustratingly slow
process.
Spiritual crises are those times when our spirits—rather than our biologies
—are ready to make an evolutionary jump. The so-called “dark night of the
soul” is a period of isolation, loneliness, hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and
desperation. According to mystic Graham Ledgerwood—and my personal
experience—one’s “mind and heart” go “numb.”18 It seems like one will spend
the rest of eternity in hell.19 People in the dark night are forced to grow or perish.
If they pass this rite of initiation, they are welcomed into a new tribe, a tribe of
beings at a higher state of consciousness.20 Usually, the dark night starts
gradually. Things that worked well begin not to work. Minor problems become
crises. Crises escalate. One’s world collapses. Hope is gone. Nothing is left to
save. This is the classic formula of the novel: problem—crisis—escalation—
climax—resolution. A middle-aged man, for instance, may lose his job in early
September. In mid-October, he gets diagnosed with liver cancer. By mid-
November, his wife leaves him, unable to handle things. By early January, his
life savings are down to $200. The man panics. He might even think about
suicide.
18
The words in these quotations come from Graham V. Ledgerwood’s Dark Night of the Soul. The section
of the website is titled, “Hanging On.” The URL of the page of the quote is http://www.themystic.org/dark-
night/hanging.htm.
19
Ibid., “The Peace Comes” at http://www.themystic.org/dark-night/peace.htm. This information also
comes from my own personal experience.
20
Ibid., “You Can’t Fit In” at http://www.themystic.org/dark-night/fit.htm. This information also comes
from my own personal experience.
Spiritual crises are as nerve-wracking as the end of the film The Good Son
(1993). The climactic scene involves a mother (Wendy Crewson) forced to choose
between pulling up her 12-year-old son (Macaulay Culkin), who is hanging from
her left arm off the edge of a cliff, or pulling up her 12-year-old nephew (Elijah
Wood), who is dangling from her right arm off the same cliff. That level of
tension is what a spiritual crisis climaxes toward. Henry, Susan’s disturbed son,
could be interpreted as a metaphor of the old way. Mark, Susan’s sane nephew,
could be interpreted as a metaphor of the new way. The dark night of the soul is
a period of purgatory. It is a time of transition. One is neither with God nor in
one’s former world. One is in no-man’s-land. One’s pride is burnt to cinders.21
One knows that the old way no longer works. But one is not yet grounded in the
new way—much less, surrounded by people who live according to that way.22
This is when one either becomes an evolutionary dead-end or jumps to a higher
level of being. Many humans fail the dark night—especially, around midnight.
Many of us have unhappy childhoods, conflicted marriages, and brutal
jobs. Many of our hells are setups. These karmas are meant to be flings that will
propel us up. By comparison, many people live peaceful, joyful, and successful
lives. Such people are at the plateau phase of their spiritual existence. This
steady state can last many human lifetimes. Eventually, such Spirits/souls get to
a point where they have thoroughly experienced whatever they wanted to
explore. These Spirits/souls are then ready for the next level. At this juncture of
their spiritual evolution, such souls—incarnated as one of their spirits—will too
undergo the dark night of the soul. Even mystics, who are way up there, go
through spiritual crises when their Spirits/souls are ready to jump to an even
higher level of beingness.
21
Ibid., “The Peace Comes” at http://www.themystic.org/dark-night/peace.htm. This information also
comes from my own personal experience.
22
Ibid., “You Can’t Fit In” at http://www.themystic.org/dark-night/fit.htm. This information also comes
from my own personal experience.
The “Sun” of God—and us, the planets—drive the cycles of steady state,
dark night of the soul, and evolutionary transformation. The same sun that
warms your spirit in winter fries you in the summer. The Light of God is the
same. All that changes is your planetary angle relative to the Sun of God. This
angle—the earth of your spirit being tilted 23 degrees—is what causes each
season of your spiritual evolution. Sweltering summers are your dark night of
the soul. Sun-warmed winters are the plateau phase of your spiritual existence.
The same sun is both Loving (warm winters) and Wrathful (scorching summers).
This is the paradox of a Loving God creating and allowing Evil. God permits evil
(at the level of the individual) and Evil (at the level of the collective) because, in
the long run, Evil discredits itself. In discrediting itself, Evil aids Good. Due to
Auschwitz, for example, the hatred against Jews has abated considerably, and
Nazism is no longer seen as legitimate. Sometimes, of course, evil and Evil do
triumph. The impending extinction of the celestial dolphins would be an
example of Evil triumphing “in the end.” But from a trans-sensory perspective,
that end is only the end of one chapter. A trans-sensory person recognizes that
there are other chapters—as in alternate earths—where the Evil of a previous
chapter is offset by Good. In the End—not end—Good triumphs. God knows
that S(He) will eventually win “the Game,” as in have His way. Therefore, God
doesn’t mind waiting an eternity for Good to triumph.
In an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the white android
Lieutenant-Commander Data (Brent Spiner) tells the Klingon Commander Worf
(Michael Dorn):
I once had what could be considered a crisis of the spirit … The Starfleet
officers who first activated me on Omikron Theta told me I was an
android, nothing more than a sophisticated machine with human form.
However, I realized that if I was simply a machine, I could never be

anything else. I could never grow beyond my programming. I found that
difficult to accept. So I chose to believe [emphasis mine] that I was a
person, that I had the potential to be more than a collection of circuits and
subprocessors. It is a belief which I still hold … I made a leap of faith
[emphasis mine].23
Thus, Data began his evolution toward becoming something more than an
android.
Social Evolution
Like individuals, societies experience spiritual crises. The First World’s

transition to a post-carbon era will be one such purgatory. The greatest military
power in the history of humanity, the United States is presently sitting pretty.
But its military will be hard-pressed by its Achilles’ heel. Oil is the lifeblood of
America’s jeeps, tanks, fighters, and bombs. Americans—most of who shouldn’t
be confused with the U.S. government and its military—are generally decent
people. But materialism is destroying the Soul of America—and of the globe.
Nineteenth century values of community, producing, and humane living have
given way to individualism, consumerism, and inhumanity. A post-carbon
world will turn the laws of our system upside down. Knee-jerk reactions will
ensue—social, economic, political, and religious. Whether biological or spiritual,
individual or social, evolution works as follows: A perfectly working system
23
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Rightful Heir.” This episode originally aired in syndication on May 15,
1993 (Season 6, episode 23).
breaks down; revolution happens or doesn’t happen; and things evolve or

dissolve.
More often than not, one change is all that is needed for an evolutionary
breakthrough. Consider Linda Ronstadt’s 1974 song, “You’re No Good.”24 As
beautiful as the melody of this song is, the lyrics teach judgement. But change
one letter—N to S—and what do you have? “You’re So Good.” The first phrase
condemns another human being. The second phrase praises such a being.
People who have changed from judgement to love for others have made a
personal and thus, an evolutionary transformation. Civilization has evolved
because of the rise in the number of such people.
The discovery of electricity revolutionized the world. Electricity brought
skyscrapers because elevators—rather than stairs—could suddenly transport
people up 20, 30, and 40 flights. Hence, 50-story buildings became possible after
1900. Electricity brought the nightlife, as people could see better on the streets
after dark. Electricity brought neon signs, and these gaseous lights
revolutionized outdoor advertising. Electricity made possible the telephone, the
lightbulb, radios, televisions, electric stoves, refrigerators, air conditioners, and
computers. A single discovery! The invention of the automobile in the late 1800s
brought America not just cars but also gas stations, asphalt roads, motels,
suburbanization, new ways of dating (e.g., the rumble seat), and the drive-in
theater. The automobile revolutionized the oil industry—and has greatly
influenced the political relationship between the West and the Middle East. A
single invention! The invention of the transistor in 1947 ended the need for
vacuum tubes. Before the late 1940s, people had to wait minutes for a telephone
station, organ, radio, or TV set to come on. The transistor simplified things.
Thus, it revolutionized the future of the telephone, radio, television, amplifier,
24
Linda Ronstadt, “You’re No Good.” This song is in the CD titled, The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt.
“You’re No Good” debuted in 1974. The CD came out on September 24, 2002. Label: Elektra/Wea.
and computer. A single invention! The 1950 invention of the electric guitar
changed pop music forever. Rock ‘n Roll was the direct result of the advent of
the electric guitar. Without the electric guitar, the big bands of the 1930s and
1940s would have continued. Rock music—including New Wave music, a
product of the synthesizer—would not exist today. One change, one
introduction, one breakthrough is all that is needed to jump to a higher level.
Humankind has yet to make the biggest advance of all.
Since the late 20th century, Western civilization has been becoming less
“dense” in a host of areas. Remember that the spirit plane is far less heavy than
the physical plane. According to Jeremy Rifkin, one sign that we are “lightening
up” is the decline of ownership. As Rifkin points out in The Age of Access:
Electromechanical products like typewriters, electrical switches, and

automotive subsystem controls used to last for decades in the market.
Their successors now have an average life span of less than three to five
years before being overtaken by newer versions and models.25
Therefore, leasing is becoming a more attractive option than buying. Decades

ago, Rifkin continues, owning physical capital was also considered a business
asset. Why? Because ownership was how a company controlled the means of
production. According to Rifkin, escalating costs of maintenance, upgrades, and
storage space are making the owning of physical property more of a liability.
The result of these developments, Rifkin contends, is that the buyer-seller
relationship (possessing matter) is transmogrifying into a user-provider
relationship (simply using matter). More than any other technology, Rifkin
writes, the Internet is driving this shift. Memberships, premiums, and leasing—
25
Rifkin, The Age of Access, p. 21.
as opposed to buying and owning—are springing up in every industry. The

miniaturization of products, Rifkin goes on, is also “shrinking” matter.26 Books
can now be read in palm-sized gadgets, and “textbooks are being put online.”27
Last, retail stores are disappearing into the Internet; they are selling from there;
and the instantaneousness of “just-in-time” orders is making warehouses
obsolete.28 The result, Rifkin concludes, is that matter is becoming less
important. According to Rifkin, what is becoming significant in the 21st century
is rather, nonmaterial things like concepts, trademarks, logos, images, and ideas.
Rifkin warns, though:
That’s not to suggest, however, that selfishness, greed, and commercial

exploitation are shrinking as well. In truth, the Age of Access is likely to
be far more exploitative. Controlling ideas, in today’s world, is more
powerful than controlling space and physical capital.29
As imperfect as the process is, the postmodern world is evolving toward a

more spiritual state—less “dense” and less “heavy” with material encumbrances.
Paradoxes of Evolution
One of the criteria of biological life—perhaps, the most important—is

consciousness. As life on earth becomes aware of more things, it evolves. Dogs
and cats may hear better than us humans. But we are aware of electricity, radio
waves, the existence of galaxies, and our mortality. Collectively, we are
26
Ibid., p. 55.
27
Ibid., p. 87.
28
Ibid., pgs. 33-35.
29
Ibid., p. 55.
conscious of more things—and thus, are more evolved—than dogs and cats.
Humans who are becoming trans-sensory are becoming yet more evolved than
sensory humans. Why? Because trans-sensory humans are becoming aware of
more things—trans-sensory things. Again, consciousness (sensing) is a major
part of the definition of life. This applies not only to biological life but to
spiritual life as well. Because more consciousness (more sensing) means more
life, trans-sensory humans can be said to be more alive than sensory humans. To
become conscious is to awaken from the dream of being just human, and
awakening from any dream is to become more alive.
Evolution, however, presents us with some paradoxes. One paradox is
that devolution can occur. By devolution, I mean that things revert back to
simpler—as in lower—forms. This can happen at the biological, spiritual, or
social levels. Souls, for example, can drop in their scale of consciousness,
according to the book Power vs. Force, if their cumulative life experiences are
negative.30 Even if one’s life is “positive,” I add, one can still drop in the scale of
consciousness. For instance, how many actors and actresses have risen to the
lifestyle of the rich and famous? The story is all too familiar: Their human egos
grow so large that these celebrities start to see themselves as invincible; they get
into alcohol or drugs; and they end up on the streets of Los Angeles. Consider
actor Zachery Ty Bryan, now Zachery Bryan, from the sitcom Home
Improvement. Many pictures of Zach show him to have an angelic sparkle in his
blue irises, something so beautiful as to be beyond description. This is the inner
light (spiritual animation) that we all have at physical birth. The night of May 26,
2004, however, 22-year-old Zach drank allegedly “four beers and a vodka
tonic.”31 Then, he drove at 100 miles an hour on the Glendale Freeway of Los
30
David R. Hawkins, Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior, Revised Edition,
(Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, Inc., 2002), p. 101.
31
See Joal Ryan, “ ‘Family Ties’ Tyke Busted for DUI,” E! News Online, June 2, 2004. At
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b47570_family_ties_tyke_busted_dui.html.
Angeles.32 Very likely, stardom led to this sense of invincibility in him. But like
drugs, alcohol can lead to loss of spirit (see Part I, Chapter 13, subsection titled,
“Extricating Alien Influences”). Once spirit loss happens, the person loses that
magnetism that made him or her successful. This is the theme of the fallen angel,
a recurring motif in drama and literature (see Part I, Chapter 13, Tales from the
Darkside episode titled, “Going Native”). Zachery Bryan still has that magical
glow in his aura. But if this young man keeps binge drinking (alcohol is a low
energy) at bars (places of more low energies), he is bound to attract negative
energies onto his energy field. An example of such energies are the spirits of
alcoholics who have passed on. This would be a drop in consciousness and spirit
for him.
For most of us non-celebrities, earth school (the school of hard knocks) is
like an inner city school—run down, overcrowded, and riddled with crime and
violence. Very often, spirits leave this trying planet worse than when they
incarnated. This is like convicts leaving prison, more often than not, as more
dangerous criminals than when they were first incarcerated. Note the rhyme of
incarnate and incarcerate. As a notice read at the entrance of a public library,
“Pay On the Other Side.” The “other side” is planet Earth from the perspective
of the spirit realm. Earth school need not be this way, however. It can be, rather,
what it is for about 20 percent of the population—an academy with clean
hallways, a low student-to-teacher ratio, and peaceful administrators, teachers,
parents, and students.
Another example of devolution is postmodern civilization. It is becoming
way too complex. Getting the simplest things done is becoming impossible. Just
call your power company and see how fast you can reach the right department.
Red tape, bureaucracy, and dozens of passwords to memorize are making
32
Ibid.
postmodern life unwieldy. So are spaghetti-shaped freeways; having to juggle

work, cleaning, shopping, and raising the kids; and choosing among ever-
changing premiums, membership policies, and credit card interest rates. If
postmodern civilization is to be viable in the future, it will have to simplify.
Sometimes, a species is what becomes too complex—to the extent that it is
no longer, or barely, able to function. The human brain is so complicated, for
example, that if it got any more complex, we would probably not be able to
operate. Already, many of us can scarcely handle things like reading body
language, responding with appropriate nonverbal feedback, knowing when to
jump into a conversation, when not to, knowing what is appropriate to say in
which social settings, and knowing how. Also, the more complex a species
becomes, the more energy it needs. The dinosaurs weren’t able to survive the
asteroid that hit earth 65 million years ago because, unlike small mammals,
dinosaurs required a gargantuan diet. With asteroid—and volcanic—debris
blocking sunlight around the world, vegetation didn’t grow as fast and tall.33
Unable to extract enough energy from plants, dinosaurs went extinct. Now, we
humans are the big consumers. Oil is to postmodern humans what plants were
to the dinosaurs. Almost literally, we eat oil through our oil-based fertilizers,
pesticides, and herbicides. A single nonorganic lettuce, for example, has 38
different chemicals used on it during the growing season; a nonorganic
cucumber, 41 chemicals; and a nonorganic tomato, 51 chemicals.34 Also, 500,000
consumer goods depend on oil for their manufacture. What will happen to the
evolution of Western civilization when oil production—not to mention, coal and
natural gas production—begin their terminal decline?
33
See Charles Q. Choi, “Volcanoes Could Have Caused Dinosaur Deaths,” MSNBC, Technology &
Science/Science, November 13, 2007. Article at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21755313/?GT1=10547.
34
See Brenda Watson’s Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps. This PBS special aired on April
17, 2008.
Another paradox of evolution is that lower life-forms often behave more

evolved than higher life-forms. Ants, for instance, cooperate. Humans tend to
compete. Seals are loving. Humans are cold—unless you catch them at the right
time. Dogs are loyal. Humans often betray one another. Chimps put bananas in
their mouths. Many humans put cigarettes in their mouths. Bonobos (pygmy
chimps) in the Congo make love. Humans in the Congo massacre one another,
then stalk the bonobos. Lower animals pad over grass. Humans pour concrete
over it. Cats don’t kill one another—unless they are rabid or starving. Hitlers
and Stalins, by contrast, have millions of human beings murdered—without such
dictators being rabid or starving. Neanderthals may not have known how to
sew, while postmodern humans can build, program, and update computers. But
Neanderthals lived for 200,000 years, while we Homo sapiens are already
threatening our survival with pollution, abuse of natural resources, and
overpopulation. Dinosaurs lived for hundreds of millions of years. Conversely,
the last of the hominids—Homo sapiens—is on the verge of extinction after a
mere 4.5 million years of hominid evolution. After a certain point, more physical
evolution (e.g., more intelligence) becomes a liability (e.g., nuclear weapons)
without spiritual evolution taking place alongside it. Written another way, just
because one has human intelligence does not necessarily mean that one has
spiritual intelligence. These are some of the paradoxes of evolution.
Still, the big picture is that life on earth went from being single-celled to
becoming multicelled. Lower animals with group souls individualized to
become humans with individual Spirits. During each incarnation into human
form, the spirits of these individual Spirits/souls acquired human egos. The
purpose was to explore “egoic consciousness.”35
35
Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, (New York: Penguin Group, 2005), p.
153.
Now, authors like Eckhart Tolle are writing about the end of the self being
at hand. By implication, human individuality will be melting into a Borg
collective. As Third of Five/Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco) says in an episode of Star
Trek: The Next Generation, “We are Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is
futile.”36 Obversely, authors like Caroline Myss are talking about “the birth of
the self.” Which is it? Both. Tolle is referring to the end of the “egoic self,”
while Myss is referring to the birth of the spiritual Self.37 Historically, people
have catered to their human egos. As humanity evolves spiritually, more
humans will be honoring their spirits and souls instead. That level of Self is
what is emerging, while the “egoic self” is on its way out.38
Most humans still lack a Self (awareness of the quirks of one’s spirit).
Some people, for example, have no idea what their strengths and weaknesses are.
Other people don’t know what their personal boundaries are, and if they know,
they are not strong enough to say no in group settings. Such people go with the
flow. They wear social masks to please their peers. As Jeremy Rifkin writes in
The Age of Access, “The very word person comes from the Latin persona, which
means to wear a mask.”39
Postmodern people are defining themselves, both consciously and
unconsciously, more in terms of their interpersonal relationships. This has the
linings of a new breed of human. Since the advent of industrialization,
urbanization, and high-technology, human relationships have multiplied
exponentially. This is out of balance with millions of years of biological
evolution, for since prehistory, most humans did not interact with more than a
few dozen people per lifetime. This means that the human energy field is not
36
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “I, Borg.” This episode originally aired in syndication on May 9, 1992
(Season 5, episode 23).
37
Tolle, A New Earth, p. 30.
38
Ibid.
39
used to interacting with thousands of human energy fields per lifetime. Energy
fields do affect one another when they come into contact. Yet, for the droves of
people that postmoderns interact with, most human relationships tend to be
fleeting. I, for example, have emailed some 30 people this year. Once the goal of
each email was accomplished, however, the email messages ceased—and so did
each email acquaintanceship. If I kept emailing the people at hand, they didn’t
reply because objectives—not establishing relationships with others—was and is
all that most emailers care about. In the words of Jeremy Rifkin, this type of
interrelating in the virtual realm and in the “real” world—quantity over quality
—means that one has to wear a great number of social masks to be able to relate
to others. This, he contends, can lead to a loss of personhood because one
doesn’t know who one is anymore. In The Age of Access, Rifkin writes:
In this postmodern world made up of networks [e.g., the Internet] and

commodified relationships where boundaries are blurred and activity is
increasingly connected, the old self-contained, autonomous consciousness
is slowly becoming an anachronism. In its stead is a new person who is
more like a node operating in a myriad of relationships. “The final stage
in this transition to the postmodern is reached,” says [psychology
professor Kenneth] Gergen, “when the self vanishes fully into a stage of
relatedness.” In this new world, argues Gergen, “one ceases to believe in
a self independent of the relationships in which he or she is embedded …
thus placing relationships in the central position occupied by the
individual self for the last several hundred years of Western
history.”40
40
Ibid., p. 209.
The “ ‘individual self,’ ” however, was more theory than fact because historically,
most people have not had true individual autonomy.41 What little sense of
individuality people had is eroding in postmodern times. The “ ‘dot-com’
generation” is at the forefront of this change.42 As Jeremy Rifkin writes:
Teenagers are more often ending their sentences in a slightly elevated tone
and in a more tentative manner, suggesting that everything they are
saying is more in the form of a question rather than a statement.
Psychologists and sociologists have been intrigued by this widespread
practice—known as upspeak—and wonder if it might not be symptomatic
of the shift taking place from an autonomous to a relational self.43
The decline of personal autonomy is coupled with the decline of business

autonomy. As Jeremy Rifkin argues in The Age of Access, the notion of a self-
contained business serving a market niche is becoming obsolete. He writes:
Because a market-oriented private-property regime, by its very nature,

organizes economic activity into mine and thine, it is increasingly out of
place in a network-based economy, where commercial success is
increasingly measured by the idea of what is mine is yours and what is
yours is mine. It is the sharing of economic activity that is the defining
feature of network-based commerce.44
This is why vertical integration is being replaced by horizontal partnerships in

business. Programs that run in rival cable channels, for example, are promoting
41
Ibid.
42
Ibid., p. 12.
43
Ibid., p. 210.
44
Ibid., p. 50.
themselves in the channel of the competition. Interpersonal relationships are

following the same trend, becoming more like links on the Internet than separate
pages in a book. And completing a full circle, products are dematerializing in
the spirit of the so-called illusion of the human body. In the words of Rifkin,
“Their value lies less in the physical scaffolding or container they come in [a cell
phone] and more in the access to services [based on subscriptions, premiums,
and memberships] they provide.”45 Goods are becoming, like the human body,
empty shells whose value is not so much their physicality as the services and
experiences they provide.
Some of these postmodern developments—although not all—are
temporary. This is because peak oil (the point at which oil can no longer fuel this
society) will revert our global civilization back to a local and regional level (see
epilogue). There will be less traveling and less meeting countless people every
day. When the post-oil shift occurs, the postmodern person—so dependent on
others for a pseudo sense of self—will have fewer people to base his or her
personal identity on. Finding Oneself, meaning one’s Higher Self, will become
more possible because one will have some time alone. This is assuming that one
doesn’t have the radio, TV, and cell phones turned on constantly due to the fear
of silence. Of course, interacting with people teaches us about ourselves. For
example, are we generous, stingy, or both? But always having company means
the absence of silence. Turning within—as through silent activity, a kind of
meditation—is necessary for Self-discovery because the biological senses recede
into the background then. This is when answers to questions such as, “Who am
I?” emerge from within.
Until we reach the post-postmodern stage of human history, most people
will continue to base their careers, place of residence, sexual behavior, thought
45
Ibid., p. 85.
forms, time use, and everyday demeanor on what the social world—rather than
their hearts and spirits—want.
Becoming trans-sensory means completing a journey of evolution that
began over four billion years ago. This journey has taken earthly life from
simplicity and group identity (being subservient to the collective) to complexity
and individual identity within a collective (individuals who cooperate with other
individuals). Even within evolving minorities, however, evolution is not a one-
time deal. We may experience moments of extraordinary insights, for example,
only to find ourselves digressing into who we used to be. Days or months later,
we find ourselves moving forward again. It is like that blinking 12:00 a.m. on
our VCRs. In the beginning, we have no idea how to set the time and date.
Slowly, we learn the steps. When something dramatic happens to us, it is as
though the power goes out and comes back on. We slip back into default mode.
The 7:20 a.m. on our VCRs is now the 12:00 a.m., blinking again. Many people
have yet to reprogram the VCRs of their minds and hearts. Whether biological,
spiritual, or social, evolution goes in spirals—up, a little down and off, and up
again.
Paramhansa Yogananda, the 20th century spiritual master from India, said
that the evolution of souls in human form (e.g., reaching enlightenment) takes
about a million years.46 The process, however, has speeded in our time. From
the dawn of life on earth, evolutionary accelerations have always occurred
during times of seismic changes in the environment. The advent of trans-sensory
and of trans-instinctual Homo sapiens will be of the magnitude of:
1) The split of single-celled organisms into multicelled organisms

2) The emergence of life from the ocean 500 million years ago
46
See Paramhansa Yogananda, “The Science of Kriya Yoga,” Autobiography of a Yogi, (Los Angeles: Self-
Realization Fellowship Publishers, 1946), pgs. 242-252.
3) The advent of hominids—with their ability to think and make tools

4) The discovery of fire
5) The switch from hunting to agriculture
6) The creation of culture
7) The emergence of cities
8) The invention of writing and of the printing press
9) The scientific and technological revolutions of the modern and
postmodern age
As Ian Tattersall, a paleoanthropologist, says on PBS’s Neanderthals on Trial:
What you’re seeing is a set of behaviors which had never been displayed
by any other hominids that ever existed in the history of the world,
including the Neanderthals.47
For the first time on this planet, however, biological evolution has reached
the point where survival of the fittest is no longer enough. This is because
survival of the biologically most fit has become lethal on a planetary scale. Just
look at the situation in the Middle East. What will be the end of that story? The
new rule of biological evolution is survival not just of the fittest but also, of the
wisest. Living by this principle will require spiritual evolution.
We are, indeed, living in prophetic times.
47
See Nova: Neanderthals on Trial. This show premiered on PBS on January 22, 2002.
Exercises
1) Since your childhood, how have you evolved spiritually? Can you name
areas that you still need to evolve spiritually toward? If yes, list them. Are
you willing to improve those parts of yourself? If yes, write each entry on a
separate index card, paste one card on a visible place, pull it down once you
have succeeded, and proceed with the next card.
2) How much of your present self was constructed by your family, peers,
teachers, the media, society, and era? Are there parts of your person(ality)
—your self-concept, worldview, and way of being—that you would like to
change? If yes, list them. Are you willing to change these parts of
yourself? If so, write each entry on a separate index card, paste one card
on a visible place, pull it down once you have succeeded, and proceed with
the next card.
3) Can you feel yourself developing an authentic (independent of externals)

sense of Self? (By sense of Self, I mean awareness of the needs, desires,
and nature of your spirit.) If yes, in what areas have you developed such a
sense of Self? Has your self-esteem been affected by this? If yes, how?
With the new you being born, what responsibilities do you now have to
yourself that you didn’t have before? If you have fulfilled those
responsibilities—such as saying “no” to remain true to yourself—what have
the rewards been? If you have failed to meet those responsibilities, what
have been the penalties?
2
We Are Souls with Unlimited Minds and Energy
Knowing, Unlearning, and Failing to Relearn This Truth
When we wake up in the morning, we tend to remember the most recent

dreams from the night. As the day wears on, we tend to forget those dreams.
When we are little, a similar dynamic occurs. We remember the spirit realm, a
realm of “anti-matter” and “anti-time.”48 My mother told me, for example, that
on many nights of her girlhood, she saw an angel—and felt its naked feet—
walking on her abdomen while she rested in bed. As for me, I remember being
hospitalized in a crib. It was nighttime. Gazing to my left, I saw schools of fish
swimming outside an enormous glass window. In my imagination, the window
was a fish tank. As we become adults, we slowly forget the visions of our
childhood. Perhaps, jotting down invisible things that children say they see will
48
These two concepts are borrowed from Star Trek: The Next Generation. See the episode titled, “All
Good Things….”
help us adults learn—actually, remember—more about the spirit plane. It would

be similar to writing down our dreams from the night.
The spirits of children are “fixed” from whatever limitations they might
have experienced in previous incarnations. It is as if the spirit plane were a
cartoon world, and the realm of live action were the physical world. Watch any
animated feature, and you will see that the laws of physics have a life of their
own on such features. In a cartoon, for example, drops of water can be enlarged
to the point of ridiculousness. So can a strand of human hair. Not in a live
action movie, for if a live action film enlarges drops of water or a strand of
human hair too much, the movie starts to become surreal and even cartoonish.
The “real world” is serious. A stocking cap does not fly off a character’s head,
bounce off a wall, and knock a fawn on his back. Cartoons fascinate kids—and
adults—because we all come from an equally unreal realm. Children have the
unreality of the nonphysical plane fresh in their minds.
Not surprisingly, kids believe and perceive what is unbelievable and
unperceivable to the adult mind. Several years ago, for example, a churchgoer
recounted how, one night in that lady’s house, her 4-year-old granddaughter
said, “There’s a man in that room.” The woman’s husband froze like a deer
caught in headlights. Seconds later, he checked from afar, while the woman
reached for the telephone. The girl continued, “I think that’s Jesus.” Like
choppy waters to a passing storm, her grandparents calmed down.
In the minds of children, pigs can fly, lions can sing, goblins can chase
flying airliners at high altitudes—as I believed as a boy, while onboard a
Lockheed-1011—and Superman can stop missiles in mid-air. Kids believe that
anything is possible, and like grown-ups, children perceive what they believe.
The difference is that, generally, adults think unimaginatively. Kids believe in
endless possibilities. When I was a boy, for example, I lived by the beach of
Levittown, Puerto Rico. The ocean view and the film The Last Flight of Noah’s
Ark (1980) inspired me so much that, in my first grade classroom, I drew the ark
of the film that I had seen at the theater. I began to dream about constructing an
ocean liner. For weeks, I fantasized about filling the white ship of steel with
family and friends. On the second-floor balcony of my two-story house, I started
to hammer a few wooden planks together. It was afternoon. My mother
encouraged me as though I had proposed building a shoebox. After I discovered
that constructing an ocean liner was more than a boy could handle, I asked my
mother why she had let me build what I did if she knew that I would fail.
My mother answered, “I wanted you to find out for yourself.”
The imagination of children is unsoiled by the mental straitjacket of the
“real” world. Adults are now being asked to adopt the anything-is-possible
mindset as a way of life, without losing touch with “reality.”
Why do children have almost no sense of danger? Why do kids have so
much energy? What do children learn—other than laws of physics—during their
growing years? What paradoxes exist in the world of childhood—and in the
world of adulthood? Last, what can Asperger Syndrome teach us about
neurotypical (neurologically typical) children and adults?
The Consciousness and Energy of Children
Each child has more energy than thousands of squirrels zigzagging

around the campus of a university. At playgrounds, kids jump from high places.
From tree branches, boys and girls dive into shallow water. Children hurl rocks
and bottles at one another. They tug at one another’s arms and legs as if their
appendages were the steel foundations of a building. Adults, on the contrary,
have a sense of vulnerability and lack much energy. Therefore, grown-ups tell
children things like:
1) “Give me a break!”
2) “Do you have ants in your pants?”
3) “You’re going to poke your eye out.”
Why this split between child and adult energies and perceptions of
vulnerability?
Children live in a spiritual mode of consciousness. They come from a
realm that has no limitations of time, space, thought, energy, or physicality. This
plane of origin has different “laws of nature.” In the spirit sphere, for example,
thought and travel are one, for you travel in fact—not just in mind, like on earth
—to a faraway region just by thinking about the place. This is much as the laws
of physics break down in the subatomic realm. When a spirit incarnates on
planet Earth, it begins the process of learning the—limiting—laws of physics of
this universe. For example, a boy can’t build an ocean liner alone. Children
learn to limit their thoughts and actions to what adults—and the laws of physics
—teach them. Kids learn experientially that skin can prick painfully, that bones
can break, and that hands can burn if placed on a hot stove.
Only a fraction of the sixth physical sense—the human brain—is wired at
human birth. It takes childhood and adolescence to do most of the wiring
concerning the things of this world. These things include body limitations,
religious dogma,49 cultural expectations, social etiquette, and sexual mores. By
studying the perceptions and behavior of children, adults can learn much about
49
Given that, historically, religion has been used to control the multitude, I refer to religious dogma as part
of the things of this world.
being trans-sensory—without abandoning the wisdom that the adult brain has
taught them over the years.
What Happens During Childhood, Adolescence, and Early Adulthood?
Children are spiritually aware, yet are very materialistic. Just go to a toy
store or to the cereal section of a supermarket. Advertisers revel in children’s
materialism, especially in the toy and food departments. Children are the best
salespeople that advertisers could possibly dream of—better than the swimsuit
models on the covers of sports magazines. Why would spiritually conscious
beings be so materialistic?
For starters, the human brain programs the human body to learn as much
as it can about this world. This is a matter of biological survival. As Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin, the 20th century French Jesuit, said, “We are spiritual beings
having a human experience [emphasis mine].”50 Starving for the human
experience, children are understandably materialistic. The paradox is that we
exist on earth to experience the physical and to remember that we are spiritual
beings. Hence, the natural metaphysical process is unlearning spirituality during
childhood and relearning it during adulthood.
Western culture, however, conditions minors to think solely in
materialistic terms. Such conditioning inhibits the natural process of quickly
relearning spirituality. The biggest incongruity of postmodern life is that
Western materialism goes hand in glove with puritanical repression. On the one
50
See “BrainyQuote,” BrainyMedia. The URL of the quote is
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/pierreteil160888.html.
hand, materialism causes us to forget about our spiritual origin. On the other
hand, repression keeps us from exploring the human experience. This mix is a
double whammy against spiritual evolution. Despite its materialism,
postmodern society teaches nothing but denial of bodily pleasure and of
psychological well-being. Consequently, there is “good sex” (e.g., straight) and
“bad sex” (e.g., gay). And there is “working for money,” instead of serving with
spirit and having money work for one as a by-product of one’s service to
humanity. The way of the world is then proclaimed to be the “natural” order of
things. To postmodern civilization, pleasure and well-being are only good
inasmuch as they generate the bottom line. Therefore, we are taught from an
early age to deny our physical bodies—except for food and consumption51—and
to think about little else than money. The result is children, adolescents, and
young adults yearning to explore their bodies, their minds, and the material
world, and our corporatistic culture telling them not to unless it approves.52 The
consequence is disappointment, bitterness, rage, and most of all, lack of a sense
of freedom. Such negative states paralyze, disrupt, and suck energy from the
spirit. What energy remains by adulthood is often unleashed in destructive
directions. Examples are workaholism, alcoholism, and drug addiction. Human
greed inevitably follows.
In short, instead of knowing, unlearning, and relearning that our essence
is spirit, we unlearn this Truth during childhood and stay stuck in human greed.
Then, we hope that things will satisfy us away from dissatisfaction and
negativity. It is, unfortunately, a process of becoming—and staying—sensory.
51
Profits is why consumption is encouraged. For instance, agribusiness pushes fatty, unhealthy foods on
the public because these foods advertise themselves—they’re too appetizing—and are cheap to make.
Even here, the dieting industry forbids the eating of countless foods.
52
Many cultural restrictions are needed for civilization to function (e.g., thou shalt not kill). Most social
sanctions, however, destroy the human spirit.
Birth of One’s Social Self—and

Death of One’s Spiritual Self
Worsening the externality of social restrictions is the internality of the

human brain itself. Are children, for example, wired to cave in to social
programming? If so, how do kids lose their spiritual awareness, sense of
unlimited freedom, and lack of inhibitions in order to fit in?
Asperger Syndrome
In 1944, an Austrian physician named Hans Asperger noticed that a group

of boys and girls was acting peculiar relative to ordinary children. Asperger
discovered a neurological, developmental disorder (or “difference”) of the
human brain that impairs the learning of nonverbal communication. The
disorder also hinders the nervous system’s ability to handle too much physical
stimuli at once. Not until the 1990s did English-speaking doctors acknowledge
the existence of Asperger Syndrome.53
The neurologically normal (“neurotypical”) human brain programs
children to imitate social cues from the adults around them. Social markers
include facial expressions, vocal intonation, arm movements, and social etiquette.
People with Asperger Syndrome (e.g., nerds) are as verbal as everyone else—and
oftentimes more. Aspies, as people with Asperger’s call themselves, also
recognize the same smiles that everybody else sees. But what type is each smile?
A friendly smile? A menacing grin? A flirting smile? With what facial
expression—let alone, body language—should one respond? How quickly?
53
Partly, this was because Hans Asperger’s findings remained untranslated from German to English until
the 1980s.
Should one proceed toward the other person? Or should one keep one’s
distance? These are the subtleties, subconsciously learned by regular children,
that elude Aspies. The result is that a computer programmer with Asperger’s
may find himself asking a “smiling” woman to date him, a woman who gave
him a menacing smile. In this example, the man didn’t see a menacing smile. All
he saw was a grin. The Asperger brain doesn’t allow Aspies to learn to read
nuances of body language during childhood. When Aspergians (another term
for people with Asperger’s) reach adulthood, their brain wiring differs from that
of “normal” people. This is because Aspies missed critical learning—and hence,
critical wiring—periods during childhood. Perhaps, this is why Aspies resist
social conditioning better than non-Aspies. Aspergians are accused of being
“emotionally distant” and “antisocial.” In this sense, Asperger Syndrome may
be an extreme form of the male brain. Or Asperger’s may be an extreme form of
the human brain, as everyone is insensitive now and then—not just Aspies.
Asperger Syndrome is not a brain disease, not a mental illness, and not
avoidant personality disorder. Rather, Asperger’s is a neurological difference.
Asperger’s is invisible because Aspies function well in nonsocial areas.
Computers is an example. But this is not to be confused with Asperger’s being
“slight.” There is nothing mild about a condition that means, for most Aspies, a
“lifetime” (actually, death time) of no friends, no sex, no romance, and extremely
limited employment.
Another way to illustrate the Asperger dilemma is that a single dinosaur
bone gets far more attention in a day than a typical adult with Asperger’s gets in
a “lifetime.” Dogs and cats, in turn, get far more love in five minutes than an
Aspie adult gets in 20 years. Yet, friendship, romance, and sex are fundamental
human rights, even for individuals—such as people with disabilities—who lack
the social currency for those experiences. Lieutenant-Commander Data (Brent
Spiner) of Star Trek: The Next Generation is and acts much like someone with
Asperger’s. But unlike in the Star Trek universe—where Data has friends—Data
would have no friendships in “the real world.” Why not? The endless
misunderstandings between Data and neurotypicals would drive most people
away from him.
Asperger Syndrome, a social disability, is at the high-functioning end of
the autism spectrum. All forms of autism—from most severe to least severe—
may be the missing link between the extinct Neanderthals (e.g., dependence on a
meat diet, less mobility, literal thinking, preference for cold weather, inflexibility,
repetition, endogamy, tendency to specialize, and monotone speech) and Homo
sapiens (e.g., dependence on an omnivorous diet, more mobility, symbolic
thought, preference for warm weather, “flexibility,”54 variety, exogamy, tendency
to generalize, and varied speech).55 Differences in evolutionary adaptations
between these two hominid species are why Homo sapiens proliferated and
Neanderthals did not. The most paramount difference between the two species
could well be that Neanderthals were, like people with Asperger’s, inflexible to a
rapidly changing world, while anatomically modern humans were flexible to
changing conditions.
It is no coincidence that Asperger Syndrome is called Wrong Planet
Syndrome. A Wikipedia article puts the quandary of Asperger’s succinctly. It
reads:
The basic differences between primate species are in social behavior,

nonverbal communication, sexual preference, sensory system, physical
appearance and the timing of the development.56
54
I put the term flexibility in quotes because many neurotypical (non-autistic) people are also inflexible in
thought and behavior. Examples are religious fanatics, nationalists, and political extremists.
55
See Leif Ekblad, “The Neanderthal Theory,” at http://rdos.net/eng/asperger.htm.
The article continues:
Even though similarities between different primate species exist, like for
instance in expression of fear, nonverbal communication varies widely
between primate species [emphasis mine].57
Creator of the Aspie quiz, Leif Ekblad writes on another website:
Differences in innate, nonverbal communications are very big

disadvantages. They can only develop in isolation. Long isolation …
The only isolated population in recent times, that had been isolated
for a long time, was Neanderthals.58
Ekblad concludes:
Every primate species have facial expressions and nonverbal

communication that are species-typical [emphasis mine], and this must
have included Neanderthals as well. Differences in nonverbal
communication forms the core of autistic problems [emphasis mine] …
Nonverbal communication, … doesn’t work over the species border.59
56
This quote comes from User: Zenosaga, “Neanderthal Theory,” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. The
URL of the article is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Zenosaga/Neanderthal_theory.
57
Ibid.
58
Ekblad, “The Neanderthal Theory,” at http://rdos.net/eng/asperger.htm.
59
Ibid.
Quite possibly, Aspies and other autistics are descendants of hybrids. These
hybrids must have been produced by interbreeding between the new hominid
from Africa (Homo sapiens) and the Ice Age hominids (Neanderthals) that
inhabited Europe for 200,000 years.60 This is the Neanderthal Theory of Asperger
Syndrome, a theory that Leif Ekblad, a computer programmer, has proposed.
Rather than having been exterminated by the expanding—or invading—Homo
sapiens some 30,000 years ago in Europe, Neanderthals may have been absorbed
genetically into the new population—that is, before Neanderthals went extinct.61
Because Neanderthals were far less numerous than Homo sapiens, Neanderthal
traits are rare in our day.62 Still, Asperger’s may hold valuable clues as to how
Spirits/souls forego spiritual freedoms in their process of becoming a particular
type of human being.
During childhood, humans learn—subconsciously—when and how to
make which facial expressions, arm movements, and vocal intonations. People
learn which behaviors go with which social settings. Subconsciously, humans
learn when to jump into a conversation, when not to; when to be diplomatic,
when to be direct; how to ask for what they want; and how to fit into a peer
group—all without thinking. As adults, people carry conversations, by and
large, without having to think about such nonverbal elements. Aspergians don’t
have this luxury. Why not? Because Aspies cannot read and respond
“appropriately” to nonverbal language—unless explicitly taught what most
60
Any descendants of Neanderthals, if any, would inherit part of the Neanderthal genotype (genes not
related to physical appearance), part of the Neanderthal phenotype (genes that determine physical features),
or both. Therefore, the absence of Neanderthal physical features (e.g., no occipital bun) in living human
populations (e.g., autistics) does not rule out Neanderthal genes that are unrelated to physical appearance
being present in such populations.
61
Geneticist Svante Pääbo, from the Max Planck Institute, found no evidence of interbreeding between
Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Pääbo, however, compared Neanderthal Mitochondrial DNA with the
Mitochondrial DNA of a general sample of some 1,000 people living today around the world. As far as I
know, Pääbo did not compare the Neanderthal Mitochondrial DNA (which provides a record of ancestry)
with the Mitochondrial DNA of people with autism spectrum disorders.
62
See Nova: Neanderthals on Trial. This program doesn’t mention Asperger Syndrome, but it does provide
a good overview about Neanderthals.
people learn implicitly. Ninety-three percent of face-to-face human

communication is nonverbal, according to Janine Driver, a body language
expert.63 Hence, Asperger Syndrome is a major handicap for less than 1 percent
of the population.64 This handicap is especially severe in an age of “customer
service,” “people skills,” “multitasking,” and being a “team player.” Externality
is rewarded. Internality is not. The social, cultural, and economic system is
tailored for people who possess a “whole theory of mind.”65 Put differently,
postmodern society rewards those of us who are social, external in orientation,
and endowed with skills that the global economy hails as “employable.”
Aspies are “mind blind.” In our era, this is another liability. It is like the
situation that Dave Spicer, autism consultant, recounted at a conference in
Västerås, Sweden. Spicer said:
… suppose you are colorblind, and cannot distinguish between red and
green. You are in a room with other people, all of whom have normal
vision. No one—not even you—knows that you are colorblind. Everyone
is handed a list of instructions. They are printed in red against a green
background. Everyone except you knows exactly what to do. They
cannot understand why you just sit there. The paper looks blank to you,
and you cannot understand how the others know what to do.66
63
Secrets of Body Language. This two-hour special aired on The History Channel on October 13, 2008.
64
In February 2007, the Centers for Disease Control reported that about 1 per 150 people are somewhere on
the autism spectrum. Asperger Syndrome, however, is a subtle disability (or “difference”), and most adults
with Asperger’s have not been diagnosed. A major reason is because when Asperger’s is talked about, 90
percent of the attention is on children with the disorder. Adults with Asperger’s are consistently ignored.
Hence, I use a higher number than the official statistic. See article, Associated Press, “Autism Rate in U.S.
Higher Than Thought,” MSNBC, Health/Kids and Parenting, February 9, 2007. Article at
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17047721/.
65
“Whole theory of mind” means that one is able to identify with “the other.” This other can be a person
(e.g., empathy) or a thing (e.g., identification). See Roger N. Meyer, Asperger Syndrome Employment
Workbook: An Employment Workbook for Adults with Asperger Syndrome, (Philadelphia: Jessica
Kingsley Publishers, Inc., 2001).
66
Dave Spicer, “Self-Awareness in Living with Asperger Syndrome.” The March 1998 lecture was given at
an Asperger Syndrome conference in Västerås, Sweden. The transcript is available at
This is perhaps the best analogy of what having Asperger’s is like. It is similar to
being blind, deaf, and mute without anyone—not even oneself—knowing it. I,
for one, didn’t know that I have Asperger Syndrome until I turned 30. And if I
weren’t such an avid reader, I would have never found out. Imagine the
“lifetime” (death time) of confusion that I underwent before my “accidental”
discovery.
Unlike people with classic autism, Aspergians want to be sociable and
want to make friends. Given how their brains work, however, Aspies are
socially naïve, socially inept, too honest, and too inwardly focused. Still, Aspies
tend to be intellectually brilliant. For instance, many of humanity’s greatest
breakthroughs have occurred because of people who unitasked (focused on one
project) for long periods of time. TV’s Lieutenant Columbo (Peter Falk) is an
example of someone with Asperger Syndrome—although the creators of
Columbo probably didn’t intend to depict someone with Asperger’s. Consider
Columbo’s awkwardness, absentmindedness, social blunders, and most of all,
his perseverance of mind. Aspie deficits exist because the Asperger brain has to
sacrifice social intelligence to make room for intellectual intelligence. In the
Columbo episode “A Case of Immunity,” for example, Columbo nearly knocks
over an ancient vase at a Middle Eastern country headquartered in Los Angeles.67
This is the awkwardness part of Asperger’s. Yet, in “Murder Under Glass,”
Columbo tells a chef suspect (Louis Jourdan) at a fruit and vegetable market:
How did the poison get into the wine [bottle]? That’s the question. But
don’t worry about it, sir. I’m going to write that out on a card, and I’m
http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/s/dspicer/aware.html.
67
Columbo (1970-present), “A Case of Immunity.” This episode originally aired on the National
Broadcasting Company (NBC) on October 12, 1975 (Season 5, episode 2).
going to paste it up on my shaving mirror. And that’s all I’m going to

think about [emphasis mine].68
This is the mind perseverance part of Asperger’s.

Similar to Lieutenant Columbo, the deceased Stanley Kubrick had a
perseverance of mind that is astounding. For decades, the eminent filmmaker
wanted to direct a film about Napoleon Bonaparte. How many books on this
general did Kubrick admittedly read? About 500 books. When filming The
Shining (1980), Kubrick is also said to have reshot some scenes hundreds of
times, something unheard of in the film industry.69 I am not saying that Kubrick
had Asperger’s—although this is a strong possibility. I am saying that single-
mindedness and super-passionate interests in single topics are two of Asperger’s
characteristics.
Another example of the Asperger psyche is Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson)
from As Good As It Gets (1997). In this movie, Udall has successfully authored
62 books from his Fifth Avenue apartment. But the reclusive writer can’t help
but be callous—or too honest, depending on your view—toward the people he
encounters in the outside world. One day, for example, Udall calls a fill-in
waitress “elephant girl,” a move that gets him kicked out of the restaurant he
patronizes every morning. Udall, however, can’t express his feelings for the
waitress (Helen Hunt) he does like. As he tells Carol Connelly—the
girl/waitress of his dreams—during a dinner date with her, “It’s exhausting
talking like this, exhausting.” Udall keeps meeting Connelly, though, because of
his daily routine. Every morning, for example, he goes to the restaurant where
Connelly works and wants only her as his waitress. Udall is so inflexible that,
68
Columbo, “Murder Under Glass.” This episode originally aired on NBC on January 30, 1978 (Season 7,
episode 2).
69
See the article on Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia titled, “Stanley Kubrick.” The URL is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kubrick.
rather than accept a dusty red jacket one night, he leaves Connelly—now his
girlfriend—waiting at a five-star restaurant that requires suit and tie while he
goes out to buy a clean set. As Good As It Gets makes it seem like Udall is
suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), which he is. But Udall’s
chief problem is his inability to interact well with his neighbors, with the
waitress he falls in love with, with his publisher and her secretary, and with the
public at large. For example, Udall shouts a meal order across a restaurant. Not
only does the man lack social graces. He also has very little sense of danger,
asking, for example, Connelly to go out with him at 4 a.m. And Udall has a
different, often perverse, sense of humor. In short, Udall’s character exhibits all
the characteristics of Asperger Syndrome—although most individuals with
Asperger’s are not that obnoxious. The lack of mention of Asperger Syndrome in
this movie reflects:
1) That the filmmakers either didn’t know about or didn’t intend to

portray Asperger’s on the big screen
2) That most adults with Asperger’s continue to be undiagnosed or

misdiagnosed by psychiatrists
One of the better hallmarks of Asperger Syndrome is unitasking. As such,

unitasking is responsible for the invention of the transistor, jet engines, cell
phones, and the Internet—to name some milestones. Inventors and discoverers
don’t necessarily have Asperger’s. But the significance of unitasking remains
unacknowledged by a world obsessed with multitasking. People with rich inner
worlds70 pay through lack of friends (due to being unable to socialize
70
These inner worlds are filled with ideas, fascination with systems (e.g., weather maps, computer
programs, and aircraft engines), and visual imagery. Painters, writers, composers, and mathematical
“appropriately”), through lack of employment or problems on the job (due to

more “inappropriate” communication at interviews and at work settings), and
through social isolation. Yet, internality and focus are precisely what trans-
sensory consciousness requires.
Asperger Syndrome shows that the human brain programs most of us to
restrict our behavior subconsciously. This starts at an early age. Children learn
to put up fronts. Adults do it by rote, all the while believing that they are being
themselves. Regular children have rich social worlds—and enjoy the advantages
of that. But they pay the price: unconsciously restricting their behavior, and even
their thoughts, to what is socially sanctioned. Obversely, children with
Asperger’s have rich inner worlds and behave spontaneously. But they pay
another price: society’s rejection.
Nonphysical Aspects of Asperger Syndrome
The Asperger experience—endless misunderstandings, endless rejections,

endless betrayals, and endless frustrations—warps the energy field of an Aspie.
This is critical to understand because we are not just souls having different
human—and inhuman—experiences. We are also souls having different
spiritual experiences. There are, for example, souls who have the spirit of joy in
them, and there are souls who have the spirit of grief in them. I have concluded
that some 90 percent of Aspies are rejected at job interviews and close to 100
percent at social gatherings not just because Aspergians are not quite human
theorists are some examples of people with rich inner worlds.

(this is not meant as a putdown), but also, because their auric fields (fields of the
aura) vibrate so differently.
Everyone, of course, is misunderstood, rejected, betrayed, and dejected
once in a while. But nobody is set up for those experiences to the extent that
Aspies are. As a rule, Aspergians are so physically, mentally, emotionally, and
energetically isolated, so lacking in self-confidence, and so emotionally wounded
that they are off the scale—energy-wise—of normal human emotions. The
mental, emotional, and auric bodies of interviewers and would-be friends read
the nonphysical blueprint of the Aspie in question. This is called “psyching a
person out.” If the frequencies of neurotypicals don’t click with the Aspie
frequency, then non-Aspergians dump or don’t hire the Aspergian. This is a
type of spiritual racism: someone is rejected because his or her spiritual “skin
color” is different. The physical body may not even be aware of what is
transpiring nonphysically. But the personality of the neurotypical person jilts the
Aspie anyway. This is a major downside of humans being connected spiritually.
Instead of prompting our nonphysical bodies (spirits in us) to be more
understanding of other nonphysical bodies, our nonphysical bodies—just like
our human selves—become less understanding. The subtle energies that people
pick up from one another are used, more often than not, against the individual
being read. This is one of several reasons—discussed elsewhere in this book—
why our nonphysical unity isn’t all a bed of roses.
Even “positive” people like psychics, nice guys, and nice girls can
abruptly turn on you if they sense information from your nonphysical weak
spots. People don’t even have to see or hear you to sense your psychic
vulnerabilities. One afternoon, for example, I entered a bookstore. I asked to
speak with the manager about a professional matter. I admit that I wasn’t feeling
great that day. But without having looked or even heard me, the female
manager—whom I was told was in the back room—told the male cashier that she
couldn’t speak to me. That woman—or rather, her nonmaterial bodies—might
as well have stabbed me. What she did to me was a psychic rejection. This form
of rejection is far more damaging than a physical rejection because the message is
that not just your human body and personality are flawed, but your nonphysical
selves, too. Much as loyal dogs can turn vicious if they smell fear in you, “good”
people can turn as savage if their energetic bodies read the “wrong” information
from you. Just because someone is sensitive to energies doesn’t mean that he or
she is spiritually evolved. The true mark of spiritual evolution—or the dearth of
it—is how a person uses his or her psychic powers. For example, does a person
use his or her psychic insights sensitively or ruthlessly?
We may Love one another in the higher planes of the spirit sphere. But in
lower nonphysical realms like the astral plane, our nonmaterial bodies often fail
to empathize with—and thus, fail to Love—one another. As mentioned, Aspies
don’t make friends—just acquaintances, at most. This is not just because of their
neurological differences, but also, because the nonphysical bodies of regular
people read the excess negatives (or “differences”) of each Aspie energy field, are
repelled by those frequencies, and move on. Sometimes, however, nonphysical
bodies are attracted to negative energies in someone and pursue them. For
example, the nonmaterial bodies of a school bully scan for energies like low self-
esteem, a sense of vulnerability, and a sense of isolation. Once the bully senses
these elements, he moves in the direction of the would-be victim and terrorizes
him or her.
Unity does not necessarily mean uniformity. Even in the spirit plane—at
least, the lower realms—soul frequencies like the spirit of joy vs. the spirit of
despair are often unalike. Therefore, disunity and disharmony are not just
confined to the earth plane. The difference in the spiritual frequency of Aspies
reflects this truth in the most profound way.
The next chapter zeroes in on the social aspects of binary thinking—binary
thinking being a major characteristic of the sixth sense of the human brain.
Exercises
1) Can you remember otherworldly visions, sounds, smells, or even

sensations that you had as a child? If yes, around what age did you forget
them?
2) As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Did you follow
those dreams? Why or why not? Is it too late to pursue your childhood
dreams?
3) What types of etiquette, customs, and taboos do you recall being taught
as a child? How long did it take you to internalize them? Did you learn
instinctually (just by observing)? Or did you learn scientifically (you didn’t
get things unless taught explicitly)? Are those social rules serving you,
imprisoning you, or neither? If the rules are restricting your freedom to be
without harming others, how could you unlearn such ways of being?
3
The Dualism of the Human Brain
Looking at the human brain, one sees that the cerebral cortex has two
hemispheres. Ideas, skills, and behaviors that one hemisphere processes the
other hemisphere does not process. If one writes with the left hand, for instance,
the right hemisphere processes the writing. The specifics of which things are
processed in which brain region can be found in books like Diane Ackerman’s
An Alchemy of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain.71
This chapter, however, is more interested in polarity as a recurring feature
of human thinking and social organization. Several areas emerge as examples of
binary thinking at the social level:
1) White vs. black

2) Straight vs. gay
3) Labels vs. no labels
4) Science vs. mysticism
This chapter delves into the above dichotomies. It looks at some by-products of
the duality of the human brain, by-products like humor. Last, this chapter
analyzes the tendency of changing societies to go from one extreme to another.
71
See Diane Ackerman, An Alchemy of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain, (New York: Scribner,
2004).
White vs. Black
Living in the post-civil rights era, Americans have seemingly transcended

the issues of the Jim Crow past. Economic issues and issues of equal opportunity
are the focus of racial and ethnic activism these days.
The vocabulary used in reference to human races has barely changed,
however, from the heyday of open racism in the 1890s. Looking at “white”
people, one will notice that they are not white. At most, their skin is light-cream.
Most “white” people are in a color continuum that ranges from:
light-cream . . . . . . . . . . pink . . . . . . . . . . . . peach . . . . . . . . . . . . tan
Only members of a sub-race—such as Caucasians from Norway vs. Caucasians

from Romania—tend to be all light-cream or all tan.
Conversely, “black” people are not black. At most, their skin is dark
brown. In the United States, “black” people are in a color scale that ranges from:
cinnamon . . . . . . . . . . café au lait . . . . . . . . . . . chocolate
Only in some regions of Africa can “black” people be said to approach the color
black. Even here, black is not an accurate term to describe the color of their
skins. In photography, some “black” people appear to be black. But lighting, not
just skin color, determines skin tone.
Despite the above facts, Americans keep referring to pink, peach, and tan
individuals as “white” and to cinnamon brown, café au lait, and chocolate brown
people as “black.” Why? If American history is any guide, then the open racism
of the past is the explanation. Starting with chattel slavery, “Negro” (black)
people were seen as what the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines
as black. The Tenth Edition of that dictionary defines black as, among other
things:
… 4: DIRTY, SOILED … 5 a: characterized by the absence of light … b:

reflecting or transmitting little or no light … 6 a: thoroughly sinister or
evil: WICKED …72
The same edition defines white as, among other things:
… 2 c: marked by upright fairness 3: free from spot or blemish: as a (1):

free from moral impurity: INNOCENT …73
Calling Caucasians white assumes that Caucasians are white on the inside, and
calling African Americans black assumes that African Americans are black on the
inside. This is sensory perception. The reality is that all “white” people have
some black inside—as in black energies—and all “black” people have some
white inside. This is trans-sensory perception. Many “whites” are devils, and
72
Frederick C. Mish, John M. Morse, E. Ward Gilman, et al., Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary,
Tenth Edition, (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1993), p. 118.
73
Ibid., p. 1348.
many “blacks” are angels—although devils and angels come in all shapes and
colors.
At the same time, the darkness in each person is but another layer of
illusion, for beyond this excess marble of darkness there is light. As
Michelangelo said, the David is inside the excess marble. This is what people
mean when they say that someone is noble “underneath it all.” The “it” is the
excess marble. The black costume of Darth Vader (David Prowse) is his excess
marble. When, at last, Vader tells Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), “Just for once,
let me look on you with my own eyes,” Vader means that he no longer wants to
look at Luke with human eyes but rather, with spiritual eyes. Darth, by the way,
comes from the word dearth, which means absence, as in absence of light.
In an ocean of websites about race, only a handful mention the racism
inherent in our keeping the terms white and black—as opposed to the neutral
terms Caucasian American and African American. Even worse, racial and ethnic
minorities themselves accept—with growing exceptions—the terms white and
black, along with the implication that “white” people have no color. (“Yellow” is
also used to refer to people of Asian descent.) When primary schools distribute
crayons for kids to color people on paper, they encourage a more realistic
perception of race. When high schools and universities teach, say, American
history and continue to use “white people” and “black people” as terms,
however, they encourage the transfer of Jim Crow perceptions to future
generations. I myself am guilty of this, for I use the terms “white” and “black”
throughout this book to refer to Caucasians and African Americans. One reason
is because readers are familiar with such terms, and I don’t want to lose them.
Another reason is that the terms “white” and “black” break the monotony of the
terms “Caucasian” and “African American.” As much as possible, though, I put
the terms white and black in quotes.
Most people look without truly seeing. Instead of wearing tint-adjustable

glasses of pink, peach, and tan upon encountering Caucasian people, most
people wear white-only glasses. Therefore, that is what they see: white people.
The same applies vis-à-vis black-only glasses. Wear them, and you will perceive
black people. Even individuals with “one drop of black blood” will look black.
What a difference from the change in thinking that occurred in the 20th
century regarding the “red man” of the 18th and 19th centuries. Leafing through a
middle school textbook, for example, I once spotted “red man” in quotations in a
sentence that was referring to how European Americans used to view Native
Americans. A few sentences later, “white people” appeared without
quotations.74 The incongruity was so jarring that, to this day, I am stumped that
people don’t see the inaccuracy of phrases like “white people” and “black
people.”
The white-black mindset, however, is so ingrained in the public mind that
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
objected when Tiger Woods rejected in public the label “black” to describe
himself. Woods prefers the term “Cablinasian,” for the pro golfer says that he is
Caucasian-black-Indian-Asian. Prominent African Americans also criticize
“blacks” who refer to themselves as mulatto or multi-racial. The political need to
be counted as a single block (e.g., black people) is cited as a pragmatic necessity
of fighting for equality.
On the “white” side of the equation—although all human races share this
somewhere deep down—is the fear of racial amalgamation. In particular, people
who carry the archetype (spiritual energy behind a persona) of virgin can
become concerned with preserving the purity of a given race. This is similar to
74
I read this while substituting in New Hampshire. After moving west, I contacted the middle school about
the editor and title of this textbook. The school didn’t return my phone messages and emails, so I can’t cite
it here.
environmentalists wanting to protect virgin forests or the humpback whale.

Caucasians tend to fear miscegenation the most because many of their genes—
such as for blond hair and blue irises—are recessive. If a Caucasian mates with
an African, for instance, the baby comes out looking more African than
Caucasian. If a European mates with an Asian, the baby comes out looking more
Asian than European. If an Anglo mates with a Native American, the baby
comes out looking more Native American than Anglo. A major driver of racial
segregation in the American South, racial apartheid in South Africa, and white
flight in the American North has been the Caucasian fear of mixing genetically
with other races. President Jimmy Carter, for example, grew up in Plains,
Georgia during the era of Jim Crow. According to PBS’s American Experience,
Southern whites and blacks of that time played together as children. Once
Anglos like Carter hit adolescence, however, their “Negro” playmates had to
begin acting reverential toward them. For instance, black adolescents had to
start holding the door for whites of all ages. This was the South’s way of
preparing Caucasians and African Americans for a segregated adulthood.75 In
the Jim Crow South, why were Caucasians and African Americans allowed to
play together as children but not as adolescents—and adults? Because starting
around age 13, girls were capable of becoming pregnant. In the South, this raised
conscious fears of interracial children being born—although this now
unconscious fear is present throughout the United States. Therefore, in the
Southern mind, Caucasians and African Americans had to be segregated from
age 13 on. The fear of Southern “whites” was that racial social integration would
lead to racial genetic disintegration through interracial sex.76 Every human race
has the fear of dissolving genetically because of interracial sex. This fear is the
75
American Experience: Jimmy Carter. This episode originally aired on PBS on October 14, 2008.
76
See Richard McCulloch, “Racial Nihilism,” The Racial Compact. This online chapter is at
http://www.racialcompact.com/racialnihilism.html.
core of all racial problems in the world.

From a human level, resistance to interracial unions is a form of group
preservation. This is racialism (love for one’s race). This is not to justify racism
(hatred toward other races). But racism and racialism come in a continuum
(shown below):
Racism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Racialism
This is an example of how love and hate are different sides of the same coin.
Love for one’s race tends to promote hostility toward other races—although
loving all races equally is possible. Both racism and racialism want to preserve
the human races by separating them. As the human experiment has shown,
when different populations come into contact, very often, one race (e.g.,
Europeans) infects another race (e.g., Native Americans) with diseases that the
race on the receiving end has no immunity for. Another example of “passive
genocide” is when Homo sapiens from Africa entered Neanderthal lands in
Europe, leading to the extinction of Neanderthals.
From a spiritual perspective, however, all human races are part of the
human species. Notice, for example, how almost everyone—blonds included—
prefers warm weather, a testament to the African origins of Homo sapiens.
Furthermore, the human race is made of spiritual beings that come from the
same Godhead. The conflict between our human fears and our spiritual unity
can be resolved by balancing three elements. These elements are:
1) The earthly need for some separation (see what introducing flora
and fauna from one corner of the world to the other is doing to
native plant and animal species)
2) Our unity as Homo sapiens
3) Our oneness as spiritual beings
Even number 1 may no longer be adaptive to life on earth—as humanly insane as

this sounds. This is because nature is mixing everywhere so as to produce
genetic recombinations that will be adaptive to global warming (see epilogue).
In sum, the fear of miscegenation is the root of the black-white mindset in
America. As we shall see, this same fear of “catching what the other has”
dominates the gay movement.
Straight vs. Gay
In the United States, “one drop of black blood” makes a person “black.”
Applying this rule to human sexuality, one will find that, in the West, a person
exhibiting any degree of homosexuality is labeled “gay” if that homosexuality is
more than incidental. The possibility that such a person might be bisexual
doesn’t enter the minds of most people. In Western society, one is either straight
or gay. What is more, when experts discuss “sexual orientation,” they actually
mean romantic orientation. Thus, a straight man who has sex on the side with
men is either “confused” about his “real” orientation or is “really gay but in
denial.” The notion that heteroromantic males (straight in the romantic sense)
might also be bisexual (bi in the purely sexual sense) doesn’t occur to the
majority of people. Females tend to fuse the romantic with the sexual. But males
can easily divorce the two. For males in general, romance doesn’t have to be
present for them to seek and enjoy sex. Sexually thirsty males can copulate with
either sex—if they get past their erotic inhibitions. When women aren’t around,
heteroromantic (straight) men having non-romantic sex “with my buddies” is
usually enough for relief of their hormones. Of course, this is if the men get past
their homophobia (fear of homosexuality). Gay sex between, or among,
heteroromantic males may not bring romantic satisfaction. But homosocial
bonds—what I call homoplatonic relationships—have homoemotional pleasures
of their own. Homosocial bonds are often the context in which homosexuality
arises among straight males. If, however, these homosexually active men
continue to desire women in a romantic way, what does that make them?
Postmodern society seems incapable of conceptualizing such a triple-tier of
desires—sexual lust vs. romantic love vs. platonic needs. Instead of
acknowledging that heteroromantic males might also enjoy homoplatonic bonds
in a sexual way, Western society uses the “one drop of black blood” rule in
insisting that these men are “really gay.” Yet, several theories propose that 80
percent of the population is latently bisexual—and made heterosexual through
upbringing and peer pressure.77 Postmodern culture may speak endlessly about
sex and romance. But much of this talk has remained superficial. Even scholars
have yet to tease apart sexual tastes vs. romantic orientation vs. platonic
preference.
In the 1970s, the gay movement proclaimed “the liberation of the gay in
everyone.” The homosexual side of bisexuality was encouraged for the sake of
77
I am using the looser definition of bisexuality, which includes same-sex fantasies that straight people
have but don’t act upon. Also, I am drawing upon: 1) The comment of psychiatrist Sigmund Freud that
bisexuality’s absence in most people needs explanation, 2) The conclusion of therapist Maggi Rubenstein
that 80 percent of people are bisexual—based on what Rubenstein has said regarding what her clients have
told her about their same-sex “fantasies, feelings, or dreams”, and 3) My looking at societies around the
world—ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and Tokugawa Japan—where most men were behaviorally bisexual,
and even biromantic too, in some way. For the Rubenstein quote and statistic, see Marjorie Garber,
Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life, (Oxford, UK: Routledge, 2000), p. 249.
sex. Similarly, the heterosexual side of bisexuality was promoted. Then,

heterosexuality didn’t appear to threaten gay identity. From the perspective of
2009, however, the 1970s were an oasis in the middle of the Sahara desert.
From 1980 to the present, sexual borders have ruled. Having purely
sexual curiosities of a same-sex nature makes a person “gay,” sexually and
romantically. Movies like Defying Gravity (1997) press this point like a pestle in
a mortar. An otherwise superb film, Defying Gravity revolves around the denial
of a frat boy that he is gay. In the movie, John “Griff” Griffith (Daniel Chilson)
enjoys sex with Pete Bradley (Don Handfield), one of his fraternity brothers.
Bradley wants Griff to love him romantically. Griff only wants the sex and the
friendship. Rather than consider that Griff might be bisexual, heteroromantic,
and homoplatonic, the movie has him come out as gay by the closing credits.
This is the mentality of the official gay movement. Bi may be included in the
banner Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning. But unofficially,
most gays ostracize anyone who has one drop of straight blood. Likewise, most
straights see anyone with one drop of gay blood as gay. It is, in the words of
Kenji Yoshino, a Yale law professor, an “epistemic contract.”78 This is a psychic
contract that straights and gays have signed, whatever their disagreements, to
stave off any advances of bi-identified people.79 It is the unconsciousness of such
an agreement that makes it so potent.
The argument that bisexuality is “cheating” and “just a phase” is another
way that bisexuality goes discredited. But this argument has concealed
assumptions. As one of the contributors to Plural Loves writes:
The casting of bisexuality as temporary state of choosing (“just a phase”)

78
See Kenji Yoshino, “The Epistemic Contract of Bisexual Erasure,” Stanford Law Review, January 1,
2000, Vol. 52, Issue 2: 353-461. The essay can be found at
http://www.kenjiyoshino.com/articles/epistemiccontract.pdf.
79
Ibid.
is actually an attempt to erase bisexuality itself, by reducing it to a

summation of two monosexual [one gender only] possibilities. We can
pretend that a cheater is a monogamous person in transition [to a new
monogamous relationship], and we can use the same logic to pretend that
a bisexual is a monosexual [attracted only to one sex] in transition [to the
opposite sexuality]. Attempts to recast bisexuality as cheating are
therefore attempts to invalidate bisexuality altogether, making it into an
invisible stepping stone between two visible sexuality choices [straight or
gay].80
Pepper Mint, the contributor, continues:
Of course, most real bisexuals do not spend all their social time with a
gender on each arm. Bisexuals move in and out of relationships, and life
often catches them dating only one gender. There are plenty of self-
identified monogamous bisexuals, though they seem to be a minority
within bisexuality (possibly due to this failure of the cultural imagination)
… People assume that monogamous bisexuals are actually monosexual
(based on the gender of their current attraction) even when they actively
claim a bisexual identity. Bisexuality becomes invisible in monogamous
situations [emphasis mine].81
The news media reinforces the straight/gay paradigm as well. Consider

the former relationship between actresses Anne Heche and Ellen DeGeneres. As
Pepper Mint writes in Plural Loves:
80
Pepper Mint, “The Power Dynamics of Cheating: Effects on Polyamory and Bisexuality,” Part One:
Perspectives, Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena, ed., Plural Loves: Designs for Bi and Poly Living,
(Binghamton, NY: Harrington Park Press, 2004), pgs. 69-70.
81
Ibid., p. 68.
When Anne and Ellen started dating, the tabloids all assumed that Anne
was a lesbian, and that she had been a lesbian all along. (Apparently the
string of men she had relationships with earlier did not count.) When
they broke up and Anne went on to date some new man, she was
suddenly straight and her affair with Ellen was recast as a passing fancy.
Using this sexual identity sleight-of-hand, the media managed to avoid
any serious consideration of bisexuality, … 82
As if the above mentalité weren’t enough, most politicians, academicians,

journalists, and laypeople believe that people are straight or gay from the womb.
That 75 percent of the human brain grows outside the womb—where it does
most of its wiring—doesn’t register in the popular mind.83 Even youth, the
“rebels” of society, overwhelmingly grow up believing that, being incompatible,
heterosexuality and homosexuality have nothing to teach each other, that
enjoying gay sex must mean giving up the opposite sex romantically, and that
straight and gay people are different species. As Marjorie Garber, Harvard
professor of literature, writes in Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life
(2000), the vast majority of youth “go straight” or are “scared straight.”84 Also,
Garber posits that desire for someone of the opposite sex can arise just because
one or more rivals of the same sex desire the same thing. I add that, through
childhood and adolescence, most youngsters train themselves to restrict their
erotic desires to the “proper” sex in order to become like the pack. A lot of this
happens unconsciously. Boys are encouraged to grow up close enough to their
fathers and to male peers—and girls to their mothers and to female peers. This is
82
Ibid.
83
This statistic is alluded to in Ackerman, An Alchemy of Mind, p. 136.
84
Garber, Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life, pgs. 82 and 328.
to prevent homoromantic cravings from developing in boys and girls. At the

same time, boys in particular are taught not to get too close, emotionally and
physically, to other males. That way, the homosexual part of their bisexuality
doesn’t blossom in them. This is like giving boys a few spoonfuls of cereal (male
bonding) to quell their hunger for male affection but not too many spoonfuls, or
they may acquire a taste for the cereal (homosexuality).
Evolutionary biologists argue that males are programmed to compete
with other males. “Selfish genes,” biologists say, program males to want to
reproduce with as many females as possible. Thus, evolutionists claim, males are
promiscuous by nature, whereas females want one male to commit to them. For
females, the argument goes, a committed male means better chances of survival
for offspring. Therefore, the scenario is (for males) one male/many female
sexual partners and (for females) one female/one male romantic partner.
Evolutionary biologists rarely consider, though, that male promiscuity may
sputter in homosexual directions. Seldom considered is also that fertile females
often seek—unconsciously—more than one male so that sperm from different
men may compete (“sperm competition”) inside the woman, ensuring that the
best sperm impregnates her.
Sexual intercourse, however, is about much more than reproduction. If
sex were “just about reproducing,” then why do so many people use birth
control? Don’t they want to reproduce? What this shows is that we live on a
planet that does not mirror the context in which biological evolution occurred.
For millions of years, mass death was common. Humans were scattered enclaves
—a few people here, a few people there. At the time of Christ, only some 250
million people inhabited the world. For millennia, this was the backdrop of the
evolution of sex. Only in the 20th century did medical science and technology
help us to live longer, reducing the need to have many children. The human
body hasn’t had time to evolve to the present setting. Consequently, going
beyond biology is a must for those of us who want to enjoy sex beyond
reproduction. Contraception is one method.
Most people talk about being straight or gay. Sex, however, is so
pleasurable that, like ejaculate, it spews in a dozen different directions. Not all of
those directions will lead to heterosexuality. In fact, much of the (hetero)sexual
fallout turns into homosexuality—the nonexclusive kind. This is especially so in
same-sex environments like boarding schools, locker rooms, sailors at sea, the
military, and prisons. Nonexclusive male homosexuality cements homosocial
bonds between men. These bonds are called male bonding. Sometimes, of
course, male homosexuality is used to establish dominance over other males.
(Female homosexuality tends to be more one-on-one, and it is based less on eros
and more on romance.) Such gayness remains nonexclusive—or bisexual—
because that same multi-spewing of sex falls, sooner or later, back into the
heterosexual camp. Like a ball swinging back and forth across a pool table and
landing in different places, this is the picture that human sexuality presents. The
portrait allows a both/and approach to sex—PRO-creation and RE-creation—
instead of an either/or approach.
In Anatomy of Love, however, anthropologist Helen Fisher contends that
alternative lifestyles like polyandry (one wife/many husbands) are extremely
rare in human history. Fisher argues that 95 percent of the population is
heterosexual—by implication, due to biological, rather than social,
programming. In her last chapter, she downplays new sexual and romantic
trends because, in her view, jealousy, competition, and other biological
constraints will never allow humans to move beyond one husband/one wife
(monogamy) with occasional cheating on the side. Fisher argues that cheating
has biological causes. But she doesn’t see new romantic arrangements like
polyamory as a way to curb cheating and increase honesty within families.85
Of course, biologists and anthropologists provide us with insights about
human nature. Spiritual evolution, however, supercedes biology. Men can
choose to go beyond their biological tendency—and social programming—to
compete. Men can choose to share instead. They can channel their
aggressiveness toward constructive ends like sports. Jealousy can be recognized
as something not inevitable but as a choice that we make, however
unconsciously, and can unmake by choosing compersion (enjoyment at seeing a
lover romanced by other people as well). The good news is that many men and
women are doing just that. They are choosing:
1) To love romantically regardless of gender

2) To have sex free of guilt and secrecy
3) To share love partners
4) To start alternative families
Labels vs. No Labels
An intellectual, social, cultural, and even spiritual movement,

postmodernism belittles labels much as a father pointing the finger at his son.
“Labels don’t matter,” one often hears these days. Of all people, gender theorists
shun labels the most.
Two sexes are the norm with higher life-forms. Gender studies, however,
disparage gender as “a meaningless category.” Gender theorists contend that
85
See Helen E. Fisher, Anatomy of Love: The Natural History of Monogamy, Adultery, and Divorce, (New
York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1992).
gender is socially constructed (e.g., boys don’t cry). By implication, the

categories man and woman must be thrown out with the bathwater. Language
may be limited, as words like up and down mean nothing in outer space. Yet,
we keep such terms because using them keeps us talking to one another and
prevents chaos. Postmodernism continues to insist, though, that labels are
meaningless. Even the bisexual movement denounces the term bisexual—and all
labels related to human sexuality—while paradoxically trying to build a bi
movement.
As for race, a “color-blind society” is what most Americans aim for
officially. Unofficially, most Americans continue to believe—and hence, to
perceive—that people are “black,” “white,” and “yellow.” In the end, humans
are a palette of colors—not a trichotomy. Perhaps, we can learn or invent words
that accurately describe our skin colors. At the very least, we could use
emotionally neutral terms for racial groups—although no word is totally neutral.
Examples are Caucasian, Aryan, or Nordic instead of white; African American
instead of black; and Asian instead of yellow. We have already made the
transition regarding Native Americans, for nobody talks about “red people”
nowadays. The names of some sports teams and their logos, of course, continue
to depict stereotypes of American Indians.
Labels matter. This applies to the physical world—as opposed to the
spirit realm, where labels don’t matter. Say, for example, the word race, and
most Americans will think about “colored” people. Say the word gender, and
most Americans will think about women. Say the phrase sexual orientation, and
most Americans will think about gays. Say the word class, and most people will
think about the working class. Labels affect our self-concept, meaning how we
identify racially, sexually, economically, and ultimately, politically. Moreover,
labels affect how studies—and thus, human knowledge—are conceptualized.
Studies that only use the terms straight and gay will miss bisexuality altogether,
for instance. In failing to celebrate the diversity of language, postmodernism
denounces intellectualism and, in a way, can be said to be an anti-intellectual
movement. What about keeping and even expanding labels, while recognizing
that they are limited beyond a point? What about allowing a post-postmodern
synthesis to crystallize?
Science vs. Mysticism
Several years ago, a psychologist appeared on 20/20, the news program

from the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The woman questioned the
reality of Betty Jean Eadie’s near-death experience—actually, a death experience,
according to Eadie’s book Embraced by the Light.86 Susan Blackmore, the
psychologist, said that a dying brain produces the “hallucination” of white light
in a dark tunnel, of one’s racing forward through space, and of rushing sounds.
Eadie said that her experience was real. At the end of the segment, anchor Hugh
Downs said, “The question is whether it [Eadie’s near-death experience] is
subjective or objective, and I tend to think it is subjective, as in her mind.”87 The
notion of everything being subjective didn’t seem to occur to Downs.
The mass media, of course, is structured to present issues in either/or
fashion. But belief in subjectivity vs. objectivity; in life after death vs. no life after
death; in God existing vs. God not existing; and in people being straight or
86
This segment of 20/20, titled, “Embraced by the Light?” originally aired on the American Broadcasting
Company (ABC) on June 9, 1995. See Betty Jean Eadie, Embraced by the Light, (Placerville, CA: Gold
Leaf Press, 1992).
87
20/20, “Embraced by the Light?”
people being gay resonates with modern science as well—not just with the mass
media. Not only that. Science has shifted from being conducted to know God
(pre-20th century) to being conducted to know a universe devoid of “the God
hypothesis.”88 To scientists like Carl Sagan, the deceased astronomer, God and
the physical universe were “possible.” But as Sagan put it on Cable News
Network (CNN), “there is no evidence” of the existence of God.89 By evidence, I
assume that Sagan meant physical—not spiritual—evidence. Amazed by the
awesomeness of this universe, Sagan could not conceive of a force—other than
the four forces of nature and the laws of physics—that was everywhere in the
material universe.90 Sagan called this form of agnosticism having “an open
mind.”91 Sagan’s position on the empirical absence of God (e.g., there doesn’t
seem to be a god who will rescue us from our planetary predicament) reminds
me of an exchange that transpired at a poet’s recital in Manhattan. I was about
13 years old but remember the incident as though it happened yesterday. A poet
in his 60s, one with three Ph.D.’s, said in Spanish, “Yo no créo en el amor” (“I
don’t believe in love”).
My mother replied, “Pero disfrutas de el” (“But you enjoy it.”)
Agnostics like Carl Sagan tend to discount the God of traditional religion
—a Being that, more often than not, acts like a petty individual. But to question
the existence of God because of religious conceptions assumes that no other God
is possible. The Real Creator is far more subtle than the God of the 10
Commandments. Agnostics—many of whom are scientists—also assume that if
a Creator exists, He is a rational God. But God can be very irrational. This
doesn’t mean that He doesn’t exist. Sagan’s position was that he didn’t just want
88
See Edward Wakin, “God and Carl Sagan: Is the Cosmos Big Enough for Both of Them? Edward Wakin
Interviews Carl Sagan,” U.S. Catholic, May 1981, No. 5: 19-24.
89
See Ted Turner, A Dialogue: Sagan-Turner, A Conversation with Carl Sagan & Ted Turner. This video
was released by Turner Home Entertainment, New York, NY, 1989.
90
The four forces of nature are electromagnetism, the strong force, the weak force, and gravity.
91
Turner, A Dialogue: Sagan-Turner.
to believe in God; he wanted to know God. Sagan, however, defined “know”

only in physiological terms (the rationality of the human brain). But God—at
least His greater part—is beyond rational comprehension. Why? Because S(He)
originates in a plane that is beyond physiology. Infinity, after all, can’t squeeze
Itself into a three-pound brain. Why not? Because eternity lies beyond the
thinking process of this organ. Spiritual knowing—as opposed to scientific
knowing—didn’t seem to occur to Sagan. And even his own spiritual
experiencing of God—such as the love that he received from people throughout
his life—he refused to concede as proof of the existence of God. Not even in his
deathbed did Sagan recant his agnosticism. The scientific mindset of everything
having a solely material cause has the characteristics of religious fanaticism: the
refusal to convert to another religion. To be fair, Carl Sagan is famous for having
said, “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”92 But he also said,
“Neither is it evidence of presence.”93
To modern science, everything is an “accident,” be it the emergence of life
on earth, the moon being where it is, or biological evolution. The extinction of
the dinosaurs, for example, is seen as a “random” event in an article of Scientific
American.94 The idea of things appearing to be random and not being so at
another level—such as in the spirit plane—is beyond the mindset of science.
The pre-20th century unity of science and religion has given way to a
science that is lacking of spirituality. The science of today is only concerned with
what the biological senses and their scientific instruments can measure. Instead
of conceding that science cannot explain everything, scientists generally take the
line that if science cannot measure something, it doesn’t exist, and if things look
92
Carl Sagan, The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God, (New York:
The Penguin Press, 2006), p. 237.
93
Ibid.
94
Ian Crawford, “Searching for Extraterrestrials. Where Are They? Maybe We Are Alone in the Galaxy
After All,” Scientific American, July 2000, Vol. 283, No. 1: 38-43.
random, they are. Only in the late 20th century did medical doctors like Deepak
Chopra begin to reunite science with spirituality.
As for the Betty Jean Eadie example, why couldn’t the 20/20 people have
conceived of the answer as being both? In other words, Eadie did “die” (Eadie’s
claim) and her brain fired neurotransmitters (Blackmore’s view). As for Godless
science (Carl Sagan) vs. God and science (Deepak Chopra), why can’t most of us
conceive that Sagan and Chopra are right? Worded differently, different beliefs
have created different inner realities for these scientists. The deceased Sagan
didn’t see—and Chopra does see—what each has believed.
Other Areas of Duality
The dualism of the human brain makes for our sense of humor. Examine
any sitcom or joke, and you will notice that things set in contrast are funny in
some contexts. Examples are:
1) An elderly lady crossing the street with a cane and abruptly

beating the daylights out of a 200-pound mugger
2) A guy telling a guy that fixing a girl’s car will make her want to
sleep with him and the girl writing him a check instead
3) An amateur weatherman predicting sunny skies and getting
stranded in a rainstorm
4) A lad breaking glasses at a bar, and his father telling the guy next
to him, “I’m so proud of him.”
5) Amy Goodman, the broadcast journalist, talking about “those

[media] pundits we see who know so little about so much.”95
Like contrast, exaggeration—another element of duality—also makes for

humor. Examples are:
1) Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) beating an overgrown—and still

growing—lump of yeast in a futuristic kitchen in Sleeper (1973).
2) Ted Striker (Robert Hays) sweating gallons of water in the pilot’s seat
in Airplane (1980).
Aside from humor, dualism also allows us to appreciate perspective in

photography—as in foreground/background—contrasting colors in an outfit,
and moral notions of right and wrong. Maybe the structure of the human brain
—its two hemispheres—is related to our tendency to dichotomize.
The Social Pendulum
If human history is any guide, then societies go from one extreme to the
other when they change. For example, if religion dominated throughout human
history, then modern science must renounce religion and God 100 percent. If
females were historically subjected to male power, then males must not be given
the attention—outside sports—that is being given to post-1960s females through
the many women’s programs and foundations that exist today.96 Even if males
95
On May 22, 2004, Amy Goodman spoke at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her lecture
aired on C-SPAN later that day. See American Perspectives, “Amy Goodman, Pacifica Radio’s
‘Democracy Now’ Host & Executive Producer.”
96
I am not against women’s programs per se, so long as men’s programs don’t go ignored. I am also for
African, Latino, Asian, and queer studies.
are becoming tomorrow’s “second sex,” as Christina Hoff Sommers argues in

The War Against Boys (2001),97 the tipping of the balance in favor of Goddess,98
girl power, and women’s issues—to the near exclusion of men’s issues—
continues nonetheless. If “white” people held power in both the colonial past
and in the present, then “black power” must be reclaimed. If gender roles were
rigidly set throughout the ages, then gender must now be renounced as a
“constructed illusion,” devoid of any biological differences between males and
females. If child sexual abuse went unreported in the past, then today, a kiss on
the cheek of a minor becomes “sexual abuse.” If mass poverty existed in the
human past, then rampant materialism must rule in our day. If race was seen as
a biological reality before World War II, then today, race must be seen—solely—
as a social construction. If modern science dismisses intuition, then New Ageism
must disparage human rationality as “unspiritual.” The idea of taking a middle
ground—Buddha’s Middle Way—doesn’t seem to occur to people living in the
midst of social change. Rather, their mentality is to throw the baby out with the
bathwater.
The paradox is that much of our humanity is experienced in a both/and
way. We, for example, have two eyes, two ears, and two nostrils. Close one of
them, and something would be incomplete. We don’t like to see with one eye or
the other. We don’t like to hear with one ear or the other. We don’t like to
breathe or smell through one nostril or the other. We prefer both. Even the
human brain, split by hemisphere, paradoxically operates as a single unit.
Maybe these facts have made it easier for some groups of people to go beyond
the either/or tendency of the human brain (next chapter).
97
Christina Hoff Sommers, The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men,
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001).
98
Some people, of course, use God/Goddess simultaneously, but a great many do not.
Exercises
1) What dichotomies do you notice in Western society? What criteria—for

example, race, country, and/or language—is each polarity based on? How
did you learn about each schism? Can you remember a time when these
dichotomies seemed unnatural? If yes, what fluid perceptions did you have
then?
2) Can you link dualistic thinking in you with your becoming an either/or
individual? Think, for example, about who you are sexually and
romantically. Think about the age range of your friends. Then, ask
yourself, “What do I believe about the nature of sexuality, romance, and
age differences? How do my thoughts affect my life style and love style?”
4
Beyond the Duality of the Sixth Sense
The human brain works as an integrated unit, yet prefers to think in

either/or terms. Consider the following drawing:
99
Do you see a beautiful woman or an old witch? Can you see both at the same
time?
The dualism of the human brain—such as its two hemispheres—is why
seeing two things at once is impossible. The polarity of this organ is why
paradox (two contradictory things in the same “portrait”) confuses us. The
learning of language itself reinforces dualistic thinking. Children learn early on,
for instance, that a thing is either red or blue, yellow or green. A word is either
the or an, chair or table. A dog is not a cat, and a cat is not a dog. Someone is
either one’s mother or father, or one’s brother or sister. Multiple choice and
true/false questions in school encourage either/or thinking as well.
99
The original illustrator of this portrait is unknown. The drawing, however, first appeared in a German
postcard in 1888. Modifications were made over the years, most notably by psychologists R. W.
Leeper and E. G. Boring in 1930.
As adults, we suddenly get gray messages. Consider the following list:
1) One group tells us that winners make things happen. Another

group tells us that winners let things happen.
2) One person says, “You should always follow your heart.”

Another person says, “You should never let your emotions think
for you.”100
3) One man warns women, “If you’re alone in an elevator and see a
suspicious man coming, you should heed your fear and get out,
for fear is nature’s way of keeping you from danger.” Author
Susan Jeffers writes, on the other hand, “Feel the fear, and do it
anyway.”101
4) Deepak Chopra, the metaphysical lecturer, says, “If in [only]

two minutes you start watching your breath and you get so
relaxed and start to drift off to sleep, what does that mean? It
means you need a lot of sleep [emphasis mine].”102 Conversely,
Wayne Dyer, another metaphysical lecturer, says, “ ‘The
morning breeze has secrets to tell you; do not go back to sleep
100
This quote derives from Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter, Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich
Teach Their Kids about Money—That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!, (New York: Warner Business
Books, 1997), p. 49. The quote in Kiyosaki’s book is, “Their emotions [fear of not being able to pay bills]
now control their thinking [I need a job], not their heads.”
101
This phrase is the title of Susan J. Jeffers’s book, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, (San Diego: Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, 1987).
102
This quote from Deepak Chopra comes from PBS’s Body, Mind, and Soul: The Mystery and the Magic.
The special aired in 1995. It is available on VHS.
[emphasis mine].’ Use those hours … you’ve got an eternity to

sleep, an eternity.”103
5) One woman says, “Charity begins at home.” Another woman

says, “You have to want peace and joy more for others than you
want it for yourself.”
6) Jeremy Rifkin, the economist, writes, “Coca-Cola was originally

marketed as a headache remedy.”104 Naturalist Diane Ackerman
writes, on the other hand, “It [Coca-Cola] was first marketed as
a mouthwash in 1888, … ”105
7) Caroline Myss, the medical intuitive, lectures, “Change
something physical about yourself.”106 Obversely, Marianne
Williamson, another metaphysical lecturer, says, “The ego mind
says, ‘You gotta do, you gotta do, you gotta do.’ ”107
8) The old proverb says, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
Anthony Robbins, the motivational speaker, says, however, that
change is possible. In his words, “Every change you’ve ever
made in your life actually happened in a moment [emphasis
mine], didn’t it? What took time was getting yourself to a point
103
The quote inside the quotation is from Persian theologian Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi. Wayne Dyer
quotes him in Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling. The PBS special aired on February 27, 2006.
104
Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-
Market Era, (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1995), p. 22.
105
Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses, p. 168.
106
Refer to Caroline Myss, Self-Esteem: Your Fundamental Power. This is a 2002 lecture series on CD,
available from Sounds True, Boulder, Colorado.
107
Refer to The Sacred Self Workshop, a two-cassette audio series published by Sound Horizons Audio,
New York, 1994. Marianne Williamson gave this lecture at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.
where you finally did whatever was necessary to make it

happen.”108
9) One person says, “Stop being selfish and start thinking about
others.” Another person says, “When you think about someone
too much, you’re actually allowing your precious energy to leak
toward that person.”
10) According to author Gary Zukav, one gangster railed, “I have a

right to be angry.” This conclusion is humanly logical, for
injustice fuels gangsterism. Zukav, however, said on Oprah,
“You also have the right to be happy.” This conclusion is
humanly irrational to enraged people, but it is spiritually logical,
for joy is our inner state.109
11) Spiritual savants say, “Love asks for nothing and gives
everything.” Vanessa Williams sings, by contrast, “Love takes
no less than everything, Love makes it hard.”110
12) One guru tells us, “Within, you are infinitely powerful.”
Another guru tells us, “Your internal power is nothing
compared to the power of God. Be humble.”
108
Refer to the cassette, Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental,
Emotional, Physical, & Financial Destiny. This lecture series is available from Sound Ideas, Simon &
Schuster Audio, New York, NY. Anthony Robbins is a motivational speaker, and his focus is personal
development.
109
Oprah, “Gary Zukav’s Lightbulb Moments.” This segment aired on ABC on February 18, 1998.
110
Vanessa Williams, “Love Is.” This song is in the CD titled, Vanessa Williams, Greatest Hits: The First
Ten Years. “Love Is” debuted in 1993. The CD came out on November 24, 1998. Label: Island / Mercury.
13) Joseph Campbell, the bygone mythologist, said, “Follow your

bliss.”111 But when you feed off the energies of someone—an
experience that is best described as drinking joy—the heavens
then warn, “No more drinking, or you will overload with
energy.”
14) One friend counsels, “Don’t see him as a monster. Look at the
light that is within him.” Jesus, for example, looked past the
leprosy of lepers. This altered perception—not seeing the
disease but rather, seeing sick people as already healthy—cured
the people whom Christ healed. Why? Because energy—
positive thoughts in this case—affects matter. When you see the
light in someone you love, however, another friend counsels,
“His betrayal was necessary for you to see that he is an
imperfect human being, not the saint you idealized him to be.”
15) New Agers disparage the rational brain because “spirituality

goes beyond the intellect.” But when a woman lets chemistry
draw her toward a bad boy, psychologists then say, “You have
to rationally assess who he really is, or he’ll end up hurting
you.”
16) One party advises, “Be spontaneous.” Another party warns,

“Don’t reveal too much about yourself.”
111
This quote comes from Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, “The Message of the
Myth,” (Episode 2). The PBS special originally aired on June 22, 1988.
17) One nutritionist writes, “You should include plenty of fresh

fruits in your diet, for your body needs the vitamins.” Another
nutritionist writes, “Fresh fruit sugars cause overgrowth of yeast
and fungi in your intestinal tract, leading to candida.”112
18) Jean-Paul Sartre, the French philosopher, wrote, “Hell is other

people.”113 Marianne Williamson, by contrast, wrote, “People
are heaven, too, … ”114
19) Caroline Myss says that we incarnate for ourselves to grow.

Birth, life, and death are, in her view, a deeply personal
experience and a very “self-centered” one.115 Albert Einstein
said, on the other hand, “Man is here for the sake of others only
[emphasis mine].”116
20) One spiritual master lectures, “You should learn to cultivate

your mind, for it is extremely powerful.” Another spiritual
master lectures, “Mind is an obstruction, an aggravation. It is a
kind of evolutionary mistake in the human being, a primal
weakness in the human experiment. I have no use for the
mind.”117
112
I reconstructed the latter quote from the argument that Robert O. Young and Shelley Redford Young
make in Sick and Tired? Reclaim Your Inner Terrain, (Pleasant Grove, UT: Woodland Publishing, 2001),
pgs. 13-14.
113
This quote is at The Quotations Page. The URL is http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/30237.html.
114
Marianne Williamson, Everyday Grace: Having Hope, Finding Forgiveness, and Making Miracles, (New
York: Riverhead Books, 2002), p. 225.
115
Caroline Myss argues this point in the CD Self-Esteem.
116
This quote is in Earl Nightingale, The Essence of Success: Attitude and Excellence. The 1991 cassette
series is part of the Earl Nightingale Library. It is available from Nightingale-Conant Corporation,
Chicago, Illinois.
117
The latter quote comes from a mysterious being who author Dan Millman names Socrates. See Millman,
Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives, New Revised Edition, (Tiburon, CA: H J
21) Paramhansa Yogananda, the enlightened master, said that one

should never watch horror movies because they are bad for the
soul. The spirit realm, however, sends spirits into horror stories
—the Nazi gas chambers, the atomic holocaust of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, and the Rwandan genocide of 800,000 Tutsis in 91
days—so that, ostensibly, the people involved may grow
spiritually.
22) One person says, “A strong spirit takes whatever job needs to be
done to support his or her family.” Another person says, “If you
take a job that you hate, then you’re prostituting yourself for
money. That creates negative karma for you.”
23) One party tells us, “Love is your birthright.” Life on earth
teaches us, however, that self-love and love from others must be
earned through hard work—as in learning to be magnetic. In
other words, the “unconditional Love” of God for us is not so
unconditional. This is because we have to grow spiritually in
the physical plane (God’s precondition) before we can return to
Oneness with All That Is.
24) One mother whispers to her son, “You need to come out of your
cocoon.” Another mother whispers to her daughter, “If you
don’t want to go through life being hurt, you’ll need to develop
thick skin.”
Kramer, Inc., 2000), p. 52.

25) One school says that we cannot change others or the world. This
school warns us to detach from outcome because we have little
control over externals. The goal of human life, this school
claims, should be to rid the body and mind of desire because
“Desire leads to frustration, which in turn leads to Anger.”118
Another school says that we can make a difference. This school
instructs us to embrace our desires because “desires lead to the
creation of experiences, to fulfillment, and to growth.”
26) One person lips, “Be yourself.” Another person lips, “Fake it till
you make it.”
27) One nutritionist hums, “If you crave a food, your body needs it.”
Another nutritionist hums, “If you crave a food, you’re allergic
to it.”
28) One guru expounds, “Experience is the best teacher, for it is

something you never forget.” Another guru expounds, “Don’t
get distracted by your experiences … Let it all go!”119
29) Jesus Christ prayed, “And lead us not into temptation.” Gary
Zukav writes, by comparison, “How exquisite is temptation. It
is the magnet which draws your awareness to that which would
118
Hawkins, Power vs. Force, p. 82.
119
The latter quote comes from Millman, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, p. 122.
create negative karma if it were allowed to remain

unconscious.”120
30) One individual accuses people with Asperger Syndrome of

“having no magnetism.” Each Aspie’s lack of chemistry with
people, Aspergians are told, is why they fail to establish
interpersonal relationships, including romance. But when two
people have chemistry, another individual contends, “The actual
truth is that the chemistry, which feels so overwhelming and
real, is a mirage.”121
31) In the book The Four Agreements, shaman Don Miguel Ruiz
writes, “Don’t take anything personally.”122 This is because, in
his view, nothing is personal. In an episode of Columbo,
however, Kay Freestone (Trish Van Devere) tells the police
lieutenant (Peter Falk), “Whenever anyone says, ‘It’s not
personal’ [as from a spiritual perspective], that’s exactly when
it’s very personal [from a human perspective].”123
32) Psychologists tell us, “You should express your emotions—not

repress them.” But when one expresses one’s feelings about past
hurts, positive thinkers call this “whining”, “woundology”
(talking in the “language of wounds”), and “indulging” one’s
120
Gary Zukav, The Seat of the Soul, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), p. 144.
121
Jim1537, “The Real Reasons Why Women Love ‘Bad Boys,’ ” Voice of the Spirit: Practical Guidance
for the Inner You. December 3, 2007. Article at http://jim1537.com/blog/the-real-reasons-why-women-
love-%E2%80%9Cbad-boys%E2%80%9D/.
122
Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, A Toltec Wisdom
Book, (San Rafael, CA: Amber-Allen Publishing, Inc., 1997), p. 53.
123
Columbo, “Make Me a Perfect Murder.” This episode originally aired on NBC on February 25, 1978
(Season 7, episode 3).
negative emotions.124 This is like a father beating his son and

then bawling, “Don’t you even think about crying.”
33) Both the physical and nonphysical universe are a place of cause
and effect. Everything we do, positive or negative, will come
back to us. As Issac Newton’s third law of motion says, “For
every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Mahatma
Gandhi warned, though, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth makes the whole world go blind.” And toothless.
34) One group says, “You gotta be positive.” Another group says,
“You gotta be willing to embrace pain—yours and that of
others.”
35) One camp advises, “If you want to make friends, you have to
focus on other people. Listen to their concerns. Ask them what
they like.” Another camp warns, “If you don’t talk about
yourself, you’ll make people uneasy.”
36) One wife fumes at her husband, “You haven’t changed a bit!”
Another wife fumes at her husband, “God, how you’ve
changed!”
37) One wing preaches, “Remain still in the face of opposition.

What you resist persists.” In the words of Mother Teresa of
Calcutta, one must accept things as they are. The other wing
124
In many of her lectures, Caroline Myss uses the terms woundology and talking in the language of
wounds to refer to moaning about one’s past. Similarly, Gary Zukav endorses refusing to act on one’s
negative emotions because otherwise, that is “indulging” them.
preaches that passivity is a “low form of consciousness” and that

we must grab the bull by the horns. This wing cites the
homeless as examples of people who have caved in to
passivity.125
38) One brood warns, “You should never do something if it makes

you uncomfortable.” Another brood hums, “Sometimes, you
have to do things, even if they make you uncomfortable.”
39) David Hawkins, the metaphysical researcher, tells us to “engage

life on life’s own terms, without trying to make it conform to an
agenda [emphasis mine].”126 Obversely, actor Dennis Haysbert
comments, “You’ve got to have a sense of what you want to do
[emphasis mine]; otherwise, the universe is just going to throw
something at you.”127
40) On PBS’s Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life, Wayne

Dyer says, “We need to see ourselves as connected to every
single being, every single person, every single flower, every
single tree, every single animal.”128 But when one visualizes that
unity—as in having a sexual fantasy about one or more people—
New Age gurus then warn us that we need to stop—read
separate—because that is mentally invading that person’s
energy field.
125
Hawkins, Power vs. Force, pgs. 78-79.
126
Ibid., p. 87.
127
This quote is from actor Dennis Haysbert. It is at Joe Rhodes, “In Dennis We Trust,” TV Guide, July 3-
9, 2006, Vol. 54, No. 27, Issue 2779, p. 19.
128
See Wayne Dyer: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life. This program originally aired on PBS on
September 13, 2007.
41) One guru intones, “You need to allow yourself to experience

negative emotions so that you can release them.” When you do,
however, another guru intones, “You’re drawing negative
things to you through your negativity. You got to be positive.”
42) One dietician utters, “To help you stay in shape, you should
weigh yourself daily.” Another dietician utters, “It’s not your
weight you should watch but the size of your waist.”
43) One person says, “Honesty is the best policy.” Another person
says, “You can’t be too honest with people, or they’ll have a
selective advantage over you.”
44) One person drones, “Like attracts like.” Another person drones,
“Opposites attract.”
45) A Course in Miracles says, “In my defenselessness my safety

lies.”129 Psychiatrist Judith Orloff writes, on the other hand,
“Protect Yourself from Energy Vampires.”130
46) Turn to anyone when you really need help, and more often than
not, people will run away from you. Western society teaches—
in fact, forces—us to be independent. Spiritual masters say, on
the other hand, that we cannot experience the abundance inside
129
Helen Shuckman, A Course in Miracles, (Mill Valley, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975), p. 332.
130
Judith Orloff, “Protect Yourself from Energy Vampires,” Talent Development Resources. At
http://talentdevelop.com/articles/ProtYEnVam.html.
us without others with whom to share. Thus, the message is:

“You are an island,” and “You and others are interdependent.”
47) Parents and teachers tell us, “Love yourself as you are.” Yet, the
heavens are constantly prodding us to change, as if we weren’t
good enough as we are.
48) One person says, “If you don’t speak your mind, you’ll lose self-
respect.” Another person says, “If you talk back, you’re
engaging in a power struggle, and that is not spiritually
evolved.”
49) Author Gary Zukav writes, “Fear of growing and of

transformation of self is what causes you to want to disengage
from the present situation and reach for another.”131 Zukav asks
us to challenge our temptation to escape from reality. Quoting
psychologist William James, Caroline Myss lectures in support
of Zukav, saying, “ ‘Suffer not one exception.’ ”132 Yet, rigidity
(either/or thinking) is generally not the way of the heavens, for
the spirit realm goes beyond duality. Suicide, for example, is an
instance of seeing “life only in black and white,” according to
author Louise Hay.133 Presumably, the heavens don’t support
suicide, a form of escape, because the nonphysical universe is
gray—not black or white. Still, spiritual teachers often tell us to
131
Zukav, The Seat of the Soul, p. 244.
132
Myss, CD Self-Esteem.
133
Louise Hay, You Can Heal Your Life, (Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, Inc., 1984), p. 201.
take an either/or stance on things—as in giving up sex 100

percent. Talk about conflicting messages.
50) Student writers of fiction are told, “Show. Don’t tell.” Yet,
many of the greatest fiction writers of the pre-20th century era
told their stories and showed very little.
51) Marianne Williamson lectures, “… God’s will is that we be

happy … [but] our thought is, ‘Do I want to serve God? Or do I
want to be happy?’ We think we have to make a choice. And
the Course in Miracles says, ‘No, no, no … God’s will is your
will [to be happy].’ ”134 Caroline Myss, by contrast, lectures, “…
when I was learning medical intuition [a divine calling for her],
it was six readings a day. How many years? It was years.
Done. No options. No vacations. How many years went by
without a vacation? Nine. None. Zero. No days off.”135
52) Gurus in the field of New Consciousness are constantly saying,

“We are one.” Yet, they are forever brushing off as “negative”
people who air legitimate grievances. Apparently, lack of
empathy does not count as separation.
No wonder we are a nervous wreck. The $100 million question becomes, “Which
is it?”
134
Refer to Williamson, cassette titled, The Sacred Self Workshop.
135
Refer to Myss, Your Power to Create, from Wishful Thinking to True Manifestation. This is a 2007
lecture series on CD, available from Sounds True, Boulder, Colorado.
Paradox is inherent in each of the answers because the answers depend on

context and on point of view. Duality is endemic to everything in this universe.
Each thing has a positive and a negative. The biggest dualism of our time is our
high technology. I marvel at the awesomeness of 21st century cars. Before I
bought one, it took me half a day to get two errands done. With a motor vehicle,
I can do six things in an hour. But like everything, technology has a downside.
In the case of technology, it is environmental degradation. Conversely, people in
the 16th century had no global warming. But city streets were full of horse
excrement. Our dilemma comes from the juxtaposition of an either/or brain
with a both/and universe. The spirit plane, in turn, operates by paradox—that is
to say, by human irrationality. The realm of paradox is the realm of Truth.
Why? Because Truth is all-encompassing—not either/or. Said another way,
each thing has the opposite embedded into it. Wherever there is paradox, God is
present. The more incomprehensible the paradox, the stronger is His presence.
Why? Because God Loves paradox—so much so that paradox is the very basis of
creation. Not surprisingly, paradoxes surround and penetrate both the physical
and nonphysical universes.
Consider the following contradictions of “real” life—not just what people
say:
1) More often than not, true art doesn’t sell, and mediocrity sells.
2) People with worldly power are, all too frequently, spiritually

powerless. Those without earthly power are, very often, spiritually
powerful.
3) Very often, outer beauty is inner ugliness, while outer ugliness is, very
often, inner beauty.
4) The first, the Bible tells us, shall be last, and the last shall be first.
5) Physical death is spiritual birth, and biological birth is spiritual death.
6) We tend to hurt those we love.
7) Living in balance with nature—which presumably means following

our animal instincts—is essential for all life on earth. Yet, giving in to
our human nature—as in panicking under stress, seeking revenge, and
choosing external power—is often maladaptive as well.
8) The hardest lessons in life are the simplest truths.
9) In some way, life on earth is hell to most people. Still, physical life is a
“gift.”
10) Children are the most unconditionally loving of all humans.

Paradoxically, children are the most selfish of humans.
11) Homeless people tend to be dirty because they bathe rarely. Regular
people tend to be clean because they bathe every day. But without an
effective water filter, clean-smelling people may be far more toxic than
homeless people. Why? Because the skin—the largest organ of the
human body—absorbs toxins like chorine and lead in shower water.
12) Revolutions always end in counterrevolution, while lack of revolutions

mean evolutionary progress.
13) North of the Arctic Circle is one of the most desolate regions of the
planet, for the winters are too dark, too long, and too cold for most
humans to tolerate. But from April to September, The Land of the
Midnight Sun has sunshine into the wee hours of the night. This is a
phenomenon that not even the popular tropics has.
14) The “real world” is an illusion. What looks like a delusion from a
human perspective—such as life after death—is Real.
15) A person going through hell may be making a spiritual breakthrough.

A person experiencing heaven on earth may be carving hell down the
road.
16) What is physically imperfect is spiritually perfect—and vice-versa.
17) Very often, less is more, and more is less.
18) Instead of stoning a prostitute, Jesus told her, “Go, and sin no more.”136
But when you pop a pimple for one second, you pay with an ugly scar
for the rest of your life.
136
This comes from John 8:11, King James Bible.
19) John Keats, the English poet from the 19th century, wrote, “Beauty is
truth, truth beauty.”137 Oftentimes, however, people who look like
angels on the outside are rats on the inside—and Evil is not higher
truth.
20) The foods you crave you are allergic to.
21) The things you are addicted to are bad for you.
22) Religion and spirituality are forever denouncing the things of this
world. Still, God wills us to be here, not in the Holy realm of the
spirit world. Phrased differently, “We are spiritual beings [who
have incarnated on earth] to have a human experience [emphasis
mine].”138 Paradoxically, much of our human and inhuman
experiences are about not indulging our human nature—not
munching those tortilla chips, refraining from uncontrollable sex, and
rising above human selfishness.
23) All life on earth is based on carbon. Without this element, there
would be no biological life on this planet because the other elements
don’t bind like carbon. Still, the burning of fossil fuels (carbon) may
cause earth to become so hot that life will simply burn away.
24) If we think long about a potential problem, then we attract it—a self-
fulfilling prophecy. But when we don’t worry about possible
137
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/johnkeats165498.html.
138
These are the words of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. See “BrainyQuote,” BrainyMedia. The URL of the
quote is http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/pierreteil160888.html.
problems, problems manifest anyway.
25) In the words of Leo Rosten, a humorist, “It is the weak who are cruel.
Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.”139
26) Positive energies deflect negative energies much as flicking on a light

switch vanishes darkness in a room. Still, babies and children are
beaming with positive energies; yet the negative energies of physical
life sap the positive energies of children—not the other way around.
By adulthood, most people have taken on negativity in some way.
27) If test results come out negative, that is positive. If test results come
out positive, that is negative.
28) If a city like New York undergoes a “frenzy of construction,” then it

has a “maelstrom of destruction” as well.140
29) Not listening to one’s body can be lethal. For example, ignoring
chronic exhaustion can lead to illness. Yet, listening to one’s body
(e.g., one’s taste buds craving salt, fat, and sugar) can also be lethal
(e.g., getting high blood pressure, becoming overweight, and
developing diabetes).
30) Small decisions like what movie to watch are big choices—
such as the rise or fall of one’s consciousness on a given night.
139
This is the written account that my mother gave me.
140
This quote comes from New York: A Documentary Film, Episode Seven, “The City and the World:
1945-Present.” This documentary is part of the American Experience series on PBS. It aired on PBS on
September 30, 2001.
31) Snowflakes are white. But if you look up during a gray day,
falling snowflakes are dark.
32) Earl Nightingale, the motivational speaker, said, “They [successful

people] travel more. They meet more interesting people [than
unsuccessful individuals].”141 The irony is that successful people are
not developing endurance to be at peace despite being alone.
Unsuccessful people like most adults with Asperger Syndrome are
developing such inner resources. Why? Because these individuals
don’t have the luxury of meeting many interesting people. Force a
successful person into solitary confinement for a week—let alone,
decades—and he or she would go bonkers.
33) Winona LaDuke, the vice-presidential candidate for the Green Party in
2000, said that the American prairies are not meant for farming. Yet,
this region is the breadbasket of the world.
34) On January 2003, I flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico for my mother’s
funeral. Turning right to one of the sunlit windows, I noticed that the
airliner I was in—the very culmination of human ingenuity and high-
technology—flew some 1,000 feet above El Fanguito (Spanish for “The
Little Mudhole”). This is a part of Puerto Rico where makeshift
dwellings of tin and wood are raised on stilts so that the Laguna de
San Jose (“Lagoon of Saint Joseph”) will pass underneath—and won’t
flood—these houses. El Fanguito has been called “the world’s worst
slum.” My 29-year-old brain saw a contradiction between the airliner
141
Nightingale, cassette The Essence of Success.
and the slum. When I was about 7, however, I saw no contradiction

when I rode past El Fanguito in a car. My boyhood mind thought that
the sight of houses on water looked more interesting than regular
houses. The contrast between my boyhood perceptions of El Fanguito
(as an exciting place to visit) and my adult perceptions (as a hell hole
to avoid) shows how paradox is often a simple product of differences
in perception.
Parallax is a concept from astronomy (the realm of the divine). As such,

parallax is related to paradox (also the realm of the divine). Parallax is the
shifting of an object—such as a cedar tree in the distance—when seen through
one closed eye and one opened eye. When you open and close the opposing eye,
the distant object shifts. In reality, the object didn’t “shift,” just your point of
view.
These are not just intellectual matters. How we interpret paradox affects
what we allow ourselves to think about—and not think about—whether we help
a homeless person or not, and how we fulfill each of our life missions.
To become trans-sensory is to go beyond polarity. This means looking at
the glass half-empty and half-full at the same time. From a sensory perspective,
this is impossible (see the drawing of the old hag/young woman at the start of
this chapter). From a trans-sensory perspective, it is possible to see two things at
once, for one sees with nonmaterial eyes. The following shows what two
humanly opposite—yet spiritually complimentary—truths look like from a
sensory perspective and from a trans-sensory perspective:
Sensory Perception
(sees paradox)
red circle vs. violet circle
Trans-sensory Consciousness
(sees compatibility)
red circle maroon violet circle

area
Red (hell & the color of the first chakra) stands for the dimension of most density
—the physical plane. Violet (heaven & the color of the seventh chakra) stands for
the dimension of least density—the plane of enlightenment. The realm of trans-
sensory consciousness is the zone (maroon) where both circles intertwine.
Another analogy goes as follows: a sensory person can hear either the melody of
a song or the lyrics. A trans-sensory person can hear both at once.
Sociology is one field worth investigating because, more than not, it
reveals people who aren’t necessarily “spiritual,” yet who have or are moving
beyond duality. This is momentous because it shows that trans-sensory
consciousness (going beyond the dualism of the human brain) is not just a
“spiritual” issue—everything is spiritual, of course—but rather, a development
that is affecting “secular” life as well. Groups of people who are becoming trans-
sensory in seemingly non-spiritual areas, and in spiritual areas, emerge in the
phenomena of:
1) The bi movement
2) Polyamory
3) People who celebrate their mixed sexes/genders
4) People who identify as multi-racial
5) People who embrace the teachings of more than one religion
Given that sexual identity, relationship identity, gender identity, racial

identity, and religious identity develop in—although not necessarily from—the
sixth sense of the human brain, this chapter will focus on these areas of human
existence.
The Bi Movement
Unlike North Americans, Europeans seemingly view human sexuality as

fluid. Looking at European films, however, one sees the straight vs. gay
mentality dominating there as well.142 The same applies to Asia, South America,
Africa, and Australia.143 Throughout the globe, bisexuality is invisible as air, yet
everywhere. In Latin America, for example, heteroromantic males (straight in
the romantic sense) often engage in gay sex. Because they play the role of “top,”
these males discount the homosexual side of their bisexuality and identify as
“straight.” The same logic applies in most of the world. Males who play
“bottom” in bed are homoromantic (gay in the romantic sense). Bottoms are the
“poufs” and “queers” because they are romantically hungry for others of the
same sex. Tops, by contrast, are the “real men” because they are just sexually
thirsty in a homosexual encounter. Coming from a lower frequency of orange
energy (the second chakra of the gonads), sexual urges are easier to repress than
romantic yearnings, for romantic feelings come from a higher frequency of green
energy (the fourth chakra of the heart). Therefore, that 10 percent of the
population called gay has a devil of a time repressing its homoromantic hungers,
while most of the population can suppress the homosexual part of its bisexuality.
Romantic orientation is hence our criterion for “sexual orientation.” Since most
of us are heteroromantic, most of us identify as straight.
Bisexuality raises the possibility, however, that one could be straight in
the romantic sense and bi in the purely sexual sense. This is because in the
limited sense of the term, bisexuality means just that (sexual attraction to and/or
activity with members of both sexes). For a heteroromantic/bisexual guy, for
example, women will be the main course of his romantic life, while men will be a
side dish, or maybe more, of his sexual life. Bisexuality thus brings up the
142
See, for example, the Norwegian film Sebastian (1995) and the French film You’ll Get Over It (2003).
143
See, for instance, Robyn Ochs and Sarah Rowley, eds., Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals around the
World, (Boston: Bisexual Resource Center, 2005).
difference between sexual tastes and romantic orientation.144 To be sure, the bi

movement tends to sweep sexuality under romantic orientation—instead of
distinguishing between sexual, romantic, and platonic orientation. But in
questioning the mantra that people are either straight or gay, bi-identified people
are challenging the either/or sexual and romantic paradigm of today.
Three tiers of orientation exist (see below). The symbolism of the major
human sexualities are:
1) Heterosexuality is summer, for most people prefer summer
2) Bisexuality is autumn, for bisexuality is—incorrectly—seen as a

transitional eroticism, and fall is a transitional season
3) Homosexuality is winter, for Western society often leaves gays out “in
the cold”
4) Questioning people fit into spring, for their questioning is an

opportunity to embark on a new beginning in the erotic arena
People with mixed genders are in a category of their own. In my three-

circle graph (my re-conceptualization of the Kinsey scale), transgendered people
are symbolized by a full moon hovering above the gay circle. The full moon
144
See Lisa M. Diamond, “Emerging Perspectives on Distinctions Between Romantic Love and Sexual
Desire,” Current Directions in Psychological Science, June 2004, Vol. 13, No. 3: 116-119.
symbolizes that transgendered people are removed from the gender scale of this
world. See below:
The numbered areas within each three-circle graph are:
1) Zone 0 (straight)
2) Zone 1 (uni)—being predominantly attracted to one sex (the opposite
sex) and being in Zone 1
3) Zone 2 (bi)—being equally attracted to both sexes (more or less) and
being in Zone 2
4) Zone 3 (tri)—being overwhelmingly gay (occasionally “trying” sex
with the opposite sex) and being in Zone 3
5) Zone 4 (gay)
As the three-circle graph shows, even heterosexuality is a

continuum. Some straight men fantasize about and sleep with dozens of women,
for example. Other straight men marry a single woman and dream about/sleep
with no other women.
The three-circle graph changes as follows:
Sexual Tastes
Heterosexual, Unisexual, Bisexual, Trisexual, Homosexual
Sexual tastes largely define one’s sexuality. Given that most of the human
brain is not wired at birth—and because sexuality develops from the brain—
human sexuality is malleable to social conditioning. The above bi circle (center)
is the largest because most people are bisexual (sexually attracted to both sexes)
in potential, at least.145 Of course, Western society encourages the exercising of
straight muscles and the neglect of gay muscles. Thus, like unused muscles, the
gay side of people’s bisexuality atrophies more often than not, to the point where
most people become incapable of erotic arousal to half the population. But the
neglected muscles are still there.
145
The “most” comes from the great efforts that Western civilization goes through to repress the gay side of
people (e.g., print, radio, TV, parents, peers, teachers, religion, and the law). If people are not bisexual in
potential, then why have so many cultures tried to instill compulsive heterosexuality throughout history? I
am also using the looser definition of bisexuality, which includes same-sex fantasies that straight people
have but don’t act upon. Last, I am drawing on: 1) Sigmund Freud’s comment that bisexuality’s absence in
most people needs explanation and 2) Therapist Maggi Rubenstein’s conclusion that 80 percent of people
are bisexual (based on what Rubenstein claims her clients have told her about their same-sex “fantasies,
feelings, or dreams”). See Garber, Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life, p. 249.
Romantic Orientation
Heteroromantic, Uniromantic, Biromantic, Triromantic, Homoromantic
Unlike sexual orientation, which comes from the brain and genitals,
romantic orientation comes from the heart. The above straight circle (left) is the
largest because most people are heteroromantic (romantically attracted to the
opposite sex).146
Platonic Preference
Heteroplatonic, Uniplatonic, Biplatonic, Triplatonic, Homoplatonic
146
The “most” comes from the simple observation that most men fall in love only with women and most
women fall in love only with men. There is some evidence that, like sexual reproduction, romantic feelings
for the opposite sex may be a product of biological evolution. See Diamond, “Emerging Perspectives on
Distinctions Between Romantic Love and Sexual Desire,” Current Directions in Psychological Science,
pgs. 116-119.
Like romantic orientation, platonic preference comes from the heart—

although friendship feelings are typically less intense than romantic feelings.
The above “gay” circle (right) is the largest because most people are
homoplatonic (platonically drawn to the same sex). Straight men in homosocial
groups (male bonding) is an example.147 The three-circle graph of platonic
preference answers: Which sex, or sexes, do you spend, or prefer to spend, most
of your nonromantic social time with?
As for where the bell curve falls, it is actually three bell curves. They look
as follows:
Heteroromantic Bisexual Homoplatonic
Complicating things further is that friendship and romance are at opposite

ends of yet another continuum (see below), even though friendship and romance
are each an independent variable (see graphs above):
Platonic love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Romantic love
147
The “most” comes from the fact that most gay-identified men, about 10 percent of the population, prefer
to be with female friends, while most straight-identified men, about 90 percent of the population, prefer to
be with male friends. Whether this is innate or a product of socialization is a topic of debate.
Platonic feelings, for instance, can move toward the middle as a friendship
deepens. Friendship feelings may then turn quasi-romantic. Vice-versa for
romantic feelings.
A theoretical breakdown of the percentages may look as follows:
Romantic Orientation Sexual Orientation Platonic Orientation

70% Heteroromantic 80% BiSEXual 70% Homoplatonic
20% Biromantic 10% HeteroSEXual 20% Biplatonic
9.5% Homoromantic 9.5% HomoSEXual 9.5% Heteroplatonic
.5% Other .5% Other .5% Other
In short, human sexuality is not the either/or affair that a dualistic human
brain (the sixth physical sense) would have us believe. Rather, human sexuality
is a multifaceted element of human existence.
Polyamory
In most cultures, monogamy and monogamism (the ideology of

monogamy) means limiting sexual and romantic relationships to one person.
This is defined as being “faithful.” In much of the globe, romantic commitment
is the only context for legitimate sex. This monopoly of romantic love over sex—
to the exclusion of sex with platonic love—has been present since the times of the
troubadours. The idea of love partners letting each other enjoy sex outside of
their relationship and still be committed seems ludicrous to most people.
Nonetheless, many individuals are in polyamorous relationships.
Polyamorous means that three or more people are romantically and sexually
committed to one another. Or they may be erotically and platonically into one
another, as “fuck buddies” are. For polyamorists, sex outside of their primary
relationship is cheating only if the sex occurs without the permission of all
partners in the relationship. If, however, all partners agree to the sex, then that is
fidelity to them. This is called polyfidelity. Many couples permit sex outside of
their primary relationship. They are acting faithfully in that all partners are
being open and honest. Sometimes, couples become polyamorous, adding a new
romantic or platonic partner to their primary relationship. The relationship may
then become closed—but still involve three people. If all three people are
sexually involved, then the relationship is a triangle. If two people are sexually
involved with the third person but not with each other, then the relationship is a
V relationship. N relationships are those in which two lovers, each in separate
one-on-one romances, “link” the two relationships through their sexual
involvement. The possibilities are many. Some romantic partners may agree on
no more than four people. Others may allow sex with both sexes but romantic
love with only one gender. This is why polyamory has been called “free love
with strings attached.”148 Polyamory is a compromise between:
148
Steven Alexander, “Free Love Gets a Fit of the Wibbles,” The Guardian, News, UK News, April 4, 2005.
Article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/apr/04/britishidentity.
1) The desire to express one’s love sexually with more than one willing
person at the same time
2) The demands of time and energy of postmodern life—namely, juggling
work, family, and free time
Unlike monogamy, polyamory has no one set of rules. Moreover, established

rules in a polyamoric relationship can change with the changing needs of the
partners. Thus, it is vital for all parties in a polyamoric relationship to keep the
lines of communication open, for the emotions of several individuals are at stake.
Polyamory is not swinging, for swinging is sex with neither romantic nor
platonic commitment. Perhaps this is why swinging is far more popular than
polyamory, for polyamory requires the willingness to love someone and not be
jealous. Even if jealousy is present, however, polyamorists are willing to
confront the issues related to their jealousy—low self-esteem, faulty thinking,
and possessiveness—rather than avoid their jealousy through standard
monogamy.
Polyamory is also not polygamy, for polygamy is about men—not women
—having multiple marriage partners of the opposite sex. In polygamous
societies, women lack the freedom to choose many male partners.
Overwhelmingly, women are second-class citizens in such milieus. At least, this
has been the norm in such societies throughout human history. Polygamy is also
more part of a religious belief system. It is imposed from without.
Polyamory, by contrast, is an individual choice, free of religious
requirements. It happens in an environment of equality between males and
females. Polyamory may involve marriage, but polyamorous relationships can
also occur outside marriage. An example is open relationships.
Westerners assume that if someone is married, he or she is in a closed

dyad. But open marriages exist as well. Monogamy may be the norm in the
Western world. But as Annina Sartorius, a psychologist, writes in Plural Loves:
There is increasing evidence from animal research that far fewer animal
species are truly monogamous than was first thought: in the animal
kingdom, less than 5% of all animal species are now thought to be
monogamous … Approximately 85% of the 1270 human societies listed in
Murdoch’s Ethnographic Atlas display some form of multi-spouse
relationship. It is a well-known fact that our Western societies have
trouble enforcing their so-called monogamy; this can be seen through
their actions and is reflected in divorce rates, rates of infidelity, number of
teen pregnancies, and other similar statistics.149
Citing anthropologist Helen Fisher, John Ince also writes in The Politics of Lust
that only 16 percent of recorded cultures require monogamy.150 Furthermore,
polygamy has been the norm in the “fifteen thousand or so years of dependence
on agriculture …” In the words of Robin Baker:
Women clustered around the men of greatest wealth—those with the

largest areas of cultivated land and those with the most livestock. Even
polygamous relationships, however, are long-term [emphasis mine] and
involve deep ties between the male and each of his females … 151
In Sperm Wars, Baker continues:

149
Annina Sartorius, “Three and More in Love: Group Marriage or Integrating Commitment and Sexual
Freedom,” Part One: Perspectives, Serena, ed., Plural Loves, p. 82.
150
John Ince, The Politics of Lust, (Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2005), p. 140.
151
Robin Baker, Sperm Wars: The Science of Sex, (New York: Basic Books, 1996), p. 315.
Not until the advent of urbanization and industrialization over the last
few hundred years has there been a wholesale swing back toward
monogamy, or serial monogamy. But even now women still cluster
around the men of greatest wealth and status.152
Bonobos (pygmy chimps) are polyamorous, and these chimps are,

genetically, the closest to us humans. Sexual safety may be a big issue these
days. But polyfidelity has been practiced many times throughout human
history. Just as significant, polyfidelity goes beyond the precept of sex being
either monogamous/faithful or nonmonogamous/nonfaithful. Polyamory
(many loves) allows sex with more than one romantic or platonic partner for
people who choose this.
Western culture, of course, clings to the ideal of romantic exclusivity. As
James Hillman, a psychologist, writes in The Soul’s Code:
When such love [romantic love] happens, it is for no other reason than the
singularity of the object. Only this person.153
Many people report, however, falling head over heels with more than one
person at once. The pain of such polys is society’s not permitting them to
express their multiple loves, start families based on that, and raise kids in
extended families. Even an individual who falls in love with one person at a
time can have a secondary relationship with a former love. Romantic love, after
all, doesn’t last. When a romantic relationship has become a companionate
152
Ibid.
153
James Hillman, The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling, (New York: Random House, Inc.,
1996), p. 145.
relationship, the secondary partner can still live with the primary partner—the
one presently in love with a third party—and can provide companionate support
like helping to raise the kids. The possibilities are many. (See Part II, Chapter 4
for an in-depth discussion of romantic love.)
Sexual desire need not even be present with romantic attraction. Gay men
are the best example of men being aesthetically attracted to women. The jealousy
of straight boyfriends and husbands ends many friendships between gay men
and straight women, however. Fearing the loss of her sole sexual partner, a
straight women spends most of her free time with her boyfriend or husband and
abandons her gay confidant.
Trans-sensory people don’t feel threatened if their intimate partners have
intimate relationships—whether sexual or not—with others. After all, one
person cannot be everything to another person. As the adage goes, “If you truly
love something, you must let it go.” Trans-sensory humans transcend the limits
of an either/or brain, and love—romantic and non-romantic—is allowed for
love’s sake. The romantic version of this is called compersion, or “feeling
frubbly.” It is the opposite of jealousy. Like bisexuality and biromanticism,
compersion is a state of mind. Compersion is enjoyment at seeing a love partner
romanced by other people as well. This is not mere empathy. It is more a being
in his or her shoes.154 This is going beyond either/or thinking, beyond jealousy,
and beyond scarcity. It is trans-sensoriness—and as Part II of this book shall
reveal—trans-instinctuality in action.
154
See Deborah M. Anapol, Polyamory, The New Love Without Limits: Secrets of Sustainable Intimate
Relationships, (San Rafael, CA: IntiNet Resource Center, 1997) and Janet Kira Lessin, Polyamory, Many
Loves: The Poly-Tantric Lovestyle: A Personal Account, (Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2006).
Gender Benders
For decades, the entertainment media has been captivated by celebrities

who are androgynous (possessing male and female attributes). Singer Michael
Jackson was one such obsession in the 1980s. Another idol of the era was actor
Corey Haim. Haim rose to fame, in part, because he played androgynous
characters so well on film (e.g., 1991’s Prayer of the Rollerboys). Recently, the
press has reported on people who are hermaphrodite (having male and female
genitalia) and transsexual (going from anatomically male to female or from
anatomically female to male).
Gender studies reflect the above trend. Since the late 1960s, gender
theorists have emphasized the “construction of gender.” Male features like
emotional detachment, aggressiveness, and professional ambitiousness are not
inborn, gender theorists argue, but rather, are encouraged by upbringing.
Female qualities like empathy, tenderness, and preference for caregiving jobs, the
same theorists say, are also socially constructed. According to gender
constructionists, all people have masculine and feminine qualities in them.
These scholars ignore mounds of studies that show that males have qualities
intrinsic to males and females qualities intrinsic to females. Males, for instance,
tend to be more visual, emotionally detached, aggressive, and promiscuous.
Females tend to be more empathetic, nurturing, and social. The key word is
tend, as there are exceptions. Males also tend to be muscular and tend to have
deeper voices. Vice-versa for females.
Books like William Pollack’s Real Boys show that boys can be taught to be
nurturing and tender. Obversely, books like Christina Hoff Sommers’s The War
Against Boys argue that “gender feminists” are guilty of trying to turn boys into
girls.155 Masculinity, Sommers contends, is innate and unchangeable.

Masculinity, Pollack argues, is constructed and changeable.156 What about both?
The idea that gender is culturally constructed to a certain extent and unbendable
beyond a certain point—due to biological differences between the two sexes—
hasn’t truly penetrated academic or public consciousness.
Ideas of “feminine” and “masculine” vary, of course, from culture to
culture. Still, I have developed a gender scale based on notions of male and
female in the West. From most “feminine” to most “masculine,” the gender-
continuum looks as follows:
(Most Feminine) little girls . . . . . . . little boys . . . . . . . . adolescent girls

adolescent boys . . . . older women . . . . . older men . . . . . effeminate men
androgynous people . . . . young women . . . . . young men
butch women . . . . . hypermuscular women . . . . . hypermuscular men (Most
Masculine)
In other words, there are many masculinities and many femininities. At the
same time, gender diversity exists within a system of sexual fixedness (being
anatomically male or female). Like bisexuality and biromanticism, masculinity
and femininity—gender elements—may come in degrees. But whatever their
gender combinations, two sexes are the norm in the human species. After all,
some 99 percent of people are anatomically male or female. A great paradox,
indeed.
155
Sommers, The War Against Boys; Sommers, Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed
Women, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995); and William Pollack, Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from
the Myths of Boyhood, (New York: Owl Books, 1999).
156
Christina Hoff Sommers is a former philosophy professor, while William Pollack is a clinical
psychologist.
The very basis of both heterosexuality and homosexuality is that men and
women are different. Bisexuality and gender benderism have the potential to
teach us that gender is innate and constructed—innate from biological
differences between the sexes and constructed, up to a limit, from environment.
Whether middle schooler, high schooler, collegian, or older adult, many people
are living—and thus, popularizing—the truth that males have some female in
them and females some male in them. Such people are embracing the weaker
gender in them. An example is “straight-acting” men who wear earrings and
have long hair. The social phenomenon of gender benderism may be a prelude
to a bi future. Meanwhile, transgendered people like hermaphrodites are
embodying another type of biological diversity.
People Who Identify as Multi-racial
Tiger Woods, the pro golfer, exemplifies the movement to go beyond

black or white in America. Not surprisingly, civil rights organizations have
chastised Woods. Still, his statement that he is “Cablinasian” (Caucasian-black-
Indian-Asian) shows the ingenious ways that some multi-racial people have
come to define themselves in an either/or milieu.
By the year 2000, multi-racialists succeeded in getting the U.S. Census
Bureau to allow checking more than one racial box in the census form—although
a box for the term multi-racial is still not allowed. Also, television talk shows
have devoted airtime to the topic of multi-racial identity. More people are being
born into a “fifth race.” Supposedly, this race will help to unite the other “four
races”—Native Americans (earth), Asians (wind), Africans (water), and

Caucasians (fire).157
Whether or not the “fifth race” will reunite humanity—once a single race
—is debatable. Why? Because according to Hopi Indian prophesy, the task of
reuniting the “four races” falls on “white people.” This is because “this is their
responsibility as Guardians of the Fire [which the “spark of fire” of technology, a
Caucasian invention, has done by connecting this world].”158 This prophecy may
well explain—both symbolically and literally—why Europeans colonized the
world, shuffled the “four races” back and forth, and now proclaim multi-
culturalism and racial diversity in their homelands. If you notice, “multi-
culturalism” and “diversity” are neither proclaimed nor celebrated in non-
Caucasian parts of the world.
Still, multi-racial people are—by their very existence—challenging views
about everybody being one race or another, even though most people can still
qualify as belonging to one race or another. In proclaiming the term multi-racial
as a category of racial identity, multi-racial people are making concrete—by
naming it—our being both/and.
People Who Embrace the Teachings of More Than One Religion
Throughout human history—or should I say, inhuman history—people

have been forced to convert from one religion to another. More often than not,
religion has been used as a tool of social, economic, and political control.
157
See Mooncloud, “Native American Prophecies,” p. 2.
158
Ibid.
Religion has infused in most people fear of godly retribution for breaking
religious codes. Religion has also instilled in many of us a sense of inferiority in
the eyes of God.
Nowadays, many people are embracing a spirituality that rejects any one
religion as “the true religion.” For such individuals, all religions have kernels of
Truth, and all religions offer different paths to heaven, enlightenment, nirvana,
and God. Nondenominational churches exist as well. In the West, blending the
practices of different religions in different seasons of life has become acceptable.
As a teen, for example, one may deem proper the saying of the Hail Mary. In
one’s 30s, one may see meditation as more appropriate. A Christian may find
that she needs “a little Buddhism” in her 40s, according to Caroline Myss.159
Eastern religions have especially made inroads in the West. Spiritual-centered
inner growth—as opposed to religious worship of a god “out there”—has
become the focus of people who want to make contact with the god within.
Some call such enlightenment Christ Consciousness. Others call it Buddha
Consciousness. Others refer to it as Muhammad Consciousness. Whatever it is
called, the shift from religion to spirituality is a shift from the outer to the inner
as the source of one’s interaction with the outside world. Religion, for example,
focuses on ritual (e.g., burning incense); spirituality on states of being (e.g.,
meditation). Religion emphasizes rules, right/wrong, and good/bad.
Spirituality stresses approaches, workability/nonworkability, higher
truth/lower truth, and faster energies/slower energies. Religion emphasizes
preaching to and converting others; spirituality being quiet and turning within.
We, of course, inhabit a universe of polar opposites. Nevertheless,
spirituality has helped many of us to move beyond precepts of right/wrong,
good/bad, and either/or when it comes to one religion being “the true religion,”
159
one set of behaviors being “right” behaviors, and another set of approaches being
“wrong” approaches. Instead, more evolved/less evolved has become the new
paradigm of thought and action.160 More workable/less workable has also
become the approach toward spiritual practices. Even here, spiritual teachings
recognize that what is good and workable for one individual or society is not for
another.161 Both/and has become the approach toward spiritual development. It
is an eclectic borrowing from whatever religious philosophies an individual
needs, as opposed to adopting the religion that one’s society dictates. Religions
are being seen the way that races, ethnicities, nationalities, and the sexes are seen
—as different costumes that lead to the same Truth. Nothing more. That Truth
is the Creator of this bi-verse (the physical universe and the spirit realm). In the
words of Marianne Williamson, the spiritualist author, it is the destination (God)
—not the religious path—that is glorified from this perspective.162 Good/bad,
right/wrong, and workable/unworkable have, in turn, been acknowledged to be
what they are: opinions. At the same time, spirituality recognizes that some
opinions reflect higher truth more than others.
The next chapter expounds on more challenges posed by billions of years
of biological evolution.
Exercises
160
See, for example, Zukav, The Seat of the Soul.
161
Books 2 and 3 of the Conversations with God trilogy mention the principle of workability vs.
nonworkability in relation to social, economic, and political organization. See Neale Donald Walsch,
Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 2, (Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads
Publishing Company, Inc., 1997) and Walsch, Conversations with God, Book 3, (Charlottesville, VA:
Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc., 1998).
162
Refer to Williamson, cassette titled, The Sacred Self Workshop.
1) What paradoxes of the physical universe are you aware of? Can you see
the spiritual logic behind some of them? Write your discoveries or speak
them into a tape recorder.
2) What paradoxes exist in your life? Have you come to terms with them?
If yes, how? How long did it take you? Was it a planned process, a
spontaneous process, or both?
3) Do you belong to any social movement, or social phenomenon, that is

going beyond the dualistic thinking of Western civilization? If yes, how do
you reconcile the both/and thinking of the movement with the either/or
thinking of Western society?
5
The Limits of Brain Logic
In the movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), Federation
Envoy Spock (Leonard Nimoy) tells Vulcan Lieutenant Valeris (Kim Cattrall),
“Logic is the beginning of wisdom, Valeris, not the end.” Yet, the left side of the
human brain operates by rationality, making human logic an end of itself. As
this chapter shall show, this limits our ability to see—let alone, understand—
spiritual principles.
Since the 1960s, New Age gurus have told Westerners that “we are one”
and that “thoughts create reality.” These statements, however, are too confusing
because they tell you everything and nothing at once. What, for example, does
“we are one” mean exactly? That all races, cultures, economies, and
governments should become uniform? By “reality,” do metaphysical speakers
mean internal reality, external reality, or both? Ego is another vague word that
goes bandied about. But what exactly is the human ego?
New Age concepts are elusive because, not believing in labels,
postmoderns don’t define their terms. Yet, books, articles, seminars, radio
interviews, and special televised broadcasts repeat metaphysical truths like “we
are one.”163 How does the human brain interpret such trans-sensory truths?
This chapter examines the following:
1) The way our biological senses—including the human brain—

perceive the laws of physics
2) How biological evolution has produced a certain way of
perceiving the world
3) How spiritual laws (e.g., illogical coincidences) elude the grasp
of an untrained human brain
4) The challenge of this epoch, which is to become aware of trans-
sensory truths that defy sensory logic
Laws of Physics
163
See, for instance, Brent Haskell, Journey Beyond Words: A Companion to the Workbook of The Course,
(Marina del Rey, CA: DeVorss & Company, 1994) and Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love:
Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, (New York: HarperCollins, 1992).
Thoughts altering reality defies the laws of physics. Believing in mind

over matter is like believing that our thoughts alone can turn an 18-wheeler onto
its back. The human brain did not evolve to think like this. Only insofar as
biological survival was concerned did the human brain evolve to make thinking
possible. The human brain allowed humans to sense, construct tools, hunt,
discover fire, forge alliances, make huts, and raise the young. Throughout
millions of years of hominid evolution, thoughts have been the indirect cause of
material things. For example, thoughts about the building of tools have led to
the building of tools. This thought-materialization process is how material
progress has unfolded. The two-step process led to the birth of agriculture, to
the invention of writing, to the dawn of the printing press, and to the advent of
the computer revolution. In each of these watershed moments of human history,
thoughts indirectly created material improvements. Thus, nobody saw thought
dynamics at work—only effects like material improvements.
The human brain evolved to think about hooking up cables to a fighter
plane and getting it out of a swamp. In the movie The Empire Strikes Back
(1980), however, Yoda (Frank Oz), the gray-skinned Jedi master, asks Luke
Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to lift the plane with his mind alone. Predictably,
Skywalker fails because, as he puts it, “I don’t believe it.” With his thoughts,
Yoda hoists the gray plane out of the murky water, carries the fighter across the
swamp, and sets it on the ground as if the plane were a toy model and his mind
the hands of a boy. In that scene, Skywalker holds onto the ancestral thought
program of his brain. Yoda goes beyond that program, believing, acting, and
producing the reality of mind over matter.
For millions of years, humans lived at the mercy of thunderstorms and ice
ages, mammoths and saber-toothed tigers, wild fluctuations of meat catch, and
the whims of the gods. This is the context in which the human brain evolved.
Humans were victims of the biological environment. They were always reacting
and adapting to it. Now, we are told that we are creators of our reality.
Furthermore, we are told that nonmaterial things, called thoughts, are the cause.
By implication, we have become the gods that hominids worshipped for millions
of years.
Our brains do not buy any of it! Why not? Because as Carl Sagan, the
deceased astronomer, reminds viewers in Cosmos, the human brain today is no
different than it was 10,000 years ago.164 The circuitry and genetic programming
of the human brain have not had time to evolve beyond millions of years of
biological evolution—from a brain that is always reacting to an external world to
a brain that is creating it. Biological evolution does not work that fast!
Moreover, the human brain has grown so large that it couldn’t possibly get any
bigger without wrecking havoc on mothers giving birth. Even at 25 percent of its
adult weight, a newborn’s head can barely fit through the birth canal.165
Childbirth is physically painful for mothers, by and large, because human brains
have grown too large.166 The skull of a baby has adapted by growing 75 percent
of its brain outside the womb. Biological evolution can only go so far, however,
and the process is slower than a turtle crawling a 500-meter dash around a
racetrack. With the world changing so fast, we don’t have time for the human
body to evolve to help us adapt to a changing environment. Therefore, like Yoda
in The Empire Strikes Back, we have to go beyond the physiology of the human
brain in adopting ways of thinking and being that defy brain logic.
164
Cosmos, “The Persistence of Memory,” (Episode 11).
165
Ackerman, An Alchemy of Mind, p. 136.
166
See Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, (New
York: Random House, Inc., 1977), pgs. 97-98.
Cause-Effect … and Brain Logic
Not only does our being gods defy millions of years of biological
evolution. The idea countermands everyday reality of cause-effect. I, for
example, was told that my negativity was causing everything to go wrong in my
“life.” Many people end up broke, divorced, childless, and even physically ill,
they are told, because of their thinking. Our brains are simply not equipped to
see a cause-effect relationship—much less, alter it—in something that may take
10 years to manifest. Even shorter time lags between cause (thoughts) and effect
(materialization)—say, two weeks—elude the human brain. I, for instance,
started to say to myself, I choose peace, joy, and abundance. In theory, such a
thought ought to attract peace, joy, and abundance into my life. Every day for a
year, I repeated this affirmation in my head. Then, someone moved into the
apartment behind mine. The guy began to play hip-hop music morning, noon,
and night. One Sunday at 5:45 a.m., he played his stereo at blasting decibels. My
wearing earplugs didn’t totally block the boom-booms in my chest. I complained
to management. It didn’t help. The music sounded like a mishmash of a bear
roaring, thunder cracking, and a bar fight—all inches behind my single bed. As
if this weren’t enough, this neighbor would come and go in a green sedan that
vroomed with the loudness of a lawn mower. Not only that. His sedan would
vroom by my front door at regular intervals, for he obviously had friends down
the block. Then, his friends would come back, and I would hear them talking,
moving, and cackling as if they lived in my 400-square-foot apartment. It all
came out of nowhere! Although I know that there are no coincidences, I didn’t
understand why that came into my “life” (actually, psychic death time). All I
experienced were effects! The cause eluded me, no matter how hard I tried to
find it. Did I, a quiet person, cause this racket? Was this my karma for having
perturbed somebody’s peace in a past life? Was this a test from the gods? Was it
just a sign of the decline of civility in postmodern society?
When it comes to thoughts creating outer—and even inner—reality, we
mostly see effects. As David Hawkins, the metaphysical researcher, writes in
Power vs. Force:
There are no causes within the observable world … the observable world
is a world of effects.167
Therefore, citizens get mugged for no apparent reason. Innocent people go to

prison. Illness strikes us out of the blue. Things happen to us in random
packages. Human life—or should I say inhuman “life”—becomes meaningless.
Ever-invisible causes evade the grasp of all but the more spiritually advanced of
us. Unable to see causes, we keep repeating old patterns. No wonder human
evolution takes millions of years. Figuring things out is an endless muddle of
confusion. Gravity may be invisible to the naked eye. But at least, we see its
effects immediately. Hence, believing in gravity is easier for our brains than
believing that thoughts create and alter outer—and inner—reality.
Perhaps, this is why there is one scientific method (e.g., hypothesis, testing
the hypothesis, theorizing), whereas many paths to God exist (e.g., ascetism vs.
“the Middle Way,” meditation vs. prayer, following Christ vs. following
Muhammad). In the physical world, water always boils at 212 degrees
Fahrenheit; the sun always rises in the east; and a rock thrown up will always
come down. As Carl Sagan said throughout his life, laws of nature mean that
“the universe is knowable [emphasis mine].” Spiritual laws, by contrast, involve
inconsistencies like:
167
1) One person praying and not getting answers and another person
not praying and having profound insights
2) One individual acting selfishly and always being praised and

another person living a pious life and always receiving insults
3) The house of a noble person burning to the ground, while two

swimming pools get added to the mansion of a tyrant
4) A Loving God allowing—in fact, having Created—Evil
This jumble of inconsistencies is why spiritual evolution takes forever. It just

takes an eternity to figure out spiritual laws.
Scientific truth, on the other hand, is straightforward. As Carl Sagan
answers a questioner in The Varieties of Scientific Experience, “The truth ought
to be logically consistent. It should not contradict itself; that is, there are some
logical criteria.”168 By “logical,” Sagan must have meant humanly rational, and
by “truth,” I assume that Sagan meant scientific truth. Obversely, non-scientific
truths are often humanly illogical and tend to be gray (see list at the beginning of
Part I, Chapter 4)—although ultimate Truth is not gray.
Experience with the metaphysics of thought-materialization may teach us
that thoughts, indeed, create effects. But ours is an age of materialism and of
scientific evidence. Asking people to believe in invisible causes (thoughts)
causing visible effects (material realities) is like asking folks to believe that they
can materialize coins out of thin air. Motivational speakers like Wayne Dyer
168
Sagan, The Varieties of Scientific Experience, pgs. 229-230.
may have lived the truth of thoughts creating their inner and outer reality. But
most of us don’t get it. Why not? Because the human brain did not evolve to
conceptualize like this. For millions of years, gods—not mortals—had
supernatural powers over climate, fertility, the rising of the sun, the flooding of
rivers each spring, the passing of the seasons, and human health, illness, and
death. Humans who exhibited godlike powers were either “special” and
“gifted” or “possessed” and “evil.” These people were the shamans, sorcerers,
berdaches, levitators, flying monks, and witches. Sometimes, they were sought
and revered. Oftentimes, they were persecuted and burned.
Nowadays, laypeople seek psychics. Many of us, in turn, elevate
celebrities to god or near-god status. It is as if our brains were programmed to
accept one of two realities: either a reality of gods and their mediators controlling
the supernatural (basically, prehistory and premodern history) or a reality of
post-scientific revolution rationalism and materialism that dismisses metaphysics
as hocus-pocus.169
Despite the dualism of the human brain (see Part I, Chapter 3), we
postmoderns are being directed to go beyond this programming. We are being
asked to see ourselves as gods capable of creating and altering our interior and
exterior realities, with thoughts as our creative soup. Moreover, we are being
asked to live—not merely intellectualize—the truth of mind over matter.
Trans-sensory Truths
169
Science concedes that laws of physics disintegrate in certain settings—such as subatomic realms and
black holes. Regarding what we perceive day-to-day without scientific instruments, however, science
teaches clear relationships of cause-effect and humanly rationalistic thinking.
For thousands of years, philosophers, mystics, prophets, and saints have

taught truths that defy the physical senses. For example, Jesus Christ told his
followers to “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Baha’u’llah, the prophet who started
the Baha’i faith, proclaimed “the unity of humankind.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
dreamt about “the table of brotherhood.” This is what Baha’is call “progressive
revelation”—different prophets being sent in different historical periods to raise
the consciousness of human populations from different cultures. The trans-
sensory ideas of Wayshowers (e.g., we are one at the higher levels of existence)
countermand what we see: people who live in different parts of town; people
with different skin tones, ethnicities, and nationalities; and human bodies
existing as separate entities. Like Luke Skywalker, we intellectually understand
that more exists to reality than our biological senses tell us. But like Skywalker,
we doubt our ability to actually live according to trans-sensory perceptions. We
are Jedis in training.
If evolved spirits have told us that we are one, then science and
technology have shown us this. Thanks to the Space Shuttle, for instance, we
have seen the earth from outer space. Apollo and Viking spacecraft showed us
this blue-white planet from further away. Photography has brought the other
planets, their rings, and their moons to our line of sight. Space technology has
shown us that earth is one organism and that the solar system, galaxy, and
universe are bound. Electron microscopes sense what human eyes cannot see.
On-screen, such microscopes show us cells, organelles, and microscopic life. PET
scans, in turn, color on computer monitors active brain regions that we wouldn’t
otherwise be able to see. These instruments have revealed that all biological
systems share building blocks and basic processes. Radio receivers, TV sets,
email, and the Internet have broadened our range of hearing and seeing. These
technologies have largely—although not totally—connected the world into one
“global village.” One is the mantra that these technologies show, hum, and echo
everyday.
For all their marvels, though, scientific devices sense for us. They, not us,
have expanded their range of sensing, becoming more powerful each year.
Scientific instruments detect things that no one had heard about for 99.9 percent
of human history—things like electricity, radio waves, TV waves, microwaves,
infrared radiation, ultraviolet rays, and gamma rays. We, however, have yet to
develop internal sensors of nonphysical phenomena—or rather, we are in the
process of learning how.
In the movie Pathfinder (1987), the following exchange takes place in a
tepee-like dwelling between the adolescent Aigin (Mikkel Gaup) and the shaman
Raste (Nils Utsi). His family murdered by Tchudes—Viking-era barbarians—
Aigin is aching for revenge. The nighttime winter scene unfolds as follows:
Raste: Thoughts of revenge are darkening your mind. Remember, we are

but parts of the whole; parts of the infinite brotherhood. The
Tchudes have forgotten it. Don’t you forget, lad.
Aigin: I’m not part of any brotherhood. I’m alone.
Raste: You may feel that way now. But trust me, you too are bound to
this infinite brotherhood … with unbreakable bonds.
Aigin: I see no bonds.
Raste: Can you see this?

Aigin: The tent wall?
Raste: Yes. But what is between you and the tent wall?
Aigin: I see nothing.
Raste: Nothing at all?
Aigin: Uh-uh!
[Raste suddenly covers Aigin’s nose. Aigin protests under his breath.]
Raste: You still can’t see it. But now you can feel that there is something
there [emphasis mine]. You can’t see the air, but you are
inseparably tied to it. [Raste releases his grip on Aigin’s nose, and
Aigin pants for air.] In this way, everything is tied together … with
invisible bonds. No, my son. You cannot tear yourself apart from
the whole. But you can lose sight of it; forget you’re tied to it and
so become a Tchudes … Men who have lost the path, stumbling
blindly on their way to self-destruction.
Trans-sensory humans are aware of things that the biological senses

cannot detect. Such people go beyond:
1) The dictates of sensory programming

2) The limits placed by billions of years of biological evolution
The next chapter dissects the difference between sensing (living in the
now) and thinking (living in the past or future).
Exercises
1) Like your “five” senses can get irritated by physical stimuli—such as

getting a speck of wood in your eye—do you find that your brain can get
irritated by circumstances that don’t compute upstairs? Elaborate on paper.
How can a frustrated you cope with your brain’s not understanding
something “off the wall”?
2) Have you been able to train your brain to understand the humanly
unintelligible? If yes, how? How long did this take? What, if any, have
been the benefits?
6
Sensing vs. Perceiving
Aldous Huxley, the English intellectual, wrote that human sensing occurs
with the five senses. But human perceiving occurs with the human brain.170
When one senses intently, one lives in the now. When one starts to think,
sensing disappears, and time enters the scene.
This chapter investigates:
1) Living in the now = sensing with the five senses and with the
nonthinking part of the human brain
170
Aldous Huxley, The Art of Seeing, (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1942), pgs. 49-50.
2) Living in the past or future = perceiving with the thinking part of the
human brain
In the Now vs. Thinking
The subtitle you just read: How long ago did you read it? What about the
past sentence? And the beginning of this one? If you notice, now becomes the
past in a second or less. Even when you are focused on the present, you have to
keep catching up, for now is unstable and becomes the past faster than a bee
buzzing past you. Being in a constant state of catching up can be taxing, even if
one has the resolve to keep coming back to now 576,000 times in a 16-hour day.
Why so many times?
In An Alchemy of Mind, naturalist Diane Ackerman asks, “How long is a
now?” Now, she writes, is “about one-tenth of a second [emphasis mine].”171
What does two-thirds of the human brain (the cerebral cortex) occupy itself with
in the now? According to Ackerman, not the processing of what the five senses
register, as one would think. Lower animals live according to what they smell,
taste, touch, hear, and see. But humans instead live by “… mind theaters,
fantasies, mental scratch pads, inner monologues, memories, emotions, the
baroque architecture of self.”172 This, Ackerman writes, is what PET scans reveal
as the “typical moment in the brain, ….”173 The cerebral cortex is occupied with
past and future. A major reason why movies, sports, pornography, and dancing
are so popular is because they pull all of a viewer’s attention into the moment.
171
172
Ibid., p. 123.
173
Ibid.
Forgetting about the problems of life becomes possible during such intervals of
time. Repetitive motion, as in porn and sports, is that great grabber of human
attention.
Staying in the now (e.g., what am I smelling, tasting, touching, hearing, or
seeing?) is something that lower animals do effortlessly but not most humans.
Why is this? Because the cerebral cortex programs us to think. Given that the
cortex is two-thirds of the human brain, it makes sense that most brain processes
have little to do with sensing the biological environment.
According to Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses, a
sheepdog has 220 million olfactory cells. How many olfactory cells does the
typical human have? Five million. Thus, Ackerman writes in her book, a
sheepdog can smell 44 times better than a human being.174 Also, you and I can
smell a pizza. A dog, however, smells each ingredient of the pizza separately.
This is according to an airport worker in PBS’s Mystery of the Senses.175 In A
Natural History of the Senses, Ackerman relates the story of a dog that was able
to identify the car of its owner just by sound. Other cars would drive by the
house, Ackerman writes, and the dog would not react. But each car engine, she
continues, has a fingerprint of sound. Dogs can tell cars and trucks apart by
identifying the specifics of engine sounds. Dogs—and cats—also hear better in
the dark than us humans. Spiders, Ackerman writes, have a highly developed
sense of vibration, an element of the sense of touch.176
Why, I have pondered, weren’t humans programmed to smell, taste,
touch, hear, and see as deeply as lower animals? Aren’t we, after all, spiritual
beings having a biological experience? If so, why is, say, our sense of smell so
174
175
Nova Mini-Series: Mystery of the Senses—“Smell” aired on PBS on February 20, 1995. Diane
Ackerman was the host of this five-part series, which was based on Ackerman’s book A Natural History of
the Senses.
176
limited? Compared to dogs, cats, and spiders, why are we barely able to
experience the material world through our human senses?
Mentioned in Part I, Chapter 1, smell was the first physical sense. As the
other biological senses emerged, the evolving animal brain had to sacrifice smell
space to make room for them. Our sense of smell weakened as a result.177 This is
the material answer. The spiritual answer is that if we were able to smell, hear,
and see to the extent that lower animals do, then thinking would be very
difficult. There would be too many offensive odors, too many distracting
sounds, and too many objects moving in the dark. Concentration and inner
focus—elements of spiritual evolution—would be next to impossible!
Lower animals live by their biological senses and thus, live in the now.
Humans live by their thoughts and hence, live in the past and future. The irony
is that we are forever looking outside of ourselves (sensory perception) for
happiness, yet barely notice the specifics of the outer world. A man, for instance,
may pine for a girlfriend. Once he has found one, however, can he name the
scent of her skin? Does the skin on her forearm smell differently from the skin
on her forehead? How exactly do they smell different? Such are the questions
that Diane Ackerman might ask. But most of us become “tongue-tied” when
asked to describe such specifics.178 As another example, a store manager may
hanker for the latest sports car. Once he has it, though, can he identify its subtle
features? What, for example, does it sound like driving down a tree-flanked
street vs. zooming down an open highway? Most of us don’t pay attention to the
nuances of our physical environment. Yet, we are constantly looking outside of
ourselves for answers and for fulfillment.
177
178
The TV detective Columbo (Peter Falk) is an exception. Details is the key

word. Details that evade suspects catch Columbo’s eye, ears, skin, nose, and
taste buds—yes, he has one eye. As one scene of a Columbo episode unfolds:
Dolores: I just saw it [a black buggy] blow up. What else is there to see
[on the taped rerun of the explosion]?
Columbo: Yes, it’s difficult to spot. It is.179
To make it in their field, detectives have trained themselves to live by their

biological senses. This, of course, requires them to live in the now.
There is a paradox, however. While most of the human brain (the cerebral
cortex) is programmed to think, the human brain is also a sense organ. The five
senses wouldn’t sense were it not for the existence of the brain as their final
processing center. Furthermore, much of our “abstract” thinking is about
concrete things—what we have seen, heard, touched, tasted, and smelled.
In sum, thinking about past and future is what we spend the present
doing, for this feels natural to us. We are, after all, programmed to think. But to
live in the now, we have to stop thinking and start observing what we see, hear,
touch, taste, and smell. Then, daily living becomes a meditation, and we begin to
enjoy the simple pleasures of life. We, however, have to keep returning to a
constantly fleeing present. When we do, we discover that 99.9 percent of
everything is past or future. Now is a mere one-tenth of a second. As Pedro
179
Dolores is played by Tyne Daly. See Columbo, “A Bird in the Hand.” This special originally aired on
ABC on November 22, 1992.
Calderon de la Barca, the Spanish playwright, wrote, “For all life is a dream, and
dreams themselves are only dreams.”180
Level 1 vs. Level 2 Perception
In the movie Tuck Everlasting (2002), Man in the Yellow Suit (Ben
Kingsley) whistles a song to a family that has found the fountain of youth. The
tune over, Mae Tuck (Sissy Spacek) says, “You have no right to bring us such
pain.”
Level 1 perception is what Mae’s ears and brain registered: sound waves
hitting her eardrums and her brain translating those sounds into music. Pure
and simple. Level 2 perception is what Mae, the mother, made of the sounds. In
Tuck Everlasting, Mae has heard the melody before. Still, this is Level 1
perception (physical stimuli hitting her ears and her brain interpreting those
sounds at a sensory level). Level 2 perception goes deeper than that. It answers
the question: what does what my physical senses perceive (Level 1 perception)
mean in non-sensory fashion? This is where choice enters. If Mae had heard the
sound waves before, then she could have chosen to leave it at that—remaining at
Level 1 perception. Instead, Mae chose to let thoughts enter her mind—thoughts
of her mother having sung that song years before, thoughts about Man in the
Yellow Suit’s grandmother having related that song to him, and thoughts about
the song being the means by which Man in the Yellow Suit was able to track
down Mae’s family. The woman went from being in the now to being in the past
and fearing for her family’s future.
180
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/pedrocalde176294.html.
Level 1 perception involves facts about physical stimuli. Level 2

perception involves opinions about the meaning of the stimuli. One’s eyes, for
example, may encounter specks of dirt in a sink. Level 1 perception perceives
just that: specks of dirt in a sink. Nothing more. Level 2 perception is one’s
saying to oneself, “This sink is dirty.” Now, a judgement is in place, the word
dirty and its negative connotations. In fact, all words have judgement at some
level. This is one reason to stop thinking and to remain in silence.
Level 2 perception is where trans-sensory growth becomes evident. A
snowstorm, for instance, is just that: a snowstorm (L1 perception). But while one
person will call such weather “hideous,” another will call it “delightful” (L2
perceptions). The clincher is that Level 2 perception ultimately affects Level 1
perception. Doing what one hates, for instance, makes time real by slowing it
down. Conversely, living by one’s biological senses or by positive
interpretations makes time fly. One has the choice to return to the present (L1
perception), the choice to see things as fearful, ugly, meaningless, hateful,
diseased, and uninteresting (negative L2 perceptions), or the choice to see things
as safe, beautiful, purposeful, loving, healthy, and interesting (positive L2
perceptions).
Tuck Everlasting brings up an interesting question. If we went through
life without preconceived notions—actually learned—of what aging meant,
would we age as fast? Most Americans, for example, dread turning 30. Youth
has been so narrowly defined that, nowadays, twentysomethings see turning 30
as “going over the hill.” Yet, many people in their 30s look like they are in their
20s. Many people in their 40s look like they are in their 30s. I have even seen
people in their early 50s look like they are in their early 30s. Actress Telma
Hopkins is an example of such a person, and it is no coincidence that she has a
youthful attitude. On a similar note, actress and director Lee Grant, who turned
80 in 2007, looks like she is in her early 60s. Then, there are those who are 30 and
look 50. Surely, taking care of one’s physical body matters—as in sleeping well,
eating healthy, and avoiding the sun as often as possible. But thinking
youthfully matters as much. This is Level 2 perception at its most powerful.
The next chapter looks more closely at what exactly our biological senses
are interacting with.
Exercises
1) Set your timer. For three minutes, really observe what you see, hear,
feel (inside your physical body or on your skin), taste, OR smell. For this
exercise, it is important to focus on one type of sensing at a time. If
thoughts distract you, bring yourself back to sensing in the moment. After
the session is over, ponder how many times you had to return to the now.
What, if anything, you did you see, hear, feel, taste, or smell in a new way?
2) Set your timer. For three minutes, truly see, listen, feel (inside your
physical body or on your skin), AND smell. (Skip taste for this exercise.)
Every few seconds, shift your focus from seeing, to listening, to feeling, to
smelling without counting in your head but rather, shifting focus as

naturally as possible in the now. If thoughts distract you, bring yourself
back to sensing in the moment. After the session is over, ponder how many
times you had to return to the now. What, if anything, you did you see,
hear, feel, or smell in a new way?
7
Illusion of the Physical World
Eastern religion and philosophy have long held that the physical plane is
a dream realm. New Age thought has been echoing this perception since the
1960s.
This chapter scrutinizes seven facets of this world to see how it could be
that a largely rock solid sphere could be illusory. The seven facets are:
1) The non-definability of things

2) The non-definability of feelings
3) The indirectness of the visible world
4) The elusiveness of everything
5) The emptiness of the material realm
6) The deception of the so-called five senses

7) 99.9 percent of everything being past or future
The end of this chapter summarizes the “living in a dreamworld” theme of the
above seven sections.
Non-definability of Things
What is an experience? Something that happens to you? What does

happen mean? Occur? What then does occur mean? The Harcourt Brace School
Dictionary defines occur as, among other things:
1 To happen or take place. 2 To be found; appear: … 181
Already, we begin to see a repetition of terms like happen to define occur. Look
up happen in any dictionary, and you are bound to see occur. Let us therefore
return to the question: What is an experience? If we decide that an experience is
an event that happens to us, then what is an event? The Harcourt Brace School
Dictionary defines event as, among other things:
1 A happening; occurrence, especially an important one: … 182
181
Harrison Gray Platt, The Harcourt Brace School Dictionary, (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
Inc., 1972), p. 503.
182
Ibid., p. 251.
More redundancy in words like happening and occurrence. What about the
definition of event as “3 Final outcome; result.”?183 Look up outcome, and at
some point, you come back to a former word.
What if we decided to really nail down “What is an experience?” with an
incident like, “My father beat me when I was 4”? What does beat mean? The
same Harcourt dictionary defines beat, the verb, as, among other things:
1 v. To strike over and over; pound … 3 v. To punish by hitting again and

again; thrash. 4 v. To defeat, as in a fight or contest…184
More definitions follow, of course. But look up any word that makes up the
definition of beat—or for that matter, the definition of anything—and sooner or
later, you come to repetition of former words and eventually, to nothing. In this
sense, the world and all of our experiences in it ultimately signify nothing. Any
experience that we have is, literally, beyond words. This doesn’t mean that an
experience of, say, abuse didn’t happen or that it means nothing. Only in a
worldly sense does it mean nothing. Why? Because short of echoing other
words, words cannot truly describe an experience. Therefore, experiences must
belong in a realm beyond words. Just like language cannot explain the things of
the hereafter, language cannot truly explain the things of this world. By the way,
haven’t you noticed how the shortest words have the longest definitions? Once
again, we have encountered paradox.
What does the non-definability of everything have to do with becoming
trans-sensory? Here, we get to the core of something major. Eyes, ears, and
touch—touch for graille readers—perceive words. But what these three senses
show us—words—is indefinable at the root and thus, is meaningless. In
183
Ibid.
184
Ibid., p. 61.
recognizing the limits of the human senses and the indefinableness of

everything, we understand that what we sense physically has no intrinsic
meaning. Not even in our minds do things have inherent meaning, as thoughts
about events come either in the form of indefinable words or in the form of
pictures—each picture being a thousand words. Like Love, all earthly
experiences originate beyond what the physical senses perceive. It is in the spirit
plane—and in our hearts—that things have meaning.
Non-Definability of Feelings
Why do some emotions feel “good” and others feel “bad”? Everyone
agrees, for example, that heartbreak feels rotten. Everybody also concedes that
falling in love with someone who loves you back feels heavenly. But what
exactly makes one emotion feel good and the other feel bad? At best, we can
compare the emotion of requited love to the aroma of freshly baked cookies.
Heartbreak, by contrast, we might compare to the smell of addled eggs. Beyond
these analogies, however, nobody can truly answer what makes one emotion feel
good and another feel putrid.
When two people click, there is said to be “chemistry” between them. But
what is chemistry? Is it just hormones? If so, why do they kick in with certain
individuals? Why not with everyone? There must be something more to a
chemistry that is so specific. What is this something more? Once more, words
cannot explain experiences that originate in a trans-sensory realm—that is to say,
in the spirit plane.
Indirectness of the Visible
The other night, I was at the supermarket. I wanted to see more of what
was around me. But if I turned right, my left disappeared. If I looked left for
long, I could trip. It was, literally, like dreaming. I couldn’t penetrate more of
the dream—and I wanted to.
Look directly at any object. At most, you will see a point, for the human
eye was made to see 99 percent of everything indirectly. This 99 percent the eyes
and brain fill in as background. Never do we see the background directly. If we
shift our eye focus toward the background, then the former point becomes the
new background, and still, 99 percent of what we see is a semi-blur.
Furthermore, the point of focus would be meaningless without our eyes and
brain providing a context for the point relative to the background. Look, for
example, at the word sentence without moving your eyes. Which part of
sentence did your eyes see directly? Would that part have made sense without a
context relative to the other parts of sentence? In other words, if you focused on,
say, the middle part of the last e in sentence, would that part have made sense
without your eyes and brain filling in background about the rest of the letter e
and the word sentence?
What this exercise shows is that 99 percent of what we see is a dreamy
blur. Moreover, the 1 percent that our eyes focus on is equally unreal, for the
point of focus only makes sense by eye/brain reference to past encounters with
that object. Newborn babies, for instance, see everything as a blur. Why? Not
because their eyes are defective but rather, because their brains haven’t yet
learned to fill in the blanks. People who were blind as children and recover their
eyesight as adults undergo the same. For them, every solid object they see is a
blur of colors, and no physical boundaries exist between, say, a wooden chair, a
glass coffee table, and a beige rug. Rather, such objects are perceived as different
frequencies of energies intermixing in different colors. Why this absence of
physical boundaries? Because like the brains of newborns, the brains of blind
people are not wired to perceive matter like the brains of sighted adults can.
Only sighted humans have had that training of boundary discernment in their
brains.185 As Aldous Huxley wrote in his 1942 book The Art of Seeing, human
sensing occurs with the five senses. But human perceiving occurs with the
human brain.186 This means that human sensing would be impossible without
the human brain:
1) Referring to past encounters with an object

2) Filling in the background for context
Backed by modern science, Huxley’s argument reinforces the Buddhist view of

the mind as a sixth sense.
If, at most, the human eye can see a dot of the outer world, what happens
when people don’t focus on what they are seeing? What, for example, does a
mother see rushing out the front door, shoving her kids into the car, and driving
them to school? Or a waitress hurrying back and forth to get five orders onto the
proper tables? Nothing but background blurs. Rushed people simply have no
time to zero in on objects. Instead, they keep their eyes moving. If their eyes
aren’t focusing on any object—except for, maybe, a millisecond—then everything
is the dreamiest of blurs for them. Their brains, of course, will make the
background blurs seem real.
185
See Rifkin, The Age of Access, pgs. 192-193.
186
Huxley, The Art of Seeing, pgs. 49-50.
Elusiveness of Everything
If we focus on something, then we miss 99 percent of everything else in

our physical environment. This applies not just to seeing but also, to hearing,
touching, tasting, and smelling. For example, if the feather of a parakeet tickles
the area around your navel, you will bring your attention, however briefly, to
your navel. In that time frame, you will lose awareness of 99 percent of
everything else. Most of the time, we don’t even penetrate that 1 percent of
physical reality that the biological senses allow us to capture fully. Rather, we
sleepwalk through life, immersed in vague awareness of the outer world.
Thoughts and emotions of past and future dominate our consciousness instead.
Sharpening our biological senses takes willingness and practice. When we
do, we discover that paying attention to the world is like touching the flat screen
of a laptop computer. Press your forefinger against the screen, and an area blurs
around the finger. The solid letters and the solid pictures on the screen melt at
the point of contact.
Emptiness of the Material World
As quantum physicists have discovered, matter at the atomic level is as

empty as outer space. Like planets circling the sun, electrons circle neutrons.
Empty space fills 99 percent of the rest. If split enough times, electrons and
neutrons show further emptiness. Only our size prevents us from seeing the
emptiness of the physical world.
Not only are words unable to define the material world beyond a certain
point. Not only are human senses unable to capture this world in its entirety.
The physical universe itself is made of, chiefly, nothing. Like the digital codes,
goggles, and materials of virtual reality, words, the biological senses, and the
form of things fool us into believing that we are experiencing “reality.”
Together, these facts support the nursery rhyme, “Life is but a dream.”
Deception of the Senses
Even when we capture 1 percent of physical reality, our human senses can
fool us. The sun, for instance, is said to “rise” and “set.” In reality, the earth
spins on its axis. People who test “positive” for Human Immunodeficiency Virus
(HIV) often look healthy. Green grass may hide toxic levels of fertilizer
underneath.
Similarly, a political party may appoint a woman to a high post. This,
however, is meaningless if the female appointee supports male policies like
military spending at the expense of social spending. Madeleine Albright, for
example, was secretary of state of the United States during the Clinton
administration. But she acted like a man. Albright, for instance, called the death
of 500,000 Iraqi children regrettable but in the end, “worth it.”187 On a similar
track, Clarence Thomas was the second African American to be appointed to the
Supreme Court. But he opposes affirmative action. Antonia Novello was the
first surgeon general of Puerto Rican birth. But in the early 1990s, she
187
This quote is in Mel Hurtig, The Vanishing Country: Is It Too Late to Save Canada?, (Toronto:
McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2002), p. 240.
downplayed issues related to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

This was despite the rapid spread of AIDS within the Latino population.
Andrew Sullivan may be a spokesman for gays on every other news segment
about homosexuality. But Sullivan, an openly gay conservative, doesn’t speak
for the majority of gays, who identify as liberal. Just because someone is a
woman, an African American, Hispanic, or gay on the outside doesn’t mean that
he or she will support policies that are friendly toward his or her people.
Sensory people go by what their biological eyes see. Trans-sensory people look
beyond muscle tones.
Not only are the bio-logical senses (logical in a biological way) limited to a
specific way of sensing the physical environment. The “five” senses are
restricted, as well, to the present. Seattle residents, for example, see about three
inches of snow a year. The Pacific Ocean, after all, moderates winter
temperatures in the Pacific Northwest. This sounds simple enough and humanly
logical. But the big secret is that in the 19th century, Seattle averaged 13 inches of
snow annually.188 What this shows—besides global warming—is that our
biological senses don’t see the big picture. Instead, the “five” senses are limited
to the present environment. As Obi Wan-Kenobi (Alec Guinness) tells Luke
Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in Star Wars (1977), “Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t
trust them. Stretch out with your feelings [emphasis mine].”
188
This statistic comes from Evening Edition. The segment aired on The Weather Channel on August 2004.
Everything Is Past or Future
How often I have wanted an instant to last. Perhaps, a pop song rocked
my heart. Or a movie. I may replay the tune or film. But when the CD or DVD
ends, the feeling vaporizes. I find myself wanting to play the song or movie
again. Why, I wonder, can’t time stand still during moments of inner—and outer
—peace and joy? Why does the now—that one-tenth of a second—keep moving
without giving us pause to catch our breaths?
Like that song or film that won’t stay, our lives are 99.9 percent past or
future. Practically everything in the bubble of human consciousness is either a
memory (e.g., a past hurt or a pleasant reminiscing) or a thought about the future
(e.g., planning, worry, or expectation). Only the paper-thin now is real, and now
becomes memory faster than lightning. In fact, we have no guarantee that our
lives are real. We may have been dropped on earth a minute ago. Everything up
to now may simply be a mind program. We say that we had a childhood. But
we have no proof—other than our thoughts—that we existed prior to now. Even
records of the past may have been put there a minute ago. My feelings tell me, of
course, that my past happened. But it is no longer real. Looking at the past—or
present—is like looking at a glass window. You are looking at the window from
inside a whitely lit classroom. It is nighttime. On the glass, the reflection of the
chairs, white lights, and you looks real. But it is merely an illusion, for nothing is
outside but the night. So is physical life. The only things eternal about human
life are the lessons we learn, the love we give and receive, and the experience
itself. Those are the things that our Spirits/souls signed up for. Those are the
things that our Spirits/souls will always remember.
Living in a Dream World
One morning, I dreamed that six adults were sitting in a playpen. The
wooden enclosure was bouncing to and fro in rapids. A rope of yarn held the
playpen in place. The rope, in turn, was held by two men—one man on each
side of the stream. Waves were pounding the trapped people toward the back of
the pen. Despite barrels of water passing through the wooden bars, the group
enjoyed getting flooded with water, crashing back, and coming forward. I
looked behind me. The ocean was waiting under the gray sky. After I awoke, I
had an insight. The playpen represented the cage of the five senses—or six
senses, if you are a Buddhist and see the mind (not to be confused with the brain)
as a sixth sense. Although trapped in a human body, most of us enjoy the ride of
this life. I remembered reading in Living, Dreaming, Dying that the six senses
imprison us.189 We, however, are so thrilled by the incoming waves that we
forget the prison of the human body. In the end, the rope breaks; the raft gets
sucked into the ocean; and we die physically.
That same morning, I dreamt that two parrot-ducks were aching to mate
and reproduce. Then, I saw the death of a blue parakeet that I once had. Seeing
his gruesome death smothered my heart. A sad song from India played in the
background. Its male singer was mourning something. After I awoke, I realized
that I was seeing part of the picture—my parakeet’s dying. My biological ears
and human eyes were keeping me from knowing the larger truth.
Everything we think we are—fathers, sons; mothers, daughters;
Republicans, Democrats; Caucasians, African Americans; rich people, poor
people; engineers, artists; straights, gays; and rock stars, beggars—is not who we
189
The idea of the mind as a sixth sense comes from Rob Nairn, Living, Dreaming, Dying: Practical
Wisdom from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, (Boston: Shambhala, 2004), p. 35. The truth of the physical
senses being a prison has also been echoed by the major spiritual Masters.
really are. Even the people who we aspire to become is part of the illusion. The
thought that I will never become, say, a celebrated writer but rather, the illusion
of him saddens me at one level. Since I don’t know my spiritual Self fully—just
partially—it is as if I don’t really exist.
The illusion, however, is only made possible by the software of the
physical universe. In The Matrix (1999), for example, the following scene
unfolds between Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Neo (Keanu Reeves):
Morpheus: Your appearance now is what we call residual self-image. It is

the mental projection of your digital self.
Neo: [Touches a red chair in a white room and whispers in disbelief.]

This … this isn’t real.
Morpheus: What is real? How do you define real? If you’re talking

about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can
taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted
by your brain.
As Morpheus tells Neo, we are inside a computer program. This software,

known as the material universe, prevents us from seeing the Truth. Realizing
this is disheartening for me. Why? Because it means that a major part of my
loving someone has to do with the hallucination that I am seeing. In other
words, I am falling in love with an illusion, rather than with a real person. In a
Next Generation episode of Star Trek, for instance, Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates
McFadden) tells Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) about Crusher’s love for
a being that has passed on into another form. Crusher relates to Troi:
I loved Odan. I’m sure of it. I have no doubts. No fears. But what was it
I loved? His eyes? His hands? His mouth? They’re gone. If that was all
it was, I should mourn him and go on. It was more than that. I felt
completely free with him, unguarded, at ease with myself. There were so
many things that made him special to me. Where are they? Are they still
here?190
In another Next Generation episode, a boy’s mother dies in an accident. An

entity takes the form of the mother and transports the boy, Jeremy Aster (Gabriel
Damon), from the Starship Enterprise to a hologram of his living room. Captain
Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Counselor Troi enter the house to protect
the lad from further abduction. Picard and the mom-turned-entity (Susan
Powell) exchange the following words:
Entity: How can you know he won’t be happier with me?
Picard: For a brief moment in time, he surely would be. Any of us in his
place would be … Do you honestly believe he would be happy in
this total fiction [the mind-created house], which you wish to
create? … What you’re offering him is a memory, something to
cherish, not to live in.191
More often than not, mirages are based on the past. An example is
proving to one’s parents that one can become a successful adult. Illusions haunt
190
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “The Host.” This episode originally aired in syndication on May 11,
191
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “The Bonding.” This episode originally aired in syndication on
October 21, 1989 (Season 3, episode 5).
major parts of the United States. My adopted aunt drove me, for example, to a
gated community in Florida. The place had its own town center, and its houses
looked as if made for a movie set. In Spanish, she related to me:
When those people buy $200,000 houses that are made of cardboard,
they’re buying illusions. On the surface, the mansions look opulent. But
punch a wall, and you’ll be leaning through a hole.
Shelter is one of the basics of biological survival (see Part II, Chapter 2 for
a discussion of the survival instinct). One would think that our physical senses
would care to distinguish between illusions of cardboard and houses of concrete,
especially in Hurricane Alley. Amazingly, the five senses and the human brain
fall short of caring for such differences. Image and form, not substance and
content, are all that matter to the physical senses—at least, if social observations
are any guide. In turn, our instinct to survive biologically—and even
emotionally—spills into food, sex, love, and belonging. But the illusions of these
things—Dr. Crusher’s example—don’t matter to the human body or human
mind. Even bad food, risky sex, and false love and friendship don’t matter to
those of us who are blinded by their pleasurable aspects.
The next chapter looks at the origin and destination of emotions,
including earth love.
Exercises
1) How does this universe’s being illusion tempt you to feel? Do you, for
example, feel dejected by this truth? If so, why? If you don’t feel dejected,
what feelings register in your chest? What thoughts are you having?
2) Can you enjoy the forms of earthly life without getting attached to them?
If yes, how? Can you also see—and enjoy—the substance behind each form?
If you can separate image from content, how does detachment play into
this?
8
Reality of the Spirit World
Most of us are in an endless search for goodies—CDs, DVD players, beer,

pickup trucks, and clothes. These are to “adults” what toys are to children.
What we really want are the emotions that these things bring—or are thought to
bring. But emotions come from the spirit realm. So does every physical thing.
Most of us, however, don’t seek nonphysical things because we are so immersed
in the template of the physical plane.
This chapter ponders emotions and visions because both show that
nonmaterial things can influence us deeply. The first section of the chapter asks
where feelings come from, why we seek them, and where emotions go when
they leave us. The second section of this chapter alludes to why “earth love” was
invented in the spirit realm.192 Romantic love, the “Holy Grail” of earth love, is
explored more fully in chapters 3 and 4 (Part I) and in chapters 4 and 5 (Part II).193
192
The term “earth love” is borrowed from Caroline Myss. This medical intuitive has used that term on
several occasions.
193
In the DVD comment section titled, “Lessons of Tuck,” director Jay Russell uses the term “Holy Grail”
to describe perfect love. See the movie Tuck Everlasting (2002).
The last section of this chapter looks at visions. All of the following sections are
meant to show the reality of the spirit plane.
The Origin of Emotions
I was born to play the guitar, among other things. The bug is literally in
my genes from both sides of my family. At age 10, I asked my mother to teach
me that instrument. She found me a male teacher. I learned the basics, and for
many years, I played the guitar—and later, the Greek bouzouki (a long-necked
mandolin)—in the Catholic Church.194 I have rhythm and love music. I,
however, lost my ganas to practice at each instrument for hours on end. I never
joined or started a band. Why not? My ganas was gone—especially, after my
mother died. Ganas is a Spanish word that, loosely translated, means “desire
from the gut.”195 Where did my ganas go? If Albert Einstein, the theoretical
physicist, was right, then my ganas had to go somewhere, for e=mc2 means that
energy cannot be destroyed. Where then did my ganas go? Moreover, why do
emotions, desires, and lusts come and go? Where do they come from? Where do
they go when they leave us?
Our hearts process emotions. Feelings don’t originate there, though.
Physical things may trigger emotions. But feelings don’t originate in this world.
Rather, emotions come from the spirit realm. At most, we see the effect of desire
in someone’s eyes, the result of jitteriness in someone’s touch, the effect of fear in
194
For a sample of well-played bouzoukis, see Christos Papadopoulos and Giannis “Sporos” Stamatiou at
Rethanaish, “Sporos Improvisation.” This video was added to YouTube on June 22, 2007. The URL is
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uWerrlOpzTQ&feature=related. Also, see John “Sporos” Stamatiou and
Christos Papadopoulos at Papadop762, “Papadopoulos Christos.” This video was added to YouTube on
September 7, 2007. The URL is http://youtube.com/watch?v=9N2TNCyy9iY&feature=related.
195
In the film Stand and Deliver (1988), Jaime A. Escalante (Edward James Olmos) tells his barrio students
that they need ganas to succeed in school—and in life.
someone’s voice, and the result of anxiousness in our heartbeats. We, however,
don’t “see” emotions, for they are trans-sensory. At best, we experience
emotions, and we peer into the feelings of others through their biological eyes,
the windows of their spirits and souls.
If you notice, feelings register in our chests and abdomens. By contrast,
physical sensations happen in one place of the human body—the head. Touch is
the exception. Think about it. Most human sensing occurs in a mere appendage
of the body—about 10 percent of the human body. This is because the senses of
sight, sound, smell, and taste are all in and around the head. Emotions, on the
other hand, are felt in a greater area of the human body. The human brain
processes input from the five senses and thoughts. But our hearts feel.
Consequently, emotions are a major driver of human life—in fact, the major
driver. We, for example, seek careers that will satisfy us. Be it money, piloting a
biplane, or being the chairman of the board, we seek the emotions that such
enterprises bring. The contradiction is that in a hypermaterialistic society like
ours, we seek things not for the things but for the experiences that things will
bring—or are presumed to bring.
Deep down, we humans have always known about the power of
emotions. What is new is that more of us are becoming consciously trans-
sensory. Not only are we conceding that feelings (trans-sensory phenomena) are
far more powerful than things (sensory phenomena). Many of us are living this
truth through careers that—perhaps—pay less but which are inwardly
rewarding, through expressions of love that society condemns but which gratify
us, and through ways of living that—maybe—deviate from the norm but which
bring us well-being. We are also learning to detect our emotional states through
activities like yoga, tai chi, and focused breathing.
Earth Love vs. Spiritual Love
When someone “falls in love,” with what does he or she become

enamored? The other’s eyes? Lips? Hair? Way of speaking? Personality? Or is
the pull something deeper? A spiritual mentor told me, “When you fall in love
with someone, you fall in love with his or her emotions.” E-motions are energies
in motion—that is to say, the spiritual frequencies at which the beloved vibrates.
With regard to romantic love, physical beauty is nonetheless important—
for males, in particular. Personality also plays a big role—for females, in
particular. What Caroline Myss calls “earth love” is based on our human senses.
Romantic love is the “Holy Grail” of earth love.196 Thus, most of us seek this
treasure. The spiritual Love behind someone’s odiousness is seldom
appreciated, however. According to Myss’s Sacred Contracts, people show up in
our lives out of pre-incarnation contracts to do so. This is so that, on earth, we
may experience certain things, learn specific lessons, and grow spiritually.
Regardless of whether our earthly experiences are heavenly or hellish, Love
motivates these contracts.197 That is spiritual Love. Rarely, though, is spiritual
Love acknowledged by a world that is obsessed with earth love—of which
romantic love takes the spotlight.
Trans-sensory people enjoy the pleasant forms of earth love. But they also
see the beauty in the less pleasant forms. Trans-sensory humans see the spiritual
Love behind someone’s abusiveness—and learn the lesson quickly so that the
experience may end. In other words, it is not the earth love. Rather, it is the
196
See the movie Tuck Everlasting, “Lessons of Tuck” (2002). There, director Jay Russell uses the term
“Holy Grail” to describe perfect love.
197
Caroline M. Myss, Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential, (New York: Harmony Books,
2001).
spiritual growth that transpires as a result of the earth love. The form is earth
love. The content is spiritual Love. Earth love is the tool. Spirit/soul growth is
what the tool creates.
Seeing the Unseeable
One night, I turned left in my single bed. My bedroom was dark, except
for the moonlight penetrating the diaphanous white curtain to my left.
Suddenly, I saw a white horse, one with wings. It was galloping in place in
midair. The horse looked like Artex from the film The Neverending Story (West
German-British; 1984). I had seen the unseeable. I then remembered that the
theme song of that movie had played on the radio about three days earlier. That
song had never played before on my radio, so I knew that this was as unordinary
as seeing a mythical creature that wasn’t “there.”
Sometimes, I see white light shining above me in the dark. Psychiatrists
will argue that I am seeing something made by “a brain starving for stimuli.” I,
however, remember a therapist of guided imagery telling me that she had seen a
Native American man in a forest outside her house. It was daytime—no brain
starving for stimuli. Although the man was not “there,” he showed up in her life
some months later.
In the movie Pathfinder (1987), the shaman Raste (Nils Utsi) sees the head
of a reindeer bull. The deer leaps from a snowdrift and ruffles some briars. The
camera looks at the space that is beyond the trembling branches, then pans from
one of Raste’s eyes to the other. You can literally sense that something is present
beyond the bare branches, something invisible. The deserted landscape of
Lappland 1,000 years ago certainly helps to set the tone. Raste’s awareness of the
unseeable is trans-sensory consciousness.
Trans-sensory humans see the unseeable, hear the unhearable, feel the
unfeelable, taste the untasteable, and smell the unsmellable when the heavens
call for these things to occur—rather than when these people dictate for them to
happen. Psychologists steeped in the old paradigm will call such events
“hallucinations.” From a material perspective, they are hallucinations, for no one
and nothing is there. From a spiritual perspective, these events are real, for
something beyond matter is occupying space. Trans-sensory people have a
both/and view of such phenomena, while sensory people have an either/or
mentality.
The next chapter inspects limiting parameters that the spirit sphere has
placed in the material sphere.
Exercises
1) Have you ever had a passion—as for someone, a hobby, or a place—that

evaporated? If yes, what do you think caused your passion to leave you?
Do you think that you can bring it back into your being? If yes, how?
2) Think about someone whom you perceive to be obnoxious. Have you

been able to see the spiritual Love behind the obnoxiousness? If yes, how
did your mental perspective change from when you saw the person’s
ugliness?
3) Have you been able to “see” the unseeable? If yes, what was the
situation? What do you think brought you trans-sensory vision? Were you,
for instance, consciously seeking to transcend your human senses? Or did
the emergence of trans-sensory perception in you happen spontaneously?
9
Limits of Human Experience
An article in Scientific American shows this universe as a bubble

surrounded by other bubbles (other universes). These multiverses (many
universes) are inside a megabubble, much like the waxed cavities of a
honeycomb. This megabubble is neighbored by other megabubbles—other
“honeycombs.” Different laws of physics exist in different universes, called
parallel universes. Some universes have the same laws of physics as ours, but
historical and environmental events differ in them. These are not parallel but
alternate universes.198 Each uni-verse is literally one verse in an infinity of verses.
These verses are the songs of the gods. All possibilities exist somewhere,
however unlikely those possibilities may be. Needless to say, the biological
senses detect less than an inkling of what exists in infinity.
In the movie Defending Your Life (1991), Bob Diamond (Rip Torn) tells
Daniel Miller (Albert Brooks) in the afterlife:
When you’re born into this universe [emphasis mine], you’re in it for a
long, long time. You have many different lifetimes, and after each
lifetime, there’s an examining period, which you’re in now. You see,
every second of every lifetime is always recorded, and as each one ends,
we sort of look at it. And then, if everybody agrees, you move forward
198
Max Tegmark, “Parallel Universes,” Scientific American, May 2003, Vol. 288, No. 5: 40-51.
… The point of this whole thing is to keep getting smarter [e.g., to use
more than 5 percent of one’s brain], to keep growing …
This is the “eternity” that religions speak of, an eternity pertaining to this
universe and to its physical and spiritual laws.
This chapter condenses my conclusions about the major rules of this
universe. Some of us might call such laws limitations. Nevertheless, they are the
rules by which we must play. This chapter explores the following limitations of
human—and even spiritual—existence:
1) There being so much room for the five senses in the human brain
2) Everything being cause/effect and choice/result
3) Choice being a gamble, more often than not, because we don’t see the
big picture
4) Everything being who, what, when, where, why, and how
Becoming aware of these parameters is one of the first steps toward becoming
trans-sensory.
Only So Much Room for the Five Senses
As life on earth evolved, organisms did not develop abilities to detect

things like gamma waves.199 Why not? Because detection of gamma waves was
199
Why biological evolution didn’t produce the ability to detect germs—when that is needed for survival—
is one of evolution’s mysteries.
not needed for biological survival. The human senses have therefore bequeathed
to us the bias through which we experience physical life. The human brain, in
turn, only has so much room. Throughout biological evolution, the brain has
had to cut corners to make space for the newer senses. As Diane Ackerman
writes in An Alchemy of Mind, this is what happened to the sense of smell, our
oldest sense. As other biological senses emerged, the smell regions of the brain
made room for the newer senses of taste, touch, sound, and sight. The result,
Ackerman writes, is that smell today is the weakest of human senses.200 Human
experience, in brief, is limited by the bias of material survival and by a brain with
limited space.
Cause/Effect
This principle orders everything in this universe. As Issac Newton’s third

law of motion says, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
This law is the equivalent of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Of course,
Newton’s third law doesn’t mean that we should avenge wrongs against us, for
our avenging (cause) will come back to us (effect). Newton’s law does mean,
however, that the physical and nonphysical universes have an “effect” compass
of their own. As the Bible says, “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord [emphasis
mine].”201 This means that the psychic universe (e.g., “the Lord”) will respond
(effect) to our thoughts and actions (cause) in the material universe. Positive
thoughts and actions bring positive karma (PRO-sequence). Negative thoughts
and actions bring negative karma (CON-sequence). Our experience in this bi-
200
Ackerman, An Alchemy of Mind, pgs. 9 and 232.
201
Loosely translated, this comes from Romans 12:19 in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.
verse (physical and nonphysical universes combined) limits us to cause and

effect. Even if we do nothing (cause), we will get nothing in return (effect).
Nothing exists outside the law of cause and effect.
Choice/Result
Everything in human life boils down to two things: choice and PRO-
sequence (positive result) or choice and CON-sequence (negative result).
Caroline Myss even argues that choice is more fundamental than love, for love
itself is a choice.202 Even small decisions like bringing chocolate or strawberries
to a party are bound by the law of choice/effect. This is regardless of whether or
not we are conscious of the choices that we make. Effects follow each decision,
whether or not we are aware of this. Whether made from a human level or from
a Spirit/soul level, choice determines everything that we experience. Of course,
from a human level—rather than a karmic/spiritual perspective—sole
individuals aren’t always the architects of the human choices that affect them.
Children, for example, can be born with a disease because of decisions that their
parents made.
How often I wish that I didn’t have to choose, especially when confronted
with situations of “damned if I do, damned if I don’t.” I, for example, needed to
have my heart checked and had no health insurance. I considered applying for
an individual plan because group plans are for employed people. I fell under the
category “unemployed” because though I was writing my heart out, the
economic system didn’t pay me. An insurance representative told me that since I
have a medical history, any individual plan that I applied for would not cover
202
See Myss, Sacred Contracts.
“preexisting conditions”—at least, not for two-and-a-half years. The only option
was to “get employed” and through my employer, get group insurance. The
problem was that I had been trying to “get employed” for years. (People with
Asperger Syndrome are seldom hired; yet, most social service agencies aren’t
aware of this problem.) I had two options. On the one hand, I could have
applied to a program for uninsured people and exposed every detail about my
assets. I found the prospect of revealing my life savings as invasive as having a
medical instrument inserted in a well-known area. On the other hand, I could
have said nothing about my savings—and drawn suspicions about the
truthfulness of my statements on the application. I decided to tell the truth about
my M.A. degree, about the money I was living on, and about everything they
asked me. I didn’t qualify for the program because my M.A. led the interviewer
to conclude that I would soon be earning a decent salary. The program for
uninsured people, he told me, was for people with very little education. I was
left with two choices:
1) Getting my heart checked and possibly losing my life savings

or
2) Delaying having my heart checked for who knew how long
I also couldn’t apply for unemployment because I had never earned enough
figures on the sheet. (This is another problem that adults with Asperger’s have.)
Situations like these are exhausting. For once, I wished that I did not have to
choose—if nothing else, to avoid the exhaustion of choosing.
For better or worse, we live in a universe where everything is
choice/result. We cannot escape this law. The bad news is that at the bottom of
the barrel, choices are of the nature, “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
The good news is that we may be able to get off the stick on which we are
roasting like Haakon Haakonsen (Stian Smestad) in the movie Shipwrecked
(1991). Then, we can move up from the fire at the bottom and climb out of the
cave. On the green pastures outside of the barrel, choices are light, fun, and
peaceful. As unfair as it is, ignorance of the law is not a defense with regard to
spiritual laws. This is much as ignorance about social rules gets Aspergians into
trouble.
The Gamble of Choice
The human brain may tell us that volition is an either/or affair. In other
words, we either have free will or we don’t. But free will is more complicated
than either/or, for it doesn’t happen on an even playing field. Some choices are
easy. Others are hard.
When we know what a result will be, choice is easier. In the movie
Groundhog Day (1993), for instance, Phil Connors (Bill Murray) finds himself
reliving February 2nd. The first few days, Connors steps into a pothole of
freezing water. Connors learns to avoid the pothole, however, for he knows it is
coming. In the flick The Dead Zone (1983), Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken)
also knows what is coming, for by shaking the hands of others, he can see their
future. It is through foresight that John prevents the election of Greg Stillson
(Martin Sheen) and hence, World War III.
What about when we don’t know the effects of a thought or act? The
decision to relocate, for example, is fraught with unknowns. I, for instance, was
guided to move to Tacoma, Washington in the spring of 2006. The heavens
literally wrote it out for me—in the form of Tacoma written in silverish letters on
the back of more than one pickup truck on the road. Following my failure to
afford to stay in New Hampshire, I had no more will and energy to try again
somewhere else. Having returned to square one (Florida) in June 2005, I
reluctantly researched Tacoma on the web, just to be able to tell God that I
followed up on His guidance. Tacoma’s air, it turns out, has a leftover smell
from an era when the city was heavily industrialized. Its parks are not the
healthiest in the nation. Many Tacoma neighborhoods are riddled with drugs
and crime. My Florida lease was about to expire. I had to decide whether to
renew the lease or delay renewing and have my rent jacked up. With my having
no income, I felt sick to my stomach. I was torn between God’s guidance and the
facts about Tacoma, a city that had a gang problem in the late 1990s. After
reading other negatives about Tacoma, I decided that I didn’t want to return to
Bronx-like living. I chose not to move to this particular city.
Around that time, a New Wave song aired on the radio. I listened extra
carefully because:
1) “Situation” is one of my all-time favorites

2) Radio stations rarely played this number in my locality—not to
mention that the song was the extended version
The refrain went:
Move out, don’t mess around

Move out, you bring me down
Move out, how you get about
Don’t make a sound

Just move out203
I saw the name of another city printed in front of a bike rack—white

letters over black. On different days, I saw the city’s name over the same bike
rack. I kept delaying making a choice about whether to move, once more, to a
place where I had no job—other than my freelance writing—and to a place where
I didn’t know a single spirit. I didn’t want to repeat the mistake of New
Hampshire, which involved moving to a state where I had no connections. Jobs,
I learned in New Hampshire, come from networking because patronage is still
alive and well. I chose to renew my Florida lease. My refusal to move (“the hero
declines the call to adventure”) was part of The Hero’s Journey, as outlined by
Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces.204
Four weeks later, suspicious vehicles started to roam around my
apartment complex. The coupés, vans, and pickups all had black windows. One
day, a black SUV pulled behind me as I was getting into my red sedan. The
shiny SUV stayed in the middle of the parking lot with the engine running—
never mind that it was broad daylight. This was the exact situation that the
priest faces in the movie Nightmares (1983). In “The Benediction,” the third
story of the film, Father MacLeod (Lance Henriksen) leaves his parish, for he has
come to believe that “we are living in a great void.” As MacLeod puts it, “I’ve
lost my faith.” The SUV that I encountered was ominously similar to the black
pickup that terrorizes the ex-priest in the desert. I inhaled deeply. The black
SUV screeched away. Bicyclists who didn’t live in my apartment complex began
to come and go, however. One afternoon, an African American man almost
203
Yaz, “Situation.” This song is in the CD titled, Upstairs at Eric’s. “Situation” debuted in 1982. The CD
came out on October 25, 1990. Label: Sire / London/Rhino.
204
Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Third Edition, (Novato, CA: New World Library,
2008).
backed his eight-cylinder car into my living room. He applied his brakes so that
his taillights would get my attention. Neighbors started to complain to
management about suspicious activity in the area. Not even in the South Bronx
(1980s) had I felt so threatened (2006). I suspected that street drugs were
involved. On three occasions, I was forced to call the police. I forgot the saying,
“Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real [emphasis mine].”205 One week, I
panicked. It hurt physically. My appetite left, and I began to worry on an empty
stomach. About a month later, a black vehicle pulled up beside my red car at a
stoplight down the block. Its dark windows were rolled down. Rap music
blared into my car. I never looked directly, but I saw enough through the corner
of my eye. The atmosphere was thick as water. The 95-degree heat was
suffocating. My red sedan—actually, my deceased mother’s—had no air
conditioner ($800 to fix). Therefore, I was forced to leave my window down.
Then and there, I chose not to fear. Never did I look at the dark men in the
vehicle. Instead, I whispered a mantra that, I was told, diffuses negative
energies. Seconds later, the car rolled further ahead, still waiting for the
stoplight to change. The drivers silenced their music. The light then changed.
What amazed me was that this miracle didn’t shock me. As A Course in
Miracles says, miracles happen everyday.206 I never reacted in disbelief. Rather, I
was grateful. Reinforcing this miracle were drops of water that I spotted one
afternoon on the hood of my red sedan. It had not rained, and no water hoses or
sprinklers were around. I interpreted the drops to be a sign that, despite it all, I
was safe.
Days later, I recalled the Story of Lot in Genesis: 18-19. Before God
destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (it was for inhospitality, not for homosexuality
205
The author of this saying is unknown. The saying is at Cybernation.com. See URL
http://www.cybernation.com/quotationcenter/quoteshow.php?id=10543.
206
See Shuckman, A Course in Miracles.
per se), He told Lot and his wife to leave the cities.207 Lot’s wife looked back to
see how God would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. As we know, she turned
into a pillar of salt. When a negative person leaves negativity behind, negative
energies from the past keep catching up in the present. This lasts for a while.
There is the temptation to get embroiled, once again, in negativism. After all,
negative people have been attracted to dark energies for a long time—focusing
on disease, complaining about lack, worrying about what may go wrong, and
judging people. Like Lot’s wife, I was tempted to look into the rattling vehicle
while waiting for the stoplight to change. I resisted the urge, and the car from
hell left my side. I wasn’t turned into a pillar of salt.
When I moved into that apartment complex, it was peaceful as a
crystalline lake—and stayed that way for eight months. I took the vehicle
incidents to be:
1) The CON-sequence (negative result) of my not having followed

divine guidance to “move out”
2) Another clue that God was giving me to leave
A third hint was the words, “Go West, Young Man” on the front-page
headline of my old college newspaper.208 A day later, guess what I saw on one of
Michael W. Smith’s CDs? You guessed it. “Go West, Young Man.”209 I knew
that this was no coincidence.
207
See pamphlet White, Pamela, A Positive Look at the Bible and Homosexuality, (Albuquerque, NM:
River of Life Healing Ministries, 1995).
208
Vincent M. Massaro, “Go West, Young Man: Wednesday Reopening Set,” The Independent Florida
Alligator, August 1, 2006, Vol. 99, Issue 164: 1 and 11.
209
Michael W. Smith, “Go West, Young Man.” This song is in the CD titled, Michael W. Smith, The First
Decade, 1983-1993. “Go West, Young Man” debuted in 1990. The CD came out on October 12, 1993.
Label: Reunion.
I researched the second city that God had clued me about and decided to,
once more, move. Unlike my first move to New Hampshire, my second move
was difficult in that my energy and enthusiasm were gone. I felt like I was
jumping back on a merry-go-round. I also prefer stability. In fact, during my
adolescence, I heard the words, “estabilidad da seguridad” (“stability brings
security”) in my head. Yet, I recalled the line in Power vs. Force that courage—
such as the courage to relocate—is the breakthrough point to higher
consciousness (above 200).210
When I moved west (“the hero heeds the call to adventure”), I drove a
rented truck, just like I had done when I relocated to New Hampshire. From
Tallahasee, Florida to San Antonio, Texas, it rained—on and off, on and off.
Never had I seen so many gray clouds. One of my big toes got infected from an
ingrown nail. (I later looked up the index of Louise Hay’s You Can Heal Your
Life and discovered that ingrown toenails mean “Worry and guilt about your
right to move forward.”)211 Lacking health insurance, I had to go to the nearest
hospital for medicine. It cost me $353. In northern New Mexico, I began to
encounter mountain bends. Night had fallen. Guess what? It started to rain
again. There were no street lights, practically no other vehicles to help me light
up the interstate, and no rest area for 30 miles. Close to southern Colorado, I saw
the black sky flash toward day behind fluffy clouds. A thought hit my mind.
Tornado! Then and there, I chose to drop that thought and focused on my line of
vision ahead. I refused to look at the cliffs that dropped from the right side of
my truck. Slowly, my fear vanished. Had I not dropped the thought of tornado,
you might not be reading this. Outside of Pueblo, Colorado, a recliner fell off a
loaded pickup in front of my truck. This was on the interstate. For an instant,
210
211
Hay, You Can Heal Your Life, p. 180.
each second became three seconds. I swerved and avoided getting hit. After
Pueblo, the skies cleared, and it was smooth sailing afterward.
In Washington state, however, things slowed down to a crawl. I found
my dream car—at an affordable price. But the owner had issues with the title.
The bank also froze my new checking account, as banks always do whenever one
transfers funds from one state to another. For three weeks, I couldn’t do much
around town because America’s public transportation system is a joke—with
exceptions like New York City. I couldn’t restart exercising at the local gym,
couldn’t get my license updated, and had to walk 10 blocks to get to the nearest
grocery store. Try carrying six bags of groceries 10 blocks in the heat of summer.
One day, I waited 40 minutes for a transfer bus. It never came. I tried again
another day. The bus came. At the driver’s license office, I didn’t pass the exam.
Like in Florida, my “life” stalled.
As I walked home, a soccer ball rolled my way on green grass. The high
school girls were faraway, so I assumed that the wind had blown it. The ball was
golden. I had seen that color several times over the past few months. I took the
ball to mean that I needed to make a play in the “game of life.” I, however, had
already contacted the history department at the local college, the tutoring center,
and the writing center. I had checked their human resources websites. Like in
New Hampshire, I had telephoned the directors of the various departments. As
usual, their answering machines came on. I left brief messages stating my
educational background, availability, and bilingual skills. I was willing to meet
them in person, even if nothing was currently open, and told them so on their
answering machines. In fact, this is Step Two in the job-hunting process. From
my perspective, I had already made a play—actually, several plays. It was the
people who didn’t return my messages that needed to make countermoves. As
the saying goes, “It takes two to tango.” I wasn’t ecstatic about my “life.” But I
was fairly positive, despite the things that had happened to me. I didn’t know
what else to do, other than ask the Holy Spirit for more guidance. It was like the
impasse that transpires between the crew of the Starship Enterprise and the race
of beings that speaks only in metaphor. Without knowing who Romeo and Juliet
were—let alone, what the balcony scene means—there is no way that one will
comprehend this metaphor. So argues Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) in
the episode of Star Trek called “Darmok.”212 (See Part I, Chapter 15, section
titled, “Why Look at Things Symbolically?”) The spirit world throws metaphors
our way, metaphors like the golden soccer ball that I encountered. But because
we lack a nonhuman frame of reference, we often miss the meaning of divine
guidance. This is why spiritual messages are often humanly illogical, even when
we get that they are divine messages.
The mother ship of my soul chose to eject the shuttle of my current spirit
to incarnate during the 1970s. This was a time of unprecedented changes on
planet Earth. One of the goals of my Spirit/soul was to help further some of the
positive changes. A spirit guide told me, however, that a major part of my
spiritual mission got cancelled after I was born. Other parts of my mission were
just delayed. Why? A critical mass of humanity recoiled at the cultural changes
that were occurring on earth. The conservative counterrevolution in America
has been against everything that the 1960s and 1970s gave birth to. These
include the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, environmental
awareness, the antiwar movement, the youth movement, gay liberation, the
rights of the poor, and the rights of children. The post-1980 backlash in America
—and to a lesser extent, in Canada/Europe/Australia—is a major part of this
unexpected change. Many spiritual missions had to be aborted or postponed.
212
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Darmok.” This episode originally aired in syndication on September
28, 1991 (Season 5, episode 2).
Mine was one of them. My aimlessness up to now—no matter how much action
I have done—is an effect of this.
Choice sounds like an easy concept. For people who don’t know what the
effects of their choices will be, however, choice is a gamble. Free will can thus be
said to be a series of gambles that we make on our path to learning what the
“right” and “wrong” choices are. Even people who think that x choice will make
them happy—as in a one-night stand—are gambling when they choose x,
thinking that is the “right” choice, and discover that x brings them misery. A
momentous example is Adolf Hitler. He thought that the Nazi death camps
were the “Final Solution” to the presence of Jews and German “undesirables.”
Yet, Hitler’s vision of an Aryan nation failed to materialize, and Germany now
has a growing class of Turkish immigrants.
Another example of choices being made in the dark is James Polk. From
1846 to 1848, this American president pushed war—the U.S./Mexican War—on a
weak Mexico. The American ideology of Manifest Destiny—the dream of the
Stars and Stripes all over North America—was used to justify takeovers of
western lands in Mexican hands (e.g., the Californias) and in British hands (e.g.,
Oregon Territory). Tejas was one of the first casualties. Ever since Texas was a
Mexican territory (1824-1836), American colonists had been wagoning there in
droves. First, American newspapers, congresspeople, and presidents from
Andrew Jackson to James Polk encouraged more Americans to immigrate into
what would become the Republic of Texas (1836-1845). Second, the United States
annexed Texas in 1845 and Oregon Territory in 1846. Third, through the treaty
that ended the U.S./Mexican War—the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)—the
U.S. annexed the rest of northern Mexico. This was some 40 percent of Mexican
territory. The Polk administration announced as glorious for the American
Republic the acquisition of California, Nevada, Utah, parts of Colorado and

Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, and unincorporated parts of Texas.
America, however, brought negative karma upon herself. Just like
Americans colonized Texas—once a Mexican territory—and the lands of the
Mexican Session, the United States is now being deluged by legal and illegal
immigrants from Mexico. And just like most American immigrants to Tejas
refused to learn Spanish in the 1820s and 1830s, many Mexicans today refuse to
learn English in the U.S.
An adjunct development to the Mexican question was that through
disease and war, European settlers wiped out American Indians to their current 1
percent of the U.S. population. But since the Immigration and Naturalization Act
of 1965, European Americans have been in danger of becoming a minority
themselves. In 1960, for example, European Americans were 88.6 percent of the
American population.213 By 2042, European Americans are forecasted to be 49
percent of the U.S. population—a full eight years ahead of schedule.214 Anglos
have already declined to 49 percent of California’s population—down from 80
percent in 1950. As demographic observers have noted, where California goes,
the rest of America will follow, and where the United States goes
demographically, the rest of the Western world will follow. As of 2009, 47
percent of American children under age 5 are nonwhite—up from 45 percent in
2005.215 This is the future demographics of the United States.
Caucasian countries around the world face the same demographic
tsunami. Native Europeans themselves are forecasted to become a minority in
213
This statistic comes from Patrick J. Buchanan, The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and
Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization, (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2002), p.
136.
214
The U.S. Census Bureau is making this prediction.
215
This is according to the U.S. Census Bureau. See Sean Callebs, “Whites Become Minority in Kansas
County,” CNN.com/living, May 22, 2009. Article at
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/05/22/garden.city.kansas.minorities/index.html.
Europe within a few decades. Why? Because Europe colonized non-European

lands for centuries. Now, Europe (increasingly called Eurabia) is being flooded
by immigrants from the Third World. This is a karmic consequence of Europe
having colonized the world. This is not to blame Caucasians, as every human
race has “good” and “bad” people. And people from all over the world—not just
Europeans—have willingly settled in the Americas. Thus, just about every
human race is “guilty” of stealing Indian lands. The exception is people who
were brought to the New World against their will—namely, African slaves.
Unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on your view—the law of karma
makes us collectively responsible for the sins of our ancestors. A sensory person
will rail, “Why should I pay reparations? I wasn’t there.” To be sure, the word
reparations has a tone of revenge in it, and that is lower consciousness. Still, a
trans-sensory person knows that each human race is psychically linked to its
ancestors. This is so regardless of whether or not it is fair. Many contacts
between Europeans and American Indians were peaceful, of course. Yet,
majority rules, and the majority of Indian/European encounters in the Americas
were violent, as were the majority of European/non-European encounters in the
rest of the world. Europeans also led the trend of everyone coming to the
Americas. Therefore, Caucasians are karmically the most responsible for the
racial makeover of the Americas.
Several trends are causing the demographic decline of Caucasians. These
trends have been called, “opting out of whiteness.” First, most people of
European stock are either not reproducing (birth control or abortion) or are
having less than 2.1 children. The requirement to keep a population stable is 2.1
children per couple. Instead of reproducing, more Caucasians are adopting
children from other races. The movie Gloria (1980) hints at the reason for this.
The following scene unfolds between a Caucasian woman (Gena Rowlands) and
a Puerto Rican boy (John Adames):
Phil: Why would you wanna be my mother?
Gloria: I don’t know. Just wanna clear things up.
This has been called “white guilt,” guilt for the atrocities that Europeans have
committed against non-Europeans over the last 500 years. Non-Europeans, of
course, have also committed barbarities over the past 500 years—and the law of
karma will hold them up to account as well.
Second, Caucasians who do reproduce with other Caucasians are tending
to delay having children until age 30 or later. The reason is that Western women
—not just Western men—are being forced into the labor force by monetary
necessities. Other Western women are in the workplace for personal fulfillment.
Second wave feminism (post-1964) has inspired many Western women to pursue
happiness in the workplace—and to abandon motherhood altogether. The
Western delay of reproduction is aging people of European extraction and is
causing Caucasian youth, the future of the Caucasian race, to decline in numbers.
As Pat Buchanan, the political commentator, writes in The Death of the West:
Not since the Black Death carried off a third of Europe in the fourteenth
century has there been a graver threat to the survival of Western
civilization. Today, in seventeen European countries, there are more
burials than births, more coffins than cradles.216
216
Buchanan, The Death of the West, p. 9.
Third, more Caucasians are abandoning the future of their race by

reproducing with nonwhites. If Western nations required its citizens to follow
the 2:1 rule, then racial extinction would not be an issue. Each Caucasian who
chose to have children would then be required to have two Caucasian children
with a Caucasian sexual and/or romantic partner. Two children per person
keeps the Caucasian population stable, and three children maximum per person
prevents overpopulation. If a Caucasian wants interracial children, then the
third child could be had with a non-Caucasian lover. Polyamory allows this.
Monogamy, on the other hand, prevents one’s having interracial children and
children of one’s race because only one other sexual partner is allowed. Ever
since Columbus discovered America for the Europeans, interracial contact has
been slowly destroying the original races—especially races with recessive genes.
Why? Because in multi-racial societies, people increasingly tend to only have
children with the other races that they come into contact with. This is sensory
consciousness because it is either/or thinking. Both/and thinking encourages
racial preservation and racial genetic mixing per person through polyamory. In
a both/and milieu, each person is encouraged to have both same-race lovers and
kids and other-race lovers and kids. That way, the multi-racial society sustains
itself, instead of becoming a post-racial society down the road. If everything
united throughout the four corners of the globe, we would lose the ability to
differentiate things—and would lose the ability to enjoy diversity. In “the real
world,” however, global warming will require the blending of the human races.
But just as national parks exist, racial preserves could be set up as well (see
epilogue).
Fourth, gay identity is common in the Caucasian population—not bi
identity—and 100 percent homosexuality in someone inhibits his or her
reproduction.
Fifth, Caucasian homelands are being overrun by non-European

immigrants—both legal and illegal. Immigrants, of course, can enrich a country
culturally, and even undocumented workers have human rights. Cesar Chavez,
the organizer of farm workers from 1952 to 1993, set a humane precedent
because he organized underpaid, overworked laborers in rural America. Both
legal and illegal, immigrants tend to be hardworking, work at jobs that most
Westerners wouldn’t take, and (legal immigrants) pay taxes. But the tearing
down of Western borders is displacing native Europeans. Given global
warming, however, this is necessary (see epilogue).
On June 8, 1982, President Ronald Reagan told the British Parliament that
Marxism and Leninism would be left “… on the ash-heap of history …” Reagan
didn’t consider that everything else that comes out of the West will too be
confined to “the ash-heap of history.” This includes blond hair and blue irises—
at least, on this one of many alternate earths. As playwright Euripides wrote,
quoted in The Death of the West, “ ‘ There is no greater sorrow on earth, than the
loss of one’s native land.’ ”217 This is from a human perspective. From a spiritual
perspective, there is no greater joy than “ ‘the loss of one’s native land.’ ”218 This
is humanly irrational but cosmically rational (see epilogue, section titled,
“Coping with Armageddon”). Psychically, about half of the West—the liberal
half—is no longer “white.” It is only a matter of time before this gets physically
manifested.
When Robert Moses, the construction coordinator, authorized the
bulldozing of neighborhoods in New York City to construct freeways, this began
the process of displacement of Caucasians from their homelands (see Part II,
Chapter 6, section titled “The Hierarchy of Representation—Politics”). After
1945, every American city began to transform from white to nonwhite. As an old
217
Ibid., p. 5.
218
Ibid.
lady implored to Mayor Ed Koch of New York City in 1978, “Make it like it
was.”219 Now, entire states are being transformed from white to nonwhite. In a
few decades, entire countries—all Western—will see their native populations
decimated. People of European stock are becoming strangers in their own land
(Europe) and strangers in the lands that they have occupied for centuries in the
New World. This will, very likely, be the last generation of “white” people. As
Jozef Ritzen, a Dutch Minister of Education and Science, said in 1989:
I think that the Dutch will in the long run disappear. The [immigrant]
ethnic groups’ population growth is much faster than that of the Dutch. It
is obvious that this process will continue, even after the year 2100. This is
the trend worldwide. The white race will in the long term become extinct.
I don’t regard this as positive or negative. Apparently we are happy with
this development.220
All of the above developments are a type of ethnic cleansing. Yet, in the
United States, the ethnic cleansing of European Americans is being called “a
purely demographic matter” and “cultural and socioeconomic dislocation.”221
Becoming trans-sensory means being conscious about the following: If the
end of white America is at hand, so is the end of black America, and the end of
Asian America, and the end of Hispanic America. This is because we are all
connected spiritually. If one domino falls, all the dominos fall (see epilogue).
We can both mourn this loss from a human perspective and celebrate it from a
219
New York: A Documentary Film, “The City and the World: 1945-Present.”
220
This quote comes from an interview in the Dutch magazine Vast & Zeker. This was requoted in the
Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, December 11, 1989, p. 1. The newspaper article was titled, “Ritzen:
Blanke ras verdwijnt” (Ritzen: The White Race Disappears).
221
Hua Hsu, “The End of White America?” The Atlantic, January/February 2009. Article at
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200901/end-of-whiteness.
divine perspective, for much more is going on in the cosmos than the physical
senses allow us to see or know about.
From a karmic perspective, Caucasians have brought their cultural and
numerical decline. Because Europeans colonized the world from 1492 on,
Caucasian homelands are now being colonized. And not just physically but
culturally. Because the West fed off the resources of non-Western nations for
centuries, non-Western immigrants are now feeding off the wealth of Western
nations. This wealth includes things like higher wages, free medical care, and
Western technology. Poetic justice. For every action, there is an equal and
opposite reaction. The Empire Strikes Back. In 1900, for example, Caucasians
were 30 percent of the world’s population. By 2050, Caucasians are forecasted to
be less than 7 percent of the global population.222 Just like European settlements
drove American Indians to the countryside after 1492, the immigration of
“colored” people into “white” countries has driven Caucasians to the suburbs
since 1950.
The master becomes the slave, and the slave emerges the master. This is
in line with the law of karma. In the cosmic sense, two wrongs make a right.
That is the karmic equation. This is not an excuse for humans to take revenge.
Again, the Bible says, “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord [emphasis mine].”223
Only the heavens can “take revenge” through the law of karma—not us. This is
because the heavens play by one set of rules, while we must play by another set
of rules. The good news is that the lessons we learn here affect alternate earths,
so that some things never happen again. As memorials for the European
Holocaust say, “Never again.”
Europe’s colonization of the Americas was unstoppable, however. As
Carl Sagan narrates in an episode of Cosmos:
222
This is the projection being made by the United Nations.
223
Loosely translated, this comes from Romans 12:19 in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.
Improvements in navigation, the lure of the spice trade [in the Far East]
and competition among rival European powers made the discovery of
America around 1500 more or less inevitable.224
The Bible says:
And [people] shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the
east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not
find it.225
To the human ego, the “word of the Lord” are the riches of this world. By “shall
not find it,” the Bible means that the things of this world won’t truly satisfy.226
Besides earthly reasons, there were divine reasons for Europe’s expansion
to the Americas. The Hopi Indians of Arizona, for instance, prophesied the
meeting of “the white man” and “the red man.”227 If this encounter was
prophesized, then divine providence was behind it. This means that the
European arrival in the New World was spiritually inevitable. From a cosmic
perspective, it was a done deal. Like a legal contract, the meeting of Europeans
and non-Europeans could not have been undone. Before 1492, a series of legal
forms must have been signed in heaven between Spirits/souls preparing to
incarnate as Europeans, Native Americans, African Americans, and Asians. This
was the what, and it appears to have been inevitable. How the spiritual accord
was fulfilled was not inevitable, however. In an alternate earth, for example,
224
This is from episode 8 of Cosmos, titled, “Journeys in Space and Time.” Cosmos originally aired on
PBS in the fall of 1980.
225
This comes from Amos 8:11-12 from the Mormon version of the Bible.
226
Ibid.
227
See Mooncloud, “Native American Prophecies,” p. 2.
Europeans could have expanded into the Americas—as the population of Europe
required after 1500—without exterminating Native Americans. Peaceful co-
existence could have been realized. Perhaps, North America could have been
carved so that American Indians stayed south of the Ohio River and Europeans
stayed to the north. Limited intercultural contact would have been preferable to
disease and death through uncontrolled contact. Also, Native Americans would
not have been put on reservations. Nor did the British have to colonize India.
Had Europeans fulfilled their divine mission to connect the peoples of the world
in a humane way, they would not be on the path to extinction today. And
connecting the peoples of the world in a humane way includes not unleashing
technologies, as Europeans have done, that will make the world too hot. Global
warming is another factor in the extinction of much of humanity (see epilogue).
There are no inalienable human rights—only alienable human rights and
privileges. Even the discarnate Spirit/soul can forfeit Its rights by creating
negative karma. When a human race or the human species abuses its alienable
rights and privileges because of the human ego, it forfeits them. Therefore, no
human race has an inalienable right to exist under the sun, only the alienable
right and privilege to do so. Creating negative karma—such as the process of
European colonization—eliminates the alienable right and privilege of a race or
species to exist under the sun. Players have no inalienable rights—only alienable
rights that can be revoked through penalties of the game.
In a learning process akin to the scientific method (experiment/result),
human life can become a hellish journey. We spiritual non-masters often think
that our experiment is going well. Suddenly, we get electrocuted—a side effect,
nothing personal.
Karma. Trial and error. Gambles and choices in the dark. Such is the
price of personal and collective evolution. Real choice comes when one knows
the effects of x decision and chooses accordingly. Moreover, there is a difference

between knowing the effects of something and thinking that one knows. Only
through experience can one learn to distinguish between the two.
The Five Ws and the H
Human—and inhuman—experiences are limited to who, what, when,

where, why, and how. That’s it. No more. In an infinity of universes, surely
there is more to existence than the five Ws that journalists use to report news.
Story, however, is everything in this universe—be it the story of biological
evolution, the story of modernization, the story of your life, the story of your
getting up from bed, or the story of a car crash. Story, in turn, is nothing but
who, what, when, where, why, and how.228 Try to think about anything. Say, for
example, that you are thinking about your computer, puppy, or mug. After a
few seconds, you are bound to unearth a story. Even if you found a spoon on the
curb and have no idea what the spoon’s story is, you found it, and that is a story.
Story (a sequence of events) is as major as choice/effect—itself a story. Yet,
everything having a story is another limitation in a universe of universes.
Are sensory perception, choice/result, and the five Ws and the H all there
is to existence? Or do parameters exist beyond these frontiers? Whatever the
answer, trans-sensory humans abide by physical and nonphysical laws of this
universe.
228
I define story loosely here, as merely a sequence of events. Fiction experts define story more
comprehensively—among other things, as meaningful events that connect sequentially and that change a
character(s) by the end of a narrative.
The next chapter shows the folly of living by our human senses alone.
Exercises
1) Jot down three small choices that you have made—of the thousands we
make every day—that were spiritually significant. Next time you catch
yourself doing or saying humanly insignificant things, try to discover the
spiritual significance of such choices.
2) Of choices that you have made, list one that you thought would bring you
or others a positive result (PRO-sequence). Did the effect match your
expectation? If no, what did you learn about the choice in question?
10
Limits of the Human Senses
Most human conflict would not exist if we examined the basis of our
disagreements. As this chapter will show, a mere three senses are the portal
through which most of us come to misconstrue one another, hate each other, and
continue the us vs. them mentality. These three senses are seeing, hearing, and
touching. They do the following to our consciousness:
1) Affect our perceptions about differences of religion, class, race,

gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and ideology
2) Cause us to miss subtle differences in the physical environment
3) Cause us to mix Truth and falsehood in everyday life
The sections below look at the above topics.
The Three Senses of Human Differences
Most human differences are not even based on what the so-called five
senses perceive. Rather, human differences are based on what three of our
biological senses detect—four including the thought-processing part of the
human brain. The three senses are sight, sound, and touch. Differences between
Jews and Muslims, for example, are seen and heard. Rabbis wear the kippah on
their heads, whereas Muslim women wear head scarfs (visual elements). Their
religious chants and doctrinal language also vary (auditory elements).
Ideological differences are the last difference between Jews and Muslims, and
like sight and sound, the sixth sense of the human brain processes such
differences.
To a large extent, differences between the rich and poor are visual and
auditory. Largely college educated, for example, wealthy people dress and talk
differently than poor, often illiterate people. Seeing and hearing rich vs. poor
people, one concludes that they are separate species. Increasingly in the West, of
course, class differences are going underground, as low-income people have cars,
radios, televisions, refrigerators, and even computers and cell phones. Access to
services and to information is what is now delineating the split between rich and
poor. This is a reminder that our human senses can fool us about who is wealthy
and poor. Historically, however, class differences have manifested visually and
auditorily.
As for racial differences, they are mostly seen—although genes and the
differences in the bone structure of each human race are not directly visible.
Ethnic differences are seen and heard. Sight elements of ethnicity may be
different ways of dressing—as in Scottish men wearing kilts. Auditory elements
of ethnicity are the different languages and dialects that people use. An example
is black English. Some specialists of smell argue that different human
populations also smell differently, but this is a contentious issue.229
Gender differences are overwhelmingly based on sight and sound.
Women, for instance, tend to be shorter and rounder than men (sight elements,
for the most part). Women’s voices are typically higher-pitched, while men’s
voices are usually lower-pitched (sound elements). One could argue that
229
For a discussion of scent differences between different human peoples, see Ackerman, A Natural History
of the Senses, p. 22.
touching women’s breasts feels different than touching men’s pecs. But most
individuals don’t do much touching. Women do tend to perspire less and thus,
exude a soft scent. Men tend to sweat more and hence, give off a strong body
odor. But most people have let their sense of smell atrophy. For example, Helen
Keller, the deaf-blind author and public speaker, could smell:
“the work they [people she smelled] are engaged in. The odors of the
wood, iron, paint, and drugs cling to the garments of those who work in
them …. When a person passes quickly from one place to another, I get a
scent impression of where he has been—the kitchen, the garden, or the
sickroom.”230
Obversely, most of us have not trained our noses to detect subtle differences in
the smell of people. In everyday interactions, gender differences exist by sight
and sound alone. Undoubtedly, the nose of Helen Keller sharpened because she
didn’t have the senses of sight and sound distracting her. This is one case of less
being more. By the same token, we could shut our eyes and block our ears once
in a while so that we could focus on smelling.
Differences of “sexual” orientation are based, in turn, on stereotypes about
the look and sound of straight and gay people. In America, effeminate men are
assumed to be “gay.” Effeminacy in men is characterized by a “female” way of
moving (a sight element). Effeminacy in men is also characterized by a “female”
manner of talking—as in lisping (a sound element). Even here, sight and sound
can be deceptive, for many straight men are effeminate. British culture abounds
with effeminate men, for example, and most of them are straight. Many straight
men with Asperger Syndrome also act effeminate.
230
Ibid., p. 23.
Sensory humans rely on the three senses of human differences. Sensory

people form opinions about others based on sight and sound. Like sensory
people, trans-sensory people use their physical senses as gauges in a cockpit. But
unlike sensory people, trans-sensory humans also pay attention to things outside
the cockpit, for as pilots know, instruments can fail.
My “Spanish” Accent
I was born in New York City. Americans, however, have nudged me with
the “fact” that I must be a foreigner because I “sound” like one. I have a
“Spanish” accent, Americans say. That is what their ears hear. My ears, by
comparison, hear nothing Spanish when I speak English. Still, Americans insist
that I don’t sound “American.” Since the last millennium, they have drilled their
ear perceptions into my consciousness—in New York, in Florida, in New
Hampshire, in Washington State, and in Alaska. Therefore, I have concluded
that I am an American citizen by birth but not an American. I have learned that
citizenship and nationality are two different things. Citizenship is being legally
equal to other citizens of the same country. Nationality is being linguistically,
culturally, ethnically, and racially equal to other nationals of the same country.
The following is a citizenship-nationality scale:
Foreign resident . . . . . . . . . . American citizen . . . . . . . . . . American

This brings degrees of foreignness and nativeness to the concept of nationality.

One can be a citizen of a country but not belong to that nationality. I certainly
don’t feel like an American in a nation—actually, several nations in one—that
sees me as an outsider and constantly reminds me of this. The problem is that I
have no nation to call my own. I am a man without a country. My parents
are/were from Puerto Rico (one of them “died”). I, however, wasn’t born on the
island and lived a mere six-and-a-half years there. Culturally, I don’t feel Puerto
Rican or even Hispanic—that is, until Americans knock me over the head with
this.
In the United States, I am seen as Latino or Hispanic—not as a Hispanic
American. This is akin to Germans with Turkish parents being referred to as
German-born Turks—rather than as Turkish Germans—and to Jewish Germans
being called German Jews. On the other hand, consider the Wikipedia
description of actress Marina Sirtis, one of my favorite actresses. In Wikipedia’s
words, Sirtis is a “British-born American actress [emphasis mine].”231 Americans
often reject people born in the U.S., yet accept certain naturalized foreigners—
such as Arnold Schwarzenegger—as American. Americans also see Canadians
as “decaffeinated Americans [emphasis mine],” never mind that Canadians don’t
consider themselves to be American. Canada, after all, has declared herself a
sovereign country since 1867. But because Canadians generally “look” and “act”
American—read Anglo American—most Americans see Canadians as American.
Conversely, many ethnic and racial minorities in America are not seen as “all-
American” because of the way that they look, act, and talk.
Everybody, of course, has an accent, even Anglo Americans. The
difference is that, driven by its mass media, America has decided what “standard
English” sounds like—not to mention, what an “all-American dude” looks like.
231
The article from Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia is titled, “Marina Sirtis.” The URL is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Sirtis.
People who deviate from standard English “have an accent.” People who don’t
deviate “have no accent.” Native-born people can’t comprehend that everyone
has a distinctive way of pronouncing. Even I have been sensory at times on this
issue. One day in class, for example, a student in her 40s started to talk about
bugs in Florida. She pronounced bugs as boogs. Everybody, myself included,
laughed at her thick accent. We were being sensory in that moment. To us, the
lady had an accent. But did she hear her “accent?” At most, Americans refer to
the accents of fellow Americans as a “Southern drawl” or as an “Irish brogue.” It
sounds cuter and less alienating. Foreigners are the ones with “accents.” And
unlike brogues and drawls, accents are perceived in a negative light.
The question of “having an accent” vs. “having no accent” is a trans-
sensory one because an accent is the same in a given person. Different people
just hear it differently. Therefore, the issue is not the accent but rather, people’s
perceptions of the accent. My “Spanish” accent, it turns out, is largely a result of
my Asperger Syndrome. People with Asperger’s tend to pronounce words
monosyllabically (one syllable at a time). Even linguists can confuse an Asperger
pronunciation for a “foreign” accent.
If something is relative, then it can’t be true in the Ultimate sense. Since
everything in this universe is relative, then nothing in this universe is Ultimately
True—including accents. As Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) tells Luke
Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in the film Return of the Jedi (1983), “Luke, you’re
gonna find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point
of view [emphasis mine].” Only truth with a T is not relative because Truth
comes from outside the material universe.
When someone speaks with an “accent,” he or she affects the vibes in the
air. Something changes in the world of people not used to hearing accents. The
same occurs when somebody states a truth that conflicts with ours. Because
truths create inner and outer realities, someone’s truth creates a ripple of reality
—his or her interior and exterior reality—in our path. We feel their truth/reality
altering ours. The more insecure we are in our truth, the more shaky our inner
reality will be. We then become defensive about our point of view. One
afternoon, for instance, I told my adopted aunt that I would never require a
romantic partner to restrict sex to me alone. That was alright if my boyfriend or
girlfriend chose such a restriction. But I would never demand it as a condition of
“commitment.” The woman exploded. Monogamy, she railed, was the only
moral choice. I felt her truth for a moment—and began to doubt my own. Fear
gripped me. Shame fell over me. I suspect that my truth caused her to doubt
hers as well. That is probably why my adopted aunt became defensive. I
decided to leave the charged air space of her living room, rather than defend my
truth. The drama that unfolded was caused by what one sense—hearing—did to
our truths. Many people feel threatened by foreign accents because of the same
dynamics. Someone’s foreignness alters another’s nativeness. The native then
fears the prospect of foreigners taking over his or her culture. Only if we are
secure enough in our truths can we accept conflicting truths in peace. If one
finds one’s truth/reality (David) competing with the truth/reality of a group
(Goliath), then it is best to leave. This is because group consciousness tends to
overpower individual consciousness. Group consciousness like sexism,
biphobia, and ageism can make intolerant someone who is understanding when
you are alone with him or her.
A major step toward becoming trans-sensory is conceding the house of
cards—hearing and seeing—through which our brains process differences
between people.
Visible vs. Invisible Differences
Since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Caucasian Americans have
increasingly accepted people who are different from them. Race was the starting
point of acceptance. For example, “blacks” are equal to “whites.” Acceptance of
the different human races then extended to ethnic differences as well. Today,
most Americans understand the necessity of accepting—or at least, tolerating—
people from different races, ethnicities, religions, and “sexual” orientations.
The focus, though, remains limited to physical differences like race,
ethnicity, gender, and stereotypes about non-straights. Someone who differs
nonphysically has a hard time being accepted because people accept others
based on differences of sight and sound. Ideological diversity is not honored, for
example, the way that racial diversity is. This is largely why differences of
religious ideologies—as opposed to the physical manifestation of those
differences—go unrecognized. Most Americans recognize the Muslim hijab, for
instance, and can differentiate between a Muslim and an orthodox Jew. Beyond
this, however, most Americans vaguely know the ideological divergences of
these religions. Likewise, differences of economic, political, and sexual
philosophies exist. But beyond tolerating the people who hold such differing
beliefs, most of us make little effort to understand what is inside those people.
Why, for example, do most Swedes think that democratic socialism is preferable
to American corporatism? Why do some individuals believe in open marriage?
Why do some people believe in the decriminalization of marijuana?
The most hilarious incident of ideological intolerance surfaced in 1971.
That year, Gloria Steinem, the gender feminist, cofounded Ms. magazine.
During its test run, a male columnist referred to Ms. as: “ ‘C-sharp on an un-
tuned piano,’ ” a note “ ‘of petulance, of bitchiness, or nervous fingernails

screeching across a blackboard,’ ”… 232
Nowadays, women’s magazines don’t draw such open intolerance from
men. But other kinds of ideological differences still go ridiculed. There is much
evidence that while visible (e.g., racial) differences are tolerated, ideological
differences are less tolerated now than ever. The l word is a classic example of
ideological intolerance. In these socially regressive times—although these are
also socially progressive times—media pundits hurl epithets at liberals, and the
nation sees this as acceptable behavior. In fact, liberal has become a dirty word.
American politics has become so personal that it is becoming dangerous to freely
express one’s social, economic, and political views in the (Dis)United States.
The evolving sensory person only tolerates visible differences between
people. By contrast, a trans-sensory person celebrates visible (e.g., racial) and
invisible (e.g., ideological) differences.
Subtle Differences
Even physical differences can go unrecognized if they are subtle enough.

For instance, Americans who haven’t trained their ears will, more than likely,
confuse a Canadian from English Canada for an American. Even in Europe,
Canadians from English Canada are often thought to be Americans. The
“American” pronunciation of Canadians is cited as the reason for the confusion.
Differences in Canadian demeanor go equally missed, however. Americans, for
example, tend to be more assertive about violations of their rights. Canadians,
232
Michael Adams with Amy Langstaff and David Jamieson, American Backlash: The Untold Story of
Social Change in the United States, (Toronto: Viking Canada, 2005), p. 139.
on the contrary, tend to be less vocal about their rights in public, although this is
changing.233 The invisibility of English Canadians overseas is why English
Canadians tend to sew Maple Leafs onto their backpacks whenever they travel
outside of Canada. (French Canadians are easier to spot.) Blind to subtle
cultural—let alone, ideological—differences between the United States and
Canada, most Americans believe that Canadians are “just like us.”
Becoming trans-sensory means training one’s human senses to detect
subtleties. Why? Because of the following:
In the physical world, the spirit realm works by subtleties.
These subtleties are much like the seemingly irrelevant minutia that lead TV’s
Lieutenant Columbo (Peter Falk) to solve his cases.
Trans-sensory humans are spiritual detectives. As such, they are very
attuned to clues from the nonphysical plane.
False Differences
Obvious differences may also be incorrect. This is because the so-called

five senses can fool us. Seeing two men holding hands, for example, most people
will conclude that the men are gay. That one or both men may be bi seldom
crosses the average mind. Similarly, seeing a man and a woman holding hands,
most people will assume—usually subconsciously—that the man and woman are
straight. That the man or woman may be bi does not enter the ordinary mind.
As another example, people with Asperger Syndrome are often deemed
“immature” because of how Aspies talk, gesture, and contort their faces. A
233
See Michael Adams with Amy Langstaff and David Jamieson, Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada,
and the Myth of Converging Values, (Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2003).
sensory person sees the verbal and nonverbal expressions of an Aspie, interprets
the nonverbal cues subconsciously, and concludes that the Aspergian is
“immature” because his or her body language is socially off. In truth, the Aspie
is appearing to be immature. The neural structure of the Asperger brain is what
is causing the socially off behavior—not the Aspie’s immaturity. Aspergians also
have trouble looking at others in the eye. Again, this is caused by the neural
structure of the Aspie brain. People who are unfamiliar with Asperger’s will
erroneously conclude that the Aspie’s avoidance of eye contact means that he or
she is devious or guilty of something. All of the above conclusions are based on
what two senses—sight and sound—tell the mainstream person. Again, as Obi-
wan Kenobi tells Luke Skywalker in the movie Star Wars (1977), “Your eyes can
deceive you. Don’t trust them.”
The next chapter gives yet more concrete examples of sensory perception
vs. trans-sensory consciousness.
Exercises
1) Recently, what nonphysical irritants have your physical senses

encountered? This is the metaphysical equivalent of pricking a finger. For
example, somebody spoke with a foreign accent—foreign to you—and your
ears became irritated by the nonphysical (based on your thoughts) stimulus
of the “accent.” How did you respond to each nonphysical irritant?
2) List ways that your human senses have fooled you. On each occasion,
were you aware of being deceived? If yes, did your awareness affect your
response to the stimulus—or stimuli? If so, how?
11
The Omega Solution: Becoming Trans-sensory
This chapter lays a basis for becoming trans-sensory. Hence, it brings

example after example of sensory perception vs. trans-sensory consciousness.
This chapter draws from my personal life and from the experiences of other
people. The chapter culminates with the most trans-sensory of human
experiences:
1) Out-of-body experiences
2) Near-death experiences (NDEs)
Like the bulk of this chapter, the numbered sections above lay a sensory and a
trans-sensory way of viewing the phenomena at hand.
What Does It Mean to Be Trans-sensory
My Bronx Experience
Growing up in the South Bronx, I saw African Americans and Latinos

living in slums, drinking, doing drugs, and talking vulgar. Not all of them lived
like this, to be sure. Still, I remember that the “white” Italians lived on a rain-
clean street that had no people hanging out, no street drugs, no noise, and no
“colored” people. Eventually, I got the message. To make matters worse,
Latinos would say, “Nosotros dañamos los buenos vecindarios” (“We [blacks
and Latinos] destroy good neighborhoods.”). Some of the Latinos who said this
were “black” themselves.
One of the most brushed off stories of American history is the flight of
Caucasians to the suburbs between 1955 and 1975. The 1950s marked the birth of
the interstate highway system in the United States. Interstates—and a gallon of
gas being cheaper than a gallon of water—allowed European Americans to flee
to the suburbs. What were people of European stock fleeing from? Among other
factors (see Part II, Chapter 6, section titled, “The Hierarchy of Representation—
Politics”), the immigration of dark-skinned peoples into their neighborhoods.
Businesses left as well, and behind stayed the racial and ethnic minorities that
remain to this day in America’s inner cities. An African American can walk 10
blocks and continue to be surrounded by burnt housing, deserted streets, and
abandoned warehouses. So argue sociologists Douglas Massey and Nancy
Denton in American Apartheid. The black person can walk another 10 to 15
blocks and still be surrounded by dilapidated buildings, Massey and Denton
contend.234 For people trapped in these places, there is no escape—other than,
perhaps, the subway. This phenomenon Massey and Denton call
“hypersegregation.” Ralph Nader, the citizen advocate, puts it in even bleaker
terms in Crashing the Party. Entire cities, he writes, have been abandoned—not
just sections. In cities like Camden, New Jersey, Nader continues, there are
almost no fire stations or police precincts. In Camden, a city of about 80,000
people, there is not “a single supermarket, motel, or movie theater within the city
limits,” Nader points out.235 East St. Louis, educator Jonathan Kozol writes in
Savage Inequalities, is littered with toxic waste from nearby chemical plants. At
234
Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton, American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the
Underclass, (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993).
235
Ralph Nader, Crashing the Party: How to Tell the Truth and Still Run for President, (New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 2001), p. 5.
night, the sky above East St. Louis is a “brownish yellow.”236 A pedestrian
bridge, Kozol writes, joined East St. Louis to the other St. Louis. The bridge was
“closed off to East St. Louis residents [almost 100 percent of them black].”237 East
St. Louis is one of the many Hiroshimas across America. Safir Ahmed, a
reporter, told Kozol:
Nobody in East St. Louis has ever had the clout to raise a protest. Why
Americans permit this is so hard for somebody like me, who grew up in
the real Third World, to understand … 238
Ahmed continued, “I’m from India. In Calcutta this would be explicable,

perhaps. I keep thinking to myself, “ ‘My God! This is the United States!’ ”239
East St. Louis is not even included in the official map of the State of Illinois,
Kozol writes, even though it is the largest city south of Springfield. Neither does
the telephone directory for East St. Louis list the phone numbers of residents and
businesses in the area, Kozol adds.240
With help from the Allies, Japan was able to—painfully—rebuild
Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the dropping of the atomic bomb. American
politicians, by contrast, continue to ignore what has happened across America.
The only political candidate who spoke about urban decay—Ralph Nader—got a
mere 3 percent of the popular vote in the 2000 presidential election and even less
in the 2004 presidential election. This is the mindset of America in the post-civil
rights era. The result is the continuation of all-minority settlements across the
country—black shantytowns, poor-white settlements in the Appalachians, Latino
236
Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools, (New York: Harper Perennial,
1991), p. 15.
237
Ibid., p. 18.
238
Ibid., p. 17.
239
Ibid.
240
Ibid., p. 18.
colonias along the U.S./Mexican border, and Indian reservations. It is not their
separateness that is the problem per se, but their inequality to the rest of
America.
De jure (by law) racial segregation was declared unconstitutional in 1954.
But de facto (in fact) racial segregation has intensified since the 1960s—perhaps
as a subconscious reaction to Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and the Civil
Rights Act of 1964. Racial segregation, it should be noted, began in the North
before the (Un)Civil War. Obversely, Southern planters were used to having
access to their slaves. That was the very basis of plantation slavery. Planters
who traveled to the North were shocked whenever Northern whites asked the
planters to seat their slaves in segregated railroad cars. So lectured James
Shenton, the late professor of American history at Columbia University. After
the Compromise of 1877, Shenton said at Columbia, former planters merely
borrowed the Northern system of racial segregation.241 After the 1960s, the North
itself became more racially segregated. The phrase white flight describes how
this came to be. White flight was to the North what racial segregation was to the
South.
As for American public education post-1954, Jonathan Kozol put it this
way:
We haven’t even lived up to the promises of Plessey v. Ferguson [the 1898

Supreme Court ruling of “separate but equal”]. American schools today
are separate [in the major cities] and no one would even pretend they’re
241
Refer to the cassette titled, The History of the United States, Part V: The Making of Modern America,
“The Making of a Racial Policy,” Lecture 42. Historians Darren Staloff, Louis Masur, and James Shenton
lectured for the Great Courses on Tape Series, (Springfield, VA: Teaching Co., 1996).
equal [running toilets in white schools and leaky ceilings in black and
Latino schools].242
Although I was born in New York City, I spent my early to middle

boyhood in Puerto Rico. On that U.S. Commonwealth, people are people first
and “white,” “black,” or “Indian” second. I put these words in quotes because,
unlike in the United States, no relatively pure races remain in Puerto Rico. In
Puerto Rico, the genetic mixing of the human races has made them invisible.
When my mother and new stepfather returned to New York City in August 1984,
I discovered black people—literally. Why? Because African Americans were so
concentrated and the Anglos gone, block after block after block. In the South
Bronx, I hardly went to Manhattan. Thus, for years, I hardly saw a “white”
person. This is how I became sensory regarding race. In Puerto Rico, I had been
trans-sensory in this area. I learned about the existence of human races not in
Puerto Rico but in America. When my mother and stepfather moved to DeLand,
Florida in August 1989, I felt strange having “white” people around me. I felt
like I didn’t belong and was very conscious of not being “white.” This is despite
my being considered “white” in Puerto Rico. Years later, I rode an elevator with
four “blacks” around me. I, the only “white” person, suddenly felt white.
A major reason why Caucasians left America’s cities in the “stable” 1950s
and in the stormy 1960s was their perception that African Americans and
Hispanics destroy neighborhoods. Today, the situation is worse than in the
1970s, the 1970s being a time when the South Bronx lost 40 percent of its housing
to arson by landlords. Not only are seemingly diverse cities like Boston, New
York, Chicago, and Los Angeles among the most racially—and class—segregated
242
Jonathan Kozol said this at an interview. Elana Berkowitz conducted the interview on September 19,
2005. It is titled, “Five Minutes With: Jonathan Kozol.” The text of the interview is at the Campus
Progress website, found at http://www.campusprogress.org/features/552/five-minutes-with-jonathan-kozol.
cities in the world. White flight has resumed. This time, Caucasians aren’t just
moving further out from the vanilla rings around the chocolate cores of
America.243 Rather, Caucasians are abandoning entire regions of the country.
Southern California is becoming all-Latino, for example, while the Midwest is
becoming more “lily white” than ever.
A sensory person doesn’t see lack of education and of economic
opportunities as causes of drinking and drugs in ethnic ghettoes. All such a
person sees is the color and ethnicity of the people living in slums. Therefore,
the sensory person concludes that some races and ethnicities cause garbage on
the streets, illegal drugs, and homelessness. Can human eyes see, for instance,
lack of educational opportunities? Can human eyes see lack of economic
opportunities? Of course, not. All that human eyes see are the effects of lack of
opportunities, reflected in slums, and the color and ethnicity of the people who
live disadvantaged. Correlation (color and ethnicity) becomes causation for
sensory people because color and ethnicity is all that human eyes can see.
A trans-sensory person, by contrast, sees invisible causes at work,
invisibilities like lack of opportunities. Instead of saying, “Colored people
destroy neighborhoods” (what human eyes see), a trans-sensory person says,
“Lack of education destroys neighborhoods” and “Lack of economic
opportunities destroys neighborhoods” (trans-sensory things). A trans-sensory
person dislikes the sin—the dearth of opportunities—but loves the sinner.
My Broccoli Experience
243
The terms vanilla and chocolate have been used to refer to “white” flight to suburbs and to the leaving of
inner cities to racial and ethnic minorities.
After my mother entered the spiritual dimension (“died”), I lay in bed one
night. Slowly, a faint odor of broiling broccoli tickled my nostrils. Broiled
broccoli was one of my mother’s favorite foods. A sensory human would have
said, “I’m imagining things.” I, however, recognized the aroma for what it was:
my mother’s way of telling me that she was near me in that instant.
My Flying Roach Experience
Staying at the house of my adopted aunt, I saw a gigantic roach fly out of
nowhere and land in my pot of boiling macaroni. At first, I was enraged at
having to throw out the soft noodles. Then, I remembered something that
Wayne Dyer said in the PBS special The Power of Intention. Dyer asked the
audience, “Can you find beauty in a cockroach?”244 The night of the flying roach,
I retorted, “Not if it lands in my dinner!”
That night, however, I searched inside myself for why the flying roach
had materialized. A sensory person would have concluded, “I have bad luck.” I,
on the other hand, asked the heavens for the meaning of the roach’s landing in
my noodles. I sensed that I was being guided to stop supping on macaroni and
cheese. I ceased eating gluten-based macaroni and ate more protein and
vegetables after dark. A sensory person would have stayed at the level of
eyesight—the ugly roach landing in the meal. He or she would have remained
angry and bitter.
244
This special aired on PBS on June 12, 2004.
My Cereal Experience
Munching cereal one morning, I began to taste the milk and cereal as sour.
I sniffed into the carton of soy milk, smelled the inside of the box of wheat cereal,
and opened the refrigerator. Nothing smelled unusual. The soy milk and cereal
hadn’t expired. The fridge was working fine. I couldn’t understand why I was
tasting a normally sweet breakfast as sour. A psychologist would say that I was
experiencing a “palatal hallucination.”
I, however, went beyond my sense of taste. Although I didn’t know the
wherefores and whys of what happened, I gave up wheat cereal and switched to
rice milk. About a week later, I “accidentally” stumbled onto an online article. It
mentioned the need for people with Asperger Syndrome to avoid eating gluten.
All wheat products, including wheat cereal, have gluten, the article stated.
Soybeans, I learned from another web article, contain hemaglutinin, an
ingredient that causes red blood cells to clot.245 I had high blood pressure and for
a long time, didn’t know this. In this example, being trans-sensory didn’t require
full comprehension. All that I needed was a sense of being guided to switch part
of my diet—even if I didn’t understand why. I hope that my health has
improved.
Five years later, I got a clue as to why I had tasted a sweet meal as sour.
In Destiny of Souls, Michael Newton, a hypnotherapist, writes about:
… the subtle touching of body organs while eliciting certain emotional

reactions which can include the use of the senses. Skillfully applied
energy beams [by departed souls] can evoke recognition by sight, sound,
245
See Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, “Soy Products for Dairy Products—Not so Fast,” Health Freedom
News, September 1995. Article at the website of The Weston A. Price Foundation. The URL is
http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/ploy.html.
taste and smell.246
Most likely, a discarnate Spirit like my deceased mother’s was sending me a

message to stop eating soy and gluten.
My Scratchy Throat
As I rolled into bed one night, I noticed that my throat was getting
scratchy. Most people would have said to themselves, I’m coming down with a
cold. I may have to stay in bed tomorrow. I, however, have reached a point
where I don’t believe in getting colds. Maybe this is because I got sick so many
times as a child and am now fed up with it. Whatever the answer, I don’t get
anything from getting the flu. Nothing! Zip! Zilch! As preposterous as it may
sound, many people want to get colds—subconsciously—for various reasons.
Such reasons can be taking a day off work, getting sympathy, and/or getting
attention. For me, though, the benefits are not worth the misery. That night, I
made a conscious decision not to get sick. I reaffirmed to myself that getting a
cold held absolutely nothing of benefit for me—and meant every word.
Therefore, I said to myself, I don’t believe in getting colds. The next day, the
scratchy throat was gone. I had prevented a sensory event—a cold—with a
trans-sensory choice.
TV Mimicking My Actions
246
Newton, Destiny of Souls, pgs. 16-17.
One night, I was sitting by the bed of a woman in a nursing home. A

movie was playing in front of me in black-and-white. In the film, a man sat by
the bed of a sick woman. I noticed that the 83-year-old whom I was visiting was
holding a stuffed puppy. To my amazement, a puppy climbed onto the bed in
the movie. A nurse entered the room that I was in to check on the woman whom
I was keeping company. The nurse left, and in the flick, a nurse appeared.
Never had I seen my actions mirrored so accurately on TV—or anywhere. For
the first time, I saw that what happens out there is a reflection of what happens
in here.
My Life Review
After a close encounter with death, I began to see, hear, and experience
things from my childhood—right here on earth. Walking one afternoon, for
example, I saw a car parked on a driveway. The automobile was a red MG
Midget with a black leather top. The coupe had three wipers on its windshield.
At the time, I was 32. Not since I was 6 had I seen a car with three wipers in
front—let alone, the same make and color as my uncle-in-law’s car.
At my adopted aunt’s house in Florida, I then saw a sunset photo of palm
trees. Not only was the picture hanging on her wall. It was almost identical to a
wallpaper photo I had often seen at a neighbor’s house in Puerto Rico. For 22
years, I had not seen this picture.
Another day, I was climbing a Stairmaster at the gym. A gingerbread man
appeared in a commercial. I hadn’t seen a gingerbread man since my mother
baked them almost 30 years ago.
The zinger of my “life review” was the hoarse voice, hoarse from
screaming, of a sexagenarian lady. When I was a teenager, my ears were
exposed to her hysterical cries whenever her adult son climbed the fire escape to
sleep in her third floor apartment. The screams of the skinny, wrinkled woman
descended all the way to the first floor apartment where my parents and I lived.
Late on many nights, the broad screamed at the top of her lungs, “Police! Police!
Someone’s trying to break into my apartment. Police!”
Each night this happened, the adult son of the lady hummed back in
Spanish, “Pues dame la ropa” (“Then, give me the clothes”).
This drama occurred in the South Bronx in the mid and late 1980s. In the
year 2007, guess what I heard from my apartment in the Pacific Northwest.
Right on. “Would someone call the police? Help!” The voice was eerily similar
to that of the Bronx broad. “I want you to leave!” the hoarse voice of the
sexagenarian lady said near Spokane, Washington. Each time, the melodrama
went as follows: The man would leave the premises, and the woman would calm
down. A few days later, the man would, once again, knock on the front door of
her apartment, and at the top of her lungs, the woman would start screaming,
“Would someone call the police! Help!” What made this so odd was that the
apartment complex was an otherwise peaceful place—unlike the tenement in the
South Bronx.
Other incidents transpired during a three-year period following my close
encounter with physical death. A sensory person would have called these events
“random.” The incidents, however, were too many and too specific to be mere
coincidence. For me, this meant that I had died nonphysically and was
experiencing a life review—or aspects of it—right here on earth. Part of my life
review scared me, for I thought that I would soon die physically. Part of it
fascinated me.
Practice Makes Perfect
Intellectually, we may know that a plant is more than a plant. I, for

example, saw a Bromeliad in the movie The Trip (2002). In that film, Tommy
Ballenger (Steve Braun) gives the plant to Alan Oakley (Larry Sullivan) as a date
present. The plant survives 11 years of their romance, breakup, and reunion.
About a week after I saw this film, I spotted the same plant outside a natural
foods store. Many Bromeliads were there for sale. At the rice milk section of the
store, a swarthy guy expressed some interest in me. His interest was nothing
amorous, just interest in a way that 99 percent of people hadn’t shown me in a
long time. Amazingly, I didn’t make the plant/movie connection until after I
had left the store. This shows that intellectual understanding of a concept may
not be enough. Only practice makes perfect … and repetition, repetition,
repetition of the art of connecting subtle dots.
Sensory Perception vs. Trans-sensory Consciousness
Sensory humans see the small picture through the so-called five senses.
Trans-sensory humans see the big picture. As we shall see below, trans-sensory
consciousness is one’s connecting sensory dots with trans-sensory dots. It is a
whole new type of filling in the blanks.
Sensory Perception
Sensory people say that a cake is just a cake. For instance, in the DVD
comment section of the flick Interstate 60 (2002), Bob Gale, the director, notes the
following:
1) Filming for Interstate 60 started on September 18

2) The opening scene of Interstate 60 occurs on September 18, that being
the birthday of Neal Oliver (the main character)
3) September 18 is also the birthday of James Marsden, the actor who
plays Neal Oliver
Interstate 60 is about Neal Oliver (James Marsden), a young man who

wishes for “an answer to my life.”247 A supernatural being named O.W. Grant
(Gary Oldman) appears at a restaurant for Oliver’s birthday celebration. Grant
orchestrates a series of unordinary events that lead Oliver to find the answer that
he seeks: what to do with the rest of his life. The director comments that
September 18, the birthday of Marsden and of the main character, was:
… one of those weird kind of cosmic coincidences that means absolutely

nothing [emphasis mine] …
That is sensory perception. Ironically, though, Interstate 60 is about a man

(Marsden) who becomes “an expert at reading [supernatural] signs.”
For sensory humans, a cigar is either just a cigar or a trigger for
judgement, regret, anger, sorrow, or bitterness. The idea that something may
247
The full title of Interstate 60 is Interstate 60: Episodes of the Road.
have trans-sensory significance—almost always positive—doesn’t register for

sensory humans.
A trans-sensory person sees September 18 as more than mere coincidence.

In fact, September 18 could be seen as the very essence of what Interstate 60 is all
about—the birthday of a very successful man: Neal Oliver/James Marsden.
Sensory Perception
One neighbor may observe religious fundamentalists raising a boy. A

sensory person says, “How could parents brainwash their child?”
A trans-sensory person sees the brainwashing and goes beyond it to say:
That boy wouldn’t have been born into that family had his Spirit/soul not
wanted to. As difficult as his experience may be, that boy is exactly
where the heavens want him to be. That is positive.
Sensory Perception
In Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, my mother spotted a woman who had a
wrinkled face, sagging skin on her arms, and a curved back. The short lady was
pushing a shopping cart, and it was filled with empty cans. My mother told me
to walk up to the lady and give her a dollar. When I did, the woman with the
curved back expressed the most joyful smile that my mother and I had ever seen.
Years later, my mother recalled this incident. She and I were walking on a
sidewalk in New York City. The moment my mother mentioned the dollar, we
found one on the pavement.
A sensory person would have said, “Coincidence.”
A trans-sensory person would have seen the dollar as the law of cause and
effect. As the Bible says, “As you sow, so shall you reap.”248 Put another way,
what goes around, comes around.
My mother understood the reality of invisible forces at work. She picked
up the dollar in gratitude and put it into her pocket.
Sensory Perception
One afternoon, I received a telephone call. A woman told me, “Your car
will have to stay in the shop a little longer.”
“What car?” I said. “Mine is in front of my apartment.”
“I must have the wrong number,” the lady said and hung up.
A sensory person would have left it at that.
248
Loosely translated, this comes from Galatians 6:7 in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.
Later that day, I got into my red sedan and drove to the gym. As the
vehicle moved, I began to hear a squeak. I called my mechanic. He said it was
the brakes. Immediately, I took the car to him.
Had I been trans-sensory, I would have seen the “wrong” number as the
heavens telling me—literally—to take my car to the shop. I wouldn’t have
waited to hear the squeak.
Sensory Perception
In New Hampshire, I started to get telephone calls from elders who were
seeking a cardiologist.
Every time, I replied, “There’s no cardiologist here. This is a residential
number.”
The calls continued for some 10 months—in New Hampshire, then in
Florida. I didn’t know what to make of it.
As it turns out, I needed to see a cardiologist because—unknown to me—

my blood pressure was high for a long time. The heart swells from this. A trans-
sensory person would have seen the calls as God—literally—telling him or her to
see a cardiologist.
Sensory Perception
In New Hampshire, I received yet another type of telephone call. The call
came in about four times over a three-month period. Every time I answered, no
one was at the other end. At least, I heard nothing. After I moved to
Washington state, the phone rang on two different occasions. Not only that. The
telephone rang around the same time—very late afternoon. Each of these two
times, nobody answered at the other end. A sensory person would have left it at
that.
Now and then, I wonder if that was my mother—literally—calling me

from beyond the grave. This may sound wild. But lights in three different
apartments that I have lived in—in three different states—have flickered for no
human reason around the same time of night. Being energy, each S.O.U.L.
(Systemic Organization of the Universal Lifeforce) should be able to manipulate
energy. Therefore, it is possible that a discarnate Spirit can manipulate electricity
to make lights flicker or to make a telephone ring if it wants to. After all, all that
is required is activating the necessary electrical circuits. As the saying goes,
“There are no accidents.”
Sensory Perception
After I moved west, I received another kind of telephone call. This time, it
was from a woman looking for Paige.
“There’s no Paige here,” I answered. “I think you have the wrong

number.”
A sensory person would have left it at that.
After hanging up, I searched for the significance of that call. Page, as
Library Page, popped up in my head. I decided to check the website of the local
library district.
As it turns out, a Library Page position was on the website. The position
required a bilingual candidate (English/Spanish), and I am bilingual. I
downloaded the application, filled it out, and mailed it on the same day. That
was trans-sensory consciousness in action.
The position was given to another candidate. But online, I kept checking
for Library Page in the months following the call for Paige.
Sensory Perception
Twice, I have felt the tinge of an air draft upon my skin. Draft is too
strong a word to describe what I felt, but for the sake of language, I will use this
word. The first time, it happened in Florida; the second time, in Washington
state. On both occasions, all windows were closed. The apartments also had no
drafts. A sensory person would have rationalized that the apartments must have
a draft somewhere, or that he or she imagined it.
I, however, have asked myself the following: If Spirits are energy and
energy makes air move, then isn’t it possible that my deceased mother made air
move around me to let me know that she was near me? This is trans-sensory
consciousness.
Sensory Perception
When someone cries, his or her pain shows. The person looks awful. A
sensory person just sees the tears and the contorted face and says, “Please, don’t
cry.”
A trans-sensory person knows that, although crying looks physically

terrible, that act is releasing negative energies. These energies are invisible.
Because the end result is positive, not terrible, a trans-sensory individual allows
himself and others to sob when necessary.
Sensory Perception
You look at someone’s eyes, and that is that.

You look into someone’s eyes and see something nonphysical. I have seen
people of different races have the same set of eyes. Even if one person has gray
irises and the other brown irises, both individuals can have similar sparkles in
their eyes. One example is the eyes of Liliane Clune, a Canadian actress, and the
eyes of a woman who survived the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Liliane Clune is
Caucasian and has grayish irises. Immaculée Ilibagiza is a “black” African
woman and has dark irises. Both women, however, have that same something in
their eyes. If you are interested in seeing what I mean, check out Wayne Dyer’s
Inspiration on PBS. Immaculée Ilibagiza appears on that special. Liliane Clune
appears in the film Toby McTeague (Canadian; 1987) as Jenny Lesard, the new
high school teacher.
Some months ago, a man came to my Washington apartment to fix
something. He was about 40 years old. I noticed that the man had the same eyes
—this time, nonphysical and physical—as the wife of a Florida pastor. I knew
that the man wasn’t related to her, not only because she was at the other end of
the country but also, because the only son of the Florida woman was 26, not 40.
Some readers may think that the man was effeminate. But he was what most of
us would consider masculine, whereas the Florida wife was what most of us
would consider feminine. Still, their eyes were the same, as if they belonged to
the same group of souls. This nonphysicality must have been what spurred the
axiom, “The eyes are the windows of the soul.”249 This mystique that non-related
humans share is a nonphysical thing. To see it is to be trans-sensory in that
instant.
249
The author of this saying is unknown.
Sensory Perception
“My vote doesn’t count” is a common complaint in the United States.

From a sensory perspective, the quoted statement is accurate because one voter is
insignificant in a country of 306 million people.
From a trans-sensory perspective, one voter is the universe itself. As the

maxim goes, “If you remove one atom from the universe, the universe will
collapse.”
Said differently, the main light of the parking lot in front of my apartment
went out one July night. I didn’t call management because I figured, Hey! Other
tenants are bound to call. A week passed, and the parking lot continued to be
pitch-black at night. I thought, Someone must have called management by now.
Another week passed. No fixed light. When I finally phoned the front office, the
woman told me that nobody had called about the off light. This is similar to the
mindset of “My vote doesn’t count.” When every potential voter thinks this
way, democracy stalls like a stick shift.
Trans-sensory consciousness says, “If it is to be, it is up to me.” Expressed
differently, salvation is up to you and me—not up to others.
Sensory Perception
The sixth physical sense (the human brain) tells us that we are what we
do, look like, and possess. This is humanly logical. Human reason also tells us
that we are our salaries, accomplishments, and reputations.
Trans-sensory consciousness goes beyond human reason. To be trans-

sensory is to recognize that, despite all appearances to the contrary, what we do,
have, and even look like are not who we are. Rather, they are reflections of our
spiritual state.
Sensory Perception
You apply for 80 jobs, dress well for 20 interviews, and never get hired.
You realize that action is not enough, for doing is but the second half of
the equation. The first half is visualizing. The full formula looks as follows:
What Do I Want? + Visualize Having It + Action + Release = Result (If God Wills It)
When the light of the parking lot went out, I simply phoned management,
then wondered why the light didn’t get fixed. A week later, I called
management again. Two more weeks passed with no light fixed. Then, I
remembered that I was only doing. I had forgotten to visualize a new light. I
did this about 10 times and eagerly told God, “I see it! I see it! I see it!” Two
days later, a new light got installed.
Sensory perception thinks only about doing. Trans-sensory consciousness
concedes that everything in the material world starts as a mental exercise.
Sensory Perception
A sensory person sees elders wasting away in a nursing home. He or she

says, “What a waste. What a drain on resources.”
A trans-sensory person is aware that disabled—and even, mentally gone

—people are learning spiritual lessons, however subconsciously, that will prove
useful in another place and time. People around incapacitated people are also
learning lessons (invisible) that sensory humans can’t see, hear, touch, taste, or
smell. The heavens, after all, wouldn’t allow someone to spend 15 years in a
nursing home for nothing. Trans-sensory humans know this.
Sensory Perception
A mother insists that she stay over at her son’s house for Thanksgiving.
Reluctantly, the adult son allows his mother to sleep over. Resentment festers in
him. The following morning, he acts cold toward her.
The mother brays at her son, “You have no social graces. No wonder
you’re still single at 30!”
The son swallows hard, and his mother storms out of the kitchen.
A sensory witness would see this scene and little else.
Everybody has comfort zones. This, psychologists argue, necessitates the

establishment of personal boundaries. These boundaries are invisible. In
interpersonal relationships, psychologists say, one needs to verbally
communicate one’s boundaries to others because boundaries can’t be seen. With
some people, we will have more solid boundaries, and with others, more
permeable ones. As one allows oneself to get more intimate with someone, one
may give that person permission to cross into one’s private space.
Many people, however, have no concept of personal boundaries. Even if
they do, many of them will violate the boundaries of others. In the mother-son
example, the son either wasn’t aware of the need to defend his boundaries—such
as his need to be independent—or he didn’t have enough self-esteem to
announce his boundaries to his mother, along with consequences for her for any
future violations. Had the son had a strong sense of his personal boundaries, he
would have told his mother something along the lines of:
I respect your right to have opinions about me, but if you verbally attack
me again, I will stop our conversation then and there. I am also 30 and
need my independence.
The son would not require his mother to change. But he would present her with
choices and results.
A trans-sensory person is aware of invisible elements at work in visible
conflicts between human beings. Personal boundaries, the lack of them, and
boundaries being too tight or too loose are some such invisible elements.
Sensory Perception
Someone shouts at you, and you bark back. From a sensory perspective,
the other’s anger is his or hers, and your rage is yours.
The other day, I was at a workout center. I voiced something to an

African woman. Her Caucasian husband passed me and practically fumed.
What, I wondered, was wrong with him?
Two days later, I stayed in my apartment all day long so that I could work
on this book. As the day progressed, I found myself getting angrier and angrier
for no apparent reason. Hateful thoughts started to invade my head, and I began
to rail against God for the injustices of my “life.” At one point, I started to pound
the kitchen counter. Suddenly, I realized that I was experiencing a psychic
attack. The man from the gym, I concluded, must have thought that I was
making a pass at his wife, got enraged, and threw his rage my way as he passed
me. What I thought was my anger turned out to be his anger. I became terrified
because I felt like I was being attacked by an invisible entity from an invisible
dimension. I could not fight back!
When someone attacks you psychically, negative energies from him or her
invade your energy field. This is much as pollution from one nation crosses into
another nation irrespective of international borders. Henry Reed, an author,
writes online:
We are entering a period with a crisis in boundaries. Ecology, Economics,

the Global Village, the E-World, and other developments are eroding our
normal conception of boundaries.250
Reed continues on another webpage, “Contamination is an assault on purity.

Something has come into where it doesn’t belong. A boundary violation.”251
The reality of psychic attacks is yet another reason to protect oneself
spiritually. Zipping psychically around oneself is one method. One can also
pray for protection from spirit guides.
To feel a psychic attack is to experience the trans-sensory. Why? Because
one experiences the unity that, for better or worse, we share at psychic levels.
Concrete walls, geographical distance, and physical isolation cannot protect you
from the psychic vibes of the world. Only spiritual protection can.
Sensory Perception
250
Henry Reed, “No Boundaries: An Exploration of the Non-Local Self in the Coming World Crisis in
Boundaries,” Creative Spirit. The website is at http://www.creativespirit.net/noboundaries/.
251
Reed, “ESP and the Coming Crisis in Boundaries,” Creative Spirit. This is a transcript of a talk given at
Parastudy, Philadelphia. Date not given. The URL of the transcript is
http://www.creativespirit.net/noboundaries/boundarycrisis.htm.
You watch a movie, perhaps laugh or even cry, and attribute your
emotions to the film.
You see the movie as more than just a film. A trans-sensory person knows
that movies and TV shows are the heavens trying to jump-start issues and
emotions that the viewer needs to confront. One night, for example, I turned on
the television. A classic movie in color was running on PBS.252 A feeling inside
me—not quite a voice—told me not to change the channel.
The Nun’s Story (1959) is about a postulant and nun (Audrey Hepburn)
who is torn between her desire to serve God (e.g., obeying the restrictions of the
convent without question) and her desire to follow her personal will (e.g.,
serving as a nurse in the Belgian Congo). Her moral struggles continue through
the 1930s. Such an “exhausting inner struggle,” the words of Dr. Fortunati (Peter
Finch) to Sister Luke, was the exact thing that I had been undergoing for a
number of years. I fought back tears as I watched the ending of this movie.
Trans-sensory consciousness allowed me to see The Nun’s Story as more
than met my biological eyes.
Sensory Perception
252
This movie aired on PBS on December 28, 2007.
In the spring of 2003, I saw a model airplane online. The aluminum of the
airliner glittered in such a magical way that I had to buy the toy. I was sensory
because I went by what my human eyes saw.
In the autumn of 2008, I entered a hobby store. Inside a partially

transparent box was the largest model airliner that I had ever seen. The thick
plastic of the bird on wheels looked like real aluminum. At once, I took the box
from the shelf and almost paid the $39.99 for it. Slowly, however, I started to get
second thoughts about buying the plane. The polish of the airliner still
captivated my human eyes. But as my spiritual eyes opened, I began to realize
that I could live without this plane in my living room. I went from being sensory
(going by the sparkle of surface appearances) to being trans-sensory (seeing that
this model airliner would not bring me lasting happiness). I became detached
from the airplane. Not only did I leave the store without this toy. I felt neither
regret nor emptiness at not having that goodie in my hands. That was trans-
sensory consciousness.
Sensory Perception
An untrained eye sees a Cro-Magnon (anatomically modern) skull from

prehistoric Europe next to the skull of a Neanderthal. As the archaeological
record shows, Neanderthals were in Europe 200,000 years ago, while Homo
sapiens first arose in eastern Africa 150,000 years ago and didn’t even reach the
Middle East until 100,000 years ago.253 When Cro-Magnons (modern humans)
entered Europe between 40 and 30,000 years ago, did they interbreed with
Neanderthals? Comparing the skulls of the two hominid species is one way to
infer if interbreeding occurred between Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals.
Neanderthal skulls had occipital buns (bun-like protuberances at the back
of each skull). Does this mean that a Cro-Magnon skull with an occipital bun
inherited the genes for the bun from a Neanderthal? An untrained eye will, very
likely, conclude that the answer is yes.
Paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman says the following, however, on

PBS’s Neanderthals on Trial:
The question is: Are the large brow ridges and occipital bun on this fellow
[a Cro-Magnon skull] inherited from the Neanderthal? Are these things
the same, or do they just look the same [emphasis mine]?254
Lieberman continues:
It turns out that there are lots of human populations that have occipital
buns. Some of these early modern Europeans have them, and there are
some recent people in Europe who have them. If you’re a Lapp or a Finn,
you’re more likely to have an occipital bun. But Bushmen from South
Africa often have occipital buns, and Australian aborigines often have
253
See Nova: Neanderthals on Trial.
254
Ibid.
occipital buns.255
Occipital buns evolved worldwide—not just in Neanderthal Europe—to

make room in the back for large brains in narrow skulls. Thus, occipital buns are
not reliable evidence as to whether Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals interbred.
This example shows that sensory perception—as in different skulls looking alike
—is not always enough. Trans-sensory consciousness (considering other
possibilities) is therefore necessary in cases like these.
Sensory Perception
A sensory person views a fantasy as an experience that involves sight,

sound, touch, taste, and smell in the human mind. A sensory individual may
concede that fantasizing can arouse one’s gonads (genitals) and that it can even
affects one’s heart (emotions). But fantasy involves much more than what goes
on in the head, gonads, and even heart.
In the DVD comment section of the film Food of Love (2002), actress
Geraldine McKewen comments that artists are energy vampires. It is not that
they feed on others “maliciously,” she says, but rather, that the creativity of
artists requires a certain degree of using others to come up with stories,
symphonies, paintings, sculptures, and what not.
255
Ibid.
Perhaps more than any other fantasy, sexual and romantic fantasies draw
the most energies from the person or people being fantasized about. Even if it is
just mental, the fantasizer sucks energies from the person or people on the
receiving end. Sexual fantasizing feels good because one is snacking on very
needed energies that the victim has. I write “very needed” because if one had
those energies, one wouldn’t be fantasizing—or having sex, for that matter—in
the first place. In my view, having an erotic and/or romantic fantasy about one
or more individuals is immoral if one disturbs the energy field of that someone,
or people, without their permission. This is the equivalent of a stranger mentally
invading your energy field. Sexual and romantic fantasies are, for me, moral
only if the other person or people consent to being fantasized about. One is still
feeding on their energies without allowing them to take on one’s energies—
except those that rub off mentally and emotionally onto their energy fields. In
the ideal world, there would be an actual sexual encounter, or encounters, where
all parties consent and where an even energy exchange takes place each time.
But in “the real world,” there are celibate old men and people whose disabilities
prevent them from bonding romantically and sexually with others.
Who could possibly consent to be fantasized about by someone they don’t
even know? In my view, celebrities, porn models, and strippers. By choosing to
pursue a career on stage or in front of the camera, actors, actresses, singers, porn
models, and strippers know that they will be generating anywhere between
dozens and millions of fans. Celebrities know that their fans will have all sorts of
fantasies about them and that many of those fantasies will be romantic and even
sexual in nature. I am not saying that a would-be celebrity—that is, outside the
porn industry—becomes a celebrity in order to be fantasized about. I am saying
that a would-be celebrity knows that fantasies from fans come with the territory.
If someone dislikes the idea of fans obsessing about him or her, then he or she
would pursue a private career. If somebody chooses a public career, then he or

she is implicitly—and sometimes explicitly, as in the case of porn stars—
consenting to being fantasized about by many people. Consent, of course, may
have been forced by circumstances like the need for dough or parents forcing
their children into show business. That is not genuine consent. Someone who
looks at you lasciviously is consenting, however, and very explicitly, to be
fantasized about—although the energies of such a person are sure to be low
energies. It is up to the moral fantasizer to decide if he or she wants to blend his
or her energies with such a person in his or her mind. Before fantasizing about
someone, one can also ask him or her to say “yes” in a dream if the person
approves and “no” when and if the individual no longer consents. Fantasizing
about people who are geographically close—neighbors, colleagues, or
townspeople—may not be a good idea, however, even if they consent, say, in a
dream. Why not? Because when and if you see the individuals in person, there
may be some funky energies between you and them.
The morality of choosing to fantasize about a stranger—or even a friend—
is not black or white. But I have concluded that the line between the morality
and immorality of a fantasy—whatever the type—is consent and lack of consent
from all involved parties. Without consent, a fantasy—sexual or not—is nothing
less than a mental and emotional invasion of someone’s energy field. Even if the
individuals in question are spiritually protected, better is to assume that they are
not. The fantasizer may want to pray to the divine to bless those in the fantasy
and to replenish them from whatever energies one took. Mentally thanking the
people in one’s fantasy for having consented is another approach that a moral
fantasizer can take.
Invading someone’s energy field—meaning without his or her consent—
through an erotic or romantic fantasy is, very debatably, a mental and emotional
“rape,” even if the person or people on the receiving end are not aware of it.
Such a violation is what Jev (Ben Lemon), a member of the telepathic Ullians,
does to Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) in an episode of Star Trek: The
Next Generation.256 We, of course, don’t have to ask others for permission to
have ordinary thoughts about them. But erotic and romantic fantasies aren’t
everyday thinking—just like sex and romance aren’t ordinary experiences.
Rather, sex and romance involve heavy e-motions (energies in motion).
One could argue that since most celebrities aren’t aware about the effects
—the energetic elements—of sexual and romantic fantasies that are directed at
them, that VIPs are not really consenting to be fantasized about. The heavens,
however, don’t count each of our choices as less of a choice just because we
aren’t conscious about their ramifications. Choices in the dark are still choices,
and through their effects—whether PRO-sequence or CON-sequence—each of us
grows spiritually.
Energy is a big element of sexual and romantic fantasies because eroticism
and romance are different types of energies. Celebrities best illustrate the
dynamics of such energies because, unlike regular people, media stars feed on
the energies of millions of fans. These energies include romantic yearnings,
erotic desires, frustrated childhood needs, and most of all, admiration, obsession,
and “love.” Celebrities are less stars and more like full moons because suns
shine their own light. Moons just absorb and reflect light from the sun.
Celebrities are more full moons and less stars because they gorge on the
emotional energies of their fans. By basking in the sunlight of adoration,
obsession, and love from fans, VIPs become overconfident, self-important, and
royal. Like distant suns, fans give their starlight (personal power) to celebrities;
256
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Violations.” This episode originally aired in syndication on February
celebrities collect the excess energies coming to them from around the world; and
they are then called “stars.”
Whether celebrity or not, charismatic people are spell casters (psychic
magnets). But why do such individuals mesmerize others? Because like 19th
century pirates of the South Seas, energy pirates have stolen the diamonds that
each of us carries as part of the light in us. Spell casters and energy pirates suck
diamonds of energy from others. These diamonds do not belong to spell casters
and energy pirates. The foreign energies, however, accumulate in the energy
fields of these people over the years. The accumulation of an entire village—or
world—in one person is so out of the ordinary that it turns heads. It is as though
the physical body of a spell caster and energy pirate (the two go together) were a
treasure ship. The ship is full of stolen jewels. But the attractiveness of the ship
is an illusion, for the jewels do not belong to the ship. Rather, the jewels belong
to 10,000 different ships. The power to cast spells on others is innate, too, for
spell caster is an archetype (signature of personal energy). Hypnotizing one’s
prey is necessary before one can stab them and run with their treasures. Energy
pirates and energy vampires have the archetypal power to steal energies from
the outside world. The difference is that an energy pirate accumulates those
energies, whereas an energy vampire loses them quickly.
People who have erotic and/or romantic fantasies about VIPs are,
perhaps, excused for taking those energies mentally and emotionally because
that same celebrity gets reinfused with fan energies. Although there are
exceptions, VIPs have more than enough energy to give. The fantasizer, of
course, could visualize and feel an equal exchange of energy—as opposed to just
taking. This is to approximate the more equal exchanges of energy that occur
during actual sexual encounters. Even here, the situation is still far from ideal
because the fantasizer is taking on energies from potentially millions of
strangers, and not all of those energies will be positive. But for people forced to
be celibate, lack of a fantasy life—one of the few sexual outlets for them—seems
too puritanical to me. The key is to be absolutely sure that one wants to mix
one’s energies—be they sexual, romantic, or even platonic—with those of the
celebrity about to be fantasized about. Furthermore, one doesn’t even have to
fantasize to sexual orgasm. An emotional orgasm is just as real. Women ought
to find this concept easier to comprehend than men. Men, however, can also
learn the pleasures of emotional orgasms (the romantic high of being close to
someone you love).
Whatever the type, fantasizing involves far more than sensory events in
one’s head and genitals.
Sensory Perception
When I was about 9, my mother and I got ready to leave our apartment.
The night was clear as a black blanket and quiet as a forest. Our apartment was
on the second floor of a two-story house in Levittown, a suburb of San Juan,
Puerto Rico. My mother was locking the front door of black—actually, a side
door—on the surrounding balcony. Suddenly, we heard a pop come from a dark
area where the backyards of four houses met. We looked back. A red glow was
illuminating, from above, the concrete floor of the terrace that was parallel to the
main balcony. My mother thought that the moon had changed to red. Because
the main balcony had a metal roof, we rushed over to its edge to look above.
When, at last, we were able to look at the night sky, we saw what could be
described as a fireworks missile that was on the verge of lighting up. The
reddish streak of light kept shooting up like a rocket, however, leaving just a trail
of thin “smoke.” This continued for a few seconds. Gradually, the thin glow of
red disappeared.
The incident happened in the early 1980s. For decades, I wondered what
the heck I had seen with my mother. I knew it wasn’t a fireworks missile
because nobody was present anywhere in the area where we heard the pop—or
for that matter, anywhere outside. My mother’s eyes and mine had seen a red
light shoot up from nowhere at night. But beyond that, we didn’t have an
explanation. As much as we wanted to “see” beyond what we saw, we couldn’t
because we lacked awareness of the larger picture.
In May 2007, I read online that physicists have discovered unusual electric
discharges that occur during some thunderstorms. One type of discharge
produces a thin, reddish string that looks like plasma. The phenomenon was
scientifically discovered in the early 1990s, some ten years after my mother and I
had seen what we saw. Earth scientist David Sentman, from the University of
Alaska at Fairbanks, named the lightning-like discharges sprites. I read on.
Trolls are another recently discovered form of electric discharge. Trolls also
occur during some thunderstorms. Like sprites, trolls are reddish in color. So
are sprite tendrils (offshoots of sprites). Sprites, trolls, and sprite tendrils shoot
up like the “fireworks missile” that my mother and I witnessed. The curious
thing is that sprites and trolls shoot up from above storm clouds, not from the
ground up. Sprites also come in pairs, not as the single string that my mother
and I saw. Furthermore, sprites last a few milliseconds, not a few seconds. Last,
I read that sprites can occur up to 30 miles from a storm cloud. But the night of
the incident was calm and clear, not stormy. If what my mother and I witnessed
was a sprite, then it must have been a very unusual one. Or perhaps, my mother
and I saw a sprite tendril. Or an atypical troll.
Concerning what my mother and I observed circa 1982, I am a little closer
to acquiring that something beyond my sense of sight. I am beginning to
understand that previously unknown atmospheric phenomena exist, phenomena
like sprites, trolls, and elves. Earth physicists are just discovering such
phenomena. I am on my way to becoming trans-sensory on this topic.
Sensory Perception
Another bizarre event happened in Levittown, Puerto Rico. My mother

told me the story when she was physically alive. According to my mother, she
was lying on her dark-green sofa in her living room. It was late at night, and she
was getting ready to go to sleep. The lights of our second-floor apartment were
off. Through the rectangular jalousie that was atop our bathroom wall, bright
lights began to ooze their way into the apartment. My mother told me that she
wanted to roll up further the metal slats of that side window to see what the
bright lights were. But she was afraid to look outside. The lights continued to
penetrate the semi-closed slats of metal. After a minute or so, the lights moved
on. What my mother recalled most was that the lights were not ordinary. Not
even the headlights of cars would produce the extreme brightness that she saw.
Neither, my mother continued, would the lights of helicopters or airplanes. And
my mother was no enthusiast of the paranormal.
In May 2007, I decided to research this. Online, I read that the following
happened in a residential area of Levittown, Puerto Rico:
November 1980, night,

Levittown, Puerto Rico
Hundreds of witnesses observed a disc, illuminated by bright lights,

flying at a low altitude over a residential quarter of Levittown. When
dozens of people called the local police station, a patrol car was sent.
Police Officer Sgt. José Cordero arrived just in time to observe the large
disc passing directly over him. He was able to take ten photos with his
official Polaroid camera.
The case was investigated by Puerto Rican UFO researcher Jorge

Martin. A computer analysis performed by members of German MUFON
(MUFON-CES) confirmed that it must have been a large craft.257
Many possible explanations exist for the above sighting, but most
interpretations do not hold water. The lights that the residents of Levittown saw
could have been a fireball. But if it was a fireball, something would have
crashed, and another thing would have caught fire. None of the locals saw that,
and there are no reports of fire trucks racing to the scene. It could have been a
natural phenomenon. Natural phenomena tend to occur high in the sky,
however, not hovering near houses. Even if it was a natural phenomenon, why
was it so bright? Why did the lights last for so long? The lights could have been
257
This information comes from Michael Hesemann. It is at the website titled, International Community
for Alien Research. The URL of the report is http://www.icar1.com/LevittownPuertoRico.html.
a military spy plane. If so, why make itself visible with blaring lights? The lights
could have been a time machine traveling back into our time. This is consistent
with reports of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) being around since ancient
times. Perhaps, we are visiting ourselves from the future. There could be a busy
time travel industry in a parallel dimension, and we are seeing their time
machines come and go at regular intervals. Or maybe, UFOs are extraterrestrial
spacecraft visiting us. If so, why would the aliens travel through—or around—
infinite space to play games with us? Why do UFOs seem to defy the laws of
physics? Are UFOs even physical in nature?
No matter how I look at the incident of November 1980, I come up with
nothing conclusive. Therefore, this event remains at the level of eyesight.
Beyond sight, trans-sensory consciousness is lacking.
Sensory Perception
Social service agencies have job programs for people with disabilities like
Down Syndrome. To qualify for vocational rehabilitation, one must generally
have a low-enough IQ, and one’s disability must be obvious. The Americans
with Disabilities Act (1990) established provisions for Americans who have
visible disabilities, disabilities like being in a wheelchair, being blind, and/or
being deaf.
Author Stephen Shore said, however:
In the commonwealth of Massachusetts, persons with high functioning

autism and Asperger Syndrome fall in the cracks between the Department
of Mental Retardation (IQ is too high) and Department of Mental Health
(HFA [High Functioning Autism] and AS are not mental disorders).
Similar situations exist in many other states too.258
What Aspies know is not the problem. It is what Aspergians cannot do—
that is, read and respond effectively to nonverbal, and to a lesser extent, to verbal
communication—that impairs them in social and employment situations. Aspies
are just about the only people who are aware of this handicap.
When social agencies deny services to people with high IQs, they assume
that high knowing translates to high doing. When neurotypical (regular) people
ignore hidden disabilities (or “differences”) like Asperger’s, they are similarly
being sensory. Why? Because the human senses have a hard time detecting
Asperger Syndrome, for Asperger’s is a disability in a person who looks
“normal.” Only the subconscious mind reads the socially off behavior of
someone with Asperger’s. This causes a neurotypical person to respond
unfavorably to an Aspie. While 99 percent of people get some degree of love,
Aspergians are generally unloved. Why? As we know, where Love is present,
there is perfect understanding, as in clear communication. Where there is
misunderstanding, Love and love are missing. Postmodern society has yet to
become trans-sensory regarding Asperger Syndrome.
258
This quote comes from Stephen M. Shore’s testimony before the Government Reform Committee at the
U.S. House of Representatives. The testimony was titled, “Autism—Why the Increased Rates? A One
Year Update.” The transcript is at http://www.unlockingautism.org/testimonies/index.asp?action=14.
Sensory Perception
A sensory person sees a homeless man and says, “What a loser.”
A trans-sensory person recognizes that all human—and inhuman—

experiences are recorded in a celestial database. Why would this be done?
Because no Spirit or soul can go through every possible experience. That would
take more than eternity multiplied by eternity. To speed up things, God makes
accessible to discarnate Spirits and souls any experience that others have had.
Such access is available in a celestial library—or very likely, a series of them. As
Betty Jean Eadie, the metaphysical author, recounts in Embraced by the Light,
her spirit entered a library of the afterlife that had no books. Following her near-
death experience in November 1973, she sensed that it was more than a library.
Eadie writes that she was able to learn what others had experienced, people who
she was interested in knowing more about. Eadie explains:
But this was more than a mental process. I was able to feel what the
people felt when they performed these actions [the things that humans
have done]. I understood their pains or joys or excitement because I was
able to live them.259
259
Eadie, Embraced by the Light, p. 77.
This is far less painful than having to live an entire “lifetime” (death time) of, say,
homelessness. Apparently, one can experience any state of consciousness as a
preview, then decide if one wants to experience that more fully in physical form.
In this sense, even homeless people are doing all of us a favor. Their
experiences are their contribution to the celestial database, accessible to anyone
in the hereafter for educational purposes. This database is our collective
consciousness, and this is part of an even larger universal database.
Some movies end with the hero not having learned anything. As David
Trottier, script consultant and producer, writes in The Screenwriter’s Bible, “In
this plot, the character does not grow, but the audience learns the lesson
In the spirit realm, there might be an unearthly audience watching us
humans and learning lessons from our life stories. In a dream that I had one
night, I actually heard nonphysical beings clapping and cheering at something.
If a spiritual audience exists in the heavens, then is the life of a “worthless”
person like a drunkard, a gambler, or a “bum” then worthless?
To acknowledge all of the above and to be grateful to homeless people—
and to everybody—for their celestial contributions is to have trans-sensory
consciousness.
Sensory Perception
A sensory person asks, “What does she see in him?”
260
David Trottier, The Screenwriter’s Bible, A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your
Script, 3rd Edition, (Los Angeles: Silman-James Press, 1998), p. 31.
A trans-sensory person knows that it isn’t just what one sees with physical
eyes but also, what one feels that draws one person toward a beloved.
Sensory Perception
A sensory person sees a number like 4 as nothing more than a

mathematical abstraction. Anything beyond that abstraction is “coincidence.”
A trans-sensory person views a number like 4 as more than meets the eye.
In many parts of the world, for instance, four seasons exist—spring, summer,
fall, and winter. Human life has four stations—childhood, young adulthood,
middle age, and old age. The human heart has four chambers. There are four
elements in nature—earth, air, water, and fire. According to prophecies of the
Hopi Indians of Arizona, four human races exist—“Red people,” the “Yellow
race,” “Black people,” and “White people.” Hopis believe that each human race
has been entrusted with guardianship of a different element of nature. These
divine assignments are: earth the “Red people,” wind the “Yellow race,” water
“Black people,” and fire “White people.”261 Hopi elders believe that this is why
“8 out of 10 foods today came from Indians,” why Asians have been teaching the
world “how we breathe taking the wind within ourselves for spiritual
261
Mooncloud, “Native American Prophecies,” p. 2.
advancement,” why “It’s no surprise that Black people are in the forefront of
discoveries for treatment of diseases of the blood,” and why “at the center of the
lightbulb, the car engine, and in technology [inventions of Caucasians] you will
find the spark or fire.”262 The earth also has “four corners”—North, South, East,
and West. Human beings have four basic bodies—the physical body, the mental
body, the emotional (astral) body, and the soul body. This is body, mind, spirit,
and soul. (Spirit is not the soul but rather, an aspect of the soul.) The Christian
Bible has four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Caroline Myss, the
medical intuitive, also posits that each of us has four basic archetypes—the child,
the victim, the saboteur, and the prostitute.263 Lower animals have four legs, and
higher animals have four limbs. And there are four basic “sexual” orientations—
straight, bi, gay, and trans.
It can be no coincidence that the number 4 appears in so many contexts.
Just seeing the contexts, even if one can’t bring it all together to form a coherent
meaning, is to start to become trans-sensory regarding the number 4.
Sensory Perception
Over a period of years, your left ear keeps getting clogged with water. A
sensory person sees “water” as the cause, and from a physical standpoint, this
may be true.
262
Ibid., pgs. 1-2.
263
See Myss, Sacred Contracts.
The fact that it is always the left ear is no coincidence. A trans-sensory

issue must be at work. Perhaps, you don’t want to hear something that exploded
by your left ear in a past life.
Sensory Perception
A college woman started to date a bisexual guy. Although the male

collegian dated her exclusively, he continued to identify as bi. How, she
furiously asked him, could he keep identifying as bi if he was dating her? The
woman’s eyes and brain told her that the fellow was dating her. Therefore, she
concluded, he was straight now. The bi-identified guy, however, told his
girlfriend something that went beyond what her eyes saw. A straight man no
longer being straight because he was single was ridiculous, he told her. She
agreed. Thus, he asked her, why did a girl-dating guy continuing to identify as
bi defy her sense of logic?
A trans-sensory person doesn’t just go by what his or her human eyes see.
If a guy and girl are dating each other, a sensory person assumes that they are
straight. A trans-sensory person does not assume that. One may be bi, dating
one sex at that time. Both may be bi. Both may be straight. Both may be
something else.
Sensory Perception
From the dawn of humankind, people have seen that the belly of a woman
begins to swell about three months after sexual intercourse with a man. Babies
are born some six months later—nine months including the three months. From
this, humans formulated the belief that sex is for reproduction, period. After all,
observing lower and higher animals, one sees the correlation between sex,
pregnancy, and childbirth.
Sensory people of the postmodern era (1945-present) are increasingly
viewing sex as something not just for reproduction but also, as a pleasurable
activity able to stand on its own. But the sensory human still views sex in purely
physical terms.
Trans-sensory humans notice the biology and sensory pleasure of sex. But
they also view sexual intercourse as more than meets the eye—and skin. For
example, more people are seeing sex, which includes foreplay, as an exchange of
energy between sexual partners. Just as muscles lose physical energy when one
jogs, one loses sexual, emotional, and auric (of the aura) energy during a sexual
encounter. This is why, like during a jog, one gets out of breath during sex. One
is losing energy to one’s sexual partner or partners. This is why one should not
have sex if one is tired. According to Book 2 of Conversations with God, s.e.x.
stands for Synergistic Energy eXchange.264 I add that s.e.x.u.a.l.i.t.y. stands for
Spirit Energy eXchange Until Another’s Love Is Truly Yours. The word Until
suggests that one’s sexuality involves long periods of time—lots of synergistic
energy exchanges over a lifetime with one or many people. Given the existence
264
Walsch, Conversations with God, Book 2, p. 90.
of negative energies, though, wise is to be careful about whom one opens one’s
energy field to. Imagine, for instance, having sex with a sexual vampire, a type
of energy vampire. Whether literal or figurative, vampires suck the energies of
other people. Energy vampirism is a spiritual alcoholism. At a psychic level, the
victim of a vampire loses energy like Apollo 13 loses its oxygen to outer space in
Apollo 13 (1995). With a sexual vampire, one cannot make love for hours—as
most women prefer—for a sexual vampire can dangerously deplete you of
energy in a matter of minutes.
Each soul is a star. Revolving around one another are “Planets” of
starlight (Spirits of that soul group). Their mutual gravitational attraction keeps
the star system together. Suns, however, are not created equal, for their
“genetic” blueprints vary. Most Spirits/souls are average stars like our sun. A
small number of Spirits/souls are red dwarfs. Yet other Spirits/souls are giant
and supergiant stars. Main Sequence stars are regular stars, ranging from red
dwarfs at the bottom right to our sun in the middle and on up to the upper left.
Giants and supergiants hover on top. The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
illustrates below:
265
Red dwarfs last tens of billions of years because they burn their fuel slowly.
Very slowly. Giants and supergiants last a few hundred million years because
they burn massive—and I mean massive—amounts of fuel. Energy vampires are
that rare breed of Spirit—about 1 percent of all souls—that has the capacity to
outshine all Spirits/souls. This, however, comes at the expense of burning too
much fuel and leaking too much energy. Therefore, energy vampires must feed
massively to reclaim massive energy loss. One supergiant (blue to red) is larger
than 1,000 suns (yellow). Paradoxically, one supergiant is powerless compared
to a red dwarf in terms of energy retention. This is because the energy of the red
dwarf is contained—not all over the place losing energy.
265
This diagram comes from an unnamed and untitled website about astronomy. The URL is
http://aspire.cosmic-ray.org/labs/star_life/hr_diagram.html.
In the spirit realm, the lives of supergiants go in reverse from the physical
universe.
Physical universe
Supergiant  Supernova  Black Hole
Spiritual universe
Black Hole  Supernova  Supergiant
In the physical universe, a black hole is what remains after a supergiant has
blown up (supernova) and collapsed on its weight. So much mass is in a black
hole that there is enough gravity to suck everything around it in, including light.
A black hole sucks everything in its path like a vacuum cleaner sucks all dirt in
its path. Energy vampires start as black holes, evolve spiritually, and end up
shining 1,000 times more light than 99 percent of Spirits/souls—the reverse of
how this happens in the physical universe. It is not so much the size as the
intensity and brightness of Spirits/souls that differentiate them from one
another.
One supergiant Spirit/soul was that of Jesus Christ. Adolf Hitler was
another supergiant Spirit/soul. But unlike Christ, Hitler was in the black hole
phase of his spiritual existence. Not surprisingly, Hitler has drawn supermassive
amounts of negative attention (read mental and emotional energy) since World
War II. Most energy vampires stay in the black hole phase of their spiritual
existence forever, for it takes about a million years to reach enlightenment.266 In
the meantime, energy vampires damage the energies of others through their
feeding off them and rip the auras of others in the process.
Movie stars and rock superstars are supergiants and giants who suck
massive amounts of energy from fans, process those energies like turbofan
engines, and spit the energies back out to the world as light. This is a spiritual
bulimia (you feed massively and throw it up). The spiritual DNA of VIPs
programs them to feed off energy this way. This is called being a good pirate, for
this type of energy pirate steals energy from others but processes the energies
into light and gives it back to the world. Bad energy pirates steal energies from
others and accumulate those energies in themselves. Energy vampires steal
energies from the outer world but leak the energies before they can process them.
The cycle of an energy vampire is: suck, leak, suck, leak, suck, leak.
Trans-sensory humans feel the different energies that different Spirits
have as part of their spiritual blueprints. Such people take these differences into
account before having sex with a given person. This is because energies are
stolen and given most efficiently during copulation.
Mary Kurus, a vibration consultant, writes online:
It’s important to look at sex as an exchange of energies, entities and

potential vulnerability rather than from a moral perspective. When you
have sex with another human being you absorb their very essence mixing
it with your own essence. You literally absorb their good stuff as well as
their bad stuff.
266
This is according to Paramhansa Yogananda.
If you have sex with someone who has negative energies, entities or
spirits, it is almost guaranteed that some of this negative energy will be
transferred into your body and/or aura through the physical act of sex.
It’s very important to ensure you want to absorb the very essence and
energetic elements of the other person before having sex with that person
[emphasis mine]. The more sex partners you have, ensures the greater
diffusion of your own very special essence. It amounts to not being quite
yourself anymore.267
Orgasm has been called “a little death.” This is because death is induced
by the departure of one’s nonphysical part(s) from the physical body. In the case
of ejaculation, physical swimmers leave the man’s body as well, depleting him.
Orgasm is arguably a mini-form of spiritual loss. Yet, orgasm feels superb.
Why? Because it feels exquisite whenever one’s spirit—or pieces—leave one’s
physical body during orgasm, sleep, or death. Physical death and erotic climax
are more similar than most of us would dare to admit. During sex, there is no
full-blown spiritual loss because in its mini-form—sexual orgasm—one can
recharge with time, at least ideally, and one gets infused with the energies of the
other person or people in a sexual encounter. This infusion fills the void. (For a
full discussion of spiritual loss, see Part I, Chapter 13, subsection titled,
“Extricating Alien Influences.”) Because sex is a balancing of energies, higher
energies will flow toward lower energies. This is much as heat (higher energy)
from a hot stove always gets transferred to a cold (lower energy) pot.
Presumably, the person giving one kind of energy has more than enough of it to
267
Mary Kurus, “Sex and Negative Energies, Entities and Spirits.” In The Home of Vibrational Health,
“Psychic Attacks and Protecting Yourself.” The URL is
http://www.mkprojects.com/fa_PsychicAttacks.htm.
compensate for his or her loss of life force. Vice-versa for the person returning
another type of energy to the giver. The key to the health, or lack of, of a sexual
encounter is how vitalized or depleted it leaves you and your sexual partner(s).
Not only does sex create a psychic link between—or among—sexual
partners. Having sex with someone can also establish “energy cords” with his or
her friends, sexual and/or romantic partners, and even family. This is because
one’s sexual partner or partners have picked up those energies. Thus, prudent is
to know not just whom one is about to copulate with but, just as important, his
or her company in the past and present.
In A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman quotes a poem titled,
“The Song of Solomon.” In the poem, a would-be groom describes to his would-
be bride what he can’t wait to do on their wedding night. Ackerman narrates:
He tells her that on their wedding night he will enter her garden, and he
catalogues all the fruits and spices he knows he’ll find there: frankincense,
myrrh, saffron, camphire, pomegranates, aloes, cinnamon, calamus, and
other treasures … So stirred is she by this loving tribute and so wild with
desire that she replies yes, she will throw open the gates of her garden to
him: “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my
garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into
his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.”268
As beautiful as this poem is, I wonder if the would-be groom has anything of
equal value to offer to his would-be bride. I mention this because many men and
women draw positive energies from their partner or partners during sex.
268
Examples of positive energies are love, peace, and self-esteem. In return, such
partners only give back negative energies like fear, anger, and insecurity.
Trans-sensory humans are aware of the less concrete—but equally
powerful—elements of sex. Such individuals form intimate relationships with
people who reflect their state of spiritual evolution. As the Spanish saying goes,
“Dime con quién andas, y yo te diré quién eres” (“Tell me who you walk with,
and I’ll tell you who you are”). From time to time, trans-sensory humans also
spend time alone because they know that is when you find and/or rediscover
yourself. Just as geographical isolation leads to biological diversity, sexual
isolation—as in stopping sex for a while or remaining a virgin—helps to breed
purity of sexual energy. I stress the word helps, as celibacy alone won’t do it if
one has a sexually impure mind. Julia Melges-Brenner, a clairvoyant, elaborates
online:
Since the sexual revolution, the energetic webs between people have
multiplied unlike anything ever seen before on planet Earth. Every time
we sleep with someone new, we are linking with everyone they’ve ever
slept with both physically AND energetically. From the astral, this is seen
as a vast web of intricate energetic interconnections.
Further, it’s not necessary to have physical sex to experience a

strong energetic bond with someone. The deeper you feel about someone,
the deeper your bond to them—even if your feelings are hateful instead of
loving.269
A few sentences later, Melges-Brenner continues:

269
Julia Melges-Brenner, “Spiritual Effects of Sexual Promiscuity,” August 8, 2005. Originally published
in Kajama. Column at http://www.muse-net.com/aug805.html.
… virgins (both male and female) appear aurically “pure” and beautiful
because they are free of energetic cords. They aren’t caught up in that vast
web described above.
They are also guarded by an energetic, hymen-like shield that

protects them from psychic intrusion. While I certainly don’t appreciate
the way we’ve smeared this simple truth with religious guilt and the
economics of procreation, there is some spiritual “value” in being a virgin
just as there are “risks” in being sexually reckless.270
Because virgins are more likely to be free of sexual (energy) cords, they are more
likely to be spiritually independent (independent of the energy of others). As an
analogy, think about how much more powerful the United States would be if it
achieved energy independence.
In sum, it is advisable that, before sex, all partners imagine cutting, gently
pulling off, and releasing to the heavens energy cords to past and present but
absent sexual partners. Visualize white light descending from the heavens and
filling the leftover holes. Aura clearing and chakra balancing with a specialist is
also recommended before sex. This is the spiritual equivalent of washing your
hands before touching food. These steps can help to avoid the spreading of one’s
energetic entanglements to one’s sexual partner or partners.
To concede the above truths is to be trans-sensory regarding sex.
270
Ibid.
Sensory Perception
Telescopes have zeroed in on quasars, the oldest form of matter. Quasars

are further away from earth than the most distant galaxy. They are thought to be
the first matter that formed after the big bang. Even if we could travel at light
speed in physical, rather than spiritual form, we would never reach quasars.
This is because quasars have been receding from us at light speed—the fastest
speed in the material universe—far longer than this galaxy, the Milky Way, has
been in existence. (Everything in this universe is rushing away from everything,
thanks to the big bang.)
The universe that we see—that is, planets, stars, and galaxies—is but 10
percent of the physical universe. Ninety percent of outer space is dark matter.
This is why the visible universe is said to be atypical. It is an anomaly because
the blackness of space is practically everywhere. As Carl Sagan writes in Pale
Blue Dot, travel a few miles up our atmosphere, and darkness will surround
you.271 This blackness (space) is said to be infinite, while the visible universe (the
lit objects) is finite. The reason there is so much negativity in the physical world
is because darkness is 90 percent of the physical universe.
The big bang is accelerating. Galaxies are receding faster from one
another today than they were receding yesterday. Tomorrow, galaxies will
recede faster than they are receding today. This is according to Christopher
Stubbs, astronomy professor at the University of Washington. In his words, the
physical universe is “blowing itself apart.”272 This means that “a long time from
now, there won’t be a lot going on.”273 Cosmologists have reached this
271
See Sagan, Pale Blue Dot.
272
Christopher Stubbs gave this lecture at the University of Washington. It was part of the 2001 UW
Science Forum and was titled, “Testing Gravity in the Cosmos and in the Laboratory: Is a Revolution
Under Way?” The April 4, 2001 lecture was made possible by the University of Washington Astronomy
and Physics Department. It was broadcast on University of Washington Television (UWTV) on October
18, 2006.
273
Ibid.
conclusion based on telescopic observations of the red shifts (receding

wavelengths) of supernovae (exploding giant and supergiant stars). The
observations are fascinating, and they are helping us to better understand this
uni-verse (one verse). But the big bang theory is still based on the observable
universe. As noted, this is but 10 percent of this universe. Dark matter, which is
90 percent of the physical universe, may hold unseen clues about the fate of this
universe. Such matter may have enough mass—and hence, gravity—to bring
everything back to Point Zero.
One morning, I noticed something on a large photograph that was

hanging on my bedroom wall. The picture had a noon sun shining above the
Canadian Rockies. With sleepy eyes, I stared at the photograph. Suddenly, I
saw the sun not as the sun but as light everywhere. The blanket of the blue sky
was what kept the sun from shining throughout the heavens. In other words, the
sun was a hole in the sky. The hole let in the light that was coming from beyond
the blanket of the blue sky.
The blackness of outer space is another blanket. Mentioned in Part I,
Chapter 1, light was everywhere before the beginning of time. The 72 Names of
God says that the big bang created “a point of space” and marked “the birth of
time.”274 If one could travel to the edge of outer space (I believe there is an edge),
“What happens if you try to stick your head out beyond the edge?”275 If one
peered beyond? I believe that we would encounter light everywhere. It would
274
Berg, The 72 Names of God, p. 20.
275
Michael A. Seeds, Horizons, Exploring the Universe, 1991 Edition, (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
Publishing Company, 1991), p. 311.
be like being an ant, leaving a black trash bag of plastic, and encountering a
sunlit soccer field. Our telescopes can’t see beyond the blackness of space
because the speed of light sets limits on how far out we can see. But I believe
that in nonphysical form, superevolved Spirits/souls like the one belonging to
Buddha are able to return to the light that lies beyond the blackness of space.
This “return” is called atonement, enlightenment, and nirvana. I wonder what
that universe is like?
The big bang seems to be not just the birth of the physical universe but
also, the birth of darkness—from a single dot—and its expansion like an inflating
balloon. We are in the black bag to appreciate the light in—and ultimately,
beyond—it. How do we appreciate this light? By living in its absence, except for
the “hiding spots” of the light within us. Our telescopes will never be able to see
beyond the end of space. That is, after all, beyond this universe. But as
astronomer Carl Sagan said in reference to other dimensions, we may not be able
to point to, say, the fourth dimension. But we can “deduce it.”276 That is trans-
sensory consciousness.
Sensory Perception
You meet someone, like him or her, and start a friendship. The person
moves away, and you forget about him or her.
276
Cosmos, “The Edge of Forever,” (Episode 10).
Even when your eyes and ears no longer register his or her presence, you
remember that person every now and then.
Sensory Perception
At a bookstore, the cashier slams the book you purchased into a black bag,
and he tears your $20 bill off your hand. You look at the guy who is wearing
square glasses of black plastic, and pink blood runs through your veins.
You see yourself through his eyes, and you feel—or at least, try to imagine
—the emotion driving his rudeness.
Sensory Perception
In the movie Black Cloud (2004), an Olympic boxing scout (Peter Greene)
enters a locker room and tries to get Black Cloud (Eddie Spears) to “… box for
your country in the Olympics … ”
Black Cloud, a Native American youth, answers, “Why should I fight for
your nation, when all you’ve done is murder and imprison my people, huh?”
If Norm Olsen, the Olympic boxing scout, were a sensory person, he

would have taken the outburst of the Native American as a personal attack.
Rather than take offense at the yelling of Black Cloud, Norm Olsen replies,
“Black Cloud. I’ve done nothing to your people.” Then, Olsen excuses himself
from the trio of Native American men (Eddie Spears, Russell Means, and
Nathaniel Arcand).
Why did Peter Greene, the actor who played the Olympic scout, respond
so calmly? Because he knew that the scene was make-belief. The script called for
Eddie Spears, the actor playing Black Cloud, to sputter words of anger at the
character of Olsen, the boxing scout, not at actor Peter Greene. Trans-sensory
awareness works much like this. While a sensory person would stay mired in
the bitter language of Black Cloud, a trans-sensory person sees the larger picture
—pre-birth spiritual scripts—in scenes like these. In that larger picture, the
unpleasant person is just an actor or actress playing a spiritual role. Like actor
Peter Greene, a trans-sensory person would see that the negativity of Black
Cloud is the nature of the scene and would not take it personally. A trans-
sensory person knows that, in “real” life, the personality is the character. The
stage is earth. And the actor is the spirit. As the title of a book goes: Act Well
Your Part.277
Like Black Cloud, people may act cold and vicious toward someone not
just because that is the nature of the character but also, because that is the nature
of the story. I, for example, have gone through most of my “life” with nobody
277
Don Sakers, Act Well Your Part, (Boston: Alyson Publications, 1986).
understanding me—not even “spiritually evolved” people. At one point, I was

struggling desperately to survive emotionally. Still, nobody was able, nor
willing, to help me. This is the formula of the thriller, a genre of film. As David
Trottier, a script consultant and producer, writes in The Screenwriter’s Bible:
Although the characters are after the MacGuffin [“the plot-device that
often drives the thriller”], the audience cares more about the survival of
the central character. This is because she cannot get help, has been
betrayed in some way, and cannot trust anyone.278
Trottier continues:
Many thrillers don’t have a MacGuffin, but all thrillers isolate the central
character [emphasis mine], put her life at constant risk, and get us to
identify with her fears.279
To see larger dynamics at work in human life—such as deciphering the

nature of the character and the nature of the story—is to be trans-sensory. One
does not take things personally.
Sensory Perception
Most people doubt that “love is all around us.” This is because all that
most of us see are the trees of the forest. This is what Princess Leia (Carrie
Fisher) sees when she first lands in the forest of an alien planet in Return of the
Jedi (1983). Princess Leia squints at the thick canopy of leaves that surround her,
278
Trottier, The Screenwriter’s Bible, p. 33.
279
Ibid.
suspects that there is something behind the greenery, but can’t make out what it
is.
A sensory person sees the dense growth of leaves around him or her and
can discern nothing more.
Even when a trans-sensory person can’t see what lies behind the trees of
the forest, he or she is aware that Love is hiding behind the thicket. Love is
concealed because the spiritual challenge is to find it. This is like a game of hide
and seek. Awareness that spiritual Love is all around us—even when all that we
see is the forest, even the forest on fire—is trans-sensory consciousness.
As transpires in the forest scene of Return of the Jedi, Love sometimes
shoots at us. This is so that we may get a lesson. Once again, we have
encountered the law of paradox.
Sensory Perception
The other day, I looked outside my kitchen window. On the gambrel roof
of a house, an antenna stood in the shape of an arrow. The afternoon sun lit the
metal brightly, and the arrow pointed right. What could it signify? I asked
myself. A day or so later, I saw a HELP WANTED ad at the front door of a
boutique. I wondered if God was telling me to apply at the front desk. The
metal arrow, after all, had pointed in the direction of the store. Although I have
done cashier work, I felt very uncomfortable about working with the public.
This is because as someone with Asperger Syndrome, I get edgy in any
environment that has too much physical stimuli. Autistics don’t like crowds,
dislike bustle around them, and are terrible at multitasking. The arrow seemed
to be heavenly guidance to apply for the customer service job being advertised.
This made no sense to my rational brain. It was like asking someone with Down
Syndrome to start cooking for himself from now on.
I was seething with rage because I know that consequences ensue if one
does not follow divine guidance (see Part I, Chapter 9, section titled, “The
Gamble of Choice”). I also thought that God wanted us to do what are hearts are
in and what we are best at. My genius is thinking and putting my ideas to
writing. I couldn’t see the logic of God guiding me to apply for a job that I
would be clumsy at. I applied to avoid negative effects for not doing what God
told me to do. But I was mad at being ordered to do something off the wall. I
was being sensory because I was going by what my human reason (part of the
sixth sense of the human brain) was telling me was a humanly unreasonable
request. Making things worse was that I felt pressured to choose between:
1) Working at a post that, very likely, would get me fired

or
2) Incurring negative karma for disobeying a divine order
Both options were unacceptable to me.

Had I been trans-sensory, I would have been comfortable obeying this

humanly irrational request from the heavens. Even if the guidance made no
sense, I would have happily applied—instead of grudgingly—for the position
that was not in my area of expertise. I would have remembered Caroline Myss’s
statement that divine logic is, more often than not, humanly illogical.
In the Bible, Abraham acts in a trans-sensory way in his willingness to
obey God’s order that he kill Isaac, his only son. In this story of Genesis, God
gives Abraham no reason for the request, and from a human level, the request is
not only irrational but psychotic. Still, Abraham binds Isaac to an altar on a
mount and prepares to do as told. God’s request must have confounded
Abraham. Yet, the old man trusted that there was a divine reason for the
request. We all know what happens when the angel interferes at the last minute.
Abraham’s dilemma (to follow or not to follow divine guidance) is a test of his
faith. That is the cosmic logic beyond the humanly illogical request that God
made to Abraham.280
Sensory Perception
You see a successful person—a renowned director, a world-class sculptor,

or the president of the United States—and you say to yourself, “Man! I wish I
had all that power.”
280
This story is called “The Binding of Isaac.” It is found in Genesis 22 in the New World Translation of
the Holy Scriptures.
You see powerful people as different facets of yourself. You imagine

yourself experiencing human life from their point of view. And you realize that
their successful life is yours as well, just like your unsuccessful life is theirs, too.
This is because at the quantum level, everything and everyone is part of the same
thing. Each of us is a piece of Brahma, the god of this physical universe and the
corresponding afterlife. In seeing pieces of God in others, one experiences the
greater aspects of this universal Force.
Of course, our separateness will tempt us to see powerful people as them,
and powerless you and I as us. But trans-sensory consciousness views the
separateness as illusion and sees the unity of all as Truth.
Sensory Perception
One cooks with water from the kitchen faucet, showers with water from
the shower head, does laundry with regular laundry detergent, hangs a scent
fruit on one’s rearview mirror, and sprays a scented aerosol can in the house.
After all, these substances look, taste, and smell harmless.
Brenda Watson, the nutrition expert, lectured on PBS that city water has
chlorine, lead, and other harmful substances. These toxins are invisible, tasteless,
and odorless. Laundry detergents, Watson went on, have more chemicals. So do
the plastics in automobiles, the fabrics in our furniture, and even the clothes that
we wear. The earth, after all, is a closed system. Everything we dump into the
air, soil, and water will come back to us. And other earthly life-forms will suffer
as well. The skin, the largest organ of the human body, absorbs contaminants
day to day. Air pollution, Watson continues, is often worse indoors than
outdoors because indoor air tends to stagnate. Most of the foods that we eat are
processed with preservatives. Over time, toxic exposure to all of the above can
cause cells and organs to malfunction. The human liver is especially vulnerable
to toxic overload because this is the prime detoxifier of the human body.281
In trans-sensory fashion (going beyond toxins that are invisible, tasteless,
and odorless), Brenda Watson recommends a water filter for each major faucet.
She also recommends a particulate air filter for the home and office. Watson
advises drinking plenty of purified water with a few drops of lemon; ingesting
enzymes, probiotics, and Omega-3 oil with meals; buying organic foods; eating a
high fiber diet; and reducing exposure to atmospheric chemicals. Watson’s
R.E.N.E.W. formula stands for:
1) Reduce exposure
2) Eliminate toxins
3) Nourish the body
4) Energize
5) Wellness282
Watson’s formula is trans-sensory because it addresses what human eyes, ears,

skin, nostrils, and taste buds cannot sense. In so doing, her formula promises to
help one not become “Toxsick.”283
281
See Brenda Watson’s Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps. This PBS special aired on April
17, 2008.
282
Ibid.
283
Ibid.
Sensory Perception
You take what you see, hear, touch, taste, and smell literally.
But as Diane Ackerman writes in A Natural History of the Senses:
Used-car dealers have a “new-car” spray, guaranteed to make a buyer feel

good about the oldest tin warthog. Real estate dealers sometimes spray
“cake-baking” aromas around the kitchen of a house before showing it to
a client. Shopping malls add “pizza smell” to their air-conditioning
system to put shoppers in the mood to visit their restaurants.284
Trans-sensory humans know that, even when one senses intently in the
now, the biological senses can still fool us.
Sensory Perception
Have you ever heard a song and not felt anything? That is sensory
perception. The musical vibrations entered your ears. Your brain processed the
beats and notes as music. And all this transpired without your being fully alive.
284
Trans-sensory Experience
The same song may be playing another day, and you get into it. You
dance in tune with the beats. The notes penetrate you. This is not just trans-
sensory consciousness. This is a trans-sensory experience. The same song that
didn’t move you a week ago does now.
Very important, this is not just Level 1 perception (what am I sensing?)
nor is it Level 2 perception (thoughts about what it means). Rather, emotions (a
trans-sensory phenomenon) bypass your thinking cap altogether. Something
independent of thoughts “possesses” you. This is a trans-sensory experience.
Sensory Perception
In your living room, you plunk onto your futon. Throw pillows in a
flowerprint surround you. Logs are ready to be burned in the fireplace, and the
scent of roses is wafting across the room from a transparent vase in the corner.
Your eyes, skin, its pressure centers, and nostrils pick up the stimuli, and you
remain unaffected. This is sensory perception because unlike Level 1 perception
(what am I seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, or smelling), the stimuli entered
your physical senses without your paying attention. (See Part I, Chapter 6,
section titled, “Level 1 vs. Level 2 Perception.”)
Trans-sensory Experience
A week later, you are reclining on the same futon. The same throw
pillows surround you. A low fire is cradling the logs in the fireplace, and the
scent of roses is caressing your nostrils. Something in you has changed. You are
now in tune with that something which gives us that wonderful feeling called,
“being cozy.” This is a trans-sensory experience, for the physical stimuli hardly
changed. Rather, something beyond the material stimuli changed, something
independent of both the stimuli and thoughts about them.
Common Objections
New Age ministers—the very people one would think are trans-sensory—
have come up with the following objections to the preceding section (titled,
“Sensory Perception vs. Trans-sensory Consciousness”).
One afternoon, a man who does spirit retrieval told me, “It’s not all about
you.” From a sensory perspective, this is true, for each of us is, in the physical
world, but one number on a planet of almost 7 billion people. The rational brain,
after all, sees each of us as insignificant. Thus, “It’s not all about you.” From a
trans-sensory perspective, however, “It is all about you.” Why? Because each of
the 7 billion people on planet Earth has spirit guides that tailor each life
curriculum to the needs of that individual. In the spirit realm, one Spirit is as
important as 7 billion Spirits. Therefore, everything that you encounter is, at
some level, exclusively about you (part of your life curriculum). At the same
time, everything that you encounter is about others—a both/and truth instead of
the either/or thinking of the human brain.
Another day, a female minister of a nondenominational church replied,

“You’re personalizing things.” Translated, this means that the messages aren’t
really there. They are “random coincidence.” This is sensory perception. For
example, the human brain will rationalize that the Big Dipper doesn’t really
exist. From a trans-sensory perspective, however, the Big Dipper symbolizes
that there is spiritual order to this physical universe. Divine meaning is
communicated to us through hidden patterns like the Big Dipper.
Months later, a lady who does energy work told me, “You’re reading too
much into things.” Tell that to TV’s Lieutenant Columbo (Peter Falk). It is
because Columbo “reads too much into things” that he solves the crimes
assigned to him. Spiritual detectives are spiritually literate. Therefore, they read
things that sensory people cannot read, for a sensory person sees a cake as just a
cake.
Yet another woman who does psychic work objected on the grounds that
many of the clues that I’m reading are “out there,” instead of being internal. This
is sensory perception because the human brain thinks in terms of either/or—
rather than both/and. Hence, a sensory person only sees as valid internal
signals. But from a trans-sensory perspective (beyond the either/or human
brain), internal and external messages are valid. This doesn’t mean that one
jumps off the Brooklyn Bridge just because someone told you. Although there
are exceptions like smelling broccoli once that isn’t there, one clue isn’t enough.
Rather, a pattern of clues pointing to the same thing needs to be there over a
period of time. The messages cannot be about you harming someone, for
negative messages like those are clearly from the human ego. Also, as you see,
hear, smell, taste, or feel a sign that could be interpreted more than one way, go
with your first impression, for this is your inner voice. The outer and the inner.
Symbolically, the objecting of the ministers to what I was seeing reflects

another truth. If those people agreed with me—read, approved of me—I would
never learn to stand by my convictions without the emotional support of the
world. This is a lesson on building character.
Out-of-Body Experiences
Drifting to sleep in the dark of one’s bedroom, one may suddenly feel
oneself leaving one’s physical body. The experience is like falling off a cliff.
One’s stomach jumps to one’s throat, and one gets that feeling which is
indescribable. The feeling is like sneezing. It goes beyond the sense of touch.
Though one may see and hear things during an out-of-body experience, feeling is
the dominant element—and not ordinary feeling either.
When falling asleep, I often wake up abruptly. I feel a jolt, usually on one
or both legs. I get this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. It is like falling off a
precipice—and not just falling, but plummeting abruptly. This is an experience.
The so-called five senses have nothing to do with this queasy feeling that goes
beyond mere queasiness. In this sense, out-of-body and near-death experiences
are trans-sensory.
By the way, what causes jolts in some of us as we fall asleep? Apparently,
it is the astral body leaving one’s physical body too soon. The astral body
typically waits until one is fully asleep before leaving. In some people, however,
the astral body is impatient to leave. When it realizes that the corporal body is
still awake, the astral body returns quickly. Hence, the jolt feeling.
Near-Death Experiences
In An Alchemy of Mind, Diane Ackerman implies that she doubts the

outer reality of near-death experiences. This is because 95 percent of them are
recounted in terms of what people saw, heard, smelled, felt, or even tasted.
Therefore, Ackerman suspects that near-death experiences have a biological
cause.285
Near-death experiences, however, aren’t called experiences for no reason.
People often recall a feeling of rushing through space faster than the speed of
light. The key word is feeling. It is like laughing or crying from the belly. This is
no mere sensory perception. It is a trans-sensory experience.
More people are shifting from the first versions of this chapter to the
second versions. They are becoming trans-sensory in every sense of the word.
The next chapter examines sensory and trans-sensory deprivation in the
context of postmodern culture.
Exercise
Write about your experiences of sensory perception vs. trans-sensory

consciousness. If you can’t think of any, try to see sensory incidents in a
trans-sensory way. Keep a journal.
285
See Ackerman, An Alchemy of Mind, pgs. 60-62.
12
Deprivation of the Senses and of Emotions
Sensory deprivation is deprivation of physical stimuli. Trans-sensory

deprivation is deprivation of trans-sensory experiences.
This chapter looks at some forms of sensory and trans-sensory deprivation
and at ways of overcoming these limits of human experience. This is important
because sensory deprivation (e.g., people always ignoring you) often leads to
madness, while trans-sensory deprivation (e.g., males bottling up their feelings)
often leads to obsession with sensory things like sex. This chapter concludes
with going beyond all this.
Sensory Deprivation
There is sensory perception. But there is also the debilitating experience

of sensory deprivation. I am talking about that inmate being locked in some
vault for days with no light. I am talking about the father, mother, brother,
sister, or friend not being there when you needed somebody. I am talking about
those three messages you left on someone’s answering machine and that needed
person’s failure to return your calls. The last example happened to me with
three psychics. I was so enraged that I wanted to punch them for not caring that
I needed their help. Sensory deprivation is to the heart what lemon drops are to
the eye. It is about what is occurring out there—or, in this case, not occurring—
affecting what happens inside. Sensory privations negatively affect those of us
who are outer focused.
Going Beyond Sensory Deprivation
Sensory deprivation, however, does not affect people who are inner
focused. Even someone who is deprived of light for weeks could close his or her
eyes and visualize the following: He or she is lying on a white chaise longue,
zipping piña colada and enjoying sunny skies at a beach. Trans-sensory humans
are not focused on what is out there—or not out there. Instead, they are focused
on what is in here. Trans-sensory humans are conscious about outer stimuli, and
observe them closely, but only in the context of how their inner world is
processing the outer stimuli. If they feel pain, trans-sensory people change their
inner processing. Conversely, sensory people look outside of themselves and let
outer stimuli push their buttons.
Trans-sensory Deprivation
Around the globe, boys and men are not allowed to cry. Even if they feel
sad, males are scolded and ridiculed for a thing that only “girls” and “sissies” do.
The result is trans-sensory deprivation, for emotions are the language of the
Spirit/soul. Feelings go beyond the physical senses. For example, in the film
Return of the Jedi (1983), Princess Leia tells Luke Skywalker that she remembers
their mother not so much as images but as feelings. That is the realm of the
trans-sensory. Internalizing society’s expectations that “men don’t cry,”

however, males block the flow of their emotions (a spiritual type of energy).
Thus, males set themselves up for anger—the only feeling that males can express
without ridicule—for ulcers, high blood pressure, heart attacks, and the
obsessive need for sexual release.
Like sobbing, laughing is a trans-sensory experience in that it goes beyond
the biological senses. Loretta LaRoche, the stress management consultant, says,
however, that people seem to be laughing less and less. “Be serious,” she
comments on the video How Serious Is This? (1997), has become the catchphrase
of America.286 In elevators, LaRoche goes on, people are afraid to look at one
another. LaRoche relates, though, that she never turns upon entering an
elevator. Instead, she smiles at everyone and says, “Lets hug!” People “crack
up,” LaRoche says.287 According to her, people who stop laughing can even end
up in mental institutions. This is an extreme consequence of not laughing on a
regular basis, a type of trans-sensory deprivation.
Our obsession with movies, TV programs, and live shows is undoubtedly
related to our emotional inhibitions in a milieu of social masks. Entertainment
media is popular because many of us are starving emotionally. In day-to-day
life, everything is business, work, formality, and wearing masks. Viewing things
on-screen goads us to experience emotional catharsis, be it from watching a
tearjerker on the big screen (e.g., women) or a violent program on television (e.g.,
men). Entertainment allows us to experience feelings that Western society
forbids.
I rarely wept. Then, something changed. I started to cry. I discovered
that deep, belly cries felt as powerful as orgasms. I immediately understood why
men are obsessed with climaxing in bed. Lacking the freedom to shed tears, men
286
The video How Serious Is This? was produced by WGBH/ Boston.
287
Ibid.
turn to the only method of catharsis—other than watching violent shows or

fighting—that postmodern society permits them: sexual release.
The obsession of women—and some men—with multiple orgasms is no
doubt related to our emotional and sexual inhibitions in a society ruled by
emotional and sexual taboos. In a world where emotional openness and erotic
expression have become unnatural, sexual obsession becomes necessary. This is
because sexual release is a trans-sensory experience that goes beyond the sense of
touch. Of course, sexual pleasure and orgasm also involve touch outside and
inside the human body.288 Another reason for sexual obsession is that orgasm is
a very emotional experience.
Going Beyond Trans-sensory Deprivation
If we could express ourselves without censure, then we would stop

suppressing our emotional and sexual selves. Such a paradigm shift will require
allowing boys and men to cry, permitting them to show their emotions—beyond
mere anger—and allowing males to feel masculine despite that. This already
happens in sports and war. Men are permitted to cry in those settings—the only
exceptions to the no-cry rule. Male athletes and male soldiers are considered no
less manly for their outbursts of emotion on the field. In fact, male athletes and
male soldiers are seen as the most masculine of all men.
In the video Humor Your Stress (1995), Loretta LaRoche says that we need
to make our stressful situations humorous. For instance, if the copying machine
is broken at work, LaRoche says, we could spin in front of a coworker and say,
288
Breathing, speaking, digestion, and excretion are other elements of touch inside the human body, as are
colds, migraines, and painful illnesses.
“You know? The Xerox machine’s not working.” In jest, she advises, “Stand on
one leg when you’re talking to them [difficult people].” This creates, in her
words, some “equanimity” with such individuals.289
Sexual freedom goes hand in glove with emotional freedom. On the
baseball field, for instance, male athletes are not only allowed to express intense
emotions—and even shed tears—without being considered less manly for that.
They are also permitted to hug, kiss, and slap one another’s butts. Ending trans-
sensory deprivation will require postmodern society to say yes to life! It will
require a new Emancipation Proclamation. That proclamation shall spell:
Males, females, and others are free to express their thoughts, feelings, and
sexuality with whomever they choose, so long as they do not deliberately
harm others.
It is that simple.
Chapter 13, the next chapter, begins a step-by-step process—continued in
Chapter 14—of what it means to be trans-sensory.
Exercises
1) List examples of sensory and trans-sensory deprivation in your life. In

each example, have you learned to deprive yourself? Or have the heavens
withheld sensory and trans-sensory experiences from you? How long have
you been aware of each case of deprivation? What actions, if any, have you
taken to remedy each instance? What have been the results?
289
The video Humor Your Stress: Jest for the Fun of It with Loretta LaRoche was produced by WGBH/
Boston.
2) If you have children, are you depriving them—or encouraging them to

deprive themselves—of sensory experiences? For example, a mother might
say, “There will be no eating of chocolate in this household.” What is your
justification? What are the results—or what will the effects be—for your
progeny? If the effects are or will be negative, how could you alter your
teachings?
3) If you have children, are you depriving them—or encouraging them to

deprive themselves—of trans-sensory experiences? For instance, a father
might growl, “There will be no crying in this household.” What is your
justification? What are the results—or what will the effects be—for your
children? If the effects are or will be negative, how could you alter your
teachings?
13
The Omega Solution: Being Trans-sensory
Our Mission on Earth
One Saturday night in 1992, I was home alone feeling very depressed. At
about 11:12 p.m., I turned on the tube. What I saw was the most heart-rending
airing that I have ever seen on network or cable television. The Tales from the
Darkside episode involves a blonde (Kim Greist) who joins an encounter group
to study human psychology. The other members of “the group” pound pillows,
yowl at imaginary versions of their parents and spouses, and burst into tears. As
the group facilitator, Amy (Cynthia David) monitors their “work.” Claire, the
blonde, stays composed. Away from the group, Claire takes pictures of “the
natives.” That is her assignment. Claire, an anthropologist, is far from home,
alone, and unable to connect with any human being. In her dim flat, the young
woman views the slides that she has made. I should not have joined the group,
Claire echoes in her head. She continues:
Everything is filled with mystery—each building, each face, the city, the
sky, this alien body I inhabit. I am alone, surrounded by mysterious
surfaces.290
Claire starts to fall in love with Lee (John Aprea), an angry but tender-at-heart
man from the group. Claire finds many things confusing about earthlings. How,
290
This episode of Tales from the Darkside (1983-1988) is titled, “Going Native.” The episode originally
aired in syndication on June 19, 1988 (Season 4, episode 17).
she asks herself, could creatures who are so violent be so tender [in bed]?291 In
the end, Claire loses her mind, feels human emotions for the first time, and acts
like the rest of the encounter group—pounding pillows, screaming at her
invisible mother, and sobbing like a little girl. The woman from outer space
becomes, in her words, “a stupid human animal,” when her mission was simply
“to report on you.”292 Claire is the archetypal fallen angel.
Like Claire, each of our spirits descended onto planet Earth with a
mission. Earth temptations, however, have distracted most of us from the
fulfillment of that mission. Distractions, a sensory issue, include people who we
are better off without. Many individuals “go native,” instead of staying
connected to that inner dialogue that directs them toward the fulfillment of their
life mission.
Spiritual masters say, “Find a way that you can be of service.” In the ideal
world, everyone serves from their hearts, and work is never a chore or
unavailable. In “the real world,” however, heaven often puts hurdles in our
path. Such obstacles can prevent the fulfillment of one’s spiritual mission. This
is a test of character. At other times, there is a spiritual embargo in place against
one’s Spirit/soul. As happened to Cuba after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959
and to Iceland after its currency collapsed in 2008, nothing can get in or out of
the country. The Spirit/soul in question has been put in a spiritual blacklist.
This is why many people cannot find work that springs from the heart. Or work
of any kind. Many, perhaps most, homeless people are Spirits that have been
blacklisted in the spirit realm for sins committed in past lives. The result of the
“international” blockade (from other Spirits/souls) against those Spirits is no
friends, no job, no money, no nothing. Massive karmic debt—the type of debt
that feeds on itself—gets repaid when the heavens prevent one from repaying
291
Ibid.
292
Ibid.
the debt. How could a karmic debt that doesn’t allow itself to be repaid—
through one’s not being allowed to serve—get repaid? This is yet another of
those divine paradoxes. Perhaps, the agony of not being allowed to give will
change a human being into a giving Spirit in the future.
This chapter will look at the trans-sensory issues of:
1) Internal control
2) Spirit release and “soul retrieval”
3) Knowing thyself
4) Experiencing oneness with others
5) What is needed to let go of pain
6) Externals being—generally—beyond our human control
7) Free will, predestination, and karma
8) Our human insignificance
9) Going beyond people
Understanding these issues is one of the first steps toward becoming trans-
sensory, for these topics lie beyond the realm of human sensing.
Being Trans-sensory
Be Always at the Controls
One day, an uncle of mine, a bus driver, put me on his lap. He allowed
me, a toddler, to maneuver the steering wheel of his assigned bus. The bus was
not moving, but I felt excited “driving” such a huge thing. I remember the feel of
the polished, black plastic against my tiny hands.
When little, I also found the steering wheel of a car on a sidewalk. I

picked up the plastic wheel of gray, held it before me, and “maneuvered” behind
my mother toward a supermarket. Inside the grocery store, I kept “driving” and
making vrooming sounds.
Years later, my mother sat me on her lap. This happened inside her white
jalopy at the vacant parking lot of a supermarket. The beach of Levittown,
Puerto Rico was to my left. My mother released her foot from the brake pedal,
and the automobile started to move—slowly, to be sure. But I remember the
excitement of motion, the vibrations, the slow turns in the afternoon sunlight,
and the inevitable end of the ride.
As adults, we are drivers of our lives. Each person is responsible for being
attentive to his or her moving car. No distractions are allowed, unless we are
willing to face the consequences. Most people relinquish control of their cars to
external forces. Blustering winds come, and they don’t grab the steering wheel.
A rainstorm hits, and they don’t turn on the wipers. Nighttime falls like a dark
blanket, and they don’t turn on the headlights. Someone steps in front, and they
don’t step on the brake pedal. These drivers let their moving vehicles go
wherever they will and let the tin boxes encounter whatever fate dictates. Such
individuals never check the oil and never do repairs. Only to sleep do they stop.
This is like driving from New York to Florida down I-95. Such a trip would be
terrifying, to say the least, if one were in an automobile that were driving itself.
Responsible drivers, by contrast, are always monitoring their vehicles—in
“good” times and in “bad” times. Their biological senses are sharpened. Such
drivers obey the speed limits. They follow the rules of the road. These drivers
know that they must pay attention to other drivers, for they, not other drivers,
are responsible for how well their vehicles bowl along. When one focuses on
managing one’s car, driving becomes as fun as the driving sessions that I had as
a kid.
This doesn’t mean that fate and karma don’t exist. Things do occur
beyond our human control. The responsible driver knows, however, that he is
still in control of the car of his Self. Snowstorms, accidents between other motor
vehicles, and falling branches may happen on the outside. But the responsible
driver stays in control on the inside.
Extricating Alien Influences
In Soul Retrieval, Sandra Ingerman, a shaman, writes that oftentimes part

or pieces of a “soul” flee a human body to survive a trauma.293 Author Gary
Zukav calls this the “splintered personality.”294 The departure of a fragment of
one’s spirit leaves a hole or holes in one’s auric field (field of the aura). As most
of us know, this universe abhors a vacuum. Foreign energies or entities often
attach themselves to the hole or holes in one’s aura. When this happens,
thoughts start to pop up in one’s head, thoughts that are not one’s own. One
may also feel strange—and usually negative—emotions. Fighting these thoughts
and emotions can be very taxing. Worse, people who don’t know what a spirit
attachment is may believe that the bad thoughts and negative feelings are theirs,
rather than the thoughts and feelings of an unwelcome party.
In Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis)
begins her honeymoon with Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes)
293
Sandra Ingerman, Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self, (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), p.
11.
294
aboard the Enterprise. The two start to make love on their bed. Riker is on top
of Troi. Suddenly, Troi sees Riker transform himself into the grotesque Reman
Viceroy (Ron Perlman). Troi screams and tries to get the Reman off her. Soon,
Troi realizes that the alien creature invaded her mind from another starship.
This is a dramatic example of what happens when someone becomes
“possessed.” Possession is what people mean when they ask, “What in the
world has gotten into you?” A more accurate question would be, “What from
the lower realms has gotten into you?”
More often than not, an entity or entities affect one’s thoughts and feelings
in subtle ways. Since the alien spirit(s) can remain with the host for decades, its
thoughts and emotions become too familiar to—and thus, undetected by—the
host. To be in control of one’s thoughts, one must first have full possession of
one’s mind.
Shamans perform spirit release therapy (the attached energy is asked and
sometimes cajoled to leave). Then, shamans retrieve one’s fled part(s) of spirit to
fill the vacuum and to prevent future negative energies from attaching
themselves to one’s spirit. The process is similar to what happens in the climax
of Troll (1986). In that movie, adolescent Harry Potter Jr. (Noah Hathaway)
notices subtle—and eventually, not so subtle—changes in his 9-year-old sister
(Jenny Beck). It turns out that a troll has taken over her physical body. This, of
course, is an exaggeration, for in so-called real life, takeovers are usually subtle.
The interesting part of the film, however, is that toward the end, Potter Jr. crosses
the doorway of an apartment into another dimension. In a forest, he finds his
sister resting inside a coffin. With a spear, the 16-year-old breaks the force field
that is around the coffin and frees Wendy Anne Potter.
Important is to be cautious about the people one hangs out with, for
people’s energies can affect us individuals. Ask yourself:
What thoughts and emotions does that person or group generate in me?
Thoughts of hate, anger, and revenge? Or feelings of love, peace, and
service? Is the group genuine?
If one feels lower energies like anger, then the person or group is a negative
force. If one feels higher energies like Love, then the person or group is a
positive force.
Like people, places carry energies. Places like bars, ghettos, and arenas
where violent games are played have negative energies. Places like forests, the
mountains, and nonjudgmental churches have positive energies. Hanging out in
negative settings attracts negative energies into one’s life. Hanging out in
positive settings attracts positive energies into one’s life. Just as significant,
places like The Overlook Hotel of the movie The Shining may look peaceful and
not be so. As George Romero narrates before the window opens to each story of
Tales from the Darkside:
Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality. But there
is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real, but not as
brightly lit. A Darkside.
From a human standpoint, for example, Maine is a piece of heaven. Old forests,
clear rivers, and fresh lakes dot the landscape. But from a spiritual perspective,
Maine can be a piece of hell. One young woman told me, for instance, that she
was very depressed growing up in an orphanage in Maine. The cold, the snow,
her being Latina, and the way that she was treated made life at that orphanage a
living hell for her.
If the glitter of surfaces is often deceiving, then that makes things more
interesting than if the outer always reflected the inner. If the outer and the inner
sometimes match and sometimes don’t match, then there is an element of
unpredictability here. One must then rely not on the biological senses but on the
spiritual senses. Why? Because the biological senses can’t sense the
“underworld,” while the spiritual senses can. Moreover, the exterior senses
make false assumptions about interior realities, while the inner senses are always
on the mark about psychic realities. The problem is that our biological senses see
what we want to see, not what is really there. For instance, Martin Luther King,
Jr. is considered a saint in most of the world. But as Marcus Epstein, a media
writer, comments online:
Slightly before the King Holiday was signed into law, Governor Meldrim
Thompson of New Hampshire wrote a letter to Ronald Reagan expressing
concerns about King’s morality and Communist connections. Ronald
Reagan responded, “I have the reservations you have, but here the
perception of too many people is based on an image, not reality [emphasis
mine]. Indeed, to them the perception is reality.”295
Love is blind. On the other hand, we all need something to believe in, even if
idealism does not square with reality. Without idealism, we have nothing to live
for. One ends up disillusioned with “the real world.” There is also the dejection
that when a physically beautiful person is present, one cannot appreciate his or
her physical beauty—at least, not too much—since that is thin as the skin of an
apple.
295
Marcus Epstein, “Myths of Martin Luther King,” LewRockwell.com. The article is at
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/epstein9.html.
Trans-sensory humans go by gut feeling, however, not just by surface

appearances. In so doing, they take a huge step toward keeping harmful
energies away from their minds, hearts, and spirits.
Psychically “zipping around” before going out may help to protect one
from the negative energies out there. But visualizing a cocoon of white light
around you encourages a sense of separation from others. Best is to exhibit
positive energies from within. This is the best way to deflect negativity.
While showering or taking a bubble bath, you can also visualize the soap
and water cleansing your aura. Then, each shower and bath becomes a baptism
(a washing away of negativity).
The phenomena of loss of spirit and spirit attachment(s) are not rare
events. As children grow up, they lose that energy, sparkle, and charisma that
kids have. This is the progressive harshness of “life” causing parts of their spirits
to flee, piece by piece. According to Sandra Ingerman, most people today have
experienced some degree of “soul loss.” Why? In Soul Retrieval, Ingerman
writes:
We moved from tribal societies to a culture in which families took the

place of the community. As society became more mobile, family clans
broke into smaller and more isolated units, down to the “nuclear family.”
Even now the nuclear family is dissolving into individual members who
live separately.
… the disintegration of community into ever more discrete units of

human interaction has a dramatic effect on soul loss [emphasis mine].296
296
Ingerman, Soul Retrieval, p. 85.
Other possible causes of dispiritedness are death of a loved one, illness,

abuse, divorce, war, drugs, moving frequently, getting circumcised, not
following one’s heart, and emotional shock. Any break of oneself—heartbreak,
someone sucking the life out of you, a lover taking a piece of your heart, or a
spouse stealing your heart outright—is another way of describing loss of spirit.
Also, what shocks one person (e.g., an alarm clock an aborigine) doesn’t
necessarily shock another person (e.g., someone used to alarm clocks).
In the movie Prayer of the Rollerboys (1991), Speedbagger (Julius Harris)
tells Griffin (Corey Haim), “I just hope there’s still something left of what I first
saw in you two boys.” Speedbagger is talking about loss of spirit. When Griffin
says in another scene, “I just want my brother back,” he is also referring to loss of
spirit. This is because 13-year-old Miltie (Devin Clark) is still part of Griffin’s
life, yet is not “there” any more. Part of Miltie’s consciousness has left for a
pleasant realm because this dimension is too unpleasant for him. As Madonna’s
song goes, “If I ran away, I wouldn’t have the strength to go very far.”297
Spiritual loss is one way of departing from this world. Suicide is another way.
Both deplete your energy to the point of death. Loss of spirit is psychic death.
Suicide is biological death.
What leaves one’s material body returns sometimes without the aid of a
shaman. This is what people mean when they say, “He [or she] will come
around.” To help individuals to prevent loss of spirit, the popular culture has
the advisory saying, “Keep yourself together.” Another popular saying is, “Stay
collected.” If one fails at this, then one is “losing it” or “going out of your mind.”
These expressions convey that a piece of one’s energy has left. In this case, one
needs to “regroup emotionally.” A good example of temporary loss of spirit is
297
Madonna, “Live to Tell.” This song is in the CD titled, The Immaculate Collection. “Live to Tell”
debuted in 1986. The CD came out on December 8, 1990. Label: Sire / London/Rhino.
when a person faints (a mini-death). He or she drops because energy has

vacated the physical body. In mild cases, the energy returns without assistance.
But for reasons not fully understood, the departed energy sometimes doesn’t
return on its own. As writer Norman Cousins said, “Death is not the greatest
loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”298 In such
cases, a shaman is needed to do spiritual retrieval.
In taking control of one’s mind and heart, one may want to consider loss
of spirit and spirit attachments.
Know Thyself
In the movie The Matrix (1999), the following exchange takes place
between a woman called The Oracle (Gloria Foster) and Neo (Keanu Reeves).
The Oracle: Do you think you are the one [the savior]?
Neo: Honestly, I don’t know.
The lady asks Neo if he knows what a Latin inscription behind him means.
“Know thyself,” she tells him.
In The Mind of the Soul, writers Gary Zukav and Linda Francis argue that
the mansion of each personality (spirit) has many rooms. Each room has its own
agenda, wants, and fears. Caroline Myss would call this the gravity of each
298
D. JoAnne Swanson, “What Is a Wage Slave?” Why Work? Creating Livable Alternatives to Wage
Slavery. At http://www.whywork.org/about/faq/wageslave.html.
archetype, of which we all have 12.299 The “multisensory” person, Zukav and
Francis write, is aware of the dynamics of each room of his or her personality.
The multisensory person chooses not to let certain wants of the personality—
such as recklessness and jealousy—get out of control. His or her inner choices,
not the whims of the mansion, are in control, Zukav and Francis conclude. Such
conscious decisions Zukav and Francis call “authentic power.”300 I highly
recommend the exercises in that book.
Knowing thyself means knowing the dynamics of one’s spirit. Such
knowledge is necessary in the process of becoming and being trans-sensory.
Imagine Yourself as Others
The five senses—and the sixth sense of the human brain—instill in us a

sense of separateness from others. In An Alchemy of Mind, however, Diane
Ackerman writes that William Shakespeare must have had the ability to become,
mentally and emotionally, the characters that he wrote about.301 Writers and
actors obsess about their characters and become them. Speculating that
Shakespeare had Asperger Syndrome, some people think that the playwright
was able to become his characters more deeply than other playwrights—a point
of some debate. Apparently, some people with Asperger’s can literally get into
the shoes of others. They do not merely empathize with people to their liking.
These Aspies become others in their minds and hearts. I have this ability, and it
goes to the point of wanting to be others—not everyone, but specific people. I
299
Myss, Sacred Contracts.
300
See Gary Zukav and Linda Francis, The Mind of the Soul: Responsible Choice, (New York: Free Press,
2003).
301
Ackerman, An Alchemy of Mind, pgs. 222-227.
want to experience human life from many points of view and find myself too
limited being one physical body and one personality. For years, I felt guilty for
wanting to be certain others.
In An Alchemy of Mind, Diane Ackerman writes that most people have a
sense of I too strong to allow them to be in the shoes of others for long.302 By I,
Ackerman means the human ego, as opposed to the Self that I write about in Part
I, Chapter 17, section titled, “Becoming More Than Higher Animals.” The
humbling of the human ego (that inner antagonist) is required to get out of one’s
skin.
Trans-sensory humans see others as parts of themselves. Trans-sensory
people may even go so far as to experience themselves as others in their minds
and hearts. Trans-sensory humans develop the ability to become not just people
they like, but also people they dislike. At the same time, trans-sensory humans
retain their sense of individuality—a both/and approach to being in an either/or
world.
Preparation for Being at the Controls
Being Understood and Letting Go of Pain
Most of us hold on to our pain because the world does not witness—much
less, acknowledge—it. The human reasoning goes, If I don’t hold on to my pain,
then nobody will ever know. As I awoke one night, for example, I felt a black
void pulling me up like a tornado. I heard rushing sounds. Part of me wanted to
go like urine wants to leave a full bladder. This was not a dream, for I was half-
awake. The next day, I telephoned a man who was in charge of a program
302
Ibid.
called, “The Circle of Light.” He evaded my three messages on his answering

machine. If an “enlightened” reverend could not be counted on in a crisis, I
wondered, who could I turn to? Who could I tell about what had happened to
me? Letting go of a pain that nobody concedes is extremely hard—albeit not
impossible.
We need to feel someone acknowledge our pain before we can release it.
In a world that gets busier each day, people are too harried to lend an ear—much
less, a piece of their heart. Even gurus in the field of New Consciousness are
often in the “business of spirituality” for the money. If people don’t listen, then
we need a God who understands our pain before we can let it go.
On PBS’s The Power of Intention, however, author Wayne Dyer says that
God does not respond to requests because God, being infinite abundance, does
not understand lack.303 I find this concept of God extremely limiting because it
assumes that Evil exists independent of God. But even Evil is part of the Creator.
Only the dualistic human brain conceptualizes God as only Good. From my
perspective, Brahma’s abundance would have to include an abundance of
understanding of suffering. If God lacks understanding of Evil because God
doesn’t comprehend lack, then God is not endlessly abundant. Where there is a
deficiency of understanding, as in misunderstanding, there is an absence of Love.
Where infinite Love exists, there is perfect understanding.
In the movie Past the Bleachers (1995), Ed Godfrey (Barnard Hughes) tells
Bill Parish (Richard Dean Anderson), “God inhabits the bitter and the sweet in
life.” This is as opposed to the bitter or the sweet. In my view, God created the
Holy Spirit as His arm for understanding the scarcity that doesn’t exist at the
highest levels of God. The Holy Spirit sends miracles because S(He) understands
scarcity. If the Holy Ghost were incapable of comprehending lack, then S(He)
303
See PBS’s The Power of Intention. This special originally aired on PBS on June 12, 2004.
would be incapable of sending miracles. Miracles happen because of need—not

because of plenitude. Lack is what creates the need for miracles.
When the world does not comprehend our pain, we need to know that a
universal force larger than ourselves understands our lack. Then, we can turn to
such a power and ask for the understanding that people do not extend our way.
Without someone acknowledging our pain, we hold on to it as the sole witnesses
of an atrocity that nobody—other than ourselves—recognizes. Only by turning
our pain over to a God who understands pain can we let it go once and for all.
This letting go is necessary in the process of “being at the controls.” Without our
letting go of the past, the process is like the autumn leaves that I saw at a nature
trail. The brittle leaves of brown were still clinging to the tree branches in spring.
Flower buds were making their way out from underneath. But the process
looked labored, rather than natural. This is what happens when we hang on to
the past. We get out of balance with the seasons.
Understanding Lack of Control and the Nature of Problems
When we incarnate, our Spirits/souls go from being enormously powerful

to being infinitely powerless—powerless in terms of being unable to control most
externals. We, of course, can change some things. But we can’t prevent what
happens to us all in those first years of life: emotionally getting stabbed over and
over. As adults, we never know when an illness will strike, the strike being
ostensibly due to the emotional wounds manifesting as physical diseases. We
never know when the company that we work for will go overseas or belly-up.
We never know when a spouse will leave us. We cannot make anyone love us.
We can’t prevent loved ones from dying. We have no control over our
upbringing. Hurricanes, earthquakes, snowstorms, and volcanic eruptions are

far more powerful than any human being. A single individual is nothing next to
the frying heat and suffocating humidity of summer. Human legs are close to
powerless next to the speed of cars. Humans cannot fly without the help of
airplanes and helicopters. We cannot change the past. We cannot predict the
future. We can’t change others. We can’t even control our own bodies. I, for
instance, was grinding my teeth to the point that my tongue was getting
damaged. Because the grinding occurred while I was asleep, there was little that
I could do. I meditated before sleep, exercised during the day, underwent
hypnosis, and did yoga. Still, the grinding continued. I was terrified because I
couldn’t stop the damage to my taste buds. I got a night guard for my mouth. It
didn’t prevent my squishing my tongue during sleep. Stress in my unconscious
was causing the grinding, but my unconscious and subconscious was beyond my
control. I went into a conniption because I couldn’t control my own body.
Someone may seem powerful from writing big numbers on a check,
pointing a gun at someone, or owning pricey things. But the person is not
powerful. Rather, the external things have the power—and only because people
have given their inner power to externals. Guns can kill, so people give their
mental and emotional power to guns. Money buys things, so people give their
mental and emotional power to money.
We, however, don’t have the power to own—truly own—anything. Think
about it. If you live in a house, is it really yours? Assume you paid it off.
Furthermore, assume that the house is in your name. Is the house yours? A
piece of paper may say so. But is the house truly yours? Another piece of paper
may read, “$250,000” as the house’s worth on the market. No homeowner,
however, is guaranteed $250,000 or whatever the property is supposedly worth.
Even if a homeowner—the rare breed that actually owns property—puts his or
her house on the market, there is no assurance that a buyer will appear. Most
homeowners don’t put their houses on the market until years, if not decades,
have passed. In the meantime, all these people have are pieces of paper telling
them what their property is “worth.” Look at what has happened to the
American economy since the real estate bubble burst in September 2008. What if
deflation (collapsing prices across the board) hits again 1930s-style? Or
hyperinflation (out of control inflation)? How much power will $10,000 in the
bank—worth $1,000—have in such a society? Consider what happened in
Austria in 1932. In the words of the Americanist James Shenton:
Austria was a country which began as an empire. By 1932, it was a rump

of what was once an empire. There was a great city called Vienna,
surrounded by some spectacular scenery, a country without a function.
More precisely, a capital without a function. One-third of the workforce
of Austria was employed in a government that really, effectively, and
essentially did not exist. And how do you maintain a government
under such circumstances? You borrow money. And the Kreditanstalt,
which was the Austrian Central Bank, had been literally subsidizing the
Austrian economy by borrowing ansts on bonds which were being
constantly sold at rising rates of interest. Any bank in America which had
in its portfolio Kreditanstalt bonds looked upon them as a measure of
their salvation because of the rate of interest. What happened? When
one day, truth met reality, the interest rates were unsustainable. They
couldn’t be paid. And the most astonishing thing imaginable happened.
The Central Bank of Austria went bankrupt. Think about this in terms of
what you think you would do if you realized the Federal Reserve System
had gone bankrupt. A whole country bankrupt! All the paper issued?
Worthless. And suddenly in 1932, it was like we pulled the plug out of
the tub of tepid water. And everywhere it became obvious that what was
bad was now beyond understanding. It was worse than anyone had ever
imagined.304
If the United States goes bankrupt—and it might from all the recent
bailouts and mounting debt—then the U.S. dollar will collapse, as will the
Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso. The Amero (currency being proposed for
the U.S., Canada, and Mexico) may be the only way that 443 million people
won’t go without food, pay, and other necessities. If I were president of the
United States, I would have the Amero ready to take over immediately—and I
mean immediately—when and if the U.S. dollar collapses. I would also have an
alternate banking system on the sidelines, ready to rescue America, Canada, and
Mexico.
Of itself, money has no value. A good way to illustrate this is that in 1971,
President Richard Nixon took the United States off the gold standard (without
popular consent). Not even silver backs the U.S. dollar nowadays. Only the
assurance—a nonmaterial thing—of the U.S. government continues to make the
American dollar the dominant currency of international exchange. Moreover,
only popular opinion makes money valuable. But mass opinion is beyond one’s
control. In 1920s Austria, for instance, people who wanted a loaf of bread had to
pay for it with barrels of cash, according to the mother of my adopted aunt. If
money were objectively valuable, it would have fixed value. That it does not
means that the value of the dollar, the Euro, the pound, the peso, and the Yuan
depends on something else, something unstable. That fickle thing is public
304
Refer to the cassette titled, The History of the United States, Part VI: Liberalism and the Cold War, “The
Great Depression,” Lecture 51.
opinion. Traditional investors say, “Markets make opinions.”305 In reality,

opinions make markets as well.
Our corporate-dominated world encourages the obsession with money.
After all, nothing is free of a price tag, and the cost of living in the West is higher
than ever. Consequently, more Westerners are becoming fixated on making
truckfulls of money. But wise is to remember what happened in Austria a few
decades ago. People who think that is ancient history can always look at the
figures for America’s domestic deficit, trade deficit, consumer debt, mortgage
debt, and debt to foreign investors. America’s cumulative debt is a whopping
$36 trillion—and this was before the bailout package of $700 billion.306 As
financial authors Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin write in Empire of Debt,
“Sooner or later people cannot continue to borrow and cannot continue to make
their payments.”307 People who place exclusive value on getting or staying rich
are thus betting on the “wrong” duck. Why? If nothing else, because our system
of money is in the hands of irresponsible economists, policy makers, CEOs, and
politicians. They are making the currencies of the world more unstable than
ever. Hence, best is not to base one’s happiness on externals over which one has
no control.
Too much worldly power can even be lethal. Just look at the body count
of Hollywood actors and actresses who have died of drug overdoses. The big
screen, television, magazines, and the worship of millions of fans made gods of
these celebrities. Their human egos couldn’t handle it! Even when VIPs don’t
abuse their physical bodies, they often abuse others, disobey the law, and lust for
more external power. Their human egos enlarge like super-inflating balloons. In
the words of Laurel Cutler, a marketing expert, “… what happens to imperially
305
Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin, Empire of Debt: The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis, (Hoboken, NJ:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006), p. 256.
306
Ibid., p. 17.
307
Ibid.
treated people is that they become isolated, arrogant, and imperial. It is

extremely hard not to.”308 God has placed a self-destruct mechanism, called the
human ego, in each of us. If we allow success to make us see ourselves as
superior to others, then this entity called ego will cause us, sooner or later, to
destroy ourselves.
People with worldly power are said to have power. They gain it, usually
through force or manipulation. But people with inner power acknowledge it.
They actualize that power from within. What you have or gain you can lose. An
example is the fading of physical beauty with age. But what you acknowledge
and actualize is already there. You have merely learned to tap your internal
power. It is always accessible. People with earthly power are—paradoxically—
dependent. They depend on something external and are powerless without it.
Worldly power can be eradicated faster than a hand wiping standing dominos
off a cedar table. Pompous people can discover, to their shock, that their human
egos are powerless to protect them from physical life. Heaven, after all, can
knock the most powerful person to his or her knees if It wishes to. The dark
night of the soul is an example of how this happens. By comparison, inner
power can handle any circumstance, positive or negative. Inner peace, joy, and
abundance may not come to us in a swipe. But if we work from inside, we are at
least in the right place.
I define internal power as the conscious part of the human psyche, for we
cannot control our unconscious (e.g., my tooth grinding). Only spiritually
advanced people can control every iota of their bodily functions. Thus,
spiritually evolved people can prevent things like growth of cancer cells in them.
As for the rest of us, we can give our internal power to external things—money,
insurance policies, legal documents, lawyers, politicians, alcohol, drugs, and
308
This quote comes from America on Wheels, “Car Wars,” Part Three. The episode originally aired on
PBS on June 24, 1996.
cigarettes. Or we can keep the power inside. Only when we get that our human
form controls very little externals can we be ready to control the only thing that
we really can—the interior of our conscious selves. Bringing our unconscious
and subconscious into consciousness is hence important, for our interiors are
where the God Spirit of our Higher Selves resides.
Most of us believe that human life is meant to be excruciatingly hard and
that problems are inevitable. For years, I believed this because, as we know,
spiritual challenges are inevitable. But in time, I discovered that problems “out
there” are caused by a lack of higher consciousness “in here.” People, not just
life, cause problems. Therefore, people, not just life, are hard. Forty-seven
million Americans have no health insurance, for instance.309 For people who
need to see a doctor in the United States, lack of health insurance can quickly
become a matter of life or death. And this is no longer just Americans who can’t
afford insurance premiums. Americans who can afford the premiums are still
not fully covered—sometimes for up to two years—if they have a “preexisting
condition.” In 1956, Congress passed the Interstate Highway Act. Through this
piece of legislation, the federal government paid billions of dollars for America’s
interstate highway system. Yet, in the 21st century, Washington refuses to
provide universal health care for any American except its employees.
Apparently, cars, gasoline, and highways are more important than Americans.
The problem of no health care for 47 million Americans is not caused by life
being cruel. Rather, this problem is caused by lobbyists, senators, and
representatives putting profits first and people last. It is caused by mass apathy
regarding the people—including 12 million children—who have no health
insurance in the United States. The problem of neverending lawsuits,
unaffordable rents, sky-high mortgage payments, plummeting wages in the
309
This is the official statistic of the U.S. government. Unofficially, the numbers of Americans with no
health insurance—and those underinsured—are much higher.
postindustrial world, the wasteland of television, and the fluff on the radio is
caused not by “life being hard” but by humans being stingy, fear-based, lacking
in love, and apathetic.
People cause half of life’s problems. Humans are said to cause even
“inevitable” natural phenomena. Hurricane Katrina, for instance, was the most
powerful hurricane to hit the United States. A major cause of the unprecedented
destructiveness of that storm was global warming. Increased global warming is
being caused, in turn, by humanity’s refusal to switch to non-fossil fuels. As
another example, rising cancer rates are largely caused by rising toxicity in the
biological environment. Rising toxicity is caused, in turn, by ruling classes
putting the bottom line first and cleanliness last. The “cold, harsh realities of
life” turn out to be, more often than not, the cold, harsh realities of people. If
humans didn’t make physical life—an already challenging enterprise—worse,
then life on earth would be half easier.
Before we can be in control of our lives, we must recognize the following:
As individuals, we have some control over our surroundings. For example, we
can turn off the 6 o’clock news at home. But the collective will always have more
control over the environment than the individual. This environment is not just
the physical environment but the psychic environment as well. Consequently,
the earth’s problems are beyond the scope of lone rangers. Rather than try to
change the outside world, individuals who get it change their inner world.
The Limits of Free Will

The human brain prefers to conceptualize choice as an either/or thing. In

other words, we either have free will or we don’t. Perhaps, the two hemispheres
upstairs reinforce this sensory way of perceiving free will.
In the introduction, however, A Course in Miracles says, “Free will does
not mean that you can establish the curriculum.”310 How often I have pondered
why talented actors don’t get the big break that will launch their careers. It isn’t
because they don’t work hard at their crafts. In fact, an incredible number of
actors work tirelessly at two jobs—their art and waiting tables to make ends
meet. I admire their persistence at aiming for that role which will propel them to
stardom. But why do some actors go to Hollywood and land the role right away,
while other actors, who are just as hardworking and positive, struggle for
decades to make it big? I am thinking about one of my most beloved actors
(Jonathan Jackson). When Jonathan was 9, his parents took him and his brother
(Richard Lee Jackson) to Hollywood. The boys fell in love with the place and
wanted to act. Soon, Jonathan Jackson (his aura is a warm rose of the purest
colors) landed the role of Lucky Spencer on the soap opera General Hospital.
Today, Jonathan and Richard are living their boyhood dream of being on TV and
in movies. I am happy for them.
But of the 200+ songs that my mother composed during her 61 years of
life, why did just one of them air on the radio? My mother, it should be noted,
was no music amateur. According to people who have listened to her CDs, she
easily qualifies as the female Rafael Hernández of Puerto Rico. For the record,
Rafael Hernández was one of Puerto Rico’s best composers. Only in 1981 did a
DJ air one of my mother’s songs on the radio. This was in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
At once, the station manager told the DJ to stop airing the song. According to
my mother, people on the street told her that the song was catching on. But, she
310
Shuckman, A Course in Miracles, p. 1.
told me, the manager of the radio station was under orders to promote a
different song. In thinking about the absence of cultural supports for my mother,
I am not talking about negative people who limit their options through their
negativity. Rather, I am thinking about positive artists—composers like my
mother—who don’t get their big break despite years of hard work. The only
possible explanation is that their curriculum (predestination) forbids their
becoming well-known. How many Albert Einsteins, Barbra Streisands, and Carl
Sagans are out there, struggling to be discovered?
Not only does predestination give about 10 percent of artists talent and
the opportunities. The age at which they become stars seems predetermined as
well. Van Hansis, for example, is the stupendously gifted actor who plays Luke
Snyder on the soap opera As the World Turns. Van never was a child star, and
even in his early 20s, he remained unknown as an actor. On December 14, 2005,
however, the 24-year-old blond joined the cast of As the World Turns. Consider
the following blog from him. As Van wrote on the web on March 20, 2007:
This is the strangest thing about the whole [Emmy] nomination process,
though. It happened on Monday, [and] the nominations came out on
Wednesday. I don’t know if it was some sort of premonition, I don’t
really even know if I believe in that stuff, but it was very weird. It was
about eleven in the morning. I was in the subway station headed uptown
for an audition. Now, I know, everyone in New York has strange subway
stories: … But I think this is a little weirder than all of those combined.
Anyhow—I am at Union Square, listening to my iPod, minding my
business, the train came, and I got on. It wasn’t very crowded and there
were a bunch of seats open. I sat down and noticed that on the seat next
to me was a small white piece of notepaper folded up. I am naturally a
pretty curious person so if I see a paper on the seat next to me, I will read
it. I unfold it and see “AS THE WORLD TURNS FANCLUB” printed on
the top. Weird. Weird. Weird. I keep reading “Dear Jesse,” Weird.
“Congratulations on your Emmy nomination…” by this point I was so
freaked out. This was a fan letter, from almost exactly a year ago when
Jesse [Jesse Lee Soffer] got his first nomination, just sitting next to me on
the subway.
There are eight million people in New York City. What are the
chances that you find a letter written to your friend on the W train???
Crazy!!! I kept the letter and showed it to Jesse at work, thinking he might
have dropped it on the train or something. He told me he didn’t but he
remembered the letter on his desk in his dressing room. He had no idea
how it got from his desk to the subway. The letter was about Emmy
nominations. It was to Jesse. I found it and less than 48 hours later we
had both been nominated for an Emmy. I tell you, sometimes this world
is so small….311
The letter was heaven giving Van and Jesse a preview of what was to come.
Preview, or “premonition,” hints very strongly at the possibility that their being
nominated for the Emmy award was predestined—although the hard work of
the actors certainly contributed.312 It is as if Van Hansis and Jesse Lee Soffer had
been meant to be Emmy nominees. In the case of Van, his playing gay Luke on
As the World Turns has made television history with daytime TV’s first same-sex
311
Van Hansis, blog titled, “March Madness,” Van’s Blog, March 20, 2007 at
http://www.cbs.com/daytime/atwt/behind/specials/blog/.
312
Ibid.
kiss. Viewers have been so positively affected that Van receives emails from
around the world.
In The Seat of the Soul, Gary Zukav writes about Spirits/souls who
influence large numbers of people. Zukav explains:
The significance of the evolution of responsibility is that each human

being moves through levels of responsibility on its way to wholeness. In
other words, as a soul chooses the lesson of responsibility, it will find itself
incarnating into an atmosphere of more potential impact upon the species.
The personality [spirit] must also come to agree with what the soul has
chosen.313
Predestination is like an exam that one’s Spirit/soul crafts—with spirit

guides and other souls—before incarnating into human form. On earth, one’s
personality doesn’t choose the questions, just its responses. Free will is choosing
how we will be inside, despite the parameters (destiny) of our lives. The life
parameters of some people are spacious (“good” karma). The life parameters of
other people are confining (“bad” karma). Our curriculum may permit us to run
around a sunlit field. Or it may restrict us to a dank cell. Our free will is about
whether we choose peace, joy, and abundance (or their opposite) internally,
despite outer circumstances. Only before human birth does a Spirit have the
freedom to choose its earthly curriculum—being financially wealthy or
impoverished, being born in the First World or in the Third World, and being
“white” or “black.” In physical life, free will is limited to how we choose to
learn, love, and be. Internality is choice at the level of one’s spirit (the shuttle
that the mother ship of one’s Spirit and soul group ejects before incarnating).
313
Externality is, by and large, determined by one’s Spirit/soul before one’s

incarnation. Only spiritually evolved personalities—“aligned with the soul” in
Gary Zukav’s words—can change their life circumstances.314
A personality aligned with the Spirit/soul is like the Star of David. This is
according to Bob Estling, a reverend at The Seraphim Center in Gainesville,
Florida. The Spirit/soul is the first triangle. The personality (spirit with a small
s) is the second triangle. When a human being brings the triangles together just
right, the triangles form the Star of David (shown below).
Unlike lower animals—who can’t stand upright—everybody has a star in them.

In classic symbolism, the human body (the rising star of the animal kingdom?) is
shaped like it. All that each of us needs to do is stand with each leg slightly
apart, stretch one’s arms horizontally to each side, and face forward. This is the
contour of a star.
The Star of David is what Gary Zukav would call the “personality” in
tune “with the soul.”315 Such a personality can indeed change the circumstances
of its earthly life. Even here, though, predestination (what Spirits/souls choose
314
See Zukav and Francis, The Mind of the Soul.
315
Zukav, The Seat of the Soul.
before human birth) may limit one’s options in physical life. In one lifetime, for
example, a person will be Latino or African American, with all the challenges
that brings in some parts of the world. Some people are genetically predisposed
to have a gland problem. Exercise and diet help everyone to stay in shape, of
course, regardless of genes. But endomorphs (people who gain weight easily)
will seldom get to a size-32 waist. By contrast, mesomorphs (another body type)
gain muscle with little effort. An African American guy told me, for example,
that he never lifted weights. I never saw him go to the gym. In fact, he had no
money for that. He, however, had ripping pecs, biceps, abs, and quadriceps. I,
on the other hand, lifted weights for 15 years and never gained an ounce of
muscle. I ate more lean meats and fewer carbohydrates. Nothing happened. I
switched to free weights. Nothing happened. I drank protein shakes. What
happened as a result? I got kidney stones.316 Boy, do those rocks hurt!
Reluctantly, I digested the message: I was not meant to have muscles. Now, I
exercise not to look sculpted but simply, to help my heart stay healthy and to
keep off some fat. Endomorphs are not built to have muscles. Instead,
endomorphs are built to gain fat, especially around the waist. For me, the lesson
was to accept my physical body as it was, and more important, to remember that
I was not my material body. Self-love and self-acceptance aren’t necessarily the
same thing—just like love and companionship don’t necessarily go together.
People amid bad company will know what I mean. One can accept oneself
without loving oneself. In my case, I can never love the fat that won’t go away. I
am not in love with parts of my human body. But I accept them. Acceptance, of
course, comes in degrees. As William James, the psychologist from the early 20th
century, wrote in Varieties of Religious Experience, we can accept human life as
316
One type of medication for my high blood pressure might have been the cause—or a cofactor—for the
pill was meant to remove excess water from my kidneys. This, the doctor told me, would help to lower my
high blood pressure.
it is fretfully (lower consciousness), cheerfully (higher consciousness), or

anywhere in between.317 It is up to us.
No amount of soul/personality alignment will change certain life
parameters. Generally, the parameters of our earthly lives trap our
consciousness. This is much as our human bodies trap our spirits. A given class
focuses our thinking on a topic. When we die or reincarnate, we move our
consciousness to other subjects. Acceptance of the agenda of our Spirits/souls—
that is to say, surrender—is thus paramount at the same time that our
personalities exercise choice (e.g., inner peace). As far as changing one’s physical
appearance, body type, and life setups, there is free will in the spirit world and
very little choice in the material world.
There is a reason why we are fascinated with superheroes like Superman,
Wonder Woman, and Spiderman. They are gods who possess infinite powers—
internal and external—that we will never have as mere mortals. These characters
have transcended human limitations—the so-called human condition. Their free
will is therefore limitless in every sense of the word—forever. Consider the
following scene from an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. A medical
student (Olivia d’Abo) uses her omnipotent “Q” powers to transport
Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) from Ten-Forward, the
restaurant-bar of the Starship Enterprise, to a gazebo in a private garden of her
imagination. The two exchange the following words:
William: What is this all about?
Amanda: I thought it might be nice to spend some time alone together.
317
William James, Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, (New York: The Modern
Library, 1994), pgs. 45-52. These Gifford lectures were originally published in 1902.
William: I think it would be nice if you took us back to Ten-Forward.
Amanda: Are you sure? You wouldn’t want to stay here with me for a
while? The moonlight is so beautiful. Isn’t it nicer here than at
Ten-Forward?
William: Yes; it’s very pleasant. But that’s not the point.
Amanda: [approaching William and wrapping her arms around him]

Oh? I think it is.
William: No. You can’t snatch people and put them into your fantasies
and expect them to respond.
Amanda: Don’t you like me, even just a little bit?
William: You’re a very lovely young lady. [Inching away] But none of
this is real.
Amanda: My feelings are real.
William: I know. But you can’t make someone love you.
Amanda: Can’t I?318
Amanda flips her hand, and the scene continues:
318
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “True Q.” This episode originally aired in syndication on October 24,
William: [proceeding amorously toward her] Oh, Amanda. You are so

beautiful.
Amanda: Do you love me?
William: [kissing her neck] More than anything.319
We, by comparison, are powerless to make Amanda’s choice. Each of us

may be a part of God. But no individual is God Almighty. This distinction is the
most crucial one that any sentient being can make. The Light of God is like that
of the sun. The light in each of us is like that of full moons, each one being a
reflection of the sun. We are, at best, children of God. Gratitude is thanking God
for granting us some of His powers and for allowing us to make some decisions.
We need to let the Creator turn us into androids of His will—not to be confused
with robots, as robots have no free agency. Then, we cease to be automatons of
earthly things and automatons of human nature. As Philippians 4:13 says, “I can
do all things through Him who strengthens me [emphasis mine].”320
At an interview, Caroline Myss discussed the nature of power—and by
implication, the nature of free will. Myss said:
We [evolving souls] accept that it [creation] was created as perfect for us,
not that we created it perfectly. We don’t have that kind of clout [to
create]. It’s unfortunate, but we don’t. We just don’t. That’s the way it is.
If we did, people would be able to heal themselves in the blink of an eye
319
Ibid.
320
This comes from the New American Standard Bible.
and they can’t. People’s lives would be happier and they’re not. People’s
children wouldn’t be drug addicts and they are.
At what point in your capacity to create reality do you draw the

boundary between your life and someone else’s [think of the Star Trek
scene above]? If you create your reality, why can’t you make that person
in your life love you because they are in your reality? Because you can’t.
You don’t have that kind of clout [emphasis mine]. Any more than
someone can say drop dead and you really do. That’s preposterous. They
can’t create your reality even though you’re in that reality. Think about
that. It’s not possible.321
Actually, we can affect the external and internal realities of one another. For
example, read the police car story in the Preface and the loud neighbor story in
Part I, Chapter 5, section titled, “Cause-Effect … and Brain Logic.” Also, people
who murder other people are, in a way, saying, “drop dead and you really do.”322
More often than not, however, we lack superhuman powers. We cannot
alter the exterior realities of other people—although legislators can be said to
have some superhuman powers. Many of us share the lament of Ken
Karakatsios, an employee in the computer field. As he said, “… ‘the only thing
wrong with the universe is that it is currently running on someone else’s
program.’ ”323 As so many spiritual observers have noted, “We are at the mercy
of the whims of the gods.” This doesn’t mean that humans have no free will.
Instead, it means that the grand setups—laws of nature, spiritual laws, and pre-
321
Dawn Baumann Brunke, “Power, Spiritual Alchemy and Transformation: A Talk with Caroline Myss,”
Spiritual Alchemy and Transformation, September-October 2000. In website The Association for
Humanistic Psychology. Originally published in Alaska Wellness Magazine. Interview at
http://www.ahpweb.org/articles/spiritualalchemy.html.
322
Ibid.
323
incarnation accords between Spirits/souls—are beyond our human control.

Each of us is a guest on God’s world, put on earth for Brahma to see how we will
react to—and hopefully grow from—our life setups. In Journey of Souls, Michael
Newton, the hypnotherapist, writes:
… the possibility is held out that the God-oversoul of our universe is on a

less-than-perfect level. Thus, complete infallibility is deferred to an even
higher divine source.324
Newton continues:
Extending this thought further, we might exist as one single dimensional

universe out of many, each having its own creator governing at a different
level of proficiency in levels similar to the progression of souls seen in this
book. Under this pantheon, the divine being of our particular house
would be allowed to govern in His, Her, or Its own way.325
Newton concludes:
If our God is not the best there is because of the use of pain as a teaching
tool, then we must accept this as the best we have and still take the
reasons for our existence as a divine gift.326
If Newton is correct, then we are children of a lesser god. Different types

of consciousness could be creators—and thus, in charge—of different sectors of
324
Newton, Journey of Souls, p. 275.
325
Ibid.
326
Ibid.
this universe. For example, there may be a god of the planet Venus, a god of
Mars, and a god of planet Earth. Other star systems may have other gods. The
ancient Greeks and Romans might have been correct. There may indeed be a
goddess of earthly love, a god of war, and a god of fertility. There may be gods
and goddesses for everything under the stars. But a coordinating intelligence
must be the god of the physical universe, while a greater intelligence must be in
charge of higher realms.
The afterlife may be the realm of a benevolent God, while the physical
universe may be the creation of a malevolent god. That 90 percent of the
physical universe is dark matter and the fact that negative forces dominate earth
points to this conclusion. Said in Christian terminology, Satan controls the
physical world. If the physical universe is inferior—reflected through good
things being “bad,” through all sorts of deprivations, and through sensory
pleasures being fleeting—then a lesser god must have created it. As Arianna
Huffington, author and syndicated columnist, writes in The Fourth Instinct:
But what, we demand to know, are we to make of random violence, raped

innocence, babies thrown behind barbed wire? “If the suffering of
children,” Ivan cries out in Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, “serves to
complete the sum of suffering necessary for the acquisition of truth, I
affirm from now onward that truth is not worth such a price. I would
persist in my indignation even if I were wrong.”327
On earth, pain and suffering exist simply because Love carries the Day in
Heaven—and the physical universe tends to operate in reverse of the spirit
realm. This is due to the law of paradox.
327
Arianna Huffington, The Fourth Instinct: The Call of the Soul, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), p.
190.
God loves suffering—and joy—because S(He) feeds off both things. How
could an infinitely Loving God have a sadistic streak? Because God is infinitely
Loving in Heaven—and some of that infinite Love trickles to earth here and
there. But because infinite Love does not exist everywhere in the cosmos, God’s
Love is not categorically infinite. If it were, then Love would exist everywhere
and only Love. Even mere perceptions of lack of Love—human perceptions—
would not be allowed in a universe where infinite Love existed. This is not that
kind of universe.
None of us might be able to escape this universe—not even in the afterlife.
This is because we are under the jurisdiction of Brahma, the creator of this bi-
verse (physical and nonphysical universes combined). In the old Upanishads,
Buddha tells Baka Brahma—not the Ultimate God—that higher deities exist.
Enlightened souls, Buddha goes on, can exit Brahma’s universe for higher
realms. Was Buddha referring to parallel and alternate universes? Perhaps, the
Brahmas of higher universes do not allow suffering anywhere in them, no matter
how unenlightened a Spirit/soul is. If an enlightned Spirit/soul can exit this
universe, then it would be like the 12 astronauts that were able to pull away from
the gravity of earth (one “universe”) and land on the moon (another “universe”).
Only technological advances—namely, rocket technology and space suits—
allowed those 12 humans to leave the prison of earth. Maybe spiritual evolution
will produce “technologies” that will make it possible for enough of us to exit
this universe of trials and tribulations.
The heavens play by one set of rules, while we must play by another set of
rules. When God guided me to stop watching pornography, I answered, “No.”
God said, “Yes.” The battle continued for months because I love—and I mean
love—porn. Undeterred, God showed me what would happen if I didn’t change
my ways. Being infinitely less powerful than Brahma, an exhausted me finally
budged, and God had His way. This is called the Higher Calling of your spirit.
Then, God guided me to sell my beloved car for reasons too complex to get into
here. I didn’t want to, but Brahma insisted. At last, I did as told. The next battle
between my human ego and my Higher Self came when God told me to drop an
ideology that I had. I had to exchange that ideology for a “higher perspective,”
or as the title of a video warned me, The Fire Next Time (TV; 1993). I almost
popped a blood vessel because God didn’t allow me to have an independent
mind on that issue. I, however, dropped my ideology to avoid divine
retribution. That battle between God and me was much like the battle between
the authoritarian father (Craig T. Nelson) and the rebellious son (Justin Whalin)
in The Fire Next Time. And it didn’t end there, for before I could fully recover,
the next battle commenced. God guided me to have children. I didn’t want to
because I don’t believe in bringing spirits to this underworld of pain and
suffering. Oblivious to my human convictions, my Higher Self insisted that I
should consider “giving something back to life in this world.” Once again, I had
to “go with the flow.”
When Robert Moses, the construction coordinator, said, “Yes” to ramming
13 “highways” through New York City and the residents of 21 neighborhoods
said “No,” yet another power struggle ensued. Citizens “whined,” organized,
and demonstrated to no avail. Everywhere except in Greenwich Village, the far
more powerful Moses had his way. Notice the biblical implications of his name.
Moses said, “If the ends don’t justify the means, what does?”328 He continued:
The individual has to yield in matters of this kind … [for] … the

advantages, needs of the majority of people.329
328
New York: A Documentary Film, “The City and the World: 1945-Present.”
329
Ibid.
Ada Louise Huxtable, an architecture critic, adds in New York: A Documentary

Film:
By the 60s, we knew that urban renewal was a failure. We knew that it
had taken the heart and the gut out of cities. But New York’s urban
renewal had started in the 50s and was moving along like an unstoppable
juggernaut … It was nothing that those of us who cared about could stop.
It was a done deal.330
Tenements, houses, and warehouses fell to the wrecking ball so that builders
could construct skyscrapers, housing projects, “freeways,” and parks.
Later in the documentary, Ada Louise Huxtable continues:
She [writer Jane Jacobs] spoke about the small stores, the mom and pop
stores, all of the things that urban renewal not only was destroying but
didn’t acknowledge existed.331
When the divine commands us to do away with ever-increasing parts of

the human ego, the dynamic is the same as the destruction of old buildings in the
name of “urban renewal.” As Third of Five/Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco) says in
an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, “We are Borg. You will be
assimilated. Resistance is futile.”332 This setup of the heavens causes a massive
loss of human dignity to make way for spiritual dignity.
In Firstborn (1984), Wendy Livingston (Teri Garr) has a drug dealer (Peter
Weller) move into her suburban house. Prepubescent Brian (Corey Haim) and
330
Ibid.
331
Ibid.
332
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “I, Borg.”
adolescent Jake (Christopher Collet) want the “deadbeat” out. At the kitchen,
Wendy and Jake exchange the following words:
Jake: What if I don’t like where it’s going?
Wendy: Well, you don’t always have a choice.
Wendy wants Jake to “go with the flow.”

When a doctor said that I needed a rectal exam, I wanted to say, “No.”
But since there was a chance that I could be sick, I “consented.” Once again, a
more powerful being—in this case, a doctor with urologic knowledge—had his
way.
In the above examples, one person has his way, even if the victim says and
means, “No.” When someone forces his or her way on another person, that is
considered “evil.” But when God or one’s Higher Self insists like a woody
woodpecker that one change or “You’re going to be sorry because your soul
really wants it,” that is not considered cosmic abuse. The heavens get away
bullying “the resistant ego,” while a mere mortal would create negative karma if
he or she forced his way on another individual. Like banks, the psychic universe
pays us 3 percent interest for complying. But like credit card companies, the
psychic universe charges us 18 percent interest if we don’t pay our karmic dues.
As Caroline Myss lectures in the CD Your Power to Create, “You cannot tell God
what to do.”333 Just like in the eyes of a rapist, a victim cannot “just say no”
because “she really wants it.” The rapist has his way because he is more
powerful than the woman—or other man. The rapist, of course, creates negative
karma for himself, but not the Higher Self for forcing Its way on the human ego.
333
Refer to the Myss CD titled, Your Power to Create.
On PBS’s Women & Money, Suze Orman, the financial advisor, tells an
audience that one’s thoughts, emotions, and actions must be “in balance.”334 If
any of those three tiers are out of harmony with each other, Orman lectures, then
one feels “like a liar.”335 In the ideal world, one’s thoughts, desires, and behavior
are in sync. In “the real world,” however, the heavens often guide us to be and
do things that go against our human preferences, ideologies, and habits. If one
follows one’s human psyche, then one is in conflict with one’s Higher Self. If one
follows higher guidance, then one is out of balance with one’s human self. Either
way, one is out of harmony with some part of oneself.
The chief source of human suffering is that most of us cannot accept that
we have very little power—free will—to make externals conform to our desires.
Anything is possible, of course, in the world of the imagination. As brain scans
reveal, the human brain makes no distinction between fantasy and reality. But
the heavens do not tolerate escapism too much. For example, you have to keep
both feet on the ground—read, God’s Reality—or you are going to fall flat on
your face. Why does God allow the suffering that stems from human
powerlessness? Because the Creator, being omnipotent, can handle it! If humans
too had infinite power, evil and Evil wouldn’t bother us because, like God, each
of us could handle it. Only our human powerlessness—as in not being
Superman or Wonder Woman—makes hell and Hell get to us. This frustration
may not happen always. But it occurs more often than not. I believe that God,
being infinite Love, won’t mind if less evolved Spirits/souls as we grieve our
powerlessness to control most external things in this world.
At the same time, acceptance of our nothingness makes us grateful for the
power, the things, and the relative volition that God grants us here and there.
For instance, we are gods in that people have created things that need to breathe,
334
See Suze Orman: Women & Money. This special aired on PBS on March 14, 2009.
335
Ibid.
feed, and think to “live.” Two examples of such “living” organisms are
computers and motor vehicles. Like the heavens guide our actions, we guide
their actions. And just like biological organisms feed on food, computers feed on
electricity, and motor vehicles feed on gasoline. The blades of motor vehicles
and computers need not just air to “breathe” but ashless air, or their mechanisms
“die.” Computers and motor vehicles need to think as well in order to run. We
are gods, and God Himself may be a creator who is answerable to an even
grander Creator. Maybe each of our Spirits/souls can graduate to Godhood. To
be sure, this probably would take hundreds of trillions of millennia.
Suicide and Euthanasia
Ending one’s physical life may or may not be an option as far as the free
will of the spirit, also known as the personality. This is because the mission of
the spirit is to ratify the will of the Spirit/soul, even if the spirit disagrees with
the Spirit/soul or wants out. Your spirit is like a county, incarnated into your
present human form. Your Spirit is You as an American state. Different counties
of Your state incarnate in different lifetimes of Yours. Your soul is Your soul
group—the other 3 to 50 other states that make up Your nation. We are
obviously using the United States as an example. Sometimes, a county of Your
state rebels against the state capital (your Spirit) and against the national capital
(your soul group). That is why one’s spirit may want to bail out of a “lifetime”
(death time) but not one’s Spirit and not one’s soul (soul group). And You don’t
just have flame Spirits (the other states of Your nation) to contend with, but other
nations (souls) You have signed soul accords with as well. And there is also the
Soul of humanity and the SOUL of Brahma, the god of this cosmos, to consider.
Consider the following hallway scene from the movie An Unexpected Life
(TV; 1998):
Principal: Your not going to class, that’s a problem as far as I can see.
Matt: I just don’t feel like it today. Tomorrow, I’ll feel like it.
Principal: Oh! Well, that’s not the way it works, Matt. As horrible as that
is, you have to go to school. It’s not elective. It’s mandatory.
Matt: See, that’s the part that I hate. Everything’s mandatory. I have to
do what adults tell me just because. My mom leaves. Dumps us.
So what? Go stay with your aunt. You have to. Be a good little
soldier. Your mom’s trying to get better, Matt. Try to forgive her.
Be nice now. What about me? What about my rights? What about
what I want?
Principal: You have a point. Listen, Matt. I know you’ve been through a
lot, and it isn’t fair. But I promise you; it does get better, and
in five more years, you’ll be free to torture all the adults you
want. But for right now, help me out. Go to class.336
336
Beverly Hawkins, the principal, is played by S. Epatha Merkerson. Matt Whitney is played by Noah
Fleiss.
The endless challenges of life on earth is like the unrelenting strictness of

life in a convent. The following scene from the movie The Nun’s Story (1959)
depicts the breaking point of a nun:
Sister Luke: Please lay my case before the Cardinal.
Chaplin: Won’t you wait a little longer?
Sister Luke: Father, you must forgive me … but if you do not put my case
before the Cardinal, I should do something that would kill
me. I shall leave without permission.337
Suicide is leaving the “convent” of planet Earth without permission—that is to

say, without one’s life mission (per mission) being complete.
As the above scenes imply, we don’t own our physical lives. Suicide, or
not attending class, is therefore not up to us to decide, as “horrible as that is” to
people contemplating suicide.338
Only if a situation is truly dangerous is one, perhaps, excused for escaping
—or for trying to escape—the event. Examples are being sent to the gas
chambers, ending up homeless, or having a painful illness. Euthanasia and
suicide prevent one from going down a rabbit hole from which there is no way
back up. In situations that call for euthanasia and suicide (different forms of
mercy killings), one’s Spirit/soul needs to “renegotiate NAFTA.” NAFTA (the
North American Free Trade Agreement) is a metaphor for “free trade” between
Spirits/souls incarnating as spirits. These Spirit/soul accords, signed in heaven,
are about trade of energy—and the lessons learned from internalizing foreign
337
Sister Luke is played by Audrey Hepburn and Father Andre by Stephen Murray.
338
These are the words of the principal in An Unexpected Life.
energies. “The football” (the president’s briefcase that has the codes for a nuclear
attack) may have to be used—but only as a last resort. This is not necessarily
“cowardly” but may be the wise choice to make, given the circumstances.
The dilemma of “to be or not to be” is similar to the question of whether
Puerto Rico should become the 51st state. As Rubén Berríos, president of the
Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), said during the statehood plebiscite of
1993, Puerto Ricans could vote for statehood. But, he added, “What happens 20
years from now?” Statehood could destroy Puerto Rican culture—especially if
English is made the official language of America in the future. But in the present,
there is no way that Puerto Ricans can know the CON-sequences—or PRO-
sequences—of statehood. Twenty years after voting for statehood, it is too late to
back out. The problem is that when one signs a Spirit/soul accord in heaven,
one doesn’t know how one will feel 40 or 60 years from now! Yet, this problem is
not addressed in heaven because time does not exist there.
Before signing any “sacred contracts”339 in heaven, all Spirits/souls are
advised to heed what Pat (Ellen Barber) tells Wendy (Teri Garr) in Firstborn
(1984). As Pat tells Wendy in the backyard of Wendy’s house one day, “Take a
look at what you’re getting yourself into.” Each “thesis committee” in heaven
tends to influence beginner Spirits/souls like us—and there are many councils of
elders up there. As Obi-Wan Kenobi tells Luke Skywalker in Star Wars (1977),
“The Force will have a strong influence on the weak minded.” Spirits/souls who
have evolved spiritually enough just say no! Karmic debts have to be paid, of
course. But payments can be spread out over several “lifetimes.” Suicide and
euthanasia happen when one Spirit/soul agrees—or is manipulated to agree in
heaven—to pay too much at once. Just say no!
As “God” contends in Conversations with God, Book 3:
339
This term is borrowed from Sacred Contracts, the book by Caroline Myss.
As most of you are now living your life, there is a lie built into every
promise. The lie is that you can know now how you will feel about a
thing, and what you will want to do about that thing, on any given
tomorrow. You cannot know this if you are living your life as a reactive
being—which most of you are. Only if you are living life as a creative
being can your promise not contain a lie.
Creative beings can know how they are going to feel about a thing
at any time in the future, because creative beings create their feelings,
rather than [just] experiencing them.
Until you can create your future, you cannot predict your future.
Until you can predict your future, you cannot promise anything truthfully
about it.340
The “God” of Walsch later adds:
I mean that their evolving truth about a thing differs from what they said
their truth would always be. And so, they are deeply conflicted. What to
obey—my truth, or my promise?341
If one has intimate relationships with others, then suicide and euthanasia
are ideally discussed with family members and avoided as long as possible—
though “the real world” may not allow this. This is because one is tied
energetically to those people. If one kills oneself—or has oneself killed—then
340
341
Ibid., p. 214.
one severs those psychic cords. This is like amputating oneself and one’s loved
ones. This will create negative karma for the victim. Spirit/soul accords are as
serious as trade agreements between nations. A trade agreement between
Spirits/souls is an accord where all parties agree to trade chunks of their
energies with each other—many, many chunks over years or decades. This
requires that the involved Spirits stay locked into each other—in the home, in the
workplace, at church, and at social clubs. In trading bits and pieces of their
spiritual blueprints (nonphysical DNA), each of the Spirits/souls involved works
on one another’s energy field. This “racial genetic mixing” modifies each of the
involved Spirits/souls. That is how spiritual evolution works. (For a full
discussion of how each Spirit/soul belongs to a different “food group,” see the
section below, titled, “Predestination.”) Suicide and euthanasia sever the psychic
links before the process of energy exchanges—within a group of Spirits/souls—
is complete in a “lifetime.” The emotional (energetic) pain of that would create
negative karma for the suicide and euthanasia victim. Of course, the ones
staying on earth create pain for themselves as well. This is because people do not
love unconditionally but selfishly. Therefore, family members only think of
themselves—ignoring the pain of the victim. As the saying goes, “If you truly
love something, you must let it go.”
The gravest injustice of self-murder is that suicide is condemned, while
euthanasia draws compassion from nearly everyone. There is a double standard,
both in the secular world and in the religious world. People who have
excruciating physical pain are “welcomed to heaven,” whereas people who have
excruciating emotional pain “will be sent back.” This is sensory perception, a
form of consciousness that only takes into account physical pain. If victims of
euthanasia and suicide receive such unequal treatment from the gods, then
Spirits/souls are truly unequal. If some spirits must stay as long as possible on
earth (people contemplating suicide), then all spirits must stay as long as
possible on earth (people contemplating euthanasia). That is true equality.
Like in the employment world, however, we are accountable to a Boss.
Turning within, as through meditation, is how we listen to divine instructions.
Free will is bound by our personalities being mere employees of God/Our
Higher Selves. Deviating from divine guidance—guidance like an inner voice
that says, “You need to leave this relationship”—brings CON-sequences
(negative karma). As we evolve spiritually, our thoughts, behavior, and even
emotions fall into God’s orbit. We then hesitate to disobey divine instructions.
Heavenly guidance may come from our Higher Selves or from spirit guides. The
dynamic of divine guidance/human ratification is much like the relationship
between lobbyists and congresspeople. As Senator John McCain of Arizona said
on PBS:
Let me tell you how they do that [lobbyists controlling the fate of
senators and representatives]. There’s an issue before the Congress
which affects their industry, [and lobbyists] call in the [TV and radio]
station managers from the congressman’s district or the senator’s state.
They all come to Washington. They sit down in a room with a senator or
a representative. Now, there’s never any threats made. There’s never
any statement that if you don’t do this we’re gonna say bad things about
you in our newscast. But they are the messengers. They are the
messengers … That’s incredibly powerful [emphasis mine].342
Becoming a servant of God is similar to this description. The possibility of

incurring negative karma for being disobedient is enough to keep one in line.
342
Free Speech for Sale: A Bill Moyers Special. This program originally aired on PBS on June 8, 1999.
Predestination
Just like human history poses questions of causation (e.g., was the
American “Civil” War preventable?), each human drama raises the biggest
theme of all. This theme is the question of inevitability. Do the events of our
lives, including our choices, have to happen a certain way? If not, what makes a
person choose one way and another person choose another way? If it is
differences in human knowledge, wisdom, or spiritual evolution, then what
exactly causes one person to acquire those and not another?
Predestination comes in two types. The first type (Chart A) is rigid and
allows little room for free will—other than choosing peace or its opposite inside
us. The first column is the cause (what “life” throws at you). The second column
is the effect (what we “do” about it).
Rigid Fate Free Will
1) Being born with Asperger 1) Do I choose peace and joy

Syndrome inside despite my “life”
circumstance? Or do I let this
condition get to me?
2) Being born and raised in 2) Do I choose peace and joy

the slums of Bangladesh inside despite my “life”
circumstance? When I grow
up, do I apply to emigrate
to a prosperous country?
(If illiterate, however,
most people in the Third
World will not consider
this option—nor the choice
to get educated—for their
brains have not been
programmed to think
in such a sophisticated way.)
3) Having the genetic 3) Do I choose peace and joy

propensity for obesity inside despite my “life”
circumstance? Also, do I
exercise and watch
my diet, even though my
reward will not be a sculpted
body?
4) Having an alcoholic father 4) Do I choose peace and joy

inside despite my “life”
circumstance? When I
become an adult and am
able to flee my family, do I do

my best to help children
trapped in similar
circumstances?
5) Being born in a world where 5) Do I comply with this setup

delicious foods (e.g., pizza, in order to stay healthy? Or
steak, carrot cake, and do I indulge in scrumptious
chocolate ice cream) lead to foods and pay with my
obesity, diabetes, and high health?
“bad” cholesterol
6) Being born on a planet where 6) Do I abstain from sex—or

sex—one of the most intense limit sex to one or two
pleasures in physical life—is a partners for an entire
risk to your health, is frowned lifetime—and increase my
upon by society, and in many chances of staying healthy?
cases, is even criminal Or do I indulge my
libido, embrace sexual
variety, and increase
my chances of getting
sexually transmitted
diseases?
7) Being born in a society where 7) Do I give in to society in

expressions of certain types order to remain socially
of love are seen as immoral respectable? Or do I choose to
express my love freely, even if

this leads to misunderstanding
and even lands me in jail?
8) Being born in a world where 8) Do I accept my wage slavery

nothing is free, where money in peace? Do I work to
change
is scarce for the masses, the economic system, even
and where 80 percent of the though the chances of success
population slaves for a are slim? Do I do what I love
living and risk ending up penniless?
In the process, do I disregard
the plight of others who are
unable to rise above the
system of wage slavery?
Rigid fate is similar to what happens in presidential elections. I quote

linguist, social activist, and lecturer Noam Chomsky to illustrate. On PBS’s A
World of Ideas, Chomsky says:
Ratification would mean a system in which there are two positions

presented to me, the voter. I go into the polling booth, and I push one or
another button, depending on which of those positions I want. That’s a
very limited form of democracy. A really meaningful democracy would
mean that I play a role in forming those decisions [emphasis mine] …343
343
This quote is from Bill Moyers’s A World of Ideas: A Conversation with Noam Chomsky. The episode
originally aired on PBS in November 1988.
By “forming those decisions,” Chomsky means that you and I craft the available
options, instead of just choosing one or the other.344 For example, if we were
truly free, then we could create a world where carrot cake, chocolate ice cream,
steak, pasta, and butter were good for our physical health. We could create a
planet where natural sex (unprotected) is not a health risk because, on such a
world, microorganisms don’t cause disease. In my view, that is real free will.
Limited free will is where we have to choose from options—such as carrot cake
being unhealthy—that somebody else has created. That outside force can be God
or the collective of the world we happen to inhabit. That party is who is truly
running the show. One afternoon, for example, I wanted to read a book. The
book was about a negative topic. But I, being a very curious person, wanted to
read it anyway. My options were:
1) Read the book, gratify my curiosity, and feel negative afterward

or
2) Not read the book, keep the book’s negativity at bay, and wonder for
the rest of my life what was in that book
Either way, I would experience pain, the pain of learning about something
negative or the pain of having my curiosity unsatisfied. A truly meaningful form
of free will would have been my being able to create more options, as opposed to
following options that the heavens created. With real free agency, I would have
created a third option for myself: Being able to read the negative book, satisfy my
curiosity, and feel good afterward. I would have had my cake and eaten it, too.
Our free will is to give in to foreign rules or to resist our lack of freedom to create
344
Ibid.
our own options. No individual can create anything alone, for nobody wields
that much power. At best, each person co-creates with God and with others.
The second kind of predestination (Chart B) is less rigid. The first column
is fate (our life setups). The second column is how we navigate around our fate
(choice).
Flexible Fate Free Will
1) One is destined to contribute 1) What kind of knowledge will

knowledge to humankind I become interested in (e.g.,
medicine, astronomy,
psychology)?
2) To serve others 2) In what areas will I become

interested in serving?
3) To have loving relationships 3) Will I be grateful for my

relationships? Or will I take
them for granted and find
faults with significant
others?
4) To have a lucrative career 4) How will I go about

accomplishing this? By
stabbing others in the back?
Or by learning all that I can in
my career, working hard, and
serving with the highest
possible quality?
5) To be happy 5) How will I be happy?

By shopping till I drop? By
getting addicted to cigarettes,
alcohol, and worldly
power? Or by
turning within, experiencing
the light inside (e.g.,
meditation), and
serving others?
The bad news is that we don’t know which version of fate befalls us—
other than through trial and error. Also, Chart A may apply to us in some areas
of our lives and Chart B in other areas. If only human life were simple.
There may be two types of predestination. But free will has a third limit.
Choice is limited in that we choose based on what we know about the rules of
the game. For instance, 80 percent of the population works for a “living.”
Actually, they are working for a dying experience, for doing what one hates is a
“living” death. The wealthy, however, have money work for them. As Robert
Kiyosaki, an entrepreneur, argues in Rich Dad, Poor Dad, rich kids are taught to
invest money. As Kiyosaki writes:
The rich buy assets

The poor only have expenses
The middle class buys liabilities [like cars and houses] they think are
assets345
According to Kiyosaki, his “rich dad” taught him the secrets of making money
from the time Kiyosaki was 9. Not surprisingly, Kiyosaki was able to make
choices that 80 percent of the populace doesn’t know can be made. As Nasser
(Saeed Jaffrey) tells Omar (Gordon Warnecke) in the film My Beautiful
Laundrette (1986):
In this damned country, which we hate and love, you can get anything
you want. It is all spread out and available. That is why I believe in
England. Only you have to know how to squeeze the tits of the system
[emphasis mine].
Karma determines who gets taught what in childhood and who never gets
taught. Not surprisingly, the wealthy get ahead, and so do their children and
grandchildren. The poor, who are never taught how to make smart investments,
stay in a perpetual rut.
Spiritual masters, in turn, live by another set of rules. Remember that
unlike baseball or basketball, human life can be played several different ways.
Most of us play it the hard way. Enlightened masters, however, have learned a
more evolved way to exist. Their free will is based on knowledge of rules that
the multitude is ignorant about. For example, the average person is told that
345
Kiyosaki, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, p. 81.
giving is better than receiving. But a spiritual master knows that to give is to
receive. Unloving people are unloving because they are in the dark about a
better way of being. If we stab people in the back to get ahead in our careers
(free will), then we are choosing without knowing the rules of the game. In this
case, we are creating a situation where, somewhere down the line, people will
stab us in the back. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Only trans-sensory
people are aware of such invisible dynamics. At one level, this setup is cruel.
But the following conversation between Kiyosaki and his “rich dad” illustrates
the penalty for people who don’t see the trans-sensory message beyond life’s
tribulations:
“Does teaching mean talking or a lecture?” rich dad asked.

“Well, yes,” I replied.
“That’s how they teach you in school,” he said smiling. “But that is
not how life teaches you, and I would say that life is the best teacher of all.
Most of the time, life does not talk to you [emphasis mine]. It just sort of
pushes you around. Each push is life saying, ‘Wake up. There’s
something I want you to learn’.”346
A paragraph later, Kiyosaki’s “rich dad” continues:
“If you learn life’s lessons, you will do well. If not, life will just continue
to push you around. People do two things. Some just let life push them
around. Others get angry and push back. But they push back against
their boss, or their job, or their husband or wife. They do not know it’s life
that’s pushing [emphasis mine].”347
346
Ibid., pgs. 32-33.
347
Ibid.
It is, perhaps, the greatest paradox of all. We have free agency. Yet, our limited
perspective keeps us from exercising our free will in fresh directions. An
example of going in a fresh direction is choosing to see life as a teacher, rather
than one’s boss as an ogre.
The Declaration of Independence reads, “… all men are created equal.”
The sobering fact, however, is that humans are not created equal. For example,
some people—people whose names you will never know—have to wipe the rear
ends of strangers to make a “living.” These people have no choice in this matter
(embodying the slave archetype) because they lack the skills for a dignified job—
and have little money to get a degree. These people are unsung heroes. Not
even spiritual masters have had to go through this experience. St. Thomas
Aquinas called the inequality of beings throughout the cosmos the Great Chain
of Being. See the drawing below:
348
A more realistic pyramid is that of the United States Department of

Agriculture (USDA). See the graph below.
349
348
Didacus Valades, a painter, drew this pyramid in 1579. The painting was named Rhetorica Christiana.
349
This pyramid can be found at the website of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The
URL is http://www.mypyramid.gov/.
Each pyramid above belongs to a different food group. The orange pyramid, for
example, represents grains. The green pyramid stands for vegetables. The red
pyramid means fruits. The blue pyramid portrays dairy products. And the
purple pyramid depicts meat and beans. Similarly, each Spirit/soul is born into
a “food group.” Each Spirit/soul has the free will to evolve within its “food
group” pyramid. The “within” confines the spiritual existence of each
Spirit/soul to its category of food—forever—for once a Spirit/soul is created, it is
seldom sent back to the factory. Because each Spirit/soul has different
“genetics,” some Spirits/souls will have the programming to evolve faster than
other Spirits/souls. The yellow pyramid, for example, represents fats and oils.
Spirits in this soul group are best had in moderation, for fats and oils are loaded
with cholesterol and calories. Ingesting too much from this food group—the
equivalent of associating too much with a certain group of Spirits/souls—can
lead to heart disease. Energy vampires and energy pirates are examples of “fats
and oils.” If they evolve within their “food group,” then energy vampires and
energy pirates become “enlightened” Spirits/souls, just as Omega-3 oil and olive
oil are “good” oils. While solid fats (lower spiritual frequencies) are loaded with
“bad” cholesterol, with saturated fats, and with trans fats, liquid oils (higher
spiritual frequencies) are loaded with the “good” fats of monounsaturated fat
and polyunsaturated fat. Spiritual evolution allows even Spirits/souls with
“bad” genes to evolve toward the light at the top, while their pyramid remains
different from the pyramids of other soul groups. By contrast, Spirits/souls who
belong to the “fruit” and “vegetable” food groups are inherently healthy from
the bottom all the way up. This is why some Spirits/souls are said to be “born
bad,” while other Spirits/souls are said to be “born good.”
Some Spirits/souls have the “genes of fruits,” while other Spirits/souls

have the “genes of grains.” Human relationships are the mixing of bread (souls
from one food group) with butter (souls from another food group) and milk
(souls from yet another food group). Souls are equal in that all soul groups are
free to evolve up the spiritual pyramid of pyramids—although this is extremely
difficult. Souls are also unequal in that each soul group has radically different
“genes.” Spirits/souls from different “food groups” compliment each other, just
as gourmet meals are made from mixing different ingredients under the right
conditions.
At the same time, diverse karmas for different Spirits/souls generate
inequalities between spirits (incarnated in human form). Diverging karmas limit
the life options of some spirits and expand the life choices of other spirits. Free
will is free. And it is limited by:
1) Different “spiritual genes”

2) The box of one’s life experience
Even people with self-confidence have it less because of their volition and more
because life engineered it that way. Yes, one can choose whether or not to
develop one’s self-esteem. But more often than not, that choice is triggered more
by being “pushed around by life” and less by free agency alone. For example, a
housewife with no self-confidence may find her husband dead in bed one
afternoon. The husband is no longer able to provide for her. The woman’s
situation (karma) may force her to do what she can to build some self-esteem so
that the housewife can find a job to support herself—and her kids, if she has
them. But the circumstance forced the decision. This is, of course, assuming that
the housewife decides to work on her low self-esteem. But even here, her self-
esteem will not come in a flash, for it takes time, often years, for the human brain
to construct new pathways to match new thoughts and experiences. At the other
extreme is the boy who grows up with a loving mother and father, a loving
brother and sister, a financially solid home, and encouragement to be the best he
can be. The boy, of course, grows up confident; his positive life experiences
reinforce his high self-esteem (high psychic steam); and the virtuous cycle
continues. His choices in life will, more than likely, be positive. But his karma—
positive in this case—is driving his choices to be loving, giving, and enthusiastic
about life. He was taught that from an early age. Thus, free will is more limited
while we are human.
Only in the spirit realm do Spirits and their soul groups craft the
parameters of each incarnation. This is like writing a screenplay and casting the
actors and actresses who will be playing the characters in the movie. Only time,
a very long time, causes a Spirit/soul to evolve enough to start creating positive
karma (PRO-sequence), rather than negative karma (CON-sequence). Karma, it
should be noted, is a force as powerful as gravity. Negative karma pulls you
from the blue empyrean to the scorching earth, just like being “grounded” for
misbehavior. Positive karma lifts you back toward heaven, just like being “off
restrictions.” Paradoxically, being “off restrictions” means that your choices
become more constrained because you are conscious of more things being
unevolved. In other words, you see that more potential choices bring negative
effects, and therefore, you have less options.
Human life is a process of learning the penalties of playing the game of
eternal existence in less evolved ways. Ignorance of the law is not a defense.
And in this universe, everything is rules and regulations—not to mention duties
and obligations. Hence, wise is to learn to abide by the more evolved rules of the
“game.” It may be unfair to be penalized for violating, or for not using to our
advantage, spiritual laws that we don’t know about. But without penalties, we
would have no incentive to seek a better way—although alternate universes may
exist where growth happens without penalties. This is the ultimate paradox of
free will.
Realizing You Don’t Matter
Your persona, that is. The you that is born, lives, and will die. That you
doesn’t matter to others. People interact with you for what is in it for them.
More often than not, people forget past interactions with you. Even when a
person is loved, the love is more about the person doing the loving than about
the beloved. People, for example, felt loved and rejuvenated in the presence of
Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Her love for everyone was genuine and sprung from
her lack of human ego. In her presence, people felt terrific about themselves.
The love that people felt, however, was more about Mother Teresa’s choice to
love selflessly and less about them. This may be a bitter pill to swallow for
individuals who are concerned with being noticed, loved, and remembered by
others—as opposed to noticing, loving, and remembering others. The truth is
nonetheless illustrated in the following diagrams:
1 2
Sensory People Trans-sensory People

People, External Power, Objects Inner Peace, Joy, Abundance
Sensory humans base their happiness on what they see, hear, feel, taste,
and smell. People, wordly power, and objects fit the bill. Trans-sensory humans,
on the contrary, base their joy foremost on internal choices. These internal
choices involve choosing thoughts of well-being that, in turn, influence the
emotions of the individual. It can take a lifetime—or death time—to accept this
simple truth because it means that everything internal is up to us. At first, this is
an incredibly lonely experience. It is, in fact, the most lonely experience that we
can have. Still, breathing is up to us, not up to others. No one has ever said,
“Breathing is up to me alone. This is a lonely truth to accept.” We accept that
each of us is responsible for our breathing, a fact of earthly life. If breathing on
our own applied to us while others helped one another breathe, then breathing
would indeed be a lonely experience, as it would signify that we alone had to
breathe on our own. In such a world, we would be unequal to everyone else.
But the gods are fair in this case. By gods, I mean spirit guides, our Higher
Selves, power animals (psychic protectors), and the Source of this universe. The
heavens are fair in this instance because the law of taking responsibility for
oneself applies equally to everybody. The good news is that as soon as one
chooses Diagram 2 (above), well-being ensues (e.g., inner peace, inner joy, and
inner abundance). After 5, 10, or 20 years of merely repeating the words of
Diagram 2, imagine the benefits.
The paradox is that people are then attracted to you because you radiate
things that they want. Even if you realize that others want to take things from
you, you accept them as they are, you keep choosing more peace, more joy, and
more abundance inside, and you keep giving. This requires mastery over the
human ego. Human ego is that inner tyrant who, like an antagonist in a story,
appears soon after one incarnates to thwart the protagonist of the tale at every
turn. Humbling experiences diminish this inner tyrant. The temptation is to
think that you will run out from giving. But so long as you pamper yourself
first, you will never run out. Instead, you will feel so abundant, so peaceful, and
so joyful that you will be glad to give freely. Being abundant, however, requires:
1) Taking care of your issues—through self-help, professional

assistance, or whatever you feel is necessary
2) Retreating into inner silence frequently—no exceptions, unless

you are willing to take responsibility for feeling drained
As the saying goes, “To thyself be true.” Everything starts there. Then,
you realize that feeling good is foremost about you. When others love you, you
enjoy that love in gratitude, always realizing that their love for you is first, about
them, and second, about you. Obversely, your love for others is first, about you,
and second, about them. Paradox. Love and all its aspects—peace, joy,
abundance, energy, health, and attractiveness—are choices that are foremost
about the person doing the choosing and less about what is chosen.
Understanding this is one of the first steps toward becoming trans-sensory
(going beyond the choosing of externals and choosing internals instead).
Furthermore, your Spirit/soul is what really matters—and indirectly, the
Spirits/souls of others—not the externals of human body and personality.
Developing a sense of spiritual Self will enable you to stand up for yourself, or
simply leave, when people try to take excessive advantage of you. This Selfhood
will also empower you to choose your friends wisely.
Going Beyond People
A trans-sensory person starts from the inside. As St. Francis of Assisi said,
“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.”350 Since inner peace, joy, and
abundance are the goal, people become one—rather than the only—area of
fascination for trans-sensory humans. Sensory humans organize their lives
around people (Diagram 1, above) for the happiness that people will presumably
bring them. Conversely, trans-sensory humans take an interest in people for
who the people are. Trans-sensory people, however, also take an interest in
plants, animals, music, paintings, reading, or whatever hobbies they have.
Certainly, people fill a major element of their interactions. But because trans-
sensory humans aren’t seeking anything from others, they find themselves
diversifying their interests beyond people. Depending on whether their
psychologies are introverted or extroverted, some trans-sensory humans will
give people a more central place in their lives. But even extroverted trans-
sensory humans will continue to base everything, including their human
interactions, on internal choices (Diagram 2, above).
The next chapter lists more steps toward going beyond sensory
programming.
350
This quote comes from “BrainyQuote,” BrainyMedia. The URL of the quote is
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/stfrancis389169.html.
Exercises
1) Have you ever had recurring thoughts? If yes, have they been positive,
negative, or neutral? Do these thoughts tend to surface around a given time
of day? If yes, why do you suppose? What emotional responses, if any, do
the thoughts trigger in you?
2) Think about some setups (circumstances that you cannot control) in your
life. How, if at all, have you reconciled those setups with your free will?
3) Do you find yourself craving external power? If so, how much power?
For example, power to get someone to stop abusing you? Power to control
the Western world? Or power to control the physical universe? Does a
particular circumstance trigger this desire? Or is it all-pervasive in you? Do
you see a relationship between your desire for external power and the
absence of internal power in you? If yes, elaborate on paper or speak into a
tape recorder.
4) How can you develop internal power in a world where most people have
limited external power?
5) Have you ever found your human self wanting one thing and your
spiritual Self wanting something else? If yes, what was the nature of the
conflict? How long has this tug-of-war been going on? Why does your
lower self resist your higher Self? What, if any, have the results been? How
can you get your spirit (personality) to ratify the agenda of your Spirit?
14
What Does It Mean to Be at the Controls?
As we become more conscious, we awaken to more things. We become

aware about universal laws like choice and effect. Because we don’t want to
experience negative effects, we find that we have more things to keep track of in
our lives. This is like jugging three balls, then six balls, then nine balls. It is as if
each of us were the Starship Enterprise of Star Trek. In the Next Generation
episode “Contagion,” for instance, Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton)
tells Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart):
The Enterprise computer system is a lot like our own bodies, with
voluntary and involuntary systems. Now, probably 90 percent of what
goes on in this ship is done automatically, completely out of our control
[emphasis mine].351
As we learn about choice-effect, we find that we need to take over more

functions of the Enterprise in each of us—that is, if we don’t want the Enterprise
to run into an asteroid belt or go berserk. We, after all, don’t want any nasty
surprises (effects) in our lives. As we learn to manage more of our personalities,
we are in effect replacing unconsciousness—the default mode of being of the
personality—with awareness and conscious choices. Little by little, one manages
more of one’s personhood. At first, this is overwhelming. In time, one gets used
to it.
This chapter outlines the steps that are required to become trans-sensory
about the things of this world. These steps are:
351
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Contagion.” This episode originally aired in syndication on March 18,
1) Always ask yourself, “Do I want inner pain or inner peace?”

2) Stop focusing on pain, whether inner or outer in nature
3) Ask yourself, as often as possible, “What is the lesson?”
4) Silence the radio and television
5) Meditate
6) Retain your energy
Step 1
Do I Want Pain or Peace?
The first step is to ask yourself, moment to moment:
What do I want to experience inside? Do I want to feel pain, sadness,

scarcity, and hell? Or do I want to feel peace, joy, abundance, and
heaven?
If you want hell, then continue to let outer circumstances control your thoughts,
emotions, and behavior. If you want heaven, then affirm this choice inside of
you.
When I had $15 in the bank, I had no option but to choose peace or hell
inside me. After I made my choice, a schoolteacher told me that I looked “so
peaceful.” For me, that was enough evidence that peace is as simple as choosing
it inside, no matter what is happening outside or even inside our human bodies.
Just repeating peace or inner silence mentally is usually enough to quiet the
human mind. Why? Because such words give the human brain something to
focus on. But one must mean the words, or this method won’t work. Said
differently, one must say the words from the heart—and not just when one has a
problem, but instead, at regular intervals each day.
If you have a pervasive developmental disorder like Asperger Syndrome,
then you may be sensitive to physical stimuli. In this case, repeating inner
silence mentally—or just focusing on your inner silence—may be preferable to
focusing on what you are seeing, hearing, smelling, and so on. This is because,
with affirmations, you are focusing on the inside world (an autistic trait), not on
the outside world (a neurotypical trait). As you advance spiritually, you will
blend the outer and the inner. This means observing what you see, hear, feel,
taste, and/or smell and being aware that the inner silence is the observer.
Sometimes, however, the heavens will for an individual to be flooded
with negativity so that, paradoxically, he or she may make a spiritual
breakthrough. At times like these, we control neither our emotions nor the
negative thoughts that such emotions fuel. Rather, we become utterly possessed
by the energies of a circumstance. An example is the feelings that one
experiences after an accident, death, or painful breakup. One may be down for
weeks. During such episodes of inner anguish, I find it best to accept that I am
just meant to feel negative. Infinite patience with the gods is called for during
such intervals of time. Hours or days later, with no effort of my own, I feel
better.
Step 2
Stop Focusing on Pain
Instead of promoting visualizing or being positive, I espouse starting with

what most of us are familiar with—pain—and specifically, ending pain at once.
All self-help books that I have read and cassettes that I have listened to do it the
other way around, putting the cart (positive thinking) before the horse (ending
negativity). If you have seldom done positive thinking, you can’t simply jump
into affirmations and visualizations—at least, not the elaborate ones. They will
sound bogus. Quitting fakery will be too tempting. This is like a boy giving up
on a new diet of spinach (positive thinking). With chocolate ice cream (negative
thinking) in the fridge, it is way too easy for him to dig into the sweet carton, no
matter how bad fudge may be for his health. Therefore, the lad needs to stop
eating altogether—for a while, that is. This is a way of weaning him off the
sugar.
In the Next Generation episode “Contagion,” the Enterprise is slowly
reprogrammed by an alien probe that is 200,000 years old. What happens to the
Enterprise during this process? One of its food replicators materializes a plant—
not the captain’s order of “tea, Earl Grey, hot.” The turbolifts of the Enterprise
go haywire. The ship’s lights flicker. Tricorders (handheld gadgets) don’t work.
A computer console electrocutes Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton). In the
conference lounge, La Forge tells the crew:
The [probe] transmitter is sending an alien computer program, the same

program that is currently aboard the Enterprise, trying to rewrite our
software in its own image. We have two completely incompatible
computer systems trying to interact.352
On the long-abandoned planet Iconia, the white android Lieutenant-

Commander Data (Brent Spiner) gets electrocuted while operating a console in a
control room. Data shuts down and “dies.” Lying down in the engineering
352
Ibid.
section of the Enterprise, the transported white android opens his golden irises
and sits up. Commanders Geordi La Forge and William T. Riker (Jonathan
Frakes) are stunned. The scene on the engineering deck of the Enterprise unfolds
as follows:
La Forge: The solution [for Data] was a shutdown and a total wipe of all
effective memory.
Riker: Can you do the same thing with the Enterprise?
La Forge: I don’t see why not. But it will have to be a complete shutdown
[emphasis mine]. We turn her off and effects of the Yamato log,
including every subsequent event since we downloaded it. I’ll
then be able to reload all the ship’s programs from the
protected archives in the main core.353
The Yamato was a sister Federation starship that blew up in its “negativity.” It
was by downloading a computer log from the Yamato that the Enterprise became
infected.
In life, we often download infected programs from toxic people, from
traumatic events, and from hellish environments. The “protected archives in the
main core” come from God.354 Positive thinking is a major software of God’s
program. Negative people can get overloaded, however, with too much
positivism at once. This can generate counterreactions from our old selves,
353
Ibid.
354
Ibid.
counterreactions like the Enterprise’s flickering lights. This is because our old
selves are “incompatible” with our new Selves.355
Becoming a positive thinker means becoming insensitive to whining,
whether from oneself or from others. This can aggravate one’s negative self, for
that self wants nothing but sympathy. Negative people don’t understand
positive people, and positive people don’t comprehend negative people. This is
because each side is coming from a different frame of reference. Consider the
Columbo episode titled, “Death Lends a Hand.” At a driver’s license office, an
old lady is reading those familiar letters on the board for her eye exam.
Lieutenant Columbo (Peter Falk) is standing behind her in line. The woman,
who is wearing glasses, passes the test and leaves. Suddenly, Columbo slams his
palm on the counter and tells the man behind it, “She wasn’t wearing glasses.”356
Because Columbo says this out of context, it sounds absurd, for the lady was
wearing glasses. Columbo, however, was referring to a deceased woman whose
death he is investigating. Similarly, positive thinking sounds like lunacy to a
negative mind, and negative thinking sounds like lunacy to a positive mind. The
human brain prefers one frame of mind or another, not both. This is why
positive people and negative people are antagonistic to one another. Positive
thinkers live in an energy field called Cloud 99. The “laws of physics” are
different in that bubble. About 20 percent of the population lives there—in the
world but not of it. These are the starry-eyed people that just won’t come down
to earth. The bottom 80 percent of the population—the negative thinkers—exist
inside another energy field. While positive thinking works on Cloud 99, it
doesn’t work below. Only if a negative thinker rises to the Ivory Tower—an
extremely arduous task—can he or she live by altered “laws of physics.”
355
Ibid.
356
Columbo, “Death Lends a Hand.” This episode originally aired on NBC on October 6, 1971 (Season 1,
episode 2).
Positive thinking works on Cloud 99. But negative people need first to
shut down all thinking, sometimes for days, weeks, or months. How is simple.
Forget about your problems. This doesn’t mean giving up on them. Rather, it
means that after, say, an hour of exploring solutions to a problem, stop thinking.
An hour is more than enough time. Less time is needed for smaller problems. In
an hour, if you still don’t have an answer, you should at least have some options.
Then, sleep on them. Don’t think about your problem(s). If you have no
solutions, forget anyway, for there are no solutions. Just accept the inevitable as
peacefully as you can. The alternative is to continue in a mental and emotional
whirlwind.
I spent the last two months of 2004 thinking, day and night, about how I
would make it through the year 2005 with a few hundred dollars in the bank.
Interviewers hadn’t hired me over the previous year. The open positions were
either entry-level, for which I was “over-qualified,” or top-management, for
which I was underqualified. From December 2004 to January 2005, my checking
account dwindled from about $750 to $500 to $250 to $75 to $15. I didn’t know
anyone in New Hampshire. Even if I did, I knew that asking for money is the
biggest no-no in life. Worse, I knew that I had a 10 percent chance of ever
making a living, despite my having a master’s degree. This is because 90 percent
of adults with Asperger Syndrome are chronically unemployed for the reasons
described in Part I, Chapter 2, subsection titled, “Asperger Syndrome.” Adults
with Asperger’s and no family support have a 90 percent chance of ending up
homeless at some point in their adult lives. A major cause of this is that adults
with Asperger’s are being ignored because of the focus on children with
Asperger’s. As if this weren’t enough, most employment agencies have yet to
provide services for Aspies with college degrees. This is because these agencies
only see as disabled autistics who are at the lower end of the autism spectrum.
Many employment agencies have not even heard about Asperger Syndrome.
Health clinics that help Aspergians generally require that Aspies have health
insurance before the clinics step in. It is a self-defeating cycle, as most Aspergian
adults have no health insurance to begin with. The only job that I could find was
that of substitute teacher. I signed up with two school districts in my area. The
school districts didn’t need substitutes everyday, however. The result was that,
at most, I worked three days a week. The average was two days. I earned about
$120 a week. Such earnings caused my checking account to yo-yo from $75 to
$250 to $50 for months. I was no longer economically viable. My only luck was
that the condo fee—my rent—was about $250 a month.
In Self-Esteem: Your Fundamental Power, Caroline Myss, the medical
intuitive, lectures that if one has low self-esteem, one will find making money
incredibly hard.357 From my perspective, Myss is merely describing a symptom
of low self-esteem, an effect. I wanted to know the cause. Yes, Asperger
Syndrome and low self-esteem go hand in hand because of the endless rejections
that Aspies receive, starting in grade school with their age-mates and
culminating in their adult lives with interviewers. But I wanted to know the
spiritual reason why I was set up for rejection: my self-esteem destroyed so that
then, I could be blamed for not being accepted into the job world. Based on her
lectures, I infer that Myss would probably answer that looking at setups is
“woundology.” Myss coined this term to mean “whining” about one’s wounds
instead of rising above them. As valid as this reply is, it still doesn’t answer the
first question. Saying that people with low self-esteem have difficulty making
money is like saying that if the lowest rung of a ladder is too high, you won’t be
able to reach up. But why was the lowest rung set so high in the first place—for
people with low self-esteem (low psychic steam)? And why was the lowest rung
357
set so low—for people with high self-esteem (high psychic steam)? One could
answer that setting up a person for the opposite (low self-esteem) of a spiritual
goal (developing high self-esteem) is how a challenge like this is met. Spiritual
challenges, after all, require human wounds to heal from, or there would be no
challenge. This makes human sense. But raising the lowest rung so high that
one can’t even reach it is more than a mere setup. It is more a prescription for
catastrophe. As Marianne Williamson, the author and lecturer, narrates in The
Healing of America, “These kids [children in inner city schools] are set up to fail
My situation was similar to that of the farm family in the movie Country
(1984). In that film, Jewell and Gil Ivy (Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard) find
their names in a loaner’s list of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The
Ivys learn that they have 30 days to pay $96,000 or lose the farm that has been in
their family since the late 1800s. Farm foreclosures happened in the United
States during the farm crisis of the mid-1980s. People committed suicide. Tens
of thousands of families lost their farms, despite a class-action lawsuit that
involved 230,000 farmers in 44 states.359 Want to see a spiritual crisis? See
Country.
My only asset was the New Hampshire apartment that I was living in. I
kept thinking, thinking, thinking! Then, I reached the Omega Point. I was so
exhausted that I chose to be at peace, even if I ended up homeless before I could
free my money. Since that day, I have seldom thought about personal problems
for more than, say, an hour. I learned that thinking about problems, even if to
solve them, becomes pointless beyond a certain point. Even if no solutions come,
I now stop thinking and focus instead on what I am seeing, hearing, touching,
358
Marianne Williamson, The Healing of America. This two-cassette audio book was published by Simon
& Schuster, New York, 1997.
359
This statistic comes from the narrator at the end of Country.
tasting, and/or smelling. Sometimes, I focus on one sense for a long time. Other
times, I consciously shift from one sense to the other every few seconds.
Regardless of how I approach the now, if I look, I look. If I hear, I listen. If I
smell, I smell. If I taste, I taste. If I feel, I feel. This is called mindfulness.
To the human psyche, living in the now is “simplistic” and “childish.”
My human mind tells me, for example, That is how lower animals live. But
looking and really looking, hearing and hearing (listening), and so on is sensory
efficiency, a form of energy efficiency. You sense physical stimuli without
thinking. You don’t get caught in the drama (what is out there) because part of
your attention is on yourself (making sure you are sensing intently). Living in
the now, slowing down, and doing one thing at a time (unitasking) are related.
Does living in the now mean never planning? No, for one plans and
visualizes in the present. “Thinking from the end” is seeing one’s dreams
realized here and now. But one needs to set time aside for this—as opposed to
visualizing while doing something else. This way, one can give planning one’s
full attention.
One can also observe one’s thoughts. This is harder than observing what
you see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. Why? Because things just happen out
there. This makes it easier to just observe the outer world. When you think,
however, you are the thinker—or rather, the human you. Therefore, you have to
split your mind between the thinker (your human self) and the observer (your
Higher Self). Observing your thoughts while they are happening, as opposed to
after, takes extraordinary skill because thoughts tend to sweep you with them.
One must practice, practice, practice.
Like thoughts, emotions tend to engulf you, especially strong feelings like
anger. But with practice, you can step back and observe them. The observer has
been called the inner silence, the presence, the Higher Self, and the soul.
Even if one lives in the now, some thoughts will be harder to dislodge
than hard crust on a black skillet. I keep dropping such thoughts. The negative
thoughts often return. I keep dropping them, and dropping them, and dropping
them. Mentally saying in the now helps me to refocus on the present. But I say
phrases like that just once so as not to get embroiled in thinking. One can also
zero one’s eyes on a carry-on object. An example is a glass butterfly in one’s
pocket. This helps to focus one’s thoughts away from the problem. When
suspicious cars started to roam around my Florida apartment, I felt watched.
This caused me to panic because, almost always, I have been ignored. I usually
feel like a ghost in this world. Suddenly, I was being observed and followed. I
felt physical. I got sick to my stomach and couldn’t go to a doctor because I don’t
have health insurance. For a week, negative thoughts invaded my head. I
dropped them 50, 100, 200 times. Eventually, my negativity subsided.
Whenever one drops a problem from one’s head, an inner voice will yell:
Are you crazy? You got to think about this problem or that will happen to
you!
I drop thoughts like those as if they were hot potatoes. This is one type of mental
censorship that is warranted.
Sometimes, the problem will be—literally—inside your physical body.
Cancer is an example. As radical as this may sound, that is also external. One’s
human body is external because it is not the Real you. Think about it. How
many of us crave milk chocolate chips and can’t munch them because of
diabetes? How many of us salivate at salty foods and can’t eat them because of
high blood pressure? How many of us hanker for alcohol and can’t drink
because of cirrhosis? This shows that the human body is separate from the
conscious mind. I say conscious because our subconscious and unconscious
minds—and sometimes even our conscious minds—do affect our physical
bodies. Thoughts of anger that we choose to hold on to, for instance, can
contribute to things like high blood pressure. But more often than not, the
human body is separate from the mind, heart, and spirit. As an example,
somebody may crave sexual intimacy with another person and is not able to
because of the other person’s having a sexually transmitted disease (STD).
Disobeying the human body brings consequences. This shows that the material
body has an agenda of its own, often separate from the wants and needs of the
mind, heart, and spirit. It is only the union of the corporeal body with our
nonphysical parts that makes the human body seem to be us.
Problems are always about lack of control.
Most of us cannot control the inner workings of our human bodies—that is,
beyond things like eating healthy, exercising, and sleeping well. Consequently,
the human body tends to become problematic for us as we age.
This is a planet where, historically, most people have lacked
external/human and internal/spiritual power. Therefore, fear has run riot since
the dawn of woman and man.
The root of all fear is powerlessness.
Fear comes in degrees, ranging from:

Fear . . . . . . . . . . . . Fright . . . . . . . . . . . . Terror
One time, my blood pressure pills were not working. I had just had a
reading of 173/113. Having no supernatural powers, I couldn’t bring down my
blood pressure with the snap of a finger. Like crickets into a woodwork, fright
crept into my heart and worry into my head. The following words came to my
human mind:
Problems are temptations to choose pain … and opportunities to choose

peace.
I committed myself to contact the appropriate party the following day, took the
pill that I had, and stopped thinking. This may sound simplistic. But Truth is
simple, although the truths of the lower planes are often gray. I knew that if I
kept thinking, full-blown hell would have ensued. Thankfully, my fears and
worries slowly vanished.
When negative thinking is stopped, oftentimes the residue of former
negativity will keep materializing. There is the temptation to loop back into
negativity when bad things keep happening to us. In my case, the suspicious
vehicles bowling past the front of my Florida apartment tempted me to choose
fear—actually, fright—anxiety, and more negativity. (See Part I, Chapter 9,
section titled, “The Gamble of Choice.”) Sometimes, it takes the bravery of Joe
Patroni (George Kennedy) from the movie Airport (1970) to give those jet
engines full throttle on the taxiway and get that airliner out of the snow.
In time, positive thinking will begin to displace negative thinking. For
instance, Norman Vincent Peale, the late author and preacher, relates in The
Power of Positive Thinking (1987) that a lady once sat at a board meeting.
Guideposts magazine had run out of money, and the board members were
frozen with fear. According to Peale, Tessy, the woman, told the men to put
their negative thoughts on the table that was before them. The board members
emptied their minds. In the video, Peale continues:
She said these lack thoughts, which you have deliberately flushed out,
are very intuitively smart. They haven’t gone very far away. They know
that you’re gonna be lonesome without them because they’ve been with
you for long. And they realize that if they just hang around, they can
sneak back in and continue to defeat you. But, she said, they can be kept
out by an act of displacement. If you put into your minds a more positive,
powerful thought pattern, you can not only keep them out [the negative
thoughts]. You can go on to success with this project.360
Ending negativity is like stopping a sex, food, or drug addiction—near

impossible if done cold turkey. That is why I believe that some indulgences in
negativity are alright, so long as they are planned and conscious indulgences.
For example, a negative person can say to himself:
I will allow negative thoughts six times today, then three times
tomorrow.
If detox clinics existed for de-negativizing our thoughts, I believe this is the
approach that they would take. It would be much as detox clinics permit small
doses of drugs to be administered to drug addicts who want to quit drugs.
360
See Conversations with Norman Vincent Peale: The Power of Positive Thinking, released by KLV-TV,
Karl-Lorimar Home Video, 1987.
Simple affirmations are helpful. For example, one can mentally repeat, I
choose peace, joy, and abundance. But for those of us not used to affirmations,
ending all thinking is the starting point. Positive thinking comes later—after
weeks or months of shutting off one’s thoughts. Months after training myself to
stop thinking, I began to incorporate positive thinking into my mental diet. The
very phrase positive thinking prompted resistance in me. Hence, I used the
phrase pure thoughts instead. This resonated with the virgin archetype in me.
Another way to drop negativity is to logically analyze one’s negative
thoughts. Byron Katie, a workshop facilitator, discovered a simple method. She
calls it “The Work.” If one is feeling upset, then one looks at the thoughts that
one is having in that moment and asks oneself the following questions:
1) “Is this [thought] true? If so, what’s the proof? So what? What’s the
worse that can happen?”
2) “Who would I be without this thought?”
3) “Can I see a reason to drop this thought?”
4) “Turn the statement around.”361
Truths, of course, are not always black or white. But in I Need Your Love—Is
That True?, Katie writes, “No one can drop a thought. We’re just seeing a reason
to drop it [emphasis mine].”362
Our brains are like radio receivers, whereas thoughts come from the radio
stations that we tune in to through choice. Some radio dials play heavy metal
music. Other radio stations air classical music. We are not our thoughts because
thoughts just hang out there. When thoughts enter our minds, they enter like
361
See Byron Katie, Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life, (New York: Harmony
Books, 2002).
362
Byron Katie, I Need Your Love—Is That True? How to Stop Seeking Love, Approval, and Appreciation
and Start Finding Them Instead, (New York: Harmony Books, 2005), p. 115.
houseflies drawn to ketchup on a picnic table. We, however, attract thought

energies by holding on to some thoughts and letting go of others. This is how we
choose our state of mind.
Similarly, we are not our emotions. Rather, feelings like for a newborn,
puppy, or spouse grab hold of us, and we choose, however unconsciously, to
hold on to or let go of those emotions. Like the dropping of negative thoughts,
letting go of negative feelings is difficult, for both are intense. Negativity traps
our consciousness. With enough willingness and prayer, though, negativism can
be released and exchanged for positivism.
In the end, we must realize that pain is the way of this world (the vale of
tears). Many of us have conceded, of course, that Love is the answer. Humans,
however, have yet to reach this conclusion en masse. I believe that pain was
created for us to explore to see if there is anything in it for us. Coming from
God’s Love, Conversations with God says, we wanted to experience the opposite
of Love to see if God could be found elsewhere. Of course, God can’t. That is the
point of darkness—to intrigue us into exploring it so that we will realize
experientially that godlessness holds nothing good.363 That is the Omega Point.
It is the end of the game of pain, the end of the exploration of darkness, and our
return to God. This world is still exploring hell (at the individual level) and Hell
(at the collective level) to see if there is anything there for it. The global system,
called “the real world,” is based on exploration of pain. Therefore, most of us are
forced to sweat for numbers on a bank account. High mortgages and high rents
pinion us like shackles binded African slaves. We are subjected to the whip of
credit card interest payments, to the whip of utility bills, to the whip of car
363
See Walsch, Conversations with God, Book 1, (Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing
Company, Inc., 1996).
payments, to the whip of 3,500 ads a day, and to the whip of public censure for
deviating from social norms.364
The good news is that we can shut it all out by turning within, even if we
have to operate in this world. It is inside that pain is stopped. How? By
focusing away from the pain. As Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) tells a
boy (Adam Ryen) in a Next Generation episode of Star Trek:
You heard the old story about the man who goes to his doctor? He says,
“Doctor, it hurts when I raise my arm like this.” The doctor says, “Then,
don’t raise your arm like that.”365
For people not used to monitoring—let alone, controlling—their thoughts,

focusing away from pain may not be easy. But with practice, practice, practice,
thought management gets easier.
Sometimes, old emotions will arise despite one’s dropping of painful
thoughts. In this case, the experience is like the teen boy who had loud castanets
beat whenever he exercised. After years of this, his heart hammered at the mere
sound of castanets, even if he was not exercising. When the likes of this happen
to you, just continue to think peaceful thoughts. Remember:
Problems are temptations to choose pain … and opportunities to choose

peace.
Temptations to choose pain will reemerge, given the painful choices of

most of humanity. But so long as you don’t forget what hell is like—so you
364
According to Jeremy Rifkin, 3,500 ads a day is “—more than double the number thirty years ago.” See
365
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Brothers.” This episode originally aired in syndication on October 6,
won’t want to reexplore it—you can always go back to the most basic of all
questions: What do I choose inside? If you have already chosen hell, you can
choose peace.
Step 3
What Is the Lesson?
A given problem will appear again and again until one learns whatever it
is trying to teach. Therefore, it makes sense to search for the lesson in a problem
to keep the problem from resurfacing. Even if one fails, the effort is worth it. I,
for example, was trying to find a practitioner of spirit retrieval, for I was
convinced that I needed the ceremony performed on me. My energy loss had
begun some twenty years before, and I was fed up with the physical pain of
feeling drained. I telephoned a woman who did spirit retrieval. Over a one-
week period, I left one, two, three messages on her answering machine. Never
did the lady return my calls—and she knew my mother and that she had passed
away. The woman was one of three practitioners of spirit retrieval in the entire
state. I was furious at her indifference. I remembered six psychics, most of them
women, who had declined me over a three-year period. This lady was the straw
that broke the camel’s back. I phoned a local reverend to talk. Like many times
before, he brushed me off with that line I had heard a million times: “I only got a
minute.” These rejections were salt rubbing on open wounds. Being brushed off
reminded me of other times when I contacted “spiritually evolved” people and
got dumped with statements like, “Now is not a good time [for you to call].” The
pain was unimaginable since it was rejection by so many people—and not just
people, but people who ought to know better. When I got the lesson, the
emotional pain dwindled. Some resentment remains. But releasing the bulk of it
was possible. For me, the lesson package was:
1) I was knocking on the wrong doors

2) The time was not right for my spirit retrieval
3) Although the ideas of the New Age movement are spiritually evolved,
many of the people in this spiritual awakening are not genuine
I concluded that despite some noble intentions for entering alternative practices,
many spiritualists do not lead impeccable lives. They have major issues of the
personality left to burn. When I got what my ears hadn’t heard on the telephone,
I started to become trans-sensory vis-à-vis the spirit retrieval issue. I say started
because the leftover anger means that I haven’t become fully transsensory
(without the hyphen) regarding this incident. I, for instance, still feel that there
was a kinder way that the gods could have taught me the lessons in question.
The woman didn’t have to be insensitive by not returning my phone calls.
Perhaps one day, I’ll get the rest of this lesson. Until then, psychics will, very
likely, continue to turn me down.
Step 4
Silence the Radio and Television
To bring peace into your home, I recommend turning the volume down to
0 whenever an ad or an announcer comes on the radio. Nowadays, DJs are
jackhammers to the ear. Just turn off the sound until the next song comes on.
Even better, turn off the radio for good. Ninety percent of the songs on the air
are oldies anyway. We have heard them a gazillion times. Today, we are in the
midst of a musical vacuum. Since the late 1990s, no innovative songs have come
out of the music charts. The 1980s was nirvana compared to the state of pop
music in the early 2000s. Local bands are not heard on the radio because of
media executives deciding that “they won’t sell.” The result is no new songs
being heard on the radio—except for the occasional hit that a cabal of CEOs elect
to be played. In the early 1980s, New Wave music departed radically from the
tunes of the 1970s. Single-handedly, Music Television (MTV) launched New
Wave music. Why single-handedly? Because radio stations of the 1979-83 era
thought technopop too radical to air. In a nutshell, AM/FM radio offers nothing
but ads, 30 oldies replayed over and over, and loudmouthed DJs. Satellite radio
exists, in turn, so that subscribers will buy the catchy songs that they hear there,
for satellite radio only allows one to listen.
As for television, I suggest hitting the mute button whenever a
commercial comes on. I can’t urge strongly enough the need to stop this
auditory and visual waste from entering your home—and your consciousness.
The house of my adopted aunt is ready to explode—literally—from the junk that
she has accumulated since 1979. The woman has everything in her house—
crumpled paper, flying roaches, iguanas, and frogs. She has dust, mildew, no air
conditioning, no heat, piles of boxes, piles of clothes, piles of kitchenware, you
name it. This is the clutter that ads stuff into our heads, be they billboards on the
“freeway” or commercials on TV and radio. Year by year, the ads accumulate in
our subconscious. Since the year 2000, TV ads have been popping up during TV
programs as well—bottom of the screen—not just during commercial “breaks.”
Why waste precious energy thinking about junk? (Yes, thinking takes energy.)
TV and radio condition us to have the attention span of a gnat. If we want to
learn to focus on being peaceful, joyful, and abundant, we must first learn to
focus.
Television commercials often lasted a whole minute in the 1970s. In 2006,
I caught one that lasted one second. Made illegal decades ago, subliminal cuts
are around the corner, thanks to corporations controlling the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC)—and all government agencies—more than
ever. As early as 1993, a TV commercial aired with an underimposed image
flickering every few seconds. Had I not taped and paused the ad, I would have
missed the image. Who knows what messages the corporate media is trying to
instill into our subconscious through its media. My suggestion: Don’t watch
commercial television! It is—literally—playing with matches.
Like television commercials, programs on the tube condition us not to
focus. According to Michael Medved, a film critic, each TV camera shot
averaged one-and-a-half minutes in 1950. Today, TV shows hold a shot for an
average of five seconds.366 I get dizzy watching these programs. Just when I get
into the beauty of a character, the camera yanks me to another character. Then,
back to my favorite character. And back again—all in five seconds. This
constant to and fro has proven so vexing that I seldom watch commercial
television anymore. By comparison, the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network
(C-SPAN) and PBS are a pleasure to watch. For the record, only 6 percent of
television viewers watch C-SPAN on a regular basis. Maybe more of us can join
this demographic segment.
If you or your children must watch a TV program, then I suggest taping it.
This will save you and them time because one can fast forward through the
commercials. But don’t look at the tube while doing this, or the commercials will
enter subliminally into your consciousness. If you must watch the news, then I
366
This statistic comes from Michael Medved, “American Values versus Television Values,” Friday,
November 1, 2002. At http://www.michaelmedved.com/site/product?printerFriendly=true&pid=19058.
recommend reading it online, instead of watching the sensationalistic news on

network and cable television. Better still, read what you want, rather than what
TV and newspapers tell you is “the news.” Get to decide yourself. Even the
Weather Channel is filled with negativity (e.g., the program Storm Stories),
commercials every four to six minutes, and more pop-up ads during weather
forecasting (top and bottom of the screen). If you want negativity to expand in
your life, then watch the 6 o’clock news. Sit through the commercials. Leave the
volume on loud. Fill your consciousness with that. If you want positive things
in your life, then turn it all off—the radio, the TV, and even the major news
sources on the web. Do this at home and in your motor vehicle—if you have
one.
Listen to the silence, the silence beneath the sounds around you. Can you
hear it? Why is silence so powerful? Because that is the realm of the psychic (the
trans-sensory). The more you experience silence inside, the more proficient you
become at sensing vibes. Psychic sensing can warn you about certain people and
places and can even save your life. Talk, by contrast, distracts you from psychic
sensing. Learn to appreciate the goldenness of silence. You may want to say
nothing for, say, an hour one day. Be as quiet as you can. Another day, you may
want to not just keep your lips sealed but also, not write or think either. Practice
the art of listening.
If you are climbing the Stairmaster with the 10 screens in front of you at
the gym, close your eyes and visualize the dreams of your heart. If a major event
happens, trust me, the news will find you. Your friends and coworkers will tell
you, for starters. Listen to them without getting enmeshed in the drama. Then,
focus on the sounds around you, or focus on the silence beneath it all. If you are
a musician, can you identify the notes that the sounds around you are playing?
Step 5
Meditation—Train to Focus
Meditation is the only way to train your mind to focus. It doesn’t matter
what type of meditation you use. That is up to the individual, and myriad books
and techniques exist. The most vital step is simply to meditate daily. Many
people can’t find a meditation method “that works.” I have discovered that it
isn’t so much that meditation doesn’t work as that we can’t sit still. It is our
restlessness, rather than a method that “doesn’t work,” that needs to be
addressed. If you can’t concentrate during meditation because you are restless,
stay restless and keep trying to focus. If you fail, keep at it, and at it, and at it.
The important thing is to commit to meditate, even if you stay jittery. I believe
that restlessness needs to be overcome first, instead of trying to find “a method
that works.”
How does one meditate? Simple. Just close your eyes in a quiet place
where you won’t be interrupted. Sit with your back straight and focus on
something internal. This could be your breathing, an imaginary point before
your closed eyes, the silence, a mantra, the sounds around you, or the spirit that
surrounds your human body. This is focused meditation because you focus on
one thing. In unfocused meditation, you shift from one thing to the other every
few seconds—or even better, you allow your consciousness to do so naturally.
You don’t have to time yourself. Just meditate as best you can and stay with it
for a while, once before rising from bed and/or once before going to sleep. If a
thought comes, as it will, observe it, rather than engage it. If you have engaged a
thought, let it go. Coming back to your mantra or breath is one method. Haven’t
you noticed how offshore waves bulge up from nowhere? That is how thoughts
appear. Abruptly. Unexpectedly. Overwhelmingly. That is why it is so easy to

get entangled in them. But like a puppy that keeps running away, focus can be
brought back.
We keep searching for “the right way” to meditate because we are so used
to grabbing things mentally. As if climbing a boulder that has handles sticking
out, we grab onto a zillion thoughts a day. Our minds are so used to grabbing,
grabbing, grabbing. When we meditate, we let go the handles. Suddenly, we
lose our balance. We feel out of touch with everything. No wonder we don’t
find “an effective method” of meditation. The challenge is to get used to
nothingness. Stay in a state of grablessness. Eventually, the light will come
through. But practice, practice, practice … and persevere, persevere, persevere.
That is the method.
When you are ready, you will have the determination to train your mind
to focus outside of meditation. The method can be as simple as observing what
you smell at a given time, see in a particular object, or hear when your TV is set
to mute. So long as you don’t have to concentrate on driving or crossing the
street, set time aside each day to zero in on something. Sit still with it.
Step 6
Focus Requires Energy
Being here now—not to mention, staying there—requires energy. Having

an intact S.O.U.L. (Systemic Organization of the Universal Lifeforce) may be
required to stay in the present, for Spirits/souls are energy. As Sandra Ingerman
contends in Soul Retrieval, when part or pieces of a spirit flee a human body to
avoid an inhuman trauma, it leaves one depleted. Without recapturing those lost
parts, one can feel disconnected from life. According to Ingerman, the
fragmenting of the self is what psychotherapists call dissociation. What
dissociates, she continues, is a piece or pieces of one’s spirit.367 The lights are on,
but nobody’s home.368 People in this state of consciousness may find staying in
the now next to impossible. Individuals who experience severe loss of spirit
(more than 50 percent of the spirit has left the human body) can even end up in a
coma. Such people become like Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) in the prom dance
scene of Back to the Future (1985). McFly is playing an electric guitar in front of
an auditorium. His picture is tied to the front of his guitar. The picture
disappears slowly; the young man sinks onto a black amplifier; and he begins to
vanish. Note how McFly expresses the pain of his energy leaving him. This is
what happens when part or pieces of a spirit leave a human body—a type of
death. Inhuman traumas, the crushing of one’s hopes and dreams, and the
demands of postmodern society cause the loss of one’s prana (life force).
367
See Ingerman, Soul Retrieval, pgs. 149-150.
368
Ibid., p. 19.
One must find ways to recoup one’s spiritual fragments. Then, one must
learn to keep one’s energy, for as one of my aunts says, “El cuerpo humano es
una batería” (“The human body is a battery”). I find it hard to focus on anything
—and even less, on people’s eyes—when I am out of energy. This is despite
years of focus training. Because of my low-energy tendencies, I eat well, exercise
regularly, don’t smoke, don’t drink, and do what I can to keep my energy.
Recently, I examined possible spiritual causes of my dearth of energy. I
recommend following your intuition about what avenues to pursue to recover
and keep your energy. I find that spending time alone, with no schedules to
keep, helps me to recuperate my energy. Then, I am able to focus on the here
and now.
The next chapter stresses the need to look at concrete things symbolically.
The chapter warns of the dangers of taking things literally.
Exercises
1) As you evolve spiritually, do you find that you have more things to keep
track of inside yourself? If yes, list those things or speak them into a tape
recorder. How have you fared at this task?
2) Have you ever been, or become, peaceful in a stressful situation? If yes,

write about it or describe the situation into a tape recorder. What brought
the discontinuity between the outer world and your inner world?
3) Have you ever found yourself “meditating” outside of meditation? If you

have been mindful at a task, was this a result of your goal to be mindful in
that instant? Or was your goal to be mindful at everything that you do?
4) Think of a time when you were totally absorbed in something or a task.

If you were performing a chore, did someone request that you do the chore?
Or did you perform the undertaking for its own sake? How did the nature of
the task (by order vs. by free will) lead you to be mindful at it or not?
15
Seeing Literal Things Symbolically
—and Vague Things Concretely
The five senses—and the sixth sense of the human brain—operate by

concreteness. Either an object is red, or it is green. Either a sound is that of a
bird, or it is that of a car. Either a thing smells like cookies, or it smells like
incense. When we encounter a fleeting scent, we become a little irritated. When
we can barely discern a figure through a fog, we become frustrated. Elusive
sights, sounds, touches, tastes, and smells vex us because our brains want
concreteness through the so-called five senses. Such concreteness is the means
for our biological survival. Elusive stimuli may tease us once in a while. But
generally, they annoy us.
Becoming trans-sensory means becoming comfortable with concreteness
(the literal) and with vagueness (the symbolic). Trans-sensory humans savor the
aroma and taste of chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven. But they also
enjoy the vagueness of peace. Trans-sensory humans relish the form of an
attractive human body. But they also see the formless spirit emanating from the
person’s eyes. Trans-sensory humans see that concrete, physical, literal things
and vague, nonphysical, symbolic things influence mental outlook, emotional
states, human energy, and physical health.
This chapter looks at some of what we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell
(the sensory) and at some of their symbolism (the trans-sensory). Both are real.
This symbolism is part of the narrative of our lives. The narrative, in turn, is a
metaphor, a parable, a matrix, and a conduit of trans-sensory truths and Truth.
In closing, this chapter considers possible negative sources of trans-sensory

information.
Sensory Literalness
One afternoon, I experienced the following events:
1) Driving to a workout club, I slabbed Chapstick onto my lips.

Some guys drove by and shouted, “Faggot!” At that moment, I
experienced the world as a bigoted, angry, and dangerous place.
2) After exercising at the gym, I moseyed toward a hair salon to get

a haircut. Two boys were sitting in the waiting room, and I
sensed a tinge of loneliness from them. In that instant, I
experienced the world as a sad place.
3) As I drove home, a stud muffin drove past me. At that moment,

I felt depressed because I couldn’t have him.
That night, I asked God, “Why do bad things happen to me?”

Very appropriately, these incidents transpired on an April Fools Day.
Trans-sensory Symbolism
From a literal perspective, negative things did happen to me that

afternoon. Not only that. Negative things that seemed totally unrelated hit me
in the face. I felt like the victim of random events, and meaningless filled my
consciousness.
That night, I put on a movie that had arrived in the mail. The DVD was
titled, Over the Top (1987). The flick is about a wealthy boy (David Mendenhall)
whose truck driver father (Sylvester Stallone) abandoned him years ago. The
boy’s mother (Susan Blakely) wants father and son to make up. Suddenly, I
connected the dots: the guys calling me faggot, the lonely boys at the hair salon,
the unavailable heartthrob, and this movie. Symbolically, I was living different
effects of the same cause. The cause was the physical absence of my biological
father and the emotional absence of my stepfather. The guys calling me faggot
were the heavens reminding me of what I am through megaphones—although I
am not exclusively gay. The loneliness of the boys was God showing me the
boyhood roots—or at least, a major root—of my hunger and thirst for guys. (In
my view, homosexuality per se is not unhealthy, just exclusive homosexuality
and exclusive heterosexuality.) The out-of-reach young man was God repeating
the same point—that I am overwhelmingly homoromantic. The movie Over the
Top brought all the events of that day back to ground zero: abandonment issues
that I have vis-à-vis my biological father and stepfather. Moreover, the mother
in that film symbolized my mother, for both moms died from hospital-related
events.
I saw my biological father two times, once when I was a boy and once
when I was a teenager. From a human perspective, this is the most insignificant
relationship that I have had in this lifetime. From a spiritual perspective, this
may well be the most significant relationship that I have had in this lifetime.
Again,
In the physical world, the spirit realm works by subtleties.

People, events, and things that, for decades, have been hiding in the background
could be playing a far more important role in our lives. When least expected,
those things loom like a ship out of a fog. Insignificant people are like the
fuselage of an airliner at 35,000 feet, what I call una bala (“a bullet”). Looking up
from the ground, one sees an airplane flying high as an insignificant bullet, for
the moving piece of metal is tiny against the blue sky. But behind, the plane is
leaving a white trail, called a contrail, that is larger than half the sky.
Regarding the events of April Fools Day, I unearthed yet another piece of
symbolism. The lad character in Over the Top is Michael Cutler from his
mother’s side and Michael Hawk from his father’s side. The same actor (David
Mendenhall) who played that role in 1987 appeared in a 1983 movie titled, Space
Raiders. In the 1983 film, Peter Tracton, the lonely boy that Mendenhall plays
there, befriends guess the name of the man. C.W. Hawk! One Hawk is the boy
(Mendenhall) and his father (Stallone) from Over the Top; the other Hawk is the
father figure (Vince Edwards) from the movie Space Raiders. Another afternoon
at the gym, I saw Mendenhall—again, he as a boy—playing yet another role on
television. Mendenhall kept reappearing in my “life” because I shared many
features with the characters that he played on film and television.
Earlier that April Fools Day, I had been sensory because I had viewed
disconnected events in a literal way. That night, I became trans-sensory
regarding those incidents because I was able to see them symbolically. I saw
what the story was really about.
Sensory Literalness
Your boss bawls at you in his corner office. You hear his grating voice.
You see his facial contortions and hideous arm movements. You feel the
vibration of his fist pounding his wooden desk.
Trans-sensory Symbolism
From a symbolic view, why is this happening? John Holland, the psychic,
writes in Power of the Soul about his former relationship with one such boss.
Holland narrates:
Early one morning, I’d just returned to the office with my boss’s morning
coffee. He yelled another command from his office about his upcoming
travel plans, departing in his usual whirlwind, without even a thank-you.
As I sat there trembling and feeling upset, confused, and angry, I thought:
Why am I enduring this work relationship? As soon as I asked the
question, I knew the answer: I was reliving my whole childhood
relationship with my father. I was so keen for approval and attention that
I was allowing myself to be treated like a child all over again.369
As soon as Holland “got the lesson,” he forgave his boss, left that job, and
worked on healing the unresolved issues with his father. Through these actions,
Holland broke “the pattern that makes many of us fall into unhealthy
relationships.”370 This is what it means to see the trans-sensory (symbolic) causes
of a sensory (literal) event?
369
John Holland, Power of the Soul: Inside Wisdom for an Outside World, (Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, Inc.,
2007), p. 83.
370
Ibid.
Why Look at Things Symbolically?
Looking at life events is like interpreting a dream. Even violent events

like the April 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. are symbolic in that,
in Caroline Myss’s words, they represent archetypes at work.371 An archetype is
the spiritual energy that creates a persona. King, for example, was the martyr
archetype. So was Harvey Milk, a San Francisco supervisor in the late 1970s.
Both men spoke about the possibility of being assassinated. Milk even recorded
a statement “to be played only in the event of [his] death by assassination.”372
The statement went so far as to accurately describe the manner in which Milk
would be shot. Right on schedule, Milk’s message was played after his being
shot in city hall on November 1978. Similarly, Roberto Clemente, the Baseball
Hall of Famer from Puerto Rico, was haunted by thoughts of his mortality. As
Vera Clemente, Roberto’s widow, recounts on PBS’s American Experience, “He
had a special ‘timing.’ For instance, he was in a hurry to get married. Because he
always thought he was going to die young.”373
The night of December 31, 1972—note the symbolism of this date and time
of day—Roberto boarded a charter flight that was bound for Managua, the
capital of Nicaragua. The 38-year-old right fielder was determined to bring relief
supplies to victims of an earthquake there. The propeller plane that he boarded
371
Myss, Sacred Contracts.
372
This quote comes from an article of Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia titled, “Harvey Milk.” The URL
is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Milk.
373
American Experience: Roberto Clemente. This episode originally aired on PBS on April 21, 2008.
had a Z painted on each side as part of its design—more symbolism. As Vera

says on American Experience:
[By the runway] He gave me a very sad look. I read many things in that
look. [Such as] I’d like to bring you, but I can’t. I should stay, but I
can’t.374
The propeller plane crashed into the Atlantic, and his body was never found.
If human life were random, then how could martyrs know about their
martyrdom beforehand? Something deeper must be going on, something deeper
than the literal interpretation that most of us give to life events. Most people,
however, have been carried away by the way that Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Harvey Milk, and Roberto Clemente died. But in Spanish, people say “la forma
en qué murió” (“the form in which he [or she] died [emphasis mine]”). Form
here describes not the human body, a noun, but rather, a verb, the act of dying.
There are many forms of dying, but they are just forms. The moral here is not to
cling to form but instead, to look at the symbolism behind it.
The paradox is that because physical life is a dream, one must really get
into it so as not to miss details that may hold clues. One must truly observe one’s
surroundings. One must listen carefully, taste slowly, smell deeply, and feel as
intensely as one can. On the street, being alert to one’s surroundings is a huge
part of having “street smarts.” Alert to one’s environs, one becomes far more
able to discern the messages of the dream. One goes from being spiritually
illiterate (being unable to read spiritual letters) to becoming spiritually literate.
But one needs to develop discipline to bring the mind back to the present 576,000
times in a 16-hour day—give or take a few tens of thousands of times (see Part I,
374
Ibid.
Chapter 6, section titled, “In the Now vs. Thinking”). Without the discipline to
bring back the puppy that keeps running away, the cerebral cortex will drift
away from sensing the physical environment. Why? Because thinking, not
sensing physical stimuli, is the function of two-thirds of the human brain.
Unlike Lieutenant Columbo (Peter Falk) of the Columbo series on
television, most of us barely pay attention to the details of our environs. Yet, we
are hooked on the things of the outer world. On PBS’s The Power of Myth,
however, mythologist Joseph Campbell warns, “When you get stuck in the
metaphor, then you’re in trouble [emphasis mine].”375 In other words, don’t get
caught up in the symbols of your life. Look rather at their symbolism. Seek their
hidden meaning. Ask yourself:
What do the symbols in my life represent? What do the characters in my

life symbolize?
One thing has separated Homo sapiens from all the other hominids that
have come before: Homo sapiens can think symbolically. Just look at the cave
paintings of Cro-Magnons. Hominids like Neanderthals, on the other hand,
could only think literally, something that may explain the absence of cave
paintings during the Neanderthal epoch in Europe. Yet, humans still have the
pre-human propensity to take things literally, as in personally, when matters of
interpretation concern everyday life. Only when the objects of interpretation—a
novel, movie, or painting—are removed from pragmatic matters do we tend to
think metaphorically. One of our trans-sensory challenges is to expand our
symbolic thought from the literary world to daily life as well.
375
Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, “The Message of the Myth.”
The movie Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) shows what occurs when someone fails
to think symbolically in practical life. In this film, Miranda Hillard (Sally Field)
divorces Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams). Wanting to be with his children,
Daniel disguises himself as an old lady. Mrs. Euphegenia Doubtfire/Daniel gets
his clueless ex-wife to hire him as a nanny. Miranda is impressed with Mrs.
Doubtfire’s punctuality, neatness, and swiftness around the stove. Likewise, the
children warm up to Mrs. Doubtfire. At a five-star restaurant, Mrs. Doubtfire is
torn between meeting a TV producer in the nonsmoking section and sitting with
his family—and Miranda’s new boyfriend—in the smoking section. It is no
coincidence that the restaurant is called Bridges. Miranda’s boyfriend (Pierce
Brosnan) chokes. Mrs. Doubtfire leaves the opportunity of a lifetime (Robert
Prosky) in one corner of Bridges Restaurant and rushes to the smoking section to
perform the Heimlich maneuver on Miranda’s boyfriend. Mrs. Doubtfire’s mask
slips off her face. Miranda’s face contorts in horror. “Daniel,” she says, beyond
disbelief. “Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” Miranda is flabbergasted
because she had taken Daniel’s disguise literally. She is furious because Daniel
deceived her. Their older children are not hurt, however—following their initial
shock weeks prior—because the kids know that their father is playing a role.
Not only that. The kids understand the reason for that role. The role was played
because, in their dad’s words, “It’s the only way I can see you guys everyday.”
Near the closing credits, Miranda stops taking Mrs. Doubtfire literally.
Consequently, she chuckles at the ridiculousness of it all. This movie shows that
children have no trouble playing make-belief. Kids slip in and out of fantasy
easily. They don’t get attached to the tale.
While alive, Joseph Campbell called taking things personally the error of
reading things as “prose,” rather than as “poetry.” On PBS’s Joseph Campbell
and the Power of Myth, Campbell expounded, “That’s reading a metaphor in
terms of the denotation [literal meaning], instead of the connotation [implied

meaning].”376 For example, if I were to speak of the American economy in terms
of prose, I would say, “The U.S. economy is in recession.” If I were to speak of
the American economy in terms of poetry, I would say, “America’s treasure
trove is bleeding.” Now, we have symbolism.
Metaphors, however, are not always so easily understood—no matter how
hard we may try to comprehend them. Why is this? The Next Generation
episode “Darmok” illustrates the answer. In that episode, the crew of the
Enterprise encounters a race of beings that speaks only in metaphor. On the
view screen of the Enterprise bridge, the captain of the Tamarian vessel (Paul
Winfield) utters:
Rye and Gyri at Lunga

Rye of Luwade
Luwade under two moons
Gyri of Umbaya
Umbaya of crossroads at Lunga
Lunga, her sky gray.377
The Enterprise crew frowns in puzzlement. At the conference lounge of the

Enterprise, the following exchange takes place between Commander William T.
Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Dr. Beverly
Crusher (Gates McFadden), and Lieutenant-Commander Data (Brent Spiner):
Data: They [the Tamarians] seem to communicate through narrative

imagery, a reference to the individuals and places which appear in
376
Ibid.
377
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Darmok.”
their mytho-historical accounts.
Troi: It’s as if I were to say to you, “Juliet on her balcony.”
Crusher: An image of romance.
Troi: Exactly. Imagery is everything to the Tamarians. It embodies their

emotional states, their very thought processes. It’s how they
communicate, and it’s how they think.
Riker: If we know how they think, shouldn’t we be able to get something

across to them?
Data: No, sir. The situation is analogous to understanding the grammar

of a language but none of the vocabulary.
Crusher: If I didn’t know who Juliet was or what she was doing on that
balcony, the image alone wouldn’t have any meaning.
Troi: That’s correct. For instance, we know that Darmok was a great hero,
a hunter, and that Tanagra was an island. But that’s it. Without the
details, there’s no understanding.
Data: It is necessary for us to learn the narrative from which the

Tamarians draw their imagery [emphasis mine].378
378
Ibid.
More often than not, our Spirits/souls draft narratives—before human

birth—that are humanly illogical. The human irrationality of much of our lives is
because the narratives originate in a nonphysical realm. In the Next Generation
episode “Rightful Heir,” for instance, the Klingon monk Koroth (Alan
Oppenheimer) tells the Klingon Lieutenant Worf (Michael Dorn), “You came to
us seeking answers. But this [planet Boreth] is a place of questions [emphasis
mine].”379 This is why incomprehensible events happen in the world. Children
are abused physically, sexually, and emotionally. Wives get beat up. Civilians
are killed in time of war. Bad things happen to good people. All of this is like
the gibberish that we often dream about at night. We may be sucking on the
stick shift of a car and drinking milk from it. We may jump up from a roof and
land on the moon. We may be swimming across an ocean, only to learn it is
pudding. The unconscious works like this. So do life events. The inability of
our brains to comprehend what lies beyond human logic angers us. For instance,
in The Nun’s Story (1959), Mother Christophe (Beatrice Straight) tells Sister Luke
(Audrey Hepburn):
As you see, your father asks an angry question. Why should you waste all
these months of your time here [in an insane asylum in Belgium] after
strenuous courses in tropical medicine [for the Congo]?
The father (Dean Jagger) of Sister Luke sees the human irrationality of the
convent keeping a trained nurse, his daughter, away from the sister colonies in
Africa. Mother Christophe, however, sees the spiritual logic, for as she tells
Sister Luke one day in a garden outside the asylum:
379
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Rightful Heir.”
Your father is a very great man. But I don’t think he understands that the
colonies are only for sisters perfected in the religious life. He asks what
could you possibly learn in this place.
Only by learning the heavenly symbolism of one’s earthly narrative can one
make sense of the humanly unintelligible. Also, important is to remember that
symbols are often concrete. An example is a red sedan. But their symbolism is
not, for that is the message.
In a novel, everything must make sense. Every dot must connect. A must
lead to B, which must lead to C. This is what keeps readers interested. They can
figure things out as they read. Even an insignificant detail like a can of soda on a
glass coffee table is in a novel, TV show, or movie for a reason. Everything adds
up in a humanly logical way. “Real life,” on the contrary, is random, chaotic,
and illogical. This is because “the real world” requires a different set of eyes.
Why? Because in the words of Caroline Myss, divine logic is humanly
irrational.380 This is why prayers “don’t get answered” oftentimes and why God
often “doesn’t understand” us. We must “learn the narrative” from which
spiritual logic arises.381 Then, we can get the subtle messages of earthly life.
Then can our lives take some meaning.
We ourselves often speak in riddles—much like the Tamarians of the
episode “Darmok.” For instance, a lad might say, “I’m a pig at the dinner table.”
What the boy means is that he devours food sloppily. A woman may say,
“You’ve burned all your bridges.”382 What she means is that one has alienated all
of one’s friends. A man might say, “The refrigerator is humming,” as if the
fridge were alive. What he means is that the motor is on. When someone talks in
380
Caroline Myss has said this on several of her lectures.
381
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Darmok.”
382
In the movie An Unexpected Family (TV; 1996), Barbara Whitney (Stockard Channing) accuses Ruth
Whitney (Christine Ebersole) of having burned her bridges.
imagery, we seldom get stuck in it. Instead, we quickly get to the message
behind the imagery. Why can’t we do this with the events of human life?
Forgiveness, for one thing, would be easier if we did.
When we read a novel, we look for the symbolism of the setting,
characters, objects, and events in it. A sunset may represent the end of
something and sunrise a beginning. In “Rightful Heir,” for example, Worf tells
Koroth:
When Kahless had united our people and gave them the laws of honor, he
saw that his work was done. So one night, he gathered his belongings and
departed for the edge of the city to say goodbye.383
If you notice, Kahless didn’t depart during the day. Worf continues:
Then, Kahless said, “You are Klingons. You need no one but yourselves. I
will go now to Stovocore [the afterlife]. But I promise one day I will
return.” Then, Kahless pointed to a star in the sky and said, “Look for me
there, on that point of light.”384
More symbolism.
When I was living in New Hampshire, a collegian asked me out to a
movie. I was euphoric, as no guy had ever invited me out. I didn’t know the
guy’s sexual and romantic proclivities. But this didn’t matter. He asked me out,
and that was enough for me. The possibility of us deepening our gym
acquaintanceship made me very happy. Had I observed my surroundings, I
would have seen their symbolism as a warning. This would have helped me to
383
384
Ibid.
prepare for what ensued. In southern New Hampshire, autumn foliage is at its
most colorful in mid-October. The young man invited me to the movies at
precisely that time of year. The beauty of the road by my apartment was
something from heaven—leaves golden-yellow, burnt-orange, deep-red, and
even violet. The leaves were everywhere—drooping from the branch-topped
street like confetti, resting over the landscape, and blowing here and there. For
all their splendor, however, autumn leaves are near the end of their cycle.
Winter is around the corner. At the time, I missed this message. The hunk took
me to see the Chinese film Hero (2004). In that movie, colors dominate—blood-
red, sky-blue, cloud-white, chlorophyll-green, and black. In one scene, leaves fall
around feuding warriors. In another scene, hundreds of arrows fall on three
combatants—and dive as well onto a field—in the ancient Kingdom of Zhao.
Arrows start to break through the ceiling of the hut where a warrior is hiding.
Once again, I missed the message.
A week later, the guy stopped answering my emails. He didn’t return my
telephone calls. It would have been easier for me had he explained his behavior.
But the fellow dumped me without explanation. When I finally reached him, he
was reticent over the telephone. I told him the truth about my Asperger’s and
that people with this syndrome often give confusing body language. But I
stressed that whatever I might have done was not intentional. He uhed at me.
Given his reluctance to talk, I didn’t press him for an explanation of why he had
ignored my attempts to contact him. But my heart broke bad. After he ditched
me, my checking account went from about $1,500 to $750, to $500, to $250, to $75,
to $15. This war of attrition against my savings had begun with my move to
New Hampshire a year earlier. I gained weight around my abdomen. This
happened despite my exercising three days a week and despite my eating low-fat
foods. Around Thanksgiving, I got kidney stones.385 In early December, I

learned that my blood pressure pills were not working. My blood pressure rose
to 173/113. My heart started to ache—literally. I had no health insurance
because nobody would hire me for a job—let alone, one that offered health
coverage. In mid-December, I went to the dentist for a routine dental cleaning.
The student dentist at the community college showed me white spots on the back
of my throat. She didn’t know what they were. I just about panicked. Never
had I had health problems of any kind, as I was only 30. Not till a few weeks
later did I learn that the white things were canker sores.386 In mid-January, I
interviewed for a library position that required a bilingual candidate
(English/Spanish). I was positive that, at last, I would land a job that would
allow me to remain in New Hampshire, one of my dream states. After all, I met
all of the job qualifications. I was willing to drive the 45 minutes each way to
and from the town in Massachusetts. The day of my interview, I encountered
bumper-to-bumper traffic from Londonderry, New Hampshire all the way to the
Massachusetts border. This is about 15 miles. I phoned my interviewers,
explained the situation, and eventually, got to the interview. I was still positive
that I had gotten the job, as I have a master’s degree, some library experience,
and knowledge of English and Spanish. In late January, I got that letter which I
had received a hundred times:
Thank you for applying with us, but the position for which you
interviewed has been offered to another candidate. Please keep
checking our website for new openings.
385
One type of medication for my high blood pressure might have been the cause—or a cofactor—for the
pill was meant to remove excess water from my kidneys. This, the doctor told me, would help to lower my
high blood pressure.
386
Louise Hay, the renowned author, lists the meaning of canker sores in the back of her book, You Can
Heal Your Life. According to Hay, canker sores mean, “Festering words held back by the lips. Blame,” p.
159.
I contemplated more options but had no one to turn to. Employment agencies
had not heard about Asperger Syndrome—and most still haven’t. An elderly
woman who headed a social services agency told me that I was “immature” and
“possibly, afraid of success.” The Asperger’s Association of New England
replied to my emails. But underfunded and relying on volunteers, the
organization couldn’t help me in any way, other than letting me speak at one of
their meetings. The people whom I met in New Hampshire were, in their words,
“too busy” to lend me an ear whenever I phoned them. I had volunteered for a
Latino festival that involved months of planning. During the Christmas holidays
of 2004, I invited two members of the planning committee to my apartment. I
also reached out to others. As usual, people were too occupied with their jobs
and families. The events of October 2004 to June 2005 were—literally—hundreds
of arrows raining on me. Had I read the symbolism of the autumn leaves outside
my apartment and of the arrows in Hero, I might have been better prepared for
the dark night of the soul that followed for me. It was a rite of initiation, my
banishment from the tribe. For me, the message was:
For inner peace, learn to separate the body and the world from the mind,
especially in times of crisis.
This lesson saved both my sanity and my “life.” Had I listened to the words of
my mother’s song “Everything Is Alright,” I would not have panicked.387
Mentioned in Part I, Chapter 9 (section titled, “The Five Ws and the H”),
everything in this universe is a story. Even a mug has a story to it. Perhaps, this
is why Jesus taught Truth through parables. In Spanish, parable is parábola,
387
Ramona Monique, “Everything Is Alright.” This song is in the CD titled, Heart Songs. The CD came
out on February 3, 2003. Label: Mirror Image Studios.
which in mathematics means a moving point (physical life?) that creates a

geometric cone adjacent to a parallel plane (Truth?). A parabola is a bowl that
reflects something. See image below:
A parable is the story form of analogy. This kind of tale is a metaphor.

Metaphor, however, is not simile (e.g., my car flies like the wind). Rather, a
metaphor is something transferred onto something else (e.g., my car is the wind).
Parables are metaphors of what someone sees, hears, touches, tastes, and smells.
Parables appeal to our human senses. By contrast, the Truth behind the parables
appeal to our minds and hearts. When a parable is acknowledged for what it is,
most of us are inclined to consciously look for the moral of the story.
The majority of us, however, don’t see our lives as parables. We are
simply hypnotized by the drama. Drama, to be sure, is not all negative, for
drama comes in a continuum (shown below).
Uplifting drama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Crushing drama

Still, as a fiction writer, I can identify with becoming utterly engrossed with the
story. I don’t want to leave it. I want it to be real, not an illusionary conduit of
truths and Truth. I want my characters to truly exist as the characters. I want
imaginary lovers to be lovers, not mere parabolas (reflections) of something else.
I want my story scenarios to replay—over and over and over. In short, I want to
keep my playthings!
The consequence of such obsession, though, is what we have now on the
planet. Joseph Campbell explains:
The real horror today is what you see in Beirut, where you have the three
great Western religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—and because
the three of them have three different names for the same biblical God,
they can’t get on together. They’re stuck with their metaphor and don’t
realize its reference [emphases mine].388
Reference is the message, always concealed like Morse code. Reference is what
lies behind the following truths:
1) I am a singer
2) I am a mother
3) I am a Christian
4) I am an African American
5) I am a child
6) I am an adult
388
Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, “The Message of the Myth.”
Reference is the universal Truth—as in love thy neighbor as thyself—beyond the

truths with small ts (see list above). Reference is the content behind the façades
that we experience through the so-called five senses. The message is the invisible
Truth. The metaphor of the message is the visible, the hearable, the touchable,
the tasteable, and the smellable. Parables bring color to dry Truth. The tale can
also be called the matrix. In the words of Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) from
the movie The Matrix (1999), the matrix is “… the world that has been pulled
over your eyes to blind you from the truth.” The parable, metaphor, drama,
story, and matrix is a journey toward an end. The tale is the example. The Truth
behind the example is the general idea.
The March 1991 beating of Rodney King is—literally—a horror story. But
what is the symbolism of this narrative? What message lies behind it? First, the
clubbing didn’t occur in the American South. Rather, it happened in racially
diverse Southern California (Los Angeles). This is significant for reasons we
shall see below. Second, California is said to have entered the Union as a free
state in 1850. This is what history textbooks teach. But as Quintard Taylor, Jr., a
history professor, said in an auditorium at the University of Washington, slaves
existed in California before and after 1850. Chattel slavery, of course, became
illegal in California in 1850. But when the gold rush of 1848 hit, Southern
planters brought their slaves to California so that the slaves would mine gold for
them. Most planters and slaves who wagoned to California never returned to the
Old South. According to Professor Taylor, the California of the 1850s had whites,
free blacks, planters, slaves, and abolitionists living side by side—a situation
unheard of in the East. Chattel slavery, Taylor said, was not just a “Southern”
phenomenon. The bulk of it was in the South, to be sure. And even in the South,
over two-thirds of white Southerners never owned slaves—though they aspired
to. This was the class of yeoman farmers, the backcountry rednecks (“dirt
eaters”) who lived in the Appalachian Mountains.389 Still, chattel slavery was a
national institution.390 As late as 1861, even “free states” like New Jersey and
“free territories” like the Pacific Northwest had masters and slaves in them.391
Looked at symbolically, the Rodney King tale is the replaying of the antebellum
master-slave relationship. Those playing masters (of darkness) and slaves are
playing archetypal roles. The message of the Rodney King story is that, in
America, plantation slavery was abolished in 1865. But the master-slave
mentality and its archetypes are still alive in many parts of the United States.
King, of course, refused to obey police orders to stay down. Nonetheless, slave
rebellion is another facet of the master-slave relationship.
Another example of the continuation of slavery is what I witnessed at a
dealership. The year was 2008. The sales manager, a Caucasian man in his 40s,
was talking to his assistant, an African American man in his 20s. Both men were
standing by a car that was on display, facing each other. Maybe it was the
manner in which the Caucasian man addressed the African American man—
subtle, yet stern. The exact energies that I “saw” coming from them are
impossible to put into words. But my human eyes transformed to spiritual eyes.
Suddenly, I said to myself: The master is addressing his slave. Even more
shocking was that this occurred in Alaska, a state that wasn’t even part of the
United States at the time of chattel slavery. If Alaska carries the archetype of
plantation slavery to this day, then the rest of the U.S. must as well.
389
Refer to the cassette The History of the United States, Part V: The Making of Modern America, “The
Making of a Racial Policy,” Lecture 42.
390
Quintard Taylor, Jr. gave his lecture at the University of Washington. The lecture was Part 1 of a five-
part series called, History Lectures, The African American West, 1528 to 2000. Part 1 was titled,
“Antebellum Slavery and Freedom, 1528-1865: The Paradox of Race and Liberty in the West.” It was
recorded on January 17, 2006 and was broadcast on University of Washington Television (UWTV) on
October 20, 2006.
391
The New Jersey example comes from a lecture that James Shenton, professor of American history, gave
at Columbia University. Refer to the cassette The History of the United States, Part V: The Making of
Modern America, “The Making of a Racial Policy,” Lecture 42.
Another day, this time in Gainesville, Florida, I spotted an African

American lady. She was heavy and was in a janitor’s uniform. The short woman
seemed to be taking a break from work. Suddenly, my head echoed 1860. The
lady continued to stand there, but my spiritual eyes saw her in that era.
Even the language of chattel slavery is still alive. This is despite the
political correctness of the post-civil rights era. On November 4, 2008, for
example, Ralph Nader said:
To put it very simply, he [Barack Obama] is our first African American

president; or he will be. And we wish him well. But his choice, basically,
is whether he’s going to be Uncle Sam for the people of this country, or
Uncle Tom for the giant corporations.392
There is another example of the language of slavery still being with us. Like
Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama was a senator from Illinois. None of this is
coincidence.
Yet another facet of the master-slave archetype is that African Americans
—including pregnant black women—continue to be pulled off America’s streets
for no human reason. Caucasian cops often point guns at their heads. Cop
harassment and clubbings of blacks is a national occurrence. Like a parabola,
this reflects that chattel slavery was a national institution, existing even in Los
Angeles, and that the ghosts of slavery are still with us.
Cop harassment of African Americans reflects another reality: racial
segregation. After the (Un)Civil War, the South legalized the separation of
Caucasians from African Americans. But like chattel slavery, racial segregation
392
This quote aired on Fox News on November 4, 2008. The news segment can be found on YouTube,
WorldAccessMedia, “Ralph Nader Calls President Elect Obama Uncle Tom.” The URL is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IshiClQqCM.
was not simply a Southern phenomenon. Watts, a suburb of Los Angeles in

1940, had racially restrictive covenants then, for example. According to Quintard
Taylor, Jr., a third of Watts was Caucasian in 1940; a third was Latino; and a third
was African American. That atypically diverse city, now part of Los Angeles,
was seen in the 1940s as “the model of the future.” Still, African Americans were
prohibited then from buying homes in the Anglo sections of Watts.393 Today,
racially diverse cities like New York and Los Angeles are among the most
heavily segregated cities in the world. West Hollywood vs. South Central Los
Angeles is a classic tale of two cities. These sections of LA are not only separate
but also unequal in terms of wealth vs. poverty, cleanliness vs. filth, and peaceful
neighborhoods vs. dangerous streets. A major reason why Caucasians tend to
see civil rights as having been solved in the 1960s is because most Caucasians
live in small towns and suburbs. By contrast, most racial and ethnic minorities
live in the inner cities. As the Spanish saying goes, “Ojo qué no vé, corazón qué
no siente” (“eye that doesn’t see, heart that doesn’t feel”). Much of the African
American experience, although not all of it, lies outside the line of sight of most
European Americans. This is why Caucasian Americans are increasingly
viewing affirmative action as irrelevant to the 21st century. Demographic
changes in America, of course, are quickly making it impossible for ethnic
Europeans to self-segregate. The Rodney King story personifies all of the above.
It reflects the truth that, at some level, plantation slavery refuses to die. This may
sound like lunacy. But at 12.4 percent of the U.S. population, African Americans
are 0 percent of senators and 9.4 percent of representatives.394 Conversely, 40
393
See Taylor, Part 3, History Lectures, The African American West, 1528 to 2000. “The Urban Frontier,
1875-1940, African Americans in Cities.” This lecture segment was recorded on January 31, 2006 and was
broadcast on University of Washington Television (UWTV) on December 8, 2006.
394
See Nancy Frazier O’Brien, “At 29 Percent of 109th Congress, Catholics Remain Largest Faith Group,”
Catholic News Service, November 11, 2004. At
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0406217.htm. Then, see Greg Giroux and Kimberly
Hallock, “Democratic-Led 110th Congress is Old Boys’ Club With a Twist, as Women, Blacks Gain Clout,”
The New York Times, February 26, 2007. At
percent of African American men haven’t been hired into mainstream jobs—ever
—and African Americans make up 44 percent of prisoners.395 What is the moral
of this tale? Is it possible that an archetype like slave, personified in someone,
could tempt one to act like a fellow slave? Or like a slave master? What lessons
about temptation can we learn from this possibility?
Many pundits argue that the election of Barack Obama to the presidency
shows that America is now a post-racial society. But again, 0 percent of senators
and only 9.4 percent of representatives are African American.396 Similar to the
pundits, most Americans see as progress that Obama is America’s first “black”
president. From a sensory perspective, this is progress. But like all U.S.
presidents before him, Obama is indebted to corporate interests—in his case,
some $4 million that his presidential campaign got every 18 hours.397 Also,
President Obama is not 100 percent “black,” although the “one drop of black
blood” rule makes him black in America. Rather, Obama is biracial, born to a
Caucasian mother from Kansas and to a Negroid father from Kenya. Cornel
West, professor at Princeton University, is also biracial, born to a Caucasian
mother and to an African American father. Frederick Douglas was, possibly,
biracial as well, born to a slave mother and to a suspected planter father. Golfer
Tiger Woods, who is seen as “black,” is multi-racial. If you look at American
history from the 19th century to the 21st century, you will notice that many
“black” leaders are mulatto (the Spanish word for people born to “white” and
“black” parents). The rise of mulattos to leadership is what historians of Brazil
http://www.nytimes.com/cq/2007/02/26/cq_2328.html?pagewanted=1.
395
The prison statistic comes from Larry Miller, “Losing a Generation?” The Philadelphia Tribune, Date
unspecified. At http://www.phila-tribune.com/channel/inthenews/090506/behindbarsP1.asp.
396
See O’Brien, “At 29 Percent of 109th Congress, Catholics Remain Largest Faith Group,” Catholic News
Service, November 11, 2004. At http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0406217.htm. Then, see
Giroux and Hallock, “Democratic-Led 110th Congress is Old Boys’ Club With a Twist, as Women, Blacks
Gain Clout,” The New York Times, U.S., February 26, 2007. At
http://www.nytimes.com/cq/2007/02/26/cq_2328.html?pagewanted=1
397
Ralph Nader gave this statistic at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The post-election
conference, titled, Reaction to Election Results aired on C-SPAN on November 4, 2008.
have called “the mulatto escape hatch.” Mulattos in both Latin America and the
United States have a way out of the oppression that the majority of “blacks” are
stuck with. This doesn’t mean that African Americans with no Caucasian blood
can’t get ahead. Instead, it means that mulattos in America have better chances
for upward mobility than African Americans with no European blood. Perhaps,
the Caucasian parents of mulattos are able to instill some “white privilege” into
their biracial children. This, of course, does not apply to all biracial children.
What all this means is that just because Obama is president of America does not
necessarily signify that the archetypes of chattel slavery are dead in a “post-racial
society.”
Native Americans are another group to have been victimized in what
would become the United States. In the film The Shining (1980), Jack Torrance
(Jack Nicholson) is hired to look after the Overlook Hotel. Although high in the
Colorado Rockies, the hotel is in a locale unsuitable for skiing became it was
constructed before that sport became popular. Thus, the summer resort closes
every winter. Torrance brings his wife (Shelley Duvall) and little boy (Danny
Lloyd) to spend the winter with him at the hotel. In his spare time, Torrance,
now caretaker of the place, writes a novel. Most viewers think that The Shining
is, simply, about a husband who goes mad from isolation and tries to kill his
family. But there is a trans-sensory message as well. The symbols are there. But
most viewers have missed them because they are interpreting the movie literally.
As reviewers Flo Leibowitz and Lynn Jeffress wrote in 1981, director Stanley
Kubrick intended for each of his movies to be a means to an end (getting across a
social message). In 1980, many film critics thrashed The Shining for “making no
sense.” As Leibowitz and Jeffress wrote in their review of the flick:
However, given Kubrick’s propensity to use genres merely as vehicles

(2001, Barry Lyndon), one suspects that the “failings” in The Shining are
related to Kubrick’s interest in deliberately redirecting the audience’s
attention elsewhere [emphasis mine]. What are Kubrick and screenwriter
Diane Johnson up to here?398
Leibowitz and Jeffress proceeded:
The Indian motifs cannot be merely accidental, there are just too many of
them: Wendy’s Indian jacket, moccasin-like boots, beaded belt and braids;
the rugs and wall hangings; Wendy stalking through the hotel, knife in
hand; Danny, like an Indian scout, retracing his steps in the maze; the
periodic drum and rattle music—stereotypes to be sure, but for just this
reason, easily accessible. Less obvious, perhaps, is the image of Jack at
work in the cavernous lobby, backed by an American flag but surrounded
on three sides by Indian designs.399
On the surface, the Overlook Hotel—more symbolism—is an ostentation of space

and extravagance. But beneath the sensory illusion lies a history of caretakers
murdering their families. The Shining is replete with symbols of America’s
gruesome past and its effects upon our collective psyche and behavior. As
Leibowitz and Jeffress wrote in Film Quarterly:
One of its most interesting aspects [of shining as a “survival skill” of the
oppressed] is the community formed by those who either shine or are
aided by those who do—the only genuine community in the film, one
made up of women, children, and blacks, three of America’s traditional
398
Flo Leibowitz and Lynn Jeffress, “The Shining,” Film Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 3, Spring 1981, p. 45.
399
Ibid., p. 46.
victims.400
The Overlook represents America, the McMansion of suburbia, the isolation of

all members of the nuclear family from one another—and from neighbors—
America’s isolation from the world, and the delusion of “making it.” Leibowitz
and Jeffress wrote:
The paradox at the heart of the [American] dream is evoked by the

Torrance family ensconced like royalty in the empty Overlook Hotel,
enchanted by the illusion of ownership [emphasis mine] while in fact they
are merely employees, living in the shabbiest corner of the hotel. The
obverse reality of Kubrick’s America is something other than the hotel’s
surface opulence: look again [emphasis mine] and you see peanut butter
and jelly sandwiches on white bread, Apollo sweatshirts, Oreo cookies,
Heinz ketchup, Roadrunner cartoons—the essence of tacky Americana.401
Hence, The Shining shows us the symbolism of things that, on the surface, seem
not to be there. For example, Native Americans are, for the most part, absent
from contemporary America, but relics of them are all around us. What is the
moral of this story? According to Leibowitz and Jeffress:
In 2001 [the 1968 film], Kubrick suggested we could transcend our

dissipation with a new frontier—outer space. With The Shining, thirteen
years later, he is observing that life in America might well destroy us first.
If there are any frontiers left for Kubrick, they do not involve the
expansion of boundaries but the construction of new social relationships
400
Ibid., p. 50.
401
Ibid., p. 46.
within our existing borders [emphases mine].402
How can we go about doing this?

In Power vs. Force, David Hawkins writes, “Force is experienced through
the senses; power can be recognized only through inner awareness.”403
Most Americans are stuck in the metaphor of 911. I remember a young
woman at a grocery store. On September 11, 2001, she voiced amazement at the
symbolism of 911. As we know, 911 is the number that we dial when we need
help. The lady saw this message behind the events of 911. This is going beyond
the story. The First World has yet to see, however, that the Third World needs
assistance. Western media, which corporations own, keeps bombarding non-
Western cultures with Western values. Corporations, which the Twin Towers
symbolized, keep dominating the globe. Since the early 1900s, for example,
agribusiness has injected hormones into cows, chickens, turkeys, and hens to
make them grow fast. This trend began in the West. Not surprisingly, the onset
of puberty in the West has declined from around age 16 (the 1800s) to around age
12 (the present). Still, for decades, agribusiness has been pushing Western ways
of farming and of raising livestock to non-Western farmers. The hunger of the
developing world is used as a justification for this. Now, agribusiness is trying
to get indigenous farmers to stop planting native seeds, which can be saved.
Instead, agribusiness is pushing fee-based, one-time use, genetically engineered
seeds on farmers in the Third World. Agribusiness doesn’t care that adopting
genetically engineered seeds threatens the food supply of billions of people. As
Jeremy Rifkin, the economist, writes in The Age of Access, “When the plant
produces the seed, it won’t germinate because the blocker gene won’t work [on
402
Ibid., p. 51.
403
purpose].”404 The symbolism of 911 (e.g., “Western, corporate, global domination

is killing us”) is there for those of us who are willing to look at the moral of that
story. This is no piece of cake, as it is always easier to look at the moral of
someone else’s story. I am not saying that the events of 911 were justified. But if
we step back from ourselves, we can look at the messages behind our dramas.
Sometimes, we may not like a given message. But, at least, we are in a position
to consciously choose whether or not to accept it—and follow the message
(action) or not.
In “Rightful Heir,” Lieutenant Worf gets upset when he learns that
Kahless (Kevin Conway) is a clone of the Kahless/Jesus that lived in the Klingon
home world 1,500 years ago. Worf undergoes a crisis of faith. He doubts that the
real Kahless will return someday. On the transporter pad of the Enterprise,
Kahless, the clone, tells Worf:
Kahless left us, all of us, a powerful legacy, a way of thinking and acting
that makes us Klingon. If his words hold wisdom and his philosophy is
honorable, what does it matter if he returns? What is important is that we
follow his teachings. Perhaps, the words are more important than the
man [emphases mine].405
Nonphysical Truth is Real. The physical world is a hologram. This is a

very frustrating paradox, for our human selves prefer the illusion. Once we
distinguish Truth (the message) from fiction (the story/characters), however, we
awaken like Neo of The Matrix, without having to open our physical eyes. Then,
it gets easier to move from mere intellectualization of all this to applied
404
405
spirituality. Put another way, don’t get caught in the means (the story). Instead,
go to the ends (the lesson).
The end of Louise Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life is a striking case of the
literal vs. the figurative. Hay, an inspirational author, lists each illness, its
meaning, and an affirmation. Bleeding and heart problems are shown below as
an example:
Bleeding Joy running out. Anger. But where? I am the joy of Life
expressing and
receiving in perfect
rhythm.406
Heart
—Problems Longstanding emotional problems. Joy. Joy. Joy. I
Lack of joy. Hardening of the heart. lovingly allow joy to
Belief in strain and stress. flow through my
mind and body
and experience.407
In Hay’s left column is the metaphor (the illness). In her middle column is the
message (what the illness represents). In her right column is the lesson (the
affirmation). To take things literally is to stay at the level of, say, a heart attack or
a heart operation. To interpret things symbolically is to get to the message of the
illness. Expressed another way, to look at something literally—such as seeing
406
Hay, You Can Heal Your Life, p. 154.
407
Ibid., p. 175.
flames on the 6 o’clock news—is to see it through human eyes. To look at

something symbolically is to see it through spiritual eyes.
Sometimes, we may be looking at something symbolically but interpreting
it literally. I, for example, saw a white Z on the rear window of somebody’s
pickup truck. I thought that the Z was a symbol for the end of that person’s life.
Why? Because I associated the Z with the Z that was painted on the propeller
plane that ended the life of Roberto Clemente. Then, I realized that symbolisms
like the letter Z need not always be taken literally—although sometimes they
can. The Z on the pickup may have represented the end of a nonphysical
(nonliteral) aspect of that person’s life or the end of a nonphysical (nonliteral)
aspect of my life.
In Columbo, Lieutenant Columbo (Peter Falk) solves his cases by being on
the lookout for clues. He expects to find physical evidence and does. Most
people will call “luck” what occurs in one episode. In “An Exercise in Fatality,”
Milo Janus (Robert Conrad) is suspected of murdering his health club business
partner (Philip Bruns). Indeed, Janus strangled Gene Stafford to death at Janus’s
empty gym. Janus pulled Stafford’s brown shoes off, put white sneakers on
Stafford, and placed a barbell on Stafford’s neck to make the overweight man
look like he had died from a workout while exercising alone at the gym. One
way that Columbo learns of the change from shoes to sneakers is by passing a
mother at a hospital. On the main hallway, she “coincidentally” happens to be
tying her son’s sneakers. It is by being alert that Columbo gets an idea: the
possibility that the suspect tied the victim’s sneakers. Tying one’s sneakers,
Columbo learns, creates a specific set of knots, while tying another person’s
sneakers makes another set of knots. The mother brought the entire case
together for Columbo, leading the lieutenant in the khaki trench coat toward the
final piece of evidence that he needed to arrest Janus.408 Like Columbo, we need
to look for hidden messages. If not, we will miss the clues to the larger drama.
Most of us think that we are our relationships, our careers, our
possessions, our past, and our health—or the absence of those things. But what
we have, or don’t have, is not who we are. Rather, they are reflections of who we
are. They are images in the parable. We are merely actors and actresses.
Everyone you meet is, in turn, a representative and messenger of something
beyond their form, personality, and behavior. Julius Caesar, for instance, can be
played by a hive of actors, many times per night, and in different epochs. This
shows that the character is separate from the actor—and even the character is
representing something else. This something else is, among other things, an
archetype. I recommend getting familiar with the many archetypes out there.
The best reference that I know of is the index of Caroline Myss’s Sacred
Contracts. Myss summarizes over 70 archetypes, and she gives examples of
where each archetype can be found—in film, plays, fiction, and religion/myth.409
The archetypes (“architects of our lives”) range from actor to witch.410
Knowing the dictionary definition of an archetype may not be enough,
however, for even the so-called experts on archetypes can miss crucial points.
Regarding the archetype of eternal child, for example, Caroline Myss writes in
her website:
The shadow Eternal Child [emphasis mine] often manifests as an inability

to grow up and embrace the responsible life of an adult. Like Peter Pan,
the Eternal Boy resists ending a cycle of life in which he is free to live
408
Refer to Columbo, “An Exercise in Fatality.” This episode originally aired on NBC on September 15,
409
For the comprehensive list of archetypes, see Caroline Myss, Library, “A Gallery of Archetypes.”
Section at http://www.myss.com/library/contracts/three_archs.asp. Also, see Myss, Sacred Contracts.
410
Myss, Home, “Daily Message,” June 6, 2008. Section at http://www.myss.com.
outside the boundaries of conventional adulthood.411
Neal Tanner (Jim J. Bullock) of the Alf series represents this archetype. In an
episode of Alf, for instance, the twentysomething Neal is unable to perform his
job as repairman of an apartment complex. The apartment manager, a stern-
looking African American woman, enters Neal’s apartment. She (Fran Bennett)
lectures him as follows:
Mrs. Watson: I hired you because I felt sorry for you. But even so, sinks
have to flow. Toilets have to flush. That’s the way the
world works.412
Neal, the irresponsible adult who has to be taught the ways of the world, talks in
a manner that could be interpreted as “slightly gay.” This is no surprise, as a
great many men who are eternal boys identify as gay. What is never mentioned
is that their archetype of eternal child is meant to facilitate their easy descent to a
child’s level. Pee-Wee Herman was popular with children because he was a kid
himself. And in Alf, Neal gets along terrifically with 12-year-old Brian Tanner
(Benji Gregory). To write that eternal children should grow up, as Myss does,
misses that a major spiritual role of eternal children is to be mentors to boys and
girls throughout their human life. If Peter Pans embrace “conventional
adulthood”413 because that is “spiritually mature,” then out goes their ability to
relate to children on a child’s terms. There would be no Robin Williamses in the
world, and children would suffer a huge loss. Living an adult life, of course, is
411
Myss, Library, “The Four Archetypes of Survival.” Section at
http://www.myss.com/library/contracts/four_archs.asp.
412
Alf, “Happy Together.” This episode originally aired on NBC on November 27, 1989 (Season 4, episode
11).
413
Myss, Library, “The Four Archetypes of Survival.”
important, for that is how men teach boys—and girls—about manhood. But to
exclusively adopt the rules and responsibilities of the adult world is to
internalize the idea, widely popular albeit unstated in postmodern society, that
adults are superior to children. This is the dominant stance in a world where
minors are second-class citizens. Right now, there are practically no men who
mentor children—not even gay man-boys. Why not? Because the child-sex
panic of the post-1980 era has made men reluctant to get near children. This
distance is understandable. But it is a tragic loss! Incidentally, Peter Pan was
created by J. M. Barrie, a Scottish novelist and dramatist who could qualify as an
eternal boy himself. Yet, this “inability to grow up” is regarded as a “shadow”
aspect of the eternal child archetype, even though the very eternalness of the
child in the adult leads to creations like Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland.414
The bottom line is that even people with spiritual eyes can misunderstand the
“light” and “shadow” elements of an archetype like eternal child. Why?
Because what is considered “positive” and “negative” is subjective. For example,
a boy being mentored by an eternal man-boy will view the man’s playfulness as
positive, while an uninvolved woman will see the man’s inability to be an adult
as negative. Therefore, knowing the dictionary definition of an archetype—such
as what the “light” and “shadow” of the eternal child is—may not be a panacea.
It is, of course, better than taking someone’s behavior literally. But only life
experience, from the insider’s view, can teach one the true meaning of an
archetype, whatever the type.
Archetypes aside, human life is nothing more than a series of sensory
experiences (e.g., munching a mouth-watering meal) or the denial of them (e.g.,
sexual rejections from desired people). Human life is also our mental and
emotional reactions—or creations, if we are more spiritually evolved—to the
414
Ibid.
physical stimuli. Put differently, each human life is a state of consciousness.

This dream is our Higher Selves trying to tell us something about ourselves,
about others, and about Truth. The fantasy is captivating, however. Why? First,
our involvement in a story makes it easy for us to take things literally, as in
personally. Second, the tale—as in Rodney King getting beat on the street—
affects our feelings and often shocks us speechless. Powerful stories, whether of
love or conflict, are the hardest to let go of because they generate the strongest
emotions in us.
From a human perspective, life on earth is more tragic than not. From a
cosmic (or should I say comic?) perspective, life on earth is a divine comedy. The
three stooges, for example, poke each other with scissors, fall off buildings, get
crushed by pianos, and hammer the heads of each other. To see—let alone,
experience—this is gruelingly painful and savage. Still, it is funny to viewers
who get the joke and to the actors who played the three stooges. Planet Earth is a
realm where everyone gets hurt—much as everybody gets hurt in The Three
Stooges. Other worlds have different “rules of the game.” Life is just easier
there. Inhabitants of such realms are playing not “slapstick” but instead,
romantic comedy or science fiction. Each world is a different genre of script.
Some worlds are those of Beauty and the Beast (cartoons). Other worlds are
those of Leave It to Beaver (black-and-white). Yet other worlds are those of
Columbo (in full color). This world (the vale of tears) is that of The Three
Stooges. Human babies enter this world wailing, not laughing, because this is a
realm of unimaginable pain. The spirits of babies are not used to this because
they come from another plane of existence, a plane of Love. Hence, babies cry a
lot. Still, this vale of tears is but a means to make us grow. Similarly, the antics
of The Three Stooges is but a means to make us laugh—those of us who “get”
slapstick. This universe is truly diverse.
In Journey of Souls, Michael Newton, founder of The Newton Institute,

writes, “A number of my more advanced subjects have stated there is a growing
movement in the spirit world to ‘change the game rules on Earth.’ ”415 Later in
the paragraph, Newton continues:
I am told large numbers of souls who have had more frequent

incarnations in recent centuries on Earth are opting, when they get the
chance, for less stressful worlds.416
These Spirits and their soul groups want to “lighten up.”

That most of us see life on earth as tragic means that we have yet to get
the punch line. In many episodes of Perfect Strangers, for example, Larry
Appleton (Mark Linn-Baker) gets enraged at the shenanigans of Balki
Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot). From Larry’s point of view, his life is serious.
From Balki’s—and from the audience’s—point of view, Larry’s life is funny. To
see things from a human perspective is to see things from Larry’s perspective.
To see things from a divine perspective is to see things from the audience’s
perspective. God allows evil and Evil because S(He) is less a participant and
more an observer. To see things symbolically is to rise from being a participant
to being an observer. One goes from doing (being enmeshed in the drama) to
awareness (rising above the storm).
The punch line—not funny from where I stand—is that all sensory
experiences are ultimately unsatisfying. Even things that one finds sensual
heaven—mind-blowing sex, meals cooked by master chefs, and living in a
beautiful state like New Hampshire—stop being satisfying after a certain point.
Then, emptiness, sadness, and bitterness set in. The typical human being then
415
Newton, Journey of Souls, p. 276.
416
Ibid.
seeks other forms of sensory gratification, and again, the cycle runs its course.
Lifetime after lifetime—actually, death time after death time—there is a
progressive disillusionment with sensory experiences, until like spiritual
masters, one realizes experientially that nothing of this world truly satisfies. One
may experience fleeting moments of this realization. Years later or “lifetimes”
later, the feeling may return, leave, and come back—until the feeling is
permanent in oneself. The process is like sinking into a depression that won’t
allow one to enjoy “the good life.” At this point, becoming an ascetic is easy, for
one is only interested in seeking Lasting Joy in God. Getting to this nirvana can
take a million years, however, according to Paramhansa Yogananda.417 This
process of spiritual evolution may be the ultimate meaning (symbolism) of all
sensory experiences.
Conflicting Messages
Sometimes, we may get contradictory messages. For example, Americans

unceasingly remind me that I have a “Spanish accent.” When I am alone, I do
not feel Hispanic. I feel like any ordinary human being. The moment I
interacted with a woman from Seattle, however, she asked me, “Do you speak
Spanish? I can tell from your accent.” What made this most insulting was that
the lady specialized in Asperger Syndrome. Or so, she claimed. Yet, the woman
couldn’t pick up my Asperger way of pronouncing. If a “specialist” in
Asperger’s mistakes my Asperger accent for a “Spanish” accent, then imagine
the flack that I get from Americans who’ve never even heard of Asperger
Syndrome. These Americans ask me, “What country are you from?” This is one
417
See Yogananda, “The Science of Kriya Yoga,” Autobiography of a Yogi, pgs. 242-252.
of the most hostile questions that one person can ask another, for “Where are you
from?” means “You are an outsider here.”
One day, I replied, “I am a New Yorker,” as I was born and partly raised
in New York City.
The young man who asked me about my “country” of origin said, “No
way you’re a New Yorker. You don’t sound like one.” What he meant is that I
don’t sound like a stereotypical New Yorker. Evidently, he hadn’t heard New
Yoricans speak in a “foreign” way.
On the other hand, Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury under
George Washington, is considered a New Yorker, even though he was born on
Nevis, an island to the east of Puerto Rico, and partly raised on Saint Croix. This
is the double standard that New Yoricans like me are subjected to.
Obviously, Americans have not been tempted to feel like they don’t
belong when interacting with other Americans—those from different regions of
the United States. I have yet to see an American ask another American, “Are you
a Southerner?” Or “Are you a Westerner?” Or “Are you a Yankee?” The one
group of Americans that hasn’t fit into the all-American ideal—that is,
Southerners—is the group that is spoken about as having an “accent.” No one,
by comparison, talks about “those Yankees with a Northern accent”—although
Brooklyn may be an exception. This reflects that only outsiders have “accents,”
while insiders do not. Why, I ask myself, do Americans feel the need to rub in
my face that I am not American? Even when I tell these Americans that I was
born and raised in the U.S. mainland (except for six-and-a-half years in Puerto
Rico, a U.S. Commonwealth), they don’t buy that I am American by birth. Not
only that. They have to let me know. The contradictory message is what I saw
on PBS the other day. The message was the title of a PBS special called, “This
Land Is Your Land.” I did not believe my eyes. The first time, I saw the aqua
letters against the orange-and-pink TV screen in Florida. The second time, I saw
this title on TV in Washington state.418 Less than a year later, I saw an antiwar
rally on C-SPAN. One protester waved a sign. Guess what it said. “This land is
your land.”419 Talk about divine guidance. I asked myself, if this is God telling
me that America is my country, then why does S(He) send me fellow Americans
to remind me—actually, to hit me over the head with the message—that I am a
foreigner? Because I have yet to translate what is humanly illogical to what is
divinely rational, I don’t understand this contradiction. Perhaps, I will
comprehend this message one day.
Another example of conflicting messages is that, for some three months, I
started to notice the initials “TM” by logos. From a sensory perspective, TM
means “trademark.” From a trans-sensory perspective, TM meant for me,
“Transcendental Meditation.” The heavens, it seemed, were guiding me to look
into TM. When, at last, I drove to an introductory class of TM, I got signs along
the road that something bad would happen. One such sign was a W on the car in
front of mine. In the movie Cat’s Eye (1985), this is the letter that Johnny Norris
(Robert Hays) gets stuck in while being forced to go around a ledge some 30
floors up. Norris nearly falls to his death that night. The W that I saw on the car
stood for “Warning.” How do I know? This was the first insight that I got—
before my rational brain could kick in to question it. Another sign that I got was
“Fargo” written on a building. Spelled backwards, “Fargo” reads “Go Far.” One
of the streets then read, “Cope Street,” suggesting an adapting to something
difficult. I couldn’t believe my eyes, yet kept driving toward the class. Soon, a
police car almost ran me over. It came out of nowhere! Finally, I turned around.
418
“This Land Is Your Land: The Folk Years” originally aired on PBS in 2002. The American Soundtrack
episode re-aired on PBS in August 2006 and in February 2007.
419
This slogan referred to Iraq, meaning that Iraq should be left to the Iraqis, instead of being occupied by
the U.S. The antiwar rally was titled, “Impeach for Peace,” and it took place on January 27-29, 2007
outside of the Pentagon. On January 27, 2007, the rally aired on C-SPAN under the title, DC Anti-War
Rally.
Why, I wondered, did God deluge me with TM signs by logos, then tell
me not to attend the TM class? I concluded that the negative messages that I got
that day was God telling me that this particular class was not the one for me.
Perhaps, this was because negative forces had been unleashed that day—
September 11 coincidentally. Therefore, I searched for another TM class.
What if “divine guidance” tells us to do—rather than flee from—
something negative? This is a hint that un-Godly forces like the human ego are
playing with your mind. In my view, these “clues” are best rejected. Always ask
yourself: Am I being guided to be and do in line with higher consciousness or
lower consciousness? The answer will reveal the source of the guidance.
In short, just because divine guidance is negative (e.g., leave or perish)
doesn’t mean that “Satan” is behind it. You may just need to hear a warning
that, though scary, could save your life. On the other hand, be wary of messages
that tell you, for example, to harm someone. Messages like these are, for sure,
from the human ego, not from God.
The next chapter discusses the culmination of trans-sensory
transformation for the individual. That end is the Omega Point.
Exercises
1) Think about humanly insignificant relationships, one-time encounters,

fleeting events, or things off the radar that have had a long-term impact on
your life. Can you understand the reason for the paradox—the humanly
insignificant being spiritually significant?
2) List a circumstance, personal relationship, or setup—preferably one that

is emotionally upsetting for you—that is humanly illogical. Can you discover
the spiritual logic behind it? Write your insights or speak them into a tape
recorder.
3) What people, places, events, or circumstances have you taken literally,

as in personally? How could you interpret them symbolically, as in
metaphorically or archetypally?
16
Learning: A Trans-sensory Experience
Moving Forward
Haven’t you noticed how, oftentimes, people go back to their old ways? I,
for instance, have a cousin who talks about “the need to be positive.” When
someone is negative, the woman gets mad because the other person isn’t being
positive. That the contradiction hasn’t hit her tells me that she has not learned
this lesson 100 percent. My cousin may have internalized the idea—and may
have begun to internalize the practice—of being positive. But even if she has
learned this lesson 80 percent, my cousin will regress to being negative whenever
someone turns negative. When a lesson is learned 100 percent, there is no
turning back. One then knows that returning to one’s pre-lesson self is like
trying to return to an addiction. Nothing good can come out of this.
This chapter delves into the circular process of trans-sensory growth (e.g.,
three steps forward and two steps back) and the end of that process. That end is
the Omega Point.
Don’t Dare to Go Back
When a lesson is learned 80 percent, the heavens excuse us. When one has
learned a lesson through and through, however, one knows that any return to
the old way has consequences more grave than when one was in the dark about
the lesson.
The first tale of the movie Cat’s Eye (1985) hits my head like a throw
pillow. In that story, Richard “Dick” Morrison (James Woods) signs up with a
clinic to quit smoking. The director of Quitters, Inc. assures Morrison that the
clinic has 100 percent success with 100 percent of its clients. If Morrison is
serious about wanting to stop his addiction to cigarettes, Dr. Vinnie Donatti
(Alan King) tells him, then the clinic guarantees Morrison success. About a third
into the story, Morrison hankers for a cigarette. He has a vague awareness—and
later, not so vague—that Quitters, Inc. is watching him. Morrison gets that gut
feeling in his car during the day, at his house at night, and even at the
playground of his daughter’s school. Intellectually, Morrison knows that the
penalties for puffing are too horrible to imagine. After all, the director told him
that the clinic tortures clients who break the no-smoking rule—and their families.
Morrison, however, hasn’t learned the lesson experientially. When Morrison
takes a whiff, he experiences the consequences, along with his wife (Mary
D’Arcy). Once Morrison does, he really knows about cause-effect in relation to
smoking. Never again does he take a puff.
Arguably, the gods are not cruel. Still, as Gary Zukav and Linda Francis
write in The Mind of the Soul, “out-tentions” (goals like skating that belong to
the outside world of what), “in-tentions” (why one has those goals in one’s
inside world, such as to impress), and actions bring effects.420 In a sense, God is
looking over us. One Christmas carol describes this process brilliantly. That
carol is “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” As one of the verses goes:
He sees you when you’re sleeping

He knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!421
420
Zukav and Francis, The Mind of the Soul, pgs. 40-44.
421
The Reverend Peter J. Gomes mentions the 17th century version of this Christmas carol. Reverend
Gomes preaches at Harvard University. See Out of the Past, “Secrets.” This documentary originally aired
on PBS in 1998.
Each of us is under a cosmic microscope, and none of us can ever leave the slide.
This is because, left to our own devices, who knows where we would end up?
End up could well mean end down, way down. Every deed of ours—no matter
how minute—gets recorded in the celestial database. For the person who wants
sensory thrills but has a conscience, this can become agony. Why? Because as
the narrator (Burgess Meredith) puts it in the film The Reivers (1969):
… the rewards of virtue are cold and odorless and tasteless, and
not to be compared to the bright and exciting pleasures of sin and
wrongdoing.
Cause-effect happens whether or not we are aware about the law of

causation. When we know about cause-effect, however, the results are double-
intense. This is positive if our “out-tensions,” “in-tentions,” thoughts, and
actions are in line with higher truth. This is negative if our “out-tensions,” “in-
tentions,” thoughts, and actions are not.422 That is the danger of spiritual
evolution. Once you commit, there is no turning back. You don’t dare to, for not
only are you aware about the law of cause/effect. You are also aware about the
benefits of being and doing according to higher truth.
Books like Power vs. Force assert that the ends don’t justify the means.423
For better or worse, the ends do justify the means in the spirit realm. Our trials
and tribulations are the means. This is the curriculum that A Course in Miracles
mentions in the introduction. The ends is spiritual growth. While humans seek
comfort, security, and happy circumstances, the spirit world doesn’t care about
such things—unless they promote some spiritual agenda. All that matters to the
Spirit/soul is spiritual growth, much as economic growth is all that matters in a
422
Zukav and Francis, The Mind of the Soul, pgs. 40-44.
423
Hawkins, Power vs. Force, pgs. 155-156.
capitalist world. Growth at any cost! While the personality (spirit) would balk at
having to go through, say, torture in order to learn some lesson, the Spirit/soul is
infinitely brave.424 It will volunteer for things that the personality would never
volunteer for. Away from the mother ship of the soul, of course, the shuttle of
the spirit often separates from the human body to protect itself from inhuman
traumas.425 Part of this scares the bejesus out of me, for who knows what hellish
experiences (the means) my Spirit/soul will choose in the future for its growth
(the ends). All I can do is:
1) Hope that my Spirit/soul won’t have any such agendas
2) Learn to detach from everything external—just in case—by eternally

choosing peace within
The Omega Point
Reaching the Omega Point is like reaching Level 20 of a video game.

Level 20 is that breakthrough point that pulls one to a new level of playing.
Before reaching Level 20, video game players struggle for days, weeks, months,
even years, trying to reach the higher levels. Little by little, they perfect their
moves at the lower levels—an inkling here, a tinge there. This is why reaching
Level 20 is so delicious for video game players. Human life operates much like
that. We often have coaches instructing us on how to get better at “the game of
life.” But unlike video game players—or perhaps, like some of them—many of
us don’t listen.
424
I am borrowing the term personality from Zukav and Francis, The Mind of the Soul.
425
See Ingerman, Soul Retrieval.
After reaching the Omega Point, we start to make decisions from a higher
plane. This is like that flatlander from PBS’s Cosmos, the being from a universe
that has no height. Astronomer Carl Sagan shows what it would be like for such
a flatlander to be swept up by a three-dimensional apple. The flatlander has no
concept of up or down. Once the red apple drops him back onto flatland (the
green construction paper), the flatlander has trouble explaining to his friends
where he has been.426 Imagine that flatlander making two-dimensional decisions
from a three-dimensional perspective.427 It would be like seeing trees, houses,
streets, highways, and ballparks from an airplane in low flight (a vertical
perspective), rather than from the ground (a horizontal perspective). For a
flatlander, wouldn’t that be more advantageous than making two-dimensional
decisions from a two-dimensional perspective? From a vertical perspective, one
sees more things. From a horizontal perspective, one sees fewer things. As
Albert Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of
consciousness that created it.”428 Now, let us apply the above example to our
personal and global problems.
The next chapter analyzes the beginning of trans-sensory transformation
for our species.
426
Cosmos, “The Edge of Forever,” (Episode 10).
427
According to Carl Sagan, “flatland” was conceptualized, named, and designed by Edwin Abbot, a
Shakesperean scholar from Victorian England.
428
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins130982.html.
Exercises
1) Have you ever learned something intellectually but not experientially? If

yes, did intellectual understanding alone keep you out of trouble? If no,
what problems materialized? What, if anything, did you lean experientially
from them?
2) Have you ever seen “two-dimensional” problems “three-dimensionally”?

If yes, was the process planned or spontaneous? Write any relevant
thoughts or speak them into a tape recorder.
17
Toward the Birth of the Self
On earth, life evolved over billions of years. First, single-celled organisms

emerged in a primordial goo. Then, multicelled organisms arose. Smell was the
first sense. Other bio-logical senses (logical in a biological way) followed.
Sometimes, I wonder what it would have been like had our multicelled ancestors
been able to talk to one another. Say that eyesight was emerging hundreds of
millions of years ago. Because evolution happens at the level of the individual—
not the collective—it starts from a minority population. When sight began, a
minority of multicelled organisms started to see, while the majority continued to
be blind. I can easily imagine those who had developed eyesight trying to
explain—in vain—sight to the majority of multicelled organisms who lacked
sight. This is how evolution works—both biological and spiritual evolution. An
adaptive trait emerges, and the minority that develops it survives to become the
majority.
Postmodern society discourages trans-sensory consciousness—that is to
say, spiritual and social evolution—because it caters to the least common
denominator of the majority. Television, for example, hardly airs programs
about polyamory, about bi characters, about love relationships between people
of different generations, or about people who live in alternative communities.
On the rare occasions when these themes air, they are depicted as things that
won’t work. This sustains the status quo. Yet, such alternative states of being
reflect what a growing segment of humanity is about. Most television viewers
don’t follow their true Selves, however, because they allow what is on TV—and
not on TV—to guide how they live. This process begins at an early age.
Self-discovery is aided by awareness of one’s being a member of a highly
specific group, or groups. Broadcasting, though, stifles group identity in viewers
—and hence, self-knowledge—for broadcasting only has the majority in mind.
Narrowcasting, by contrast, has minority audiences in mind. This promotes
diversity of ideas. But with the exception of Black Entertainment Television

(BET), Lifetime (“Television for [Caucasian] Women”), and food and nature cable
channels, narrowcasting is more theory than fact. For instance, rather than have
a same-sex story air on a queer (gay, bi, lesbian, and transgendered) soap opera
on a yet nonexistent queer cable channel, TV executives place instead the same-
sex storyline on a regular soap opera and channel. As happened with the Luke
and Noah story on the soap As the World Turns, some variation of the following
then occurs: The American Family Association complains to Procter & Gamble
Productions, the chief sponsor of As the World Turns, and the Columbia
Broadcasting System (CBS) backpedals from showing more same-sex kisses
between Luke and Noah.429 A queer teen sees opposite-sex couples kissing on
this soap and not same-sex couples and guiltily represses a major aspect of his or
her self, his or her homoromantic feelings. For all the hullabaloo over
narrowcasting (e.g., Lifetime), the reality is that broadcasting (e.g., CBS) is here to
stay. It is becoming common for the same radio station to play 70s hits, 80s rock,
90s funk, and country music in 10 minutes. This is a reflection of the
convergence of everything on this planet. Likewise, book publishers tend to seek
majority audiences, not niche markets. More often than not, original ideas are
pushed aside in favor of popular ideas because numbers sell. Thus, whatever
spiritual evolution transpires in our civilization will occur with minority
populations, just as is the case with biological evolution.
How do spiritual and social evolution—or the absence of them—apply to:
1) The serfdom of today?

2) The birth of spiritual Selfhood?
429
See Joanna Weiss and Globe Staff, “Their Soap Smooch Made History. Fans Ask: Will It Happen
Again?”, Home/A&E/TV, The Boston Globe, March 1, 2008. The article is at
http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2008/03/01/their_soap_smooch_made_history_fans_ask_will_it_happ
en_again/?page=1.
3) Future possibilities for human freedom?
The following sections broach these topics.
From Microorganisms to Plants and Animals
Multicelled organisms developed into plants and animals. Plants and

animals have no individual Spirits, however. Rather, their spirits are part of
group souls. Each group soul belongs to a particular species of flora or fauna.
Hominids emerged on earth about 4.5 million years ago. They progressed from
australopithecine hominids to Homo habilis to Homo erectus to Homo
neanderthalensis to Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens left Africa, spread through
the continents, and wiped the other hominids from the face of the earth. Notice
how dangerous organisms like Homo sapiens tend to come out of the tropics.
Homo sapiens also incorporated elements from some, if not all, of the proto-
human species that were living outside Africa. Presumably, most of these
elements were adaptive ones, although probably not all. This process of
expanding from a center—and taking on things along the way—is moderately
similar to what happened when Europeans colonized the world.
In Latin, homo means “person.” Most humans, however, lack a sense of
Self. This means that most of us don’t know our Higher Selves. The pseudo-
knowledge that we do have—such as “I am wonderful” or “I am stupid”—is the
opinions of others hand-fed to us. This is the self with a small s, the human self.
That most of us have so little Selfhood (awareness of the signature of one’s spirit)
may be why each of us has several twins in this world. Discovering and
expressing one’s individuality, whether human or spiritual individuality, is not

encouraged in this world. (For the specifics of the human dearth of Self, I
recommend Caroline Myss’s CD Self-Esteem: Your Fundamental Power.)430
Throughout human history, people have had no spiritual Selfhood. Inner power
has been wanting. For example, how many millions of people sigh in adoration
at the sight of mere mortals? Hollywood celebrities and their fans are an
example of such idolatry. The economic system has also forced the majority to
work for money, as opposed to serving from the spirit. Concentrated power has
been the norm—be it monarchy, dictatorship, or corporate control over the
world’s resources. Even so-called democracies have many elements of social
control. Most writers, for instance, are forced to work in areas that have nothing
to do with writing. This is because in postmodern civilization, writing doesn’t
pay for 90 percent of writers, and writers need to make a living like everyone
else. The same applies to actors, singers, and painters. Artists, in particular, are
not rewarded in the global economy—except 10 percent of them. Therefore,
artists have to work at jobs that have little, if anything, to do with their inborn
talents—unless they have learned to go beyond the economic system to attract
their dream job. We have paid dearly for conforming to the economic system.
Conformity includes things like working for money—not from spirit—because
“that’s how the system works,” marrying in our 20s because postmodern society
expects that, allowing money to occupy 90 percent of our thoughts, letting the
3,500 ads we see a day decide the quality of our thoughts, allowing car makers to
decide what cars we buy—or actually, get indebted to—letting schools
indoctrinate our children, and so on.431 It is as if like lower animals, we were
following a genetic program that said, “Follow the herd.”
430
This 2002 lecture series is available from Sounds True, Boulder, Colorado.
431
For the 3,500 ad statistic, see Rifkin, The Age of Access, p. 177.
The United States is the most individualistic civilization in written history.

At the same time, America is one of the most conformist of all societies. On the
one hand, we are told and even manipulated to “do it yourself.” Examples are
self-service gas stations, do-it-yourself books, self-serve buffet tables, self
checkout registers at the grocery store, and self-publishing. On the other hand,
we are pressured to see and do things in particular ways. Citizens who deviate
from social, economic, political, cultural, or sexual norms are brutally punished
(e.g., Matthew Shepard) by their fellow “free” citizens. As Noam Chomsky, the
social critic, said, “The freer the society, the more well-honed the system of
thought control and indoctrination.”432
Getting in touch with your Higher Self is like becoming familiar with a
mother you never knew you had. This is a form of trans-sensory consciousness
because it goes beyond the six biological senses. But once one becomes familiar
with one’s spirit, one must honor it—as opposed to letting postmodern society
repress it.
Becoming More Than Higher Animals
For the first time in human history, workaday people are being asked to
evolve to a higher form. This will complete an evolutionary cycle that began
billions of years ago with the emergence of single-celled organisms. The journey
of evolution—cosmic, biological, spiritual, and social—will culminate with the
dawn of Self-aware humans. This means humans who have a sense of spiritual
Selfhood. “Know thyself” will come to mean “know thy Spirit.” Many Spirits
432
John Maher and Judy Groves, Introducing Chomsky, (Cambridge: Icon Books, 1999), p. 139.
have signed up for this mission. Having a strong sense of Self does not mean
that one is selfish. One is just Self-centered. Such a person realizes that
everything that happens to him or her emerges from within. Trans-sensory
humans have this Self-awareness (spiritual Selfhood), much like hominids
developed an individual self-awareness that lower animals still lack. People in
touch with their Higher Selves follow their hearts and spirits—not what the
world dictates they must do to “earn a living,” be “good” citizens, be “moral,” be
“normal,” and “go to heaven.” Trans-sensory humans do what is natural for
them, so long as, to their knowledge, it doesn’t harm others.
The next chapter is the last chapter of Part I of this book. As such, it ties
some loose ends about what it means to become trans-sensory. The last chapter
also outlines the global penalties should we fail to develop a “middle class” of
more spiritually evolved humans.
Exercise
Are you finding a conflict between the existing self in you and an
emerging Self in you? If yes, write about it or speak it into a tape recorder.
How are your family, coworkers, and friends responding to your new Self?
Are they, for example, supportive of it? Hostile? Both—depending on the
individual? How have you responded to their reactions?
18
End of the Sensory Game
We humans are on the verge of becoming a trans-sensory species. Does

this mean never acknowledging our lower emotions, never enjoying sex, and
never indulging in sensory delights? Does becoming trans-sensory mean giving

up our humanity?
This concluding chapter of Part I investigates the above questions. The
chapter also glints the stakes should a critical mass of us not “snap out” of
sensory programming. The epilogue of this book does this more fully. This
chapter finishes with a glimpse at the bigger picture of where we stand.
Becoming Partially Trans-human
Becoming trans-sensory involves the external and the internal. With our
human senses, we monitor things out there. With our “hidden” senses—crying,
breathing, laughing, sneezing, yawning, gagging, hiccupping, thinking, and
feeling touch inside the human body—we monitor things in here. Based on what
we sense inside or outside, we awaken to things. Noticing our rapid breathing,
for instance, we realize that we are upset or excited. Feeling our stomachs growl,
we know that we are hungry. Becoming trans-sensory is about:
1) Getting more in touch with the physical environment

and
2) Becoming more conscious of our thoughts, feelings, and bodies—both
physical and nonphysical bodies.
The inner and the outer. We become more aware of the physical (e.g., a white
dove on one’s windowsill) and of the nonphysical (e.g., that as divine
communication). What else does becoming trans-sensory involve?
Many of us think that being spiritually evolved means never sobbing,

never getting angry, never looking erotically at another person, and never
indulging one’s animal impulses. I believe that one can be trans-sensory and
indulge one’s humanity, so long as our indulgences are not addictive and don’t
intentionally harm anybody.433 If one is sad and doesn’t cry because “spiritually
evolved people don’t feel grief,” then that is repressing one’s desire to cry. This
is not healthy because it suppresses sadness, which turns into depression down
the road. If one is aggravated and represses anger because “spiritually evolved
people don’t get angry,” then that is denying issues that need to be examined.
Trans-sensory people aren’t in denial. Spiritually evolved people may have
fewer “buttons” than less spiritually advanced people. But the buttons need to
be acknowledged when they get pressed. This aids personal and spiritual
growth.
Throughout human history, most people have been sensory while in
denial of their sensual appetites. Nowadays, more of us are becoming trans-
sensory and are honoring our human biology. Paradox. Centuries ago, for
example, Puritans condemned anyone who ate a fruit too lusciously. That was
considered “carnal.” So was enjoying sex. Today, enjoying the human body is
being increasingly viewed as a highly important part of the human experience.
The movie Babette’s Feast (Danish; 1987) illustrates the contrast between
the sensory (carnal) and the trans-sensory (spiritual) and one woman’s attempt
to bridge a village’s gap between the two. In the film, Babette Hersant (Stéphane
Audran) is a French master chef. Babette flees Paris in September 1871. That
date was the bloody aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). The
fiftyish woman takes refuge in a Danish settlement that hugs the Jutland coast.
433
In my view, addictions don’t have to be harmful. For example, Thomas Edison conducted some 25,000
experiments before he successfully invented the electric light. Addiction to one’s line of work—or to a
project—can be positive if it doesn’t intentionally harm others.
Babette abides by the ascetic way of life of the inhabitants, for the aging sisters
Martina (Birgitte Federspiel) and Philippa (Bodil Kjer) have given Babette free
room and board in exchange for Babette’s help around the house. Fourteen years
pass with this setup. For the 100th birthday of the deceased founder of the local
religious sect, Babette asks Martina and Philippa, the founder’s daughters,
permission to cook for the village “a real French dinner.”
Martina replies, “My sister and I were thinking of a modest supper …
followed by a cup of coffee.”
Politely, Babette insists that she be allowed to prepare and pay for the
dinner. Babette, after all, has won 10,000 francs in the French lottery. Not
knowing what Babette plans to serve, the old maidens agree to Babette’s request,
the first that Babette has ever made of them. From the wooden kitchen door of
gray, Martina and Philippa watch in horror as Babette unpacks the goods that
have arrived from France. These goods include an assortment of French wines
and champagnes, live quails, the head of a boar, a gigantic sea turtle, caviar, hard
cheese, spices, olive oil, chestnuts, walnuts, a block of ice, and lots of fruits and
vegetables. Before the upcoming supper, the elderly parishioners vow not to
speak—nor even to think—about food or drink. In the words of one of them, “It
will be as if we never had the sense of taste.”
The wintry night of the dinner, a 13-year-old boy (Erik Petersén) brings
bowl after bowl, plate after plate, and wine pour after wine pour to the 11 seniors
in black and to the aging general (Jarl Kulle) in blue. Sitting around a wooden
table that has a white tablecloth on top, the austere churchgoers start to loosen
up. Their past bickering turns into jolliness, and their jolliness becomes
forgiveness for past wrongs. At the beginning of the film, the young Officer
Lorens Loewenhielm (Gudmar Wivesson) tells Martina, “… I have learned here
that life is hard and cruel … and that in this world there are things that are …
impossible.”
After the climactic meal, the aged General Loewenhielm tells Martina, “…
this evening I have learned, my dear … that in this beautiful world of ours … all
things are possible.”
The message of Babette’s Feast is not that sensualism is better than
ascetism, for the sensualist tenor (Jean-Philippe Lafont) who pursued Philippa
romantically in their youth did not find happiness through sensual delights of
themselves. Rather, the film’s message is that either extreme—ascetism or
sensualism—is not the answer. In the words of Buddha, “the Middle Way” is the
way. How did Buddha make this discovery?
In Little Buddha (1993), Buddha too foregoes worldly pleasures to the
point of starving himself. After six years of meditating and not eating, the
twentysomething man learns that bodily denial is as unhealthy as sensory excess.
Buddha accepts a bowl of rice from a passerby and peacefully chews the tasty
meal.
Our lack of humanity—fast food, heartless sex, and shallow conversations
—is what makes us go to excess when we finally encounter what we have been
denied. When I was in high school, for example, a gray-haired woman told me
how her parents never allowed her to eat cake nor ice cream nor candy. When
the lady grew up, she couldn’t get enough of those things and developed a
weight problem that has yet to disappear.
Becoming trans-sensory is not about becoming categorically trans-human
—just partially. This means enjoying the pleasures of human sensing—pleasures
like dining—and becoming trans-human when we find ourselves taking human
pleasures to excess. Trans-sensory humans live in balance, and this balance
includes every area of human life. As General Lorens Loewenhielm says at the
end of Babette’s Feast, the head chef of the Cafe Anglais—unknown to him,
Babette—could “… transform a dinner into a kind of love affair. A love affair
that made no distinction … between bodily appetite and spiritual appetite.”
Trans-sensory humans abandon neither the five senses nor the sixth sense
of the human brain. Rather, they compliment their humanness with their
spirituality.
Progressive Deterioration—Until We Change
Observing the world, one sees and hears its pain. Why, I have pondered,
don’t humans choose peace, joy, and abundance like the parishioners at the end
of Babette’s Feast? I realized that many of us are still exploring guilt,
deprivation, revenge, war, sadness, and pain to see if these things hold any water
for us. As hellish as pain is, many of us choose it because there is something,
however minute, in pain for us. It could be the simple pleasure of being “right.”
As long as we get something out of hell—as in the Middle East conflict—we will
continue to choose suffering. Only when one is 100 percent sure that there is
nothing good in pain does one reach the Omega Point. It is literally pulling
oneself off three-dimensional concerns and living from a new dimension. As
Christian ministers preach, one is in the world but not of the world.
Failure to evolve beyond three-dimensional concerns will mean that the
things of this world will get progressively worse. The Middle East conflict ebbs
and flows, for example. First, violence escalates. Then, a peace process starts. It
is as though there were an overseer who said, “Have you had enough?” after
each round. The people of that region have much invested in pain—no blame
intended, just an observation. Therefore, new waves of violence break out.
Again, it is as though an overseer said, “What about now? Have you had
enough? No?” And a new round of violence erupts. This process will continue
there—and in the rest of the world—until people get it. Until we do, our global
system will get more greedy, more corrupt, more heartless, and more
meaningless. If this planet fails to give birth to a new class of spiritually evolved
people, it will be as if the United States had failed to give birth to a middling
class in the 19th century. Without a middle class, America today would be
riddled with the problems of the Third World, for in such countries, there is only
an upper class and a lower class. The same applies to this world’s lack of a large-
enough class of trans-sensory—and as Part II shall show, trans-instinctual—
humans.
Hopefully, humanity will evolve (get the lesson) before postmodern
civilization implodes. Humans will get to the Omega Point at some point in the
future, although it may not be on this one of many alternate earths. The moment
we reach the Omega Point, we will realize that we choose heaven or hell via
eternal vigilance, the price of liberty of choice. When we reach that point is up to
us. Thankfully, many of us are reaching the Omega Point. This is the point
where one concludes that there are no other options outside of choosing peace
and joy. Just like the Progressive Movement ended sweatshops, child labor, 19-
hour workdays, tenements, and lack of safety regulations in America, the Global
Awakening will end all sorts of abuses that we now take for granted.
Mesmerized by the Darkness—Don’t Be

How easy it is to let this world overpower one’s consciousness. Imagine,

for instance, seeing the humongousness of New York City for the first time;
hearing about acid rain, global warming, and eroding topsoils; and being forced
to deal with permanently rising gas prices. How, for example, will the average
American handle $5 a gallon going to $10 after the world peaks in oil
production? What about the rising prices of the 500,000 consumer products that
depend on oil for their manufacture? What about the rest of our global
predicament? Peak oil will bring a lot of ignored issues to the forefront. Denial
will no longer be possible.
Darkness seems more real than light because darkness is what we are
most familiar with. If we are mesmerized, however, it is because we remain
stuck in what a mere three senses tell us about the world. The sense of sight
shows us what the media reveals about the planet. The sense of sound allows us
to hear what friends and colleagues tell us about the planet. The sense of touch
tells us about milder winters and hotter summers.
Trans-sensory humans think, however, in terms of “this time around,”
this being one round in an infinite possibility of earths. As Lieutenant-
Commander Data, the white android, tells the Enterprise crew in the conference
lounge, “For any event, there is an infinite number of possible outcomes. Our
choices determine which outcomes will follow.”434 Data continues, “But there is
a theory in quantum physics that all possibilities than can happen do happen in
alternate quantum realities [emphasis mine].”435
Book 3 of Conversations with God elaborates on Data’s comment. It
compares this uni-verse (one verse) to a CD-ROM. The passage goes:
434
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Parallels.” This episode originally aired in syndication on November
435
Ibid.
Have you ever asked yourself how the computer knows how to respond
to every move the child makes with the joystick?
Yes, actually, I have wondered that.
It’s all on the disc. The computer knows how to respond to every
move the child makes because every possible move has already been
placed on the disc, along with its appropriate response.436
Speaking of the state of planet Earth, Book 3 continues:
Think of the Cosmic Wheel as that CD-ROM. All the endings already
exist. The universe is just waiting to see which one you choose this time.
And when the game is over, whether you win, lose, or draw, the universe
will say, “Want to play again?”437
Of course, the human senses program us to think of this universe as the only
legitimate one. But trans-sensory perception and trans-sensory consciousness
know otherwise.
Creating an entire world—such as our postindustrial society—is serious
business. It is a huge responsibility. The story of humanity is like children
getting a newly built classroom. The classroom is spotless and smells spick-and-
span. The air feels fresh. On the first day of school, kindergartners enter the
classroom. Little by little, they start to throw trash on the khaki rug (the six
inhabited continents) and on the white mat by the corner (Antarctica). The
children soil the bright-blue walls (the skies of earth) with all sorts of candy, with
436
437
Ibid., p. 108.
highlights from magic markers, and with pencil marks. The classroom becomes
humid and stuffy from their perspiration. When a species like humanity lives on
a planet without following God’s blueprint, things get very complicated. Maybe
this earth is like a surfboard that will allow us to learn to surf in the ocean of life.
Even if the surfboard gets broken (e.g., mass extinction), there will always be
other surfboards (e.g., alternate earths). This does not mean, however, that one
should act carelessly toward the biological environment. But the heavens ought
to be wise enough not to put all of its eggs in one basket, called this blue-white
planet. Trans-sensory humans know this, choose prudently, and see the Truth
behind the sensory curtain of darkness.
We are able to get things done only because light is present, however dim
that light may be. In total darkness, we would not be able to move or do
anything, for we would trip. One of our most important human senses, eyesight
would be useless without the assistance of light. Let us develop a second set of
eyes, a second set of ears, a second skin, a second tongue, and a second set of
nostrils to see Love in lovelessness. Let only Light mesmerize you.
Exercise
In the areas of food, sex, and music, have you been able to balance
sensual delight with trans-sensory restraint? If yes, has this happened
sporadically? Or is the balance a permanent part of your life? If the latter,
how long did it take you to reach this equilibrium?

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1

The Big Bang, Emergence of the Senses, and Evolution

Everything in this universe boils down to organization: how things are

The four forces of nature—electromagnetism, gravity, and the strong and

1) The skin made life aware of the touchable

3) Ears made life aware of the hearable

If museum exhibits are any guide, then our ancestors—the so-called

Our “Hidden” Senses

Crying, breathing, laughing, sneezing, yawning, gagging, hiccupping,

1) Living in the now

3) Awareness of cause/effect—at both the physical and nonphysical level

… 65 percent of the human population today have never made a single

Consider Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs, shown below:

Look again at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs. I have concluded

Like different plants and animals are adapted to different ecosystems,

However, I realized that if I was simply a machine, I could never be

Like individuals, societies experience spiritual crises. The First World’s

breaks down; revolution happens or doesn’t happen; and things evolve or

Electromechanical products like typewriters, electrical switches, and

Therefore, leasing is becoming a more attractive option than buying. Decades

as opposed to buying and owning—are springing up in every industry. The

That’s not to suggest, however, that selfishness, greed, and commercial

As imperfect as the process is, the postmodern world is evolving toward a

One of the criteria of biological life—perhaps, the most important—is

postmodern life unwieldy. So are spaghetti-shaped freeways; having to juggle

Another paradox of evolution is that lower life-forms often behave more

In this postmodern world made up of networks [e.g., the Internet] and

The decline of personal autonomy is coupled with the decline of business

Because a market-oriented private-property regime, by its very nature,

This is why vertical integration is being replaced by horizontal partnerships in

themselves in the channel of the competition. Interpersonal relationships are

1) The split of single-celled organisms into multicelled organisms

3) The advent of hominids—with their ability to think and make tools

As Ian Tattersall, a paleoanthropologist, says on PBS’s Neanderthals on Trial:

3) Can you feel yourself developing an authentic (independent of externals)

Knowing, Unlearning, and Failing to Relearn This Truth

When we wake up in the morning, we tend to remember the most recent

help us adults learn—actually, remember—more about the spirit plane. It would

The Consciousness and Energy of Children

Each child has more energy than thousands of squirrels zigzagging

What Happens During Childhood, Adolescence, and Early Adulthood?

Birth of One’s Social Self—and

Worsening the externality of social restrictions is the internality of the

In 1944, an Austrian physician named Hans Asperger noticed that a group

The basic differences between primate species are in social behavior,

The article continues:

Creator of the Aspie quiz, Leif Ekblad writes on another website:

Differences in innate, nonverbal communications are very big

Every primate species have facial expressions and nonverbal

people learn implicitly. Ninety-three percent of face-to-face human

going to paste it up on my shaving mirror. And that’s all I’m going to

This is the mind perseverance part of Asperger’s.

1) That the filmmakers either didn’t know about or didn’t intend to

2) That most adults with Asperger’s continue to be undiagnosed or

One of the better hallmarks of Asperger Syndrome is unitasking. As such,

“appropriately”), through lack of employment or problems on the job (due to

Nonphysical Aspects of Asperger Syndrome

The Asperger experience—endless misunderstandings, endless rejections,

theorists are some examples of people with rich inner worlds.

1) Can you remember otherworldly visions, sounds, smells, or even

1) White vs. black

White vs. Black

Living in the post-civil rights era, Americans have seemingly transcended

light-cream . . . . . . . . . . pink . . . . . . . . . . . . peach . . . . . . . . . . . . tan