Esoteric Freedom

Here, in this very moment, we illusorily separate ourselves from our universe, our bodies, and even our thoughts. This separation, this fall, is part and parcel of our implicit faith that the universe proceeds in a line, in a one-dimensional sequence that we call time, and so our redemption is ultimately a release from the illusion of history, of the tunnel vision that presents eternity as strung out in a sequence called past-present- future. And here, no amount of history will deliver us from history, from that nightmare which all sensitive beings must eventually awake.

Ken Wilbur is one of the 21st century’s most recognized esoteric thinkers. His thoughts from his 1977 book, The Spectrum of Consciousness, demonstrate some of his esoteric thoughts. Esoteric of course means understood by a select few. Believing that we live in several dimensions falls into the category labeled esoteric, but that doesn’t mean that those thoughts are not valid. William James explains esoteric thought this way:

A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismiss as trivial until finally, it becomes what everybody knows.

Knowing takes place on the vast scale of human awareness. We all experience awareness and separation in our own way. At times we restrict our awareness in order to focus on specific experiences. Trying to explain the awareness that exists within our multidimensionality to a group of religious believers that practice total separation, but yearn for unity isn't necessary. The pure fact that separation and time exist, confirms our desire to live our beliefs. Our beliefs create our history and then others create their own history. History exists in linear time so we can recognize consciousness physically. Animals and plants are forms of consciousness that exist in our history. They also create their own form of history. Wilbur is defining these elements as expressions of the separation that exists within our self-created history.