Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Inside of Facts

But eventually I am forced to admit that there is nothing among the things I once believed to be true which is no permissible to doubt and not out of frivolity or lack of forethought, but for valid and considered reasons. Thus I must be no less careful to withhold assent henceforth even from these beliefs that I would from those that are patently false, if I wish to find anything certain.

I will accomplish this by putting aside everything that admits of the least doubt, as if I had discovered it to be completely false I will stay on this course until I know something certain, or, if nothing else, until I ay least know for certain that nothing is certain.


Rene Descartes wrote those thoughts in his first and second meditations which are part of his 1637 work, Discourse on Methods and Meditations on First Philosophy. The interesting element in Descartes thinking is his thoughts about the self and how that self is related to the God that was an external force to be reckoned with at that time. Certainly those thoughts continue today although many people are doing what Descartes describes as the permission to doubt instilled beliefs and educated guesses about the body, the soul, and consciousness.

Descartes approaches the fact that he exists in more than one form in a very methodical way. He senses that truth is relative to the believer and there is uncertainty in truth as well as in all beliefs if one gives oneself the opportunity to identify them.

The unknown reality which Rene wants to identify is usually dismissed using various hypotheses about the characteristics and nature of consciousness. We forget that the world as we know it is the result of a complicated set of consciousness coded sequences which are locked into one another and are dependant on one another in a variety of ways. The world and universe are perceived using the sequential codes that we are aware of, but when we alter one of these codes we intersect with another aspect of this space-time continuum and discovery that we limited ourselves by the beliefs that create individual truths.

Much of our inner life is overlooked because we focus on the exterior pattern of events even though the inner world is the only connection for those events. The objective reality only makes sense because the subjective inner world gave birth to it. We only see the topmost portions of these exterior events so our perceptions, beliefs, and truths are limited by our self-inflicted separation.

Descartes in his 17th century awareness thought that putting aside these exterior events would reveal an aspect of the self that was considered to be something else outside of the body and mind of each individual. He discovered that certainly nothing is certain since probabilities, perceptions, beliefs, and truths include probable selves as well as probable realities where inner consciousness shows the inside of facts and the realities that emerge from them.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Rooted In Our Multiplicity

While reading the introduction to D.T. Suzuki’s 1926 book, Essays in Zen Buddhism I was compelled to substitute the word consciousness for the word Zen in two particular paragraphs in that piece. I discovered that the word Zen is interchangeable with the concept of inner consciousness, which is the foundation for all physical experiences. Here are the paragraphs and as I write this I sense that the very act of expressing them without thoughts stimulates the unfettered action of those words. In a word consciousness has its own way of pointing to the nature of one’s own being, and that when this is done one attains enlightenment, in which all the contradictions and disturbances caused by the intellect are entirely harmonized in the unity of an expanded order. For this reason consciousness never explains but indicates, it does not appeal to circumlocution, nor does it generalize. It always deals with facts, concrete and tangible. Logically considered consciousness may be full of contradictions and repetitions. But as it stands above all things, it goes serenely on its own way. It does not challenge logic. It simply walks its path of facts, leaving all the rest to their own fates. It is only when logic neglecting its proper functions tries to step into the track of consciousness that it loudly proclaims its principles and forcibly drives out the intruder. It’s clear that the intruder in our daily scenarios is the ego consciousness that has the ability to experience separation in order to remember the unity of Zen or consciousness. Inner consciousness never forces itself to be recognized; the ego consciousness exerts the force and becomes the intruder. The internal pulling of consciousness brings expansion to the ego and it is expressed in serveral ways. Life is experienced in those ways as consciousness continues to expand. That expansion or the “The Way,” as Lao Tzu put it is rooted in our multiplicity.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Lands of the Mind

Life is a series of surprises, and would not be worth taking or keeping, if it were not. God delights to isolate us every day, and hide from us the past and the future. We would look about us, but with grand politeness he draws down before us an impenetrable screen of purest sky, and another behind us of purist sky.” You will not remember,” he seems to say, “and you will not expect.” All good conversation, manners, and action, come from spontaneity which forgets usages, and makes the moment great. Nature hates calculators; her methods are salutatory and impulsive. Man lives by pulses; our organic movements are such; and the chemical and ethereal agents are undulatory and alternate; and the mind goes antagonizing on, and never prospers but by fits. We thrive by casualties. Our chief experiences have been casual.

Ralph Waldo Emerson in his 1844 essay, Experience expresses the thoughts of the 19th century in a unique as well as eloquent way. Life is a series of surprises and we do thrive by creating casualties. Our experiences are credited to a higher power that sits in a special place outside of this reality. The name and the physical acts we perceive are considered sacred; we are baptized in the waters of ignorance and dress in the clothes of the judgmental. We forget that we pulsate to the beat of flowing consciousness that infiltrates our cells and anoints our forgetfulness.

Our cells are always making choices between alternate courses and probable actions. Each choice presupposes probable acts that are capable of actualization in this reality. Tiny innocuous decisions come up each moment and alter reality in one way or another.

We forget we can choose between health and illness; between focusing on the mental more than physical, and the physical more than mental. We can cause our cells to change their self-image and heal minor wounds as well as our intent to be well. The intent is conscious, but the means is not and that is the God that Emerson writes about. The intent comes from the stream of consciousness that is constantly flowing through the cells and molecules.

There are “Lands of the Mind,” with different civilizations that function in their own geography and personal culture. Each civilization of cells has their own history and inclinations. Consciousness is hidden in the brain as well as in all the other organs, but the archaeological memory of man continues to pulsate in the private psyche of the body consciousness.


Consciousness operates in a code system which is beyond count and the systems helps direct particular types of focus which develops a variety of significances. The system is composed of light and molecular constructions which are extensions of electromagnetic ranges which are completely unknown, but are recognized by other life forms.

We don’t remember or expect to sense these secondary systems in our limited beliefs about the nature of our God, but inch by inch we are becoming aware that the casualties we create are the steps we initiate to remember other aspects of our consciousness.

Friday, January 14, 2011

The Gauntlet of All Other Truths

Spiritualistic faith in all of its forms deals with a world of promise, while materialism’s sun sets in a sea of disappointment. Remember what I said of the Absolute: it grants us moral holidays. Any religious view does this. It not only incites our more strenuous moments, but it also takes our joyous, careless, trustful moments and justifies them. It paints the ground of justification vaguely enough to be sure. The exact features of the saving future facts that our belief in God insures, will have to be ciphered out by the interminable methods of science: we can study our God only by studying his creations. But we can enjoy our God, if we have one, in advance of all that labor. I myself believe that the evidence of God lies primarily in inner personal experiences.

The truth of God has to run the gauntlet of all our other truths. It is on trial by them and they on trial by it. Our final opinion about God can be settled only after all the truths have straightened themselves out together.


William James in his 1906 essay, Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered has a lot to say about truths and the nature of beliefs. God certainly is at the root of most beliefs systems; we continually search for guidance as well as comfort from this human inspired entity that we create to worship and to judge. Worshipping and judging as James points out are human traits that we pass on and attach to this God that floats somewhere above our reality.

For centuries religious rituals have been a solid fixture in every social culture and even though cultures have progressed and expanded their belief systems, religious rituals are still the focal point of connecting to God. James has a different belief about God; he believes the consciousness called God exists within him as well as in every other form of consciousness. He confirms that fact by studying his creations as well as the creations of every aspect of consciousness that express life in physical form. Each form of consciousness is self-aware although they are not self-aware in the same way as humans.

The inexhaustible creativity within the cells themselves reaches deeper into the stream of consciousness than our biological and spiritual beliefs allow. That’s why the materialism’s sun sets in a sea of disappointment.

The inner dynamics of the psyche understand the essence of the self and the units of consciousness within that essence far surpass any 21st century computer. The molecules and atoms within the cells carry a memory of all forms of consciousness, which means the physical and non-physical forms they have been part of, so they are always working with probabilities as well as comparing probable actions fuel by genetic information.

Conscious intent activates an inner mechanism which changes the behavior of the cells and that intent impacts the collective intent so the goals of the species do not exist apart from individual goals. Life is the awareness of the future development of the species, and that development is rooted in what James describes as the inner personal experiences manifested physically or what some call Zen. It is where the truth of God has run the gauntlet of all of our other truths and exists without the limitations of religion.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Foreword:Living Behind the Beauty Shop

For several years, I’ve enjoyed knowing and working with Hal Manogue because his books, poems, essays, and other forms of writing offer such profound spiritual insight. The story you are about to read may be fictional—although based on real places and celebrities in Nashville—but the premise that we are simultaneously living multiple lives is something many metaphysicists have believed for quite a while. Scientists are beginning to explore this possibility and while they cannot prove it to be true, they cannot disprove it either. I’ve referred to myself as one who wears many hats or multitasks as if trying to do everything at once. This makes the concept of multiple consciousnesses as described in Hal’s work seem probable—especially when we stop to consider that in this life we are currently living, we perform multiple roles and have many identities or self labels: writer, doctor, teacher, parent, student, adult, child, sibling, driver, and so on. Does your life as a mathematician end when you leave the classroom at 4 p.m. each day? Are you no longer an athlete when you put on an apron and prepare a meal? Do you stop being an activist just because you engage in teaching your puppy a new trick? No, of course not. We are still all these things. However, we may not remember our other realities while focusing on whatever role we are playing at the present moment.

We’ve all had a spark of creativity or an idea that came on like a light bulb. We’ve all felt led by our inner voice or sensed guidance from our intuition. Who’s to say that these impulses or thoughts are not from our expanded self or an aspect of consciousness from another dimension? Then, there’s the sleep-time world of our dreams where anything is possible. What if, like Mase’s poetry reveals in Living Behind the Beauty Shop, the life you live while awake is only one aspect of who you are? What if you connect with your expanded consciousness when asleep? Definitely something to consider.

While you don’t need to believe in parallel universes, reincarnation, or multiple consciousnesses in order to enjoy this book or its characters—whom I’m sure you will come to love—the story will open your eyes to new possibilities about what can be done to help homeless humanity become a productive part of society. It will show appreciation for racial and sexual diversity and present ideas about how we can protect our environment and conserve precious natural resources. Additionally, those who know someone living with Down syndrome will appreciate the sensitivity and positive light shone upon the unique individuals who have chosen a chromosome mishap as an Earthly path to lead others to enlightenment.
Fact or fantasy? You decide.

~ Yvonne Perry, editor of Living Behind the Beauty Shop, owner of Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services (WritersintheSky.com), and author of More Than Meets the Eye, True Stories About Death, Dying, and Afterlife (deathdyingafterlife.com) and The Sid Series ~ A Collection of Holistic Stories for Children (TheSidSeries.com)

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Is Being Homeless an Inner Consciousness Choice?

The exact number of homeless people in America is shrouded in secrecy. At last count there were almost 1 million homeless living minute by minute in a world with no hope. A few people help feed the homeless and help shelter the homeless, but most people don't give the homeless a second thought. Warren Russell a shrewd business man decided to give the homeless a reason to live and his story changes the face of homelessness.

Follow the Russell family through the eighties and into the 21st century and marvel at the impact that one family has on the homeless issue. Living Behind the Beauty Shop is a story about being consciously aware that all life has value. The realization that thoughts are energy becomes apparent as the story unfolds. Warren Russell’s thoughts turned an old Southern farm into a thriving community where the homeless rebuild their reality using the inner tools of self-appreciation and unity.

Visit www.shortsleeves.net to read more about homelessness and the story.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Is Being Born with Down syndrome an Inner Consciousness Choice?

One in every one thousand babies is born with Down syndrome. Why? Is it a choice? Do these babies come here to teach us something? Are these babies able to experience more than one reality, but can’t express that fact? Mase Russell was born in this reality to answer some of those questions.

Born with a mild case of DS, Mase is able to express more than one reality in his art and poetry. He brings new awareness to the physical challenge of being a Down syndrome human.

Living Behind the Beauty Shop takes on a voyage to another world where consciousness expresses itself in diverse ways. Mase believes a part of us lives in that dimension and his compelling expressions make us all think twice about who we really are.

For more information about DS Visit: www.shortsleeves.net