Monday, March 31, 2008

More on lower & higher worlds

Lower worlds are the worlds we create. Higher worlds are the worlds that create us.

Create is not influence or change. They all do. Lower worlds drain or dissipate our energy. Higher worlds increase our energy. This does not necessarily feel good. Higher worlds are "larger than life" and tend to make us feel smaller. Lower worlds make us feel "larger than life". Higher worlds are unbearable without humility. Lower worlds do not encourage humility.

Cannot a world be both higher and lower? Worlds weave in and out of our own. This is great because we can descend or ascend on a gradual "ramp" from where we already are. A higher world may be seen as man-created by those who do not recognize it. But these worlds are not made by man, but discovered by or revealed to man. Example: Holy scriptures. A modernist theologian will point out how scriptures were assembled from different sources at certain times. These confuse the map and the terrain. By going there you will know.

Higher or Most High? A world can be higher than the ordinary world and yet not be perfect. Having recognized something as higher tempts us to label it as perfect and put all our trust in it. "Angel worship." Beware that, say angels. Even the heavens have heavens.

Higher worlds unify, simplify. Lower worlds exemplify, diversify. Simplicity in lower worlds caused by selectively omitting parts of the whole. Simplicity in higher worlds caused by including more of the whole.

The ladder of worlds

When I was young, around three decades ago, I had this recurring vision or fantasy. As far as I know, I had not picked it up from anyone else, or I would eagerly have read it where I found it. The concept was that there were layers of worlds, of which ours was one. There were several below ours, and if you descended to them, you would be more real than the world around you. This would make you more powerful, and the deeper you descended into lower and lower worlds, the more godlike your powers. But staying there, and specifically using power there, would draw on your reality and you would grow weaker, until eventually you could never return to your own world alive.  

Conversely, if you spent time in the nearest world above, you would find life there full of suffering because everything was more real than you. The heat of the sun burned you, the cold of the night froze you, and gravity crushed you. Most of all you would feel like a snail, horribly weak and exposed and painfully slow. But returning to your own world, you would find yourself now more real and stronger in all ways than those who had always stayed there.


Much to my surprise, I recently found out that all of this was real. The various computer games are examples of lower worlds. (I suppose daydreams too, but these are poorly documented.) Despite being fundamentally different from reality, they are still patterned on reality and derived from reality. Those who descend into these worlds (ironically the word "avatar" is now commonly used) are more real than the world around them, and more powerful. But as I was forewarned, there is a risk of losing one's reality if the mind descends into the lower world and stays there. Eventually severe dysfunction in the real world may ensue.

As for the world above ours, the rays of that sun do indeed burn us badly, and the gravity there makes us crawl. Just like the lower worlds are of a different nature, and yet following the same laws, so is also the higher world different and not. I am told there are different ways to poke one's head up into higher realms, but for the most part religious traditions seem to provide the most reliable tools. I don't think this is the sole purpose of religion, and there may be congregations or entire branches of faith that have no interest in people actually exploring the upper realms. Nose around if you actively seek the doorway to a higher world, it may be in a surprising place and it is  certainly not well advertised. But most importantly, if you expect your visit above to be an easy, blissful trip, prepare to be very, very surprised. Even though you will be treated gently by those who reside there, it may not feel that way because of the natural weakness of one who enter from below.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Attention is milk

Attention is milk.  I mean that almost literally:  Babies deprived of attention stop growing and many of them will sicken and die even if they get sufficient food and are kept dry and at comfortable temperature.  (Scientifically constructed orphanages in the 20th centuries drove this point home.)

Like the mother processes food on behalf of the baby's body, she also processes nourishment for the soul.  Like the baby has a rudimentary digestive tract that is made for milk, so it has a rudimentary soul digestive tract or "bootstrap loader" as we computer people call it, attuned to faces. Starting with the attention it receives, the baby begins to download the other modules of its humanity.  It is long before it can process other sources of "soul food".

Unfortunately, some people are never weaned, and depend on human attention all their lives. Even though there are vast amounts of beauty, truth and virtue intruding into the world, they are unable to process it.  Since depending on attention as an adult is unnatural, this dependency leads to bizarre and deviant / perverted behaviors, like trying to force attention by threats or by self-damage, or by promising sexual favors.