Faith

 

What I find terribly interesting is how my consciousness can leave the present state of my own body and occupy an imagined state without questioning the difference. When nearly all of the details are unlike those in my wakefulness, I do not even recognize the changes. I simply go into those realities, and it feels exactly as it would if I had always been in that situation, rather than the one I think I am in now.

I’ve carefully listened to Neville Goddard speak about his ability to do this with his imagination—even while he is fully awake—and I believe this is possible. Meditation may be one way to access this state; medication, perhaps, another. I also believe we are susceptible to vibrations. This is why one may seem naturally inclined to move with musical rhythm. Even toddlers exhibit this all the time. No one has to tell them to move with music—they just do it.

This is the effect of consciousness connecting our body to its environment. It can be done through physical stimuli, such as the impulses that lead to sexual intercourse. It can be done through a meal that triggers our senses, feeding us and building strength thereby. It can be done through familial love for someone who shares our genes, or through altruism that serves the species as a whole.

The problem is that consciousness is invisible. We cannot measure consciousness because measuring devices are subcategories of consciousness itself.

“…Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?...” — Isaiah 45:9, KJV

We are the clay in this example. Consciousness is the one fashioning you and me. We cannot measure its actions or their effects; we simply experience them.

We may want to push back on this idea because it seems to strip us of free will—but it does not do that at all. Free will belongs to consciousness, and consciousness serves our best interests. On a subconscious level, the same consciousness that draws you toward whatever you find yourself attracted to is the agent working tirelessly for your survival, the survival of your loved ones, and your species.

Desire is yours, but you have surrendered free will to consciousness because, on a subconscious level, you know that it will have an effect on you and your environment. You may not recognize this consciously. How much thought did you give to the color of your eyes? How often do you remind yourself to breathe? Do you beat your heart deliberately?

You are still an individual, but you exist in a stream—with a current—guiding you toward the place where everything about you will eventually pour out into the Ocean of Collective Consciousness.

You have traveled under the wire of this Collective Consciousness your entire life, like a streetcar that has no concept of the trolley-pole connecting it to the power above. The eyes of the trolley cannot see the network overhead, nor its own connection to it.

So what then?

It makes me feel excited and happy to know that what governs the stars in the night sky also governs me.

If I can stand here on Earth and consider a light that left a region of space thousands of years ago and is only now meeting my eye, I cannot help but feel connected to that star. For if I were not here to observe it tonight, it would be like Alan Watts’s “skinless drum.” Without an observer to interrupt the pattern, the pattern is never really there.

Until a distant star twinkles for me, it never existed as that pattern.

The patterns of reality are all there—in an infinite field of pure potential. Everything that could possibly happen in your future exists there, in superposition, waiting for you to feel its effect.

Consciousness is the Universal Network, and you are the receiver. Working on your behalf, Consciousness has already provided a full range of possible outcomes, and your belief determines the one you discover.

Faith is the stuff you are hoping for. Belief is the key to the life you are dreaming of.