Is there something spooky about these long, quiet days in early August? I am in downtown Toronto, Canada and this summer of 2008 is a doozy! Or is it only me? This is not an idle thought because, as you may be aware, the outer world is entirely a reflection, a confirmation, of our inner maps of the various realities we are choosing to energize and inhabit. So the weather outside is all about what we are focusing on inwardly.

[Our reality creation energies continuously project, as best they can, the moving average, so to speak, of our present inner maps or energetic representations, out into the world we experience around us. This outward manifestation of our inner maps is one of our autonomic functions, like breathing or digesting. None of this is the concern of the conscious mind whose job it is to express its passions and reach for the stars.]

As I was perusing my blog somewhat aimlessly I noticed that I had not yet written two pages under the "About" menu; “Who am I [Who are You], and “The ‘Dead Guys’”. I decided the dead guys could wait and tackled the ‘Who am I’ page, with the following results...

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Who am I - Who are you?

I have begun to understand something about writing and that is the idea of gaining ‘traction’. After a few years of writing you start to get some traction going, and once you’re in the groove - some may say you’re in it from the start - but once you hit your pace, it’s all gravy after that. So something I wrote five years ago is utterly as relevant today as it was then. If not more so!

This is why I offer a quote from my Metaphysician’s Handbook, a site I created several years ago, at the bottom of this post. I am starting to mine my own previous output and this is the perspective about writing I wanted to share. [all perceived aspects of ourselves are legitimate and have something unique and revelatory to offer - why would they be in our awareness otherwise?]

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Anyway, I decided as I set out on my errands this afternoon I wanted a wine spritzer. So I get home with the wine all right, but no soda water - bummer! Especially since when I realized this, I had already taken off my sweaty outdoor clothes and put on my indoor pants. I didn’t want to go out again!

Another part of me recalled the earlier plan for white wine spritzers on the deck. A very compelling and almost seductive point of view, very cogently presented! So we have at least three ‘me’s’ in this picture; the me that wants to stay home, the me that wants to go to the corner store for some soda, and the me that is observing all of us.

It was fun to watch this little contest, partly because ‘me’ as the observer didn’t really care which way the game went. Putting your pants back on and going around the corner is no big deal. On the other hand, you can always use lots of ice and a little fruit juice - you don’t really need soda.

Each camp spun out powerful images in support of their side... [see Disney’s ‘Battle of the Sorcerers’ in “Fantasia”] Seductive visions of cold fizzy drinks on the deck were projected into sharp focus by one side.

This was simultaneously countered with tempting relief about not having to go out again, and just sitting down right now! Along with the easy option of using lots of ice and maybe some juice with the wine later.

What was fascinating was to watch the negotiations going on. It was enchanting to see how brutally honest I was with myself, and yet simultaneously open to cooperation. The ‘stay home’ part of me offered the recipe described above - pseudo-wine spritzers, almost sangria-type drinks.

The other aspect immediately countered, not by opposing the slippery slope to sangria, but by clarifying it’s heartfelt need for fizziness. It was all about the refreshing feeling of that first fizzy sip!

There was no answer for this and the ‘put your pants on’ side won. I have only just returned with the soda water, and am enjoying a delicious and refreshing spritzer as we speak, indoors as it turns out because it’s a brutally hot day out there.

Can it be true that the most vividly imagined thing wins the day?

So who won, and who lost? It was all me, even though it was very closely argued on both sides! One side won and it really doesn’t matter which, but what IS interesting is how it won!

The winning aspect focused on a quality of the desired experience that it was just not willing to give up! In doing this, a powerful image of me reveling in the desired fizziness was generated. All the rest is just details as the universe re-arranged itself around this thoroughly resonant intent.

So whichever aspect has the best image[ination] wins! Just like in the sorcerer movie!

If you can imagine things more adroitly than your so-called opponents, everybody wins!

What follows is the first chapter of The Metaphysician’s Handbook, circa 2003.

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Self - 1

‘Who am I’ at first seems self-evident. This is me. The guy who got out of bed this morning, the guy who is writing this now is myself.

I am also though, the infant born 53 years ago and every ‘me’ in between then and now. A huge succession of nows within which I was always me. The me now is the same in some essential way as all the other me’s that have gone before.

But each me is different too. I am not the same me that I was as a child or a teenager. In fact I am not the same as I was when I got out of bed this morning.

We have a paradox. Every now brings a new me and yet somehow the same me. Accepting this seeming contradiction allows me to sense and explore the ‘spacious present’ when all of my selves collect into here and now.

This is Self. The totality of all of my awarenesses focused in this moment of life. Self is a given. I have done nothing to be worthy of it, and can do nothing to avoid it. Self in the Now is not simply the grandest power in the universe, it is the only power in the universe!