Dinner and a Dead Guy #42 ~ October 22, 2006
(Note: this is a continuation of my session notes that I began began posting in July 2004 on NewWorldView Forums. I recently added three webpages of D&DG notes into the NWV Library.)
We held our 42ndDinner and a Dead Guy on Sunday. Since Joanne was on a business trip in Orlando, "we" consisted of Rumi and I in Castaic. Also present were Lisa P. in Eugene, OR, Odette in Quebec, Tom C. in Oahu, HI, Anya in Salt Lake, UT, Brain, Ellen, Cathy, and Jen in Wilmington, DE, and Serge, Mark, John, Joshua, and Sylvia in Toronto, ON.
Kris arrived at 4:50 PM and stated the title of the session as "Who Are You? - Part III - Sugar and Spice, Love, Hate and Everything Inbetween." (What was instantly apparent to me was that even though it has been almost three months since I last participated, it felt like an old friend and just picking up where I left off back in July.)
He mentioned that we might need to strap ourselves in for this session (and I just chuckled, as I've been strapped in for the ride since Elias cautioned Jo and I do so when once we decided to move out to Castaic to pursue our interests in the channeling phenomenon.)
Kris used the metaphor of a thimble as a local point of action to describe our limited perception (Jane Roberts used the term "prejudiced perception" in a similar fashion. Ken Wilber uses the term "true but partial" to describe the same thing.)
Kris alluded to our "thimble worldviews" and how we sometimes mistake what we know for understanding IT ALL. He reminded the group of the Rose Colored Glasses session from August, 2005 (who's aftermath was one of the most controversial and interesting Topics on the old NewWorldView forums).
(As a recap, we explored the difference between GREEN and YELLOW worldviews in relation to the July 2005 London bombings. Essentially, unhelathy GREEN goes to extremes with it's love of egalitarian ideals and rights for all, and becomes blind to the pathological nature of terrorism. For example, "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." This reflects an extreme form of relativism that causes more harm than good in global terms because it wears "rose colored glasses" that blind it, and serves to promote the very thing it pretends to ignore and rationalize away.)
(So I was strapped in for the session, and reminded of my own "rose colored glasses." Hey, just because my YELLOW can see the performative contradictions of GREEN doesn't mean I have all the answers. But I can now address to the kinds of problems that GREEN worldvies create, thinking of Einstein's quote, "The significant problems we face can never be solved at the level of thinking that created them." So my YELLOW isn't off the hook, by definition it will, in turn, generate issues and problems that I become blind to unless I develop into TURQUOISE.)
Kris went on to say that Seth, Elias, himself, and others often skim and present their conscious creation ideas to our "thimble worldviews" (meaning that they present information that is often just a little bit ahead of our present stage of development, but refrain from providing more than we can digest).
As such, many people in our conscious creation community read a few words out of the thousands presented (Seth/Jane has over 40 books, the Elias Transcripts and Digests cover over 25,000 pages, Kris Chronicles over 2,500 pages of published material), and think they have it all figured out. (This really applies to all of us. It means that these sources can only present "true but partial glimpses" of any big picture cosmology, and we need to take it all with a grain of salt.)
(I was also struck with the sync that Elias had just given new information the day before in a group session in Brattleboro, VT. The latest wave in consciousness now focuses on the belief system of perception, one of the ten core belief systems according to Elias. So Kris is talking about our perception and putting a proverbial burr under the saddle once again!)
Kris criticized those who reduce everything that Seth, Elias, Kris, and others talk about to "it's all about beliefs." (This implies is that beliefs are NOT 100% causal. They do NOT create 100% of our reality. They are very, very important over all, as Seth pointed out in The Nature of Personal Reality, and all his books, but in and of themselves are only local constructions to Framework 1.)
Yet, many who spout "it's all about beliefs" continue to face challenges, large and small. Kris went even further and stated that some folks speak only to the most surface level aspects of the over all body of conscious creation material (he talked about the whole, not just his material, this in itself is a crucial step forward in my view).
They don't pay attention to the transformative aspects of the material that demand doing the work and penetrating deeply into the subconscious aspects of mind. This is quite prevalent, more so than anyone is willing to publicly express! (And yet he just did that... quite the provocateur this evening!)
He reminded us, yet again, that we must AAA (his variation of Elias' NIRAA) our issues to penetrate into the subconscious layers and aspects of Self.
He also made a distinction between ordinary "adventures and practices" and DEPTH "adventures and practices" (he's been delivering these all year. Recall that it's the "year of enlightenment by compassion" and he began delivering Avatar Yoga at the February 2006 Workshop here in Castaic, CA. So these recent "adventures and practices" are all tools in the toolbox of Avatar Yoga, designed to penetrate into the depths of the subconscious mind, and directly to essence).
Again, "it's all about beliefs" in not the magic bullet many believe it to be. There is a very important kernel of truth ("true but partial," so he's not dismissing it, just redefining it in the context of his Avatar Yoga).
Catch phrases like "the point of power is in the present" (and I'd add "you create your own reality"), and others can indeed be effective when used properly. However, they can and have also been used to actually further marginalize, repress, and deny issues (people say one thing, but actually BELIEVE something else in their subconscious, so they are at cross purposes and wonder why they still have issues and challenges! So people use conscious creation buzzwords to actually perpetuate their issues, and remain fragmented and disconnected from their real subconscious issues. This is basic Western psychology 101 in my view, though Freudian and Jungian lineages don't go very deep into the subconscious as Seth, Elias, and Kris define it.)
(So there are energetic blockages held tightly within the subconscious that need to be brought to the surface, back into objective awareness. This is the purpose of the AAA (and NIRAA) practices. They help to unblock various limiting belief structures that allow the outer ego to continue to grow and transform.)
Kris restated "The present is the interpreter of the past, and the weaver of the future." (A clarification of "the persent in the point of power" since it spells it out! The present is also the point of repression, denial, and marginalization! It's a double-edge sword.)
The Now is a "portal of freedom" (and also a portal of repression!), "a threshold of awakening" (or further forgetting!) to dissolve these energetic blockages. Kris also used a dungeon metaphor (thinking also of Elias' oubliette) to describe the power of these subconscious constructions (also thinking of Elias' shrines).
Kris challenged us to drink from "the cup of freedom," and "get drunk on joy" by addressing to our issues through various adventures and practices.
Break at 5:13 PM. (General discussion on the previous. Anya asked about how long belief work goes on, and I said, "until we die," meaning that it's an ongoing practice that we can benefit from.)
Resume at 5:30 PM.
Kris reminded us that the Seth saying, "the present is the point of power" has been used to suppress and misinterpret things. He used the example that "a clown with a red nose who puts on an orange nose is still a clown." (In other words, the change is superficial, and didn't penetrate into deeper layers of the psyche.)
He then presented three stages of "influence" on our over all development by our parents (which is an interesting way of saying that our parents play a crucial role in co-creating our realities. Reality creation doesn't occur in a vacuum. Our space continuum, to use a Sethian concept, exists nested within other space continuums.)
The fetus begins to "record" all the thoughts, emotions, feelings, sensations, etc. of the mother. So this is a crucial aspect of the first stage. There is a deep influence (a dominating influence or co-creation, note that I'm defining differently than Elias' definition of co-creation) of the matriarchal figure in our lives until age 8-10 (I later asked about what if the mother leaves or dies, and he said that the next closest female influence plays this role, e.g., aunt, grandmother, guardian). This influence is not directly causal, but strongly colors our belief systems. (In terms of Wilber's Integral Psychology, this covers five or six of ten general fulcrums of development from fetus to corpse. So the feminine influence is very, very powerful!)
The female influence gives way to the patriarchal, which lasts until age 14-15. Individuation continues into adulthood from there. So there are three very general stages of influences on our worldviews (belief systems). Experiences get buried and forgotten into the subconscious realms of the conscious mind.
Kris challenged us to really pay attention (notice!) to our inner dialogues, not the chatter involving in buying a pair of shoes, or other mundane daily tasks, but those core dialogues. They will reflect the influence of our parental role models. (This is an ongoing adventure and practice as long as we need to address particular issues.)
He also mentioned the hamster wheel here (thinking of Elias' hamster wheel metaphor) where we run and run to the point of exhaustion but don't know why we're not getting anywhere. However, he also pointed out that the hamster wheel has a door - a way to get off! But that jumps requires courage and persistence.
Kris then opened the floor to questions. I asked about, given the nature of families in 2006 in the West, what happens when there are same sex influences (gay and lesbian couples). He said that there would be a "feminine" and "masculine" aspect in ALL cases (so clearly, male and female roles and influences are not limited to biology. So this goes beyond genitalia. It's "transcends yet includes.")
Anya asked a question about some of her practices.
Kris then prepped us for an Adventure & Practice (I should mention here that Serge spent the month of September getting a hypotherapist license, and Kris has clearly taken advantage of this new knowledge and applied it to his Avatar Yoga practices.)
Kris took a good 4-5 minutes to count us down into a relaxed state. He used a Castle to represent our subconscious, and prepared us to enter its many rooms by using a large key. I was struck at this point that an archetypal wise man replete with shoulder-length hair, and royal blue robe presented me with my key. I thanked my inner self for the messenger, and proceeded. I was aware of Kris' voice in the distance at times, and dreaming lightly at times.
Kris brought us out, and I was very relaxed. Rumi, who had been sleeping at my feet for much of the session, had disappeared behind the couch. We had a break and resumed at 6:27 PM. Kris did a post-hypnotic suggestion, lightly counting us down, but not all the way, and suggested we'd remember our experience in the next few days and would also be processing in our dreams.
He was right! My dreams from Monday morning and this morning were vivid, detailed and presented lots of subconscious imagery and issues for my NIRAAing. Kris told us to engage this adventure/practice once or twice a day, and that would produce many benefits, increased awareness of subconscious content, deeper relaxation, deeper intuitiveness, and a sense of increased stability, we'd be less prone to upsets (and this is a metric we can all use to discern progress. What used to be automatic, knee-jerk responses begin to lessen and disappear because the energetic holding (blockage) is released).
Kris "left the building" at 6:37 PM.
We all sang Jen a happy birthday and there was much merriment, cake eating, and celebrating with the Delaware group. After a few minutes of group chatter we all signed off.
Since Jo was away, the menu was a bit on sparse side! Hors d'oeurves included cheese and crackers, and a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. The main course was a sour dough, peanut butter, and black raspberry jam English Muffin. For dessert: chocolate Rugalah cookies.