Changing your thoughts is nothing compared to changing the perceiver of them.
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Six months before my overnight awakening, I dreamed I was wandering in the ruins of an ashram in India. (Later I would learn from photos this dreamscape is the now derelict grounds where the Maharishi held court in 1968 with the likes of actress Mia Farrow and the Beatles.)
In that dream, a white haired female guru approached me. She took my right arm, drew me aside and whispered, “This will be a full transmission.” She then kissed my mouth and pressed her forehead to mine, where I knew my third eye to be located.
At once I was filled with a lightness of being—which I might expect if an enlightened person were to transmit grace, even in a dream. But what happened next startled me. I was seeing—not through my eyeballs—but through my single eye, as if all my perception had relocated to a place above and between my eyes.
What I was seeing with this eye was another single eye hovering in space and peering back at me. I knew instantly that I was seeing “the eye of God” but at the same time I knew this eye looking at me was the same eye through which I perceived it. (Chew on that koan for a bit.)
I woke up, wrote down the dream and forgot about it until a few months later when this “transmission” kicked in and an awakening happened. For the record, I do not know for certain who that female guru was in this dream ashram. But in real life, I spent three days in retreat with Ganga-gi about six weeks before my awakening.
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I have a theory. And it’s most likely a well known truth for deep scholars of Vedic wisdom, and for quantum physicists out on a limb, and for scientists on the frontiers of consciousness research.
We are all magicians.
We are all spinning reality into apparent form, all of the time. The only difference between the everyday Joe and his magic, is that it is wielded blindly and relatively impotently. Books like “The Secret” and new age teachings on “The Power of Positive Thinking” and “The Law of Attraction” point in the direction of truth but miss the mark.
These teachings tell you that if you change your thoughts/vibrational frequency (and positive feelings will follow) you change your reality. But what they don’t tell you is the key to real magic.
Changing your thoughts is nothing compared to changing the perceiver of them.
What I mean by this is simple. You are either generating thoughts (or noticing them for purists who insist thoughts just uncontrollably arise or happen) through your finite self, or through your Infinite Self. You are either “seeing” reality through your mortal two eyes or through your Eternal One Eye.
It is this one shift in perception that the teaching called A Course in Miracles defines as a “miracle.” It is a holy instant in which a perceptual shift from finite to infinite happens and then real form-changing, rule bending miracles become possible.
It is in this deeper spiritual context that I have noticed that just changing/monitoring/manipulating thoughts to determine outcomes in my apparent favour is child’s play at best and folly at worst.
Because those thoughts I can most easily tinker with are sourced in the chatter of my finite self, it is like attempting to grant wishes to a four year old child. (One reason why the Desire Map work of Danielle Laporte has not appealed to me—it’s saying, let your pleasure-and-temporal satisfaction-self rule). Laporte calls desire an “evolutionary impulse.”
But let’s get real. It depends on which self (finite or infinite) is doing the desiring, whether the impulse is evolutionary or simply self-satisfying.
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I don’t want to be a downer on the whole “you create your reality movement.” I was an early adopter, starting with a book called Seth Speaks that I inhaled as truth in 1987. I’ve had my lion’s share of major manifesting success stories.
But, let’s look at it this way. If I am manifesting from a less than ultimate aspect of self, of what lasting value and transformative power are my creations? Yes a child can make a wish. But does a child’s wish consider the good of all? Does the child yet know even what is best for herself? Realistically, a child will wish for gratification, or forbidden fruit, or immediate pleasure. And of course, for more toys.
The teaching of the bestselling book “The Secret” caters to this child in us. It tells us we can create with the power of positive thought and emotion the bigger car, the grander house, the better job, the perfect romantic partner. And yes, to some extent we can manipulate the world by “manifesting” these things using the rudimentary tools of the Finite Self (affirmations, positive thinking, creative visualization, vision boards, neurolinguistic programming, desire-mapping and more).
But ultimately these tools have one single and drastic limit. They are tools made to fit the hands of your grasping and childish finite self. They will never work in the hands of your Limitless Being. And for that reason, if you care to create real magic that matters, that heals this world and transforms your being, you need a different set of tools. You need the magic wand meant to be used by your Quantum Self.
That wand is here already. It is what you are. You are the wand itself. Your body (energetic and physical), your mind, your feelings are the elements that make up the structure of this wand. Even the much maligned ego and personality have their roles in this wand that they are a part of forming.
But a wand without a current is useless. The power that activates the wand that you are, that runs like electricity through a lightning rod, is none-other that your Infinite Self in the form of Shakti.
When you realize that the only magic worth making, the only spells worth casting, are those that source from the Real You, the whole Secret biz drops away. It’s like graduating from kindergarten and going straight to architecture school. You used to play with play dough, to create forms that crumble. Now you are working with steel and stone, and drafting edifices of Truth, Flow, Wonder and Love.
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Life is different when seen through the lens of my One Eye. From this holy lens, nothing is ever wrong and everything can be righted. It is an eye that sees paradox as delightfully essential.
And I am only in the training wheels phase of learning the truth of the Yoga Vasistha statement: “The world is as you see it.”
The world is not simply as I “manifest” it as The Secret would tell me. It is more intimate than that. The world is made from my perception. The very idea that there is a “law of attraction” and a self to use this law, is a part of the world my perception has created.
In the end, what I am pointing at is simple and yet elusive.
After years of playing with the The Law of Attraction, I quit for a better game. It’s the game of “Not my will, but thy will” and then the immediate joy of remembering that “Thy will IS my will.”
As such, I am experimenting now with a change in how I see my role in reality creation. Rather than play the child’s game of fulfilling every desire through “magnetizing” outcomes, I am waiting to see what desire wants of me. Rather than the fool’s game of wanting this or that, I am allowing the flow of my own being to provide what is perfectly needed before a want arises.
This is not about being passive or without dreams or goals, but rather noticing that by moving into the One-Eye perception (which can be called constant effortless surrender) my goals surprise even me, the non-ordinary magnifies, synchronicity intensifies, and miracles multiply.
In the words of mystic poet W.B. Yeats, “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
That sharpness grows when we are willing to behold the world through the One Eye of our Quantum Self. And then, watch as the astoundingly magical and miraculous become everyday events.
As Dorothy says, “Toto, I have a a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”
Awareness is here…..or maybe in the Land of Oz.
Lori Ann
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Featured Image: Omni magazine cover photo
Magician: Witches Tarot, Illustated by Mark Evans
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pbob710699236
First, the place that you are describing as your third eye is, for me, the kingdom of heaven, or simply, heaven. I live there so much that I am ashamed to say that I take it for granted. However, please, do not think me vain or a braggart.
Secondly, one particular Man of God who I observed long ago could physically open a hole in a sky of ugly dark grayish-black clouds so that an intense ray of sunshine would beam down on him. These are miracles to us but they are everyday ordinary stuff to Men of God.
Also, this kingdom of heaven is easily slipped out of for me, but fortunately, I can get back there almost instantaneously. That would probably lead one to ask, “Why would you want to do that and why leave there?” And, I would probably answer with something like, “Because I can!”
Thirdly, I really liked your article and you, of course; however, at this juncture, I did not want to go into how I managed to attain this kingdom of heaven for myself, that is, the process involved. You are very close to the Truth. Perhaps, that is a conversation for another time. I surely hope so. I do affirm, not that you need it, that you are on the right track for sure. Until then, I remain here in Albuquerque, NM.
Love Always, and God Bless You Always,
pbob
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jogarceau
Lori, I’ve been thinking that intuitive awareness guides me, instead of me creating the agenda. But you wrote, “You are either generating thoughts…through your finite self, or through your Infinite Self.”
So, pretty cool shift. I’m still creating … just changing the dimension from finite to Infinite. No wonder I have more clarity after I meditate.
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Lori Ann Lothian
Yay!
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Sydney Roberts
Hi Lori ,
Well, for a number of years now it has been clear to me that I am only the co-pilot of my life. It makes for a satisfying surrender and opens up doors for me both in mind and heart.
Namaste
Sydney
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Trang
Thank you Lori Ann for your brilliant reminder.
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Chris
I also drank tea with Igor in sleep:)
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Owen R. Powell
Brilliant article, Lori Ann! Exactly on track, and synchronistically serving as confirmation that I’m not the only one getting the same transmission. Shortly after my Kundalini Awakening last year, I began to see the Eye during kundalini yoga, and then in personal meditation. After fusing the energy of the Goddess Kundalini with the Goddess Ayahuasca, my mindspace became indescribably superpositional, particularly visually, and the Eye evolved into pure Atma blasts, a state of quantum ecstatic bliss/information exchange, where all internal sense of Self is pure radiant energy, the Eye becoming a Sun. The body Voids out, even while being acutely aware of it, Time ceases to exist, as does the external reality, even while being meditatively aware of one’s surroundings. On a quantum physics level, I think that it is a memory and experience of the Universe in the first Planck lengths of the Big Bang, when it was a superpositional bubble of all of the Energy that would ever exist; what the Tibetan Tantric Buddhists call Dharmakaya, the All-Mind, or All-good. It is the unified Light of our own Volition, beyond all duality, which, according to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, is the first great Singularity that bursts upon us when we die, and from which most people recoil, only to be born again in another form. It is the Mystery of our Self, part of the endless game by which we wile away Eternity. 🙂
Thanks again for this brilliant article!
Namaste.
☀💛☀💛☀💛☀
O.
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Lori Ann Lothian
I like how you express! And yes, there is a “transmission” happening on a wides scale in which I have observed not only more and more everyday awakenings, but also deepening realizations that go far beyond the current non-duality dogma of “no self” and therefore, no agency…it’s my sense that many who are swept up in contemporary non-duality teachings–who have not had an awakening–become mental devotees of an idea of no-self, “just this” etc. And for those who have had a shift/awakening, some tarry in the land of witness consciousness long enough to come down with Zen Sickness (and call it enlightenment.)
I am aware my writings are not well accepted in classic non-duality forums on Facebook because I engage the notion of agency. That is like telling a fundamentalist Christian that You are God. Lol…
Thanks for reading and commenting Owen!
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Michael
Hi Lori!
Just a question: What ist zen sickness and how can it come from being to Long in witness consciousness?
thanks for the answer!
Michael
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Zan
“And for those who have had a shift/awakening, some tarry in the land of witness consciousness long enough to come down with Zen Sickness (and call it enlightenment.)” ~ Thank you, Lori Ann. I lol’d at this 😁 Your writing and your comments are a delight!
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Gaelle
Hi Lori,
thanks for this article and the video # 2. I would like to share some thoughts here :
– I have read the full article and just one thing pop up in my inner space : “thy will is my will”. At this moment, this was the answer to a question : does the no-self place generates any will ? Apparently, the answer is yes. Some will are childish, as you say, and come from the bottom, and some others come from a larger place, from the top.
– I also wanted to share here with you my first reaction to the video : “why do we need to know about “WHO IS doing the magic”? Hey, why is it so important ? To be honest, I don’t want to know the answer because what I experienced of the magic is sometimes so beautiful, so perfectly timed, has a so large impact around me (people are sometimes touched by this wave of grace), that asking the question “WHO as done that magic ?” seems quite useless. No need to go back to analyze for me.
Thank you for sharing all of this Lori !
Regards,
Gaëlle
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Lori Ann Lothian
I love this line: ” the magic is sometimes so beautiful, so perfectly timed, has a so large impact around me (people are sometimes touched by this wave of grace),”
I am heading toward discussion of agency and that is why the Who question. I am not looking for an out there who, but the inward realization that this beautiful magic amplifies and expands when we are willing to embrace the truth there is not nor has there ever really been a separation between My Will and Thy Will….there can be confusion but never separation. Stay tuned…
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Gaelle
I need some help – translation help : what do you mean with “agency” ? The english-french dictionary says something like “office” or “power”… really, I don’t understand. It seems to be an important part of yours answers, that idea of “agency”. Could you try to say it with some others words ? If you can, thanks a lot !
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Lori Ann Lothian
In non-duality emptiness style, there is focus on things simply happening, with not one to make them happen. We can witness but not influence…there is NO agency means there is no “actor” or agent for action. I say BS. I say it’s clear there is agency/agents of action and in my writing lately I am exploring what i am calling the finite and the infinite agents of action. In truth, this dichotomy is unreal but it serves as model for understanding the DEPTH from which action arises. Action sources from the DEEPness of our BEING I am calling INFINITE..and it has agency, or choice, in what happens. Does this help?
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christinart
Thank you Lori Ann, for these beautiful and clear words of distinction. It resonates very much with what I am experiencing/ learning in Life. It’s an ‘eye opener’, literally (: There is a radiance and fullness in perceiving the world/reality through that ‘one eye’. I only enjoy moments of this, including the occasional ‘peace of mind’, knowing there is more – or less to it. For me it’s a process, an undoing, a practise of awareness, whenever I remember. With Love Christine x
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Lori Ann Lothian
Yes, it is most certainly an undoing!
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Michael
Hi!
Wonderful yet again!
I like especially “not my will but thy be done”….”thy will is my will”. It is truly wonderful when we have that realization 🙂
But i have to say something. Not thoughts are the creator, they are an effect of our unintegrated charge in the emotionalbody. This only becomes clear once we have developed emotionalbodyawareness before we are to mentally bound and the mentalbody thinks it is god. We can think conscious thoughts but most of the time they are an effect, that is why there is talk about the “monkey mind” and “that thoughts can not be stopped” and a lot of spiritual teachings try to stop thoughts negating its cause. Because as an effect… remove the charge and the thoughts will be still. For more on this please read the work of Michael Brown author of “The presence process” and “alchemy of the heart”.
The last thousands of years were very male dominated and suppressed the female (internally the thinking suppressed the feeling) but with the female coming more into balance the role of the emotionalbody will become much clearer, but for most is not clear yet.
much love Lori
Michael
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Lori Ann Lothian
Thanks Michael…I agree wholeheartedly that thoughts are an effect vs cause. Yet attention to the content does shift reality at one level. One impact of awakening for me has been a huge cessation of unnecessary thought…while I had experienced this inner quiet now and then in mystical highs over the years, post awakening it has become more or less an abiding state. It was almost a shock to realize that what I called “peace” was simply the quiet of not hearing thoughts 24-7….I called it The Death of the Narrator. You can read more about it here. https://theawakeneddreamer.com/2012/03/03/death-of-the-narrator/
Thanks for your input! I will read Michael’s book.
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