V

Fact, Faith and Doubt

In the essay A Binary Buddy, an idea was put forth concerning the splitting of a ruling "Godforce" that we call The Absentia, and how our minds are likewise split into binary forms of thought that are at times complementary and at other times contradictory. The theory being that we are in fact a manifest expression of the non-manifest blueprint, which is in fact binary at ALL levels of abstraction, including... paradoxically, that of Unity (see the essay The Three Unities elsewhere on this site). The splitting of our binary minds can be seen in many ways. In the essay Rules are for Suckers we encountered a split of mind between those who follow the rules of a society or group vs. those who ignore rules, or choose to break rules for the purposes of free thinking (see the essay Rules are for Suckers elsewhere on this site). In that essay, we also acknowledged how free thinking can lead to things like creative and innovative thoughts that could lead to better tarot card reading. And as our free thinking mind continued contemplating all the possibilities, we also acknowledged how the same free thinking mindset is used by criminals who flout the rules to get what they want out of this world. In a world where getting what we want seems to be an overarching priority no matter what we do, the practice of breaking or ignoring rules becomes an art form that many use to great effect in influencing the minds of others.

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Unbelievable Belief

We may not want to admit it, but, in theory, the mind that ignores rules in order to be creative, innovative and a better tarot card reader is the same mind that ignores rules to be criminal... and if we look even further, we will see that it is also the same mind that ignores rules in order to believe the unbelievable. Yes, it logically follows that the unbelievable can be believed... IF we ignore the rules of thought and laws of nature that make something unbelievable. Interestingly enough, this ignoring of rules to believe the unbelievable is often how major advances are made in the world of science - a study that many don't typically associate with belief in the unbelievable, but only with belief in the believable. But it's true, free thinking can be found in many places. What is also true is how the intoxication of free thinking, mentioned in the essay Rules are for Suckers, can also be found in many places. With this thought in mind, we can admire and appreciate the benefits of having a binary mind that does not allow either side to completely annihilate the other, but instead is always there to maintain a sense of doubt and wonder - doubt that such-n-such a fact is true... doubt that such-n-such a fiction is true. Our Passionate, Free-Thinking, Right-Brained, Less Conscious, Imagining mind will doubt a scientific fact to be true. Our Rational, Rule-Thinking, Left-Brained, More Conscious Reckoning mind will doubt a religious fiction to be true. The study of consciousness being presented everywhere on this site believes that both of these minds working and blending together create the greatest Truth possible.

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The Right Righteousness

Of course, to the person who has thrown themselves exclusively to one side of this Rule-Thinking vs. Free-Thinking duality, there is no doubt. It is only those who allow themselves to experience both sides of their perceptive capabilities with equal regard that doubt is ever found. And while those who have thrown themselves to one extreme or another might view doubt as something threatening to their way of life, in the study of consciousness being presented everywhere on this site, doubt is considered healthy, because doubt - if kept and kindled - can eventually lead to paradox. And while many also view paradox as something undesirable that should be avoided at all costs, this study of consciousness views paradox as the most human experience of Divinity possible (see The Absentia elsewhere on this site). In the study of consciousness being presented everywhere on this site Paradox is the irreducible crux of universal flux (see the Conclusion of the book All Things Are Numbers elsewhere on this site). Or... as some might phrase it, Paradox is God. So, if doubt can help lead to paradox, it is best for us to cultivate a balanced mind capable of knotting our facts and fiction together as one.

But, not everyone likes such crazy wisdom. Most prefer to throw themselves to one extreme or another. When a religious/spiritual mind does this it can cause them to look back on a life of rules as a life meant for suckers... or as some might phrase it, sinners. In the minds of some people, sinners live and die under a life of earthly laws, but with faith and piety it is theorized that we can live forever under the grace of Holy Righteousness - having no need for earthly laws [Romans 3:21]. In the minds of many, there is no doubt about it. Or is there? Does faith in what is Holy really lead to Holy Righteousness, or does it lead to Self-righteousness? Some might argue that the deeper and deeper we go - or as others may phrase it... the higher and higher we go into our Passionate, Free-Thinking, Right-Brained, Less Conscious, Imagining mind of Religion, the more into our Self we go. And while a lot can be gleaned from such experiences, a doubter might consider the possibility that what we find is not in fact God, but only our "other self" mistaken, by the eager passions of our untamed, Free-Thinking mind, to be something, or someone else, something, or someone we want it to be. But whether our discoveries are of our Self or something Holy, as we go further into the realm of the Free-Thinking imagination, the less regard we have for the rules of the "sinners" we leave behind, and the more we begin to view our own self-righteous views - our own moral/ethical code - as the moral/ethical code of "God."

As a contemplative mind goes further and further into their Passionate, Free-Thinking, Right-Brained, Less Conscious, Imagining mind of Religion, it detaches from its other self, giving it less and less regard. Established Facts tend to be more public, while Faith tends to be more personal and private. Thus a certain degree of alienation occurs, from our world of facts, the more into our Self we go. In general, the alienation that society imposes upon criminals is not all that different from the voluntary isolation of priests who put themselves above the laws of ordinary humans - i.e. sinners, and come to view those laws as only necessary to control the lives of sinners, and therefore only applicable to sinners. They isolate themselves from society, just like our tarot Hermit, high on a mountaintop, above it all. And even when they are not high on a mountaintop, but are living among us, preaching in a church every week and tending to the flock the rest of the week, they do it always with a certain level of detachment. Like a shepherd who is not a sheep, the Holy Person is not to be considered an ordinary human. Or so they convince themselves and others to believe in the process of becoming a believer who lives forever under (Holy) or (Self) righteousness.

Every mountaintop has its foothills and valleys at the base. The word base has many meanings. One is about being the bottom support on which something stands, like a pyramid that tapers to a point, or like a mountaintop... with a sole hermit at the top. Another meaning for "base" is about being morally low or inferior. When Holy People rise above the madding crowd that is their base, they often look back with disgust upon the morally low, living under human laws... and thank God for their elevated position of righteousness. But again... is it really a Holy form of righteousness, or is it Self-righteousness? That, of course, depends on whether we believe that the top of that pyramid, or the top of that mountain actually reaches to the grace of God or not. In believing that anyone has ever accomplished the feat of raising up to the heights of God, some believe that they can too - at least by association, and so view the righteousness they live under as God-righteous and not Self-righteous. While on the other hand, those who have doubts that anyone has ever reached high enough to be embraced by the grace of God might assume the latter of those two.

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Touched by an Angel

The point being made here is that the feelings of rising above the masses; achieving a higher level of understanding about life; and finding "God" will come to ANYONE who traverses the numerologically labeled steps of the theoretical model of existence being described everywhere on this site. What so many view as an experience of Holy Ascendance to Heaven, this study of consciousness views as a completely natural phenomenon of any contemplative mind that accomplishes the task of breaking free of conventional thinking to experience the full spectrum of life held within the design of The Numerical Tarot deck and the theoretical model of existence upon which it is based. In following such a path, into or out of our theoretical model of existence, we can see how Isolation is an important component of the 1/9 Cerebral state that looks down on the 4/6 Visceral masses engaging each other in ways that require human laws to keep order and sanity. High up, in isolation - whether that be physical isolation or just the isolation of a Self-righteous mind amid crowds of sinners - the need for laws dissipates the further into isolation we go, thus making rules a thing for for suckers... or sinners.

When a 4/6 Visceral person follows the path of our theoretical model of existence outward, toward The Void, and the Absentia/Godforce beyond, they go through various stages of change that can, at times, and for some people, produce an ever-increasing feeling of righteousness - whether believed to be God-based or Self-based. These stages are not too different from the stages felt by people passing on to death, as described in the essay The Four Left Over, seen elsewhere on this site, where many people have a similar encounter with something they take to be God. We can follow this path by arranging a traditional deck according to the parallel 9s layout used by The Numerical Tarot, or just use The Numerical Tarot, laid out like the diagram below, with the Quaternary stacke up, in sequence, from the base of the 5 - the law-giving 5 of The Hierophant or Pope in traditional decks. In following this path we would either move from the center of our 1 through 9 number line outward, symmetrically, from the 5, or... follow the Quaternary up.

By the way... this is the way the Quaternary is really meant to be viewed. In several places around this site, where a complete layout of the deck is shown, the Quaternary is either running off the end of the Majors (in an attempt to resemble traditional tarot decks), or it is arranged in such a way as to duplicate the intersecting points of the grid that makes up the Court cards. But this idea of branching off of the 5 and/or being unfolded to create a number line is the most descriptive layout, and really shows the way the Quaternary was meant to be understood.

Not everyone is capable of traversing this path up, or out. Even though, as representations of personality types, we all know what each stage is, actually moving through them with a contemplative mind, to achieve a sense of Holy Righteousness that is above the laws of the masses can be difficult for some. Thus...

5 Elemental Stage of Essence: At the core we encounter that controlling 5 just mentioned above. In traditional decks this is illustrated with the figure of the Pope or a Hierophant. In The Numerical Tarot it is illustrated with the figure of an alchemistic Wizard. The idea in all cases being... a person with special powers of control. Control over what, may vary. Maybe they control minds, maybe they control the weather. Whatever they control, they gain respect among their peers. They are seen as messengers of divinity, in a neutral position of earthly existence - making them human, but neutral to human the variations of action, thought, feelings and emotions that plague humanity and cause all suffering.

4/6 Visceral Stage of Heart: In advancing from, or building upon that of wizardry, we see how a contemplative mind, at the 4/6 level... ascending to High Holy states, will next feel elevated among their brethren in ways similar to a King, who - like the Pope or Hierophant - is still human, but above the rest... or, above the masses... stronger than the rest, and ready to be elevated. In the tarot, this would correspond to The Emperor card (a 4). While The Lovers (a 6) would represent the idea of fornicating sinners making up a base from which our kingly hero rises above. Thus, the more power and prestige gained or granted from the wizardry of the controlig 5, the more likely one is to advance to that of King.

3/7 Sensorial Stage of Soul: In the 3/7 Sensorial stage there will be a feeling of being touched by God, or perhaps an Angel of God, which will convince many that they are indeed on a spiritual path toward God. In the tarot this would correspond to the caress of Mother Nature illustrated in most decks by The Empress (a 3) or in The Numerical Tarot as The Beauty. While the idea of spiritual transport toward God would correspond to The Chariot (a 7), or The Saint in The Numerical Tarot deck, or... if the Sun card is taken to be symbolic of goodness of God, the warmth of the sun on the naked skin of God's children would be a physical metaphor for the spiritual touching of God. By advancing to this stage our subject is raised to the level of a Holy Person.

2/8 Perceptual Stage of Spirit: At the 2/8 Perceptual stage there will be a vision, accompanied by a feeling of euphoria or lifting up, or out, of the body. In the tarot this would correspond to the card of Judgment or The Floating Euphoria of The Numerical Tarot. There will also be, at this stage, a feeling of washing away what is being shed, like a baptism washes away the sin of 4/6 sinners. In the tarot, this washing away, or purging of poisons would correspond to the Star card (card 17 = 1+7 = an 8) or... LUSTRATION: The Psychopomp of The Numerical Tarot. Additionally, the idea of water at the 2 and 8, or 2/8 stage, corresponds with the arrangement of the four elements as seen in The Numerical Tarot, as different from that of tradition. By departing from the physical body, our Holy Person becomes a luminous visage rising up.

1/9 Cerebral Stage of Mind: At the 1/9 Cerebral stage there will be a feeling of light shining forth from one's very being, accompanied by a heightened feeling of importance, or being The One... i,e, the Alpha and the Omega, The Light of the World. In the tarot, this idea of importance would correspond to The Magician (a 1), or the Genius in the Numerical Tarot deck, while the idea of being the light of the world would correspond to The Hermit (a 9). And the idea of being the Alpha and Omega would correspond to The World, or The God in the Numerical Tarot deck. Thus... if all the right moves are made and everything works out well, a person can advance from Wizard (5), to King (4), to Holy Person (3) to a Elevated Spirit (2) and finally, to God (1) in 5 easy steps. Well, maybe not so easy, but certainly a predictable pattern... at least to those who are well acquainted with the theoretical model of existence being put forth everywhere on this site. With such a design in place we could all become important... the light of the world... were it not for the pitfalls of what comes from such power.

In becoming a God, what - one might ask - all too often follows such feelings of importance, light, life and all encompassing presence?... Self-righteousness, or a "God complex," and... the looking down from above, on the 4/6 masses as filthy sinners and fornicators. Or... would such righteousness be legitimate God-righteousness, looking down from the heavens at lost sheep and followers? Who can tell? People who experience this path without any such map as that which has been laid out just now, will not recognize the experience as a normal phenomenon occurring as the result of traversing a predictable pattern of nature, they will most likely consider the experience to be a blessed holy baptism into a spiritual realm of divine energy. Is it? Does knowing the pattern make it less magical, like knowing the trick behind the illusion, or seeing the man behind the curtain pulling the levers?

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Unconditional Belief

It would seem that the only way to tell if someone's elevated state has lead to God-righteousness and not Self-righteousness would be to look for God-like emanations coming from the seemingly human limitations of the person in question. One way that people do this is by looking for miracles. This is acceptable to many, because miracles not only require us to abandon rules of thought and laws of nature, they actually DO (in theory anyway) transcend rules of thought and laws of nature. This is why so many spiritual religious documents are so crammed full of miracles. Because miracles can't be explained by our Rational, Rule-Thinking, Left-Brained, More Conscious mind of Science, they force us to utilize our Passionate, Free-Thinking, Right-Brained, Less Conscious mind of Religion. In partaking of something that throws us into our Religious mind, we are easily convinced of the Holiness of a person's actions, and therefore the Holiness of the person. The more miracles, the more Holy!

Unfortunately, miracles require witnesses (who are often gullible and fallible in their ways) in order for a miracle to be something more than just a myth or coincidence. People who want to convince others that someone is in fact Holy, will often warn us to beware of impostors and posers. Think of how easy it would be for any really accomplished illusionist to be taken as Holy, by simply promoting tricks as miracles. All any illusionist or magician would have to do is walk the walk and talk the talk of a Holy Person, and let people think that their tricks are in fact miracles. So how do we tell the difference between a Magician or Illusionist trying to look Holy, and a bona fide Holy Person of miracles? Do we just believe them both, like innocent, naive children who are unaware of the laws of nature... until such time as we are blindsided by confessions of deception or other wrongdoing? Is there no better way than that?

The answer appears to be no... that as long as we stay exclusively in our Free-Thinking mind there is absolutely no way to know if we are being bamboozled or not. Which is in fact the foundation of faith-based belief - trust in that which cannot be known or proven, and never looking outside that trust for any confirmation of truth. And whereas some might find such trust to be dangerous or scary, it isn't scary at all... IF we live completely, entirely and exclusively within that single, isolated world of belief. Thus, the key to belief is to be 100% committed to the belief, no matter what... and to NEVER have ANY doubts. Unfortunately, it is next to impossible to convince 100% of any population to be 100% committed about any single belief, 100% of the time. Thus, those who falter, or those who stand outside a particular circle of 100% belief, will point out how 100% belief equals 100% vulnerability - like the innocent child we are comparing ourselves to, or like a lamb to slaughter... or like someone asleep who is vulnerable to those who are awake. People who are awake, and looking around at both the Scientific as well as Religious sides of every issue, will see more than those who have shut out one half of their perceptive capabilities in order to achieve 100% commitment to belief that is rooted in faith. By introducing a questioning mind, these people of doubt can cause much trouble for others [James 1:5-8].

Here is a Triangle of Belief - belief by way of facts or belief by way of faith. Pick one, or maintain a healthy amount of doubt and skepticism about either possibility. Is doubt healthy, or poison? To many, doubt is like a cancerous growth. It must be eliminated as swiftly and completely as possible. People who desperately seek something they can hold on to - whether rooted in fact or faith - will fear doubt. But... by doubt we do NOT mean doubting one thing for the purpose of believing - and thereby clinging to - another. And it does not mean being left out of both because of an inability to choose one other another. It means not choosing - and thereby not clinging - to either the fact or faith end of the belief spectrum at all, and living with that uncertainty... like Socrates saying "As for me, all I know is that I know nothing". Not clinging is important, and doubt can help with that - even doubts about doubt can help, because doubts about doubt = paradox... which is the irreducible crux of universal flux! Which is something vitally important for any mind to discover! Some think that it takes a lot of faith to believe 100% in unprovable stories of miracles being true. But one could argue that indeed it takes even more faith to never completely believe those stories, or the alleged facts and laws of nature - facts and laws that have changed many times throughout the course of human history. In that way doubt becomes an ultimate act of faith. People think that faith is reserved for those who believe in miracles, but it takes faith to believe in fact as well. It might take a lot less faith, given how much evidence, proof and repeatable testing goes into the making of a fact. But it still takes a certain amount of faith to believe in so-called facts. But it takes even more faith than both of them to believe in doubt. If we take each of the horizontal bars of this diagram, and imagine them to be The Branch of Reason described in the essay Imagine A Reason To Believe, doubt becomes a saw cutting through that branch, making no portion of that belief safe to believe... or... cling to.

It is because of this need for 100% belief, and the trouble that doubters can cause, that individuals, as well as groups wishing to share a belief, thrust themselves over to their Passionate, Free-Thinking mind, and look back on their Rational, Rule-Thinking mind as filth to be washed away. If we shut out one half of our perception, we can rest assured that our beliefs are 100% true - whether those beliefs are about alleged facts of science, that follow accepted laws of nature, or alleged miracles of religion, that follow accepted feelings of knowing. Either way, faith-based belief is depended upon 100% committed acceptance. Whereas... conversely, if we let in just 1% of our other mind, our beliefs are no longer 100% true... they are now only 99% true... or, potentially untrue. This is why groups of people wanting to share a belief so often insist on 100% belief 100% of the time across 100% of their population, and will therefore shun anyone who expresses even 1% of their questioning mind. This is why doubters are so often seen as evildoers! Because, if we allow just 1% of our other mind into our thoughts, suddenly there is a middle ground of doubt that wasn't there before. 1% of our other mind might not convince us, but it does keep the concept of doubt alive. Unconditional belief leads to vulnerability. If we surrender to that vulnerability we can find many great things within the depths of our imagination and UnConscious mind to believe. But should they all be believed... unconditionally?

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The Double Mind

In the essay Rules are for Suckers it was observed how Sigmund Freud seemed to have a dim view of our Passionate, Free-Thinking mind, viewing it as lustful and lawless and in need of being tamed by our Rational, Rule-Thinking mind - like a parent taming a child. Now we see how believers of things miraculous tend to view our Rational, Rule-Thinking mind as limited and destructive and in need of being liberated by our Passionate, Free-Thinking mind. And so we go... around and around and around. Some people acknowledging that we have a double-mind, some preferring a single mind. In the end, birds of a feather indeed flock together. When we find something we believe to be 100% true, we tend to look for other people who also believe it to be 100% true, so that we can establish a perimeter of committed acceptance and, ultimately, protection against doubt, because the poisonous effects of doubt make us uncomfortable and unhappy in our pursuit of happiness and getting what we want.

And in case there is a feeling that this essay, or this site, is biased against believers through Faith over that of believers through Fact, we can acknowledge that people who want to believe something to be Holy are not the only ones to follow this path. People who accept scientific proof of things are also believers of a sort, and we can find just as many of them who shut out their Passionate, Free-Thinking mind of Imagination in order to believe whatever it is they choose to believe with 100% committed acceptance. And because they shut out their other mind, they are just as vulnerable to the poisonous effects of doubt. Belief is belief, whether we believe by way of faith in ideas that can't be proven or by way of established facts that might change with continuing research or accidental discovery. There is vulnerability in either path. Remember that episode from the popular television show "Friends" where Rational, Rule-Thinking Ross and Passionate Free-Thinking Phoebe are arguing about evolution? Throughout the show Ross keeps bugging Phoebe, trying to convince her that evolution is a scientific fact. Then Phoebe gets annoyed and asks Ross to open his mind and consider whether there isn't the teeny tiniest possibility that evolution could be wrong. To which Ross, in an attempt to be reasonable, slowly and reluctantly admits that yes there might be the teeniest... tiniest... possibility. Which causes Phoebe to jump back in shock, telling Ross that she can't believe he "caved" and how amazed she is that he just abandoned his whole belief system, just like that! To which the audience laughs! Followed by Ross saying "What, wait, no!" eventually exiting in humiliation. That's what 1% of our "other mind" will do... if we let it.

Some people think we should NEVER let our other mind in - that a double mind is in fact evil [Psalms 119:113, James 1:5-8]. Other people think it is healthy to always have doubt, however uncomfortable it makes us feel in our pursuit of happiness... or things allegedly higher. I don't believe this site is biased against belief through faith. But... because of the aforementioned condition of vulnerability that goes with faith, and the idea of passion that goes with following the religious path, the untamed spirit of the Passionate, Free-Thinking mind, if left untempered by our other mind, can lead to life threatening chaos. Thus, the study of consciousness being offered on this site proposes the possibility that 100% belief on our untamed side, equals a kind of intoxication of belief that can all too often lead to delusional thinking, or the aforementioned Self-Righteousness. There is nothing intrinsically wrong or evil about being Self-Righteous or untamed, or intoxicated... except where it might threaten life itself. Of course, to those who maintain 100% belief that our physical lives are inconsequential, and that we live forever through an idea that involved ascending to Holiness, there is no such thing as delusional thinking, and no problem loosing life [Matthew 10:39]. But, for those who allow themselves to question the idea of ascent to everlasting life in heaven, our terrestrial life has significance, and intoxicated, delusional thinking becomes a threat. And so we go... believing what we want, and trying, in our Self-Righteous ways, to re-direct each other this way or that. Is that ascent to heaven a real thing, or just a phenomenon of our theoretical model of existence playing out in our minds as something more significant than it actually is? What are we to believe? And should be believe it 100%? Or is it healthy to have a double mind?

I think that, by design, we have a double mind, whether we acknowledge and utilize it or not, or whether we block out half our mind so as to only have one mind, or not. Whether we block it out permanently, in order to protect a cherished belief system, or only block it out temporarily, to achieve short term goals - like doing a tarot reading. Either way, we are double minded, because... we are in fact a complementary manifestation of The Absentia... a paradoxically Binary Unity of Nature (see A Binary Buddy elsewhere on this site). I suppose that proposing such theories makes me a filthy sinner and an evil doubter to be avoided at all costs. But that's what I believe. And who will doubt me? Who will look within them with skepticism and express to me a measure of doubt about my belief? I know who. Those who don't get what they want by believing this point of view, that's who. Because... ultimately... people want what they want, and will do whatever it takes to get what they want. Period. So those who don't like the ideas being presented here will allow doubt to happen - they will embrace doubt... when it suits their needs. And those who do like the ideas being presented here will be able to label those other people who don't like these ideas as evil doubters and non-believers. And together we can take our "Us and Them" attitude and declare war on each other, so that each others doubt doesn't poison us, and prevent us from getting what we want.

Are the Double-Minded people of the world really a threat to society? 1% of Fact polluting Faith, or 1% of Faith polluting Fact. It's easy to believe in something when we only use facts, or only use faith. It's harder to believe when we try to use both. The desire of some spiritual philosophies to establish believes by demanding 100% One Mind out of 100% of its followers is a big reason why Science and Religion have such a never-ending war between each other. Scientists who refuse to consider wild speculations limit their exploration. Religions who refuse to face facts become delusional. And... between delusional religions who believe different things, there is another... larger war. Because spiritual beliefs tend to be so much more personal and passionate, people have a tendency to take disagreements about spiritual beliefs much more personally and passionately. Which leads singleminded religions into clashes with other singleminded religions who view life as a struggle between Us and Them. To have such 100% singleminded stubbornness, refusing - on principle, and by design - to acknowledge what another mind has to say, built right in to someone's doctrine of belief, insures that such face-offs will continue for ever. And many will die because of it.

Some say that understanding leads to belief. Science says understand, and we will believe. Religion says believe, and we will understand. But does it really work that way? Or is it possible to completely understand a particular perspective on life and everything else, and still choose to not believe what it asks us to believe? Doesn't belief really revolve around the getting of what we want, as it pertains to the making of us happy and content... or in some cases, the controlling of the minds of the masses? In a world of people who want what they want no matter what...
Science says, get what we want and we believe. Religion says, believe and we get what we want. Whereas... Doubt says, believe everything, but, don't believe everything. Turn off the mind of rational thinking, then... turn off the mind of passionate thinking. Perfect thought.

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Everlasting Life

People tend to not like philosophies that accept doubt, because they tend to not give us what we want. Which is proof enough that belief really is about getting what we want. One very popular thing that a great number of people seem to want, is to not die, and to instead live forever in the bliss of the beliefs that comfort them amid the harsh realities of life. By using life and death as a motivator, spiritual philosophies that promise everlasting life of bliss in the hereafter hope to achieve the 100% belief among 100% of their population. Ironically, though, many do this by asking us to not put so much value on our earthly life, but to actually view our earthly life, and all our earthly obsessions, as an impediment to something greater that lies beyond our physical life. People with strong egos who want to live forever will respond favorably to the idea of surviving death, especially if the forever that comes is advertised to be a blissful eternity in some kind of heavenly utopia. While at the same time... there are other things to believe in, that are just as miraculous as ascending to heaven, but don't offer eternal life - like Santa Clause. It is miraculous that Santa Clause delivers toys around the world in one night with a big bag on a flying sled pulled by eight tiny reindeer. But such a miracle does not offer eternal life to our inflated egos, so it becomes much easier to dismiss as a fairytale myth. But fairytale myths that offer us something we really, really, desperately want - like eternal life - tend to survive as things to believe in with all our heart... 100%. But... what if we didn't have such strong egos, and didn't care so much about living forever? What if we were more humble? [Luke 14:11]. What if we were to believe that death is more like the drop of water returning to the ocean, where the Self that we were is dissolved and dissipated, rather than maintained - like an ego - beyond our physical term? (see the essay Reincarnation elsewhere on this site).

It takes the double mind of a sinner to step outside the circle of 100% acceptance of belief and let a few percentages of other possibilities be considered, while at the same time, never drawing any 100% committed conclusions about either possibility. Such doubts and skepticism are unsettling and upsetting. People prefer certainty. But... certainty is a Rational, Left-Brained, More Conscious type of mindset. And 100% obedience to the rules that define a certain belief - i.e. what we must believe, in order to achieve 100% acceptance across 100% of our population, is a Rule-Following mindset. And clinging to the preservation of a personality that lives on and on is an earthly, worldly mindset [Philippians 3:19, James 4:4]. Thus, in a strange way, it would appear that those of a 100% single mind have utilized their Free-Thinking mind to imagine what they want to believe, and then... by allowing their Rule-Following mind to also have a voice, they've turned their faith-based beliefs into something their Self-Righteous minds think EVERYONE MUST believe... or else! [Thessalonians 3:14, 1Timothy 5:20] In this way, they end up believing so hard, that they actually turn their faith into fact! Oops! And because of that they become hypocrites of their hatred for the double mind, while also laying the groundwork for the "Us and Them" mindset that will eventually lead to war! What a mess!

But... that's what waking, conscious humans do. Just like the fishing analogy used in the essay Dreams and Dreaming, our imagination plumbs the depth of our unconscious with the utmost faith. But, as long as we remain alive, we remain analogous to the fisherman on the shore, who... once he has found something miraculous in the depths of his spiritually-laden unconscious, reels it in... where it promptly dies and becomes something rigid that he can grasp without it slipping away, and can now mount on a plaque and hang on a wall for all to honor with praise and devotion. What was discovered with faith is now a fact... nailed up to a piece of wood on an altar, to stand as tangible, physical evidence, or proof, of that which we might have believed with faith, but now must believe, and worship, in order to not be a social outcast among those of the majority surrounding us who do believe and do worship (for more thoughts about worship, consult the essay The Warship of Worship elsewhere on this site).

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The Intoxication of 100%

For many, it is hard to eliminate our double mind. And because our waking life of conscious thought is so dominant to the lives of so many awake and living people, there is, indeed, a natural bias to dismiss the notions that come to us from our Less-Conscious, Imaginal mind. To accommodate for this, many adopt a mindset that is devoted to swinging the pendulum of bias to that Less-Conscious, Free-Thinking extreme, and reveling forever in the intoxication of 100% Faith-based belief (see Stuck in the Mudaphor elsewhere on this site). And while it is extremely difficult to dissuade someone from intoxication... of any kind (see Imagine A Reason to Believe elsewhere on this site), the study of consciousness being presented everywhere on this site believes that a more profound sense of "knowing" or "finding God" is derived from the mind that blends or knots its two minds together through paradox (see The Vortex of Knowing elsewhere on this site). In a way, it is being said that it takes the most faith of all to believe and live with doubt... paradox, and the certainty of uncertainty. The study of consciousness being presented everywhere on this site embraces the doubts generated by paradox as a Godforce of nature - i.e. the irreducible crux of universal flux. That's where my mind goes when it seeks out The Ultimate Truth of Everything - it sits exactly between the Left and Right, or it goes Out, off the spectrum of 4/6, 3/7, 2/8 and 1/9... beyond the void, to the realm of absentia! From such a perspective, every side of the 4/6, 3/7, 2/8 and 1/9 spectrum has a legitimate claim to what it offers. Thus, everything on this site is about knowing and understanding our double mind and how each side keeps the other from going too far, rather than denying and shutting out half of our mind in order to believe what we want to believe, just because believing whatever we want to believe makes us more comfortable.

Like a good artist attempting to draw a drawing, a good tarot card reader knows how important it is to block out the Rational, Rule-Following mind when attempting things like Free Association. Obviously... Free Association requires a Free-Thinking mind. And, to many, letting in just 1% of our rational mind is too much. Those devoted to the use of Free Association would advise us all to keep out 100% of the Rational mind. To that I agree, this does work. It works for those seeking a conversation with their SubConscious or UnConscious mind, and it works for those seeking conversations with God - or what so many perceive, and perhaps mistake to be God in their efforts to make things that draw them into the world of imagination into scared and holy things be put on an altar of worship. Which is why... some might argue that the reason it works for both Self and God, is because they are in fact one in the same. As the progression above implies, there is the possibility that such perceptions of High Holy places is a predictable outcome of traversing our theoretical parameters of existence with our consciousness. The question to be answered is whether that's all it is, or... if traversing those parameters with our consciousness really does lead to places that are truly High and Holy? Do we make them high and holy because that helps lift us out of our prison of humanity - like a drug makes us high... or are they really and truly high and holy in some objective sense of being? Is there no doubt about it?

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The Self and God

One of the main things that so many spiritual philosophies teach is for us to overcome feelings of being separate entities from each other. It is believed that one of the most important things to acknowledge is the unity between us all... that we are all one. And yet... when someone professes to be God, or equal to God, it is taken as heresy [John 5:18]. We are told to not think of ourselves as separate entities, and yet... upon realizing union with God, the first thing our spiritual leaders do is identify God as something other than our Self! In the same way that we compulsively make our faith into fact, we compulsively separate ourselves from God - even while achieving unity. Who does that? The answer, once again, is: the 4/6 Visceral personality type. Inasmuch as this study of consciousness theorizes the 4/6 Visceral personality type to have a numerologically predisposed inclination to look out from the center of our clustered mass of existence, we find in these instances a spiritual philosophy that is only comfortable with a God that is outside and separate from their form. And inasmuch as this study of consciousness also theorizes the 4/6 Visceral personality type to be a huge majority, exerting a huge influence upon all societies past, present and future, it is not surprising to find philosophies from the past, that perpetuate this idea of Self and God as separate, being adopted by that majority as truth (see the essay Consider The Source elsewhere on this site).

Are God and the Self of each one of us the same? (see the essay Stop Being So Human elsewhere on this site). When a manifest consciousness traverses the stages of our theoretical model of existence, detaching from the finite nature of our humanity, we definitely feel more God-ly. When an entity dies, and passes through these same theoretical stages of existence, detaching from life itself, it feels a presence that many assume, or say they "know" to be God (see the essay The Four Left Over elsewhere on this site). Is what they are "knowing" to be God in fact a God that is separate from them? Are we to be considered separate after all? Or can the individuation of Self, and the unity of purpose found at the 1/9 stage of existence make us equal to God? Am I not God? Is there an obligation to put me to death if I say I am? Or... can I only say I am God when my reincarnating Heart/Soul/Spirit/Mind stops saying "I am" and rests in Absentia?

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EXTRA CREDIT

Our Passionate, Free-Thinking, Right-Brained, Less Conscious mind of Imagination leads to a detached state of personal revelation. If we let in any amount of our Rational, Rule-Thinking, Left-Brained, More Conscious mind of Reckoning we are forced to acknowledge the waking world of other people around us, and deal with how such acknowledgement influences, or as some might phrase it... pollutes our senses. This is the basis for many arguments concerning just how much a good tarot card reader should rely on their own senses vs. how much they should allow other peoples knowledge of card meanings to influence their ultimate "reading" of meaning. For more on this idea consult the essay The Not-You Factor, elsewhere on this site.