by Laura Knight-Jadczyk
from Cassiopaea Website

Part 1

The regular readers of our websites are already aware that we are seekers of what is generally called "spiritual advancement." And, like many of you, we have been in this seeking mode as long as we can remember - from birth, even. Also, like many of you, in our search for "spiritual truths," we have encountered the term "Ascension" repeatedly in the course of this Quest. And finally, like many of you, we have come across hundreds, if not thousands, of definitions of the word, and purported techniques to accomplish this most desirable objective.

In seeking a concise definition and philosophy behind it, I, Laura, decided to search the internet for clues. I typed the word "ascension" along with the word "spiritual" into a popular search engine. It returned 115,000 pages for my edification.

Why, at this present moment in history, is so much attention being focused on this subject? Well, we all know the answer to that question. It is because of the state of the World in which we live.

The Laws of Probability tell us that, without any intelligent input, 50% of the time the events in our world would lead to great good and benefit for mankind. In a strictly mechanical way, life in our world ought to have manifested a sort of "equilibrium." Factoring in intelligent decisions to do good would bring this average up to about 70%. That would mean that humanity would have advanced over the millennia to a state of existence where good and positive things happen in our lives more often than "negative" or "bad" things. In this way, many of the problems of humanity would have been effectively solved. War and conflict would be a rarity, at least 70 percent of the earth's population would have decent medical care, a comfortable roof over their heads, and sufficient nutritious food so that death by disease or starvation would be almost unheard of.

The facts are, however, quite different.

And it is the facts of life that stimulate certain, unique people, to seek answers to why things are the way they are. So, even though you, the reader, are most likely aware of these facts - since you are, in fact, interested in spiritual matters - let's just have a quick look at some of them.

More than 840,000,000 people on the Earth suffer from hunger. That's about three times the population of the entire USA. This is chronic, persistent hunger, which kills 24,000 people every day, or over 8 million each year. Three of four who die from starvation are younger than five years old.

According to the Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century, during the past 100 years there have been right at 2 billion deaths resulting from war (including civilians), tyrannical governments, and man-made famine. When these figures are broken down into deaths caused by Communism vs. non-Communism, they are almost equal, with the figures slightly higher for non-Communism which may surprise advocates of Capitalism.

Turning to mortality statistics that are NOT related to war and famine, we find that it is a bit difficult to get an actual number because the stats are nearly always expressed in terms of percentages rather than in hard population numbers. One gets the feeling that the actual count is so frightening that this approach is used for the express purpose of avoiding having to face the facts. One thing we do know is that deaths from cardiovascular diseases and stroke are the leading cause of death in 31 of the 35 Western Hemisphere countries that report disease related mortality statistics. The highest mortality rates are found in the English-speaking Caribbean, USA, Canada, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Mortality rates from these causes are increasing in the Central American and Latin Caribbean regions as they come more and more under the sway of Western capitalism.

What we are talking about above are the "quiet" statistics, from our present reality. Even now it is easy to forget that there were 65 million deaths from WW II alone and that deaths from disease and starvation continue as a quiet, steady, drum beat of increasing mortality behind the trumpeting of school shootings, sensational murder trials, and little Cuban boys who become the center of international custody disputes.

I don’t think that one single person on this planet will disagree that they want a better life for themselves and their children; and most of them will add that they do not presently have the capacity to make it a reality. Except for a very small minority of very sick people, I don’t think anybody likes to see misery and suffering, disease and death and despair, in any context.

And again we must ask: if these things are so detestable to human beings at large, if so many people are working and thinking and praying to improve the conditions of our world, why isn’t it happening?

Seekers of Ascension are always aware of these things, and they are asking,

"What is the origin of all the misery and suffering? Does it just happen? Do people and only people cause others to suffer? Is it that God is good, but allows bad things to happen?"

"Don't forget the power of prayer," we are told by our religious leaders, or "positive thinking," as we are told by the New Age gurus.

The only problem is, prayers and positive thinking do not seem to have improved the world very much on the occasions when it is certain that nearly every human being was praying for a certain outcome.

Jesus promised: "If any two of you shall agree and ask... it shall be done." (Matt 18:19) That's a promise. What do you want or need? Just ask!

But it doesn't work and we see it!

Over sixty million people died because God didn't do what everybody thought he should do. C.S. Lewis struggled with this issue in the latter part of his life. He saw clearly that, before World War II, practically every human being on the planet was praying - to Jesus, God the Father, the Virgin Mary, Allah, Buddha and whoever else you can name or mention, so all the bases were covered - that this terrible thing would not happen. The memory of the previous “Great War” was still fresh in the mind of mankind. They remembered the horrible carnage and vowed, never again!

In the end, after the most mighty cry of prayer in human memory, rising from the earth, almost one-third of the world was uninhabitable and sixty-five million human beings were dead. That was God’s answer to prayer. That was the result of the "power of positive thinking." THINK ABOUT IT.

Throughout history we find one group praying to their God to protect them from the depredations of another group. The other group is praying just as fervently that their depredations will be successful. When one group succeeds in killing another, is that proof that its God is supreme? What then happens if the members of the successful group are then reincarnated into the group that was defeated? This is not a rhetorical question since a rather influential book was written about the great numbers of Jews who died in the holocaust now being reincarnated as Christians. There has also been some suggestion that many Nazis are now being reincarnated as Jews. What then, does such an idea do to the concept of “my God is the only right one?”

I can assure the reader from my own experience as a hypnotherapist, that every single case I have worked with in terms of “past life therapy,” has demonstrated a “string” of "past lives" in such variety of nationality and religious orientation, that it literally makes a joke of anyone stating with absolute certainty, that their beliefs or orientation now, are the only right ones. It is evident that those who declaim against another group most vehemently, will most certainly find themselves a member of that very group in the next “round” of incarnation. And frankly, it doesn’t matter if the reader believes this or not; there is sufficient clinical evidence that it is so, that if presented in a court of law as circumstantial evidence, it would be so overwhelming that the judge and the jury would be persuaded of the truth of it even without a “smoking gun.”

This begs the question of why people cannot remember the previous lessons in past lives; why the wisdom of the soul is not available to the person. If humans have souls or spirits, why is the knowledge of past karmic cycles not part of a person's wisdom?

What can answer the question as to why human beings engage in activities that will only trap them here for a myriad of lifetimes? Is this planet nothing more than a huge recycling bin; no-matter what people do, there will always be new and improved ways killing other humans?

And that brings us back again to the factor that, for some reason, we are denied access to our greater self. And thus, people continue to kill one another for the conscious beliefs they hold, never realizing the price they may pay for these actions.

• What would be the pay-off for our reality to exist as such a structure that causes the soul to constantly recycle?

• What would be the reason for such darkness that perpetuates this vast and abyssal ignorance?

• What is the pay-off for all this misery and suffering; the tormented souls and the deaths of innocents?

• What is this mysterious gap between intent, desire, and physical manifestation?

• What darkness exists in our subconscious minds that has created a world so hostile and uncaring?

• What power separates us from knowledge of the true nature of our reality and leaves us exposed to suffering and pain?

No matter how one defines reality - as a self-created manifestation, or as an accomplished fact thrust upon us - the reality of suffering must be seen as a consequence of this separation. And, if the world of matter is created and maintained by us, what brought this blindness into being?

If the world is created by God, is our suffering a consequence of willful disobedience? If so, then man's being is a blight on the cosmos. If that is so, then what shall we do with goodness, nobility and selfless brotherly love and reverent worship? From where has this duality originated?

If we accept that, for whatever reason, some aspect of creation has manifested the limited three dimensions in which our consciousness finds itself, how would we describe this condition and its potential for change? What does it mean that the universe may leave all its options "open" until the very last instant? If that is the case, then what are we doing when we pray for a specific outcome, or when we believe in the End of the World?

The questions about how our beliefs may shape our reality are among the most significant in all of consciousness research. And so it is that many seekers step outside of the "standard religions" and begin to seek the "truth" of the ways and means of Ascension.

As noted, "Ascension" is discussed widely in books, articles, on the internet, in classes and workshops, and other media. The general trend of ideas expressed include the search for the "one thing that will transform your life." Various "techniques" are advertised which promise to provide stress relief and even the" key to the highest levels of human consciousness." The shopper in the market of ascension "tools" is told that they can NOW make a choice to "swiftly and easily free the nervous system from stress, enjoy maximum creativity, clarity and health, experience inner peace, fulfillment and joy," and of course, change one's self-limiting beliefs.

Another perspective on "ascension" tells us that ascension is "the way to integrate all portions of your self in a conscious way." The seeker is told that he or she is a "multi-dimensional being who seeded portions of itself into the physical reality" and that fully "remembering who you are" is the act of integration and the "removal of the veil of time, identities and separateness in yourself." What, precisely, the result will be - other than being "healthy, wealthy and wise" - is not clear.

As we read further in the available literature, we discover other ideas. One author on the subject tells us,

"In past ages, ascension occurred after the death of the physical body. Now it is possible for people to ascend with the physical body, no longer needing to leave it behind. […] Now it is much easier for incoming souls to move along quickly to spiritualize their physical bodies because the whole process is well advanced. Young people today can quickly awaken to their spiritual truth and begin to contribute to the forward progress of the mass consciousness rather than spending most of their lives dragging back heavily against it. They can help bring forth the ascension for the masses before physical death, before totally wearing out the physical body in resistance to evolution. Much more energy can be expended on the positive and much less wasted on the negative."

Apparently, such authors haven't been paying a whole lot of attention to what is going on in the real world.

This leads to another point: it seems that we must accept the objective fact that attempts to change the world spiritually, or to regulate large scale events, simply do not work. Yes, there does seem to be evidence that individuals or small groups of individuals can make small changes or produce effects with a limited range of influence. But for some reason, the world as it is, seems to operate based on rules or laws that we do not understand. The fundamental nature of the physical world seems to be antithetical to this “spiritualization.” While we all might like to think we can transform our world by praying and/or thinking positively, we must remember that there is a great deal of evidence that real transformations of the planet have repeatedly been cataclysmic. A philosophy which ignores this fact is courting disaster.

And so we have a clue that the problem may not be as easily solved as the many promoters of the different "methods or techniques of Ascension would have us believe.

But not everybody can just drop out of life and become a Yogi.

The question then becomes: if the process of Ascension is possibly more complex than the many promoters of the various methods offered in our day would have us think, what is the reason for the 115,000 web pages?

In 1958, Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in which he stated:

The older dictators fell because they never could supply their subjects with enough bread, enough circuses, enough miracles and mysteries. Nor did they possess a really effective system of mind-manipulation.

Under a scientific dictator, education will really work - with the result that most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution. There seems to be no good reason why a thoroughly scientific dictatorship should ever be overthrown.

Aldous Huxley also made an early connection between psychedelic drugs and the experiences of Eastern Mysticism and this set the consciousness raising bomb off with a BANG! Along came Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert AKA Baba Ram Dass with their LSD and other modes, leading the parade of those who were "turned on, tuned in."

Abraham Maslow became a father figure to the new "wave" of those desiring to fill the gaping hole of their reality with "peak experiences." Maslow cited psychedelic drugs as one of the means in which even ordinary people could have a little of what the Eastern Mystics worked many years to develop. Now, it could be had for a weekend seminar at Big Sur, or a study by mail course at only $29.95 per lesson! What a deal!

Peak Experiences - experience, experience, experience - became the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow of the 1960's. No one needed to live in Existential Despair any longer! Everyone could become a "spiritual voyager" and achieve extended periods in realms of consciousness they had only heard about in veiled, mysterious allusions down through the ages.

Encounter groups, radical therapies, old and new combinations of theories and practice came rolling off the conveyor belt of techno-spirituality. The intangibles of spirit had been harnessed! Anyone could evoke some desirable experience by manipulating awareness at the basic physical and psychological levels. Never mind that all of this bypassed the vital processes of reason and conscious decision making. By its very nature, the whole techno-spiritual machine operated completely without critical thinking; it tapped the bottomless pit of feeling - emotion - primal being. Never mind that much of this emotion was negative, confusing, anxious and fearful! Let's just get it ALL out here in the open and have a party with it!

Each of the many techniques developed during this time was fully capable of producing an emotional high of one sort or another. There were endless "peak experiences," and dramatic "personal breakthroughs." The mixtures of Zen, yoga, meditation, drugs along with strict mechanical technology was a veritable adventure in awareness!

The only problem was: in the midst of all this peaking, mind-blowing, turning on and tuning in, ecstasy and encountering, many people encountered things that, perhaps, ought not have been awakened. Boundaries were breached into unseeable and terrifying realms of consciousness.

So preserve yourselves, my brothers, from the calamities of this place, for distinguishing it is extremely difficult! Souls find it sweet, and then within it they are duped, since they become completely enamored of it. [1]

Nowadays most people interested in the spirituality of the East desire the "experience," though they may call what they are after intimate communion with God. Those familiar with the standards and norms of spiritual experience set down by disciplined paths like Sufism are usually appalled at the way Westerners seize upon any apparition from the domain outside of normal consciousness as a manifestation of the "spiritual." In fact, there are innumerable realms in the unseen world, some of them far more dangerous than the worst jungles of the visible world. [2]

By the end of the decade of the 60's, the "human potential" movement had become a veritable potpourri of religion, science, mysticism, magick and "the occult." The drug use got out of hand, the "techniques" began to show serious flaws in the many tragedies that occurred in any given practice, and the whole idea of human beings becoming "psychic supermen" hit the skids. The promise of the 60's decayed into an aimless lethargy - old hippies living in communes, braiding their gray locks and lusting after the sweet young teeny boppers while they fired up another bong and reminisced about the "good old days" at Esalen.

But wait! Something else happened here! Remember, this is America! The home of the Free - Market that is.

Big business saw a gold mine in the consciousness raising movement of the 60's and we saw the development of slick, newly packaged psychoanalysis and psychodrama! There was mass distribution and Madison Avenue marketing of things like Mind Dynamics, Arica, Silva Mind Control, Transcendental Meditation, and on and on. Individual entrepreneurs knew a good thing when they saw it.

And the cults proliferated. Yes, many of the mind-wounded ran straight back into the arms of their childhood faith; but many more became victims of the many up and coming cults that were happy to take them in and patch the holes in their psyches, or fix them up for a few weekends of Merkaba Meditations, Equinox Workings, Mystery School Mish-mash, or Pagan Pow-wows. Many of the cults, and even the old time religions, took advantage of the new marketing strategies and polished up their images, sent their people to advertising classes and then out into the world in massive fundraising and recruitment drives. Many of them even have their own admen!

So, the race was on again! Only now, it was like buying Coca-Cola! The "pause that refreshes" right here in this very tape set, consciousness raising course, or cult practice! It had become a form of spiritual masturbation where everyone was "meeting their own needs" in private. You could put on your strobe glasses, listen to your astral travel tape, channel your very own guides, confer with the Ophanic Intelligences, merge with the "Nine Neters," and get high without ever leaving the farm! You could "change your beliefs," "create your own reality," indulge your "inner child/ego," Ascend and become One with all Creation, by mail, by golly!

What nobody seems to be talking about, however, is the concomitant changes in our world that very well may be the direct result of this so-called "shift in consciousness." Nobody wants to talk about the hard reality of what is really going on out there.

Well, I know that I am preaching to the choir here. The reader would not be reading this website if they had not come to those same realizations outlined above. And further, you would not be here if you had not already come to some idea that many of those who have bought into the "New Age Ascension bonanza" seem to have shut off their minds and the effect on their offspring is frightening. They have become part of a reality that is ripe for being taken over by the first "strong man" who comes along with "signs and wonders." And this brings us to another reason you are holding this book in your hand. You KNOW that all of the conditions of our world at present mean something!

For 2000 years, Christianity was the only acceptable "mode of ascension" for the Western World. Machiavelli observed that religion and its teachings of faith, hope, charity, love, humility and patience under suffering were factors that render men weak and cause them to care less about worldly and political things, and thus they will turn political power over to wicked men who are not influenced by such ideals.

Of course, the real trick is to convince people that the "afterlife" is the only thing worth thinking about, and it is to this end that Christianity has been formulated.

Those readers who are familiar with Biblical prophecy - are undoubtedly aware that we are in a period of what seems to be definite and obvious "fulfillment of prophecy." World events, most especially the activities of the present Bush Administration, demonstrate a clear agenda to implement Draconian Controls precisely as described in the prophecies of the Book of Revelation. What makes me really curious is the almost complete silence of the Fundamentalist Christian groups who spent so many years preaching and warning everyone, and now that it is here - it's real - they don't even seem to see it.

This, of course, brings us to the matter of what authors Clive Prince and Lynn Picknett call The Stargate Conspiracy. This is, basically, what could be called a COINTELPRO operation set up to trap seekers of "ascension" so that no ascension, in fact, takes place.

In other words, not only was the original promise of Christianity co-opted and corrupted, but the very fact that so many people are seeking answers in the idea of "ascension," or development of REAL spirituality, has necessitated that the Control System in operation these many millennia do precisely the same thing: co-opt, corrupt, promulgate lies and disinformation, and so on. And disinformation is certainly most effective when it contains a large body of truth, but twists are introduced to ensure that the seeker is never able to achieve the goal.

One of Machiavelli's chief ideas is that a religion is good only if it supports the state and contributes to state ends. By using religion, one can give "divine sanction" to laws which people would otherwise have no reason to obey. Therefore, the state must control the teachings of the Church. This is certainly what Constantine had in mind when he made Christianity the state religion.

If we simply change the word "state" to "hyperdimensional Control System," it is easy to see how the seeking of "Ascension" can be utilized to support exactly the opposite agenda.

There are many variations on this theme, most of which are constituted of the idea that we can exert our will and voice upward to change what is "above" us in order to change our reality, our lives, our thinking, moving our brains into harmony, or aiding the "heart in opening," obtaining "harmony and balance" which is then going to "open windows in our mind, our heart, and our spirit," etc. It is then stated, (quite truthfully, I should add, since good disinformation is always wrapped in a warm and fuzzy truth), that, "without Divine Unity inside of us, these windows of inspiration are rarely available."

Sure, such activities will temporarily produce chemical changes that will feel VERY good, the same way a good meal satisfies hunger temporarily. It really "feels good!" But just as the steak and salad are digested and most of the matter excreted in a few hours, and another steak and salad is needed to fill the stomach again, so do such practices fail to so anything more than perpetuate the "food chain." And, staying with the analogy, very little of the "substance" of such practices actually "stays with" the individual.

After over thirty years of research, the one thing that has become evident is that the energies of Creation emanate "downward," and our individuality as human beings is merely an expression of the "Theological Dramas," so to say. To attempt to exert our will or to make our voice travel "upward," against Creation results only in a clash of forces that the human being is simply not sufficiently developed to deal with. It is, in essence, an attempt to violate the Free Will of Creation, i.e. Hubris. This is why praying, rituals designed to "change" reality, "positive thinking" with the "intent" to change something "up there," in order to receive the benefits "down here," is always doomed to produce more strife, misery and suffering globally.

What we CAN do is to prepare ourselves for the emanations that are traveling "downward" to be better received. This is the essential point of Castañeda's Don Juan when he said:

One of the greatest accomplishments of the seers of the Conquest was a construct he called the three-phase progression. By understanding the nature of man, they were able to reach the incontestable conclusion that if seers can hold their own in facing [human] petty tyrants, they can certainly face the unknown with impunity, and then they can even stand the presence of the unknowable.

The average man's reaction is to think that the order of that statement should be reversed," he went on. "A seer who can hold his own in the face of the unknown can certainly face petty tyrants. But that's not so. What destroyed the superb seers of ancient times was that assumption. We know better now. We know that nothing can temper the spirit of a warrior as much as the challenge of dealing with impossible people in positions of power. Only under those conditions can warriors acquire the sobriety and serenity to stand the pressure of the unknowable.[3]

All around us we see the results of this error: the idea that we can exert our will and voice upward to change what is "above" us in order to change our reality. This idea is at the root of rites and rituals, demanding, pleading, visualizations, "workings," and so forth. When people think that "meditating on compassion," or "feeling the feelings of all beings," is going to result in the "sonic entrainment of the heart's rhythm [being] braided into more complex and coherent patterns," which will then enable the person to "create a diamond imperishable body for use as a teaching vehicle down here on earth," has missed the entire point. To compare such ideas to the true work of Seeker of Ascension is simply ignorant.

An extensive study of the historical literature shows that those who actually MAY HAVE achieved Ascension don't just sit down one day and meditate on compassion or the feeling of oneness and "boom!" experience an "implosive soul force." Before the seeker of Ascension can ever achieve the point of being able to think even momentarily about "the oneness of all being," or the "feelings of all being," he will have spent many, many years in the struggle to "face petty tyrants," or to fully REALIZE objective reality. He has repeatedly exposed himself to as many "unpleasant experiences" as he can find, all the while struggling to master his emotions, his desires, his physicality. It is the work of making the physical vehicle "down here," receptive to whatever may be "up there," as opposed to trying to forcibly create something "up there," in order to have it "down here."

Nevertheless, the many teachers of ascension continue to expound on the subject by saying such interesting things as:

"It is possible to ascend physically as Jesus and the other masters demonstrated. In this process, the physical cells are all expanded into a higher frequency. The physical body begins to glow from within and radiate light. Much as the blades of a fan seem to "disappear" as they rotate faster and faster, a body that is vibrating at higher frequencies seems to disappear from the third dimension. Its primary focus is on a higher dimension. It seems "magical" to those who remain focused on the denser third dimension, but it is a perfectly natural process."

Unfortunately, such promulgators of wisdom do not seem to be able to demonstrate what they are teaching. But nobody usually notices that part because they are too busy having "spiritual experiences" produced by any number of "techniques" which make them "feel good" long enough to whip out the credit card or sign the check. A considerable period of time is required to finally come to the realization that techniques that relieve stress or produce "good feelings," have done nothing to actually change their lives or their "vibrations." They are still recognized by their neighbor's dog, they still find new gray hairs on their heads, and they still get sick and have aches and pains like everyone else. And they still "die in their sins."

What the modern day seekers of ascension are looking for - whether they realize it or not - for is the age-old quest. Those who are not familiar with the literature don't realize that the Quest for the Holy Grail and the Great Work of Alchemy are described in almost the same terms. However, the Quest for the Holy Grail and the Work of the Alchemists hold many clues for us as to the REAL WORK OF ASCENSION.

Repeatedly they present allegories of struggle, deception, battles with dragons, deceivers, and evil forces of all kinds. The story o the Knight who slays the Dragon and rescues the Princess from the Tower after years of seeking, struggling, suffering and overcoming, is an allegory that is as valid to day as it was in ages past. It is the TRUE PATH OF ASCENSION.

Based on the Cassiopaean Transmissions and our related research, the reader of this site has been introduced to the idea that the science of the ancients may have included a very comprehensive knowledge of the deeper reality that present day sciences, including physics, chemistry, mathematics, and astrophysics, are only rediscovering. And here we do not mean the ancient Egyptians or Babylonians or Sumerians, but rather peoples of far greater antiquity than they, and that the Egyptians, Babylonians, Sumerians, and so on, retained only distorted and corrupted versions of these things in the form of myths and legends which they elaborated and utilized in their "magical practices."

Further, we propose that it is only in the light of the present day scientific knowledge that the true ancient knowledge, depicted in these myths and legends and religious rites, can be properly understood. Which is not to say that we are suggesting that we understand or have interpreted all of them. We are only saying that there are many things in these ancient stories that suggest the former existence of an advanced science, that may have enabled interface between layers, or dimensions of reality on this planet in archaic times. Science. Not mystical mumbo jumbo.

This idea is not original to us, as many readers will know. However, we do think that we have been able to shine a light into certain dark corners that have been, heretofore, poorly understood.

Arthur C. Clarke pointed out, "Any sufficiently evolved technology is indistinguishable from magic."

When we divest our minds of preconceived notions about what the ancients may or may not have known, and we just look at myths and legends, the substrate of religions, over and over again we see descriptions of activities, events, terms and potentials that express such things as a knowledge of free energy, anti-gravity, time travel, interplanetary travel, atomic energy, atomic molecularization and demolecularization; just a whole host of doings that actually can be compared to what we consider to be commonplace ideas or activities of our current technological state.

Many scholars of myth and folklore explain that such stories were attempts to understand the environment by personifying, or anthropomorphizing, the forces of nature. Other interpreters make the mistake of assuming that it was a "sacred science" in terms that strictly deny any form of material interpretation. I gave this idea a great deal of thought at one point, all the while observing children develop, and noting how they noticed things and what they noticed, and how they explained it to themselves and each other. One of the earliest observations I made about children and their reactions to their environment was that they pretty much just accept it as it is.

They don't seem to need "explanations" for it. It is what it is until some adult repeats to them some story about it which may entertain them or frighten them. Until "stories" are told to them, children are intensely busy just imitating what they see other people do, most generally the adults in their lives. Without fantastic tales being told to them, their games of make-believe consist of ordinary mundane dramas. And even when they are told magical stories about flying horses or people with super powers, they often resist these dramas in preference for those that directly apply to their own experience and observation.

Perhaps the comparison of the development of a child's thinking in relation to their environment, to the development of evolutionary thinking of human beings in general, but I do think that it ought to give us some pause to question just where and how the creation of myth and legend actually served human beings evolutionarily speaking.

Why would anyone tell a story about a man with magic sandals that enabled him to fly if they are merely anthropomorphizing the forces of nature? If it is a "magical being" such as a "God," why does he need sandals to fly with? He could just as easily have wings that are part of his physical structure. He's already a God, after all. He's not human. So why the sandals?

Indeed, there may be an "archetypal pool of ideas" from which all humanity may draw in dreams and visions, but that leads us into realms that of thought that do not answer the simple question as to where and how and why howling savages were served by making up fantastic tales about the forces of nature, that included certain elements that suggest technology and not a truly "magical state of being?"

In the present day, there are all sorts of "mystical" groups and organizations that claim to be the recipients of ancient knowledge, and that this matter has to do with what is commonly called "occultism," or the "esoteric" or magical practices. There is a plethora of books that purport to be scientific, but which totally reject mainstream science in any context. Subjects such as sacred geometry, archaeo-astronomy, new physics, have all become subjects of fevered study in order to discern the "occult significance" of the works of the ancients. And invariably, it is done in strictly ephemeral terms, positing that all of the abilities of the ancients were accomplished strictly by magical rites or rituals.

Occultists claim that the mental and spiritual powers of the ancients were what we have lost. They then assert that this ancient wisdom was broken up and obscured in magical doctrines which those who are not "initiated" simply cannot grasp. They claim that parts of it have been handed down by continuous tradition, and released to the world at opportune times, and other parts have only been released to an elect few, of which exalted company, they, of course, are obviously members.

When considering such ideas, we do come to the thought that it is very likely that there are rites or stories or myths behind the rituals, that may, indeed, have been passed down in such secret groups in a more pure form than the stories that make their way around the globe across millennia. But that does not mean that the "priesthood" of such groups truly understand the stories or rites of which they are guardians - especially if they do not consider the possibility that such information may be strictly and purely scientific codes and require a trained scientist to decode them.

Most of the so-called "occultists" and "sacred geometers" remind me of David Macaulay's "Motel Of Mysteries,[4]" a humorous account of an archaeological excavation of a twentieth century motel, in which everything is meticulously excavated, recorded and then totally misinterpreted. The "vast funerary" complex unearthed by Howard Carson contains wonders such as the "Great Altar" (Television), a statue of the deity WATT (bedside lamp) and the Internal Component Enclosure (or ICE box). But there are others who seem to be part of the very Control System we have mentioned above with what seem to be extremely dangerous proclivities as we will discuss further on.

In terms of archaeology, there are processes involved in the formation of the archaeological record. A lack of understanding of these formation processes is not always confined to the non-professionals. It has only relatively recently been suggested that the archaeology of a site is not a direct record of what went on there, but instead may have been distorted by a whole series of processes.

We are suggesting that the same may be true regarding myths and legends and religious rites. They are a sort of archaeological record of the history of mankind held in archetypal terms, buried in stories, distorted by a whole series of processes.

Even if some of the purported ancient schools and mystical paths have kept some of this information intact, or in a purer state, it still seems that much has "faded on the page" due to the long period of time since such things were part of the external reality. But still, there are those who have seen the contradictions in our reality and our beliefs and who have sought in these ancient teachings to discover what might have been known. Many of them have made discoveries that, when considered with information from many other fields, assists us in this essential discovery of our true condition and purpose.

The question naturally arises, what does the history of the subject have to tell us about what may or may not "really work?" Can we examine it; can we track it and discover not only the obstacles of the process, but also the REAL BENEFITS that might accrue to the Seeker? Can we track and discover the apparent abilities that are the SIGNS of accomplishment of the successful Quest?

In short, what is the REAL Philosophers Stone? What can the Hero really accomplish when he finds the Holy Grail?

References

[1] Suf Shaykh, Ibn Al-'Arabi, in Futuhat (Unveiling) III 38.23, translated by William Chittick
[2] Chittick, William, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, (1989) State University of New York, Albany.
[3] Castaneda, Carlos, The Fire From Within
[4] Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1979

Part 2

The readers of the Cassiopaean material, as well as the many articles on this website, are quite aware of the fact that we like to be very careful in assigning probabilities to what may or may not be in our future. And this is important because the Cassiopaeans identified themselves to me by saying: "We are You in the future."

When interpreting "we are you in the future" in an oversimplified way, we are faced with causal paradoxes. On the other hand, from the theoretical papers published in physics journals we can learn that, with a proper and careful interpretation, and taking into account quantum uncertainties, communication into the past cannot be dismissed as impossible. Improbable - perhaps is the right word, but there are many things that are improbable and yet happen. The more improbable is a given phenomenon, the more information is carried by its occurrence. The more we can learn by its study. That is why we do not dismiss the "we are you in the future" as impossible and therefore ignorable.

Instead we have continued the "communications" as a form of a "controlled experiment in superluminal thought transfer" - even though it is clear that the term should be considered a tentative indication of only one out of several possible interpretations.

The ongoing information received from this experiment is - as always - intended to be presented in the context of broad ranging historical and other metaphysical material and offers the clues that have led to the world view and inferences presented by us in our numerous publications on the Web and in print. Perhaps, as some suggest, it is only our own "subconscious mind" that presents itself as a "source," but even if it is so, does that tell us more? Do we really know what "unconscious mind" is and of what is it capable?

As we have written in the disclaimer on this website:

"We sometimes ask ourselves if the Cassiopaeans are who they say they are, because we do not take anything as unquestionable truth. We take everything with a grain of salt, even if we consider that there is a good chance that it is truth. We are constantly analyzing this material as well as a great quantity of other material that comes to our attention from numerous fields of science and mysticism. We invite the reader to share in our seeking of Truth by reading with an Open, but skeptical mind.

 

We do not encourage "devotee-ism" nor "True Belief." We DO encourage the seeking of Knowledge and Awareness in all fields of endeavor as the best way to be able to discern lies from truth. The one thing we can tell the reader is this: we work very hard, many hours a day, and have done so for many years, to discover the "bottom line" of our existence on Earth. It is our vocation, our quest, our job. We constantly seek to validate and/or refine what we understand to be either possible or probable or both. We do this in the sincere hope that all of mankind will benefit, if not now, then at some point in one of our probable futures."

Allow me to digress for just a moment. It is only by reading the details of the "steps" of our lives that the context of the "Cassiopaean experiment" can be fully understood. Because, even though it is "channeled," (and this can be a REAL turnoff to a lot of people, even including myself!) - it is NOT like anything else that has ever manifested in the history of "channeling" - and I have spent 30 years in research that has pretty well covered all such phenomena.

What has become more and more evident by virtue of the objective facts of our lives, is that the Cassiopaean Transmissions are essentially a process of INITIATION. As the C's themselves pointed out:

We have helped you build your staircase one step at a time. Because you asked for it. And you asked for it because it was your destiny. [...] Appreciate the fact that you have been given the keys to end all this pain.

And when another individual once asked if he could contact the Cassiopaeans himself, the answer was revealing:

Q: (BRH) Is there any way I can contact you guys directly?
A: Well, BRH, only if you present yourself into the presence of these 3rd densities here. Remember, their request was hard earned. [O]ne here has literally turned the world upside down in search of the greatest truths for all of humanity, much to her potential peril. And the [other] one here had to endure almost unimaginable hardships and tests of stamina in order to realize his destined path of bringing your 3rd density realm to the brink of 4th density transitional adjustment. So, the path is open to you. Want to follow?!?

As I have chronicled in the Adventures Series, what gradually became evident was that the Cassiopaeans were a part of my life from before the time of the birth of the present body I occupy, and they were always there waiting for me to "ask the question."

And when at last, in 1984, I was brought to that point of spiritual bankruptcy - at which point I DID ask - the communication began in a direct way - I would ask the question mentally, and just wait in a meditative state - and it would begin to flow as just "ideas" which I would write down.

Because of the fact that I knew that my highly emotional nature had repeatedly led me into traps, I knew that my "machine tolerances" had to be analyzed and adjusted. I knew that I had to do research to insure that what I was "receiving" was not just more and better disinformation, so to say.

So, over the next ten years I did research. It was during this research that I came to the idea that, for me to be able to be objective about things - more of the "adjustment of the machine" - the mode of transmission really needed to be modified so that the thoughts bypassed my conscious mind. It was essentially for this reason that the two years of developing the circuit for the transmissions via the board and planchette followed.

The important point to note is the fact that following an "intellectual path" is not, as many people think, a neglecting of emotion, or Love. My problem was that my emotional nature was TOO dominant in me. Because of my natural response of Love, and my instinct to give to all who seemed to be "asking," I was extremely susceptible to manipulation and to having my energy stolen by "agents of the Matrix." So, my growing awareness of my own nature and its weaknesses were what drove me to balance this emotional nature with commensurate intellectual development that would help me to be able to know lies from truth in an objective way.

Transferring the communication to a more objective mode - at least temporarily - was a necessary step for "grooving" of a clear channel which amounts to a form of "purification." What I didn't realize at that point was that "discerning lies from truth" in a very careful way is the very process of fusion of the magnetic center which then precipitates the "seating" of the higher self.

The experiences that followed, chronicled up to a certain point in time in the Adventures Series, (which will be resumed soon by popular demand!) were a refinement of this process of purification, and this included, of course, the shocks and "scandals" of the encounters with the Matrix Control System via its various agents and agencies.

It was actually much earlier, at the point in time that we began our Public Work, this "reaction" of the Matrix was put in motion, and I asked the C's about it:

07-03-99

Q: (A) I was going to ask a question about this mission, because the time is passing, and, as far as I see...
A: Time does not pass, as such.
 

Q: (A) Days are passing. Days on the calendar, and we are not accomplishing...
A: Nonsense!!!!! You have made enormous accomplishments, so far.
 

Q: (A) What are these accomplishments, for instance?
A: Where were you in 1996?
 

Q: (A) You mean geographically?
A: No, we mean in all terms. Well... ?
 

Q (A) The question is: what is the mission? I am spending most of my time programming, and it takes more and more of my time and I have no time for research. I am not as desperate as I was before, but...
A: Do not worry! And you did not verbalize the answer to our question.
 

Q: (A) In 1996... well, I was hoping that I would gain some more knowledge because the rate at which I was gaining this knowledge was very slow according to my criteria.
A: Ahh! Your criteria are not really that limited. Or at least they should not be. Remember, Arkadiusz, successful research involves discovery on more realms than just graphs, charts and theses. The rhythm of the soul must be in harmony before one's hypotheses can even begin to mesh with accomplishments.
 

Q: (L) If I can interject, does this mean that all that he is doing now, even if it seems as though he is not pressing forward in direct research, is a balancing period, or a gestation period?
A: How about Foundation Building? Was not Ark sinking in quicksand before?
 

Q: (A) We communicate with many other people via the internet and the question is: where are the STO people who know more than we know? We look for somebody who can teach us something and we never seem to be able to do it. What are we doing wrong?
A: Maybe you should more the teacher than the student be.
 

Q: (L) Well, gosh! We'd like to get some answers!

(A) We know that there are good guys somewhere...
A: They shall appear, as needed.
 

Q: (L) Well, we feel pretty alone with all the lunatics and attack we have been subjected to. It is a rather lonely existence.
A: Not for long.
 

Q: (A) Not for long? A related question concerning our internet activities which have been going on for some time, and we do it because we feel that it is necessary, but we don't really know or understand what is the real purpose of what we are doing. Some people are reading our pages and writing letters, and then they disappear or they are discouraged, or they do nothing on their own. We are expending a lot of time on this publishing of information, but without clear understanding of what we are supposed to accomplish by this.

(L) At this point, it is not accomplishing a whole lot except drawing down fire on our heads!

(A) Right!
A: You should rejoice! From the fire comes light. Patience pays. You are on the right track. Fear not, have we steered you wrong a lot lately?

Now, the question the C's asked Ark as to "where he was in 1996," referred to the fact that he "found me" in 1996, as a result of the efforts of the C's, and our lives as seekers were joined. This wasn't just a process of "celestial matchmaking," because it was preceded by a long, slow process of learning to "see the unseen," which was followed by certain actions that resulted in the complete changing of my Reality. I didn't understand at the time that the ability to change one's reality so dramatically was a consequence of having fused a magnetic center through SUFFERING and a sort of psychic death.

Of course, meeting Ark was an event that was utterly stupendous. It resulted in all kinds of "effects" that I try to describe, but words fail. Some of these actually included bilocation. One could say that after the "resurrection" into a new reality, there are certain "signs." Though I want to caution the reader that they are just that: signs, not destinations. To become enamored of phenomena or "sensations" is to stop at the mile marker to the city all the while thinking that you have arrived there.

So, we could say that this was a significant event of some sort, and the C's were suggesting in the above comments, that something on a very deep level was taking place between us that had a great deal to do with the "mission" and many other things as well.

They said: "Remember, Arkadiusz, successful research involves discovery on more realms than just graphs, charts and theses. The rhythm of the soul must be in harmony before one's hypotheses can even begin to mesh with accomplishments."

And then they added important clues: "How about Foundation Building?" and "Maybe you should more the teacher than the student be."

When we expressed a desire to find others who were of the same "alignment," so to say, the response "They shall appear as NEEDED," followed by the assurance that we would not be alone for long, was certainly intriguing. What we didn't realize, of course, was that this remark was directly connected to "You should rejoice! From the fire comes light." which was given in response to our complaint that all that seemed to be happening as a result of our Public Work was the seemingly endless series of attacks from all quarters, culminating in the prolonged burning recounted in the Adventures series, and other articles on the site.

But we survived, we passed that test, daily turning the negative emotions into "light" and giving it out to the world - to share our learning. And the outpouring of gratitude and appreciation has been heartwarming. What was significant was the fact that both the "finding" and the "burning" are definitive "signs" of the path of Initiation.

But what was even more important was the fact that, at a certain point, the "burning" became a source of joy. At this point, something very unusual happened. As we were rereading the above session, Ark noticed that, at the end, the following remarks were made:

Q: (A) Okay, if it is sincere, then it means I should answer him. Last question: I was thinking about what is the most important for me at the present, and I think that I want to understand and implement this concept of densities; to implement it into physics and mathematics. But, it seems to me that I am completely alone with that. I would like to know where should I look, because certainly other people have already tried to do it. I don't want to start from scratch if there is something that I can look at or study before I really jump into this difficult project. Were there people, scientists... where to look?
A: Study the works of Gurdjieff and Jung, for starters.

Ark began to go through his memory banks about his Gurdjieff reading. We discussed it endlessly, and read more and more about Gurdjieff, and anybody or anything that was ever connected to that work. To assist the process, he took out his journals that were written during that time so many years ago. He came across a long forgotten reference to a book he had read in French by Boris Mouravieff, and decided to try to find out if there was an English translation so that we could read it together and see if there were any clues to be found there.

Indeed, it was now in English. He ordered all three volumes, and they were stacked on the night table waiting...

After our trip to Tennessee Tech for the Clifford Algebra conference, I was somewhat physically drained and needed some bedrest to recuperate. I picked up Volume I and began to read. As soon as I did, I started to get very warm, and that is always a sign of interaction with higher densities. As I got warmer and read more, I also began to get somewhat excited. I realized that I was reading a description of an ancient Tradition that meshed so exactly with the PROCESS that the Cassiopaeans had guided us through, that the only explanation for this was that this material I was reading was part of that ancient - literally prehistoric tradition. This included the very "finding" and "burning" mentioned above.

It was significant that I was only to "discover" the work of Boris Mouravieff - the new piece of the puzzle - a most important piece - immediately after this period of "trial by fire." It was exactly right for me to read it AFTER experiencing it so that I would not doubt my experience and think that I had "manifested" it due to my powerful emotional thinking. This is what convinces me of the fact that the work of Mouravieff is, indeed, of great significance. There is NO possibility that anything that has occurred in the past years was "suggested" to me by reading his material beforehand, and the stages of the Initiation process are described by him in detail - exactly as they happened. What is more, much of this material corresponds precisely to hints and "word clues" given by the Cassiopaeans.

One thing Mouravieff wrote that was powerfully meaningful to me was his series of comments on the "type" of the Knight - who is already well-developed emotionally, but really needs to work on the intellectual part. The fact is this: even though my husband and myself are considered to be "intellectuals" and to have pursued intellectual development all our lives, what became excruciatingly clear was that it was very one-sided in some respects. Because of what Mouravieff calls the "A" influences - and we just call it the Matrix Control System - our EMOTIONS were distorted to only allow us to accept ideas that were emotionally pleasing - even if they were of a high intellectual sort.

All of this has to do with what Mouravieff suggests is the "matter of matters," i.e. "evil." And that, of course, takes us to the many ideas of "fixing" the world, or "saving" the world, or whatever. In other words, what amounts to hubris - deciding that the ideas that a person has about good and evil based on human intellectualizations - must be enforced on creation.

What I finally realized - in a period of intense initiation - was that God has Many faces - not all of them pleasant to behold. And, at that point, I SAW the "Matrix," and I SAW the "A" influences and "B" influences, and that the REAL work of this level of being is to CHOOSE one's alignment with one or the other, and then to begin the process of discerning and "assimilating." This is why everything is "masked" in symbols. This reality is, in a sense, the landscape of the Quest for the Grail. It is a TEST.

But more is needed, as Mouravieff points out. One must, at some point, DO something. And this is where faith comes in. It is not "faith" in the sense of a "belief," but Faith in the REALITY of higher things... and it requires the individual to essentially "step off a cliff" at the edge of the Matrix reality into the reality of the REAL.

I did.

And just as the alchemists describe it, such an act results in the "death" of something - and the physical body - so attuned to this something that Mouravieff calls the "A" influences - being forcibly disconnected from them via WILL - goes through some of the most horrible sufferings imaginable. It could be said to be similar to drug withdrawal in a sense, but a LOT worse. In physical terms, an infection took hold in my body affecting my eyes, ears, and lungs. I literally wept blood. For days I lay there, almost unable to breathe, with compresses on my eyes, medications in my ears, ingesting the massive doses of the most powerful antibiotics available (that had no effect) - and I did NOT relent. I KNEW that what I was experiencing was the efforts of the "agents of the Matrix" to turn me aside from my resolve. And I just kept affirming that "you can kill me if you like, but I am NOT changing my course."

And at some point, there was a "shift" and the forces withdrew.

Ark "found me" 40 days later. To the day.

That was, apparently, the "crossing of the first threshold."

[Note: After further review of the material, I have to say that it seems, based on the specific descriptions of Mouravieff, this event was actually the crossing of the Second Threshold. The first threshold had been crossed between the months of August of 1993 and the spring of 1994, just prior to the coming of the C's in July of 1994. Based on Gurdjieff's description of the "First Initiation," I had more or less related the terms. Reading Reality Split will make this clear.]

Mouravieff writes:

To cross the first Threshold, the seeker must undergo the first test successfully without looking back: he must be ablaze with the ardent desire to overcome the entanglement of life in the wilderness, so that he can throw himself into the unknown in a search of a new, reasonable and real life.

[Boris Mouravieff ]

Again, this is important because, had I known the Mouravieff material BEFORE the events, I would have doubted. I would have suspected that I acted based on subconscious compulsion to make something "true" that might not have been true. So, for a person such as myself, it is better if the event happens first that "instructs" and then the confirmation comes AFTER.

In fact, the Cassiopaeans have even stated this as follows:

Q: (L) Isn't faith a difficult commodity to acquire?
A: Not at all. When you have found something of truth you will receive demonstrations which locks in your faith.

But what is more interesting at this point is Mouravieff's description of what happens next, after the First Threshold is crossed:

The four notes which form the Staircase are linked by a deep interdependence, since their resonance draws its strength from the initial impulse of Desire. This means that if this initial desire does not unite all man's existence in obedience [to the thing desired, i.e. to become free] if it does not dominate his whole being, it is better for him to stop in time and not cross the Threshold. We repeat: The Way is a path of no return. This is the real reason for this test of Desire. This Desire must have the strength of Thirst. [...]

 

All of these steps happen more or less together in many combinations. They are distributed unequally according to different personalities, and driven by the force of our Desire to be free.

1. The first step leads to the test of Faith. To Believe is not enough; one must have faith. Here we note that we are not talking about faith or belief in some outside source, but in the self. Here the seeker must surmount his fear of abandonment. Many trials and troubles will face the seeker... all designed to destroy his faith in his own ability to BE and to succeed in finding the life that is not materially evident but is only a dream...
    

2. The second step is a test of Strength.
    

3. The third step is the test of Discernment and Skill. He who can see and understand the precept "you cannot serve God and Mammon" will be better prepared to withstand this test.
    

4. The fourth step is the test of Love, or true, life-giving love, a consuming fire quite different from what now smolders under the ashes. It is a blazing sword whose flames burn up all alloy mixtures; all that man takes for love - within him or towards him - when it is not that. If we keep these words before our minds, we will immediately be able to judge every movement of the heart, and will know whether or not it contains traces of true Love. To live in the True, with all lies excluded, is the prerogative of the Cycle of the Spirit: Light without shadow.

We speak here about certain human beings who have attained or who are about to attain the Second Birth. The text leaves no room for ambiguity:

"Lie not to one another: seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings and have put on the new man, that is being renewed until the knowledge after the image of God: where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman; but Christ is all and in all."

This is only addressed to those who are on the Way in their relations between themselves.

We have indicated the absolute necessity for anyone who aspires to esoteric development to cure himself as soon as possible of this deep-rooted habit of lying to himself. This work takes time, demands the courage to face disillusion, and needs self-confidence and faith in the self. As the seeker advances, he feels a new sentiment. He will sometimes feel bitter regret as his beautiful dreams vanish, but at the same time he will feel himself more and more liberated. His growing sincerity towards himself will establish an atmosphere of truth in his inner life.

 

The law proclaimed "you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free" will apply to him in its fullness. The word "free" was deliberately chosen to contrast a state of slavery. After each operation of inner purification, painful though it may be, the seeker will feel more and more fully a profound gratitude for being freed from this absurd slavery. Having reached a certain stage in internal liberation, the individual will understand the full value of the magical power expressed in the word Freedom.

The acquisition of Inner Freedom is the sine qua non condition of further success in esoteric work. This elimination of lying to the self enables one to observe the work of the lower centers in the self objectively. This observation is commenced from this "command post" of impartial observation and judgment of the individual who has overcome the lies to the self. If we remember that the kingdom of heaven is within, and NOT outside us, then we begin to understand that some force or even violence must be employed INTERNALLY to retake our own fortress. This is very often necessary to eliminate the roots of Illusion within us, the mother of lies to ourselves.

Thus we see that the test at the fourth step is decisive. Until lying stops, man drags along the defects of his past: lying, weakness, self-pity, and inner compromise. Generally, it takes time, the opportunity and the possibility to rid himself of his baggage before committing himself to the fourth step is met. Many individuals, because of the weight of their past, waste time and allow many opportunities which present themselves to go by. But, on the fourth step, the balance sheet must be drawn up and accounts settled. Man, poor and naked, is accepted at the second Threshold, but only on condition that he is consistent and pure. The essential is that he be consistent, meaning that he contains within himself true Love, which can only be revealed by the cessation of lying to the self.

Our last question is to examine the method whereby the Staircase between the two Thresholds can be climbed more quickly, while we remain and work in the contemporary world. This means exists: it is to work as a couple. However, for this esoteric work to be completed successfully by two people, it is essential that the two beings - man and woman - are integrally polar.

 

A man alone is incomplete. But just where he is weak, his polar being is strong. Together, they form an integral being: their union leads to the fusion of their Personalities and a faster crystallization of their complete subtle bodies, united into a common second Birth.

[Boris Mouravieff]

So, all of that is good news. What's the bad news? Mouravieff points out a number of times that when an individual seeks to escape the control of the Matrix, when we make our position clear by any numbers of means - like building an anti- Matrix website - there will be no lack of "external attacks" because the Matrix frowns on those who resist and reject its controls.

The Matrix, as we have seen, takes immediate steps - as Mouravieff puts it "a whole series of appropriate measures - to make the rebel fall back into line."

Then begins the struggle, the GREAT struggle, the INVISIBLE COMBAT on whose outcome the fate of the Knight depends.

This UNINTERRUPTED COMBAT lasts the whole length of the Staircase and the seeker does not obtain his final victory until after the last trials when he finds himself in front of the Second Threshold.

All along the way, however, progress is ensured by partial victories over this or that passion, over the tendency to sleep, over violent shocks or scandals coming from outside or even from inside.

The struggle is painful, especially because one does not recognize the enemy until after one has been hit; his approach is always masked in infinitely varied ways: considerations, seductions, a desire to be useful or agreeable, condescension's, noble attitudes, etc.

Each partial victory augments the reserve of fine energies and so strengthens the Knight's strength in the battle. But here again, he must be particularly vigilant not to spend the reserve as fast as he accumulates it. After each victory, he must remember that the Matrix automatically acts in varied ways to steal from him the surplus of the fine energies he has won.

 

In the course of the Invisible Combat, a particular passion, the same mirage, loses its power over the victor once he has overcome it once, twice or more times. So while the Knight advances on the Staircases his inner peace becomes more and more complete and unalterable. He will see his assailants waver and retreat, one by one.

[Boris Mouravieff ]

Mouravieff tells us that adjustment of our energy is indispensable to esoteric work. This adjustment concerns the transmutation of negative emotions, which are the means by which the "destructive force" acts in man.

It is not an exaggeration to say that negative emotions are mainly responsible for the fact that human beings age and die prematurely. To combat old age and death, one must combat the negative emotions in oneself. ...When treated according to precise rules founded on a strenuous psychical discipline, these very same emotions, though harmful, can become an abundant source of the fine, active energies whose presence is NECESSARY for the development of the Personality. [...]

 

The scriptures and the commentators of the first centuries of our era insist on the IMPORTANCE OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS and on the attitude we should take to them. They recommend a positive reaction and a joyful attitude towards people who are malicious towards us.

 

It is at this point of his evolution that the seeker will find the obvious utility of those who are hostile to him. As long as he is on the Staircase it is in INSULTS, HATE, JEALOUSY, TREACHERY and the CONTEMPT of other men that the seeker finds the elements, which are necessary for him.

 

By dominating the mechanical reactions that the reproaches and attacks of others may produce in him, someone who struggles between the Two Thresholds separates and rejects the elements which are parasites on the fine energy mobilized by negative emotions. The seeker finds in this struggle the source of energy that is indispensable to him.

[Boris Mouravieff ]

Now, please notice that there is a very subtle thing in the above comments that is very easily misunderstood and twisted. What is important to understand is that the emotional center of man has a positive half and a negative half. The essential work of the Seeker is the "tuning" of the emotional center because this is the center that merges with the magnetic center and forms the link to the higher centers.

Many seekers are of the "knightly type" and their emotional center is "awake," but it is very imbalanced. The very important POSITIVE work of the negative half of the emotional center is not functioning - it has been put to sleep and the positive half has become exaggerated and it's energy is misused for the creation of lies and fantasies that "feel good." We have been taught that negative emotions are "bad," and this is completely incorrect.

The positive work of the negative part of the emotional center is to react to lies and unpleasantness which serves as a "warning system" to the organism. It is supposed to "react" to disagreeable shocks from without and within. This is the entire point of Castañeda's discourse on Petty Tyrants. The attacks of insult, hate and jealousy, treachery, and contempt evoke energies in our systems that can be UTILIZED in a positive, creative way. The precept to "love one's enemies" proceeds from the knowledge that we are NOT to flee from our negative emotions. Nor are we to suppress or repress or reject them.

The positive part of our emotional center responds to agreeable impressions. The role of negative emotions is not really negative. The purpose of negative emotions is that they serve as awakening alarms. Their dynamism communicates to the individual things that force him to ACT.

If the negative half of our emotional center is not awake, its normal role is not being fulfilled and our affective life is impoverished and disoriented. It is the same as not being able to distinguish between heat and cold or dark and light. The functioning of the negative emotions is an indispensable part of the emotional make-up.

When it is asleep because we have been programmed that having negative reactions is "not okay," the energy of this center is utilized in destructive ways. This can take a number of forms: it can be suppressed or repressed, resulting in harm to the health of the organism. It can be uncontrolled, resulting in discord in families, and giving the human masses impulses that push them to excesses: revolution, war, fighting, etc. Or, even more dangerous, this energy can be utilized by the emotional center in its innate capacity for dreaming to create lies and illusions.

This means that, when a "shock" comes to the organism from either outside or inside, because of our programming that we are not supposed to have negative emotions, this energy flooding the system, is generally used to "patch up" our reality - to draw us into lies and false beliefs that lock us more firmly into the Matrix.

However, the person who fully understands the work of negative emotions, knows that there is a USE for them, and that they are the "fuel" for ACTION, for discovering truth and exposing lies either to the self or to others.

The trick is to not allow the negative emotions to activate either the moving center which tends to respond with negative actions, or the intellectual center which tends to respond with negative thoughts toward the "shock." This results in a "feeding" of the source of the shock and a draining of the energy of the organism.

Instead, the pure energy of the negative emotions must be observed and controlled like an untamed horse so that its energy pulls the rest of the organism where it wants to go.

This means constant observation of the self during periods of "shocks." At the moment of the arising of the negative emotion, within the instant of its arousal, it is possible to disassociate the components of the emotion - to separate the "shock" from not only the initiator, but from the programmed reaction - and to liberate the pure energy and concentrate it and USE it positively. The result of this technique is a direct connection to the higher centers which results in an inflow of tremendous energy into the organism that lights up the emotional center like a flashing neon sign, and the SENSATION is pure JOY.

This is only possible with knowledge.

A practical example of this is the writing of the Adventures Series, as I have already noted. Instead of being angry at the source of the shocks, the insults, the lies, the treachery, the hate, contempt and jealousy, the energy was transformed via gathering and sharing knowledge.

Another way of explaining this process we have learned from the C's is that when we are attacked, it shocks our emotional center. This produces a "contact potential difference" in us that inducts enormous amounts of cosmic energy into our organism. Because the nature of the shock activates the negative emotional center, we have a problem if our negative emotional center has not be "trained" by long exposure to training that concerns handling negative emotions .

If we have spent our lives trying to suppress or repress or avoid negative experiences, if we have spent our lives trying to find "beliefs" that will keep the negative emotions asleep, we have no means of understanding how to control and utilize this enormous energy. The energy will flood our organism and will turn our thoughts to ideas of "revenge" or acts of hatefulness - telling lies to ourselves or others, using filthy language, acting against another in a violent or vicious way. This then "feeds" the Matrix.

Among the common lies we use to try to "patch up" or avoid negative emotions are such things as "let's all get along," which leads to "backing down" and turning away from the negative experience in order to just cover it up and "make nice." This lie completely deprives us of one of the greatest means of accomplishing our goal of ascension! And of course, this lie has been twisted to mean that we are somehow supposed to "give love to" our enemies even in the face of vile and vicious attacks from them! Nothing could be further from the truth!

What this means is, if the individual has the knowledge of how this energy can actually be utilized, he will not so quickly run from confrontation and proper interaction with, and response to, those things that stimulate the negative half of the emotional center. He will, effectively, turn the other cheek for another slap so as to induce even more energy into his organism for his utilization. He will, as Don Juan suggested, engage in systematic harassment of the Petty Tyrant for the very purpose of producing more and greater "shocks."

Because the fact is, the cosmic energy that is induced into the organism by activation of the negative emotions is POSITIVE energy from the Feminine Creative Center that is only "twisted" by the distorted state of the emotional center itself. This energy that floods the body at the "arising of anger" or "outrage" is PURE Cosmic ENERGY. It makes the emotional center vibrate with a very rapid rhythm. And, just as the energy of the wild horse, if it is tamed and harnessed, can pull a wagon a great distance, so can the tremendous energy of negative emotions TUNE the centers of the body, producing the bridge of contact between the lower centers and the higher centers.

In short, a certain technique taught to us by the C's, correctly practiced, with knowledge, enables the individual to liberate the Cosmic energy from the mixture of programmed negative emotional response. This enables the person to calmly and coolly respond to the negative activity in a creative way, all the while experiencing a prolonged induction of energy from the higher centers that produces a state of unmitigated joy.

Each time you refuse to respond to the negative shock in a negative way, but instead, take POSITIVE ACTION, you have achieved a victory over a negative emotion. When you face the petty tyrant and give his lies what they ask for: truth, you have transmuted the energy into creative action. When the shocks of attack are NOT given back to the petty tyrant in "like coin," but instead, the energy is utilized to GIVE SOMETHING POSITIVE TO OTHERS, you are achieving victory over negative emotions. And each of these shocks, each of these experiences of being "in the fire," produce greater and greater fusion of the lower centers with the higher centers.

So, the point is not to "give love TO" the petty tyrant in the twisted sense that this is generally promulgated, but rather that we see, with knowledge, why we CAN and MUST love our enemies and bless those who curse and persecute us. Not in the sense of "treating them with love" at all. Rather, we are to treat them with cool and calm reactions that give back to them exactly what they deserve. But the overload of Cosmic energy of reaction that is inducted in us, we can transmute for higher purposes of great significance in the process of "Ascension."

Because, in truth, to give TO the petty tyrant the energy they evoke would be like shooting a mosquito with a rocket launcher - a huge waste of energy that we can use to launch ourselves from our state of sleep to full wakefulness. And this is why Don Juan tried to put this in perspective for us by calling them "petty tyrants." Even those who hold the power of life and death over a person are still "petty tyrants." This emphasizes for us the relative amount of our energy of attention they are due, while helping us to focus on the great amount of energy that we need to transmute in ourselves as a result of their attacks.

Rejoice. From the fire comes light.

This leads us to another consideration: there are quite a number of people who do not like to read about what they call "negative" things. They don't like the material we produce that exposes the Matrix. They don't like to read "negative" things because they only want to read or experience "positive" things. They perceive the material we have gathered as "negative" because it "induces fear" or they describe it as "fear based."

What never occurs to them is that there is a REASON for this. It is only in the process of repeatedly being exposed to "negative emotions" and learning how to transmute this energy that there is any hope of achieving freedom from "warm and fuzzy lies" and achieving "ascension."

As I have written in The Wave series:

Chapter XLII

 

...Nevertheless, we come back to that small problem that we are dealing with here: we happen to be on this planet, swinging through space like a seat on the Tilt-a-Whirl, on an arm of the Milky Way galaxy, and whether we like to look at it or not, there are many of the people on said planet suffering mightily in ways too numerous to mention. I don't know about you, but that bugs me. And when something bugs me, my natural inclination is to find out what it is and why it is bugging me. And once I find out something about it, I DO something. Can't help it. I'm a doer.

There are thousands upon thousands of people who advocate different views of what the answers to life's problems are. They operate […] based on an emotional belief [lie] rather than the highly developed cognition process[…] This is why their answers do not seem to be leading to any active pursuit of specific measures that might serve to ameliorate the problem, much less lead to a universe changing solution. If they were clear and coherent in their own souls and minds, the result of this would be ACTION. They would become doers, too. But instead of being solvers of problems, they are critics of the solutions offered by others.

Nobel Laureate, Murray Gell-Mann writes in The Quark and the Jaguar:

I have never really seen a jaguar in the wild. In the course of many long walks through the forests of tropical America and many boat trips on Central and South American rivers, I never experienced that heart-stopping moment when the powerful spotted cat comes into full view. Several friends have told me, though, that meeting a jaguar can change one's way of looking at the world.

...[Arthur Sze writes] "The world of the quark has everything to do with a jaguar circling in the night." ...The jaguar stands for the complexity of the world around us, especially as manifested in complex adaptive systems.

 

...The quark and the jaguar seem to me to convey perfectly the two aspects of nature that I call the simple and the complex: on the one hand, the underlying physical laws of matter and the universe and, on the other, the rich fabric of the world that we perceive directly and of which we are a part.

 

...The jaguar is ...a possible metaphor for the elusive complex adaptive system, which continues to avoid a clear analytical gaze, though its pungent scent can be smelled in the bush.

[Gell-Mann, 1994]

In the last few chapters, we have met the Jaguar. We have described a reality out of your worst nightmare. Some of you have been able to actually see the Jaguar, and some of you have smelled its "pungent scent," and some of you have covered your eyes and held your nose and have fled in terror to the safety of more congenial belief systems. These latter have concluded that the Cassiopaeans are presenting "just another of those the-world-is-damned, and only a few are going to be saved" rants.

 

In regard to this, let me quote Dresden James who wrote:

A truth's initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed. It wasn't the world being round that agitated people, but that the world wasn't flat. When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.

In either case, whether you have seen or smelled the jaguar, or have denied its existence, holding the perfumed handkerchief of well-packaged lies to your nose, I think it is time to talk a few minutes about current realities.

The question has been asked: If the Cassiopaeans are the "nice guys" who "serve self by serving others" that they claim, why in the world would they tell us about a reality that is so horrible? Is it their objective to create such a reality by planting it in our minds and convincing us it is real and we have no hope? Doesn't making people afraid provide a wonderful feast of fear for those nasty old 4th density STS controllers? Isn't that just what they want? And, if so, then the Cassiopaeans must be one of "them" in disguise providing them with a "feast of fear!"

At the same time, when the Cassiopaeans suggest that the many sources of information or systems of belief that make you feel safe, saved, warm and fuzzy, could really be setting you up for a fall, aren't they driving us away from the REAL sources of peace and harmony in which we must have faith in the face of any other evidence?"

Let me ask you a question: would you go hiking in the wilderness without proper clothing and equipment? If somebody told you about all the dreadful things that can happen on a hike in the woods, would it stop you from the hike? Would you be so terrorized by the prospect of encountering a bear or a snake or a jaguar that you would stay home? Or would you equip yourself properly, with both knowledge and tools, and go and enjoy your hike in safety?

This analogy goes only so far because, as it happens, we are already in the middle of the wilderness and there are a lot of "teachers" around who are repeatedly telling us "There's nothing out there that can harm you! If you aren't afraid, no grizzly bears or snakes will appear! And, even if they do, if you don't feel fear, they won't bother you."

On the occasions when just such a philosophy might seem to have worked, the survivor of the encounter is firmly convinced that it was just this quality of "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" that preserved them. The only problem is, we have no way of knowing if the grizzly bear, the snake, or the jaguar declined to attack them simply because they weren't hungry at the moment, or they were distracted by other, more tasty prey. And a more compelling question is this: did they act in a manner so as to convince the experiencer that their "belief system" worked, so that they WOULD return and proclaim the gospel of faith and ignorance, thereby assuring their continued concealment? And, naturally, those who practice this philosophy and do NOT survive, have no voice at all and we never hear about them.

 

Freud wrote that religion was:

A system of wishful illusions together with a disavowal of reality, such as we find... nowhere else... but in a state of blissful hallucinatory confusion.

And, of course, the Cassiopaeans have identified the essence of Service to Self as "Wishful Thinking."

Now, let me propose another interpretation of what the Cassiopaeans have told us; one that is actually contained within their words for those who have "eyes to see and ears to hear." Could it just be possible that they are, as they have said, probable future selves whose reality as 6th density beings is increased in direct proportion to our level of knowledge, and subsequent APPLICATION? In other words, are we not dealing with probable futures, and the only way of determining which future we experience is to choose based on accurate knowledge of the present?

Suppose that the information that the Cassiopaeans disseminate is true and we ignore it, are we then possibly subject to the very reality they tell us about? Conversely, if we accept it as true, or possibly true, and then ACT based on this information, are we not then capable changing the reality by the very fact of "reception?" That is, assuming that the reality is a result of mass mind non-awareness and a sort of "critical mass" of awareness can be achieved?

In short, does it not seem reasonable that probable future selves, given increasing probability by the awakening of a few people, are capable of interacting in our reality to help us only because some of us accept the role of being "contact points" to receive and disseminate the information necessary to wake people up in order to CHANGE the future?

Ouspensky, quoting Gurdjieff, writes:

"... Furthermore no one can escape from prison without the help of those who have escaped before. Only they can say in what way escape is possible or can send tools, files, or whatever may be necessary. But one prisoner alone cannot find these people or get into touch with them. An organization is necessary, Nothing can be achieved without an organization.

[P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of Miraculous]

Remember the most important principles that the Cassiopaeans have given us are Free Will and Knowledge Protects. These two concepts are inseparable. The more knowledge you have, the more awareness you have; and the more awareness you have, the more Free will you have as to whether or not you will receive and disseminate lies or truth. And the only way to understand the advanced information from the Cassiopaeans that evolved as we interacted with them is to understand nonlinear dynamics and complex systems.

First of all, it is important to note that the law of Free Will contains within it the explicit condition of non-linearity. And for those who wish to take issue with my remarks here, claiming that the Cassiopaeans have said that we are controlled by 4th density STS, and therefore this implies that there is no free will, keep in mind that we have as much free will in relation to 4th density as 2nd density creatures have in relation to us. The more awareness of 3rd density beings the 2nd density creature obtains, the more likely it is to avoid being captured and eaten. So, let's not get sidetracked into tetraphyloctomy on that point. [A term coined by Umberto Eco in Foucault's Pendulum; means "the art of splitting a hair four ways.]

Implicit in non-linearity is the fact that the future is, as the Cassiopaeans have said a thousand times, if they have said it once: OPEN. Not only is it open, it is multiple in probability. In their own words, there is an uncountable infinity of "quasi-quantum propensities."

Even if they often oppose one another, belief in reductionism and mechanism go hand in hand with religious faith of all sorts, including "magick." God or Darwin or the Ophanim are in heaven and "all is right with the world." Phenomena are orderly and everything can be explained with some sort of cause and effect scheme represented by differential equations. Either God started things at some point in space/time, to follow a single linear path, at which point He will bring it to an end, saving some people and not others, according to "survival of the fittest" in terms of who has obeyed his commands; or everything began with the Big Bang and has followed the linear path of evolutionary "survival of the fittest" in terms of Natural Selection. Same song, different verse.

Newton introduced us to these ideas through his famous laws of motion which relate the rates of change of momentum to various forces. Very quickly science, and religion, came to rely on linear differential equations. Phenomena such as the flight of a baseball or the end of the world, (which necessitates the damning of certain souls on a particular trajectory, and the saving of others), could be described by differential equations. You throw the ball a certain way with a certain force, and there are certain conditions, and it will land at a specified place. If you have faith in a certain system, and hold firm to that faith, or conversely, deny that faith, you will end up in heaven or hell; or you will die in a pole shift, or be translated to the great new pie-in-the-sky. In such systems, small changes produce small effects and large effects are obtained by summing up many small changes.

This reductionist thinking held sway over nearly all the world until the 1970s when mathematical advances and the advent of the high-speed computer enabled scientists to probe the complex interior of nonlinear equations.

 

(Note: the new trend started earlier, in 1950s in Los Alamos, with simulations of Fermi-Ulam-Pasta model on the then state-of-the-art computer Eniac 1!)

Nonlinear equations are "math from the Twilight Zone" where the normal mathematical landscape can suddenly become an alternate reality. In nonlinear equations, a small change in one variable can have a disproportionate impact on other variables. This can be catastrophic or serendipitous.

Our view is rather simple: that of non-linear systems. We think that our very small and seemingly insignificant contribution to knowledge and awareness, when spread via a network, can change the state of human awareness. And it is the awareness of the mass mind that is the actual "savior of humanity."

The teachings of the Cassiopaeans are based on a nonlinear, complex, self-referencing and self-organizing cosmos.

That is to say, when they answer our questions at any given moment, the answers are exactly correct for that moment in space time; that "branch of the universe" in which the question is asked. However, that information, if it is utilized, changes the complex system via a process of "back-propagation" or "feedback," and the universe can branch and change in a nonlinear way.

In nonlinear dynamics and complex systems, it is even possible to locate potential critical pressure points in such systems. At these critical points (which probably relate to what Gurdjieff, in his "Law of Octaves" called "semi-tones' or "stopinders", but we are dealing with a gigantic "octave" this time), a small change can have a tremendous impact.

It is in this context that Ark and I see our "mission."

Because it so happens that, at this particular point in history, in this particular reality that so many of us seem to be sharing, there are these communicants from somewhere, calling