Because we are all One, the same Self, every singular mind-island's projection is another mind-island's impression. I have a feeling this must be the meaning of synchronicity. How can it be that my own particular internal narrative coincides perfectly at some point with another's? Maybe this isn't such a mystery if it is clear that every single mind is like an island, over which pass the same clouds, the same "thoughts".
Some islands may be better equipped with instruments for capturing and clinging onto those clouds.
It seems this simple shift in perspective turns synchronicity into an obvious fact of nature, rather than some spooky coincidence which everyone acknowledges at some point but noone wants to talk about (for fear of being thought insane). I think synchronicity has something to do with telepathy and the finer nature of thought. In an emptied mind, devoid of one's own sensory impressions, here and there clouds called thoughts arise and pass on through. What if, that state is a kind of precondition for the identification of the origin of those clouds (those thoughts)?
Obviously, a mind constantly bamboozling itself with concepts, that is to say, "I should be doing this" or, "I should be doing that", has absolutely no reckoning of how to differentiate between where the thoughts arise.
(Did I think this thought? Or did you think this thought? There may be no such thing as ownership of thoughts.) In this kind of mind, a mind that has not yet learned how to become quiet... silent... empty... not only does it have no peace, but the intellectual aspect of this mind will find the idea of telepathy ridiculous. Why? Because this mind hasn't learned not to identify its island with the clouds above passing by. This being is completely identified with its mind, if the mind can be thought of as the contents of the sky. Have you forgotten that upon which you depend for support - the ground? Remember your feet, don't lose your head!
It does sound ridiculous to say that this mind has to unlearn identifying its existence with those clouds (those thoughts). But! Herein lies the illusion we all enjoy in our everyday lives. Even worse, or better, we don't even escape this illusion in our dreams, wherein we actually have the power (in our freedom) to dramatically alter our environment according to our imaginings.
I submit it is this very illusion, this identification of our existence with those clouds of thought, that obstructs us from seeing the truth in telepathy, and furthermore actively works against our being able to perform telepathy ourselves.Just imagine if you could remember you had that power within a dream at night, nevermind at day!, what would you do?
Perhaps, the reason we find it difficult to wake up inside our dreams, is for the very simple reason that we don't believe it can happen, or we haven't thought at all about what we might actually do in that kind of world. Might we come to discover the power of belief? Think literally for a moment what you would do if you had the power to do anything. And once you've thought of something, now immediately realize that the sole reason it's not true is the interval of time typically required to build a galaxy from beginning to end. In other words, the deed is already done in your mind, except the world must wait and see. They must wait, like anyone who waits for a building or a company or an equation to be founded, and see. You've seen the world as it could be, and all the validity you need for an idea is the fact that it entered your imagination at all. You imagined it! There's your proof it is true. Because none other than the Real you imagined. Not that bundle of clouds (thoughts) you previously learned wasn't the real you.
I, too, might find this ridiculous on the front of it. But, when we consider the consequences of human thought on the shape of this planet, (just think of it!) nevermind the solar system (think of voyager out there beyond pluto), I realize fully (not fully, because if I did, the world would be at peace) the power of thought, which is fundamentally indistinguishable from the power of imagining. The secret is in belief. Is it the path that illuminates belief, or is it the initial (I can!) belief that illuminates the way?
A wise master said that "the shape of the universe is the shape of man". And yet another master said: "an iron will and intelligent brain - and the world falls at your feet". Another said "the kingdom of heaven is within you". Let us collectively externalize our imagination into the domain of the previously thought impossible, and reach and command the Way.
There is nothing "out there" beyond Ourself. If we discover advanced intelligence around another star, it will make no difference, because there is no competition between intelligences. If one intelligence wishes to compete with another, and be in the spirit of musting up it's resources to out-wit or one-up the other, then this is not intelligence, but primitive and, frankly, stupid behavior.
The only relationship that can exist between intelligences is a spirit of cooperation. In this way, each intelligence bootstraps itself into a higher understanding by virtue of being in connection with the other intelligence. There is no higher and lower here, but a working-together in the spirit of Oneness.
The universe is everywhere and we are a floating island in an infinite ocean.
That super advanced alien high technology civilization with a Dyson sphere 1500 light years away would be no different, that is, if we discover this to be the case. They are no different from us, in the same way that a human being is not different at heart from a pine that stands a thousand years.
Do not be afraid of advanced intelligences. Replace that fear with curiosity.
Curiosity sometimes gets burned, yes. But fear always gets burned.
Now, A race cannot prepare for and prevent a catastrophe at the same time. Wait, didn't Einstein say that?
In the same way, we cannot prepare for departure into space, or be sufficiently prepared for contact with alien intelligence, at the same time we are still defending ourselves from each other - nations against nations. We must realize we have no enemy exterior to our own minds. In our antics to prepare for the worst possible scenario, we have misplaced our notion of enemy. The real enemy isn't an asteroid that will knock the earth to pieces. Nor is it nuclear war. Nor is it overpopulation. Nor is destroying the atmosphere. These are all components of a disorder, of a disconnect from our one true Self, that which we all share in common. What happens when a highly evolved being such as a human is detached with that which we all share in common? Disconnection from the world, each other, and most disastrous of all, disconnection from our self. What is the result of this disconnection? Addiction.
"Addiction is just one symptom of the crisis of disconnection that is happening all around us."
"The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection."
The reason we have addictions of infinite kinds is because, in the absence of communion with our internal selves, there is a vacuum that is created that must be filled, and because "nature abhors a vacuum", we seek always to fill it with something. What do we fill it with? We fill it with food (hence the problem of obesity in America), with people (to reassure us were not crazy because we feel empty inside - because everyone feels that way, and that's what makes it ok they say), with chronic masturbation or sex (always in for that neurochemical dopamine fix, indistinguishable to a neurologist from eating icecream for sugar or shooting cocaine for the high), media of some sort (be it an irresistible pull to constantly be checking facebook, tumblr, twitter, instagram, any of the news stations, and those endless online self-improvement articles telling us the best way to make oneself smarter, more beautiful, or less lousy), netflix marathons accompanied by pizza, subway, cannabis, and a general sense of depression caused by chronic indolence and guilt for doing nothing but trashing the temples of the mind - the body and the eyes, the body which deteriorates because of your willful negligence, and the eyes which become dull and dim reflecting the vanishing flame of accountability within.
Addiction.
What is the cause of addiction?
Disconnection from the Self we share in common which is within us all.
And if one wonders how to get back to being connected - I suggest you learn more about meditation from a very great master, from whom I have imbibed an enormous amount of valuable information, which I always seem to confirm for myself by arriving there spontaneously in meditation. His name is Alan W. Watts. Despite his passing some forty years ago, I know for a fact I would be eons behind in understanding what meditation really is, if not for him. Speaking personally, he empowered me by giving me the tools to find out for myself what its all about and who I really am, which I discovered were the same question. And, ever since, in my own practice of meditation, I have learned more about the nature of mind than could ever be transmitted in a doctoral program of psychology.
Entheogens are helpful, but are not the main course. Entheogens are like the great psychical powers of a great sage, but they are only powers, ephemeral. The great sage understands the truth of emptiness, and prefers that to the powers of magic. The buddha that wakes up does so through realizing emptiness, and I believe it is true this process can be expedited through the use of psilocybin (personal experience). But! specific to psilocybin is not anything that is not specific of any difficult or novel circumstance in which you find yourself. All of our experiences are teachers. And to the degree that some of us are caught in the torrent of some mighty tide of change, we learn some things fast about ourselves, which is the same thing as learning about life. If the seas are calm out beyond your comfortable island, and the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and if you've got your coconut with a bamboo straw and a gorgeous babe by your side, then that is perfectly alright. Why seek problems? However, if suddenly a storm brews in the visible distance, and upon the shore arrives some pieces of the wreckage of a ship, you know for sure you'd better prepare. This you may have never done before, but if you know your life depends on it, nothing catalyzes your creative imagination more than that! So, it is very simple to see that circumstances shape us and influence the depth of our selves. Some enjoy riding the ocean's surface, some enjoy to dive deep. Both are perfectly well.
The point, then, is to see that - for if you've no problem with a neighbor diving deep in his delusion to hunt the depths for diamonds, and if it is equally true he has no problem with the lazy happy changa smoking sailor on the surface having sex with the sun, then this spirit of tolerance and love permits a limitless variety of expression from all kinds of different personalities. Addiction, then, might be thought of as the alternative to living a life of freedom, of living like that happy changa smoking sailor neath the sun, or that risky daring diver plunging deep into the sea. You must find your self, and then when you've discovered genuinely you are God, you will have the clarity and power of intention to transform the world around you.
I believe the way to our collective Heaven, is through the collective deliverance of the idea that we are not already God's brothers and sisters. Let us each find our rest and peace in emptiness, from which, like a bowl's opportunistic utility from being made empty, we will find unlimited possibilities of worlds simply waiting to be imagined.
Imagine Heaven.
Genesis is Now, the Mind is Incarnate.