Nexus - 0603 - New Times Magazine-pages

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route to afterlife knowledge, charted and mapped by Robert A. Monroe from landfalls made during his out-of-body travels. Using a trade route called "retrieval", the Lifeline program at his Institute in Virginia taught a method of exploring the afterlife. Monroe claimed that, after death, some people became stuck in isolated realities of their own making. He'd embarked on voyages of retrieval, contacting and assisting those people, and gave his charts and maps to others to follow. Voyages Into the Unknown and Voyage Beyond Doubt, the first two books in my Exploring the Afterlife series, recount my first three-and-a-half years exploring our afterlife existence. Those years were filled with doubt and scepticism on my part. I couldn't shake the nagging feeling I was making it all up in my imagination, convinced that at some point I'd discover it was all a self-delusion. voice, I clicked out—meaning I became unconscious to experience. Clicking out is weird. Regaining consciousness afterwards leaves the distinct feeling that three seconds or three thousand years could have elapsed, and you have no way of knowing which. It's possible I was perceiving more than single, fleeting images during these click-outs. It could have been like a 3D, full- colour and stereo-sound movie, but I had no memory of the experience. recount my first Finding the Balance ~yron- two books in my Exploring the Afterlife series. zy three-and-a-half years exploring our afterlife existence. Those Realising I had to find a route that sailed past this great barrier years were filled with doubt and scepticism on my part. Icouldn't _ reef of consciousness, I tried combining the knowledge that both shake the nagging feeling I was making it all up in my their landfalls brought. Not an easy voyage, and more than once I imagination, convinced that at some point I'd discover it was all a had to sail back out of paths that led to nowhere. Balance, self-delusion. landfall beyond that reef, came when I learned to shift my awareness quickly between the Perceiver and Interpreter. COMPONENTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS Opening my perception, I'd first allow the Perceiver to bring In my early Lifeline voyages I discovered a key to interaction non-physical-world information into my awareness, and then within the non-physical world. I'd expected to see, hear, touch, allow the Interpreter to comment just long enough to anchor it in taste and feel there in much the same way as in the physical memory. In the beginning, my struggle to shut down the world, but each attempt at finding anything or anyone to Interpreter took too long and the Perceiver's images would fade communicate with beyond the horizon left me becalmed, floating out. At least the images resumed once the Interpreter shut up! frustratedly in empty blackness. Then someone suggested what I Gradually, I learned to shift quickly enough between the two that was trying to perceive were subtle energies, and perhaps physical perception in the non-physical world become continuous with world senses were incapable of their memory of the experience. perception. That key opened the door to IMAGINATION: OUR SIXTH understanding two major components to . SENSE my consciousness: the Perceiver and the Monroe claimed that, Early on, I discovered my Lifeline Interpreter. voyages required actively imagining the p after death, some people first few moments ofa retrieval as the The Interpreter became stuck in isolated only way to get anything at all to A pattern in my experience emerged. realities of their own making. happen. Without this pretending, I Just as I'd begin to 'see' something in my drifted aimlessly in the empty blackness mind's eye, it would abruptly disappear of a cloudy night at sea. in the distraction of a series of seemingly You might see why I worried about random thoughts. I began to observe self-deception. But by allowing myself this pattern carefully, and I found that as to pretend, for example, the beginning of something, say a mind's-eye image, entered my awareness, an both sides of an imaginary conversation with a dead person, internal dialogue automatically began. something interesting began to happen. The dead people started This, I discovered, is the voice of the Interpreter. It brings into saying things I knew I hadn't pretended. For instance, there was awareness anything stored in memory bearing the slightest the elderly woman who called out, "Maggie, Maggie! What are similarity to the image. Left unchecked, the Interpreter's voice you doing here?" as I watched another unknown, non-physical continues bringing more related images to mind, with a constant woman approach her. I had no way of knowing the other woman jabbering that crowds the original mind's-eye image out of was her long-deceased mother, but that was later verified by awareness. Turns out the Interpreter is a vital function of Maggie's physically alive great-granddaughter. For my first consciousness. By mentally associating existing memories with three-and-a-half years of exploring the afterlife on voyages of the new image, it is building links within existing memory to that _ retrieval, this sort of thing happened often. image. That's how we learn to remember anything. But let the Over time, I discovered that pretending is a means of Interpreter run on too long, and perception of anything more than stimulating the imagination, a sense for perception within the single, fleeting images is blocked. afterlife that's just as real as sight and hearing in the physical I wanted more, and reasoned I'd somehow have to learn to shut world. When becalmed, pretending brought the first sign of wind down the Interpreter's incessant jabbering. It took vigilance, will that would come to fill my sails. Once underway, imagination power and perseverance, but shutting down that automatic (our sixth sense) filled my ship's log with the details of my internal dialogue is exactly what I did. In doing so, I learned the __ retrieval voyage. limitations of that other component of consciousness, the Perceiver. PARTNERED EXPLORATIONS Monroe claimed that, after death, some people became stuck in isolated PARTNERED EXPLORATIONS Columbus didn't sail a lone ship towards the horizon on his voyage. Others sailed with him, bearing witness to discoveries in the New World. I'd been exploring solo for quite a while before I met Rebecca. An adept non-physical-world explorer, she offered to help me learn the most powerful, verifiable method I've found. The Perceiver The Perceiver is just that: pure perception, and only pure perception. It has absolutely no associative function or ability to anchor what it perceives in memory. When I got really good at shutting down the Interpreter at the first hint of its jabbering 64 * NEXUS APRIL —- MAY 1999