Yes, Kardec,

Some of us here do believe we occasionally can alter our focus to do this.  I'd like to think that to an extent it is actually possible.  Some people believe they can receive guidance from their "future" self. 

I may have received such guidance from time to time.  It could have just as easily been that kind of guidance rather than another "being" in the afterlife or a "higher self" --  I really don't know for sure.

I like to think that our future self might be able to alter our past self, to iron out the wrinkles here and there....

blink

Ryan,

If you believe in timelessness, free will still exists.  How?  Because past, present and future exist at the same time, but all are constantly in flux, and dynamic.

In this "everpresent" mind-numbing system, conscious thought can effect the past and future.  How do you effect the past?  By setting a conscious intention to do so.  Of course you are not going to magically change your present in C1.  But your creative will may make changes in the past as well as the future.

I mentioned in another thread the random number experiment.  Where a ticker tape of heads or tails was randomly generated to produce 10,000 coin tosses.  By pure statistics it should be close to 50% heads and tails.  Volunteers were then asked to take the printed out tape in a box, and concentrate on "heads."  Now, understand, the tape was already formed and printed.  When the tapes were read after the intention, there was a statistically significant difference in heads/tails.  This could only have happened by a present intention changing a past event (the random numbers being generated).  This expereiment was done in the PEAR laboratory I believe in Princeton university.

So, I think free will exists in this system where past present and future are always there but dynamic and in flux. 

Matthew

I basically believe that time isn't real, partly because I've had experiences which have told me that it isn't.

During one experience I knew beyond a shadow of doubt that there is no such thing as a particular moment of time, and no such thing as a particular location. I understood that it is impossible for such things to exist, and they are nothing but concepts.

Another example: Back in the days when I was into Eastern philosophies, I used to think, "when I obtain enlightenment, how will I be able to feel completely happy about things, when I know that a universe of suffering beings still exists." One day while driving some place, I got this deep intuitive understanding that the universe of suffering beings I'm concerned about doesn't exist, because time isn't real. Therefore, my moment of enlightenment is the exact same moment in which all other beings also obtain enlightenment.   Nowadays I think in terms of spiritual perfection rather than enlightenment, but the same principle applies.

Free will? You're going for a walk one day with a heart full of love, and you come upon a person who is in need of help. Hypothetically you might say, I can choose to help this person, or I can choose not to help this person. But do you really have a choice? If the love in your heart moves you to help them, then you're going to help them.

Sometimes things work out so that people aren't able to see the love that is in their heart, but once they are free to see its merits, why would they turn it down? 

My feeling is that in order to discover what's possible when it comes to God's creative power, and in order for us to be able to exist as distinct souls, we have to get lost for a while.

I've received insights that my higher self is this free awareness that is able to view everthing with a comprehensive awareness. Part of what enables it to do this, besides its basic nature, is its freedom from thought influencing belief systems and emotional attachments. Despite this freedom of mind it "can't" just do anything it wants, because the love it feels causes it to act responsibly towards everything else.

By the way, Vicky saw the future during her recent OBE experience (another post).

I don't know of any good books that address your questions specifically.

I'll say this though, awareness is limited only to the extent that we limit it.

Also, consider our conscious mind. It picks up only a small fragment of what goes on unconsciously. But is the unconscious mind really unconscious? Is it possible for there to be a place in which consciousness doesn't exist?

My guess is that God and our higher selves aren't so selective when it comes to how much they are aware of. Perhaps the goal, for some of us, is to become more completely aware like God and our higher selves are.

I don't know what the limits are, because I haven't reached them.


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I think the problem is that with linear thought we try to understand one moment/item at a time. Perhaps awareness doesn't actually have this self imposed restriction.

I've had dreams in which I would do two things at the same time. For example, I would ride in a bus while going one place, while flying to another place at the same time. After waking up it seemed confusing, but it didn't seem confusing during the dream. It seemed matter of fact.

Also, when it comes to my most profound understandings, I can't recreate the feeling of them simply by thinking about them.

It seems to me that awareness has the ability to understand pretty much anything, without having to have some sort of thinking instrument such as a biological brain in order to do so. Even if our neural synapses come up with a conclusion about something, awareness experiences that understanding as an object of perception, similar to how it would experience any other perception.

It might seem difficult to understand how awareness could have such an ability. Since it comes from God, perhaps its ability to comprehend is unlimited just like God's creative ability is unlimited.

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   I don't think any of us with bodies can fully logically grasp or understand this... I honestly don't know...but i feel that the above is a great explanation Kardec.  I also really like Matthews and Recoverer's input on it too....

  The only thing i might add, is that our "Higher Self" or more Total Self, while certainly more wiser seeming and more expanded than most of our conscious in-physical selves...is not perfection either.

  The Disk is growing too, and only becomes perfected after consistently being a Co-Creator with the Creative Forces in a like manner...  This touches upon Recoverer's post about Freewill....

  Freewill very much does exist, yet only in creating and choosing the Creators way will we have true and fulfilling freedom.... seems contradictory, or a paradox, yet its the way things are....  And many buck and kick against this, until suffering of their own making, makes them think otherwise...  then the individual Soul, bows to the Creators magnificance with humble appreciation and Love...  Like the man Yeshua of whom Cayce's Source said, "The Son learned obediance through the things he suffered."  The Creator does not punish..its just natural law that illusion though distracting for a time, very much hurts, and reality is what heals and makes one complete...this is Love...

  This is because some things, well one thing... Love energy is an absolute.  "Everything but Love is relative, yet Love is what makes all other energies relative."  By being an absolute, its throws a relative shade on all other things...

  Anything which encompasses and permeates everything else is most certainly an absolute, and not a human belief system, or mere perception....  It is Truth, it is Light, and true Knowledge.  It is the only way "back" to the Creator--the only path to walk.

Thank you