Bruce,

I never get it out of my system telling you how much passion I feel about your work.  You've influenced me in such a wonderful way.  There are so many things about what you teach that are favorites of mine, and one of them is how beliefs affect and alter our perception.  One story in particular, Disappearing Peanut Butter Jars, is one of my favorites because it helped explain some of my own experiences.  I hope that with my own personal experiences with this subject and what I've learned from you I can help pass on the awesome realization of this concept. 

There are a couple things I wanted to ask you.  (1)  When you first were going to make the sandwich, do you know why you asked yourself where the jar was?  Was it one of those absentminded things we talk to ourselves about without actually caring about the answer, or did you really not remember where you left the peanut butter?  (2) When you first looked into the cupboard, were both jars missing at that point?

I'm curious how such an innocent question could have such drastic affects on perception.  It makes me think that our reality is never what we think or expect it to be.  It's probably very likely that our reality, because of how beliefs affect our perception, is in constant shifting and rearranging, but we just don't notice these things.  Most of all, what most people tend to do is just shake their head, think "that was weird", and then never give it another thought.  You, on the other hand, dissected this phenomenon down to the bone to demonstrate how it is even possible. 

I wanted to hear your opinion and thoughts of what actually happened to the jars that seemed to disappear.  You and I have personally talked a lot about our personal experiences with this phenomenon.  Each separate incident of "disappearing objects" I study I get the same conclusion...I don't believe they actually disappear, at least not in the normal understanding of that word.  Reality is a frame of mind, and when your beliefs blocked your perception of the jars it is because your frame of mind essentially created an alternate reality in which the jars did not exist.  That's not exactly saying the same thing as the jars disappeared.  But basically we could say "same difference", right?  In essence you could say that from the jars' perspective, nothing changed.  And if that's true, that leaves only one other option, and that is that your perspective changed.  It is my belief that it's more likely that these items stayed exactly where they originally were, but that you yourself actually entered a different reality, one in which the jars did not exist.  Where the jars originally existed is a frame of mind too, one that you experienced up until the point of not experiencing it. 

I want to demonstrate how the same logic for the peanut butter jar story applies to one of my own experiences, one in which someone's set of keys mysteriously and literally vanished from sight.  There is one huge difference though...in the story of your jars, you looked for the jars in the same place where you expected them to be, and that is where you eventually saw them again.  That makes sense.  You'd expect them to be in that specific location, if that is where you know them to be, so that is where you were looking when your frame of mind changed back to it's original reality, the one in which those jars were sitting right there. 

In the case of the missing keys, as it is with keys they could likely be anywhere so that's what you do, you look everywhere for them.  But they never did turn up in the place where we expected them to be.  We expected them to be sitting on the table between us because that is where they were all evening long.  However, they didn't reappear there, they reappeared in a completely different location and in a most unlikely and impossible place.  By this example it would definitely appear that the keys themselves really actually did de-materialize and then re-materialize.  However, applying the same logic from your peanut butter jars story, I still don't want to jump to the conclusion that the keys vanished from one location and reappeared in another.  My theory still is that the state of the keys never changed, only your perception of them did.  When the woman who lost the keys exclaimed, "where are my keys, they were right here!" she inadvertently created a temporary alternate reality in which the keys did not exist, and she took the rest of us along with her.  There were about 5 of us who witnessed this. 

So where did the keys eventually end up?  Later that evening back in Judy's own house, (the keys having vanished at a friend's) she frustratingly threw down her belongings onto the floor and said, "I know those keys are here, they just have to be", and the keys suddenly rematerialized right there in front of her as she opened a zipped up binder.  She said it should have been impossible for those keys to fit there, and in fact once she saw them there she tried to fold over and zip up the binder but found that the keys didn't fit and that it was impossible to close up the binder.  So how was it possible that the keys were there in the first place?  I believe that they weren't there all along; they only appeared there because that is where Judy was looking when she made up her mind that those keys are here, they just have to be. 

I've asked myself, why then didn't the keys simply appear back at our friend's house, sitting on the table, when Judy made up her mind the keys had to be there?  For one thing, Judy physically was not there anymore and therefore her frame of mind was not there anymore.  She was sitting on the floor in her own living room telling herself the keys had to be here.  So it's my belief that that is why the keys mysteriously appeared there, where Judy happened to be looking at the moment, despite it being the most unlikely location.  Perhaps if Judy had made up her mind that the keys just had to be sitting on the table at our friend's house, then that's probably where they would have turned up, and our friend would find them, call Judy on the phone and say, "Guess what, I found your keys.  They were sitting here on the table all along.  It's really strange how none of us saw them sitting there". 

Just as with the jars, I would tend to believe that from the perspective of the keys themselves, nothing ever changed.  The keys existed in the same reality and state of being as they always had. 

These are just some ideas I'm tossing around and I wondered if you could give it some thought and tell me your own ideas and opinions.  Anyone else reading, please chime in!

Thanks,

Vicky

Vicky,

It's so good to see you here, I too enjoy your posts and look forward to reading your book.

Vicky wrote on Dec 16^th, 2007 at 7:46pm:


It was one of the absent-minded things.  For some reason as I was staring down at my two slices of wonderbread on the kitchen counter the question about which kind of peanut butter I was going to use popped into mind.  Just a question on the spur of the moment of no particular sigmificance that caused me to think about the two kinds of peanut butter and that I would have to find which ever one I picked.  Kind of silly actually.  I knew I was standing directly if front of the cupboard where both jars should be so I was expecting just to look up and see them both.  And for some reason after deciding which of the two peanut butters to use I just happened to mentally frame the next step in my sandwich making process as a question.  My mental conversation with myself was probably something like . . .

(still staring at the bread)  
(thinking) Okay, I'm going to use the really good peanut butter . . . So . . . where in the cupboard in front of me. . . (where I know both jars should be) is the good peanut butter?

Then, raising my gaze up to look in that open cupboard . . .

(thinking) Now that's really odd . . . I don't see the jar of really good peanut butter . . .

Looking around the entire cupboard . . .

(thinking) Nope, it's not in this cupboard . . .

Looking down at the bread . . .

(thinking) Well, since that peanut butter isn' there I guess I will have to use the Skippy . . . So . . . where in this cupboard is the Skippy . . .

Then, raising my gaze up to look in that open cupboard again . . .

(thinking)  Now this is really strange, the Skippy isn't in this cupboard either . . .

Looking down at the bread  again . . .

(thinking and feeling very frustrated) This makes no sense at all.  I am the only person living in this house who eats peanut butter, it is always in this cupboard, there is no other place in this entire house they can be, those jars of peanut butter have to be in this cupboard!!

Then, raising my gaze up to look in that open cupboard again, looking absolutely straight ahead at both peanut butter jars, sitting side by side almost touching each other, less than twelve inches in front of my nose, straight and level in front of my eyes . . .

(thinking) What in the H-E-double-toothpick is going on????  Those two jars were NOT there either time I just looked in this cupboard . . . wait a second . . . stopping looking in the cupboard . . . look away and think about this for a moment . . .

Looking down at the bread  again

(thinking about what just happened)  I know what just happened is impossible . . . but I also know it happened . . . how could I prove to myself it really happened . . . well . . . if the peanut butter jars were really not there I should have seen what is behind where they are now sitting . . . what did I see?

After remembering every detail I could remember of the things I had seen when the jars were not there I looked back up, took the jars out of the cupboard and looked at what was behind them.  It was all exactly as I remembered seeing it just moments earlier when the physical presence of those jars should have blocked my view.

I gave a lot of thought over several days to how such a thing could possibly happen and the only thing that could explain it was that somehow, due to my frame of mind, those jars had no longer been within the same reality, physical reality, that I and everything else in that cupboard had been in.

Vicky wrote on Dec 16^th, 2007 at 7:46pm:


Yeah, I too am convinced that our reality is constantly being rearranged to conform to our beliefs, expectations and assumptions.  Most of us take no notice of or reject our conflicting experiences as "weird" or our "eyes playing tricks on us" and never give it another thought.  Just like we do in our dreams.  But, when something pops up that is a conflict between my experience and my beliefs my attention drawn to it and I HAVE to figure out how that can be.  It's almost (my wife Pharon would say, "What do you mean ALMOST??) an obsessive-compulsive thing with me.

Vicky wrote on Dec 16^th, 2007 at 7:46pm:


I have come to believe that the jars don't disappear, as in, cease to exist.  But rather that they are just no longer within the same reality that I am in.  The thing that makes the most sense to me is that while I believe the reality I am in is physical and that this physical reality is the "real" reality, as opposed to "nonphysical realities" which are "not real" by virtue of the fact that they are nonphysical, there is no such difference as "real" and "not real" no such difference as "physical" and "nonphysical."

I have come to believe that the only differences between these realities are those created by my beliefs, expectations and assumptions about them.  So for me, I believe that all realities are closer to our understanding of dream realities.  And, I am actually in a reality that is a dream, a very persistent, sequencial, time-and-space-exist dream reality, but in the final analysis, closer to my understanding of a dream.

So yeah, it is a "frame of mind."  The jars don't disappear, they just move out of my frame of mind.  To say that they disappear would be part of the belief system that says they were "physical" and therefore "real" in the first place.  So I would say that I completely agree with you when you said, "your frame of mind essentially created an alternate reality in which the jars did not exist."

Vicky wrote on Dec 16^th, 2007 at 7:46pm:


I agree.  I would say a basic question is, what are the keys and where do they "truly" exist?  When your friend moved them out of "physical" reality by her frame of mind, all the witnesses moved them right along with her and for them the keys were out of their frames of mind too.  Then, when Judy decide they had to be here, she moved them back into everyone's frame of mind again.  And even though they were all "dreaming" that they were in a different "real, physical" location, the keys moved back into all the witness's frames of mind and presto, they "reappear."  If Judy could learn to do this at will she would have a great career opportunity as a magician, a guru and if she played her cards right she might even become a saint.  She might WOW a crowd by disappearing from the spot where she was speaking to them and then reappear in the next instant a 100 feet away and keep talking like nothing out of the ordinary just happened.

Personally, I would advise Judy to avoid walking on water in front of big crowds unless she wants to cause big trouble for herself and those in the crowds.  There was a Guy in the Bible who did that in front of just a small group of close friends and things got a really bad for Him later.  If she tries to explain too much about the true nature of the reality in which we exist to the natives Here too fast no telling what the natives mignt decide to do to Her.

Bruce

Alysia,

I'm glad you shared that story of the group experiment and it really got me thinking.  It really takes a long time for this concept to sink in which is probably why I've spent so much time thinking it through. I've had about 4 of 5 examples of it in my life, and still I'd love to have more.  Each one is so unique and unforgettable and yet my husband still just says I must be delusional.   

Hi,

This is just sort of a side comment.
---It's wonderful that several threads are currently dealing with a crucial *moment* of transition when the spiritual  and the material worlds interconnect.  Or maybe,  the brief moment that our perception  of their interconnection becomes clear.
These moments are crucial to getting a better view of the consciousness that leads to spiritual perceptions. We are now drawing out details with a fine tip, rather than using the broader strokes of several years ago.  That's exciting!!

To the causal drop-in browser, these descriptions of crucial moments must be befuddling! I'm not sure what can be done for that, other than to encourage any newbies to ask whatever questions they need answered.
Certainly these conversations are getting further and further into the subject.
We are progressing!

Bets

Bets

  Interesting thread and comments.  I would just add that while "physical" and "nonphysical" exist within the One Field, hence there is no real separation between the two, there are certainly objective differences beyond mere individualistic or collective beliefs, and even though collective belief manifests these to begin with.   The differences come in polarity considerations and in vibratory rates.   

  To merge these into One again, as truly is beyond our distorted beliefs and perceptions, we must take our vibratory patterns which correspond to seeming "physical" and super speed them up by and through living PUL like some Teachers (like Yeshua) have perfectly and consistently.    Those who haven't reached peak momentum in this process, still have to varying degrees, limited perceptions and beliefs on that matter (no pun intended).   Those coming to completion, realize that there is an important and necessary triune balance which needs to take place in order to complete this enLightenment while in physical.  Physical, mental, and Spirit, connected and contained within the One field, and yet with qualitative differences and innate reactions and tendencies.

  It's like, which came first, the chicken or the egg..  I would twist that around to say, which came first, the beliefs which created the distorted perceptions, tendencies, and ways of being or the ways of being and expressing which led to same before the distorted beliefs and perceptions gelled collectively to temporarily manifest seeming "physical reality"?    What do we need to more work on changing..both yes, but there is an important emphasis.

  Yes indeed, the natives are getting restless.  They always have been, and it behooves no one to have fear or worry in relation to same... practical caution in certain moments, yes, but not fear.

Greetings recoverer,

Do those filaments of awareness correspond to the Aspects of souls we've discussed earlier?  Aspects much like halographs of the original but more programmed for single specific interests?

Do you recall which book you read about filaments in?

Bets