DocM,

I really like your Kindle analogy, it says so much in such a simple meaningful way.  And, it gives a nice simple way to start talking about the "multiple mes" thing.

From my perspective as a single, individual, physical-world-dwelling human being in essence we could say that I only have access to a single Kindle book.  If I shift this me's awareness to be within a nonphysical reality I, as that me, am free of the constraints of the passage of time.  I can chose to visit, make that "re-experience," any portion of "my" series of events.  In essence I am free to shift my awareness to any previous page in "my Kindle book."  I can chose to observe this page from a different perspective than the one I originally experienced this page from.  And, with all the knowledge I've gained from the pages of my Kindle book that I have already experienced since this previous page, I might "see" things differently. 

Isn't that the essence of what a psychotherapist does using hypnosis to bring a client or patient back to traumatic events to try to unravel the mystery of our behaviours?  Just assist in shifting that client's awareness into a nonphysical reality (hypnotize them, whatever that means) to remove the constraints of physical world, one-way-only-time-passage, to to allow re-experiencing of traumatic events is if they are occurring in some different form of "Now"?  Facilitating a trip to experience building of the pyramids, so to speak?

Maybe mom beat me when I was six years old because I was playing with other kids, poking sticks in a fire.  Maybe that beating caused me to forever after believe my mother was a cruel, heartless bitch who didn't love me anymore?  What if years later I see every woman as a cruel, heartless bitch who will eventually, inevitably, hurt me and not love me anymore?  What if that single, traumatic event affects every relationship I have with every woman I meet?  What if . . . ?

Then later in life (in my forties) by removing the constraints of "time," the Shrink has helped me bring all that I have learned since that beating back to that page in my Kindle book.  With my more experienced perspective maybe as I observe or relive this beating experience I realize that my mother new the dangers of children playing with fire.  I now know she was raise by a drunken, "spare the rod spoil the child" Irish father who physical abused everyone in his family in every way one can.  I realize with her upbringing the only way she knew to discourage me strongly enough to keep me safe from the dangers of playing with fire was to beat me once an hour, every hour for an entire 12 hour day.  I realize the price she was willing to pay as a parent to keep me safe was to endure my lifelong hatred and distrust. Having realized all of this I through reliving that event with the benefit of all my experiences since age six, I see things differently.  When I shift my awareness back to my Kindle page at "in my forties," come out of hypnosis and rejoin the "passage of time reality" I am a different Bruce.  What is that I did?  In my present day jargon I "retrieved an Aspect of Self."  That beating experience caused me to split off an Aspect of me, "the little boy," who continues to exist, trapped inside the reality of his choices, existing as a sort of separate version of me within my forty something year old's subconscious, whatever that means.

Before the hypnotic session with the Shrink that six year old version of "me" existed within its own, self created, belief-based reality.  A reality in which mom, and therefore all woman, were heartless bitches whose love would always lead to pain they were never to be trusted.  That six year old version of me had continued to exist in "the past" and exert its influence silently on my behavior toward woman in general, and in my one-on-one relationships in particular.  I didn't know why I treated women this way, didn't realize it was that little boy's misinterpretation of the meaning and reasons for that beating that had become so ingrained in my identity it continued to influence me for the rest of my life.  But, by rewinding my Kindle book and re-experiencing it from my forty year old perspective, that little boy realized his misinterpretation of the event.  That little boy was "retrieved" back with me to my forty something year old perspective.  In other words, that little boy now existed as part of my conscious reality/identity as a forty something present day.

From within that "present day" perspective that little boy could make more connections between his belief based reality and its effect on my relationships with women.  At some point that little boy version of me, that Aspect of Self, fully integrated into me as part of my forty something self.  It gained enough understanding to no longer exert its former influence in the same way on the "older" me.  In that old mes "Now" that little boy might be great at spotting the real cruel, heartless bitches (if any really exist) but it doesn't see ALL woman as that.  My older mes relationships with women might improve.  I might actually be able to experience the feelings of love and trust with women again, like I did before that beating page in my Kindle.

Why would anyone chose to live life that way?  Why would anyone chose to suffer so much for so long?  To inflict the women in his life with his behaviors?  That's a really, really good question and I'll bet there is more than one really, really good answer.

Boil all those really, really good answers down to their essence, and one result of all of them is that, that choice (to believe what that six year old me believed its meaning to be) gave the opportunity to directly experience the effects of my choices of beliefs.  Was that a "bad" choice or a "good" choice made by that little boy me on that page of my Kindle?  How can I make a judgement about that from the limited perspective of my now sixty-six year old me shifting back and forth through my Kindle between my birth and now?  Maybe I have a bigger Kindle book than the sixty-six year version I am aware of?  Maybe if I tried rewinding my Kindle to events in my "event line" that were before my "birth" this lifetime I'd discover some.  Maybe I'd discover that what I believed was my my entire Kindle book was but one chapter in the Kindle Novel of my existence.  Maybe I'd discover that my choice to believe I only began to exist at all at this "present" body's birth has blocked my awareness of these previous pages in my Kindle Novel.  Maybe by choosing to join the the one-way-passage-of-time version of reality has lots of unrealized consequences once I am living events within that reality? Maybe by rereading, so to speak, some of those "pre-joining physical reality pages" I'll discover other choices made "back then" that led me to decide to go through that beating event page and all that followed as a result to learn something new to me through directly experiencing those events?

Maybe. Yeah, maybe.  From where I'm setting Now at sixty-six if all the possible reasons were numbers on a roulette table most of my chips would be stacked on that one's number!

I often tell people I have no at all objection to the concept of predestination as long as every one understands that it is "me" that makes the choices leading to those "predestined" events.  If the concept instead is that Someone Else outside of "me" (GOD?) is seen as the One who causes my predestined events, that's where I get off that thought train.

So, can I shift my awareness to "future" pages in my Kindle?  In my view, yes, to some extent.  If I somehow become aware of the choices I have made in the "past" perhaps I can figure out some of the logical, implied events that could occur on the "future" pages of my Kindle Novel.

What if I could somehow shift my awareness to the page in my "pre-this-lifetime" Kindle to the page where I made the choices that led to my "future" beating as a little boy experience?  Could be that doing such a thing could bring knowledge and understanding to the question of why anyone would intentionally chose to "suffer" during their lifetime?  Yeah, I'll put some chips down on that roulette table number for a spin of that wheel too!

But, how do I do that?  How do I consciously explore my pre-this-lifetime Kindle pages?  Enter the concept of "Higher Self" or what I call my Disk and conscious access to more of my previously hidden Kindle Novel.  More to follow in a later post . . .

Bruce

DocM wrote on Apr 20^th, 2014 at 9:30am:

This is becoming an enjoyable, thought provoking thread.

Thanks for the Kindle metaphor, DocM.

Bruce