How does inspiration work?

The mind is the instrument through which awareness expresses itself. When we spend time focusing, strengthening and enriching the instrument, we deliver a clearer expression of awareness when inspiration does speak. In many ways, the quality of mind determines the quality of the expression.

Conversely, brain damage will impair the quality of local, waking awareness, but the real non-local awareness cannot be damaged or impaired because it is beyond the mind. The non-local awareness we share is unchanging and ever-lasting.

Are there other minds within awareness, beyond the scope of my mind—this potentially porous perceptual apparatus—that are able to communicate through me, as well? How do I differentiate?

If what is being expressed is impersonal, in that it promotes the greatest good, not just your personal good, and if what is being expressed outwardly comes from a place of love, sensitivity, intelligence and enthusiasm, the expression comes from a trustworthy source. Let that be your focus.

The idea of a porous mind through which other intelligences may be able to communicate makes me think of angels and demons. How do such entities fit into the consciousness-only model?

God’s infinite consciousness assumes the form of a finite mind in order to perceive a physical world. In the same way, infinite consciousness assumes the form of a finite mind in order to perceive non-physical worlds. An obvious example of a non-physical world would be the terrain of our nightly dreams. Non-physical worlds, like apparently physical worlds, are appearances within consciousness.

When a human mind recognizes the oneness of being and enters a so-called state of enlightenment, compassion flows naturally and freely. However, if the same finite mind does not recognize the oneness of being and becomes identified with form, and if the innate goodness is infiltrated and corrupted by power, perversion, greed, gluttony or otherwise, the sense of division widens. When a person or group becomes overwhelmed by a ravenous and insatiable appetite for deception or destruction, we call it evil.

—so this helps answer probably my biggest question, about why there is evil in the world.

In the same way, non-physical beings who are aligned with oneness we call angels, and non-physical beings who are misaligned, who ignore reality, these beings we call tricksters, demons or, simply, unfavorable influences, to use a phrase with less emotional charge.

Unfavorable influences can, however, serve a higher purpose in galvanizing the search for truth, a perspective which may be overlooked by the finite mind.

Is it possible that evil actions in the world can be the result of non-physical intelligences influencing physical beings who are deeply rooted in a sense of division?

Yes. The sense of division is the breeding ground for unfavorable influences.

You said that perceptions can be malleable. Does this mean that non-physical intelligences, in addition to being able to influence thoughts, may also be able to influence or change our perceptions? I’m thinking now of certain “high strangeness” aspects of the UFO phenomena.

Yes. A susceptible mind that is especially porous is subject to influence or manipulation from other minds.

So we can say that the paranormal is real?

All phenomena is real as appearances in the mind.

How do I guard against unfavorable influences or intelligences?

Before we go further it is important to reiterate that the ego is a collection of thoughts. Egos are activities of the mind. Egos are not entities. Likewise, while an unfavorable non-physical intelligence may appear as an entity, it also is an activity of mind.

To guard yourself, understand that unfavorable intelligences seek unhealthy egos with which to attach themselves and through which to misbehave or sow division. Unhealthy egos operate from a sense of lack and insecurity, so recognizing and becoming established in your true nature—quiet strength, intelligence, humility, compassion—help to purify the ego. This can be a gradual process.

Until you become established in your being, monitor your thoughts carefully, for they arise on behalf of the feeling of unity or they arise on behalf of the feeling of separation. Monitor your words. Words evoke or obscure the divine presence of awareness in each of us. When the openness, intelligence and lightness of divine presence is distorted, the effects are increasingly critical, cynical, judgmental and dark.

. . .

Science says that consciousness emerges from inert matter. You are saying that the appearance of matter emerges from consciousness, that matter is what consciousness looks like when observed through the apparatus of the mind. I find it difficult to wrap my mind around the consciousness-only model because the world seems so real, but I have to admit, the scientific model of consciousness emerging from inert matter seems like grasping at straws. It seems unscientific.

Consciousness emerging from matter is unprovable because matter existing outside consciousness can never be known. All experience happens within consciousness. There is only consciousness knowing consciousness. So let’s begin our investigation there.

And the world does seem very real, as dreams do, as we experience them.

So is the world real or is the world an illusion?

The world is real as the illusion.

If reality is an illusion, who or what is behind the illusion?

The reality of the dream world is the perceiving consciousness. The reality of the waking world is the same perceiving consciousness. Both worlds are, in a sense, illusory in that they are not what they seem, although the waking world appears to have more durability. All apparent objects are made out of awareness and perceived through the mind. Without a perceiving mind, there is no manifestation within consciousness. There is no physical world as defined by materialism. There is only consciousness.

Things are not there until you look at them?

Consciousness is there, but it is not made out of matter. In fact, scientists cannot find matter. When they looked for matter, they discovered subatomic particles, which are not actually discrete particles. Subatomic particles are the appearance of particles within consciousness.

According to quantum mechanics, when not observed, subatomic particles exist in a state described as a “wave function,” meaning they behave like waves, potentially occupying multiple positions simultaneously, rather than as distinct particles with a definite location. Essentially, their state is a probability until the act of observation, upon when they behave like particles in a specific location.

How is the waking world an illusion?

Objects that appear in consciousness are not real in the sense that they do not have their own separate, discrete, physical existence outside of consciousness. To say that an object is an illusion is not to say that it isn’t real, rather, it is not what it appears to be. The object’s reality is its appearance in consciousness. It is made out of the awareness by which it is known. There is only consciousness knowing consciousness through the perceiving faculties of the mind.

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