The greatest illusion is that humankind has limitations.
—Robert Monroe

Note: By clicking on the above audio link, you can listen to the recorded version of this post.
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The past several years have been a profound act of letting go. Letting go of conditioning, habituation and old beliefs: about myself, the world, reality, and most recently, what it means to be human. The more I let go, the more I discover. The more I discover, the more I expand. The more I expand, the more I recognize how little I know about “reality”, existence and Life. And therein lies the magic. Freedom from the confines of certainty allows space for endless possibilities. In the infinite realm of this space, everything I’ve ever been taught about “reality” disintegrates and I’m free to ponder, explore and experience so much more of the vast mystery of consciousness.
Exploring Inner Space
The year 2012 was a significant marker for me. Fresh out of the profound personal discoveries that my 2011 studies of NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) revealed, I knew there was still so much more to explore and understand. My hunger for evolutionary expansion had been activated, yet despite the immense personal growth that followed, I’d barely been satiated. With a solid taste of the limitless nature of possibility, I knew that what I hungered for defied the rules, rigidity and dogma of the paths already known. I wanted to know, intimately, the Essence at the core of my Being. An intense exploration of consciousness was about to begin.
Before discovering the brilliant, life-changing, paradigm-altering work of Louise LeBrun in 2013, I spent a great deal of time at the Monroe Institute in Faber, Virginia discovering the expansive nature of what I am, experientially. In those ineffable experiences, I experienced, first-hand, the infinite nature of my Self. I realized then that I am so much more than my physical body. In these provocative explorations of consciousness, I experienced profound healing, massive insights, and a deeper, more intimate connection to the Universal energy of Life.
I realized then that consciousness is so much more than a state of awareness of myself and my world, it is the unifying energy of Life. It is non-local, non-physical and ever expansive. Unlike the puny worldview of consciousness residing within the confines of our mortal brains, it is eternal and deathless. It is the creative force of Life: physical and beyond. It cannot be created or destroyed and is constantly moving in the direction of expansion. What this means is that we are limitless in our capacity to evolve in consciousness and connect more deeply with Life, allowing for infinite expressions of magnificent creativity. Having said that, we are equally limitless in our capacity to suppress our consciousness and disconnect from Life, allowing for infinite expressions of mindless brutality. Quoting Sufi author, Idries Shah, “Man (and woman) has an infinite capacity for self-development. Equally, (s)he has an infinite capacity for self-destruction. A human being may be clinically alive and yet, despite all appearances, spiritually dead.” Tragically, this is our suppressed consciousness reality; immense creators with infinite potential designing dysfunctional lives, civilizations and worlds.
While our beliefs/conditioning/behaviors/habituation can throttle the flow of expansion, the power of consciousness inevitably prevails. The need for perpetual growth persists, even if it means dis-ease, illness and death to eliminate barriers for expansion. This applies personally and collectively in both the human and more-than-human worlds. The most pertinent metaphor in our world today is that of our conscious, organic, living planet.