New Beyond It All

Introduction

This book is a collection of articles and essays I wrote from 2003 through 2011, with more writing done in the later years. The impetus for this writing was to convey information I have acquired and assimilated from a wide range of sources, supported by my intuitive knowledge, demonstrated through experience, and communicated in an entertaining fashion.

The articles are arranged into chapters for ease of reference, but it matters not in which order you read them. They are largely in chronological order, revealing the character arc of the author. Reading my published writing is analogous to looking at stars in the night sky: what you see is a reflection of me as I was in the past, not necessarily now.

The creation date (year and month) of each article is listed in parentheses after the chapter title, in year-month format (for instance, 2011-09 is September 2011). Dates within the articles are listed in year-month-day format (for example, 2011-09-01 is September 1, 2011).

If there is one thing I can justifiably be accused of in my writing, it is bold self-honesty. Everything I have written here is the truth – as seen through my eyes, of course, but not slanted to make me appear different from the way I am (or was, at the time I authored the piece).

In some cases, minor adjustments have been made to conceal a person's identify; generally these are pseudonyms or initials used in place of names. In instances where a person's real name has been used, either they are a public figure or they gave me permission to use their name. I have a policy in my writing of not sharing publicly anything that would affect another person in a detrimental way. So, if someone ends up being featured in my writing, they can be assured that (metaphorically speaking) there will be a black bar over their eyes.

The significance of my writing is not that it conveys profound truths, but that it chronicles the journey along the path to greater awareness. It is analogous to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's journals of their expedition to the Pacific coast of the United States. Their accounts are interesting not only because of the information conveyed about the terrain, flora, and fauna, but because they reveal the discovery of these things through fresh eyes.

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Chapter 1: Who Is Behind the Curtain? (2003-06)

Since the dawn of this millennium, you may have sensed a fundamental shift occurring globally. These are the times of great change predicted by numerous cultures for ages. The good news is that the global consciousness shift does not portend disaster and devastation. Rather, it offers an unprecedented opportunity for each of us to broaden our awareness and live a more fulfilling life than we previously thought possible. It is exponentially easier to shift our consciousness now than it was in the past, when the norm was to not to be self-aware.

Many people realize there is a major shift in consciousness occurring, yet they see it as being externally generated. In fact, while there are nonphysical beings and energies offering assistance, no one is masterminding the Shift. The consciousness shift is being accomplished by each individual. The way to change the world is by becoming aware of what type of energy we are generating. Paying attention to our underlying beliefs and automatic reactions enables us to make different choices. When we change ourselves, the world changes. Those who are waiting for something to come from the outside tend to continue making the same choices and repeating the same behaviors, believing that the world is something outside of them.

There is nothing to wait for – each of us has the ability to change our consciousness right now. Those that have raised their awareness will have very different experiences from those that have stayed largely in the conventional mode, expecting a major event that will either save or annihilate civilization. People can be living side by side, yet existing in different worlds.

Many who realize there is a human evolution taking place believe that higher-level beings or forces have the consciousness shift all planned out. Particularly since the 1970s, numerous nonphysical sources have been offering information to humans through avenues such as channeling, contact through psychic mediums, and various forms of inspiration. There are significant discrepancies in the information from the various sources, and it can be confusing to try to discern which is the most accurate. The personalities offering information to assist with the Shift are taking divergent approaches, but this does not necessarily mean that some are right and others are wrong. It is a matter of appropriateness.

In fact, there is no they that have it all planned out. A consciousness shift of this magnitude is an endeavor that purportedly has not been done before. In a sense, it is experimental. Numerous sources are offering assistance, but they may not know what will work best. They are using the trial-and-error method, as well as learning from the experiences of others offering information. No doubt they are aware that different approaches are suited to different types of people and therefore are targeting their information to particular groups.

Some of these sources are very concerned with maintaining accuracy, while others will allow more distortion if it helps them convey their message. It is much like dealing with a child that is afraid to go to sleep at night because he fears there are monsters in the closet. Some parents might tell the child there are no monsters. They will empty the closet and examine every item in it, if that's what it takes to convince him. Others may give the child a toy gun and suggest that he use it to shoot the monsters, or they may sprinkle salt around the bed and tell him it will keep the monsters away. In both examples, the result is that the child is able to sleep peacefully. In the first example, the parents' objective was to have the child recognize and alter his belief that monsters were in the closet. In the second example, the parents did not try to change the child's belief that the monsters existed; they worked with the belief to achieve the desired result.

The sources assisting us in the Shift can be likened to the wizard in the Wizard of Oz when he said, Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! To Dorothy and her companions, the wizard seemed mysterious, frightening, and all-powerful. While he did possess some knowledge they lacked (which he shared with them in a benevolent manner), he did not have all the answers. He too was figuring out the best way to help Dorothy return home. He came up with a good idea (to go back to Kansas in the hot-air balloon he had arrived in years before), but was not certain it would work.

The sources assisting us in the Shift are in much the same position as the Wizard of Oz. In that tale, ultimately it was Dorothy that succeeded in getting herself home. As Glinda the Good Witch told her, You don't need to be helped any longer. You've always had the power to go back to Kansas. When the Scarecrow asked Glinda why she had not revealed that fact to Dorothy earlier, she replied, Because she wouldn't have believed me. She had to learn it for herself.

As do we.

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Chapter 2: Is Anybody There? (2003-12)

It was 2:00 in the morning. I had just watched a mind-bending movie about a group of apparent strangers, travelers that had stopped at a motel during a heavy rainstorm. One by one, the people were being murdered. The survivors gathered in a room to figure out what was happening and prevent additional deaths. The leader of the group, a police detective, initiated questioning and the sharing of life stories. It turned out that all the travelers had the same birthday (month and day) and had been born in the same small town.

The mystery was solved near the end of the movie, when it was revealed that all the characters were a product of the imagination of one man, a psychotic killer who was about to be executed for having committed numerous murders. This explained why the various characters all had the same birthday and birthplace: it was the killer's birthday and birthplace. These people existed in this man's mind but were not real in an objective sense.

With my brain foggy from the late hour and intense movie, a chilling thought arose in me. What if none of the people, objects, or occurrences in my life has an independent reality outside of my own mind? It could be possible that everyone and everything I think is real in the external world is simply my own mental construct. The only thing I know for sure is that I exist – I am consciousness. There is no way to prove conclusively that anything else exists, regardless of how many people might assure me that they also experience consciousness and an independent reality. If they were my own created characters, of course they would say that!

An obvious question is why, if the world is totally my own creation, haven't I created everything exactly as I want it to be, with no wars, poverty, or suffering? Yet in my nighttime dreams, which I believe generally are totally my own creation, everything is not exactly as I would like it to be either. The undesirable manifestations in my waking life are analogous to the nightmares I sometimes have during sleep. This brings me back to square one: there is no way to conclusively prove that anything in my experience exists outside of my own mind.

Pondering all this with my foggy brain, for awhile I truly did not know if anything was real or not. It felt weird and scary. To actually be the only one who exists – to be all alone in the universe – would be worse than almost anything else I could think of! In one of Jane Roberts's Seth books, Seth (a channeled personality) said that if All That Is (Source) had not figured out a way to manifest creations, All That Is would have gone crazy. Now, I understand why. It makes perfect sense that All That Is would have manifested creations (numerous soul essences) that had their own creative power and ability to make choices independently.

Ultimately I concluded that, while everything I experience actually is my own creation, the other characters have just as much of an independent reality (consciousness) as I do. Therefore, I really am not alone.

There have been just a few times in my life when I have truly questioned my sanity. That night was one of them.

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Chapter 3: Biology Is Not Destiny (2004-04)

Prior to the separation of science and religion in the 1500s, many scientists were branded as heretics and ostracized, imprisoned, or executed for challenging church dogma. Once science and religion were divided into discrete turfs, it gave scientists the freedom to talk about their explorations without fearing for their lives. Those who tried to cross the line between science and spirituality were policed most strongly not by the church, but by other scientists who did not want to lose their freedom of expression – or their lives. When you realize that scientists' resistance to acknowledging the role of consciousness in health has its roots in survival fears, it becomes easier to understand this strong taboo.

Presently, some courageous scientists are crossing the demarcation line between science and spirituality. One of these is cellular biologist Bruce H. Lipton, PhD, who has shown that the health and behavior of our cells is controlled not by our genes, but by our environment – or more specifically, by our perception of the environment. Dr. Lipton's work first came to my attention when I attended his presentation at a conference on 1999-09-23. At the end of his talk, I sat dumbfounded and declared to a friend, This presentation has changed my life.

My statement was melodramatic but true. From studying metaphysics I had learned that we create our own reality, but there was a part of me – the logical, rational part – that needed to understand how. Finally, in terms I could comprehend, was an explanation that filled the gap. And, it came from a highly credible source: a cellular biologist with impressive credentials. Bruce Lipton received his doctorate from the University of Virginia, has served on the faculty of several medical schools, and spent five years as a research fellow at Stanford University's School of Medicine.

His research revealed that scientists have been making logical conclusions based on a fundamentally flawed premise: that the characteristics and fate of a life form are dependent upon its genes. If the brain is removed from an organism, the organism immediately dies. Removing a cell's nucleus (which contains the DNA and hence the genes) does not kill the cell, which proves that the nucleus is not the cell's command center or brain, as is commonly believed.

According to Lipton, "If the nucleus truly represented the brain of the cell, then removal of the nucleus would result in the cessation of cell functions and immediate cell death. However, experimentally enucleated [with the nucleus removed] cells may survive for two or more months without genes and are capable of effecting complex responses to environmental and cytoplasmic stimuli. Logic reveals that the nucleus cannot be the brain of the cell!"¹ This finding proves that genetic determinism (the idea that the characteristics of an organism are determined by its genes) is a myth.

Through studies on cloned human cells, Lipton recognized that the cell's brain actually is the cell membrane. The cell membrane, which separates the cell from the external environment, was the first biological organelle (structure within a cell that performs a differentiated function) to appear in evolution, and it is the only organelle common to every living organism.

Cell membranes are composed primarily of phospholipids (major structural lipids, or fats) and proteins, including special proteins called integral membrane proteins (IMPs). The two types of IMPs are receptors, the sense organs of the cell, and effectors, which carry out cell behavior. According to Lipton, Receptor IMPs 'see' or are 'aware' of their environment, and effector IMPs create physical responses that translate environmental signals into an appropriate biological behavior. The IMP complex controls behavior, and through its effect upon regulatory proteins, these IMPs also control gene expression …. The IMP complexes provide the cell with 'awareness of the environment through physical sensation,' which by dictionary definition represents perception. Each receptor-effector protein complex collectively constitutes a 'unit of perception.' ²

Scientists traditionally believed that receptors responded only to molecules (matter), but new research has shown that receptors also respond to energy signals. Conventional medicine has consistently ignored research published in its own mainstream scientific journals – research that clearly reveals the regulatory influence that electromagnetic fields have on cell physiology, notes Lipton. "Pulsed electromagnetic fields have been shown to regulate virtually every cell function, including DNA synthesis, RNA synthesis, protein synthesis, cell division, cell differentiation, morphogenesis, and neuroendocrine regulation. These findings are relevant, for they acknowledge that biological behavior can be controlled by 'invisible' energy forces, which include thought."³

One of Bruce Lipton's fundamental concepts is that a cell can be in only one of two modes: growth or protection. Growth in this context also can be described as love, openness, and expansion; protection equates to fear, closure, and contraction. When we perceive our environment to be dangerous, our cells go into protection mode and fail to use available resources to rebuild, repair, and renew.

Growth and protection also can be associated with anabolism (rebuild and repair processes) and catabolism (breakdown processes) According to the metabolic theory of aging, degeneration occurs when the body's catabolic processes exceed the anabolic processes.⁴ We all start out as highly anabolic, but conventional science says the ratio naturally changes as we grow older: catabolic processes become increasingly dominant, resulting in the degeneration known as aging.

From Lipton's research, I learned that whether we are in growth or protection mode depends on our perception of the environment. Applied to the metabolic theory of aging, this means that developing an increasingly catabolic metabolism as we grow older is not inevitable! Anabolism equals growth. If we perceive our environment to be safe, our cells are in growth rather than protection mode, resulting in a metabolism that is more anabolic than catabolic.

Bruce Lipton's research (and his enthusiasm for sharing his discoveries) is playing an important role in advancing our understanding of the nature of reality. For more information, see his book, The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, and Miracles,⁵ and website, http://brucelipton.com.

Endnotes

1. Bruce Lipton, PhD, The Biology of Belief (2001), http://brucelipton.com.

2. Lipton.

3. Lipton.

4. Osamu Nishikaze, PhD, University of Hokkaido, Japan.

5. Bruce Lipton, PhD, The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, and Miracles (Santa Rosa, CA: Mountain of Love / Elite Books, 2005).

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Chapter 4: A Kaleidoscope of Aspects (2004-07)

We tend to think of individuals as having a relatively fixed personality that alters only gradually, over time. In fact, we can and do change significantly from moment to moment. We all have different aspects of ourselves that are expressed at different times, in different situations, and to varying degrees. I have, for instance, known people who were markedly different at home from the way they were at work.

At various times I can perceive dissimilar aspects of an individual. For instance, one aspect may be calm, guileless, and altruistic, while another aspect is more edgy, devious, and self-serving. Qualities such as intelligence, skills, and physical appearance can vary significantly. I have been able to perceive different aspects of people all my life, in virtually everyone I know, including myself.

I switch among aspects often, sometimes in ways that are situation-specific. For instance, when I'm in a particular place or with certain people, I tend to express the same aspect each time. Various circumstances seem to draw out different aspects of me, and the switching is automatic. I sometimes recognize when I do it, but usually am not aware of making the choice to switch. It is analogous to having a car with automatic transmission rather than a manual shift. I can feel that I am changing to another gear, but I didn't have to use the clutch or gearshift to do so. It is an automatic adaptation to changing conditions.

In cases of what has been called multiple personality disorder, an individual's aspects become so separated from one another that memories are not shared among the aspects. This is, in fact, an exaggeration of the normal practice of switching aspects. None of us is a single individual; we are a collection of changing aspects.

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Chapter 5: Glimpses of Other Dimensions (2004-07)

Sometimes I feel a longing for what I assume is another dimension, a world that is more ethereal and changeable than our world. Colors, sounds, and feelings are more vibrant, and there is less separation (fewer barriers) between individual beings. In addition, there is not the extreme duality we experience on Earth. Certain sounds and colors, such as the colors in the sky at sunrise and sunset, remind me of this other dimension.

Ours is but one of countless dimensions. In the late 1990s I had a vivid dream in which there were extremely tall, humanoid beings that wanted to interact with me. They easily were twice the height of most humans, and their skin colors were different (some had bright orange and blue tones). The beings were very loving and open, more so than what I had experienced from Earth humans, but I was terrified. At that time I did not know that every soul essence exists in many dimensions, and I found it hard to trust that these beings did not have an ulterior motive. Since then, I have thought of that dream many times and wished I had not been afraid to interact with the beings. I now realize that their lovingness was genuine.

In 2000 I became aware that I have