Experiment 1 – Set-up
Orginal picture Pexels Carsten Ruthemann
Picture manipulated
If you wish to perform the experiments,
please read the cautionary note/disclaimer
before you continue with the set-up and instructions.
The experiments are performed at one’s own risk
Summary
Experiment 1 is basically disrupting the master idea in use in Experiment 0, the normal life.
The principle is simple; to reject the master idea we’ve practiced daily by dismissing the spin-off ideas from it. More specifically, dismissing them means refusing to give them any attention – to ignore them completely and instead, to concentrate on the moment.
In praxis, it’s very difficult. The more consequently we dismiss the steady stream of ideas and feelings, the more uncomfortable it feels. Between us and the glimpse of Joy is a wall of fear, becoming in the last instance, the fear of death. A wall screaming: Don’t do this! Go back to normal!
In general
Both Experiment 1 and 2 were performed only after I’d first gained experience in practicing various forms of consciousness/awareness exercises and meditations. For nearly 5 years I’d practiced them for anything from 30 minutes to several hours daily. Consequently, it’s only natural to address the questions below.
Is it possible to do these experiments successfully without first having meditation experience? It’s hard to say. Doing meditations and consciousness exercises is probably like any other skill. These things can be learned, and proficiency increases with practice. Practice builds experience. It’s more a question of how much practice is necessary. This is highly individual and therefore hard to predict.
Is it possible to provide feasible instructions for invisible strategies? Definitely. Of course, it’s not as easy to demonstrate a mental attitude toward thoughts and feelings as it is to demonstrate how to use one’s arms when performing the breast stroke. Obviously, there’s nothing visible to both parties that can be pointed at and used to illustrate different interpretations. Nothing can guarantee you understand the words I use to outline the instructions the same way I understand them. Whether the instructions lead to the desired result depends entirely upon factors only you control. You alone can acquire enough experience and insight about what goes on in your inner realm and what you do there. Only you can pay close enough attention to discover the nuances and possible choices one must first see to be able to perform the experiments correctly.
Specifically for Experiment 1. It might look like it’s mostly a matter of patience and experience. But in performing Experiment 1, courage is the decisive element. When we follow the instructions explicitly, we’re confronted with increasingly stronger reproaches. Self-reproach becomes bigger and bigger threats backed by more and more fear. Defying these reproaches isn’t a matter of patience. It’s a question of mustering more courage than we do in normal life. It’s about defying our inner dictator, no matter what.
I’ve tried to write the instructions for people who don’t have previous experience with meditation and consciousness exercises.
Experiment 1 - Preparations
When we close our eyes, we’ll soon discern two key elements.
The first is everything that’s going on inside our heads; the thoughts, ideas, feelings, images and all the rest that either flit past or linger for a while. Most of them seem to pop up of their own accord; we don’t do anything in particular to conjure them up. Some may even force themselves to the foreground despite our efforts to keep them at bay. Others are there because we’ve invited them in. Either because it’s pleasant to fill our consciousness with them or because we think it’s something important to remember or investigate. In time, as we become more familiar with all this and watch it more closely, we can also begin to detect certain patterns.
The second key element is the consciousness that registers everything that’s going on. Simply put, consciousness is our individual awareness, the experience of I am, or of our essence. (This, according to The First Unified Theory, is the center for contact between us and THE CORE.)
The point is that in performing a mental exercise the way we do when following the instructions for these experiments, contact with consciousness is decisive. If you’d like to try the experiments, but don’t have much meditation experience, I suggest a 10 minute exercise to acquaint yourself with the two key formations; everything that’s going on and the consciousness that regards it.
- Sit comfortably where there are as few distractions as possible, preferably alone.
- Close your eyes. Passively observe all that’s going on, all the thoughts and feelings in your consciousness.
- Become aware of consciousness itself, that which registers what’s going on.
- Also try to locate your core or essence, that is, the place in your head, heart, or gut where you feel consciousness is seated. Try to stay there.
That’s all you need do in this exercise. You can gain further experience while performing the preparations/set up for the experiments here, or by practicing any other meditation you enjoy.
The point is this: What you observe in the course of the 10-minute exercise above can be called your normal situation. The instructions for Experiments 1 and 2 are simply practical guidelines to bring about a change in the normal situation.
The normal situation: The normal situation is determined by the applied version of our understanding, a person’s private master idea. According to the theory, each individual’s intelligence is busy maximizing joy based on the level of understanding of reality dictated by their personal master idea. To this end, we’re flooded with spin-off ideas in the form of thoughts, feelings, processes, and analyses, all of which reflect and affirm the practiced master idea. Intelligence insists we automatically pay attention to these spin-offs, so – we automatically pay attention to them. This is the recurring pattern of the normal situation. By paying attention to and acting upon these spin-off ideas, we’re agreeing to practice the established private master idea.
The object is to change the normal situation: We can change the situation by sabotaging the way we usually practice our established, normal, private master idea. This is done by refusing to follow intelligence’s orders to pay attention to the current spin-off ideas. The specific task is to ignore the insistent habit of focusing on everything that’s going on (thoughts and feelings) and concentrate one hundred percent on staying in touch with our consciousness. To achieve this, we must mobilize much more concentration than we usually do. And above all else, much more courage.
Experiment 1 - Instructions
- Sit or lie comfortably where there are as few distractions as possible, preferably alone.
- Close your eyes. Get in touch with, become, your consciousness (your “I am”).
- Release all thoughts and feelings so quickly that you don’t have time to think about them. (This sabotages the way you would normally practice your customary master idea.)
The first challenge to arise is the amount of concentration required to do this effectively. (Meditation experience aids this process.) The task is to have an open and strong enough contact with consciousness that it becomes your seat, your foundation.
The second challenge calls for courage. The task is to completely abandon all thoughts and feelings the moment they pop up, no matter what.
– There’s really only one pitfall; believing some thoughts and feelings are exceptions to the rule. There are no exceptions. In exceptions, the second part of the master idea lives on in its normal, inferior version.
– Important: In the beginning you’ll have to remind yourself about the instructions as you meditate. The instructions are therefore the exception you must allow, but only temporarily. As long as you make this exception, it’ll be very difficult to get rid of the normal master idea. In time, when the instructions are second nature, you can concentrate on practicing them. The sooner you accept the experiment is about practicing the instructions, not about repeating them, the faster you can sabotage the established master idea.
– Important: Should apprehension of ignoring all types of thoughts and feelings not arise – you must abandon them even more quickly. You can’t first look at them, acknowledge them, or assess them and then release them. As soon as you realize you have a thought or feeling, you must drop it immediately. It must be a reflex action without assessment, a practiced principle.
If you don’t have meditation experience, I recommend you start with 15 minutes once a day. Little by little, you can increase the length of time to 30 minutes. If you currently practice other meditations or consciousness exercises, I recommend you detract the amount of time you use on this, not add it to the total amount of time you presently use. The reason for limiting the amount of time is covered under Attention!
I also recommend rounding out the day’s practice period by opening your eyes and sitting quietly for a few minutes. Mostly to give the day’s experiences a chance to settle. Give yourself some time for afterthought.
Writing a journal can be a good idea. Because of the concentration required plus the uncommon requirement of courage, this experiment may be difficult to bring to fruition. Writing a journal can help you gain insight as to how you’re doing the exercise and help pinpoint if and where you might be straying from the instructions.