ALTERNATE REALITIES the search for the full human being.

Lawrence LeShan, 1976 ISBN 0 85969 074 1

The Sensory Modes of Being . [pages 88-9]

Adapted primarily to biological survival, the sensory modes structure reality with basic attention to definite differences, boundaries, separations, similarities, and relationships between "things." Essentially, they are oriented toward what can be clearly defined as an entity ( unitary thing, and are adapted to things perceived as out there rather than in here. They are concerned with separating, contrasting, and defining things in space and timc Their basic laws (basic limiting principles), within which, all occurrences must happen when reality is structured in this way, include the following:

• All valid information directly or indirectly comc from the senses.

• All events happen in space and time.

• All events have a cause.

• Causes occur before events.

• Events in the past can be remembered or-at least theoretically-their effects observed, but cannot be changed..

• Events in the future can be-at least theoretically-changed. .

• Objects separate in space are separate objects events separate in time are separate events.

• All activity-movement-takes place through space and takes measurable time units to occur

• Action (movement or change of movement) takes place only when one entity is in direct contact with another

• All objects and events are composed of parts that can be-at least theoretically-dealt with separately.

• When objects or events have similar parts, they can be placed in classes for a specific purpose and the entire class can be thought of and dealt with as if it .were one object or event. This can also be done with classes of classes of objects or events.

• This is the only valid way to regard reality. All other ways are an illusion.

As can be seen from this partial list of basic laws, the sensory modes of being are ideally suited to dealing with objects and events that can be observed with the senses or with devices that, like the microscope and telescope, extend the senses. If you wish to accomplish a physical result-invent an air-conditioning device, raise more food on an acre of land, repair a typewriter, or travel to Paris-these are the modes of being most adapted to the problem. If, on the other hand, you wish to deal with matters completely out of the range of the senses, even with extension devices, you are not going to get very far using it, whether we are talking about electrons or thoughts.

You will gain a certain amount of ground by treating these things as if they were within the general sensory range, and then will find that to go further you will have to change the structure of the way you are organizing reality until it no longer fits the basic limiting principles of the sensory modes. When, for example, your data leads you to the fact that electrons move from one position (orbit) to another without crossing the space between them, you realize that you are dealing with a mode of organizing reality that is far different from the sensory modes.

P 94 ALTERNATE REALITIES

The Clairvoyant or Holistic Mode

The basic limiting principles of the clairvoyant modes of being include the following:

1. All objects and events are part of the fabric of the total of being and cannot be meaningfully sepa- rated from it. The most important aspect of any object or event is that it is a part of the total ONE and it is to be primarily considered under this aspect. Considering it under any other aspect is an error.

2. 2. Boundaries, edges, and borders do not exist. All things primarily are each other, since they are primarily one.

3. This lack of boundaries applies to time also. Divi- sions of time, including divisions into past, present, and future, are errors and illusion. Events do not happen or occur. They are..

4. Since no object or event can be considered in itself without considering the all of space-time, the con-cepts of good and evil do not have meaning. Any application of them would automatically mean the application applies to the total context of being, to everything. The universe cannot be categorized in this way.

5. All forces or situations in space-time. or places where the fields of activity are weak or strong, move with a dynamic harmony with each other.The very fact of the universe as a flow-process universe means it moves with harmony.

6. One can only be fully in this mode when one has, if only for a moment, given up all wishes and desires for oneself (since the separate self does not exist) and for others (since they do not exist as separate either) and just allows oneself to be and therefore to be with and be one with the all of existence. To attain this mode, one must-at least momentarily-give up doing and accept being. Any awareness of doing or of the wish to do disrupts this mode.

7. Valid information is not gained through the senses, but through a knowing of the oneness of observer and observed, spectator and spectacle. Once this complete oneness is fully accepted, there is nothing that can prevent the flow of information between a thing and itself.

8. The senses give a false picture of reality. They show separation of objects and events in space and time. The more completely we understand reality, the less it resembles the picture given by our senses, by the sensory mode of being.

9. This is the only valid way to regard reality. All other ways are illusion.
   These modes are apparently primarily adapted to dealing with processes that are completely out of our sensory range. They are not adapted to biological survival; one would not want to cross a busy highway while using them. Uniting with a truck is not good for you, biologically speaking. At the present time they are mostly used by three classes of individuals or, to put it more correctly, by individuals attempting to attain three types of experience.

There are theoretical physicists working with relativity theory, trying to understand further how reality works; mystics attempting to experience their oneness with the universe; and clairvoyants attempting to obtain paranormal information. (Telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition are the usual divisions we use to discuss paranormally gained information, information that did not arrive through the senses or from the extrapolation of information that did. Looking at the axioms given on the preceding pages will make it clear that this sort of information is impossible in the sensory modes of construing reality and normal in the clairvoyant modes.)

I have discussed elsewhere the evidence that these three classes of individuals use the clairvoyant modes and will not repeat it here. Suffice it to say, however, that I was able to demonstrate that when relativity physicists and mystics describe the way the universe works from their viewpoint, how they construe or invent-discover reality, it is not possible from the content of their statements to say whether anyone of the statements was made by a physicist or by a mystic. They are clearly talking about an essentially identical construction of reality, and it is the I same one that clairvoyants say they are using when they : describe how reality appears to them at the moment they

are attaining paranormal information. Not only can one not distinguish the theoretical physicist and the mystic by the content of their statements (when they are talking about the nature of reality), it is also clear that they cannot be distinguished by the strncture of their statements. The structure of a statement is a reflection of the structure of the world as the speaker perceives it. It makes no sense in another mode of being.
Take, for example, the following statements, two by mystics, one by a theoretical physicist. They make perfect sense in the clairvoyant mode, no sense at all in the sensory mode:
1. From the Pali Canon, a document of mystical Buddhism: Vaccha asked the Buddha, '"Do you hold that the soul of the saint exists after death?"
"I do not hold that the soul of the saint exists after death."
"Do you hold that the soul of the saint does not exist after death?"
"I do not hold that the soul of the saint does not exist after death."
"Where is the saint reborn?"
"To say he is reborn would not fit the case."
"Then he is not reborn."
"To say he is not reborn would not fit the case."

2. From Robert Oppenheimer's Science and Common Understanding:65
"If we ask, for instance, whether the position of the electron remains the same, we must say 'no';
if we ask whether the electron's position changes with time, we must say 'no'; if we ask whether the electron is at rest, we must say 'no'; if we ask whether it is in motion, we must say 'no.'"
3. From the New Testament, a statement of Jesus:
"Before Abraham was, I am."
Examples such as these and including statements of the same kind by psychics could be multiplied almost endlessly.
p 100 The Transpsychic, or Prayer Mode
In the sensory modes, intercessory prayer there is simply no way it can work. In the clairvoyant modes, it is impossible. If I wish for something then already there are two of us and, as thus the mode is disrupted and destroyed. If I pray for some thing for myself, I have also disrupted this mode separating myself from the rest of the cosmos, visualizing a future in which change could take place. Only in the transpsychic mode is intercessory prayer reasonable, appropriate, and possible.
The basic limiting principles of the transpsychic modes of being include:
Each object, entity, or event is a separate unity, but has no clear demarcation line with the organic integral unity that makes up reality.

2. There are tremendous forces in the cosmos that can sometimes be brought to bear on a local part or situation.

3. These can be brought to bear by an absolutc mindedness of purpose on the part of one “wave” toward the condition of another "wave."

4. Space is real and "exists" but is totally unimportant. Parts of the whole are separated by it but since they are also connected through being parts of the same One, this does not matter.

5. Knowledge of other parts can come from two sources.
   a. From observation of, as in the sensory modes.
   b. Through being a part of the whole and so perceiving other parts through the whole.
   
   

6.  From the viewpoint of the individual part, there is free will of each sentient part. From the viewpoint of the whole, all actions that the parts will take are already decided and their results recorded

7. 
   Since whatever is done to one part affects the whole, an ethical principle is built into the universe. If one part moves another toward greater harmony with the whole, all of the whole-including the part that took the action-benefits. If one part moves to dis- rupt the harmony (hurt it, damage it, stunt its be- coming) between another part and the whole, the disruption affects the all of being, including the part that took the action. Whatever action you take affects you also.

8. 
   Good and evil exist. Anything that moves a part toward its fullest development and fullest integra- tion with the whole is good. Anything that prevents or moves against fullest development of the part .and its fullest integration with the whole is evil. In the long run, the terms fullest development of a part and fullest integration with the whole mean the same thing. In the short run, they may not.
   This is the only valid way to regard reality. All other ways are illusion.

9. 
   In the transpsychic modes, intercessory prayer of both apositive (good) and negative (evil) nature is possible. In order for it to hold the possibility of accomplishing any results at all, the individual must be using the mode completely, know that this is the valid construction of reality.
   
   p.104 The mythic mode/
   The basic limiting principles of the mythic modes include the following:
   There is no difference between perception and symbol, object and image, thing and name. Each is, and can be used as if it is, the other. "Objective" and "subjective" cannot be differentiated. There is no difference between in here and out there.

11. 
    
    Anything can become identical with anything else or stand for anything else once the two have been connected. Once this connection has been made, time and space cannot break it, but an appropriate act of will, correctly expressed, can.

2. Each part of a thing is the equivalent of the whole. If you break up an object or event, each of the parts equals the whole.

3. To control the part is to control the whole. To know the real name of something is to have power over it. To manipulate the symbol of something is to manipulate the thing it stands for.

4. Space is determined by the connections between things and events. If they are connected (and therefore identical) space between them does not exist. If they are unconnected, space cannot connect them. This is irrelevant to sensory space or to geometric space.

5. Time is determined by the connections between events. If two events are the same event, time cannot separate them. If they are unconnected, time cannot connect them. This is irrelevant to clock or calendar time.

6. All events start with a specific act of will. To explain an event is to show the connection to this act of will which, in itself, needs no explanation and is inexplicable.

7. There is a substance that all things and people haveto varying degrees that determines their effectiveness, their ability to influence events. It can be gathered and redistributed by appropriate behavior.

   It's names include “mana,” wakenda, mantou, power, baraka . It is a sort of materialI "energy" that affects things and determines the course of events. It can be used for good or evil; in itself it is neither black nor white, but gray.

8. There is no such thing as accidental. Everything has meaning and is charged with meaning. Since part and whole are one, to understand the smallest part is to understand the whole and vice versa.

9. Birth and death are a change from one form of existence to another. They are, as are sleep and wakefulness, two similar phases of the same being.

10. This is the only valid way to interpret reality.

Since early Greek times there has been a widespread tendency to explain perceptions and actions made while in the mythic mode by translating them into the currently popular philosophy of the sensory method of perceiving- reacting to reality. Although thinkers as far back as plato warned against this and pointed out that this was a valid mode in itself, the tendency still continues.