1 result for (book:ecs4 AND heading:"esp class session decemb 21 1971" AND stemmed:do)
[... 11 paragraphs ...]
The revelations have come through the centuries. The revelations are the centuries. The centuries are transparent. You can look through this history that you know. The selves that sit there know other selves. There are revelations within you that do not need words. They need to rise up like new planets into your own consciousness, and you need to treat them gently and not give them labels or names. So we are leading you away from labels and names, and for awhile you may feel confused or lonely, for you only feel safe when you can name an experience. And you want to know, what is it? What is its name? Is this language a truth? Did it exist in the past, what is it? before you would consider using it.
We want to do away with the normal punctuation of your experience, for you put periods and question marks and dashes where they do not belong. What Ruburt said earlier concerning the songs of the Sumari is indeed true. The words are stepping stones to lead you into other areas of experience. (To Gert.) Do not be afraid to step off of the words.
Do not think first, “Is this a true word?” Use the word as a launching pad to experience. Within the word is a wordless knowledge. Now you need the sounds to remind you. In time—in your time—you will dispense even with the sounds. You will be walking backward, in your terms, into the heart of perception. Therefore, you will leave behind many of the truths that are now familiar to you, the words that you take for granted. For when you consider an experience, you apply words to it much more than feelings: “Does this word apply, or does that word apply, or what is it; and without its label, dare I experience this unknown?”
Illuminating the centuries and the landscapes of your thought, revelations have indeed appeared and appear now. The Bible is but one aspect, and highly distorted, of revelations that occurred, in your terms, in the past. But revelations are always, they do not end. There is not a revelation that stopped happening centuries ago. You are revelations. You are each revelations. You very carefully examine your experience. Is this valid? Is this true? but you are yourselves experiences. Are you valid? Are you true?
[... 2 paragraphs ...]
Now, I am using words in a different way this evening and for my own purposes. And I hope when I am finished, you will be sufficiently unscrambled to know what I am telling you, because when you are not scrambled, you do not understand what I am saying! If you possibly remember what I said last week, then we will have you dancing through your cordellas, throwing alphabets out of the window to flutter in the wind. Eat your words and see what happens.
[... 2 paragraphs ...]
(To Sue.) Now you are learning to speak Sumari; and all of you in your own way can use it, and it does not depend upon verbal understanding. It is simplicity. It is the language beneath touch, and you do not need words for it though you must translate your experience somehow. But you can do that by jangling the words that you know and unlearning what you think you know.
I do not sing (laughter).
[... 6 paragraphs ...]
(Here Jane came out of trance and indicated that Florence was “supposed to do something” tonight. After a few minutes, Florence drew a geometric design on a notepad and explained that she had been doodling this for years, and that it seemed important to all of us. Thereupon, with Sumari’s help, class got up and walked around in a circle, all of us chanting along with the Sumari, who indicated to several of us to do certain motions. When it was over, we all sat down and Florence remarked that she felt she still hadn’t done what she was “supposed” to do with the symbol.
[... 5 paragraphs ...]