ALTERNATE PRESENTS AND MULTIPLE FOCUS

Now: We will resume dictation, and begin our next chapter to be called: “Alternate Presents and Multiple Focus.”

Let us begin with the normal waking consciousness that you know. But one step away from this is another level of consciousness into which you all slip without knowing. We will call it “A-l.” It is adjacent to your normal consciousness, separated from it very slightly; and yet in it very definite effects can appear that are not present in your usual state.

At this level many abilities may be used, and the present moment can be experienced in many different fashions, using as a basis the physical data with which you are already familiar. In your normal state you see the body. In A-l your consciousness can enter the body of another, and heal it. You can in the same manner perceive the state of your own physical image. You can, according to your abilities, manipulate matter from the inside consciously, with lucidity and alertness.

Any such physical clues can help you differentiate between this state of consciousness and the usual predominating one. You have only to recognize it, learn to hold it, and then proceed to experiment in its use. As a rule, it is still physically oriented, in that the abilities are usually directed toward the inner perception and manipulation of matter or physical environment. You can therefore perceive the present moment from a variety of unique standpoints not usually available.

You can perceive the moment’s reality as it exists for your intestine, or your hand; and experience, with practice, the present inner peace and commotion that exist simultaneously within your physical body. This brings a great appreciation and wonder, a sense of unity with the living corporeal material of which you are physically composed. With practice you can become as intuitively aware of your internal physical environment, as [of] your external physical environment.

Or it may be used as a step leading to an adjacent level of consciousness; two steps away, therefore, on the same level from normal reality. In this case it will lead you not into a deeper examination and perception of the present moment, but instead into an awareness and recognition of what I will call alternate present moments.

You will be taking steps aside from the present that you know. This leads to explorations mentioned earlier in this book, into probabilities. This state can be extremely advantageous when you are trying to solve problems having to do with future arrangements, decisions that will affect the future, and any matters, in fact, in which important decisions for the future must be made. In this state you are able to try out various alternative decisions and some probable results, not imaginatively but in quite practical terms. (Pause.)

These probabilities are realities, regardless of which decision you make. Say, for example, that you have three choices and it is imperative that you select one. Using this state, you take the first choice. The alternative present is the moment in which you make that choice. Having made it the present is changed, and quite clearly you perceive exactly the way it is changed and what actions and events will flow from the change into the future that belongs to that particular alternate present.

In like manner you explore the mental and feeling aspects, then you turn your attention “outward,” toward the environment that results from this alternate present. Mentally, events will appear to you. You may experience these strongly, or merely view them. They may become so vivid that you momentarily forget yourself, but if you maintain your contact with this level of consciousness, this will happen seldom. As a rule you are very aware of what you are doing.

There is an A-1-b, you see, still adjacent to this one, and still starting off from an alternate present that can be used for many other purposes.

(Pause.) It is not as easy for the ordinary individual to enter, and it deals with group presents, with mass probabilities, racial matters, the movement of civilization. It is one that would be most beneficial to politicians and statesmen, and it also can be used to probe into probable pasts as well. Here it would be of benefit in learning of old ruins for example, and vanished civilizations, but only if the specific probable past were probed in which these existed.

The next adjacent level now would be A-1-c, which is an extension of the one just given, in which there is greater freedom of action, mobility and experience. Here to some extent there is some participation in the events perceived. There is no need to go deeply into any of these beyond this point, because ordinarily you will not be involved with them, and they lead into realities that have little reference to your own. They are states of consciousness too divorced, and under usual circumstances, this is as far as your present consciousness is able to go in that particular direction.