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I chose two American articles that give a fairly complete picture of what has happened and refute secular "racial theory" based on some external characteristics. As well as the current genetic explanation of the origin of white skin. I present them for your information. Contemporary scholars agree that "race" was a recent invention and that it was essentially a folk idea, not a product of scientific research and discovery.
This is not new to anthropologists. Since the s when Ashley Montagu argued against the use of the term "race" in science, a growing number of scholars in many disciplines have declared that the real meaning of race in American society has to do with social realities, quite distinct from physical variations in the human species. I argue that race was institutionalized beginning in the 18th century as a worldview, a set of culturally created attitudes and beliefs about human group differences.
Slavery and the Coming of Africans. Race and its ideology about human differences arose out of the context of African slavery. But many peoples throughout history have been enslaved without the imposition of racial ideology. When we look at 17th century colonial America before the enactment of laws legitimizing slavery only for Africans and their descendants after , several facts become clear. The first people that the English tried to enslave and place on plantations were the Irish with whom they had had hostile relations since the 13th century. They often joined together, as in the case of Bacon's Rebellion to oppose the strict and oppressive laws of the colonial government.
In the latter part of the 17th century the demand for labor grew enormously. It had become clear that neither Irishmen nor Indians made good slaves. More than that, the real threats to social order were the poor freed whites who demanded lands and privileges that the upper class colonial governments refused. Some colonial leaders argued that turning to African labor provided a buffer against the masses of poor whites.
Until the 18th century the image of Africans was generally positive. They were farmers and cattle-breeders; they had industries, arts and crafts, governments and commerce. In addition, Africans had immunities to Old World diseases. They were better laborers and they had nowhere to escape to once transplanted to the New World. The colonists themselves came to believe that they could not survive without Africans. When some Englishmen entered slave trading directly, it became clear that many of the English public had misgivings about slave-trading and re-creating slavery on English soil.
It was an era when the ideals of equality, justice, democracy, and human rights were becoming dominant features of Western political philosophy. Those involved in the trade rationalized their actions by arguing that the Africans were heathens after all, and it was a Christian duty to save their souls. By the early part of the 18th century, the institution was fully established for Africans and their descendants. Large numbers of slaves flooded the southern colonies and even some northern ones.
Sometimes they outnumbered whites, and the laws governing slavery became increasingly harsher. A New Social Identity. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the image of Africans began to change dramatically. The major catalyst for this transformation was the rise of a powerful antislavery movement that expanded and strengthened during the Revolutionary Era both in Europe and in the United States. As a consequence proslavery forces found it necessary to develop new arguments for defending the institution. Focusing on physical differences, they turned to the notion of the natural inferiority of Africans and thus their God-given suitability for slavery.
Such arguments became more frequent and strident from the end of the eighteenth century on, and the characterizations of Africans became more negative. From here we see the structuring of the ideological components of "race. By focusing on the physical and status differences between the conquered and enslaved peoples, and Europeans, the emerging ideology linked the socio-political status and physical traits together and created a new form of social identity. Proslavery leaders among the colonists formulated a new ideology that merged all Europeans together, rich and poor, and fashioned a social system of ranked physically distinct groups.
The model for "race" and "races" was the Great Chain of Being or Scale of Nature Scala Naturae , a semi-scientific theory of a natural hierarchy of all living things, derived from classical Greek writings. The physical features of different groups became markers or symbols of their status on this scale, and thus justified their positions within the social system.
Race ideology proclaimed that the social, spiritual, moral, and intellectual inequality of different groups was, like their physical traits, natural, innate, inherited, and unalterable. Thus was created the only slave system in the world that became exclusively "racial. By keeping blacks, Indians and whites socially and spatially separated and enforcing endogamous mating, they were making sure that visible physical differences would be preserved as the premier insignia of unequal social statuses. From its inception separateness and inequality was what "race" was all about.
The attributes of inferior race status came to be applied to free blacks as well as slaves. In this way, "race" was configured as an autonomous new mechanism of social differentiation that transcended the slave condition and persisted as a form of social identity long after slavery ended. American slavery was unique in another way; that is, how North American slave-owners resolved the age-old dilemma of all slave systems.
Slaves are both persons and thingshuman beings and property. How do you treat a human being as both person and property? And what should take precedence, the human rights of the slave or the property rights of the master? American laws made clear that property was more sacred than people, and the property rights of masters overshadowed the human rights of slaves. Said Chief Justice Roger B. Taney in the famous Dred Scott case of , "Negroes were seen only as property; they were never thought of or spoken of except as property" and " thus were not intended by the framers of the Constitution to be accorded citizenship rights.
In order to transform people solely into property, you must minimize those qualities that make them human. Literature of the early nineteenth century began to portray "the negro" as a savage in even stronger terms than those that had been used for the Irish two centuries earlier. This was a major transformation in thought about who Africans were. Historian George Fredrickson states explicitly that "before open assertions of permanent black inferiority were exceedingly rare" The Black Image in the White Mind, By mid-century, the ideology of "negro inferiority" dominated both popular and scholarly thought.
Science and the Justification for "Races". What is so striking about the American experience in creating such an extreme conception of human differences was the role played by scientists and scholars in legitimizing the folk ideas. Scholarly writers began attempting to prove scientifically that "the Negro" was a different and lower kind of human being. The first published materials arguing from a scientific perspective that "negroes" were a separate species from white men appeared in the last decade of the eighteenth century.
They argued that Negroes were either a product of degeneration from that first creation, or descendants of a separate creation altogether. American intellectuals appropriated, and rigidified, the categories of human groups established by European scholars during the eighteenth century, but ignored Blumenbach's caution that human groups blend insensibly into one another, so that it is impossible to place precise boundaries around them. Samuel Morton in the s initiated the field of craniometry, the first school of American anthropology, proponents of race ideology received the most powerful scientific support yet.
Measuring the insides of crania collected from many populations, he offered "evidence" that the Negro had a smaller brain than whites, with Indians in-between. Morton is also famous for his involvement in a major scientific controversy over creation. The very existence of a scientific debate over whether blacks and whites were products of a single creation, or of multiple creations, especially in a society dominated by Biblical explanations, seems anomalous.
It indicates that the differences between "races" had been so magnified and exaggerated that popular consciousness had already widely accepted the idea of blacks being a different and inferior species of humans. Justice Taney's decision reflected this, declaring, "the negro is a different order of being. Scientists collaborated in confirming popular beliefs, and publications appeared on a regular basis providing the "proof" that comforted the white public. That some social leaders were conscious of their role in giving credibility to the invented myths is manifest in statements such as that found in the Charleston Medical Journal after Dr.
It states, "We can only say that we of the South should consider him as our benefactor, for aiding most materially in giving to the negro his true position as an inferior race" emphasis added. George Gliddon , co-editor of a famous scientific book Types of Mankind, which argued that Negroes were closer to apes than to humans and ranked all other groups between whites and Negroes, sent a copy of the book to a famous southern politician, saying that he was sure the south would appreciate the powerful support that this book gave for its "peculiar institution" slavery. Like another famous tome The Bell Curve, this was an page book whose first edition sold out immediately; it went through nine other editions before the end of the century.
What it said about the inferiority of blacks became widely known, even by those who could not read it. During discussions in the U. Senate on the future of "the negro" after slavery, James Henry Hammond proclaimed in "somebody has to be the mudsills of society, to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life. This was to be their place, one consciously created for them by a society whose cultural values now made it impossible to assimilate them.
In the many decades since the Civil War, white society made giant strides to "keep the negro in his place. These are some of the circumstances surrounding the origin of the racial worldview in North America. Race ideology was a mechanism justifying what had already been established as unequal social groups; it was from its inception, and is today, about who should have access to privilege, power, status, and wealth, and who should not.
As a useful political ideology for conquerors, it spread into colonial situations around the world. It was promulgated in the latter half of the 19th century by some Europeans against other Europeans and reached its most extreme development in the twentieth century Nazi holocaust. All anthropologists should understand that "race" has no intrinsic relationship to human biological diversity, that such diversity is a natural product of primarily evolutionary forces while "race" is a social invention. The following statement was adopted by the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association on May 17, , acting on a draft prepared by a committee of representative American anthropologists.
It does not reflect a consensus of all members of the AAA, as individuals vary in their approaches to the study of "race. In the United States both scholars and the general public have been conditioned to viewing human races as natural and separate divisions within the human species based on visible physical differences. With the vast expansion of scientific knowledge in this century, however, it has become clear that human populations are not unambiguous, clearly demarcated, biologically distinct groups.
Evidence from the analysis of genetics e. This means that there is greater variation within "racial" groups than between them. In neighboring populations there is much overlapping of genes and their phenotypic physical expressions. Throughout history whenever different groups have come into contact, they have interbred. The continued sharing of genetic materials has maintained all of humankind as a single species. Physical variations in any given trait tend to occur gradually rather than abruptly over geographic areas.
And because physical traits are inherited independently of one another, knowing the range of one trait does not predict the presence of others. For example, skin color varies largely from light in the temperate areas in the north to dark in the tropical areas in the south; its intensity is not related to nose shape or hair texture.
Dark skin may be associated with frizzy or kinky hair or curly or wavy or straight hair, all of which are found among different indigenous peoples in tropical regions. These facts render any attempt to establish lines of division among biological populations both arbitrary and subjective. Historical research has shown that the idea of "race" has always carried more meanings than mere physical differences; indeed, physical variations in the human species have no meaning except the social ones that humans put on them.
Today scholars in many fields argue that "race" as it is understood in the United States of America was a social mechanism invented during the 18th century to refer to those populations brought together in colonial America: From its inception, this modern concept of "race" was modeled after an ancient theorem of the Great Chain of Being, which posited natural categories on a hierarchy established by God or nature. Thus "race" was a mode of classification linked specifically to peoples in the colonial situation. It subsumed a growing ideology of inequality devised to rationalize European attitudes and treatment of the conquered and enslaved peoples.
Proponents of slavery in particular during the 19th century used "race" to justify the retention of slavery. The ideology magnified the differences among Europeans, Africans, and Indians, established a rigid hierarchy of socially exclusive categories underscored and bolstered unequal rank and status differences, and provided the rationalization that the inequality was natural or God-given.
The different physical traits of African-Americans and Indians became markers or symbols of their status differences. Numerous arbitrary and fictitious beliefs about the different peoples were institutionalized and deeply embedded in American thought. Early in the 19th century the growing fields of science began to reflect the public consciousness about human differences.
Differences among the "racial" categories were projected to their greatest extreme when the argument was posed that Africans, Indians, and Europeans were separate species, with Africans the least human and closer taxonomically to apes. Ultimately "race" as an ideology about human differences was subsequently spread to other areas of the world.
It became a strategy for dividing, ranking, and controlling colonized people used by colonial powers everywhere. But it was not limited to the colonial situation. In the latter part of the 19th century it was employed by Europeans to rank one another and to justify social, economic, and political inequalities among their peoples. During World War II, the Nazis under Adolf Hitler enjoined the expanded ideology of "race" and "racial" differences and took them to a logical end: Racial beliefs constitute myths about the diversity in the human species and about the abilities and behavior of people homogenized into "racial" categories.
The myths fused behavior and physical features together in the public mind, impeding our comprehension of both biological variations and cultural behavior, implying that both are genetically determined. Racial myths bear no relationship to the reality of human capabilities or behavior. Scientists today find that reliance on such folk beliefs about human differences in research has led to countless errors.
At the end of the 20th century, we now understand that human cultural behavior is learned, conditioned into infants beginning at birth, and always subject to modification. No human is born with a built-in culture or language. Our temperaments, dispositions, and personalities, regardless of genetic propensities, are developed within sets of meanings and values that we call "culture.
It is a basic tenet of anthropological knowledge that all normal human beings have the capacity to learn any cultural behavior. The American experience with immigrants from hundreds of different language and cultural backgrounds who have acquired some version of American culture traits and behavior is the clearest evidence of this fact. Moreover, people of all physical variations have learned different cultural behaviors and continue to do so as modern transportation moves millions of immigrants around the world. How people have been accepted and treated within the context of a given society or culture has a direct impact on how they perform in that society.
The "racial" worldview was invented to assign some groups to perpetual low status, while others were permitted access to privilege, power, and wealth. The tragedy in the United States has been that the policies and practices stemming from this worldview succeeded all too well in constructing unequal populations among Europeans, Native Americans, and peoples of African descent.
Given what we know about the capacity of normal humans to achieve and function within any culture, we conclude that present-day inequalities between so-called "racial" groups are not consequences of their biological inheritance but products of historical and contemporary social, economic, educational, and political circumstances. For further information on human biological variations, see the statement prepared and issued by the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, AJPA How Europeans evolved white skin. By Ann Gibbons - Apr. But a new study shows that pale skin, as well as other traits such as tallness and the ability to digest milk as adults, arrived in most of the continent relatively recently.
The origins of Europeans have come into sharp focus in the past year as researchers have sequenced the genomes of ancient populations, rather than only a few individuals. By comparing key parts of the DNA across the genomes of 83 ancient individuals from archaeological sites throughout Europe, the international team of researchers reported earlier this year that Europeans today are a mix of the blending of at least three ancient populations of hunter-gatherers and farmers who moved into Europe in separate migrations over the past years.
The study revealed that a massive migration of Yamnaya herders from the steppes north of the Black Sea may have brought Indo-European languages to Europe about years ago. Now, a new study from the same team drills down further into that remarkable data to search for genes that were under strong natural selection—including traits so favorable that they spread rapidly throughout Europe in the past years.
By comparing the ancient European genomes with those of recent ones from the Genomes Project, population geneticist Iain Mathieson, a postdoc in the Harvard University lab of population geneticist David Reich, found five genes associated with changes in diet and skin pigmentation that underwent strong natural selection.
First, the scientists confirmed an earlier report that the hunter-gatherers in Europe could not digest the sugars in milk years ago, according to a poster. They also noted an interesting twist: The farmers who came from the Near East about years ago and the Yamnaya pastoralists who came from the steppes years ago lacked the version of the LCT gene that allows adults to digest sugars in milk. The modern humans who came out of Africa to originally settle Europe about 40, years are presumed to have had dark skin, which is advantageous in sunny latitudes. And the new data confirm that about years ago, early hunter-gatherers in Spain, Luxembourg, and Hungary also had darker skin: But in the far north—where low light levels would favor pale skin—the team found a different picture in hunter-gatherers: Thus ancient hunter-gatherers of the far north were already pale and blue-eyed, but those of central and southern Europe had darker skin.
Then, the first farmers from the Near East arrived in Europe; they carried both genes for light skin. So, the first child of God was the physical body of God? First Source created the conditions whereby its physical counterpart could manifest to govern the physical universe. Then which came first, the physical universe or the physical expression of God?
Okay, I see your point. Is it true that we were created in the image of God? There are genetic archetypes that reside within the physical manifestation of God, and these archetypes are seven-fold. They can be summoned physically at will, but God appears to each of his seven offspring in the form they will recognize as their father. The seven races of humankind are part of the most ancient genetic line of the universe in which earth is an infinitesimal component.
The Grand Universe consists of seven universes, and each of these converges in the central-most region of the Grand Universe. It is within this region that the seven physical manifestations of First Source live, each an archetype of the human instrument designed for the universe of its destiny. There is only one God, but there are seven human instruments—each with different attributes and capabilities—that the one God inhabits. Our universe is associated with the Seventh Archetype, and it is this expression of First Source that interacts with, and governs, our universe.
The physical worlds are similar in all material respects, but the life forms that populate them possess different genetic capabilities, forms, and expressions, each based on the archetype of First Source. A human instrument from universe one would not be similar to a human instrument from any of the other six universes? Not all humanoid life forms look the same? This is not a matter of appearance.
You are 98 percent identical to a chimpanzee—genetically speaking—and yet you undoubtedly consider yourself quite different in appearance. Correct, but you can extend this to include a broad spectrum of other life forms as well. Then in the other six universes, each has its own archetype that is embodied by God, and the life forms of these universes conform to this archetype—at least from a genetic perspective, if not in appearance.
Then the obvious question is why? Why does First Source divide itself into seven genetic universes? When you approach a vast mystery, a mystery as infinite as the Grand Universe, what do you, as the creator, desire above all other things? Assume that you are the Seventh Archetype of First Source. You are alone in your universe, and the universe is populated only with celestial bodies.
There are no sentient life forms and no method of travel. Let me remind you that we are discussing a physical expression of God. The Seventh Archetype of First Source is not able to travel about the universe independent of the laws of the universe. You may think of these seven Archetypes as the Human Instruments of First Source, and attribute similar characteristics and limitations to them, as we ourselves must bear. So, the physical archetypes of First Source do not share the omnipresence and omniscience of their Father? They operate in cooperation and collaboration, but they exercise their sovereign wills as it pertains to the universe under their charge.
Were the archetypes of First Source created right after the creation of the Grand Universe? There is much to learn from the creation of one that can be passed on to the next. I want to see if I understand this correctly. At some point in time there was a Grand Universe created by First Source, consisting of seven universes, each governed by a physical expression of First Source. The universes were devoid of life other than celestial bodies like stars and planets. Is this correct so far? These beings were very powerful and not unlike their creator in function and form. They, in turn, created the genetic structures that became the first, pure physical soul carriers that housed the individuated spirit energies of First Source.
Each universe was populated with genetic structures that were based on the Archetype of First Source for that particular universe. Each genetic structure had unique capabilities that were suited for the exploration and colonization of their particular universe. So, there are seven different genetic structures of soul carriers exploring the Grand Universe. Why does First Source design the universe this way? The Grand Universe is a vast network of life-bearing planets that enable the individuated spirit consciousness, housed within a soul carrier, or human instrument, to interact with the limitations that physical worlds—by their very structure—impose.
By interacting with these limitations, the genetic structures evolve, and in this evolution, they become unified. Not in all species, but in the most advanced formats of physical existence, unity is the outcome of evolution. When you create something that is in your image, what do you think is the most difficult thing to do? You want your creation to explore and colonize the universe, but you also want your creation to return. Thus, you instill a fundamental instinct within your creation to desire to return to their place of origin. This is the unification instinct and it is one of the most powerful instincts designed into the soul carriers, of which the human instrument is one.
It is not the soul carriers that return. These are physical-based vehicles that, like all physical matter, decay and transform. Only the Wholeness Navigator within the soul carrier neither decays nor transforms. It remains everlasting, and within this specific element of humanity it is designed to return to its origins. Where does one draw the line between First Source and other life forms? In other words, do they have their own identity, or do they think of themselves as First Source? In the same way, what about the Central Race?
There are five rings of life that comprise First Source. At the center is the consciousness of First Source. At the whole is Source Intelligence. In between are three rings of life: And each of these rings of life draws their identity from First Source? The five rings of life are distinct forms of consciousness.
In the formless state, each ring of life is aware of its unity, purpose, and inherent kinship with the others. In the physical realms, where consciousness is expressed through a dimensionally focused soul-carrier, they have a diminished awareness of this connection. Thus, they are both separate and unified, depending upon which strata of consciousness the entity is focused. It hardly seems possible. No one within the Central Race pretends to know the degree in which the Archetypes of First Source have a diminished capacity to recall their Source vibration.
However, those within the Central Race are well aware of how the soul carriers of three-dimensional substance, create the condition of separation in which divine recall is reduced to such a degree that the entity regards itself as separate from First Source, and therefore its capabilities. If you believe you are an ant, how do you behave differently than an eagle? But the Wholeness Navigator is First Source. Its soul carrier would literally devolve.
Our sense of separation from our Source vibration causes our human instrument to remain devolved. The devolution has already occurred; it is merely perpetuated. Then the goal is to awaken this Source vibration and begin to re-associate with its divinity—this is what causes the human instrument to evolve in the direction of the Wholeness Navigator? Dry wood, kindling, and a lot of work generating sufficient heat to combust the kindling. And if I had all the critical components to start a fire, but I had no experience, would I be able to produce fire?
I might not even know, if someone were to give me all of these items, that their purpose was to create a fire. Yes, but where are you going with this? You simplified your question to the extreme. The equations of evolution are so complex that they are invisible to the mind of the human instrument.
It is not merely the re-association with the Source vibration or God-Fragment that draws the Wholeness Navigator to it divinity and re-asserts its capabilities as a replica of First Source. This equation carries thousands upon thousands of critical elements bundled in a coherent, carefully orchestrated path. I wanted you to remember this. How can anyone give all of these factors equal weight and still have an intelligent discussion? No, not with any degree of accuracy. Evolutionary circuits are dependent on complex systems, and these systems are so vast and multifaceted that words—when applied to depict them—only serve to bring focus on one element and this element is never—in itself—powerful enough to catalyze or mobilize the evolutionary path.
If you had a magical friend that was infallible in her judgment; perfect in her decisions because she saw clear to the destination of First Source and therefore knew how to travel the landscape to achieve her reunion with God. What would you do with this friend? Well, if I really believed they had this infallible judgment as you put it, yes, even if they jumped off a cliff. In this example, they could fly, but you could not.
Trust the parts and the whole. Trust the connection of these to First Source. Trust the God-Fragment that orchestrates all of this complexity into coherent experience and knowledge that assures the recollection of your divinity. Trust the evolutionary process defined by First Source. Trust each of these above the external voices that meet you, no matter how infallible they may appear to be. Trust your self-knowing and its ability to guide you in the ascending spiral of your journey. But there are those who know more than me.
How can I overcome this self-doubt? It is not something to overcome. If it were, would you then require trust? When you grapple with the finer distinctions of a concept, you invariably come to a wall that defines the limits of your memory or experience. When you find this wall, there is nothing wrong with seeking help from others, but remember that you are the entity that is most aware of your own needs. The wall that you find may be precisely what you need at that time. Then it seems that I need to become more aware of my self-interests and needs.
The needs that you have that fuel your evolution as a Sovereign Integral. If you are hungry, your stomach will remind you. If you are tired, you will yawn and your eyelids will become unbearably heavy. What is the equivalent for your evolution as a Sovereign Integral? I guess unanswered questions. Not knowing who I am, where I am going or why I am here. Unanswered questions awaken you to your highest self-interests? Inspiration from the spiritual masters who came before you. But most importantly, it is the inspiration that enters from the realm of the Wholeness Navigator within you, into your human instrument and then tirelessly kindles your desire to recollect the reality of the God-Fragment stored inside you.
It is not important to recognize it. It only matters that you feel it and welcome its presence because this is how you develop self-trust and self-knowing. If you want to establish a relationship with someone that you want to know, what are some of the things you do? I might invite them for a conversation over tea, or possibly write them an introductory letter describing my wish to meet them.
I will probably assume that they are too busy, or more likely, not interested in meeting me. The human instrument gives up too easy, if it invites the Wholeness Navigator into its realm at all. The divine instruments of First Source are ever vigilant for sincere prayers, and never reject the offer to extend their presence within the human instrument of an entity that desires to ascend in consciousness. This is an immutable law of the universe.
Is there a better way to extend this invitation than simply asking in prayer? It is not your words that will be heard. It is your feelings and the purity of their motivation. You could be drunk from wine and swearing in your loudest voice, but if your innermost feelings were pure, sincere, humble, and motivated by love, your invitation would be answered. In contrast, you could be meditating for days, striving to be of perfect character, and asking in the quietest whisper of a clear mind, but if you were tainted with the motivations of honor and pride, your invitation would most likely be declined.
Why would the Wholeness Navigator, or any divine instrument of First Source, care? Why do you care if the food you eat is served on a clean plate or a dirty floor? The human instrument is a vessel, or soul carrier. Upon your planet, it houses the pure and perfect instrument of First Source: If the human instrument is impure with thoughts of materiality, motivations of self-aggrandizement or actions of hatred, it makes the soul carrier less receptive to the vibrations of the Wholeness Navigator. In some cases, the Wholeness Navigator, if it enters into such a vessel and offers its capabilities, these very capabilities are corrupted for selfish purposes.
So the Wholeness Navigator does not want its capabilities to become contaminated by an impure soul carrier? This is partially true, but it is more that the God-Fragment within you chooses to expose its energies to a human instrument that has invited it to share its vision and understanding. Once it is invited, it will monitor the response of the human instrument to its presence. If the invitations are repeatedly extended, the God-Fragment will continue to materialize as an infused, spirit-led consciousness that directs the human instrument in its earthly mission.
The God-Fragment injects divine perspective into the human instrument. In doing this, the human instrument is transformed. I think I need some time to sort all this out. Thank you for sharing your perspective and helping me with my understanding. Why then are there some who seem blessed with the knowledge of God, and some that seem completely ignorant of his presence and value?
Surely those who are enlightened discovered a technique to secure their knowledge. There are no techniques. This is the great fallacy that has swept across the universe of sentient beings. We persist in our belief that there is a formula or ritual or teacher that can bring us enlightenment—or the knowledge of God. If there is no technique or teacher, then why does all of this exist? Why do you, my teacher, sit before me? Or why are there books and learned masters here, in this instructional setting?
When there are questions there are answers waiting to be heard. All this exists for the questions of people such as you. If these questions did not exist, this would not exist. Why is the knowledge of how to destroy humankind—on a mass level—so carefully safeguarded? Naturally the technology is so destructive it needs to be managed and controlled by responsible governments. If it were in the power of any one person to destroy the lives of many, he or she might do so if they became sick of mind.
Is the knowledge of mass destruction the opposite of the knowledge of mass enlightenment? What if you were given the power to enlighten the masses of humanity or destroy humanity? Would you not be the most powerful person on earth? What if the citizens that you ruled rebelled? What if they chose to be independent of your power? What would you do then? But if I had the power to enlighten them, why would they rebel? They would be enlightened and, as a result, they would choose to live harmoniously. But some might not want to be enlightened.
Perhaps they feel that they know what is best for their development and would resist an outside source, no matter how benevolent and wise. I would try to teach them how to behave properly so they would learn to live harmoniously. And if the warring and cruel citizens ultimately had children that desired to live in harmony, what would happen then? So the citizens of your society would accept them without any problem and confer upon them the same social benefits that they themselves enjoy? I would have to order it—make it a law—I suppose.
But again, if I had the power to enlighten my citizens, they surely would forgive those that were led astray by their parents, and let them re-enter the broader society. And what would be the result if one of these new citizens murdered someone within your enlightened society? And what if the decadent society decided that the enlightened society should be conquered? You have answered these hypothetical questions wisely. Do you see how power complicates? Do you understand that having the power to enlighten or destroy is a type of power that most people consign to God?
I understand, but how does that answer my question about gaining the knowledge of God? I simply wanted you to have a glimpse of the perspective of the human-imagined God. If you want the knowledge of God, you must have some perspective on the position of a God. Suppose that your power to destroy was simply a thought away. If you became angry, your power to destroy would be unleashed and the recipient of your anger would be obliterated. Would it work the same way for enlightenment? In other words, would I be able to enlighten with a simple thought?
How many times a day do you have an angry thought and a thought to enlighten someone? Each time you have these thoughts, if you were angry with a person, your anger would harm the object of your rage. What about the other side of the coin. What if I were loving and kind, would my thoughts enlighten them as well? Because your dominant reality is that of a human being with all its weaknesses and foibles. You are designed to have spontaneous thoughts and emotions. You have instincts that respond to stimuli, and you cannot control your natural thoughts or emotions. You can suppress them. You can ignore them.
You can even extinguish them, but only for a period of time. Then every human is sealed inside a world of limitation because they have this inability to control their impulses—be they thoughts or emotions? No, but I think I have an idea of what is aligned with the will of God and what is not.
If you truly know what is aligned and what it not, then you would need to know the will of First Source, would you not? I know that what is of love and light is aligned with the will of God, and what is of evil and darkness is not. But I might not be able to distinguish between the more subtle shades of light and darkness or good and evil. And because you have been taught that the will of God is knowable, you believe you can make the judgment that a loving act is aligned, but an evil act is not.
What if I suggested to you that understanding the will of God is one and the same as possessing the knowledge of God? What do you think I mean? Make an effort to express your thoughts, no matter how murky they may be. Sometimes the fog lifts only when you struggle to see through it. In other words, in order to have the knowledge of God, I must know what God wants from me, what he desired me to become.
First Source desires that you live without limitation, but creates a soul carrier and a setting for that soul carrier to live within that is rooted in limitation. Why do think it is the will of God that you shrug off your limitations? Because if I have no limitations, I am liberated of the things that reduce my spiritual awareness. Why would your Creator create you, set you in a soul carrier that was bound to a reality of limitation, construct an elaborate universe school to educate you, and commission a vast array of instructors, only to enable you to pass into Nirvana, or a blissful state?
No one paints this picture very clearly. The picture, as you put it, is found in the service to a plan. The plan is the collective unfolding of souls to realize the singular nature of universehood as an undivided process. We move from neighborhoods to cities, to states, to nations, to continents, to hemispheres, to planets, to solar systems, to galaxies, to local universes, to Superuniverses, to the Grand Multiverse—the all-encompassing structure of our collective unity.
And at every step we emerge the victor of the lesser state of being in that our lives increasingly exemplify the presence of our collective perception of what is best for the evolutionary course set forth by First Source for the Grand Multiverse. Okay, so this is the reason? To simply be able to hold the perspective of what is best for the Grand Multiverse? How can I ever know such a thing? This seems to be the theme of spiritual matters. It is only because you take the undivided process and leap to its end, wishing to bring it closer into your reality of now. Your patience is exceeded by your vision of what is to be.
Define the knowledge that you need to accomplish each step of your process. Frame your knowledge in the context of your design. You are a physical body with complex, emotional impulses and instincts; you are also a system of nerves and data collectors that feed your consciousness and brain. Moreover, you are a collective of consciousnesses that span your entire species and time. These elements comprise your human instrument. Like most seekers, you try to understand the mysterious substance of your inmost spirit—the Wholeness Navigator—before you understand your human instrument.
And even more to the point, you seek to understand the Creator and sustainer of the Wholeness Navigator before you understand your inmost spirit. You have intuited the undivided process because it is stored within you, but if you stretch the reach of your understanding it is because you seek to know the stars before you know the planet upon which you stand. And I ask you, what good is the knowledge of the stars when your home is misunderstood? It is not realized in some sudden, elusive revelatory experience at the end of your journey.
It is found in every step along the way. Yes, I understand this in concept. Otherwise, if you first channel your energy into understanding the Creator, you will see it marginally, and this partial knowledge will deform your understanding of the soul carrier and the soul within it. But how will I know that my understanding of the soul carrier is adequate so that I can embark on the understanding of my soul?
The human instrument is an amazing composite of miraculous connections between the material and non-physical worlds. When you understand these connections, they will guide you to your understanding of the soul within you. So then I should really be asking you about how I can gain the knowledge of these connections.
Much has been said and written about the energy centers that are revealed within the human instrument, but these energy centers are not the connections between the physical and non-physical realms. What weaves together the physical body with the non-physical bodies is what we refer to as the phantom core. The phantom core is not composed of anything material.
It is like a shadow of soul consciousness that can move between the realms of the human instrument. The phantom core is the consciousness that moves between the body, emotions, mind, and genetic mind at speeds greater than light. Yet it is a point of awareness that distributes the experiences of the human instrument to the soul.
Does it embellish the experiences or simply report them like a recorder? Even in the quiet moments of your life when you are staring through a window or reading a book, there is a great universe of experience that is perceived by this phantom core, and every miniature detail is faithfully recorded and transmitted to the soul. The phantom core is the super consciousness of the human instrument. It is through this awareness that soul experiences the natural world of limitation and separation, drawing in the experiences that help it build appreciation for the Grand Multiverse that is the garment of First Source.
We teach through association and metaphor. And now that you have its name, it crystallizes in your mind a clearer picture of its design and purpose. For some it is two hours, for some it a lifetime. It depends on the person and how they arrive at their answers. You sought the unknowable before you sought what is to be known in your present life—where your consciousness resides now. I am not suggesting that you have wasted your time in the pursuit of a dream. But it seems that I need to place more time in understanding this phantom core.
What do you recommend I learn in this regard? Learn all that you can about the human body, emotions, and mind. Make it the focus of your study for a period of time—perhaps a year or two, depending on the availability of your time. As you do this, take notes about the features of the human instrument that either seem connected or anomalous. For example, the brain is dominated by the data received from the eyes.
Why do the eyes not dominate consciousness? As you produce your notes, organized around connections and anomalous phenomenon, begin to define the structure of the human instrument as one would if they were making a map of the interaction between the body, emotions, mind, and genetic mind. Remember that the phantom core is the shadow of the soul and operates seamlessly between the folds of the human instrument.
It is the first perceiver and transmitter of the experience that consumes the human instrument of a specific individuality. It is the continuity of the undivided process within the material realms, while the soul is the continuity of the undivided process within the non-physical realms.
It is the bridge of continuity between these two worlds. The Wholeness Navigator is the interlock between the worlds of time and the worlds of non-time. It is the fusion of the soul and the phantom core, integrating this vast experiential storehouse of data, and making it coherent as a force of transformation. It will take me a long time to create this picture and understand the connections. It will take you a lifetime, if you are fortunate. However, if you set forth upon the path of First Source without first understanding the fundamental structures within which your soul operates, you will pursue a mirage.
God will appear and disappear, and doubt will shake you every time a new occurrence crosses your path. It will seem that all is impermanent, even the face of God. You said a moment ago that the Wholeness Navigator uses the experiences of the soul carrier and soul as a force of transformation. Transformation of whom and for what purpose? The transformation is of the individual personality—the God-fragment that sojourns in both the worlds of time and non-time, and is devoted to the One Plan that embraces all forms, personalities, and opinions therein.
This personality is the identity that endures the shape shifting of forms and the ceaseless churning of time to become a conscious extension of the One Plan. The purpose of this transformation is to explore the Grand Multiverse as emissaries of First Source, creating new opportunities for the expansion and ongoing evolution of the One Plan. I suspect you purposely gave me an abstract answer as a way of reminding me of the task ahead.
I gave you what is available to be given. Words themselves are an abstraction, are they not? Is there a model I can use so I can compare my approach with others? There may be some who would gladly share their research and findings. I would encourage you to collaborate with your fellow students. It is a very useful practice. You spoke of connections in the human instrument and anomalous phenomenon.
Can you please elaborate on these? The connections of the human instrument are the threads that make up the fabric of the phantom core. These threads weave the pathways between the physical body, emotions, mind, and genetic mind. Within each of these are sub-layers, just as the skin of the human body is different than the nervous system, which is different than the skeletal structure. The body is therefore made up of many layers and sub-components that comprise the total structure. This is equally true for the emotions, mind, and genetic mind. The connections between these layers or strata of the human instrument, which number twenty-four primary systems, each originate from the Wholeness Navigator.
In other words, these threads have a common ground and spiral out touching each of the twenty-four primary systems, binding them together in a holistic system. It is not important to recognize each of them individually. Some have not been discovered in the world of time and space. I only mention the number so that you can know the depth of the human instrument and its impeccable and miraculous structure. The human instrument is regarded by most cultures as a body that is vulnerable and fragile. It is considered flawed and imperfect because it degenerates over time and is susceptible to disease.
In some areas, it is considered nothing more than an animate object for the sensing of pleasure or pain.
It is held in low regard, and even those who feel a spiritual imperative, regard it as the lesser or lower self. It is the vessel of the transcendent soul. When you see a vessel of beauty, do you wonder what is inside it? I guess when I see a beautiful vessel—like a work of art—I assume the vessel is for appreciation, not utility. The human instrument is the same way. It is a beautifully conceived creation; so much so that most believe it is empty.
Its purpose is in itself. They do not see the twenty-four strata, they perceive only the five dominant strata: You are taught these perceptions by your educational indoctrination and society as a whole, and conversely, you are not taught to appreciate and understand the other nineteen strata. In most cases, these strata require more vigilance and persistence to understand and appreciate. You study the human instrument. You study the body, emotions, mind, and genetic mind. You learn to understand this sacred vessel for what it truly is: Perhaps, but it is not necessary to understand all these levels with the human mind.
And here again, you seek to know the staircase before you understand the first few steps. It is the function of time to make the staircase comprehensible in steps, not singular revelations. I have highlighted the universal path; now tell me what you have learned. The phantom core connects the twenty-four levels of the human instrument, and is the observing consciousness of the worlds of time and space for the human soul.
The phantom core has multiple threads, for lack of a better description, that weave these twenty-four levels together, and it uses these connective threads like pathways to move—as a consciousness—from one level to the next at quantum speeds.
It then passes this experiential information to the soul, which then processes this incoming data in order to evolve its understanding of how to align with the One Plan and increasingly bring light to the darker outposts of the Grand Multiverse. You asked me at the beginning of this dialogue, as to whether there is a technique to gain the knowledge of God. All beings approach their Creator in a unique path that has never been navigated before.
If you stitched together the vast reservoir of your experience in the worlds of time and space, do you think it has ever been replicated? Perhaps at a basic level it has. Truthfully, we are each as unique as the planets that number the Grand Universe, and it is precisely this uniqueness that prevents a universal technique from ever becoming the magical pill of enlightenment.
I guess the real question is what knowledge is required in order to construct my own techniques for gaining the awareness of my own, multi-layered self? You are on your way if it is your practice to make this inquiry every morning that you arise, and you feel yourself a magnet attracting this very knowledge into your life through every facet of your experience.
Does it help if I believe that the phantom core is present within me and absorbing this knowledge even if my conscious mind is not? And so you desire to experience the Wholeness Navigator. Have you decided how? This is why I wanted to meet with you. I thought you could instruct me on a method, or technique to achieve this.
You have assembled the inner and outer knowledge like a bridge without a middle, and the missing middle section is your experience of that which confirms that the two ends do indeed join; that there is cohesion between these worlds; that the bridge has function. If you found this middle section within your experience, your bridge would be built and you could pass between the inner and outer worlds unencumbered and independent.
You would desire to then teach others how to build their own bridges. Do you think any of the teachers that have lived on earth have built this bridge and not shared it with others? Then where is this technique you speak of? Are you saying that none have built this bridge? Then why does it consume me so? Because you believe it can be built by answers, by experience, and by initiative. It cannot be built anymore than you can build something that is already built.
What do you mean? Can you build this rock? I was holding a rock I had gathered from the ground. Do you mean can I build an exact duplicate? No, I mean this rock? So is your bridge. That depends on you. In what way exactly? You have knowledge and discipline. You have intuition and insight.
You have initiative and cunning. You have power of will and persistence. Are these more important to you than the missing conscious experience of the Wholeness Navigator? I believe that when I have the experience of the Wholeness Navigator, it will supersede these other things or it will put them in some kind of collective order and I will be a better person and therefore a better teacher because of it. But if you cannot build something, how do you teach its construction? And again, I realize this in concept, but it seems like some do have this experience. Even at this moment you are having this experience, as am I.
I cannot turn my attention to the Wholeness Navigator because it is of an energetic frequency that is out of the range of the senses of this body and mind. So my desire is unfounded? Your desire is natural and well founded; it is just that it will not culminate in the experience you hope for. Then why do I feel like something vital is missing? Why do I have this nagging belief that my unanswered questions hold me back from my rightful path? As I said before, your attention shifts to what is missing because you have invited the impossible into your world and idealized what others before you achieved in the sharing of their knowledge.
You believe that great knowledge can only come from the experience of the unknown, hidden worlds in which the human soul lives, and without this experience you are unable to fulfill your promise. But many of the greatest teachers shared their vision of these inner worlds and dimensions of which the Wholeness Navigator is a part. If I cannot explore these worlds as they, how can I hope to expand the consciousness of my time? I will share a secret with you. It is not something I do with satisfaction but rather a sense of duty. The accounts of the other worlds are clothed in the very same fabric as dreams.
The mystics, saints, and even some of the greatest teachers of the human species lived in bodies with the same limited range of perception as you and I. Their sometimes-spectacular accounts of other dimensions and planes of existence were subjective, non-replicable lucid dreams that were retold as objective worlds of splendor. Are you saying that the accounts of mysticism are fabrications? Some are misinterpretations of lucid dreams. Some are encounters with the meta-dimensional worlds of the future multiverse. Some are encounters with off-planetary beings.
Some are planned deceptions. This will take me a moment to absorb. You seem to be impugning my own teachers, with whom I hold the greatest of respect. I told you that I take no satisfaction in this. Nor am I trying to discredit any teacher. Let me describe it this way. If I discovered a place upon earth that no one else had ever come upon, and I made a map with coordinates of this discovery, I would be able to explain to anyone who can read a map how to find this same place.
I could also lead people to it based on my experience. Why then are there no maps of the inner worlds? And before you answer, remember that while there are maps, they are not consistent in scale or measure, and thus, they do not describe the same inner geography. There is no map! There are no cartographers of these worlds because these worlds are infinite in scope. How do you map the infinities of First Source? With paper and pen? How do you reduce the extraordinary vision of our collective Creator to words and methodologies? The best teachers allow for the possibility, and at the same time never consider it missing in their lives.
The fascination of phenomenon is replaced with the consent of the real qualities of the human spirit to shine through their countenance, words, and deeds, and to do so with their unique personality intact. How then can the consciousness evolve if every generation teaches nothing new about the inner worlds? Or worse yet, only adds to the confusion of how these worlds operate within our consciousness? As I said before, the bridge, or consciousness, in this case, is built. It cannot be evolved, improved or enhanced. It is a multi-faceted consciousness that is as far beyond the human mind as the boundaries of the universe are beyond earth.
The appreciation of this consciousness is what requires evolution; and its application as a source of guidance and inspiration is what requires instruction. Exactly what I wanted to get to. This is precisely what I want to teach, but if I myself have no experience of this super-consciousness, how can I help others to evolve their appreciation? You have been asking for help to experience something that cannot be experienced, instead of choosing to tell the universe what you want to appreciate. The universe responds to your directives, not your questions, hopes, and prayers. If you choose to define your future by telling the universe what you desire to experience and appreciate, and you hold these thoughts in your mind with fierce persistence, the universe—by its own design—will respond accordingly.
If, on the other hand, you ask questions and pray for answers, the universe will respond with a deafening silence because you have not given it direction. This is the co-creative process you speak of, and I understand the principles of this, but how does it relate to my desire to expand my understanding of consciousness and teach this understanding to others? Desire is not a directive. Simply desiring to achieve something does not engage the universe; it engages your personal power and applies your will to achieve a goal.
Praying, as it was originally intended, held two complementary purposes: To demonstrate to the universe that an individual made choices regarding their destiny, and expressing gratitude to the universe for its unfailing support. You can make any directive you select. The universe is not obligated to respond, it simply does. By your selection the universe knows you. You are revealed in this simple act, and through this intimacy, the universe will respond in kind and reveal itself.
There is no method to capture the experience—the mind is like a camera, but the senses—the film—are not present. It is a frequent occurrence with higher dimensional directives, something akin to a perceptual omission.
The condition can create resentment and an uneasy sense that the universe is indifferent or even malfunctioning, despite the fact that most individuals consider the breakdown to be their own fault—at least consciously. However, in most students, lurking below the guilt of the conscious mind is the sense that the universe is indifferent, or even worse, purposely non-responsive. How do I direct the universe?
Is it a forceful command? Each individual is a creator of his or her wisdom path. As such, they must create the priority and structure of their path on their own. They may tap resources like teachers or books, but the creation of the path is their own, regardless of the external circumstances such as religious conformity. Once this is understood and internalized, it becomes the foundation from which you operate.
The second step upon this path is the informed assignment of priority. There is a sequence to all directions—an order in which they build to an end goal or achievement. Please explain how this applies to spiritual revelation? When you have a goal to comprehend your identity—not only as a human being but also as a spirit-fragment of First Source, you must break your goal into component building blocks, and see the order within the process.
Underlying this order is the fluidity that provides for rapid transformation and adaptation. Once this is defined you direct the universe to respond to this plan by the simple and persistent act of defining and, most importantly, re-defining it. It does this without regard to what you would call your worthiness. It does this because it is its nature. What if my plans are just plain wrong or ill conceived?
You will most likely be frustrated or unsatisfied by the events that unfold. Can you give me an example? If someone plans to begin their teaching profession before they have adequately trained as a student, and the universe responds in kind by providing them students, they may perpetuate their own misunderstandings upon those they teach. This is a common example for would-be teachers of the spiritual arts. But what you said earlier, about defining your plan and its order, if you truly did this properly would you not avoid the ill-conceived plan?
The universe watches faithfully your every movement and emotional connection to your goal. The ability to avoid the ill-conceived plan rests mostly in the discovery of your original voice—sorted out from the thousands of voices that have influenced you—and to allow this voice to define and direct your approach to your divinity.
It is this voice and the judgment and insight behind it that places you and retains you in the security of the universe. But there are so many more insightful than I. Why would I listen to my own voice amid those of my teachers? Do you listen to your teachers, or do you compare their words with what resonates with what you sense is true? To be candid, I compare their words with my own sense of truth.
So you already listen to your own voice? In a way, I suppose. But I use my voice as a ruler, measuring the words of my teachers with my intuition or… or some related faculty. And why do you do this? Why do you assign yourself the diminished role of measuring and analyzing instead of creating and invention? Because I am inexperienced and lack knowledge.
But you just agreed that you have experience in evaluating the substance of your instruction—that you can perceive the truth and value of an instruction, principle or suggestion. Yes, but it is one thing to have the knowledge and skill of evaluation, and quite another to be able to invent or perceive the knowledge of truth within oneself. The knowledge that will transform you derives from your personal experience of two fundamental phenomena: Exactly, and how to achieve this experiential knowledge of the Light and Sound requires expert instruction—the kind that only the highest spiritual teacher can supply.
Do you appreciate the transformation of consciousness? Is it something you have directed the Universe to supply, or are you waiting for a teacher to take you by the hand and lead you to the Light and Sound? In other words, are you waiting to evaluate the instruction of a human being, or are you directing the Universe to supply this experience?
I came here, to this ashram, to learn how to experience the Light and Sound of First Source so I can bring this knowledge to others. So you are waiting for a human being. Perhaps this is the way the Universe would respond to my directive, to bring me a teacher who can show me the way. The Universe and you are the teacher. Together you are the active, unswerving, tireless, ceaseless, on-demand pathway that can provide the direct experience. Or, you can wait for the Universe to send you messengers clothed in human form who are less active, direct, energized, responsive, and enduring—if that is your choice… your directive.
Add responsibility and acceptance of your capacity to partner with the Universe, and you have properly evaluated my instruction. Everyone upon your life-path will serve a role in this—teachers included. The Universe will arrange the right words, the right sounds, the right light, the right meaning to enter your life-path, and these will come through nature, humans, animals, technology, and combinations thereof. The process, the Universe, and you are inseparable when properly directed.
So the real knowledge is knowing how to direct the Universe? It is the one relationship you will have that is responsive to the impressions of your thoughts and the expressions of your heart. You can direct it and it will respond. What is the key to directing the Universe? To feel in union and harmony with the Universe.
To truly feel that the Universe flows through you and in doing so creates the life-path upon which you walk. To trust this life-path, knowing it is a co-creation between you and the Universe, and to demonstrate this trust in matters small and large. Assuming all of these foundations are in place, then it is merely articulating the highest possible expression of your deepest heart. How do I come to know this? You listen to your original voice. You allow it to be expansive, mysterious, paradoxical, boundless, and joyful. When you give this part of you an opportunity to express itself, it will articulate the innermost yearning of your heart and soul, and it is to these yearnings that the Universe is most attuned to hear and respond to.
There are those who will tell you that you can ask the Universe for abundance, health, good relations, new job, and anything else your mind desires, and it will respond to your wishes. The Universe is neutral to your material status within the worlds of form. How successful you are as a human being—measured by the system of men—is not the concern of the Universe, it is the concern of the socially trained mind and ego. If your highest aspirations from the deepest part of you are being supported by the Universe, you are more likely to succeed in your material quest for prosperity and right relations—for the two are related, are they not?
However, those of power devise the system within the worlds of form, and it is this power that dictates the definition of prosperity. The Universe is not involved in these matters, it is humans in power who define such things, and the Universe is not aligned to these definitions. So the two paths are not compatible? What two paths are you referring to? The petitions of human prosperity and practical survival, and the aspirations of my highest self.
There is no inherent incompatibility. It is simply a matter of where you place your focus and how you define prosperity, right relations, success, and so forth. If you try to direct the Universe toward the field of human prosperity and material concerns, do so with the understanding that the Universe is indifferent about these concerns, and you are really petitioning the Genetic Mind, not the Universe.
You may receive some support from the Genetic Mind and psychic influences therein, but generally it does not supplant the time-honored system of practice, persistence, creation, evolution, and patience. I think I understand your counsel. Thank you for your advice. You are most welcome.
I was meditating this morning and found myself distracted by the sounds of my fellow students. Is there a technique to block these distractions so I can concentrate better on my meditation? What do you hope to accomplish with this improved concentration? Does any of this deeper insight include the perception that the outer world is not a distraction to the inner world, but rather a catalyst for learning? I suppose it is. But if these distractions— Teacher: They are not distractions. They are phenomenon of the outer world—vibrations traveling in the ethers from sources you have no control over.