Threads of intuition - visions and meditations - the spirit of exploration

These notes are about the relationships between consciousness, the Earth's web of life, and spirit. These notes have evolved during many years of meditations, vision quests and spiritual explorations.

Exploration into non-human forms of intelligence will occasionally bring an awareness of non-physical presences. With these presences comes intuitions, visions, and messages carried in something like non-verbal modulations of the inner medium of awareness and imagination. With the right frame of mind, we can make a gentle and calm exploration into this intelligence - with no fuss, no fan fare - and sometimes a new direction is presented to us. Spirit does not communicate using the language of words but instead plants a seed of meaning in the soul. With a mind and heart filled with humility, kindness, forgiveness and compassion, this seed grows into messages of spiritual wisdom that can lead us in new directions of spiritual evolution.

These messages are multi-dimensional. They appear to be highly ambiguous to this human intelligence. Our ability to interpret multi-dimensional information tends to be limited by our habits of thought and belief - and by the emotional aspects of knowing.

The way that these messages grow is sure to be tainted by the personality, culture and habits of mind. By pacifying these influences, by entering into inner silence, the true meaning of these messages is more likely to come to light.

Our own interpretation of these messages have been influenced by science, but these writings are absolutely not scientific in any way.

All of these factors make the interpretation of spiritual messages highly tentative - and it is likely that there are as many interpretations than there are people. Take a moment to look at our insights, but seek your own communion with spirit, pursue your own vision quests and meditations, develop and share your own explorations and discoveries.

Just remember that in these explorations there is no absolute knowledge - if you ever become convinced that you have discovered an absolute spiritual truth then you are in danger of misleading yourself and others. Avoid becoming stuck on a belief, idea or religion. Humility keeps knowledge fair and balanced - humility dramatically improves the chances of expanding our potential.

Nature's web of life

• Nature has created a vast web of life - we are a small part of this web - all living things co-evolve within this ever-changing web of life
• Nature's web not only includes all life forms but also their interactions with each other and their environments - including all the mechanical, biological, chemical and physical processes within the environment
• Nature's web seeks to diversify - nature explores ways to create
• Nothing can exist in isolation from this web of life
• We are all dependent on nature's ability to evolve and stay healthy on a global level

The emergence and evolution of nature's intelligence

• Thanks to evolutionary processes running on a global scale, nature herself has evolved a global consciousness and intelligence - the web of life has it's own senses, memories, strategies, intent and awareness
• Nature's consciousness and intelligence are shaped by different forces than ours - human consciousness is shaped by instinct, including the instinctive components of language, analytical thinking and inventiveness - whereas nature's consciousness emerges from an infinity of interactions between the molecular processes of life and the global unity of the web of life
• Evolution is one of many processes that shape this planet's web of life - including many kinds of emergent intelligences - yet many other processes are unknown and seem to include alien and spiritual intelligences
• Together all these processes are intertwined with nature's intelligence
• All living things evolve within this web - each species and process adapts to changes in the web - from this adaptation evolves many kinds of intelligences moving within all levels of life, from DNA to the creativity and imaginations of the mind
• All these intelligences combine to shape the personality of a species - this personality is dependent on millions of life-processes, on the health of each of these parts, on there intelligences, and on their ability to cooperate with each other
• The intelligence of the human also depends on the ability of nature's web to keep it's intelligences working together - if nature's web is weakened, so too is the intelligence of humankind

Human intelligence, rooted in the creations of nature's intelligence

• The instinctive core of every species gives them their basic kinds of intelligence - which has been shaped through evolution - the structure and dynamics of these intelligences are carried in the biological memories of DNA
• All creatures have this core of genetically based instinctive behaviors, feelings and responses - this core is nature's creation - a manifestation of nature's intelligence - living creatures are mother nature's children
• Humans evolved from this instinctive core - it is very similar to the instinctive core found in many other species
• We carry an animal intelligence within us - it is our inner animal

Instinct, the inner animal and the journey of our ancestors

• Our instinctive self - our inner animal - has been shaped by nature's web of life during millions of years of adaptation and innovation
• Our inner animal is the expression of the DNA of our ancestors and carries the lessons taught by nature's web of life through the generations
• DNA actually carries a living record of our ancestor's journey of adaptation to nature's ever changing web of life

The core of the human heart and mind - non-aggressive instincts

• The human heart and mind have grown on the foundation of the core instincts
• The fight-flight response is part of these core instincts
• There are many other instinctive responses, drives, feelings at play within this core ...
• ... including non-aggressive instincts: primitive kinds of trust, respect, sharing, compassion, empathy, companionship, belongingness, cooperation, playfulness, curiosity and basic kinds of intelligence
• These basic kinds of intelligence decide which combination of responses should be put in a state of readiness and which combination to put at rest - these combinations determine our "moods"
• The goal of our instinctive intelligence is to set the moods and conditions that put our bodies and emotions into states of health and balance
• In a healthy situation the non-aggressive instincts keep everything in balance - in a healthy creature the aggressive forces are at rest but are always ready to quickly awaken in an emergency - but -
• - lengthy and frequent arousal of aggressive instincts destroys the health of the emotions, body and mind which
• makes the instincts less responsive when they are really needed - or
• resulting in the fight-flight response perpetually over-reacting to the smallest thing - for no real reason - leading to violence, cruelty, hatred of the unfamiliar

The spacious mind

• The human brain has a large layer of complex and dense neural structures growing out of the instinctive core of the brain
• The human brain is an animal brain with lots of extra neural stuff evolved out from it
• These extra layers of neural "forest" give us greater freedom to explore new possibilities, to be more creative, and more analytical - it is the "spacious mind"
• There is a web of integrating pathways constantly evolving between the inner animal mind and the spacious mind - this integrative web has the potential to accelerate evolution
• But when the spacious mind is dominated by aggression or fear - it becomes an instrument of destruction

Aggression, imbalance and the degradation of the senses

• Humans have allowed their aggressive instincts to take on an increasingly dominant role in their social, family, and inner lives
• Humans have de-emphasized the compassionate/cooperative instincts and over-emphasized the aggressive instincts - in fact there are many who can not grasp the fact that the positive emotions are instincts
• We humans put far too much emphasis on aggressiveness in all its forms (including competitiveness, ambition, violence and greed) - we have created an imbalance within us, from which we have become a cancer to nature's web of life and to ourselves
• Our inner being has become fragmented and destructive through our obsession with aggressive instincts
• When aggressive instincts dominate our hearts, minds and culture - our ancient inner senses break down - these are the senses that kept us in communion with nature's web and it's spiritual intelligence
• Humans have lost much of their nature-given inner sense of dependence on nature's web
• We have become addicted to the delusional belief that we can ignore nature's ways

Developing senses, creating balance

• Finding ways to sense these imbalances and dependencies is essential to healing the effects of our addiction to aggression
• Learning to sense imbalance is an essential part of our spiritual journey
• Over thousands of years, we have weakened our ability to inwardly sense nature's role in shaping our lives, environment and prospects
• Nature-sense is an essential part of our spiritual nature - it is a spiritual sense - and we have strayed from the ways of listening to it's wisdom
• The most important teaching from nature's spiritual wisdom is: the future of all life on this planet depends on creating a healthy balance of compassion, empathy, generosity, forgiveness and caring - all of these things directing and growing the instinct of curiosity - and it is also essential to discipline your aggressive instincts to prevent them from dominating your life

Find your own way to explore the wisdom of the spirit

• Your most powerful instinct is the drive to explore
• It's an instinct that is constantly seeking your attention
• It's an instinct that demands nurturing, growth, and quality-time from you
• Without this attention and growth your soul becomes trapped by feelings of loss, emptiness, frustration, brutality, aggression, fear, greed, hate and ambition
• The explorative instinct is constantly seeking ways to make us question the known and the familiar, to be curious about the unknown, to feel wonder at the mysteries of this universe
• The spirit of exploration is the most powerful force in the evolution of consciousness, intelligence, imagination and wisdom

The instinct to explore is a spiritual gift from nature

• The drive to explore is actually a spiritual force - brought to us by nature's evolutionary processes
• This gift of nature brings opportunities to take us beyond the domination of primitive instincts
• It can take you to new realms of spiritual enlightenment - it can show you a real kind of freedom
• The impulse to explore will lead you to understand and challenge the limitations of knowledge, belief and faith

Spirituality begins when we question belief, knowledge and faith

• The enlightened soul doesn't depend on belief, knowledge or faith
• Questioning our fundamental beliefs is the best kind of inner healing
• Questioning our beliefs, knowledge and faith is necessary to open our minds and hearts to new ways of exploration and discovery
• Belief and knowledge are just stepping stones on the path of exploration - learn to let go of them - you don't need to carry them with you

You can discover great wisdom for yourself - there is no need to turn to a belief system or religion

• You can discover the most meaningful direction and purpose in your life by giving time and energy to develop your inner explorer
• Explore the landscapes of your inner being and you will discover the web of subtle threads of energy that connects all things
• Through spiritual exploration you will discover more powerful, creative and liberating currents of evolution
• You will discover a spiritual morality that transcends religious dogma - generosity, compassion, kindness, humility, caring for the web of life
• Questioning authority, controllers, religions, tradition, culture, nationalism - this is the way to eliminate all conflict, violence and war
• You will discover freedom from belief, religion, and all the other tricks used by the few to herd the thoughts, opinions, feelings and desires of the many
• The source of wisdom, intelligence and consciousness is within you

Only you can discover your connection to spirit

• From your inner explorations, you will discover a place of spaciousness within the depths of the soul
• It is a place that is full of the deepest kind of silence - yet saturated with infinite energy
• It is full of wisdom, it is the birthplace of new forms of consciousness and intelligence
• This place is part of a dynamic web of spiritual energies and life-forces permeating all universes
• This place is a meeting place for spiritual, human and alien consciousness
• This place offers learning, insight and wisdom
• Within this place, virtual realities can be created in which we can meet with spiritual intelligences that live within the web of life, without a body
• Within these inner virtual realities we can also meet with intelligences from other universes
• Within these virtual realities, you will discover that intelligence needs positive emotions/instincts, otherwise it becomes ineffective and often destructive
• The most evolved intelligences share some simple goals: to avoid harm, to explore, to share, to seek communion with other intelligences

Spiritual exploration is the flight of the soul

• The soul's flight takes your mind and heart to the spiritual world of healing
• This flight of the soul offers insights into healing the wounds inflicted by human brutality, ambition, greed, hate, fear and other forms of violence and aggression
• You will discover and explore the emotional web of healing: you will learn to plant the seeds of compassion, generosity, forgiveness, kindness, humility
• When you take even a little time to explore this place, you begin to discover the purpose of all life: simply to explore, to question, to heal
• In this place you can explore the spirit that brings an end to conflict - this ending of conflict is love