Th e facts have no t changed, but how we view the situation
has chan ged because our level o f consciousness shifted. The shift occurred
not because of th e words spoken but by being in the presence of the aura of
loving people whose ener gy field carries the higher wisdom. Simply put, we
are e ither positively or negativel y influenced by the company w e keep. It is
unlikely that we will overcom e a problem if we choose to be in the
company of others who have our same problem. Love co mes from  an abundance of ener gy that we can share wi th others. When ou r own inner negativity is addressed, then we have an ab undance of
love, and we c an begin to  share it with others. When our ener gy is tied u p
with negative emotions, there is  not much we can share with others. In fact,
they do not exist for us, becaus e we are totally focused on ourselves. It is
only when we a re full and ove rflowing that we can begin to share with
others. The way to feel good quickly is to get within the aura of somebody
who is loving. Sit close to them, hug them, sleep with them, pu t your arms
around them, be with them. T o be in the aura of a loving being is to be
raised automatically , and we will see everything dif ferently . Eventually , we
become that same channel of helpful grace to others. Gratitude, Grace, and Ser enity
Now it is understandable why s peakers at 12-step meetings say they are
grateful that they are alcoholics  or addicts. T o the newcomer ,  this indeed
sounds like madness. Grateful? How could they be grateful for becoming
addicted or an a lcoholic? Becau se that disease and suf fering for ced them to
grow and become conscious. It forced them to become aware an d therefore
grateful for the p rocess. At first, they resented and resisted it, but then they
accepted and agreed with it. They began to love, and to experie nce joy , andfinally a chieved that state called Serenity , which was their prayer at nearly
every meeting:
God, Grant us the Serenity to accept
the things we cannot change,
the Courage to change the things we can,
and the W isdom to know the dif ference. In t heir gratitude, there is an inner knowingness that this w as their
destiny—the wa y of doing it and the way that was chosen—which results in
the awar eness that they never c ould have reached this great understanding
by any other wa y . Some of us just have to experience it this w ay . The ego
has to hit bottom  in order to surrender and find God. For those w ho have hit
bottom and surrendered, great g ratitude comes about, along with a greater
understanding of the nature of consciousness itself. W e have traveled the
entire M ap of Consciousness, from Shame to Peace, and now we can
confirm from our own lived experience: those who surrender to God receive
the gifts of God.P AR T III
A d v a n c i n g  C o n s c i o u s n e s s
In this section,  Dr . Hawkins lays out how consciousness advances
thr ough the Map of Consciousn ess. Fr om his extraor dinary experience as
someone who has journeyed the entir e terrain of this chart, Dr . Hawkins
gives us  princip les to follow , pr actices to work with, and pitfa lls to avoid. Many travelers get lost along the way . W ithout the guidance of a seasoned
mariner who has successfully cr ossed the sea, how would a novice sailor
ever make it? D r . Hawkins has not only given us the Map. He has also, in
Part III , wr itten out the  details of what  to watch out for on each leg of the
journey and how to navigate its particular challenges. He t ells us that, surprisingly , the ego hangs on to what is “familiar” and
r esists c hange, even if it’ s won derful. He ther efor e walks us thr ough the
steps of br eaking fr ee fr om the ego’ s smallness. Compassion for the ego and
its l imitations, he says, is crucial. If we condemn the ego in ourselves or
others, then we r einfor ce it. An ego barrier , even one that you’ve had your entir e life, can be
transcended inst antly if ther e is the spiritual will to let go. Her e is a story
fr om D r . Haw kins’ s book  L etting  Go that illustrates how a single
br eakthr ough can take you thr ough the whole Map. This man had been
stuck in Apathy:  “I can’ t dance,” r eally meaning “I won’ t dance!” It was a
r efusal e ven to try , because of extr eme self-consciousness. In th is passage,
he uses the technique of “letting go” of Apathy and Fear , and  embracing
surr ender , to open the door to Ecstasy:
Illustrative of this progression is the experience of an intellig ent,
successful middle-aged professional man who all his life had  beenunable t o dance . He wanted to dance in the worst way , and s everal
times during his life had attende d dancing classes. But each tim e, he
found himself to be stif f, awk ward, and self-conscious. By sheer
willpower , he did manage at times to go through the motions on the
dance floor but never enjoyed it and always felt ill at ease. His
movements felt stif f and calculated, and the whole experience was
lacking in satisfaction, doing nothing for his self-esteem. After about a ye ar of working w ith the mechanism of surrender , he
was at a party w ith someone who kept insisting that he get u p and
dance. “Y ou know I can’ t dance,” he said. “Ah, co me on and try it,” she entreated. She persisted: “For get
about your feet. Just watch me and do what my body does.”
Reluctantly , he agreed, and he kept letting go of his feelings of
resistance and anxiety . On the dance floor he let go completely . In an instant, his in ner
feelings ascend ed the scale from Apathy to Love and, to his
amazement, he suddenly began to dance like he had always dreamed
of and envied! The realization of I c an do it! hit him , and he went
from Lo ve, to Joy , and even to Ecstasy . His delight radiated to
everyone. Friends stopped to watch. From a state of high joy , he
suddenly went into the experience of oneness with his dance partner . He sudd enly saw  his own Self looking out of her eyes and re alized
that ther e was actually only one Self behind all the individual s elves. He and she became telepathically connected. He knew her every step
a sp lit s econd b efore she took i t. They were in perfect harmon y and
danced as though they had practiced and danced together for years. He coul d hardly contain his joy . The dancing became ef fortless and
began to happen of its own, without any conscious thought o n his
part. The longer they danced, the more ener gy he felt. It was a peak e xperience that was to change this man’ s life. He
went home that night and danced some more. Freestyle disco dancing
had alwa ys terrified him more than any other style because there was
no f orm to be memorized. It necessitated spontaneity and a free
feeling, which is just what he had specifically been unable to
experience previously . At home he turned on the disco music and
began to dance for hours. H e watched himself in the m irror ,
fascinated by the body’ s surrender and the inner feeling of freedom.All of a sudden,  he remembered a previous lifetime in vivid de tail. He had been a great dancer , and now he began to remember the
specific instruct ions given to him by his teachers in that lifetime. When he followed their instructions, the results were amazing! He
discovered that there was a vertical gravitational center of equili brium
within himself, and he began to rotate about it in perfect balance. The
movement was ef fortless, and he became merely the witness of the
dancing. It was no longer any feeling of “I.” There was just th e joy
and the dancing itself. Now he instantly understood the very ba sis of
the S ufi dancing of the whirling  dervishes. Their ability to whi rl and
spin without dizziness or fatigue—that certain state of consciousness
—ensued from the surrendering of the individual self. The breakthrough that this man experienced on the dance floor then
transferred itself  to many other previously blocked areas of hi s life. Where there had been limitati on, now there was rapid expa nsion. These c hanges were very obvious to his friends and family , whose
positive feedbac k increased his self-esteem and his desire to  keep
letting go of the  negative feelings and thoughts that had block ed the
experience of joy in life. This exp erience has been cited in some detail for a number of reasons. It
illustrates the Map of Conscious ness. For 50 years, this man had been at the
lowest e nd of the scale in this ar ea of his life, with the accompanying belief,
I can’ t . Th e inhibition decreased his s elf-esteem and resulted in avoidance. For year s, he managed to avoid social af fairs where there would be dancing. He was angry at himself for his inhibition, and he would feel angry when
anyone tried to get him to dance. In a matter of seconds and minutes, he
experienced every emotion of the whole Map and went all the way to the
top. At that point, there was the  emer gence of a higher conscio usness with
sudden spiritual  awareness of a very high order . W ith higher consciousness
came understanding and the release of psychic ability (telepathic
communication, synchronicity , and past-life recall). As a result, his life
showed a behavioral change, and its momentum removed an endless series
of b locks and l imitations. There was a positive social respon se, and the
positive feedback reinforced the growth motivation that was  already in
progress.CHAPTER SEVEN
T R A N S C E N D I N G  T H E  B A R R I E R S
T O  H I G H E R  C O N S C I O U S N E S S
Knowledge “ab out” the Map of Consciousness is one th ing, and
experiential realization quite ano ther . Seekers often feel “stuck” at a barrier
for l ong periods of time, which can bring about spiritual despair; they have
“read ev erything, been everyw here, tried everything” yet wake up every
day to the same inner scene. “My mind is like a sponge: it has absorbed all
the information, but I’m still stuck in the same place!”
SPIRITUAL WILL
How to break fre e of lifelong pa tterns of fear and enter a high state? How
to transcend seemingly impossible barriers? The chances of becoming enlightened are now 1,000 times greater than
in the past by virtue of the information on the evolution of consciousness,
but information alone is not enough. Rather , it is the Spiritual W ill that is
the m ost critical of all functions  in spiritual work. Relatively little attention
has been  paid to the Spiritual W ill in proportion to its extreme importance,
for it is the invitation to Divine intervention. T o i llumine this necessary step , a strong example can be useful and
supportive. Prob ably the lar gest and most striking example is that of the
veterans of W orld W ar II, in which the experience of groups as well as
individual combatants was horrific to the maximal degree. After the end of
the war ,  the majority of forme r enemy combatants very quickly for gave
each oth er , even  formally saluting each other , and celebrated th e end of theconflict. They shook hands in renewed mutual respect. There were the
kamikaze pilots who had strafed one’ s ship, killed one’ s comrades, and left
many w ounded and crippled casualties. On the other side, Americans were
the o nes who dropped the atom ic bombs that killed thousands of civilians. At w ar ’ s end, th ere was a strang e, almost blanketlike acceptance  that it was
all o ver and tha t it had all “just been about war .” Former comb atants even
became close personal friends and periodically visited each other ’ s families. There was the u nderstanding th at the soldiers on both sides were equally
integrous in that they had done what they thought was required to fulfill
their rol e in society or their obli gation to God, country , family , or whatever
purpose they had fought for . Reluctance to for give is a consequence not only of unwillingness to let go
of the ego “juice ” of perceived injustice but also the illusion that others do
not “deserve” it. In reality , it is the for giver  and not the for given who
benefits the most. The purpose of this example is to demonstrate that even
the most severe conditions can be transcended, but only by an act of the will
with the willingness to surrender the nursing of hatred and revenge. One might ask how such a saintly transformation could even be  possible,
given the horrific circumstance s on both sides, including imprisonment in
POW camps, starvation, perso nal torture, gross cruelty , and carnage. In
actuality , and psychologically , it really could not be done by the ego/mind at
all because it lac ks the necessary power when it is caught up in the ener gy
field o f Guilt/Hate, which calibrates at only 30. Therefore, the
transformative source of power cannot originate from the mind or the
personality called the personal  “I.” The necessary power resides in the
nonlinear quality of consciousne ss termed the “W ill,” which alone can open
the gates to the power necessary to dissolve the ego’ s positionality . THE ROLE OF GRACE
By invitation , the  Ho ly Spirit  transforms comprehension by virtue of the
presence of the h ealing power of Grace. What the ego cannot lift with all its
might is  like a feather to the Gra ce of God. As a consequence of the process
of transformatio n, not only is our view of others transformed from hateful
to benign but the view of ourselves is also transformed. As noted earlier ,this is what happens to those in patterns of addiction who totally surrender
their lives to a power greater than themselves. Such sudden transformations confirm the truth of the Zen teaching
“Heaven and hell are only one -tenth of an inch apart.” W e can be at the
bottom of the Map, in extreme, timeless agony , and upon the en treaty of the
Spiritual W ill, If th er e is a God, I ask H im for help , a shocking
transformation occurs in which the Infinite Glory of God shine s forth from
all existence. For some people, i t is only in the very pits of hell a nd absolute
despair that the ego can be surrendered, even right up to the point of
imminent physical death. The Gra ce of God awaits those who sincerely ask. Divinity does not
force anyone to evolve. Everyone is accountable to the universe and is
subject t o Divine Justice by the very dynamics of the universe i tself. Like a
cork in the sea, each soul floats to the level of its own buoyancy , which is
not due to some arbitrary act by the sea. There is no hand on the tiller but
one’ s ow n, which is the total freedom accorded to life by God. N o one falls
but by their own hand. Even the supposed “accidental” occurrence is
merely a perception. There are no accidents in the universe, nor are they
even a possibilit y . “Accident” simply means that something is un predictable
or incom prehensible to the linear ego and its limitation to the Newtonian
paradigm of cause and ef fect, which calibrates at 450. People congreg ate in groups because they are aligned with the same
attractor field. “Birds of a feather flock together” is the common expression. Each one, individually , is following a powerful magnetlike field that in turn
is subject to the next-higher attractor field, and so on, up to Divinity . Although conflicts may appe ar to be impossible to resolve, their
resolution can actually be surprisingly simple through strict adherence to
the proven tools of spiritual  processing—that is, the willingness to
surrender to God, and to let go of resistances by invoking the p ower of the
Spiritual W ill (cal. 850) in ask ing for Divine assistance. One can request
help fro m the Holy Spirit, along with admission of the truth th at I, myself
[the ego] , am unable to accomplish this step alone . Operationally , this is
actually a request to comprehend and contextualize the situation dif ferently
and thus  dissolv e apparent paradoxes. The “conflict” or “barrier” dissolves
as soon as we see it from a more expanded view , which is given by Grace as
a revelation and recontextualization.The pers onal wi ll operates only at the level of a person’ s calibra ted level
of co nsciousnes s at a given time in its evolution and is therefor e frequently
too wea k to ef fect a desired change. Past ef forts to change via the ego’ s
mechanisms may result in doubt, a lack of self-confidence, and a refusal to
face the  issues out of defeatism. This is commonly expres sed by the
statement “I tried,” which is ac tually a fact—it is the small self that tried,
which is more often a wish than a decisive action. Good in tentions flounder on the rocks of personal “willpower ,” which is
frequently used as a moral clu b that evokes further guilt and self-blame. T rue, deep surrender to God or a Higher Power cannot actually take place
without surrend ering the illusion of personal “willpower” and replacing it
with a declarative decision . Th e ego resists this surrend er of control,
because it derives pleasure from the payof fs of whatever position ality one is
stuck in. Therefore, the ego creates resistances in the form of fears,
including expectations of disco mfort, loss from change, or fear of failure. These, howeve r , represent spiritual pride, which also needs to be
surrendered. T o t ranscend a b arrier , therefore , it is helpful to declare oneself a servant
of God and to d evote oneself to spiritual work in the name of God, which
puts one ’ s inten tion to evolve i n an infinitely powerful field o f asking for
the Grac e to surrender the attachments, aversions, and ego payof fs that hold
each level in place. THE EXPERIENCER: LEADING EDGE OF THE EGO
People a sk, “Wh y can’ t I get beyond this? I feel stuck.” The stuckness is
because each of the levels has a  payof f related to ingrained attit udes, which
arise out of our animal nature. If there were no payof f, no one would stay
there. T o evolve, you only need to know one thing: what holds you back is
the “juic e,” payof f, and satisfaction you get from being where you are. As is
commonly said, “Let’ s ‘juice’ it for all we can.” If you are willing to let go
of the payof fs that the ego gets by being where it is, the barrier dissolves. T o transcend any ego positio nality , the place to start is with the
“experiencer ,” w hich is the leading edge of the ego. It is like an information
probe, always seeking an exp erience, always searching for the payof f,
always l ooking f or a gain. For life to survive, the experiencer of  the ego hadto constantly obtain data, such as edible / not edible  and friend / foe . Instead of
worrying about the entire structure of the ego, we focus on its leading edge,
which is the experiencer . The exp eriencer is the processer that constantly determines what’ s good,
what’ s p oisonous, who’ s the enemy , who’ s the friend—and very quickly . In
one ten-thousandth of a second, it processes enormous banks of
information. No combination of computers could possibly do it. It is just far
too co mplex, because it includes value, meaning, s ignificance,
prioritization. A computer cann ot do that, because it does not value one
thing hig her than  another . A computer does not think more highly of this bit
of in formation than it does of that information, but your ego ’ s processor
does. The experiencer is one ten-thousandth of a second removed from reality . Therefore, the ego never experiences what is ; it experiences its experience
of what is. By a nalogy , it is not experiencing that which is bein g recorded;
it is exp eriencing the playback from the recorder . The ego is e xperiencing
what wa s just recorded one ten-thousandth of a second ago. This may not
seem lik e much,  except that the quality changes completely . This side of the
one ten-thousandth of a second, the trees look like trees, and the flowers
look like  flowers. On the other side of that one ten-thousandth of a second,
they radiate out Divinity! Enlig htenment is to bypass the expe riencer . The
experiencer just suddenly goes o ut. It does not get weaker and weaker; it is
simply and suddenly extinguished, and then the mind goes silent in awe. Ultimately , wha t human beings are addicted to is experiencing. That is
why we keep ch anging the channel, turning on the music, play ing games,
and eati ng a bite of this and th at. Why are we hooked on experiencing? Because out of evolution, it w as through experiencing that the animal
survived. Exper iencing keeps the ego alive, because it has no i nner source
of sp iritual ener gy . It only has animal ener gy . Consequently , out of every
experience, it has to extract the “juice” that is the source of animal
existence. For example, the ego gets “juice” by deriving gle e from the
suf fering of others, being right, and winning: “Boy , did he ever get it, that
****, and he deserved it!”
The exp eriencer gets of f on na rcissistic satisfaction. It tries to disguise
the juice as “justified resentment,” do-gooderism, free speech, righteous
victimhood, and the like. But if we do a fearless and self-honest inventory
of ourse lves, we  will see that any negativity that bothers us is because weget a payof f to it . Y ou may say , “Nobody would want to feel self-pity .” But,
in fact, many p eople relish martyrdom, being wronged, and being made
uncomfortable. T his will not be news to therapists, psychiatrists, and social
workers who listen to the victim  accounts day in and day out. Should the
whole w orld change because someone feels uncomfortable the way it is? The eg omania and narcissis m of it is obvious. “It makes me
uncomfortable.” Narcissistic individuals seek to change the world instead of
changing thems elves. If the na me of God over a courthouse gives you a
sleepless night, do we have to c hange the historical architecture  just so you
can slee p better? The key to transcending levels of conscious ness is that
you are willing to change you rself rather than needing to c hange other
people o r change society . Once you change yourself, then you experience
others dif ferently . The only  thing you need to know about any barrier is what the ego payof f
is. What  is the juice that the exp eriencer is getting out of that positionality ,
that negativity , that “stuck” place? DUALITIES OF THE EGO: A TTRACTIONS AND
A VERSIONS
T ranscending the Levels of Consciousness: Stairway to Enlig htenment
goes into depth about each level and how to transcend it by surrendering its
particular dualit ies. Here we cover the generalities of the ego’ s attractions
and aver sions so  that the reader can begin to intuit how the process takes
place in the psy che. The pairs of attractions and aversions out lined below
are applicable to all the ego’ s programs and to all the levels of
consciousness. Attraction A version
Familiarity , security Change, uncertainty
Clinging Fear of new
Ease Ef fortThe attra ction o f the experiencer is always to that which is fam iliar . The
first thin g we do when we come into a crowd is look around for a familiar
face. The aversion is to uncertainty . W e worry , What if I go ther e and I don’ t
see anyb ody I know? T herefo re, we cling to that which is known and are
fearful of the fu ture. The past is certainty and the future is unce rtainty , and
the ego likes to be certain, so it clings to what it knows. W e would rather be
comfy e ven if we are wrong. Do  you ever try a new way home from work? Pretty so on you are back to the same old way . W e like the fami liar , we like
the habitual, and we do not like change unless we choose it out of the
experiencer ’ s attraction to novelty (see below). The ego wants to hang on to its illusion of homeostasis rather than to
make a shift and feel temporarily of f balance. Therefore, people  will stay in
negative and even des tructive pathways, relationships, and jobs just because
to change requires some ef fort. The experiencer is attracted to what is easy , and it has an aversion to
ef fort. It is easier just to go along with some old way than to put forth ef fort
for the sake of c hange. So how can you overcome this aversion to putting in
the ef fort to make a positive change? By seeing that not mu ch ef fort is
actually required, because atte ntion alone begins to diminish a habit
automatically . Let’ s say , for example, you wan t to reduce the number of cookies you eat
every day because you have been overeating cookies for 20 years. Y ou say ,
“I’m going to quit cookies someday .” Y ou are lying to yourself. Y ou have
been eating 50-plus cookies a d ay for 20 years, so how are you suddenly
going to stop ea ting cookies? An exertion of willpower does nothing but
bring on guilt and feelings of failure. The secret is not in your ef fort but in
your attention. Merely start counting the cookies you eat every day , but do
not try to do  anything about it. Lay out the cookies and, at the end of the
day , count how many cookies you ate. “Monday , 68 cookies. T uesday , 64. Thursday , 72.” Now , the point is  not to try to do  anything about the cookies. Just pay attention. All you hav e to do is make a mental note and write it
down on a calen dar: “Monday , 63 cookies. T uesday , 18 cookie s. Oh, wow . W ednesday , back to usual, 58 cookies.”
What wi ll happen is that, by virtue of intention, ef fortlessly Hei senber g’ s
principle begins to apply , meaning that the observation of something
changes it. Thus your awareness itself begins to diminish the attraction to
cookies. By the end of the mont h, you will be down to 14 cooki es. The endof a nother month or two, you will be down to 6 cookies. All of a sudden
you will  say , “What th e heck, I don’ t need cookies.” It was all ef fortless! It
is not necessary to struggle or cut yourself down or manipulate yourself
with guilt. If y ou simply notice it, ef fortlessly , Heisenber g’ s principle
applies so that, by your intention , you finesse the power of the field instead
of relying on the ego’ s force. Change and letting go of the fam iliar is easy , but you avoid it because it
seems like ef fort to the ego. It only seems like ef fort if you go a t it the hard
way of forcing yourself, trying  to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Anything you do not like about yourself—getting annoyed with people,
swearing, or what have you—can be transcended by noting down how
many times a da y you do it. Y ou just start paying attention and  tracking it. Anyone can notice; it requires no exertion, only attention. Attraction A version
Pride Humility
Anger/“strength” Passivity/“weakness”
W in Lose
The attr action of pride is that you are better than others, top dog, and
invincible. Humility is seen as a  loss of position, so you cannot ever “back
down” o r you lose ground. W e have pride in all our positionalities, and the
aversion is humility , which is co nfused with humiliation. The truly humble
person cannot be humiliated. The humble and honest person owns their
downside already , so they cannot be hurt, insulted, or slighted. They do not
feel violated just because someone else disagrees with them. If your feelings get hurt easily , sit down and make a list of all the
downsides of yourself you can think of, and then picture the great
comedians of all time discussing your problem. The comedians are the great
therapists of humanity , because they get us to laugh at ourselv es. Where I
grew up  in W isconsin, we men called each other by our nickn ames. They
called m e Short y in the Navy , but nowadays a sensitive person  would say
this nick name violates their rights due to discrimination based on height! “Don’ t take yourself so seriously” is one of the great mottoes in 12-step
groups, which is about being lighthearted and easygoing.W e see the ego ’ s confusing of anger with strength and passivity with
weakness. Anger gives you an artificial char ge, like you are stronger than
you really are. A ctually , the angry person is much weaker , as is well known
in karate and various martial art s. Once the opponent gets mad, he locks up
with anger and you know you can take him easily with a single move. The anim al swel ls up with anger  to intimidate others, because fe ar is seen
as p assive or weak. In certain cultures, being seen as passive o r weak will
get you killed. In certain neighborhoods, allowing yourself to be dissed is
the last thing you remember . Therefore, the reality above 200 is totally dif ferent than the reality below
200. It is naïveté to presume that other people are the way you a re. They are
not; in fact, they are the opposite. Y ou think it is a good idea to pay your
bills, wh ereas th ey think you are an idiot for doing it. Y ou think telling the
truth or making an apology is integrous, and they think it is st upid. Under
200, it is important to return anger with anger , get revenge, and win. In a
dualistic world, one person wins and the other one lose s (“and it better not
be me”). It is a “win-lose” mentality , with no consciousness of “win-win.”
Over 200, a dif ferent view opens up. Y ou see that the ego’ s loss is usually
the spiri t’ s gain, and vice versa. Karmically , a loss may be the biggest gain
of y our life, be cause the world is actually the optimum place for the
undoing of negative karma and the gaining of positive karma. Therefore,
wanting to change the world does not make much sense. All the do-
gooderism may  sentence people to a continuation of bad ka rma. What
seems to be a loss or a tragedy is actually a tremendous gain in that it opens
the door to grace and ultimate freedom. Attraction A version
Importance A “nobody”
Gain Lose
Money Poverty
Excitement Boredom
The ego  wants to be important and dreads being a nobody . The e go has to
be notic ed and glamorizes being in the public eye. On a highe r level, youare r elieved to be a nobody , grateful to be ordinary and saved from all the
fanfare. The clutchingness of the ego is that it wants control. The minute the ego
thinks a thing is “mine,” it becomes inflated with specialness. That was just
“a” watch, but n ow if it becomes “my” watch, it is special and sentimental
as “o ld G randdad’ s watch.” The  minute you add “mine,” it becomes an ego
inflation and you are stuck. Th e truth is that nothing belongs to you. All
things b elong to  God. Y ou only  have temporary custody as the  steward of
those things, including the body . It is “the” body and it is “the” mind, and
when you stop referring to them as “my ,” they lose their attractive ego
investment. “Surely ,” you say , “the thoughts  in my head are mine!” Actually , they are
not. T o be hypnotized by the m ind is to think that its thoughts are “my”
thoughts. In reality , the thoughts emanate from the field of consciousness
impersonally . Each level of consciousness has its own prevailing thought
field. The minute you connect with a certain level of consciousness, you are
connected to an attractor field. That attractor field has had the same
thoughts for thousands of years. There is nothing novel about the content of
your thoughts. I wa nt to be first in line —you think you invented that
thought? W ith sel f-importance, the ego is designed to want gain, and it ha s a lot of
thoughts about monetary gain and how that will finally bring happiness. Interestingly , our research has found that happiness is correlated with level
of consciousness, not with wealth or health. A person can be delighted with
nothing. In fact, on a certain lev el, the less, the better! Y ou can live with a
cot, a blanket you got from the thrift store, a box with a candle on it, an
apple, a piece of cheese, and a six-pack of Pepsi. And to a dd to your
heavenly abode,  you have a cat. Do you need anything to read? No. Do you
need television? No. Do you need to keep up with the news? No. The experiencer  of the ego fears boredom, and it lives of f the ener gy that
it pu lls o ut of excitement. How to transcend the dread of bored om? Simply
allow yourself to be bored and in vestigate why you feel bored an d what that
emotion is. If you want to discover what the experiencer does, allow
yourself, instead of indulging in escapism, to be bored and just contemplate:
What is bor edom, and what is it that I am experiencing? Why do I have an
aversion to it? Th at is a very rapid way to find out exactly what the
experiencer is, what it does, and what it subserves. And then yo u ask, Whatis it that’ s bor ed? What aspect o f myself is it that is bor ed and complaining? What is it complaining of? “Th ere’ s nothing interesting go ing on.” What do
I ge t out of things that ar e inter esting? “ A sense of aliveness and
excitement.” Is that aliveness of the spirit or of the ego? It turns out to be
the little animal in you that wants constant entertainment. It dreads boredom
because boredom feels like death. Attraction A version
Desire Not get
Status A “nobody”
Noticed Ignored
Opinion Ordinariness
Crave Frustrate
Control Accept
Save world Surrender it
The ego thrives on desire. It fea rs it won’ t “get.” It becomes driven and
pushy to  get what it wants. Paradoxically , as described in Letting Go: The
Pathway of Surr ender , this very desiringness repels that which is desired. For exam ple, when we put press ure on other people in order to get what we
want, th ey autom atically resist, because we are trying to pressure them with
our demands or unconscious e xpectations. W e have all experienced this
phenomenon when someone comes to our door wanting to sell us
something. The harder they push, the more we resist. American
entrepreneur Robert Ringer call ed it the “boy/girl theory .” (Boy meets girl. As soon as she realizes he wants her , she becomes hard to get. So  then if
boy decides to withdraw , she now wants him, and he in return acts aloof.) The key  to letting go of desire is the understanding that all attractions are
a pr ojection of that ener gy fiel d called “glamour ,” as described by Alice
Bailey in Glamour , one of the most helpful books ever written. The ego
projects specialness and glamou r onto the object, which imbue  it with that
attraction. T ypic ally , people think that the attraction exists within the object,
such as the cheesebur ger . But obviously the attraction is not in thecheesebur ger itself, because many people would not eat one e ven if they
were very hungry . T o them, ch eesebur gers may even be abhorrent: “It’ s
meat. Meat will kill you. Meat  causes methane gas and global warming. Let’ s all become vegetarians to  cool down the earth!” So the way out of
desire is  to let g o of the project ion of glamour onto whatever i t is that the
experiencer is craving. This aligns with the Buddha’ s teaching t hat the first
step is to stop being ruled by the ego’ s attachment to sensory pleasures. The experiencer  looks for status and fears being a nobody . It w ants to be
noticed and is afraid of being ignored. It wants to express its opi nions about
everything and dreads just being ordinary . Free speech is today’ s  ego circus. One day  a good friend said, “I  just made the most amazing discovery . I
don’ t ha ve to have an opinion on everything. I don’ t feel called upon to
express my free speech, take a stand, and get out there with a placard. I’ve
never experienced such freedom.”
This is to realize the value of just being ordinary and not giv ing your
opinion on everything. Being ordinary saves your life. When th e gunman is
looking for someone to shoot, it pays to ble nd in. “Hey! Y ou with the pink
mustache and the red hair standing over there!” Bang! The ego despises
being ordinary , but do you kno w anybody ordinary who was assassinated
lately? The way to survive is to be ordinary and peaceable. If you are
aggressive, you invite aggress ion. When you see the safety of being
ordinary , you can let go of the ego’ s craving to “be somebody .”
The ego wants to be noticed, h ave an opinion, crave things, a nd be in
control. It wants to control others and control the world, instead of looking
within. I t wants to change the world instead of changing itself. If we do not
like the world the way it is, we do the world a favor by looking within and
changing oursel ves. All the wondrous do-gooders, the great monarchs, are
dead. Their dynasties sought to establish the greatest nation on Earth, and
now they are all dead. If the word God  ove r the court house makes us
uncomfortable, then we have to ask, Why is that? One of the bigge st surrenders is letting go of our desire to control things. The prob lem wi th the world is not that it is the way it is but rat her our own
blindness and lack of vision. If w e open our vision, we see that the world is
evolving accord ing to a design not of our own making. W e roma nticize how
it co uld or should be, and we cr iticize those who disagree with u s. The way
out of this critic ism is in this very simple statement: “Just because you like
vanilla d oesn’ t m ean you have t o hate chocolate. And just becau se you lovechocolate doesn’ t mean you have to hate vanilla.” W e can enjoy our own
preferences without having to vilify the preferences of others. Then we
accept th at cons ciousness is evolving in a certain way , and trying to control
things presumes  one knows better than Go d. Good  wisdom is to surrender
the world to God (cal. 535). The spiritual ego wants to save the world. What is it going to be saved
from? A ll the great teachers hav e said the same thing: the only problem that
exists in  the world is ignorance . So, if you want to do someth ing for the
world, th e best you can do is try to overcome ignorance through education,
starting with yourself and the fact that the world you see do es not even
exist. The ego’ s ignorance is its egocentric presumption that the world it
sees is the way the world really is. The ego sees injustice, but it is from its
dualistic positio n that it does so. From another position, the same thing is
perfect justice. Attraction A version
Novelty Boring sameness
Thrill Miss out
Aggression Passivity
Gossip: “In” “Out”
Fashionable Drab
The ego  likes novelty; hates bor edom and routine; is afraid to miss out on
something; and gets addicted to  thrills, risk, and danger . The sound of the
motorcycle racing— vr oom-vr oom —says, “C’mon, boys, get into the
excitement, get into the risk, get into the danger!” People go to mind-
boggling extrem es, like the Fren chman who has a compulsion to climb the
tallest buildings in major cities around the world. He is like a human fly . He
climbs u p the side of tall marb le buildings, and the police ke ep bringing
him down and a rresting him. But as soon as he is released, h e is back to
doing it again. This is addiction to the thrill. The attraction of the ego is to be aggressive, and the aversion  is to be
passive. It wants to be “in” and  gossip about “others” so as not to be “left
out.” It will go along with dan ger just to be in with the group. The egowants to  be involved instead of a lone, and to be fashionable instead of drab. It wants to be a part of the “in” crowd no matter what. Attraction A version
Be “right” Be wrong
Superior Common
Speaking up Silence
Stubbornness Giving in
Famous Anonymous
And, of course, it is very necessary for the ego to be right! In fact, being
right is more important than life itself. People lay down their lives by the
tens of millions—entire generations, entire societies, entire cultures, and
entire nations— rather than admitting they were wrong. The e go is out to
kill you! “Better to be right and die than wrong and live,” it sa ys. Now we
see who the real perpetrator is. It is not “out there” but “in here.”
By being right, the ego gets t o be superior , because it drea ds being
common. If you can let go of the dread of being common, of being
overlooked, of not being special , then you let go of a lot of positionalities in
one fell swoop. If you emb race being anonymous, ordin ary , and a
“nobody ,” you save yourself a lot of hassle. The exp eriencer of the ego wan ts to speak up, shout out, and be heard,
instead of being quiet. This kind of egocentrism is the decline of free
speech i n the United States, as most of the speech is nonintegr ous because
of narcissistic opinionation. If you calibrate the level of free speech as a
concept, it is aro und 340. If you calibrate it as it is practiced in the United
States right now , it is about 187. People talk about free speech as though it
were the  highest prize of civili zation, but is it really the highest prize of
civilization that any person can go on television or to bloggerville and just
rattle aw ay? Should we die for that? Being silent is anathema to the ego,
which is stubborn, opinionated, and desirous of being famous. W e have an inversion of spiritual values in our society , in which freedom
of sp eech has become worshipped as the ideal pinnacle of humankind, but
in fact it is disgu ised egotism. Why? Because it gives equal voic e to fallacy .As was previou sly pointed out, the media say “Fair and balanced,” which
means th en you need to have a member of the flat-Earth societ y come and
give the  “other side” to the statement that the earth is round. Th e absurdity
is exposed instantly if we apply  the same principle to other arenas. When it
is tim e f or brain  sur gery , does t he neurosur geon poll the people around for
their op inion? “ Y ou think I sho uld clamp the left cerebral ar tery? All in
favor?”
The dow nside of our society is that we are saying we can vote o n truth. If
this fallacy is not corrected, it will be the destruction of our civilization,
much as Socrates predicted ar ound 350 B.C. He  said if you give every
person a n equal vote to deter mine truth, the nonintegrous will destroy
society . As an example, W ikipedia calibrates at 280, a marked departure
from Encyclopædia Britannica  at 460, indicating it has a higher standard of
truth. For the historical record, we are saying here that the downside of this
civilization came about when an action was legally defined as symbolic
speech. If action is symbolic speech  in a free country , you can say anything
you want and there is no constraint at all. Anything can b e taken as
symbolic speech —public burnin g of the flag, rituals of the Ku  Klux Klan,
pedophilia. Symbolic action now is free of all restraints. There is no
answerability , no responsibility , and the result is anarchy: “I’m  entitled to
do w hat I want because it’ s symbolic free speech.” There is no point to
truth, then, because fallacy is of equal merit. How can  we have serenity with  such a prospect? W e accept that this is
the karmic potentiality of huma nkind. W e are not here to question God’ s
purpose in creating human life in this world. The dif ficulties of this world
appear to be t he consequence of all dif ferent levels of e volutionary
development being thrown together simultaneously , which results in social
turbulence. At the same time, however , the availability of such a wide
spectrum of options allows for t he greatest opportunity for growth. Instead
of resen tful, we can be grateful that this world is one of maxim um spiritual
opportunity for the evolution of consciousness. Attraction A version
Resist Accept, surrender
Defend Give inSuccess Failure
Special Common
More Less
“Owning” Stewardship
Attractive Plain
Unique Ordinary
Change world Change self
The ego’ s attraction is to defend its position rather than to give in,
because to give in is giving up being right, an d the ego equates success with
being rig ht and getting what it w ants. Whatever the ego decides it wants—
more money , more sex, more attention—that is “success” to it. It wants
more and is afraid of having less. The way out of this is to see how
wonderful it would be to have less. It is a relief to have fewer possessions
and ther efore fewer insurance payments and no alarm systems to protect
“valuables.” W e  actually never own anything; all we have is  temporary
stewardship. This also applies to the dif fere nce between infatuation (cal. 145) and
Love (cal. 500). When infatua ted, you “have” to have and possess the
person because of the intense attractiveness, specialness, and uniqueness
that you have projected onto them in the excitement of anticipated
“conquest.” Y o ur life is temp orarily disrupted by the drivenness and
cravingness, leading to sleeplessness and obsessiveness. Y ou get frantically
jealous, even homicidal, if anyo ne flirts with your desired obje ct. There is
despondency , even suicide, i f they are not interested in you. The
emotionality of infatuation releases adrenaline and sex hormones, which
reveals t hat its origin is primarily the mating instinct from animal nature. Its
franticness is a reflection of na ture’ s way of propagating the s pecies, and
very ofte n, after  a temporary ma ting, a couple parts, although some species,
such as swans, m ate for life. So ciety recognizes infatuation as a temporary
madness (“madly in love”), with its loss of reality testing. In contr ast, the consciousness level of Love is accompanied by the
release of endorphins. It is nonpossessive, endures through change and
dif ficulty , and enhances your life rather than disrupts it. Gratitude,steadfastness, up liftment, enjoym ent, well-being, mutuality , and  fulfillment
are characteristi c of bonding an d partnership in the ener gy field of Love. There is  the consensual alignme nt of Self, as the love mates share a mutual
intention of serving the relations hip rather than the wantingness or cravings
of their own personal egos. Attraction A version
W arped facts T ruth
Condemn For give
Being responsible Guilt/blame
Hold Let go
Dominate Succumb
Content Field/context
Abundance Frugality
Martyr Accept
V ictim Responsibility
Revenge For giveness
Hate Compassion
Blame Accept/for give
The ego  likes to warp facts and  it dislikes the truth, as seen ev ery night
on telev ision. The interviewer  asks a question, and the person never
answers, only sidesteps it to giv e an opinion on some alternative soapbox
subject. When we test it with consciousness calibration, we get that the
people are lying through their teeth most of the time. Condemning oth ers is much more enjoyable to the ego than for giving. The pop ulace has a dread, alm ost an emotional panic, that some guilty
person w ill “get  of f scot-free.” But this is only in the perceptual world, for
no one escapes t he karma of wh at they say or do; therefore, we can for give
and surrender them to their own karma.How can we for give blatant violations of the truth? By seeing that the
ego, una bated, i s addicted to be ing right, to  winning , and it does not have
any cho ice but to manipulate the truth. As Socrates said, each person is
choosing only what they believe to be the good in that mome nt, and the
good in that context is to win. Therefore, we for give the politicians for lying
through their teeth, even with their hand on a Bible. T o warp the facts is
what po litics is all about, and it is wise to be realistic about that instead of
believing everything you hear just because it is in the news or on a
television broadcast. According to consciousness calibration, 50 percent of
material found on the Internet is fallacious. The ego  wants abundance and dislikes frugality . If it cannot win, then it
can still juice the situation by being the martyr and the loser . Bes t of all, and
at the top of the popularity list, is to be the victim. Y ou get to b e the victim
instead o f being  responsible. “Who’ s to blame?” This is the first thing an
announcer says about some catastrophic event. The Brooklyn  Bridge fell
down, a nd now they ask, “Who’ s to blame?” The vindictivenes s of the ego
instantly looks for the perpetrator so it can point a finger , take revenge,
punish, and hate. Blame is the ego’ s favorite game. It loves to blame
somebody because now it can guiltlessly hate them, seek revenge, and
electrocute them even though it has never been demonstrated that capital
punishment prevents crime. Attraction A version
Conflict Peace
Past Present
Fear Accepting mortality
Excuse Be accountable
Deny Admit
Become impatient W ait
Conflict is what the ego likes, and it dislikes peace. The ex periencer
thrives o n conflict. If there is a moment of peace, people wil l say or do
something to stir up the drama a gain. Entire regions are addicted to conflict. In the Middle East, if there is a periodic peace, rabble-rous ers quicklymanage to have a riot to end the  peace. Why? Because peace w ould be the
end of the reaso n for their existence. On the other hand, we have groups
like Doc tors W i thout Borders (cal. 500) that do not take sides. If someone
comes in injured, you repair his  leg, and it does not matter wh ich side he
has fought for . The ego  loves to cling to the p ast, and it avoids the present. It actually
clings to fear , because it sees fear as the basis of its survival. It does not see
that mere planning for the futur e is suf ficient, or that caution is all that is
necessary to handle most situations, like crossing the street safely . Why
stand on the curb shaking with fear? The ego  looks to excuse itself of responsibility , and it hates being
accountable. Therefore, it like s to deny things rather than admit its
mistakes. It is impatient and hates to wait. It wants what it wants now . W ith se lf-honesty , we become aware of each of these attractions and
aversions operating in daily  life. T ranscending barrier s happens
automatically if we are willing to let go of the payof fs we are getting out of
being where we are. FROM SHAME T O PRIDE
In addit ion to the general attractions and aversions that keep  the ego
alive, th ere are  those specific to each level that hold it in place. T ranscending a level is automatic when  the attraction i s relinquished and
the aversion surrendered to. ◆  Shame  is  a con sequence of the negati on of the realities of both self
and Self. The attraction is to punish yourself, judge yourself, mortify
yourself, be negative, stay depressed, be severe and inflexible, hide, and
hang yo ur head. The aversion is  to for giving yourself, being you rself just as
you are , af firming the gift of  your life, choosing self-worth, honoring
yourself, taking care of your body , and embracing your innate lovability . ◆  Guilt  and Hate  s tem from the secret pleasure the ego derives from
negativity . Lettin g go of guilt and hatred benefits all levels of life, as these
ego posi tions are corrosive to self and others. The attraction is t o blaming a
perpetrator (self or others or society), the melodramatic indulgence ofpenance (“sackcloth and ashes”) , and the strange pride of “Look how sinful
I am !”—all of w hich keep you s tuck in guilt and self-hatred. Pe nance tends
to be episodic; spiritual growth is permanent. The aversion is to mercy and
compassion for self or others, receiving the mercy of God, giving up being
“right,” and the willingness to take responsibility and make a change. ◆  Apathy  is classically counterbalanced by “faith, hope, and charity .”
The benefit of helping others is well demonstrated throughout society ,
whether it comes about through choice, inspiration, or even coercion (court-
ordered community service). The attraction is self-pity , hopelessness, and
helplessness. “S loth” is a “cardinal sin” in Christianity because it negates
the divin e gift of your life. The ego payof f is to see yourself a s not worth
the ef fort, to be passive rather than active, to reject help, and to say , “I can’ t.
I’m inca pable.” The aversion is to take action, ask for help, show  interest in
life, join and not isolate. Often ju st caring  for animals can serve as a very good start. W e see this
in the seeing-ey e-dog training programs that have been very successful in
populations of chronic recidivist prison inmates, some of w hom even
choose to stay on after their dischar ge date to complete their work with their
assigned dogs. Apathetic geriatric patients perk up if the nursing home
provides pet dogs. Current resea rch indicates that the mere own ing of a pet
decreases the levels of depression and hypertension and has a positive ef fect
on h ealth overall. Therefore, caring for other living beings is therapeutic, as
is exhibited by hopeless alcoholics when they begin to help newcomers, and
by dejec ted athletes who recover from a defeatist attitude by the sheer act of
encouraging other team members. ◆  Grief  c lings to the past and refuses to enjoy present-day life. The
attraction is the payof f of livi ng in the past, getting sympathy , juicing
losses, holding on to resentment over losses, feeling empty and sad. The
aversion is to se eing happiness as internal rather than external; getting over
the losse s and accepting them by working through the feelings; and seeing
the o verall perfection of human life itself, which includes impermanence,
change, and physical death as inevitable. ◆  Fear  i s the indulgence of hysteria; d ramatizing and emotionalizing in
the f ace of real danger; and hyper -anxiety about everyday occurrences suchas a routine den tist appointmen t, meeting new people, and so forth, which
can be paralyzin g and solidify into phobias of all sorts. The attraction is to
the excitement of danger , emotionalizing, catastrophizing, self-victimizing,
and shrinking and hiding in the belief that smallness subserves survival. The ave rsion is to staying cool, praying, surrendering fear and  the need to
control, facing disapproval, and owning that nothing “out there” has power
over you. Caution is dif ferent from fear . Caution is thinking through
something and anticipating without emotionalizing. Since Fear sees life as strictly physical, with the ultimate fear being the
death of the bod y , we use the technique of “Then what?” It wor ks with any
fear . Let’ s take the fear I’m going to los e my car . W ell, then what? W ell,
then I won’ t have transportation. W ell, then what? Then I’ll lose my job. Then what? Ther e ar en’ t any other jobs like that. W ell, then what? I won’ t
have any money . Then what? I’ll be poor . Okay , so you’re poor , and then
what? I’ll starve to death. At the bottom of every stack of fear is death. Thus, the process is “to die before you die,” as stated in ma ny religious
traditions. That is, once you face your certain death, that repressed fear of
death no longer runs you. Nothing scares you anymore. Fear is a big stack,
and at the bottom of that stack is the fear of physical death. Once you’ve
accepted physical death, most of the fears disappear . ◆  Desir e  is the ener gy field that really bothers most people most of the
time because of the attractio n of winning, money , gaining control,
“getting,” approval, success, fame, acquisitions, conquest, and of course
being ri ght. People are willing to die right and left for being right. They
would rather die and be right than be humble and acknowledge a mistake. This is the drivenness of an add iction that will drive you to your grave, not
allowing you to surrender a sub stance that the ego believes is the source of
its e xperience. In recent history ,  millions of people have died chasing some
illusion, rather than admitting it was a mistake. Chairman Mao’ s economic
agricultural pla n resulted in the starvation of millions. The faith in
Chairman Mao (cal. 185) resu lted in one of the greatest famines in all
history . After that, it would seem that Marxism (cal. 130) would be
considered a problematic ideo logy . Instead, it gets adopted and spread
further into the world, and so we see the inability to learn due to the pride of
the ego. This is the ego’ s desire to be right, to control, to win ap proval—all
of w hich is fami liar and part of everyday life. W e have a fear of failure andappearing passive, weak, ordinary , and boring. The attractio n is instant
gratification, to  be special and  to be noticed at all times. W e see the
extremes to which people go to be noticed; they will say anything, no
matter h ow outr ageous, as long as they get to be on camera. The aversion is
to waiting, to being “nobody .”
◆  Anger  is obvious as a defense, as seen in the animal world. The
attraction is to feeling expanded and stronger than you real ly are. The
animal i n you is afraid to appea r weak, so it growls and shows i ts teeth and
tries to win by intimidation. Th e aversion is to being calm, being at peace,
giving in , and surrendering. It does not want to see the “bad guy” go free. It
wants to get even and scof fs at the Buddha’ s teaching that no one has to
worry about getting even with one’ s enemies, because they will bring
themselves dow n by their own  hand. W ith co nsciousness calibration, we
af firm the truth of that teaching over and over . ◆  Pride  as spiritual pride is dif ferent from self-esteem, which is earned
and ther efore no t an ego inflation. Pride is a projection that gets you status,
gets you  noticed , and allows you to be superior . It is the vanity of thought,
mentation, conc epts, beliefs, ideologies, and opinions. The attraction is “I
know ,” t o be superior , special, chosen, and an insider among the elite. The
moral high ground is moral superiority and calibrates at 190, whether
arising f rom “lef t” or “right” bel ief systems. If you are “politically correct,”
then you  get to b e above the common people who are “incorrect .” This kind
of p ride is a paradoxical revers al of egalitarianism (all people have equal
value) because it says, “W e’re better than others because we’re more
egalitarian than anybody else.” T he aversion is to “I don’ t know ,” humility ,
and being ordinary . The biggest aversion is to being “wrong.”
Instead o f pridefully refusing to acknowledge an error , we can accept that
human life is a process of discovery . If what we are witne ssing is the
evolution of consciousness, in which creation is unfolding spontaneously ,
then wh at we view as a mistak e actually represents a success, because it
demonstrates the  outcome of a fallacy that can then be corrected. If millions
of p eople starve to death because of a Marxist belief system, this is the
automatic demonstration of falsity , which serves the purpose of discernment
and the apprehension of truth.That is why we cannot predict  the future. It has not yet been created,
because we all c ontribute throu gh the evolution of consciousness, moment
by moment, as w e say yes to certain options and not to others . W e cannot
possibly predict the future, because it has no reality yet. It is only a
potentiality awaiting actuality b y intention and choice. If we could predict
the futu re, that would confirm that everything is already predestined. If
predestination w ere the rule of the universe, our lives would have no value;
we would be nothing but automatons. FROM COURAGE T O ECST ASY
Level T emptation
Courage Bravado, machismo, risk-taking
Neutrality Indif ference, withdrawal
W illingness Overcommitment,
overinvolvement
Acceptance Failure to take appropriate action
Reason Intellectualism, stuck in cause and
ef fect
Love Seduction, exploitation,
misidentified as personal
Joy/Ecstasy Poor judgment
◆  Courage  has the motivation, power , and strength to overcome
resistances, face challenges, and work through them with fortitude and
determination. Experientially , the most common challenge to courage is
anxiety , self-dou bt, and the fear  of failure. Fear of failure is dim inished by
realizing that you are responsib le for the intention and ef fort but not the
result, which is dependent on m any other conditions and factors that are
nonpersonal. The temptations a re resorting to bravado in the face of fear ,
and mac ho risk-taking out of th e newly acquired empowerment and self-
confidence.◆  Neutrality  all ows for flexibility and a nonjudgmental, realistic
appraisal of problems. T o be ne utral means to be relatively un attached to
outcomes. The temptation is to be indif ferent and to resist being an active
and friendly contributor to the life around you; friendliness contains warmth
and connectedness and opens the door to love. ◆  W illingness  is  cheerful, hel pful, and voluntary in its enthusiasm to
fulfill th e needs  of others in ways that are benevolent, mutually  beneficial,
and kind, in ac cordance with the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you
would have others do unto you.” The limitation of this level is crediting
your ow n ef forts and personality , whereas in reality , your growth and
success are due to the radiance o f the Self. The temptation, then , is to over -
commit yourself  to many involvements to help others because you believe
that your personal self is the source of improvements. ◆  Acceptance  li ves harmoniously with the f orces of life and allows
engagement in life on life’ s own terms, without trying to make it conform to
an agen da. This ener gy is harm less, because it does not judge, control,
change, or dominate others, and it is not out to “save the world” or
condemn its multitudinous exp ressions. The temptation is to fail to take
appropriate action when a situation calls for it—for example, nonintegrity
in th e w orkplace or other areas o f life that require discernment a nd standing
up for truth. ◆  Reason  is the level of  science; medicine; theology; and generally
increased capacity for rationality , conceptualization, and comprehension. Thus, knowledge and education are highly valued. At this level, it is easy to
lose sight of the forest for the trees; to become infatuated with concepts,
ideas, knowledg e, and theories; and to end up missing the essential point. The temptation is to identify one self as mind, and intellectualizing becomes
an end in itself. T o know “about” a thing is not the same as to “be” it. ◆  Love  does not procee d from the mind; it emanates from the heart. As  a
for giving, nurtu ring, and supportive way of being in the w orld, Love
expands the sense of self and radiates an uplifting ef fect on others. The
temptation is to see the ener gy o f Love as coming from oneself  rather than
Divinity and, through this perso nalization, take credit for the ef fect of theener gy field. The danger is to be unconsciously seduced by the praise and
projections of others. ◆  Joy/Ecstasy  a re states in th e mid- to high 500s, in which the innate
perfection and stunning beauty o f all that exists shine forth like a luminous
radiance. Subjec tively , the flow of the spiritual ener gy is felt as an exquisite
sweetness throu ghout the body , and the ener gy has the capacity to facilitate
miraculous heali ng in others if karmically appropriate. Because  everyone is
seen in their in nermost innate perfection and lovability , the downside is
poor jud gment in seeing only the best in people and their propo sals; thus, it
is helpful to have a trusted companion to be watchful as a gatekeeper . THE P A THW A Y OF SURRENDER
Ultimately , transcending the levels of consciousness happens by letting
go. Inste ad of trying to force change in yourself, it is merely n ecessary to
allow Divinity to do so by deeply surrendering all control, resistance, and
illusions of gain or loss. It is not necessary to destroy or attack illusions but
merely to allow them to fall away as the “payof fs” are surrendered. It is not
necessary or fruitful to use force by mechanisms such as guilt, nor is it
necessary to try to pursue o r propel spiritual evolution, because it
automatically evolves of its own accord when the obstacles and resistance
of illusions are surrendered. The power of T ruth itself is a q uality of Divine Love that, in its infinite
mercy , dissolves positionalities back into the Reality of the  Self. It is
necessary to accept that timing is up to the Self, not the self, b ecause only
the Self is capa ble of incorporating unknown karmic qualitie s. Thus we
surrender our opinions of how the world “should” be. Jesus, the Buddha,
and every great master have said that the world is perfect as it is—for the
rich diversity of choices, from  the sadistic to the angelic, provides the
maximal opportunity for the spiritual evolution of all. The infi nite, nonlinear field of c onsciousness is not only omnipresent and
omniscient but also omnipotent. The spirit is uplifted as a consequence of
the q uality of that which it has become by the consent of its ow n free will. Compassion for  the self is an attribute of the Self. Thus, the last greatresistance to be surrendered is the resistance to the ever -prese nt Love of
God.CHAPTER EIGHT
S P I R I T U A L  T R U T H ,  T E A C H E R S ,
A N D  T E A C H I N G S
Surrender is much more likely when the integrity of a teaching o r teacher
has been verified. Consciousness calibration distills and verifies spiritual
truth in its esse nce and identifies the characteristics of integrous teachers
and teac hings. Whatever you entrust your soul to should be verifiably
trustworthy . The list below serves as a standard of spiritual integrity . 40 CHARACTERISTICS OF INTEGROUS TEACHERS AND
TEACHINGS
1 . Universality:  T ru th is true at all times and places, independent of
culture, personalities, or circumstances. 2 . Nonexclusionary:  T ruth is all-inclusive, nonsecretive, and
nonsectarian. 3 . A vailability:  I t is ope n to all—nonexclusive. There are no secrets to be
revealed, hidden, or sold, and no magical formulas or “mysteries.”
4 . Integrity of purpose:  There is nothing to gain or lose. 5 . Nonsectarian:  T ruth is not the exposition of limitation. 6 . Independent of opinion:  T ruth is nonlinear and not subject to the
limitations of intellect or form.7 . Devoid of positionality:  T ruth is not “anti” anything. Falsehood and
ignorance are not its enemies but merely represent its absence. 8 .
_OceanofPDF.com_The_Map_of_Consciousness_Explained_-_David_R_Hawkins.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Th e facts have no t changed, but how we view the situation
has chan ged because our level o f consciousness shifted. The shift occurred
not because of th e words spoken but by being in the presence of the aura of
loving people whose ener gy field carries the higher wisdom. Simply put, we
are e ither positively or negativel y influenced by the company w e keep. It is
unlikely that we will overcom e a problem if we choose to be in the
company of others who have our same problem. Love co mes from  an abundance of ener gy that we can share wi th others. When ou r own inner negativity is addressed, then we have an ab undance of
love, and we c an begin to  share it with others. When our ener gy is tied u p
with negative emotions, there is  not much we can share with others. In fact,
they do not exist for us, becaus e we are totally focused on ourselves. It is
only when we a re full and ove rflowing that we can begin to share with
others. The way to feel good quickly is to get within the aura of somebody
who is loving. Sit close to them, hug them, sleep with them, pu t your arms
around them, be with them. T o be in the aura of a loving being is to be
raised automatically, and we will see everything dif ferently. Eventually, we
become that same channel of helpful grace to others. Gratitude, Grace, and Ser enity
Now it is understandable why s peakers at 12-step meetings say they are
grateful that they are alcoholics  or addicts. T o the newcomer,  this indeed
sounds like madness. Grateful. How could they be grateful for becoming
addicted or an a lcoholic. Becau se that disease and suf fering for ced them to
grow and become conscious. It forced them to become aware an d therefore
grateful for the p rocess. At first, they resented and resisted it, but then they
accepted and agreed with it. They began to love, and to experie nce joy, andfinally a chieved that state called Serenity, which was their prayer at nearly
every meeting:
God, Grant us the Serenity to accept
the things we cannot change,
the Courage to change the things we can,
and the W isdom to know the dif ference. In t heir gratitude, there is an inner knowingness that this w as their
destiny—the wa y of doing it and the way that was chosen—which results in
the awar eness that they never c ould have reached this great understanding
by any other wa y. Some of us just have to experience it this w ay. The ego
has to hit bottom  in order to surrender and find God. For those w ho have hit
bottom and surrendered, great g ratitude comes about, along with a greater
understanding of the nature of consciousness itself. W e have traveled the
entire M ap of Consciousness, from Shame to Peace, and now we can
confirm from our own lived experience: those who surrender to God receive
the gifts of God. P AR T III
A d v a n c i n g  C o n s c i o u s n e s s
In this section,  Dr. Hawkins lays out how consciousness advances
thr ough the Map of Consciousn ess. Fr om his extraor dinary experience as
someone who has journeyed the entir e terrain of this chart, Dr. Hawkins
gives us  princip les to follow, pr actices to work with, and pitfa lls to avoid. Many travelers get lost along the way. W ithout the guidance of a seasoned
mariner who has successfully cr ossed the sea, how would a novice sailor
ever make it. D r. Hawkins has not only given us the Map. He has also, in
Part III, wr itten out the  details of what  to watch out for on each leg of the
journey and how to navigate its particular challenges. He t ells us that, surprisingly, the ego hangs on to what is “familiar” and
r esists c hange, even if it’ s won derful. He ther efor e walks us thr ough the
steps of br eaking fr ee fr om the ego’ s smallness. Compassion for the ego and
its l imitations, he says, is crucial. If we condemn the ego in ourselves or
others, then we r einfor ce it. An ego barrier, even one that you’ve had your entir e life, can be
transcended inst antly if ther e is the spiritual will to let go. Her e is a story
fr om D r. Haw kins’ s book  L etting  Go that illustrates how a single
br eakthr ough can take you thr ough the whole Map. This man had been
stuck in Apathy:  “I can’ t dance,” r eally meaning “I won’ t dance. ” It was a
r efusal e ven to try, because of extr eme self-consciousness. In th is passage,
he uses the technique of “letting go” of Apathy and Fear, and  embracing
surr ender, to open the door to Ecstasy:
Illustrative of this progression is the experience of an intellig ent,
successful middle-aged professional man who all his life had  beenunable t o dance. He wanted to dance in the worst way, and s everal
times during his life had attende d dancing classes. But each tim e, he
found himself to be stif f, awk ward, and self-conscious. By sheer
willpower, he did manage at times to go through the motions on the
dance floor but never enjoyed it and always felt ill at ease. His
movements felt stif f and calculated, and the whole experience was
lacking in satisfaction, doing nothing for his self-esteem. After about a ye ar of working w ith the mechanism of surrender, he
was at a party w ith someone who kept insisting that he get u p and
dance. “Y ou know I can’ t dance,” he said. “Ah, co me on and try it,” she entreated. She persisted: “For get
about your feet. Just watch me and do what my body does. ”
Reluctantly, he agreed, and he kept letting go of his feelings of
resistance and anxiety. On the dance floor he let go completely. In an instant, his in ner
feelings ascend ed the scale from Apathy to Love and, to his
amazement, he suddenly began to dance like he had always dreamed
of and envied. The realization of I c an do it. hit him, and he went
from Lo ve, to Joy, and even to Ecstasy. His delight radiated to
everyone. Friends stopped to watch. From a state of high joy, he
suddenly went into the experience of oneness with his dance partner. He sudd enly saw  his own Self looking out of her eyes and re alized
that ther e was actually only one Self behind all the individual s elves. He and she became telepathically connected. He knew her every step
a sp lit s econd b efore she took i t. They were in perfect harmon y and
danced as though they had practiced and danced together for years. He coul d hardly contain his joy. The dancing became ef fortless and
began to happen of its own, without any conscious thought o n his
part. The longer they danced, the more ener gy he felt. It was a peak e xperience that was to change this man’ s life. He
went home that night and danced some more. Freestyle disco dancing
had alwa ys terrified him more than any other style because there was
no f orm to be memorized. It necessitated spontaneity and a free
feeling, which is just what he had specifically been unable to
experience previously. At home he turned on the disco music and
began to dance for hours. H e watched himself in the m irror,
fascinated by the body’ s surrender and the inner feeling of freedom. All of a sudden,  he remembered a previous lifetime in vivid de tail. He had been a great dancer, and now he began to remember the
specific instruct ions given to him by his teachers in that lifetime. When he followed their instructions, the results were amazing. He
discovered that there was a vertical gravitational center of equili brium
within himself, and he began to rotate about it in perfect balance. The
movement was ef fortless, and he became merely the witness of the
dancing. It was no longer any feeling of “I. ” There was just th e joy
and the dancing itself. Now he instantly understood the very ba sis of
the S ufi dancing of the whirling  dervishes. Their ability to whi rl and
spin without dizziness or fatigue—that certain state of consciousness
—ensued from the surrendering of the individual self. The breakthrough that this man experienced on the dance floor then
transferred itself  to many other previously blocked areas of hi s life. Where there had been limitati on, now there was rapid expa nsion. These c hanges were very obvious to his friends and family, whose
positive feedbac k increased his self-esteem and his desire to  keep
letting go of the  negative feelings and thoughts that had block ed the
experience of joy in life. This exp erience has been cited in some detail for a number of reasons. It
illustrates the Map of Conscious ness. For 50 years, this man had been at the
lowest e nd of the scale in this ar ea of his life, with the accompanying belief,
I can’ t. Th e inhibition decreased his s elf-esteem and resulted in avoidance. For year s, he managed to avoid social af fairs where there would be dancing. He was angry at himself for his inhibition, and he would feel angry when
anyone tried to get him to dance. In a matter of seconds and minutes, he
experienced every emotion of the whole Map and went all the way to the
top. At that point, there was the  emer gence of a higher conscio usness with
sudden spiritual  awareness of a very high order. W ith higher consciousness
came understanding and the release of psychic ability (telepathic
communication, synchronicity, and past-life recall). As a result, his life
showed a behavioral change, and its momentum removed an endless series
of b locks and l imitations. There was a positive social respon se, and the
positive feedback reinforced the growth motivation that was  already in
progress. CHAPTER SEVEN
T R A N S C E N D I N G  T H E  B A R R I E R S
T O  H I G H E R  C O N S C I O U S N E S S
Knowledge “ab out” the Map of Consciousness is one th ing, and
experiential realization quite ano ther. Seekers often feel “stuck” at a barrier
for l ong periods of time, which can bring about spiritual despair; they have
“read ev erything, been everyw here, tried everything” yet wake up every
day to the same inner scene. “My mind is like a sponge: it has absorbed all
the information, but I’m still stuck in the same place. ”
SPIRITUAL WILL
How to break fre e of lifelong pa tterns of fear and enter a high state. How
to transcend seemingly impossible barriers. The chances of becoming enlightened are now 1,000 times greater than
in the past by virtue of the information on the evolution of consciousness,
but information alone is not enough. Rather, it is the Spiritual W ill that is
the m ost critical of all functions  in spiritual work. Relatively little attention
has been  paid to the Spiritual W ill in proportion to its extreme importance,
for it is the invitation to Divine intervention. T o i llumine this necessary step, a strong example can be useful and
supportive. Prob ably the lar gest and most striking example is that of the
veterans of W orld W ar II, in which the experience of groups as well as
individual combatants was horrific to the maximal degree. After the end of
the war,  the majority of forme r enemy combatants very quickly for gave
each oth er, even  formally saluting each other, and celebrated th e end of theconflict. They shook hands in renewed mutual respect. There were the
kamikaze pilots who had strafed one’ s ship, killed one’ s comrades, and left
many w ounded and crippled casualties. On the other side, Americans were
the o nes who dropped the atom ic bombs that killed thousands of civilians. At w ar ’ s end, th ere was a strang e, almost blanketlike acceptance  that it was
all o ver and tha t it had all “just been about war. ” Former comb atants even
became close personal friends and periodically visited each other ’ s families. There was the u nderstanding th at the soldiers on both sides were equally
integrous in that they had done what they thought was required to fulfill
their rol e in society or their obli gation to God, country, family, or whatever
purpose they had fought for. Reluctance to for give is a consequence not only of unwillingness to let go
of the ego “juice ” of perceived injustice but also the illusion that others do
not “deserve” it. In reality, it is the for giver  and not the for given who
benefits the most. The purpose of this example is to demonstrate that even
the most severe conditions can be transcended, but only by an act of the will
with the willingness to surrender the nursing of hatred and revenge. One might ask how such a saintly transformation could even be  possible,
given the horrific circumstance s on both sides, including imprisonment in
POW camps, starvation, perso nal torture, gross cruelty, and carnage. In
actuality, and psychologically, it really could not be done by the ego/mind at
all because it lac ks the necessary power when it is caught up in the ener gy
field o f Guilt/Hate, which calibrates at only 30. Therefore, the
transformative source of power cannot originate from the mind or the
personality called the personal  “I. ” The necessary power resides in the
nonlinear quality of consciousne ss termed the “W ill,” which alone can open
the gates to the power necessary to dissolve the ego’ s positionality. THE ROLE OF GRACE
By invitation, the  Ho ly Spirit  transforms comprehension by virtue of the
presence of the h ealing power of Grace. What the ego cannot lift with all its
might is  like a feather to the Gra ce of God. As a consequence of the process
of transformatio n, not only is our view of others transformed from hateful
to benign but the view of ourselves is also transformed. As noted earlier,this is what happens to those in patterns of addiction who totally surrender
their lives to a power greater than themselves. Such sudden transformations confirm the truth of the Zen teaching
“Heaven and hell are only one -tenth of an inch apart. ” W e can be at the
bottom of the Map, in extreme, timeless agony, and upon the en treaty of the
Spiritual W ill, If th er e is a God, I ask H im for help, a shocking
transformation occurs in which the Infinite Glory of God shine s forth from
all existence. For some people, i t is only in the very pits of hell a nd absolute
despair that the ego can be surrendered, even right up to the point of
imminent physical death. The Gra ce of God awaits those who sincerely ask. Divinity does not
force anyone to evolve. Everyone is accountable to the universe and is
subject t o Divine Justice by the very dynamics of the universe i tself. Like a
cork in the sea, each soul floats to the level of its own buoyancy, which is
not due to some arbitrary act by the sea. There is no hand on the tiller but
one’ s ow n, which is the total freedom accorded to life by God. N o one falls
but by their own hand. Even the supposed “accidental” occurrence is
merely a perception. There are no accidents in the universe, nor are they
even a possibilit y. “Accident” simply means that something is un predictable
or incom prehensible to the linear ego and its limitation to the Newtonian
paradigm of cause and ef fect, which calibrates at 450. People congreg ate in groups because they are aligned with the same
attractor field. “Birds of a feather flock together” is the common expression. Each one, individually, is following a powerful magnetlike field that in turn
is subject to the next-higher attractor field, and so on, up to Divinity. Although conflicts may appe ar to be impossible to resolve, their
resolution can actually be surprisingly simple through strict adherence to
the proven tools of spiritual  processing—that is, the willingness to
surrender to God, and to let go of resistances by invoking the p ower of the
Spiritual W ill (cal. 850) in ask ing for Divine assistance. One can request
help fro m the Holy Spirit, along with admission of the truth th at I, myself
[the ego], am unable to accomplish this step alone. Operationally, this is
actually a request to comprehend and contextualize the situation dif ferently
and thus  dissolv e apparent paradoxes. The “conflict” or “barrier” dissolves
as soon as we see it from a more expanded view, which is given by Grace as
a revelation and recontextualization. The pers onal wi ll operates only at the level of a person’ s calibra ted level
of co nsciousnes s at a given time in its evolution and is therefor e frequently
too wea k to ef fect a desired change. Past ef forts to change via the ego’ s
mechanisms may result in doubt, a lack of self-confidence, and a refusal to
face the  issues out of defeatism. This is commonly expres sed by the
statement “I tried,” which is ac tually a fact—it is the small self that tried,
which is more often a wish than a decisive action. Good in tentions flounder on the rocks of personal “willpower,” which is
frequently used as a moral clu b that evokes further guilt and self-blame. T rue, deep surrender to God or a Higher Power cannot actually take place
without surrend ering the illusion of personal “willpower” and replacing it
with a declarative decision. Th e ego resists this surrend er of control,
because it derives pleasure from the payof fs of whatever position ality one is
stuck in. Therefore, the ego creates resistances in the form of fears,
including expectations of disco mfort, loss from change, or fear of failure. These, howeve r, represent spiritual pride, which also needs to be
surrendered. T o t ranscend a b arrier, therefore, it is helpful to declare oneself a servant
of God and to d evote oneself to spiritual work in the name of God, which
puts one ’ s inten tion to evolve i n an infinitely powerful field o f asking for
the Grac e to surrender the attachments, aversions, and ego payof fs that hold
each level in place. THE EXPERIENCER: LEADING EDGE OF THE EGO
People a sk, “Wh y can’ t I get beyond this. I feel stuck. ” The stuckness is
because each of the levels has a  payof f related to ingrained attit udes, which
arise out of our animal nature. If there were no payof f, no one would stay
there. T o evolve, you only need to know one thing: what holds you back is
the “juic e,” payof f, and satisfaction you get from being where you are. As is
commonly said, “Let’ s ‘juice’ it for all we can. ” If you are willing to let go
of the payof fs that the ego gets by being where it is, the barrier dissolves. T o transcend any ego positio nality, the place to start is with the
“experiencer,” w hich is the leading edge of the ego. It is like an information
probe, always seeking an exp erience, always searching for the payof f,
always l ooking f or a gain. For life to survive, the experiencer of  the ego hadto constantly obtain data, such as edible / not edible  and friend / foe. Instead of
worrying about the entire structure of the ego, we focus on its leading edge,
which is the experiencer. The exp eriencer is the processer that constantly determines what’ s good,
what’ s p oisonous, who’ s the enemy, who’ s the friend—and very quickly. In
one ten-thousandth of a second, it processes enormous banks of
information. No combination of computers could possibly do it. It is just far
too co mplex, because it includes value, meaning, s ignificance,
prioritization. A computer cann ot do that, because it does not value one
thing hig her than  another. A computer does not think more highly of this bit
of in formation than it does of that information, but your ego ’ s processor
does. The experiencer is one ten-thousandth of a second removed from reality. Therefore, the ego never experiences what is ; it experiences its experience
of what is. By a nalogy, it is not experiencing that which is bein g recorded;
it is exp eriencing the playback from the recorder. The ego is e xperiencing
what wa s just recorded one ten-thousandth of a second ago. This may not
seem lik e much,  except that the quality changes completely. This side of the
one ten-thousandth of a second, the trees look like trees, and the flowers
look like  flowers. On the other side of that one ten-thousandth of a second,
they radiate out Divinity. Enlig htenment is to bypass the expe riencer. The
experiencer just suddenly goes o ut. It does not get weaker and weaker; it is
simply and suddenly extinguished, and then the mind goes silent in awe. Ultimately, wha t human beings are addicted to is experiencing. That is
why we keep ch anging the channel, turning on the music, play ing games,
and eati ng a bite of this and th at. Why are we hooked on experiencing. Because out of evolution, it w as through experiencing that the animal
survived. Exper iencing keeps the ego alive, because it has no i nner source
of sp iritual ener gy. It only has animal ener gy. Consequently, out of every
experience, it has to extract the “juice” that is the source of animal
existence. For example, the ego gets “juice” by deriving gle e from the
suf fering of others, being right, and winning: “Boy, did he ever get it, that
****, and he deserved it. ”
The exp eriencer gets of f on na rcissistic satisfaction. It tries to disguise
the juice as “justified resentment,” do-gooderism, free speech, righteous
victimhood, and the like. But if we do a fearless and self-honest inventory
of ourse lves, we  will see that any negativity that bothers us is because weget a payof f to it. Y ou may say, “Nobody would want to feel self-pity. ” But,
in fact, many p eople relish martyrdom, being wronged, and being made
uncomfortable. T his will not be news to therapists, psychiatrists, and social
workers who listen to the victim  accounts day in and day out. Should the
whole w orld change because someone feels uncomfortable the way it is. The eg omania and narcissis m of it is obvious. “It makes me
uncomfortable. ” Narcissistic individuals seek to change the world instead of
changing thems elves. If the na me of God over a courthouse gives you a
sleepless night, do we have to c hange the historical architecture  just so you
can slee p better. The key to transcending levels of conscious ness is that
you are willing to change you rself rather than needing to c hange other
people o r change society. Once you change yourself, then you experience
others dif ferently. The only  thing you need to know about any barrier is what the ego payof f
is. What  is the juice that the exp eriencer is getting out of that positionality,
that negativity, that “stuck” place. DUALITIES OF THE EGO: A TTRACTIONS AND
A VERSIONS
T ranscending the Levels of Consciousness: Stairway to Enlig htenment
goes into depth about each level and how to transcend it by surrendering its
particular dualit ies. Here we cover the generalities of the ego’ s attractions
and aver sions so  that the reader can begin to intuit how the process takes
place in the psy che. The pairs of attractions and aversions out lined below
are applicable to all the ego’ s programs and to all the levels of
consciousness. Attraction A version
Familiarity, security Change, uncertainty
Clinging Fear of new
Ease Ef fortThe attra ction o f the experiencer is always to that which is fam iliar. The
first thin g we do when we come into a crowd is look around for a familiar
face. The aversion is to uncertainty. W e worry, What if I go ther e and I don’ t
see anyb ody I know. T herefo re, we cling to that which is known and are
fearful of the fu ture. The past is certainty and the future is unce rtainty, and
the ego likes to be certain, so it clings to what it knows. W e would rather be
comfy e ven if we are wrong. Do  you ever try a new way home from work. Pretty so on you are back to the same old way. W e like the fami liar, we like
the habitual, and we do not like change unless we choose it out of the
experiencer ’ s attraction to novelty (see below). The ego wants to hang on to its illusion of homeostasis rather than to
make a shift and feel temporarily of f balance. Therefore, people  will stay in
negative and even des tructive pathways, relationships, and jobs just because
to change requires some ef fort. The experiencer is attracted to what is easy, and it has an aversion to
ef fort. It is easier just to go along with some old way than to put forth ef fort
for the sake of c hange. So how can you overcome this aversion to putting in
the ef fort to make a positive change. By seeing that not mu ch ef fort is
actually required, because atte ntion alone begins to diminish a habit
automatically. Let’ s say, for example, you wan t to reduce the number of cookies you eat
every day because you have been overeating cookies for 20 years. Y ou say,
“I’m going to quit cookies someday. ” Y ou are lying to yourself. Y ou have
been eating 50-plus cookies a d ay for 20 years, so how are you suddenly
going to stop ea ting cookies. An exertion of willpower does nothing but
bring on guilt and feelings of failure. The secret is not in your ef fort but in
your attention. Merely start counting the cookies you eat every day, but do
not try to do  anything about it. Lay out the cookies and, at the end of the
day, count how many cookies you ate. “Monday, 68 cookies. T uesday, 64. Thursday, 72. ” Now, the point is  not to try to do  anything about the cookies. Just pay attention. All you hav e to do is make a mental note and write it
down on a calen dar: “Monday, 63 cookies. T uesday, 18 cookie s. Oh, wow. W ednesday, back to usual, 58 cookies. ”
What wi ll happen is that, by virtue of intention, ef fortlessly Hei senber g’ s
principle begins to apply, meaning that the observation of something
changes it. Thus your awareness itself begins to diminish the attraction to
cookies. By the end of the mont h, you will be down to 14 cooki es. The endof a nother month or two, you will be down to 6 cookies. All of a sudden
you will  say, “What th e heck, I don’ t need cookies. ” It was all ef fortless. It
is not necessary to struggle or cut yourself down or manipulate yourself
with guilt. If y ou simply notice it, ef fortlessly, Heisenber g’ s principle
applies so that, by your intention, you finesse the power of the field instead
of relying on the ego’ s force. Change and letting go of the fam iliar is easy, but you avoid it because it
seems like ef fort to the ego. It only seems like ef fort if you go a t it the hard
way of forcing yourself, trying  to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Anything you do not like about yourself—getting annoyed with people,
swearing, or what have you—can be transcended by noting down how
many times a da y you do it. Y ou just start paying attention and  tracking it. Anyone can notice; it requires no exertion, only attention. Attraction A version
Pride Humility
Anger/“strength” Passivity/“weakness”
W in Lose
The attr action of pride is that you are better than others, top dog, and
invincible. Humility is seen as a  loss of position, so you cannot ever “back
down” o r you lose ground. W e have pride in all our positionalities, and the
aversion is humility, which is co nfused with humiliation. The truly humble
person cannot be humiliated. The humble and honest person owns their
downside already, so they cannot be hurt, insulted, or slighted. They do not
feel violated just because someone else disagrees with them. If your feelings get hurt easily, sit down and make a list of all the
downsides of yourself you can think of, and then picture the great
comedians of all time discussing your problem. The comedians are the great
therapists of humanity, because they get us to laugh at ourselv es. Where I
grew up  in W isconsin, we men called each other by our nickn ames. They
called m e Short y in the Navy, but nowadays a sensitive person  would say
this nick name violates their rights due to discrimination based on height. “Don’ t take yourself so seriously” is one of the great mottoes in 12-step
groups, which is about being lighthearted and easygoing. W e see the ego ’ s confusing of anger with strength and passivity with
weakness. Anger gives you an artificial char ge, like you are stronger than
you really are. A ctually, the angry person is much weaker, as is well known
in karate and various martial art s. Once the opponent gets mad, he locks up
with anger and you know you can take him easily with a single move. The anim al swel ls up with anger  to intimidate others, because fe ar is seen
as p assive or weak. In certain cultures, being seen as passive o r weak will
get you killed. In certain neighborhoods, allowing yourself to be dissed is
the last thing you remember. Therefore, the reality above 200 is totally dif ferent than the reality below
200. It is naïveté to presume that other people are the way you a re. They are
not; in fact, they are the opposite. Y ou think it is a good idea to pay your
bills, wh ereas th ey think you are an idiot for doing it. Y ou think telling the
truth or making an apology is integrous, and they think it is st upid. Under
200, it is important to return anger with anger, get revenge, and win. In a
dualistic world, one person wins and the other one lose s (“and it better not
be me”). It is a “win-lose” mentality, with no consciousness of “win-win. ”
Over 200, a dif ferent view opens up. Y ou see that the ego’ s loss is usually
the spiri t’ s gain, and vice versa. Karmically, a loss may be the biggest gain
of y our life, be cause the world is actually the optimum place for the
undoing of negative karma and the gaining of positive karma. Therefore,
wanting to change the world does not make much sense. All the do-
gooderism may  sentence people to a continuation of bad ka rma. What
seems to be a loss or a tragedy is actually a tremendous gain in that it opens
the door to grace and ultimate freedom. Attraction A version
Importance A “nobody”
Gain Lose
Money Poverty
Excitement Boredom
The ego  wants to be important and dreads being a nobody. The e go has to
be notic ed and glamorizes being in the public eye. On a highe r level, youare r elieved to be a nobody, grateful to be ordinary and saved from all the
fanfare. The clutchingness of the ego is that it wants control. The minute the ego
thinks a thing is “mine,” it becomes inflated with specialness. That was just
“a” watch, but n ow if it becomes “my” watch, it is special and sentimental
as “o ld G randdad’ s watch. ” The  minute you add “mine,” it becomes an ego
inflation and you are stuck. Th e truth is that nothing belongs to you. All
things b elong to  God. Y ou only  have temporary custody as the  steward of
those things, including the body. It is “the” body and it is “the” mind, and
when you stop referring to them as “my,” they lose their attractive ego
investment. “Surely,” you say, “the thoughts  in my head are mine. ” Actually, they are
not. T o be hypnotized by the m ind is to think that its thoughts are “my”
thoughts. In reality, the thoughts emanate from the field of consciousness
impersonally. Each level of consciousness has its own prevailing thought
field. The minute you connect with a certain level of consciousness, you are
connected to an attractor field. That attractor field has had the same
thoughts for thousands of years. There is nothing novel about the content of
your thoughts. I wa nt to be first in line —you think you invented that
thought. W ith sel f-importance, the ego is designed to want gain, and it ha s a lot of
thoughts about monetary gain and how that will finally bring happiness. Interestingly, our research has found that happiness is correlated with level
of consciousness, not with wealth or health. A person can be delighted with
nothing. In fact, on a certain lev el, the less, the better. Y ou can live with a
cot, a blanket you got from the thrift store, a box with a candle on it, an
apple, a piece of cheese, and a six-pack of Pepsi. And to a dd to your
heavenly abode,  you have a cat. Do you need anything to read. No. Do you
need television.
The level of consciousness shifts not because of words spoken, but because of being in the presence of loving people whose energy field carries the higher wisdom.
According to the passage, how does one's level of consciousness shift?
It is unlikely that we will overcome a problem if we choose to be in the company of others who have the same problem.
What is the key to transcending a problem?
The ego's primary concern is to get its own "juice" or payoffs from a situation, rather than surrendering and accepting reality.
What is the ego's primary concern?
The primary source of power is the "Will" or the willingness to surrender and ask for divine assistance.
What is the primary source of power for transcending a barrier?
The key to overcoming a barrier is to understand that what holds us back is the "juice" or payoff we get from being in a particular position, and to let go of those payoffs.
What is the key to overcoming a barrier?