This is S2E16. Let go to Move Ahead: Neville meets Sedona. A few comments before we get into the main topic today. First, I've taken a few steps to improve the production quality of these podcast episodes. You're still going to hear rumblings, construction noise, diesel trucks and so on that I really can't do much about. So I'm asking you to, as much as possible, focus on the content. The other thing that I wanted to comment on is that I've completed now 15 episodes in the second season of this podcast series. I want to ask you, as I review the content of those 15 episodes, whether that is producing in you a sensation of completeness or wholeness. That is, by looking after different aspects to study and engage with Neville Goddard's worldview, is it really having a psychological effect? Now I,m motivated to do this quick summary of the content that we've already covered in the first 15 episodes because this morning I just got an overwhelming impression of the never ending quality of our news. It's nothing but political intrigue and war and broken promises. It's an absurd round of mayhem that every generation must live through in one form or another in order to extricate ourselves from the mesmerized attitude that this all means something, that it can all be solved in terms of itself. You've got to take a new worldview, regardless of the distractions and demands of ordinary life. When Gurdjieff was a young lad, his grandmother said to him on her deathbed, either go to school and just be an ordinary person, or go out there and do something absolutely extraordinary that no one else has ever done. Turning our attention to a quick summary of the season content so far: in the first two episodes, we looked at how to stay awake and focus on your personal practice and make that the main thing. Episodes three through six, we're all about recasting our concept of how reality is actually constructed. It's an idealist point of view. The seeming outer physical world is not a material world. It is all mind. That is probably the single biggest hurdle that human beings will ever face when trying to grapple with esoteric teaching. Episodes 7 and 8, I reconstituted all of the information about personal awareness of being the practice of consciousness - in the true sense of the word. In season two, episodes nine, 10 and 11, I zoomed back out to look at the whole picture, the world of Caesar or idea at large. Are you concerned about visualizing a beneficial future for humanity? In Neville's interpretation, precepts operate both at the individual level and at the broader societal level and inform us on how to organize secular life. The dignity of man because he was created in the image of God; the rule of law; the impartial administration of justice; freedom of conscience... Precepts on how to run a society that you would wish for your loved ones, absolutely unmatched historically, given to you by Christian scripture! Episode 12 was Waking up in the real world to refine and refocus on personal daily practice. Finally, episodes 13 through 15, all about understanding the true nature of hypnosis and how it is actually the default state among the broad masses, and how we have to use conscious self persuasion in order to recondition our subconscious; deliberately select and reinforce the beliefs that we think worthwhile, and in that way regain our own mental sovereignty. With the constant alternation between an inward view and an outward view, we gradually come to the realization that it's all one unbroken, undivided experience. Let's go now to our main topic. The point in this episode is to explore incremental and deliberate psychological deaths, which is a healthy practice to move forward on the personal path. I did discuss the Sedona method and the idea of psychological death back in season one, episode 13. Here I've reconstituted the material in an improved way. Blake, whom Neville quoted often, seems to have understood this somewhere. He said, and I'm paraphrasing, I was born in such and such a year and I've died many times since. He was referring obviously to his psychological death, which has to be undertaken many times during a lifetime that is reflective. Here's a motivating story my aunt told me about this news story that occurred years ago. There was a report about a woman whose body was ridden with disease who determined to commit suicide by jumping off the back of a ship into freezing waters. But she did not die. As responders were going about in small boats to try to find her, she felt compassion towards them, signaled to them, and was rescued. Once safe ashore, she was medically checked and found to be completely healthy. We might say then that through this experience she died to that part of herself that was ill. Can we activate the same skill within ourselves, but definitely without having to enact an emergency? Let's explore several ways in which internal movement can rescue us. There is a place for self discipline, but the character of discipline itself changes. Blankness Have you ever found yourself in a situation where all of a sudden your ideas, everything that you thought you had built up and understood is spontaneously removed from you? Its almost like a planet on an elliptical orbit which finds itself far removed from source. For us it could be in the midst of a tense situation or at some random moment. At that point it is a test. Where are you now? A strange and unexpected feeling of flatness or emptiness can descend upon you at the oddest times. There's a good description of this experience in Maurice Nicoll from his book Living Time. Now here's the passage: “Momentary changes sometimes occur. They indicate to us there are other states of oneself and while they last, one has changed through a new feeling of oneself. All change in oneself comes through a changed feeling of oneself. We have what can be called a natural reality in which we dwell. We move in a small orbit of meanings, of notions about ourselves, others and the world. If this orbit is broken, we are usually in a peculiarly helpless situation, having no idea of anything else. There seems to be nothing to fall back upon. What we actually lose is the ordinary feeling of ourselves. So we become frightened and lost, not so much because of what has happened, but because we cannot recognize ourselves.” Once you remember that everything is a psychological state, the experience need not induce fear but create an opening. Serpent as positive imagery. To take the widest possible view: we don't die. We can't die. We are life itself that is continually in the process of transformation. Neville expresses it: “man is immortal, therefore he must die endlessly, for life is a creative idea and it can only find itself in changing forms.” Neville makes a brilliant interpretive coup, as he does in many biblical passages, when he takes the image of the serpent, which is of course evil in conventional thinking, and turns it right around. The symbol of the serpent is actually a positive thing, something to learn from. To quote again: “The serpent's ability to form its skin by ossifying a portion of itself and its skill in shedding each skin as it outgrew it caused man to regard this reptile as a symbol of the power of endless growth and self reproduction.” So this is a salutary, self imposed death to leave behind the old and move on to the new ideal. Neville says: “the spiritual body of imagination is not interlocked with man's environment, in other words, with the body itself. The spiritual body can withdraw from the outer man of sense and environment and imagine itself to be what it wants to be. And if it remains faithful to the vision, imagination will build for man a new environment in which to live.” And this is what is meant by the statement “I go to prepare a place for you”. Mental Diests “Put off the old man which is corrupt.” This is discussed by Neville in many places, but notably in his lecture called Mental Diets. This is yet another way to die to oneself, to put off the old inner conversations which are so hackneyat but not even necessarily negative. They could just be mechanical repetitions of things that are bordering on the absurd or on the insane. If you notice them clearly. These are the things in the odd moments during the day that you could simply cancel or delete. Now, in our discussion so far of Neville's approach, the implication is usually that you will regain your sense of presence in order to put your attention onto the new state, the improved condition that you desire, or the track of conversation that reflects the wish fulfilled. Sedona Method Let's consider now the Sedona Method, which complements very well and helpfully elaborates Neville's idea of small sequential deaths along the way towards a renewed self. The name Sedona Method refers to Sedona, Arizona, where this method was created and delivered back in the 1990s. It has to do with releasing or letting go of emotions. Here I will give you my impressions, references and a few comments on the relevance of the Sedona method to our study of Neill. The process is exceedingly simple. It consists of calling to mind one or another emotional response and then consciously and quickly answering a few direct questions to let it go. Aside from direct effects of releasing something harmful, it is in the subtle illumination of one's responses where you gain understanding. Far from simplistic, the exercise transcends judgment of the emotional material at hand. It turns it in different ways to show useless identifications. Now this reframes and rearranges your mental economy. A problem is no longer a problem because the feeling of having a problem is dissolved. Now how well that coordinates with Neville's explanation of the mental attitudes being at the core of reality! Does the objective problem even exist? It all depends. It might disappear because it no longer is conceptualized. On the other hand, solutions can arise because one is free from a state of holding on to the problem. Nagging subconscious habits tend to rise up and challenge us. The Sedona method is particularly effective in meeting those head on. Instead of removing your attention from them, as we normally suggest, the Sedonum way is to stay with them and allow them into the moment. This action,consciously carried out is a marked departure from resisting and avoiding. It lets you release and move through the difficulties that much easier. The Sedona Method helpfully sets out an inventory of human emotions. We can quite simply demystify our typical responses by identifying and locating them in a known schema. So you figure out, well, geez, my responses are not so unique after all. The effect of this is to take the world of affects, the world of emotions vast and overpowering, and reduce it to a human proportion. Human emotions are painted using a palette having nine basic colors. These are actually grades of mental energy, but they range from apathy, grief, fear, lust, anger and pride to courage, acceptance and peace. This is a good addition to the body of practical exercises that we are developing. It helps a student on the path of self development to understand and release hindrances and identifications, including deep seated emotional responses that have long outlived their usefulness. In the seminar recordings, to which I'll put a link in the show notes, the process is guided by a facilitator, but it is meant to be practiced independently. Once learned, this process lends itself well to the invocation of the full self remembering consciousness, as we discussed in the last episode. Videotape sessions of the Sedona Method and audio tracks as well are available. As in all references, it is important to look past the dated production values and even the personal characteristics of the presenters, if you find them distracting, just go straight to the method itself. In sum, the Sedona Method is an excellent way to enter, navigate and self determine in the world of psychological states, ultimate goals. Ultimate Goals If we incorporate this into the study of Neville's philosophy, the question then arises, where does the Sedona Method lead to? What is the ultimate goal as it is presented by its creators? The whole thing leads eventually to enlightenment. It has to do with the ultimate release and acceptance into love. Now, in this sense it is scarcely different from Neville's Christian conception, except that it uses different language and has a distinct method. In my interpretation of Neville, one has to clearly know one's heartfelt desire. Yet this changes through a procession of states. Do you feel as if you're in the world of having things, or by contrast, you're in the world of doing things? You want to accomplish things, or indeed, do you really want to die to all the previous aspects of yourself and move into pure being, the highest possible level? The only commentary that I really have on that score is, to paraphrase Rolf Alexander. He said premature development is never a good thing. In the Sedona method itself, they talk about releasing not just the negative unwanted emotions, but actually releasing the positive ones. Release what you think you want and this might move you even further ahead. To a certain extent, it does make sense to skip, trivial goals and go to more psychologically rewarding ones. However, I reiterate, foregoing the so called worldly things and worldly experiences for the sake of an extremely high consciousness, especially at a young age, is a delicate question involving level of being. I have seen such quests backfire. To go beyond the idea of having this or doing this and going straight into the highest level of beingness, in an artificial way, turns out to be dishonest. It's a disregard for one's true desires. Now this is why I like Neville's wise approach. To reach new levels, it is to accept one's desires as they occur, following the Golden Rule, including normal adaptation to the world of Caesar. Now, this leads to a sort of natural progression. Well, it doesn't limit our possibilities. And Neville wants people definitely to have an ultimate transformation. Clearly, he doesn't rush the matter. He simply accepts on behalf of each and every student the occurrence of their desire and their wish as a natural expression of their state. Summary Well, in this episode we have covered the idea of dying in small, incremental ways in order to move forward in our spiritual journey. We discussed several ways to do that. The Sedona method I suggest is a very interesting and valuable addition to our practical regimen because it takes you through the world of affect, the world of emotions in an ordered and knowing way. It is fully compatible with Neville's highest conception of the world, and the material is freely available.