Man, The Process
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Transcript
MAN, THE PROCESS
Document: 23, May 20, 1982
Copyright(c) Jan M. Cox, 1982
Everyone feels at some time or another that he or she is not progressing properly with This Thing. At times, a person may feel that others have done more to ignite their own higher nervous systems, or that others have had more important insights. Under certain conditions, such as having what you’d call a bad day, or a headache, everyone will feel at times like, “Well, I’m just some kind of outsider to This Thing. I’m not progressing or understanding as much as others.” You must begin to see that, whatever the circumstances or conditions, a person cannot See himself: systems cannot analyze themselves; you as a system cannot analyze yourself.
These feelings relate historically, in a certain way, to humanity as a whole (though it’s not quite that simple). From as far back as the time when sparks first developed in the upper areas of the nervous system, humanity has continued to grow. The nervous system of man has continually been activated higher and higher. This activation or growth to which I refer is not just intellectual. And now, a rather abrupt change is occurring in the development of humanity. Life is neither regressing, nor is it advancing in a linear manner. Life instead continually expands, and this expansion is the continuing activation of man’s nervous system. We can now refer to the diagram of the Xross:
Diagram # 006 B illustration
The Horizontal Line shows man’s passage in time, from the past on the left, to the future on the right. Man’s intellectual growth moves only along this Line; that is, all new information is collected laterally. But this lateral information will not provide the type of growth to which I refer. That unique growth transpires along the Vertical Line of the Xross.
An ordinary person would say that man is growing by becoming more intellectual, more civilized. And from his viewpoint, he is correct. But this description of humanity’s growth is limited. It is an observation made by a system attempting to analyze itself; and a system cannot analyze itself: it cannot fully See itself as a functionary in a larger system. From the limited viewpoint, saying that man is becoming more intelligent is correct. But in terms of This Thing, mere education will not produce real expansion. It all emanates from that rather abrupt change in the development of humanity. We can look at an obvious example in the history of humanity. Semitic tribes once roamed the deserts of the Middle East, with no particular history, culture or civilization. They worshiped goats and clay gods. Suddenly a religious prophet appeared, waving rules that he said came from the gods. He had new maps explaining what humanity was all about, and a change occurred. If those living at the time attempted to analyze what was occurring, they would not have seen the change, nor would they have felt any abrupt change — because systems cannot analyze themselves. But now you can see that an abrupt change did take place.
Abrupt change is what we are doing here. Man must expand along the Vertical Line of the Xross. This is occurring now and at a faster speed than ever before. Such growth reaches farther than one generation and it’s faster than one lifetime. Accelerated growth is the explicit purpose of This Thing, and that’s exactly why I’m here. The times have changed such that more people can Hear something now: more people with enough understanding to get something from This. It is astounding.
I am presenting you with the most dangerous description that has ever existed on the planet. And you must — more seriously than ever — try to Hear what I am saying. You have to Hear it, and you must See that it is true, because it’s the very basis of abrupt change. It is no longer a discussion of man’s apparent personality, or of gods. It has nothing to do with any sort of so-called atheism. It’s no attack upon religion. Nor is it an attack on a man’s so-called “personality problems.” We are now going to expand This in a certain new direction, free from old ideas. But you have to try and See directly. You have to try and Hear directly, because my new map extends far beyond descriptions of mechanical life.
You cannot See and Hear if you continue to honor ordinary feelings: you cannot wring your hands and suffer, or wonder what tomorrow will bring. It’s too late to feel you don’t know what’s going on, or that what I say is above your head and self-contradictory. You must now go beyond all such feelings of, “Maybe this does make sense. But I’ve got so many problems in my personality that I’ve got to clean it up before I go any further.” It’s beyond that. The game has changed. You have to trust your experience in This Thing.
You have to begin to See that a kind of imagination comes from what you keep thinking of as “being yourself.” Every “self” is born with feelings such as, “I am an outsider” or “I can’t understand what’s going on.” It’s true in everybody. You have to See it for what it is, and it’s just ordinary humanity-in-process. It’s noise, it’s the sound of “you” breathing.
Diagram # 005 illustration
This is a diagram of the nervous system of man. It is a diagram of the nervous system of the species and of each individual person. I have mentioned that a substance is present in the blood. This substance flows into the upper nervous system, which is drawn here as a treelike figure. Energy flows through the nervous system and when it reaches the Horizontal Line of an individual person (the same Line as in the Xross) the person says “I”. The Line is the level of human consciousness. As man progresses, the level of activation in the nervous system rises higher, mechanically, with each generation. The Horizontal Line marks the general level of the development of humanity at any time; this Line rises with the ordinary growth of humanity.
Ordinarily, the substance in the blood is used up by the time it gets to the Line. I have referred to the fact that everybody is born into Life with a “certain hunger.” It can be likened to an itch, which everyone is trying to scratch. It is a hunger for the use of this substance. Those who believe that they’re looking for This Thing are actively trying to scratch this itch. Traces of this substance sometimes reach the Line. It happens accidentally, in a sense. With ordinary people it may be referred to as a mystical state. Somebody Sees something beyond what they’re mechanically wired to see, and they never know what to make of it (other than the fact that it was astounding). All people who become involved with This Thing have experienced traces of the substance reaching the Line. All it did then was make them even more dissatisfied than the norm. But had it not been for that, they could not pursue This Thing.
All activity below the Line of Consciousness has its place. But the study of it, for you, amounts to the study of psychological archaeology; it’s talking about the past. There is nothing below the Line of any value to real growth. You can study it, but it is the study of the dead. You can say, “Boy, I wish I could be more awake, but I have such a temper.” No, “you” do not have such a temper. You’re just studying the past. It is not valid. To entertain such questions concerning psychological problems is schoolyard talk. It’s archaeology.
I’m talking to the point at which you can still receive traces of the substance. That is the only way This makes any sense. Because at any lower level, This Thing sounds like insanity: you can’t comprehend it because it is larger than “you.” Absolutely insane, proper objective observations of Life which you begin to make on your own do not arise below the Line. Nothing down there is of any value to Vertical growth. It is just noise. It is the study of the dead. Abrupt change involves a supra-mathematical leap into this area above the Line. You must See that you’re not dealing with a “something” — such as a personality — which you’re somehow going to defeat. There is no struggle, other than trying to See This.
The circuitry below the Line can say, “I wonder how many more years it will be before I can wake up a little?” But whatever says that will never wake up, and it cannot analyze itself. It says, “I wonder if I will ever get over any of my particular bad habits?” No, it is the bad habit. And you who attempt This do not have enough time to study your habits piecemeal, or to just keep observing, “Uh-oh, here I go again.” Sure, here you go again. From the Line down, it’s always a matter of “Here I go again.” You’re not going to undo its bad habits, because its habits are its life. You can learn from this archaeology. But when you are only that, and no more, you’re the past.
And tomorrow is where all of This takes place: tomorrow is the domain of This Thing. As you practice my methods, as you experience your own extension, then the substance begins to reach the Line.
Studying ordinary, below-the-Line activity can become a hobby you learn from. I do not mean to discount it by calling it a hobby. You can learn through your own efforts of trying to See humanity in action; your so-called personality in action. So the study of this below-the-Line activity does have its value. But it is not This Thing. It’s still a hobby, and it is not extending the nervous system Vertically. It is still the study of archaeology.
Ordinarily, what people call their personality is their past. If a person loses his memory through an ordinary physical occurrence, he loses his personality. From the Line down, you cannot have the sensation of being anyone if you do not have a past. But This Thing cannot be truly experienced if you keep your past alive, and we are then talking about a future that is also blank.
It is not possible to actually function above the Line at all times, but you here, in This, should maintain at least an absolute minimum level of functioning: you must always have your feet on the Line. Your minimum should be at Line level. It is the tie to human existence. Line level is alive, and as long as you’re breathing, it’s still in operation. It is not a thing. The process below the Line is a process of living. When you try to observe it, or if you try to repair it, the process stops. You cannot learn by observing it. The trick is in learning that there is nothing to observe. The activity will continue on: it must. Still, a person involved with This Thing does not have the right to let the flow of energy or blood stop at the Line (stop at “I”). To do so is to become engaged with Line level processes — and you should have no excuse for doing that.
You might say, “I’ve changed, having heard all of this.” But below the Line, you’re still the same. You simply let the flow stop at Line level and you’ll be back to saying, “Poor old me. I’ll never get it right.” And there’s no excuse for that, for one of This Thing. There is no excuse for being engaged with the process below the Line, your ordinary “I” self.
Do not tell the growing tip of you where the Line is. Do not tell yourself that you lost it for a second, and went back to your old, ill-tempered self. What you did was let the flow spend itself at Line level. You were starving your growth, not falling backwards.
You all have traces of the original spark of growth flowing through you. This spark keeps things growing mechanically, and it is what keeps things moving abruptly in people attempting This Thing. If you are to really do anything, you cannot exhaust the energy at Line level. You must See that there is no “me.” If you’re one of the few people on this planet with enough of the spark reaching the Line to Hear this, you no longer have the right to suffer over being “I”.
Below the Line, flows of energy seem to be continual. They are ordinarily called “thoughts.” Each person acts as a transformer and transmits, through this electrical process, a different type of energy. This is what appears to be a particular personality type. It is what makes a “Fred” seem the nervous type, or what makes “Mary” seem melancholy. Fred is transforming and transmitting nervous energy; Mary is transforming and transmitting melancholy energy. A process called “Fred” takes in certain impressions; it finds itself attracted to these energies, wherever they’re found. It will be attracted to the jobs, the situations, that exude nervous energy. And this type of nervous energy is then transformed by “Fred.”
If you get a glimpse of this, you’ll See once and for all why there is no good and evil. It’s an illusion. It’s all energy. Nobody could create a “bad” personality, nor could anyone build a “best” personality — because there is no personality. It’s just energy being transformed, and all of these energy transferences are necessary for the Life-of-Life. But the energy transformer cannot observe itself; it cannot understand or study itself. No system can analyze itself at its level of function.
When you See Line level, you can see that “you” believed in the past. You can see the lower system for what it is. You can see that there are no answers to questions like, “Why don’t I get along better?” or, “Why doesn’t he get along better with others?” You can See that no “people” are involved. It’s all nerve endings in a large organism. From the extended perspective, you know you don’t really perceive a cop, or a teacher, or a mother, or a stranger. Each of those is one process in the Life-of-Life, and each transforms certain energies. Once you See this, you See that nobody is anywhere. It’s all just particular networks of wiring, and each controls a very limited series of reactions, gestures, dress codes, and postures. These wires are in every individual, and they are also interconnected between people-transformers. They draw people together so that necessary interactions can take place. Systems respond, gesture, express emotion, and then energy is transferred to the next system.
There is no injustice. Nobody’s mistreating anybody. Nobody is mistreating you, because nobody’s nobody, and neither are you.