In Edwin Abbott’s celebrated classic, Flatland, we are introduced to a square who is living a rather humdrum life as a lawyer in his native two-dimensional world. At the beginning of Flatland’s third millennium, a sphere (whom the Square can perceive only as a circle) from Spaceland reveals the existence of the third dimension to the incredulous lawyer. The Sphere makes a number of efforts to explain the nature of three-dimensional space, but the Square, whose experience has always been confined to two dimensions, cannot even begin to imagine it.

After a rather lengthy and fruitless discussion with the Sphere, the Square finally concludes that the Sphere is insane and attempts to apprehend the Sphere by pinning him to the wall of his home with one of his (the Square’s) corners. Jolted into action, the Sphere responds by moving upwards, thereby lifting the Square - who is pinned to his side - out of his two-dimensional world. The Sphere then forces the Square to see Flatland from the perspective of the third dimension. In the words of the fictional protagonist:

An unspeakable horror seized me. There was a darkness; then a dizzy, sickening sensation of sight that was not like seeing; I saw a Line that was no Line; Space that was not Space: I was myself and not myself. When I could find my voice, I shrieked aloud in agony, “Either this is madness or it is Hell!” “It is neither,” calmly replied the voice of the Sphere, “it is Knowledge; it is Three Dimensions: open your eyes once again and try to look steadily.” I looked, and behold, a new world!

Abbott’s story is, among other things, an allegory for the common human weakness of being blind to viewpoints other than our own. From a somewhat different perspective, Flatland is a useful metaphor for some of the self-imposed limitations of modernity.

The single most influential factor that has shaped the worldview of the modern mind is science. However, critics of modernity have frequently asserted that the contemporary, secular view of the world has been built on a misreading of science. This misreading is the not uncommon interpretation - often referred to as “scientism” - that the aspect of the world studied by the natural sciences is real while all other aspects are unreal. Thus, from the perspective of scientism, the real world is hard, cold, colorless, and silent; a world of dead matter in motion best apprehended in mathematical formulas. In this vision of reality, human beings and human consciousness are simply fortuitous accidents - incidental by-products of the workings of the machine of nature. In the context of this worldview, the only source of warmth is human relationships - relationships that are ultimately little more than a huddling together against the chill of a silent universe.

But is this viewpoint, more religiously inclined individuals might ask, really as universally obvious as its advocates maintain? Or is it only self-evident when we view the world through the framework of a rather narrow interpretation of natural science? Perhaps, to paraphrase an often-cited passage from William James, there exist alternative frames of reference, separated from us by the “filmiest of screens.”

The basic idea of one or more “spiritual” worlds existing alongside the world of our ordinary, everyday experience in what we might call a different “dimension” is taken for granted in almost every religious and cultural tradition outside of the modern West. For many of these traditions, the spiritual realm is more important, and often more real, than the physical realm. Cross-culturally and across many different historical periods, there is widespread agreement on this point. An image often used to describe the process of becoming aware of this otherworld is the metaphor of awakening.

Call to mind a particularly vivid dream experience. In the midst of sleep, dreams are experienced as “real” rather than as “just a dream.” As early as the fourth century b.c.e., Chuang-tzu, a Chinese philosopher, raised a series of profound and perplexing questions about dreams:

While men are dreaming, they do not perceive that it is a dream. Some will even have a dream in a dream, and only when they awake do they know it was all a dream. And so, when the Great Awakening comes upon us, shall we know this life to be a great dream. Fools believe themselves to be awake now.

Once upon a time, I, Chuang-tzu, dreamed I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of following my fancies as a butterfly, and was unconscious of my individuality as a butterfly. Suddenly I was awakened, and there I lay myself again. Now I do not know whether I was a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am a butterfly now dreaming I am a man.

In this passage, Chuang-tzu raises issues to which there can be several responses. In some traditional cultures, it is not unusual to place the reality of the realm of dreams on an equal footing with the realm of everyday consciousness, as Chuang-tzu appears to do in the above passage. Another line of reflection implicit in Chuang-tzu’s remarks is the notion that perhaps the world as we ordinarily experience it is no more real than a dream.

In traditional Eastern philosophies the assertion that this world is, like a dream, illusory is commonplace. India outstrips other cultural traditions in the development of the theme of this life and/or this world as a kind of dream. Especially in the philosophical tradition of Advaita Vedanta, this metaphor is employed so as to stress the dreamlike quality - and hence the unreality - of the world as we experience it in our normal state of consciousness. The ultimate goal of the spiritual life, enlightenment or liberation, is often described as an awakening from the dream that deludes us into regarding the world of our everyday experience as real and important. These traditions are thus asking us to consider the possibility of a new kind of expanded awareness - states of consciousness so elevated they make our ordinary, everyday mental states appear dreamlike by comparison.

MSIA’s understanding of the nature of reality is rooted in a traditional world view that perceives the physical world of our everyday experience to be but one facet - the lowest “story,” so to speak - of a multidimensional cosmos. Within this worldview, the universe is understood to be intrinsically purposeful, and human life ultimately meaningful. The notion of a multi-layered reality is not unique to the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. Although differing in many details, this view of the cosmos as a hierarchy of different levels of being was basic to virtually all known societies, thus constituting what philosopher Huston Smith has ventured to call “the human unanimity.”

Various metaphors that this vision of reality call to mind are a ladder (e.g., Jacob’s Ladder), a many-storied building, or a terraced hillside. This ladder-like image serves traditional worldviews in a manner comparable with the role performed by the image of ocean waves for the wave theory of light: It is a pictorial analogy that clarifies the theory by translating it into an image familiar to our sensory experience.

As with a scientific paradigm, problems can be created by interpreting a metaphysical model too literally. In some more archaic notions of other realms, for example, higher levels of reality were actually thought of as being located in the sky. More sophisticated notions of other realms are based on the spiritual experiences one has during meditation and during certain mystical states.

During meditation (referred to in MSIA as spiritual exercises, though MSIA teaches that its spiritual exercises are somewhat different from what is normally called meditation), one experiences an alteration of awareness that can be expressed, and which frequently is expressed, as an elevation of consciousness. Because these states of awareness vary in intensity or “elevation,” the model of a hierarchy of levels is a useful conceptual tool for picturing these states of consciousness in relation to each other. This psychological model becomes a metaphysical paradigm by postulating that each state of consciousness corresponds with a different plane or level of being. It would be analogous to saying that during our dreams we leave one realm and enter another realm. It should be fairly easy to see both the usefulness of a ladder-like model in this context, and the nonliteral meaning of rising or sinking in consciousness.

Rather than literally being above or below, the other levels are conceptualized as coexisting with the physical plane, being separated from the physical by what some traditions refer to as a different “rate of vibration.” These various levels remain distinct from each other in much the same way that different radio waves coexist in the same space without interfering with each other.

Correspondingly, the human self can be viewed as a series of concentric circles. The soul, which is the deepest and most real part of the individual, is situated at the center, metaphorically speaking, of a series of bodies or sheaths that correspond with the various levels of being. Although the source of consciousness is rooted in the soul level, it is normally focused outwards, away from the soul, and into one or more of the outer sheaths/lower bodies. In terms of this model, the goal of the spiritual life is to turn one’s attention away from the outer layers and lead it back to the soul.

As explained in the preceding chapter, the Sant Mat tradition views these various levels as being linked by their vibrations - vibrations that together constitute the Sound Current. By connecting to the Sound Current through MSIA spiritual exercises, the individual places himself/herself on a roadway that leads back up through the various planes to the soul level. MSIA also teaches that there are realms beyond the soul level and that a person can transcend the initial level of soul and move in consciousness into these even higher levels. This, in essence, is what John-Roger means when he states that the goal of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness is Soul Transcendence.

Intermediate between the physical realm and the soul realm are four planes, giving one a schema of six levels. In MSIA, these six realms are designated as follows:

soul relating to who one essentially is

etheric relating to the unconscious, in the sense that it is the gateway to the higher levels

mental relating to the mind

causal relating to the emotions

astral relating to the imagination

physical relating to our everyday lives

This terminology can be rather confusing to people who have studied other systems, such as theosophy or yoga. In these alternate traditions, the order of the planes is usually quite different, according to the following schema:

soul, causal, mental, astral, etheric, physical

As someone more than a little familiar with these other traditions, it took some effort for this writer to adjust to MSIA's terminology.

Terminology aside, however, the basic idea is essentially the same. Each level, from the physical to the soul, is increasingly refined or "subtle." Yet another analogy that suggests itself here is a comparison with different states of matter: The molecules in a solid object, such as a block of ice, can vibrate at different rates (i.e., different temperatures) without the object's losing its nature as a solid substance. However, if the molecules begin to vibrate fast enough, the solid changes into a liquid. In the case of H20, the block of ice will eventually be transformed into a puddle of water. Water, again, can vary considerably in temperature and remain a liquid. However, at the boiling point of water, it transforms once again, this time into gas. Similarly, the fundamental substance of which the various planes are composed is basically the same in essence. However, at the increasingly rarefied vibration of higher levels of being, this material becomes increasingly subtle, becoming completely different in appearance.

The world we bring into our awareness through the five senses, meaning the world we ordinarily experience in our everyday lives, is the physical world. As the level farthest from God or Spirit, the physical realm is insubstantial, like the shadows in Plato's Allegory of the Cave. It is also a realm of delusion that can easily distort our higher vision, enabling us, in John-Roger's words, to "perpetrate against ourselves the belief that no other levels exist because we cannot see them."

In MSIA's schema, the next realm up is the astral level. The astral is the world of the imagination (the "image-making” aspect of the mind), and it is the level at which most dreams occur. As the realm of the imagination, the "substance" of the astral world is amenable to the power of the human mind, enabling one to create "structures" out of astral substance. Because of its responsiveness to the imagination, the higher parts of the astral are very beautiful, creating a heavenlike world in which many departed individuals reside. In contrast, the lower astral is responsive to our fears and bad thoughts, creating a realm of negativity that we sometimes tap into in our nightmares.

The next level up is the causal, which is the cause and effect realm of the emotions. MSIA teaches that this is the realm in which we work out most of our emotional turmoil. While most people dream at the astral level, the dreaming consciousness sometimes travels to higher realms, particularly when the dreamer is treading the spiritual path. When we dream at the causal level, we awaken with a strong emotion - loving the whole world or hating the whole world - but recalling few dream images.

The mental world is the realm of the universal mind. John-Roger teaches that most of the geniuses of the planet have come from this realm, and that New Thought religions like Unity and Science of Mind draw their energy from the mental level. When we dream at this level, we awaken with the sense that we were taught something during the night. We may recall being in a class, hearing a lecture, or reading a book.

The etheric world is hard to describe. The best we can do with ordinary language is to say that it is a transitional realm between the soul and the lower worlds. In John-Roger's words,

On this level, there is clarification of who you are, within your own self. In this realm, there is a testing process to see if you are ready to move into the soul realm. If you have been traveling on the etheric realm, you may wake up with the sense, "I've got it! I've really got it!" You won't be able to say what, but you'll know it.

If language had problems grasping the nature of the etheric, it is even more inadequate to the task of describing the soul realm. While not the highest level of the inner realms (i.e., there are levels above the soul level), reaching it is the immediate goal of humankind, in that this is what can break the cycle of reincarnation. All of the levels below the soul are designated as "negative" in comparison with the soul level and higher levels, which are designated as "positive," as in the positive and negative poles of a battery; not as in "good" and "bad." John-Roger says that:

The soul realm is your home. If you want to think of it in this way, you are an alien here, in a strange land; you may be on the earth, but you are not of the earth. The earth has been designated as the classroom where you learn lessons. When you have finished your lessons, you graduate to other levels of consciousness.

MSIA superimposes a hierarchy of initiations on these levels of being. We live our everyday lives in the physical realm and thus require no formal physical initiation per se; being born is the "initiation” on this level. John-Roger teaches that when one comes in touch with the Mystical Traveler, one experiences an initiation referred to as the astral initiation, which takes place in the dream state.

Most people who become active in MSIA begin their involvement with a series of monthly lessons referred to as Soul Awareness Discourses. Discourses represent more than simply information. MSIA teaches that through studying the monthly lessons, the reader is spiritually linked to the Mystical Traveler Consciousness. The person holding the Traveler Consciousness agrees to assist the reader in clearing karma, which can be released while reading the Discourses. This is a one-to-one agreement made between the Traveler and the Discourse reader. For this reason, MSIA recommends that the Discourses be strictly confidential and not shared with other persons. While this portrayal of what transpires while one is "on Discourses” may strike outsiders as rather odd, it is fully in accord with MSIA's understanding of the relationship between the external (10%) level and the internal (90%) level - externally, all the individual is doing is subscribing to a series of monthly lessons; internally, however, the individual's soul is entering into a spiritual relationship with the Mystical Traveler Consciousness.

After studying the Discourses for two years, one may apply for the first, formal initiation, referred to as the causal initiation.

Thereafter, the aspirant may apply for each of the subsequent initiations - mental, etheric, and soul - contingent upon the individual's maintaining an active involvement in the various levels of lessons available from MSIA headquarters (Soul Awareness Discourses and, when the Discourse series is complete, Soul Awareness Tapes). At the causal initiation, the MSIA student is given a "tone” to utilize in her or his spiritual exercise and receives additional tones with each subsequent initiation. Higher initiations indicate progressively deeper involvement. In another sense, however, all initiates are "soul initiates,” although they may not yet be initiated to the soul realm. Ideally, therefore, no student in MSIA should be viewed as being "higher” or "lower” than another.

MSIA's core technique is a kind of meditation involving the mental chanting of one's initiatory tones and attunement to the inner sound, which is the manifestation in consciousness of the Sound Current. John-Roger teaches that this core technique is more active than meditation (in the strict sense). Instead of meditation, MSIA calls its central process spiritual exercise (normally referred to as S.E.s). To cite a relevant passage from J-R's early book, Inner Worlds of Meditation:

Within MSIA, I teach another dimension to the meditative process, which changes it from a passive technique of "emptying the mind” to an active technique of directing the mind and emotions. I call these active meditations "spiritual exercises,” which suggests the activity of exercises combined with the spiritual focus and thrust.

One of the central goals of MSIA's spiritual practices is to awaken and strengthen the knowledge of each person that their core identity is awareness. In S.E.s, they are able to "witness” - to calmly observe thoughts, feelings, images, sensation desires, and modes of identity. For example, an individual who witnesses her body squirming on the seat, feeling anxious, seeing an image of the Eiffel Tower, and thinking thoughts like, forgot to pay my electric bill; I am really scared Joe doesn't lo me anymore; I really have to refocus on chanting and stop spacing out so much; and so forth, learns experientially that the observing consciousness - not the contents of one's mental field - is the essence of one's identity.

MSIA students are encouraged to engage in S.E.s for a period of two hours every day, though many members do so for varying periods, often of lesser duration. More important the duration of spiritual exercises, however, is the student presenting himself/herself in devotion to God and making connection with the Divine - in John-Roger's words, "Eve five minutes of devotion to S.E.s can be worth weeks of mechanical repetition." Or as John Morton says in the tape entitled "Blessings, Prayers, and Invocations":

Using your devotion to have contact with God, you can move yourself into the knowing that that relationship is sacred, but is also a joyous and magnificent occasion. There is something truly wonderful that goes on when we worship: You are placing yourself before the One that you would most want to be with and see and know and hear and touch . . . to come into that Presence and move beyond the world in consciousness. It doesn't have to be something really specific like what did you see or what were the sounds and colors. It can just be the realization that you are loved, that you are nurtured, that you are taken care of and that you are protected - a chance to re-source and to regenerate.

Like meditation, spiritual exercises can constitute a challenging discipline that one must work at for a long time before they become comfortable and natural, and there are a number of places in MSIA literature where guidelines and suggestions for the proper practice of S.E.s are given. While some of these guidelines are technical in nature, many are such common sense recommendations as: unplug the phone and put a "do not disturb” sign on the door of your room so that your practice is not interrupted.

During spiritual exercises, initiates mentally chant tones that are keyed to each of the levels. MSIA teaches that when one repeats one's initiatory tones, the Beings who "rule" each world (like the archangels of the Judeo-Christian tradition who represent God in the form of individualized governors or "gods" of each realm) are tuned into and by sympathetic resonance figuratively reach down and pull one up to their level. By traversing the realms while doing S.E.s one is able to build a "bridge" to the higher realms (the golden bridge of consciousness). In John-Roger's words, "Through spiritual exercises, you create a channel, an opening, a tunnel, through which Spirit can convey its wisdom to you."

The practice of spiritual exercises enables students to turn their attention away from the outer realm of the manifested world to the inner realms of the spirit. This redirection of consciousness is the source of MSIA's name, the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. Soul Transcendence - which, according to MSIA literature, is "becoming aware of oneself as a soul and, more than that, as one with God" - is the ultimate goal of MSIA spiritual practices and releases one from the cycle of death and rebirth in which one is trapped, as discussed in a previous chapter.

In terms of the above schema of levels and bodies, the process of reincarnation is one in which the individual loses his/her outermost layer at death, disappears from the physical level, and then reacquires a body at rebirth. We might think of this as being like a sponge diver. Sponge divers put on bulky, spacesuit-like diving suits while collecting sponges. These suits are, in a metaphorical sense, an additional "body." Divers put on this extra body in order to be able to operate at the "liquid" level. After finishing their task in the water and returning to the surface, they divest themselves of their outermost sheath until the next time they need to undertake further work at the "liquid level."

As mentioned earlier, in both Buddhism and Hinduism, life in a corporeal body is viewed negatively as the source of all suffering. Hence the goal is to obtain release from the process of reincarnation. From the perspective of present-day, world-affirming Western society, this vision cannot but appear distinctly unappealing. A modern-day Buddha might respond, however, that our reaction to being confronted with the dark side of life merely shows how insulated we are from the pain and suffering that is so fundamental to human existence. In the contemporary West, for example, we sometimes shut up our elderly and deformed citizens in institutions where we do not have to view them. This stands in marked contrast to the third world, in which it is not uncommon to confront the ravages of disease and mortality on a daily basis. Our situation is, in fact, much like that of the young Gautama (Buddha's given name) in the story of the Four Signs.

According to Buddhist tradition, an astrologer who examined the future Buddha's horoscope immediately after birth asserted that the young prince would eventually become either a world ruler (meaning he would become king of all of India) or a world teacher (in the sense of a religious teacher). The direction - religious or political - the young man would pursue would depend upon whether or not he reflected seriously on the suffering and transitoriness of the human condition. Gautama's father, the king of a small state in what is today southern Nepal, was a worldly man who naturally wanted his son to become a world ruler. As a consequence, he made sure to surround the young man with constant merrymaking and forbade anyone who was elderly or sick to be in the prince's presence.

All went according to plan until about age thirty, when Gautama decided to travel outside of his palace without first informing his parents. On the first day, he happened to see a severely sick person. Upon asking his chariot driver about the man's unusual condition, his servant replied that all people were subject to disease. This troubled the future Buddha. On the second day, he happened to see an exceedingly old man. Upon again inquiring of the chariot driver (who, legend has it, was a demigod in disguise), he discovered that everyone was subject to the aging process. On the third day he saw a corpse, and became really troubled after he was informed that every person eventually met death. Finally, on the fourth day, he saw a sadhu - a holy man who had renounced the world to seek moksha - and resolved that he would also renounce the world and seek liberation. Gautama then left home and years later achieved the goal of release.

But, someone might respond, Why not just try to live life, despite its many flaws, as best one can, avoiding pain and seeking pleasure? Because, Buddha would respond, while we might be able to exercise a certain amount of control over this incarnation, we cannot foresee the circumstances in which our karma would compel us to incarnate in future lives, which might be as a starving child in a war-torn area of the third world. Also, the Buddha would point out, if we closely examine our life, we can see that even the things that seem to bring us our greatest enjoyments also bring us the greatest pain. This aspect of Buddhist thought was embodied in that part of Buddha's system referred to as the Three Marks of Being.

In the first place, Buddha points out, we have to contend with the experiences everyone recognizes as painful - illness, accidents, disappointments, and so forth. Second, the world is in a constant state of change, so even the things we experience as pleasurable do not last and ultimately lead to pain. (Romantic relationships, for example, initially bring us great happiness, but more often than not they end in greater suffering.) And third, because we ourselves are in a constant process of change, we ultimately lose everything we have gained, particularly in the transition we call death.

While MSIA shares Buddhism's basic world view, it focuses less on the negative aspects of life in the physical realm and more on the positive aspects of the individual's release into the soul realm. What comes to mind here is the old saw about there being two basic types of people according to how they regard a partial glass of water: Buddha would say the glass was half-empty; John-Roger would say it was half-full. Congruent with MSIA' more affirmative attitude, human existence in the physical body is not perceived as a purely negative condition. Rather, life in this body is affirmed as an opportunity for soul growth, in the sense that the soul, which is seen as perfect but inexperienced, is here to learn and gain experience. In fact, according to J-R the physical level is the only one from which a soul can spring all the way to the soul realm, so that being here is a great blessing and opportunity. Where early Buddhism's central metaphors suggest the reduction, extraction, dissolution, and eventual elimination of self, MSIA's core images suggest that the spiritual life is a process of exploration, expansion, learning, and healing.

Traditional religions have, further, tended to emphasize the sharp transition from a nonenlightened or nonsaved state to an enlightenment or salvation. In contrast, MSIA and other contemporary schools of metaphysical spirituality emphasize gradual growth, expansion of consciousness, and learning across time, including growth across many different lifetimes. Thus, in contrast with traditional Hinduism and Buddhism -which view reincarnation negatively, as a cycle of suffering out of which one should strive to liberate oneself - in the contemporary metaphysical subculture, reincarnation is viewed positively, as a series of opportunities for expanded spiritual growth. (Though, to be sure, MSIA focuses on ending the cycle of reincarnation.) This gradual spiritual expansion constitutes a kind of evolution of the soul, and the metaphor of spiritual evolution (in the sense of gaining experience) is often expressed in the literature of MSIA and of the New Age subculture more generally.

Rather than an experience of sudden enlightenment, spiritual growth is often likened to healing. Thus, as in many New Age groups, MSIA employs certain techniques of psycho-emotional healing as aids to spiritual growth. Some of these are aura balances, innerphasings, and polarity balances - all of which make reference to the human being's nonphysical bodies and/or energies.

The aura is a field of subtle energy that envelops living entities. The basic idea of an envelopment of subtle, vital energy emanating from the body has been widely accepted in many cultures and times. There are records in art and writing of such a belief in ancient India, Egypt, Rome, and Greece. Invisible and undetectable to normal human sight, the aura can be seen by people with the gift of clairvoyance, or "psychic sight." Individuals with such gifts describe the aura as a colorful field that can have rays, streamers, and other distinct phenomena associated with it. The size, brightness, colors, and so forth indicate different things about the individual's emotional and physical state. Clairvoyant healers assert that illness begins as a disturbance in the aura, and that it take months or sometimes even years before a physical illness manifests.

fAura balancing is said to clear the individual's energy field. MSIA offers a series of three aura balances - for the physical aura, the emotional aura, and the mental/spiritual aura. Each balance is said to clear imbalances and strengthen the consciousness so it can better handle everyday stress. Having a balanced aura is also said to contribute to one's creative flow, to assist individuals in having a more accurate perception of themselves and the world, and to help one be more available to the presence of spirit. Many religious traditions, as well as traditional Western occultism, view the aura as emanating from a subtle, nonphysical "body." This subtle body is, as I have already noted, one of several secondary bodies in which the soul is "clothed." Some traditional cultures have gone so far as to map out the anatomy of some of the subtle "energy" body closest to the physical body. The best known of these is Chinese acupuncture. Another tradition with a complex understanding of the subtle body is the Hindu yoga tradition, in which the subtle body is referred to as the linga sharira.

Polarity balances are said to balance the energies in the subtle body and to remove blocks so that the flow of energy in the body is enhanced. The effects of releasing these blocks can include more energy, lightness (as though a weight had been lifted), greater attunement to the physical body, and a greater ability to function physically in the world.

Innerphasings are more complex, in that they involve levels of the self beyond the aura and the "energy” body. Innerphasing is said to be able to align the many levels of our consciousness so that we can live in "one accord" with our selves. In particular, the (mostly unconscious) lower self tends to hang on to habits of behavior and emotion that no longer serve us. Innerphasing creates a "channel of communication" between the conscious self and this lower self (which MSIA calls the "basic self"), so that one can redirect negative or limiting habit-patterns such as compulsive anger, anxiety, overeating, smoking, and so forth into more positive ones, and so that one can establish a closer partnership with the basic self.

Like the New Age in general, and in line with MSIA's growth metaphor, spiritual striving is likened to the process of learning, giving rise to a host of educational images and forms to embody essentially religious meanings. In other words, the dominant "ceremonies" in the metaphysical subculture are workshops, lectures, seminars, and classes rather than worship ceremonies. These educational settings reflect a view of the human condition that sees spiritual development as a gradual learning process, rather than as the kind of abrupt conversion experience that occurs in the midst of traditional Protestant revivals. For this reason, one should be careful to note that MSIA classes, seminars, lectures, and workshops should be regarded as religious activities, structurally comparable to Christian worship services.

In marked contrast to a tradition like Buddhism, MSIA teachings encompass techniques and processes intended as much to improve human life in this world as to promote Soul Transcendence, although Soul Transcendence remains the central and overwhelmingly most important aspect of the Movement. A useful example of this are the so-called PAT Trainings.

In May of 1995, as part of my research on MSIA, I attended an MSIA retreat held in the countryside outside of Woodstock, Illinois. The substance of the retreat was a fiveday workshop quaintly referred to as "PAT I" (the first in a series of Peace Awareness Trainings). The gentle, uplifting connotations of "PAT" and "Peace" belie the true nature of this training. If my experience was typical, it should be renamed the "PUNCH," "POKE," or "POUND" training -designations that would alert prospective participants to the fact that "PAT I" was more like a spiritual boot camp than like a bunch of mellow folks hanging out together while sipping cups of herbal tea.

One custom MSIA often integrates into its events is so called sharings, at which participants stand up and share with the group whatever they wish. After only a few days of PAT, I recall standing up at a sharing and asserting that, "There's a special place in hell for the person who invented this process." Everyone in the room laughed, even the facilitator. I felt as though I was giving voice to the entire group's unspoken feelings. Somewhat later during the same retreat, I stood up and shared that I was comforted by the thought that I would eventually be writing about my experience of this training, and that I would then "get my revenge."

By one of those strange coincidences that make you think there might actually be meaning in the universe after all, Woodstock, Illinois, was where the town-square sequences for the 1994 film Groundhog Day were filmed. In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray wakes up to find himself caught in a Star Trek-like time loop, perpetually reliving the same day over and over again. The core of the movie is constituted by the innumerable strategies Murray's character deploys in his efforts to deal with his entrapment. Over the course of the film, he gradually evolves from a rather nasty prima donna into a nice guy. Finally he is freed from the time loop and, presumably, lives happily ever after.

PAT I is much like Groundhog Day. The core technique which participants promise to discuss only with other PAT veterans (so that future participants won't try to prepare for it, and thus minimize the benefit of the experience) - is redundant in the extreme, forcing one to exhaust all of one's strategies in an effort to derive meaning and insight from an apparently meaningless exercise. For myself (and I can only speak for myself, as different participants have different experiences), the effect was not unlike that of Zen meditation. In Zen Buddhism, particularly in the Rinzai School of Zen, meditators grapple with a question (a koan) that has no logical answer. A well-known example of a koan is the question, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" Aspirants meditate on the koan, racking their brains for some kind of a solution. Then, in a moment of sudden insight, the answer to the koan flashes across the mind in a kind of mini-enlightenment experience.

My moment of insight occurred late on the third day of the PAT. Not long after my PAT I training, I attempted to describe my experience in a context where my conversation was recorded. That part of the interview reads as follows:

I would try different strategies, such as just describing everything I was feeling. And then I would think, Well, I'm not going anywhere with that. So, maybe what I'm supposed to be doing is deep self-analysis. Or maybe I should be entertaining the other person. Or maybe I should . . . What the hell am I supposed to be doing?! My personal experience was like meditating on a Zen koan, and the meditator has to take the koan and meditate on it. And then he comes and says to the Master, "Well, is the answer this? Or this? Or this?" And the Master says, "No!" BAM! [sound of the Master striking the meditator with a stick] "Go do it again!"

Eventually, about the third or fourth day, I ran out of strategies. After having exhausted every possible response to the PAT process over the course of the preceding two and a half days - responses ranging from the most profound to the most mundane - I became intensely aware of the mind's omnipresent, reflexive drive to control experience by imposing conceptual order on everything that entered the field of consciousness. It was impossible to have a spontaneous response to the core PAT technique. Even deciding not to respond resulted from a conscious decision. Furthermore, I realized that our experiences are structured by our expectations. This web of expectancy acted like a mental filter, shaping experiences even before entering one's mental field.

What I realized in the end was that everything I was talking about was my trying to anticipate what I was supposed to be doing. It was all mental constructs, and I wasn't able to just be there. Even trying simply to describe experiences was just another concept I was operating from. I was following out the program of a certain idea. Basically, there was no way I could ever get away from these programs - these expectancies set up by my ideas and concepts.

As a professional writer and scholar, the conceptual structure between myself and the world that exists beyond ideas and preconceptions was more elaborate than most. Having studied the philosophical traditions of both East and West, I had even read many philosophers - from Nagarjuna to Gadamer - who discussed in exquisite detail how the mind structures and "predigests" experience, always denying us direct experience of the world. I had, however, never really experienced the mind's constant structuring work until the PAT training.

I particularly recall a moment of lucidity while gazing out a window at the leaves and branches of a nearby tree. In the face of the beauty of immediate sensory experience, my various conceptual structures appeared artificial and distant from reality.

There was a moment of enlightenment where I deeply realized that there was an unconceptualized and unconceptualizable reality out there - that all of my concepts are just very artificial - which sort of makes the task of a scholar absurd, ultimately. So I have a keen sense of irony about the kind of task I have set for myself. Here I am writing about MSIA theology, realizing that it is impossible to talk about any of this stuff. But, still, I have to write about something.

I further realized that, if my thoughts were so artificial, :hen the only thing that held them in place was the force of habit. Why, I asked myself, couldn't things be different? What, ultimately, prevented me from just changing my mind, thinking entirely different thoughts, and having a completely different experience of the world? For a moment, I had an overwhelming experience of human freedom and a sense of infinite possibilities. As J-R says in The Tao of Spirit:

I'll tell you a secret about this world: it meets you exactly where it finds you and gives you what you present to it.

So, if you go out there looking for anger, it will justify your anger.

I f you go out there looking for love, it will justify your love.

For those few moments, I had a deep, experiential realization of the dynamic relationship between human consciousness and the world that made this seemingly simple observation come alive with a depth I had never before experienced.

Later that night while again engaged in the PAT training's central process, my composure broke apart. The essential absurdity of what we were doing overwhelmed me. I started laughing and making silly noises, finally falling off my chair and pounding the floor in an episode of manic laughter. These antics disrupted the session for the other thirty or so people in the room, who quickly joined me in my silliness. Tension from the monotonous technique had been building for days, and everyone welcomed the chance to let down and break free. That night it seemed we had finally scaled the crest of a towering hill, and the balance of the PAT training was a lighter experience for all of us. By the end of the five days, the group had become quite close. We were still, technically, strangers, but we were strangers who now shared a unique experience.

No matter how absurd the PAT training might have showed our everyday lives to be, we all, perhaps paradoxically, came out of the retreat with a renewed vigor for life. For myself, my rather abstract realization about the artificiality of our conceptual schemes made me aware of how I was expending my entire life working with ideas, and how, as a consequence, I was distant from living. I left Woodstock determined to spend more time enjoying my life and, more particularly, enjoying time with my wife and daughter.

The PAT training is but one of the many workshops, seminars, classes, and trainings available through MSIA. The MSIA parallel to a Christian service, in the sense of the basic meeting one attends as an active Church member, is the home gathering. Home gatherings take the form of a taped seminar - a meeting built around a tape of J-R to which the group listens. Live seminars are normally public talks by John Morton or J-R, though other members have been given the authorization to hold such seminars. Members need not, of course, attend any such function. Like Christians who never attend church but who pray and study scripture in private, MSIA folks need only do their spiritual exercises and study Discourses to be regarded as active students.

Almost all events that do not take the form of home gatherings or live seminars are regarded as falling under the auspices of Peace Theological Seminary and College of Philosophy (often abbreviated PTS), MSIA's educational wing. In recent years, PTS has begun to offer a full curriculum of courses that can, if one has the proper prerequisites, lead to a Master of Theology degree. One should be careful to note, however, that, unlike traditional Christian denominations, graduation from MSIA's seminary is NOT a prerequisite for ordination as an MSIA minister. Furthermore, MSIA ministers, unlike their Christian counterparts, are not primarily church leaders. Rather, each minister develops his or her own ministry of service. Anyone who has been a member in good standing for two years can apply to become a minister, and over half of all active participants have been ordained.

In regard to its educational outreach, certain aspects of MSIA have changed significantly over the years. Thus, for example, the first educational institution to emerge out of the group - an institution now called the University of Santa Monica (USM) - has since separated itself as a distinct school catering primarily to non-MSIA members. Similarly, in the 1970s, certain MSIA participants developed educational seminars - Insight Training Seminars (later Insight Transformational Seminars) - in order to provide an intense transformational experience. These seminars can be compared to est (Erhard Seminar Trainings) and Lifespring, although Insight's emphasis was always on the ability to move beyond selfimposed limitations rather than on the intense confrontations that characterized est. Insight Seminars, like USM, has since become completely distinct from MSIA.

The core of MSIA's teaching is embodied in the Soul Awareness Discourses. The Discourses are a series of monthly lessons - lessons which are to be read, digested, and reflected upon across the course of a month's time. At present, 5000+ people study with the Church of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, which means, minimally, that they subscribe to the Soul Awareness Discourses. Somewhat more than half of these are in the United States, and the rest are in other countries, principally Mexico and Latin America; England, France, and Spain; Australia; Canada; and Nigeria.

The first year of Discourses is said to contain all of the basic information. J-R has stated, perhaps rhetorically, that if a person really "got” the first Discourse, that would be enough (there are a total of 144 Discourses). The Discourses, however, represent more than simply information. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, MSIA teaches that through reading the monthly lessons, the reader, especially if he or she is studying toward initiation, is connected in a deeper way to the Mystical Traveler Consciousness.

As evidence for the "mystical" efficacy of the Discourses, I have heard innumerable stories about how people read something in their Discourses that seemed to speak directly to their situation and that affected the course of their lives. Later, however, when they went back to try to find the particular passage that had had such an impact on them, they were unable to find it again - implying that the passage in question had appeared in their consciousness at the time, and that it was not actually a permanent part of the Discourse booklet. John-Roger has described this phenomenon in the following words:

Discourses become the point of contact for the Spirit inside of you and a point of attunement with the Mystical Traveler Consciousness. As people read them, they say, "I hear your voice reading inside of me, and I'll hear you tell me other things. " Then they'll tell somebody, "Well, in Discourse 22, J-R said so-and-so. " "But that's not in Discourse 22. " They [say], "Yeah, it is. " They go back and read it, and it's not. Later I get a letter from them in which they say, "Why did you change the material in that Discourse? I read it; it was there and then you removed it!" It's like, I haven't been to your house. I didn't remove it. How do you explain it?

The Discourses provide the reader with introductory metaphysical information about such things as the Traveler and the Light, but in line with MSIA's more affirmative attitude toward life - they also provide basic guidelines on how to walk the spiritual path in the midst of everyday life. This is reflected in the titles of the basic Soul Awareness Discourses, which range from Discourses on the nature of the Mystical Traveler Consciousness to essays on acceptance and responsibility.

If I had to summarize the central thrust of these teachings about life in the world, I would say that MSIA holds out to its students the paradoxical ideal of detached engagement:

The message of MSIA is that God is in Heaven, that there are greater realms, that you don't have to die to experience them, and that you can know the divine reality while you live on this earth.

John-Roger has, further, described the ideal of detached engagement as "living in a portable paradise":

Guidelines have been presented by the Masters of all the ages, guidelines for living your life in the Light of the Christ, in the Light of your own consciousness, free of suffering. These guidelines help you handle yourself in this world. Not handling this world too well does not stop your spiritual growth, but you'll be happier if you are handling it rather well. So if you want to be happier, it is your responsibility to learn those things that make it easier to live a successful, uplifting life here.

As long as we hold on to our attachments and continue to curse our pains, we will never really be able to gain release from this world and maintain our consciousness in the Soul realms. However, once proper detachment is gained, we are also free to enjoy ourselves in this world, the world of our everyday experience. In J-R's words from The Tao of Spirit:

Do you accomplish a lot here?

Probably not. Then what's the value here? The value here is not to accomplish a lot, because it's all been accomplished.

Your job is to become aware of the divine presence within you, which you are, and to use this level to spring into higher consciousness.

That's what this level is about. It's the springboard, not the place you stay in.

Your job is easy.

You can extract yourself from any situation that you want to,

if you're willing to pay the sacrifice

of giving up your greeds

and your pride,

and your lusts,

and your envy,

and your ego,

and just live purely in the moment.

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