Etheric Fields

Abstract

In designing a model to describe the implications of the Trans-Survival Hypothesis, it became clear that etheric space (greater reality, nonphysical) must be described in terms of conceptual influences, rather than physical forces. The field concept best describes conceptual influences and is useful as a basic building block to model reality. This Discourse discusses the field concept and describes some of the types of fields used to model reality.

This discourse has been updated from the version included in Your Immortal Self

Introduction

Understanding the nature of reality, ourselves and our relationship with reality is the objective of personal seeking. I generalize this as seeking to understand the actual nature of reality. The Mindful Way (2) represents a useful approach to seeking. The measure of success is increasing lucidity, (3) which is thought to be essential for effective psychic functioning such as mediumship, Instrumental TransCommunication and healing intention.

While there are many ways of seeking, I find that developing a mental image of reality helps me understand what I need to focus on for further progress. From my study, modeling reality as life fields (4) and their expression is a good place to begin. Every life field has the same functional areas, but each instance of life expresses them to a different extent.

I am writing this essay with the assumption that you will read the referenced articles for background. The most common complaint I receive is that my writing is too complicated. It is true that these concepts are probably new to you, but they are important to your personal progression. Do the work by reading the material and contemplating what is said. It is important that you understand, so ask questions until you do.

Since we create our personal reality as an expression of our mostly unconscious mind, (5) (6) (7) (8) it is useful to understand the anatomy of our life field. The Life Field with Avatar Diagram ↓ illustrates the more important functional areas of our etheric nature. The Functional Areas of Perception and Expression Diagram ↓ provides a closer look at the Attention Complex, which I use to describe our mostly unconscious mind. The output of our attention complex is expression initiated by our intention but modified by Worldview.

Expression is in the form of a gestalt bundle of information representing an aspect of what is intended. Robert Monroe referred to an instance of expression as a thought ball. (9) When I refer to an expression or a thought, I am referring to a thoughtform ↓ representing the person’s sense of what is being expressed. Thoughtforms are thought ball.

Worldview can be considered a sort of etheric database or library containing etheric and human instincts, memory and cultural conditioning. Since our worldview acts as a filter for what we experience, the saying “Garbage in equals garbage out” applies here. Always pay attention to the influence of your worldview on what you think is true … about everything.

Perception takes two forms. One is what we sense about our reality but as it is moderated by Worldview. The other is feedback to conscious self in the form of conscious perception of what we express. Again, it is important to understand that we form perception of our world based on our expectation developed in the Attention Complex with Worldview as the filter. Read the Perception Discourse (10) to see how our worldview shapes what we experience.

Our only inputs to our attention complex are intention and prior experience (forming memory). Without conscious determination to manage our worldview, our thoughts and actions are directed mostly by human instincts. Worldview changes only slowly, so by habitually intending to behave differently, we can train our attention complex to override human instincts and self-serving behavior. The Conditional Free Will Essay (11) has a good discussion about this.

Life fields can be modeled as a hierarchy of nested Fields.↓ Each functional area is an etheric field. A field is defined here as a set of elements with related characteristics which are bound into a system by a common influence. In the Implicit Cosmology model, (12) the characteristics that relate the elements are defined by the intended outcome of the source personality. Intended order is explained in more detail in The Creative process Discourse. (13)

This discourse is intended to give a sense of what fields are, how they are involved in daily experience and how to apply that information to facilitate personal seeking.

Etheric Fields and Psi Fields

I refer to my study of the immortal aspect of who we are as survival metaphysics to distinguish it from the physical science perspective, usually discussed as astronomical metaphysics. I define a person as an immortal personality entangled with a human during the human’s lifetime.

Four important implications come from making a distinction between etheric space (reality) and physical space (earth and the universe):

1. The immortal (etheric) personality has the perspective that its true home is etheric space and that an avatar is a way to inhabit and experience physical space. The Conscious self perspective is that it is the avatar and that its true home is the physical. I describe this distinction as a personality self-enteric perspective versus physical self-centric perspective. (14)
2. To be useful, explanations about how things work must be based on a physical perspective but explanations about our actual nature must be based on an etheric perspective. These explanations become complicated when the other aspect is not considered. For instance, praying that someone gets well appears to be a useless act of superstition, but if the possibility of mind-to-mind exchange of information is considered, it becomes a natural expression of intention.
3. The relationship between human avatar and entangled self implies that there are two distinct sets of influences driving what we refer to as human behavior. This means that psychological models are necessarily incomplete if they do not consider our dual nature.
4. There is not a direct link between perception and expression. (5) (6) (7) (8) Understanding the effect of mostly unconscious coloring of information coming to our conscious awareness has the potential to change humankind’s sense of religion, mortality and community.

Psi Fields

It is proposed in the Implicit Cosmology (12) that everything is etheric, but that we assign physicality to some experiences. As a practical matter, our conscious self is like a roving video camera. When conscious as a person, most of what our camera records is considered physical. These concepts are explained in detail in the two books, Your Immortal Self (1) and Exploring the Mindful Way. (15)

From the physical world perspective, the study of our human nature is conducted by psychologists. Virtually all their theories about our nature are based on a physical world perspective. Paranormal phenomena are also studied from the assumption that only physical principles and human abilities are involved. These human abilities are generalized as psi functioning where psi was to be a placeholder until future science provide better definition, but psi has become standard nomenclature for mental energy.

Psychologists theorize that a subtle field of energy, referred to as a Psi Field, permeates physical space. The existence of such a field is required to explain psi functioning. The Psi Field Hypothesis holds that a field of subtle energy permeates psychical space, functioning as a media of propagation for psi influence. Further, the known physical principles of the Physical Hypothesis either do or can be modified to explain psi and psi functioning.

This is where I must explain that the psi Field Hypothesis is my definition. In fact, this discourse is being updated to better explain the Psi Field Hypothesis because I have not been able to find a good reference in public-facing parapsychological literature. I write with the intention that you will be able to learn about these subjects. Part of that is my expectation that you will follow offered references to learn from more authoritative sources. That has not been possible for this most important concept. Please be mindful that this Psi Field explanation is based on my understanding of the subject and not as published by parapsychologists.

From the perspective of survival metaphysics, Psi Field is a synonym for etheric space. They are the same. That which parapsychologists narrowly define as the Psi Field is an aspect of etheric space. The explanations about fields in this discourse apply to Psi Fields.

Contact Field

One form of etheric fields we often consciously encounter is referred to as a contact field. I discounted the idea on my first encounter with the term because it was being used in the sense of being part of a haunted building. A contact field being part of a building is a body-centric perspective that makes no metaphysical sense.

I will admit that I applied the same perspective in my proposed explanation for why EVP seem easier to record in places like old theaters and hospitals. In 2004, the way I explained it in the Frequently Asked Question What is the difference in having a haunted house and just having entities?: (16)

There is sufficient energy of the kind required for etheric to physical influences accumulated in the location to permit a haunting. This may be because of longtime human occupancy, an expression of extreme emotion (fear, love, hate) and/or because of meditation.”

On further study, it is clear that the active ingredient is not energy but is the influence of an etheric field. Haunt phenomena are not directly caused by the supposed ghost. Also, it may be initiated by the discarnate communicator, but it is enabled by a person (etheric personality entangled with a human avatar).

With that said, it appears that a contact field does develop around the thoughtform (etheric field) representing the house. Such a field may begin with the original occupants as a link of attention between the person and the place. If strong emotions are involved, the resulting emotional signature in the field might be very intense. By intense, I am not speaking of physical energy. I am speaking of a more or less strong influence representing the thoughts of the person about the place. If there is a sense of unfinished business, this link might continue long after physical death of the occupant.

Memory remains with the etheric personality and not the physical body. If many people have a similar emotional link with a location, even if they are no longer in a lifetime, the resulting field can become much more persistent with a stronger emotional signature than normal. This accumulated field can be remembrance of loving home life; however, a happy home probably does not produce a lot of angst. It is apparently a fear or need response that produces the kind of field associated with haunt phenomena.

People still in the physical add to the field if they have an emotional link with the place. They provide the conduit for the haunt phenomena by way of their expectation. That expectation may be based on memory about the place mediumistically sensed from discarnate personalities who contribute to the field. Most likely the physical person will unconsciously produce the phenomena based on how his or her worldview colors the sensed information. A lot of transcommunication phenomena is based on what witnesses acting as channels think seems right or seems logical.

Contact fields need not just involve haunt phenomena. The Grand Canyon, for instance, likely is associated with a contact field representing the feelings one has upon first viewing the immensity of the canyon. People develop a contact field by associating a place with meditation. That is why we recommend that people claim a quiet place for meditation and communion with friends on the other side. A church is just a building until it is associated with its intended spiritual thoughtform.

Rapport

Rapport is usually defined in terms of a harmonious relationship between people. In terms of the etheric, rapport is better defined as the degree of attention between two etheric personalities. According to this model, a casual thought about someone will establish a thread of influence that links self’s mostly unconscious mind with that someone’s mostly unconscious mind. This is not a physical thing. It is an influence that is a function of attention and intention.

Strong feeling will produce a more substantial link of rapport. As far as I know, it does not matter if it is positive or negative thought. The key factors are attention and intention to express a connection. The more frequent the interaction, even weak ones, the stronger the rapport becomes.

The person who is the object of the attention will be aware of the thought, but probably only unconsciously, depending on how open the person is to such influence. It is possible that no link of rapport will be established if the person has a decisive disbelief in such influence.

The inverse is true, as well. We are the receiver of numerous links of rapport. We are aware of them to the degree that we have conditioned our worldview to accept the possibility of such thoughts. Increasing lucidity (3) through the Mindful Way (2) can make us more consciously aware of those links of rapport.

Contact Field due to Rapport

A community of people tends to develop a web of links of rapport. This can be described as a contact field with shared intention to have comradery as the common influence. The Society for Research on Rapport and Psychokinesis (SORRAT) was a development circle begun as an experiment to determine the influence of rapport in a cooperating community. (17)

The idea was that the more interaction amongst members of the group, the stronger the integrating influence of rapport. The effect was thought to facilitate physical phenomena. For instance, this photograph of a 35mm film capsule levitated and passing through the glass of an aquarium is an example of physical phenomena that was quite common for the group. This is an example of matter-through-matter. No one was present and the aquarium was locked. The camera was triggered by motion sensors. (18) (17)

Quite a lot of physical phenomena were demonstrated by the circle. My sense is that the group included a strong physical medium, although I think no one stepped up to acknowledge the ability. The theory about rapport did seem to be born out, as the extent of the phenomena seemed to follow the cohesiveness of the group. I have not seen a final report to that effect, but during the letter writing study, (18) we did note several times in which letter delivery was delayed, apparently due to lack of interaction amongst the participants. It may also be that the medium was preoccupied.

Rapport in Physical Mediumship Circles

Physical mediums usually demonstrate for a group of people in what is commonly known as a séance. The FELIX Circle (19) is an example. As an observer, it is clear to me that many of the actions taken during the demonstration séances were designed to help the medium develop a contact field by bringing the sitters together as one mind with the single intention of experiencing phenomena.

Singing in religious meetings is intended to entrain the mind (attention and intention) of attendees, in effect, to produce a contact field. When a person leads a group in a chant, the chant’s cadence helps to entrain the mind of the leader and listeners in much the same way neural synchronization helps move a person into a meditative state. This group entrainment is thought to be associated with an etheric field of relatively intense rapport.

Contact with Dedicated Communicators

Physical mediums typically have a personality in the etheric that helps them. In Spiritualism, these helpers are usually known as controls because they may act as the etheric-side sponsor of the development group. The physical mediums I have known treat their control as a senior partner and defer to the perceived wishes about how the circle should be managed.

Some EVP practitioners I know maintain a relationship with one or more frequent communicators on the other side. In some cases, it is a known loved one. It can be reasonably certain who the communicator is because mannerisms, comments, and in some cases, recordings made of their voice before and after transition are the same. (20)

A well-considered study of the Jane Roberts’ Seth Material has shown reasonably high confidence that a personality other than Jane Roberts or her husband is the source. (21) This study indicates that some channeled material is possibly from a discarnate source. Use caution when applying this research to other channels. Hyperlucidity remains a problem. (3)

Seth indicated he was a group personality. The same applies to the SORRAT communicators, which referred to themselves as the Imperator Group. Other mediums have also reported contact with a group of the same name. The communicating group may use a fictitious name simply as a tool for conversation and will seldom encourage people in the physical to focus on their personality. This is to avoid the development of a personality cult. It is the message that they emphasize.

If successful, practitioners seem to first contact what seems like a passing personality instead of someone specific. If the person is trying to reach a loved one, it is possible contact with that personality will be made, but there seems to be a learning curve on both sides of the veil. The ATransC Big Circle is a good example of the way practitioners might contact a specific person. (22)

It has become popular for practitioners to report being in contact with a dedicated group of communicators on the other side who identify themselves as a station. Identifying as a station is functionally the same as identifying as a group or a title of a group such as Imperator. It appears to be a cultural difference and seems to have been introduced to the USA from Europe and South America.

It is also common for practitioner to report contact with a famous person. In some cases, more than one practitioner might report contact with the same personality. Based on other aspects of trans-etheric phenomena, it is becoming evident that the intention to contact famous people forms a link with the thoughtform representing the intended personality. The thoughtform is not the personality but represents the accumulated lore about the personality.

Here, it is necessary to distinguish between lucid and imagined contact with a loved one, intended personality or group of personalities. I refer to imagined experiences as hyperlucidity which is the tendency to find phenomena everywhere despite considerable testimony to the contrary by peers.

None of us know enough to say with certainty that a person is or is not in contact with a celebrity; however, it is probable that the person is making such a claim out of ego, rather than reasonable evidence. Hyperlucidity is based on unconscious belief in something that many not be supported by good evidence. While such claims are not typically deception, it is always best to error on the side of caution.

My recommendation is that practitioners focus on content of the communication rather than the communicating personality. There is no real precedence for being special and being in contact with a special station. It is more how the practitioner attributes the contact. The quality of being a special communicator comes from hard work, and we think, a degree of ability acquired prior to this life experience. Claiming to have a special station is the same as saying the practitioner is part of the in crowd and those who are not connected, are not.

Expression and Perception

The Creative Process can be defined as the process of expressing a visualized influence on reality to produce a new and intended order. The key term is expression. The creative process represents the expression function of the Attention Complex which is our mostly unconscious mind. As with all functions of the Attention Complex, expression is moderated by Worldview. A good discussion of these concepts is in the Conditional Freewill Essay. (11)

The concept of etheric fields is closely associated with the idea of intended order (the result of expression). That is, we initiate an expression—we intend—by first ordering our thoughts and selecting the appropriate action from our worldview. The selected action becomes what we express into etheric space as a movement command to our body, a thoughtball to another personality or a psychokinetic influence.

Origin of an Etheric Field

In the Implicit Cosmology, the most fundamental expression of mind is referred to a thoughtform. ↓ They initiate etheric fields. The central concept of the thought acts as the bounding attractor to the field.

Thoughtforms are typically associated with things (car, tree, Sally) and concepts (transportation, plants, friend). They are organized as hierarchies of nested fields. ↓ The selection of which part of the hierarchy is accessed is based on intention and limited by perceptual agreement. ↓

Thoughtforms may be expressed by an individual, but most are formed as a shared field. The transportation thoughtform, for instance, is a culturally modified representation of the concept. If one of the ways I think of transportation is as flying saucers, at least to some small extent, when you access the thoughtform, included in your sense of it will be flying saucers.

Thoughtforms are expressed with attention on a specific instance of intended order. They are sustained by continued attention, and in principle, dissipate when the attention is removed. However, memory of them remains in worldview. The difference in being a memory or a thoughtform is that thoughtforms can be accessed by other personalities while access to personality’s memory held in worldview is filtered by that personality’s perceptual loop.

Once a thoughtform is established by one personality, it can be sustained if other personalities add their attention. As a practical matter, I expect the majority of thoughtforms are sustained by many personalities so that one losing interest would only diminish the field, but the field would not dissipate.

Thoughtforms tend to attract or be attracted by related thoughtform. This is where the idea of a nested hierarchy of thoughtforms come in. Resist thinking of thoughtforms as bubbles or orbs. They have no shape in the physical sense, only relationships. Think of them as an infinite number of singularities-like packets that only have the characteristics of information and importance. The information dimension might consist of the usual who, what, why and relationship to other concepts kind of information. The importance dimension might consist of a sense of the usefulness of the information to the wellbeing of interested personalities.

Access to Thoughtform Content is Limited by Worldview

This idea of a shared thoughtform provides a hint about how we can psychically access information. One of the Organizing Principles that limit our access to parts of reality is the Principle of Perceptual Agreement which holds that personality must be in perceptual agreement with the aspect of reality with which it will associate. (23)

If we have been taught that cars have three wheels, and if we accept that as truth, our worldview will tend to limit our perception of the car thoughtform to three-wheeled cars. In the same way, to remotely viewing a distant city, we access the etheric field associated with that place. Training in remote viewing (clairvoyance) includes learning to resist expecting certain outcomes. If our expectation is that there must be a capital building in the city center, even if it is an unconscious expectation, we will find it difficult to see that there is a park there instead.

The Organizing Principle of Perceptual Agreement provides an important hint about how to develop psychic ability. You will be unsuccessful as a psychic if you cannot imagine the outcome of a supposedly psychic exercise. That is, if your worldview has been conditioned not to accept the possibility. As I describe it in my writing, the Mindful Way represents a useful approach to spiritual progression. (2)

Hierarchy of Nested Fields

Reality is modeled in the Implicit Cosmology as a hierarchy of nested fields, in that there are many rounds of aspectation as mostly autonomous aspects seek to further refine the venue for their learning. Aspects remain associated with their source by way of a thread of influence (rapport) described as entanglement. (23)

If etheric fields are the building blocks of reality, hierarchies of nested fields are the basic architecture of reality. Biological organisms can also be modeled as a hierarchy of nested fields. That is discussed in the Morphic Fields Section. ↓

We also see this effect of nested fields in the way people interact, with each other, within groups and with places. That is discussed in the Contact Field Section. ↑

Sensing Reality

It is important to note that, as modeled in the Implicit Cosmology, a personality is only able to sense the physical via an avatar. A physical stimulus is translated into a nonphysical signal as an input to the Perceptual Loop. That process is filtered by Worldview and what can be perceived by personality depends on the outcome of that process.

As discussed in the essay on perception the Perceptual Loop in the Attention Complex (mostly unconscious mind) uses Worldview to filter what becomes available to the conscious self. Access to the raw psi and physical inputs to mostly unconscious mind (psi functioning) is a question of the conscious self’s ability to manage that process by managing the content of Worldview.

In this way, psychic ability is seen as the ability to access psi signature from other etheric fields, especially the worldview of life fields, and become consciously aware of the information. This is referred to as anomalous information access in parapsychology. For instance, a remote viewer is seen as being able to access the psi signature of the place, but in the Implicit Cosmology, it is seen as more likely that the remote viewer is sensing the place as it is either being seen or as it is remembered by other personalities via their avatar.

Etheric Field Characteristics

These explanations are written from the perspective of a physical person experiencing the etheric. The way we experience the etheric will change some as we gain lucidity and learn to move our point of view away from, I am my body, to, I am just experiencing a lifetime with my body.

• Nonlocal – They are ubiquitous (everywhere at once). Psychic phenomena do not seem to be affected by distance. For instance, Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) can be recorded in real time by a practitioner in New York for a person in Chicago who is trying to contact a person who transitioned in Sacramento. Also, in EVP, it does not matter who is operating the communication device. That is why I say practitioner or interested observer.

Parapsychologists use nonlocal in the sense that etheric space is holographic. In other words, an effect felt or sensed in one place can be equally sensed everywhere. This explanation is based on the assumption that the physical universe is reality (Physical Hypothesis).

Explaining the same characteristic based on the assumption that the physical universe is an aspect of the greater reality (Survival Hypothesis), nonlocal is better characterized as everywhere is here. In the etheric, movement is accomplished by changing one’s mind. Distance is a perceptual artifact experienced when a person changes mental references, say, from imagining one’s self in New York to being in Sacramento.

In a very real sense, each of us is the Axis Mundi (24) spoken of in many systems of thought as the center of the world or connection between heaven and earth. We share reality with all life fields, but metaphysically, all life fields are one. This is what is demonstrated by the effect of nonlocality.

The idea that “we are many, but we are one” has special meaning here. Think of yourself as a singer in a choir. During a physical lifetime, you are singing a solo while the rest of the choir is singing the chorus. When you transition out of this lifetime, you will in effect, step back into the choir to sing the chorus in support of different soloists.

• Homogenous – Consistently ordered by organizing principles. (23)
• Thought objects rather than physical objects – Terms like wave and frequency have no meaning when discussing etheric fields. Instead, use:
  • Concepts—the idea of something rather than the physical instance of that thing.
  • Influences (want, love, visualized intention) rather than forces (gravity, magnetic, centripetal).
  • Fields (communities, collectives, hierarchies) rather than place relationships (a pair of shoes, twins, solar system). For instance, The USA can be modeled as a field with the US Constitution as the attractor and resulting organizing principles as the influence which define the extent of the field known as the USA.
  • Difference in potential is the influence of intentionality on potential characteristics of intended order fields.
  • In the etheric or conceptual space, attention provides the unit of influence and intention provides the difference in potential.
• Bounded by Perceptual Agreement: Movement in etheric space is a change in perceived place directed by intention but limited by the ability to visualize the new place. The ability to visualize the new place is limited by perception which is moderated by the person’s worldview. Therefore, the ability to associate with any aspect of reality is seen to be limited by personal reality held in worldview.

A consequence of Perceptual Agreement (25) is that for etheric fields, and especially life fields which intend the characteristics of individual fields, movement in the etheric is by changing perception. As such an etheric equivalent of physical propagation is the process of changing perception.

• Influenced by intentionality: Etheric fields are responsive to intention for the manifestation of intended order. Again, the effectiveness of the influence of intention is limited by worldview.
• A precursor to objective reality: Physical energy and matter are seen as a result of the influence of intention on an etheric field. That is, physical energy and matter are expressions of life fields.

Biology

Describing a person as an immortal personality entangled with a human during the human’s lifetime requires an explanation for the difference between an etheric life field and a physical organism. I have shown in the Life Field Complex Diagram ↑ that avatars (our human) are supported by a Body Mind.

The Body Mind is functionally equivalent to the Personality shown in the blue functional area for our life field. The Body Image is equivalent to the Intelligent Core shown in the blue functional area. The yellow functional area for the human, shown as Morphic Memory, is the same as our Attention Complex. I did not show the details, but the Yellow area for Morphic Memory has the same functional areas shown in the Attention Complex.

The bright-blue area of the Body Mind representing human instincts is merged with Worldview in our Attention Complex. A feedback link is shown between our Attention Complex and the Morphic memory, which represents the mechanism by which our human may evolve its instincts.

The point is that both life fields are qualitatively the same, but functionally different, depending on purpose. During avatar entanglement, they share some functions.

Following the idea of a hierarchy of nested fields, our life field is part of collective sharing a common local source. You and I may be in different collectives, but we all share the same venue for learning. We are mostly independent, but we are turned toward a common urge of our collective to gain specific understanding.

In a manner of speaking, the common source of a collective, and the collective, represents a group consciousness. The Body Mind of our human represents its group consciousness. We do not know the relationship between an individual biological organism and its group consciousness. We are only able to speculate about ours.

Morphic Fields

The Hypothesis of Formative Causation proposed by Rupert Sheldrake gives us a sense of how the Body Mind might be modeled. It also hints at how our collective conscious needs to be modeled. The hypothesis is better known as Morphic Fields or Morphic Resonance. Since this is likely a new concept for you, it is important that the new terms are understood as Sheldrake intends, so from Sheldrake’s Glossary: (26)

Morphic Field – A field within and around a morphic unit which organizes its characteristic structure and pattern of activity. Morphic fields underlie the form and behaviour of holons or morphic units at all levels of complexity. The term morphic field includes morphogenetic, behavioural, social, cultural, and mental fields. Morphic fields are shaped and stabilized by morphic resonance from previous similar morphic units, which were under the influence of fields of the same kind. They consequently contain a kind of cumulative memory and tend to become increasingly habitual.

Field – A region of physical influence. Fields interrelate and interconnect matter and energy within their realm of influence. Fields are not a form of matter; rather, matter is energy bound within fields. In current physics, several kinds of fundamental field are recognized: the gravitational and electro-magnetic fields and the matter fields of quantum physics. The hypothesis of formative causation broadens the concept of physical fields to include morphic fields as well as the known fields of physics.

Habit – A bodily or mental disposition; a settled tendency to appear or behave in a certain way, generally acquired by frequent repetition; a settled practice, custom, or usage. The word habit also means dress or attire, as in a monk’s habit. In biology, it is used to refer to the characteristic mode of growth or appearance of a plant or animal; and crystallographers refer to the habits of crystals, meaning the characteristic forms they assume. On the hypothesis of formative causation, the nature of morphic units at all levels of complexity tends to become increasingly habitual through repetition, owing to morphic resonance.

Holon – A whole that can also be part of a larger whole. Holons are organized in multi-levelled nested hierarchies or holarchies. This term, due to Arthur Koestler, is equivalent in meaning to morphic unit (q.v.).

Hypothesis of Formative Causation – The hypothesis that organisms or morphic units (q.v.) at all levels of complexity are organized by morphic fields, which are themselves influenced and stabilized by morphic resonance (q.v.) from all previous similar morphic units.

Morphic Resonance – The influence of previous structures of activity on subsequent similar structures of activity organized by morphic fields. Through morphic resonance, formative causal influences pass through or across both space and time, and these influences are assumed not to fall off with distance in space or time, but they come only from the past. The greater the degree of similarity, the greater the influence of morphic resonance. In general, morphic units closely resemble themselves in the past and are subject to self-resonance from their own past states.

Morphic Unit – A unit of form or organization, such as an atom, molecule, crystal, cell, plant, animal, pattern of instinctive behaviour, social group, element of culture, ecosystem, planet, planetary system, or galaxy. Morphic units are organized in nested hierarchies of units within units: a crystal, for example, contains molecules, which contain atoms, which contain electrons and nuclei, which contain nuclear particles, which contain quarks.

Morphogenesis – The coming into being of form.

Nature – Traditionally personified as Mother Nature. The creative and controlling power operating in the physical world, and the immediate cause of all phenomena within it. Or the inherent and inseparable combination of qualities essentially pertaining to anything and giving it its fundamental character. Or the inherent power or impulse by which the activity of living organisms is directed or controlled. From the conventional point of view of science, nature is made up of matter, fields, and energy and is governed by the laws of nature, usually thought to be eternal.

Morphogenesis is the process in which a cell is differentiated into another cell. Remembering that an organism begins as a single cell, all the cells have the same genes. How a cell knows to divide into a skin cell or bone cell, for instance, is one of the mysteries of nature that has yet to be reasonably well modeled using mainstream science.

Rupert Sheldrake developed the Hypothesis of Formative Causation as a possible explanation for how morphogenesis is controlled. (27) Formative Causation holds that morphogenesis is managed by way of fields which represent each element of an organism. A human body has a field, as does each skin, bone and flesh cell, each kind with its attendant field. The field is defined by a set of instructions which orchestrates the formation and activity of its part of the organism. This is a hierarchy of nested fields model.

The instructions are based on what Sheldrake referred to as Nature’s Habit. In other words, the attendant morphic fields (aka morphogenetic fields) cause their part of the organism to form and function by way of morphic resonance based on how that part has always been formed. This theory does allow for gradual changes based on successful creative solutions to environmental challenges which are inherited by the morphogenetic memory of the species.

Since I am not an expert in the hypothesis, it is a good idea to read Sheldrake’s Morphic Resonance and Morphic Fields article. (27)

Biological Organisms and Body Consciousness

To my knowledge, Sheldrake did not speak in terms of etheric space. However, a nested hierarchy of morphic fields representing an instance of a living organism models the same way a life field models for our immortal personality. As discussed above, our human avatar’s life field is at least partially integrated with ours during lifetime entanglement.

The Hypothesis of Formative Causation requires an immortal aspect with functional areas supporting Nature’s Habit (Worldview) and evolution (Perceptual Loop in the Attention Complex). The relationship between the top life field of a biological organism and a nested life field supporting a skin cell, for instance, models more like our relationship with our local source. In that comparison, all related skin cells would be in a collective of life fields which are likened to a common source representing Nature’s Habit.

A final comment on this, In the concept of transmigration (related to reincarnation), through many life cycles, a soul is thought to be born into increasingly complex avatars until it finally joins with a human. The idea that we might have once been a plant, bug or dog does not sit well with most of us. But, most of us who accept survival, also accept that we will eventually find ourselves in a different venue for learning … not necessarily on earth, and therefore, not necessarily as a human. That is little different than transmigrating from a bug to a human. I do not know, and the subject is a little outside of this cosmology; however, be aware that our animal friends may well have been us at one time or could be next time around.

Fields in the Form of …

Here is a brief list of the various ways in which you will encounter the field concept:

Etheric Field – A field is defined here as a set of elements with related characteristics which are bound into a system by a common influence. The field concept is used as a building block for reality. Of course, everything is in the etheric and physical is an aspect of the etheric. While we will speak in terms of one kind of field or another, it is important to remember that they all have essentially the same fundamental characteristics. ↑

Reality Field – Source as the top field, is considered the reality field in this cosmology. While there may be something outside of the reality field, the scope of this cosmology is limited to within the field. In the same way, the life field of our local source is our reality field. All that means for us is that we cannot know the nature of the greater reality (actual reality) until we have progressed with our source to whatever next step in our evolution to come.

Venue Field – In this model, any field that becomes a container for experience is considered a venue field. It inherits characteristics of the source life field based on habit differentiated by intended outcome. A venue field may be as simple as imagined by a person to explore how it might be to drive a new car.

A venue may also be one evolved by a collective. The physical universe is considered an aspect of the reality field. It has been differentiated as a subset of a personal reality held by one or a collective of personalities (life fields). While we have been taught to think of these things in the physical as objective, they are intended order fields from the etheric perspective. This means that they are subject to the outcome and limitations of a personality’s Perceptual Loop.

Life Fields – Life fields are expressions of Source and inherit their formative image (Nature’s Habits) and instincts (urge to gain understanding) from Source. Life fields are entangled with Source. They are etheric fields which have a personality as the observer and source of purpose, an intelligent core as a formative principle, a mostly unconscious mind as judge and conscious self as experiencer.

In the Implicit Cosmology, the nested hierarchy of reality contains only life fields and their expressions. That means all other forms of etheric fields are expressions of life fields.

In the Hypothesis of Formative Causation, nature’s habit which guides a morphic field would be the Attention Complex. The core intelligence of the morphic field would be that which manages perception and expression. The fields are nested, in that, a human organism is formed as a hierarchy of life fields. See the Life Field with Avatar Diagram. ↑

Thoughtform – As a rudimentary etheric field, thoughtforms contain information about a specific subject. As an etheric field, they may be nested so that a transportation thoughtform, for instance, may contain information about all forms of transportation while a red wagon thoughtform would contain information specific to red wagons and would be a subset of the transportation thoughtform.

For perspective, elements of a thoughtform are not piled into a bundle as we have been taught to visualize physical fields. As sets of related concepts, they are entangled with a core concept (wagon, red wagon), but might originate anywhere in reality. The only rule for association appears to be perceptual agreement: although all related concepts would be attracted to the core concept, personality would only be able to access those it is able to perceive (comprehend). The elements of a thoughtform are nonlocal.

Contact Field – Can be considered a special case of entangled thoughtforms producing a form of influence toward intended order. The rapport of cooperation amongst people builds what might be thought of as a contact field which facilitates etheric-to-physical influences, probably because of the accumulated expectation associated with the subject.

We normally think of intention as the external influence of thoughtforms, but here, expectation appears to be the form in which intention is expressed. That is, an expectation to experience whatever the thoughtform represents.

A contact field can also be thought of as a type of thoughtform which becomes entangled with a group of people. Such a thoughtform may support similar trans-etheric influences which otherwise required the entanglement of a personality-avatar relationship. In one form, this is seen in reportedly haunted places, but more generally, it is seen in churches and places often considered with reverence. As we learned in the ATransC, a distributed community is capable of building a contact field.

Spiritualist development circles can develop substantial contact fields by way of rapport amongst member sitters, focused intention and long-time association. It is thought that this accumulated field facilitates trans-etheric influences.

Intention Field – Expression of intention (intended outcome) is generally thought of as a thoughtform which acts as a formative influence for physical action (motion, voice), conscious thought or an intended order field. Intention fields persist as long as the personality maintains attention on the intended outcome.

Potential Field – Events are accompanied by a probability signature referred to here as a potential field. In this concept, an event might exist in the etheric as a potential to occur. Each potential field represents the possible characteristics of an event, so that an event that has occurred may have been preceded by many potential fields representing different or optional potential outcomes.

Events are a product of the Creative Process and the potential field is characterized according to the quality of attention, clarity of visualized outcome and extent of intention to make it so. The lifecycle model for an event begins with the inclination to do something. The actual decision to act may never come and the possible way to act may take many forms. Each possible way to act that emerges into the creative process is thought to produce a potential field. How far into the process the event progresses determines the influence of the potential field. (13)

Based on this concept in the Implicit Cosmology, precognition might be explained as a person sensing these potential fields in their current state. While they represent possible outcomes, they are thought to contain only the logical extension of current states. The actual realization of the potential dependent on circumstances at the time of their realization.

Psi Field – Psi is a place keeper term used in parapsychology for an as yet undefined characteristic of reality which is experienced as a media for propagation of intentionality. It is identified in such abilities as remote viewing and distant influence of intentionality.

While physical energy is local and time-dependent, as defined in parapsychology, the Psi Field is experienced as being everywhere at the same time and as being independent of time. The term, psi, is often used in the Implicit Cosmology as it is intended in parapsychology. Psi Fields are modeled as etheric fields.

Concluding Observations

Fields are not things so much as they are intention moderated characteristic of reality. I model them as fields because that is the closest normal idea I can find to explain a very abstract concept. So far, nothing I have found in the etheric is specifically this or that. That is probably because we are the creators. As you know from your own imaging of the world, we are neither exact or consistent in our expressions.

Much of what is real or actual is held that way by a consensus of intention from the community. For instance, New York is the way it is because everyone agrees it is that way. The New York thoughtform has evolved since the earliest settlers. Following the Organizing Principle I call perceptual agreement, ↑ it began based on what people knew from the old world. Evolution is slow because memory resists change.

Thinking about the world around you in terms of thoughtforms, rather than simply things or even people, can help you understand the relationship between what you experience and what is actual. Of course, you need to understand a little about how we think, (3) but is a different essay.

References

1. Butler, Tom. Your Immortal Self, Exploring the Mindful Way. AA-EVP Publishing, 2016. ISBN 978-0-9727493-8-1.
2. Butler, Tom. “The Mindful Way.” Etheric Studies. 2014. ethericstudies.org/mindfulness/.
3. Butler, Tom. “How We Think.” Etheric Studies. 2014. ethericstudies.org/how-we-think/.
4. Butler, Tom. “Life Field.” Etheric Studies. 2014. ethericstudies.org/life-field/.
5. Carpenter, James. “First Sight: A Model and A Theory of Psi.” James Carpenter website. 2014. drjimcarpenter.com/about/documents/FirstSightformindfield.pdf.
6. Ropeik, David. “The Greatest Threat of All: Human Instincts Overwhelm Reason.” Psychology Today. 2015. psychologytoday.com/blog/how-risky-is-it-really/201501/the-greatest-threat-all-human-instincts-overwhelm-reason.
7. Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. “Decision-making May Be Surprisingly Unconscious Activity.” Science Daily. 2008. sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080414145705.htm.
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9. Russell, Ronald. “Far Journeys by Robert Monroe: An Excerpt from the new book.” Intuitive Connections Network. 1992. intuitive-connections.net/2007/book-monroe.htm. ISBN-10: 0385231822.
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18. Grattan-Guinness, I. “Real Communication? Report on a SORRAT Letter-Writing Experiment.” Journal of Scientific Exploration, 1999, Vol. 13. citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.518.5976&rep=rep1&type=pdf.
19. Mügge, Kai. “Felix Experimental Group.” Felix Experimental Group. felixcircle.blogspot.com/.
20. P. Presi, D. Gullà, G. Gagliardi, G. Lenzi. “SFINGE Project: Instrumental Analysis of EVP Collected via a Sound-Psi Interaction.” Association TransCommunication. 2006. atransc.org/presi-analysis-of-evp/.
21. Cunningham, Paul F. “The Content-Source Problem in Modern Mediumship Research.” Rivier University, Department of Psychology. The Journal of Parapsychology, 76(2), 295-319., 2012. rivier.edu/faculty/pcunningham/Publications/CunninghamJP_Fall-2012-Vol-76-(2)-295-319.pdf.
22. Butler, Tom and Butler, “Lisa. Big Circle Recording Sessions.” Association TransCommunication. 2006. atransc.org/big-circle-recording-sessions/.
23. Butler, Tom. “Organizing Principles.” Etheric Studies. 2015. ethericstudies.org/organizing-principles/.
24. Crystal, Ellie. “Axis Mundi.” Crystalinks. crystalinks.com/axismundi.html.
25. Butler, Tom. “Perceptual Agreement.” Etheric Studies. 2015. ethericstudies.org/perceptual-agreement/.
26. Sheldrake, Rupert, PhD. “Glossary.” Rupert Sheldrake, Biologist and Author. sheldrake.org/research/glossary.
27. Sheldrake, Rupert PhD. “Morphic Resonance and Morphic Fields.” Rupert Sheldrake. sheldrake.org/research/morphic-resonance/introduction?.
28. Butler, Tom. “Trans-Survival Hypothesis.” Etheric Studies. 2015. ethericstudies.org/trans-survival-hypothesis/.
29. Butler, Tom. “Source.” Etheric Studies. 2015. ethericstudies.org/source/.