This is the
ATransC Occasional Update 17
Tom Butler, (cc) 2018
(Access to other updates is at ATransC Idea Exchange)
New Book
This is a short update to announce the availability of my new book Exploring the Mindful Way. As you can see in the Table of Contents (below), this new book is a collection of 21 essays. Each has been written to answer specific questions concerning the “so what” of survival and ways for a person to consciously seek spiritual maturity.
Why This Book is Different
As a longtime seeker, I can say with confidence that phenomena such as mediumship and psychic functioning are arguably real, as they are well-supported by evidence and reasonably good science. The problem is that the models we have traditionally used to explain paranormalist phenomena are not supported by emerging understanding about our mental and spiritual nature. Consequently, and as you may have noticed, our forward progress in learning to understand and work with these phenomena has slowed.
Your Immortal Self includes a proof of the Survival Hypothesis which includes evidence of transcommunication and an explanation of the cosmology that evolves from that proof. Both are intended to explain the emerging understanding I speak of. The essays in Exploring the Mindful Way. Are written to clarify how the Implicit Cosmology and fact of survival might be applied in daily living.
To illustrate the difference between traditional and emerging understanding, consider the difference between mediumship and psychic functioning. In psychic functioning, the information is thought to come from distant viewing, the mind of other people or perhaps the mythical residual memory in the Psi Field. In mediumship, the information is thought to be coming from still sentient, survived consciousness of our friends on the other side of the veil. In the new models, both are functionally the same. The difference is in the expressed intention. It is probable that there is no residual memory, remote viewing is likely accomplished by sensing a distant place via the awareness of other minds. Most importantly, the mind of a still living person is strongly influenced by physical life but is otherwise a discarnate, survived personality.
Let me explain. There are three dominant models designed to explain reality. Of course, the Physical Hypothesis holds that there is no such thing as psychic functioning or sentient survival after physical death.
The Super-Psi Hypothesis holds that the Physical Hypothesis is correct except that there is also a subtle energy field permeating the physical called the Psi Field. It is argued that this field retains all information (thoughts and actions) which can be accessed by a person with psychic abilities. Super-Psi contends it is the psychic access of this residual information that explains apparent survival phenomena.
The only model that allows for the immortality of self is the Survival Hypothesis. It agrees with the Super Psi Hypothesis except to say that sometimes, psychically accessed information comes from personalities that may or may not be in the physical.
The Survival Hypothesis is typically referred to with no real explanation of what it includes or discussions about the implications of survival. The evidence of transcommunication is hardly ever considered.
The Trans-Survival Hypothesis is my attempt to establish the validity of the Survival Hypothesis by using both psi theory and what is being learned from transcommunication. I refer to it as the Trans-Survival Hypothesis rather than the Survival Hypothesis to indicate it is the world according to the ATransC.
If we are immortal and really continue to exist after this lifetime, there must be a nonphysical environment which we call home. We know our body dies, so what part of us is immortal? What is the nature of our immortal self? Simply believing we survive is not enough because incorrect assumptions can and do keep us from making the best choices for our progression. Having a well-defined model for survival can help us make the right choices.
A cosmology is a model of reality based on a specific set of assumption defined by a hypothesis. The Implicit Cosmology is my attempt to model the “so what” of the Trans-Survival Hypothesis. Both the Trans-Survival Hypothesis and the Implicit Cosmology are explained in detail in Your Immortal Self. As with the 21 essays of Exploring the Mindful Way, the material is also available on ethericstudies.org in slightly outdated form.
The most important implication from the Trans-Survival Hypothesis comes from the relationship between our mostly unconscious mind and our conscious awareness. The bottom line is that we experience reality as we have been taught, not as its actual nature. Consequently, what we have been taught about mediumship, psychic functioning, healing intention and meditation is probably at least partially incorrect. The techniques may work, but not necessarily for the reasons we think.
Understanding and learning to apply this different way of seeking is what I refer to as The Mindful Way.
While I think I have identified the major issues represented by this emerging paradigm, there is much to be studied and understood. Your Immortal Self and Exploring the Mindful Way represent my effort to explain the main issues so that you will be able to conduct your own study.
I should say that this is not a mindfulness book in the usual sense of self-help. For sure, there is nothing wrong with mindful living as a tool for personal improvement. I used Mindful because it is the best term I can find to describe the objective aspect of seeking spiritual maturity.
I should also say that I do not hold a Ph.D. and I am not a psychologist. The books are written from the perspective of a self-taught metaphysician and practitioner of such tools as mediumship and visual and audio forms of Instrumental TransCommunication.
Content of Exploring the Mindful Way
388 pages, 63 Pictures
Introduction to This Book
Essay 1 Conditional Free Will
Essay 2 The Mindful Way
Essay 3 Prime Imperative
Essay 4 Immortal Self-Centric Perspective
Essay 5 Ethics as a Personal Code for Mindfulness
Essay 6 Paranormalist Community
Essay 7 Clarity of Communication
Essay 8 How We Think
Essay 9 Consensus Building in the Paranormalist Community
Essay 10 Skeptic
Essay 11 Pseudoscience
Essay 12 Concerns with Wikipedia
Essay 13 Arrogance of Scientific Authority
Essay 14 Open Letter to Paranormalists
Essay 15 Let’s Talk About God
Essay 16 What is it Like on the Other Side
Essay 17 The Hermes Concepts
Essay 18 The Razor’s Edge
Essay 19 Progression, Teaching and Community
Essay 20 Law of Silence
Essay 21 Informed Regret
References and Alternative Sources
Index (paperback only)
Each essay is introduced with a short explanation of why I wrote the essay and what I hope you will learn.
From the back cover:
Immortal Self-Centric Mindfulness
The most important understanding seekers of spiritual maturity must come to is the difference between lucidity and hyperlucidity. Lucidity is the degree to which we are able to clearly sense information from our mostly unconscious mind. Hyperlucidity is a term used in the Implicit Cosmology for a complex of behaviors motivated by the belief we are lucid when we are actually only sensing what we have been taught to expect.
The second most important understanding is that lucidity is the seeker’s objective, but that it is achieved in small steps. The only real conscious influence we have on our mostly unconscious mind is the expression of intention. This means that we must learn to consciously examine what we think is true. Mind changes only slowly, and so, the seeker’s objective is to habitually express the intention to align perception with the actual nature of reality.
In the first book, Your Immortal Self, the process of consciously seeking greater lucidity is referred to as the Mindful Way. Many people practice mindfulness simply to improve personal wellbeing. A few step onto the Mindful Way to seek greater understanding of their immortal nature and the nature of the reality they inhabit. Even fewer remain as wayshowers for those who seek greater lucidity.
The fact of our immortality is explained in Your Immortal Self. This book, Exploring the Mindful Way, includes twenty-one essays explaining some of the more important concepts encountered on the Mindful Way. While you will benefit from first reading Your Immortal Self, there are sufficient explanations in this book to make it a stand-alone text.
Will you be a wayshower?
Access
The book is available as a paperback and an eBook. You should be able to find it at any online bookseller or order it from anyone with access to Ingram catalog. For convenience, the Amazon links are: Paperback; Kindle
Open for Discussion
We have kept the ATransC Idea Exchange discussion forum at atransc.org/forum/ available for anyone wishing to discuss the book and related concepts. Please consider joining in.
The Resources section of ethericstudies.org includes a page for the book. A color version of all of the pictures and diagrams is available there.
The dedicated page for this book is ethericstudies.org/exploring-the-mindful-way/
Future
My intention is that this will be my last book related to the Mindful Way. Lisa and I will now turn our attention to visual ITC, most specifically using the video-loop method. Our intention is to establish if transform EVP and visual ITC share common characteristics, as it seems they do.
Biographical
Author: (see ethericstudies.org/books-tom-butler/)
- Exploring the Mindful Way (metaphysics and personal progression) (2018, AA-EVP Publishing)
- Your Immortal Self: Exploring the Mindful Way (metaphysics, culture and transcommunication) (2016, AA-EVP Publishing)
- Handbook of Metaphysics (metaphysics) (1994, Christopher Publishing House)
- One Who Cares (novel) (1996, Northwest Publishing, Inc.)
- Two Worlds, One Heart (novel) (1995, Commonwealth Publications)
Co-Authored:
- There is No Death and There are No Dead (Education about Electronic Voice Phenomena) (2003, AA-EVP)
- 57 issues of the ATransC NewsJournal 2000 to 2014.
- Co-director Association TransCommunication (atransc.org) (formerly American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena or AA-EVP)
- Ordained, Certified Medium, Commissioned Healer and National Spiritualist Teacher with the National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC.org)
- Bachelor of Electronics Engineering
Advertising
I did not do well getting the word out about Your Immortal Self, so this time, there will be a little advertising. It came to me that a catchphrase might help. The phrase I am planning is A Different way of Seeking to highlight the ads.
Your suggestions are welcome.
That is it. Writing has taken a lot of my time and attention away from research, so we intend now to get back to basics with visual ITC. In the meantime, please consider taking advantage of the ATransC Idea Exchange for your questions and suggestions. We intend to be more present in the future. (Remember to use your real name to register.)
Tom
(cc) means this document can be used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License
