Extraordinary Mind
Integrated Intelligence and the Future Marcus T. Anthony (PhD) Foreword by futurist Tom Lombardo (PhD)
What if we could develop the ability to see into the past, present and future? Integrated Intelligence is the natural human ability to connect with a greater universal mind. Futurist and visionary Marcus T. Anthony shows you that this evolutionary breakthrough is here, now! Whether it be discussing artificial intelligence, chasing UFOs, connecting with otherworldly beings, or dreaming the future, Dr. Anthony entertains and enthralls, expanding our understanding of the cosmos in which we live. In Extraordinary Mind you will discover: • Your ability to develop an extraordinary mind is not a question of “if”, but “when.” • The six key abilities of Integrated Intelligence, and how to apply them. • Why the secret of Integrated Intelligence is a crucial part of human futures. • Why Integrated Intelligence is widely misunderstood in modern science. • What Deep Futures are, and why they are vital for planetary survival. Extraordinary Mind is thought provoking and deeply confronting. It is inspiring reading for anyone passionate about human futures. Marcus T. Anthony is an elected member of The World Futures Studies Federation and The Darwin Project Council. His books, academic papers and popular articles have been read by hundreds of thousands of people around the world. To learn more about Dr. Anthony, go to www.22cplus.blogspot.com
Benjamin Franklin Press Asia • Hong Kong US $17.95 / GBP £11.95 / EUR 13.95
Please enjoy this free extract from Marcus T. Anthony’s Extraordinary Mind: Integrated Intelligence and the Future. To learn more about the book or to purchase your very own copy, go to:
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Extraordinary Mind Integrated Intelligence and the Future ∆∆∆ Marcus T. Anthony
Benjamin Franklin Press Asia · Hong Kong © 2010
Published by Benjamin Franklin Press Asia 3C, Costa Court 28 Costa Ave., La Costa Discovery Bay, Lantau Island Hong Kong Website: www.eastwestfutures.com Text copyright © 2010, Marcus T. Anthony Foreword © 2010, Tom Lombardo All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher.
2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America.
ISBN 978-0-9807058-1-2
Acknowledgments A big thanks to all those people who have regularly visited my blog, www.22cplus.blogspot.com. In particular, thanks to Trish and Rob Macgregor (www.ofscarabs.blogspot.com), and Nancy (www.lifeinthesecondhalf.blogspot.com), who have regularly read and commented on my writings online. An extra big thanks to my good friend Simon Buckland (http://simonbuctheblogoflove.blogspot.com). Simon has regularly critiqued my work and encouraged me to keep going, despite numerous challenges and setbacks. Many thanks also go to Nina Wegner. This book wouldn’t be here if it were not for her wonderful editing. She has worked enthusiastically to correct the errors and shortcomings in the text, and to get it to you, the reader, in a format which is easy on the eye. In the futures studies community I owe a debt of gratitude to Professor Sohail Inayatullah (www.metafuture.org). Sohail has taught me more about the future than any other person, and especially how to look at the future in depth. There would be no Deep Futures without him. Thanks also to the continued mentorship of Dr. David Loye (www.davidloye.com). I am indebted to all my spiritual teachers. You will read about some of them inside. Finally, I have to thank the wisdom of Integrated Intelligence. Whenever I write I always feel that I am being guided by a greater hand than my own. Much of the knowledge and wisdom you find herein can be credited to that mystical source. —Marcus
For Sohail Inayatullah The inspiration for Deep Futures
Table of Contents Foreword by Tom Lombardo (PhD) Introduction: What Does It Mean to Have an Extraordinary Mind?
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Section 1: About Integrated Intelligence What Is Integrated Intelligence? Where Integrated Intelligence Comes From Is the Psychic Real? Should We Pursue Psychic Development? Transcending the Rational Mind The Greatest Gift
15 16 21 24 28 34 39
Section 2: Tales of Integrated Intelligence Bright Lights in the Sky The Aboriginal Shaman Woman The Amazing Power of Synchronicity An Extraordinary Woman, an Extraordinary Time Entangled Minds The Terror and the People Out of Body, Out of Mind? The Long Journey into Now Go West!
43 44 46 51 54 60 64 68 72 77
Section 3: Applying Integrated Intelligence The INI Tools Can Psychic Ability Be Developed? Can We See into the Future? Making Wise Decisions Using Integrated Intelligence
81 82 91 94
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Is Your Spirituality Delusional? Can Intuition Be Distorted by Those Around You? Reading Synchronicity Are You Living Your Bliss? The Idiot Opposite Me The Great Fall of Sedona You Attract What You Are, Not What You Want The Not-So-Simple Law of Attraction
101 107 111 114 119 126 129 132
Section 4: Integrated Intelligence in the Modern World Deep Futures: Beyond the Machine Sleepwalking Through the Extraordinary The IT Trap I See Dead People How to Make Monday Disappear Forever The Subway as a Path to Enlightenment He Stoops to Belong The Dead Heart of the Orient
139 140 142 145 148 151 154 158 161
Section 5: Integrated Intelligence and Education The Machine of Modern Education Piled Higher and Deeper The Battlefields of the Mind How Darwin Lost Half His Mind When the Loonies Come Round A Rejected Genius Who Dared Say “No!”
165 166 170 173 177 180 186
Section 6: Integrated Intelligence and Human Consciousness Evolution How Enlightened are You? Can Consciousness Levels be Measured? When Gaia Speaks Obama: Saviour or Anti-Christ? The Death of Michael Jackson
189 190 194 198 201 204
Love Is Blindness China, Islam, the Love and the Anger Section 7: Thinking About the Future 2012: The End of the World? Digging Deeper for Oil Entanglement: The Next Big Idea? Entanglement and Deep Connection Biophobia: Be Very Afraid! Mechanical Mind, Mechanical Eye Will You Fall in Love With Your Robot Psychiatrist? Rise of the Machines, Ascent of the Spirit Like Tears in the Rain When the Aliens Come, What Will You Say? They Come to Feast!
207 212 219 220 221 227 231 234 238 250 256 259 261 267
Conclusion: Integrated Intelligence and the Future
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Appendices Glossary of Important Terms Other Books and Writings by Marcus T. Anthony Recommended Reading About Marcus T. Anthony Working and Learning with Marcus T. Anthony About Benjamin Franklin Press Asia Index
277 281 284 287 288 291 293
Foreword By Tom Lombardo, Ph.D. Marcus Anthony in Extraordinary Mind argues that our present “Money and Machines” dominated mindset and lifestyle is shallow and limiting, producing negative effects on human consciousness, civilization, and the earth, and that this dominant materialistic, high-tech, capitalistic paradigm generates constrained and shallow visions of the future. As an alternative, Marcus argues that we expand our vision of reality, of what makes life meaningful, of the nature of intelligence and consciousness, and in so doing, transform and expand our ideas about the future—envisioning “Deep Futures”—futures that go beyond the prevalent narrow, lopsided visions of much of the modern and modernising world. I agree. As I have argued in my book Contemporary Futurist Thought, and various articles on my website, any viable and inspiring image of the future must be “integrative”, addressing all the major dimensions of human reality, from science, technology, and economic growth to human values, art, psychology, consciousness, and human relations. It is not enough to get richer and acquire more “things.” We must evolve; people must get better, individually and collectively. Further, any understanding of the nature of who and what we are and how we can grow must be holistic, including all the major dimensions of the human mind and consciousness. Marcus argues similarly. I have proposed that the connected journeys of wisdom and enlightenment and the pursuit of character virtues should be central to our vision of a preferable future. Though I define wisdom somewhat differently than Marcus, he clearly sees the central importance of wisdom in creating a preferable and “deep future” vision of tomorrow.
I particularly like his definition contained in this book, “Wisdom results from the capacity to create a life that is deeply meaningful and in alignment with a person’s highest needs.” Marcus also argues that human intelligence and cognition goes beyond rationality and logic. Again, not to discount the human capacity for reason, I agree that there is more than linear rationality to human cognition. Marcus proposes that intuition and insight are equally important, and though we may differ on how to describe these extra-rational cognitive capacities, I generally agree. We must broaden our notion of intelligence, and that is a central point in his theory of Integrated Intelligence. Marcus dives into the mystery of consciousness. Materialistic visions of reality have great difficulty explaining what consciousness is and why consciousness exists. Consciousness is an essential feature of human reality. Any theory of human nature and intelligence must come to grips with consciousness. Marcus argues that mind, intelligence, and consciousness are not localised (simply) in the body/brain. There is significant evidence to support this contention. Mind and consciousness are ecological—even cosmic—realities. Marcus believes that the cosmos possesses an intelligence. Is this a possibility? What would it mean? Though I would not explain this possible reality the same way he does, I think he is on to something of extreme importance in understanding the nature of who and what we are and our connection with the universe. Any theory of a preferable future should be grounded in a sufficiently profound and deep understanding of the nature of human existence and cosmic reality. Extraordinary Mind transverses a host of varied and thoughtprovoking topics, including brains and artificial intelligence, synchronicity, phobias about nature, aliens, psychic phenomena, the flaws in our present educational system, contemporary physics, messiahs and the anti-Christ, group think and social ostracism, Gaia and nature, delusions/illusions/hallucinations and much more. The book is clear, engaging, and well written. It is a trip.1 1. See the Recommended Reading section at the back of this book for references to Tom Lombardo’s books.
Introduction What Does It Mean to Have an Extraordinary Mind? What does it mean to have an extraordinary mind? The word ‘extraordinary’ literally means ‘beyond ordinary’, so by definition, few people have the kind of mind that I write about in this book. That extraordinary mind belongs to a person who has developed what I call “Integrated Intelligence”, or INI for short. INI is the innate ability to perceive and use spiritual intuition in your everyday life. This kind of spiritual knowledge presents itself in many different ways, and it is true that each person’s preferred ways of knowing are a little different. In my own life I have accessed Integrated Intelligence through dreams and visions, words and songs that pop into my head, and through getting an immediate and deep knowing about whether something is right or wrong. Synchronicities, deeply meaningful coincidences which occur spontaneously, have also been an invaluable source of INI in my life. As I shall explain in Section 1, this spiritual perception has various sources. These can include extra-sensory perception; the connectivity resulting from the sudden collapse of the distance’ between self and the thing you are perceiving; from a higher part of the mind which kindly processes information for you; and from direct spiritual guidance. However, what is deemed ‘extraordinary’ depends on what we consider ordinary or normal. To generalise, it is not considered normal to have a well-developed Integrated Intelligence in the modern world, at least not in most developed economies. In fact,
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in most workplaces and social settings you would probably get yourself into more than a little bit of trouble if you started telling everyone that you got a great idea from a vision you had the night before in a dream. I have spent two decades working with Integrated Intelligence, and I am very discrete about what I tell others about it. If you ‘believe’ in INI, you might look upon this with frustration or even outrage, and decry the fact that modern society is so restrictive. Or you could just relax with it, and enjoy the fact that you have a little edge over others in the perception department. I prefer the latter option, although I admit to periods of the former. When you picked up this book you may have been asking yourself who this Marcus T. Anthony character is. Is he getting around telling the world that he has an extraordinary mind? He must be delusional, or have the biggest ego on the planet! Well, in my defense I can only point out that Integrated Intelligence is not considered ‘extraordinary’ in many cultures and periods in human history. Indigenous peoples the world over see INI as perfectly ordinary. The Australian Aborigines had a kind of telepathic relationship with the land, and deliberately tapped into it to sustain themselves. The ancient Greeks consulted oracles to gain insight into the deeper workings of life. Many people in Chinese cultures have long organised their lives around the idea of a universal life force, chi, and the mysterious Tao. The medieval mystics of Europe (Meister Eckhart being arguably the most notable), strongly believed in a direct connection with a divine force. In the modern world many people and philosophies believe in an innate intelligence behind the workings of the physical world. The New Age movement, aspects of the human potential movement, and the idea of the law of attraction are just a few recent examples. Of course, these cultures and philosophies are not all referring to the same concept, and there are significant 14
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divergences amongst them, and dare I suggest, different levels of truth. Yet all have a grounding in the fundamental idea that there is a universal intelligence that we can access, to greater or lesser degree. As you will find out as you read the following pages, I do have a well-developed Integrated Intelligence, but that was not always the case. I developed a greater capacity for INI through committed discipline and hard work. It is perfectly possible for you to master some or all of the skills I refer to here, and maybe to a greater capacity than I. I have met others who were certainly more capable than I am at the specific cognitive abilities involved in the use of INI (which I outline in Section 1). Extraordinary Mind is based on a collection of essays, articles and blog posts that I have written, mostly in the years 2009–10. Many have appeared before on the Internet, my website www.mindfutures.com, and my blog www.22cplus. blogspot.com. All have been edited specifically for the purposes of producing this book you have in your hands. The focus of Extraordinary Mind is not simply upon the idea of Integrated Intelligence. It also questions what INI means for the future of us human beings. I am also personally involved in the discipline of Futures Studies, so I am passionate about the cultural evolution of humanity. Section 1 is ‘About Integrated Intelligence’. Here you will be presented with an overview of what INI is, including the precise cognitive skills involved. In Section 2, ‘Tales of Integrated Intelligence’, I relate some of the many fascinating experiences that I have had with Integrated Intelligence. This will give you a greater feeling for INI. ‘Applying Integrated Intelligence’ is the next section, and it includes a brief introduction about how to develop INI. Other chapters in this section detail many of my experiences, and how I have used INI to enhance my life, including my career, living environment, and well-being. This section also describes some general misconceptions about ‘psychic’ development. Section 4, ‘Integrated Intelligence in 15
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the Modern World’, consists of chapters discussing practical philosophical issues related to living with INI in today’s busy and materialistic society. This includes advice on how to prevent giving your power away to others, finding peace in presence, and avoiding ‘the IT trap’. Education is a passion of mine, and in Section 5 I discuss modern education and how INI is relevant to learning. ‘Integrated Intelligence and Human Consciousness Evolution’ is the subject of Section 6. INI can be contextualised as part of a movement from the current dominant ‘rational’ level of cognitive evolution to higher transpersonal levels of mind. INI grants insight into the deeper workings of a universal mind. Synchronicity works not just at the individual level, but can be expressed as meaningful ‘messages’ for larger groups, including the entire human race. Finally in Section 7, ‘Thinking About the Future’, I address a range of issues related to the future and INI. These include artificial intelligence, alien contact and paradigm shifts in science. Integrated Intelligence is a deepening of the experience of mind. Thus the kind of futures that I envisage as being preferable are what I call Deep Futures. They contain not just discussions about science, technology and material developments, but also engage in genuine discussion about deeply meaningful issues, such as spirituality and consciousness evolution. Deep Futures, ideally, permit the expression of a broader range of ways of knowing, including those contained within Integrated Intelligence. Extraordinary Mind is, I trust, a small movement towards the unfolding of Deep Futures. If I succeed in my purpose, then after reading this book you will appreciate at a deeper level that such futures are not extraordinary at all, but a normal expression of human life on this planet. Marcus T. Anthony, July 2010
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Section 1 About Integrated Intelligence
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What Is Integrated Intelligence? In quite a few of my books and articles I have referred to the concept of Integrated Intelligence (INI). I developed this term to clearly identify what I am talking and writing about when discussing the frontiers of human intelligence, especially those concepts which have a rather mystical quality. So before we go any further, in this first chapter please allow me to present you with a short summary of what Integrated Intelligence is. I’m also going to outline what you can actually do with INI by referring to its core cognitive functions, and present some concrete examples. Before we even begin to define Integrated Intelligence, we should stop for a moment to ask what intelligence is. Intelligence is the mental ability which allows you to function successfully in a given situation. Academics have been arguing about definitions of intelligence for centuries and still can’t agree on much more than the definition I give you here.1 It’s from this definition of intelligence that I define Integrated Intelligence as: The ability to draw on the extended mind and all its intuitive capacities to function successfully and solve problems in your life. The extended mind, in turn, is: Consciousness that extends beyond the individual’s brain and connects us with the environment, other consciousness fields and spiritual realms. 1. For a reader-friendly introduction to intelligence theory, I recommend Ian Deary’s Intelligence: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001). 18
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So, in a nutshell, Integrated Intelligence is using all the abilities of the mind, including the psychic, to help you live the life you want. INI is compatible with the rational functions of the mind, because both the intuitive and the logical have their valid uses. There are at least seven core cognitive functions that INI allows you to perform. Integrated Perception. This is the ability to sense the connections between and amongst things. Integrated Perception actually has many forms, and is probably not a single cognitive process. It includes the higher order enlightenment experiences where the individual’s sense of self expands out beyond her immediate body. A classic example comes from Maurice Bucke’s Cosmic Consciousness (1905), where he reports a profound mystical experience. I was losing my consciousness, my identity, I was powerless to hold myself. Now came a period of rapture so intense that the Universe stood still, as if amazed at the unutterable majesty of the spectacle! Only one in all the infinite Universe! The All-loving, the Perfect One! The Perfect Wisdom, truth, love, and purity! And with the rapture came the insight. In that same wonderful moment of what might be called supernatural bliss, came illumination . . . What joy when I saw there was no break in the chain—not a link left out—everything in its time and place. Worlds, systems, all bended in one harmonious whole. Universal light, synonymous with Universal love! Integrated perception isn’t always so cosmic and lifechanging, however. More mundane forms occur when we 19
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suddenly intuit the connection between ideas, thoughts, people, events, behavior and so on. Integrated Location. This is the capacity to sense where things are, without having prior information. This can occur through a feeling, or it might be visual in nature. Once I lost my credit card, and couldn’t find it for days. So I did meditation, putting myself into a light trance state. I kept asking where the card was, and after a few minutes a clear image popped into my mind. It was of the back pocket of a black pair of jeans. I got up immediately and went to the cupboard where my only black pair of jeans was hanging, and found the credit card in the back pocket. Integrated Diagnosis. Integrated Diagnosis is the ability to intuitively find the cause of problems. A friend of mine who worked for steel giant BHP some years back reported that he used his intuition to repair machinery. Rather than trying to rationally analyse why a machine had broken down, he would often just stop, and allow the answer to come to him. He claimed he could do this anywhere and referred to an incident when he was on a boat, and the engine stopped. He told the boat owner what he felt was wrong, and as soon as the problem was investigated, his hunch was proven to be correct. Integrated Recognition is being able to immediately know somebody or something without ever being told about them or it. In Autobiography of a Yogi, Pramahansa Yogananda tells a story from his childhood. One day he was walking along a street and saw a yogi walking towards him. He was filled with a deep and immediate knowing that this yogi was to be his master. He fell to his feet and was full of tears. This began a teacher-student relationship which lasted many years, till the yogi’s death. In fact it lasted even longer than that, for according to Yogananda, he was able to communicate with his master in spirit form. Foresense. When you sense what is going to happen in the future, this is Foresense. Foresense often occurs in dreams or meditations, when 20
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people report seeing something that later comes true. However, it may be developed via intuitive feelings, or what I call the Feeling Sense. Just two days ago I was on the phone to a friend of a friend. We were trying to arrange a meeting to discuss a certain issue which could help my wife. The guy in question told me he’d ring back to see if he could find the time to meet me that afternoon. When he hung up I asked my wife, who is Chinese, if she felt he would meet us (I was encouraging her to develop her intuition). She said she had no idea. I then told her there was more chance of the Dalai Lama becoming the next president of China than that guy taking the time to meet us. I could feel his complete lack of intention. He called back three hours later to say he was busy. I just knew his intention was zero. Integrated Evaluation. Integrated Evaluation involves being able to intuitively determine the wisdom or value of different options and choices. In Sage of Synchronicity I tell the story of a long and protracted meeting at a school in Hong Kong, where the teachers and administrators sat through a tedious four-hour meeting, listening to representatives of text book companies give their pitch. After a couple of hours, and almost falling asleep, I simply felt the energy of the four options, and saw straight away that there was only one real choice. There was another meeting the following week before the admin team finally chose that same book. Inspiration. This term refers to creative knowledge and ideas that come to you from spiritual sources, not your conscious mind. Many creators, artists, writers and even scientists have reported being guided by inspiration that is beyond their conscious volition. William Blake, for example, said that angels inspired his poetry. For the writing on my doctoral thesis, I used a process I call Integrated Inquiry, which allowed me to write prolifically.2 2. See the article “Futures Research at the Frontiers of Mind”, published in the journal Foresight (2009, Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Page: 61–80). 21
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There are also two outcomes which emerge from the successful application of INI. Wisdom. Wisdom results from the capacity to use INI to create a life that is deeply meaningful and in alignment with a person’s highest needs. Trusting in INI creates a greater sense of peace and equanimity, which is associated with wisdom. Transformation. A core shift, lifting the person towards greater wisdom and intelligence, and creating a higher level of consciousness. This causes a transformation of his/her entire being. So that, in a nutshell, is Integrated Intelligence. A poorly kept secret, it has been around for thousands of years, as I have argued in my book Integrated Intelligence. The good news is that it is not going away anytime soon, and there has never been a better time to learn more about it.
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Where Integrated Intelligence Comes From After we have accepted the possibility that Integrated Intelligence exists, the next logical question is to ask where this information comes from. There are two essential sources. Firstly there is the knowledge gleaned from everyday life experience. This is not a passive process, because your mind sifts information as it is received, and much of that process is conscious. This is relatively uncontroversial, and you can find out much about this realm of knowledge by opening any textbook on psychology or neuroscience. Textbooks won’t tell you much about the second source of information, however, because it falls too far off the map of mainstream science and education. I call this realm the extended mind, and it in turn comprises several different sources of information. They are: 1. The energy fields contained in your immediate external environment. Everything contains a field of information. A building, for example, expresses a certain feeling or vibration, and it is possible to feel or sense this via intuition. 2. Other bioforms, including human beings. Human beings constantly send and receive information from each other, unconsciously. Some is harmless, other information is destructive (what I call dark energy). 3. Discarnate entities. This basically means people who have passed out of the body, and other spiritual entities in non-physical form. 4. The intelligence of the universe itself. Some people call this “God.” I do too sometimes, although I don’t perceive it to be a personal entity. 5. Direct spiritual guidance. This is the information that is 23
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given to you by Spirit3, including your spirit guides. It is intended to be helpful. For most people, this information is unconscious, and it is sensed as subtle feelings or seen in dreams. For those who have developed Integrated Intelligence, it is often directly perceived and enters conscious awareness. Your spirit guides have chosen to oversee part or all of your life and guide you through it. We all have them, although many people are completely unaware of this fact. The kind of information you are given by Spirit depends on your level of spiritual maturity, and how much you need it. The voice of Spirit is not in your immediate control, but you can actively ask it for help. You can develop an active relationship with Spirit. The more you seek out the assistance of Spirit, the more Spirit is able to work with you. Spirit guides will not permit you to give your power away to them, although many people unconsciously do. Much of the guidance of Spirit is ambiguous or suggestive, because it is your responsibility to develop your life, according to your own best intentions. If you show that you are a person of wisdom, Spirit will present you with more knowledge, and by implication, more power. As I mention in a later chapter, many years ago I met an Australian Aboriginal woman named Maria, who explained this to me. She said that I was not ready to receive full power from Spirit, because I would abuse it. Now I can see clearly that she was correct. As a person who teaches people how to use Integrated 3. When “Spirit” is capitalised, it refers to the overriding intelligence of the cosmos. I prefer this term to “God” because the latter has different meanings according to culture and creed. Spirit also includes the specific input of spirit guides, who help carry out the ‘will’ of Spirit. Where “spirit” is written in lower case, it is referring to an individual’s overall consciousness, especially the deeper mind, or ‘Self’. In turn, where “self” is written in lower case, it refers to the individual personality, or the ego. 24
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Intelligence, I like to emphasise that it is a gift from Spirit. In using it humbly and wisely, we will grow in terms of our own wisdom.
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Is the Psychic Real? My interest in Integrated Intelligence really began when I met a woman named Leslie in Coffs Harbour, in New South Wales, Australia, many years ago. Leslie ran meditation classes, and was a practicing clairvoyant. She seemed to have the ability to intuitively sense things about people. I had been a sceptic till that time, but I saw enough evidence from my time with her to consider the possibility that I might be wrong. I decided to go to the local library and get some books on the subject. As I browsed the shelves, I picked up a book by James Randi called Psychic Investigator. Thumbing through the book, I found page after page rejecting the possibility that people might have psychic experiences. In fact Randi was not just rejecting, he was actively hostile. On the last page he concluded with the definitive statement that psychic abilities do not exist. End of book. I was rather stunned. I’d been hoping for some positive arguments and evidence for psi phenomena. But there it was in black and white: an intelligent man had dedicated decades to the subject and found it to be a load of “hocus pocus” (the name of another Randi book, by the way!). Later I found out that the field of parapsychology—which investigates psychic experience scientifically—was hopelessly polarised. Red-faced sceptics and offended believers typically faced off with each other, accusing each other of ignorance, bias and a host of other nasty things. On that fateful day, after I’d put James Randi’s book down, I could have given up on my quest, but something drove me on. I decided to try investigating the psychic myself, by recording my dreams and exploring non-ordinary ways of knowing. One particularly useful process I learned involved meditating and slowing my mind right down till I was almost asleep. Then, when I was about to drop off, I would ask questions, and observe answers as they came to me in the form of words, images, song 26
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lyrics and subtle feelings. I call this process the Light Trance (and you can read about it in the next chapter). It was this personal exploration of Integrated Intelligence that allowed me to move from being an open-minded sceptic, to a daily practitioner of the spiritual. Later, I began to work with my deep emotional body, and as I began to heal the lost parts of my soul, something miraculous happened. Suddenly I was able to see, feel and sense things that I never could before. I was able to feel contrasting consciousness fields as readily as I could tell the difference between hot and cold days. I developed the capacity to intuitively read the energy of possible futures as they emerged. And I was able to see and hear things in my inner mind which I had never noticed before, and then apply the knowledge in my everyday life. In short, I had developed Integrated Intelligence. If I had stayed reading books and listening to the heated debates of professionals, I would not have had the direct handson experience to see the truth for myself. The problem with the rational mind is that the very way of knowing it employs is inadequate to genuinely understand the higher reaches of human consciousness. Integrated Intelligence requires a person to let go and allow something greater than the ego to direct the mind. In that sense developing your INI is scary. I certainly experienced a lot of fear myself as I took to the deep, dark psychic ocean in a row boat, so to speak. I should clarify that I am not suggesting that you ignore the rational mind, nor to stop analysing information when required. The so-called left-brained cognitive skills do not need to be disposed of in order to use INI. However, you do need to become aware of the right times to employ either, or both.4 4. If you are interested in finding out about the hard evidence for psychic phenomena and such mental processes as ESP, clairvoyance and precognition, I recommend the following sources: Watch Rupert Sheldrake’s Google talk on YouTube. Also, try his The Sense of Being Stared at and Other Aspects of the Extended Mind (Arrow Books, 2003), or Lynn McTaggart, The Field (Harper Paperbacks, 2008). 27
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It is also true that the exploration of the psychic realms has its dangers. I would not recommend it to anyone who does not have good mental health. Others become obsessed with the psychic, and they see it as a source of entertainment. They pursue it for the “Ooh-ahh!” effect. Some think psychic development is the same as spiritual development. It is not, although there is often a general correlation between the two. This is not the purpose of developing Integrated Intelligence, as I see it. The ideal intention is to develop a greater understanding of your spiritual journey and to begin to work with Spirit to create a better life for yourself and the world. So, if the psychic exists, why aren’t we being taught about it at school, at work, or hearing about it in our daily news bulletins? Is there some kind of conspiracy at hand? No, there isn’t. The silence is a reflection of modern culture, and the mechanistic paradigm which dominates science and education. Parapsychologist Dean Radin calls this “the psi taboo”.5 After the 18th-century scientific enlightenment, science moved rapidly forward by eliminating the subjective and emotional aspects of the physical investigation into nature and the world. It was a tremendous success at a physical level. Just look at the way the world has changed in terms of science and technology! But in other ways the enlightenment project has failed, and this has yet to be fully acknowledged by those who have benefitted most from the success of mechanistic science— scientists, engineers, IT specialists, educators and academics. Our teachers know almost nothing about Integrated Intelligence, and those who do are not permitted to share their knowledge. They teach students using the limited ways of knowing of rationality, and students grow up ignorant of the spiritual potential within themselves. Graduates then go out into a society dominated by materialism, work and mass entertainment. This has created a kind of collective amnesia. Then there is the resistance of mainstream religious 5. Dean Radin, Entangled Mind (New York: Paraview Books, 2008). 28
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organisations, which have long persecuted those with a mystical bent. This is why we have forgotten our spiritual roots. This is why mainstream science and culture is ignorant of the psychic, even though it exists and is an essential part of who we are as human beings. You can believe or disbelieve what I write. But either way, you won’t know the truth until you make the commitment to use Integrated Intelligence in your life. What are you going to do?
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Should We Pursue Psychic Development? Based on what you have read so far, you might be forgiven for thinking that I am an advocate of psychic development. After all, Integrated Intelligence is basically harnessing certain cognitive functions that would normally be classified as ‘psychic’ or ‘paranormal’ by mainstream science and media. And I have had some rather extraordinary experiences over the years, including sightings of UFOs, out-of-body experiences, precognitions and so on, as you will note as you progress through this book. Such psychic experiences can be useful, and point us toward the spiritual destination, but they shouldn’t be confused for the goal. Many popular spiritual and New Age books also use references to paranormal events as a means to entice their readers or viewers. On the back of one popular New Age writer’s recent books, for example, there is a reference to someone dematerializing, and then walking through a wall. The writer is a classic example of a teacher who appears to have confused psychic and spiritual development. They are not the same thing. Genuine ‘progress’ in spiritual development is indicated by the capacity for deep humility, and the capacity to bring the mind into presence and come into the right relationship with the mind or ego. It is typified by increasing periods of silence, or at least an enhanced ability to witness the endless babble of the mind, and recognise it for what it mostly is—nonsense. The problem with the psychic realms is that they can easily become a distraction from true spiritual development. The human ego tends to be in a state of constant restlessness, and it likes to seek out exciting experiences to distract and to amuse itself. Quite often the spiritual seeker attributes the occurrence of the extraordinary to himself, and his ego becomes inflated. 30
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The seeking of psychic experiences may thus become a kind of addiction. An important understanding is that epiphanies and extraordinary experiences are an inevitable part of the spiritual journey—but they should not be seen as being particularly important in and of themselves. The ego tends to want to claim such experiences as ‘mine’, or use them to elevate its sense of specialness. In this way the mind locks itself into the illusion of separation, using psychic experiences to affirm its sense of control. Having said this, Integrated Intelligence can be harnessed as a means to develop a meaningful life, and in numerous ways, as I outlined in Sage of Synchronicity. The key is to be humble about these capacities. They are extraordinary in the sense that most people don’t even know they exist, yet they are ordinary in that they are just part of the evolutionary process of consciousness. In a sense the psychic realm and Integrated Intelligence are most useful for spiritual journeymen and women who are just moving beyond the ‘rational’ level of cognitive development. At this stage, the ego still tends to be in control, and the sense of separation between self and world remains strong. As a rationally inclined individual relaxes the hold of the ego and begins to allow deeper parts of the mind to surface, it is inevitable that the boundaries between self and others, and with the world itself, will begin to break down. In this phase of personal development a person can then use the intuitive information that begins to come his/her way, and employ it in his or her everyday life. In the higher stages of spiritual development, the way that Integrated Intelligence is used changes, and (I suspect) at the very final stages of enlightenment, it is really not needed, as the ego has largely lost its power and there is no requirement to implement personal will. The seeker and the sought become one.6 6. Two good examples of journeymen who have reached these higher stages of spiritual awareness are Leonard Jacobson and David R. Hawkins. See Recommended Readings at the back of this book. 31
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During the period of the writing of this book, I have noticed a change in my own mental structuring, and it appears to be an ‘elevation’ into the next stage of my own journey. I became aware of this possibility about a week before the time of writing, via a dream (and dreams can tell you a lot about your journey). In the dream I was in a large library, full of books. There was a rather bookish woman in there—perhaps the librarian—and it was obvious that she had what I can only describe as a crush on me, i.e. she was in love with me (don’t tell my wife about this dream, please!). Then I walked outside and was on a black tar road at night. It appeared to be somewhere in inland USA. It was quite brisk, and I looked up into the night sky and saw some sheets of white light, shimmering like the aurora borealis (but only white). I was full of wonder at the sheer beauty of it. My ability to relax into presence has been markedly better during this time. A few days later I walked down to the beach near where I live in Discovery Bay, on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. I was with my wife. She did some yoga, while I did the manly thing, doing a few chin ups and resistance exercises on the bars of the children’s playground there. After finishing my workout, I sat down behind my wife as she was sitting in a yoga position on the sand. I have always found that dusk is an ideal time to sense deeper consciousness, and as I quieted my mind, I immediately noticed some radiant energy surrounding her body. I see light around people from time to time, but have never really paid much attention to the experience. Yet that night I felt a ‘desire’ to explore it, so I allowed myself to fall into a light trance state—or perhaps more accurately, I just silenced my mind and took careful note of the thing I was looking at—my wife’s back as she sat before me. Almost immediately the energy surrounding her entire body appeared to expand. It was more pronounced in certain areas than others. The more I relaxed, the more clear and colorful it became. The light around the top of her head, for example, was dark blue. 32
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Then something unexpected occurred, and a very bright light shone through my head and into my mind. This is hard to explain, but it is like the light was there, but was not seen through the eyes. It is as if there was a brilliant moon right above my head, but I was actually not able to physically see it, merely observe its light pouring in. Then the whole of my vision seemed to catch fire, and the light irradiated me from within. I ‘saw’ a great circle of purplish light enter my heart region. The experience was slightly frightening, and I was not quite sure what attitude to take with it. Yet having had so many such experiences in the past, I just let go and sat with it. I noted my ego’s attempts to personalise it, possess it, and expand it, but did not judge that. After a while, as best I could, I told my wife what I was perceiving. My wife is rather a sceptic of the spiritual, but to her credit, acquiesced to my request to remain still and not get up (despite muttering something about falun dafa—the falun gong!—she’s mainland Chinese!). The whole experience was just a few minutes in duration. I didn’t attempt to prolong it. My wife asked me to explain what I’d seen. I tried my best, but in the end I had to confess I didn’t have words for it, nor did I really understand it. We got up and walked back home. One thing that did strike me, though, was that the experience felt very much like the dream I’d had a few days before, when I saw the white aurora borealis in the sky. That dream was a precognition of an energy that was ‘descending’ upon me. The first part of the dream involved a library (representing my intellect), and a librarian who loved me (representing the deepening of my ability to integrate—or love—my psyche at a greater depth). It is this unconditional acceptance, this letting go, which is the prelude to much of spiritual experience. It permits the light to penetrate the soul at a deeper level. Just as interesting for me, though, was that when I went to sleep after that extraordinary experience with my wife at 33
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the beach, I dreamt of being in a house fire. The entire house was ablaze, and I was frightened at the loss of everything that I owned. I was filled with anxiety about what would happen when all that I had was gone. In the dream house there was a cupboard where I kept some books and papers from my childhood school years, and I was trying desperately to save them, even as they burned. This dream was a symbolic narrative of the resistance of my ego, when it was asked to shed part of its identity. It reacted with fear. The fire was the purification process as the past began to disintegrate, while the childhood memorabilia symbolised my attachment to my identity, which was formed in childhood. As higher levels or stages of the journey unfold, one is required to let go of the ego and its constructs of self, which are impermanent and an illusion. This is not easy, and there is no definite roadmap. What I can say is that the essence of the process is to bring the mind into presence as much as possible. You will, however, learn some specific ways to do this in the first chapter of Section 3, “The INI Tools”. Shortly after that first dream, on that same night, there then followed a dream/vision sequence where I saw that in order to actualise my recent shift in consciousness, there was a need to acknowledge, integrate and heal three relationships from my formative years. The first part of the vision was quite clear. I saw my childhood best friend sitting in a bedroom. He was projecting some shaming and mocking energy at me. In the second part of the vision I opened a door and saw a tennis player, and the letters “MLB” were written above his head. I knew immediately that it referred to another childhood friend of mine, who was obsessed with tennis. I have no idea what his middle name is, but his initials are “MB”. I have retained some lingering issues with him, as he could be quite demeaning at times. The final person or issue in the vision was merely represented by a flag— the Union Jack. There was no information on that, so its cryptic 34
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nature suggests that I will be asked to work on it in the coming period of time. Dreams, visions and psychic experiences are a common expression of Integrated Intelligence, and can be extremely useful on your journey. You can learn much from them. They can be powerful, even life-changing. The experiences referred to in this chapter simply pointed me in the right direction, and helped me correct the illusions of the ego. But I am not going to get attached to those psychic events.
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Transcending the Rational Mind It is commonly believed in many circles—particularly those dizzying circles one finds oneself in within academic and educational institutions—that the rational mind is the highest cognitive set currently available to human beings. The rational mind is higher than the emotional mind, it is assumed, because the emotional and unreflective mind led us into mass superstition during the dark ages. Then science, with its empirically founded scientific method, led us out from the darkness and into Enlightenment. Thereafter came massive progress in science and social science; and the benefits to society are obvious. Just look at all those clean hospitals, computers on office desks, and airplanes that can whisk us around the world in a matter of hours. In the dark ages of prehistory people pretty much believed whatever Mum or the village idiot told them. Most people couldn’t read or write for a start. It was said that there was only one literate man, a clergyman, in all of Britain after the fall of the Roman Empire. Now almost everyone in Britain can read and write; and you take your capacity to make sense of the black squiggles on this page for granted. Thank about that for progress! People haven’t always employed the critical/rational mind the way we do today. In Europe around the year 1500, the scholastic movement took hold, and classification became a key way of knowing. By 1800, analysis as a key way of knowing had firmly entrenched itself, and by the mid-nineteenth century, experimentation became well established. Many of us today barely stop to consider the massive impact these ways of knowing have had on our capacity to think. A more obvious shift has occurred in the last three decades, where computer rationality greatly affected our cognitive processing in developed economies. We are increasingly “accessing” a virtual world through the medium of Information Technology. There is a great deal of truth to the claim that these cognitive 36
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shifts have been good for us. Science and the critical/rational mind have helped us make massive progress. Yet as Michel Foucault and the poststructuralist philosophers have noted, paradigmatically and epistemologically bounded thinking tends to view history as a linear march towards an inevitable present; in this case, towards the ‘modern’. Mainstream science and society tends to be self-congratulating, and has great difficulty acknowledging the limits of mainstream discourses. The problem with the four key ways of knowing of the modern mind is that they are limited, and what’s more, greatly unbalanced. They do not permit access to domains of knowing which are vitally important for us to contextualise knowledge and data, and to gain a greater insight into the human condition. They delimit the possibility of actualising the post-rational mind. Modern-thinking processes retard intuitive thinking. They do not acknowledge, let alone utilise, intuitive ways of knowing. Intuition incorporates cognitive processes which are actually post-rational. It permits a greater and deeper knowing that moves beyond what rationality is capable of perceiving. The tricky thing is that at the critical/rational level of mind, it is very difficult to see all this. Critical rationality tends to reinforce the ego, or the little self’s hold on perception. The ego becomes self-satisfied and begins to congratulate itself on its cleverness. It thinks it doesn’t need to know anything else, because it has become oh-so-smart. This generates a selfregulating delusion, where the mind goes about collecting and collating data which confirms its view that it has reached the zenith of knowing, and subtly rejects data which challenges this view. It becomes proud and arrogant. This is a trap, and a typically observed dead-end for cognitive development. Very few intellectuals, academics and scientists have managed to span the gap between the rational and post-rational for this reason. Further, since modern culture teaches us that rationality is the pinnacle of mind development, ‘clever’ people see no need to challenge that given. The entire 37
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lifetime is thus spent living comfortably (but not necessarily peacefully) within the rational realms of mind. The truth is that the cognitive mindset enjoyed by most ‘intelligent’ people in today’s society and education systems is extremely limited, and is but a fraction of the mental potential available to us. Not knowing better, we go about business as usual. The jump from the purely rational to the post-rational is a difficult one. In most cases, we will have spent many years existing at this critical juncture of mind, and may see no reason to move beyond it. Even people who ‘believe’ in the postrational mind or spiritual potentials, may never actually leave the comfort of the rational, because it is too destabilising, and the ego’s hold is too strong. I recall hearing about mystic Leonard Jacobson’s visit to a leading ‘alternative’ tertiary institution in California. Almost nobody—neither teachers nor students—attended his talk/workshop. That is incredible. Here was a man who has actualised the very cognition that these academics and students are researching and studying, but they could not tear themselves away from their books long enough to spend time with the real thing. This should tell you something about just how difficult it is to make the leap from the rational to the post-rational. Selfdeception is normal. In truth, there is more than just one leap required once the post-rational mind begins to open. There are various stages of cognitive awareness beyond the rational, but the juncture between the rational and the next post-rational stage is difficult to span. In truth, it is not entirely up to the individual. There is something of divine Grace involved. What then, can one do to facilitate the shift? The first thing is to have the willingness. This means developing an actual deep intention to shift, not just an intellectual interest. This willingness usually only follows after one becomes dissatisfied with experience at the rational level of mind. 38
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The second requirement is commitment to a discipline. The discipline should involve some inner process which permits a non-attached witnessing of thought as it emerges from mind. This could be a formal practice such as prayer, meditation, yoga or Tai Chi; or something more informal, such as walking quietly through nature, or sitting attentively in a chair. The bringing of the mind into presence, as I describe in Sage of Synchronicity, is necessary. Witnessing and presence permit one to see that the world of the mind is but a construct, and is ultimately an illusion. You might prefer to simply think of mind as a dysfunctional model of reality. Integrated Intelligence will either directly or indirectly be a part of the process as you move beyond the rational mind. You might not explicitly use all the processes and tools I refer to, but at the very least you will need to listen to the intuitive prompts of Spirit. Be warned. Integrated Intelligence can be used to further the agenda of the ego to reinforce its control over the mind. When this happens the results are likely to be unsatisfactory, and the perceptions you have will be distorted to some degree. There is a need to surrender to a higher part of the Self, in order to activate Integrated Intelligence properly. You can’t learn to fly a plane if you refuse to leave the ground. Which brings us to the issue of surrender itself. One of the real obstacles to moving beyond critical rationality is that the ego is stubborn, likes to maintain control, and insists that it is the architect of life. It likes to think that it is clever, and that it is right. It then judges others as ‘stupid’ or ‘wrong’. It often gets into dramas with them, with the unconscious agenda of destroying them (or the perceptual data they bring forth). Basically, all drama is the ego’s attempt to destroy and eliminate. This includes intellectual debate, which is almost impossible to engage in without the ego taking over. Personally, I feel it is usually better just to surrender, and allow the other to have his opinion, no matter how wrong or insane it may appear to 39
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be. Your judgment of that opinion is a projection of your ego anyway, and takes you back into the critical/rational mind. If you want to win intellectual arguments, kiss the higher mind goodbye. There is no winning or losing with Spirit. In the end, it is not for you to say whether the other guy is right or wrong. That is already ‘known’ by God. There are higher states of cognition, but it’s not possible to understand them at less-developed levels of mind. Intuition provides flashes of knowing, and that can draw us closer to the post-rational. But a vast number of human beings do not even have this basic understanding. There is no point in fighting with those who cannot see. They will see, in time. It is their destiny.
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The Greatest Gift Before you proceed any further into this book, I would like you to consider something very important. Integrated Intelligence, like consciousness, is a gift from the universe. It connects you deeply with everything, including the intelligence of the cosmos itself. Finally you must be aware that it is not ‘you’, as an individual ego, that is given the gift: it is your higher Self. Therefore in coming into a greater understanding of it, you are beginning the process of aligning yourself with a greater intelligence. In short, it is a deeply spiritual process. Even if you do not understand or accept this now, you will if you proceed to actually explore INI first hand. The one who sets out on the spiritual journey is not the same one who arrives at the end. It is transformational. Integrated Intelligence is a spiritual concept. David R. Hawkins is a modern mystic and spiritual teacher.7 In Transcending the Levels of Consciousness he presents a very simple but profound summary of the qualities and attitudes necessary to make a genuine spiritual journey. Hawkins points out that what is required is really very simple. While knowledge can be very useful, constantly acquiring more spiritual information and techniques, becoming more learned, more clever, and more full can be a trap. As Chinese mystic Lao Tzu stated 2,600 years ago in the Tao de Ching, “More is less. Less is more”. Genuine spirituality requires an emptying, a letting go. This is where many people tend to run into trouble, as the ego/rational mind attempts to stay in control. 7. There is some controversy surrounding Hawkins’ claims about the value of exercise kinesiology, and his being able to calibrate levels of consciousness, yet there are some wonderful insights in his books. It is easy to misread, or even misapply, what Hawkins writes, especially if you don’t have much experience in doing spiritual self-work. But anyone who has explored the spiritual dimensions of mind with a true intention will readily recognise many of the truths contained in his work. I believe that it would be a mistake to dismiss Hawkins’ writings based purely upon this single issue. 41
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Here are the ten key spiritual processes which Hawkins refers to: 1. Be kind to everything and everyone, including oneself, all the time, with no exception. 2. Revere all of life in all its expressions, no matter what, even if one does not understand it. 3. Presume no actual reliable knowledge of anything at all. Ask God to reveal its meaning. 4. Intend to see the hidden beauty of all that exists—it then reveals itself. 5. Forgive everything that is witnessed and experienced, no matter what. Remember Christ, Buddha and Krishna all said that all error is due to ignorance. Socrates said all men can choose only what they believe to be the good. 6. Approach all of life with humility and be willing to surrender all possibilities and mental/emotional arguments or gain. 7. Be willing to forgo all perceptions of gain, desire or profit and thereby be willing to be of selfless service to life in all its expressions. 8. Make one’s life a living prayer by intention, alignment, humility and surrender. True spiritual reality is actually a way of being in the world. 9. By verification, confirm the levels of consciousness and spiritual truth of all teachers, teachings, spiritual groups and literature with which one intends to be aligned or a student. 10. Accept that by spiritual declaration, commitment and surrender, Knowingness arises that provides support, information, and all that is needed for the entire journey. (Hawkins, Transcending, pp. 335–6). You’ll recognise these as being part of many of the world’s great spiritual and religious teachings. Besides their remarkable simplicity, it is interesting to note the contrast of these ideas 42
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relative to dominant cultures in most developed countries, where the idea of being opinionated, powerful, controlling, forceful and knowledgeable dominates. Modern culture tends to be harsh and patriarchal, right across the globe. In other words, you better be a ‘real man’, or at least act like one, if you want to ‘get ahead’ and ‘win’. Humility and the admission of ‘not knowing’ are rarely valued. The other notable aspect of Hawkins’ list is item number nine, which is his affirmation to confirm the spiritual truth or level of consciousness of a teaching or pathway before engaging it. There are a number of ways to do this, and I’ll just mention a few. Exercise kinesiology is one which Hawkins champions for those still operating at the ‘rational’ levels of cognitive development, where discerning truth from falsehood is extremely difficult. I have no experience with this method, so can make no definitive conclusions about it.8 However, this tool may not be preferred by many. In the next section of this book numerous other divination methods are explained. The truth is you don’t need too many ‘tools’ to choose a path that’s right for you, to make the decisions that will empower your life. One simple process you should practice is being able to quiet your mind and get an intuitive sense of whether a path, or teaching choice, is ‘OK’ or ‘not OK’ for you. Yet, we all know that we are we are all-too-fallible. So, after our decision has been made, and we have begun to engage that particular path, we should be alert for signs of ego-dominated thinking or behaviour permeating ourselves and the teachings or teacher. The most obvious signs are an over-inflated ego, 8. Exercise kinesiology involves making a statement with a yes/no answer, then testing whether a raised hand goes weak or strong as the statement is made. If the statement is true, the arm will test strong, according to the claim. You can read more about this in appendices at the back of his books (see references section). You can use a Google search to read about the numerous criticisms of his claims. 43
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attempting to inflate the ego of the student or promising (or practicing) miracles. Even if the miraculous is performed, if it is used to attract followers, then the act is an abuse of power. One important domain missing from Hawkins’ list is handling the emotional energy which emerges from the psyche as one deepens one’s awareness. Perhaps Hawkins did not have to deal with too much emotional baggage in his time (he’s now in his 80s), but most of us do. Given this, we have to find an effective, healthy and responsible way to allow the fear, grief, anger, shame and ego projections to express themselves. This means creating a space in your life for opening the channel for the deep feelings to surface. I recommend making a special space in your home where you can beat a pillow, scream into it, or just release grief when it surfaces. On days where the emotions begin to rise, you can spend some time alone there. A music system is recommended, to play music that matches the required mood (sad songs if you need to release grief, perhaps heavy metal if you want to release anger, and so on). The second use of music is simply to drown out any sound you might make, in case you feel uncomfortable allowing others to hear what you are doing. Nonetheless, if you are living with other people, you will probably have to at least give them a general idea of what you are doing. David R. Hawkins is correct when he writes that the greatest gift we can give the world is to develop our own consciousness. It is my hope that you, the reader, can share that gift. It’s what Integrated Intelligence is all about.
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Section 2 Tales of Integrated Intelligence
∆∆∆
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Bright Lights in the Sky Some people ask me how I got interested in knowledge that might be considered “alternative” in some circles. Here is a little story about an extraordinary experience that certainly helped me along my way! So here goes my story, and it’s 100 percent true. In 1996 I was living in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, a small coastal town. One day I was walking along the street downtown, and I saw a sign that read: “Psychic readings, $10”. I had never had a psychic reading up till that time, and curiosity got the better of me. So I went inside and met a woman named Leslie who gave me a reading. The reading itself was nothing particularly special. But what followed certainly was. To cut a long story short, I ended up going to one of Leslie’s talk/meditation evenings a few weeks later. At the end of the talk she told everyone present that she had had lots of dreams about UFOs the previous night. “Whenever I have these dreams there are lots of UFO sightings around,” she said. “So if you go out tonight you may see something. I feel that about two in the morning would be the right time.” Now, being the gullible fool that I am, I decided to take up the offer. I went to bed at about 11 p.m., but set my alarm for 1.45. When the alarm rang, I managed to drag myself out of bed. I stumbled around my house for fifteen minutes, and then headed outside at 2.00 a.m. sharp. My eyes almost popped out of my head when I swung the door open and looked up at the sky. For flying right in front of me in the clear night sky was something I had never seen before. I can only describe it as a large ball of luminous white light, about a third of the size of a full moon. The thing was probably a few hundred metres in the air and was floating eastward at about 90 degrees above the horizon. There was absolutely no 46
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sound, and it seemed to be gliding on air. I can only describe it as eerily unearthly. I ran out onto the road, and watched it disappear over the neighbours’ houses. In total it was in view about thirty seconds. The ball of light was heading east, out over the ocean, and since I was in an excitable state, I ran down to the beach, which was only a few hundred metres from where I lived. I walked up and down the beach for an hour, but the ball of light was nowhere to be seen. Finally I gave up, and decided to head back to bed. I walked back down the short street to my home and trudged up the driveway. Then, as I was about to duck under the doorway (I’m rather tall) I looked up one last time. Once again my eyes nearly jumped out of my head. I saw something equally as amazing as the ball of light. For, moving directly over my head, there was a group of about twenty red, circular lights, flying in a double-V formation, one “V” inside the other. Again there was no sound, just eerie silence. The objects flew in a southerly direction, parallel the coast. They appeared to be a few hundred metres in the air, and within half a minute disappeared behind some trees at the end of the road. I have had quite a few “interesting” experiences since that day, but probably nothing quite so extraordinary as that night. Of all the things that set me on a path of questioning dominant knowledge structures of Western society, and the road to exploring human intelligence and human futures, this experience was probably the most significant. What were those things I saw that night? How on earth did Leslie know that they were going to be there at that precise time, merely from a dream? Why are these kinds of phenomena still a taboo topic in modern science and academia? I’m still asking these questions today.
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The Aboriginal Shaman Woman As mentioned before, there was a time when I was a sceptic of anything remotely spiritual or “psychic”. In fact in my early twenties I was an avowed atheist and empiricist. I was quite hostile to any reference to such things. Yet over time my attitude relaxed. I have previously mentioned one or two formative experiences which led to this shift. Many of them occurred at around the age of 26 or 27 (I’m now 44 years old). One other such event also occurred at this time, and involved an Aboriginal shaman woman. At the time I was living in Coffs Harbour, in northern New South Wales, Australia, and I had no conscious awareness of any innate intuitive ability I might possess. I was also happily free of any academic responsibilities. I had no intention of pursuing any higher education. I sat down one day to read the local paper, and noticed a small ad for psychic readings in the classifieds section. I was then becoming interested in the psychic realm. That evening I dialed the number and found myself speaking to a woman named Maria. The very next day I walked over to her home for a reading (Coff Harbour is not a big town). There was nothing special about Maria on the surface. She was quite down to earth, and although I was open to the possibility that she might offer something useful or even profound, I found myself quite sceptical. She didn’t appear to be particularly spiritual in the way I thought ‘spiritual’ was supposed to be. Her house was far from tidy and was run-down. There was renovation being carried out as she spoke to me, with workmen coming and going. She also smoked, a strong dislike of mine. “Put your paw up here,” she said. She took my hand, and began to ‘read’. “I see here that there has been a great tearing,” she commented. “It’s like a part of you has been torn away.” 48
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“Hmm, I have no idea what that could mean,” I mumbled sceptically. At the time I had little interest in emotional healing and had no genuine comprehension of the depth of the emotional scars I was carrying inside. “Why is it that they made you feel like you didn’t exist?” she asked bluntly. “I don’t know about that,” I mumbled. “My childhood wasn’t that great, but others have had worse.” “Listen to what I’m telling you!” she scolded me gently. “There is a tearing here. I can hear it. You have been torn away.” She interspersed the reading with information about her own life. Her father had been a kadaicha medicine man, and he had trained her in the ways of the shaman. She spoke of how she had struggled to deal with the responsibilities this entailed. She went on with the reading. “He is telling me to tell you that you should believe in yourself.” “Who is telling you?” I asked with incredulity. “My spirit guide, Zodiac.” “Oh?” “He speaks to me directly, just the way you do now. I am just telling you what he says.” I listened. If nothing else she was an interesting case study. “I can sense your father. He is a thoughtful man, but he is closed. Like a closed box. You can’t get near him.” I laughed. “That’s certainly spot on. He isn’t exactly known for his affectionate nature.” “Does he have heart problems?” I folded my arms. “No. He doesn’t have any heart problems. As far as I know he’s in good health.” “I see him with heart problems. I see him reaching for his chest. Actually it will be quite unexpected. How old is he?” “Fifty-three or so.” “He will be around sixty when it happens.” “I guess we’ll just have to see about that.” 49
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“Zodiac tells me you don’t trust yourself. You have much ability but you don’t let yourself believe you are any good because of what you were told when you were young. It’s time that you began to accept your abilities.” “Abilities?” I scoffed. “What abilities might those be?” “You see you are a very gifted person, but you don’t know it. You are very psychic.” “Psychic? Me?” I laughed. “Sorry, you’ve got to be joking. I’m not psychic at all.” “Just listen to what you are being told,” she firmly rebuffed me. “You have much to offer. You want to stretch yourself, but you don’t know how to do it.” “Fair enough. Like most people, I suppose.” “I see you going back to study.” “Study what? I’ve had enough of study.” At that point in my life I would rather have stuck toothpicks in my eyeballs. “I see you going for your masters, maybe even a Ph.D. You have done quite well academically.” I hadn’t told her I had a university degree, so this did impress me a little. But she was dead wrong about my having any intention to study again, and I told her so. “I didn’t do that well at school,” I said. I had always felt like I didn’t live up to my abilities, even though I had an honours degree in History. “I see you lecturing before people,” she said. “There is a lot of knowledge and power that will come your way, but you will have to earn it.” I listened. Maria was interesting if nothing else. “You will not be given that power for a long time yet. You are not ready and you might destroy it. When you are ready, they will give it to you.” I shuffled in my chair. “Who? Who will give me this knowledge?” “Your spirit guides will. I also see an old man. He has a lot of knowledge. He’s going to take you under his arm and help you.” 50
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Maria went on. Much of what Maria told me seemed rather grandiose, but there was one thing she mentioned that changed my life. “You should listen to the songs in your head. They are put there by Spirit. It is one of the ways that they try to communicate with you and guide you.” “Really?” I said, looking at her inquisitively. “Well, lots of people hear songs in their heads. That doesn’t mean they are messages from spirits.” “You need to listen more.” I paid Maria the forty bucks and left. Despite my aversion to her, there was something profound about some of the things she said. Her advice about music led me to listen more closely to song lyrics in my head. I began to listen more carefully to my inner mind. I discovered a veritable radio station of messages being relayed to me day and night. I began to write down all the lyrics that came to me while sleeping or meditating, or when I was engaging in mundane activates such as talking, even writing up a lesson plan at school. What began as a kind of quaint hobby later became a rather more involved activity. Soon, I was being woken in the middle of the night by song lyrics being drummed into my skull while I was sleeping. Once, I was awoken by a particular song in the middle of the night. Being drowsy and barely awake, I stumbled out of bed and walked over to the CD player to turn it off, only to find to my amazement that it was not even plugged in. One night I was woken up by a woman singing. Yet it was unlike any singing I had ever heard. The language was unrecognizable to me, and there was no instrumentation. Simply an angelic female voice, with an ancient-world feeling to it. The pace of the song was very, very slow, and the words drawn out into long melodic flute-like notes. As I was listening I realised that I was not hearing it with my ears. It was coming from within, or perhaps beyond. I sat up in bed and the singing stopped. Then I deliberately relaxed into a light trance state and the singing was 51
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there again. It was almost as if the woman was serenading me. It was the most beautiful thing imaginable. I fell into a deep sleep. At other times I have been warned of danger, given insights into the nature of mind and consciousness, aided in identifying my own healing issues, and assisted in relationships with others. I began to recognise an intelligence beyond my conscious mind with a greater awareness than me, an intelligence which I could access at will. This was the beginning of my understanding of Integrated Intelligence. In 1997, my father died very suddenly and unexpectedly from a heart problem. He was just a few weeks short of his fifty-eighth birthday. Till that moment, I had forgotten Maria’s prediction. Eight years later I began my doctoral studies, which I finished in 2006.
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