Ruminations on Reality: Manifestation
The Aether, Time, Consciousness, Intelligence, Matter and Energy
Part XI of a multi-part discussion
The ideas in this article are dependent upon concepts which were introduced in Part I, The Aether; Part II, The Three Faces of Time; Part III, Consciousness; Part IV, Intelligence; Part V, Life; Part VI, Mathematics; Part VII, Matter; Part VIII, Electromagnetism in the Matrix; Part IX, Infinity and Part X, Free Will.
Manifestation
The process to achieve manifestation follows intuitively, if not logically, from the cosmology I’ve described to this point.
As a reminder, the Aether is conscious and is within and throughout everything in existence. It is the potential from which everything else arises. Our thoughts, emotions and intentions, conscious or unconscious, are directly responsible for the reality that we experience, both collectively and individually. In short, given the right state of consciousness, we can communicate directly with the Aether.
Consensus Reality
We were born into a reality created by those who went before. All human constructs including languages, cultures, governments, borders, etc. are the result of our consensus reality. From the dawn of time, the Aether has created this reality for us as determined by the thoughts, emotions, intentions, strengths and frailties of our ancestors. As we grew up and were taught the various rules, social and otherwise, we became a part of the support structure for this reality. We make it stronger by our own belief and acceptance of norms.
Consensus reality is very difficult to change—its inertia is enormous due to the huge edifice of belief already there—but it can be changed. Gandhi changed reality when he showed that peaceful resistance can defeat empire. This idea spread inexorably across the world, more an evolution in thought than revolution, but has successfully spawned numerous other peaceful movements. Reality became different than it was before.
Very few of us are Gandhis of course but we don’t need to be. We just need to know that change is possible. Ideas spread like viruses. The more virulent, the faster the change, but Gandhi showed that real change can happen without revolution.
Regardless of consensus reality, every single one of us is able to change our own individual reality and by making our own changes, we can effect positive change on those around us. This is the kernel, the seed, for world-wide change. The effect is cascading.
Gratitude
Manifestation is achieved most easily through a practice of gratitude. It is both that simple and yet at the same time more mysteriouscomplex than you might think—for within lurks a secret.
Gratitude is already recognized in various schools of thought and religions as a beneficial practice, though not necessarily as a vehicle for manifestation. In most, it is used as a tool for worship, or simply as a ceremonial or ritual duty. It seems that somewhere along the line, someone recognized its inherent power though very few practices scratch the surface of the potential contained within.
The practice of ‘Giving Thanks’ is not the same. It simply doesn’t go deep enough. A practice of gratitude should be a meditation in which the practitioner spends unhurried time, rather than a rote ceremonial accoutrement quickly given while one’s mind is on the events of the day, the past or the future.
Nor is a gratitude practice the same as prayer. A true gratitude practice will be devoid of supplication and self-interest. It is a different thing entirely. One does not ask anything for themselves or anyone else. In a gratitude practice there is no energy of petitioning to a higher power.
In fact, a gratitude practice is and must be selfless in nature. Else it will not achieve the right energy for communication with the Aether.
But how will the Aether know what I want if I don’t specifically ask for it?
The Aether does not care what you want — but it knows what it wants, and what it wants is ‘flow’ for itself, and therefore for us — each of us being simply a single smaller facet of the greater whole.
But isn’t manifestation about ‘making my dreams come true’?
Yes, it is and we’ll get to that specific process shortly, but I think it’s important to lay the groundwork first as it is this foundation that is essential to both the well-being of the manifest-er and their success in manifestation. Gratitude is the catalyst that eases the realization of individual dreams.
Let’s go through the process first and then unveil the hidden mechanism inside that is the true secret of manifestation.
The Practice
First, find yourself in a relaxed and meditative state, whether purposefully or just as an accident of the day. Spend this time considering the people, animals, things, events, challenges and circumstances — let’s call them artifacts — that have created and populated your reality, both good and bad. Dropping any emotional attachment to outcomes, ego and pride associated with these artifacts, purposefully and unconditionally express gratitude to them. Find that bit of good within or resulting from each and express pure, untainted thanks to them.
This may be difficult at first, especially with strained relationships or traumatic events. But this process becomes easier with time and the emotional charge around these artifacts will soon start to fall off. With each day you’ll find it just a bit easier to direct positive energy towards those difficult energies.
Make this a daily practice — spend as long as possible directing pure and unconditional gratitude towards these artifacts, and make this daily practice into a lifelong habit. The longer the span of time you spend in this practice, the more effective it will be and the more easily your life will flow.
The Hidden Gem
As you become adept at this practice, you’ll find that it is accompanied by an energy of serenity, contentment and bliss. These feelings can be indistinguishable from the energy of love—and this is the secret, the hidden gem — the holy grail, if you will — held within gratitude. A pure practice of gratitude is the path to love, and love is the language that the Aether speaks. This is the energy, if we can achieve it, that will receive a response.
This is the love often given lip-service but which is mostly misunderstood by the masses who preach it. There are other paths to be sure, whether it be a different daily spiritual practice, a new relationship, sex, drugs, music, exercise, intense focus or something thing else, but these moments can be fleeting, inconsistent, unsustainable, and/or difficult to repeat. Gratitude is a simple technology and easy to implement.
Using gratitude to achieve this energy of love — the energy required to capture the attention of the Aether — is simplicity itself. Anyone can do it. It’s easily replicatable. It is a simple technology with no mysticism, ceremony or tools involved. No esoteric knowledge required.
What if bad people start a gratitude practice? Won’t this make it easier for them to be bad?
I think this is a really interesting question, because it is my belief that a gratitude practice will by its very nature improve the practitioner as a person. How can it not? They are immersing themselves in the energy of the love (if they are able to achieve it) which will inevitably bring about some understanding of our oneness, interdependence and indebtedness with and to one another. Eventually, if they keep it up long enough, they will become the person they were meant to be.
Intent and Action
It is possible and completely acceptable to practice gratitude in isolation to achieve a happier, flow-filled life. Alone it is an extremely powerful, albeit passive, method of manifestation. It is, however, only one corner of a larger triangle.
The active side consists of an inter-related duo, each being ineffective without the other: intent and action. In order to manifest material benefits into one’s life, one must set an intent and take action to achieve it. They are a set of twins, two sides of a coin. Neither in isolation will be effective.
Intent
For Intent, it is the intensity and duration of the focus that is of paramount importance. The more intense the intention and the longer one is able to maintain it, the more likely one is to be successful. You want a new car? Day and night and in-between, you must obsess over that new car.
Use your imagination and incorporate all of your senses as you envision how it feels to have your hands on the wheel as you are zooming down the road, as you breathe in the new car smell, and listen to the hum of the engine, and as you experience the gravity during an acceleration around the curves. Immerse yourself completely into the experience.
In addition to this visceral experience, you must also consider the avenues open to you for obtaining this car. Explore those options as a thought experiment. What is required for each of the various pathways open to you? Is it a new job, cutting expenses, or something else? In your mind, take those steps and see what obstacles or opportunities present themselves. How do you solve or take advantage of those? Continue this process as you overcome or bypass each challenge.
Make these two ‘visualizations’ a daily and all-day practice. Whenever you have a free moment, retrace your thought-experiment and experience the immersive sensations of the automobile.
This is the essence of setting and holding an intention.
Action
Intent alone however is not sufficient to move the Aether. Just thinking about whatever you want will unfortunately not do anything. As I stated earlier, it is only one side of a two-sided coin. One must also take action towards your goals, whatever that may entail — whether it is quitting a dead-end job and going back to school, or moving across the country, or finding a new group of friends to socialize with—the first step has to be taken.
The thought experiment discussed above will be helpful in determining exactly what actions you want to take. Once you have determined a path of least resistance, you must take action. It is always better when taking action to be measured and considered in your approach based on a well thought out strategy, but sometimes it is enough that you do something, anything to get started. Once that ball is rolling and you have no choice, you will be impelled to continue moving along that same course.
The Aether may hear your intention, but it listens to action. Once you have taken that first step, having set a strong and durable intention, the Aether will take notice and you’ll find that obstacles will begin to fall.
Unconditional gratitude opens up the lines of communication to the Aether, intent gains its attention and action compels a response.
But there are plenty of people out there who are driving expensive cars and living luxurious lifestyles — and they are bad people — they are hurting others and destroying the environment. Clearly they are not experiencing the love of the universe. Why do they get everything good?
It is possible to achieve material success solely through the exercise of intent and action, but it is a shallow success and without the deep connection to the Aether afforded by a gratitude practice or something similar, it is ultimately devoid of satisfaction. These people might be high achievers, but they are lost and deeply, exceedingly unhappy and dissatisfied with life. The only way they know to find happiness, if just for a fleeting moment, is to acquire more — more material goods, status, power or money. Their path is arduous, beset by obstacles and ultimately unsatisfying, leading them on a fruitless pursuit of something, anything that will provide more than fleeting happiness.
The example above might be classed as -gratitude, +intent, +action. Similar observations about circumstance might be made for people who fit the other permutations of the three corners of this triangle. For example +gratitude, +intent, -action might describe a stereotypical flower child. I’ll leave those classifications as an exercise for the reader. Where do you fit?
In Summary
By starting and maintaining a gratitude practice of thirty minutes a day — I do mine throughout the day and particularly as I’m in bed and ready to fall asleep — we can change our own energy, be more consistently in the flow of the universe and see the energy of the world itself change around us. We can achieve all of our goals while feeling fulfilled and happy. Rather than dominate and subjugate others, we can be generous and we can support and elevate others because we know there is an unlimited amount of ‘flow’ in the Aether — more than enough for everyone on this planet and all others.
Here ends Part XI of my Ruminations. The final part of this series is now available: Part XII, Energy.
