Remembering Meher Baba

Meher Baba often stressed the importance of remembering him on a daily basis. What follows are some passages from Lord Meher that remind us how to do that. This is the first and it only requires four seconds of each day: one second four times a day:

The easiest and surest way is to do as I tell you. It will be somewhat of a task at first, as when you start to run you feel it too much (sore muscles); but when you are in training, you feel it "sahaj" (meaning, naturally). At first, you will have to do it deliberately, then it will become natural. There are four quarters of the day; there are four divisions in man's physical state: childhood, youth, maturity, old age. There are four quarters that Kabir calls the signposts. The first thing in the morning when you get up, before doing anything, think of Baba for one second. Baba is then worn by your soul: early in the morning dress your soul with Baba. At 12 noon, for one second do the same; do it again about five o'clock; when you retire do it also. I have never asked anyone to do this, not even the mandali. If you do it, I will be always with you, and you will feel my company all the time. Do it for four seconds every day, then you will be in the world, yet Baba will be with you all the time. This is the beginning of sahaj dnyan.

 In this second passage, he emphasises the number fourteen (as part of the "second" solution):

But Baba has three solutions to free you forever from your bindings. It is impossible, first of all, to become the very dust under my feet in this body. The second solution is to be in the world with family, home, business, et cetera, but take Baba's name fourteen times daily: not more, not less than fourteen times. Then you will come to me. Even fourteen times is difficult. If you cannot do this, then do this much. When about to breathe your last, repeat my name, and come to me. This too is hard to do unless you start repeating it or loving me from now on, every second of your life. If you do not do it, you will not be able to remember me in your last moments. Even if this is not possible, there is a last recourse which might help you. It is to do selfless service for others, as I am everywhere, in all and in everything. Service for the sake of service is selfless service. If you do this, under all circumstances and regardless of what happens, it will bring you to me.

Yet again, he asks us to remember him for five minutes at the start and end of each day:

Before going to sleep say, "Baba, I entrust all that I did to you, thoughts, spoken words, good and bad deeds." When you wake up say, "Baba, I now begin entrusting all to you." This much will be more than sufficient for me. Say it only twice a day for five minutes. Do that and make me responsible wholeheartedly for all that you think, speak and do, but wholeheartedly. Then you are free. Nothing can bind you. But you must do it honestly. I am the Ocean. I can accept both fragrant flowers and coconuts, and also filth. So throw everything in the Ocean with all your heart. This is a great thing and is to be done wholeheartedly; otherwise, it goes in a pool of water, making it filthy because of your own dirt.

Bread and Circuses

Having recently signed up to Netflix, I'm more aware of the diversity of series and movies on offer. I've just finished binge-watching "House of Cards" and there's plenty of other content to tempt me in addition to what I regularly watch. I don't follow much sport but recently I've noticed that the Diamond League Athletics meetings are being posted to YouTube and so I've been watching some of those. I don't watch television per se but many do, feasting on game and quiz shows, talent quests, reality shows and so on. Combine television and Netflix (or its equivalents) with social media activity on the Internet and there's not much time left for anything else, especially if you're holding down a full time job.

It was only when I stopped working that I found I had time to follow some of the dominant themes on alternative media. Prior to that I had watched YouTube videos about 9/11 for example but sporadically and never in a sustained, regular fashion. Without the distractions of working, I've had time to investigate issues relating to fiat currencies, global warming, vaccinations, NASA, New World Order (NWO) and so on. I feel like the scales have dropped from my eyes over the past year. It is easy though to just watch Netflix and television, be active on social media, follow your favourite sports and get all your news about the world from Main Stream Media (MSM). The issues raised by alternative media are complex and disturbing but MSM constantly dumbs things down with offers like "overview of the Syria crisis in 1 minute " or "we've reviewed this (conspiracy theory) book so you don't have to waste time reading it".

The Internet is changing and alternative media is being squeezed out, slowly and in a not so subtle manner. YouTube channels that regularly attract thousands of viewers are suddenly demonetised without explanation or even warning. Internet content is being removed on the basis that it is inciting hatred when in fact it is often just provoking a deeper look at controversial issues. Dangerous as these developments are, it is even more disturbing that the majority of people simply don't care and hence the title of this post: Bread and Circuses. These two commodities are what the Roman emperors gave the citizens of Rome to keep them happy. I was looking today in a local store at the large screen, high definition, smart TVs on display. It's easy to be seduced by this sort of technology, especially a technophile like myself. Most of the screens when purchased will be used to watch frivolous content or play video games.

Meanwhile the global elite is free to pursue its nefarious agenda no matter what suffering and loss of life are involved. Politicians and political institutions exist to serve their economic overlords. They do not exist to serve you. You can choose between one or another but there is no essential difference between any of them. Law enforcement exists to enforce their laws. If you live in a so-called democracy, you may well be able to say whatever you want but that's only because those in charge don't feel threatened. Any real threat to this established order will be eliminated, by whatever means necessary. There will always be trouble-makers but provided that there aren't too many of them (and bread and circuses help ensure this), then the powers-that-ought-not-to-be will be distracted.

Towards a Cashless Society

If there was any doubt that we are being steered toward a cashless society, then this latest news should assuage those doubts:

The European Central Bank (ECB) says it will no longer produce the €500 (£400; $575) note because of concerns it could facilitate illegal activities. The decision comes in the wake of a European Commission inquiry in February into the way the notes are used. Senior ECB officials said at the time that they needed more evidence that the notes facilitated criminal activity. The UK asked banks to stop handling €500 notes in 2010 after a report found they were mainly used by criminals. The ECB says the €500 banknote remains legal tender and will always retain its value. It will stop issuing the note around the end of 2018, when it will bring in new €100 and €200 banknotes.
A report earlier this year for the Harvard Kennedy School, urged the world's 20 largest economies to stop issuing the largest notes in circulation - £50, $100 and €500 notes - to tackle crime. Peter Sands, former chief executive of Standard Chartered bank, said the high-denomination notes were favoured by terrorists, drug lords and tax evaders. Illegal money flows exceed $2 trillion (£1.4 trillion) a year, he said.

The report from the Harvard Kennedy School is titled Making it Harder for the Bad Guys: The Case for Eliminating High Denomination Notes and the predictable villains are cited as a justification for this: terrorists, drug lords and tax evaders. If you're not a "bad guy" then how could you possibly object to this? If you do object, then maybe you are a "bad guy" and the powers-that-ought-not-be should take a closer look at your financial transactions: maybe raid your home and carry off your computing devices. 

Make no doubt about it: cash is on the way out but the world will be a better place as a result because the "bad guys" will be bankrupt and the "good guys" will have triumphed. Let's hope that cryptocurrencies like BitCoin can disrupt the pursuit of this agenda by the banksters of the global elite.

The Illusion of Continuous Consciousness

I've long felt human consciousness is not continuous but made up of discrete sensory snapshots. This article that I came across today seems to confirm that notion of mine.

Our conscious perception of the world feels like a continuous and uninterrupted flow, but a new study suggests that it’s actually more like the frames of a movie reel running through a projector.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about consciousness and how it arises in the brain. Even though perception—such as vision and hearing—feels smooth and uninterrupted, neuroscientists aren’t entirely sure if it flows continuously like water through a tap or if it’s more like the aforementioned 24-frame-per-second movie reel.

A team of European researchers now say it’s more like the latter—but with a twist. Their new conceptual framework, published in PLOS Biology, suggests that we initially process incoming sensory information in an unconscious state, which then shifts to full perceptual awareness. And it all happens in blips, or “time slices,” lasting for as long as 400 millisecond intervals.

The two-stage model of visual perception
Image: Michael H. Herzog et al., 2016/PLOS Biology



The new model, developed by Michael Herzog from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and Frank Scharnowski from the University of Zurich, proposes a two-stage processing of sensory information. During the first phase, the brain processes specific features of an object, say, its color or shape. This scanning is done semi-continuously, but we humans are completely unaware that it’s happening. During this first phase, even changes to the object (like a change in its color or brightness) aren’t consciously perceived.

But then comes the second stage: the transference of the stimulus to actual conscious perception. During this stage, the brain renders the perceived features after the unconscious processing has been completed. We experience all this as qualia (i.e. subjective) conscious experience arising from sense perception. It’s like that moment when a polaroid film reveals its hidden details and we’re finally aware of what we’re looking at—except this process happens so fast that we’re oblivious to the “developing” phase.

“When unconscious processing is ‘completed,’” the researchers explained in the study, “all features are simultaneously rendered conscious at discrete moments in time, sometimes even hundreds of milliseconds after stimuli were presented.”

That means there’s a lag from when we first experience something, to when we’re actually aware of it. (This might actually explain the flash-lag illusion.) This entire two-stage process, from start to finish, can last up to 400 milliseconds—which is a long time from a psychological perspective.

“The reason is that the brain wants to give you the best, clearest information it can, and this demands a substantial amount of time,” Herzog said in a statement. “There is no advantage in making you aware of its unconscious processing, because that would be immensely confusing.”

Herzog and Scharnowski’s model suggests we’re not as conscious as we think we are. If they’re right, it means we’re unconscious for a significant portion of our waking life. But like the gaps between film slides, we’re unaware of these “black outs.”

The implication is that there’s no such thing as a continuous and immutable self nor is there an ever-present soul. Instead, our brains are constantly churning out snapshots of perception, which to us feel real and consistent. Combined with other aspects of cognition (like memory), it gives rise to self-awareness and the impression that we live in a coherent universe.

This new model only considers visual processing. Something very different may be happening in the brain when it processes other information, such as sound, touch, or smell. That said, the research offers a more complete picture of brain functioning than what’s presented by advocates if the simplistic “continuous or discrete” view of human consciousness.

The comment about an ever-present soul seems oddly unconnected with the experiment but the idea that there's no such thing as a continuous and immutable self is right on the money. We're unconscious for a significant portion of our waking life and instead flash in and out of conscious awareness. Let's say the dots below represent these flashes of conscious awareness:

.          .          .          .

Let say the time interval between the dots is 400 milliseconds or 0.4 seconds as I infer from the article. This means one flash every 0.4 seconds, corresponding to a frequency for consciousness of 2.5 Hz. This suggests other modes of awareness at different frequencies with the possibility of beats occurring with certain frequency combinations.

What I'm getting at is that could it be that these frequencies become higher as consciousness becomes attuned to the various levels of the higher planes (the astral and mental)? As the level of consciousness rises, the time between blackouts decreases and disappears completely when undifferentiated unity is realised.