Esotericism: What It Is, Why It Matters, You Say You Want R E V O L U T I O N? Options

[painter]

I'm pinning this in "Alternative Theories" because of all the sub-forums in P4T, this, to me seems most appropriate. However, this thread will have nothing to do with the events of 9/11 directly other than to say that if you are not yet convinced that 9/11 was -- and continues to be -- a "black op," which is to say a clandestine psychological operation whose primary targets were not the destruction of the twin towers or the actuary within the Pentagon, but the minds of the people of the world, and of America in particular, then very likely, everything in this thread will seem irrelevant to you.

This thread is for those of us who understand that, as traumatic as 9/11 was to our body politic, it was, nevertheless, merely one act of many -- a bit more blatant perhaps than most -- stretching back through not only American history, but the history of humanity as a whole. From this perspective what we see is that there are the ruled and those who rule and there are layers upon layers of deception which separate the ruled from the real rulers. If statements like that seem obtuse or mysterious to you, then you aren't ready for what is to follow here. You need to concentrate your attention on convincing yourself that 9/11 was an 'inside job'; that "they" (whoever they are) did it and did it for nefarious reasons that are everywhere continuing to unfold around us. You need to dig into this further and convince yourself that there is much more going on here than 9/11 itself. You need to find out about how our system of political, economic and military power actually works and who it actually serves and protects. And then you need to discover who set up that system, the history of it, and how far back into time it goes.

None of that will be covered here.

This thread, and others like it that I may introduce in this "alternative theories" forum, has to do with an answer to the proverbial observation: "Well, if what you say is true, if we acknowledge that an inner circle of ruling elites controls the world’s most powerful military and intelligence system; controls the international banking system; controls the most effective and far-reaching propaganda network in history; controls all three branches of government in the world’s only superpower; and controls the technology that counts the people’s votes, then we obviously truly are fu*ked and one has to wonder what the hell are we going to do about it?"

MY answer to that is the same answer that David Ray Griffin gave in a talk in my home town about a year ago, in answer to the question quoted (more or less) above: "Well, we need a revolution," he said. And as remarkable as it is to hear someone say such a thing to an auditorium full of cheering people in America today is to note that he did not say it with great passion and an underlying threat of violence but with great calmness, clarity, rationality and conviction. The kind of conviction that can carry a man through great adversity to the end of his life. In other words, a conviction that is not superficial but which is resolved in every part of the man -- and which makes him, therefore, inwardly invincible.

It is this sort of thing, establishing this "inward invincibility" in the face of overwhelming adversity, that will be the primary focus of all I have to say.

Recently in OTHER | THREADS (for example), I've broached the subject of esotericism. I've done this because it is my conviction that only some familiarity with esoteric principles will enable us to "gird our loins" as the Bible puts it for the coming days ahead. You see, if it isn't clear to you yet it should be, gradually, becoming clear to you that what is taking place around us now is not merely the ascension of evil masquerading as neoconservatism or fascism, but something far more sinister and far older than either. For the most part I will attempt to refrain from references to Biblical (and other sacred text) prophecy regarding some actual or metaphorical "armageddons" or "battles for the world" or "struggles of the magicians." The fact is, however, such utterances can not be completely ignored. All the signs are there for any who wish to read them: It is not just America but the whole of humankind and, indeed, planet Earth itself, that is entering a time of grave crisis. As I've quoted repeatedly from Gurdjieff, I believe we are not merely approaching but are now in one of those "periods in the life of humanity, which generally coincide with the beginning of the fall of cultures and civilizations, when the masses irretrievably lose their reason and begin to destroy everything that has been created by centuries and millenniums of culture. Such periods of mass madness," Gurdjieff emphasizes, "often coinciding with geological cataclysms, climatic changes, and similar phenomena of a planetary character, release a very great quantity of the matter of knowledge." He is, of course, speaking here of esoteric knowledge, not mere information which is everywhere around us in overwhelming abundance already. "This, in its turn," he continues, "necessitates the work of collecting this matter of knowledge which would otherwise be lost. Thus the work of collecting scattered matter of knowledge frequently coincides with the beginning of the destruction and fall of cultures and civilizations."

This is where we are and this is what this thread is all about because what is at stake here is not merely whether or not 9/11 truth prevails -- which it will, I have no doubt -- but whether or not we and those who come after us will be able to re-establish a world of genuine values -- such as truth and justice -- after what is now becoming increasingly apparent to many of us as a great age of deception and criminality in which we have all played our parts.

To be continued . . .

[painter]

Learning How To Read

In the course of one of our talks I asked G.:

"What, in your opinion, is the best preparation for the study of your method? For instance, is it useful to study what is called 'occult' or 'mystical' literature?"

In saying this I had in mind more particularly the "Tarot" and the literature on the "Tarot."

"Yes," said G. "A great deal can be found by reading. For instance, take yourself: you might already know a great deal if you knew how to read. I mean that, if you understood everything you have read in your life, you would already know what you are looking for now. If you understood everything you have written in your own book, what is it called?"—he made something altogether impossible out of the words "Tertium Organum"—"I should come and bow down to you and beg you to teach me. But you do not understand either what you read or what you write. You do not even understand what the word 'understand' means. Yet understanding is essential, and reading can be useful only if you understand what you read. But, of course, no book can give real preparation. So it is impossible to say which is better. What a man knows well" (he emphasized the word "well")—"that is his preparation. If a man knows how to make coffee well or how to make boots well, then it is already possible to talk to him. The trouble is that nobody knows anything well. Everything is known just anyhow, superficially."

This was another of those unexpected turns which G. gave to his explanations. G.'s words, in addition to their ordinary meaning, undoubtedly contained another, altogether different, meaning. I had already begun to realize that, in order to arrive at this hidden meaning in G.'s words, one had to begin with their usual and simple meaning. G.'s words were always significant in their ordinary sense, although this was not the whole of their significance. The wider or deeper significance remained hidden for a long time.

~ P. D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous pp. 27

From the perspective of genuine esotericism, there is nothing hidden from any of us anywhere. Real knowledge, real power, is our birth-right and it is everywhere to be found only we do not see it, even when it is directly in the focus of our gaze. We know how to "look" but not how to see what we are looking at; we know how to read words and, perhaps, even "interpret" certain esoteric symbols or parables but not how to understand their deeper meanings and all that may be connected with them. Indeed, as Gurdjieff states, we do not even understand what understand means. Analogies of "the blind leading the blind" along perilous mountain paths are often employed in sacred traditions in an attempt to convey the seriousness of our situation: The human condition. Other analogies are also used such as "sleep;" humankind is "asleep" to its true nature, its higher callings and potentials. Yet another analogy familiar to those of us who have come to this via the path of 9/11 research is one presented by Gurdejieff, again quoted by Ouspensky:

". . . there are a thousand things which prevent a man from awakening, which keep him in the power of his dreams. In order to act consciously with the intention of awakening, it is necessary to know the nature of the forces which keep man in a state of sleep.

"First of all it must be realized that the sleep in which man exists is not normal but hypnotic sleep. Man is hypnotized and this hypnotic state is continually maintained and strengthened in him. One would think that there are forces for whom it is useful and profitable to keep man in a hypnotic state and prevent him from seeing the truth and understanding his position.

"There is an Eastern tale which speaks about a very rich magician who had a great many sheep. But at the same time this magician was very mean. He did not want to hire shepherds, nor did he want to erect a fence about the pasture where his sheep were grazing. The sheep consequently often wandered into the forest, fell into ravines, and so on, and above all they ran away, for they knew that the magician wanted their flesh and skins and this they did not like.

"At last the magician found a remedy. He hypnotized his sheep and suggested to them first of all that they were immortal and that no harm was being done to them when they were skinned, that, on the contrary, it would be very good for them and even pleasant; secondly he suggested that the magician was a good master who loved his flock so much that he was ready to do anything in the world for them; and in the third place he suggested to them that if anything at all were going to happen to them it was not going to happen just then, at any rate not that day, and therefore they had no need to think about it. Further the magician suggested to his sheep that they were not sheep at all; to some of them he suggested that they were lions, to others that they were eagles, to others that they were men, and to others that they were magicians.

"And after this all his cares and worries about the sheep came to an end. They never ran away again but quietly awaited the time when the magician would require their flesh and skins.

"This tale is a very good illustration of man's position.

In a previous thread, forum member 'democrazy' asked if we had heard of 'occult researcher' Michael Tsarion. I highly recommend anyone interested in the topic of esotericism watch a few of Tsarion's videos archived on google. One in particular is the 3+ hour marathon "2012 The Future of Mankind." If you are not familiar with "2012," and its significance in recent "New Age" theories and Apocalyptic beliefs concerning our immediate near future, I suggest you google it. You may also want to google "Terrence McKenna" and "Novelty Theory" and "Timewave Zero."

Of the two, Terence McKenna is a fascinating speaker. HERE, for example, is an MP3 of McKenna speaking in Santa Monica about his 1993 book "Food of the Gods" -- which explores the role diet, and in particular proto-hominid ingestion of psychedelic plants, may have played in the evolution of human consciousness. Once you get used to listening to his voice (which sounds like it could be emanating from some 'gray alien' extraterestial), you will likely find yourself quite entranced by what McKenna has to say even if you don't exactly 'understand' it.

I don't find Tsarion quite as entertaining but, nevertheless, it is obvious he has traveled a great deal, read a lot and has spent a lot of time contemplated unorthodox views of human history and where we may be headed. A 'time of cleansing' he calls it. He reads ancient texts and codices not as 'prophecy' but as 'recipe'.

Both Tsarian and McKenna hold the view (as, indeed, does Gurdjieff, or so it seems) that our present historical epoch represents the culmination of a Great Cycle -- the 'end' of one Age and the Beginning of another. This 'cyclic' view of history can be found in most ancient traditions and appears to be derived from observations of the natural order. According to esoteric tradition, however, these "turnings" or "revolutions" are an outward manifestation of fundamental principles inherent within the cosmos of which we are a part. In other words, the manifest and observable universe is derived from these cosmic principles, not the other way around.

My reason for mentioning these researchers and some of their more riveting speculations, however, is not to indorse them but to use them as a further example of people who, although they may be quite intelligent, knowledgeable and entertaining, nevertheless they still do not know how to read in the sense Gurjieff is speaking of, above. I met and spent a weekend with McKenna years ago and have watched several of Tsarian's presentations and I fully acknowledge that one can learn a lot of interesting things from either or both of these individuals -- so long as one does not make the mistake of believing everything they are saying is true or complete. As intelligent and informed as they are, they both make some serious mistakes precisely because, despite all their research, study and authorship, they can only "read" in the most ordinary and conventional sense of that word.

To be continued . . .

[painter]

My first glimmer of recognizing the importance of "knowing how to read," came in 1976 in the Undergraduate Library of the University of California, Berkeley. To fully grasp the significance of this event you'd have to first know that, although I was only 28 years old, I was already mightily weighted down with the most profound personal and social questions that can plague a young yet formative mind. I'd grown up on a farm in Indiana and, there, often found myself spontaneously transported into states of profound reverie as a result of looking at those massive clouds that fill certain hot summer skies; or studying the intricate persistence of a trail of ants winding its way through the bark of a maple tree. For the most part I felt myself to be a visitor from another planet, rudely thrust down into an alien world where nothing made much sense. Most of the things that concerned my parents and family and other kids around me held little interest or fascination for me -- and this, in itself, created a kind of 'inner hell'. Was I insane? "No," my kindly but not overly sophisticated mother insisted, "you're not crazy; you just see things that aren't there."

One of the more intense memories came not long after I began to go to school. Unlike most children, perhaps, I had wanted very badly to go to school. My two older sisters, ten and fifteen years my senior, often entertained themselves showing me their books and lessons before I was school age. I was particularly fascinated by photographs of people from distant places or drawings and figures that I could not read but knew must hold some secret knowledge. I was full of many questions about the world I found myself in and was itching to get to school where things would, at last, be thoroughly explained and it would finally "all make sense."

What a disappointment I was in for. The other kids were other kids and despite my queer mixture of intelligence and insecurity I got along with most of them most of the time, more or less. I wasn't much interested in sports or other games and that, being a boy, was a definite negative in my column. But, on the other hand, I was kind, knew how to listen, kept myself reasonably clean and out of trouble -- or, at any rate, I was bright enough to not get caught when I broke the rules and that, in itself, earned me a certain respect from my peers. For the most part my teachers seemed happy enough with me, as well. Although I deliberately did not excel in my lessons, I did do them respectably enough that I managed to not draw too much attention to myself. This strange attitude toward "learning" came about in my first days of school while being taught how to read. My first grade teacher, Ms Lavon, was holding up a block lettered flash card with the word "look" on it. She held the card high above her head in her left hand where all could see it and then, pointing with the middle finger of her right hand to each letter in turn asked us to repeat after her: "Look at the word 'LOOK'," she said. Then she would spell it and we would spell along with her: L -- O -- O -- K. "Look at the word 'LOOK'."

Being of the peculiar frame of mind I was, I realized at this time that my mind was being 'messed with' and I wasn't too happy about it. Yes, I wanted to lean and wanted to learn to read but I could feel, as if instinctively, that there was 'something not quite right' about what was going on. It was at this moment that I realized that I was a prisoner in the equivalent of a 'concentration' camp; that my brain was being 'washed', or, at any rate, essentially rearranged without either my full understanding or consent. And for this reason I secretly made one of those childhood decisions that all of us make but most forget ever having made to begin with. In that moment, while reciting the lesson along with my impressionable classmates, I made the decision to divide my attention as if my life and sanity depended upon it; for, indeed, at that moment, it did.

From then on I was very careful never to give my full and undivided attention to anything my teachers said or did for too long. For I knew instinctively that it was not safe to do so.

Some months later I recall standing outside the red-brick schoolhouse staring up at it while the deepest and most profound emotions of grief and bewilderment welled up in my heart. I was sobbing and choking in tears and horror because at this precious, young age it was already abundantly clear that I could never learn the things I most wanted to know at this school because no one there knew them; they had all be lost and forgotten long, long ago.

I can not say that from that moment I began to "seek" in the Biblical sense of the word, as in, "Seek and ye shall find; Knock and it shall be opened unto you", but I am certain that from that moment on I was a troubled child. I don't know that I "looked" troubled so much from the outside -- as I say, I got on well enough with both peers and adults -- but inwardly I no longer felt comfortable in my own skin. Something in me wanted answers to questions I barely even knew how to ask. Peers were of little help and adults even less so, most having no clue what I was about at all. Meanwhile I grew up and had to endure all the agonies and uncertainties of childhood and adolescence. Thrown into this mix, too, was a growing awareness of the world around me recently delivered in mediated form by the appearance of electronic communications and media. For the first time I had access to a far wider world of ideas and information than had previously been possible. Too, I came of age in the 1960s with all the turmoil and social upheavals in which I immersed myself like a salt-water fish having at last escaped the confines of its aquarium. Although my earlier childhood reveries had diminished somewhat, they had not deserted me. By the time I left for college, the 'psychedelic revolution' was in full swing and I was determined to ingest these magical elixirs about which so much had been written. And, indeed, unlike most of the products our society manufactures, these lived up to their hype. Although not for everyone, especially the fearful of heart, what I glimpsed through them was what I had known all along: The universe in which we live is far more marvelous, miraculous and curious than any of us ever guess.

So here as a young adult I find myself wandering the aisles of the concrete and fortress like Moffitt Undergraduate Library. I am drawn here the same way I am drawn to all my favorite haunts (which, in those days, included the now off-limits "stacks" of the Graduate Libraries as well, home to thousands of rare books). I would do this, wander the stacks, looking at titles and authors on spines, pulling a book off that had caught my attention, flipping through the pages as if trying to magically absorb what they might contain. Usually I put them back finding little or nothing to interest me but occasionally something would pop out that stuck and became a part of my constellation of questions and thoughts.

During this time, for example, I was reading books by Alan Watts, D. T. Suzuki, and Krishnamurti. My personal research and studies had now convinced me that the fundamental problem facing human kind had something to do with this mysterious thing we called "consciousness." Having experienced significant "altered states" both through my psychedelic experimentations and, earlier, as is said "on the natch," I understood that the least understood thing about myself and humankind in general was "consciousness" itself.

And thus it was in this state of mind that, seemingly quite by chance, I pulled a book off the library shelf and began to read the following:

To be continued . . .

[painter]

 

What Is Consciousness?

I realize that our task would be much easier if from now on we could be working with a precise definition of the word "consciousness." But it is important to stay flexible toward this question of the nature of consciousness. The word is used these days in so many different ways that out of sheer impatience one is tempted to single out one or another aspect of consciousness as its primary characteristic. The difficulty is compounded by the fact that our attitude toward knowledge of ourselves is like our attitude toward new discoveries about the external world. We so easily lose our balance when something extraordinary is discovered in science or when we come upon a new explanatory concept: Immediately the whole machinery of systematizing thought comes into play, Enthusiasm sets in, accompanied by a proliferation of utilitarian explanations, which then stand in the way of direct experiential encounters with surrounding life.

In a like manner, a new experience of one's self tempts us to believe we have discovered the sole direction for the development of consciousness, aliveness or--as it is sometimes called --presence. The same machinery of explanatory thought comes into play accompanied by pragmatic programs for "action." It is not only followers of the new religions who are victims of this tendency, taking fragments of traditional teachings which have led them to a new experience of themselves and building a subjective and missionary religion around them. This tendency in ourselves also accounts, as we shall see later, for much of the fragmentation of Modern psychology, just as it accounts for the fragmentation in the natural sciences.

In order to warn us about this tendency in ourselves, the traditional teachings--as expressed in the Bhagavad-Gita, for example--make a fundamental distinction between consciousness on the one hand and the contents of consciousness such as our perceptions of things, our sense of personal identity, our emotions and our thoughts in all their color and gradations on the other hand.

This ancient distinction has two crucial messages for us. On the one hand, it tell us that what we feel to be the best of ourselves as human beings is only part of a total structure containing layers of mind, feeling and sensation far more active, subtle and encompassing (like the cosmic spheres) than what we have settled for as our best. These lawyers are very numerous and need to be peeled back, as it were, or broken through one by one along the path of inner growth, until an individual touches in himself the fundamental intelligent forces in the cosmos.

At the same time, this distinction also communicates that the search for consciousness is a constant necessity for man. It is telling us that anything in ourselves, no matter how fine, subtle or intelligent, no matter how virtuous or close to reality, no matter how still or violent--any action, any thought, any intuition or experience--immediately absorbs all our attention and automatically becomes transformed into contents around which gather all the opinions, feelings and distorted sensations that are the supports of our secondhand sense of identity. In short, we are told that the evolution of consciousness is always "vertical" to the constant (horizontal or time bound) stream of mental, emotional and sensory associations within the human organism, and comprehensive of them (somewhat like a "fourth dimension"). And, seen in this light, it is not really a question of concentric layers of awareness embedded like the skins of an onion within the self, but only one skin, one veil, that constantly forms regardless of the quality or intensity of the psychic field at any given moment.

Thus, in order to understand the nature of consciousness, I must here and now in this present moment be searching for a better state of consciousness. All definitions, no matter how profound, are secondary. Even the formulations of ancient masters on this subject can be a diversion if I take them in a way that does not support the immediate personal effort to be aware of what is taking place in myself in the present moment.

In all that follows in this book, we shall continue to speak about levels of consciousness and intelligence within man and within the universe, for this idea is crucial in any attempt to reach a new understanding of science. But I wish, for the reader and for myself, that this more inner, personal meaning of the idea be constantly kept in mind.

~ Jacob Needleman, A Sense of the Cosmos, pp 20 - 22.

To be continued . . .

[painter]

Thus, in order to understand the nature of consciousness, I must here and now in this present moment be searching for a better state of consciousness. All definitions, no matter how profound, are secondary. Even the formulations of ancient masters on this subject can be a diversion if I take them in a way that does not support the immediate personal effort to be aware of what is taking place in myself in the present moment.

---

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[painter]

A man can learn a lot if he learns how to read. . . The problem is, everyone thinks he knows how to read already and, therefore, never bothers to learn. Meanings are not a property of words, but of mind. Meanings, therefore, change as a man's understanding changes. And the only thing that can change a man's understanding is a change in both his knowledge and being. A man's understanding grows as his knowledge and being grows or, conversely, diminishes as his knowledge and being diminishes. We are all faced with a choice:(IMG:http://pilotsfor911truth.org/forum/style_emoticons/default/177558.gif)

---

Neo (to Trinity in the night club): It you on my computer. How did you do that?

Trinity: Right now all I can tell you is that you're in danger. I brought you here to warn you.

Neo: Of what?

Trinity: They're watching you, Neo.

Neo: Who is?

Trinity (whispering in Neo's ear): Please just listen. I know why you're here, Neo. I know what you've been doing. I know why you hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night you sit at your computer. You're looking for him. I know, because I was once looking for the same thing. And when he found me, he told me I wasn't really looking for him. I was looking for an answer. It's the question that drives us mad. It's the question that brought you here. You know the question just as I did.

Neo: What is the Matrix.

Trinity: The answer is out there, Neo. It's looking for you. And it will find you, if you want it to.

---

(Neo wakes up in bed, screaming from his 'dream' of having been captured, interrogated and implanted with a 'bug' by agents. The phone rings, startling him. He picks up the receiver.)

Morpheus: This line is tapped, so I must be brief. They got to you first, but they've underestimated how important you are. If they knew what I know, you'd probably be dead.

Neo: What are you talking about. What...what is happening to me?

Morpheus: You are the one, Neo. You see you may have spent the last few years looking for me, but I've spent my entire life looking for you. Now do you still want to meet?

Neo: Yes.

Morpheus: Then go to the Adam Street Bridge.

---

(Neo stands under bridge in the pouring rain. A black limousine pulls up beside him. Trinity opens the back door)

Trinity: Get in.

Neo (as Switch pulls a revolver, cocks the trigger, aiming it squarely at him): What the hell is this?

Trinity: Necessary, Neo. For our protection.

Neo: From what?

Trinity: From you.

Switch (to Neo): Take off your shirt.

Neo: What is this?

Switch (to driver): Stop the car.

Switch (to Neo): Listen to me, copper-top. We don't have time for twenty questions. Right now there is only one rule: Our way . . . or the highway.

Neo (opening car door to leave): Fine.

Trinity (grasping Neo's arm): Please, Neo. You have to trust me.

Neo: Why?

Trinity: Because you have been down there, Neo. You know that road. You know exactly where it ends. And I know that is not where you want to be.

(Neo closes car door. Limo drives off into the rain.)

---

Trinity (to neo, standing before a suit door of the Lafayette Hotel): This is it. Let me give you one piece of advice. Be honest. He knows more than you can imagine.

(Trinity opens door and they walk in.)

Morpheus (turning to greet Neo): At last. Welcome, Neo. As you no doubt have guessed, I am Morpheus.

Neo (offering his hand to Morpheus): It is an honor to meet you.

Morpheus (shaking Neo's hand): No. The honor is mine. Please, come, sit.

(Morpheus escorts Trinity to the door. She exits.)

Morpheus: (to Neo, seated): I imagine that right now you are feeling a bit like Alice. Tumbling down the rabbit hole, hum?

Neo: You could say that.

Morpheus: I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically this is not far from the truth. Do you believe in fate, Neo?

Neo: No.

Morpheus: Why not?

Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.

Morpheus (pointing his pill box at Neo): I know exactly what you mean. (Morpheus sits opposite Neo.) Let me tell you why you are here. You are here because you know something. What you know, you can't explain. But you feel it. You've felt it your entire life. That there is something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is. But it is there, like a splinter in your mind. Driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Neo: The Matrix?

Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is?

(Neo nods 'yes'.)

Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it, when you go to work, when you go to church. When you pay your taxes. It is the World that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the Truth.

Neo (leaning forward): What Truth?

Morpheus (leaning forward): That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Born into a prison that you can not smell or taste or touch. A prison, for your mind.

Morpheus (leans back, sighing): Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. (Opening pill box.) You have to see it for yourself. (Emptying contents of pill box into his hands and offering two pills to Neo, one in each closed fist.) This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill (he opens his left hand, offering him the blue pill), the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill (he opens his right hand, offering the red pill), you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

(Neo reaches for red pill.)

Morpheus: Remember. All I'm offering is the Truth, nothing more.

(Neo takes red pill, swallows, and reaches for a glass of water.)

Morpheus: Follow me.

(Neo gets up and follows Morpheus into an adjoining room.)

Morpheus: Apoc, are we on line?

Apoc: Almost.

Morpheus (to Neo): Time is always against us. Please, take a seat there.

(Switch takes Neo's jacket as Trinity begins to prepare him with electronic sensors.)

Neo (whispering to Trinity): You did all this?

Trinity: Umhmm.

Morpheus: The pill you took is part of a trace program. Designed to disrupt your input output carrier signals so we can pin point your location.

Neo (confused): What does that mean?

Cypher: It means buckle your seat belt, Dorothy, because Kansas is going bye-bye.

(Neo shivers and takes a deep breath. His attention is taken by a cracked mirror standing to his right. In it, he sees a jagged and fragmented reflection of himself. As he watches in amazement, the mirror begins to mend itself, becoming once again a seamless whole.)

Neo (turning to others): Did you . . .?

(Neo cuts off his question. Trinity and Morpheus watch him intently. Neo turns back toward the mirror and reaches out with his right hand to touch it. His fingers penetrate it as if it were a vertical pool of mercury. Neo withdraws his hand but the liquid mirror clings to his fingers as he pulls them free.)

Morpheus: Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real. What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?

Neo (looking at his hand, the liquid mirror is spreading): This can't be . . .

Morpheus: Be what? Be real?

(Neo is beginning to become alarmed by the spreading liquid mirror that is now traveling up his arm.)

Trinity: He's going into replication!

Morpheus: Apoc?

Apoc: Still nothing.

(The liquid mirror is now traveling up Neo's neck toward his face. Morpheus pulls out a cell phone, punches it.)

Morpheus: Tank, we're going to need a signal soon.

Trinity (looking at signal on monitor): We got a fibrillation.

Morpheus: Apoc! Location!

Apoc: Targeting. We're almost there!

(Neo is becoming terrified as liquid mirror climbs up his face.)

Trinity: He is going into arrest!

Apoc: Lock. I've got him!

Morpheus: Now Tank, now!

(Neo screams as liquid mirror pours down his rapidly descending throat. His scream becomes a high-pitch electronic signal that reverberates endlessly throughout the Matrix. Neo awakaens.)

(IMG:http://www.offrampstudios.net/pilots/NeoAwakens.jpg)

---

Neo (coming-to inside the NebuchadnezzaR): Am I dead?

Morpheus: Far from it.

---

The next time I post in this thread it will be to show you a small sliver of the Matrix. I don't mean the movie, I mean a sliver of that real matrices of which we are all a part, right now. I have it in my possession already. Posting it for you to see is only a matter of time and technology. It may be tomorrow or next week or next month. I don't know. But it is coming.To be continued . . .

[painter]

Revelation 2:17 (King James Version)

17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

Edit note: The date is May 21, 2009.
In the post preceding this one I mentioned a sliver of the real matrix.
This video is not a product of computer technology but is a video of a living, electromagnetic field.
The original had a sound track of a piece by Nine Inch Nails. Eventually it was pulled due to copyright issues.
This is the same video with a re-dubbed sound track.
Anyone wishing to have a better quality DVD version with t he original track, PM me with a mailing address.