Introduction
One morning in September 1991, I was awakened by a voice. I sat up in bed in a state between dreaming and being awake. The voice said, "Grab your journal and a pen. I want you to receive some information." I did as the voice instructed --opened my journal, and began to write what the voice dictated. It began, "Once upon a time, there was a consciousness ………….." Periodically the voice would stop and a picture would come into my mind. I drew the pictures along side the text and continued receiving the text.
After I had accumulated about twelve pages of text and drawings, I fell into a deep sound sleep. When I awakened later that morning, I read my journal. I was amazed at the depth and scope of the message contained in those twelve pages. Given the apparent source of the message and the message itself, I did a minimal amount of editing to make sure I didn't distort its meaning in any way.
Later, I learned that this story is an allegory. An allegory is defined as, a story in which the characters and events are symbols, expressing truths about human life.
Ever since that morning in 1991, I have been trying to find a way to share this message about "Who We Really Are" with as many people as possible.
The Beginning
Once upon a time, there was a Consciousness that was omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. It decided that It wanted to know Itself. Since there were no mirrors large enough for It to look into, It decided to grow some Branches. With these Branches, It would be able to look back and see Itself. In that way, It would be able to know Itself, appreciate Itself and generally have more fun.
Fig. 1.0 -- The Consciousness![]
So with the power of Its thought, It imagined Itself as a Consciousness with Branches.
Fig. 2.0 -- The Consciousness With Branches
It gave the Branches lives of their own - laws or patterns of thought - that the Branches could use to reproduce or extend themselves almost automatically. The Consciousness created a wonderful playground so that the Branches would have a place to play.
The Branches automatically changed and grew. As they evolved and grew, they not only created a lot of new ideas, they also learned a lot. To help with this ongoing growth, the Consciousness gave the Branches a special kind of freedom called free will.
The Consciousness was very happy. It could now see Itself from many different perspectives.
One day, two Branches took their eyes off the Consciousness and looked at each other. One said, "You are different and strange." The other one said, “You are different and strange too." Together they looked at the other Branches -- Plants, Animals, Rocks, and Fish. They decided that they were different from each other and different from all the other Branches.
Since they were different from all the other Branches, they decided that they must be different from the Consciousness. The more they thought about this, the more "differences" they created. Until one day they created the first of a vast series of mirages or illusions. This first illusion looked like:
Fig. 3.0 -- Separation Illusion
In spite this illusion about differences, the real Truth remained the same. Reality was still the same. It looked like it had always looked.
Fig. 4.0 -- The View of Current Reality
As the Branches began to multiply, they decided that they needed some Vehicles so they could fit into their environment better. They merged with some other Branches and created Vehicles called Bodies. With all these Bodies running around, the illusion of separateness from other Branches continued to expand. The Bodies were smaller compared to those of some of the other Branches. This caused them to create bigger and better illusions, such as fear. While they were doing it, they created evil -- the idea that the other Branches would hurt them. They kept going until they created disease -- the idea that their Bodies were not whole and perfect, and could be attacked by other tiny Branches called germs.
Death
About this time, some of the Branches got very tired of this struggle to keep up the growing number of illusions. They decided to pull their individual consciousnesses out of their Bodies and return to Reality or the Consciousness.
This happening was a tremendous shock and surprise to the other Branches. Since they were now so good at creating illusions, they had to create a new, special illusion for this happening. This new illusion had to be the ultimate biggie. Thereafter, when any Branches decided to withdraw back to the Consciousness, the new illusion said that decision was bad, scary, and had to be avoided. They gave this illusion a name, which soon became ominous -- death
More and more illusions were being created as time passed. The Consciousness looked at all that was going on within Itself and decided that It must send a Special Branch to remind the others about the Truth.
Appearance of Jesus the Special Branch
The plan was simple. For a while, the Special Branch would pretend to accept the illusions of the other Branches. Then, He, retaining full memory of the Consciousness and the Truth, would teach the Truth to the other Branches. He would use a series of demonstrations or experiments to get His message across.
The Special Branch was sent out and now the Truth, which is Reality, looked like this:
Fig. 5.0 -- The Special Branch On The Scene
Using the power of the Consciousness that had been forgotten, but still existed within all the other Branches, the Special Branch "grew up" and began to show the other Branches that they were still part of the Consciousness. The Special Branch gave a simple message. The Branches could return to the fun that they used to have in their original playground. All they had to do, was remember their Source and their reason for being, which was to be mirrors by expressing the Consciousness and allowing the Consciousness to know Itself more completely.
Miracles
A few Branches listened; some, more than others. The Special Branch did some experiments to get the other Branches' attention, to help them see through the illusions they had created. The other Branches were impressed, but they were so locked into their illusions that they called these everyday, ordinary experiments - unusual happenings or “Miracles."
Finally after a number of years of doing these experiments (both small ones and big ones), the Special Branch decided that He would tackle the biggest illusion of all - death. He did a trial run with His friend. Through His direct contact with the Consciousness, He asked His friend to come back and spend some more time in the friend's discarded Vehicle - Body. The friend saw this as a chance to help dissolve this big illusion. He put his individual Consciousness back into its original Vehicle and walked out to greet his friend, the Special Branch. For a while some people were impressed, but eventually, they just added this to the list of other Miracles and continued to cling, even more fiercely, to their illusions.
While all of this very interesting stuff was happening, the Special Branch was holding special town meetings and telling (i.e., trying to convince) the other Branches that they were just like Him. They were still attached and/or connected to the Consciousness. This fact made them perfectly capable of doing bigger and better experiments - Miracles - than He could do.
Crucifixion and Resurrection
Finally, the time came for the Special Branch to do the ultimate experiment. He withdrew His individual Consciousness from His Vehicle. By the way, He did it as dramatically as possible (with a great deal of help from a lot of pious and otherwise hostile supporting players) to have the maximum impact on the other Branches. Then three days later, He temporarily put His Individual Consciousness back into His Vehicle and spent some time with a few close friends. This made them see the Truth and remember the Consciousness more clearly.
Religion
After the Special Branch decided. to merge back into the Consciousness, His close friends, who now became the Good Branches, decided to go out and tell all the other Branches what they had seen and that the Truth was still the Truth.
The reaction of the other Branches was violent. In spite of all the evidence, they were not about to give up their illusions.
Some of the Good Branches were killed -- forced to leave their Vehicles. Others had to go into hiding, but somehow, they kept spreading the Word.
Branches Split Into Groups
Over time the Branches split into four distinct groups which included:
The Illusion Branches - who. were firmly stuck in their illusions and continued to create more illusions such as war, famine, cancer, AIDS, etc., as rapidly as they could.
The Good Branches - who worked real hard on remembering the Consciousness and spreading stories about the Special Branch and what He had said.
The Rigid Branches - who split off from the Good Branches and said all the other Branches were bad and that the Consciousness would punish them unless they did some special exercises such as taking a bath in public and following a rigid set of rules.
The New Branches - who started discovering new ways of communicating directly with the Consciousness and understanding more of what the Special Branch had been trying to say
Good Branches Split Further
The Good Branches got a little confused and split into two groups --the Good-Control-Branches and the Good-Less-Control-Branches.
The Good-Control-Branches said that they would take over the whole job of communicating with the Consciousness. They set up a lot of rules so that they could stay in charge and control the illusion Branches.
The Good-Less-Control-Branches threw out some of the rules, but still kept most of the responsibility for communicating with the Consciousness. Some Good-Less-Control Branches became Rigid-Branches.
The Rigid Branches focused on the words of the Special Branch, taking them literally. They used His words, sometimes taken out of context, to make up a lot more rules. The Rigid Branches used an illusion called Hell to scare the Illusion Branches into submission. Hell had also been used a lot by the Good-Control-Branches.
The New Branches
The New Branches, although considered by the Good Branches to be weirdoes, looked at this whole mess and redoubled their efforts at trying to help the illusion Branches remember the Truth.
The New Branches said that there was no need to put the Special Branch on a pedestal and create more illusions about how separate we were from Him. They suggested that the Illusion Branches should really try to see and understand, for themselves, what He was trying to show and teach us.
Angels and Light Beings
Some Semi-Special Branches, a group of Branches without Vehicles, saw what was happening and volunteered to help the New Branches by whispering into the ears of the all the various groups of Branches. The Semi-Special Branches would do the whispering, while the other Branches were asleep, or while the other Branches had become very relaxed and were listening very hard to communicate with the Consciousness.
The Semi-Special Branches did not really have to whisper, since they could transfer the ideas by spreading them throughout the Consciousness. This. was possible, because all the Branches were still connected to the Consciousness like telephones.
The current picture of the Truth or Reality looks like this:
Fig. 6.0 -- Current View of the Truth or Reality
Within the last few years, the New Branches have had to step up their activities by providing more communication with the Consciousness and spreading the Word in different ways to the illusion Branches. This was necessary, because the Illusion Branches had started to become disenchanted with their illusions. The messages from all the Good Branches (the Control, the Less-Control and the Rigids) weren't making sense anymore.
The illusion Branches have been increasingly exposed to the ideas of the New Branches. Since in reality they were still connected, the ideas of the New Branches just sort of drifted over to the individual consciousness of the illusion Branches. Actually, once the ideas started moving around, they touched, and had a profound impact on the Good Branches too. Today, in spite of the last gasping, grasping, frantic, violent, senseless attempts of the die-hard illusion Branches to not receive the message, the Consciousness is expressing Itself through the New Branches. Some of the Good Branches have even switched to being New Branches. These converted New Branches have vigorously joined the efforts to get the message to the illusion Branches
Because of all this wonderful activity, we are poised on the brink of a return by all of the Branches to the TRUTH. We are moments away from the Divine Plan of the Consciousness. Remember, your only job is to remember your internal, eternal connection with the Source and everything else will fall into place.. Thank You Consciousness (God)!!!!!!
AFTERWORD
This work was inspired by the Consciousness and one of Its most expressive Branches, Joel S. Goldsmith. The following reading list will assist you in pursuing the Truth of your being at a much deeper level.
The writings of Joel S. Goldsmith are the most profound and articulate writings on the subject of living a truly spiritual life and understanding your oneness with the Consciousness, that I have found in years of pursuing spiritual reading and growth.
The list that follows is in Mr. Goldsmith’s recommended order of reading according to a discussion in his book, "Living By Grace.".
Bon voyage!
For Further Reading
(1) "Living The Infinite Way," Joel S. Goldsmith, Harper San Francisco or Harper Collins Publishers, New York, NY, 1961
(2) "Practicing The Presence," Joel S. Goldsmith, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, NY, 1958
(3) "The Art of Meditation," Joel S. Goldsmith, Harper & Row Publishers, New York, NY, 1956
(4) "The Art of Spiritual Healing," Joel S. Goldsmith, Harper & Row Publishers, New York, NY, 1959
(5) "The Infinite Way Letters of 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, and 1959," Joel S. Goldsmith, Harper & Row Publishers, New York, NY, 1960
(6) "Our Spiritual Resources," Joel S. Goldsmith, Harper & Row Publishers, New York, NY, 1960
(7) "The Contemplative Life," Joel S. Goldsmith, Citadel, 1976
(8) "The Thunder of Silence," Joel S. Goldsmith, Harper & Row Publishers, New York, NY, 1961
(9) "Parenthesis in Eternity," Joel S. Goldsmith, Harper & Row Publishers, New York, NY, 1963
(10) "Conscious Union With God: The Principles of Spiritual Living and Healing," Joel S. Goldsmith, Carol Publishing Group, New York, NY, 1962
(11) “Living by Grace: The Path To Inner Unfoldment,” Joel S. Goldsmith, Harper Collins, New York, 1984.