In novels, movies, and television shows, the concept of alternative realities has become a staple of contemporary science fiction. This phenomenon extends beyond the visionary imaginations of novelists, screenwriters, and film directors. The expansiveness of the new sciences has exposed us to the factual consideration of the mysteries of the universe and human consciousness. More and more we can conceive of spirituality and science as fellow travelers in the exploration of meaning in existence by confronting the mysteries that have engaged civilization from ancient indigenous cultures to the communities of quantum physicists. The questions raised by these disparate groups seem to lead to remarkably similar enquiries.
As a shamanic practitioner with university degrees in biology, chemistry and psychology, I have come to understand that the seeming conflicts that we think exist are not a problem of truth, but an issue of how we perceive the universe and how we can come to a deeper knowledge of reality. Let me provide an example and a practice that might help us to understand.
Each July my school and healing center, LightSong, hosts the LightSong Telepathic Communication Practicum. It is an annual event that often has profound spiritual experiences laced through each day. I am the intercessor for this event and get numerous direct downloads from spirit that I incorporate into the teachings at LightSong as well as use for my own personal growth and evolution.
The template for the workshop is a vision quest and I have anywhere from 8-15 people that are out “on the hill,” by themselves, with no food or water for five days and four nights. We in camp (usually 75-100 participants) are telepathically eating and drinking for them. This article is not specifically about the practicum but highlights a specific event that happened in the practicum in 2018 and then continued to unveil information this year 2019.
I walk a narrow dirt road several times a day when I am out on the land where the questers have secured places. Here they can pursue their visions and the revelations that accompany their meditations, prayers, and personal growth. In checking on the questers, we as a group go and sing to them two times a day, and I have various other duties that put me on this road. Thus, I have walked the road literally at least a hundred times. About 4-5 years ago I was walking with one of the other facilitators in the camp and we came to a small bridge. There is a beautiful crystal-clear stream that runs through the land adjoining the Trask River just a few hundred yards further downstream. It is a magical place with large rocks, ferns and tall Douglas fir trees. One of the persons who has often assisted in the practicum was walking with me as we had done many times before. As Terry and I were chatting, my attention was drawn to some enormous boulders. Huge boulders the size of cars made a regal landscape as the outcropping embedded the embankment down to the stream. I said to Terry, “How did these huge boulders get here?” Terry laughed at me and asked if I wanted the accurate geological history of the place? He was teasing me, and I realized the ridiculousness of my question. I was dumbfounded because I had never seen the boulders before. Being astute and highly conscious in my communications with nature, my habit would have been to greet the boulders and speak to them as I passed. I was shocked that I had never noticed them before. After we had a good laugh, I made it a point to introduce myself to these mighty grandmothers and grandfathers and from that day forward I would say hello to them each time I passed by.
In 2018 Terry did not attend the practicum. I once again traveled the narrow trail I had walked so many times before, but this time accompanied by two different people. When we came to the bridge, I had crossed so many times before, I asked, “Where are the boulders?” They both looked at me inquisitively and responded, “What boulders are you talking about, Jan?” Incredulously, I insisted, “THE boulders, the ones I have been saying hello to for the past five years. The ones I introduced myself to and spoke to each year.” Again, as with Terry, I was greeted with laughter. My companions insisted that there were not now nor had there ever been boulders on this site. Immediately I knew that spirit was showing me alternative parallel realities that I live in—a reality with boulders and a reality without boulders. My mind opened and I listened.
This was a turning point for me in something I have given much lip service to and taught as a shamanic concept for years. There are infinite parallel realities and there are infinite versions of yourself that can move within these realities. Until this time these were concepts that I believed; now I faced an irrefutable experience that I physically witnessed.
I did and am still doing numerous journeys to the spirits for clarification.
In shamanism it is understood that each moment stands independently from every other moment and so there is only NOW. Past and future are concepts where we have linearized time. In shamanism everything is happening simultaneously and not on a timeline. One way of conceptualizing this is to think of a motion picture. The film used is actually thousands of captured moments made to move very fast in front of our eyes giving the illusion of movement or a time line, but in truth each one is separate. In some ways you could say each frame of the movie is a parallel reality slightly different from the previous or next frame.
A memory of an event is just that. It is a projection in the mind. It is not something that is currently happening, and the memory is always different in some way from the actual event. In fact, as time passes the memory distorts the event sometimes to absurd degrees. Every time we review a past experience, we change it. This is like the principle in quantum physics where the act of observation alters the experiment. The observer determines whether a light is seen as a particle or a wave. Our rational mind would suggest that the physical presence of light must be one or the other independent of our observation; but such is not the case. In truth, this may not be a distortion but rather a revelation that provides an awareness of simultaneity in existence. The question is not about what is real or not real but rather a revealing of alternative realities that are all different and coexisting.
I have been an advocate of the idea that we need to create a New Earth. One that is based on collaboration, unification, support and love. I talk about this often and at our practicum we practice these customs. What the spirits are now saying to me is: You do not create the new earth. It is already in existence. You are already a part of it.
The practice is to live in that reality to its fullest, bringing into the norm that which your body and mind recognize and respond to. This is the creative process that will reveal the truth. Each parallel reality has its own data stream of information connected to it. These data streams are realized as you practice with intention consciously moving between the realities.
The strategies of this practice can lead to a higher enlightenment and bring forth a future that already exists and is waiting to be realized. Consider these practices in your daily life:
- Create in your mind the version of yourself you would like to experience.
- Imagine that version of yourself and embody it completely.
- Practice the body language of that version of you.
- Align your life to that which you know to be this version of you.
- Ask questions that reveal this self. What type of books do you read? What do you do for a living? What type of people do you associate with? What are your morning rituals?
- Identify and take on the belief system of that version of you, and the daily habits you exhibit that confirm to this reality.
- Consider what you have learned that is unique to this version of you.
You will know when you have moved into this parallel reality when all of these conceptualizations seem normal and natural.
You will also notice a change in the past, because this new version of you has a different memory of the past. You will also notice that you have broken a continuity that is unexplainable. For me it was the boulders. What will be your experience?