Celebrating 2012: Experiencing the Future of Consciousness Now

By Henry Reed, Ph.D.

For five hot and steamy days in south-central Indiana a group of seventeen hearty souls explored the possibility of engaging themselves in the future of consciousness. While residing in cabins located within the wooded sanctuary of Brown State Park, the participants worked together under the assumption that the purpose of prophecy is to engage people in the co-creation of the future.

The group gatherings involved discussions of ideas, possibilities, and experiences. We also took advantage of special technologies I’ve developed at Atlantic University that allows the participants to "channel" their own contribution to the information pool surrounding our investigations.

Highlights of these explorations can be shared here, although not in such a way that the "you would have had to have been there" factor needs to be invoked.

The information that provided a background foundation for our work together consisted of these types of considerations (A copy of the detailed study notes can be found at henryreed.com/indiana/studynotes.htm):

1) Storylines concerning anticipated "shifts" in consciousness. Examples would include "the return of the goddess," "the migration into the noosphere," "the restoration of balance," and "the disappearance of boundaries."

2) Qualities of consciousness that have been projected to appear in the ongoing evolution of consciousness. Examples would be increased telepathy, perception of non-physical realities, the collapse of duality, and compassion for others.

3) Education and training methods that have been proposed, or tested, as effective facilitators of the expected shifts in consciousness. Examples would be meditation, psychedelic therapy, holotropic breathwork, and various psychotherapies.

4) The possible role of non-human factors in creating changes in consciousness. Examples included climate change, population surges and other pressures on resources, extraterrestrial intervention, galactic cycles (e.g. Age of Aquarius, 2012), and "God’s plan."

5) Sources of prophecy, futurism and information on the future of consciousness. Examples include mythology, traditional religious sources, modern channeled material, and current research.

6) A bibliography of source material. Many of these books are in the process of being summarized by folks (including both attendees at our conference and interested bystanders) and will appear posted here at Intuitive Connections Network.

With this orientation in mind, we began our work focusing on the training of the imagination, learning to become more proficient with metaphoric consciousness by learning to "perceive with imagery." This training took various forms and was a theme throughout our week together.

One training method involved our dancing to music designed to awaken each chakra. As we would move to the music, we held the intention, "to discover, from images sent to us by the charka itself, the function of that psychic center and our most optimal relationship to it." After the music was finished, we sat down and used crayons to express the images we sensed while dancing.

In small groups, we shared these representations and helped one another digest the implications for our personal relationships with these energy centers. For the first charka, for example, we learned how important it was to remain grounded as we explored hypothetical realities.

In preparation for a later exercise, we moved to the music related to the "third eye" charka, to open our visionary imagination to help us receive communication from evocative imagery derived from mysterious sources (i.e. crop circles).

Since much of the writings regarding coming changes and the shifts in consciousness involve the idea of transformation through crisis, with the worrisome ideas being balanced by the uplifting possibilities, we grounded ourselves in our own experience of growing through the pain of loss.

In small groups we explored personal instances of experiencing adversity, loss and other crises, and how we grew, transformed, and developed new attitudes, abilities, and consciousness via these ordeals. Rejoining our group as one circle, we shared with one another the insights that came from this type of recollection.

It helped to shore up confidence in the probable meaningfulness of the changes and challenges that lie ahead. This type of grounding helps keep us focused on our underlying assumption: the purpose of prophecy is to engage us as co-creators, not scare us into finding some way to preserve the status quo.

Perception is everything, and a common theme in the writings on the future of consciousness is that a shift in how we perceive reality will be required. This shift revolves mainly around the perception of the relationship of material and non-material reality.

As an exercise in learning to shift our perceptions, we explored some metaphors regarding events in consciousness, metaphors that revealed how shackled we are by our physical perceptions. Examples include "higher" or "raised" consciousness, "opening" and "closing" the mind, or getting "close" to someone.

There are many other examples of metaphors based upon our experience in a physical, three-dimensional world that we find hard to replace with newer metaphors that are more appropriate to the reality of "the fourth dimension," or the mental plane, or noosphere.

As we learned later in the week, the use of these outmoded metaphors influence how we experience certain events that are crucial to being able to migrate into the new consciousness. Their influence impedes progress and sustains fear of change. Learning new metaphors and actually using them to perceive differently is hard work, we discovered.

We moved our group into a deeper level of appreciation for the theme of growth through challenging trials ("the wounded healer"), as well as the theme of "interconnectedness" and "telepathy" by engaging ourselves in the " Dream Helper Ceremony".

Of the several people who volunteered, because of personal challenges and dilemmas they faced, to be the focus of our dreams, two were chosen by lot. Without knowing the content or topic of these individuals’ pressing concerns, we divided into two sub-groups, each promising to remember a dream for one of our two "focus" people.

The next morning, our two sub-groups met to discuss their dreams, while each of their respective focus person sat and listened, like a fly on the wall. Each group processed the common patterns in their dreams, which provided them with clues about the issues facing the focus person.

Afterwards, the focus person revealed the nature of the personal issue for which help was desired, and gave feedback on the dreams. When the two dream groups reconvened as one circle, we learned that in each case, the sub-groups were able, by processing their dreams, to assist their focus person with the personal issue under consideration.

The focus people felt as if they had been "heard" in the group’s dreams. Similarly, the members of each group felt as if their dreams were also pointing out their own personal versions of the issue under consideration. The idea of "interconnectedness" and "telepathy" were no longer abstract items of "gossip," but were demonstrable, living experiences among the group.

Also, as it turned out, each of the two focus persons were facing challenges, which although different in their literal details, were similar and related to the conference theme: how to find that balance between self-preservation and service to others.

As boundaries fall, and we have to deal with our interconnectedness (as in dealing with natural resources, or with pollution, and other boundary bashing challenges), how to find the balance between maintaining personal, or national "sovereignty," while creating functional relationships of interdependence will be a major challenge.

Learning how to express oneself in a non-hostile manner, and learning how to listen without judgment were two skill sets that the dreams suggested were very important for the future.

The loss of boundaries and the challenge to the personal self was one of three non-conventional "story lines" that the group considered. In the case of boundaries, the world is becoming smaller, is becoming "flat" or "as one."

Beginning with the problem of pollution, later the problem of AIDS, computer viruses, terrorism, pandemics, food supply, and so on, humanity has shown that its initial response to the discovery that a boundary has been threatened is to try to strengthen the boundary rather than try to move along to the next level of solution—cooperation, collaboration, and innovation.

Those "higher level" moves come later as consciousness evolves and we finally drop the illusion of maintaining what is really a fictional, or illusory, concept—boundaries. The acceptance of psychic phenomena would mean the fall of an important boundary, the one around our minds that help us experience ourselves as separate, functioning units.

As the world shrinks, and we become more interdependent, the level of unconscious, subliminal, telepathic communion, or contagion, will increase. Those sticking to the 3-D view of the world will attempt to block such contagion, which may prove futile. The more evolved choice is to develop the self-knowledge and self-acceptance that renders such presumed contagion as irrelevant.

A second end time scenario was presented to help us let go of the assumption that the world has always been the way we know it and will remain so. There was discussion of the evidence of cataclysms from the past, such as asteroids, supernova explosions and bursts of radiation, that eliminated life on our planet.

Not that there is much that we can do about such factors, nor that it is helpful to create fear, but that it is realistic to take into account the possibility of a life threatening event happening world wide that could create a divide among humanity, separating those who can not survive the catastrophe from those who, for whatever reason, are able to live on and thus pass on their sustainability to a new generation.

For a third scenario, we listened to a brief summary of the science fiction story by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood’s End. Written in 1953, it foresaw themes that are current today regarding our children being saved by extra-terrestrials (UFOs) and carried off to a new life, leaving the grownups on earth to die with their old habits and consciousness.

In this story, there is the surprising ending that the extra-terrestrials were hoping to be saved along with the young earthlings. This idea that there exists higher order intelligence that is taking part in our transformation and is, in fact, dependent upon this transformation among the humans in order for the extra-terrestrials to gain the evolution they seek is mirrored in modern times.

Carl Jung’s idea that "God" seeks consciousness and self-awareness through humanity is one such theme, bringing "God" out of the sky and into our hearts, and thus helping "God" fulfill its destiny. Another example is the work of John Mack, who has extensively studied folks who have had the experience of being "abducted" by "aliens."

His work suggests that these alternate dimensional beings are seeking their own evolution through their involvement with ours. In all these cases of non-human influences, there is required on our part a shift in attitude, from considering them to be either our salvation or our damnation, to considering them to be our colleagues and presenting an opportunity for us to begin to collaborate with non-physical forms of intelligence.

Whether from science fiction of the past, investigations into modern mysteries, or simply futuristic projections of current events, there is reason to believe that humanity is prepared to face an apparently "superior intelligence" (could that be everyone’s "higher self"?) and learn to integrate it into our world. These extreme examples served to show that there was a consistency among story lines, even including those which seem very "far out."

Returning to the theme of migrating to the imagination as part of a shift toward greater awareness of non-physical realities, we participated in an exercise to learn to listen to plants. We began with our usual charka opening moves, in this case to open the heart center.

Following suggestions in the literature, we each went outside and walked about waiting for an invitation to communication from a plant. The instructions were to first "dance the plant" to establish a very basic physical empathy for the plant, and then to use one’s crayons to express with color on paper the feeling of the plant’s energy.

The final step was to sit down and make a "heart connection" with the plant, and then allow the energy or intelligence of the plant impress itself upon the imagination of the perceiver. We learned that this process of communication has been called "enchantment," as opposed to conscious perception, as the perceiver becomes the information, is one with it, rather than receiving information that can be "handled" as if separate from the perceiver.

This concept of enchantment is a variation on the theme of the return of the goddess, of the emergence of oneness, and the growing predominance of the imagination over sense perception.

The plant communication exercise was practiced in advance of an afternoon spent hiking in nature and communing with its various inhabitants. A record was kept of the various critters encountered so that we might meditate on the symbolic meaning of these encounters.

On three evenings we watched videos, which led to lively discussions. We saw one on the Mayan date of 2012, which led to an exploration of the source of prophecy and our choices in how to respond to it.

This video was dedicated to Terence McKenna, who was the first to discover the relationship between 2012 and the galactic center, independently of the Mayan calander, based upon what he learned from the "mushroom teachers" (psilocybin or "magic" mushrooms), showing that the real source of change is within us all.

We watched the science fiction thriller, The Matrix, which led to our exploring how hard it is to accept that the world may not be as we’ve been told, because it requires us to make so many uncomfortable adjustments. We also saw the movie version of The Celestine Prophecies, which gave a good example of how to present prophecies in the form of invitations to change.

The movie also stimulated a heated debate on how to deal with "negativity" in those whom we meet. The consensus seemed to be, after the dust settled, that the act of perceiving negativity in a situation was an opportunity to examine the remnants of judgmentalness within self.

Since one important theme concerning the future of consciousness concerns the disappearance of judgementalness and the seeing of the divine in each other, we held regular "blessing ceremonies" in which we sat in a circle and very slowly went around the group, experiencing each other as realities within our own hearts.

We gave thanks for the presence of the blessing of each person as they live within us. Over time, our sense of one another was growing more sensitive, caring and empathic.

On one afternoon, we broke into small groups to prepare for receiving channeled information on questions of import. Each group decided upon the question or questions most important to be explored. We used a "need to know" method of evaluating questions to make sure we were not asking for abstract information but guidance we can actually use.

After each group settled on its focus question, I led everyone on a guided meditation, where we used imagined aesthetic experiences to cultivate a more intuitive state of awareness. Participants then called upon the presence of a "non-physical" source of guidance, or "spirit guide" to solicit answers to the group’s focus question.

After participants in each group had the opportunity to compare notes on their channeled information and to integrate it into a message to share, we reconvened as one group to exchange our reports. I’ll share the results of one:

This group asked about what it needed to now in order to move with the upcoming changes in the most graceful way possible that would allow them to also help others do likewise. Here is a synopsis of the information that one group received, compliments of David Birr:

"There was a Meta theme among the group that the emerging consciousness will surprise us. None of us had experiences typical of our previous guided reveries. Images of a high mountain, windy, sound of waaah, the sound of spirit.

A sense of a massive shifting of perceptions, where we are much more connected to the experience of the earth as a living being that we are all part of. A sense of an enormous clearing of energies symbolized by wind and water that will require extraordinary flexibility as a quality of consciousness.

At the same time there was a peaceful centered space with a Kwan Yin figure radiating compassion and Julie Andrews singing the sound of music.

"Another group member was on Kauai at Hanalei bay in a beautiful hotel with a deep experience of all embracing love and the figure of Jesus. People were dancing and chanting Laa Lei. The sense of needing to deeply trust our soul and consistently live in resonance with its vision was the emphasis.

I saw the bodies of people turning into glass filled with golden light shining out from within to join the golden light in others noticing they were all part of the same light and the glass disappearing. The sense of the quality of consciousness was a sense of transparency.

"A third person had a sense of trees, roots and, branches with a deep sense of the connectedness of life. They experienced a portal and a sense of leaving earth and connecting to Christ energy.

The moon became their guide and it was to teach about cycles and ebb and flow, but then they realized that the moon is always the same, it just looks different to us depending upon our perspective and relationship.

They saw stars, and then a UFO gray/blue saucer landed on a bluish gray surface that it blended into as it stirred up a dust. The surface became a brain, which was illuminated by heat lightning. Something new was emerging from these connections of light. They felt wobbly and unstable.

"The qualities of simplicity and the need to de clutter were strong. Caring for ourselves and losing the boundary of our head so that we could see the world as our mirror and observe our self without attachment. What are the roles of the people in our dreams?

What is the deeper meaning of the pictures we make? Our perception and point of view is what really changes."

In another channeling exercise, we looked at a specially prepared video showing crop circles to see if we could intuit messages within these designs. There was no verbal commentary in the video, just some background music playing.

Each circle was presented several times during the 20 minute meditation. Afterwards, folks got into small groups to share and compare their insights, and then we met as one group to assess what we had learned. People were surprised to find that messages seem to come quite readily and that there were many messages intuited that were surprising and different from the expected. A sampling can be given:

Look up, look beyond your usual and see new patterns. There are patterns beyond your experience that mirror patterns in your experience. The prism by which you view things is distorting your perspective.

You need to shift your center in order to achieve a new balance. We are a part of you and are trying to establish communication. Sometimes things have to fall apart before they can be put back together in a new arrangement. Other worlds of consciousness are now making an impression upon the earth.

A final channeling experience consisted of each person guiding another in entering an intuitive state of mind, following the Intuitive Heart method in order to gain answers and guidance concerning questions that person had prepared for the session.

One question we all had in common concerned what learned had been accomplished during the week and how it could best be applied back home. This exercise resulted in very personal and individualized information coming through, enabling each person, hopefully, to follow an empowered path of co-creativity upon returning home.

During the last few days of our time together, we began learning a Sufi dance, a method developed by the mystic branch of Islam that are designed to evoke spiritual awareness among the dancers.

As our final act of the conference, we enjoyed encountering one another in our circle dance as we chanted, "I know that you know that I am you; what you know is that I know you are me, too. I know that you know that I love you; what you know is that I know you love me, too!"

Announcements will be forthcoming about subsequent conferences on celebrating the future of consciousness. In the meantime, find what you can enjoy of an evolved consciousness now, making it real enough in your life that you can share it with others.