Chapter Ten – “Gravity and Consciousness”

Immediately I ask, “So, what about Life? How do we live it?”

“As you know, this is the whole purpose of our writing together—to be more alert to experiencing the vital center of our being. A one-word answer to ‘How do we live it?’ is ‘synchronicity’. Carl Jung coined the term. He described it as ‘meaningful coincidence’. Coincidence is a resonance among two or more points of awareness. As we have said elsewhere, the attributing of meaning to events and forms in our lives is the province of the soul; it manifests as awareness and destiny in each of us. We determine all the meaning we experience. Without our attention, there is no meaning.”

“So, how does that relate to Life?”

“I’m glad you asked,” she chuckles. “Synchronicity is the glue that binds us to both meaning and living energy—in other terms, you can say ‘soul’ and ‘Source’. Synchronicity is our personal revelation of divinity on a moment-to-moment basis.”

“But there is no ‘moment-to-moment’,” I challenge. “There’s only the one moment.”

“Thank you for reminding me. I had forgotten.” She smiles and winks. “But your experience tells you to pay attention to the passage of time in a personal way. We must respect that—even if it is inaccurate technically. Your ordinary day-to-day lives are, for your current epoch, bound up in time. Time and timelessness, juxtaposed, generate the need for a concept such as ‘synchronicity’; all events are simultaneous a priori. Without time there is no need to contemplate ‘synchronous’ behavior. Synchronicity provides the meaning to transcend the time-and-form bondage. It reveals, to those who observe and honor it, the invisible underpinnings of life and events. Synchronicity reveals Life. And Life reveals Source.

“When you encounter a synchronistic event, such as thinking of a friend you haven’t seen in years and then bump into him on the street in a foreign city, you are amazed. You have experienced this, have you not?”

“Yes. In fact there was one day in October 1970 in New York City when I bumped into two different people I had known briefly in Niger, West Africa, two years before. And neither of them knew the other. Actually, I had not been thinking of them at all beforehand, but I get your point. All three of us had just arrived that day.”

V continues, “Your amazement at the event is the important part. It’s all about the deeper consciousness. Neither of these two individuals ever became any more meaningful in your later life. Am I correct?”

“That’s true. After the coincidental meeting, I never heard from them again. I don’t even remember their names now, though one was an black American musician-poet who had just published his first book of poetry that day. The other one was a Nigerien and he had just arrived to take up his post as UN ambassador from Niger. I, for my part, was joining the VISTA program as a volunteer.”

“The particulars are not important. A synchronicity is not about who or what happens on the level of form; that is not the value of it. What’s important is the opening that’s created in your awareness by the event. Synchronicity is, in actuality, the Void being brought into your awareness of the moment.”

“Wait,” I exclaim. “How did we get to the Void here?”

“Here’s how: Any synchronicity defies the laws of rational thinking. It is not logical or explainable to the ‘rational’ mind. The experience enters the mind, yes, but while there, it is like a Trojan horse. It subverts thinking and leaves an empty space the mind cannot process. However briefly, you then stop thinking. This leaves the space for consciousness to rise up—without thought. Thus, is the Void introduced into your presence.”

“The Void!” I repeat distantly. I pause and let it sink in, or rise up in my presence right now. I realize I’m not thinking about it though. It’s basically ‘sitting there’ in the midst of presence. Not thinking is like ‘sitting’ in consciousness. Aha! I’ll put that in a seed-link. The crystal vesica!

I speak at last, “I’ve just had a realization. In writing about the Void just now, there are words, but in experiencing it there aren’t any. The words I’m using are like clothing; I’m using them as dressing—to make it presentable—but the words are clearly not anything more than that. For some reason that’s coming to me like a revelation. Strange how that is.”

“How what is?” she encourages me to continue.

“That something that seems so ordinary or that you’ve thought about a thousand times before can still be a revelation.”

“It’s not so strange, you know,” she muses, “when you realize that all forms are being created anew in the moment, always. Forms are vehicles for the formless essence, the Life of Source, to continuously begin again in the world of projection. Revelation is coming to you in each instant of life. Revelation is presence. Revelation is Now.”

I distantly contemplate what V has said. “A similar metaphor is coming to mind, only in reverse—as in unclothing the essence. Teachers often suggest pealing back the layers of an onion, implying that you will find revelations within yourself. However, if you peel the layers away far enough, to the very center, there’s nothing there at all; no onion is left—emptiness!”

V asks, “Take another look right now at the Void as you sit in presence, without thought. Just pause and experience it within your awareness. Relax. Then come back and tell me about it.”

I follow her instructions and sit—in consciousness—for a moment. No thought. I can’t say how long; there is no time. Then thoughts come back in a silent rush, as air into a vacuum. My lips move. “The Void is like a black hole. It pulls thoughts into it. It pulls all of creation into it.”

Disturbed by that thought, I ask, “What stops it from consuming everything? This is very different from what you’ve been saying about the Void as the origin of creation.”

She replies, “If you continued to sit with it now, you would know the answers to any question you could ask. But since this book is a dialogue, let me give you my impressions. To digress for a moment, I would remind you that my impressions are streaming in, just as yours are. I am not speaking to you from a library of accumulated knowledge in my mind. My words are as fresh to me as they are to you!”

“You’ve said that before. And it surprises me. It shocks me even. I have always assumed that you are a wise, accomplished teacher for both O and for me. Yet in the state I’m in right now, I understand what you mean. All wisdom is fresh wisdom. For it to be truly wise and appropriate to the moment, it must be continuously new. I am understanding, ‘begin again’, in ever-deeper ways. Thank you.”

Her soft, melodious voice resumes, “The Void is both the origin and the omega point. It is the first order paradox of creation. It is duality incarnate, inchoate—out of Oneness. Oneness is the prototype magnetic force that both repels and attracts.”

I can’t stop myself from interrupting. “I’m thinking of gravity; it’s an attractive force. But it doesn’t repel like magnetism. What’s the difference between the two? Why doesn’t gravity not have an opposite, repulsive force?”

“You’re not asking much here, are you? Human physicists wrestled with that question for a very long time and, in your day, they still did not have a good answer. They postulated such things as ‘antigravity’ for an opposite. But that is rather like saying the opposite of ‘peace’ is ‘war’. There is so much more to it than the mere idea of an opposite.

“Gravity is the essential activating field of Cosmic being and evolution; by its force are all forms drawn into motion. Gravity is a manifestation out of Oneness, but not all the way out. It straddles the threshold between form and formlessness. It presents itself throughout the Cosmos—from vast, multi-galactic filaments, into solar and planetary domains; it ‘makes the world go around’; it draws people and other creatures together in loving embrace; it’s influence extends all the way down through subatomic vibrations and below.

“At all levels gravity is the most fundamental motivating, initiating and integrating influence of all; it holds everything together; its force stimulates all motive interaction. It is the first and last cause of physical expression. It is one, not two; it has no opposite, no ‘worthy opponent’, in the terms of Carlos Castaneda. Gravity attracts only, as does the black hole. But in so doing, it generates a parallel field; this field accounts for all the separation in the universe!”

I react, “Eh? What’s that?”

“Gravity opens the door into duality. Thus arises consciousness. Separation is created out of the essence of consciousness. At your present time, science does not generally accept this notion—that gravity and consciousness can be on a par. Your science does not know how to account for—or even accept in many cases—the existence of consciousness. The current consensus of your scientists, as we mentioned before, is that consciousness is an epiphenomenon—a bi-product of something else, some ‘thing’ that is material and dense, to wit, molecules and cells and electro-chemical reactions. I would agree with the first part of that in fact, that it is a bi-product of something else.”

“Really?” I’m surprised.

“Yes. It is a bi-product of Source. ‘Bi-product’ implies duality. The other face of this manifestation is then gravity. Together these two—gravity and consciousness—constitute the presence I am calling ‘Life’ in this treatise.”

“I’m having trouble seeing these two things as opposites or poles of a duality—or even related at all. Could you please explain more?”

“Yes. Gravity is attractive, as we know. It pulls all the strings—as in string theory—and forces and fields in the universe along its trajectories, into itself. Consciousness operates in the other direction. It ‘pushes the envelop’, if you will, causing differentiation and evolution, entropy and negentropy. It constitutes the same partial manifestation as gravity. Each constitutes an opposite pole that bridges the threshold between form and formlessness.

“If we say that gravity pervades the Cosmos, we can likewise say that of consciousness. In other words, the whole Cosmos is conscious.”

I eagerly agree. “It amazes me that many scientists in my time don’t get that. They are stuck in a materialistic model. But think about it—not that you haven’t, of course: How can a small number of individuated, ‘conscious’ beings on a small planet within the galactic expanse, make a determination that concerns the whole Cosmos? How can they say it is unconscious?”

V laughs. “They will gradually learn of their error. Indeed, it takes an awakening to recognize the true value of consciousness in the universe.”

I ask, “So, where does consciousness come from? And where gravity, for that matter?”

“They come from Source, of course. They are the twin children of the primordial procreative act. They grow out of the pre-existing presence called omniscience—one knowing. Consciousness is the centrifugal force that makes Void and Source become two; yet it knows they are one. Gravity—the centripetal force—holds Life and Source as one, knowing they have become dual. Consciousness demands that they experience duality, in manifestation. Gravity would hold tight all the creative forces in one, undifferentiated point. Consciousness pushes it all apart.”

I gasp, thinking ahead, “Are you saying that the Big Bang was a ‘conscious’ event?”

“Well, certainly. You didn’t realize that?”

“No. I never, ever thought of that before. Wow.”

“The Big Bang was the birth of manifested consciousness in the Cosmos. It has been with us from the first nanosecond. And it remains with us in the forever moment, Now.”

“The Big Bang is still banging!” I add, joking.

“Out of the mouths of babes,” V replies. “Now, back to gravity. It is the force of ultimate reckoning; it pulls all matter, throughout the eons back toward its final Oneness, compactness and destruction of form. The origin of your word, ‘gravity’, is the same as ‘grave’. It means ‘serious’ and ‘heavy’ in Latin. It is the ultimate seriousness and graveness of Life. The destiny of all creation is to be buried within its embrace.”

I cough nervously. “That doesn’t sound very good, not very benign.”

“We are all one. All goodness and its opposites are generated out of our own being, our own gravity and consciousness. The forces at play in us and in the Cosmos are far grander than our personal dispositions and feelings about what may be ‘good’ or not. When it affects our survival, we naturally get nervous contemplating it. But do not fear. The moment is our salvation from destruction. In its embrace we are at one, now and eternally, with the pure peace that surpasses all understanding.”

“I’ve never thought of the moment as our salvation, but that sounds good to me. We can always fall back into its presence; that’s a ‘saving grace’. So, what do you mean that ‘consciousness creates separation’? How does it relate to gravity in the grand scheme?”

V answers, “Consciousness is embedded within the Oneness; it is a pre-existing quality called ‘omniscience’; thus also is it part of gravity’s pre-existing condition. In the beginning, let’s just say, the omniscience determined that manifestation was its destiny. In order to create manifestation, it needed to push away from the center—that is to counter gravity. You might even call this anti-gravity.

“Gravity remains always at the center. Consciousness, in response, took its place at the periphery—whatever these terms may mean in their pure simplicity. Forever, in duality, would they remain differentiated and enigmas to each another.”

I sigh, “OK, V—enigmas indeed. I’m far out of my league to comprehend any of this myself. Can we please get back to the simple ‘Life and Source’ subject? Tell me how to live them in my life?”

“I agree,” she laughs. “This is heady stuff. But it gives us a space for the further clarification of our message. Gravity is the real platform for the Cosmos and for all Life. It is the fundamental field of Source, moving all forms in relation to one another; it spins and turns them, drawing and holding everything together, tempering the momentum of all things, great and small.”

I sit still for a moment, as another question slowly bubbles into my mind. “So, if gravity is the fundamental field, and gravity is always pulling things together, what is it that pushes everything apart? What created the Big Bang?”

“It is consciousness that draws all forms in the opposite direction, away from gravity—into evolution. Scientists have observed that everything in the universe is moving farther away from everything else, at an accelerating pace.”

“Yes,” I interrupt. “And at this rate, how can gravity ever pull it all back together?”

She responds, “It doesn’t have to do that necessarily. Gravity pulls us beyond the physical domain ultimately. Its influence governs all motion and pervades all space. Consciousness, by contrast, pulls the forms apart, evolving them and shredding them into ever increasing complexity and entropy; this results in awareness. The Big Bang was generated when the fire of consciousness and the weight of gravity crossed into the planes of duality—out of Oneness and formlessness. Evolution, form and density are the offsprings of that crossing. Gravity and consciousness continually work together—both congruently and juxtaposed to each other—to reveal all the intricacies of creation.”

I muse, “This is a bit bizarre, V. I’ve never heard anything like it before. You seem to be making consciousness sound like a concrete phenomenon; at the same time you’re making gravity sound more intangible. Are you using these terms metaphorically?”

“No, I am pointing you to their pure essence. It is much deeper and more comprehensive than you have normally thought. The two fields have profound equivalence—gravity is ethereal and consciousness is indeed substantial. I know this is not widely considered in your time.

“We need go no further here to investigate gravity; we can leave that for the physicists. It is enough for us to know that Source uses these fields, forces and forms to move Life into us. The biblical description of divinity is ‘that within which we live and move and have our being.’ That is to say, the Source field lies at the base and the summit of all that we are; it constitutes our life force and our every action; and it surrounds us totally in all dimensions. This we must know and bear with us on our journey of Life, if any good is to come of our further inquiry. It is Life that we must follow now.”

ⓒ 2014 Robert Lee Potter

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